The Revolution Brigade

“Now no blacksmith could be found in all the land of Israel, for the Philistines said, “Otherwise the Hebrews will make swords or spears.”

So all Israel went down to the Philistines, each to sharpen his plowshare, his mattock, his axe, and his hoe.

The charge was two-thirds of a shekel for the plowshares, the mattocks, the forks, and the axes, and to fix the hoes.

So it came about on the day of battle that neither sword nor spear was found in the hands of any of the people who were with Saul and Jonathan, but they were found with Saul and his son Jonathan.”    (1 Samuel 13:19-22)

I believe that the body of Christ faces a critical mandate in this hour.  We must begin to produce disciples who are properly equipped with the knowledge of God’s word (the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God…Ephesians 6:17) and the anointing to effectively employ it in the face of the enemy if these dread champions are to be fully prepared in twenty years.

The enemy, for his part, will do all that he can to limit the production of this sort of armament.  The Philistine ban on blacksmiths represents the world’s persecution on those who will stand for the true, uncompromising standard of God’s word in preparing a generation to do battle.

Let us not attempt to implement plow shares, axes, and hoes (intended to be domestic implementations) in the work of militarily advancing God’s kingdom.  In other words, a me-centric understanding of scripture and the “live-your-best-life-now” application of God’s word will not suffice in the coming struggle.  We must espouse a robust, thorough, militant application of the scriptures and be willing to “eat the scroll.”

Young People:  Your preparation to be a dread champion of the Lord must begin now!  We need fully trained, well-equipped soldiers in that great and terrible day.  Think of the special forces soldier who spends a lifetime in training and preparation for one moment of destiny.  Think of how that soldier devours training manuals and practices the application of his weapons over and over again.  This is how we must live; devouring God’s word and applying it in our lives until we develop the skills necessary, by His grace, to be a champion.

“He made my mouth like a sharpened sword,
in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me into a polished arrow
and concealed me in his quiver.”

The words above come from Isaiah 49:2.  In this text, I believe that the Lord has concealed a promise to any who would seek him.  I believe that he has agreed to turn his faithful servants into weapons of warfare, by which He intends to prosecute the end time destruction of our foes.   I believe that there are several important things that we can take away from this passage regarding our transformation into weapons of spiritual warfare:

Arrows begin as trees. Through the process of taking a piece of wood and turning it into an arrow, much of the wood must be sacrificed in order to reveal the true, straight shaft within.  Likewise, we must be willing to sacrifice much of ourselves in order to become weapons of warfare for the kingdom of God.  Every time you fast and seek the Lord, you are allowing him to fashion you into a weapon.  Every time you forsake your flesh and make a decision for purity, you are allowing Him to hack another piece of wood off of you, revealing the polished shaft.

Swords are sheathed, arrows are in the quiver. This passage makes reference twice to being “concealed” and “put in a quiver.”  I’d like to submit that the coming revolution of purity and power is not about personal recognition.  We are to be quietly developed into nameless, faceless warriors and then hidden in the Lord’s quiver until the moment of battle is at hand.

An arrow, when fired at the wrong time, gives away the position of the entire army.  However, when fired at the correct time, the arrow strikes fear into the heart of your opponent.  It causes him to alter his battle strategy.  It wreaks havoc in the enemy camp.  We must wait for the appointed time.

Swords and bows are both controlled by the soldier. We are the sword and the arrows.  Jesus is the soldier who will employ us in the coming battle.  Just as an arrow has no say over which direction it is launched, we must be submissive to the will of the supreme marksman.  We must have faith that the direction that he sends us is the direction we were intended to go.  We must have faith in the timing of his employment of our sharpened tips.

There are many arrows in a quiver.  Some must be fired before others.  Your friends may receive their mandate for the coming war before you do.  Fear not.  The Lord doesn’t make mistakes.

Yesterday I wrote a post about “spiritual special forces,” men and women who would not love their own lives, even unto death, for the sake of the gospel.  I began to pray about what I believe is a coming army of Nazarites devoted totally to the radical purity and devotion to the Lord that will be necessary to carry the end-times prophetic anointing.  The Lord started to show me some parallels between Spiritual Special Forces and actual special forces soldiers:

Sacrifice: For some reason, the word sacrifice has taken on a negative connotation in the New Testament church.  I have no idea why.  The Lord honors a sacrifice of love.  It’s not the sacrifice of religious duty, but rather the acknowledgement that a gap exists between the prophetic promise of the Lord to our generation and the measure of power that we currently walk in.  Sacrifice, in this context, is being willing to do anything necessary to bridge the gap and access God’s power and love for us.

