The Church is God’s army

 

An army is made up of a number of individuals called Soldiers, each with different strengths, talents and abilities. These Soldiers are trained to obey only the orders they receive from their commanding officer. They are trained to act on the commands from their commanding officer and to not question these orders. The commanding officer is the only one who has the big picture and the orders are in line with this big plan.

 

The parallel in God’s Army is this:

 

God’s army is made up of a number of individuals called Christians, each with different strengths, talents and abilities. These Christians are trained to obey only the orders they receive from the Holy Spirit. They are trained to act on the commands from the Holy Spirit and to not question these orders. The Holy Spirit is the only one who has the big picture and the orders are in line with this big plan.

 

Although the above parallel is true, we Christians come up against a few problems.

 

We acknowledge that we all have or own strengths, talents and abilities. We also acknowledge that the Holy Spirit is in charge. We know that He is the only one who has the Big Picture, the Big Plan. We want to obey everything the Holy Spirit asks us to do, and we also want to be able to obey without questioning. But in the underlined areas we fail dismally…. Why?

 

Well, notice that the Christians are Trained to obey the Holy Spirit. This requires two things.

 

1.     We must know when the Holy Spirit is instructing us to do something.

This is not simply explained. A guideline to follow is this. Study the Bible and get to know God’s character. Know the word of God. Understand that God would never go against His own character of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control (Enduring the uncomfortable). (Galatians 5:22 - 23)

So if any message comes into your brain that goes against these characteristics, you know it is from your enemy and not from God. Each thought you are given is either an attempt to help and strengthen you, or an attempt to break you down and destroy you. You are only going to know the difference when you know God’s Character. So the first step to hearing the Holy Spirit is to know God’s Word. This is part of your training to become a soldier in God’s Army. The second part of the training is to listen to the Holy Spirit. Get yourself so in tune with the entrance of thoughts into your mind that you can quickly overpower those thoughts that are from your enemy. You do this by asking Jesus to remove the thought from your mind and then you quote the scripture, which relates to that offensive thought. Then you purposefully think on something else. If you dwell on this thought, the enemy will trap you, and this will then lead you to sin.

 

2.     We must know how we are being led to disobey him, even when we do not want to.

Your enemy is all around you. Demons have been watching you all your life. They know exactly where your weaknesses are. They know exactly what traps to lay for you and when it is the best time set you up for a fall. The enemy has the ability to mislead your physical senses into believing something. But the senses are not enough to mislead you if you are aware of how you can be used and in what way you can be manipulated. For example, we had an argument in our house today between my son and I. I did not feel close to God. So although he had provided me with the opportunity to write this section, I instead went and watched TV, satan’s number one most successful time wasting distraction. I fell in his trap. When the movie ended, I felt exhausted and wanted to go to sleep so badly, I nearly did. Then I remembered what the Lord had told me this section was going to be about and I realised that this feeling of being tired (when it was so early in the evening) was really just a projection from the demonic forces on to my physical senses, to try again to distract me. This time I did not fail, although I must tell you it is really difficult to overcome a feeling with just this knowledge. I have to continue to train myself to ignore my feelings and do what God wants me to do. You know I still have not done the dishes, yet. I know that I still have to do them and this message is bombarding my brain constantly, telling me I must stop this “worthless work, which will never get published anyway”. I know that these thoughts are not from God. I know that this message sent to my body via my feelings of exhaustion and my thoughts that I should give up are not from God. Therefore they must be from the enemy.

 

I can tell you now, that you are going to have to realise, what satan is able to do to your physical body. You are going to have to consciously choose to act despite these feelings. In fact I have discovered, that if I do not feel like doing something, which I know to be what God wants me to do, I can be sure that the reward for doing it is great. I have also learnt that when you succeed in defeating satan by conquering your feelings and the thoughts he plants in your brain you must expect backlash afterwards. This backlash, in my case, is normally a verbal attack on my emotional layer from those close to me. I know that they do not mean to hurt me so I do not see it as coming from them, but from satan. I therefore do not need to attack the people satan is using. By loving the people in return satan’s attack is destroyed.

 

Do not play satan’s game. Do not respond negatively towards the person satan uses to lash back at you. Love them back. If they are Christians and they have calmed down, then you can explain these principles to them. At all times give satan a hiding by praying the Blood of Jesus over all those you care for.

