Chapter 16 M.I.A. (Missing In Action)
Excerpted from Women, Get in the Army of God by Dawn Wilson. Copyright © 2005.
Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
"M.I.A. soldiers, at one time, actively served in the army of God. These soldiers
have already received and accepted their commissions as soldiers in God’s army.
They have stepped into their positions as soldiers in the army of God and served for
a season. They have actively warred against the enemy on the battlefield. These
commissioned soldiers of the army of God, for various reasons, are now missing
from the army of God. They have ceased from active warfare and are now M.I.A.
These M.I.A. soldiers have given up and have stopped fighting in the battle against
the enemy.
The enemy uses three weapons against us. He uses the spirit of discouragement,
the spirit of depression, and accusations from our past to cause us to cease in
warfare against him. The spirits of discouragement and depression are often Satan’
s last-ditch efforts to defeat God’s warriors who are warring effectively in God’s
army. He sends these unclean spirits to harass us when all else has failed to stop
us as we warfare against his kingdom."
and
"Others are missing from the army of God because of the pain and suffering they
have endured at the hands of other Christians. We can understand the attack that
comes against us from the enemy. We can understand the attack that comes
against us from unbelievers. We cannot understand or bear up under the attack
that comes from those who are our brothers and sisters in Christ. We understand
the attack from those who hate us and hate what we believe in and stand for. We
cannot understand the attack that comes from those who are commanded by Jesus
to love one another. Many warriors of God’s army are missing from the battlefields
because they are undergoing or have undergone an attack by their brothers and
sisters in Christ. The pain they bore became too much for them to endure. Let’s
look at our brother Job and see what he endured at the hands of his friends."