The Counterattack

A funny thing happens when you begin to write about spiritual warfare - the spiritual warfare that you are experiencing gets more serious. Not long after I finished the article Choosing Your Ground I was hammered by the most intense battle that I have experienced in years.

Did I know one was coming? Yes; but I have to admit that it was far more severe than I had anticipated. It was like a wave that knocked me off of my feet and rolled me around under the water for a while. I am only now beginning to find the ground and get my feet back under me again.

While it is disconcerting that I was hit so hard, I was reminded yesterday by my pastor that, "a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again, but the wicked stumble in time of calamity." Thank God that my righteousness isn't based on any goodness inherent in me, but is solely dependent on the perfection of Jesus Christ imputed to me by faith. God is certainly good!

The aftermath of the attack has left me pretty tender and wounded, but I see the attack as a good thing. In it the enemy was allowed to sift me and used a seemingly small area of darkness in my heart as the access point for his attack. He exploited this area of rebellion in my heart to his advantage to quickly open up a breech on a flank that I thought that I had thoroughly defended. Because of this attack I am now aware of an area where I had grown complacent and that needs to be submitted to God.

Another positive on the heels of this attack is that it would seem that the articles that I have written have struck a nerve with the enemy. That is a very good thing. Thus, I intend to continue writing. As I suggested in Total War, if he bloodies me, I have every intention of returning the favor.

The most disturbing outcome of the attack has been how long it has taken me to get back in the saddle. I'm not even sure that I'm back there yet, but I do seem to be moving that way. And as I return to the saddle, I will return to the offensive. I intend to write the next installment of the Spiritual Warfare Series in the coming days.

Wynton Marsalis On Integrity

Excellent interview with Wynton Marsalis on integrity and how lack of integrity has put our country in the situation it is in. This is one sharp fellow. I'd love to sit down with him for a few hours to talk or jam!

Ray Hughes - The Symphony of Heaven

This is one of the most amazing sermons that I have heard on worship. I love this brother's voice! He reminds me of Johnny Cash! It lasts about an hour and ten minutes. Be blessed!

Choosing Your Ground

Part Two In The Spiritual Warfare Series

It was a bad situation. His brother had parleyed an agreement that dictated the English surrender their garrison at Stirling Castle to them if they were not relieved by the English army by Midsummer's Day (June 24). Robert hadn't wanted to put his troops in a position where open battle against the English army was necessary. Slash and burn techniques and guerrilla warfare had proven the more effective strategy given the strengths and weaknesses of the Scottish and English armies. Yet what was done was done, and once again, as he had for the past 18 years, Robert was making the best of a bad situation.

That the English would come was without a doubt. Edward II had been humiliated by Robert and his men too many times for him to pass up a chance for one decisive victory to win back the lands that he had ineptly lost - lands that his father Edward Longshanks had so ably taken from the Scots. The setting was already chosen - Stirling Castle, and the time was relatively certain. He had just a few months to prepare for the coming battle.

The English would have heavy cavalry and archers. The Scots would have only light cavalry and a few archers. The English would likely have far better armor and would probably also outnumber the Scots heavily. It was unthinkable to attempt to fight the English in the open field. It would have been suicide. Their superior technology and numbers forbade it. So what could he do to mitigate the strengths of the English army and leverage the abilities of his own?

At the Battle of Falkirk, William Wallace had demonstrated that it was possible to repulse heavy cavalry using a bristling formation of soldiers armed with long pikes. Unfortunately, the same battle demonstrated that these formations (schiltroms) were vulnerable to the attack of archers because they were not mobile.

Robert had developed a solution to this problem. He drilled his men, teaching them to be able to move and fight in perfect formation with the schiltroms. Now they were less vulnerable to archers. But that in itself would not be sufficient to give him victory against so large a force. He began to scout the land for a defensible position.

There was little doubt that Edward's army would follow the old Roman road to Stirling. It was the only way that would give his heavy cavalry firm enough ground to be able to operate. But, with the dense Tor Wood to either side of the road, it would be easy to force the English into a narrow formation that would negate their numerical superiority in battle. Robert set his men to the task of digging pits along either side of the road and hiding them under a thin layer of branches and earth. They also cut down trees to make easy passage through the woods impossible and blocked all paths. On the other side of Tor Wood the Bannock Burn flowed through a narrow, boggy floodplain, called the Carse, that created a natural funnel between Tor Wood and New Park - a heavily forested hunting preserve on the other side of the Carse. It was a perfect spot to pick a fight.

