Equiping God's saints for warfare

Part 2

In the Old Testament only the Levitical Priests had the right to enter and operate in the temple to worship God and offer sacrifices for the sins of the people. Now because we are God's children we can enter his courts with praise and a thankful heart. God expects us to and it pleases Him when we have fellowship in His courts every day. As his children He has given us this right and we must learn how to enjoy doing it. The revelation we need from God to do this can only take place as we spend time and allow Him to show us how much He really cares about our lives.

God set in motion His way with His word from the beginning of when ever, and we need to seek His face and stop living in ignorance by following man made concepts of what we think kingdom living is all about. If we are going to make Jesus our Lord and Master, we are going to have to do it his way. That is, God ruling His kingdom not a democracy and all these denominations coming up with their own rule of law. Now I have been asked at times "aren't we supposed to be living by the Ten Commandments"? Let me answer that and define from scripture how Jesus wants us to go beyond this concept of Law.

If you remember, Jesus was always talking about the heart. The religious leaders always dealt with the physical seen acts of men (the outward). Based upon what they saw by a person's do or didn‘t do‘s, they executed judgment if a person violated the Levitical Law of Moses or the Ten Commandments. When we concentrate in our thought life and endeavor to live holy and try to live by obeying the commandments in our own strength, we live in guilt and condemnation and frustrate God's grace in our lives of letting go and letting God be our righteousness for us.

The law was never designed or intended to give peace to the offender. When God gave Moses the law or the Ten Commandments it was never gave us the power to try and keep them in the first place.

The law was to minister death to those who were kept under it, until Christ would come to reveal the true heart of God the Father. The law said, "The person or soul that sins and breaks one of God's laws will die!" God the Fathers heart says, I HAVE COME TO GIVE YOU LIFE (MY QUALITY AND QUANTITY OF LIFE, WITH THE JOY OF LIVING WHICH IS ETERNAL AND EVERLASTING NOW ) and because I am a jealous God who loves you I do not want you to condemn yourselves because, you find you are having a hard time trying to obey me.

The law of God can only be kept by us participating with God's love. The law was our stern schoolmaster to bring us to love. A schoolmaster is a type and shadow of a hireling. All hirelings want is blind obedience. This type of attitude was what the Pharisees were inflicting on the people in their judgments of their behavior. Their attitude was doing what you're supposed to do or else suffer the consequences. Don't make any waves or trouble for me I'm here for the paycheck and nothing else. If you need a friend, here's a quarter to call somebody who cares. Any interaction with a hireling is usually initiated by the one who is under their subjection and domination.

We need to understand that God was the first one to hold out a helping hand to humanity.

People who oppose themselves do so because, they need to learn how to let God hold on to them and not try to hold on to Him and be dominated by a person putting conditions on them in order to belong to any group or sect. Our intrinsic sense of dominion from God, struggles to be free from another persons control. This is what fighting the good fight of faith all is about.

We were made to explore and search for the meaning of life and to recognize our weaknesses and our need for a power greater than our own.

A hireling or a person with a legalistic attitude cares nothing about the person as a unique individual. Did you ever notice how cowpunchers as they're called in Texas drive and herd cattle together as if there is no distinction from animal to animal? A shepherd on the other hand, leads and calls his sheep and even names them. They know the sound of His voice and follow Him. A hireling or hired hand is incapable of relating to another's weaknesses because, his pride of being right prevents the transparency needed to create the bond of peace needed to create healthy relationships.

