Put on your stripes
Recognizing and wielding our authority as Christ-followers
At the close of that exacting summer on the shipyard, I woke with a dream impressed on my mind. A long-awaited box had arrived, containing my epaulettes. I lifted them out, and held them in my hands.
Epaulettes… those embroidered shoulder pieces that communicate, by number of stripes, an officer’s rank. Without a word, my stripes conveyed the responsibility I carried. They signified my experience and authority. They bestowed on me a kind of automatic respect.
The only problem was, they had never been delivered.
Ok, that wasn’t the only problem.
Since our arrival to the dust-covered worksite, the obstacles had been unrelenting. Early on, we developed the habit of shining our phone’s flashlights before we stepped into our showers- since the blackouts came without warning. If we slept through to dawn without an emergency alarm screeching, we were happily amazed. I learned to wield a broom as a weapon when the mayflies descended, and the crew cowered and yelped. Orders from the top were reissued so many times it made us dizzy. And as the messenger, I found myself swallowing promise after promise, until I wondered if somehow my integrity had been stolen away. Morale sunk near to river bottom, and I poured energy into hauling up our spirits. But distrust and scorn were not so easily dispelled with a light, or fought off with a broom.
During all those long weeks, my uniform remained on back-order. When it finally arrived, inexplicably, the stripes weren’t there. Hence, the dream at Summer’s end:
I sliced through the packing tape, tugged at the cardboard, tore through the plastic-
There were the epaulettes: finely sewn, richly colored, clean, starched and fresh-
I lifted them out, and held them in my hands…
In the dream, I never put them on.
I have them. I see them. I know for certain they exist; they are real. But I never put them on.
In the days to come, the story would play out exactly like that.
The box was delivered. I opened it, ran my fingers over the stripes-
and then I returned them, to Emma, the tailor.
I never put my on stripes. I never took my place.
I willingly removed myself from a place God reserved and appointed for me. I willingly left stripes with my name on them for another.
Those specific epaulettes aren’t mine anymore. Yet today, in a completely different time and place, I can still hear the Spirit giving this charge:
Put on your stripes.
In that season of challenges being made to my positional authority, was I really waiting for a couple inches of fabric to tell the world who I am? To confirm and prove to myself who I am?
Was I waiting for some kind of irrefutable permission to walk in my God-given authority?
If I was waiting for a green light, now I can see, I had one. I have one.
The whole word of God is lit up with our green lights.
“But you, dress yourself for work; Arise,”
“And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore GO….”
In that finite time and place, God had made me a high-ranking officer. He had placed me as a leader, with influence to show and tell the crew how it is. It was my privilege to cast a vision, and guide my people in the way we would go. My word was to be heeded; my instruction was to be carried out.
That position was a gift from God. He placed me there, and there I was granted a specific, positional authority.
But that ship is far from the only place God has sent me.
The lesson I learned there, is not only for one timid leader on a river ship. I believe it’s for all of us who call Jesus “Lord”, and desire to accept the assignment he’s given.
For we know, he has sent his people to bring good news to every nation, and to the ends of the earth.
After his resurrection, Jesus appeared to the disciples and told them, “As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” (John 20:21)
Jesus is sending us!
And he is not sending us unequipped- actually, he sends us fully supplied and backed up with authority- for he sends us with himself! (see Matthew 28:18-20)
The disciple John spelled out the Lord’s purpose like this,
The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.
(1 John 3:8b)
Now, what are the works of the devil?
Chiefly, murder, and lies. For his desire is to see people destroyed, and he works to deceive them, so that they run, or relax towards their own greatest harm.
(See John 8:44)
Meanwhile Jesus the Savior has come, saying “I am the Truth”; “I am the Life"; “I am the Way”, “I have come that they may have life, to the full.” (see John 14:6 and John 10:10)
and Jesus, in exhorting his followers to join him on mission said,
Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.
(John 14:12)
He said we would find no need to be intimidated by our enemy, the devil, as the devil has no defense against our faith- he has to flee as we resist him.
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
(James 4:7)
When he invited us to join in his work, Jesus tossed us his kingdom’s very keys.
“And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.””
Authorized persons… that’s us!
It’s some kind of frightening to think that God has given authority to people like me…. to all of us believers… to his church. But He has!
A.W. Tozer writes,
“The difficulty we modern Christians face is not misunderstanding the Bible, but persuading our untamed hearts to accept its plain instructions.”
Wherever God has placed us is where his authority in us extends. No one can remove it- but we can fail to use it- we can fail to get dressed.
Rather than finicky epaulettes, the word of God tells us we can dress in a far more complete uniform for the work he’s charged us to do. I’m talking of course, about the “armor of God”.
Ephesians 6:10-17 instructs us to:
Be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can make your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this world’s darkness, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
Therefore take up the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you will be able to stand your ground, and having done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness arrayed, and with your feet fitted with the readiness of the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Believers in Christ, this uniform is not on backorder! It is real, it is at our fingertips, it is ours, right now.
See it. Feel its weight. Put it on.
When we ‘get dressed’ with these spiritual armaments, we are acknowledging the weight and the reallness of our responsibility to serve God- to minister with every gift he has given us. We are testifying to our experience- we have been with Jesus (Acts 4:13). We are accepting and reverently handling our authority- we are the holders of the kingdom of heaven’s keys: God has been pleased to work his mighty power through us. These are the stripes I want to remember are verifiably, irrevocably mine.
These are the stripes I never want to fail to put on.
Wherever we go, and whatever room we walk into, our stripes as believers are communicating a clear message. They are a magnificent family crest, turning heads by an unmatched power, clothed in meekness. Gently, they speak of a marvelously unusual kingdom.
Our stripes convey this heart-transforming report: that the once-crucified Lord, who ransomed our desperate souls with his perfect life lives. That He saves. That He heals. That He forgives, and speaks and cares and loves like no other!
Our stripes signify hope, and freedom. They bestow favor and honor. Without a word.
Follower of Christ, listen. Can you hear the Holy Spirit’s loving whisper to you? Put on your stripes.
If so, I hope you won’t hold back a moment more. These beautiful stripes are yours. They have your name on them. Don’t leave them in the box. Wear them with wonder, awe, humility and sure faith.
Wherever God has placed you today; wherever he is calling you, my prayer for us is that we won’t hide, won’t retreat- won’t even slouch! But that we will
Arise,
dress ourselves for work;
put on our stripes,
and go.
The keys work! The light’s green!
And Jesus, the Lord over all, is with us, surely, always.
“Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.”