THE CALL TO ARMS
Chapter Eleven
Most likely, every Blood-bought believer in Christ will come to the place he needs to be where he will be willing to lay down every weight and entanglement with the world, and be ready to pick up his battle arms, and really begin to fight the enemy (Heb 12:1). No more allowing the distractions of the world to cause him to have cold, disinterested, nonchalant, and uncaring attitudes toward what is happening all around him.
The enemy is on a rampage; out to destroy and hinder all the work the Lord has begun in His kingdom. Every new believer in Christ is being attacked right and left. Many of the overcomers are being grievously slaughtered. All because the true intercessors have not picked up their arms to fight for the wounded.
I am not saying there aren’t the faithful few who have remained committed to their call no matter what. But I am admonishing those who have a calling to be intercessors, yet have allowed the enemy to bring them to the place of not just defeat, but of not even beginning to fight. The enemy knows these precious ones are a threat to his kingdom. That is why he is constantly bombarding them, trying to keep them from coming to their place in the Lord where they are able to stand against him. I am persuaded that they are a might army, and that their time is coming where they will stand bold and unwavering, with head set like flint, against the evil one (Ezek 3:9).
Althought it may appear that this camp of saints is defeated, the Lord is in control. He has them where they need to be at this point. They are going through a period of training that might be one of the hardest things they have ever faced. Yes, the evil one has come in like a flood at every angle, but they are being preserved and strengthened. And yes, like a mighty oak tree, through every storm they face, their roots are going deeper and deeper into the nourishment of the Word of the Lord (Psa 1:3).
Yes, they are going through many tests and mighty onslaughts, but they are being prepared for war as never before. So, do not be discouraged if you feel you haven’t been able to stand and take your place in the army of the Lord at this point. The Lord has you in the palm of His hand, and you are precious to Him. Faithful are those who will not give up in spite of all their apparent weaknesses. Only when they accept that they are weak can they truly be strong in Him (2 Cor 12:10). That is when great strength comes.
Many have fallen away because they have looked in the natural at the fruit of their life at this point. They have thrown up their hands and said that they can’t go on; that there is no hope of ever reaching the place they need to be in Him. Don’t let that be you. Don’t give up! Stand on God’s promises that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it (Phil 1:6), and He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4).
Pick yourself up and brush yourself off and equip yourself with the armor of God (Eph 6:11). Sharpen your sword and place your shield where it needs to be. Be clean. For the Blood of Christ washes you of all your impurities (1 John 1:7-9). Look to the righteousness of Christ, not to your own (Tit 3:5, Phil 3:9). Draw close to Him and be willing for Him to transform you (Rom 12:2). Do not be defeated for the Lord thy God is with you. Don’t allow yourself to become robbed any longer.
Today is a new day. Let the past melt away and let today become a new beginning for you – a fresh new start. Let this year be one of the most overcoming years in the Lord that you have ever experienced. Fulfill your destiny in Him. Go from glory to glory as you reach out for renewed strength from God’s Spirit each day. Put on the Lord Jesus for He is your Captain (Heb 2:10, KJV). Stand in rank, follow Him, for you are more than a conqueror in Him (Rom 8:37). The nations are your inheritance. You will stand undefeated in Him.
All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose (Rom 8:28). So, don’t let your circumstances defeat you; they are for your good. The fire from your trials is purging all traces of dross and impurity out of you. Allow the Lord to do this work in you. Don’t draw back when the fire looks severe. You will not be burned by it. Always remember Shadrach, Meschach, and Abed-Nego (Dan 3:26-27). The Lord Jesus was right there with them and delivered them completely unharmed but totally transformed.
Be faithful to His Word by allowing it to do its work in you. Be transformed into His image daily (Rom 8:29). As you go from glory to glory, your flesh is being stripped off, and His glorious radiance is being poured out through you to touch a lost and dying world: those who truly need the Lord Jesus (2 Cor 3:18). So, be assured this day that the Word is working mightily in you (Col 1:29). And, no matter how you feel about your progress in Him, the Lord is pleased with you. Everything is in His timing, and He is in complete control of your life.
So, rest in Him and be refreshed for the Lord is about to bring you through a mighty and conquering battle. The victory is the Lord’s!
THEY LOVED NOT THEIR LIVES UNTO DEATH
Chapter Twelve
More fulfillment has been drawn by appeasing the flesh than by any other method since the beginning of mankind; but oh, what a deception to fall into, for the flesh is man’s greatest enemy ever. This fulfillment is not a true fulfillment. It is all vanity, leaving in us a never-ending void, causing an insatiable craving for more. An ever-increasing lack of satisfaction is produced from appeasing our flesh.
The flesh is always at enmity with the Lord (Rom 8:7). Before receiving God’s saving grace, the ignorance that we possessed drove us to please the flesh. Even after becoming born-again, we have to be on guard to the tactics of the enemy. He constantly tries to ensnare us to the old-man nature that was crucified with Christ at Calvary (Gal 2:20).
The more we draw close to Jesus in times of temptation, the more we are able to put down this nature and victoriously rise up as more than conquerors in Jesus (Rom 8:37). The fulfillment that we receive from crucifying the flesh is so much greater in value than pleasing the flesh (Rom 8:6). So much greater that we can hardly believe it when we allow ourselves to be driven in the wrong direction. The Lord wants us to love ourselves and have respect for the vessel that He dwells in by His Spirit (1 Cor 6:19). How can we allow ourselves to be robbed in this way any longer? We have the opportunity to experience God’s overcoming grace by fulfilling His will in our lives.
