Testing the Combat-Readiness of Last Days Disciples
Beloved Family… I sense a need to focus attention on some Blood Covenant perspectives embedded within a text that is familiar to many. May it stimulate us to cooperate with the Holy Spirit at much deeper, unprecedented heart levels of devotion. Then Father will be free to do everything He knows still has to be done – to us, and in us. For this purpose, He fused His Holy Spirit into our spirits. This is to make sure He can prepare us in time, to engage in the deadly combat with the demonic powers we’ll be facing during these eventful and dangerous Last Days. And once God accomplishes what He needs to do in us… His Living Word will become flesh once more. But this time, He will reveal Himself and affect earthly circumstances and situations… through our yielded flesh!
So let’s absorb what is embedded within the words of this text – as they relate to the responsibility God says is specifically ours. ‘What responsibility?’… you may ask. ‘For what are we made responsible?’ Well, I’m referring to the quality level of the personal response we have to make to God’s initiatives on our behalf. That would be up to us, wouldn’t it? The way in which we correspond to God’s desire to be one with us, is, for better or worse, always being reflected back to Him and to the world around us, by the way we think, act, react and interact on Earth. In one way or the other, our actions always reveal what we really think of our risen Lord.
So what will it be, beloved? Will we actually respond to Him with the same wholehearted, ‘nothing held back’ level of Love-driven intensity that He showers upon us? Yes, or No? So… here is the text:
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.” (Let your receptive response to Him correspond accurately with the awesome Self-Revelation He gives us as He reveals that His Covenant Faithfulness to us is Infinitely Trustworthy. But do we joyfully and wholeheartedly reflect boundless trust and confidence back to Him, and to the powers of Darkness, and in our surroundings?)
“Put on the FULL armor of God” (abide as one with the Eternal Fullness that is in your risen Lord. He abides in you to serve as your Full Armor! So let your thoughts, imaginations, actions, reactions and interactions flow out from Him, so you can be and act as one with Him at all times), so that you will be able to stand firm (with outrageous confidence and unbreakable loyalty to Him,) against the schemes of the devil (regardless of what he may try to say or do).
“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood (people are not our enemies. All humans are being assailed by the Serpent. So we don’t attack humans who are being deceived and manipulated by the true enemy), but (we stand) against the (unseen manipulators, the) rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the (satanic) spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places!
“Therefore, take up the full armor of God,(remain fully convinced of your oneness with your risen Lord. Be ever-mindful that God’s Perfect, Infinitely Authoritative Word is abiding within you always. Draw whatever you need from Him, at all times, with wholehearted aggressiveness and supreme confidence) so that (His invincible Protection that abides in) you, will (empower you to) be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm, stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with (Christ, who is the invincible) truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness (knowing his perfect righteousness is now yours), and having shod your feet with the preparation of (being ready at all times to proclaim) the gospel of peace; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith (the knowledge that your indwelling Messiah has already totally demolished the works of the enemy. He has terminally routed the demonic powers! So abide in His Authority) with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation (that no one can take from you), and the Sword of the Spirit, WHICH IS THE (LIVING) WORD OF GOD (who serves as your Eternal Shield and Fortress and unstoppable Firepower). (Ephesians 6:7-14 NASB, Amplification and emphasis added.)
In other words, because God enfolds us with His Infinitely Perfect abiding Presence and Covenant Loyalty and Faithfulness, it’s up to us to receive His Fullness from Him, and reflect it back to Him, just as He gives it to us. It must be just as wholehearted going in His direction, as what is coming to us from Him! Our job is to cooperate with Him and depend on Him exclusively, and to love Him back, with the same exclusive, utterly loyal and loving intensity of Covenant Loyalty and Faithfulness that He is perpetually cascading into us! Our part of this awesome relationship is to protect, honor, guard, and maintain the sacredness of the personal Blood Union that God has established between Himself and us. So here are some other texts that I ask you to begin to fathom like you’ve never done before:
“With all prayer and petition PRAY AT ALL TIMES IN THE SPIRIT (agreeing wholeheartedly with God’s Truth and Plan and Will), and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints…” (Ephesians 6:18 NASB. Amplification and emphasis added.)
“To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the UNFATHOMABLE riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; SO THAT THE MANIFOLD WISDOM OF GOD MIGHT NOW BE MADE KNOWN THROUGH THE CHURCH TO THE RULERS AND THE AUTHORITIES IN THE HEAVENLY PLACES!
“This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him.” (Ephesians 3:8-12, Emphasis added.)
