The Road Hosea 6:5: "Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth."
[Pastor Locke’s message starts at around the 50-minute mark.]
Luke 13:11-17: “And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. And he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the sabbath day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath day. The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day? And when he had said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed: and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him.”
George S. Patton at the Virginia Military Institute, 1907.
General George S. Patton, Jr.
Donald Trump at the New York Military Academy, 1964.
President Donald Trump
If you look at the two photos of George Patton and the two photos of President Trump, there is a resemblance. Even if Trump doesn’t look exactly like Patton, I believe these photos are prophetic. Patton was a great warrior in World War II; Trump is a great warrior in a worldwide spiritual/political/intellectual war: Judaeo-Christianity versus Satanic Globalism (Deep State) (World War III?). Patton was a great battleaxe; Trump is a great battleaxe:
Jeremiah 51: 20-24: “Thou art my battle axe and weapons of war: for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms; And with thee will I break in pieces the horse and his rider; and with thee will I break in pieces the chariot and his rider; With thee also will I break in pieces man and woman; and with thee will I break in pieces old and young; and with thee will I break in pieces the young man and the maid; I will also break in pieces with thee the shepherd and his flock; and with thee will I break in pieces the husbandman and his yoke of oxen; and with thee will I break in pieces captains and rulers. And I will render unto Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight, saith the LORD.”
Trump standing in front of the British Union Jack is also prophetic. The Christianity exported from England (Episcopal, Presbyterian, Methodist, Quaker, Puritan, Independent) was a great influence on the original Thirteen Colonies and on the later development of the United States.
The Lord is a man of war: The Lord is His name.
Exodus 15:3
Throughout the earthly life of our Lord was manifested this very truth in all that He did and said. Never was the warfare a distant or partial truth to the Son of God – it always was the present reality within which His deeds were done, and His words spoken…
…For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.
1 John 3:8
Whether in preaching the good news, in healing the sick, or in casting out demons, His eyes were alight with the vision of the battle before Him. His passion, His compassion, and His righteous anger all symphonized into the heavenly music of His ministration: vigorous, gentle, and awesome.
In the synagogue He healed the man with the withered hand; and in so doing condemned those who with vehement disapproval looked on. In this He warred against and exposed the false spirit of the pharisees’ religiosity. In large crowds He walked about, teaching men the way of Life; thereby releasing them from the bondage of contrived burdens unto the freedom of His Lordship. In this He warred against and exposed the captivity of the adversary. With great frequency He also cast out demons; directly throwing off the power of the wicked one from those who drew near to His holy light. In this He warred against and exposed the secret devices of the enemy. And in all these things, our Lord was ever in prayer, communing with the Father; and gained final victory over the corruption that is in the flesh by His perfect intercession.
What then of ourselves? Are we men of war after His likeness? For such will be those who are indeed His workmanship!
“…The Lordis a man of war: The Lord is His name…”
Is the Spirit of The Lord upon you? Should you not then be a man of war after His likeness? One will say, “Ah, but the scriptures say, “The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace” (Ex 14:14), and, “The battle belongs to the Lord.” – And truly indeed does the battle belong to Him, truly indeed is it His own to glory in. Yet it is on the children’s behalf that He fights while they hold their peace, since war is not the province of children. But He is a man of war: for war is the province of men, not of children; and He would not have us always remain helpless children (Eph 4:13-14). For through men of war, God glories all the more in battle, since then He displays two victories: the one over us, and then the one through us. Under Joshua, the men who warred for the advance of Israel were at times called “mighty men of valour” – and would that we could also be so named!
But carnal men love the convenience of slavery to Pharaoh; and after a time, slaves grow to love the providence of their worldly captors over the deliverance of God. How many a warring man of God is met even by brethren with the accusation, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” (Ex 2:14) Cowards fear deliverance, and spit upon its purveyors.
