A gun is a most powerful weapon. It is a tool for doing good in the hand of a righteous person, protection and rescue. It is a powerful expression of evil in the hands of an unrighteous person, murder, maim, injury, and intimidation. We are on a planet consumed in war, physical and spiritual, with the gun as a real weapon and as a metaphoric weapon of spiritual warfare.

There is always violence where the corruption of humanity meets the holiness of Jesus. Sin can not bear to be in the Lord’s presence. What happens to us who sometimes find ourselves on one side, then on the other, and sometimes both seemingly at once? St. Paul discussed this very issue in Chapters 7 and 8 of Romans.

The scripture is full of patterns of God and life that we can recognize and understand. Adam and Eve faced that moment where sin meets God and responded in ways we all know:  hiding, cover-up, misinformation, and blame. The first level of blame is against any other persons involved, immediately or remotely. The second level of blame is against God who must be at fault if we won’t accept accountability. The violence is sin toward heaven or heaven toward sin with humans caught in the middle. We choose sides.

The truth is that God aims the gun at sin, and the Holy Spirit is the bullet. We feel the pain of the shot when we are too attached to our sin, which was the target. Sin is the source of all destruction. The Lord must liberate us from sin to free and heal. Sin puts the gun in the Lord’s hand and demands that He shoot. Jesus warns us of danger through the pressures and pains in our lives when we are at spiritual crossroads, just like sickness has symptoms.

Moses sent twelve men into the promised land at the crossroads of breakthrough. They had only been in the wilderness a few days when they got to the edge of their destiny. Two returned with the truth of faith and promise in God. Ten returned with the fear and reality of this world. The two knew they could trust God no matter what. The ten were louder and knew they couldn’t do it themselves. This is often where we find ourselves at the point of breakthrough. Do we listen to the ten or the two. Our suffering can be intense, the pressure heavy, our limitations clear at the point of decision, making the ten sound like the obvious choice; besides, there are more of them. 

The Hebrews chose with the ten. They suffered far more and far longer, forty years doing laps around the wilderness. They got shot and felt the pain. Faithless choices always increase the length of time we spend in suffering because it takes a while to gain the strength and desire to change into the direction the Lord planned in the beginning. So, how do we respond to discomfort?

We could always grumble, complain, and want to turn back into what only our own strength can accomplish, or we could choose to let God deal with our bad nature to move us through the discomfort to a better place He has planned for us. Joshua and Caleb showed us that we can make the right choice no matter how temptation may yell at us.

God has given us three powerful tools to help us make the right choice. Scripture teaches us who God is, what He wants, and how He operates. The Holy Spirit is the gift of God who continually reveals Jesus to us through scripture and in real time, surround sound. The church is the bank of testimonies that we can continually draw upon. God has verified Himself and proven Himself in His people. He is alive and working. You can see the testimony of people who acted like the worst in the Hebrew nation, were turned around by grace, and empowered to enter the promised land in their lives. Jesus really does love us and is constantly working to free us. We can chose Him. We are loved, and the proof is all around us.