He didn't have to wait long. Edward arrived on the scene on June 23 and his cavalry made contact with Robert the Bruce's forces in a frontal assault that was easily repelled by the Scots. As expected, the English outnumbered Bruce's army nearly three to one, but Robert's preparations had borne fruit. Edward turned his forces off the Roman road and crossed the fords of Bannock Burn to camp on the Carse that first night. He had fallen into the Bruce's trap. The battle that followed the next day saw the English routed and Edward abandoning his army to flee for his life, leaving them to get home the best that they could. The victory was so decisive that Scottish independence from England was only a matter of time. Edward never ventured into Scotland again.

The victory that day belonged to the Scots because they picked their battleground wisely and forced their enemy to engage them on their terms. Had Edward been wise enough to recognize the trap that he was walking into, he may have refused to engage the Scots until he had a plan to counter their positional advantage.

The lesson that Robert the Bruce taught to Edward that day is one that we must learn if we are to be successful in our spiritual campaigns. A wise commander chooses his ground carefully and refuses to engage his enemy on a battlefield that does not play to the strengths of his force. How well we do this will determine our success or failure in spiritual warfare.

There is only one battlefield that the saints of the Lord should battle on - the battlefield of truth¹. All other battlefields belong to the enemy. The battlefield of truth is defined by the Word of God. The enemy will do everything that he can to entice us to fight on his terms and on his battlefield. But we must not do this! We can rest assured that it is a trap every time.

Let's return to a story that most folks are very familiar with:

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."

Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it — I give every green plant for food." And it was so. Genesis 1:26-30

Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground — trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Genesis 2:8-9

The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." Genesis 2:15-17

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"

The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'"

"You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Genesis 3:1-7

This story is a perfect example of the devil's tactic. God gave Adam and Eve a specific command, "you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil," and a specific consequence for disobeying that command, "for when you eat of it you will surely die." This was the truth. As long as they believed and acted on the reliability of God's truth they would be fine.

But then the devil showed up. And the serpent immediately began to question what God had said. He probed the defenses to see how firmly Eve knew the truth. He began very broadly, asking, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"

Eve's answer was sound. She explained that they could eat from any tree but the one, and she even went further, saying that they couldn't even TOUCH it or they would die. It sounds good, right? She was making sure that she didn't eat any of that fruit, because if she didn't even touch the tree she couldn't eat the fruit, right?

Perhaps God had given them that additional instruction, but we have no record of it if He did. Is it possible that this deviation from the truth that was recorded provided the opening that the devil was looking for? Immediately upon hearing her reply the devil lied to her saying, "You will not surely die" and continued to convince her that she needed to eat that fruit to be like God.

At a recent spiritual warfare conference I attended, Steve Thompson² taught that the enemy always tries to convince us that we have to do something to become what we already are. How true that was in this case! Both Adam and Eve were the very image of God, and yet the devil tried to convince Eve that she had to do something else to become like God. Unfortunately for all of creation, she and Adam took the bait, trading their lives and their dominion of the earth for a lousy piece of fruit. The rest, as they say, is history.

The devil didn't make it clear what was at stake. In fact, he flatly denied the truth. I can imagine the old serpent handling the fruit, polishing the fruit, perhaps even tasting the fruit before Eve and demonstrating that it was indeed quite tasty and non-lethal. How different things would have been if Eve (or even Adam) had stuck to their guns and remained firmly planted on the truth. "God is my friend. He loves me, and if He told me that it would kill me then it will. I don't care how pretty it is. I don't care how tasty it is. God doesn't want me to die, and He knows what is best!"

However, that is not what happened, and because Adam and Eve allowed themselves to be persuaded to move away from the truth that God had revealed to them, the enemy was able to defeat them and take everything that was theirs. This story is our example of what happens when the devil is allowed to choose the battlefield and define the terms of the battle.

Fortunately, we also have an example in the Bible of how to keep the enemy fighting in the realm of truth. The story takes place right after Jesus' cousin, John, had baptized Him.

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, He was hungry. The tempter came to Him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread."

(The devil tried the same line on Jesus that he did on Eve. 'If you are the Son of God, you have to prove it!' From the very start he tried to get Jesus to doubt that He was the Son of God.)

Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'[a]"

(Jesus set the battlefield and the terms right there: Man lives on every word that comes from the mouth of God. He gave the enemy notice that this was where they would fight. He wasn't going to listen to the devil, and He wasn't going to listen to His body. He was going to listen to every word that came from God's mouth.)

