Discussion Waging war.

[rdclmn72]

In the present with so many crazy things happening, one has to wonder what is our next step.
The answer is to wage war more effectively, being smarter than our enemy.
They think they have won, yet they don't understand that even when we lose, we still win.
The Bible states in the law that we are to teach on warfare as its a necessary measure to survive.
How much more when we need it more with every passing day.

 

[Boidae]

What if you are not a warrior or want to wage war?

I am neither a warrior nor am I wanting/needing and have no desire to wage war.

I just want to be able to care for my family, and live a peaceful life without having to go to battle. Can't a Christian have that?

 

[Always in His Presence]

I thought our enemy was defeated?

 

[Gideons300]

I thought our enemy was defeated?

He has been, and if we are armed with that truth, and fight from the ground that our old nature is truly dead and that we owe it nothing, our warfare consists of holding onto the high ground where Christ has planted our feet.

But to sit back and kick up our feet as if there is no danger to us, is playing squarely into the hands of the enemy. We are told to put on the whole armor of God for a reason. We are told to hold up the shield of faith that is able to protect us from every arrow he casts at us. We are told to fight the good fight of faith, and to resist the enemy and his temptations, steadfast in the faith. We have been warned not to give place to the devil, for he will take it, and exhorted to not be ignorant of his devices.

In these last days, the devil has infiltrated our midst, and convinced multitudes in the church that all is well no matter what we do, or how we live, or what we set our affections on. We have been led wrong, for it is to him that endures to the end that will be saved.

Sin can harden our hearts, and war against our faith and yet how many there are who now do not even see a need to repent when they are disobedient, for they are convinced that their place is guaranteed in heaven, regardless of who we yield ourselves to. But the word of God is clear.

"Do you not know that to whom you yield yourself to obey, his servant you are to whom you obey, whether sin unto death, or obedience unto righteousness."

Here satan casts another lie, and tells us that no one can be kept from sinning and to try is legalism. What we do not see yet is the pathway Christ offers us to bring us to full obedience.So, because of our limited faith in what god can do in us, unbelief ties the hands of God over us, and sin and self rule continue unabated.

The battle is real. We can and will overcome, IF we yield ourselves totally to obey the one we call Lord. But if we think we can continue on a road of serving both light and darkness, the darkness will soon begin to grow. The time to get serious about this war is now, not when the enemy is at the door.

Blessings,

Gids

 

[Always in His Presence]

Horse squeeze

 

[Alithis]

love .. it is the warfare of LOVE -we must know this .love which lays down its life for another .

 

[rdclmn72]

There is a difference between getting judged and getting sentenced.
We win in virtue of having Satan judged and defeated, we wage war effectively, and we are empowered as we believe and put the word into practice.

 

[Alithis]

There is a difference between getting judged and getting sentenced.
We win in virtue of having Satan judged and defeated, we wage war effectively, and we are empowered as we believe and put the word into practice.

for sure and that practice is the practice of LOVE ..it seeks not its own desires but the eternal good of all others

 

[Biblicist]

He has been, and if we are armed with that truth, and fight from the ground that our old nature is truly dead and that we owe it nothing, our warfare consists of holding onto the high ground where Christ has planted our feet. . . . . . . . .

Amen!

 

[ToBeLoved]

Satan is winning in the sense that many in the church seem obsessively focused on themselves and 'evaluating' other Christians around them. Jesus paid our sin debt in full so that we could BOLDLY share His Word. So busy they are running in circles after 'their own tail' that they cannot take their eyes off themselves long enough to see that at the highest level, it is a battle for souls. Focus people!

I know that many have their stump speeches of religious jargon that they play over and over, chasing ones tail keeps one circling the same spot fo' evah and so dizzy that they couldn't think straight if they tried. Maybe some day they will get tired, we can pray for them.

We are all commissioned by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to spread the gospel, the Good News that the Son of God has died for the sins of mankind once and for all. It's finished, 2000 years ago, it's a done deal!

All are welcome into the family of Christ!

Let's fight the real fight, the fight for lost souls and get over ourselves already.


/rant end rant

 

[Gideons300]

Satan is winning in the sense that many in the church seem obsessively focused on themselves and 'evaluating' other Christians around them. Jesus paid our sin debt in full so that we could BOLDLY share His Word. So busy they are running in circles after 'their own tail' that they cannot take their eyes off themselves long enough to see that at the highest level, it is a battle for souls. Focus people!

I know that many have their stump speeches of religious jargon that they play over and over, chasing ones tail keeps one circling the same spot fo' evah and so dizzy that they couldn't think straight if they tried. Maybe some day they will get tired, we can pray for them.