Just as special forces soldiers sacrifice through years of training, physical conditioning, and deployments, we must also bear the burden of preparation if we are to walk in the fullness of His power.   If we are to see a Nazarite Army, we must begin praying and fasting as a lifestyle now.  It may take twenty years of sacrifice to see our destiny made manifest.

Total Devotion: You would be hard pressed to find a special forces soldier who is not willing to die for his country.  He understands that the risk is part of the job.  Likewise, we must be willing to die for our cause, both in the literal and figurative sense.

If we really believe what we say we believe, then we should not fear death.  Have you ever read the book of Revelation?  Even if we are the generation that will be raised up to usher in the return of the Lord, some of us will die.  It’s in the book, folks.  However, the death to which I’m referring right now is the death of self; to take up our cross and follow Jesus.  Prayer and fasting isn’t the cool thing to do.  It’s not going to become cool next week or next year.  It’s sacrifice, and people don’t understand sacrifice.  All I know is that I feel something within me that compels me to do it.  I must suppress my flesh in order to see Christ made manifest in me.

Militant: Special Forces soldiers can be nice guys.  I’ve known many over the years.  But make no mistake, when there is a mission to be accomplished they become totally devoted, single-minded prosecuters of warfare.  We would do well to mimic this trait.

2 Timothy 2:4 says, “No man that wars entangles himself with the affairs of this life.”  I’m not trying to be elitist or stuck-up, but not everybody has what it takes to live the Nazarite lifestyle.  If you’re boy or girl crazy,  then you don’t have time for this type of devotion.  If you always want to be the center of attention, this is not for you. We’re not here to hold hands, although I suspect we will end up doing much weeping together.  We’re here to raise up Nazarites.   If I tried to talk you into it, you would just quit in two weeks.

Do you have what it takes to be fully devoted?

My Pastor sent me a quote this morning that’s messing me up.  It’s about missions.  It signifies the type of attitude that will be indicative of a radical generation full of faith and power:

“There are no closed countries if you don’t expect to come back.”

What if there arose a whole company of men and women, Nazarites who cared not for their lives, even unto death?  What if these men and women would blaze a trail into the remaining frontiers of the Earth and take the gospel where it had never gone?

What if we really cared about the nations and loved them enough to spill our own blood in the pursuit of the high calling?  This is the type of attitude that will open up the heavens and result in the nations being turned to the Lord.

In our military,  Special Forces soldiers frequently go behind enemy lines to conduct missions that are deemed critical to the war effort.  The cause is just and good; the defense of our nation.  They willingly risk their lives to carry out the intent of those who have been raised up as leaders, sometimes not even understanding the bigger picture of what’s really going on around them.

How much more should we be devoted to the cause of Christ?  Is there any higher calling than to infiltrate kingdoms of darkness with the light of the one true God?  Are we really willing to pay that price?  Do we really believe in the kingdom as much as these soldiers believe in America?  I pray that God would begin to raise up Spiritual Special Forces soldiers to carry the gospel behind enemy lines.  Lord, call forth the Nazarite Corps!

It is written, “To live is Christ and to die is gain.”

What does it mean to have militant faith?

Dictionary.com defines the word “militant” as follows:  vigorously active and aggressive, esp. in support of a cause.

The bible says in Matthew chapter 11:12 that, “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.”  The idea is that there are certain portions of the fullness of God’s Kingdom that can only be possessed by those who are willing to take radical measures in seeking God.

This is not the type of militant faith where we blow ourselves up because the world doesn’t do what we want them to do.  In fact, God has already shown us in his word that the world will grow progressively more preverse and evil until the coming of the Lord, so we might as well get over it already.  This is the type of militant faith where we do whatever is necessary to possess the promise of the Lord in our lives.

It might mean fasting and praying all night.

It might mean spending days or weeks in the secret place with Jesus.

Is there anybody out there who values the anointing and the presence of God more than friends, food, and fellowship?  Not that there’s anything wrong with friends, food, or fellowship, but if they prevent you from passionately persuing God, then they are idolatrous.  What if I told you that there was a HUGE pile of gold waiting for anybody who would fast and pray for two weeks.  I bet many more of us would be fasting and praying.  Jesus is the treasure, folks.  His power is the currency that will buy change in our nation.