Then the devil took Him to the holy city and had Him stand on the highest point of the temple. "If You are the Son of God," he said, "throw Yourself down. For it is written:

" 'He will command His angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'[b]"

(Impressive. The devil knows some scripture. He pretended to comply with the terms that Jesus set, but he didn't change his premise. He was still trying to get Jesus to question who He is, and he was still trying to dictate what Jesus would have to do to prove it.)

Jesus answered him, "It is also written: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'[c]"

(Jesus wasn't fooled by the devil's use of scripture. He recognized that the enemy's tactic hadn't changed at all; he had just wrapped it in a nice religious package. Jesus' thorough knowledge of the scriptures exposed the sin in the devil's enticement. This attack shows us the importance of studying and understanding the scriptures thoroughly - a job that we will never complete in this lifetime.)

Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. "All this I will give You," he said, "if You will bow down and worship me."

(The enemy is persistent, and in this temptation he finally got around to what he was after all along. Please notice that he never left his premise that Jesus really isn't the Son of God. Inherent in this promise was the denial that everything in all of creation already belonged to Jesus as the Son of God. The audacity is staggering.)

Jesus said to him, "Away from me, satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.'[d]"

(End of discussion. This was the final word. Jesus was never moving off of it.)

Then the devil left Him, and angels came and attended Him.

Matthew 4:1-11

That is how you beat the devil. You take your stand upon the truth with the help of the Holy Spirit, and you refuse to be moved. Every time he opens his mouth, every time he brings a temptation, every time he attacks you, you must respond with the truth of the Word of God. To be able to stand you must know the truth and you must believe the truth.

To know the truth you must know the Word of God. The Bible tells us that God's Word is truth. It tells us that we shall know the truth and the truth shall make us free. And we also have the important admonition of Paul to Timothy to, "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth."

Be diligent! To be able to accurately handle the word of truth we must be diligent in our study of the scriptures. The children of Israel were encouraged:

These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

That is constant marination in the truth! If only we were so diligent to do so! But it is what we must do if we are to know the truth and to believe the truth.

Belief goes far deeper than mere mental assent to the veracity of the Scriptures. Belief begins to kick in when you are willing to stake your life on the truth of the word of God. I know no one who is walking in perfect belief, but this is an area where we must begin to grow!

The trials that we suffer are opportunities to transform our knowledge and our mental assent into true belief; for it is in these trials that we find the enemy's assault on the truth that we claim to believe. How do you respond when sickness comes? Depression? Trouble? Persecution? Poverty? Do you still believe the truth of the scriptures in these situations? Do you still fight against the devil with the Word of God when these situations come against you? How long are you willing to fight? Are you willing to lean on the Word alone instead of running to other supports?

I am not suggesting that you run out and handle poisonous snakes to prove the truth of Mark 16:18, but if you should find yourself bitten one day, will you trust that verse for your life? (You might want to refer to Jesus' response to the devil when he suggested that Jesus jump off of the temple if you are tempted to handle them just to prove it. Don't fall into the devil's trap!)

I am also not suggesting that you must fight alone. God gave us brothers and sisters to stand with us and to multiply our strength when we fight together. I had an experience leading up to my trip to Japan that demonstrates what I am saying very clearly.

All winter I was around many people who were very sick. I was in close contact with people who had sicknesses that lasted for weeks and weeks, yet I stayed healthy. Every time I would begin to feel a twinge of something starting to attack, I would declare that it wouldn't take residence in my body and that I was well. I would stand on Isaiah 53:5, Psalm 103:4 and 1 Peter 2:24, and I was victorious in that fight all winter.

However, three days before I was to leave for my mission trip to Japan, I began to exhibit the symptoms of a cold. I fought them all day with the Word of God and with my declarations. I declared that I did not receive it and that I was well, but as the day wore on it was clear that I was losing the fight. I called two friends who are powerful in faith and asked them to pray for me. They did, but the battle still wasn't won. I had not shaken it yet. So, when I went to church that night for worship practice I asked the band members to lay hands on me and pray. They did, and the sickness broke. I got continually better from that moment, and by the time I landed in Japan there was no more sign of any sickness.

I'll make one comment here regarding battle that I expect I'll come back to before everything is said and done. It is easier to keep the devil out than it is to get him out once he has established a foothold. That is why it is so important to not let him get even one inch of ground upon which he can stand. Call in every resource that is at your disposal to defeat the enemy before he can get established.

I have heard that people trained to spot counterfeit money don't study counterfeit bills - they study real money. They become so familiar with the inscriptions, weight, feel, and smell of real money that when someone tries to hand them something that is fake they know it immediately. Similarly, we have to become so familiar with the truth of the Word of God that we recognize his counterfeits the instant that he tries to pass one.

