(conscript: to enroll into service by compulsion;
Draft - esp. for military service.
Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary)

The kingdom of God is under siege,
a state of war: perpetual and real,
but a shadowed conflict
with invisible armies.

So the believer in Christ is born-again
into a victorious kingdom, a reigning kingdom
but a dominion under savage assault.

Christians are at war.
We are.
Enter or not. See or be blind.
War is on us.

Some of us battle in a false arena,
aiming at the wrong foe.
Some experience the war,
but refuse to enter the fight.
Others live in a slaving war but never
unearth the tyrant behind it.
Many don't know there IS a war.

Yet war remains . . . and is ongoing:
Christianity is embattled in a fierce war.
Unless you fight you will lose your personal way
by the overthrow of your destiny
and . . . the forfeit of your very life.

Long have I fought the fact that there IS a war
and not an occasional struggle, but
a daily war, a relentless conflict.

I cannot escape it. There is no hiding from it.
War pursues me to the invasion of
my very mind and my private heart.

War hunts me.

Diabolical conflict finds me -

It comes:
to my door,
and into my world.
It is found:
lurking in my church,
and challenging my nation.

WARRIOR OR ELSE

I join the rank of soldiers or I perish.
I become a soldier or I die ignobly wounded.
There is no choice of whether to "war."
There is only
the choice of fight or capture,
conquer or defeat.

WAR IS MINE

War is not left to the military or the pastor.
War is mine . . . .

To the obedient and those who hold
to the testimony of Jesus Christ comes
the very focused attack of the dragon.
(Rev. 12:17)

And so
I must learn HOW to fight,
WHAT to fight and
the WAYS to win.

I go from battle to battle and
from defeat to defeat unless
I take on the battle
as a fully engaged spiritual warrior.

Like it or not.
Enter it or run.
Christian-life is embroiled in unending war:
seizing the least,
and besetting the weakest.
Reaching to the most inconspicuous
of us little believers.

BORN TO FIGHT

We followers of Christ
are born conscripted into a spiritual army.
Drafted BY re-birth.
A duty mandatory and necessary
but still voluntary.

Most of us are AWOL:
absent from the fight,
and without permission to be so.

Blessed be the Lord, my rock,      
Who trains my hands for war,
     And my fingers for battle.
Ps. 144:1 NASB

Copyright © 2003 Martha Kilpatrick