

The Keep

# of God

### A Manual for the Christian Warrior

by

J. D. Jones Jr.

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Copyright © 2018, James D. Jones Jr.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without the express, written consent of the author for any purpose, other than the inclusion of brief quotations in review.

Unless otherwise noted all scriptural references are

from the King James Version of the bible.

Smashwords Edition

License Notes:

This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be resold in any form or transferred, even if no compensation is given. If you would like to share this e-book, please purchase additional copies for other recipients. If you are reading this e-book and it was not purchased by you or for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the rights and hard work of the author.

# Table of Contents

Foreword by the author

Chapter 1 It's A Battle Out There

Chapter 2 Getting Ready

Chapter 3 Always, the Attack Must Come

Chapter 4 When a Christian Answers God's Call

Chapter 5 The Attack Comes Full Force

Chapter 6 God Will Intervene

Chapter 7 Accusers Act Like Victims

Chapter 8 The World Will Gang Up

Chapter 9 It's a Christian's Choice

Chapter 10 Godly Worship Attacks the Devil

Chapter 11 Because Christians are Different

Chapter 12 No Offense Offered

Chapter 13 The Keep is Mandatory

Chapter 14 Relationships Matter to God

Chapter 15 Explain to the World

A Final word from the author

All references to scripture are quoted from the King James Version

### Foreword

From the Author

Here you go!

You are about to enter a place I call "The Keep of God".

In the English language there are nine separate and complete definitions of the usage for the word "keep". Using these definitions as a starting point and the 24th chapter of Acts as an implementation guide, weaknesses are exposed in much of our current Christian walk. We can learn to overcome these weaknesses and thus, become better Christian examples and more importantly, closer to our God.

The way the apostle Paul fights his battle in Acts 24 gives us a fresh look at the way we have compromised our walk with God and taken to fighting the battles ourselves. Understanding Paul's approach brings us back to putting God first and not trying to fight God's battles for Him.

I believe God still wants warriors He can do His work through. Every battle has an element of warfare in it. Today's warriors have been weakened and softened up because they have taken to seeking productive programs and rituals over seeking the presence of God. From the beginning God has only wanted to walk with His creation. He has never changed. The programs are not evil, just misleading when we come to depend too highly upon them.

This place of getting close to God I call "The Keep." Inside the keep is where God ministers to our every need. Each area of His character is identified by one of the English definitions of the word keep. Each area of our needs can be similarly identified. God's character perfectly matches our needs. He is the supply for our every need.

Consequently, an understanding and practical application of God's keep can revive a stalled walk with God and bring baby warriors to mature readiness in the service for God. It is every pastor's goal to build up and edify the people of the church they serve. It needs to become the goal of every church member to be built up by their leaders. There are too many immature Christians sitting in our pews today. This makes them vulnerable in ways that most of them are unaware.

It's time we wake up and get in God's keep. We will never grow outside of God's care. As long as we are taking care of everything ourselves, God will never get the chance to show us how He would do it.

Consider this a call to arms. Not violence and destruction like man's warfare, but to love and security like God has offered His people since the beginning of time. We may live in a violent and destructive world, but God has ordained His people to be men and women of love and compassion for others. What the world needs is what only the church can provide. The only way the church can provide it is if the members of that church possess what is needed. The only way to possess what the world needs from God's church is for the members of that church to get into the keep of God and receive from God.

In my life I have come to view every battle so that it does not become a matter of personal victory or failure. Instead, it is an opportunity for God to draw me into His keep. We need to be reminded that the battle is not ours but the Lord's. (2 Chronicles 20:15, paraphrased) Once reminded we need to start showing off our God as we stand securely in His keep.

The enemy of our souls is still trying to kill the church. He is working around the clock to cause damage, destruction and mayhem to any and all who dare associate themselves with God's institution. Yet the church world muddles along, for the greater part, as though every thing is going okay. We get upset when news reports show a decided favoritism against the things of God. Abortion, marriage, family issues, all seem to be under fire. Yes, we get upset. But what are we doing about it? Not just what actions are we taking? What are we doing to prepare ourselves?

I'm not talking about activism. That's all well and good in its proper usage. (After God has anointed the individual to carry out the action) But too often we have replaced God's plan and structure for the Christian warrior with some watered down, loud, and publicly minded version of a Christian bulletin board, as though our very presence changes things. Face it. You and I could not save our own souls, we will never be able to save the world from itself, either. We need greater fire power than any of us has. We need God's fire to get in the middle of our lives, and everything we are doing, and make some things happen. Not according to our agenda but according to God's plan. Otherwise we will be found fighting against ("You're either with me or against me," Jesus said. Matthew 12:30, paraphrased) the very God we supposedly support.

Christians everywhere need to rally around our God. We've become so good at rallying around the flag pole, or at the park, or for this holiday or that holiday that the average Christian man and woman today has forgotten how to rally around their God for every day things or else they are too busy to accomplish it. The average Christian today has forgotten how to get so close to God that they can feel His actual presence in their lives. We need to reclaim that experience. Christian warriors everywhere, stand up and move back into complete union with the merciful Father in heaven who called you out in the first place.

Chapter 1

## It's a Battle Out There

Since the first day I decided to give my life to Jesus I have noticed a tug of war with the things of this world. In the beginning it was always a battle to put aside old habits and move on to the new life God had granted me in Jesus Christ. Every time I tried to live that new life something popped up to remind me of the pleasures of the old life. Granted, the old life had its share of bad times, even more than its share. But the rewards of the sinful life refused to lie down and be quiet while I learned this new way.

Every day since then I have been the recipient of what I call the world's advertisements. Over and over again, people, corporations and even church members make offers that seem enticing on the surface but are only another well-dressed package of Satan's lures. Credit card applications, loans, new deals for this car or that truck, special pasttimes and hobbies, relationships and friendships galore. Everything seems so innocuous on the surface. But I have established a series of questions to weed out God's true offers from the world's false offers.

Face it, we Christians are in a battle every day. If we do not stand up for what we believe we will fall for what the world seeks to impose upon us. It is how we stand up that makes the difference. I remember Paul Harvey, the great radio commentator, making the statement one time that a hypocrite is the person who complains about the sex, drugs and violence on their VCR. Today that would be our DVD. This statement is a sad truth of the average Christian walk today. Too many Christians are saying one thing and living another as they give in to the seemingly inevitable battles of every day life. We justify far to many excesses and overlook too many faults in one another. The battle is not in the physical attack as much as in the mental resolve of God's people to do the right thing no matter what.

I ask myself how the things I do affect God's church. Because I know God would never do anything to destroy His church, the body of Christ, I am also assured that God would not move me in such a way that the church would be harmed. If it is not God then I choose not to be in it, no matter how attractive or how many others desire me to. Sometimes I have been asked if I ever wondered if I had somehow missed God. How can I miss God if God is not in it?

I ask myself how the things I do affect families and parents and children who make up families. God created families as a relationship unit to bear one another up and cause each other to grow. That's why we call the church congregation the family of God. God would never tear down the family structure or jeopardize those within it for any reason. He is the Father who wants good things for His children. (Luke 11:11,12) No offer or temptation should ever cause us to cause harm to what God is building.

It does not matter about our personal prosperity or our personal happiness when we make decisions. Matthew 6:33 is my personal scripture for how to live my life. "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." If I only look at whether my next decision benefits me, then I can justify most anything. A large part of God's plan is that everyone sees themselves as a part of the bigger whole. The enemy's attack strategy then is to separate us and make us feel as though we are being cheated or left out somehow. The enemy makes all decisions seem personal and small. God makes all decisions inclusive of things much bigger than ourselves. What we have for lunch today, where we eat it, how we eat it, and who we share it with could impact the lives of others if only we allow God to get into it.

So how do we approach these battles every day? How do we learn to follow God and put aside the offers of the world? Well, we get into the keep of God and see the world from His perspective.

God's people have always had to fight for the things this world would seek to take from them. It is a documented fact of the very existence of God's people. Yet, today it seems, most Christians have fallen into a pattern of belief that creates the misconception that God has supplied all they need so just go on and be satisfied. This is an outright deception of the devil and needs to be revealed as such right now.

The systems of the world were at odds with the people of God from the beginning. They will remain at odds until the deceiver has been removed from the earth. There is no peace for the Christian with the world. There is only the calm of the knowledge of God.

Even Jesus could not walk this earth with peace around Him. His peace was inside Him from God. Around Him were the anger, frustration, torment, and desperation of the world. Those He encountered needed something from Him. He was a supply of strength, wisdom, knowledge, and hope of everlasting joy. But still, the world attacked Him because He was not of the world. He was "in" the world but not "of" the world. It's a fine distinction that has become blurred with time and adverse cultural conditions.

Today the average Christian person has very little to give to the spiritually hungry souls they meet, caught up in the cycle of world events and daily situations. To be sure, most Christians have a desperate need of their own. Finances, marriages, rebellious teens, rocky relationships with other church members, wrong pastimes, unproductive careers. All these "things" have become the mountain to be climbed for each Christian.

This is the same daily life the non-Christian faces each day. Most Christians of today have fallen into the small deceptions of the enemy, which pulls on us to be like the world instead of like Jesus. Christians have taken the fire into their bosom and have been burned. It is time for God's warriors to come out from the world. It is time to be a separate people for a great God.

Many are called Christian. How many are called Christ-like? We Christians are in this battle together and must help each other understand it. The world attacks Christian values and Christian individuals on a daily basis as though they were assaulting the greatest fortress ever built. God tells us the reason for this intentional attack pattern is the relationship between children of the light and children of the dark. "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." (James 4:4) The devil's warfare with God's people is an established fact.

With each deadly wave of the enemy's forces it becomes increasingly obvious the enemy is taking the battle very seriously. As time unfolds it seems just as obvious the Christian is not taking the battle as seriously. Or, perhaps more correctly, the Christian is not acting like he/she is even in a battle. The average Christian, without even being aware of it, has accepted social compromise instead of God's promise. The time has come to take the promise into the battle where it belongs.

Most assuredly it is a battle. We can call it whatever we want, a game, a contest, or a face off. Whatever we call it does not change what God calls it. Ephesians 6:12 says, "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." Literally translated it reads, 'They are not against flesh and blood, but against chief officials, against strength of privilege, against the lesser demons of darkness in this age, against ethereal evil in celestial places'. We are against a power that wants to defeat us, an organized power capable of bringing destruction to our unprotected lives. A supernatural army follows us everywhere and awaits our moment of defenselessness.

I do not have any problem with those who prefer to think of our Christian battle as a game or contest. To describe or parallel the battle using a game or action other than warfare does not diminish the contest. All competition between humans is based on warfare in one form or another. All physical and mental contests can be explained with and ruled by biblical principles. God is all in all and nothing we can do will eliminate His importance in our lives.

In case there is still an unclear mind when it comes to God's command in this situation we can read further. "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds." (2 Corinthians 10:3,4). Not only is it a war, but God supplies the weapons. They are not our weapons. They are not wimpy, carnal weapons but they are supernatural. And it really is "our" warfare.

See it in a new light, brother and sister warrior. Review Luke 5:24,25. We have heard this preached many times to tell us of the good things Christ has for His people, but we must start thinking like warriors in all we say and do. We must see the reality of the enemy's attack. "But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power upon earth to forgive sins, (he said unto the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thine house." This is not a sign to let us merely know Jesus has power. Read it again. It is the description of how we demonstrate that we know Christ has power to forgive sins. Jesus says, 'Change your position. Stop acting like you are defeated. Act like you are made whole in all things.' Jesus said to the man, "Go! Possess that which is yours".

"And immediately he rose up before them, and took up that whereon he lay, and departed to his own house, glorifying God." (Luke 5:25) Immediately! Immediately! Do we really understand what that means? This man was waiting for the instruction to complete the battle he was waging with the enemy. He was waiting, do you hear? As soon as he heard the instruction, his "immediate" response was to follow through with the given instruction.

He took possession of that which had previously had possession of him. He now took control over his own sickbed. Then he went to his own house. All this glorified God. Everyone in that room was thanking and begging Jesus for something. It is a guarantee that everyone was giving God glory and praise in order to usher in some healing or wholeness for themselves. But, look at this. The one who got up and did as he was told and took possession of what the enemy control of was the one who gave real glory to God. How many there that day did nothing and thereby missed their opportunity? The message is clear. Let the glory of God be manifested through every action of the Christian warrior. Even the newest Christian convert can give God glory for the things He has blessed them with that day by taking control, not acting like a victim, and acting like they are doing what they are doing because God has blessed them to do it.

Warriors Stand Up

Now, the sad part. Many Christian warriors do not even know, for the most part, that they are in a battle. How easy it must be for the enemy to defeat an unarmed Christian. How easy it must be to wipe out us Christians who are not even facing forward in the attack. We should not be worried about being taken advantage of by the neighbor who is blowing leaves onto our property. We should not be obsessed with catching the guy at work before he stabs us in the back over a promotion we feel belongs to us. Every day, we are being attacked and murdered by the enemy of our souls. Some a little at a time with drugs, alcohol, or pornography. Others are being wiped out in the blink of an eye by gang warfare, drive-by shootings, or suicide. Still others act as spies for the enemy recruiting others with compromised doctrines. The battle is raging and the Christian warrior has yet to take the field. The call is going out across the land, "Where is the Christian warrior today"?

Make no mistake. This book is written for the Christian. It is written for warriors and those who want to take their rightful place as warriors. The Christian who is just beginning their walk needs to know the supplier of their armor. Ephesians 6:11 tells us, "Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." This book is written for the angry Christian and the "temporarily" defeated Christian who will not give up the fight.

These precious saints need to be equipped for battle and now is the time of their season. The totally sold-out Christian, who needs to be reminded where their fortification is coming from, will find God's battle to be much more satisfying than the ones they have previously faced. It's time to take back what the enemy has stolen. Every family member, every friend, every co-worker, every one God leads our way, is the booty we shall carry out of the enemy's camp after we set the enemy to flight in the name of Jesus.

Stand up Christian warrior. It's time for battle. It's time for God's warriors to take to the battlefield and retrieve that, which was stolen.

We're In the Thick of It, Now

All Christians should recognize the animosity of the world towards anything spoken of as Christian or of God. This is not a coincidence or an accident. The ancient general of evil is orchestrating the oppression of this world upon the Christian population. His sole purpose and intent is to destroy God's creation, to steal from God that which gives Him pleasure.

All Christians further need to be careful to understand and recognize the plans and machinations of the world which are designed to exclude the Christian. This design of the enemy is supposed to make the Christian feel left out. The left out Christian is then supposed to change their way to conform to the wants and desires of the "majority" within the culture. (Does anyone remember God asking for a vote!)

The battle can then be easily seen as with the "system" of the world, not the people. Satan runs this system with the help of his demons. (The true enemy) And the key to this victory is the feeling of being included, not left out. The difference for the Christian warrior however, is not being included with the world, but instead, being included in the family of God. In the thick of the battle the Christian warrior must know how to find the safety of the relationship with God.

The true warrior will find peace and safety with God and this will translate into inclusion in all God is doing in a local church or other community ministry. It is not just blind loyalty that drives men and women to be at church whenever the doors are open. They come expecting. Those who claim to be just fine while sitting home all the time have dubious warrior qualities. Warriors want to be, and need to be, in the middle of whatever is going on.

The good news is that God has it all under His control. "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God; Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began." (2 Timothy 1:7-9)

The enemy would desire of us that we fear him. Satan wants the fear of God. He wants all God has, but can only steal false replicas. In the verses above Paul is telling Timothy how to live a warrior's life. The first thing to remember is that we do not need to fear the attacks or threatenings of the enemy. Instead we should seek the power and love of God for our strength and encouragement.

Christians belong to a family far more wonderful than any fraternity of the world. There are no secret handshakes or mysterious explanations of ridiculous passwords in God's kingdom. There are no rigorous and strictly enforced actions or rituals necessary to enter in. This does not mean God does not have requirements of us, just that no other individual has the power to judge the Christian except the Lord of heaven. Christians take comfort in their personal relationship with God and rejoice in their salvation, not the enemy's discomfort or faulty search for truth.

Paul further explains that Christians are in this together. "For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day." (2 Timothy 1:12) Now, being together is important because all people desire to be accepted. More immediate to the kingdom, however, is the surety with which the Christian warrior responds to all situations. There is no security greater than the knowledge of God and that knowledge comes when we develop a personal relationship with our Creator.

Paul makes the situation clear. "Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." (2 Timothy 2:3) The battle must come. The warrior must face the attack. The way to endure is found in the relationship with God.

Chapter 2

## Getting Ready

I can remember, growing up, that my mother would always wake me and my brothers and sisters for school. During the summer vacation time she would sleep in and let us sleep in too. But come that first day of school we could count on her loving voice calling to us from the bedroom doorway. "Time to get up."

It's a call that every Christian should recognize today. "Time to get up."

I also remember asking the same question of my mother again and again, "Why?" I knew the answer why but my flesh was always looking for an opportunity to present itself and maybe latch on to a previously undiscovered excuse. Amazing how we Christians still utilize this boyhood trick to sway the opinion of others into getting our own way. It is the siren call of the world today, "Always ask why!" By asking why we can challenge everything and pick and choose what we will and will not follow in our lives. As the answers become more and more unclear to our question of why we can safely put that thing to rest behind us and move on with what our flesh wanted to do in the first place.

The truth of the matter is that my mother always answered the question the same way. She never wavered or offered my excuses any footing to perch upon. Excuses found a slippery path when they were up against my mother's truth. She always told me the same thing. It never left room for argument or any glimmer of hope that she would change her mind. She answered quick, clean, pure and unapologetically. "You have to go to school. That's why."

Many Christians today are incensed to think that anyone would dare say to them, "You have to obey God. That's why." But the truth is that that is exactly the way it is. Many church leaders have taken to softening the message and trying to make it seem as though it is the individual's idea to be nice and moral and ethical and all that. But the fact still remains the same. God made the rules. We follow them. Anyone who has a problem with that has a problem with God. Getting buy-in from the congregation may make things go smoothly in the church but even if they don't "buy-in" God still made the rules His way.

Another question I always asked my mother was why, since I had to get up, did I have to get up so early? Again her answer was plain, to the point and left no room for argument. She explained that I needed the time to get ready for the school bus and to begin my day with a proper breakfast. Preparation was the key to beginning right, she taught me.

It would seem that good Christians would understand their own need to be prepared for whatever the enemy throws against us. What is incredible is that we somehow think that whenever that "thing" happens to us, somehow God is going to magically endow us with help and knowledge to conquer the situation. The premise is ludicrous. We don't just start a business and assume that somehow God will make us prosper, do we? Then why would we assume that we would just launch into life and assume that somehow God will make everything all right?

Our only answers lie within the keep of God, where we can learn about Him and His ways. It's a place where we can experience His presence and understand His plan for our lives. Christians are fond of the scripture that says no weapon formed against us can prosper, but we forget that it takes God's presence to keep that weapon from doing its business on us. From a close position with God we can experience His power working in our lives every day. We can be prepared for whatever the enemy launches against us and know with a certainty that God has made us overcomers with Christ.

Too many Christians are bemoaning their circumstances today because of the attacks of the enemy that they were just not prepared for. Like my mother calling me to get ready for school, everyday God wakes us up, fresh and new, calling to us to get ready for life. Our only answer need be to accept His call and climb into the keep of God to be prepared for every day.

In the book of Acts, God spells out the relationship of the world against Christians. More importantly, He examples, through Paul, how today's Christian warrior can partake of the endless supply offered from the throne. Studying the "battle points" of the twenty fourth chapter of Acts allows the Christian warrior to better understand the assault we must face daily to fight the spiritual battles. Be assured it is a battle. Satan hates Christians or anything else that brings glory to God.

It would appear from the text in Acts, Chapter 24, that any Christian not accepting these spiritual challenges (trying to hide from them) is destined to fail in their endeavors for God, because of a failure to accept the inevitable battles ahead. Even James spoke of the principle, "My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations." (James 1:2)

Most Christians are not powerless because of lack of faith, but because of lack of knowledge of how to invoke God's strength in all situations. A Christian must first understand the fight before them, and then accept the battle as being Satan against God, for whom we fight, not the world against us. The danger here is that the Christian does not understand the fight or may not accept the battle order and thus will nullify the power of God in their life. .

Remember? "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." (Ephesians 6:12) For the Christian to believe the fight is their' own is not only a sure way to defeat it also takes the glory of the victory away from God. "Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf." (1 Peter 4:16)

It is the warrior's actions that glorify God. "He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God." (Romans 4:20) The problems we Christians face when dealing with the attacks of the world are not physical battles. When the enemy attacks the Christian ethic or the Christian lifestyle, it becomes a spiritual battle that belongs to God. It is our own fleshly decision to make the battle personal. A true warrior acts on behalf of their commander, not themselves. No one has ever said that it was a battle between Pvt. Anderson and the enemy. It is always a battle to be won by the commanders.

What does God want for His people in these times when the spiritual battles manifest themselves in our lives? That's a simple enough question. But the answer could mean the difference between a Christian who operates in all the power of God's manifested glory for victory or a Christian who operates in defeat and solitude only hoping that God won't let the enemy destroy them. Get biblical Christian warrior!

The answer is found in 2 Thessalonians 3:3. "But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil." That word, "keep", is "to isolate". God will isolate you from the attack in this "keep". Keep is also a word for the protective area of a castle, the medieval fortress. Inhabitants who were less able to defend themselves, or not in the immediate front-line battle would gather in the keep of the castle to be isolated from the battle during an attack. It was also used as the king's command post, when fighting near the castle, from which he could direct battles from opposing fronts and apportion resources for the battles. At times it also held prisoners securely. The keep was a very diverse area used for whatever was necessary. As Christians we need to understand how to get into God's "keep" during the attack. "Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the "keeping" of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator." (1 Peter 4:19, emphasis mine) Paul knew the secret because he let God fight the battle through him.

We should recognize that the world system understands this principle because they try to make sure we can't get to the "keep" of God with all the physical attacks going on around us. (James 1:2, again) It is the enemy's plan of attack to get the Christian's eyes off their God. We Christians, on the other hand, must learn how to come into God's "keep". It is an important place for us to inhabit. There's a lot that happens in God's "keep". There's a lot we need to learn in God's "keep".

The Keep

The word "keep" is an interesting study on its own. First off, it means someone is holding on to something, to keep something, to retain a possession. We are the possession of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. He purchased us on the cross of Calvary.

A second meaning describes where something is kept, as to where it is customarily put for storage, the right spot for something. God has a right place for His people. Each Christian has a rightful relationship with God. That relationship is the place for the Christian to get into and stay there.

Another meaning explains that keep means taking charge of for a time, of temporarily holding for someone else. God keeps us through the guidance of the Holy Spirit on earth. The power of God is holding us in a temporary world while we await the permanent kingdom of God through Jesus Christ to be manifested.

A fourth meaning gives us the kind of keep that supports, as the one who keeps or supplies something or someone else. Our God is our support. Jesus supplies our salvation and kinship relationship with our heavenly Father. The Holy Spirit supplies our companionship, our guidance, the power of the Godhead on earth. And God supplies the leadership for all things in all situations. Our God keeps us in all things.

Another meaning is to keep in ready supply, to have in stock or ready to use. The Lord keeps everything for us. He is our supply. We can go to God for all our needs. He keeps all things for us. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills.

A sixth meaning explains that to keep is to manage or guide. The Lord is our guide through the power of the Holy Spirit. Our relationship with God allows us to be kept by God as He manages our life for His glory. He keeps us in line. He keeps us in His care.

Still more, we can see keep as to maintain current entries or to keep records. For instance, the Lord keeps our names written in the Lamb's book of life. He keeps track of all we do and accomplish in His name. God keeps the records of our successes and erases the records of our sins.

An eighth meaning is to preserve and protect as in to keep safe. This is God's idea of the perfect relationship between His creation and Himself. God wants to keep His creation in the safety of a correct relationship with Him. He wants all people to be safe or, more importantly, saved.

The last meaning is to persevere or continue, as in to keep on going. God wants all people to keep up the faith. He wants us to continue in His way along the path He has ordained for us. In this way we keep up with our end of the relationship while God keeps His. That is what a covenant is all about.

Wow, what a word! To be in God's "Keep" covers the entire Christian walk. The Christian warrior who places himself or herself in God's keep will partake of all God has to offer. As His possession, being in the right place with God, each Christian is a temporary citizen of this earth. We each receive support and supply from a loving Father in heaven who manages our lives for the greatest benefit and His own glory. God keeps all records of success and erases records of sin even as He protects those who continue in His care. God's keep is the place all Christian warriors seek. It is the ultimate destination of the maturing Christian. In God's keep is where we all want to be. But getting there is a maturing process we must all go through. Those who reach it are the true Christian warriors.

Elements of Preparation and Understanding

Too many "would-be" warriors today have placed a high value on things around them. These "things", although not inherently evil, have become focal points in too many ways. It is a necessary action of all warriors to accept the cleansing of "things" from their life and seek to keep themselves clean. Every soldier must understand the protection they give up when they allow something to come between them and God.

The story of the widow woman in 2 Kings 4 explains the importance of the empty vessel, prepared for God and also the need to go to God for this protection from the world. The woman's husband had died and left her the bills. She could not pay, so the creditor was going to take her two sons as slaves in place of payment.

But this woman of God knew where to go for her protection. She found the man of God and asked his advice. "And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? tell me, what hast thou in the house? And she said, Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house, save a pot of oil." (2 Kings 4:2)

It is very important to notice here the elements of her answer. She identifies herself as a servant of God. As Christians, we too often try to identify ourselves as friends of the world so the world will go easy on us. The fact is, in the world only the strong survive, so that tactic is useless. A wishy-washy Christian is fair game. But this woman claims to be God's servant. She boldly asserts her claim on a relationship with God.

She also insists her house is empty. Our bodies are the temple of God. Too many Christians have their temple crowded with worldly idols. We protectively explain that these "things" are not sinful and rightly so. We collect season tickets to the football game, our bass boats, the softball teams, following our favorite teams on television, expanding the dollar amount on our credit card, rearranging the furniture every other week, or meeting the group at the mall, etc. In themselves they are not sinful. But bring them into the temple and they clutter the place up. How many of us have allowed these hobbies or past times or monetary representations of ourselves to take a focal point in our lives? Even if they are not the focus, how many of us can claim an equal number of ministry hours spent or hours with God as we can hours with our favorite past time or building our own personal empire?

We are all ministers of God. Shall we not all minister then? "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;... Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus." (Hebrews 10:16,19)

What about our hours spent at work? We loudly claim we have to make a living. Do we really believe God intended for us to work all those hours to gather items for our own comfort while forsaking the things of His church? Are we really working our jobs to provide for our families or are we working those jobs to advance ourselves and to feel good about ourselves? How can God be in charge if we believe we must be the ones who provide for our advancement?

This is clutter in our temples and a worldly view. Jesus told his followers that God would supply their needs. "Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink;...Behold the fowls of the air:...your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?" (Matthew 6:25,26) This doesn't mean we do not need to work, or even relax occasionally, heaven forbid, but it does call many of our excuses into question.

We clutter our temple with worldly things because we don't see the harm. We are convinced of the correctness of our own compromises by listening to the opinions of the world around us everyday. That's why we need to get into the "keep" of God. It is from in the "keep" that we can really see the battles and all God has established for us in our lives. It is from in there that we can see the attacks of the enemy more clearly. Too often we have the order wrong. It's God first, our lives afterward. "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness." (Matthew 6:33)

The third element of the woman's testimony is her vessel, the pot. It is a vessel for oil. The oil is symbolic of the Holy Spirit. She is saying that she is ready to be filled with the Holy Spirit but has nothing else in her temple. She has no interest in football games, television, or trips to the mall. Her only focus is getting to God because Satan and his demons are attacking in the guise of a creditor.

She can see the attack because it has manifested itself in a physical attack against her children. One of the enemy's favorite targets is our children. The enemy always turns our mistakes into an attack against us or those we care about. But this woman knows the Lord. She understands the protection of being in God's care. She wants all that God has for her and nothing less.

Her temple is empty and she needs filling up. By going to Elisha she entered into the "keep" of God and asked for guidance. That was the Old Testament way into the keep of God. (Getting to God meant finding the man of God in her day and culture.) In the New Testament church we can come to God personally through Jesus Christ. We can find the keep of God from our prayer closet or the couch or the bedroom or the car, etc.

All Christians should approach God in a like manner as the woman with the oil. We need to empty ourselves of that clutter. It is high time that Christians around the world clean out their temple. We need a big broom to sweep out those fishing trips and other endeavors that get in the way of our relationship with God. (Note: It is not the things, but the priority we give the things, which displeases God.) When we empty out our temples and call for God to fill up our empty pots again, things will change for the Christian warrior seeking the keep of God.

The world says, 'surely your God would want you to have this, so, take it for yourself.' God's way is clear. When the relationship is right, God will give us time to enjoy these other things with Him. We Christians have taken to making the time for ourselves and then squeezing God in. We need to clean the clutter out of our temples or else the organizational foundations of the world will consume even the time we have set aside for God.

By putting our needs ahead of God's plans we wall ourselves off from God's blessing and protection. It's the same thing as calling someone for help and then telling them they can not come to help. God won't be able to help us because we have, for all intensive purposes, put ourselves in charge by taking control with all the things we've surrounded ourselves with.

The Christian warrior must boldly assert their foundational relationship with God. They must clear out the clutter of things that can impede God's power in their life because anything that comes between the warrior and God becomes the source of the warrior's power. Think about it. What real power can be gotten from a fishing trip? Or a football game? Or a shopping trip? We must recognize the need for the in-filling of the person of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The successes and victories come from a true relationship with God, not our own actions to precipitate achievement. This true relationship is a total inundation of the Spirit of God in our lives. Without the Holy Spirit guiding and leading every step of the way, the warrior will lose their way back to the keep when they stray too far from God's direction. (John 6:44) By allowing the Holy Spirit of God free reign in our now uncluttered lives we experience clear and concise direction from the Creator of the universe. That is the in-filling of the Holy Spirit.

Paul, A Christian Warrior

So many Christians falsely believing in the concept of peace with the enemy creates a deceptive struggle for each Christian daily. When we consider the examples of the bible, and the struggles each individual faced with the world, it is even more perplexing how a Christian today can assume things have changed for their compromised benefit, somehow.

If God is the same today as He was in the past, and He surely is, then it is true that the enemy of God is still the enemy of God's people. Christians are at war with these unseen forces of the devil. Only God can show them in their true light. The warrior must go to the keep to understand and see as God would have them see.