We are all commissioned by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to spread the gospel, the Good News that the Son of God has died for the sins of mankind once and for all. It's finished, 2000 years ago, it's a done deal!

All are welcome into the family of Christ!

Let's fight the real fight, the fight for lost souls and get over ourselves already.


/rant end rant

What I fear some do not see is that the church....all of us....is in this state where, if we are perfectly candid with one another, we are not driven for souls. The truth of Peter's "Such as I have, give I thee." is quite appropriate here, for sadly, the antithesis is also true. "What I do not have, I give thee not."

You see, when our lamp is truly at its brightest, we care about souls. Why? We want them to see how amazing Jesus really is. We share the heart of the one we serve, and the most natural thing in the world is to get so full, you simply overflow onto others without even trying. When you true love another, even the lost, as you love yourself, you care so much that their salvation becomes important to you.

To think the solution is to go witness, there you have the cart before the horse. Of course witnessing is good, great in fact, but we are not prepared. The smile on our face is missing.When are we at our peak of strength? When we are joyful, full of the fruit of abiding in Him, walking without our consciences condemning us, at REST with God.. And is each of our lives characterized by joy? Would others see us as truly joyful? Then can we all not see what this means? We are weak, and there is something wrong. But how we do not want to admit it, and we think the solution is to just DO IT. I call it the gospel according to Nike.

Should we not finally confront that something is amiss in our walks, that staying close to Jesus, really submitting to Him, successfully battling temptations is not a description of us? Should that not set off warning bells? If Christ is not our main focus, our true treasure, then an answer is needed. A change MUST take place. We must first be full in order to overflow.

The cool thing is, what I share is exactly what God spoke of in Ezekiel 36, when He talked about the awakened church. He goes into great detail about how the heathen do not listen to us because of our hypocrisy and shallow Christianity, but praise God, listen! God also says this. He says he is going to give us new hearts, cause us to obey, write the true
law of God in our hearts.....love for others and love for God....and the result?

"...and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall be sanctified in you before their very eyes."

We as the bride of Christ have been content with unholy lives and lots of the spirit of the world, and at present there is a huge and erroneous teaching that because we are positionally made holy, God does not see our sins and we are flawless. No effort on our part is needed, and if you try, you are under the law.

Well played, satan. How clever.

The error is huge for it allows satan a huge stronghold to work from IN YOU. Thus our lives are "average", and we gauge our spiritual temperature by how we compare to everyone else around us. No one shouts "Behold how they love one another!" No one fears us as those who turn the entire world upside down. Oh, we are mission conscious, and we are involved with those far, far away. But as to being burdened for a co-worker, a parent, a best friend?

But praise God, as proud and undeserving of His love as we have walked, and as guilty we are for being such poor examples of what god can accomplish in a heart totally yielded to him, God is STILL going to awaken and revive us. And He will FILL us with Himself, fill us with victory over the world, the flesh and the devil. fill us with joy, and the result? God goes on to say that those in the world will say "Look! That which bore only briars and thorns has come again to be like the garden of Eden."

Deep in your heart, is there not a call, a still small voice, whispering that there is more to our Christianity than church services. Is your prayer life, vibrant and rich? Do you look forward to it? I pray for all who read this, that they realize we have been in the battle the entire time. Someone asked earlier if we have to fight. Do we not see, the battle is raging right now, this very minute. We are all IN IT, like it or not. If we are without resistance, and thus do not feel we are in a battle. and yet are not truly abiding as Christ intended, then we are captives, prisoners of war, housed in a "not so bad" prison camp, making the best of it.temporarily blinded. It is all beginning to cease. God is about to move. And what will bring about this awakening? He tells us.

"You shall seek me, and you shsll find me when you seek me with your whole heart."

I beg you. Do not interpret this as a call to DO anything. How do we cure what ails us? How do we finally live the Christian life we had hoped and dreamed of when we were first saved? The answer is we don't. More accurately, we can't do it.

And there is the good news we are about to awaken to. What we cannot do, God can and will do, if we will fully yield and simply believe ... and ASK. This is how God ends that amazing chapter in Ezekiel.

"I shall yet be inquired of by the house of Israel to DO IT FOR THEM."

Ask! Glory to God!! Ask! He will make us overcomers, empowered to fight satan and break the stronghold he has had on us. Our choice is either to fight the good fight of faith, for our faith must GROW, or surrender now, and live in peace...asleep, for a bit at least. I pray for every hungry heart, that that hunger continues to grow, for God will surprise and bless us when we finally truly make Him Lord of ALL, and cry out to Him to breath on our faith and help us to believe that he will do it for us. Amen and amen.