How easily does the slumbering soul dismiss the Lord’s zeal for His house as undue severity! And how quick also is the conceited mind to mistake the Lord’s dispassion in battle as a lack of heart. For if many of us today had witnessed Jesus drive the moneychangers out of the temple, we might have thought to take Him aside and suggest that He utilize a more “civil” or “toned down” measure against their grievous evil. And if we had observed Him seated outside the temple beforehand, weaving the whip in silence, we might have gasped in self-righteous shock, hand-over-heart at this “uncaring” and “ruthless” display of quiet premeditation.
O, how we trust the unreliable fire of human offense, and disdain the white-hot furnace of Godly passion! O, how we embrace the nihilism and empty hatred of human apathy, and recoil at the unearthly calm of Godly dispassion! This is because we do not know God, and in particular because we have not spent a day on the battlefield – except either in captivity of the enemy, or in cowering behind the Lord, who is trying to teach our hands to war and our fingers to fight.
But the warring character of Christ – with both holy zeal and divine peace – shone forth brightly in Peter when he confronted Ananias and Saphira in their lie…
And Peter answered unto her, “Tell me whether ye sold the land for so much?” And she said, “Yea, for so much.” Then Peter said unto her, “How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out.” Then fell she down straightway at his feet, and yielded up the ghost: and the young men came in, and found her dead, and, carrying her forth, buried her by her husband. And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things.
Acts 5:8-11
Peter derived no earthly pleasure in the demise of these two; yet he also did not shrink from his duty in keeping the house of God clean from the blemish of deceitful scheming. When the Spirit of the Lord is upon a man to do battle against the devil’s handiwork, the man is on fire; and as he fights, he finds peace in the Lord while doing the Lord’s will – though in his wake other men lie possibly condemned, and all around him the demons are stirred up.
“In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence: and His children shall have a place of refuge.”
Proverbs 14:26
But to fear man is to not fear the Lord; and Egypt is always more than happy to take back its slaves.
Let not the house of God remain such a den of thieves: trading the souls of its men for mammon, and their divinely-given birthright for a single meal.
A few days before the 17th of May, the Lord showed me the number 17. It bore witness with my spirit that it meant the 17th of May.
This is what happened on the 17th of May:
I was walking east out of Missoula, Montana on I-90 when this truck driver picked me up. His name was Rusla and he was originally from Belarus (near Russia and the Ukraine). He was a Christian who lived in Mount Vernon, Washington. During that trip, the Presence of God became very powerful. Rusla dropped me off in Belgrade where I camped out that night.
The next day (May 18th) I hitchhiked to Jackson, Wyoming where I camped out for one night. The next day (May 19th) I hitchhiked to West Yellowstone, Montana and camped out in the woods just north of town. That night I was attacked probably by several demons in my sleep. Before I went to sleep, there was this sense of foreboding or sense of dread. Later this evil presence came upon me and I became paralyzed and then the demons attacked me. It may have lasted fifteen minutes to half an hour.
Why did the demons attack me that night? Probably because the Presence of God was so strong on the 17th of May. I believe some demonic bondage was broken inside me on the 17th and that is why Satan was so furious.
I hitchhiked out of West Yellowstone the next morning (May 20th). A Christian friend picked me up outside of Belgrade and let me stay at his place in Three Forks for one night. I was using his laptop that evening and noticed that the number of page views on my High Plains Drifter blog (Google) was down drastically. The previous several months, I averaged between 250 and 400 page views per day on my High Plains Drifter blog. After May 20th, my average page views has been around 40 to 70 per day.
Something serious happened in the heavenly realm in the past several days for Satan to attack me like that. Praise the Lord! That’s good news. If Satan attacks you, that means you are destroying some aspect of his kingdom.
The next day (May 21st) I hitchhiked from Three Forks to Helena, Montana. Outside of Helena, this truck driver picked me up. He was originally from Russia; his name was Alex and he was from Mount Vernon, Washington. He later told me that he knew Rusla, the other truck driver, very well. We had a good laugh. It’s a small world. To me, this was confirmation that something definitely happened on the 17th of May: two truck drivers picked me up from Mount Vernon, Washington; they knew each other; they were both Christians (went to different churches); they both spoke Russian and English; Rusla picked me up just outside of Missoula, Alex dropped me off in Missoula. In the mouth of two or three witnesses, let every word be established.