In Paul's struggle against the Jewish leaders, in Acts, Chapter 24, we see the worldly system attacking the Christian head on. The most important characteristic of this fight is not the men who play a part, but instead the forces at work behind them. Paul would have failed miserably if he had taken the fight personally. It was not his fight! The fight belonged to the Lord. He only required an empty vessel yielded to God within which to work.

The world order of the Jewish people in Acts is strongly established and the challenge from the Christian "power and authority" of Paul seriously undermined their authority. They felt God pricking them much like Paul understood on the road to Damascus. It must be seen that the Jewish focus was maintaining personal control of all godly works. They wanted to keep God in a box, so to speak, their box. In contrast, Paul preaches the power of God with no human intervention or attempt at control.

This is still the same fight today. This is still the same fight today! Hear me again. This is still the same fight today.

Consequently, it requires the same reaction by the Christian to achieve victory through God's plan and power. But it is not, outwardly, a Christian's power. It is the power of God working through the Christian who is nestled in the "keep". It is a warrior's power and it only comes from God.

The choice is a God-thing. God gives us the choice. Assuming we have chosen to work with God, we then have a choice to work in His power or to accept our own limitations and take on the worldly system ourselves. In theory it seems ludicrous that any respectable, God-fearing Christian would choose to fight God's battles by themselves. But in reality most Christians make this choice every day without even knowing it.

That is the purpose for this study. Because so many of our Christian values and concepts are shared by the world, there has been a silent infiltration of wrong thoughts from the world into the Christian belief. We must understand the true reality of the battle and the actual plan from God in order to correct our long accepted, though clearly powerless, plan of defense. Not so we can throw out all our past ways of doing things. But instead, to realize God's true ways and make full use of all God desires in our lives. This means getting back to our roots, the true biblical principles as found through Paul's life as he followed after Jesus.

Warriors, Not Policemen

God meant for Christians to be warriors not policemen. Too often the Christian plan is to accept the wrongs of the world as long as they do not directly affect them. More often than not these culture changes seep into the everyday life of the Christian, through the constant media barrage and personal, worldly contacts, insidiously altering even the long held Christian belief system. God's plan is one of conquest and victory, not one of hiding and minimizing losses.

The warrior we are designed to be must know the battle plan and the strategy of the enemy in order to operate successfully and emerge victorious from the battle. (The enemy's plan is to steal, kill, and destroy God's creation.) The enemy must be considered a threat at all turns. At no time in the bible does it relate an instance when the enemy of our soul becomes our friend to help us live for God and make it to heaven. "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy:" (John 10:10)

The enemy is real, not imagined and has only one desire, to totally destroy the warrior of God. A policeman is, by design, only allowed to carry out the desires of his constituents with limited access to any information on the enemy. In the case of the policeman, it is assumed the enemy will play by the rules. The rules are there to adjust the enemy's behavior because the enemy is not the bad guy, just misdirected. The police must discover all necessary information by themselves.

It is easy to accept this view of Christians as policemen because Christians do not want to damage anyone, just correct their wrong behaviors. But if we see the battle as God against the enemy of our soul, instead of us against another person, then we can accept a real battle, taking place around us. However, we must do it God's way.

We must remember we are a separate people from those of the world. All people are objects of God's desire, but Christian warriors must maintain a clear differentiation between their lives and the people of the world. "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." (2 Timothy 2:4) We are chosen by God to be His warrior.

We are all soldiers and many are chosen to be front-line warriors. Even fewer will choose to accept their warrior title. "For many are called, but few are chosen." (Matthew 22:14) No matter the status, the message is clear. The first step of the warrior is to get away from the things of the world that clutter up the view God would have them see.

The warrior who accepts his status under God has orders from headquarters. Warriors are given a battle plan that is guaranteed to succeed by their superiors because all the needed intelligence reports have gone into the plan. The warrior has been trained to act in the exact manner those in charge have decided are necessary for the battle ahead.

Each warrior is built for a specific battle action. No warrior has to do it all. No warrior is designed to do it all. The warrior must have the right orders from headquarters to be effective. The warrior must understand and operate within all these specifics in order to win the battle with God against the enemy.

Many people have likened the battle between God and Satan as a game in which people are the pawns. The only game-like similarity conceivable in this battle is in the fact that most games are based upon the rules of warfare. A game has opposing sides with rules of play and an ultimate goal, mastery of the playing field and the opponent. In this respect all games are battles in the war to control or dominate.

I believe people have taken up games as a way to express the warrior inside each of us. That's why so many gather on Friday nights, Saturday and Sunday afternoons in the fall to root their' favorite team on.

We need the battle. We are warriors from birth with a desire to engage the enemy. The world has tricked us Christians into believing a peaceful individual fights his battles on the playing field. The reality is that the real battle is in the spiritual realm and we must fight from the "keep" of God. We have left our first love (Revelation 2:2-4), God, who fights all battles for us and has already claimed the ultimate victory for us in the name of Jesus.

Let's examine Paul's classic battle with the world and understand how we can reclaim our rightful place as warriors for God. The power of our relationship with God has in many cases been damaged by wrong perceptions of God's plan. We are not supposed to live at peace with the world. Jesus explained, "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword." (Matthew 10:34) There is no peace in the world. The only real peace is found in God.

"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe. Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence. (15) I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me." (John 14:27- 15:4)

If the world does not have peace, then the Christian should not be able to find any peace with the world. We must erase this worldly, idealistic, infatuation with peace and getting along with everyone from our psychological make-up. Getting along is not the focus. I do not espouse the idea of being a belligerent or argumentative people but we must recognize that peace from God among His children is the by-product of harmony amongst those traveling in the same direction. God must be the focus, not peace. The peace is found in God. We can not bear Godly fruit until we are with God. We must find the keep of God and get into it. We must abide in the Lord. We must abide in the keep. We must struggle through a non-peaceful world and seek the peace of God in His keep.

Seek God and Him Only

The Christian must be wary of the call for unity within the church or elsewhere. Unity is not a goal of God for His people. Let's repeat that. Unity is never a goal of God for His people, except with Him. God wants us to be one with Him and this union brings about oneness in the body. Unity is a by-product the Christian warrior will enjoy when the focus of the congregation is on knowing God and having a mature relationship with Him. Those who are seeking to be like Christ will naturally begin to become more alike and thereby more compatible as they mature. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and then He will add the other things to us. (Luke 12:31, paraphrased)

"...Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" (Psalm 133:1) The unity is oneness, a joining together of all. The goodness and pleasantness comes from reaching the goal of a personal relationship with God. Ephesians 4:3-6 says, "Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all."

Here we can see clearly how God envisions unity to work. There is one body, the church all seeking to be under the Lord's guidance. There is one Spirit, the Holy Spirit, who guides the church in the one hope of salvation, drawing all men to Christ. There is one Lord, Jesus, one baptism unto life, and one God who is Father of all and woven into all areas of our lives, and resident in all Christians.

Wow! Our unity is because of where we are headed, not how we relate to one another. Those who preach unity as the "goal" are selling a false doctrine. God must be the goal and desire of the heart of the Christian. Unity comes as a result of the closeness to God the warrior attains.

Further, Ephesians 4:13,14 tells us, "Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive." We must be in unity of the faith and the word of God. Until we seek God in a true relationship, for all and by all, we will never be united. Unity comes when we seek God. God does not come because we seek unity.

When the world seeks unity, the goal is coming into some compromising agreement that supposedly satisfies all. This is a deception we would all recognize as true under other circumstances. But so often, we just want to go with the flow and not make waves. It's the peaceful, civilized way to be. (An idea of civilization taught by the world, not God)

The truth is, only God has the ability to satisfy all people. So, why are so many deceived by these claims of the world? Simple, not all are truly seeking God. They may truly desire to seek God, but because of one circumstance after another, they are compromising certain areas of their life and not fulfilling the true walk with God. A walk where God is the focus and He is everything.

It may sound hard, at first. But the simple truth is that many who call themselves Christians are more concerned with their position or "stuff" than with the work of God or the souls of men. These people have compromised the church and made it vulnerable to the attacks of the world. They have bled away the power of the warriors around them by focusing the needs of the church on wrong or misplaced values and goals.

A quick test to understand this principle is to look at the goals of the church. If there are none, then there is a problem. If the bulk of the goals emphasize something within the church that does not cause spiritual growth or outreach, then there is a problem. If most goals benefit those within the church, then there is a problem. God is our supply and we are His instruments of proclamation to a dying world. We should be concerned with raising the saints up for ministry, not babysitting God's overfed babies. (There are times when this is necessary, but it should not be the focal point of the church goals.) It is time for the Christian warrior, the true men and women of God, to stand up and take back the things Satan has stolen.

Chapter 3

## Always, The Attack Must Come

"And after five days Ananias the high priest descended with the elders, and with a certain orator named Tertullus, who informed the governor against Paul." (Acts 24:1)

When I was about ten or eleven I remember coming home one afternoon from visiting with friends down the road to find our family dog, a small, black Chihuahua, confined to the house. We lived in a second floor apartment and our cousins lived on the first floor. I was told we would have to take the dog out and walk him on a leash until further notice.

Well, eventually the whole story came out and I learned that the dog had attacked my cousin who had received several stitches as a result of the confrontation. Everyone suspected he had done something to provoke the dog, such was the way with small boys. But nevertheless, we had to watch the dog and make sure he would not bite anyone else.

I remember when the excitement calmed down a bit many weeks later that we learned he had picked the dog up by its tail and swung it around. When he put the dog down he thought the dog would be dizzy and disoriented and that it would be funny. What he didn't count on was that the dog was fine except that now he was feeling attacked and responded with typical animal instinct to ward off the aggressor. When the dog turned and Attacked him he was both unprepared and even a little shocked. It was not at all what he expected to happen.

In many ways the church is the same way. Every day we open the doors to our sanctuaries across the nation and throughout the world is an attack against everything that satan wants. Every Christian takes a stand when they come to Christ and joins the army of God in the war against evil. Whether we like the war analogy or not does not matter. God likes it. Christ used it many times. Paul explained much of the Christian walk using warfare parallels. When we joined the army of God we joined the forces against evil in this world. We became the enemy of everything evil.

The first attack of the enemy is to soften us up and draw us back into the sinful lives we have left. But when that doesn't work against us the enemy has to up the attack and come at us where we live to see if he can shake our faith in God. Most Christians understand the temptations the enemy offers but the way we handle the pressures of Christian life seem to suggest that maybe we have not learned to expect the vicious attack that wants to take away everything we have worked for and send us hiding in the dark places.

We must realize that if we are going to align ourselves with God's people then the enemy of God's people is going to count us as his enemy. Therefore the attack must come. Someone says that anyone who pokes a stick at a caged lion for long enough eventually will get the lion to attack the stick. Everywhere that a Christian speaks and proclaims the gospel message it is like poking a stick at the lion. Only this lion is not caged. He is freely roaming around seeking whom he may devour. (1 Peter 5:8)

I remember telling my cousin that he was lucky that the dog bit him. If I had caught him he would have gotten a far worse beating for abusing our pet. He told me he was just having fun, but looking back on that day he said now he knew what to expect and he would never again try to have fun like that.

There are Christians everywhere reeling from the attack of a vicious enemy. We need to be assured that God can and will help us. But even more we need to know that not only will He help us get through the present situation He will also help us stay aware that more attacks will be coming. When we crawl into the keep of God and spend time at His feet He encourages and prepares us with everlasting knowledge. As long as we serve the Lord the devil is our enemy. As long as he is our enemy we will suffer from his attacks. Our goal, then, should be to turn the tables and go on the offensive. We should learn to attack the enemy's strongholds and not just try to defend ourselves. Only God knows where to attack and how. We need the information from the keep.

Once we recognize our true goals under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, it becomes increasingly clear what the things around us mean. We see the attacks made on Christians from the TV set and turn it off. We hear the blasphemy of the world in their music and avoid contact with it. Our hearts see for us and notice every little dart the enemy throws at us. We are ever more incensed about these attacks and we must wait on God for the next move. Unfortunately, not all well-meaning Christians are waiting on God. It's as though they believe He has forgotten them, somehow. Somehow, if we're not careful, we forget that God can show us the good things as well. A warrior who is always on their guard but never really living becomes of no earthly good eventually. They simply become some kind of religious cop. So how do we Christian warriors maintain our diligence without compromise and still live out our lives?

Jesus is our advocate before God. This means that even though we, as sinners, are deserving of death, our Lord, who has walked these earthly roads, goes before His almighty Father and pleads the case for our salvation. We are only blessed with life if we are covered with the blood of the sacrifice. Notice that our lives are not blessed by how many faults we can find in others. That is a wrong mind set. We see the wrongs as an opportunity for growth, not as a step up for our religious egos.

As Christians we accept the Lord into our life. Our sins are redeemed by the blood and we receive forgiveness for our sins. It is through this sacrifice we receive and through Jesus Christ, our lawyer with God, that we are granted salvation.

If Jesus will not plead our case before God, (This can only happen if we have not asked Him to) then Satan will. Jesus pleads mercy upon us unto redemption while Satan accuses for damnation. Jesus is the defense and Satan is the prosecution. We are in need of defense not prosecution. (Do we see others in the same light?) Do we operate as defenders or prosecutors most of the time? The Christian warrior needs to become a defender of the faith and the faithful. The Christian who is too easily dragged into mean spirited gossip about others treads upon dangerous ground. How can we hear God's call to arms when we are listening to the enemy's propaganda?

In the first chapter of Job, Satan goes before God to plead against men on earth. He is the accuser before God. Satan wants to point out the many things that can separate men from God. And he knows of these things because he sets the temptations for us to fall into.

Jesus, on the other hand, speaks only of our position. Either we are with Him or not. The comfort and calm of salvation is a choice we make. The anger and frustrations of sin are also choices we make. The choice is simple. Who is really going to be in charge of our lives?

We may think we are in charge, but Jesus says we are either with Him or against Him. "He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad." (Matthew 12:30) Therefore, if we are not with Jesus it is quite clear we have chosen to league up with the devil. Many a Christian warrior has given up their place with God for a moment with Satan's team

There are two lawyers ready to argue our case before God, Jesus and Satan. One is a bonafide advocate, mindful of our every need. The other is a shyster intent on his own personal gain with no care as to our end as long as our end does not include life with God. Which one will you call? And remember, in this courtroom, you can have as many calls as you like. As a matter of fact, the more often you call your lawyer the better and stronger your case will be.

Who Comes to Attack?

Let's review those pleading their case against Paul in Acts, Chapter 24. Interestingly, in the Greek, Ananias means "Yahweh has dealt graciously". Here's an individual under God's grace, blinded by the worldly compromises, attacking God's holy work. Every Christian should be aware of the chances they take in their walk with God. The inference we see here is that familiarity with God's work and puffed up pride, or haughtiness, along with man's elevated positions are a recipe for disaster.

I don't know of any statistics, but it is safe to say that there have been many people "run off" from our churches in the name of religious right because of one haughty spirit or another. Not only does the warrior have to guard against being run off from the place where God has sent them but they have to guard against becoming too satisfied with the status quo of that church and thereby becoming a stumbling block to others. I don't believe Ananias, or the other Pharisees and Saducees for that matter, were particularly evil people. They were just living lives that had become zealous for things God was moving on from.

Ananias was clearly blessed of God but he chose to use the blessing for his own benefit instead of reaching out to God's chosen people. How many churches do we know which have exchanged their position with God for their position with the church community? (Clearly there is a need to constantly be changing and growing with God in order to avoid this Ananias syndrome)

Change is a God-thing. The world will blind the church if given a chance. Good men and women will make bad decisions based on ritual or tradition to maintain what they had (or worse, what their grandparents had) instead of growing with God. If the Christian is choosing to lock onto traditions and rituals, then it becomes a man-thing. Accepting changes, as God directs, requires a close relationship with God to hear the directions given. Refusing to change because we feel things are good enough is "our decision" and puts the authority for our actions in our own hands. God is not looking for good enough. He is the God of abundance and too much.

Another interesting note from the Hebrew is the name for ananias, "Yahweh has dealt graciously", or Hananiah. "Unto whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names: for he gave unto Daniel the name of Belteshazzar; and to Hananiah, of Shadrach; and to Mishael, of Meshach; and to Azariah, of Abednego." (Daniel 1:7) Notice how the world tries to change God-centered vision in every way. By changing Hananiah's name to Shadrach the prince was attempting to thwart God's graciousness and replace it with a worldly focus, "the circuit of the sun". This is a clear attempt of the devil to replace God's vision with his own in all our lives. Remember, Satan claims all visions other than God's vision.

In Acts 5, another Ananias chooses to hold back part of what he has from the Holy Spirit and lie. "But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?" (Acts 5:3) This brings about his death and also the death of his wife who collaborated in the deception.

Clearly again, Satan is in the forefront of this battle and his obvious strategy is to turn the heart of the Christian from God's grace to selfish concerns. If we, as Christians, have nothing from God then Satan does not need to attack us. It is only when we operate and receive the power of God that he gets nervous. Those receiving and being dealt with graciously or under grace are in threat of attack from the enemy. If you are living today as a Christian you are under attack from the enemy of our souls. Maybe not an adversarial attack from the outside, but most definitely an attack of your thought processes and the ways in which you respond to God's call.

As Christians we must all live under the grace of God. It is by the grace of God we all live and are able to partake of the salvation of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. And as we are being dealt with graciously, we are therefore, susceptible to the attack of the enemy.

It is the covering of grace that makes us so reprehensible to the enemy. Satan can not partake of the grace. He does not want us to have it either. The world, under Satan's guidance, will try to pull us out from under the grace of God. If we just sit back, or rest on past accomplishment, then it is only a matter of time before we accept the rules of the world as the way life really should be.

Taking up our warrior stance, then, we are very likely to have a better chance of partaking of the victory assured through Jesus. This warrior stance must be from within God's keep where we can see the battle and all the enemy's tactical positions. Where we can hear and talk with our Lord. Our decision must be for victory not defense.

Operating totally under God's direction in our lives will draw more of those souls trapped in the world's system out of the world and under the protection of the grace of God. This is the threat a real Christian should represent to the worldly system. It is our warrior stance that prepares us for the attack. It is this placement within God's plan that thwarts the plans of the enemy. It is our knowledge of God's keep that keeps us safe and on the victorious road.

Through love from the cross all Christians desire to change the world into God's vision of His people. Not because of a desire to control but instead because of a desire to share all the good they have discovered. This scares Satan. That's God's vision, also. "But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise." (1 Corinthians 1:27)

The Christian should not fear the world system. The world system should fear the Christian. The world system should fear the Christian Warrior. Unfortunately, too often, in too many circumstances, the Christian warrior is a mythical creature of our dreams and of God's desire. Few, it seems, are prepared to pay the price to be God's warrior and vanquish the foe.

We must not live puffed up lives of the false Ananias. We must not fall to the Ananias syndrome of self-deception. We must represent the living God in purity with a true version of a Godly Ananias. We must truly understand that "Yahweh has dealt graciously" with us. Then we must allow God to work through us to deal graciously with others. Let's repeat that! We must allow God to work through us to deal graciously with others.

Tertullus is another curious name of those attacking God. The name means "third". Maybe, Satan could not muster his best or number one. Or maybe his best is only the third. So, he sent the third.

Third also refers to the Holy Trinity that Satan was attacking, and the third person of the trinity, the Holy Spirit, our comforter on earth. "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." (John 14:26)

In Satan's own pitiful attempt he was sending his own comforter, in Tertullus, to the stale, Jewish leaders. Whatever the inference of the meaning of Tertullus' name, his role as attacker is clearly defined. From an outsider's view it seems a pretty weak attack. It is the experience of close relationship with God that allows the Christian warrior to see this weakness while under attack.

The scenario is clear. Satan wants to be in Jesus' place as the advocate, as the Son of God. He wants to be in God's place as the supreme commander. Tertullus fills the role of the Holy Spirit in Satan's plan as the motivating teacher in the midst of men. Tertullus' oration is designed to plead the case of the world system and replace the true plan of God with one of the enemy's. Once again, the plan of the enemy can be identified as a poor imitation of the true plan of God.

The disdain of the attacker towards Jesus should clearly mobilize the Christian ire towards the unjustifiable assault against our Lord and His worker. But Paul was not troubled by the attack and, most assuredly, neither was God. Tertullus twisted and pulled all the pretty words he could find to state the Jewish position (The worldly system of the time) in some kind of justifiable case. To say he was lying would be harsh. I would dare say that Tertullus could have passed the most intensive lie detector test. Tertullus was only expressing a worldly view of the Christian position, which clearly opposed the Jewish base of power.

There is no doubt Tertullus believed the things he said. No doubt he was totally convinced of the world's view of this threat from a new type of God's representative. Many a good man or woman has bought into this pattern of world thought and fought against God in the name of God.

We learn to accept things our forefathers would never have accepted. Our forefathers most likely accepted things their forefathers would never have. The cycle is everlasting. The attack targets the children. They hold the keys to the future. Therefore the enemy attacks the future in as many ways as possible.

Changes are hard things for people to accept. It is easier to just go along the way we always have, like Ananias. But each of us has accepted at least a little change as necessary to growth. Again, Satan uses this fear of change to knock the Christian around. Some would argue we should never change. Others will argue that changes are necessary. All are trying to win their argument based on what they know. Ultimately, we must listen for the voice of God. Then we must act as He directs, no more, no less.

Unfortunately, the little changes we most likely accept in our lives are ones forced upon us by the world. Look at the degrading state of television. Look at the proliferation of pornography. Examine the state of moral decay in our society as a whole. Recall to mind the absence of real commitment by the majority of people in our churches. These are just a few of the small changes that have infiltrated our lives and focused us more toward worldly visions. The state of Christendom, judging by the bulk of Christians, is scared and huddling behind man made walls fearing the attack of the enemy because weak Christians are unable to deal with the realities of a real-life spiritual battle.

Concentrate on the Enemy

Now, we fight the things instead of the enemy. Too many of us fight people instead of the true enemy. How well would David have prospered if he went to fight the giant, the enemy of God's people, and focused on the things of the battle? (1 Samuel 17) If David had focused on the words of the Philistine, he would have become angry at being attacked personally. If he had focused on the spear or the sword, he would have been overwhelmed by the armament of the enemy. If he had focused on the stature of the giant he would have been in awe of the power and might of the enemy.

Instead, David focused on God. He focused on the weapons God had given him. They were not the normal weapons of war we would readily recognize. As a matter of fact we would probably say they were foolish weapons.

If your mind is not clear on how foolish these weapons were then think of this. If you were in a big field, a long way from any protective covering, and a large bear started a raging, roaring attack towards you, would you want to fight him off with a sling and five round stones? That should clear it up for us.

David did not see his death as his problem. Either God was God or He was not. David did not see his weapon as less than adequate. It was what God had given him for this time in his life. Surely, God knew what was needed.

Here we approach the key issue in all changes in our lives. Trust. Many won't make changes because they do not yet trust the outcome of those changes. In the secular world a corporation brings about changes by getting the people to trust the results those changes will cause. This is called "buy in" because those who go along with the changes "buy in" to the proposition that the changes will make things better.

The key issue in a church is also trust. But the people in our churches have turned the focus from trusting God to trusting man. We vote on whether we trust this action or that improvement will get this or that result. We vote on who we think can lead us to the right place. In fact, the trust we need to focus on is whether we trust God or not. Will we take our church into battle even though God has given us only some small, smooth stones? Are we trusting God or what we think we have?

Most people are afraid of change. There are many reasons given but the truth lies in the fact that many Christians never really get to the place where they trust God with everything. Too many warriors never find that keep of God where they feel the warmth of His protection and guidance because they do not trust Him to know what is best for them.

Vanquishing the Philistine was not David's focus. He was angered over the attack against God and against God's people. It did not matter who was fronting the attack. The enemy is the same enemy through all ages. And the answer is the same answer. Focus on God and let God defeat the enemy's attack.

We are not to be distracted by the words of the enemy. We are not to be scared off by the armament of the enemy. We will not allow the size of the enemy to influence our actions. We will, through the power of Jesus Christ, stand against the enemy and prevail through faith. We will trust God to lead us to victory in all things.

So, what if we get off track? What, if we are deceived by the enemy, at first? The way back to God's path for our lives, when we stray into worldly affairs, is to change where we have been going. Too many Christians are concerned with where they are. They say things like, I'll get saved as soon as I clean up some areas of my life. Or, I can't get into church until I change some things in my life.

Our walk with God is not where we are but where we are going. We must recognize that only God, allowed to work within us, can change our position. We yield ourselves to His direction. Then let God orchestrate the changes necessary in every area of our lives. The change may be small or it may be necessarily difficult. But the reward of everlasting, victorious life with Jesus is motivation for every change we must make.

The main thing is we must get back in God's keep. We must return to the safety and power of our first love. When we refocus our attention on God, He refocuses our victories against the obstacles set by the enemy.

The enemy's plan is always the same, refocus the goals of the people. Move them away from God. God is always the same and we must turn from our wicked ways in order to come back to God. (2 Chronicles 7:14) This turning must be a change of our current path. God's servants, like Paul, help us to understand how far we have strayed from God's course. They are sent by God to make us understand. They are sent by God to remind us of the road we need to follow. They are the examples we need to help us get back into God's keep. They are warriors whose methods we should emulate.

The enemy of our soul knows the power of God. If the Pauls of God are allowed to speak and spread the gospel then great multitudes will come to know and understand the glory of a great God. This is the real threat of the Christian voice in the world system. This is what the world system is really fighting. This is what scares and motivates Satan to attack.

The world wants to absorb the "Christian Way" in order to give credibility to their ideas, as if what people think proves they are right. They do not want to be absorbed by the Christians because that would require admitting they were wrong and then further require they have a need to change the direction of their lives. The only course of action available to the worldly system is to draw Christians into their ways through compromise.

Christians need to live a life that proves, by principled actions, they are rightfully following the true God. How a Christian intends to prove that God is in control without exercising the power of God is a troubling mystery. Most Christians seemingly expect the world to believe in God without having met Jesus. Warriors need to be more like the woman at the well in John 4. She told the villagers to come see a man who represented all God had to offer. The response of the villagers was the response of all those who meet God for real. They will believe. Maybe they won't always follow. (That's an individual choice.) But, they will believe.

All people have a need to change things in their lives and allow God to direct their paths. "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;" (Romans 3:23). If we are too arrogant to admit our need, then we are not ready to come to God or go any further with Him. We can never enter into God's keep while we choose in our heart to rule our own destiny. God wants to rule over our every thought as well as our time.

Knowing the power of the Christian testimony the enemy uses its own power, as the accuser, to thwart the plan of God. (Revelation 12:10) Satan travels to and fro in the earth looking for whom he might accuse before God. "Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them. And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth (turn away from) evil? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought? Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face. And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD." (Job 1:6-12)

Satan is the enemy. Satan is looking to separate us from God's influence at all turns. The enemy of our soul even desires to kill us, but God will not allow it. God does not care that we lose all the possessions of our life's gathering. (So, we should not care) He can give us more than we ever thought we would have.

These possessions are not God's focus for our lives and they should not be ours. But God will allow the enemy to take these earthly things at times and thereby force a deeper dependence upon us for the "keep" of God. Then we can improve our relationship with God by changing our focus to be more clearly upon Him.

* * * * *

Even the best Christian has a need to always grow closer to God. We are ever in need of chasing the things of the flesh from our lives. (Cleaning up the clutter) We never finish this battle until we shake off this mortal body. We must stay within God's keep. We must answer the warrior's call.

# Chapter 4

# When A Christian Answers God's Call

When I first heard God calling to me my life was in total turmoil and seemingly getting worse every day. My mother had just been diagnosed with untreatable cancer and we were going back and forth to the hospital waiting on the end to come. My finances were in a terrible condition and it seemed like I owed everybody. I was not living for God yet I was trying to raise my three children in a world I knew was immoral and greedy with a sense of values and ethics I had learned in church. I felt like a failure even though I was always able to somehow make ends meet. Still there was no sense of victory, just constant defeat.

When I heard God call to me I couldn't see. Like Paul on the road to Damascus I was blinded by God's presence and His magnificent love. There were no scales on my eyes as Paul had. Instead there were tears. The doctors had told us that my mother would pass away within the next three to four weeks. There was nothing more they could do except to make her as comfortable as possible. She would not even make it to her fiftieth birthday. The news crushed even my own ever-hopeful spirit. Full of anger, hatred for the cancer and a God that would not stop this terrible thing, I drove back from the hospital to go to work.

I was fuming with an unfocused anger and was yelling at the top of my lungs as I drove. The rain was pouring down like one of those movies where it always rains at funerals. My unhappiness coupled with my knowledge that I could not afford to drive back to the hospital that week. (I could not afford the extra gas money) caused me to blow a mental gasket and I just went off.

With everything I had I screamed and yelled and cried as I maneuvered the car through the city streets to the highway back home. When I hit the highway I pushed the accelerator to the floor. I didn't care. I was mad and God help anyone who got in my way. I felt a right to be mad. The harder I fought my inability to control this situation the angrier I got and the harder I cried.

Finally, partly because I do not drive fast and partly because I could no longer focus my eyes through the streaming tears, I pulled over to the side of the road. I didn't know what else to do so I just talked to God like I did when I was a boy. My heart was breaking. Not for myself. I always knew I would be okay, but for my mother who was suffering with the pain and the loss of dignity brought on by the last stages of cancer. So I sought out God from a heart made pure by love.

"If you're real, Lord, please don't let my mother suffer." Was all I could think to say.

Two nights later my father knocked on my door in the early morning hours and told me she had gone on to heaven. They had prayed the twenty third Psalm together just before she passed away. I knew that night God had heard my prayer. And if He was real He would certainly have more to say to me.

Many months would pass by before God called again. With the pain of my mother's loss still fresh in my mind He sent good folks to my family and I and offered us more than just comfort. God offered us a new way of life. And I accepted. It is a decision I have never regretted. There were many times in my life when I felt the urge to return to the church and the God I had grown up with. But I had always fought it off or made myself another set of excuses. This time my hurt needed healing that only God could accomplish. This time I did not ignore God's call.

I needed a place of refuge, a place of comfort. I could not find one. I did not really know where to look. Today I recognize the importance of being able to go to God and gain access into His keeping power. I knew the God who promised but I did not know the promise because I had no idea how to receive it. The promises of God are given in the keep of God. They must be received in the keep also. Our relationship with God initiates the promise and our closeness with God causes us to receive it.