Many blessings,

Gids

 

[ToBeLoved]

You see, when our lamp is truly at its brightest, we care about souls. Why? We want them to see how amazing Jesus really is. We share the heart of the one we serve, and the most natural thing in the world is to get so full, you simply overflow onto others without even trying. When you true love another, even the lost, as you love yourself, you care so much that their salvation becomes important to you.

To think the solution is to go witness, there you have the cart before the horse. Of course witnessing is good, great in fact, but we are not prepared. The smile on our face is missing.When are we at our peak of strength? When we are joyful, full of the fruit of abiding in Him, walking without our consciences condemning us, at REST with God.. And is each of our lives characterized by joy? Would others see us as truly joyful? Then can we all not see what this means? We are weak, and there is something wrong. But how we do not want to admit it, and we think the solution is to just DO IT. I call it the gospel according to Nike.

The issue is ETERNITY. The early church did not say 'Do you feel that you are at your peak strength?' Are you feeling joy? No, it was didn't your Lord and Savior Jesus give you the GREATEST gift ever? Go tell everyone, the Good News!

Paul had many, many trials. Paul just kept going, putting one foot in front of the other. He did his best. How can we not do our best?

People don't expect perfection. If people do, then I tell them that being a Christian has it's trials. We are not perfect people, we are sinners with a Savior. We don't need to be perfect, at our peak strength or always full of joy. Our lives should be CHANGED. We should be CHANGED. If people can see that CHANGE, but still know that we are who they are, that is a testimony.

 

[jiminpa]

What if you are not a warrior or want to wage war?

I am neither a warrior nor am I wanting/needing and have no desire to wage war.

I just want to be able to care for my family, and live a peaceful life without having to go to battle. Can't a Christian have that?

Sorry, no. You are in a war as old as the planet, and maybe before. You can be a warrior or a prisoner or a dead casualty, but you cannot opt out of the war. That doesn't mean that your type of warfare has to be the same as the rest of us. Your form of warfare just may be something that comes naturally to you. Can you pray? That is warfare. Can you praise God. That too is warfare. Prayer and praise are probably the best forms of warfare in this spiritual battle. Warfare doesn't have to be protests, or civil disobedience, or street ministry. But if you are in tune with God you will stand with those things too, maybe by being on your knees before God.

 

[jiminpa]

What I fear some do not see is that the church....all of us....is in this state where, if we are perfectly candid with one another, we are not driven for souls. The truth of Peter's "Such as I have, give I thee." is quite appropriate here, for sadly, the antithesis is also true. "What I do not have, I give thee not."

You see, when our lamp is truly at its brightest, we care about souls. Why? We want them to see how amazing Jesus really is. We share the heart of the one we serve, and the most natural thing in the world is to get so full, you simply overflow onto others without even trying. When you true love another, even the lost, as you love yourself, you care so much that their salvation becomes important to you.

To think the solution is to go witness, there you have the cart before the horse. Of course witnessing is good, great in fact, but we are not prepared. The smile on our face is missing.When are we at our peak of strength? When we are joyful, full of the fruit of abiding in Him, walking without our consciences condemning us, at REST with God.. And is each of our lives characterized by joy? Would others see us as truly joyful? Then can we all not see what this means? We are weak, and there is something wrong. But how we do not want to admit it, and we think the solution is to just DO IT. I call it the gospel according to Nike.

Should we not finally confront that something is amiss in our walks, that staying close to Jesus, really submitting to Him, successfully battling temptations is not a description of us? Should that not set off warning bells? If Christ is not our main focus, our true treasure, then an answer is needed. A change MUST take place. We must first be full in order to overflow.

The cool thing is, what I share is exactly what God spoke of in Ezekiel 36, when He talked about the awakened church. He goes into great detail about how the heathen do not listen to us because of our hypocrisy and shallow Christianity, but praise God, listen! God also says this. He says he is going to give us new hearts, cause us to obey, write the true
law of God in our hearts.....love for others and love for God....and the result?

"...and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall be sanctified in you before their very eyes."

We as the bride of Christ have been content with unholy lives and lots of the spirit of the world, and at present there is a huge and erroneous teaching that because we are positionally made holy, God does not see our sins and we are flawless. No effort on our part is needed, and if you try, you are under the law.

Well played, satan. How clever.

The error is huge for it allows satan a huge stronghold to work from IN YOU. Thus our lives are "average", and we gauge our spiritual temperature by how we compare to everyone else around us. No one shouts "Behold how they love one another!" No one fears us as those who turn the entire world upside down. Oh, we are mission conscious, and we are involved with those far, far away. But as to being burdened for a co-worker, a parent, a best friend?

