Safety on or off

January 23, 2005

Personal Narrations

Joel Akin

Calgary, Alberta

The Dreams. Dream one. I had come down from the mountain holding a loaded shotgun. The wise man at the bottom said, "Put the gun on safety so you don't harm anyone."

Dream Two-One month later-I was confronted by the leader and his lieutenants. I pulled out my shotgun and pointed it at them but it would not fire. I split the gun in half to check if it had ammunition. It did. I then pointed it at the enemy and again tried to fire. Nothing happened. I checked the weapon to turn off the safety but could not locate it in time and had to surrender myself to their authority.

Matthew 16: 13-23 13 When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? 14 And they said, Some [say that thou art] John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. 15 He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? 16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. 17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed [it] unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. 18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19 And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 20 Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ. 21 From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. 22 Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee. 23 But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.

The issue I want to bring forth may seem a little obscure to some. I shall try to explain it in a way that God revealed to me. As in all dreams we need only understand the principle to find the solution to what God is showing us. In this case it is the weapon we hold against the devil and all of his authorities and how that weapon is used. I must admit there is one thing that I love is when an idea holds together over a long period of time. For scientists its like a theory that explains the facts one sees. The problem with theories though is that they can become religious in their intent. For example Scientists believe Evolution when the simpler explanation is that all things were created. When I listen to their attempts to explain away God I just laugh.

 But that is an article for another day. In this case we are dealing with spiritual weapons and their use. There are many types of weapons and many ways to fight but the most powerful and prosperous is definitely prayer. As God has put it to me many times there is no more powerful weapon then prayer based on relationship with Him. Most will find that too simplistic but that is part of its beauty.

 Knowing that you have a spiritual weapon also means knowing how to use it and use it wisely. Over the past 18 months God has taught me what prayer was and how it could be used against Satan. Think of God as being on the mountain top and that is where I met with him.

Yet in the first dream after I had come down from the mountain top I met what seemed to be a very wise man who said to me, "Put the safety on your weapon..." What does that mean? Simply that prayer has power to change things and if you pray wrongly or hurtfully some of those prayers may not be able to be withdrawn. So when I was trying to understand the two shotgun dreams I was confused why I could not seem to get victory over Satan the second time around. He brought me to that dream from a month ago where I had come down from the mountain and where I had put the safety on the shotgun.

 To put it simply the shotgun represents my weapon over Satan. That weapon is prayer and as long as you are in tune with God you have bullets which will stop Satan from coming against you.

Now prayer really can be used against others whether by default or by choice. Imagine that you are given true authority and your every prayer is answered. A wise man comes along and says, "You need to be careful where you point that weapon" and then shows you some of those you've hurt. Devastated you begin to wonder what you can do to stop it. So you make a simple prayer. "God, please don't let me hurt anyone with my words or prayers."

Thus the safety on your only real weapon goes on. The wise men are happy. You are happy. Everyone is happy. A month, two months pass. You've completely forgotten that request you made to God. One day you are overwhelmed by temptation. You pull out your trusty shotgun and point it right at Satan and pull the trigger. Nothing happens. You check to see if its loaded. It is. You then desperately search for the safety not knowing nor understanding why you can't find it nor what you are doing wrong.

 You see when you make a statement that you don't want to hurt anyone you didn't add with it "WHO" you didn't want to hurt. A weapon off is a weapon useless. In this case you were not prepared and literally submitted yourself to statement by turning off your weapon to EVERYONE. This means even Satan was included in that.

Foolish? Not if you understand the power of your words and the things that you say. If you have a weapon that will defeat Satan but turn the safety on and don't exclude him you better bet he'll set a trap and defeat you by your own testimony. To put it into perspective the first mistake you fell into was submitting to logic and submitting to those who should know better. Most people think if you make a mistake you'd better back off and not use that weapon anymore.

Yet as God shared with me its not about putting the safety on your weapon but knowing how to use it wisely. If you make a mistake do you throw it away, leave the safety on? Perhaps in the natural world you might. A policeman's weapon must be under their control and authority at all times. If they lose it, if it is stolen they are responsible for this. The same for a soldier. He has to know how to take it apart and put it back together. But there is one thing a soldier is not going to do and that is put the safety on when he's going into battle. You've got to be prepared for whatever happens.

When we read the scriptures above we find something interesting happening here that, to me, speaks of being ready to fight at a moments notice. Jesus has just finished giving wonderful praise to Peter. Whether it was pride that hit Peter or not we are not told but Peter makes a remark contrary to Christ's purpose and calling. Jesus knew this was Satan speaking through Peter and rebuked the words that Peter spoke.

Now how can Jesus be so prepared for such an attack after Peter spoke such wise words to him? "You are the son of God!" Truly, divinely inspired. Yet Jesus' weapon of spiritual warfare was right on and ready to attack.

The key here is not to turn our weapons off just because we are surrounded by those who claim to be followers of Christ. Why? Because Satan can and will infiltrate even our ranks and come against us any way that he can. There might be some who believe we must turn on the safeties but by doing so we are not instant in our attacks or defense when it comes to Satan.

So how can we know the difference? A true soldier is trained to know the enemy and there is an instantaneous moment when they fire or hold fire. I personally believe the Christian church has lost that spiritual instinct. We don't realize that any of us can become a mouth piece for Satan even the spiritual leaders. At the same time we must be ready to use those weapons against the enemy because we never know when he's going to attack or when we will need to fight. The enemy often attacks when your guard is down or you forget how to use that weapon.

Given a choice I'd rather leave the safety off and pray for wisdom and insight so that I only point and shoot at the true enemies of God.