 

Finally, Praise God. Put on Christian music to sing along to. In the same way as satan attacks your thinking, you need to attack your thinking too. With good thoughts, words, music, stories, and especially Praise, Worship and recalling or reading Scripture verses from the Bible.

 

You are a bit like a computer. The more garbage you let into your mind the more you become like garbage. The more of God you let enter your mind the more you become like God. In this area there is no such thing as moderation. If you are a child of God in your spirit, it stands to reason you should change your mind to think like a child of God. In fact Paul writes, that we need to renew our mind. (Romans 12:2) That is, we need to get rid of the old way of thinking, the old inputs into our lives, like, Bad Movies, TV and Radio programs, negatively influential friends, and those things which cause us to think, speak and act in a manner that Jesus would not do. To know what these are, just watch your behaviour, language and especially your thoughts when you are in a situation. If they are not good, this input is bad for you and you must get rid of it. If you are behaving in a Godly way and are displaying the Fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22 - 23), then this is an input you want to keep.

 

You need to run away from sin.

 

In fact, you need to make a plan to stay away from the tool the enemy is using to ignite that thought. If it is pornographic material, do not go near places, which sell it. If you know you are going to have to go near such a place, then pray that the Blood of Jesus will keep your mind safe from these thoughts. You must get away from the traps (The things that draw your thoughts towards the areas where you sin.) Do not think that you can be around these things without being affected. You must understand, that sooner or later you will fall into that trap again, if you do not find a way to avoid going near it. This is a more practical Training, which you will need to do.

 

So there is much training to be done. Consider this. The day you became a Christian is the day your spirit became trapped in a jail of behavioural patterns, thought and memory patterns, and physical mental, emotional responses and reasoning’s that are contrary to God. Jesus planted your spirit within you, when you accepted Him as your Lord and Saviour. It was planted as a seed in a sinful body, with a sinful and conditioned mind. It was planted to adjust the body and mind from the inside outwards.

 

But for this to happen you need to make a conscious decision that your spirit will rule your body and mind and that the Holy Spirit and together with what He shows you in the Bible, will rule your spirit. Being a Christian is not a pansy thing. It takes great courage, great strength and lots of hardship. The Macho people in this world very often reject Jesus, because they simply do not have the Guts to do what Christians have to do. Fighting from within is very hard, but with Jesus all things are possible. (Mark 10:27)

 

My 2 Week Plan

 

Well I have had an experience these last two weeks. Every time I had a chance to write the next section I received some problem that would side track me, or a deep sensation of exhaustion that I could simply not face evening work. Once I managed to switch on my computer and promise myself that I would write that evening only to find myself exhausted after all the home chores were done and the kids were in bed.

 

Then I remembered that I was in a spiritual battle here and that this message is one that satan does not want to get out to you. I found myself praying for strength to accomplish this work God has given me, only to fail again. Each time I failed I became more stressed that I was not doing what I was supposed to do.

 

I thought maybe I was not close to God and that was why I was failing. Then I realised a very important point that I did not fully understand at the time but now see so crystal clear. I had been isolated. satan had caused me to become so busy that I had not thought of those of my brothers and sisters who at a drop of a hat would be praying with me and encouraging me. Just like Moses whose hands were held up by his friends so that Israel could win the battle (Exodus 17:12),  my brothers and sisters would have been there to help me and strengthen me.

 

I had allowed satan to cut me off from my SUPPLY LINE. Now do not get mad at me just yet. You can be certain that Jesus Christ, who is the Word of God (John 1:1 - 11), and whom I devour through my eyes and who I meditate on during the day is my SOURCE and SUPPLIES my every need. BUT, Most of the time He does it through other people. This is the point I want you to realise. Your Christian brothers and sisters, who include me, are your SUPPLY LINE. We are not your source of supply, simply the line by which God chooses to supply your needs.

 

satan has convinced society that they must not tell other people their problems. satan says that telling others your problems is ‘taboo’, its just not allowed, no one does it and everyone will dislike it. In fact he says society should ostracise you if you do talk about your problems.

 

Why would society ostracise those who share their problems… simple… They do not love you with the love of Jesus. Your brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ though, do love you. (If someone does not love you they are not true Christians but impostors, destined for Hell.) Jesus said you would know someone is His disciple by his or her love (John 13:34 & 35). Your Christian brothers and sisters will care from deep in their hearts. They will allow Jesus himself to well up from within them and show His love, affection and concern for you through their selfless acts of allowing you to access Jesus through them. Now I know you can simply talk to Jesus by praying, but you can also talk to Jesus by telling your brother(s) and or sister(s) in Jesus who can tell Jesus for you.

