Orientation Training...Spiritual Warfare

The longer I am with MAF, the more I appreciate all they do for their staff! Last Friday, Kevin and I began our Orientation Training. To say that the training we are currently in is thorough would be an understatement. Over the next few days, I thought that I could share just a little bit of information on each of the topics we are covering. I would have to write a book on each subject in order to cover a small portion of all the things we talk about. Since I don't have time, and there are plenty of books already on the subjects, I will just highlight some of the key points of our training and how it relates to us in the field.

The first two days of training were on the subject of Spiritual Warfare. I have to be honest, growing up, I was not informed of the havoc that demons could play in a Christians life. I was taught that once you were saved, all you had to do was sit back and wait for the rewards of eternity* (*not really, but that is how I felt about my level of naivety concerning the demonic world.) There is so much that goes on in real life that we often chalk it up being a coincidence or maybe we just didn't get enough sleep. So many times I have heard stories about supernatural things from missionaries and I thought they were selling their stories to rack in the big bucks* (again, not really, but I though it sounded catchy.)

There is nothing I can say right now to convince you to believe in the presence of evil and the power it can have over you, even if you are a Christian. But I do invite you to read, study, and pray about it yourself. While Kevin and I were during our Ministry Partnership phase, we experienced things that made us realize how foolish we were. Since then, our experiences have only increased and will continue to increase as we get closer to the field. Satan and his demons are real and they would prefer one less missionary out in the field. Keeping that in mind, MAF understood that and trained us on what we can do to protect ourselves (the Spann family) here and now.

What does that look like exactly? I am not going to go into a whole lot of detail about what that means. There is not enough space to sum up the years of research our speaker did or his list of references. But, in a few words, if our enemy did not make sin look so enticing, we wouldn't do it. So we could bemoan over the fact of how sinful we are, how corrupt we are, but this also points to how gracious, loving and forgiving Christ is. If we are firmly rooted in Christ, and His authority, and biblical truth, we have already gained major ground in the battle. If you do want some additional information on the topic, I invite you to email me and I can provide you with some our resources.