(Photo by Selma Komisky)

Judo Kicking Satan In The Trachea

By Ben Courson

“I’m going through a spiritual attack right now.”

Classic Christianese of the Churchianity genre.

But I wanna reclaim the art of this rhetoric. Because, quite frankly, I actually AM going through a spiritual attack right now….

Naturally, you may beg the question: “What’s wrong, Ben?

My answer: “Nothing! When I say I’m going through a spiritual attack, I mean I’m the one doing the attacking! And, incidentally, I’m winning.”

Jesus said, “The gates of Hades will not prevail against you.” But notice he said the “gates” won’t prevail. If you choose a weapon for battle, you don’t show up armed with a gate! You take a sword or a spear, an axe or a bow! Not a gate. Nobody swings his 100 pound gate at his foes! (I can’t even lift a 100 pound gate, but I digress). A gate is not an offensive weapon, it’s a defensive mechanism. Accordingly, if the gates of Hades will not prevail against us, that means WE are the ones playing offense, and Hades is turning tail and doing the hiding!

And so, yeah, when we say we’re going through “a spiritual attack” the tonality should not be one of sadness, but of gladness! I’m going through an attack…and I’m killing it! Or to hijack Paul’s idea and ideal: we are “more than conquerors,” which in Greek is literally super-over-overcomers. We are, um, roughly speaking, give or take, approximately, invincible.

Boom.

When we labor under the delusion that the enemy even has a shot at beating us, we’re adopting self-defeating lies. When we know we are utterly incapable of losing, we’re right as rain.

Speaking of being in the trenches: during the civil war Ulysses Grant was a general to note. One time he climbed up over a mountain. He peered down at the valley below. Much to his shock, he realized he wasn’t alone; enemies drew near! Harrison’s army was swiftly approaching and encroaching! Grant was seized by fear. Thousands of troops and horses waited to attack! As Grant stood there with his heart racing, trying to figure out what his next move would be, something astonishing happened. Harrison’s army saw Grant. They turned around. And they began to retreat! Grant’s heart rate slowed. He calmed down. He watched the army ride away, off into the distance. Grant said he learned something that day he’d never forget: “Every adversary I have knows my name, and they are more afraid of me than I am of them.”

The enemy is more scared of you than you are of him. Greater is he that’s within you than he that’s within the world. The word “devil” was originally just a judicial term that means “prosecuting attorney” or “accuser” and any guilt he uses is just scare tactics. Your adversary ain’t got nothing on you! The gospel story is about how, at the place of the skull, Jesus crushed the skull of the serpent with the crown of thorns on his own skull. Game over.

You can’t lose. So, you have my permission to go throat punch the devil. Elbow Beelzebub in the gullet. And judo kick Satan in the trachea. The enemy thought he could bury us…but he forgot we were seeds.