During a multiple relay race the runners pass off a baton to each other as the next leg of the race begins. God has many blessings to pass off to His children but we have to be going in the same direction as God on the same track and be able to reach out to Him as He reaches out to us. Anything less and we can reach out and God can reach out but we never make contact. If we are running on a different track because of our own agenda we miss the blessing. I f we are not running the same direction because we aren't comfortable with His direction we miss the promise. We must be in God's keep to partake of God's promises.

Answering the call of Christ to enter into the family of God is more than going to church every week. It is a call to a relationship that goes deeper than we have ever been and reaches farther than we have ever gone to do more than we ever thought possible.

_It is entirely possible for a Christian to ignore God's call._ Watch how the world responds each time a Christian answers the call God has placed upon their lives. They question it. They refute it. They scoff and laugh. The world wants us Christians to operate with their values not God's. But there is a danger for the Christian living a carnal life with worldly values.

Carnality is not sin. Carnality is a focus upon self and selfish things. One can be a Christian, having accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior, and still be carnal in their regard for worldly things such as money and cars and free time and hobbies. Sin is not in the carnality but in the actions that result from the carnality. Paul spoke to the Corinthians and he cautioned them against carnality like this. "And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, _even_ as unto babes in Christ. 2I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able _to bear it_ , neither yet now are ye able. 3For ye are yet carnal: for whereas _there is_ among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?" (1 Corinthians 3:1-3) Carnality is everything that God is not. The widow woman in 2 Kings, Chapter 4, knew enough to get the carnality out because she claimed to have nothing. In her life there was nothing to keep her from getting to God's keep where her answers lay.

Week after week, there are many Christians sitting on pews in our churches doing nothing. We have gotten the erroneous conception that God will call us and let us sit. Matthew 10:1 says, "And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease." Clearly, power is used to make something happen. True there was some training time in there, but how many today are still sitting after years of training? How much training is needed before they can show up for a work-around-the-church day or to set up or help clean up after an event? Christians are supposed to make something happen. The Christian warrior has been given the power to go to battle with the enemy.

"No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me." (John 6:44,45) God does the drawing of people into His kingdom. We have all come to church because God wants us there. After we come, then we shall be taught of God. Why do we need to be taught? Does God just prefer informed people around Him at His throne? There is a mission we must be prepared for.

The mission is stated very clearly a little further down in the chapter. "Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." (John 6:53) We are to spread the good news by doing something. We are the preachers and the teachers. We are the workers and the friends. We are the leaders and the shakers of this world.

_Christians are called for one purpose, to light the pathway to the true light._ We must have the power of God to be a light. The Christian must learn how to be a light by learning from God. Some of us have been sitting on pews for so long we have forgotten most of what God has taught us. Our lights are dim because we have let so much of God's light go dark.

It is time for all Christians to take what God has taught them and share it with a dying world. Surely, most Christian churches have forgotten the end of the book. Why else would there be such a lack of concern on our parts? If each Christian truly had knowledge of the fate of those who deny God, then would not every Christian be doing something to keep someone from such a tragic conclusion? Does any Christian reading these pages really want to see another human being end up in hell? Of course not!

This fact is one of the first things we learn as Christians. But we sit on the pews so long we forget it and learn new things that we let take up space until we can learn some more new things. Too often this becomes the Christian cycle without ever producing any fruit except spiritually, fat Christians. We should not learn so that we may forget. A Christian must do something with what God gives him or else the enemy will take it away or it will rot and decay.

We must raise our children in a Godly way, or the enemy will take them away, also. God adds to what we have as we share it and multiply it. "And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more. His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord."... "Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strowed: And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine. His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strowed: Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matthew 25:20,21, 24-30) Truly, God is looking for those who are willing to do something with what He gives them.

_The blessing exists for the warrior who carries out the mission._ The warrior who does not accept his mission and hides from it shall receive punishment. God himself even states that there is something that everyone could do. He gives the slothful servant advice on something he could have done. We must take this advice to heart and fear our own end if we do not.

Look at the last line. "And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Those warriors who will not take part in the battle shall be imprisoned with the enemy. Thank God for the warriors who will pick up their assignments and march off to war. We are all products of those people, somehow.

The Attack's Characteristics

In verse 2, of Acts 24, when Paul answered God's call, we see the enemy forces gather for the first wave of the attack. "And when he was called forth, Tertullus began to accuse him, saying, Seeing that by thee we enjoy great quietness, and that very worthy deeds are done unto this nation by thy providence." The world wants to make the defense of "ourselves" the primary concern on our agenda. To do this the world represents the attack as personal. If we take it personal, the enemy wins.

Notice, also, the way the enemy butters up the official in the worldly system. "We accept it always, (the rule of Felix) and in all places, most noble Felix, with all thankfulness. Notwithstanding, that I be not further tedious unto thee, I pray thee that thou wouldest hear us of thy clemency a few words." (Acts 24:3,4, parenthesis mine) This is normal business practice even in today's society. Deals are made based on one hand washing the other or how we pay back the services of another. The world system is thick with greed and collusion. A Christian must steer far clear of this or be sucked into the vacuum created by a lack of moral character.

Some would question whether a system to exclude the Christian really exists in the world. It is a matter of great concern that all Christians understand this system. The world decides who succeeds by deciding how success is measured and how it is achieved. These worldly measurements will always go against God's way of doing things to make sure the Christian stays excluded. Any Christian who does not believe this system exists should ask themselves two questions. Am I conforming to the world's measurements of success or God's? Christians can not compromise. It's one or the other. Second, have I ever felt that to do it God's way puts me at a disadvantage to real success? Christians must be careful what we let guide our lives and drive our ambitions. Warriors recognize the world's system is not Christian-friendly.

_We do not have the personal ability to defeat the devil and his hordes._ It is by the power of God manifested through our lives that Satan is put beneath the warrior's attack. "And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly." (Romans 16:20) Our first need in withstanding an attack is the understanding of where our strength comes from.

"What is my strength, that I should hope? and what is mine end, that I should prolong my life? Is my strength the strength of stones? or is my flesh of brass? Is not my help in me? and is wisdom driven quite from me? To him that is afflicted pity should be showed from his friend; but he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty." (Job 6:11-14) Job spoke of his situation with a profound understanding of where his strength came from. He did not hope in himself for this strength. He did not envision the end of the situation because it was not his place to decide the end. He did not get his strength from the natural things of the world, such as stones or the perceived solid things of this world. There is no worth in his flesh to make him of value to the situation.

Job recognized that his help was within him where God dwelt. He acknowledged that it would be foolish to drive the wisdom of his existence, God, from him because of his lot in a situation. Job even acknowledges that friends should show pity. He knows what he should be able to expect, but, even if friends will take up the position of the world, he will not forsake his God. Job obviously knew from where his strength came.

"My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth." (Psalm 121:2) We can never forget this important fact or else risk suffering the wrath of the world. A warrior's main line of defense against the enemy is the security of the Lord's plan to attack the strongholds of the enemy, not always be defending. Remember, we fight against principalities and powers of the air, not mere mortals. (Ephesians 6:12)

God's plan requires that we be grounded and founded upon the gospel of Jesus Christ to claim victory over things we can not even see. It will take faith in God, who sees all, to direct us. We must, as powerful Christian warriors, make the decision to follow the lead of God, wherever it may go. We are designed to "do" something.

Look at the ministry of Jesus. He went to the people that needed to hear. He did not just advertise His church on a mountain top and then wait for the people to come while he polished the mahogany alter and lit the golden candlesticks. He sat where the need was greatest and taught. "And Levi made him a great feast in his own house: and there was a great company of publicans and of others that sat down with them. But their scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners? And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick." (Luke 5:29-31)

Jesus' example was not the example we see so many portraying today. We build great houses of worship and say, "Now they will come." But we forget. Those in the prisons can not come. Those in the shelters can not come. Those in the food lines can not come. All those who God reaches out for the furthest can not come because they do not know the way. Instead, we collect those who can drive themselves. We collect those who move about the world freely. We collect those who acknowledge no real needs because they feel they are already blessed to have such a wonderful church to go to on Sunday morning. We, the Christian front guard, have forsaken Jesus' example in many ways.

God is a God who wants to meet needs. We must be moving for him to steer us, though. Like a boat in the water, He can turn the rudder this way and that, but until we get moving no direction can be discerned. The same is true of the life of the Christian warrior. Unless we are moving and allowing God to move through us, the world can not see what direction we are going. The cry of the church should not be "If we build it, they will come". It should be "If we lead, they will follow". Most churches today are not leading, they are defending their positions within the community. Like little police stations, churches have become the watchmen for the community instead of God's outpost in the war. We need warriors not policemen. Warriors do not huddle behind walls.

Study

The life of the warrior is always full. When the battle is not raging the warrior needs to be polishing the skills that sustain him in the battle. From inside the keep, with the Holy Spirit teaching and guiding, the warrior expands the relationship with God. This is a full time concentration that lasts a lifetime.

Like any friend, appreciation of that friend comes from knowledge of the individual. Consequently, the warrior must have a great knowledge of God. It is, therefore, necessary to study all we can about God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." (2 Timothy 2:15)

The word says, the Holy Spirit will teach us. "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." (John 14:26) All things that are necessary to our well being can be learned from Him. He has all knowledge at His fingertips and He will share it with us as we grow and have need of the knowledge.

We actually need no other teacher in our lives. That's right! Now I'm not putting our school systems down. But there is only so much that can be taught in a school setting run by a worldly system. And by authorizing others to teach what parents should be teaching we open ourselves up to unimaginable horrors of the enemy's attack against our children. This also takes God out of the picture and relegates Him to a secondary position. To realize this one needs only to look at our current schooling problems today. Drugs, violence, pregnancy, gangs all thrive in current school systems. Why? Because the worldly school system advocates no absolute values for today's morality which God's word teaches us. What is necessary is that we must again focus our lives on God and not our own accomplishments. More than ever the warrior, and especially the school aged ones, need the keep of God.

Now, I do not advocate doing away with public schools. But I am curious of Christian parents who believe that all they need to do is send their child to public schools and they will get a good education and be able to succeed in the world. My curiosity is in the fact they can't believe it when their world-trained child goes out into the world, forsaking the church. Did they teach them at home? Or did they expect that 45 minute Sunday school class each week to offset that 40 hours per week public school influence or possibly the 20 hours per week television influence? Good Christian kids come out of and are involved in our public school systems. But they are the exception not the rule. And behind each one of those children we will find a support group of mature Christians doing all they can to offset the world's influence in their lives.

People do not get the answers to life just because the church has its doors open. People get the answers they need because they are looking for them and someone from God, following a call on their life, is there to help them. Whether it be a child facing drug temptations or a single mother wondering about suicide or a man involved in an extramarital affair, the answer from God needs to be made available to them. It's too easy to say common sense should tell the child to stay away from drugs, the woman should know better than taking her life, and the man should get his attitude right and go back to his wife. It takes love to deliver God's answers and love is never simple. It is as complicated as the people involved in the relationship.

Someone will obviously reach the conclusion at this point that love would be much simpler if we all would just serve God, act like God would have us to act, and be who God would have us to be. They would be totally correct, also. But it is the matter of getting the "stuff" cleaned out of our life that frees us up to be all God would have us to be. As long as we are carnal Christians we will have elements of carnal love. At the least this carnal love will be defensive against being used by others. At the worst it will consider others inferior because they could not reach the level they should have reached with the same resources we had.

God has always had the answer. "But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him." (1 John 2:27) This does not mean we can forsake the gathering together of God's people and learn everything we need on our own. It is the idea that in God we are made whole. He is everything we need. Simply put, everything God deems necessary to our education will come of a situation within which we can learn. Every situation of our life, which God is in control of, is a potential learning opportunity.

People will come along and teach us how to attain the skills we need to live and thrive, how to continue learning and even how to have a closer relationship with God. Situations will be presented to us, from which we can learn valuable principles and lessons of love from the Savior. Times of reflection and self-examination will result in a great awakening of our personal spirit as we commune with God's Holy Spirit.

Through all learning experiences the warrior should prove the teachings by the Holy Spirit. "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." (1 Thessalonians 5:21) The proof is in the relationship. "But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me." (John 15:26) No one can tell us a lie about our best friend. We know the truth because we know them. And if the lie is something we do not know about our friend, we have a close enough relationship with them to ask the truth and expect the truth in return. That's the way our relationship with the Holy Spirit should be. The warrior knows his best friend and where all the answers come from. The warrior goes to the keep of God. The relationship blossoms in the keep.

We must know the one who speaks of the Father. "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?"(Luke 11:13) God says the relationship, through the Holy Spirit, is assured just for the asking. We are told of the need and the answer for the need in one statement. God does not give us things we do not need. Therefore, the relationship with the Holy Spirit is a need we have and, at the same time, the Holy Spirit is the answer to that need.

Learning is the key to our relationship. I can not stress this enough. Learning is the key to growth. Growth is the practical application of that which is learned. Where there is no growth all that can happen is death. There are too many Christians just waiting for death to come.

The study, (or furthering the relationship with God) with the help of the Holy Spirit, takes on many forms and covers many aspects of earthly life. An inheritance is offered by way of surety through the Holy Spirit. "Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory." (Ephesians 1:14) God sent the Holy Spirit to His people for a sign of the hope of our future. He is not just a messenger but also a guide with knowledge of all because He is God Himself. He leads us by the hand through all situations. God does not just point the way. He takes us there personally. Jesus has already walked this road of life.

Jesus speaks with us as we commune with the Holy Spirit. His wisdom and insight stirs our soul and drives our actions. "Until the day in which he (Jesus) was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen."(Acts 1:2, parenthesis mine) Jesus is still the focus of the Christian life. Growing closer to Him is the goal of all warriors. No victory can be achieved until the relationship is cemented. The relationship can only be cemented with knowledge.

This knowledge can only be gained by study. Not just study in the traditional sense but in the sense of trying to understand every situation through the eyes of God. Study can take many forms. Preparation before a situation takes place, observation while the situation is played out, and reflection after the situation has been completed. It is the study of all experiences God has prepared for us that brings us closer to God. The Christian warrior is always ready to be a student.

Chapter 5

## The Attack Comes Full Force

"For we have found this man a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes:" (Acts 24:5)

I remember when I first became the Children's Pastor of a large church that I thought all the parents would love me because I had taken up the call to teach and train up their young children. That thought lasted all of a week before it was explained to me (by the parents) that I would only tell their children what they wanted me to tell them and nothing else. I also discovered that I was expected to follow the exact plan the last Children's pastor had used or consider myself warned that consequences would follow. I further discovered that many of the parents had no idea who God was or what "church" was really all about. Many considered me just a glorified babysitter.

It was a learning experience under extreme conditions. On the one hand I knew what God wanted me to do, make church more inviting to the children, and train up leaders for tomorrow. On the other hand, I wanted the parents to like me and talk nice about me. I really expected this too, considering this was not a paid position. But the reality of carnal lifestyles and compromised Christian values soon brought me to my knees. Not in defeat, but in prayer.

God drew me into His warm, protective keep of love and support when the storms were thrown my way. It did not matter what I did, someone was offended, irritated, exasperated or just plain mad. I found during this period of time that the only thing that mattered was God. And the only thing that mattered to God was those who had been put into my charge, the children. The parents mattered to God, too, but they were not my concern because they never fell under my authority.

Well, we trained puppeteers and taught the children things they could remember all their lives and gave them memories of God's great glory and magnificent love for each of them. I heard the parents but never let them change what God was telling me to do next. I prayed for them, like the parents of one couple who would never allow their children to come into our services. I never knew why but I suspected I had said or done something wrong in their eyes at one time. (So much for forgiving attitudes)

Through it all God surrounded us with people who loved us and supported us and continued to send their kids to our services every Sunday morning. As we prayed we sought God's keep of protection over our ministry and His hand of mercy upon our efforts. The ministry efforts forced us into the keep of God for our every move and every need so that we could effectively teach the children.

Still the verbal assault continued from outside the keep of God. People who earlier had supported me, found fault with the way I supported our godly pastor and associate pastor. This revealed to me the true attack of the enemy at work. It was not me they were angry with. It was my insistence on supporting the pastor they disliked. For this reason I became the enemy in their eyes. No matter how I tried to show them the biblical truths that made their way the wrong way they refused to listen to scriptural encouragement and direction. Rebellion was welling up over issues that had nothing to do with ministry and everything to do with inflated egos.

Eventually, the enemy's attack caused a church split as some went off to create a church they could be in charge of. This is not altogether a bad thing because the stress of beginning a new church caused many to crawl deep into the keep of God and seek Him for themselves for their next move. But the decision of their first move, not in line with God, was already made. The resources were split up and adjustments had to be made on the part of both churches, the new and the old. For a time the enemy rejoiced at his handiwork.

During a time of much prayer and meditation God showed me how our smallest of rebellious thoughts can lead us into something as devastating as a church split. Both churches have rebounded since then but neither has achieved what would have been capable had they remained together and pooled their resources for the glory of God. As a matter of fact, neither has reclaimed the glory they all once knew.

The enemy will attack and the plan is always to separate us from God. But if he can not separate us from God the next best thing is to separate us from each other. This minimizes the efforts of the church and can even kill the local church when enough members stray away.

Some blamed the pastor for not handling the church properly. Others blamed the leaders of the rebellion for inciting dissension among God's people. The truth is that as long as people choose to believe the worst about others instead of getting into the keep of God and discovering what God knows there will always be dissensions among God's people.

Eventually the pastor of that church left to go to another church, hurt by God's people and their refusal to get into the keep of God and see God's direction for His church. The associate pastor left to seek the true glory of God that was lost during this difficult period and became the pastor of another church where he is still searching for all that God has for those who remain in God's keep. Myself, I chose to leave, also. I felt God calling me to enter into a new phase of ministry and a new level of obedience. I went into full time ministry where I discovered that being in God's keep is more important than ever before. Still, I carry the scars of the battle. To this day I can only really trust those who know how to get into God's keep and live there.

There is a pattern of attack the Christian warrior must learn to recognize. First, the Christian must realize the world goes after leaders, not followers. Satan is not omnipotent, as God is. He must get the biggest result out of every effort he makes. Therefore he goes after those who are leading God's people in order to get the most effect for each devastating temptation he can get them to fall for.

When a leader is brought down those following are scattered and destroyed, at least for a time while they regroup and hunt another leader. Satan's plan is to get our eyes off the true head of the church, Jesus, and on a man or woman leader. Then the enemy's attack on the leader will cause dysfunction within the ranks of the followers. If we all follow the true leader, Jesus, and come together in our appointed roles for God, under God's ordained leadership, then any attack of the enemy is met with a full frontal attack from the Christian warriors. This would not only stop the attack on the leadership but take even more ground for future generations. We must always focus on Jesus, the real leader of the church.

Second, the Christian warrior will be portrayed as someone who is challenging the foundation of the world system. Because we are in the world and not of the world this is inevitable. Because we do not have a stake in the world's systems, and thereby support them, we will always be viewed as antagonistic toward the world's systems. These world systems are portrayed as the guiding, nurturing influence on all our lives. The systems are advertised as necessary to maintain the balance that keeps us all from going insane while we wait for God to perform His miracles and carry out His plan. The truth is that God is all we need.

As Christians we are not to wait on God while tapping our foot like an impatient child. To the contrary, we are to wait upon God like a well-versed, super waiter attending to the best customer in the world. "And they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar?" (1 Corinthians 9:13) Those who serve God in sacrifice join with Him in the sacrifice. As we wait upon our Lord, to follow His every direction, the Christian warrior becomes that well-versed waiter and God becomes His customer. This customer, God, also gives the best tips ever, like eternal life in heaven. How's that?

Third, the Christian warrior is labeled as a threat to the security of this world system. Notice that Paul was never accused of subverting the word of God, even as the Jewish leaders knew the word. He was always accused of subverting the Jewish method of running the world according to their long-time and well thought out interpretations of the word. The Jewish rules were the respected system, and as such, could not be changed unless they were the ones to change it. Their system was based on opinions and man's thought process. Paul attacked this by stating God's point of view. There is no defense against God's point of view. So the world makes the attack personal. It was their system Paul was attacking. It was their system they were defending.

Who Will Run the World?

Paul was made to look as though he was detrimentally trying to change this established system. He was described as the problem with the world. Almost as if his guilt was not one of attacking a man-made, Jewish system but rather trying to come into the homes of all citizens and steal their truths right out of their mouths.

Sound familiar? Isn't that what Satan does so many times? Here we see the enemy using their own guilty strategy to turn the opinions of others against God's chosen. That is why it is so important that the Christian warrior not let damaging worldly views become any more established around him than they already are. The warrior must be able to keep their focus on God and not the problems, or the systems, or the people associated with the circumstances. Just as important is the time to start pushing back the already established strongholds of the enemy. That time is now.

Paul explains his strategy in one of his letters to the Ephesians. "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." (Ephesians 6:12) The real enemy is not that which we can see with our natural eye, but that which is moving behind the scenes, in the spiritual world, trying to draw us into a natural fight. As long as we determine in our heart to always seek God and keep all battles on a spiritual plane, where they belong, the enemy must fight us in our strength, Jesus Christ, not in our weakness, our flesh.

Paul became the object of their attack because he was a leader. If he had backed down, they would have pushed him aside and walked on. But the world can not tolerate those who establish Christian values as the foundation of life. Oh, the world does not mind using the principles of good works as long as we do not mention God. The world will allow kind, Christian people to do good works in their own power but will fight to the death (The Christian's death) to keep the relationship of the Christian warrior with God a secret known only to a minimal few.

Knowing this creates a question in the warrior mind. Why does the Christian feel obligated to allow worldly things to enter into the Christian life as if some sort of compromise to help lessen the world's burden will hopefully bring them into the church? What enemy ever gave up when the battle lessened? It seems to be a most deadly compromise for the Christian to sacrifice their integrity in hopes of roping a new Christian for God. It seems also to be a little doubtful of God's abilities or His way. A true warrior never questions God.

Instead, the Christian warrior should be sweeping out the rooms of their heart and preparing for battle. With a fully intentioned cleaning of the heart, the warrior allows God into the rooms of his heart and God's presence chases the evil things away until they are invited back.

That's right. Satan can not make anyone accept his deception. He must be invited in. As long as God's around, the enemy can not get back in. In John 10:28 Jesus explains that He is fully capable of keeping us. "I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." Iniquity is not allowed to remain within the life of the warrior. This is a decision the true warrior must make just as surely as many who will choose to do nothing and thereby choose compromise. By sweeping iniquity and sin out of our lives, we enter into the keep of God. It is a place where the enemy can not come.

The world does not follow those who compromise, it absorbs them. The world follows those who are victorious. The world follows warriors. The world is seeking true victory, yet has accepted false victory based upon worldly concepts of self worth or immediate gratification. (False measurements) Many have accepted this faulty picture of worldly victory. A Christian warrior needs to lead people toward true victory. Warriors must have the true picture of victory inside themselves, before they can share it with others. The army of God must advance the true picture of victory to a misguided world.

### The Army of God

What army would allow the enemy behind the fortress walls when preparing for battle? I submit that no army prepares for battle while letting the enemy tour the facility. I also submit that no church allowing the subversions of the worldly system to dominate inside its decision-making committees and teams is preparing for war. They are preparing for peace. At best it is a man-made peace with the enemy. At worst it is an all-out surrender of God's people to the enemy.

* * * * *

That is not the Christian warrior way. God's way is victory. Victory only comes after battle. The warrior must be prepared for spiritual battle at all times or suffer the consequences of seeking an eternally elusive peace that is being mediated by the god of deception, Satan. The warrior must understand God's desire in their life. If peace is to be the way God will announce it, man will not decide it.

The peace offered by the enemy visits violence upon the community of God and His children. The compromise necessary to achieve the enemy's peace opens every Christian up to the attack of the enemy. Not by vicious assault but by unseen and unrecognized infiltration of ungodly views and evil thoughts. It doesn't seem violent while we are undergoing it, surely not as violent as the alternative – to fight the enemy wherever we find him. But when the end result of the infiltration is realized we see the violence of the enemy action. It is a violence that condemns every person to hell's flames because of their own poor choices mediated under a peace process not recognized by God.

God began the battle process and explained, for all eternity, the fallacy of peace between the Christian warrior and the world. "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." (Genesis 3:15) As God spoke to the serpent in the garden that day He set in motion the course of human events which we identify as the Christian struggle. For the Christian to now believe, simply because time has passed and we have become a more civilized world that this enmity has ended is ludicrous.

Now, a Christian warrior is not some sword wielding maniac running hither and yon trying to annihilate anything that moves. That is where the keep of God comes in. Because the warrior recognizes that the battle still exists today, and because the warrior also recognizes that people's views have changed and in many cases been compromised, there is a greater need than ever before for God's direction in our picking of battles to be fought.

In our prayer closets and times of devotion toward God's word and revelation in our lives we need, now more than ever, to hear God's guiding voice in everything. We do not want to bring harm to the very people we desire to release from the enemy's hold. Our battle is with the spiritual world, which is exerting influence over natural people. The people become the tools of the enemy. If we were in an ancient battle with one of the Philistines we would not focus on the sword or the shield of the enemy would we? We would focus on the enemy behind the weapons. It is the same today. The people who are being used by the enemy to advance Satan's cause are not the enemy. The enemy is still the same one God proclaimed back in Genesis 3:15.

The only peace is in God. "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God." (Matthew 5:9) Get this straight Christian warrior. God's peace is not man's peace. Man's peace is when everyone gets along and plays nice together, both Christian and worldly enthusiast. God's peace is based on "His" abilities. The Christian seeking peace for their life must be in line with God. The Christian must be totally in tune with God's desires. God's peace is of Himself not of man.

The root of the word for peacemakers is "oneness" or "to join". Oneness with a God who created all things is the heart of the Christian warrior. To join with the Lord in His mission to save all men from a demonic world dedicated to tearing down the promises of a mighty God totally occupies the mind of the warrior. The only peace a warrior can achieve on this earth is the peace of having God in his heart. That peace comes from the knowledge of God's saving grace. That peace comes from being driven by God's mission in our lives. Understanding our mission on earth gives us real peace within. The peace God offers allows us to be in the battle and totally at peace because of our relationship with an almighty and merciful God. The peace of the world antagonizes our relationship with God because it denies His ability to keep us through all things. The true warrior rests in this trust of God's ability to keep us through every battle of life.

Knowing the power of the Lord in our ministries comes from being one with God's plan. Our ministries must be the outpouring of the Lord's love through us. While the battles rage around us, the peace of the Christian is the love of God inside them as exemplified in their ministries. A peace that can only be received from inside the keep of God.

Verse 6 of Acts, Chapter 24 sums up the world's case against the Christian warrior. It even begs that the warrior be judged according to man's laws because a review of God's laws in the sight of everyone would show the true offenders to be the world.

Watch the wording. "Who also hath gone about to profane the temple: whom we took, and would have judged according to our law." They do not proclaim the word of God as their reference and foundational rock. Instead, their' own doctrines are proclaimed. (Almost as though they are claiming their own doctrine is on God's level – which, of course, they were) The Christian warrior will never be attacked with the word of God. It will be the distorted view of worldly doctrine that non-Christians use against the Christian warrior.

##

## Chapter 6

## God Will Intervene

"But the chief captain Lysias came upon us, and with great violence took him away out of our hands," (Acts 24:7)

I developed a strong prayer life because of the many things God had brought me through. For many years I followed God's leading and found myself struggling with many issues of life. Government, family, work, church, hobbies, free time, all seemed to be under God's list of things we were supposed to bring in to His control. I knew God wanted us to work and provide for our families but I wasn't quite sure how much God wanted to be in control. I asked myself and God questions like, "should I just work and pay tithe as a condition of serving God?" and "How much should church be the focus of our lives?" My questions were innocent desires to know God more fully and serve Him in a more correct fashion. Finally God showed me how much He wanted to be in control. He showed me how much He wanted to be involved in every aspect of our lives.

God asked me one night how much I trusted Him. Of course I said, "with all my heart." I felt my answer had pleased God and I promptly forgot about it. Several days later circumstances at my place of work forced me into a compromising choice that I felt was impossible to live with. The safety of our plant personnel was put in jeopardy by a decision I felt was based upon economics more than anything else. I decided I could not abide by the decision and I went home to pray about it. Right there in the middle of the day I went home and prayed about what to do. I'm sure it shocked the rest of the management team but I needed to know what God thought. I knew I could not live with the new decision.

When I asked God for direction He answered me very plainly, "Quit." The word resounded through my brain and I immediately raised every objection I could think of. Bills, family stature, bills, our way of life, bills, well, you get the picture. I made my case for working this thing out but still God said only one thing. "Resign."

I drove back to work planning on doing as God told me to do but not feeling all that sure about myself at the moment. As I pulled up to park God spoke to me again, "You said you trusted me."

I did and I would not let my God down. That day I resigned but I gave the company six weeks to find a replacement for me. I felt I had done all I could do here. I knew God was moving me on to another level of spiritual training and instinctively knew it would require even more of my attention and presence in God's keep. I never dreamed how much.

What transpired for the next two years defies normal description. We sold our house, left our jobs, exchanged everything we knew for a life full of unknowns. My eldest daughter gave up her last year in her familiar high school setting to complete her last year in an unfamiliar place while making new friends, too. People told us we were crazy but all I knew was that God had spoken to me and I would do whatever He told me to. I could not imagine any other way. God had always intervened in the lives of His people in the bible and I expected no less to happen in our lives. And I knew, because God had called me He also had called the family. I expected Him to care for them no less than He ever cared for a Moses as they made this new transition.

We ended up living in a drafty house with no heat except a wood stove insert in a fire place. I gave up a good job as a corporate manager in charge of safety and training to work as the janitor of a small, country high school. I spent a period of time when God told me not to work at all during which time He supplied all our needs as I was drawn even deeper into the keep of God. My family never missed a meal and even Christmas was a joyous memory even though we were not bringing in any money.

We were totally isolated from everything we had come to know as real life so that God could show us what He felt was important and necessary in our lives. People talked about us. One supposedly Christian woman even told my wife that she wouldn't put up with a husband like I was. But none of their talk was even close to my own self condemnation. I counted my life as a failure because God had not exalted me and caused me to prosper. I was measuring my life by the world's standards and coming up short because of some problem I saw between God and me. I felt very alone no matter who or how many stood by me and lifted me up in their daily prayers.

I had much to learn. God showed me what He thought was important and all the things He looked at in our lives. Love, obedience, sacrifice, all were hot points with God. Money, success and fame meant nothing to Him. I learned to look at my life from God's point of view. Was I acting in His love, being obedient to His calling on my life, and sacrificing for the good of the kingdom not seeking self fulfillment? The standards of God became my standards as well.

