Presently, there is an uneasy calm on the surface of the religious society.\u00a0 Satan may be digging a tunnel underneath and up to the soft underbelly of Christendom.\u00a0 After these many years traversing the narrow way, I\u2019ve come to the understanding that when things get quiet, a crisis is about to break loose from its constraints.\u00a0 Another indicator is that the Holy Spirit has been strongly urging me to get out of the comfort zone.\u00a0 Oh how we love to settle there.\u00a0 We enter new territory that our trial brings us to and battle to stay there.\u00a0 But after we have struggled for awhile, we conquer and settle in.\u00a0 We would not move on if God did not let us know that we are too big for that little patch of ground.\u00a0 While we rest and enjoy the bounty of the Lord, Satan is out there working his devilish schemes.\u00a0 We are not called to rest. We are called to enjoin the battle.\u00a0 \u00a0One day we will enter the Sabbath Rest of God.<\/p>\n
The Spirit of the Lord has been moving me toward change.\u00a0 He puts His finger on things in me that I didn\u2019t previously know He was displeased with.\u00a0 Has anyone else ever known the purging reality of conviction, its fiery chastisement, burning the heart, mind, body and soul, calling for full surrender?\u00a0 We always feel worthless until we dissolve into His perfect will.\u00a0 I have also experience that during such times it seems that all the demons Satan can afford to assign to me will find a point of attack and launch their fiery darts.\u00a0 I encounter contentious people, strange incidents, and even brushes with death.\u00a0 There is a sense of aloneness<\/em>, of being isolated in a region of hard people.\u00a0 And gargoyles in the shadows.\u00a0 One would think that God had forsaken him if it were not for the promise of His word never to leave or forsake us.<\/p>\n Some professing Christians may not know what I\u2019m talking about.\u00a0 They do not understand that faith sometimes needs prodded with the sharp goads of spiritual conflict.\u00a0 Faith needs to wake up.\u00a0 It slumbers because we are not using it.\u00a0 We snuggle under the comfortable blanket of sameness and wish away evil.\u00a0 A window is broken in the middle of the night and we go from sound sleep to full-scale alertness.\u00a0 The Holy Spirit shakes us.<\/p>\n \u201cWake up, O sleeper!\u00a0 There is trouble afoot!\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s going to come whether or not we are prepared for it.\u00a0 I don\u2019t want to awaken to discover that I haven\u2019t the strength to gain a victory.\u00a0 As uncomfortable as it is to be forced out of the cozy place where I have tried to remain inconspicuous, I know from experience that it is excruciatingly more uncomfortable to enter a spiritual battle without preparation.<\/p>\n The moving on trial intensifies our praying, sharpens our focus and spiritual hearing, and causes us to test the battle worn weapons of our warfare. \u00a0During this time I cannot concern myself with the cares of this life.\u00a0 The body must be brought under subjection.\u00a0 All that is displeasing to God must be cast off.\u00a0 I call that \u201cletting the gold shine.\u201d\u00a0 The enemy fears no flesh covered nuggets, but he gets uneasy when a fire-bathed individual stands in the way shinning like gold with a fiery sword in his hand.\u00a0 You cannot get to that state of authority without going through the fire. \u00a0Anyone that tells you that it can be done with mere positive confession is a liar.\u00a0 Those lip servants only fight paper devils and revel in mock victories.\u00a0 They are the reason for the lack of true faith in the majority of professing Christians today.\u00a0 The real battles are fought by true warriors. \u00a0There is no victory without a battle and no strength without a struggle.\u00a0 Complaining and groaning is the same as surrender.\u00a0 It is denunciation of God\u2019s word, and the same as saying \u201cno\u201d to any forward progress.<\/p>\n Therefore, I\u2019m getting ready.\u00a0 I sit here typing these words not simply to inform anyone of that fact, but to encourage them to do the same. \u00a0Further, I want people in the same trial to know that they are not the only ones enduring.\u00a0 It is time to cast off the weights.\u00a0 If sin is present, it is time to repent and ask forgiveness.\u00a0 Peace comes with a treaty and there is no treaty with Satan.\u00a0 We will be in a war until Christ returns.\u00a0 Therefore, when He says \u201cmove\u201d, it\u2019s time to get our feet under us and step out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Presently, there is an uneasy calm on the surface of the religious society.\u00a0 Satan may be digging a tunnel underneath and up to the soft underbelly of Christendom.\u00a0 After these many years traversing the narrow way, I\u2019ve come to the understanding that when things get quiet, a crisis is about to break loose from its 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