 

That is where I was.

 

So what did I do. I did what any army general would do. I called in reinforcements. Who were my reinforcements? My brothers and sisters in Jesus. I shared with them how I was battling fatigue (not that I was not getting enough sleep. I was simply experiencing the symptoms of exhaustion. Note SYMPTOMS. Not real fatigue, simply the symptoms of fatigue. Huge difference.)

 

How did I call in these reinforcements? I had already established my prayer partners. I had already established those who would encourage me. I had already established those who knew the Word of God inside out and back to front and could quote chapter and verse (which I cannot do to this day. I remember the Words in the Bible, our handbook to successful life on earth, but I need a concordance to find where they are. I digress though.) I already had a foundation of daily prayer, reading my Bible, and walking and talking with my Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit of God.

 

So when this problem attacked my physical layer. I made a huge mistake. I was not vigilant against the attacks of satan. No I had become complacent, forgetting that there is an enemy, that prowls around like a ferocious lion (1 Peter 5:8), who wants desperately to destroy me, steal from me and if allowed he would kill me too (John 10:10). I had moved into the area of “all is well”, “remove the guards”. I was being lulled into a false sense of security. Fortunately the Holy Spirit showed me that this was satan at work. He was pulling back his bow. Attached to it was a fiery dart/arrow (Ephesians 6:16). In fact he was getting set to strike a powerful blow in a most sensitive spot. Exactly what area of my life he was going to be striking, I never found out.

 

The Best form of defence is attack. I repeat. The best form of defence is attack. I called all my reinforcements and explained what was happening. I asked that they should all pray for me. I asked my encouragers to encourage me in this work. I asked my prayer partners to pray for and with me. I asked those who knew the scripture to give me chapter and verse that I could meditate on to strengthen me in this area. I spent more time chatting to my Father about what He wanted me to do. Then I discovered a real gem. My Father sent across my path, one of my friends, who is a brother of ours who very lovingly rebuked me. Boy did I need that. I have long ago realised that a selfless word of rebuke is a very powerful tool in the hands of God. My brother said that the work I had done so far, he had put into practice. He was out of financial difficulty, in a deeper relationship with Jesus and more solidly walking in faith than ever before. He wanted the rest of the work God had asked me to write.

 

satan tried to convince me not to write tonight. But that was not to be. I had brothers and sisters who had prayed up a wall of protection around me. I had encouragement building me from within. I had the Word of God to stand on and trust in and now I had someone who was demanding that I obey.

 

So now I am doing what I should be doing. More importantly, I am now vigilant again. My guard is up and I am wary of what satan is up to. I struck satan by punching through my own emotional layer, and through my physical layer right back at him before he could fire.

 

I did this by calling in the reinforcements. Not people.

 

I called the Children of God to my aide.

 

I also called Children of God, skilled in their field of battle.

 

They were able to use the gifts God had given them to come to my help.

 

Jesus moved through His children to help me.

 

BUT IF I HAD REMAINED SILENT, SATAN WOULD HAVE WON.

 

The lesson is in the story. Do not let this happen to you, fight back in the calm before the storm. If it gets quiet, attack, call in your reinforcements. If you have none, go to a place where you can find Children of God (You will know them by their unconditional love towards you.) Ask them their gifts and then ask them to be available for you. Find out your gifts and then make yourself available to your brothers and sisters in Jesus.

 

If you are truly a Child of the Living God, and you know the Creator of the Universe and the Author and Finisher of everything, who is also the Alpha and the Omega, The Beginning and The End. If you can call Him “Father”. If you could call on him to send thousands of Angels, to accomplish Love and Peace and Forgiveness on this earth (which he wishes you would ask. He has the Angel Power to spare.)

 

If all this is true of you? - THEN MAKE IT COUNT!!!!!

 

Thankyou for visiting this page.  brother and sisters have also popped in. 

You are most welcome to return again.

May God Almighty, Whose army of angels are like fire, show you that you too are clothed in His righteous fire and equipped with His Armour and weapons.

 

Feel free to send this page to the Christian brothers and sisters that the Holy Spirit lays on your heart to send to.

 

Your little brother in [Jesus Christ, He whom satan feared and whose demons cowered before and fled from.]

 

Rick Evans (TheArmyofGod@softhome.net)