One of the disciplines that I have developed over the past 10 years or so is the reading of the entire Bible over the course of a year. I use the One Year Bible. I have found that it is a good format for me.

When I first began, my stated goal was not to understand everything that I read, it was merely to make sure that I got the entire Bible entered into my brain. That way, if I were ever without a Bible for some reason, the Holy Spirit would already have the resources stored away in my memory that He could draw back out. I figured anything that God wanted to highlight to me was an added benefit.

As I continued the tradition, I began to read with an eye toward various themes. One year I read, paying special attention to all of the passages that I saw about healing. Another year I read paying special attention to the way that God describes Himself in the Bible. It hasn't been a fast process, but it has been a thorough one.

I would recommend such a discipline to anyone. Over the years I would say that the greatest benefit that I have derived from it is the increased understanding of who God is and what He is like. The better I know who He really is, the better I recognize the lies and counterfeits that the devil tries to float past me.

As we diligently input God's Word into our hearts and minds we will become more and more like Jesus and instantly recognize any attempt of the enemy to take us away from the truth. As we let it begin to change us, we will find that we have greater and greater authority. Then we will find it easier and easier to dictate the battlefield and the terms to the devil. If we stay firmly planted on the battlefield of truth the enemy won't be able to stand before us. Learn this battlefield and refuse to be moved from it.

Go To Spiritual Warfare Series Part 1: Total War

¹I am reasonably sure that I got this concept from Francis Frangipane's book, The Three Battlegrounds. I am not positive because I read the book almost 20 years ago, and I cannot find my copy to confirm it. I remember hearing the phrase "fight from the realm of truth" somewhere, and I think it was from Francis. After 21 years of walking with the Lord it is hard to remember where I picked up my information.

²I was attending the MorningStar Ministries Spiritual Warfare Conference that ran from April 16-18, 2009 and Steve Thompson made this comment on Saturday morning, April 18.

Good News

After the sober word posted earlier, it only seemed appropriate to post this encouragement from God's Word.

- Cephas

Psalm 27
Of David.

¹ The LORD is my light and my salvation—
whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life—
of whom shall I be afraid?

² When evil men advance against me
to devour my flesh,
when my enemies and my foes attack me,
they will stumble and fall.

³ Though an army besiege me,
my heart will not fear;
though war break out against me,
even then will I be confident.

⁴ One thing I ask of the LORD,
this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD
and to seek him in his temple.

⁵ For in the day of trouble
he will keep me safe in his dwelling;
he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle
and set me high upon a rock.

⁶ Then my head will be exalted
above the enemies who surround me;
at his tabernacle will I sacrifice with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make music to the LORD.

⁷ Hear my voice when I call, O LORD;
be merciful to me and answer me.

⁸ My heart says of you, "Seek his face!"
Your face, LORD, I will seek.

⁹ Do not hide your face from me,
do not turn your servant away in anger;
you have been my helper.
Do not reject me or forsake me,
O God my Savior.

¹⁰ Though my father and mother forsake me,
the LORD will receive me.

¹¹ Teach me your way, O LORD;
lead me in a straight path
because of my oppressors.

¹² Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes,
for false witnesses rise up against me,
breathing out violence.

¹³ I am still confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the LORD
in the land of the living.

¹⁴ Wait for the LORD;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the LORD.
 

Tsunamis

Back around the time of the election I wrote a couple posts that were prophetic in nature. Some of the elements of those prophecies have come true and some have yet to come to pass, but based on the accuracy of the parts that have come true, I am convinced that the rest will eventually be manifested.

In that first post I wrote the following about prophecy:

I believe that God still speaks to His people. Down through the ages this communication has been called prophecy. And God often reveals his plans to His people through individuals called prophets. Many of you probably have real doubts about whether prophets even exist in the world today. I can assure you that they do. I have known quite a few and can testify that their words have proven true.

A group of prophets, that included one man that I know personally, accurately predicted (in 1999) the current war against radical Islam. (They also predicted that the war would involve China and that it could be averted by prayer. I am hoping that the China part was turned away.) Months ago another friend of mine predicted the stock market crash that we have been witnessing over the past weeks.

What is prophecy? Prophecy is merely accurately reporting what God says about a situation or a person. The real rub is in the "accurately" part. It is pretty serious business to claim to speak for the Almighty. However, it is clear through the Scriptures that God speaks to His people through prophets. It occurred in both the Old Testament and in the New: Jesus spoke to his disciples about the blessing of receiving prophets, Paul commented that he wished that all of the believers in Corinth would prophesy, we are even encouraged to ask for the gift of prophecy.