Alex dropped me off on the east side of Missoula. I hitchhiked to Lolo and camped out there that night. Before I went to sleep, I went through a fascinating deliverance from a demon. It was like the demon was in a death throe when it manifested (it felt like I was dying); finally the demon came out. It lasted for about an hour. Praise the Lord! I am still being delivered from demons; curses are being broken.
When I think back on the power of the Presence of God in Rusla’s tractor cab on the 17th of May, I think of these scriptures:
Isaiah 10: 27: “And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.”
I Corinthians 4: 20: “For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.”
Matthew 17: 21: “Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.”
Revelation 2: 24: “But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden.”
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Recent Page Views Per Day (High Plains Drifter blog):
One of the great things about the Lord Jesus, found in no other, is His ability to simultaneously reveal truth and expose deception. He shines an incredibly BRIGHT, quasar-pulsing LIGHT on the false construct of fallen, sinful mankind upon this planet—in New Testament terms, the world—and destroys the con, the fraud, the sham, and the ruse.
This is why the forces of darkness hate Him so much. They can’t hide. They successfully conceal themselves and their underground, off-the-radar, highly deceptive machinations from everybody else, but not from Him.
This is especially true for religious fraudsters, and most especially true for unreal Christians and fake Christian “leaders,” probably the most self-deceived people on the planet. They act like they know it all but regarding the Lord’s real curriculum and compared to the Acts model, most don’t know squat. Their religious pride and smugness is off the charts.
The Lord’s demand for honesty is also why the Lord Jesus will never allow His own children—real Christians—to construct false images about themselves or be mere posers, as are so many unreal Christians, who must do such to pass themselves off as authentic.
Such faux bros are not authentic but only pretend to be. It is why they do not like close inspection. They are very easily offended by the Lord’s pure light and are greatly convicted by the pure Word of God. They much prefer hobnobbing with other shallow-minded, largely Biblically illiterate (by choice), and appearance-oriented folk due to the obvious comfort factor. Most churches are composed of such pretenders and posers—those who prefer to hide—and is why such places always run off the bright lights who innocently expose their silly shenanigans.
THE PLAGUE OF PHARISEES
Of course, the first-century Pharisees were the masters of the false image medium, and their present-day descendants have maintained this mastery, successfully taking full advantage of modern media. The original Pharisees, however, were not Biblically illiterate, but the very opposite. Neither were they shallow-minded. It is curious then, that they missed the mark so badly. And that’s how the Word of God defines sin, as “missing the mark.”
The Pharisees misfired so badly they not only missed the broad side of every barn known to mankind, but entire galaxies. And yet they considered themselves, among themselves(there was little or no dissenting opinion within their own group regarding their superiority and high standing), as brilliant and as close to God as is humanly possible. (Sound familiar?) And yet the Lord characterized the Jewish non-believers, including the Pharisees mentioned in John 8:13, as thus:
“You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” [John 8:44]
Keep in mind that this narrative in John 8 is a purely intra-Jewish dispute—everyone in the chapter was a Jew—which includes the author of the fourth Gospel, traditionally named as John. The Lord Jesus is obviously Jewish, especially since He is from the tribe of Judah. Jews are listed in the chapter as believers in the Lord and also as non-believers by implication. The point, though, is that the Lord was drawing a very distinct contrast between the real and the unreal, and was exposing the false-image fakers for what they really were.
“GRAVEN IMAGES”
This construction of false outer images to deceive an unsuspecting public is one of the principle components of the Lord’s commandment against graven images, which proves the non-believing Jews and Pharisees listed in John 8 were actually grossly violating the Torah, though they did not know it and refused to believe it. They were deceived and even self-deceived by their false interpretation of the Word and their departure from the truth:
“You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.” [Exodus 20:4]
“You shall not make for yourselves idols, nor shall you set up for yourselves an image or a sacred pillar, nor shall you place a figured stone in your land to bow down to it; for I am the LORD your God.” [Leviticus 26:1]
“So watch yourselves carefully, since you did not see any form on the day the LORD spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire, so that you do not act corruptly and make a graven image for yourselves in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female…”[Deuteronomy 4:15-16] [1]
THE WIZARD OF OZ PHENOMENON
The Lord’s children must be real, and that is not easy. Unreal Christians, conversely, must build false images of themselves as a way to pass religious inspection. Unreal Christian leaders also do it to take control and command authority over others, and as a way to enrich themselves.
