READ: 1 Kings 20:13-30
«And the prophet came…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.» - 1 Kings 20:22

The prophet warned the king of Israel to strengthen himself because he would be attacked the next year. High combat readiness is very important for every serious-minded Christian. Never forget about war in times of peace.                 
To be successful in your fight for the kingdom, you need to be prepared. You must prepare for different kinds of evil. You must believe that they can happen. Believe that someone may be planning evil against you. When you do, you will begin to develop a high combat readiness in relation to those areas of evil.

Adolf Hitler was successful in causing the deaths of millions because Europe simply did not believe that such evil could be implemented by any human being. Whilst Germany was developing a vast technologically superior arsenal of weapons, Poland did not prepare itself to combat such an onslaught. Germany marched into Poland on September 1, 1939 with the most modern tanks, guns and planes. Can you believe that the Polish army sent out soldiers on horseback to fight the Germans? Poland was quickly overpowered and millions of Polish people were murdered during the Second World War.

The principle of combat readiness – think about war even in times of peace – cannot be over-emphasized. To be combat ready, you must allow your mind to run through certain possibilities of evil. Then you must prepare yourself as though it could happen, by asking questions and answering them realistically.