Everybody is the same to him without any distinction. All they care about is being right and getting the cattle to obey because, all they seek is what they want. God on the other hand is the exact opposite. Everything He does is for the benefit of another. His holiness demanded justice because of sin. So, on our behalf He offered up Himself in the form of His own Son to satisfy the demands of the schoolmaster we were under subjection to. Jesus fully satisfied the demands and legal requirements once and for all and as we walk in the understanding of this concept, we do not have to work so hard at trying to be good and feeling guilty when we miss God at times. Judgment was executed and wrath was satisfied when Christ was resurrected. He was now free to love us unconditionally because there was no longer anything in front of him that legally had rights of judgment against us. The court was satisfied and adjourned. Christ's work was complete and He was so intent on making sure of our security that His office as a High priest is one that's always open, never in recess and always steadfast and sure. He always identifies himself with us and imputes his righteousness to us without measure. All who have put their trust in Him for righteousness sake have never been disappointed.

Christ is the end of us living by the Law. We live by the righteousness of Christ, which was imputed to us the day we came into the kingdom.

We have now become the workmanship of God in Christ as God created in us, a new species of man with a spirit created in True Righteousness and Holiness.

In John 8:31 Jesus said, "if we would continue in HIS WORD than you will be my disciples indeed (visibly evident for all to recognize, even the lost) and are (Guaranteed) to know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free!" If we our going to be Jesus disciple, we need to stop having our behavior being controlled by us trying to obey God's laws, not because of its intended purpose, but because of the fear of the consequences if we don't.
No one can capture the favor of God by trying to keep his commandments.

The eternal security of the believer is central and core to walking in a healthy relationship with God. Unless we have a revelation of it in our spirit that goes beyond our intellect, we will walk as crippled and defeated believers who doubt the faithfulness of our King concerning His love and goodwill of heart towards us. We have become performance oriented in our relationship towards Him because; we have been seeking to earn His graces. All this while, we have been ignorant of His free gift of grace that empowers us in our weakness by living on the faith of Christ Himself because, He was willingly to pay with His death the penalty for the consequences of our sinful nature.

God has credited His righteousness to all of us already and it is already a done deal as far as He is concerned. The word of God tells us that we do not fight against physical opponents, but we fight against spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural sphere.) Let's get real and realize that if we're living in our own self-righteousness, we will have no power to fight spirits at work behind the scenes. These evil spirits are causing pain, suffering and lack in our lives. The number one concern in our lives and minds has to be focused on God's spiritual perceptions of how pure we are in His sight, in spite of any type of blemished behavior.

Psalms 45:6 tells us, "God's scepter or measuring stick in his kingdom is righteousness." A scepter is something that endows a person with authority. The born again believer actually receives all of God's characteristics the day He becomes born again through Jesus Christ. Therefore, if we do not understand and function in God's characteristics or Righteous Spirit, we're living in a self-righteous life style contrary to God's will. When we live like this, Isaiah 64:6 tells us, "Our own righteousness is like dirty filthy rags."

In our ignorance of not having a true knowledge of God's love for us, we in our own efforts end up substituting and mimicking God's Spirit in our own emotions and fleshly soul. It is my firm belief though scripture and my experiences of life, that if we are ignorant of God's word, we're committing spiritual suicide.

God is speaking to day with a thunderous voice however, the majority of born again churches do not have their spiritual ears opened up to hear Him because, they do not realize what righteousness represents in their lives. This happens because it is not being taught with passion in the majority of born again assemblies of today.

Psalms 119:130 says, "The entrance of God's word into our hearts brings light and understanding to the straightforward and ordinary man." Living and functioning in God's righteousness makes us pliable and able to flow with God in the new life He gave us when we became a born again believer. We now have the freedom to explore our relationship with Him, and the fear of the consequences if we don‘t, will be put away because, we will no longer mistrust Him. This tells me we could be lulled into a lethargic condition in our seeking of God, if we do not continue to continue. The word of God tells us that living in righteousness is like a farmer planting a crop. We need to sew our lives in righteousness and we can only do this as we seek the Lord with passion.

Hebrews 4:12 tells us "For the word God speaks is alive and full of power making it active and energizes us.  It is sharper than any two edged sword and penetrates to the dividing lone of the breath of life of our soul and immortal spirit.  It searches the deepest part of our nature and sifts, analyzes and judges our very thoughts and the purposes of our hearts."