But praise God, as proud and undeserving of His love as we have walked, and as guilty we are for being such poor examples of what god can accomplish in a heart totally yielded to him, God is STILL going to awaken and revive us. And He will FILL us with Himself, fill us with victory over the world, the flesh and the devil. fill us with joy, and the result? God goes on to say that those in the world will say "Look! That which bore only briars and thorns has come again to be like the garden of Eden."

Deep in your heart, is there not a call, a still small voice, whispering that there is more to our Christianity than church services. Is your prayer life, vibrant and rich? Do you look forward to it? I pray for all who read this, that they realize we have been in the battle the entire time. Someone asked earlier if we have to fight. Do we not see, the battle is raging right now, this very minute. We are all IN IT, like it or not. If we are without resistance, and thus do not feel we are in a battle. and yet are not truly abiding as Christ intended, then we are captives, prisoners of war, housed in a "not so bad" prison camp, making the best of it.temporarily blinded. It is all beginning to cease. God is about to move. And what will bring about this awakening? He tells us.

"You shall seek me, and you shsll find me when you seek me with your whole heart."

I beg you. Do not interpret this as a call to DO anything. How do we cure what ails us? How do we finally live the Christian life we had hoped and dreamed of when we were first saved? The answer is we don't. More accurately, we can't do it.

And there is the good news we are about to awaken to. What we cannot do, God can and will do, if we will fully yield and simply believe ... and ASK. This is how God ends that amazing chapter in Ezekiel.

"I shall yet be inquired of by the house of Israel to DO IT FOR THEM."

Ask! Glory to God!! Ask! He will make us overcomers, empowered to fight satan and break the stronghold he has had on us. Our choice is either to fight the good fight of faith, for our faith must GROW, or surrender now, and live in peace...asleep, for a bit at least. I pray for every hungry heart, that that hunger continues to grow, for God will surprise and bless us when we finally truly make Him Lord of ALL, and cry out to Him to breath on our faith and help us to believe that he will do it for us. Amen and amen.

Many blessings,

Gids

Thank you, dear friend. Encouraging and challenging, as usual.

 

[Gideons300]

The issue is ETERNITY. The early church did not say 'Do you feel that you are at your peak strength?' Are you feeling joy? No, it was didn't your Lord and Savior Jesus give you the GREATEST gift ever? Go tell everyone, the Good News!

Paul had many, many trials. Paul just kept going, putting one foot in front of the other. He did his best. How can we not do our best?

People don't expect perfection. If people do, then I tell them that being a Christian has it's trials. We are not perfect people, we are sinners with a Savior. We don't need to be perfect, at our peak strength or always full of joy. Our lives should be CHANGED. We should be CHANGED. If people can see that CHANGE, but still know that we are who they are, that is a testimony.

We are told that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. It is no truer than in this area of being witnesses. We are told we should DO witnessing. Nope. We are called to BE witnesses. We are called to BE light, for only then can we walk as children of light.

When the world sees us actually changed, delivered from the sins that once bound us, that gets their attention. When the lost see a child of God go through the same trials they go through, and do it with an inner peace, and not give into the darkness, that is when they ask us why we are different.

You say that we SHOULD be changed. I say amen. The question we never seem to want to ask though is why we are not changed enough to garner the world's interest? There are many in the world, who truly love the light, and want goodness to win, and yet all we can usually give them is:

"Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven"

Undoubtedly true. BUT, should not the change in us, in our values, in how we spend our money, how we spend our free time, how we deal with the hardships of life, should not it all point to the fact that we are being transformed before the eyes of the lost, to where it either upsets them greatly, or they come to us for the answers they so desperately need? Jesus said that if they persecuted Him , they would persecute us..... if we are walking full of His spirit, abiding in Him. Why? Our very lives will testify that their deeds are evil. The wicked will be offended at that, the hungry will agree and look to us for the answer as to how to get free indeed like we are.

Right now, all we can do is talk of that freedom, yet not walk in it, or enjoy the full benefits of the new covenant. But that is all getting ready to change. Our light bulbs are about to come on, and our lives turned upside down is a wonderful way. Is it not time we admitted our need corporately and in our own lives, and cried out to Him to do what He said He would do, deliver us from the very power of darkness, and not just forgive us for the darkness we still seem to think is unavoidable? God has told us that he would cause us to obey. Is it not time in this late and increasingly dark and sinful world that we believe that our God will do what we have all believed we cannot ever do... be delivered from the old nature that is the seat of the sin that still imprisons?