As I have written in Real Christianity, the most fully formed graven image (or idol) is a LIVING HUMAN BEING.
The man-made, exalted “Christian” clergy class invented itself for this very reason. The members thereof hide behind a curtain of false piety and holiness, and demand undeserved honor and respect, which never matches their actual deeds. The great majority of their clueless followers give them exactly what they want, which means the few who see them as they actually are and attempt to expose them end up receiving what the evil perpetrators should receive. This is in part why the Lord Jesus was crucified. The evil religionist followers, inspired, deceived, and led by evil religious leaders, turned their wrath upon the innocent party to protect the very guilty false-image party.
The same thing happens to real Christian innocent parties at present in so many false Christian venues, as attested to by so many real Christians who have been made to pay for the sins of others.
It has been said, of course, that the devil goes to church. In reality, the devil owns many churches. They are his enterprises and not the Lord’s. In these places he has complete control and does not appreciate the Lord’s shining lights and truth-bearers bringing their witness.
DISCIPLESHIP DEFINES DISTINCTION
How do we know the difference between the real and the unreal? This is what real discipleship is about. The closer we get to the Lord Jesus, the more mature we become in Him. The more knowledgeable we are about His written Word, the more we will get to know and understand the Living Word. The more our relationship with Him matures, the more we will be able to see what He sees, and the more He will reveal to us.
Putting the Lord Jesus first sorts things out, removes deception, exposes false reality, and sets us free.
PREPARING FOR PERSECUTION
Of course, the enemy doesn’t like being exposed, so any attempt to reveal his false environment for what it is will not be appreciated and will be met with strong hate andextreme prejudice.
This is why innocent and good-hearted real Christians, the only real spiritual children of the Lord, are viciously slammed beyond all reason and out of all proportion. The attacks come from an unseen evil enemy whose only recourse is to engage in wanton character assassination, slander, libel, and even murder.
It is why the Lord was so savagely and hatefully beaten, tortured, and killed, though He never sinned or did anything wrong. It is why Stephen only lasted a few seconds after one of the greatest, anointed, honest, and exposing speeches in Christian history (See Acts 6-7). The enemy was so enraged by the truth pouring forth from Stephen that they even gnashed their teeth at him!
Therefore, if one wonders why the people who are externally friendly, loving, and supportive are suddenly transformed into hating, rejecting, and slandering crazies—something that would otherwise make no sense whatsoever—it most likely reveals the fact that one has exposed a nerve, an ultra-sensitive nerve, and are innocently and often unknowingly exposing a false image—a human front—perhaps created over many years, and also quite possibly a very evil religious spirit.
Such deceiving poser proponents cannot allow anyone to know what they really are, as their entire life is built upon a false foundation. Once exposed, their house of cards will come crashing down very quickly. They will have no leg to stand on. They will explode in a heap. This is why they must attack so viciously against such harmless innocent witnesses. It is also why they must surround and align themselves with birds of a feather—fellow posers—believers in the lie—those who are blind to truth and real morality. The crowd, the congregation, the family, the group—these allow them to hide and access strength they don’t have individually.
Once their attack commences, and once they successfully survive (temporarily) by throwing the honorable party under the bus (or a pile of rocks) and seemingly get away with a huge injustice, the Lord instructed us to leave them alone.
THEY ARE BLIND LEADERS GUIDING THE BLIND AND BOTH WILL EVENTUALLY FALL INTO A VERY DEEP PIT. IT IS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME.
Perhaps from within said pit they will at last see the truth and find salvation.
But as long as they are playing the faker game on the surface they will most likely never repent and find real salvation, since they have already appropriated for themselves a false salvation through a false gospel or counterfeit belief system of their own rendering.
