(tm) The greatest of all battles
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Armageddon, is yet ahead and is associated with the return of the Lord Jesus from Heaven. The Battle of Armageddon will result in the destruction of the armies of wickedness and the establishing of the Kingdom of God on the earth.
Meanwhile, Christ is being formed in the heart of every true Christian. Each time we are willing to go through the death that the Lord requires, and the accompanying resurrection, Christ is strengthened in our inner man.
If we cooperate totally with the Holy Spirit, the process of death, resurrection, and strengthening of our inner spiritual nature will continue until Christ is reigning in us and with us in complete power and glory.
We are to consent voluntarily to Christ’s Lordship. It is not that we lose our own will. It is true rather that His will and our will are ground together in the mill of tribulation until the two wills become one.
In this sense, the Day of the Lord, the thousand-year Kingdom Age, has its beginning in the heart of each saint. There is coming in the future a kingdom-wide Day of the Lord including a Jubilee of release for the prisoners of the earth. But the true essence and quality of the Day of the Lord are obtainable now to "whosoever will." The personal fulfillment in our life of the Blowing of Trumpets brings us into our personal day of the Lord, our personal rule of Christ.
Holy Spirit-empowered prayer and praise play a large role in our experience of the spiritual fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles. The feast of Tabernacles is the third death and resurrection we encounter in the program of redemption.
We cannot stand up under the pressure being brought to bear on us as we are being pruned back, and still further back, until we are willing to keep on praising the Lord and praying instead of fainting. "Men ought always to pray, and not to faint."
We are tempted to blame other people and to grumble as the Lord brings us through the fires of judgment. We must keep on seeking His face in prayer and keep praising God for His faithfulness—even when we cannot see the end of the tunnel. Otherwise we shall be defeated just before the fullness comes.
There is no way to enter the land of promise, the fullness of Christ, other than through spiritual warfare. God does the fighting when we come from Egypt but we do the fighting in order to enter Canaan.
The climactic spiritual battles cannot be fought by people who are alive in their own wills, their own ambitions, their desire for preeminence, their own plans and ways. The battles of God can be fought only by those who have been through death and resurrection in the Lord God.
The River Jordan represents the third death of redemption and the land of promise is the third resurrection. We have come to the end of all that we are attempting to be and do, and now are ready to accept the suffering of Christ. The Lord’s army consists of warriors who have died and been raised in God.
Because they have been resurrected, in this spiritual sense, they are invincible. The Lake of Fire has no authority over them. They fall on the sword, the Word of God, and cannot be wounded. The sword of the Lord already has accomplished its final work in them. They can be hurt no longer. They are free in the Son and alive eternally.
These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful. (Revelation 17:14)
We are "called" in the first death and resurrection. We are "chosen" in the second death and resurrection. We are proven "faithful" in the third death and resurrection.
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