CHAPTER 4
OUR WAR AND PEACE
Right at the end of Israel’s exodus from Egypt and from their slavery, and at the beginning of their new destination in the wilderness and their upcoming journey to their Promised Land, the Lord is introduced as a “Man of War”! The Word of God says clearly:
“The LORD is a Man of war: the LORD is His Name.” (Ex. 15:3) Why is He so introduced and why at that specific point of time? You see, the time of WAR began for Israel at that specific point. And to this day, that WAR has not ended for them! What does that mean for Christians today?
The Exodus of Israel from Egypt, from the power of Pharaoh and from their slavery there represents the Exodus of Christians from the power of Satan and from our slavery to him. Israel was never at war with Pharaoh while being slaves in Egypt. Equally, Christians were never at war with Satan while being pagans under his power. The WAR for Israel began after they escaped from their slavery to Pharaoh through the Red Sea. The WAR for Christians began after they escaped from their slavery to Satan through the Blood of Christ – their Redemption (Rom. 10:9,10). The children of Israel found themselves in a wilderness with no food or drink as they were to journey to their Promised Land. Christians have similarly found themselves in a spiritual wilderness of this world with no spiritual food or drink as they are to journey to the Kingdom of Heaven, which is their “Promised Land”.
In the wilderness, Israel was tested as to their faith, love for the Lord, their obedience to the Lord and desire to enter the Promised Land and subdue their enemies – and ISRAEL HAD FAILED!… except Joshua, Caleb and those younger than twenty years (Num. 14:29,30). Why had Israel failed? They did not believe the voice of the Lord through Joshua and Caleb! They refused to go to the Promised Land and occupy it (Num. 14:1-37). Their souls desired eating and drinking and playing. They made themselves corrupted and became rebellious to the Lord, Who brought them out of the land of Egypt (Ex. 32:6-8) that they might enter their Promised Land.
In the spiritual wilderness of this world, Christians are equally tested in their faith, love and obedience to the Lord and desire to enter the coming Marriage Supper of the Lamb and the Kingdom of God, and CHRISTIANS ARE ALSO FAILING!… except the Remnant. They also refuse to go in and have similar stupid excuses before the Lord as Israel had (Mt. 22:2-14). Christians equally desire comfort, love, pleasures, positive experiences, everlasting happiness, prosperity, etc. These seem to be also the only topics of today’s preachers and the only points of interest for the vast majority of Christians. They hate any suffering, conflicts, problems, discomfort, violence, responsibility, diligence, war effort and anything that troubles their poor soul. They desire “heaven on earth” without any conflicts while living in the kingdoms of Satan. Stupendous!
For the sake of our own life and destiny, the Lord Jesus Christ is commanding us to see, believe and consider the above clear comparisons between the children of Israel of the Old Testament and Christians of the New Testament; both the children of God. The Lord also brings before us all these vitally important points. They all touch the HUMAN NATURE, its total depravity, rebellion, evil, stupidity and lust for its own ways and desires and that almost at any cost!
1) THIS HUMAN NATURE DOES NOT CHANGE WITH THE CHANGE OF THE TESTAMENTS! As it was found in the children of Israel, so it is found in Christians! But Christians will be judged more severely than Israel since the Spirit of God dwells in Christians, they knew, or could know, the Lord’s Will personally, but prepared not themselves neither did according to His Will. Whereas the children of Israel could not approach God personally and directly except through their priests and thus could not prepare themselves or know His Will so readily and directly as Christians (Lk. 12:47,48).
2) The Lord speaks clearly to Christians: “I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how the Lord, having saved the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt, afterwards DESTROYED THEM THAT BELIEVED NOT.” (Jude 5)
Israel believed in God, they were not pagans, but they did not believe what God spoke to them through His servants. Has God changed from the Old to the New Testament? Not at all (Heb. 13:8). If the Lord should say today to the Church:
“I will therefore put you in remembrance, though you should know it, how I, the Lord, having saved Christians out of the power of Satan, afterwards DESTROYED THEM THAT BELIEVED NOT…”, would Christians be surprised at such a Word of God? They would be STUNNED since they do not believe in the Lord as the Scripture says (Jn. 7:38), but have their own false imaginations about the Lord. The heart of unbelief is EVIL and the Lord will not keep such hearts for Himself! The same comparison and warning to Christians is written in the Book of Hebrews (Heb. 3:7-19), read it, believe it and consider it for the sake of your own life and destiny.
3) When we believed in Him and confessed our faith with our mouth (Rom. 10:9), our names were entered not only in the Book of Life, but also on the list of Satan. Every new child of God automatically becomes the object of satanic murdering plots. At that very moment our problems were not resolved – as our pastors tried to tell us – but they started! And after we were baptized in water, we entered the WAR AGAINST THE POWERS OF EVIL AND DARKNESS OUTSIDE OF US AND INSIDE OF US! It is a spiritual war. It is not outwardly observable. Only its effects on our soul, on our countenance, on our words and deeds can be observed. This WAR has not ended for any one of us! And there is no discharge from this WAR. If you try to avoid it, weasel out of it, ignore it, you are still in it – and you are overcome and beaten! And if you do not stand up and start fighting your WAR, which the Heavenly Father prepared for you, you will remain overcome and beaten! We all are in this WAR and that whether we fight or don’t fight. The Church history is covered with millions of casualties of Christians beaten to dust because they refused to fight. The Lord opened to every true born-again, baptized believer the way to emerge from this war as a clear victor! But very few take THE WAY the Lord prepared for us.