Are We Choosing and Living In Accordance With God’s Eternal Purpose?
Beloved, do you see the emphasis God is placing on what our personal responsibility is, as we take part in the Last Days combat? We must make sure we’re covered by, and armed with, the everpresent Fullness of God that is His Living Word! We do this by obediently exercising absolute airtight faith in what God’s Word has revealed to us about Himself and what He has done on our behalf. From that perspective of absolute assurance that He is abiding in us, we can direct what Yeshua is in us, as our invincible Firepower, at the correct and necessary targets! We are to release His Perfect Presence and the Fruit of His Finished Works into the fray. He is the one who has already confronted and destroyed the workings of the enemy! This is never our war to wage! It is the Lord’s war! He always leads us into every battle on the basis of His already-accomplished Perfect and Total Triumph! And when we allow Him to guide us onto the battle fields, as soon as the enemy sees Him, they are totally routed and devastated and put to flight! He is the one who has already dealt with the demonic hosts that come against us. And so our job is to demonstrate this Truth to our demonic enemies.
Our testimony to the forces of evil in the Arena of Combat is to be this:
“We abide in unshakable faith, hope, trust and full reliance upon the fact that our Resurrected Commander, Yeshua, has already done everything necessary to destroy your works and devices. He has cut out the ground beneath your feet – you have no authority or power over us – you are defeated!”
It is not our fight because the War has already been won by our awesome Messiah! So our task is to resist the enemy’s lies and deceptions and frenzied bluffing threats. If we know our Commander and abide with Him and work from Him, as He really is, we’ll reflect and reveal His Glory to our enemies, and in that case, their resolve will always collapse and their futile efforts will be quickly terminated.
This is why we speak a lot about our Last Days disciple Boot Camp training. And we mention ‘becoming combat ready’ very often. So in keeping with that, let’s look even deeper into the meaning and practical everyday working out of that key idea of ‘becoming combat ready.’
While we’re undergoing this very taxing training, remember the object on which our Trainer, the Holy Spirit, requires us to stay focused. Remember what He requires us to practice and rehearse and drill and train ourselves to be able to do, even in our sleep! Into what does He require us to embed and root ourselves… so we can remain invincible?
“Therefore, since we have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also get rid of every weight and entangling sin. Let us run with endurance the race set before us, FOCUSING ON YESHUA, THE INITIATOR AND PERFECTER OF FAITH. For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross, disregarding its shame; and He has taken His seat at the right hand of the Throne of God! Consider Him (at all times) who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary in your souls and lose heart!” (Hebrews 12:1-3 TLV, Amplification and emphasis added.)
How steadfast and immovable will our focus on our risen Lord’s Invincible Presence be… when we’re in the heat of combat? Will we be obsessing over what our enemies are doing and shouting at us? Or will we faithfully continue to honor our personal Covenant Bond with the risen Lord who always dwells and operates from within us? Our Blood Covenant interactive relationship with Him is FOREVER! And that means that, just as it was with Stephen, even while he was surrounded by a gang of vicious, murderous enemies in Acts 7, there can never be a moment in our future confrontations with the dark forces, when we can legitimately back away from, or forget, our beloved risen Lord! There is no such thing as taking a short break from rendering faithful loving service to Him. The Blood Bond that makes us to be one requires our perpetual resolve to serve, at all times, as His faithful, loyal ‘Blood brothers!’
Our Covenant with God commits us to be ever-vigilant and faithful to protect His interests on every level. Enhancing His interests, reputation and agenda is our perpetual prime responsibility! And this is another way of regarding and implementing the FMM Marching Orders that I keep bringing to our attention. God’s Living Word made flesh, is always honoring and fulfilling His Covenant Bond with His Heavenly Father. He is always focused on doing His Father’s will and fulfilling His Eternal Plan for Creation, while acting as our Eternally Invincible and All-Authoritative Blood Covenant Representative! He’s always at His Father’s side, representing us and interceding on our behalf. He never takes a break from covering and providing for us to Perfection. He never forgets us, even for a moment! He is Omnipresent, Omniscient, and Eternally Aware of us, and always Faithful to us. He always has every detail about everything that pertains to us in His mind, heart and will!
“For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.
“How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with You.” (Psalm 139:13-18. Emphasis added.)
“Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments…” (Deuteronomy 7:9. Emphasis added.)
