From Sheep to Soldiers

Table of Contents 2004

Moses is dead and the Lord Jesus has put on His Joshua helmet. Are we ready to take our place in the army of the Lord?

Yesterday morning (8/22/2004) the subject was taken from the Book of Joshua. I wonder how many of us have thought about the enormous change from Moses to Joshua. To the present day the Jewish people speak of Moses. I have never heard them refer to Joshua. Yet it was Joshua who brought them into the land of promise.

Change! We are moving from the 23rd Psalm to the 24th Psalm, aren't we. We are changing from Christ as the Shepherd to Christ as the Lord of Armies.

How many of us are ready to move forward with God in this hour? We are not at Jordan as yet but in a time of preparation for war. God did all the fighting when we came out of Egypt, so to speak. But we will have to fight, under the Lord's direction, in order to enter our land of promise.

Our goal, our land of promise, is not Heaven. Canaan is not a type of Heaven. Rather Canaan is a type of all that we have been promised in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our inheritance includes change into the inner and outer likeness of Christ; complete rest in Christ in the center of God's Person and will; and then the nations and the farthest reaches of the earth. Heaven is a place of waiting until Christ comes to set up His Kingdom on the earth.

There is an inner war and an outer war. In our day the Holy Spirit is leading us in the inner war. He is examining our personality and revealing to us the enemy within: hatred, unforgiveness, lust, lying, seeking the preeminence, haughtiness, pride, strive, rebellion against God's will, the love of the things of the world, our idols including partying, drunkenness, money, jealousy, and all the other idols that dwell in God's people.

The outer war, that is, the installing of the Kingdom of God on the earth at the coming of Christ, cannot be waged until Christ has an army of saints who live in iron righteousness of behavior, fiery holiness, and stern obedience to the Father.

Do you want to be in the army of the Lord Jesus? Do you want to be raised from the dead when Christ next appears and then caught up to join the Commander in Chief in the air?

Then raise your right hand and repeat after me: I do solemnly swear to obey the Lord Jesus Christ in all He shows me to do. I will not draw back from the battle through fear and unbelief. I will follow Him all the way to total victory over my personality and then over the kingdoms of the world, as He helps me and provides wisdom and grace. Amen."