If we are going to be equipped, it starts with us allowing the Holy Spirit to reason with us and letting Him check us out and letting us see if there are any motives or ideas that we are believing that might be contrary to kingdom living.  It is His job to inspire and equip us how to operate in God's kingdom. When we were called by God and accepted Christ we were also called to warfare.  Jesus came into the world to seek and to save people who oppose themselves.  We were called to do the same.  We are to be the salt and the light in the arena of life that we are operating in.  Christianity becomes nothing more then a survival mode mentality if the born again believer is not focused on being a God seeker and looking for every opportunity to present the gospel to a bruised and hurting world.  We are to do the work of an Evangelist where every we go.

This scriptural concept is a far cry from what is going on in the majority of born again assemblies. We have more preaching focused on the born again believer getting sin out of their lives and continually repenting and getting right with the Lord. In turn, this caters to the shame based nature that we were born with and the born again believer is always in a defensive posture never knowing what their weapons of warfare are and how to use them.

When we seek after God's righteousness, and put God's word as our top priority, His word is actually written in our inner make up and becomes a part of us.  When we go about doing our Heavenly Father's business in our wilderness walk, the Holy Spirit has a computer bank that He can tap into in our inner thought life that tells us to turn to the left and turn to the right and it enables us to give a word of wisdom to people who cross our path where ever we travel.

The body of Christ needs to become a rebel with a cause. These causes must be Holy Spirit inspired.

I have for some time been running into born again believers in my travels, who have been called out from their particular assemblies to come aside and be taught by the Holy Spirit away from denominational influences. This is happening because; it is God's plan to bring them along side Himself and for them to become warriors for God and operate with their own personal giftings given to them by Him.  I never thought that God would have to call people away from their particular denomination assemblies to get their attention to be trained for battle as I perceived some thirty years ago.  I always thought back then that, being a part of an assembly was the thing to grow into so God could give them the opportunity to represent Him in the earth in these last days.  The Holy Spirit wants God's children to be set free to purse their God given right to an independent relationship with Him.  Not knowing who is reading this. I would suggest that if you are being prodded and want a change, don't be afraid to challenge god and ask Him for what is missing in your life.  This unrest in you is his way to get your attention so you can find your destiny.

Now the scripture defines the weapons that have been given to us by God and how they are to be used by us.  I will define from scripture these weapons however, you have to be empowered by the Holy Spirit and know when and how to use them when they are needed.  Just like a person learns a trade like building houses and how to use a measuring tape or hammer or saw and how to put the house together, so as real and sure is knowing our weapons of warfare in the Spirit world.

Ephesians 6:10-18 describes what our weapons are that God has given us to overcome evil. "Be strong in the Lord and draw your strength from Him as your having fellowship with Him. Allow Him to put His armor on you so you can be a heavily armed soldier and then, you can successfully stand up against the strategies and deceptions of the Devil. We are not fighting against people in our own human understanding of things, but against a tyrant, master spirits and world rulers of this present dark and wicked age who live in this heavenly (supernatural) atmosphere.

Therefore, by having God's armor on we will be able to stand firmly in place and be able to handle all crises. First tighten the belt of truth around your loins and having on the breastplate of righteousness, you will be able to make correct judgments that will keep you in right standing with God. You will be able to stand on your feet so you can face the enemy and be ready because, you have a peace in you put there by God. Lift up over all the shield of faith, which will enable you to put out all the flaming missiles of the wicked one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit that is the authority of the Word of God. In addition, be praying at all times on every occasion and in every season in the Spirit in all types of prayer. To the final end, keep alert and watch with a strong purpose and holding fast interceding in behalf of all the saints or all of God's consecrated people."