Whenever you make a spiritual progress and your knowledge of the Lord increases and your faith increases, the powers of evil and darkness take a note of it and will try to pester you and attack you and get back the spiritual territory in your soul, which they lost. So, making spiritual progress and thus being blessed is “dangerous”! The world wars are good examples. Whenever the friendly forces advanced, the enemy tried to counterattack and get back the lost territory. And had the friendly forces acted wishy-washy, taken things lightly, ignored the enemy or tried to weasel out of the battles, the enemy would have succeeded in getting back the lost territories and the direction of the war would have changed dramatically to the enemy’s advantage. The true Christianity is a spiritual picture of physical wars between various empires and powers. Satan still has his kingdoms in this world (Mt. 4:8,9) and he still has his territories in our own soul ruled by his governor – our “old man”, old nature (Eph. 4:22-24) and he will not sit back idly and look as his territories are being destroyed in us. Yet, we live as if Satan did no exist or had no interest in us! Stupendous!
The Lord also gives us vivid examples from His Word to show the reality of this WAR which most of His people, including their leadership, do not see – and do not want to see! Hence, the kingdoms of Satan are preserved; his governor in their soul is not destroyed, his powers stand in the way to the Kingdom of God hindering all believers, which are blind to those powers, deceived and lusting after their comfort and prosperity.
The Lord is giving to us some clear examples:
4) “STRIVE to enter in at the straight gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall NOT BE ABLE.” (Lk. 13:24-28 <<< please, read all verses)
The straight gate is the only entrance to the only narrow way, which is the only way leading to Life Eternal (Mt. 7:13,14). The Lord says – STRIVE or else you will NOT BE ABLE to enter in and then you will be weeping and gnashing your teeth (Lk. 13:28). But to most Christians and their leaders this does not seem to matter. They are all “going to Heaven”… never mind what God Almighty says!
Striving is against the powers of evil, darkness, pride, fears, unrighteousness, selfishness, laziness, unbelief, deception and other powers of our corrupted “old man” in our own soul, which keep us from entering the narrow way to our Life Eternal. Is this too banal a thing to consider?
5) “I PRESS toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded.” (Phil. 3:14-19 <<< please, read all verses)
Without PRESSING we will not attain our high calling of God in Christ Jesus. If we are not “thus minded”, we are usually minded to “take it easy”, avoid all conflicts, all pain, all suffering, all pressing and striving and wallow in a sweet deception that we all go to Heaven without moving our finger! We can thus easily become the enemies of the Cross of Christ whose end is destruction!
If we do not press, it may also indicate that we may not even know what our high calling of God in Christ Jesus truly is! We may not appreciate it or value it in any way; we simply throw it away though we may do it in our ignorance. But then we are heading to destruction and not to Heaven. Do believers care for that? I really do not know.
6) “The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth VIOLENCE, and the VIOLENT take it by FORCE… and if ye will receive it, this is ELIAS (Elijah), which was for to come.” (Mt. 11:12b-14)
This Word was never explained to me by any pastor in any church in any way, or to anyone else that I know! So, I desire to say the following facts. The Kingdom of Heaven is in true holiness and righteousness and it is thus hated by the powers of evil and darkness, which try to prevent it from replacing the kingdoms of Satan in this world and ruling the world. It suffers violence from these powers of evil and darkness! But, the violent that take it by force are the Overcomers, who war against these powers of evil and darkness within their own souls because that is where the Kingdom of Heaven originally is before it is enforced physically into the world! (Lk. 17:21) If you will not enter the Kingdom by force, you will NOT ENTER IN just because you believed in Jesus! If you will not be violent against all those powers outside and inside of you, which stand in your way to the Kingdom, you will not enter in! You will not “be counted worthy of the Kingdom of God, for which ye also SUFFER” (2Thes. 1:5b) because you may have never suffered for it in any way in the first place!
Since believers always try to avoid violence, they also avoid all suffering. Elias (Elijah) was the mightiest Prophet of God with the power that no other Prophet ever had (including Moses). He was always violent against all the forces of evil and darkness and never tried to “take it easy”, avoid problems, conflicts, suffering, pain, sit in synagogues and listen to Rabbis. That was the true reason why the Lord had used his name in connection with the Kingdom of Heaven and the associated violence. Read 1Kings, chapters 17-22 and 2Kings, chapters 1,2 and 9 and you will know, who Elijah really was and what he went through before he was taken to Heaven alive (2Ki. 2:11).
