Are You A Soldier Under Command? Part 1
Believers of all stripes need to ask themselves a question: Why will the end-time army of God be characterized by prophetic gifts, i.e. by operating in prophecy, dreams and visions, as is stated in Joel 2:28? The primary reason is because they will be at war, and like any army in the natural they will need specific directives from the Lord on where to go, when to go there, and what to do when they get there. Not only will there be souls in need of saving, but there will be attacks that must be avoided, for due to the rise in persecution the war will become increasingly real. No longer will identifying as a Christian be a game people play where they suffer no losses, experience no tragedies, and are under no potential threat of death. Making the wrong moves - moves not sanctioned by the Holy Spirit Himself - could lead to the loss of many lives.
I was once in conversation with a sister about what to do if there was a discrepancy between what church leadership was telling a believer and what the Holy Spirit was. Her comments were as follows:
We are soldiers under God's authority. In church, our purpose is to complement and strengthen the vision God gives the Pastor we are serving under... [But in general], we are to be a worthy soldier in the army of God and never get entangled with the affairs of this life, but please Him in everything you do.
In trying to drive home the point that like in any army soldiers of Christ needed to receive very specific directives in their lives, I responded as follows:
Here is the problem I see (i.e. in the body of Christ today). True soldiers don't choose who they will fight with or where, they are assigned roles and do what they are told. They might wish to be in this or that unit, but if high command assigns them to a role they deem better suited to their skills, they obey the orders of their commanding officer. Thus, would soldiers of Christ simply do whatever they want and go wherever they want, or do they go where they are ordered to go?
I was making allusions here to a Biblical passage I would mention a few posts later, where it's obvious the apostle Paul did not haphazardly go about preaching the gospel anywhere he simply "felt" led to go, but was very specifically being directed to certain places while being forbidden from going to others:
6 Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. 7 After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them. 8 So passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas. 9 And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 Now after he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them. (Acts 16:6-10)
Continuing on, I then compared this to the current state of much of the modern church:
It has to do with how many Christians truly hear from the Spirit of God enough to know what His specific will is for their lives, and if one doesn't then he is adrift and not really under the leadership of the Holy Spirit at all, at least not to any great degree anyway. It's only when we enter into the center of His specific will and direction that we even make sense in the army of God, and much of the church is IMO still in a place where they are for the most part just a disorganized rabble.
Was it only the apostles who heard directly from the Holy Spirit by such means? No. Joseph was told very specifically where to go through a dream when Herod was about to have all the children in Israel killed, from two years old and younger:
13 Now when [the wise men] had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child to destroy Him.” 14 And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt 15 and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.” 16 Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. (Matthew 2:13-16)
This was not an angel appearing to Joseph visibly as happened with Mary. This was an angel who appeared to Josephin a dream, and who in that dream gave him a specific directive from the Lord. That dream not only helped save the Christ child, but could have ultimately saved his own life also, as well as that of his wife.
The days of haphazardly wandering about with no clear directives from the Lord will soon need to be over. The army of God is going to increasingly be thrust into a dangerous spiritual climate where persecution and hatred against them can potentially lead to repercussions, and in some cases even get them killed. Those who are led of the Holy Spirit like Joseph will have their lives spared to continue serving the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who are not could end up paying the ultimate price for not hearing what the Spirit was saying, either to them personally or to the church as a whole.
Blessings in Christ,
Hidden In Him
Believers of all stripes need to ask themselves a question: Why will the end-time army of God be characterized by prophetic gifts, i.e. by operating in prophecy, dreams and visions, as is stated in Joel 2:28? The primary reason is because they will be at war, and like any army in the natural they will need specific directives from the Lord on where to go, when to go there, and what to do when they get there. Not only will there be souls in need of saving, but there will be attacks that must be avoided, for due to the rise in persecution the war will become increasingly real. No longer will identifying as a Christian be a game people play where they suffer no losses, experience no tragedies, and are under no potential threat of death. Making the wrong moves - moves not sanctioned by the Holy Spirit Himself - could lead to the loss of many lives.
I was once in conversation with a sister about what to do if there was a discrepancy between what church leadership was telling a believer and what the Holy Spirit was. Her comments were as follows:
We are soldiers under God's authority. In church, our purpose is to complement and strengthen the vision God gives the Pastor we are serving under... [But in general], we are to be a worthy soldier in the army of God and never get entangled with the affairs of this life, but please Him in everything you do.
In trying to drive home the point that like in any army soldiers of Christ needed to receive very specific directives in their lives, I responded as follows:
Here is the problem I see (i.e. in the body of Christ today). True soldiers don't choose who they will fight with or where, they are assigned roles and do what they are told. They might wish to be in this or that unit, but if high command assigns them to a role they deem better suited to their skills, they obey the orders of their commanding officer. Thus, would soldiers of Christ simply do whatever they want and go wherever they want, or do they go where they are ordered to go?
I was making allusions here to a Biblical passage I would mention a few posts later, where it's obvious the apostle Paul did not haphazardly go about preaching the gospel anywhere he simply "felt" led to go, but was very specifically being directed to certain places while being forbidden from going to others:
6 Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. 7 After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them. 8 So passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas. 9 And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 Now after he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them. (Acts 16:6-10)
Continuing on, I then compared this to the current state of much of the modern church:
It has to do with how many Christians truly hear from the Spirit of God enough to know what His specific will is for their lives, and if one doesn't then he is adrift and not really under the leadership of the Holy Spirit at all, at least not to any great degree anyway. It's only when we enter into the center of His specific will and direction that we even make sense in the army of God, and much of the church is IMO still in a place where they are for the most part just a disorganized rabble.
Was it only the apostles who heard directly from the Holy Spirit by such means? No. Joseph was told very specifically where to go through a dream when Herod was about to have all the children in Israel killed, from two years old and younger:
13 Now when [the wise men] had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child to destroy Him.” 14 And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt 15 and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.” 16 Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. (Matthew 2:13-16)
This was not an angel appearing to Joseph visibly as happened with Mary. This was an angel who appeared to Josephin a dream, and who in that dream gave him a specific directive from the Lord. That dream not only helped save the Christ child, but could have ultimately saved his own life also, as well as that of his wife.
The days of haphazardly wandering about with no clear directives from the Lord will soon need to be over. The army of God is going to increasingly be thrust into a dangerous spiritual climate where persecution and hatred against them can potentially lead to repercussions, and in some cases even get them killed. Those who are led of the Holy Spirit like Joseph will have their lives spared to continue serving the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who are not could end up paying the ultimate price for not hearing what the Spirit was saying, either to them personally or to the church as a whole.
Blessings in Christ,
Hidden In Him