Modern prophecy is no substitute for the scriptures. It is by the Word of God that all prophecy is judged. Any prophecy that does not agree with the Bible is false. This premise is critical to grasp. This truth, however, does not change the fact that God also speaks to His people about the things that are going on in their lives beyond the written words of the Bible. He is eager to speak to those who are willing to pursue intimacy with Him.

On January 13, 2009 I believe that I had a conversation with God in my prayer time. In that conversation God spoke to me very clearly about judgments that are coming to our nation and about the church's lack of preparedness for what is coming. I have been pondering this message now for several months and feel that the time is right to share it. The message is alarming. There is a very real physical danger that we are facing. The events of this prophecy will be the most distressing that any of us who have only lived in the United States have ever seen.

The purpose of sharing this message is not to create fear though. I realize that such a statement seems rather counter to common sense. However, when there is danger coming, forewarned is forearmed. My prayer is that each person who reads this prophecy will become sober and vigilant and will begin to prepare in earnest for what is about to happen in our nation.

The best way to prepare is to get serious about knowing God. To that end I would recommend greatly reducing the amount of time spent on entertainment. 24 hours is such a short period of time. If eight hours are devoted to work, eight hours are devoted to sleep, three hours are devoted to meals, one hour is devoted to travel, and two hours are devoted to other necessary personal activities, each person only has about two hours' worth of time left for "leisure." A single 30-minute TV program that promotes the godless systems of our world uses ¼ of the time that is available to seek God. Most people watch far more TV than that.

How can we know God? One of the best ways to start is to begin practicing the disciplines that you have always heard about in church: daily Bible study, prayer (both corporate and individual), fasting, meditation on the scriptures, and scripture memorization. These things will not in themselves cause you to know God, but you won't know God without doing these things.

Quiet yourself and remove as many distractions as possible from your life. Part of the reason that we have so much trouble hearing God is that we have too much sensory input. We are so distracted we cannot be still enough to hear God. Get honest with God about the things that are going on in your life. Look at your life and confess every area of sin that you are aware of, and ask the Lord to help you to be free from these sins. Allow God to begin to speak to you about the areas of your life that the enemy has used to hold you back, and allow Him to begin to heal those areas. Most of all, don't give up. Stick to your pursuit of God like your life depends on it - it very well may.

Below is the text of the conversation between God and me from January 13, 2009. The text in bold font is what I believe the Lord was speaking to me and the normal font was what I said to Him.

My people are not ready. They have not been heeding the warnings. They need to dig down into Me. Be ready. The first waves will catch most of them by surprise. They will need for you and the others that I have prepared to show them where to go. They will need you to help them to get their feet back under them.

It is going to be a lot like the tsunamis that hit Asia a couple years ago. The judgments that are coming will come in just like that, but there will be multiple waves. If My people will respond properly when the first wave comes in many can be saved. Keep your head and direct people to safety.

(I keep seeing images of the tsunami. It will be destructive just like that. I sense that there is a military element to it, but I am not sure if it is terrorist or actual militaries.)

How long do we have?

Not enough time.

Can it be averted?

No.

How do I pray, Lord? What do I pray for?

Pray for their eyes to be opened.

Father God! Open their eyes! Help them to see the truth!

"As in the days of Noah..." life will be going on just as normal and suddenly calamity will come.

Open our eyes Lord! Open our ears that the alarm may register!

Your nation has grown complacent. They do not believe that they are vulnerable to attack, but attack is coming. Their sin has caused Me to remove My protection from them. How I would love to protect them, but they have refused.

You must begin to pray protection over those that you love. Be ready at a moment's notice to pray for your brothers and sisters around the country. For I will arrest you at different times to pray for them. Be ready even in the middle of the night.

Father, will You not help your prophets to warn the people? Will You not help them to uncover the enemy's schemes?

Son, I will tell the prophets, but those in authority won't listen. My message to the prophets will end up saving the lives of the elect.

Father, this is a fearful word.

Remember it is for good. This will end in the liberation of your nation. Your nation will be liberated from the bonds that the enemy has used to enslave it and to derail its destiny. I am rescuing Your nation through My love and mercy, but sin is costly. Its wages are death. They have sown wind, but they will reap the whirlwind.

How do I guard my heart, Lord? How do I prevent the despair and the sorrow from being too much?

You must press in to Me. You must give it to Me. You must come to Me for perspective. I promise that I will be here when you come. I promise that I will comfort you.