God was building my character during this time of isolation. He was rewriting His character over the world's version I had tried to copy. I could feel successful even if I was not a corporate executive. I could be useful to my church and community even though I didn't make piles of money. God could elevate my actions to success through sacrifice even though my authority in life was limited to what others thought about me. God showed me He could and would keep me in all circumstances no matter how bad I thought it had gotten. Everything I put my trust in was taken away. We had no property, no new cars any more, no social standing because of job title. All we could say about ourselves was that we were God's servants and that we had chosen to follow God wherever He lead us.

During this period God spoke to me and told me He wanted me to go wherever He told me to go. He just wanted me to pack up the family and go when He told me to go. On one trip God took us all the way to Canada where I discovered that obedience was God's primary issue with me. He told me where to go and when I got there nothing happened. As a matter of fact, God just said go home, now. I was outraged that God would waste the small resources we had on such a silly trip. But God was frying bigger fish than I knew. We enjoyed the scenery but were so consumed with the issues of getting on with ministry options (especially paying ones) that we really never enjoyed it fully. During the trip I also realized that we were going to run out of gas and had no money for more to get back home.

This is where the real test began. I wish I could say I passed with flying colors but I can not. I panicked at the thought of running out of gas so far from home. I could only envision all the people who would have been proven right when they called me crazy. Driving around without gas money and food money, acting like we were doing what God had told us to do. We had gone where God had told us to go and nothing had happened. Now, I expected to run out of gas on the highway a long way away from help of any kind. This following God thing was not working out like I thought it would. I was failing for some reason. And that failure was unimaginable in my mind. Many people will not understand the depth to which a person can train their mind to believe in success. But for those who can they will understand when I say that success is all that mattered at that moment. I forgot about ministry and focused on the imminent failure. Not only was I not going to be a success for God in ministry, I was also going to become a failure in the eyes of everyone watching us. And I believe everyone was watching us. There was no scenario I could have imagined that would have been more devastating at that point in my life. God showed me that although I professed to depend on Him I was still depending on my own ability to succeed.

We had to drive over two hundred miles on an empty tank in a big, gas guzzling Chevy van. You read that right! We actually drove that big van over two hundred miles of highway looking at that empty gas gage the whole way. I started to see what God could do. Even though the destination God had given me was out of my ability to drive to and return because of our limited funds, I chose to go anyway. I expected something to happen while we were there to pay for our return trip home. God had other ideas and other lessons for me.

Fully dependent upon God we drove home expecting to run out of gas but never stopping. God showed us He could supply whatever we needed as long as we depended on Him. For those who might want to believe that the gas gage was broken or stuck you should also know that I tracked the mileage on that trip, also. We actually traveled an extra two hundred and fifty miles further than any other tank full of gas we used during a two week period of traveling around. It was a long way to go for a lesson but I will never forget how God intervened that day as we drove south out of Canada coming home. The fuel gage always pointed to empty, just the way God wants us to come into the keep. But we never ran out because God was our constant supply that never ended.

During that trip I was tempted to go back to our old way of life. Not forsaking God just making sure we could supply our own needs. Getting a "real job" and getting our lives back to normal. There have been several tight situations since that day when the thought rises up that we could try and supply for ourselves what is needed. But always I hear God calling to me to trust Him and wait on Him to intervene. Like Abraham and the ram caught in the bushes, God is never late. But He waits on us to prove that we trust Him to be our everything. He waits on us from inside the Keep.

During the attack on a Christian or group of Christians Satan would like for every warrior to separate themselves from God's protection and take the battle upon themselves. He knows that God's people are protected from his attacks as long as they are in the keep. He also knows they will receive help from God. "When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him." (Isaiah 59:19) "I will call on the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies."(2 Samuel 22:4) The warrior who knows the protection of the keep needs only call on God to invoke the promised protection. This requires a relationship with God that begins in the keep and grows there.

God sends intervention to sustain His warriors because He is still in charge. Just as Job was protected from death (because of God's plan) so are all God's people. The Christian must stand for all God brings his way. The warrior must know God is in control and must be able to view the battle from the safety of God's keep. It is only when we allow God to keep us in His place of protection that we can experience the true power of God's intervention in our lives. Unless we give God time, unless we give to God with our patience, God will never be allowed to exercise His plan according to His timing.

The unique characteristic of God's safety is that we can be in the middle of the battle and have total safety because of the life we have lived within God's keep. Our position in natural life is made safe because of our position in our spiritual life. God's safety is not a safety of hiding from the danger. Instead He sends us into the battle with an assurance that He is in control. Just like king David, we ask God if this is the battle He would have us fight and then we wade right in knowing that the Lord has given the enemy into our hand. Christians are fond of saying that we have read the end of the book and we know that we win. Well, it's time that the true warriors start acting like they really believe that.

Paul could have spoken up for himself and gotten himself out of his predicament. He was a great orator, well trained in the art of elocution. He knew these people who were attacking him. He had, if you will, inside information on how they think and react. But he chose to wait upon God. Think about that for a minute. Paul knew what to do to cause this attack of people he previously counted as friends to stop. It was only the peace within his heart that gave him the strength to stand his ground and accept whatever was best for God's cause to happen to him.

That is an extraordinary strength. Every warrior should have such strength. Too many Christians today are chased about by every wind of doctrine or self-satisfaction. "These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit. 20But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, 21Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life." (Jude 1:19-21) While there may be many within the Christian circle today who are being chased by every fad or new idea, the true warrior knows the God who they serve and stands upon the age-old principles of following that God. It is this knowledge from inside the keep that sustains the warrior through all life's battles.

Paul waited within God's keep, unafraid of what the enemy would do to him, because he knew there was nothing the enemy could do that was not in God's control. Paul did not need to fight this battle himself. It was not his battle. The battle was the Lord's. These people were not attacking Paul's agenda. They were attacking God's agenda. If intervention was necessary Paul was content to wait on God to bring it.

There is an important principle of the keep that needs to be understood right here. It was not Paul's agenda so it was not Paul's fight. When Christians arrange their own agenda then they are obligated to fight their own battles. Good things may happen – even worldly people can make good things happen once in a while. But more often than not when we establish our own agenda we stress ourselves out and push ourselves to fight battles we were never meant to fight. Sometimes it's a matter of timing and sometimes it's a matter of wrong direction. What would have happened if Joseph had tried to get his brothers to bow down to him before God was ready for that to happen? Where would they have bowed down to him, in prison? What about Jonah? What would have happened to God's plans for Ninevah if Jonah never followed God's direction? We must, as true warriors, see that it is God's plan and His agenda. This releases us to be servants – instead of masters with all the answers (which we never seem to have). In the keep we learn that it is God's way, first, last and only.

Don't worry says God. "For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." (Romans 8:15) Christian warriors are not given the task of worrying about the outcome of events or situations. Instead we are given a call to relate to God. Now that makes no sense in the natural. The enemy attacks in fearful ways and our defense is to calmly enter into prayer closet with God. Well it is a spiritual battle, remember? Of course it makes no sense in the natural. It's not supposed to. As Jesus told the woman at the well (John, Chapter 4), we are to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth. Instead of fear of the enemy's attack we are given confidence in God's keeping power.

Look at what we are given to counteract this attack of the enemy. "Ye have received the Spirit of adoption," so we can become part of the family. Only those close to the king are allowed in the keep. We are given an invitation to move in close to the God of all creation. When the enemy comes against us – remember he is really coming against God's agenda – we are told to move in closer to God and let Him fight the battle through us. God will tell us if there is something we should be doing.

So many Christians today are so busy that we must come to only one conclusion. All this busy activity can not be of God. God does not run His people ragged. He calls us to enter into His rest. "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 30For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:29,30) Inside the keep we meet with the God who promises us rest. Even in the must rigorous of battles we are given a peace and a rest because God is our continual supply and protection. Too many people are busy doing what they think is God's agenda and missing God's true agenda for their life. This busy schedule is a tool the enemy uses to pull us away from God's keep.

Those protected during the attack are those close to the king. God protects His own and we cry, "Abba, Father", Father, my creator. What an acknowledgement that is and what glory that acknowledgement brings to God when we cry out from inside His keep.

### A Warrior Inside the Keep

2 Samuel, verse 22, tells David's story of God's keeping power. "And David spake unto the LORD the words of this song in the day that the LORD had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul: (2) And he said, The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer." God is the foundation, the place of protection and the one who defends us.

David continues, (3) "The God of my rock; in him will I trust: he is my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge, my saviour; thou savest me from violence." God is our shield. Every good warrior must have a good shield. What better shield could exist? God is the Christian warrior's altar of salvation. And get this, God is our high tower. That's where we view the battle from in the fortress. God will put us in His high tower where we can be safe but still see the battle that is His. He will be our sanctuary from the attack and our savior in the battle before we are overcome. Sure, we are in the middle of the battle. But because of God's keeping power we are also in a high tower. We are in a fortress. We have a shield. No wonder David could say, "He is my rock"! Should we have any less trust in this same God who now works in us?

Still David has more, (4) "I will call on the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies." We must call upon God or fight the battle alone. How many precious brothers and sisters have we lost already because they attempted to fight God's battles on carnal terms? Whether they were misinformed, uninformed or merely too proud to seek God's protection, the outcome is the same, defeat and destruction. Let's not worry about the causes of our defeat. The enemy would like us to spend endless hours evaluating how "we" can do better next time. Instead, let's get to the reason for our victories. Jesus is the reason. He reconciled us to His Father and our Father, now. This relationship is our victory. It is the thing the enemy struggles against. Why? Because the warrior is always under the eye of his Lord.

Still, David goes on, (5) "When the waves of death compassed me, the floods of ungodly men made me afraid." The enemy will attack again and again, trying to weaken the warrior. Satan will tell us we are too weak if we have to call on God every time something happens. Do not listen to the liar from hell. Follow God's plan and the example given here by David, a man after God's own heart. David admitted being afraid of the men against God around him. (Notice they were ungodly, or men against God, not men against David) He states they attacked in waves, a battle term for one assault after another, hoping the one being attacked in the fortress gives up. He says evil forces surrounded him. His fear was for his power to deal with the enemy. He reasserted God's duty to protect His people. David knew the protection of the keep and counted on it even to the extent of reminding God he knew God's promise of protection.

Verse 6 continues, "The sorrows of hell compassed me about; the snares of death prevented me;" All the plagues of the enemy attack were leveled against David, all the tricks that could be played were attempted to bring down the man. But look at the next verse.

(7) "In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried to my God: and he did hear my voice out of his temple, and my cry did enter into his ears." David knew from whence came his protection. When God hears us cry out things happen. Christian warriors just need to get heard. They just need to get through to headquarters. The way is clear. Warriors need to get in the keep so the relationship is in place before the need for help arises. Calling on God, expecting His reply to move the forces lined up against us, should be the standard procedure for the warrior.

Read the end of the battle when God gets the call. (8) "Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations of heaven moved and shook, because he was wroth. (9) There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it. (10) He bowed the heavens also, and came down; and darkness was under his feet." God shakes things up to get everyone's attention. When He has everyone's attention then He puts the devil under His feet. But only after His people have called on Him.

What if the battle has come to someone who does not have this relationship with God already established? Are they destined for failure? Not necessarily. The same God who listens for His children to call is also listening for new children to call. Christ died for everyone's sins and thereby put in motion an opportunity for every person to call out to God and be heard. The unsaved individual can reach to God and expect Him to reach down and touch them also.

The process is simple. You must recognize your need for forgiveness, not just a desire to get out of your problem. You have sinned against the great God of heaven. You must repent and ask forgiveness for your wrong and sinful ways. This causes you to enter into God's protection and eternal life. You must accept Jesus as their Lord and Master, meaning you will now follow His teachings and example as written down in the bible. You agree to turn from your wicked ways and have God become the controller of your life through the influence of His most Holy Spirit which now resides here on earth. In return God will adopt you into His family and you will become an heir and joint heir in God's agenda.

If you have never prayed that prayer of repentance maybe now would be a good time. Lord, I admit that I have lived in sinful ways against Your very person. Forgive me, Father. I accept that Jesus was born as man, died upon a cross for my sins and is now interceding between You and I. I acknowledge You as my God and no other. Help me, Lord, as I learn to follow Jesus and walk this path You have placed me upon. With the Holy Spirit as my guide and Jesus as my Master, Father, I look forward to my rest in Your keep where I can grow and increase in Your will.

Congratulations! You are now a full member of the body of Christ and as such you have full access to the keep of God. Now, get in there and let God show you the real battles.

* * * * *

### God Uses the Evil

Satan attacks and attacks, over and over. He never relents unless there is a better battle to focus his forces on or until after the Christian has been subdued. This fact allows God to actually use the enemy's own plans against themselves. The attacks become tools in the mighty hand of God.

These attacks bring glory to God as the warrior comes through each battle. Each battle becomes a monument for victory or defeat. When the warrior wins, the monument is a representation of a successful campaign. This success is learned and the learning is duplicated in future situations and representative of the warriors dependence upon his or her God. When the warrior loses, the monument becomes a learning experience toward the next victory. The warrior learns what went wrong and how to overcome the enemy the next time. This process of learning drives the warrior deeper and deeper into the keep of God.

"But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise." (1 Corinthians 1:27) In God's all-knowing wisdom He has designated some of the ungodly things of this world to bring victory for the warrior even when the world would expect the Christian to fail. The world's view is simple. They expect Christians, who are the minority opinion, to fail. (Hey, big revelation here, non-Christians fail, too.) The difference is that God receives the glory when warriors allow God to guide the victory.

God is the protector of His people. So great is our Lord that He can protect and teach at the same time. Through God's protection the warrior learns how to succeed. "The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek him; but his power and his wrath is against all them that forsake him." (Ezra 8:22) Warriors seek God and thereby enter into His keep. It is from the keep we accomplish the victory over the enemies outside. God supplies the victory because we enter the keep.

"Ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive." (Genesis 50:20) God makes the wicked plans of the enemy work out for the good of God's people. Sometimes it is a direct provision for God's people, and other times it is an indirect experience that teaches the warrior a needed lesson for some future situation. The point to it all is that God is still in charge. Warriors never forget that God is in total control.

"When they in their trouble did turn unto the LORD God of Israel, and sought him, he was found of them." (2 Chronicles 15:4) This is the right response of the warrior to trouble from the world. A true warrior recognizes the attack, because of their training, and ensures their place in the keep. From there God imparts the lesson of the experience to the warrior.

Many times the world will offer Christians a chance to fight for themselves. The attack comes as a testing of the warrior's intentions. This is a good sign that the warrior is on the right track. In addition, God says each situation teaches the soldier another lesson. "My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience." (James 1:2) Be happy, God says. Look forward to it, God says. Become patient, God says. Get in the keep, God says.

When trouble comes, the warrior must know what to do. "The LORD also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble." (Psalm 9:9) It is clear. The warrior is expected to go to the keep of God for their refuge. God deals with the Christian and with the enemy when the keep is sought out.

God has designed His purpose into all things. Nothing whatsoever that the enemy can do will thwart the plan of God. As long as the warrior remains in the keep, God's plan can be completed. "And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers: And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left." (Isaiah 30:20,21) We will learn more from adversity and the evil of the world than we will suffer as long as we stay with the battle plan, as long as the warrior remains in the keep.

### The Warrior's Call

Oh, that God's warriors would call on Him. We have a choice. God will allow us to have our way until we cry out to Him to have His way. Until we totally yield ourselves God can only sit back and watch. That's God's way. But then the glory of God will fill the situation. Warriors must learn to call on God for His protection and stop fighting God's battles in their' own power.

Matthew 10:32,33 gives Jesus' account of this principle for victory in the battle. "Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven." When things get bad we must acknowledge Jesus as the protector and provider of the victory. If we deny Jesus that honor, then He will deny us in the battle. We will be at the mercy of the enemy. God will not be obligated to protect us.

Satan has no mercy. Satan has no mercy! It is plainly written in the word. We must have the type of relationship with God that allows us to immediately reach out for Him in the throes of battle. Then He will reach out to us and for us. No leader sends His warriors to battle unarmed.

Jesus calls to us in Matthew 11:28-30, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." God calls all warriors that are tired and loaded down with the battle to come into the place of rest, God's keep. If the Christian life is a battle and we are warriors then what else would tire us out and load us up except the fight we are taking on by ourselves. God says, "come into the keep and rest", while He fights the battle. "Oh, and thanks for calling me, by the way," God says.

We should follow Jesus' example. Sit back in the keep (not the pew) and be meek and humble before the strength of God. Jesus calls us to join ourselves to Him. (Call on Him) When we call on Him we will find protection, we will experience rest and we will learn of Him.

To be like Jesus we must be in the Keep of God and be humble from the depths of our soul. We must be humbled to the work of God. Did you hear that? We are not to be humbled by the attacks of the world. Those make us mad. How dare they? We are to be HUMBLE to the work of God. God's plan takes precedence in our lives. To God we show ourselves humble in the example of Christ. To the world we show ourselves strong and powerful in the example of Christ.

Jesus states that His relationship is easy and the invoice is already stamped "PAID"! Let the glory fall. Get that into the life of a Christian warrior and see what happens. The relationship with God is easy through Jesus Christ. The cost has already been paid by the one who hung upon the cross. The strength of the warrior is not the works of the man but the allowance of the power of God to work through the man. When the warrior steps back and lets God take over, the power of God is unleashed upon the enemy and all his troops. Where are our Christian warriors today?

Chapter 7

## Accusers Act Like Victims

"Commanding his accusers to come unto thee: by examining of whom thyself mayest take knowledge of all these things, whereof we accuse him." (Acts 24:8)

We live in a world exploding with a population of people who are victims. As the victim of something they can safely hide their own agendas and maybe even receive unearned gain from others. As the pastor of a church I see this no where so strong as I do in the church today.

When we feel our personal needs are not getting met we blame someone for them and move on to another church where we repeat the cycle until we have exhausted as many churches as we think we can. When I first arrived to be the pastor of the church I asked about the history of the church and all I heard was how this bad thing or that bad thing had happened. No one knew about the good details but everyone knew why this person or that person had left the church before I had come. We are a society focused on blame. As long as we can blame someone else we can justify our wrong behavior.

Let's examine a touchy subject with most church people. Getting our own way. But I assure you, if you are truly interested in personal growth you will find this section truly eye opening. You will also receive a freedom from life's wrong expectancy.

Victims are created whenever someone else takes advantage of them. I remember one couple who felt they had been hurt by a pastor because he explained to them the wrong things they were doing. They admitted that what they had done was against scripture but they felt they had a right because they had been mistreated first. Of course the pastor has used the "two wrongs don't make a right" speech. But still they had felt that the other couple, who had wronged them first, had not been punished simply because they did not go to church. They felt like they were being held to higher standards than the others. And they were.

Their problem was not a simple one. They were mad at the other couple and could not forgive them unless things were made right. They were mad at the pastor for seemingly taking the other couples side. And now they were mad at me because I would not take their side. They felt as though they were the ones everyone was trying to hurt and they decided they needed to wall themselves away from all the hurt. They had labeled themselves as victims of everyone, including God's people.

Over time they came to understand that God's people must hold high standards no matter what others do. They came to realize the pastor was not against them, just on God's side. And they call me their friend today because I would not let them just walk away as a victim.

If every person is allowed to dwell on their own personal hurts in life and sit around waiting on restitution then not much is going to be accomplished. Face it, most people who hurt others keep moving on and never look back. Or the person who causes the hurt gets old and dies. So what are we to do?

That's where Christ's example comes in so handy. He was, first, a forgiver of His people. We need, as Christians, to hold ourselves to His high standards, higher standards than the world. The worldly systems acknowledge hurt and promise restitution. If the fast food company sells you a cup of hot coffee and you spill it on yourself you should get something for your troubles, which somehow they must have caused because they were the ones who heated up the coffee after all. No one holds themselves accountable for anything as long as they can blame someone else. It is a deadly game. Who will we blame when we stand before God on judgment day and He says, "Depart from me, I knew you not"?

As victims we can identify those who caused us to become victims. It is at that point that we become accusers. Like the couple I mentioned in the beginning of this chapter, when they began to think of themselves as victims rather than victors they needed to identify the hurtful party and accuse them. Victims seek to bring down others with their accusations. Victors seek to lift up others with their personal relationship with Christ. When that couple finally got back into the keep of God through prayer and honest forgiveness of the other couple they once again became the victors and threw off that mantle of the victim. The situation had not changed, just their perspective had. They gave it over to God. They got as close to Him as they could and waited for Him to show them their next move. Their desire became one to serve God instead of getting revenge on someone.

Today, whenever I meet people claiming to be victims of something or someone, whether Christian or non Christian, I expect only one thing. Victims have only one desire. They want someone to pay. Unless they can get past the victim mentality their whole life is influenced by this desire to achieve some semblance of revenge upon the offending party. I can never help a victim until I can get them to see themselves as God sees them, a victor.

Every Christian needs to get into God's keep and seek to become the victor God sees in them. We need to let God have all our hurts. All those things others have said about us, or done to us, or forgotten about us, or just plain been mean to us. We need to bring them to God and give them to Him forever, never to take them back. As long as we hold on to the hurts we hold on to the victim mentality and we will live out the age-old adage, "Hurt people, hurt people."

The world will always take up a position to cause others to believe that they are the ones being victimized by the Christian. It's as though the world was just minding their own business and the big, bad Christian came along and did something awful to them. The truth is really the other way around but most people in the world have been brain washed to believe that the Christian is the enemy. (They are blinded by the darkness of the world they live in.) And the Christian community, for their part, has done very little to change anyone's mind.

The Jewish leaders claim that they are being made to accuse this man who has so blatantly attacked them. Their appeal is to the authority in their world to help them maintain their grip on their part of the world. Leaders can understand the appeal of other leaders to maintain their control. This blind spot is just the beginning in the attack against the Christian community. The Christian warrior must know where authority comes from, in order to properly attack the enemy at the source.

God established His people as the leaders of the world and then placed His people in charge of running the government successfully. Contrast this with the current American movement for the separation of church and government. When all else fails and the worldly people can not defeat the common sense of God's ways they always call for separation of church and state. It is impossible to estimate the true damage done to God's people in the past thirty years while Christians sat mainly on the sideline hoping God would intervene. True Christian warriors are surely needed.

Leadership Has a Purpose

Joseph rose to leadership in Egypt to feed God's people during a time of famine. Moses rose to leadership to lead God's people out of bondage. Nehemiah rose to leadership to rebuild God's city. Jesus rose to leadership to offer salvation to the nations. God's people are leaders. Pastors are leaders of congregations. Teachers are leaders of classes. Fathers are leaders of families. Each of us is the leader of our own relationship with God. But the true leader of all is God. True leadership must have the backing of authority. Without authority there can be no leaders to follow. The reason people followed Jesus was His authority. "For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes." (Matthew 7:29)

Jesus equated a man's response and understanding of authority with faith. "For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel." Jesus saw a true understanding of authority in the soldier who knew how to take orders from those he served and give them to those who served him. His faith was in the source of the authority.

The Christian warrior must remember to attack only the source of the world's authority and not the individuals. The warrior must also be aware that the world's attack on them is never about them but about the source of their authority. We love the people and hate the actions that go against God's truth.

The world will look for opportunities to accuse Christians in every area. Daniel 3:8,9 says, "Wherefore at that time certain Chaldeans came near, and accused the Jews. They spake and said to the king Nebuchadnezzar, O king, live for ever." Notice who accuses, who gets accused and how the accusation is preceded with worldly identifications. The three accused were the newly renamed Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. They refused to follow the new law mandating that they fall down and worship a huge golden image built under the direction of the king.

Watch how they are accused in verse 12. "There are certain Jews whom thou hast set over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; these men, O king, have not regarded thee: they serve not thy gods, nor worship the golden image, which thou hast set up."

What a bunch of whiners! Oh you wonderful king! Look at how those three treacherous, Christian leaders defy your authority. We would never do that and we want to help you keep control, the leaders say to each other. Is anyone else getting sick here, besides me? Notice also that the Chaldeans are attacking leaders, not followers. Nothing irritates me more than to be attacked by a whining complainer. That's why it is so hard to remember that it is God being attacked, not us. We must not allow the situation to change our focus. We must remain in the keep of God.

When viewing the king's response we can see the response of the world's leaders to this despicable ruse. Once made aware that someone may be trying to thwart the king's authority the king must take action to recover the perceived loss of control. "Then Nebuchadnezzar in his rage and fury commanded to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Then they brought these men before the king." (Daniel 3:13) This leader is not focusing on an attack against anyone accept himself. The enemy of his soul has already deceived him through the voices of the whining attackers and to justify his own position he must control others.

Christian warriors must recognize this characteristic of the enemy's attack and choose not to fall into it either as a victim of it or a champion of it. The focus must be maintained as toward God and not toward self. This is accomplished as long as the warrior stays in the keep and doesn't come out to take on the enemy himself. Why would a warrior step out of his armor in the middle of the battle field? We would certainly say the warrior who did so had lost his mind. God's leaders, when they feel the attack pressure, burrow deeper into the keep of God and rely more upon the protection and guidance of the Lord for their life. That's why the enemy targets the leaders. If Satan can get the leaders to come out of the keep he can easily devour the followers who have not learned to fight from the keep yet.

Under Authority

Those under God's authority take it to God, who brings the victory. Christian warriors do not have to control what God already has control of. Matthew 20:25 explains how God views worldly authority. "But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them." The world's authority is based upon exercising dominion and ordering others around. The worldly must exalt their' own positions in order to exercise authority. Compare this to Satan's own exaltation of himself. But read on.

Verses 26-28 give us the Christian version of authority, "But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." The warrior exercises faith by allowing God's authority to manifest itself and minister to people in all situations. The warrior is a servant of God's people as God directs them to be. The battle from the keep looks like ministers of God (you and I) ministering to the hurting people of the world.

We must see the difference between the world's leadership and the Christian's leadership. The world leads by taking control for themselves and the Christian leads by yielding control to God. The world's leaders take their authority with violence or the threat of violence while the Christian warrior is given their authority through the love of a Savior who sacrificed himself on a cross. (Violence is any act designed to create a negative result for someone. Satan creates negative results while God offers only positive growth.) The difference in the two leadership authorities is extremely important for the Christian warrior to understand.

Look at a normal dollar bill. The piece of paper is worthless on its own. The price of a dollar bill is backed by the authority of the gold it represents. The authority of the gold allows the user to present a piece of paper in exchange for goods or services and the recipient is assured, because of this backing, that the paper has the authority to represent a dollar in gold. All leaders must represent some backing or source of authority in order to demand a following.

So where do the worldly leaders get their authority from? There is only one option according to Jesus. Either we serve God or we are against Him. If the world is not serving God then they are against Him. Now to be against God is to be for Satan.

The sound of exhausted patience crying out in protest, I now hear, is from all those people who say they are not for Satan just because they don't follow God. The truth is that Satan does not care whom anyone claims he or she is for, as long as they are not for God. An individual may believe they are out for themselves but if their life is not given to God it is, by default, given to Satan. There are only two outcomes in eternity, eternal life with God or eternal damnation with Satan and his followers.

The worldly take their authority from Satan and he lets them have it. They are given the authority to stab at each other, pick fights, be good to one another, earn money, steal money, get married, just live together, go to school, learn, go to church, be part of the Christian congregation. Satan has the authority to allow them to do all these things. He will allow everyone to go to church as long as they do not worship and praise God. (Satan and his devils show up for every church service to distract and shipwreck weak believers.)

Satan is the prince of the power of the air. "Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:" (Ephesians 2:2) Those walking in the worldly ways are under the authority of the prince of the power of the air.

Satan's authority is an authority based on violence and domination. "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:" (1 Peter 5:8) And those who follow his example and use his authority become just like him. We will use the same methods and follow the same path as those we follow. Still, some may say that they do not follow Satan just because they stray from God's path but we must remember that Satan doesn't care which path you take as long as it is not God's path.

"As a roaring lion, and a ranging bear; so is a wicked ruler over the poor people." (Proverbs 28:15) Violence will follow the authority of the self-proclaimed leaders. It may be a physical violence or a mental violence or even a spiritual violence. But violence must come from Satan's authority. Satan does not know real love so he can not authorize anyone to act in real love. It is always a false love with an underlying violence that causes God's created people to stray from God's desired path.

The Christian warrior, on the other hand, receives power from the God that is love. A true Christian leadership example will proclaim the love and the uplifting knowledge of a relationship with God. "And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." (1 John 4:16) And this love gives us our authority. We must receive this love in order to share it and we must give this love to be like Jesus. "Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world." (Verse 17) Because God's love dwells in us we are made a finished product able to share with assurance the love of God. Love is the battle cry that emanates from the keep of God.

It says, "As He is, so are we in this world". We have the authority to do the same as He would do and are commanded to do just that. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father." (John 14:12) We are commanded to stay behind and continue the fight to spread the gospel. We are authorized, as Christian warriors, to accomplish this task just as Jesus would.

The world has the authority to accuse because the source for their authority is Satan. The Christian warrior has the authority to love because the source for their authority is God. If we respond to the world in worldly authority we will be defeated because Satan will not give the Christian warrior authority to succeed in defeating his agenda.

A warrior must learn to love as God loves in order to respond in God's authority. When God attacks the world's source of authority through the life of the warrior the victory has already been won. Jesus has already fought that battle. The warrior's job is to recognize the accusations of the world and put them in God's hands. In God's hands the victory is assured.

So, how can the warrior evade the trap of falling into the pattern that demands defending themselves? Surely, there must be more to it than just remembering not to accuse others only because that is the enemy's tactic. What principle of God can the warrior latch onto in order to understand the enemy's attack? What tenant of God's word does the accusation violate? That's what the warrior needs to key on.

* * * * *

The Rebellion Trap

The enemy of our soul has one goal and one goal only, to separate us from our relationship with God. The only necessary action on Satan's part is to get the Christian to respond with another action that draws the warrior away from the keep of God. He only needs to get the Christian to focus on a personal goal for just an instance to pull them out from under the umbrella protection of God. Then the response of the Christian has no power because the Christian has taken on the fight for their' own cause.

It's like poking a stick at a wild animal to get them to react and then coaxing the animal's reaction into a compromising position where one could take further advantage to snare the animal. Satan does the same thing to Christians. He pokes at us in our weakest area or areas and then waits for us to lash out in anger, frustration or hopelessness. This lashing out, pulls us out of God's keep and into the enemy's line of fire. It is called rebellion.

