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Discussion Forum : Devotional Thoughts : What is a Warrior?

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buttermilk80
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Joined: 2010/5/9
Posts: 164
Ohio

 What is a Warrior?

The following caused me considerable introspection. May the Lord bless your hearts with understanding.

What is a professional warrior? He is dedicated to a cause. That cause is who he serves. He is dedicated to making himself ready for battle. His mind is honed to receive injury and not turn away. He is already dead, yet will fight with the vigor of a she bear. There is no thought to death. He is already received the “last rites”. He fights to live. But not for his life. The death he has received is poured out on his enemies. Every time he swings his hand, blood will flow. Until, as some point, his own blood flows away.

What is a professional Christian warrior? He is dedicated to God’s cause. He is dedicated to making himself ready for battle. His mind is honed to receive injury and not turn away. He is dead already, yet will fight with the dedication of a lamb. There is no thought to death, yet death goes before him all his days. The sentence of death has been passed on him and he has received life through repentance and humility by the power of Christ Jesus’ sacrifice. He fights to die. He has received life and therefore pours out that life through every action he makes. Every thought has been considered before it reaches his lips. And his dedication to God’s ways causes him to restrict every habit and action that he might cause another to stumble.

When you meet a professional Christian warrior, you will know him. He will not proclaim his title. You will see the marks of the battles he has fought in his manner. The longer a man endures the Christian way, the more obvious those marks of his Lord. The world knows who does and who does not belong to them. Is it not curious how the Christian faith has been so watered down that we rarely meet a warrior in Christ any more?

When I consider the nature of a man of battle I find myself admiring the strength of dedication he exudes. His simple presence charges me with a desire to imitate his ways. Ladies and Gentlemen of Christ, let me say that it is not possible for us to know the joy of Christ when He watches a man or woman prepare themselves for service. Only He knows what such a person is capable of enduring. And He knows who they are. He is watching with great interest as we walk before Him.

What will we say and what will be said to us when we stand before Him on that day? For myself I know what this post is provoking in me. I want to scream out at the top of my lungs, and from the tallest place on earth so that every Christian can hear:

“TO THE WALLS, MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS! ARM YOURSELVES FOR BATTLE! THERE IS A WAR ON! CAN’T YOU SMELL THE STENCH OF SIN AROUND YOU? WHERE IS CHRIST IN YOU? STAND AND FIGHT NOW, AS IF THE NEXT BLOW YOU STRIKE WERE THE VERY LAST BLOW STRUCK AGAINST SIN.” S T A N D!!!!!!!!!



_________________
Paul Horton

 2010/8/17 13:58Profile









 Re: What is a Warrior?

Thanks Paul:

Tozer said that faith is dependence. I think of 2 Corinthians Chpt. 1:"We had the sentence of death within ourselves, so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in GOD, who raises the dead."

Later, in the same book, he writes; "Death works in me, but life in you."

I once heard a famous minister preach; "There is no authentic Christian ministry that defies this one principle." Our war is with death, and in the end, it is a battle for life. We must die, for Christ to rule and reign within us, to impart His life. This is at the core of true Apostolic preaching; not rhetoric, or Biblical oratory, or witty and climatical story telling that exudes victorious battle.

Remember that Elijah prayed. He was undoubtedly the greatest Old testament warrior, but He knew WHO held the power. He prayed.

I think of Peter at Gethsemane, where he vowed to die in war with his master Jesus, and when he drew his sword to a crowd of 1200 armed men when Jesus was arrested. Everyone would have thought him a warrior at that moment. Yet, the Rooster did crow, to prove his odious cowardness.

It is then, that Peter began his descent into stripping, to be fullfilled when Jesus spoke..."Do you love me?, Do you love me?...Do you love me?"

It was so that Peter could see where the warrior strength, and resolve came from. Not of ourselves, our wit, or prowess or conceived bravery.

As he said to Paul;, "My strength is perfected in weakness!"....[ Jesus ]. The Christian warrior learns that Jesus is Lord of the Universe, that "All power in Heaven and Earth has been given me!"...and that Satan, with all of his angels combined are but a drop in the bucket, and less than chaff, to He that holds all power.

Somehow by faith, he learns that Jesus will, and has defended him, and will not allow him to be made ashamed.