Defend my family, Lord. Defend my friends. Defend my brothers and sisters. Defend the helpless and the widows and the orphans. Defend the poor. Protect them from this wave. Let it wake them up. Let it drive them to action.

Later that night there was more:

Much of the damage intended against your nation can be mitigated, but it will not be averted. Even mitigated the damage will be severe.

Father, I pray that the damage done by the attacks will be minimal. Please spare us - especially in the first wave. Give people time to recognize that the prophetic words are true and give them the chance to repent and seek Your face.

There will be loss of life. The degree to which that happens will be determined largely by how effectively and diligently the intercessors stand in the gap.

God, help us to stand mightily.

Many of you will, son. Many will, but there will not be enough to avert the judgment. My people in America largely do not know how to seek My face. They have not been instructed. They have allowed themselves to be distracted by entertainment and by the worries and cares of life and by the desire for things. This initial shaking will wake many of them up from their slumber. Shake as many as you can before the time comes. Wake them up!

Father, anoint my words. Grant them the power to wake them up. Help them to understand the urgency of the hour. Help me to be a faithful watchman. Give me the courage to tell them the truth. Father, break the teeth of the enemy and smash his hands and fingers. Cause him to loose Your people. Force him to uncover their ears. Send Your angels forth to enforce this. Teach me how to pray. Teach me how to unleash Your wrath against the enemy. Teach me how to unlock the passion of the hearts of Your people. Call Your people to action. Uncover their ears so that they can hear the call of the trumpet. Break off of them the spirit of slumber - the spirit of slothfulness - and cause them to respond to the call.

With the inauguration of President Obama my protection will be lifted. It has remained because President Bush has loved Me and fears Me. You and the other intercessors will help to replace that covering, but it will not remain over the entire nation until the nation again returns to Me with a whole heart. The intercession will produce covering in different regions. Some will be as large as entire states and others will be as small as even individual households. Still, you can accomplish much through prayer and even more through prayers of agreement with other saints.

Father, I ask that prayer become a foundational pillar of our new vision at (my church). Please put in the people's heart a desire to pray. Please put a burden in their hearts to pray. Help us, Lord, to spare this county. Help us to join with the other believers around our county to spare us. Help us to desire intimacy with You and not just deliverance from the calamity that is all around us. Help us to seek Your face and the joy of Your presence and pleasure. Forgive me for not seeking this place more often. Captivate my heart - captivate the hearts of Your saints and show them that You are more precious and fascinating than anything that has held their attention before. Help us to connect to Your heart so deeply that we tremble from the joy and passion that we find there....

Who is like You, O God? There is none like You at all. You are glorious and beautiful beyond comprehension. Your love is amazing and overflows to Your creation. Who are we that You have loved us? You are merciful and gracious. Thank You for the treasures of Your mercy and grace.

This is the end of what I believe that I received from the Lord. A friend of mine had some specifics about where some of the attacks may come. This revelation was received on November 10, 2008.

You will see cities burning....

It will be a terrible time for Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Detroit, Minneapolis, Atlanta, Wyoming, and Raleigh. “They” will go after the capital cities in every state, trying to bring down the governments. Austin will be ready because of My prophets there (in TX). Alabama will be ready. Detroit will suffer greatly, as there are many poor people there....

It will not come severely in the first year, but it will crescendo toward 3 years from now. This process will take longer than you would like, but stay faithful. You will see the Great New Awakening that I AM bringing to America, and indeed to the whole world. This is the last great harvest before the end time events are loosed.

Things are no longer “business as usual.” They never will be again. They will first be much worse, then much better. You will rejoice to see it....

Because of the personal nature of other parts of this revelation I left them out, but one of the things included the failure of a major bank. It also talked about the dark times that some have suffered in recent times and how that is part of their preparation for the coming darkness. The struggles that many of God's people have faced will have prepared them to rescue many during these extreme times.

It is beyond time to get ready. If you are reading this and are a Christian, then make your preparation for these events as urgent as if you already saw them happening in your city. There is not time to completely prepare yourself, but you will be happy if you start now instead of waiting for later.

If you are reading this and are not a Christian, then you really should become one. I have explained how to do that many times on this blog. God is a shield to those who put their trust in Him. This is not to say that your life will get easier if you become a Christian - it very likely will not. I will tell you that it will make your life far better in the long run - you will be eternally happy you submitted your life to Jesus Christ. The good news is that those who call upon the Name of the Lord will be saved. Well, actually that is just the beginning of the Good News.

