Prepare for War

At the beginning of the year, a prophet of God shared with me what they were feeling in their spirit about the Year 2016. They said they felt like it would be a "Year of War". That word definitely seems to be coming to pass. When people are getting bombed at airports and shot to death at nightclubs in the name of terrorism, that is War. When you have innocent civilians being murdered by police, and then innocent police officers being murdered by civilians, that is Social War. So yes, whether we are willing to admit it or not, this country and this nation is in a Time of War. As a result, what we need to do now as believers in Christ is Prepare for War.

As Christians and children of God, we need to understand that the Warfare for which we are called to engage is not in the Natural. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal (2Corinthians 10), so we don't have to worry about guns and rifles and other objects that are designed to cause bodily harm. No saints, our warfare is Spiritual (Ephesians 6). Once the church learns how to effectively operate in Spiritual Warfare, a lot of the chaos that we're witnessing in the Natural will cease. The challenge right now is Preparation. We must Prepare for the War for which we've been called to engage.

The first order of Preparation for War is to arm oneself with a Mentality to Fight. The Passivity and Indifference that's present in the church is alarming. Everybody has something to say about the brutality and injustices that are taking place in our world, but where is the voice of the church? As the people of God, we can no longer afford to hide in the background and just stay put in the sanctuary singing our hymns and preaching our sermons. We are the light of the world, we are the salt of the earth (Matthew 5). It's up to us to make the Difference for what's going on in our society. But in order to make the Difference, we've got to Fight. The scripture says to "fight the good fight of faith" (1Timothy 6). Where is our faith in God? Where's the stand of the church to let the world know that Violence and Bigotry and Hatred and Racism is wrong and not of God. It's almost like people are scared to bring the faith equation into the discussion of the unraveling of our country. But until this country turns "back" to God, this nation will continue to spiral out of control. We must take a stand and fight for the faith and the Voice of God in and for this country.

Then saints, in order to properly Prepare for War, we must stay Focused and Disciplined. The scripture says, "no man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier" (2Timothy 2). In order to be a soldier of Christ and fight for the advancement of the Kingdom of God, you cannot afford to be tangled up in the affairs of this world. We're not talking about not going to work, not having a job, not having a family, not having a social life; that's not what we're talking about. Not being entangled with the affairs of this life means that there's nothing in your life that comes before or above your Devotion to Christ and the fulfillment of His Will and Purpose for your life. Nothing's wrong with having a career, but does your career come before Christ? It's a blessing to have a family, but does your family come before the execution of God's Will and Purpose for your life? This is where the witness of the church is being diminished; we want to be a part of the world in the "name" of being a Christian. It doesn't work that way. God has called us "out" of the world (John 17). Why? So that we can be Agents of Change for the world. America needs a Change, as President Obama said when he campaigned for the presidency in 2008. But as we've painfully seen, the change isn't going to come from the Government. The change isn't going to come from a social organization. The change isn't going to come from protests and retaliation. Change has to come from God. But the only way that Change can be manifested in the earth is through the witness of the church. It's Change that we must fight for, and in order to do that effectively, we must Prepare for War.