Are you ready for this?

Ok so I know I've dropped off the blogging planet for a while but I promise to try harder in future!

So onto my latest musings... over the last few months I've been thinking about spiritual warfare, and specifically the alternative weaponry that God gives us with which to extend his kingdom. To be honest, in my thinking about this and reading people like Walter Wink and William Cavanaugh I kind of forgot to even consider the Ephesians 6 image of the 'armour of God'. I'd been reconsidering my understanding of military images and frankly I've heard the armour 'outfit' thing used so many times that it had kind of lost its potency.

It was actually in a time of prayer that God put his finger on those verses again for me and as always when the Holy Spirit reads it to you there's no danger of it being tame or cliched. I'd been contemplating what our new weaponry might be, infectious holiness from Steve Chalke, assertion of our status as children of God from Wink and courageous sacrificial protest from Cavanaugh but here it is in black and white... truth, salvation, righteousness, faith, the Word of God and readiness.

The power of these realities to overcome darkness mustn't be downplayed but the slightly random element is readiness. When I was praying for this new weaponry to be fully functioning in my life I realised that part of our offence is simply being 'up for it' in God. I love the idea that to overcome evil and extend God's kingdom a central part of our armour is a gung-ho, kamikaze willingness to throw ourselves into his purposes no matter what the cost. Again its not passive, defensive, self-depreciating Christianity but bold, excited, risk-taking faith in a sovereign and victorious God.