Do you realise that high combat readiness is very important for every serious-minded leader? A leader must never forget about war even in times of peace!
And the prophet came to the king of Israel, and said unto him, GO, STRENGTHEN THYSELF, AND MARK, AND SEE WHAT THOU DOEST: FOR AT THE RETURN OF THE YEAR THE KING OF SYRIA WILL COME UP AGAINST THEE….
AND IT CAME TO PASS AT THE RETURN OF THE YEAR, THAT BENHADAD NUMBERED THE SYRIANS, AND WENT UP TO APHEK, TO FIGHT AGAINST ISRAEL.”
1 Kings 20:22,26
High Combat Readiness – Preparedness
The prophet warned the king of Israel to strengthen himself because he would be attacked the next year.
In the ministry, you must prepare for several different kinds of evil. You must believe that they can actually happen. When you do, you will begin to develop a high combat readiness in relation to those areas of evil. In the story below, the Second World War was about to begin. A mass murderer by the name of Adolf Hitler was gearing up to invade and senselessly kill fifty million people. Adolf Hitler was successful in causing the deaths of millions of people because Europe simply did not believe that such evil could be planned and implemented by any human being.
Poland shares a border with Germany. Whilst Germany was developing a vastly technologically superior arsenal of weapons, Poland did not prepare itself to combat such an onslaught. Poland was completely unprepared for the war with Germany. Germany marched into Poland on September 1st 1939 with the most modern tanks, guns and planes. Could you believe that the Polish army sent out soldiers on horseback to fight the Germans? But the horses and rifles were no match for the vastly superior armoured and mechanized German army. Poland was quickly overpowered. The Polish armed forces did have some tanks and some aircrafts, but they were grossly inadequate. The Polish Army and Air Force were simply not ready for the kind of war Hitler unleashed on them.
The principle of combat readiness – thinking about war even in times of peace – cannot be over-emphasized. What evils have you prepared for? Have certain things even crossed your mind before? To be combat ready, you must allow your mind to run through certain possibilities. Then you must prepare yourself as though they could happen. You prepare yourself by asking questions and answering them realistically.
Questions for Combat-Readiness
Have you thought of yourself dying suddenly?
Have you thought of the possibility of becoming terminally ill and having to die slowly?
Have you thought of the possibility of never getting married?
Have you thought of the possibility of never having children even though you are married?
Have you thought of the possibility of a sudden financial crisis and poverty?
Have you thought of the possibility of being attacked by armed robbers? Is your dwelling place secure and combat ready?
Do you have a successor? Do you have a replacement?
Have you thought of the possibility of your car tyre bursting when you are driving at top speed? Would you not prefer to slow down now? Have you thought of the possibility of your house being burnt down? Is everything you value in one place?
Have you thought of the possibility of floods, storms, typhoons, hurricanes and cyclones?
Have you thought of the possibility of losing your child? Do you want to have more children in case you lose one? Have you thought through the possibility of you falling into sin? What measures have you taken to protect yourself from these? Do you think it is impossible? Better people than you have fallen for these things!
Have you thought of the possibility of the death of your spouse? What would be your response to that? Do you know how people’s lives are destroyed when their spouses die? Have you seen the way it affects them?
Have you thought the possibility of getting divorced? Do you know that greater leaders have gotten divorced to their own surprise? Do you think they ever planned to be divorced? Do you think they had divorce on their minds when they first got married?
Have you thought of the possibility of the death of your good friends and workers? Have you thought of the possibility of someone betraying you? What would be your response to these questions above? How ready are you for such situations?
To be a successful leader, you need to be prepared. Perhaps the key to preparedness is to believe that evil can happen to you. It is to believe that someone may be planning evil against you. You must not rule things out of your mind and think that they cannot happen to you. You must rather be in a state of readiness to battle the highest kinds of ultimate evil!