All His riches are attached to our being as we walk in His victory always. Put on the full armor of God which is the Lord Jesus Christ. The helmet of salvation signifies that all that He purchased at the cross is ours just by believing it. We have His name upon us, which is His authority over us that delegates to us His power over the enemy. We have the mind of Christ (1 Cor 2:16) and we need not receive any of the lies of the evil one (John 8:44). Everlasting freedom through His grace, joy, and love is ours just by our simple act of obedience to the mind of Christ and carrying our cross daily following Christ in His will and ways (Mark 8:34). The resurrection power we receive, by identifying with the Lord Jesus in His own death and resurrection, is our victory (Rom 6:4).
One of our greatest weapons against the evil one is that of loving not your life unto death, along with the power of the Blood of Jesus and the words of our testimony (Rev 12:11). The enemy defeats us in every area of faith only if we allow him to ensnare us to the flesh. It is not Satan who robs us of the victory….it is ourselves. We are our greatest enemy.
When our attitude towards our trials causes them to look greater than the promises of God, then we aren’t allowing the Lord to do the work He intended to do in us through the trial. When we allow our thoughts to take over, and figure out our own way of escape from the fire, then we have given into our greatest enemy again. We are disobeying the Father if we are not staying behind our shield of faith and using our sword, the Word of God, to bring defeat to the enemy. We are looking at the circumstances, allowing more and more fiery darts to hit us, destroying our faith (Eph 6:16). Doubt, unbelief, and fear soar in this realm strengthened by our flesh. Prosperity, healing, overcoming through persecution, great anointing and manifestation of Gifts, power in witnessing drawing many into the Kingdom, and all other areas of victorious living in Christ can only come through living the crucified life.
Complete rest in knowing that Jesus is in control and that we don’t have to struggle to work things out is a precious blessing God promises us, if we obey His will. We can’t be concerned with time, space, symptoms, or any other aspect of the natural (flesh) realm for God is not limited by any of these things (2 Pet 3:8). He will manifest the answers to our needs only in His timing, (which is always perfect). We need to trust Him completely in this.
Our trials can cause our flesh to panic if our eyes are not centered upon God’s promises in His Word. The problems are not ours any longer if we have asked Jesus to come through and provide for us. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Heb 11:1). Our faith actually takes the place of what we are believing for until the manifestation of the promise is brought to pass. Our faith has great value in the spiritual realm when we confess what we believe in our hearts, and take steps of faith directed by the wisdom of God (Rom 10:10).
Whatsover things that you desire, believe that you have received them at the time you have asked the Father (Mark 11:24). Continue to thank the Lord, resting, knowing that in His timing they will come forth. The time of endurance through the trial, between the times of asking and receiving, can be full of rejoicing if we allow Him to do this deep work of faith in us. We need to be patient and trust that whatever He has allowed is only for our good. The Lord loves us and is on our side even if the circumstances look like everything is against us. If God is for us, who can be against us? (Rom 8:31).
When we allow ourselves to look at the circumstances and become tempted to turn to the flesh, we lose our position of victory in the natural realm temporarily, until the Lord, by His grace, restores us. One example is debt. We need to remember that when we allow ourselves to become indebted to another financially because oflack of faith, we are no longer the head but the tail, because we did not heed the commandment of God to trust Him (Deut 28:13). The Lord wants us to be prosperous where we have abundance to help others in time of need (2 Cor 8:14). We are to be blessed in every area of our lives, and the price to pay is minimal. Jesus wants us to yield ourselves to His safety and provision, not to look to the arm of the flesh. Be yielded, for He will give you the grace and wisdom needed in every situation (Jam 1:5). God is faithful to complete the perfect work He began in us. He has already given us all that we need to be able to live a victorious life in Him (2 Pet 1:3). The enemy is a defeated foe, and we are more than conquerors over him in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:37).
Our lives are no longer ours, so we need to completely entrust everything into His care. The Lord gives and takes away (Job 1:21), and all things work for good for those who love God. We need to be in agreement with the Apostle Paul to count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of the Lord Jesus (Phil 3:8). We are to be willing to suffer the loss of all things that we may gain Christ.
The final outcome in our lives will always be in agreement with His Word that we are to prosper in all things and be in health, just as our soul prospers (3 John 2). Be assured this day that the Word is working mightily in you and that all God’s promises for you are yes and Amen (2 Cor 1:20). If we are faithful to His Word, He will remain faithful to us. He even gives us the grace that we need to become willing to obey His will (Phil 2:13). We have all we need to live a victorious life in Him.
The battle is the Lord’s and we carry His victory banner. The enemy is already defeated and we are taking the land. Always remember the victory is in dying to our flesh and walking in His resurrection power daily, not afraid of losing all for the Kingdom. For God is always faithful to restore now or in the Kingdom to come. We live in agreement with the multitude of saints rejoicing that the accuser of the brethren has been cast down (Rev 12:10). We continue to overcome the enemy by the Blood of the Lamb, and by the word of our testimony, and we do not love our lives unto death. Having done all to stand (Eph 6:13); therefore, we triumph in Jesus knowing that we cannot be cursed for the shout of the King is among us! Halleluia, the King is coming!
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Section Six of Book