“In the Western world the enemy has forsworn violence. He comes against us no more with sword and fagot; he now comes smiling, bearing gifts. He raises his eyes to heaven and swears that he too believes in the faith of our fathers, but his real purpose is to destroy that faith, or at least to modify it to such an extent that it is no longer the supernatural thing it once was. He comes in the name of philosophy or psychology or anthropology, and with sweet reasonableness urges us to rethink our historic position, to be less rigid, more tolerant, more broadly understanding.”
– A.W. Tozer
“Life without war is impossible either in nature or in grace. The basis of physical, mental, moral, and spiritual life is antagonism. This is the open fact of life.”
–Oswald Chambers
“It is impossible to be a true soldier of Jesus Christ and not fight.”
– J. Gresham Machen
“Spiritual Christians look upon the world not as a playground, but as a battleground.”
– A.W. Tozer
“This world can be made beautiful again by beholding it as a battlefield. When we have defined and isolated the evil thing, the colours come back into everything else. When evil things have become evil, good things, in a blazing apocalypse, become good. There are some men who are dreary because they do not believe in God; but there are many others who are dreary because they do not believe in the devil. The grass grows green again when we believe in the devil, the roses grow red again when we believe in the devil.”
–G.K. Chesterton
2 Timothy 2: 3-4: “Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.”
1 Timothy 6: 12: “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.”
Ephesians 6: 11-12: “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
Colossians 2: 8: “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.”
1 Timothy 6: 20: “O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called.”
2 Corinthians 11: 13-15: “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.”
Revelation 2: 24: “But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden.”
Since October of 2014, I have been going through a deeper deliverance. When a demon comes out of your body, it can be very painful (Mark 9: 26: “And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one dead; insomuch that many said, He is dead.”). Parts of my body became very sore in late October and early November—I call this New Testament Circumcision. The pain became unbearable around my eyes and the front of my head, so I had to take some ibuprofen for two to three weeks. My left eye was horribly blood-shot and then, a week later, my right eye became very blood-shot. The body can go through a lot of stress while going through deliverance.
Why did the demon or demons come out? In my experience, a demon will come out of my body when I obey the Lord in something He has told me to do—especially if it is something I really don’t want to do. The demons that came out of my body since October, I believe, came out because some curse was broken. A curse is like a prison sentence: when the prison sentence is finished, the curse is broken—I would call this strategic deliverance. I believe it could have been a generational curse (sins of my ancestors). I went through six deliverance sessions back in 1988 and 1989 and was delivered of some demons—I would call this tactical deliverance.
When a demon comes out, there can be much coughing, choking and gasping for air or there can be much sneezing with a lot of phlegm coming out of your sinuses or your lungs. I have heard of people vomiting when going through deliverance, but I don’t think that has ever happened to me.
I am very grateful that the Lord is continuing to purify my body and soul of demonic bondage (I don’t believe a Christian can have a demon in his spirit), so that my life will be a more powerful witness for the Lord. “Work out your salvation with fear trembling.”(Philippians 2:12) As of today, my right eye is slightly blood-shot and I haven’t had any severe pain in over two weeks.
Isaiah 10: 27: “. . . and the yoke will be destroyed because of the anointing.”
Matthew 17:18-21: ” And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour. Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out? And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.”
Hebrews 6:1-3: “Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this will we do, if God permit.”
Joshua 5:13: When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” (ESV)
Standing with sword drawn, is a posture showing readiness for action. We all need to live emotionally, mentally and spiritually at alert.
In the focus verse, it was an angel who was with a sword drawn at the beginning of the conquest of the land of Canaan gives a lot of confidence to the earthly captain of the host, Joshua (Joshua 1). With that revelation, it was the icing on the cake of the words that he has heard from God that he should not be afraid in his new assignment.
But naturally-speaking, he had every reason to be afraid. Moses, the “backbone of Israel” the man of signs and wonders, the man with unalloyed communication with God, with the amazing track record of the supernatural was now off the scene.
It was a new season for the children of Israel and Joshua, the new leader of Israel, who had experience with Moses (being his minister, servant) of how difficult the children of Israel can be, felt that he really had his plate full. Added to that is fact that the Israelites were largely inexperienced in battle. And there they were, about to take on entrenched and well developed nations.
