THE BATTLE CRY (Part I)

"And then, going from bad to worse, it will be dog-eat-dog, everyone at each other’s throat, everyone hating each other," (Matthew 24:10b MSG).

Are guns the main problem?  Should we get rid of or restrict guns?    Now there have been knifings in London, UK, and The Hague, Netherlands.  Should we get rid of or restrict knives?  We need to remember the true problem; it's not the instruments people use, it's not even the people themselves!

Brothers and Sisters in Christ, our war is against the "powers", "master spirits", the "world rulers of this present darkness", and against the "spirit forces of wickedness" in the "supernatural sphere" (Ephesians 6:12 AMP).

Non-believers will not know how to effectually combat the violence of these "Last Days" but we do!  When you hear of shootings, knifings, people running other people over with cars, etc. then it should be your "call to arms".  Brothers and Sisters, it is time to pray AND KEEP PRAYING!

Dean Sherman, in his book called “Spiritual Warfare for Every Christian”, states, “Even Christians can take action in the wrong way.  Many well-meaning folks give money, time, and efforts to improve man’s situation, but ignore the spiritual way to combat evil…They attend protests, organize boycotts, or launch educational efforts, but spend little or no time in prayer, spiritual warfare, or evangelism.”

Ephesians 6 gives us the key to the kind of warfare that advances God’s Kingdom.  Yes, I am talking about doing something and advancing His Kingdom NOW…not in some distant future when we get to heaven.  I know many of us have read, studied, and listened to sermons regarding Ephesians 6 and I could go ahead and give you my grasp of it in this post, but I would rather encourage you to seek it out yourself.  Letting go of everything you have been taught about this scripture:  set aside a half hour this week with a notebook, pen, and your Bible and start that half hour by asking God’s most Holy Spirit to open your eyes and understanding to the full truth of this scripture.  Then read and make notes of what stands out to you.  The next challenge I give you is to take five minutes each day for 21 days and ask God to reveal to you even deeper truths out of what you wrote down.  Can you give God one half hour this week?  Can you give Him five minutes a day?  (Matthew 26:40)

Allow God’s Holy Spirit teach you to battle, for the war is already upon us!

A FRIEND’S PERSPECTIVE

A friend, Sister Jenna Scott, posted the following insight on Facebook the other day and I thought it was so inspirational, with her permission; I share it with you…

“I had a neat experience the other day and wanted to share it with you. 😊 I was reminded of a talk given by Elder Bednar who is an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. He talked about the people who can spin plates on wooden spools. They go from one to the other in a total balancing act. He compared it to life being a balancing act. The image came to mind of me being in a high school gym that was dimly lit. There was a spotlight on 10 different spools maybe 4 or 5 feet tall. On top, each plate was spinning on the wooden spool. I pictured myself running from plate to plate exhaustedly trying to keep up the spinning. Then the Spirit enlightened my mind. How would the Savior be in that process of me doing it on my own? He wasn't. Then I saw next to the 10 spools 10 angels standing by each wooden spool. Each had the plates perfectly spinning. The Savior would then step to one and put His hand on the shoulder of an angel and take their place. He would start to slow the plate and let it wobble a bit. He whispered, "Jenna, I am over here. This is where I want to work with you now.” I walked over to Him and He helped me steady the plates as I put my hands with His. He taught me how to steady it and then let me go, but He stayed near until He knew I had it. Then He would walk over to the next spool and do the same thing. Each time He would look at me intensely with loving eyes telling me how I could do this. They were times where I would think I needed to fix one plate, but the angel had it covered and the Lord would giggle and say, “Come on, I’m over here.” I had to learn to let go of what I was trying to control and listen to Him-- to come and learn what He would have me learn. I compare this to trying to control my own progression and feeling overwhelmed by it. The truth is, we are in the Lord’s hands and He will encourage us to trust that He is 100% invested in our progression. Our progression does involve grace 100%, but it also involves our part, our efforts, our faith. It is an exhausting life to feel responsible to keep each plate spinning on our own and it is an unfulfilling life to expect the Savior to spin all the plates for us. There is so much joy when we learn to trust in Him, to try our best and to be patient on those days when we have seemed to knock down and shatter every single plate.”

I STOPPED BY TO TELL YOU…

“David answered, ‘You come at me with sword and spear and battle-ax. I come at you in the name of God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel’s troops, whom you curse and mock. This very day God is handing you over to me. I’m about to kill you, cut off your head, and serve up your body and the bodies of your Philistine buddies to the crows and coyotes. The whole earth will know that there’s an extraordinary God in Israel. And everyone gathered here will learn that God doesn’t save by means of sword or spear. The battle belongs to God—he’s handing you to us on a platter!’” – 1 Samuel 17:47 MSG

David did not say “You come at me with sword and spear and battle-ax, so I come at you with the same.” it says “I come at you in the name of God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel’s troops,” and he added this truth, “The battle belongs to God—he’s handing you to us on a platter!”