The first weapon stated here is the weapon of truth. Scripture tells us that the truth will set us free from any thing contrary to God's will. When we live in denial and in darkness by lying to ourselves about the true condition of our hearts, we cannot participate in kingdom living and our lives are wasted on trivial pursuits that have no consequences in eternal matters. God's judgment of things makes up truth. If you're not listening to His truths and acting on it, life has no real meaning. This scripture says to tighten the belt of truth around our loins. The word for loin in the Greek is osphus: Meaning, hip or procreative power. God is the author of procreative power; its how He brought all of exists into being. We need to know God's truths from His word and use it as Jesus did against the Devil when He was tempted. Since the Devil is a liar and the father of liars, he can't stand the truth and he shakes when we use it, however, only when it is being inspired by the Holy Spirit. It's only as we have our daily fellowship with the Holy Spirit, recognize His voice, and say what He tells us to say that, we can use this weapon.

Next weapon stated is the breastplate of righteousness. This word breastplate in the Greek is thorax: meaning an upper chest protector or a corset. This represents a heart protector where the issues of life take place in our being. Its how we get our assurance and deep rooted connection between God as our Father and us knowing that no matter what happens in our lives nothing can ever separate us from His love and holding power. I never cease to say this over and over that; we need to know without a shadow of a doubt that, when we made Jesus our savior, we were adopted into God's family permanently.

Righteousness means that, when God the Father looks at us He sees Jesus His perfect son.

There must be an end to these childish teachings of the concept that says God loves us when we do this and He forsakes us when we do that.

These conditional love themes are the most destructive and blasphemous teachings ever perpetrated by the Devil through men of ignorance in explaining God are holding power.

Eternal security has to cease from being interpreted as a doctrine of Devils or a license to sin, as it is being interpreted in many circles. We are eternally secure but, we can through faulty teaching and bad choices be living out of fellowship with God and grieving the Holy Spirit because, we stop Him from comforting and strengthening us in our daily warfare.

There is a security, which builds a source of integrity within us as we become deep seated in our understanding of our permanent relationship with God. If we do not have this security, the Devil makes us believe through his subtle persuasion that the God we serve is an indecisive person of mere opinion and His mood changes with circumstances.

Therefore, that is why there are so many Christians that have no commitment and a stick to it attitude no matter what happens. When the warfare gets to hot they fold and run away and deny their savior as Peter the Apostle did in his childish years of growing up. Without integrity in ones life you have no example to represent the Love of Jesus Christ to the world. The word of God tells us that our statements in life should be either yes or no. The Holy Spirit doesn't compromise. He tells it like it is and we can do nothing less. Its time to put our childish thinking away and! Grow Up!

The next weapon is the shield of faith. The word for shield in the Greek is thureos: meaning, a shield shaped like a door that can be opened and closed. The word for faith is pistis: meaning, a consistency of confession, being persuaded and the truthfulness of God. As God showed me this concept it made me realize, what a commitment and trust God has for His children to give them a powerful weapon like this. As we use it, we are able to have the ability to control our thought life by being able to close and open this door type shield when we need to. To me it was a very practical application that was simple to understand. When the Devil shows up to dump his garbage in our minds we keep it closed.

In Rev. 3:20, Jesus tells us that, "He stands at the door of our hearts and knocks and if we respond to Him and open ourselves up to Him when He shows up, He will come in, discuss with us His plans, and train us in the warfare that we are all going through. In turn, we will be over comers and will be able to sit beside Him as a sovereign King and Priest having great power to rule and reign with Him." You have to really be living in extreme darkness in your life or have a serious brain deficiency to not want to be close to Him and be in His company at all times. I can write unending volumes on the definition of faith because of the fact that, Jesus Himself is our faith. Every thing He thinks, feels, and His very being and intense passions rubs off on us as we hang out with Him. To be like Him that has to be our first desire.