The enemy of our soul is the master of rebellion. He knows the ins and the outs and every aspect of rebellion. Therefore, it is no surprise that his most effective weapon against Christians is the act of rebellion. By drawing out the rebellious side of a Christian, Satan uses every trick at his disposal to sever the relationship with God. There are so many ways that humans can grab hold of rebellion that many never realize that rebellion is what really keeps them from God and His power. (And many times true relationships with other believers)

Numbers 12:1,2 tells the story of Aaron and Miriam when they become disenchanted with the leadership style of Moses. (Really, they just don't like a personal decision he makes – marrying an Ethiopian. Sound familiar to any church leaders out there?) They allow themselves to compare their own ministries with the ministry of God's anointed leader. For just a minute they allow rebellion to enter their thoughts and words. They question God's appointed leader. "And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman. And they said, Hath the LORD indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us? And the LORD heard it."

The world tells us that we need to be in control of our lives unless we are losers. Little by little the Christian community has bought into this doctrine of rebellion. If God is in control then we must assume that everything that happens to us is for our good. That is not, however, the way many Christians in our churches think.

We say we are being oppressed of God for so many different reasons. Some believe the sins of the fathers are inescapable and we must bear with them in submissive misery to pay for the sins of our forefathers. Some believe we must pay for our own sins before we can enter back into the good graces of God. Others believe that the Christian of today has no power from God because cultures have degenerated so far from God's plan. All have one thing in common. There is very little, if any, chance for hope in these doctrines.

The smallest of our actions to turn from God still separates us. How many people have spoken words similar to those of Aaron and Miriam about their pastor, their bosses, their friends, their marriage partners, or even other church members? We tell ourselves we are just "proving" the leader or teacher. It's just talk, we tell ourselves. Somehow we justify the words.

The separation comes from our attitudes after the proving. Surely, Aaron and Miriam were not looking to attack Moses or overthrow his leadership. They were merely expressing concerns and frustration over the way they wanted things to go. Maybe someone had spoken well of Moses for something they had done. We don't know the reason for their disgruntled thoughts. We just know they had them and that God did not like them.

Reviewing the details of Moses' role as leader is not the sin. Discussing how Moses is carrying out God's orders is not a sin. The sin is thinking (dwelling on) and verbalizing alternatives. When we think we can do it better than God we rebel against His leadership in our lives. Look at how God deals with the rebellion of Aaron and Miriam.

"Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth." (Verse 3) First God recognizes the attribute He admires in the man. This meekness is the desire to let God be in charge. Meekness is serving God God's way not showing weakness. On the contrary, God uses the strength of those who choose to follow him instead of giving in to the ways of the world. This is the attitude of the Christian that God will protect.

"And the LORD spake suddenly unto Moses, and unto Aaron, and unto Miriam, Come out ye three unto the tabernacle of the congregation. And they three came out. And the LORD came down in the pillar of the cloud, and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam: and they both came forth." (Verses 4,5) To confront the wrong all parties must be together. We must understand that togetherness with God's people is part of God's plan and a result of an atmosphere with no rebellion. It is almost a sure bet that those who do not like to fellowship with other Christians are in a state of rebellion over something. It may be something they are keeping silent about or it may be something they have verbalized. It is still rebellion whether hidden or not.

See how God explains the relationship. "And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the LORD shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? And the anger of the LORD was kindled against them; and he departed." (Verses 6-9) God reasserts His authority for all to understand. Make no mistake about it. God is in charge. He has always been in charge. He will always be in charge. To think for even one minute that God is not in charge is rebellion.

Not only does God refuse our relationship after we rebel but He also removes His protection from the rebellious individual(s). This leaves the door open for all of Satan's attack in the full fury of the one who truly hates God's creation. "And the cloud departed from off the tabernacle; and, behold, Miriam became leprous, white as snow: and Aaron looked upon Miriam, and, behold, she was leprous." (Verse 10) That opening is all that Satan requires. He can not touch God's anointed.

There's a revelation every Christian should latch onto. If Satan is not allowed to touch God's anointed, then why would another Christian be allowed to? David said it best when he told Saul, "Behold, this day thine eyes have seen how that the LORD had delivered thee to day into mine hand in the cave: and some bade me kill thee: but mine eye spared thee; and I said, I will not put forth mine hand against my lord; for he is the LORD'S anointed." (1 Samuel 24:10) The Lord does the delivering. True warriors must learn to leave all outcomes up to God. David passed the test and consequently his testimony was repeated in scripture. All warriors would do well to remember David's example.

The strength of the world's accusations are based on rebellion. Without the rebellious thoughts and actions there is no rift between the Christian and the world. It is obviously very important for the Christian warrior to maintain their position with God and not allow any hint of rebellion to enter into the relationship. Satan will attempt to poke at the Christian until they lash out in some form of rebellion. The steadfast Christian warrior will stay in the keep of God and let God direct the battle.

Through the ploy of the enemy, rebellion can enter into the Christian life and allow the enemy's attack to land suffering blows to the individual. Satan must get the Christian to drop to his level in order for his attacks to score points. The warrior who holds his ground in God's keep does not let the enemy take the advantage.

Because any attack of the enemy must be personal the enemy must play on the sympathies of the world's opinion. God's people will never be the popular group until Jesus returns to set up His kingdom on earth. Until then, the world's opinion of the Christian people will be negative at the least and despicable in the truth of the world's shame, which the Christian lifestyle brings into the light. The true warrior will understand the accusations of the world and know the source of worldly authority without falling into the trap of rebellion.

Chapter 8

## The World Will Gang Up

"And the Jews also assented, saying that these things were so." (Acts 24:9)

It is built into the human mind. We are not a solitary people. We seek out friends and those who have similarities to us. We group together for the purpose of further enjoying the lives we lead. Fulfillment is never reached until we can share the things we enjoy in life with others. We need others to enjoy the things we enjoy because they bring us so much pleasure.

Maybe it's the guy at work who wants you to share his hobby of hang gliding. Maybe it's the woman next door who calls you to go with her every time she heads for the mall. Maybe it's the kid down the street who just got a new video game and he wants you to come over and play it with him. Whatever the stimulus the focus is the same. We all have things we are proud of and enjoy in our lives and we want to share them with someone else.

Now this is very healthy thing for the church and its people. After all, those who really love Christ will want to share Him with everyone they meet. The great commission is completed it part just because we are people and we love to share the things we love. God doesn't mind that we share our favorite television program or sport. He is the One who designed us to be that way so that we would be better at sharing His Word.

However, whatever is good and right can be changed into bad and wrong. This happens when people group up together for the wrong reasons. Inner city gangs get together to take control of their world no matter the consequences to others or the damage they may cause. Racist organizations gather together in order to plot harm upon those they view as less than themselves. Countries hold opposing views simply because the other country is different in some regard and therefore not worthy of their respect.

But for most of us the truth of wrong thinking groups ganging up is a little more close to home. We come together under the guise of proving each other and end up creating us against them scenarios. Maybe it's someone in the neighborhood who doesn't seem to fit in like everyone else. Maybe it's the new girl at school who is just plain weird. Maybe it's that new teacher at church because she doesn't do things the same way the other one used to do. Maybe it's the new pastor who is trying to change things too fast. The principle is the same. We all gather around a similar like, desire, or need in our lives. But we have to be careful not to take up the victim mentality we discussed in the last chapter. When the group takes up the victim mentality then the focus of their group become one of blame. They grow with the purpose to become the ones to blame the other person or persons they perceive as the problems.

Whether inside the church or outside the church a victim mentality based group becomes a gang intent on some aspect of destruction. Maybe It's just to get rid of the pastor or maybe to put another person in their place. Whatever the reason the gang will have to justify their choice of action with some socially acceptable reason. Unfortunately the social barometer they use is the opinions of the people involved in the gang. This becomes a skewed view of life with little or no objective intervention. They become judge, jury and executioner for the good of all.

In one church a pastor friend of mine polled the congregation to determine the type of music they wanted to pursue as they built up the praise and worship team for their Sunday morning services. About ninety percent of the people commented that they wanted a more contemporary experience and would work towards that. Well, you guessed it, the other ten percent, who wanted no change voiced their opinion, loudly. In the weeks to come the worship team learned more contemporary songs while still maintaining the older hymns and best-loved songs from the past. The pastor believed he had made a good balance and that everyone should be pleased.

Underneath the seemingly calm surface a few people from the ten percent group were meeting and reveling in their perceived harm. The pastor, who had started this, became the focus of their victim mentality. As a group they talked to many people about him. Soon the talk was no longer just the music. They found problems with everything he did and everything he said. They began to feel that every sermon he gave was directed just at them. They isolated themselves so much from God and His Word that they lost what I consider to be their grip on reality. The pastor became the evil in their midst while they gossiped, slandered and stopped paying tithes hoping he would have to leave the church because he could not afford to stay.

Do you see the harm of a gang mentality without God's intervention. The good of the gang, at any cost, becomes the beginning and the end of their reality. It didn't matter that they were robbing God by refusing to pay tithes (Malachi, Chapter 3) as long as they got what they wanted, the removal of the offending pastor. It didn't matter that they had become gossipers because they were on a higher mission. The gang's defense strategy had become more important than even God's word.

Something I found even more incredible, beyond the seeming loss of good reasoning by the ten percent crowd, was the fact that others, from the ones who wanted more contemporary music, joined the complainers simply because they didn't want to be left out. Somehow their own minds found more comfort in the gang against the pastor, although I discovered many of the people who I talked with did not really agree with the gossip against the pastor. The desire to be part of something drove them to get on board the easy train that could complain at will. Of course there was a direct correlation of those who moved against the pastor and those who were not found in the keep of God.

Those who spent much time with God could not follow the reasoning of the gang that had developed. Those closest to the pastor could not see the truth in the gossip because they knew the truth of the word and what was really happening in the church. Because of this difference in approaches, those who prayed, prayed even more, and those who gossiped just dug even harder to find more things to gossip about. The situation became unbearable.

I wish I could say everything worked out for the best. But as with many things in life, the good guys don't always win. Eventually the pastor left the church hoping the next pastor would be able to find a way to work with the gang leaders. The reason I mention the story is because it brings up principles of how to avoid becoming a gang like the one described or like the Pharisees that Paul faced.

The life of the Christian warrior is based upon standards set in place by the great Creator. Whenever we detour from following those standards we should feel a warning being raised. We should not ignore the warning either. The result of ignoring the warning is to walk away from God's chosen purpose for us.

How could godly people, who claimed that they loved the church and their God, willingly decide that the man of God, who had done nothing against the Word of God, be labeled as evil? How could that man then be attacked because of the opinions of other people who claimed to be of the family of God which the bible says places others above themselves? Where did the gang turn off the flow of forgiveness from God? Who decided that God did not know what He was doing when He sent then that pastor? These are all the questions that come to my mind when I think about the situation I observed.

The key lies in the willingness of many people to turn from following the pastor, God's sent man, to the few leaders of the gang. For the comfort of being accepted people chose to abandon the right way of God. The anointing of the pastor to lead the congregation meant nothing to them because they replaced it with the warped logic of the gang leaders who claimed some special knowledge of how things should be going.

As Christian warriors we need to be trained to get into the keep of God and seek only God's ways. The only expert opinion I value since seeing that situation is the word of God. People experts are fine and they have their place in our lives. But they will never be allowed to reign over God's word for the true Christian warrior who is nestled deep in the keep of God.

With experts from all walks of life and every tract of society all grouped and linked together by the perceived bond of their own struggle for existence, the world surrounds all those stepping out for the work of the Lord with anger and animosity. The world has more experts than they can possibly use. It is amazing to see how many different areas are represented as specialty situations. It seems as though everyone is an expert in something today. What about the Christian, though?

Paul was faced with all the expert Jewish leaders and they denounced his doctrine as not theirs and, therefore, wrong. Jewish people from all ranks and privileges were assembled to surround the small, unaccepted doctrine Paul was preaching. The darkness is always trying to snuff out the light. The enemy will attempt to cover the light with many outpourings of darkness, the more the better. Paul could have called on his worldly expertise, as a great orator, to fight this battle, but he chose, instead, to be an expert warrior and get into the keep of God.

The enemy will use all its resources for the battle. Every general knows that a good tactic in any battle strategy is to surround the enemy. Cut them off from their supply and they will either quit and be taken prisoner, commit suicide to express their shame, or join the stronger side of the battle to admit defeat. We are the enemy of the devil and his forces. All Christian warriors should remember, we are the enemy of God's enemy. We should also remember that when the enemy surrounds us God is in the middle with us. We can never be cut off from our supply because we are inside the supply when we rest in His keep. The only way the enemy can cut us off from our supply, our God, is if we leave the keep and strike out on our own.

Many Attacks

The world has so many plans underway to stop the Christian and thwart the work of the kingdom it is only a matter of time before several attacks are levied against the soldier of God. The only way the Christian can avoid the trouble is to never go anywhere the world is and pay no attention to anything the world is doing. This is probably an impossible thing to imagine, much less accomplish.

Peter explains the facts of these troublesome areas in our lives. They are many by design. An evil design. "Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." (1 Peter 1:6,7) Troubles will come and go in the life of the warrior. It will be a time of trial that will shape us and mold us into the victorious warrior dependent upon a God that saves and protects as well as supplies and prospers.

Peter tells us there are seasons to the learning process. There is, also, a sense of stress in the learning process that is necessary to the progress of the student. Tests are obviously necessary to measure the degree of accomplishment each student has attained.

It is not God who wants to know the results of the test, though. He already knows all. Therefore the results of each trying situation are for the improvement measurement of the student. The warrior must improve from each situation. It is this desire to improve in the relationship with God and the ability to conquer in the name of Jesus that the warrior seeks from each ordeal. This is what makes the experience worth more than precious metals.

Satan brings several forces to bear on the Christian in order to break them out of the fortress of God's keep. Each attack may be on a separate level or it can all be tied together creating one large attack that consumes much of the warrior's attention. Through it all God maintains His control as long as the warrior maintains his focus on the keep of God.

The only hope the enemy has to get at the warrior is when the warrior comes out of the keep to take up the fight in a personal way. Confusion plays a large part of this demonic ploy to steal the victory. "For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints." (1 Corinthians 14:33) Satan attacks with confusion but God reveals the answer. The peace of God is the only answer. Peace from God is the answer to the confusion of Satan.

"Every battle of the warrior is with confused noise."(Isaiah 9:5) Certainly the enemy attacks with threatenings of greater harm. Over and over the plight of the Christian is advertised in media and personal communications. Preachers cry the loudest from pulpits over noticeable attack patterns of the enemy. News media seems to echo the complaints only they claim that the Christian is the culprit. It seems as though Christians portrayed in television programs have no scruples or sensitivity to the problems of the world. Television Christians are usually stupid or worse. The confusing pattern is made worse by the unnatural preoccupation within Christian congregations for picking each other apart. The confusion is a weapon of the enemy. It should be recognizable to the warrior. By God's peace within the keep the warrior separates themselves from the confusion so they can hear God more clearly.

It is very important that the warrior not only recognize the threat but also defeat it. Communication of truth is the key. The confusion is based upon the lies created by the enemy. Truth is the cure for all lies. First the warrior must understand the source for the confusion. "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it." (John 8:44) The devil is the father of lies.

Psalm 91:4 explains how God supplies the truth as a weapon against the lies and confusion of the enemy. "His truth shall be thy shield and buckler." He is a God of truth. "He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he." (Deuteronomy 32:4) This brings to light the classic battle of right and wrong. The true Christian warrior fights on the side of right against the confusion of the world. The world's idea of right is full of holes and lies. God's right is based upon His truth which is never ending.

Source of Supply

Philippians 4:19 shows the enemy's source of anger at our position. No one attacks another without reason. The reason the enemy is attacking us is to take away the things we have that he can not have. "But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." God is our supply and Satan is angered by anything God can and does do. When the Christian becomes God's warrior they also become Satan's enemy.

So the devil and his troops are out to cut the Christian warriors off from their supply, God. Why? They want to replace our hope with despair. They want to capture our imaginations. When the warrior stops imagining and envisioning the things of God they start seeing in their minds the boxed up, little, defeated lives of the worldly.

It is so important for the warrior to understand the need for getting into the keep of the Lord during battle and maintaining that supply line direct to the author and the finisher of our faith. "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." (Hebrews 12:2) following Jesus' example, as so often is the case, will lead the warrior to accept whatever God brings their way for the benefit of the kingdom. Again, the warrior must become adept at putting aside their own agenda to advance God's will.

If Satan can get us to lash out in despair we are pulled out of the keep of God. When surrounded by so many others espousing different doctrines, the naked and unprotected Christian can fall prey to believing the unbelievable and thus being separated from God. This separation makes us the prisoner of the world.

If the enemy's attack is successful, if we are drawn out of the protection of the keep, we become a picture of so many Christians today. Defeated and waiting for some miracle we can not see or comprehend. Many Christians today wallow in the depths of despair only a heartbeat away from giving up. We can not remember the last time something good happened and if we can, we remember it as some kind of coincidence or good luck because we honestly could not see God in it.

We don't believe we are worthy of God's attention and have no idea why He takes care of some but not us. The enemy has trained us to not fight against the chains of bondage. Instead, we fight over the things of a prisoner. Our pride becomes a possession to be defended. Our land becomes a cross to bear as we trudge through the day maintaining its possession. Our victories become trophies to establish a power base from which we rule our land by the urging of our pride. Those who perform well in Satan's prison are released, in an ironic sense, to travel on their own, spreading the devil's gospel of self-determined conquest. (They write self-help books claiming they have the way despite Jesus saying He is the way.) Those who perform poorly and can never seem to find success, even in small portions, sink deeper and deeper into a closed world of defensive postures and statements separating them from the whole world and especially God. (They form gangs and other secret organizations supporting other losers in Satan's scheme.)

Still others are under house arrest. Their entire life centers around maintaining their personal area in as much violence as they need to hold on to it. (They blame everyone for everything that does not go their way.) If Satan can cut us off from our supply, we become a prisoner of the enemy and just quit fighting. We commit spiritual and sometimes physical suicide, or we join the enemy in his battle against God.

The key to Satan's ruse is how closely it emulates the true workings of God. The Christian warrior is designed to need certain things. Of those things is the need to be victorious, to have a focus for all actions, and to be guided by some inner voice of authority. God is the focus, the Holy Spirit is the inner guide, and Jesus has already supplied the victory through the sacrifice of His life on the cross.

Knowing this key gives the warrior a plan. When the enemy attacks, head for the keep. Maintain focus, get instruction and receive another dose of victory against the enemy. Inside the keep God supplies all our needs, gives us protection, explains the battle plan and shows us the battlefield. From there we can see the victory before it happens.

This is an eternal cycle. God is the eternal leader, the beginning and the end. The Holy Spirit is an eternal teacher and guide. And the death of Jesus on the cross paid the price for our salvation, once and for all guaranteeing our souls a place with Him in eternity. It also set in motion an eternal loop for the Christian warrior to grab hold of.

Satan knows the importance of not allowing the warrior into God's keep. He will surround us at every opportunity. He will attack our resolve to follow the Lord. He will question our motives and actions. He will defend his own doctrines with many expert witnesses. In short, he will pull out all the stops to create another prisoner waiting on God to do something. Something which God has already done through the sacrifice of His Son on the cross. All the warrior needs to do is to accept the victory and enter into the keep of God.

### Gather Around the King

It must be explained that the enemy of our soul has no original ideas. This attack plan is one Satan stole from God. It is actually the very battle plan God has told His people to use. "And the Levites shall compass the king round about, every man with his weapons in his hand; and whosoever else cometh into the house, he shall be put to death: but be ye with the king when he cometh in, and when he goeth out." (2 Chronicles 23:7) God's people, His ministers, are to gather in the keep of God and bring their Christian weapons ready to be used. Those who come in to attack, steal or destroy are to be vanquished by the order of the King. We are to follow the King wherever He shall go because we are the hand that carries out His every thought.

The focus is whatever is in the middle of the circle. For the Christian warrior, God is the center of the focus. For the devil and his troops, the Christian is the focus. One is looking to derive victory, the other total destruction. The principle of the attack is the same, however the outcomes are not. A Christian warrior armed with the principles and promises of God is dangerous to the enemy. An unarmed warrior is easy prey.

Paul understood this principle very well. When accused by the greatest leaders of his time he stood his ground based on the protection of God. When God is the focus, when we are in the keep all that matters is what God is doing. Nothing the world has to offer compares to what God has. They can not intimidate Paul because his God is the ruler of all. They can not make him back down from his preached doctrine because Paul's God is righteousness Himself. They can not threaten him because his God delivers all men through the ultimate salvation. Paul could not be bought because his God already owns it all. In God's keep Paul has everything he'll ever need and more. His real desire is not to defend himself but to get the others to join him in the keep of God.

Wow! What a battle plan. While the enemy is trying to destroy and kill, Paul is trying to rescue and save. Where the enemy is tearing down Paul is trying to build up.

See how Paul's plan is to create a different kind of attack than the world knows. Satan wants to destroy but Paul wants all men to come to know his Jesus. Paul attacks the world's source of authority and claims God's source of authority as supreme. The attack on the world's prescribed methods is secondary to what Paul is preaching. But, because the world is so intent on maintaining their own control, because they have been blinded by Satan's tricks, they perceive only the attack on themselves and build even higher walls of defense against the Christian.

Paul maintains the correct focus by taking everything to God. We learn this from Jesus' example when He did battle with Satan. Chapter 4 of Matthew tells of Jesus' temptations by the devil. Satan attempted to buy, trick or prove Jesus' source of authority. But each time Jesus explained that the answer to the temptation was His source of authority. He told the devil, "It is written." (Verse 4), "It is written again." (verse 7), and "For it is written." (Verse 10)

Jesus knew not only the value of the keep of God but the necessity. He was God as man here on earth, but still he respected the limitations of the human form and was an example of the true Christian warrior. In response to every attack of the enemy Jesus reminded the devil that God is the focus. As today's Christian warriors reads about it they should learn the proper action of God's people is to head for the keep and "advertise" that is where they are going.

Whether the world is ganging up on the Christian warrior with an all out frontal attack questioning our motives, our passion, our reality or sneaking up on us with a tempting offer for fleshly concerns and personal gain, the design of the trap is the same. Get the Christian to make decisions for their own welfare to separate them from God. The Christian warrior should recognize this as what it is, a diversion, and head for the keep of God. Get all the information straight and flow with God to conquer another stronghold of the enemy in our lives.

Chapter 9

## It's A Christian's Choice

"Then Paul, after that the governor had beckoned unto him to speak, answered, Forasmuch as I know that thou hast been of many years a judge unto this nation, I do the more cheerfully answer for myself:" (Acts 24:10)

One of the most frequent points in my sermons is that at some point in every life decisions have to be made and the only one who can make those decisions is us. No one else makes our decisions for us. We must each make our own decisions. No matter what the topic of the sermon I preach, every person who hears it must make a personal decision to follow the word or ignore the word.

Many Christians are faced daily with decisions that hinge on the very things they heard preached the last time they were in church. But how many of us turn to the word and those sermons we have heard for the decisions we make? How much of that Sunday preaching makes it to Monday morning application? Probably a lot less than we would like to admit.

I remember one couple who was having financial difficulty and wanted to meet with me. After reviewing all the things they had been doing I reminded them of the month-long stewardship/financial training they had just been involved in. Their immediate response was that they didn't need principles and sermons. What they felt they needed was money. Pure and simple.

I walked them once again through the examples of my personal life and how God brought me and my family out of debt and into the light of financial security in Christ. I explained my wrong thinking about how to get ahead and all the devastating effects it had on my finances before I chose God's way. I offered them all the details of the things we changed in our lives, the sacrifices we made in order to get out of debt and the miraculous things God brought our way to erase debt as we honored His word.

It made no difference to them. They flatly refused what I had to say because they wanted God to just bless them with greater abundance so they could pay their bills. They acknowledged that what my wife and I had done was good for us but they held out that it would be wrong for them. I should also tell you that this couple had not attained even a close resemblance of the stature or the income my wife and I had achieved before we decided to bring it in line with God. They were undaunted by my insistence that what I had given up was great in the eyes of the world but nothing to God. He was after our obedience.

Still they wanted to search for more not less. They could not see how God could bless them more with less. No matter how many scriptures I shared with them they just grew more and more set in their original determination. They didn't need to get closer to God. God needed to just bless them more. Well, God is not a bank and I could not convince them of it. They made their own choice no matter what evidence was presented to the contrary.

Soon after they both changed jobs, giving the glory to God for providing them with more money. I can remember their arrogant smiles when they reminded me that they knew God would bless them their way. I can only smile with a pastor's sadness when I remember them standing in the congregation on that Sunday morning and announcing to everyone how God had blessed them. The new jobs would bring them the additional money they could just not live without. What they neglected to tell the congregation, a point I had to answer many times later, was that they would no longer be able to attend church regularly because of the new job schedules. They had to give up their positions in the church to attend to their newfound blessings. They stopped ministering, stopped attending regularly and eventually grew away from the church and all the friends they had known. I can only wonder if they still believe God has blessings like that for His people.

The Christian warrior must learn to answer for himself. Sure, the warrior can know the answer, but knowing and putting it into action are two different things. When they become the same thing, then the warrior is ready to go to battle knowing his victory is secure in Jesus Christ. This may seem to contradict the previous chapters but to fully understand this principle, now, will no doubt send shock waves through Satan's ranks.

When we are fully comfortable with being in the keep of God, the thoughts we think and the words we speak, that ultimately become the actions we take, will also be the thoughts, words, and actions God would direct for us in our lives. It becomes instantaneous, almost as though God were thinking and acting through us. (That's exactly what it is, too.)

These actions become the reputation we build and then we shall be known as a Christian warrior. We become the one who walks with God in all things and follows the example Jesus left for us by listening to the Holy Spirit as He guides us and teaches us in all things. We become the warrior the enemy fears most, the one in God's keep.

From in there God can hold onto us so the enemy can not get to us. The keep is the Christian's rightful place designated for the rightful purpose against the enemy's attacks. In the keep God can take control of the situation because we have brought it to Him. From the resources of God we receive all our supply in the keep. Here we learn God's management strategies and understand directions we must take in our daily walk.

When we enter the keep we can be assured our names are recorded in the Lamb's book of life. We do not only believe it, we know it. In times of need, God can protect us from inside the keep. And if the Christian will get into the keep and stay there, God will continue the battle through us, around us, and by us to the defeat of the evil of this world. The warrior does not only fight for himself but for others as directed by God. The warrior's attack looks nothing like the world's attack methods, though. The warrior is always building up for the sake of growth, never tearing down for the sake of destruction. Sure we have to tear down old habits to replace them with new habits. Always we are replacing the bad with the good. It is the warrior way.

There's the choice. It's a simple choice on these pages. It's even a simple choice if we were to speak our answer. But the only answer God requires or will accept is our actions. We must demonstrate our compliance to God's principle. We must believe that Christians are designed to be victorious and not oppressed. Then we must choose to react in ways the world will never understand. To understand would require acknowledging the sovereignty of God and the futility of Satan's attack against God. True Christian warriors will enter the keep of God. Victorious Christian warriors will learn how to stay in there.

### Respect All Authority

Paul explains something to us in Acts 24:10 we should all burn into our hearts forever. We are to respect the positions of authority placed within this world and answer to them only in the truth of the word, not the defense of our positions. A Christian has no position in the world system. Therefore, no position can be defended. The only concrete or lasting thing a Christian has is their faith in the righteousness of God as applied in their life.

We must understand the application of this in the Christian life. During an attack of any kind, a warrior can only fight back with the weapons they possess. Think about it. We would all see the futility of a soldier in a war attacking the enemy with a make believe rifle. It would be a comedy if we watched it on a television screen. It would be a tragedy if it were a real life and death situation. So how come most Christians think they can fight the enemy with a limited cache of weak weapons or worse, by just talking about weapons they do not possess?

Paul answered the attack within his scope of Godly works and acknowledged the authority of the man he stood before. Too often Christians mix up the authority figure with the figure of power. The authority Paul stood before had no power over a Christian. Paul was of God's kingdom over which the authority had no power accept what power God would give them. Paul understood this but did not gloat or boast of this power. The power is God's to control and ours to receive. Paul was really explaining what he could see from inside the keep. What he knew.

The weapon Paul possessed during this questioning was the weapon of safety and peace. Paul was calm. He knew the master. He knew the world's rules. He was waiting to see what God wanted to do next. He was content with God's control of the situation.

What a marvelous peace Paul possessed in the middle of one of his most trying situations. He accepted God's control and expected God's provision for God to receive His own glory to Himself. Paul was not trying to make anything happen. He was trying to stay out of God's way so God could make it happen. We will probably never know how many times our own good intentions got in God's way.

It would have been wrong for Paul to attack these proceedings even though he could have claimed a right. But instead, he left it in God's hands in obedience to his call. To attack on his own and then say, "surely God would want me to stand up for myself," Paul would have to leave the keep and expose himself. It seems a simple decision, but it was most assuredly a hard one. No one likes to be attacked for any reason. And a headstrong Paul would have taken it very hard.

Paul enjoyed his position with the Sanhedrin Council before coming to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. He was a strong-willed individual who zealously protected what he believed to be truth. When confronted by the real truth, Jesus, he was just as eager and zealous about spreading this new doctrine around. His reputation was full steam ahead. To stand closed-mouthed in this instance showed great ability to make a decision and stick with it. The battle was God's. Paul would not wrestle control from God.

In all battles it is necessary for God's people to know what weapons they possess and how to use them. It will take a "keep" experience to take inventory for each of us and then we must practice with these weapons from inside the keep. We can not take the weapons out and run amok with them for our own benefit. God maintains control of all the weapons of the Christian warrior at all times. All too often we hear Christians lamenting the things they can not do to help someone in need. Do we ever think that could be rebellion? Sometimes it is because we did not practice the things of God prior to the needed emergency. Other times it is the very fact of what we choose not to do, for our own benefit, that affects others. Either way, we must not rebel against the One who supplies all things for us and those who He wants us to minister to.

### Christian's are to Serve

God does not make mistakes. If someone comes to us for help, rest assured that we possess something they need or can acquire it. Whether it be food, clothing, a place to stay, or just to be a friend who still has strength to pray, we must know that God brought them to us for a reason. If we lament and cry over the things we can not do, and consequently do nothing, then they will go away not having received of us the very thing God brought them to us to receive. In essence we are saying, by our actions, God must be wrong to have brought them to me. I had nothing to give them.

