Preparing for the Battle

The Day of the Lord will begin with a tremendous battle. The time has come on the Kingdom clock to prepare ourselves for the war that will put an end to sin in God’s creation.

(10/31/2004) The subject of the morning sermon was the coming of the Lord, the return of the Lord Jesus Christ to remove sin and set up His Kingdom on the earth.

I believe we ought to emphasize to a greater extent than we do that the Lord Jesus will be accompanied by a great cloud, a mighty host of those who have lived by faith from the days of Abel. Millions upon millions of saints will accompany Christ when He returns.

Another emphasis was on the fact that when these holy ones descend to regain their bodies from the place of interment, the graves will explode, perhaps with a great noise, and the astonished nations will tremble at the sight of warriors shining like thousand-watt bulbs.

While the newly resurrected soldiers are embracing in the most marvelous fellowship of history, standing once more on the earth—many of them for the first time in a thousand years, we who are alive are remain shall be changed so that when the summons comes we can rise with them to meet the Lord at His coming.

We need to give thought to this change. Our flesh and bones will remain intact, I believe. The change will occur as our blood is replaced by the Spirit of God. This transition will require faith if we are not to draw back. Remember Lot’s wife.

Here we have the army of Christ that will meet the Lord in the air and descend with Him to drive all sin from the earth.

In order for God’s will to be done there must be two armies, the army of saints and the army of angels. It is the army of angels who impose the necessary force. The army of saints are judges.

Michael and his angels are already prepared for the final conflict. It is the saints, the judges, who are not prepared. God will not issue authority and power to Michael until the saints are in the position where they can condemn evil.

The Holy Spirit is beginning to reveal to us what we must do to prepare for the battle. We must dedicate ourselves to live in iron righteousness, fiery holiness, and stern obedience to the Father. We must decide to endure hardness as good soldiers, fleeing from useless "civilian" activities.

Of special importance for our ministry as judges is our cooperation with the Spirit as He leads us to confess and turn away from the numerous aspects of spiritual darkness that affect our personality.

I have identified 83 of such personality traits, each of which must be confessed and denounced firmly.