The promises of God are given for a reason, that we might believe them, for it is in so doing that we find we are, to our amazement, changed into the image of our God from glory to glory. We have, as His church, for too long been content with going round and round in circles, thinking God will change us in the sweet bye and bye, but to be made overcomers in this life? No way, Jose. That faith is yet to come for most, but be assured of this. It IS coming. We are all about to be blown away what God can do in our lives once we accept that unbelief is not a weakness, but a sin. God longs to fill us, change us, light us, use us, but until we are centered on His potters wheel, crying out like Paul did "Who shall deliver me from the body of this sin"?, we will simply run more laps.

Blessings,

Gids

 

[Boidae]

Sorry, no. You are in a war as old as the planet, and maybe before. You can be a warrior or a prisoner or a dead casualty, but you cannot opt out of the war. That doesn't mean that your type of warfare has to be the same as the rest of us. Your form of warfare just may be something that comes naturally to you. Can you pray? That is warfare. Can you praise God. That too is warfare. Prayer and praise are probably the best forms of warfare in this spiritual battle. Warfare doesn't have to be protests, or civil disobedience, or street ministry. But if you are in tune with God you will stand with those things too, maybe by being on your knees before God.

Thank you.

I will say that I do not pray on my knees. I am either sitting up or lying on my back. My knees are too bad to be on them for any length of time.

I do not need to be in unbearable pain when I have two children and a disabled wife to care for.

 

[Always in His Presence]

Witnessing, winning the lost is bearing fruit. If you are not bearing fruit, what good are you?

Every branch that does not bear fruit is cut off and cast into the fire.

 

[Always in His Presence]

As for war, there are only two things left to be conquered. Death and the flesh. The devil is defeated, Jesus made a show of him openly.

 

[Boidae]

Witnessing, winning the lost is bearing fruit. If you are not bearing fruit, what good are you?

Every branch that does not bear fruit is cut off and cast into the fire.

Who is this in reference to?

I witness when I can, which isn't often and more on the rare side. I believe my mission is my family, with my wife being disabled and us having two children, that takes up 85% of my time and me having a small income to pay child support and my bills about 10% and sleep, praying, Bible reading and church the rest of the time.

Probably seems like a small amount of time for praying, Bible reading and church, but it's what I have and unless my wife is healed, it's not changing anytime soon.

 

[ToBeLoved]

We are told that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. It is no truer than in this area of being witnesses. We are told we should DO witnessing. Nope. We are called to BE witnesses. We are called to BE light, for only then can we walk as children of light.

When the world sees us actually changed, delivered from the sins that once bound us, that gets their attention. When the lost see a child of God go through the same trials they go through, and do it with an inner peace, and not give into the darkness, that is when they ask us why we are different.

You say that we SHOULD be changed. I say amen. The question we never seem to want to ask though is why we are not changed enough to garner the world's interest? There are many in the world, who truly love the light, and want goodness to win, and yet all we can usually give them is:

"Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven"

Undoubtedly true. BUT, should not the change in us, in our values, in how we spend our money, how we spend our free time, how we deal with the hardships of life, should not it all point to the fact that we are being transformed before the eyes of the lost, to where it either upsets them greatly, or they come to us for the answers they so desperately need? Jesus said that if they persecuted Him , they would persecute us..... if we are walking full of His spirit, abiding in Him. Why? Our very lives will testify that their deeds are evil. The wicked will be offended at that, the hungry will agree and look to us for the answer as to how to get free indeed like we are.

Right now, all we can do is talk of that freedom, yet not walk in it, or enjoy the full benefits of the new covenant. But that is all getting ready to change. Our light bulbs are about to come on, and our lives turned upside down is a wonderful way. Is it not time we admitted our need corporately and in our own lives, and cried out to Him to do what He said He would do, deliver us from the very power of darkness, and not just forgive us for the darkness we still seem to think is unavoidable? God has told us that he would cause us to obey. Is it not time in this late and increasingly dark and sinful world that we believe that our God will do what we have all believed we cannot ever do... be delivered from the old nature that is the seat of the sin that still imprisons?

The promises of God are given for a reason, that we might believe them, for it is in so doing that we find we are, to our amazement, changed into the image of our God from glory to glory. We have, as His church, for too long been content with going round and round in circles, thinking God will change us in the sweet bye and bye, but to be made overcomers in this life? No way, Jose. That faith is yet to come for most, but be assured of this. It IS coming. We are all about to be blown away what God can do in our lives once we accept that unbelief is not a weakness, but a sin. God longs to fill us, change us, light us, use us, but until we are centered on His potters wheel, crying out like Paul did "Who shall deliver me from the body of this sin"?, we will simply run more laps.

Blessings,

Gids

This is exactly what you were saying two years ago. Keep on keeping on