War Of The Worlds

When I was younger (late teens, early twenties) I feared war movies. I hated anything bloody and yucky. Of course, those were the movies that my darling husband wanted to watch. I remember being 6 months pregnant with my oldest child, Caitlin, and sitting in the movie theatre, hands over eyes, attempting to watch Saving Private Ryan. Needless to say, it was a huge no-go. I ended up in the bathroom with a sick stomach and blinding headache.
Amazingly over time, I have grown--dare I say comfortable?--with war movies in general. I even let the hubby rent one from time to time and I will watch it with him. I can't say that I thuroughly enjoy them as he does, but I do find myself interested in the plots.
The one main thing that I have dealt with as it relates to war movies is fear. I found myself playing the role of the soldier's widow. My mind races at an amazing pace as I live this "other" life where John is a soldier, we are back in Vietnam War times, I am bawling at the loss of my husband, and I am left alone with 5 small children. Or, we are in present times and it's more like an "end of the world" war where he and I are both killed. Morbid, yes. Honestly, I think that's why I have had this unhealthy fear of war movies. I actually believe it goes deeper than the surface with this matter.
While listening to Don Paul's Building The Warrior Series (www.prophet.tv) on my i-pod during my workout yesterday, I grabbed ahold of something he said. Basically, he was talking about how to fight in the spiritual realm and break through on things like finances. That in itself was an interesting lesson, but I got more out of it than that. He made a comment that dealt with death. He said (paraphrasing here)---until we show the devil that we are not worried about losing our lives, he will continue to pelt us with fear and much more. Once we let him know we no longer fear that, he will flee and be terrified. For some reason, that just hit home and made so much sense to me. I realized I have had this unhealthy fear of losing my life--or even of John losing his life--that it has caused me great worry and frustration. Somehow, watching war movies heightened that and brought it to the front of my mind. The devil knew exactly what it would take to make me fret over this for days--even weeks--after watching a war movie, and he used it to his advantage every time.
This brings me to last night. We rented We Were Soldiers and watched it. I can honestly say that for the first time in my history of existence, I was not afraid. My mind did try to wander off and play the role of the grieving widow, but I stopped it dead in its tracks.

I can hear the devil shreeking in fear as I type this.

Anywho, it reminded me that I can take this way further than just the times I watch war movies. I am in a war right now--not a physical one, but a spiritual one. Now that the devil knows that I don't fear losing my physical life, he is definitely in trouble. I am ready to push forward and take more territory in His name.

Take that, devil....take that.

War is no longer something I fear, dread, worry about, or hide from. Oh no. It's something I want to embrace. This war in the spiritual world is exciting and adventurous, and I want to be totally prepared for it. Stay tuned for more on that...