7) “FIGHT the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal Life, whereunto thou art also called…” (1Tim. 6:12)
In my young years, I was told by my Pentecostal pastors that I already had the Life eternal when I believed in Jesus. Now the Lord through Apostle Paul tells me that I have to FIGHT for it by my faith! Is it not interesting? Well, whom should I believe the Lord or various pastors? What do you believe about it? Who told you what? You may believe that you already have the eternal Life, but do you live it in your own soul? And if you believe you do, may I ask you this simple question: How do you recognize Life Eternal from your own natural life? Can you? Really?
The truth is that every true believer has Life eternal potentially – IN Christ – but it is not handed to his soul to live it without “moving his finger”. He has to fight for it a good fight of faith as the above Word of God clearly tells us.
In the above examples 4) to 7), the Lord is using words: STRIVE, PRESS, VIOLENCE, FORCE, FIGHT. Are they preached and explained to believers in congregations? NO! NEVER! Why? Well, many ministers try to avoid them like the plague as they produce “negative feelings” and their congregations might leave and not come back! According to them, believers need positive feelings, positive thinking, positive attitudes, peace and prosperity! Right? That this positive thinking and attitudes may come from a sinful and spiritually stupid mind does not seem to matter to them.
In fact, the Lord, Who is my true strength, teaches my hands to WAR, and my fingers to FIGHT! (Ps. 144:1) Would you ask Him whether in the New Testament He had by any chance changed and had quit this kind of teaching? Or whether in the New Testament He had taken out of our way all our enemies? Are not the Words of God in Ps. 144:1 and Ex. 15:3 from the Old Testament in a complete harmony with the above Words of God from the New Testament? They all are. The only difference is that in the Old Testament they were fighting physical wars, in the New Testament we are to fight spiritual wars.
While the LORD is a Man of WAR, He is at the same time the Prince of PEACE (Is. 9:6). Hence, He is able to give us His peace in the midst of our war (Jn. 14:27// 2Thes. 3:16) and thus comfort us. And while He is the Prince of Peace to His own people, who love Him and follow Him, He remains the Man of War bringing sword and division to the wicked (Mt. 10:34// Lk. 12:51). Christians may also be wicked and they may not realize that His sword and division is brought also into our soul where the powers of evil and darkness have their territory. They also may not realize that His sword is His Word, which is “quick (living) and powerful and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the DIVISION OF SOUL AND SPIRIT and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Heb. 4:12)
If therefore a true servant of God tells you or writes to you a sharp word, IT IS the sword from the Lord and IT IS to show you the powers in your soul and the true thoughts and intents of your heart. And if you do not receive it, you refuse the light and corrections from the Lord (Eph. 4:11-14).
I truly wonder whether you, true believers, who read this chapter on “Our War and Peace”, have started to see that your Salvation IS NOT a battle for your happiness, peace, prosperity, comfort or fulfilment of your personal expectations or dreams in your earthly life, BUT IT IS a battle against the powers of evil and darkness outside and inside of your soul! Can you see and realize that it is the Holy Spirit, Who desires to guide us into our war, battles, conflicts, problems, divisions? And, in the midst of them all, He is also our Comforter? If we live in peace, prosperity and happiness, we do not need any comforter! Nor do we need the Lord! Is this true or not?
And have you never read the Book of Joshua? Have you never realized that the Promised Land was not a Paradise? That they had to fight for every inch of it with their mortal enemies though it was given to them by God Himself? That the very first Person that Joshua saw before he led the children of Israel into any battles was the “Man” with his sword drawn? And that the Man represented the Holy Spirit since the place where Joshua stood was holy? (Jos. 5:13-15) What does this mean to you, Christians? Peace and prosperity? Nay, but after our baptism, we should have seen in our spirit the same “Man”, the Holy Spirit standing with His sword drawn in His hand! He was ready to lead us to our battles as He led Israel. And He is our Comforter and Power as He was for Israel. Are we following Him? NO!
Why are multitudes of Christians constantly miserable and comfortless? Because they seldom come to their Comforter, Who dwells in them! The Lord promised that He will never leave us comfortless – if we fight! (Jn. 14:18) So, we should never ask the Lord where He is in the time of our troubles, pressures, pains, conflict and sufferings because – He is in us – waiting! He cannot be closer to us than being in us.
The Lord said: “IF YE (believers) LOVE ME, keep My commandments.” (Jn. 14:15)
May I ask you a simple question: Do you TRULY love the Lord? And if you truly love Him, how on earth are you going to “keep His Commandments” without starting a war with the Devil? Since the Lord knew that it was impossible, that is why He prayed to His Father to send us a “Comforter”, Who may comfort us in our war against the spirits of our flesh. The Spirit will never help us to fulfill the dreams, lusts, desires, plans, ambitions or other goals of our fleshly “self”. He is always against our flesh (Gal. 5:17).
Have you ever witnessed or experienced on your own skin that every truth may only be established through battles, conflicts, suffering and pain? I am asking you this extremely important question because, again, most of believers are easily deceived in this spiritual fact. How? Most believers and their leaders may be reading the truth (Word of God), preaching the truth, teaching the truth, explaining the truth even sincerely believing the truth, but they may never live the truth in their own life and experience. Listen…
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To be continued next week in chapter 4 – part 2
brother Hanola
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