God is good and His lovingkindness endures forever. God loves His children, and He cares for them. Even when we suffer loss and when we suffer hardship, the Lord uses it to bring us to maturity and to bring us to greater trust in Him and His goodness. During these times God will expose your fears. He will expose everything that you lean on besides Him, and sadly, as Americans we lean on many things besides God - even though we claim that we do not. Our fears are proof that our trust is not fully on God and prove that we do not know and love Him as we should, for perfect love casts out fear. Brothers and sisters, trust in the promise that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

Finally, take heart that the judgments that are coming against this nation are not for its destruction but instead for its salvation. God has promised to remove everything that hinders love for Him. The shaking that is coming will help to accomplish this purpose and will usher in a Great Awakening in our nation that all who love the Lord will rejoice to see.

Total War

Part One In The Spiritual Warfare Series

I have been pondering the concept of total war lately. Americans are really not comfortable with the idea of total war. This fact is clearly seen in our impatience with the current war in Iraq and in our approach to the war against terrorism in general. The most recent example of total war in American history was World War II. Yet even that war did not carry the concept to its extreme limits. According to Wikipedia

Total war is a conflict of unlimited scope in which a belligerent engages in a mobilization of all available resources at their disposal, whether human, industrial, agricultural, military, natural, technological, or otherwise, in order to entirely destroy or render beyond use their rival's capacity to continue resistance. The practice of total war has been in use for centuries, but it was only in the middle to late 19th century that total war was identified by scholars as a separate class of warfare. In a total war, there is less (or no) differentiation between combatants and non-combatants (civilians) than in other conflicts, as nearly every person from a particular country (or opposing area), civilians and soldiers alike, can be considered to be part of this belligerent effort.

The "civilized" world in general doesn't seem to have much of a stomach for total war, and I am glad many industrialized nations have embraced the concept of more limited warfare. However, the concept of total war seems to be a good description of the spiritual war in which humanity finds itself.

Consider the reality that exists on Earth. Two kingdoms are engaged in battle for supremacy of the earth. There is no Geneva Convention governing the prosecution of this war. It is a bloody, no-holds-barred fight. Neither side fights fairly, and the weapons of each side are devastating.

The devil and his forces are doing everything that they can to steal, kill, and destroy. They are not above attacking infants in the womb. They put hideous diseases on people. They spawn physical wars. They keep people in bondage physically, mentally, emotionally, economically, and spiritually. They pervert justice and do everything that they can to destroy God's creation. Worst of all, the devil takes advantage of people's fallen, sinful nature to keep them bowing to him. Condemnation and intimidation are some of his most effective weapons. This kingdom uses deception and lies as propaganda to prevent its victims from finding God's light and to entice them to destroy themselves.

On the other hand the Kingdom of God uses weapons that the enemy cannot resist. Those in this Kingdom have access to the precious blood of Jesus that the enemy has no defense against. They can use the name of Jesus that causes every knee to bow in submission. They have the Word of God that is like a mighty two-edged sword. The praises of God in their mouths inflicts "vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples, to bind their kings with fetters, their nobles with shackles of iron, to carry out the sentence written against them." They have the grace of God at their disposal to set them free from condemnation and from the fleshly sinful nature that their enemy had used to keep them in bondage. And they have Almighty God backing them up.

The greatest insult of all to the kingdom of the devil is that the Kingdom of God doesn't destroy anything except the works of the devil. The Kingdom of God is all about restoration. It takes its enemy's greatest warriors and converts them and uses them as weapons against the devil's kingdom. In fact, the word of a Christian's testimony has great power to overcome the devil. So even the things that the enemy intended to destroy are used to overcome his kingdom. And he can't even kill these liberated prisoners to stop their influence, because the blood of the saints of the Kingdom of God is the seed of the Church.

The sooner that we embrace the reality that we are engaged in a total war the happier we will be. For when we finally recognize this truth we will be able to readjust our expectations in a way that will allow us to begin to walk in victory. So many Western Christians have been deluded into believing that spiritual warfare is a metaphor instead of truth. As a result we are perplexed when we see the suffering that exists in our world. We wonder why our lives are so destroyed and why sickness, bondage, poverty, conflict, and trouble are our constant companions. We wonder why our lives as Christians are such a poor representation of the examples that we see in the scriptures.