The Christians warrior's reality is that he must indeed die, first by the Lord's hand, secondly from affliction, duress and persecution, and finally with full agreement with God the Holy Spirit within him, who has sentenced him to continually bear his cross to bear the glory that Jesus has assigned to him as a life bearer.

The works of the warrior are secondary to this full discipline so neccesary to stand.

 2010/8/17 16:33









 Re: What is a Warrior?

This is part of a post from my website Scottish Warriors for Christ :) The post is entitled "Abandoned to the Battle?"


After all the miracles of Jesus, How many disciples were left at the end? About 120 in the upper room perhaps. Where were all the multitudes who had swarmed to see the miracles and be amazed at the demonstrations of power? Was this not the same multitudes who had just chosen a murderer over a miracle worker, who had called down a curse upon their heads and the heads of the generations to follow and cry out “we have no king but Caesar?”

And so we have about 120 in the upper room. What was it that brought 3000 into the Kingdom that day? What was it that touched the unchurched on a grand scale? Was it not the Spirit of boldness that had taken over Peter. To stand up and tell that crowd, a crowd who had watched and demanded that Jesus be viciously killed, a crowd that in all likelihood would tear this man limb from limb(think about what happened to Stephen later) to stand up and accuse them of the guilt of killing the Son of God was no ordinary action. This was the warrior Spirit that cared not whether it lived or died for the Spirit that had taken a hold of Peter knew that the grave was defeated and that death had lost it sting and fear was conquered.

This is the same Spirit that got a hold of a young shepherd boy and compelled him to run towards the giant Goliath with complete abandon to the battle and for the name and honor of God. So where are today’s David’s? Who today cares more about the honor of the Lord than their lives? Where are the bold warriors of today who say that they would rather die on the battlefield of life than to slink of and snivel in the shadows of fear, desperately seeking someone to save their lives?

Where are the warriors today who, in the midst of battle, pull out the arrow and keep on fighting?

The Christian world is on defense. No one ever won a war on defense. It takes warriors to take the battle to the enemy. So where are the Christians who are willing, no eager, to run headlong with complete abandon at the enemy? Where are those who are willing to lose life and limb for the glorious honor of dying for Christ?

Will we suffer loss Christians? Are we willing to die gloriously for our King? Will we be totally abandoned to the battle?

There was a famous group of warriors from the Highlands of Scotland. The “Highland Charge,” was one of the most effective field combat strategies in the arsenal of the Scottish army. Imagine facing hundreds of large screaming Highlanders coming at you at full tilt screaming their lungs out and swinging broad swords that measured over six feet. Many armies who faced this charge simply broke ranks and fled, just as many stood their ground. These front-line warriors always took great casualties but they were abandoned to the battle and they died with honor.

If Christians would passover into the promised land, into the most intimate chambers, they must be abandoned to the battle. It is time for the Church of Christ to arise and set their sights on entering into the manifest presence of God. They must be willing to lay down their lives, die to themselves and all of their fears if they are to enter that place where they will be engulfed in the flames of Shekinah glory. This is a higher place than miracles, although miracles will follow in the path of this new generation, but as an unintended consequence of the outflowing of Gods presence. Like a mighty incoming tide the warriors will be swept into His presence. And as with every tide that flows in, it will flow out. And as we flow out on a tide of majestic reverence then we will take a portion of that glory back into the darkness of the world, a world that the Lord so loves.

Do you have what it takes to abandon yourself to the Lord of Hosts? When you cast yourself upon this sea of dependence, you will have to rejoice and embrace and be thankful for whatever comes your way. It is in this embracing and rejoicing, that knowing that your steps are ordered of God and not your enemy, that you will experience the victory of life over death. If you cannot cast yourself upon this sea, you will never experience the glories of heaven and the fulness of God in this life.

We were called to this promised land. Do not live and die in the desert. Believe in God and know that you are in His hand. If you do this, where is fear? You have just ceased from your works and entered into the promised land. The land of true faith. The desert is a place of unbelief and disobedience despite a multitude of miracles. So you want to see miracles? The world says that if you want to reach the moon you have to shoot for the stars. Let us constantly set our sights on the throne room itself, the highest goal everytime, God Himself.

 2010/8/17 16:41





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