“Fratricide is the employment of friendly weapons and munitions with the intent to kill the enemy or destroy his equipment or facilities, which results in unforeseen and unintentional death or injury too friendly personnel”. (Source: US Dept of Army)
Getting the Body of Christ to recognize that we are in a battle is easy in comparison to getting them to realize that you are not supposed to use the weapons of warfare against each other. As a member of the Body of Christ, you are given many weapons to use against the enemy. These weapons are supposed to be employed and used for the purpose of killing and destroying the enemy. In some situations, the battle line is not clearly defined. Sometimes the “fog of war”, inexperienced soldiers, or fatigued soldiers are not clearly able to distinguish whom they are using their weapons against. In this matter as a soldier in “Army of the Lord” you are responsible to make sure that what your weapon is aimed at is the enemy and not another brother or sister in the Lord.
Anyone who carries a weapon in the natural knows that you don’t draw that weapon unless you mean to use it. There are times when the Body of Christ draws their weapons and aims them at the wrong target. Whether this is done intentionally or unintentionally, if that target gets hit harm will be done to the intended recipient of that deadly force. If you have used your weapons against the Body of Christ, you should stop and take a look at what you are doing. Friendly Fire is becoming a greater reality in the days that we live. Pride, arrogance, and ego are the contributing factor in the incidents of Friendly Fire that take place on the battle lines in the Body of Christ. If you are too prideful to listen to those around about you, if you refuse to listen to the Holy Spirit when waging war, it will be super easy to commit a Friendly Fire incident.
Vietnam was a horrible military action (war) that was waged by the United States against the people of North Vietnam. The United States teamed up with South Vietnam under terms to help them defeat the North Vietnamese. One of the tactics that the North Vietnamese used against us was the tactic of “Guerilla Warfare”. This involved wounding our soldiers. They would use booby traps, mines, and other devices to hurt or maim us. It was an effective strategy. A wounded soldier couldn’t fight and had to be carried off the battlefield to an aid station or a hospital. What did this do? This tied up the other soldiers who were not wounded and kept them preoccupied with getting aid to the wounded soldiers. This significantly cut down the fighting force. Instead of having to deal with the body of one soldier being killed, you would have to contend with transporting the wounded soldier off the battlefield, this took a minimum of two soldiers effectively removing 3 people from fighting.
This quickly becomes devastating with the incidents of Friendly Fire that took place in Vietnam and other military conflicts. Just like regular warfare, vital resources and materials were needed to attend to the wounded that were affected by Friendly Fire. In the long run this cost time. Time for the wounded to heal, time for the resources and materials to be regathered, and time that the enemy can use against us to advance the battle line. It's important that we engage the enemy. We must do this in a smart way. A way that will protect the soldiers that we are working with so that we can keep them fighting along with us. You can be a one-man army if you want too, but is it necessary? Is being a one many army the best strategy? Is it God’s strategy?
There are wounded soldiers in the Body of Christ. They have been wounded by other soldiers and no one tells the other soldiers to stop shooting at their team members. They say, “Aww, too bad you should have been paying attention and you wouldn’t have gotten shot.” This mentality does nothing to strengthen the bonds of brother and sister hood within the Body of Christ. On the contrary, it stirs up rivalry and competition. If we cannot learn that we are on the same side, fighting the same enemy, then the enemy has already defeated us. We defeated ourselves and all the enemy has to do is just let us kill our own selves off.
In the military there are usually investigations that go forth after these Friendly Fire incidents take place. This is done to try and evaluate what happened so that the incident is not repeated. The Body of Christ does not do this. The Friendly Fire incidents happen, the soldier is either wounded or killed, and everyone goes on about their business like nothing ever happened. For the soldier who survived the incident and works themselves back into the fight the question often occurs, “Why did my team members shoot at me? Why couldn’t they see that I'm not the enemy? I want to win the battle just as much as they do. Why can’t someone tell them to change direction, aim their weapon elsewhere, or just stop shooting until they figure out what is going on.
The Body of Christ has to do a better job at training our soldiers. The Body of Christ has to do a better job at helping its soldiers stay out of pride. Pride is a terrible thing that causes so much destruction. Where would we be at today if we had less Friendly Fire incidents in the Body of Christ. The enemy knows how to bog us down. It is our duty to care and to be compassionate for everyone even the soldiers that we wound that are on our own side. There has to be a better way than what we have been doing.
War is war. War is not meant to be pretty. We will lose people due to the enemy killing them. This is just a fact of war. Even with this it has been prophesied that the Body of Christ does not heal its own wounded. The Body of Christ is infamous for kicking someone when they're down or trying to step on them while they're seeking a higher position in the Kingdom. If you have to step on someone to get to a new position, you are not of God. You also will not be in that position long. What you reap, you sow. What you do to others will be done to you. I have seen this time and time again since I've been a volunteer in the House of the Lord. It saddens my heart in so many ways because we bring the worlds standards into the governance of the Church.
Even when the Friendly Fire incidences are unintentional this still does not stop the wounding or the killing of another brother and sister in Christ. This is not something to just be taken lightly. If you are carrying a weapon you must realize that you have a great responsibility cast upon you. You do have to do your job. You do have to kill the enemy. You do have to make sure that the person in the crosshairs of your weapon is the correct target, not your brother or your sister in Christ. We have an enemy, let’s fight him and not each other. Selah!