John Eldredge described it this way in his book Waking The Dead:

Until we come to terms with war as the context of our days we will not understand life. We will misinterpret 90 percent of what is happening around us and to us. It will be very hard to believe that God's intentions toward us are life abundant; it will be even harder not to feel that somehow we are just blowing it. Worse, we will begin to accept some really awful things about God. That four-year-old girl being molested by her daddy - that is "God's will"? That ugly divorce that tore your family apart - God wanted that to happen too? And that plane crash that took the lives of so many - that was desired by God?

Most people get stuck at some point because God appears to have abandoned them. He is not coming through. Speaking about her life with a mixture of disappointment and cynicism, a young woman recently said to me, "God is rather silent right now." Yes, it's been awful. I don't discount that for a moment. She is unloved; she is unemployed; she is under a lot. But her attitude strikes me as deeply naive, on the level of someone caught in a cross fire who asks, rather shocked and with a sense of betrayal, "God, why won't you make them stop firing at me?" I'm sorry, but that's not where we are right now. It's not where we are in the Story. That day is coming, later, when the lion shall lie down with the lamb and we'll beat swords into plowshares. For now, it's bloody battle.

- John Eldredge, © 2009 Waking the Dead: The Glory of a Heart Fully Alive, pp. 17-18 Thomas Nelson Publishers

Once we embrace the concept of total war we can begin to act like we are in a war. Instead of wandering around the battlefield naked and unarmed we can begin to gird ourselves for the battle that we are in - and like it or not we are all in a battle. There is no sideline. No quarter is given based on age, sex, race, religion, economic status, handicap, or anything else. We are all combatants on one side or the other. If you fight you will be attacked, and if you don't fight you will be attacked. I don't know about you, but if I'm going to be attacked one way or the other, I intend to bloody my adversary as much as I can.

It is important to remember the nature of a Christian's weapons. They are not physical weapons, but spiritual. And our enemies are not flesh, but spirit. That isn't to say that the spirits don't manifest themselves through people for they surely do, but our warfare is against the spirit and not against the individual. When a Christian wars, success will be far more likely when anger is not allowed to be expressed against the individual that the enemy is using for his purposes.

But why do we have to fight? If a person is born again he belongs to God, right? If God is all-powerful then why do we have to fight? Couldn't He just win for us? He could. But that has never been the way that God has operated in the Earth. Even from the beginning, He created mankind in His image and authorized him to rule the Earth. The New Testament does not change this arrangement. In the end God's saints rule with Jesus when He comes back to take physical dominion of the Earth. A good picture of God's attitude towards warfare can be found in the book of Judges:

These are the nations the LORD left to test all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan (He did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience): the five rulers of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites living in the Lebanon mountains from Mount Baal Hermon to Lebo Hamath.

God actually WANTED all of the Israelites to be trained in and experience warfare! We are no different. The scriptures make it clear that we are to personally engage in warfare through the power and strength of the Lord.

One of the most significant realizations that I have ever come to as a Christian is that the devil does not fight fairly and that I don't either. I am OK with that. The enemy will go after anything that he can to get to me. My family, friends, property, health, and anything else that he could use to harm me are all on his list of potential targets. Anything that I have not protected is likely to be attacked. However, on the other hand the Lord has given us tremendous promises in His Word that allow us to defend ourselves against the devil's schemes.

Peter tells us to "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings." Another version tells us to "be sober, be vigilant." Soldiers in a battle zone learn to be vigilant or they end up dead. God has already given us the weapons to defeat the enemy. If we are alert and on guard against the devil's attacks we can thwart him when he tries to devour that which Jesus purchased for us at Calvary.

There is no doubt that the enemy will get in some cheap shots, but as we learn to fight we will make it harder and harder for him to breach our defenses. Even better we will learn to plunder his kingdom, taking back not only what he stole from us but setting other captives free! We will begin to cause more damage to the enemy than he does to us! When we are on the offensive the battle becomes fun.

I hope that you see that there is no avoiding combat in this war. Our actions either contribute to the victory of the enemy's kingdom or the Kingdom of God. As you begin to engage in the battle do not be dismayed if the enemy intensifies the battle around you. Remember that intimidation is one of his tactics. If you will continue to resist him he will flee. And you don't have to fight by yourself either! We can team up against the devil, and that teamwork multiplies our effectiveness.

Soon I hope to address some of the practical ways that I have learned to engage the enemy and to discuss the weapons that I have learned to use in that fight, but these topics are outside the scope of today's post. I hope that these thoughts have spurred you to recognize the nature of the battle in which we all find ourselves and have encouraged you to take up your armor and weapons to defend yourself against the enemy's attack. May God grant you much grace and reveal Himself to you through His Word.

Go To Spiritual Warfare Series Part 2: Choosing Your Ground