The following is part of a larger article that the Lord has been
intimating to me for the coming season/years. The whole article will be posted
on our website, lionheartministries.org, but we will be releasing each section
as a smaller article each week for the next few weeks. May these articles,
bless, challenge and encourage all. Mike McClung
A Season of War and Warriors
Proclaim this among
the nations: “Prepare for war! Wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war
draw near, let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning
hooks into spears; let the weak say, ‘I am strong.’” Assemble and come, all you
nations, and gather together all around. Cause Your mighty ones to go down
there, O LORD. “Let the nations be wakened, and come up to the Valley of
Jehoshaphat; for there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations. Put in
the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, go down; for the winepress is full,
the vats overflow-- for their wickedness is great.” Multitudes, multitudes in
the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of
decision. The sun and moon will grow dark, and the stars will diminish their
brightness. The LORD also will roar from Zion, and
utter His voice from Jerusalem; the heavens and
earth will shake; but the LORD will be a shelter for His people, and the
strength of the children of Israel.
“So you shall know that I am the LORD your God, dwelling in Zion My holy mountain. Then Jerusalem shall be holy, and no aliens shall
ever pass through her again.” (Joel 3:9-17)
In the movie The Two Towers, there’s a scene where Saruman’s army of Uruk-Hai
has been let loose to march against the people of Rohan to destroy every living
thing, and word reaches Theoden and all those presently in Rohan’s capital,
Edoras. Theoden, the king, is contemplating what decision to make and Aragorn
tells him, “War is upon you whether you like it or not.” These words are now a
living reality for the body of Christ. Whether we like it or not, war is here
and there is no escaping it….
In Ezekiel 13, the prophet takes
up a charge against the prophets and leaders of his day rebuking them for not
“training God’s people to stand in the day of battle” (Ezek. 13:5). Unfortunately,
this is just as true today, maybe more so, than at anytime in the history of
the New Testament church. Although we are grossly unprepared for the spiritual
war and level of demonic beings we’re about to face, the Lord can and will make
up the time if we’re willing to repent, adjust and develop a wartime
mentality.
There is a time for peace and a
time for war (Eccles. 3:8). Now is the time for war. This new season is the
season of the warrior who follows his Commander, the Lord of warring
hosts. The war will be engaged through
prayer, praise and worship, proclamation and consistent acts of obedience to
the word of God and leading of the Holy Spirit. The admonition in Joel 3:10
comes to the “weak.” The exhortation is that all who are weak are to announce they are now conquering tyrants (“strong” – gibbor).
Repentance from the passivity that the “spirit of Jezebel” has deceived
believers with is an absolute necessity. Boldness, courage and confrontation
are Holy Spirit traits. The Lord told me sometime back to tell the church, “I AM
kind, but I AM NOT nice!” “Niceness” is NOT a fruit of the Holy Spirit.
Nice people will lie to you to be politically correct and not “rock the boat”,
or to keep from hurting your feelings. Although the Lord never strips us of
dignity, He will tell us the truth because He knows that’s the only thing that
will truly set us free.
It’s interesting that the New
Testament tells us plainly that the Lord only calls the weak (1 Cor. 1:25-26). It’s only the weak, those with no confidence
in themselves or their abilities, who qualify for this great army. Through this
recognized weakness, the promise of God is that His strength and power will be
perfected (2 Cor. 12: 9-10). The training of the Holy Spirit has brought us to
this place of trusting in nothing of the flesh, breaking the hard outer shell
of our fallen souls in order to bring us into subjection to His will alone. This
and this alone will make us fit for this end-time battle. As we cultivate an
intimate, listening ear to receive His wisdom, the forces of light are being
made ready to enter into this end-time battle and reap the harvest of the ages.
We must develop a warfare
mentality, as the Lord Jesus, Himself had. Although moving in
compassion to weak and broken humanity, He was always on alert to the subtle
attacks and traps the enemy was constantly laying for Him through the Pharisees
and Saducees and even His closest friends. Simon Peter had to be resoundly
rebuked when the enemy used him to try to deter the Lord from the Father’s will
(Matt. 16:23). Self-pity has no place in the life of God’s end-time warriors. Because
of this warfare mentality, He never slipped up and never lost a battle!
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Ro 13:11-14
ReplyDelete11 [Love one another], knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. 12 The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.
NASU