Then, because we take our ministries seriously, we get angry because our ministry failed to supply. This anger separates us from God. Satan wins, another soul loses, and the Christian is dragged out of the keep to do battle with the enemy on the enemy's terms.

Look at how Peter answers the needs put before him as he and John approached the temple in Acts 3:6. "Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk." Peter did not have what the world perceived as the need. This man sat daily at the temple gate begging alms to provide for his meager existence. When he asked money of Peter and John, they had none to give. Instead of bemoaning their lack of meeting the man's need, Peter reached out from the keep of God to the man. Now that's a battle plan!

From inside the keep Peter could see the man's need and knew the source for the man's victory. It was God's battle and he let God provide for the man. Peter told the man he did not have any money to give him. But because he was inside the keep he also knew God was the supply for the man's need and that he had the authority, given him by God, to share the supply and the source with the man. "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk." Peter gave him just what God wanted him to have. It was not what the man asked for, true, but it was what God wanted him to have. (Notice, he didn't complain)

Peter was the same man who had denied Jesus a short time before. But when the cock had crowed he had made a decision. He would do as God directed in his life. He would spread the gospel of salvation through the sacrifice of Jesus. He would go boldly where no man had gone before in terms of the message he had to spread. It was entirely his decision. And he made his decision for God.

### World's Authority Can Not Help

Many times even the leaders of the world may try to help the Christian. Such is the hatred of the devil that he won't even honor the authority he has placed in the leaders of his world systems if it benefits one of God's loved ones. The king, when he discovered he'd been tricked into hurting Daniel with his self-interested decree, could not stop the wheels that were set in motion against the Christian. "Then the king, when he heard these words, was sore displeased with himself, and set his heart on Daniel to deliver him: and he laboured till the going down of the sun to deliver him." (Daniel 6:14) The king's authority could not touch Daniel because Daniel was not of the world. He was of God. The attack against him came from Satan's employees even at the opposition of the world's leadership, the king.

Watch how Daniel doesn't even have to respond. The king tells Daniel that he knows how he will come through this. He also states by whose authority and power to deliver it will be accomplished. "Then the king commanded, and they brought Daniel, and cast him into the den of lions. Now the king spake and said unto Daniel, Thy God whom thou servest continually, he will deliver thee." (Verse 16) Daniel's reputation was definitely well known and the power of Daniel's authority (The authority he got from THE authority) was very much respected.

When the king came to the lion's den the next morning, he was hoping that Daniel's God had protected Daniel throughout the night. The king had even fasted in case that would help. Daniel's reply demonstrates the true warrior's understanding of authority and power. "Then said Daniel unto the king, O king, live for ever." (Verse 21) He knew the battle had been won because he was in God's keep but still he recognized the authority of the king to manifest his concern in any way he chose. Daniel proclaimed his desire that not only the memory of the king would live forever but his eternal soul. This was in submission to the authority represented by the position. Daniel could do this because he was operating from the keep of God in the power of God.

All of this was a result of Daniel's decision to not stop his relationship with God because of the rules of men. "Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime."(Verse 10) Daniel kept his time with God. He did it openly and without changing a thing. Daniel knew the results of a life in the keep of God. He had risen to high places within a foreign and adverse government because of God's "excellent spirit" being manifest in him. (Verse 3) This was not the Holy Spirit but the perception of Daniel's strength and manifested abilities emanating from the keep where he really lived.

Everyone knew Daniel was not like them. He was different. The world fears those who are different without their consent. Satan fears those who decide to be different for God.

### What To Do

Choice is a weapon of the warrior. A normal Christian can sit on a pew and allow the world to go on its merry, drunken, perverted way while they keep to themselves. The key here is the choice. Most Christians keep to themselves, or at the outside, they keep to their congregation. God desires a different choice. He wants His real warriors to keep to Him. And He, like Christ's example, goes to where the need is greatest and ministers from there.

The recognized Christian pattern is a series of meetings with the congregation, of which they are a member, spiced up with occasional dinners and various celebrations designed to create the illusion of a very busy Christian life. There is little contact with the community outside. Each Christian in this congregation exemplifies the huddled up victim, scared of the world. Occasionally someone from outside wanders in and are met with smiling faces that hide the mistrust and fear of some kind of worldly infection. The warrior in the keep knows no fear of anything the enemy carries and only seeks to benefit the hurting of this world by bringing them to the Lord who can do all things. (Philippians 4:13)

Inside the church they talk about the tragedy of the world's situation. Inside the church they discuss the shame of the world's actions. Inside the church they fix the world's ills and then sigh because the world is too stubborn to accept their cure-all. Without trying to sound accusatory, the majority of churches today have fallen into a pattern that protects them from the world instead of championing the cause of Jesus to the world.

This is the choice of God's people. It is the first choice after meeting the Savior. When the new Christian realizes the love of the Savior for them they must decide to follow Him or return to the old life. To follow requires some changes to be made. Some risks of the flesh must be taken as we put the new life in order and give God control over it. Along with a clean heart comes the desire for a clean house and a clean community. The new Christian must make this choice to follow the one who gave them new life in a different way from anything they have ever done before..

The decision to follow Jesus opens up many avenues for the new Christian. Where to worship? What to do there? When to do it? How to do it? These are a few of the questions but the answers could mean the difference between pew sitters and warriors.

The decision on where to worship is important for the growth of the new Christian. They should choose a church family that can promote their own personal growth while providing opportunities to work in the kingdom. Without proper feeding at the table of God the Christian becomes feeble and weak much like the effect of a lack of natural food would have on the body. On the other hand, a Christian who is fed regularly without an opportunity to stretch their ministry muscles becomes fat and lazy. Both conditions are a hazard the Christian should avoid.

What the Christian decides to do within the body of Christ is a matter of finding what God has designed them to do. "Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching; Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness." (Romans 12:6-8) These seven gifts are important to the Christian warrior. Without identifying the gift within which God has designed the warrior to operate, the warrior will waste much time and effort doing their own thing. This is not only counterproductive to God's plan but also very tiring to the warrior operating under their' own power. There is not room or time enough here to fully review the gifting of God but each warrior should be aware of God's gifting and seeking God's gifting for their own lives. Paul states in 1 Corinthians 12:31, "covet earnestly the best gifts."

When we are working with God within our own personal gifting strengths ministry refreshes and excites us. We are lifted up and energized by the ministry work not dragged down and exhausted by it. Of course, given busy schedules it is easy to see how we come to blame the ministries of God for making us tired. Maybe we should first give everything to God and see what He gives back to us. If God organizes our lives I am sure we will have plenty of energy to minister with.

Let's take a look at some of these personality gifts within the body of Christ. Each of us is born with a certain gift. (Romans 12:6) We actually like certain things in ministry because God designed us to like those things. We learn about and practice these gifts within the keep of God. The world can never teach us these things because the world can not see them. God's gifts come straight from the source. God Himself. We must enter into the keep to discover what gifting God has empowered us with. During our times of prayer and worship He will move us toward those things He has put aside just for us. We will become the creation He designed us to be with all the gifting and tools He has delivered to us.

The "prophet" of God hears and understands the word of God. Their main focus within the body of Christ is the search for the truth. The hazard of operating in this gift, which should be avoided by the good warrior, is that the prophet becomes accusative of all those who are not perfect according to the word. A true warrior operating with the gift of the prophet will demand that all around them represent the best of God and uphold all commandments from the word. Even when tough decisions need to be made, they will give up their own comforts and protective walls for the righteousness of God to shine. They are champions of the cause of Christ without respect for persons or personalities. Their attack method from the keep of God is insistence that the truth of God gets first priority every time.

The "minister" of God operates under a gift that draws others to the salvation made available by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross by serving their fellow man. Nothing is as important to the minister as the needful souls around them. This creates the hazard of the minister's gift. They can be hurt by those they seek to help and withdraw their gift from the church works in order to avoid the hurt. They may even forsake their own family to minister to others, so important is their perceived need of serving this way. This desire makes them very active and creates many ministry opportunities no matter where they go. Their tool for this ministry gift is their ability to bring Jesus close to those who do not know Him by exemplifying the love of God in every action. Their attack method from the keep of God is to minister to the hurting at all costs.

The gift of "teaching" is an important factor for the growth of the church body. A warrior with the teaching gift desires to learn and then share that learning with everyone they can find. The teacher will strive to advance the knowledge base of all those around them. This consists of gathering as much knowledge as possible from all available proved sources and then creating many different ways to share the information learned in a way that allows more people access to the information than would normally have had access. The teacher's attack method from the keep seeks to teach others about their God and all He stands for.

The hazard of the teacher is one of becoming prideful in their own knowledge. This pride in their own knowledge makes them believe they have all the answers. This in turn breeds resentment towards those around them because others are not up to their level of learning sacrifices and are not working hard enough to get there. Or maybe they don't feel appreciated for their study efforts. It all boils down to a feeling that their own gift is better than all others. But the true warrior teacher understands all gifts better than anyone and will seek to gain as much cohesion in the flow of God's kingdom work as possible.

The gift of "exhortation" will uplift all those who come into contact with them. The exhorter gathers experiential knowledge and applies it to every situation for everyone. The greatest hazard of the exhorter, who wants to help everyone succeed, is that they will feel rejected by those who will not take their advice, or prematurely raise the expectations of those they are ministering to. This results in the severing of the relationship over what usually amounts to petty reasons.

The exhorter's strength is their ability to help. The desire to help displaces all negativity in their life. The exhorter is the decision-maker when all others are still discussing. Because they love people they are often the center of attention. It is this attention that puts them in a position to dole out the wisdom to those in need. The attack of the giver living in the keep of God looks like a continual span of uplifting attention towards those perceived as ready to grow.

The gift of the "giver" is their generosity towards all. They possess an innate desire to see others profit in all situations. They know no boundaries for the Lord's kingdom to shine in the area of ministering to the physical needs of the saints. The hazard is that they begin to see all opportunities to help as a duty from God. This causes them to give aid when God is trying to teach a lesson. The aid is therefore wasted and the individual the provision was meant for is then cheated out of the gift God would have provided. The warrior giver must be aware of God's plan in their own life as well as how God would have them interact in the lives of others. Givers are pure in their desires and are the peacemakers in all decisions. The giver attack method utilizes resources as a means for drawing others closer to God and lifting them up to be able to serve the Lord more effectively. When the world would say "save for yourself", the giver says "give for others".

A "ruler" creates ministry within the community, making a way for the lost to come to the knowledge of Christ and a way for the saved to grow closer to Him. They possess skills of organization and a desire to accomplish the vision God has placed within their hearts for their congregation. The hazard with this gift is that the single-mindedness of the ruler can be abused to exclude the relationship factor a ruler must have with the church. As God's representative the ruler must always have time to organize every need in some respect, either directly or indirectly. This is extremely tiring and many a ruler has burned out while operating under their own power instead of under God's appointment. The ruler shows off his gift from the keep of God by taking control, in God's name, of all situations and then orchestrating events for the benefit of the kingdom.

The gift of "mercy" draws the hurting and the needy to the love of God. Those with a gift of mercy believe every one has a hurt that God can repair. They see the pain and need of people and believe in the power of God to make them whole again. They are a positive influence in all situations as long as they focus on God's voice. The hazard for the gift of mercy is trying to make things happen contrary to God's will. Many times the very thing that mercy sees as a need is the one thing God can use to change the situation. When mercy follows God's leading the love of the warrior becomes a tool the enemy can not fight against. The attack of the gift of mercy from the keep of God is easily seen in the love that is generated toward the hurting and the oppressed because of the enemy's attack.

Reviewing the gifting of God, even as quickly as this leaves us with the solid impression that the enemy fears our gifting. These attributes of God's gifting, when they are operating in our lives, go against everything the world is attempting to establish as its truth. Therefore the gifted and anointed warrior fighting from the keep of God is a destructive force to the strongholds of the enemy. The spiritual force of our personal gifting tears down the walls of oppression and fear the enemy has worked so hard to erect. The warrior learning about their gifting in the keep of God becomes a devastating soldier under The Holy Spirit's guidance.

The warrior must make many decisions. Few decisions are as important as the decision to discover God's gift in our lives. Then, the decision to fulfill that gift in God's kingdom becomes necessary. Each step of the way the warrior must draw into the keep and find God's true path for their life. Each decision must be made with the knowledge that souls are at stake and only God's best is good enough to complete the journey. The easy part for the warrior is going to the keep for all the answers. The hard part is making the choices that are necessary and denying the things of our flesh that certainly does not want to give in. Paul said it this way in Galatians 5:17. "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would." Just as the enemy of our souls is against the seed of God so is the flesh of our own existence against the things of God which deny the flesh its domination.

## Chapter 10

## Godly Worship Attacks The Devil

"Because that thou mayest understand, that there are yet but twelve days since I went up to Jerusalem for to worship." (Acts 24:11)

I heard it said many times by God's people, "When you start ministering for God, when you step out, the enemy will come against you." It is a truth every Christian warrior must learn. Our decisions and subsequent actions to do the work of the kingdom here on earth is like a full fledged attack on the enemy.

A Christian does not have to go into a bar and denounce drinking to be considered attacking the enemy. All we have to do is to go to church on Sunday morning and give everything to God and worship Him. All we have to do is answer a co-worker when they ask something about the God we serve. All we have to do is put a nativity scene on our front lawn. The response is immediate and predictable. We attacked the enemy. Now he must attack us somehow.

When I first started walking with the Lord I was drawn deeply into His care. I believe in doing anything I do with one hundred percent of my being or not doing it at all. I gave God everything the day I turned to Him. At least it was one hundred percent as far as I knew. One of the wonders of walking with God is that He shows us we are so much more than even we thought we were. I have since learned to give Him parts of me that even I did not know were there previously.

I learned quickly that those who lean heavily on God and all God is doing in their lives suddenly need God even more. The enemy makes it his business to get into our business and I was not different. Everything I did seemed to cost me more than I thought it should, take me longer than I expected and yield less than I wanted. No matter how hard I worked to increase my yield the enemy seemed to cause things to go wrong that cost me more and more.

Car and home repairs ate up our money. Sick children, who had never been sick before, ate up our time. Friends, who had always supported us before, suddenly were never around any more. All the fun we used to have seemed to stop and our decision to follow God turned into a chore we had to follow.

It was not pretty. We were doing all the right things according to what the preachers were preaching and what I could read in God's word. So how come things seemed to be getting worse all the time? I knew I was missing something and I wasn't entirely sure where I was missing it. Some days I thought maybe I was following God too strictly. Other days I felt like I was not following Him closely enough. What I didn't realize then was that God doesn't wants us to follow Him as much as He wants us to get right next to Him and be with Him.

I didn't understand the keep of God in those days. I was just trying to understand being born again and living a good life after the example of Christ. I was not even trying to get deeper because I had not yet thought I was in. I didn't know what it took to get "in" with God. Consequently, my fumbling around with God's word and trying everything I could find was causing the enemy great harm.

You see, I'm not a quiet Christian by any means. Every time I learned something new about God I just had to find some people to share it with. One week I would be discussing end time events with the unsaved people at work and the next time I would be explaining the operation of the Holy Spirit in my life to the Sunday School class. The enemy never knew where I would show up next because wherever I opened my bible was the next place I allowed God to lead me through His word. I wanted to know it all. Later I discovered that I have a teacher's gifting from the Holy Spirit which causes me to enjoy studying the word of God and then sharing what I've learned with others.

Still, all I knew was that I kept growing spiritually but in my natural life I could see only more and more debt, greater and greater loss of friends, and seemingly never enough time to do all the things we needed to do. I was puzzled to say the least. How could I be doing all the right things and getting all the wrong results? Why wasn't God backing me up and handling everything so I could ride smoothly through this life? Come on, now, be honest. You've asked God the same thing, too.

That was when I discovered that God would actually talk to me. When I entered into prayer – not even knowing I was entering into God's keep – I brought my concerns before the Lord and inquired of Him what I should do. I don't know if I really expected Him to answer me or not. I knew God answered His people but I wasn't sure that I was in the "to be answered group" yet. But I hadn't nothing to lose.

What I found was that after praying I would open my bible and God's word would leap off the page with answers I had never seen before. It was so bold and so frequent that I realized that the Holy Spirit couldn't wait for me to ask my questions. Sometimes the Holy Spirit would show me a passage and I would not understand how it related to me. After I prayed about whatever was on my mind He would lead me back to that same passage and the answer would leap out of the text and almost shout at me.

And I never thought to not share these answers with everyone I knew. In a couple of years time I was teaching a Sunday School class at our church and sharing what God revealed to me every week. Spiritually I was growing by leaps and bounds. But naturally my life wqas stagnant. I had changed but my life had not.

So I went to God again. I only had one question, "What was I doing wrong?" God answered that I was doing nothing wrong. So I was thoroughly perplexed. I prayed and kept asking expecting revelation. Still the same answer. "You are doing nothing wrong. Keep doing what you are doing." It didn't make any sense.

Then the pastor preached about stepping out for God. I drank in every word of that sermon. I wanted to step out for God. I didn't know how just yet. I just knew I wanted to. But the part that really grabbed my attention was when he explained that when we start doing all the things right the enemy starts attacking and causing many things to go wrong. He further explained that I needed (by this time I was convinced that God had sent him to talk to just me) to bring everything I had into God's protective care and allow God to become my provision and protection for everything. I now had a new direction to go.

I had been asking God the wrong question. It wasn't a matter of what was I doing wrong. It was a matter of why was the enemy attacking me. Jesus explained it best. He was hated by the world so we can expect no less of a hatred to be shown to us. The more we look like Christ the more we look like what the world hates, Jesus. My eyes were open and never to be closed again.

At first I was mad because I could see the favoritism that seemed to be everywhere. Television, newspapers, schools, even in my lob. I quickly became adept at spotting the enemy's attack and bringing everything to God. My life turned around almost over night. Not completely, by any means, but with enough frequency and level of change to seem like I was always moving on to better things. My job changed until I was part of the management team. Church changed until I was close with the pastors and part of the praying leadership. Our debt situation changed and we became more capable of handling what life threw at us. The attacks kept coming but now I gave everything to God and the enemy couldn't take what belonged to God.

Listen, I don't want to create a vision of some kind of utopia because nothing could be further from the truth. The more I tried to do with God the more the enemy tried to get me to stop. Even on those occasions when I seemed to be stopped dead God breathed life into the situation and we began to move again. The blessing was not in the attacks going away or never hurting us. Instead, God's blessing can be found in the fact that we keep moving forward taking back more ground from the enemy of our souls. The blessing is not in avoiding the battles but in having victory through them. The enemy still attacks us and his campaigns seem to get longer and harder each time. But God is always faithful to those who reside in His keep.

In Acts 24:11, Paul did not just go up to Jerusalem to keep a feast or celebrate a festival. He went to worship. No doubt Paul had gone up to Jerusalem for the very same reason of the season or time of the year many times before as a follower of the Pharisees. But this time he had come to worship the true God. Satan could not stand this.

The devil did not mind the silly rituals of the Jewish people. They lacked any real power. He could laugh while their pitiful lives went down the tubes no matter what they tried. But this Paul was an entirely different matter. He was a warrior.

The power of his worship could only come from one source and that was not acceptable to the one who had lulled God's people to sleep with self-controlling interest in religion and superior attitudes. No, this Paul could not be allowed to roam free. He was a menace to the false sense of peace perpetrated by the enemy within this dead society. The source of Paul's power could bring it back to life.

Satan stirred up the Jewish people using their built in weaknesses as a pry bar. This was an attack as viewed by the devil. This was his ground and Paul had crossed the line. Paul was only following God's directions and staying in God's keep. Satan's only hope was to draw Paul out and discredit him, kill him or send him away. Like a master general, God maneuvered the situation until Paul was right where he wanted him for maximum impact. And Satan helped get him there. All the while Paul rested in God's care and protection.

### True Worship

True worship of God is not the way a Christian thinks or believes or even talks. It is not the doctrines of the church or the traditions we uphold. Worship is not the songs we sing or the prayers we pray. True worship is in the everyday actions of those who follow God.

Everything we say and do in our ordinary, day to day lives is testimony to the God we serve. Abraham was ready to sacrifice his only son. Noah was loading animals on the ark. Jacob was wrestling with God. Nehemiah was rebuilding the fallen city. Jesus was going to the cross. Paul was preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ until his death. All were testimonies of man's worship to a God in control of everything. Each action represented worship to our great God. We worship in prayer and singing and many other ways. But real worship does not have a set time or place for coming out. True worshippers worship everywhere and all the time. Whether at church, in the choir, or at work in the activity of their profession, the real worshipper finds a way to express their desire toward God.

Abraham had to make a choice. Would he allow his actions to bring glory to God? Or would he bring shame to God because he did not believe the promises of God? "Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of." (Genesis 22:2) God will prove the true worship of a man. Warriors believe God's word and follow his direction. They may question within themselves, but they will quickly recognize this attack of the enemy of their souls. They always seek God's keep for the ultimate vision. Warriors can fall to tricks of the enemy and seducements of the flesh. True warriors always return to the keep and fulfill God's promise in their lives.

Abraham went as God had directed. At no time did Abraham fret over God's actions. Never did Abraham or Isaac think God did not know what He was asking. They just went where they were told. "Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together." (Genesis 22:8) Abraham was the leader of God's situation acting on God's direction. There was nothing else to do. Abraham responded to God with actions that indicated his relationship and state of worship for his God. Christian warriors today must respond to God in the same way.

Paul represents the new church and the gospel of Jesus Christ. His conversion demonstrates the power of the Lord to change lives when the individual places their life in Jesus' hand. His life and trials demonstrate the powerful relationship he had with God. He trusted God with his life at every turn. When Paul was confronted by the attacks of the world it was clear what the desire of the enemy was. They wanted to kill him. Satan wanted him out of the way. Paul did not care or worry about what the enemy wanted, though. His focus was for the things God wanted.

Warriors must understand God's view of worship. "But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves: For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:" (Exodus 34:13,14) Warriors must take example from this passage. In it are the elements of worship from God's point of view.

We are to destroy false altars and maintain the true altar of our hearts swept clean daily by our time with God. Remember, we do not clean ourselves up. God must do the cleaning in order to be really clean. This means to take actions against false gods who deceive and steal the souls and resources of the unsuspecting. The altar represents the sacrifice of individuals to follow their god. These altars must be destroyed. In our lives we can not spend our time and resources on anything that takes away from what God has established as good and right. "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, 10Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God." (1 Corinthians 6:9,10)

It is also important to destroy the things that cause people to think and ponder upon false prophets and powerless gods. These thoughts become the state of mind of the individual and, as such, everyone will see the true heart of that person, in every action. Warriors must have their thoughts upon the true God in heaven. These thoughts will manifest themselves as actions of worship to the Lord. Every time we determine in our decisions to follow God's direction we are worshipping with our actions.

Warriors cut down the groves to express worship to their God. There are no compromises and no sharing of authority. God is all in all. (1 Corinthians 15:28) Groves means a Phoenician goddess, or a leader for some authority not recognized in heaven. God says, cut them down. Take action to eliminate false gods. God is jealous of other gods, not because He is worried about their power for our God is all-powerful. He is jealous of the worship that belongs to Him as the Creator of all things. This means, God is angry with anything that steals worship from Him. False gods must be cut down.

Christian warriors show their worship. It is not something they keep inside. Every action of the warrior manifests the worship that comes from inside them. The heart of the warrior is on the altar of God. It is a place where purity reigns and righteousness is received because of Jesus' sacrifice. It is the foot of the cross for every believer to come to and leave their sins because God has made the way. It is the doorway to the keep of God. True worship is the vehicle that whisks us into the keep of God and into His presence.

The image that fills the mind of the warrior every waking and sleeping moment is the image of a Christ who died for all sinners upon the cross at Calvary. The image of a beaten Lord whose every wound serves as healing for all mankind to accept in His presence. The image of the warrior mind is the glorious empty tomb. And most importantly, the warrior sees the Lord sitting at the right hand of the Father signifying by what authority we act upon the earth. The image of a beaten Lord who lowered himself to be a man, suffer a cruel death, receive a glorious resurrection, and now powerfully seated beside His Father in heaven fills the mind of the true warrior, God's warrior.

The sacrifice of the warrior is giving up their own agenda. God requires each person to give their all. All means all. God does not want just a part of us. We can not serve two masters. (Matthew 6:24) We may not always be everything we should be for God, but we are to give it all to God with the surety He will make the most out of our ministries. That is our sacrifice. We are designed to worship the creator and he desires it. But we are also designed to make our own choice to worship Him. We must sacrifice the lure of the fleshly concerns of the world, the desires of our own wants, in order to worship the one who deserves the attention. Our choice is to worship the Creator not some element of the Creation.

### Satan is a Creation

Created by God and puffed up with pride, Satan was thrown from the life he had with God, into an existence where he is constantly against the Creator. "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit." (Isaiah 14:12-15) From then on Satan was the enemy of God.

When Jesus was in the wilderness, being tempted of the devil, Satan reveals the scope of his control here on earth. "The devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine." (Luke 4:6,7) The devil gives the power in the world's affairs. God gave this power to the devil, so He is the only one who can defeat the power of Satan. Satan has his power under God's authority. The only authority a Christian warrior needs to defeat Satan is the same authority who gave Satan his.

Satan has his authority and with it his power. However, even God does not authorize anyone to accuse Satan of anything. God's creations are not to be judges. This is a dreadful pit that should be avoided by all warriors. "Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee." (Jude 1:9) Satan's great sin is rebellion. He rebelled against God's way of running things. He became the judge of how things were supposed to go.

God's people will never put themselves in God's place by decision, but the sin of Satan coaxes many to go beyond where a rational mind would go. When we become judges of others we become as Satan, rebellious. "Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft." (1 Samuel 15:23) Who is the father of witchcraft? Satan is, of course. Rebellion or judgement of others putting ourselves into God's place, is one of the world's greatest sin today. Too many people have all the answers and too many others are searching for the answers themselves without God.

"I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven." (Luke 10:18-20) Jesus explains. The Word is clear. Power over Satan is not given for self-exultation. It is for the work of God, and only the work of God.

Satan hates God's creation because he can not create and he can not rule. "And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren." (Luke 22:31,32) Satan is intent on destroying all God's creation. (John 10:10) He is extremely jealous of God's creation. So jealous, in fact, that he will attack all those who have favor with God. This is the reason for the day to day battle. Those who have favor with God are a thorn to the devil. Warriors are a thorn to Satan at every turn.

Real Worship

Real worship draws the warrior inside the keep of God and calls upon the protection, supply and abundant love of a mighty God who is waiting for such to worship Him. "But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him." (John 4:23)

Think about it! God is looking for warriors to worship Him. He is looking for them. He is not looking for those attacking the giants of the world. He is not looking for those who are ready to lead millions into a new promised land. He is not even looking for those who would support the new ministry at the local church. God creates all those things in His people. First, He needs people who are worshiping Him.

"Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness." (Psalm 29:2) This command is very clear. Glory is due to our God. We give that glory when we become worshipers of Him and lovers of His holiness. Some may ask, "Why should we worship God?" Not as a question of impertinence but as a question of true seekers of knowledge. Is there really an answer? There is!

None is holy except God. He is the only one who is good. "And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God." (Mark 10:18) Because He is holy He can impart that holiness to us through the sacrifice of His Son. When are sins are forgiven we are made clean and holy in God's sight. Without this holiness there would be no forgiveness of sins, no eternal life with Christ, only the judgment for our sins, eternal death in hell's flames. "Exalt ye the LORD our God, and worship at his footstool; for he is holy." (Psalms 99:5) We are commanded to worship God because of His holiness which is the only thing that saves us from a fiery eternity of suffering for our own sins.

Because God is the only one who can offer us this salvation through His holiness He is deserving of our worship and adulation. Because Jesus paid the ultimate price to become the sacrifice for our sins we owe Him our worship and adulation. Because the Holy Spirit gives us the knowledge and the power to serve a loving and merciful Father we owe Him our worship and adulation.

Why worship? Why not our house or our first born son or some other thing? Why does God want our worship? The answer is more simple than you may at first imagine. Our worship is the only thing God does not have. God created us to make our own decisions. Our decision to worship Him is a freewill offering that He can not match. Everything else God created. But He does not create our worship. That flows from our own hearts and captures His heart. It is the only thing that is truly ours. Everything else we have God is responsible for giving to us. But not our worship. We can be born, live our lives, die, and never ever worship God if we so choose. God will never force us to give it to Him. So, when we do worship our God it is a priceless gift that no other person can match. No one else can worship for us. It is a personal and intimate thing between us and our God. The Father truly seeks worshipers.

The warrior who spends too much time doing things in his own power is the one who spends too little time worshiping the Lord. If God is looking for those who are worshiping Him then our task is to become the one He is looking for. "When a man's ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him." (Proverbs 16:7) All we need to do is to please the Lord. And again. "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." (Matthew 6:33) It is very plain. The effort God requires of us is our worship. Our real and true worship. God wants to see it in every action of our lives. He wants everyone else to see it also. After all, it is for His glory, not ours.

"What happens inside the keep?" you may ask. Simple. We worship our Creator and magnificent Lord. We become worshipers and God receives our worship. Our worship is like fuel thrown on the fire of God's glory. When our worship meets His glory sparks begin to fly and things start to happen.

The warrior inside the keep of God knows this and seeks every opportunity to cause the sparks to fly. God just loves it when His people seek Him in their worship with all their might. It is how a weak human can move an all-powerful God. We just worship and He throws all the switches putting every part of His plan for our lives into action. God gets the only benefit that man can give to Him, our worship. In turn, God insures every promise will be delivered for His people.

Glory! Glory! Glory!

That's all anyone can say about God's perfect plan. We, His warriors, do not have enough power, authority or brilliance to do the things we need done in our life. So we swap the one thing we can do, worship the Lord, for all the things that only God can do for us. What a trade. What a plan. Only a gracious and merciful God could conceive of and carry out such a wonderful plan.

Somewhere, someone reading this book is battling with feelings of inadequacy and other such attacks of the enemy. You're just now realizing that the enemy has tried to steer you away from the keep of God and stop you from worshiping like you really want to. You need to put those thoughts aside right now. You need to embrace God's plan in all its fullness. You need to just enter into a time of praise and worship of our God. Go ahead, put this book down and praise the Lord. He is always ready to receive your worship. Don't deny God the only thing you have that He wants. Become a worshiping warrior. Go ahead. Try it right now!