He needed all the help he could get to successfully carry out the mind of God. And just as he was going to have to take the initiative to take over Canaan land, he was encouraged by the revelation of the angel with a sword drawn, ready to help in the battle.
To keep the sword sheathed in the time of battle is to commit a crime, and to risk God’s rejection. It means you do not want to move at God’s command.
That was what happened a few decades before Joshua became leader in Israel. Then when God wanted the children of Israel to move on the land of Canaan to battle the people for their land, the majority of the people were more fearful of their lives than they were of not disobeying God (Numbers 13-14). And they experienced the wrath of God, wondering for years in the wilderness, till that generation wasted away.
When God calls us to the battle front in any area, in any context, we should obey, prepare and take prompt action. We cannot afford not to be ready when God is ready, when God is on the move and we are also on the move, we take delivery of his abundant grace.
Otherwise we would be rebels. When Jesus called a man to follow him and he said that he wants to first bury his father, he was told to let the dead bury their dead but that he needed to follow immediately (Luke 9:59-60).
Prompt action when God gives instruction should be the norm (Genesis 22:1-3). That is what it means to walk with God. Anyone in a relationship with God is called to walk with him, to line up with his word, with his dictates.
When we do that we become God’s agents of change just as Joshua was when he led the Israelites to conquer of the land of Israel. Realise that you are serving a king Jesus who have been promised the ends of the earth for his possession (Psalm 2). In this age, the church does not conquer by the use of arms, but spiritually and by knowledge. By being the light we vanquish darkness (John 1:1-5).
The bible is a book of battles. There was a spiritual battle in the Garden of Eden, but Eve did not have “her sword” drawn and was conquered by the enemy (Genesis 3). Fast forward to the wilderness where Jesus was in a temptation battle with the devil just as Eve was (Matthew 4:1-11).
Jesus, equipped with the word of God, the sword of the spirit (Ephesians 6:17), came out victorious. At the end, Jesus told the devil, depart from me. He put the devil in his place, not giving him any inch of space, or influence in his life because he had his sword drawn.
The first law of combat is to recognise who the enemy is. If the enemy can successfully disguise himself, or if he can get us to focus on the wrong enemy, then defeat is almost sure.
Paul informed that we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers and all other wicked forces (Ephesians 6:10-18) arrayed against the knowledge of Christ, arrayed against us (2Corinthians 10:1-4). He said: I fought with beasts in Ephesus (1Corinthians 15:32), adding that if we are ignorant of the devices of the enemy he might deal a deadly blow to us (2Corinthians 2:11).
We need to live with our sword drawn, with our spiritual sensitivity heightened, to gain divine direction and to defeat satanic opposition.
Sword drawn means you are ready to take more territories for God. The bible says that we need to have our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. God told Joshua: everywhere the sole of your feet touches, I have given to you. In another place we read: the God of peace will soon trample underfoot the enemy (Romans 16:20).
As mentioned earlier, the bible says that the word of God is the sword of the Spirit. So while I quote the scriptures, what may be seen coming out from my mouth in the spirit is a sword. Jesus was depicted in the book of revelation as having sword in his mouth (Revelation 19:15). So the victory is through the mouth.
How did Jesus send demons oppressing people packing while he was on earth? It was not by being silent, but by issuing words of command. We bear that same authority as we have been given power to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the powers of the enemy (Luke 10:19), through the words of our mouth (Mark 16:15-18).
Jesus said that all powers have been given to him, as he sends us forth to preach the gospel to all creatures. Paul said that it pleased God to save some through the preaching of the gospel (1Corinthians 1:21). Those people so saved are like territories taken from the enemy.
How are they saved? Through the preaching of the word, which is the sword of the spirit which cuts away at the web of lies that the enemy had them in, and free them to come into the light from the darkness.
Light is a weapon to fight darkness. The sword of the word of God is a sword of light, sword of truth, because what the devil has are lies, darkness. Jesus called him the father of lies whose very nature is lies (John 8:44). The battle with fight is with truth (Psalm 45:1-6), through which we get the people to submit to Christ as they are saved.
The Road 