It is with this attitude of victory and prayer I share the following with you:

At St. Marks MBC of Redding (http://freesites.ourchurch.com/s/SaintMarksMissionaryBaptistChurchofRedding/) I often heard the phrase, “I stopped by to tell you…” when someone was giving a poignant testimony or when Pastor preached a special point in his sermon.

Brothers and Sisters in the Lord, today, in this blog, I stopped by to tell you…”We have ALREADY won!”

“A song of praise. Sing a new song to the Lord, because he has done amazing things! His powerful and holy right arm has brought him another victory.” – Psalm 98:1

I stopped by to tell you…”Our victory happened IN THE PAST!”    It is not waiting until we are perfect.  It is not something we look forward to when we get to heaven.  It has ALREADY happened!

“Because everyone who is born from God defeats the world. And this is the victory that has defeated the world: our faith.” – 1 John 5:4 CEB

“The victory that HAS (past tense!) defeated the world”.  We already have it.  We have  ALREADY won!  Can it be that simple?  “What about when things happen in my life,” you ask, “troubles, sorrow, pain, and such.  Where is the victory in those?”

“I have told you these things, so that you can have peace because of me. In this world you will have trouble. But be encouraged! I have won the battle over the world.” – John 16:33 NIRV

You see, even in the midst of trials and troubles we can have peace because of Jesus.

Brothers and Sisters, today, I stopped by to tell you…”He has ALREADY WON the battle over the world!”

ARE YOU “IN THE GROOVE”?

“Until you change your thinking you will always recycle your experiences.” –Leon & Renee Patillo

A friend of mine who illustrates Christian comics came up with one that has stuck in my mind for over twenty years.  His main character, a fish, is walking along and then he gradually gets lower and lower in the ground until only the top of his head is showing.  The caption underneath stated, “Have you been stuck in a rut and realized you finally found your groove?”  This is one of the images I remembered today while listening to my Pastor’s sermon.  He shared that the word “mindset” means an established set of attitudes held by somebody.  He showed the difference between a natural mindset and a Godly mindset.  Natural mindsets reject everything they do not understand.  The Godly mindset, on the other hand, accepts the impossible as possible.  

The natural mindset leads to death.  Look at Proverbs 14:12 in the Easy Read Version (ERV), “There is a way that people think is right, but it leads only to death.”  The Message Bible (MSG) is even more blunt, “There’s a way of life that looks harmless enough; look again—it leads straight to hell.”

The Godly mindset is a guide to life.  “For who has known the mind and purposes of the Lord, so as to instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ [to be guided by His thoughts and purposes].” (1 Corinthians 2:16 AMP)  The Message makes it a bit clearer, “The unspiritual self, just as it is by nature, can’t receive the gifts of God’s Spirit. There’s no capacity for them. They seem like so much silliness. Spirit can be known only by spirit—God’s Spirit and our spirits in open communion. Spiritually alive, we have access to everything God’s Spirit is doing, and can’t be judged by unspiritual critics. Isaiah’s question, “Is there anyone around who knows God’s Spirit, anyone who knows what he is doing?” has been answered: Christ knows, and we have Christ’s Spirit.”

“Natural mindsets need a radical transformation.” –Pastor Gail Edward Craig

So it behooves us to lose the natural mindset and gain the spiritual mindset.  The above quote by the Patillo’s makes it clear what happens if we do not release/let go of our natural mindsets; we will essentially be stuck in a rut and our past will always play havoc with our current lives.

Have you ever noticed that when you are stuck reliving a past experience the devil is always there with his degrading accusations about how you will never measure up to God’s standard?  He can get his hooks in us again and again because those past experiences are old “natural mindsets” which we have never dealt with.  When he tries to drag us down with something from our past we need to turn to God and get His spiritual mindset on the issue.  Spiritual mindsets speak divine revelation and prophetic understanding.  Natural mindsets get you stuck in a rut; spiritual mindsets get you “in the groove” with God.

“So prepare your minds for action, be completely sober [in spirit—steadfast, self-disciplined, spiritually and morally alert], fix your hope completely on the grace [of God] that is coming to you when Jesus Christ is revealed.” (1 Peter 1:13 AMP)

(A big THANK YOU to Pastor Gail Edward Craig of Freedom Church, Billings, MT and to Leon & Renee Patillo of Las Vegas, NV for sharing the Word of God in their own special ways to stir my heart in growth in the Lord "from glory to glory".)