True Worshipers Follow God

"But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." (Matthew 15:9) No Christian leader would ever admit to teaching false doctrines. Instead they justify and bend and compromise for social status sake until the word is no longer God's word. They don't even do it on purpose. It just happens. Individuals do the same thing and call it their own personal way of following Christ. We say things like, "Well, that's the way some follow God but I follow God like this," supposing that there is more than one way to follow God. So, if people do not intend to change the word of God how does it happen?

First we must understand that it is important not to spread false doctrines. If the word of God calls something sin no amount of justification or social compromise is going to make it righteous in God's eyes. We do not want to stand before God one day and find out we have been leading people astray or wandering around in a spiritual no man's land because of false doctrines. It is very important that the word which we spread is complete and purely the word of the Lord.

What happens so many times is that our worship becomes false worship trying to appease God for what we want to do instead of searching Him out for His path for our lives. This false worship becomes a method we use to tell God we love Him for letting us do our own thing. That is not true worship. True worship seeks God's direction and praises Him for it no matter what it might be. The worshiper who enters into God's keep comes face to face with God's destiny for them. The worshiper who attempts to send God their worship from outside the keep attempts to set up their own boundaries and call their own shots. It's more like they try to call and check in with God (as some kind of cosmic babysitter of their prosperity) rather than report to Him and receive their orders as a soldier of the king.

In the keep false doctrines can not get started because the worshiper never initiates the next step. God is always in control and every step is coordinated and ordered by the Father. "The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way." (Psalms 37:23) The warrior from inside the keep receives all his steps from God's direction and does not seek to glorify himself or whatever he is doing. The warrior is delighted in doing it God's way. Warriors are protected by God from false doctrines because of their close relationship with God. They never make a move without Him.

Those who only play at worship, never entering into God's keep, run the risk of trying to force the issues and claims for God. In their well-meaning activities they will eventually create a rule or regulation that starts out as toward a godly reason but finally comes to the point of controlling someone or something. This factor of false worship is evident in the Pharisees of Jesus' day. They meant well but they had lost the ability to know God's way and thereby missed out on the coming of Christ (which they claimed to be looking for) because of their own false doctrines. They didn't even know they had stopped looking for Christ. That is false doctrine truly run amok.

Today, Christians are bombarded with new ideas in a constant flow of television, books, magazines, evangelists and teachers. The only defense they have is caution until proven by the word and their own personal relationship with God. Because the English language can be twisted so many ways it is more important than ever that the warrior can take the "new thing" to the keep of God and hear what God has to say about it. When God speaks to our heart we need only listen for His direction and know with surety what He desires of us.

Because the Christian warrior has this ability to enter into the keep of God and go straight to the source for all wisdom and knowledge they have a decided advantage over all other religions. God never changes and He speaks consistently with His people. False God's are at the mercy of the people who promote them. They can not speak for themselves so vast differences can be promoted under the same doctrinal commitment depending upon the leadership of the moment.

No one can change the things the true God of heaven has called sin without substituting their own false doctrine. God has not changed. His word has not changed. He has given no one the right to reinterpret the word. It is settled forever.

Because the Christian warrior can still meet with His God there is a big difference in how warriors are viewed in society. Their wisdom carries an anointed power of a living God who walks daily with His people. The truths they teach are irrefutable because they come from an irrefutable source. Christian warriors who live in the keep of God are just plain different because of the experience.

## Chapter 11

## Because Christians are Different

"But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets:" (Acts 24:14)

"I'm not like everyone else," I've been known to say on many occasions. Of course it is usually followed by a chorus of "Thank God."

Approaching our difference with humor may underplay the real truth. Unfortunately, I believe some Christians are serious when they thank God that they are not like me. They don't want to be different. They don't want to stand out. They prefer to fit in and go along with the crowd. What they don't realize is that they are giving up the banner of Christ when they attempt to look like the rest of the world. To be a fanatic one first has to be a fan. I am a fan of Jesus Christ and I am more loyal to Him than any football fan for their home team.

I grew up in New England not far from Fenway Park and I am an unashamed Boston Red Sox fan. I wear a Red Sox baseball cap during the season. Whether they are winning or losing I wear the cap. Whether I am sitting with a bunch of Yankee fans, or not, I wear the cap. I am a fan and I am not going to be swayed because someone else likes something else. As a matter of fact I'm going to try to convince them my team is better than theirs.

That's the way it should be with the Christian warrior. Peer pressure should never change who we are if we are convinced we are right. I serve God and others would like to get me to stop. That's a fact. But turn it around. Others don't serve God and I would like to get them to start. Now who's right. I believe I am and I back it up with what I know about God and His Son and His Holy spirit here on earth.

A young lady came to me one day and told me she had to get her ear pierced three times and even her nose because it was what all the others were doing. I told her that I hoped she drew the line somewhere before she followed the others over the proverbial cliff. She was very forward in offering the information that she did indeed draw the line in places. There were some things she refused to do that the others did. She would not drink or do drugs because of the harm it could do her body. She would not engage in sex because of the harm it could do her reputation. She would not put anyone else down for what they did because of the harm it would do that person. She definitely had her boundaries.

During our conversation she admitted that she wanted the piercings herself not just because the group wanted them. She understood her differences from many of her friends because she was a Christian and they were not. She had obviously thought long and hard about being different and had made some concessions to fit in while announcing in no uncertain terms what her limits were.

Later I discovered that she had given up her other limits, too. She was drinking and having sex and had been heard to tell those friends how stupid the rules of the church were. She had lost her different identity and had become one of the group.

My mother told me often when I was growing up that we all eventually become just like the people we hang around with. She also told me that if I wanted to become better hang around with those I felt were already there.

I've also noticed that in school, smart kids hung around with other smart lids. They reveled in their difference. They created clubs for their differences. The chess club, the civics club, the physics club, the literary club and so on. So why don't we Christians do the same thing? Oh, that's right. We do.

We call it church. It is the place where we revel in our differences as we worship the God we serve in corporate surroundings. We are built up in our differences and then we go back into the natural existence of the world to show off who we are in Christ.

When we understand that we are different. When we embrace the very fact that we are different, not because we are better but because Christ is better, then we can begin to enjoy our differences. It's not a matter of the fact that we can't go and get drunk, it's that we don't want to because we would rather seek God with all our faculties in working. It's not that we can't dishonor our bodies, it's that we prefer to honor Christ. We don't focus on "Can't." We focus on "Can".

The Christian warrior should take great comfort in the fact that they are different than they used to be. They used to be headed for hell but now they shall live out eternity with God. They used to have no access to the keep of God but now they have unlimited access. We are different and as long as we serve God we will always be different. But look at it this way. As long as the world does not serve God they will be different from us.

Are we really different from those of the world? Christians shout YES to this question. But a closer examination may prove otherwise. We all drive the best car we can afford. We all work at the best job we can get. Each of us has good times and bad times. We marry and divorce. We watch televisions and movies. We raise our children. We vote or don't vote. We buy or rent places to live. We do all the things we believe are necessary to life on earth. So how can we tell a Christian from the world?

God says, "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you," (2 Corinthians 6:17) The Christian warrior must somehow be separated from the world. The difference is found in a life of worship toward our God. This separation is the key to entering the keep. If the Christian is not of the world, then they are of God. "For he that is not against us is on our part." (Mark 9: 40)

Paul states in the scripture we began this chapter with that he was being different because he truly was worshiping God. He claims a right to this difference not on the grounds of his right to be different but on the grounds of the written word of God. Paul goes to the source, God's word, and acquires a way which is different than the way of the established leadership. He presents a threat to them only because they wish to maintain control over his differences. But they are not Paul's differences really, are they? They are God's differences. God says be separate from the world. Come out from the world. Paul was merely following the Lord in his differences. Again we see the battle is not the world against us but the world against God's ways. The Christian warrior develops God's differences within their own lifestyle. That's what makes us different. That's what causes us to come out from the world and become separate.

In biblical history Moses is another man whose dedication to being different, because of a righteous seed planted by his mother, later proved to be the undoing of Egyptian rule over God's people. The story of Moses is told in Exodus 2:11. "And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens: and he spied an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his brethren." The fact that Moses saw the injustice being perpetrated upon God's people was an indication that he was looking at things different than others. At least it was a different view than those who raised him.

### Christians Can Never Go Back

Moses was well aware of the Egyptian rules and the fact that Israelites were slaves of the Egyptians. He had been raised in an Egyptian household, no less than the Pharaoh's daughter. But inside of him was a desire to understand his different roots and an urging for a return to where he knew he rightfully belonged, with God's people. But the only way he could return was to break away from his worldly life with all its riches and privileges of position. He would have to be different. God's people are always different.

This cruelty perpetrated against God's people excited in Moses a desire to accomplish something for God. By acting in his own power he made what he believed was a contribution to the plight of the Israelites. "And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand." (Verse 12) Now! That's a different way for someone who believes they are God's people to act, isn't it? They murder another human being. But that's how Moses began his ministry.

This act made it impossible for Moses to turn back. He had broken all ties. Most Christians retain ties to their old self. Friends, habits, places all become reminders of the old man who supposedly died. A real warrior cuts all ties that bind them to the world.

In his own way Moses struck out for God. He became different from the accepted practices of the world and struck out on his own as a warrior for God's people. This was an extreme manifestation of Moses' desire to rejoin God's people and God honored it. The Christian warrior of today must have the same desire and must make some sacrifice of their position in society in order to announce to the world they are different and under submission to God. We call it a profession of faith, generally made before a congregation as an outward sign of our decision to follow the God of heaven. An outward sign is what God desires but unfortunately, too many Christians make this sign before a congregation and that's as far as it goes.

Making this outward sign for all to see is the first step to enter into the keep. When we turn to God, and against the systems of the world, we begin our relationship with God. To stay in the keep is another matter, but the whole Christian way is an announcement to the world of the Christian warrior's intention to be different. "Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian: and he sat down by a well." (Verse 15) The outward sign, if it is real, should make it hard, if not impossible to go back. Real warriors make real changes in their lives for the Lord.

Look at the turn of events here. Moses is chased from his life of prosperity under threat of death and he flees. He flees to Midian, which is translated, a place of brawling. And he sits down by a well. Moses turns his back on the world as he knew it, goes to a land of strife, and parks himself by the well where people came to quench their thirst. A Christian warrior must turn from worldly things and enter into the keep of God. They must travel in a land that is in constant turmoil. (Once they realize they are not part of the world and can see things through God's view) But they will take refuge by the well of God.

See God's plan? We must do something to separate ourselves from the world. This will cause us to travel in a land of battles and skirmishes. But we must sit down at the well of God. We must get into the keep when we are fully turned away from the world.

Paul did this, also. He turned away from all the things of the Jewish religion to follow the truth of a God they could not understand because of their self-imposed blindness. He traveled in their circles of influence making waves with their doctrinal beliefs and contradicting their rules at every step. He was a thorn in their side and they intended to be the end of him. But Paul understood the keep of God and he found his strength in there while the world ranted and raved from outside.

Too many Christians of today are indistinguishable from the non-Christian population accept for the visits they make to the church. God's plan is one that gives Him the total glory for our lives. A Christian who can only be identified as a Christian when seated in a Christian pew is probably not one who has come out from among the world as God has commanded. God gets no glory from those who have not followed His commands. God receives no worship from those who are disobedient to His commands.

Once our back is turned on the world's systems the Christian must continue providing aid to those who are oppressed and needy. "Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters: and they came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father's flock. And the shepherds came and drove them away: but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock." (Verse 16,17) Moses did not have just a onetime fling with anger against cruel or mean behavior. His indignation over the treatment of the oppressed was born in his soul by a God who wants us to see all people as he sees them. From inside the keep of God our indignation will quietly allow us to focus on the true attacks of the world as God would reveal them to us. The experiences of Moses in the wilderness are probably the greatest revelation of what goes on inside the keep of God between His chosen warriors and the great Creator.

In this new place (the backside of the desert) Moses learns new things and settles into a new lifestyle. "Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb." (Exodus 3:1) It is amazing how God brings us to the place where we can learn the skills that will become useful to us in the future. This place is called the keep of God.

Moses was now in submission to the rule of the Midian priest, Jethro, whose daughter he had married. His job was to lead the flock of sheep from food to water daily. He had become a shepherd in training. His job meant he was traveling around the edges of the desert looking for places to feed the flock.

He came to the mountain of God, it says, even to the place of the desolate. Notice God's keep was not to be found among the plush trappings of the rich and mighty of the world. God's place was found in a desolate area. (Which is where many people, if they were honest, would say they can be found. We just don't know how close we are to the keep of God.) The Christian warrior must turn from focusing on the comforts of the world in order to find God. "Walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost," (Acts 9:31). God has supplied the comfort for the Christian warrior, the Holy Spirit. We are not to seek our comforts in the world. Instead, we are to seek God which will cause differences, not comfort, with the world.

### Warriors Are Searching

Moses meets God on this mountain and a curious thing happens. He had to prove he was searching for something. God is not interested in those with a ho-hum attitude. Warriors are looking for something.

So, when he saw a burning bush that was not being consumed by the flame, Moses became curious as to the cause of the phenomenon. "And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I." (Verse 4) God waited for Moses to turn aside and make a personal decision to check out what God was offering. This means, incredibly, that there are some people who would not bother to check out a burning bush that is not consumed by the fire. God uses the phenomenon or miracle as a way to discover who is looking for the real source, God himself.

God will speak to those who are searching. But when he calls out to us we must still answer, "here I am, Lord". God is interested in those who are interested in Him. But just being interested is not enough. There must be a hunger for the things of God inside the warrior that God uses. And the hungry will learn the place of feeding is the keep of God. The hungry will worship the God who can feed that hunger. Just like the man who knows how to get a burger from the fast food place with money, the warrior knows how to grab God's attention with worship.

God always introduces himself to those who hunger for righteousness. "Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God." (Verse 6) He is the God of the covenant. That is an important announcement. God is the God who does what he says he will do. This statement is so awesome that Moses quickly understands whom he is meeting. This is the God who created everything and the God who can destroy it all. Moses hid his face from the power of the almighty, in a display of true acknowledgment of the glory of God. Thus, Moses began his days as a true warrior in the employ of the greatest general ever. Moses entered into the keep of God.

Some may ask, "How could Moses be a Christian warrior when he did not know Christ?" Well Christ answered that himself. John 14:9 explains that those who have seen Christ have seen God. They are the same. The old covenant with God, under the Old Testament, was a set of rules to keep God's people in line with God's desires. The new covenant, under the New Testament is to empower the people to live a life after the example of Christ and to take the attack to the enemy. And Christ gave his reasoning for coming to earth. "For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost." (Matthew 18:11)

We are empowered through Jesus by way of the Holy Spirit to take the battle to the enemy because God is calling His people out of the world and away from the enemy of their souls. "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword." Jesus explained in Matthew 10:34. Christ is the example of the true warrior. And Moses truly championed the warrior cause when he took up God's orders and faced down Pharaoh. God has always been ready for His people to follow Him and defeat the enemy. But first, God's people had to be different than the world.

Verses 10 through 11 recount the instruction God gives Moses about going and telling Pharaoh to let God's children go. Moses says, he can not go because he is a "nobody" and the Pharaoh will not listen to him. But God tells Moses He will go with him and Pharaoh will listen to God. "Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt. And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? And he said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain."

Warriors are sent under God's authority. Where they go there are people God wants them to minister to. The warrior is really not the key. It is the one who sent him that makes the difference. The difference the world sees in the Christian warrior is the God the world does not know.

Exodus 3:7 continues to tell of God's relationship with His warrior. God has an interest in His people, so many times the warrior must hear how God wants to take the next action to bring His people out of the world, to rest in Him. "And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows." God shares His concerns with His warriors.

* * * * *

### Warrior's Concern

As God's warriors, we can share in His concern because we see differently from within the keep. "Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two men to spy secretly, saying, Go view the land, even Jericho." (Joshua 2:1) These men were told to go see what God has for us. Too many Christians spend their time looking for the enemy's things because they have never understood what God looks for. They've not been to the keep to learn how God views things.

In a similar instance, "Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan," (Numbers 13:17). When they returned we saw the difference between those who saw the land with the confidence in their heart to see as God had promised and those who saw as the world had taught. "Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it." (Numbers 13:30) Caleb saw the ability of God to supply when he looked at the land. But the others saw only what they had allowed their heart to learn. They had learned the fear of the world. "But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we." (Numbers 13:31)

Being able to view situations as God wants us to see them is important enough to cause the devil to worry. That's when the attack comes. We get into the keep when we learn to worship and maintain a life of prayer. We operate from the keep of God when we concentrate on our relationship with God. We draw our strength from the keep of God when we continually focus ourselves, and everyone else around us, on God.

This makes our worship time very dangerous for the enemy. When we worship with every thought and action then God can direct our path for His glory. Satan must attack us before we can worship, while we worship and after we worship God, because he is afraid of what will happen when a Christian warrior sees everything as God would have them see. Warriors know the attack must come from the world because the world is afraid of the truth of God. The world must feel as though the warrior attacks every time they enter the room because the warrior stands for everything the world does not.

Chapter 12

## No Offense Offered

"And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offense toward God, and toward men." (Acts 24:16)

As a pastor I have an obligation to speak the word of God and not compromise or water down the word in any way. Every person who goes to church would admit this is what they want. But the truth is that as long as I am in sin in some area of my life some part of some message dealing with my sin has the ability to hurt and offend me because of my sensibility to that sin. As Christians we have the duty to share the gospel without changing it but we also, as humans, need to do it in a way that draws people with God's love and does not push them away with more rules and restrictions.

I offer no apologies for God's word. However, I do desire to give everyone a chance to understand God's word. This creates a personal quandary that every Christian must answer in their lives or risk pushing more people away than they draw toward God.

There is no perfect answer for this question. Every person is different. How does a pastor speak to the necessary things of God's word without offending someone? It probably never happens. Those people who are truly seeking God will recognize that when their toes get stepped on and they feel the convicting power of God in their lives urging them to change something it is not a personal thing between them and the speaker but between them and God. The best the speaker can do is present the gospel in as loving a manner as possible asking others to join God at that point.

I have known many people who have been offended by something I said from the pulpit and invariably I must ask them to forgive me if I made it sound harsh but the truth is they still need to deal with it in their lives. My intent is never to cause offense and I am still amazed when people who have known me for years and know my desire to witness and help people change their lives with Christ come up to me and tell me they were offended by this or that point in my sermon. They know I have no ill-intent yet, because the matter struck close to home they are offended and I become the bad guy.

One lady repeatedly told me how she wished this person or that person had been here to listen to one sermon or another. She always seemed to know exactly what they needed and she commended me on not being afraid to speak the truth. After about two years of her weekly assurances for me she approached me with a big frown on her face and let me no in no uncertain terms that the last thing this church needed was a meddling preacher. Apparently something I had said had struck her in a very tender spot. I smiled as she spoke and let her know I was enjoying her tirade. When she noticed my smile she was still mad and her voice shook with her anger as she told me what she thought. "I know what you're thinking preacher but it isn't true. That message was no more for me than anything in this world." I laughed out loud and then she did too. "Okay. Okay," she admitted maybe I need to go home and get you off my toes."

It takes a decided effort for the Christian of today to not offend. It is so easy to just tell people what we think or what we know. It takes a lot to show them who God is. That is my only real advice when I am asked how do we tell the truth without offending someone. Get in there and walk with them. Stay beside them as they work through the truthful things and leave behind the lies of the world's ways. A real minister – and we are all called to be ministers – doesn't just write a letter to someone. They get right beside them and create a relationship from which they can share the walk with God.

The biggest trick a Christian warrior must master is how to attack the evil of the world without offending the people who are in the world. God is very plain on this fact. Christians are to be the example in all things. We are not to be judges. We are to model Christ and His actions in every event of our lives. Jesus never judged anyone during His walk on earth. "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." (John 8:7) The warrior must remember that God wants to save everyone. Jesus died for us but not only for us.

It is not the Christian way to offend others in any way shape or form. That is not to say that people will not be offended by the truth of the God of the Christian. But no Christian has the authority from God to drive their fellow man into the ground with destructive actions, ritualistic rules, or oppressive doctrines. Jesus came to free the soul of man to worship the true God.

It is this freedom to worship the true God that affects people. Just as Jesus' doctrine offended the Jewish authorities, so will the spoken truth from the Christian warrior offend the authorities of today. Even as Paul spoke the truth and attacked nothing or anyone personally, the Pharisees were upset because truth is contagious.

This is the acceptable offense a warrior will cause. The truth will draw some people and cause others to run. Those who come will accept God. Those who run will be offended because the truth attacks their chosen way of life. This offense can not be stopped or softened. God's orders will carry the warrior wherever people are ready to hear. But always there will be those who do not want to hear the good news.

We can sum this up like this. Rule #1 is that warriors must spread the truth of God. Rule #2 is that some people will accept the truth of God and some will be offended by it. Rule #3 is that it is impossible for the warrior to do anything about Rule #2. That is God's territory.

Paul tells us not to put stumbling blocks in the way of others but he also tells us not to compromise the gospel in any way. It truly takes a loving balance, learned in the presence of God from within the keep, for the warrior to master this relationship with people. And still some will be upset about the truth we hold onto with our lives.

Every Christian warrior must understand this point clearly or risk developing a reputation of one who does not really care. Anyone can spout religious jargon and spread information on how to get to heaven. That's not what God's plan calls for. Jesus came to walk this earth to let people know God cares about them and everything they do. Truly He means "everything".

Strength of God

From the time a person wakes up in the morning until they get up again the next morning, God is there waiting on them to call on Him. Whether it be for salvation, or finances, sickness or relationship healing, God is waiting on His people to recognize that He is the answer. God is waiting on His people to worship Him because He is the answer to all their needs.

Not just that God knows the answer, but that He is the answer. "But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you." (Luke 12:31) This is God's promise to His people. And the next verse tells why. "Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." (Verse 32) Too often we spend our days gathering for ourselves when our true task is to gather for God and He will add all the other things to us.

Knowing God is ready to work in us, through us, and by us, then how does the warrior plan and execute their day? This is a normal enough question and God has much to say on this point. The standards all must abide by are written throughout the word of God.

To begin with we must understand God's cycle. In Genesis, chapter one, God explains the cycle of the day. "And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day." (Verse 5) Five more times God repeated this true cycle and called it a day. Clearly, there is a need for the Christian warrior to begin thinking of the cycle in terms more related to God's day than to man's day.

Listening At All Times

Man begins the day at sun up. God begins the day at sundown. There must be a reason for this difference. "But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night," (Genesis 20:3) God's starts the day at night. In dreams he approaches people and plans their day for them. "Therefore Abimelech rose early in the morning, and called all his servants, and told all these things in their ears: and the men were sore afraid." (Verse 8) Upon awakening God expects actions determined from the sleep period to take place. (Even if it is just activity from a rested soul)

Look at another time when God spoke in a dream. "And the angel of God spake unto me in a dream, saying, Jacob:" (Genesis 31:11) Now see the result of God's nighttime maneuvers. "Then Jacob rose up, and set his sons and his wives upon camels." (Verse 17) There was an action to be taken when daylight came. But in God's cycle the nighttime is the time to prepare for the daylight.

In the nighttime there is quiet and prayer and rest of the body. These are all conditions that allow us to experience the keep of God in fullness and without distractions. God can get our full attention this way. We can give our full audience to the things of God. It is a time of refreshing and preparation for the coming day. The time to prepare is before the day begins, not after we have discovered a new need.

Man's cycle says work hard all day and sleep hard all night. Man's cycle then says you can salvage wasted time by sleeping less. This causes undue focus on the waking hours and no focus on the refreshing that occurs during sleep. (Especially the spiritual refreshing) In man's view sleep is wasted time. Therefore, anyone wasting time is not productive and a waste to society.

Or in another view, one who sleeps into the daylight is considered rich or blessed because they can take the time for such an endeavor. This would have to be based upon the precept that those who need something would work for it and not sleep, so someone who is sleeping must have all they want. The world sees them as lucky to be so satisfied. (God sees them as lazy.) How many of us have friends that sleep more than is really necessary? But we don't view them as lazy. We say we wish we could take the time to sleep like that. That's not what God says.

There are many ways to listen to God, but the one least understood in Christian life today is the dream or vision. It is surrounded with spiritual awe or mysticism by worldly definitions. Yet God has said that in the last days this would be the way He would communicate with His people.

Remember? In the last days old men would dream dreams and young men would see visions. (Joel, Chapter 2) So, why is it so strange to the Christian of today to accept the dreams and visions related to us by others? It has been taught to the Christian, by the world, that dreams and visions are suspect. But the warrior knows how to view God's communications with a discerning eye. The warrior knows the Master's voice and responds to the Master's call.

The enemy has people more ready to believe that dreams and visions are from nuts and fanatics rather than from God. The reason is simple. God will talk to His people this way. This tactic against God's communication should raise a flag in the warrior's mind. The warrior must seek to communicate with God in the keep in all ways possible.

Matthew 2:13 tells of how Joseph heard from God in a dream, "the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him." God gave direction to Joseph in the night while he slept. And Joseph followed the directions. "When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt:" (Verse 14)

We know the stories and have heard the dreams but we do not think of these dreams on God's terms. There are many ways to communicate with God. His ways are numerous and varied. And He is a God that never sleeps. "Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep." (Psalm 121:4) We may sleep in the keep of God. But He that keeps us will not sleep. He watches over us even while we sleep and He prepares us for each day.

God Is Love

The true warrior does not seek to offend anyone they meet because they are prepared by God to accomplish Godly tasks. Some people may be offended because of the Christian stand on certain issues, but the truth is "what" they are offended at, not the warrior. Warriors will profess the truth in love. The world will deny God's love and respond with hate. It is a purely human condition that allows a person to hate what they know nothing about. Satan provokes these emotional reactions by manipulating the way the world views Christian actions. It is the opposite of God's desired reaction and coaxed out by the enemy of our souls.

The Christian warrior will respond to the world's hate with all the more love. Warriors view the reaction in the truth of the response. The world can not really hate what it does not really know about. It is only the fabricated, worldly view of the Christian that the world sees. The world must learn about God by watching the warrior. Then they will seek more knowledge for themselves.

"They compassed me about also with words of hatred; and fought against me without a cause. For my love they are my adversaries: but I give myself unto prayer. And they have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love." (Psalm 109:3-5) David lamented the reaction of the world to his love, a love that comes from God. Still we go on until the world hears the good news because the world is lost. Warriors can not stop because we know the consequences. Hell's flames are real. The love of God must be shared.

"The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." (Romans 5:5) The love we share is not our own. It comes from God. It flows into our hearts and out to those around us bearing witness of who we serve.

"I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me."(John 5:30) Jesus speaks of his witness here. The judgment he speaks of is not deciding guilt or innocence. It is the words of a friend who willingly tells the truth in order to help those who are wrong.

His witness is not one of condescending accusation. Jesus is not the accuser. He is the Savior. But to be saved, one must first recognize they need help. Warriors must reach the world in love and bring them to a realization of their need for Christ. Warriors speak, think and act in love, God's love.

The warrior does not seek to offend anyone but most of all, the warrior does not want to offend God. Too many people in church today are concerned with getting along with everyone at all costs. This creates a lot of stress and strain within the church body. Not only is this stress dangerous to the growth and welfare of the church, it is also unnecessary.

The key is the focus of the members. If they are focused on what others think about them personally, or what they believe others think of the church, or the ministries of the church, then the effectiveness of the ministries will be compromised by the prevailing attitude of the community.

True warriors never compromise God's word in their lives. When Jesus walked this earth there were two things that were always true about Him. He never compromised the word of God and He never was loved by everyone.

Warriors can expect nothing to be different with them. God does not allow or desire compromise any more now than He ever has and Christians who follow God's word will not be liked by the world anymore than Jesus was. Being loved by everyone is not a true measurement of ministry effectiveness. Not compromising on God's Word is the only effective measurement. And only a warrior with a strong relationship with God can understand this. Someone who does not know the safety of the keep of God can never understand this.

The right spirit of the warrior is their defense against offending those they meet. It is the love that is God within them that others should see. God does not offend those who seek what He has to offer. The warrior, responding to God's calling, will allow God to flow through and around them for God's purpose to be established and completed in them. Those who reject God's offer of salvation may take it out on the Christian, but the warrior's pain is knowing that someone has rejected their Lord and Savior.

Chapter 13

## The Keep is Mandatory

"Whereupon certain Jews from Asia found me purified in the temple, neither with multitude, nor with tumult." (Acts 24:18)

There have been times in my life when because of schedules or other perceived needs that I have abandoned the keep of God and tried to go it alone hoping I had enough anointing to make it for a while. I never make it.

Once I was faced with a series of places to be and people to meet with and things to do for the family as well as the normal things to do for the church. I didn't think of myself as busy as much as I imagined I was fulfilling all God had brought my way. I really needed to be at the places on my schedule but things went wrong and I could not go. There wasn't enough money for everything and there wasn't enough time either. I couldn't seem to juggle the family things so I let them slide reasoning I would make it up to them later. The church items got done because they had to be done or everyone would think I was a rotten pastor. It was a terrible time for me.

When I finally stepped back and went to God for help I realized that it was the first time in weeks that I had spent any significant time with God. Oh, I had been praying but it was not "crawling into the keep quality time" like I was used to. Instead I had just kept God apprised of my busy schedule and asked Him to look after me.

That was my big mistake. God's reasoning is like this. If we are too busy to sit down with Him and be with Him then He will just let those things that get in the way of His time go. If something is going to be given up in God's way of thinking it should not be Him.

I have discovered that the more time I spend with God the more things seem to find their rightful place in my schedule. And even those unexpected things that pop up from time to time seem to be handled efficiently and without disturbing God's time.

This is not a lesson I have learned once, applied and never had to worry about again. I have to watch myself constantly to avoid being drawn away from the keep of God. I see my own vulnerability and I recognize others.

There was a couple who attended our church for a while who started growing by leaps and bounds. They found in my preaching answers to questions and were drawn day by day into a deeper relationship with God than they had ever had before. Yet, on several occasions I had to remind them of their devotion to that time with God. Without it the cares of the world seemed to collapse in on them like a deep tunnel. The only way they could excavate themselves from these frequent collapses was to enter back into the keep of God through their prayer time and periods of meditation upon the word. Finally at one point they became so concerned about things they could do nothing about that they worked themselves into a frenzy. When nothing went their way they backed off from church. I counseled with them and they admitted the scriptural reasoning sounded good but they just could not find their way back into the keep of God. They knew all they had to do was ask but they could not ask any more. They had lost faith in the very thing that had brought them so far. Their relationship with Jesus Christ. They knew the comfort that awaited them in the keep of God but they didn't trust Him anymore. After all, things had kept going wrong. New problems had pooped up. Never mind that they had both been totally healed by God of medical problems they had suffered with for a long time.