The next weapon is the helmet of salvation. The word for helmet is perizonnumi: meaning, to prepare one self for action and to tighten a belt around our mind. The word for salvation is soterian: meaning, our defender, rescuer and savior Jesus the Christ. There has to be created in us a security and total persuasion by God in our inner most feelings that, there is no way we can lose this war no matter what ever the adversity. This helmet or attitude of confidence cannot be tightened around our minds unless we are totally sold out with a concentrated effort in us seeking after the Lord and His counsel because the battle we are fighting is in our minds.

Romans 12:1-2 states that, "we are to present all our mental reasoning and will power and dedicate our lives to be earnestly and totally devoted to God's causes. When we do this, it makes God rejoice over our enthusiasm. We having this attitude makes sense because, of what He has done for us. We are not to conform to these wordily ways of outward shallow customs. Therefore, we are to be inwardly changed by the entire renewing of our mind and in turn by this happening in us, we will know what God's perfect and acceptable will is for our lives."

The next weapon is the sword of the Spirit, which is the authority of God. The word for sword is machomai: meaning a knife, to fight or the administration of justice. The word for Spirit is pneuma: meaning, superhuman or the Divine God, Christ's Spirit the Holy Spirit. I don't know how God can make the interpretation of this any clearer. This gives us the authority as God's children to rise up in the authority of the Holy Spirit to fight these demonic forces in this present age. This is what God's kids are supposed to be doing, going about their Heavenly Fathers business administering His justice in the lives of people on this planet. We are not to do this in our own fleshly self-righteous attitudes by sitting in judgment and portraying God as some kind of control freak wanting to inflict punishment and pain.

This type of warfare has to be administered through us by the author and lover of our souls who became a servant and ultimately died on a cross for our sin and the sin's of the whole world. We need to get a hold of what it means to die to self by the Holy Spirit's leadings and unless we do that, we have the capability of becoming the Devil's disciple coming in the name of the Lord and ministering self-righteous concepts that, we have been reaping on ourselves for years.

This way of ministry has no power to deliver others or ourselves. Scripture tells us that; "the Devil disguises himself as an angel of light." It says only Jesus is the true Light of the world. We cannot expose the darkness in others or us by our false and fleshly interpretations of God's ways. It's time for us to not be afraid and let the Holy Spirit check us out and see if there are any wicked ways in us that, we don't know about.

We now come to the last weapon that is talked about in this scripture. The weapon of prayer, (Intimate conversations with God) this is what it's all about. Prayer is our endless conversation with God now and forever. It's His life and our life becoming one life. Therefore, we see that there is no end to this weapon. It's the weapon that makes all the other weapons work. Moreover, to me this is our greatest weapon. It is also the weapon that we need to discipline this fleshly body to lay down and die. It's where we receive our stability, and sound minded thinking. Wisdom in the day and night hours of our life, His hugs, rebukes and chastisements, that are needed for our safety and guidance. It's the way we search for His presence, play, and joke and carefully listen for Him to reveal new wisdom's of His ways as we learn to be comfortable with His friendship. I have found that over the years my prayer life more than anything has changed.

It has become more of a natural all hours of the day and night conversation that continually goes on at all times. It's like living with another person that you're learning to get comfortable with and trust.

The word for prayer is proseuchomai: meaning, to be in a humble state before God in worship, adoration and requesting. The prefix of this word is pros: meaning, on all occasions and together with at all times. The scripture that we have been using says that we are in warfare against spiritual wickedness and a force in the supernatural atmosphere. Let's realize that this is an outward force trying to impregnate us with ideas, emotions and principles to do its bidding. It is a spirit of anti-christ. Now that we're God's children and the Holy Spirit lives within us; let's learn to trust Him to keep the door of the house of our temporary stay on this planet locked, when the Devil shows up to bombard our thought life with things that have no eternal value. We will never know how to keep our armor on without our Commander and Chief inspecting us to see if we are equipped to go into battle and wrestle for the kingdom of God that lives with in us. Walking with the Lord doesn't have to be a chore in our lives. What we have to do is lay down our lives and allow Him to live big in us.