They both walked away from the church and more importantly from the keep of God. I have since learned that she was hospitalized for her medical problem returning and the things they stopped serving God to take care of have only gotten worse. But still they refuse to admit that what they really need is to get back into the keep of God.

God's keep is not an option for just those fanatics who want more with God. It is a requirement for growth with our Lord. As long as the Christian stands outside of the will of God, which is to be close to Him, we will not grow closer to Him. If we do not grow closer with our Lord then we will never learn all the things He has in store for us. We will say things like, "I don't know what God wants me to do." Or, "I feel like I'm living right but nothing seems to work for me." To the Christian the keep is mandatory.

It is not a suggestion of God for His people to enter into His keep. It is a principle of warfare that is repeated throughout the bible. God has designed His people as warriors and the gift of God is permanent. "I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him." (Ecclesiastes 3:14) We will be warriors of whatever principles and precepts we are disposed to possess. God commands us to recognize that it is He that carries out His own plan. We are to get into the keep and become whatever part of God's plan that He decides is right for us.

The Christian warrior must be in God's keep in order to follow God. How can anyone fight against this world by themselves? The world is too big. Satan is too strong for an unprotected human being. A lone individual does not stand a chance in this world. "When men are cast down, then thou shalt say, There is lifting up; and he shall save the humble person. He shall deliver the island of the innocent: and it is delivered by the pureness of thine hands." (Job 22:29,30) The Christian warrior needs God's protection, guidance and strength not only to survive but to succeed. A Christian who stands outside the keep is fair game for the enemy.

In Matthew 19:18-19 Jesus meets a young man who is intent on being a good Christian. (Follower of Jesus Christ) The young man asks Jesus how he can do this. "Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."

The young man takes pride in his upbringing. (verse 20) "The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?" Notice the young man states he has all these things to his credit, but he still feels within himself that something else is needed.

How many Christians go to church every week and believe they do not have anything lacking? How many more believe they lack much but are unable to come to terms with false pride or peer pressures? The knowledge of what we need is built into us. We need a relationship with God.

"As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?" (Psalm 42:1,2) We learn to ignore this feeling of lack within us by buying into the world's doctrines of success. Who would want to stand outside the keep but those who do not really want to be with God? (Those who just don't know how wonderful that experience truly is)

Look at what is needed more than just living right. "Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me." (Verse 21) Now, Jesus was not saying that money was the problem. Jesus knew the young man's heart was not as pure as he would want others to believe. There was especially a place he could not go to with God because something held him back. That thing that held him back was his dependence upon his riches for his own security. He held something in his life more dearly than he did his relationship with God.

* * * * *

Today, many Christians stand outside the keep of God for this same reason.

An old story goes, there once was a monkey that reached his hand into a jar to pull out some jellybeans. First, he pulled out one at a time with his nimble fingers and ate them. Then, he pulled out two at a time, still using the tips of his fingers to guide the candy through the top of the jar. Finally, he decided to grab a big handful and was frustrated when he could not get his hand out of the jar with his prize. The hand of the monkey was too big to fit through the opening in the jar when he gripped the candy in his hand making a fist. In a similar manner, many Christians can not get into the keep of God because they are holding something that does not fit into God's plan for their lives.

"But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." (Verse 22-24) We express regret when we can not go along with God because His ways are too strenuous or demanding for us and then we go another direction. In the keep of God only God's ways are present.

The Christian walk so many Christians show to the world is a walk of compromise. We say what a good thing it would be to follow God totally. We speak of personal regrets that we had not found God earlier in our lives before we had developed so many bad habits. We try to convince others to start early because it must be their path or God would have started us earlier. Too often we are so good at seeing where others lack, but we can not acknowledge our own lack.

### Discover Our Lack

God supplies for this instance in our Christian walk, also. He is truly a great God that knows what obstacles we will face before we confront them. What does the word say we should do to discover our lack? "Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye." (Matthew 7:5) We can only wonder how many of us have truly cast out our beams. (A mote close up - in our eye - will be a beam in front of our vision) Again, we can only wonder how many of us see the mote in our brother's eye and treat them as a beam, instead. Christian warriors must possess the desire and the courage to seek an intimate relationship with God. A relationship where there are no secrets, especially from ourselves.

Purity is the goal for the Christian to enter into the keep. That is not to say the Christian must be pure before they are allowed into God's keep. That would be unbiblical to even discuss. There must be a desire in the heart – the center – of the Christian warrior to be pure before God. The goal does not have to be reached by the individual because Jesus supplied the way. But the desire to reach it must be internal to the warrior's way. In the keep the purity of God rubs off on the warrior.

Look at the life of David. He was described by God as "a man after his own heart, and the LORD hath commanded him to be captain over his people," (1 Samuel 13:14). David was one who sought the relationship with God because he knew the importance of it. Critics would say David had some problems. (That would be an understatement, by the way) Christians should remember that we all have bad times and fall occasionally. Let's not forget to understand our own lack. But God wants those who desire Him. God cleans us up. We don't clean ourselves up. We can't.

It is, therefore, an erroneous supposition (supplied by the deceiver) all Christians carry around with them when they believe they must be good all the time in order to be with God, or else be branded a failure. The world has crammed this doctrine down the throat of the Christian world for one purpose. When a Christian can not live up to it, they are vulnerable to disbelieving the power of God to keep them. The world does not want the Christian to go into the keep. The world can not get to them in there. Christians receive weapons and strength in the keep. A lie must be believed before it can work. A warrior must be deceived into staying outside the keep. The warrior in the keep stays away from sin as best they can but when they slip they ask for forgiveness and enter back into God's preferred presence.

### Mercy Is The Key

The truth is that God does not keep us from sin. To sin or not to sin is our choice. God never overrides our power of choice. He has given us the freedom of choice. God never takes back what he has given. Instead, God gives us mercy when we sin. His never-ending mercy allows us to return to the keep whenever we recognize our failure to maintain God's word in our lives.

"I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." (Matthew 9:13) God desires our return to Him above all things. It is not our works He wants but our hearts to turn toward His tender mercy. "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone." (Matthew 23:23) Mercy has to be part of the Christian warrior in order to fully represent the Lord on earth. He is a God of mercy toward His creation. We are saved in mercy. We are protected because of His great mercy. We will be victorious in God's mercy.

Plainly, we are going to fail in our lives. We will make mistakes. God has said it. It is a truth. But we always have a way out. God provides us a means of escape from all situations. When we take the wrong path and the Holy Spirit shows us our mistake we must return to God by the quickest route. This was the heart of David that God declared so important. It is Satan who wants Christians to sit down, after being convicted of sin, and cry about their no-good lives. He wants to make shipwreck of their faith so he steals their chance at returning to the keep by telling them they are failures and will never amount to anything for God.

Look at God's way Christian warrior. Moses was a murderer of the tormenter of his people. He came into the keep. David was a murderer of his mistress' husband. He came into the keep. Paul was a zealous enforcer of the pharisaical way, even to the death of the early Christians. He came into the keep. Right now, brother or sister, as you read these pages, God is dealing with your heart. Won't you come into the keep of God?

David lived his life as hard as he could for God and God's people. Few people would doubt the sincere desire of David to achieve as much as he could for God. David was a pure warrior who followed orders to the maximum and expected the greatest things to happen. When he made a mistake he responded with a pure heart seeking God's mercy and wanting back into the keep of God.

When David's son was dying as a result of David's sin, David fasted and prayed for God's mercy on himself up until the moment the boy died. "Then David arose from the earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and came into the house of the LORD, and worshiped:" (2 Samuel 12:20). The servants thought that great weeping and tribulation would come from the child's death.

David accepted responsibility for the mistake and did the only thing that God would accept. He reversed his sinful direction and asked forgiveness so he could enter back into the keep where he belonged. "While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept: for I said, Who can tell whether GOD will be gracious to me, that the child may live? But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me." (2 Samuel 12:22,23) We can do nothing about past events in our lives except to ask God's forgiveness and lean upon His mercy. David received his comfort from God and passed it on to those around him. "And David comforted Bathsheba his wife," (2 Samuel 12:24) David is the ultimate warrior, a Christian warrior, armed and dangerous.

A major key to the keep is how the warrior deals with that which God has entrusted to them. "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give." (Matthew 10:8) The mercy of God is freely given for all situations. Each warrior will respond with the same mercy from God on behalf of all that come to receive of God at their hand.

In other words, because God has shown mercy to us we show mercy to others. Again, this mercy keeps the warrior from attacking any individuals. Instead the warrior feels compelled to offer mercy to all who will reach out for it. Of course many will not seek mercy for their own selfish reasons. The warrior can only lament those types of decisions.

### God Is Absolute

In the Christian warrior's mind there must be an attitude and a certainty that God's word is absolute and nothing can come between them and their God based upon this word. "But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you." (1 Peter 1:25) Too many today are compromising and determining for themselves the really important things of God and allowing the world to erode Christian standards with unimportant things.

The inherent flaw in this philosophy is that each person determines something different as important and the world is only interested in the things determined unimportant. By concentrating on Christian standards declared unimportant, the world tears away at the fabric of Christianity until, eventually, nothing is left to point to God. These are the things that can be presented and taught on television and other media without having to credit God for them. It only takes one Christian to declare it unimportant in one way or another (by word or action) and then it becomes "okay" to do any way they want by the world's standards.

Little by little the Christian life has been declared unimportant by the world until the only things left are things even the Christian does not think matters any more, things without the power of God. Christian warriors must return to the keep of God and relearn the importance of everything in the bible so God's word can be proclaimed before an unbelieving world with power and authority. Every word of God's book is important.

"Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever." (Psalm 119:160) God's word will stand forever. Many have said that Christians must live by the word while all others live by some false religion or their own code. The truth is God has declared that all men shall be judged by Him. Therefore it is necessary to understand how all will live according to the word, which God will judge by.

The Christian and the sinner alike are living according to the word. Their destinies are recorded within the pages of the bible. Those who declare Jesus their Savior and accept the gospel of Christ will live eternally with God. Those who deny the Savior and the Word of God will spend eternity in hell, a place designed for the devil and his rebellious band of angels. The word has already declared it. Nothing can change this. Everyone is living according to God's word. Not all are living righteously but all are included in the pages of God's word.

No amount of denial on the part of the world or Satan's deceptive demons will change God. "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever." (Hebrews 13:8) The Word is undeniable on this point. God does not change. The world may change around us, even on a daily basis. But God is forever the same.

Warriors must not compromise God's eternal sameness for any reason. It would violate the very reason all need to come to Jesus. "The people, when they knew it, followed him: and he received them, and spake unto them of the kingdom of God, and healed them that had need of healing." (Luke 9:11) When the people recognized the real God in Jesus, they followed. Our soul knows that we seek the true God. We were designed for this relationship by Him. When the world knows the true God, the one that is always going to be there, then they will come and He can make them whole in body mind and spirit. People will always have needs. Warriors know the source of all we need.

"O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!" (Deuteronomy 5:29) God entreats all to follow Him always. The benefit is that all will be well with them and their children, also. Truly God is absolute in this statement, though. There is one Godhead, one Father of all, one Son of God that is the Word to follow, and one Holy Spirit to guide and comfort us. The Christian warrior can clearly focus on the absolute power of God for victory in all situations.

Satan is the father of deception and will turn all heads to him if he can or just against God if that is the best he can get out of a situation. Christians concentrating on an absolute God, who makes no compromises, will be focused on the truth of a situation. Those seeing with their emotions and not the absolute truth will be fooled into anything that fits in with their own thoughts and desires. Warriors must be armed with the absolute truth and never doubt the righteousness of God.

"Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many." (Matthew 24:4,5) Jesus warned us of the craftiness of the enemy to deceive many. "For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect." (Matthew 24:24) The very elect. The warriors who lose their focus on the absolute God will be deceived into following the gods of compromise. Jesus never compromised. The easy relationships with those who believed were not His focus during His ministry on earth. Jesus sought out those who needed Him. The warrior's ministry is not to be in a place of comfort behind protective walls of a church. Jesus stated where the ministry was. "They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick." (Matthew 9:12) Warriors must grasp the absolute power of God in their relationship and then share that relationship with the sick of body, mind and soul.

Chapter 14

## Relationships Matter to God

"And he commanded a centurion to keep Paul, and to let him have liberty, and that he should forbid none of his acquaintance to minister or come unto him."(Acts 24:23)

"I don't need to go to church. I get all the preaching I need on television."

The man told me this with all the conviction he could muster. He really believed he didn't need anyone else in his life. He also maintained that because he didn't associate with those "hypocrites" at the church he wasn't likely to pick up any of their bad habits either. But the truth was found more in his next statement than in anything else. "And no one makes me give any money I don't want to give, either."

I explained that no one had to give anything to go to our church. We only give what we believe God has called for us to give. Everyone is at a different level with God I told him. And then I joked with him that maybe he was afraid God would raise him up to a level where he would feel like giving something.

I also pointed out that there were no hypocrites at our church. We all came together with the express idea of learning everyday to be more and more like Christ. Sure we weren't perfect but we were learning every day. I asked him if he felt he was perfect and he just grinned and told me I had a way with words that tied him all up in knots.

As far as getting his preaching off the television I told him I liked that too. But being realistic he had to agree it was pretty unlikely any of those television preachers were going to come visit him at the hospital when he got sick. He acknowledged that the pastor at another church had come when he was in the hospital. But he quickly added he didn't go to that church either.

In the end he did go to church. Not mine or that other pastor who had visited him in the hospital. He went to the church his daughter went to. He was very sick those last few months of his life but he was surrounded by many loving and caring church members as well as his own family. I couldn't be there when he passed away but there were plenty of other church people there. Those people he hadn't thought he needed were just what the Great Physician ordered.

I am amazed at how God's people, when hurt, or sick or just plain in disagreement with something, separate themselves from the church. We try to prove to ourselves we don't need the one thing God tells us we do need. We need to gather together to lift each other up. Why, when we are down, do we seek to separate ourselves from the very people God said would lift us up?

Some may think they are hurting God when they do this. Others may think they are hurting the pastor or some other person at the church. The truth is that the one hurt is the one who is separated. Like the man beaten, robbed and left to die in the ditch, until the good Samaritan comes along they are doomed. When help arrives to administer what we can not do for ourselves we need not pull away from it but rather embrace it and even seek it out.

Likewise, in our spiritual life we are bombarded with reasons for throwing in the towel and walking away from it all. But those who recognize that their hope rests in Jesus also realize that God works through His people. Many times if we are going to receive something from God it is going to be at the hand of one of His servants, fallible people like you and I.

God created man so we could have relationship with Him. He created woman so we could have relationships with others. God instituted the family relationships, the church relationships, the government relationships and every other type of relationship you could imagine. He set the rules and the guidelines by which we are to relate to each other. When we disregard those relationships we also disregard the God who started them.

Paul had access to information through his friends and acquaintances. More than that, he was not separated from others and thereby maintained his grip on reality. The reality of Paul's position was the strength of God played out in a daily battle with an enemy who sought his life before he could convince others of the glory of God through Jesus Christ. Relationships were continued even while he battled with the enemy.

"Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another:" (Hebrews 10:25). Paul tells us how important relationships are. They are important enough for God to encourage us to maintain them. There is more to the relationships we build on earth than just a friend to talk with us. Remember, we are made in the likeness of God. We do not have the power of God, for sure, without the relationship with the Creator. Together we must practice, continually, being like Jesus. We must be communicators, leaders, students, teachers, friends, servants and God's greatest creation. "I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well." (Psalm 139:14)

Paul needed the relationships around him. Why? Could he not function without friends? No, indeed. Relationships are not our strength, remember. God is our strength. "The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower." (Psalm 18:2) So, relationships must have another role in our lives. As Christians we should know this but so often we forget the essence of it.

We came to God because of our relationship with the Creator. We go to this church or that church because of our relationship with someone, whether it be a teacher, preacher or just someone who attends there. We grow in God based on our relationships with those capable of teaching us. We teach others what our relationship with God and others has taught us. When our relationship with others allows us to be able to tell them something, God will provide the right time and right situation for sharing. We are products of our relationships, good or bad.

"Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?" (2 Corinthians 6:14) Paul admonishes us to keep clear of harmful relationships. He does not say never talk to sinners. He says to maintain our own search for purity in all relationships. If we spend too much of our time around wrong influences, we will take on the wrong characteristics. Most all of us had a parent, or other care giver, tell us we should be careful who we hang around with because they will either rub off on us or else get us into trouble just because we were there when something went wrong. Guilt by association they called it.

"Friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." (James 4:4) God makes the importance of our relationships plain through James. The Christian warrior must be careful of the relationships they cultivate. Obviously, God is careful to admonish us.

Christians recognize the need for being around other Christians but most do not understand the impact on their own lives of how they relate to others. "The LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before." (Job 42:10) When did the Lord turn the situation around? When Job prayed for his friends. Job's relationship was manifested by his actions. All Christians must incorporate this relationship principle in their own lives or suffer aloneness greater than not having any human friends. "O God, forsake me not; until I have showed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to every one that is to come." (Psalm 71:18)

Our relationships are for building each other up and manifesting all God has for his people. No one Christian can have all the plans of this warfare we wage against the enemy. We need each other to put all the pieces of the power and the authority of God to work in this wicked world. It is up to the warriors to band together from the keep of God to bring victory to the world like we've only dreamed existed. It is in the keep of God that the true power of the body of Christ can be realized. Through our relationships in the keep we begin personal and corporate revivals of the heart.

"He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:" (Ephesians 4:11,12) Paul's letter to the Ephesians explains the need for many ministries within the walls of the congregation. He also states they are placed there by God for specific works. Surely, we know that no one person can do it all. But, do we understand why? We are each given a gift from God to accomplish certain works within the body of Christ. It is the obligation of the warrior to discover their ministry and then to operate in it. This is accomplished from the keep of God where all things necessary are explained.

"Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit." (1 Corinthians 12:4) All these ministries are operated under the authority of God with a relationship through the Holy Spirit. "The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal." (Verse 7) These ministries are for the building of Christians within the church. "For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ." (Verse 12) There are many people performing the many ministries of the church with God leading every action. God's plan is clear concerning his church fabric. We are to be the instruments of the ministry God has placed within us. We need to understand each other's separate, yet bonded, ministries. We need our relationships to be strong, righteous and focused on God. A warrior has all relationships in a right focus and understands their importance. Warriors take all their relationships to the keep. There God can help them sort them out.

### We Need God

God told Jacob, "I will be with thee." (Genesis 31:3) This provided Jacob with a relationship of security. God knows our needs. "Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him." (Matthew 6:8) Among those needs is our need to be with God. "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God." (Psalm 42:1) Our soul desires the relationship. Because we are made in the image of God it is our desire to be with our Creator. As a child desires the parent, so do we desire the Father.

To say we understand the need for God is easy. God can acknowledge only one way for us to show we understand, though. We must put action to our knowledge. Nothing we learn in the keep of God is of any use without putting it into action one way or another according to our gift and calling. The principles explained in the bible and encouraged through this book are of no use unless someone acts upon them.

The strength for this action comes from God and nowhere else. Satan will not strengthen us to do God's will, neither will Satan's people. We must be able to discern the move of God in order to see clearly how He has manifested Himself in every situation. We need God to fight this war. The warrior must choose God's way over all others.

### Inside the Keep

God's relationships are cemented within the keep. From in there the warrior develops the relationship with the Father they desire to the depths of their soul. "Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers." (Titus 1:9) Warriors have something to hold from inside the keep. The faithful word of God is what the warrior holds on to.

"Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Bethel." (Genesis 35:15) There is a place we can go to speak with God. Once we discover this place within ourselves it becomes our place to meet with God. Like Moses on the mountain, or Daniel in prayer, each warrior needs a time to get alone with God. They also need a place. Warriors need a place in their physical surroundings, a place in their thoughts, and a place in their soul to reach out to their God. This place is the keep of God.

Every true warrior must follow the clear direction of God in their lives. They must be careful and concerned with all that God commands of His people. "At the commandment of the LORD they rested in the tents, and at the commandment of the LORD they journeyed: they kept the charge of the LORD, at the commandment of the LORD by the hand of Moses." (Numbers 9:23) This concern with God's direction for ministry in our lives is what separates the warrior from the pew sitting Christian. This ministry concern and direction comes from the keep of God.

The mainstay of the warrior life is the strength they get from God. Without the knowledge that God is in charge and making things happen, the Christian warrior is nothing. "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up." (James 4:10) Only the humble can enter the keep. It is from in there that God strengthens the warrior for the battles ahead. "I have showed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive." (Acts 20:35) We take this strength of the Lord from the keep and use it to lift up those in need around us. True warriors can be seen supporting the needs of others in line with God's chosen ministry in their lives.

"Your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want: that there may be equality." (2 Corinthians 8:24) All warriors either have or are a supply for some need around them. It is this relationship organization between God's people that ultimately provides for needs. God arranges all relationships from the keep to benefit His children who reside in the keep of God. God even uses the overflow of abundance to reach out to the many hurting people who do not yet know of God's mercy and kindness.

Warriors Leave No Empty Places

Each warrior must fulfill the need within the body of Christ they were designed for. God is perfect, so each need going unmet within the church is only the empty place of an A.W.O.L. (Absent Without Leave) soldier. God supplies all we need for all situations. That includes ministries within the church. Each of us is the supply for those ministries of God. God is the supply for the warrior and the warrior is the supply for the church as they tend to the needs of the community.

The warrior way is to manage the situation for the glory of God. By following God's direction all situations and needs are met with God's management devices and will give glory to God. "The LORD is thy keeper." (Psalm 121:5) From inside the keep, God manages all we do before the battle ever begins. "And the LORD said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him." (Genesis 18:17-19) Whatever task God assigns His warriors it is important they use the principles of God in the management of the task. However God uses His servants they must be available, empty vessels ready to go where the Holy Spirit leads.

"He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels." (Revelation 3:5) The hope of the Christian is that their names are written in the Lamb's book of life. Without this hope they can not enter into the keep of the Lord or the kingdom of God. "Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables." (Mark 4:11) Only those who have accepted Jesus will be accepted by God. And those who enter into the keep of God are privy to information withheld from those outside. God keeps track of His warriors.

Warriors are not self contained. All they are and all they do is from God. That includes their protection. "My defence is of God, which saveth the upright in heart." (Psalm 7:10) Those in the keep of God are considered upright of heart. Those who abide in the keep are under the protection of the Lord. The warrior leads all others to the protection they have found in the Lord. Without the keep the warrior is outside and vulnerable.

Genesis 2:15 explains God's plan for continuing His creations. "The LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it." Man's task was simple at first, continue the things God created, keep them alive and help them to prosper. After they were thrown out of the garden things got a little more complicated. This is because, in the garden, Adam and Eve were continually in the keep of God. If a warrior could attain this place again the same ease of ministry to God would again be present. Instead, the keep of God is not assured to the Christian without learning the way of God and letting the Holy Spirit teach them. The Christian that learns from the Holy Spirit will enter the keep of God just as surely as Adam walked with God in the garden. "They continue this day according to thine ordinances: for all are thy servants." (Psalm 119:91) Warriors are servants first and continue with God in all things.

Chapter 15

## Explain to the World

"And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee." (Acts 24:25)

I often find myself asking why God has put me in this place or that and this situation or that. I am not questioning God I am trying to discover His purpose for wherever I find myself. I am curious to know what God is going to gain by this new thing I am going through. Is he getting a better me that looks more like His Son or maybe He's getting another person to step out and seek the lost? Whatever the purpose the cause is still the same. I am sent to spread the gospel everywhere I find myself.

Whether it's in a Sunday school room for children, a church I visit on vacation, or some little church in the Ecuadorian hillside waiting to hear the word of God brought by the American missionaries, the job is still the same. Spread the gospel around.

Whether we are at work, at the grocery store or doing our laundry at the new Laundromat around the corner, the job is still the same. Spread the gospel.

Whether we are the pastor of a church, a member of the church or the janitor of a church, the job is the same. Spread the gospel.

A man told me one time that he didn't need to carry his bible because I would tell him everything he needed to know during my sermon. I thanked him for his compliment but then asked how he passed that knowledge he had gained on. He laughed and said he didn't. He just kept it to himself, for his own use. I acted astounded and even a little angry when I told him that I thought he was a crook. He asked why and I explained that I had not charged him a thing for that sermon because God had not charged me a thing for it. Our only obligation was to pass it on. If we stop the message from getting out by keeping it to ourselves, how will others learn of the glory of God?

He laughed and told me that that was my job.

I didn't laugh with him. It is too important a subject to make fun of. We are all called to spread the gospel of Jesus. Pastors are called to perfect the saints of God so that the gospel will be spread even further. No where does God tell anyone to just sit back and let others do the work.

The fields of harvest are indeed ripe for the taking. But if the people of the church respond as that man did we will never reach the harvest field for the Lord. Pastor's will talk themselves blue in the face and new lives will not be touched with the full capability the church possesses.

Think of it like this. Maybe your church has only thirty people in it today. But what if every church member concentrated on bringing one other person with them during the next year? Suddenly your church is now sixty strong.

What happens though is probably more like five out of the twenty reach out to others and the next year the church has thirty-five people minus the three or four that leave because they are bored. I've never seen anyone leave a church who was involved in winning the loss. Generally, the only ones who leave are those who are sitting there doing nothing to begin with. People who tell me they are bored with their church are most likely not involved with anything the church is doing. It is a very rare soul who has approached me saying they have done all they can at their current church and they need one that can take them farther. Matter of fact, the few times I have heard that excuse it was just that, an excuse. The truth was they weren't doing anything at their current church. The thing they wanted to go farther was the preaching they had heard but ignored. They were not in search of another church to serve at. They were in search of another smorgasbord of preaching that they could also ignore.

Jesus commanded us to go into all the world. That should be a relief to every Christian. How will I know when I've done enough? Why when I've reached the whole world, of course.

The Christian call is to tell the world of Jesus Christ. The world will tremble when Jesus is exalted. Some will tremble with excitement at the mention of His name. Others will tremble with fear because of His power over evil intentions. All will recognize the name and authority of Jesus.

"I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear." (Isaiah 45:23) God is the true ruler of the world. His authority is supreme and awesome. Nothing comes before God. Nothing stands in the path of His fury. Such is the God that the Christian warrior serves.

World leaders will listen to God's people when it suits God's plans. "Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?" (Exodus 3:11)

Moses had to learn the power of God's audience with world leaders. "Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?" (Verse 13)

Moses had to learn God's authority over His people, also. "God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you." (Verse 14) God explains who He is by stating that the great I AM is sufficient for recognition among all people.

The warrior should proceed with all ministry options knowing who is backing their every move. God never fails. God never loses. God is the victory. The battle is won the minute we align ourselves with God's intentions in our lives.

We align ourselves by our actions and intentions. "When they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay." (Mark 2:4) The friends of the sick man (There's those relationships, again) brought him to Jesus and could not get through. Instead of giving up and returning home, they recognized their ministry needed something extraordinary to give it a boost. They climbed to the roof and tore a hole in it to let the man on his bed down into the midst where Jesus was. The theme is 'Get to Jesus'. Relationships should be capable of not only recognizing needs but also fulfilling them. (Maybe it won't always look like the way everyone else does it)

Christian warriors recognize that the effort is justified only by the need. The need is only filled by the mercy of God. The strength for it all is supplied by the most awesome and powerful God of all. From inside the keep of God the warrior will understand what is needed for every battle. God can not be stopped. Neither can the Christian warrior who charges the enemy from the ranks of God's protected army.

"Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble." (James 2:19) Satan is afraid of the power of God's people. He can not defend his stolen territory against the strength of the Christian warrior who is sent from God. "Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work." (John 4:34) Even Jesus portrayed the importance of being sent. Those who were sent by the authority had the right to accomplish the task that was committed to them. The Christian warrior should never forget who sent them and the fact that they have the right to finish the job God commanded of them.

### The Great Commission

Jesus gave the command when He commissioned all that would follow Him. "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." (Acts 1:8)

Warriors are witnesses first and foremost to the world. There is no place they should not go. In fact, they are commanded to go into all parts of the world, even to the ends of the earth. The word uttermost also denotes the lowest areas, meaning that all people and places are to be told the good news of the Savior, Jesus Christ.

We are not just sent like lambs to the slaughter, however. Warriors are sent and authorized of God to carry out the work of the kingdom as directed by God through the Holy Spirit. "Wait for the promise of the Father,... ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost." (Acts 1:4,5) The promise is the strength for the work of the Lord in our lives.

The Holy Spirit will be our teacher. "The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you."(John 14:26) The Holy Spirit will be our comforter. The Holy Spirit will be our guide.

The keep of God is reached by relationship with the Godhead. The Father is the Creator of all things. The Son is the authority under which we operate. The Holy Spirit is our best friend and confidant. All three in one, the warrior must nestle in the arms of the Lord and take nourishment while seeking protection and receiving guidance.

The warrior is God's greatest creation. Satan is scared of the warriors. At every chance he will try to destroy them. Time has come for the warriors of God to take the battle back to the world, not as conquerors, but as loving brothers and sisters. Warriors take no joy in those who choose death over life. The only true victory is the one who chooses God.

"Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." (Luke 15:10)

May God richly bless the warriors that stand in the gap for the kingdom work of the Lord.

###### A Final Word from the Author

All Christians need to accept the role of "soldier" for their lives. Then they must discover God's plan for their life through exploration of the gifts and their' calling. This information once uncovered, however, obligates the Christian soldier to graduate from boot camp and enter the ranks of the armed forces as they move out to take back the things stolen by the enemy and claim new ground in the name of their Lord and King. Every soldier has a job and every job has skills that must be learned. Every soldier must become a warrior.

All soldiers should know the warrior's skills in order to operate as a true soldier. Even the soldiers who work behind a desk need battle skills when the war comes to them. They also must understand how and why warriors are working the way they work in order to support and pray for each other. Like our modern day army, warriors should be easy to recognize. They look different. They carry themselves different. They have a different air of authority around them. They are different because of the time they have spent in the keep of God.

All this knowledge comes from and by the keep of God. He is the supply of our needs and the comfort of our souls. May all those who choose to receive this work be encouraged in the work of the kingdom and may their efforts be multiplied as they seek the victory from the keep.

One last note. Worship is the key to the Keep of God. When we worship God we enter into His keep. Won't you meet with God? He is waiting in the keep.