Therefore, our Bond with God, through Messiah Yeshua, requires us to remind and train ourselves to be as one with Him, as intimately and devotedly as He is with us. Of course we’re not omniscient and omnipresent or infinite in perfection. But we can be trained to be just as faithful and focused and aware of our duties as the best, foremost human warriors are able to become to their lords and causes! So then… together with, and from, our risen Lord, we are to advance onto the fields of battle… abiding in God’s Presence… as members of His New Covenant Royal Priesthood. We have the privilege and honor of continually attending to Him, in union with our Messiah! We serve Father together with His Beloved Son, as his adopted sons and Blood Covenant brothers. Now we are to serve as the ever-faithful friends of Almighty God!
And in this perpetual frame of mind, we agree with, and enhance, and expedite the manifestation of the Perfect Performance of our Father’s will by Yeshua… who lives within us, and empowers us to keep advancing into the enemy’s realms… until Father’s will, and His awesome Plan for His Creation, have been fully consummated and accomplished.
“Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your (former Self-) life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our (New Eternal) Life, is revealed, then you also will be (sharers in His Resurrection Life, and) revealed with Him in Glory.” (Colossians 3:1-4. Amplification and emphasis added.)
We are to make sure that our time on Earth is spent adding to the Eternal Satisfaction and Glory of our Heavenly Father. We do this by maintaining a laser-like focus on the Perfection of His Word’s Perfect Finished Works of Creation and Redemption. Our Lord does all that is required of us… by the Holy Spirit’s Power… in our name! That’s why we must abide in Him, permanently, and reveal what the Spirit is imparting into us and through us, FROM Him! And this is why we train so rigorously and consistently… to make sure our every thought, imagination, choice, decision and volition as faithful servants… expresses and reveals our Loyalty, Love, Devotion and Gratitude to our Perfect All-Victorious Covenant God.
Last Days Disciples Are Active Duty Warriors
I focus on this, beloved, because when warriors are in the midst of a raging bloody and chaotic conflict, their prior basic training must have them ready and prepared to maintain a single-minded, laser-like purpose in vanquishing and overpowering the enemy. We must be geared to remain supernaturally focused and intent on fulfilling our missions. In combat there is no such thing as taking ‘time out’ or ‘resting.’ To even think like that is to allow your mind and will to relax and sag, and lose its concentrated strength and resolve. If we do that, we, and our fellow comrades in arms, are liable to sudden death! Our enemies never stop or relax! They are always looking for any openings they can find to exploit and strike us down instantly. This is why we must be perpetually on alert and ready to resist, oppose and ‘outgun’ our demonic foes.
This is also why our brains, minds, wills, imaginations and emotions must be thoroughly reconfigured, disciplined, drilled, trained and made to be battle-ready and aggressively unstoppable. The war into which we were born is perpetual and brutal and relentless. No mercy or quarter is ever given by either side! This is a cosmic Life or Death Struggle! So we must be rigorously trained to be ready to engage in it at all times. We must take advantage of every opportunity to fulfill our God-given battlefield commissions with always-reliable, predictable excellence! So keep this God-given warning in mind:
“When the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. Likewise, you younger ones, submit yourselves to the elders. And all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore HUMBLE YOURSELVES UNDER THE MIGHTY HAND OF GOD, so that He may lift you up at the appropriate time. Cast all your worries on Him, for He cares for you.
“Stay alert! Watch out! Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, SEARCHING FOR SOMEONE TO DEVOUR, BUT RESIST HIM, FIRM IN YOUR FAITH, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being laid upon your brothers and sisters throughout the world.
“After you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace—who has called you into His Eternal Glory in Messiah—will Himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you. All Power to Him forever! Amen.” (1 Peter 5:4-11. Emphasis added.)
The Covenant requires us to render continuous faithfulness, loyalty and devotion to our beloved ‘Blood Brother’ and ‘Covenant Friend’… while the demonic powers of Darkness surround us and try to penetrate our protective Armor. But our job is to let them watch us honor our God and render to Him the continuous love, trust, and the service that He so richly deserves!
Our boot camp training must be ever-ongoing, because our war with the demonic powers is always raging all over the world. And so each moment we experience will provide ample ‘raw material’ by which we will be put to the test. Each choice, decision and command we give to our own mind, heart and will must be properly aligned with our combat mission. We must transform into clear, accurate ‘mirrors’ that serve as clear, unmistakable reflections and manifestations of the risen Lord who really and truly abides within our hearts. For the sake of our Beloved Blood Covenant Friend and Representative, we gladly die to our Self-life, so that He can live in us, and love and serve the rest of our brethren who are living members of His Body on Earth, through us!
What we choose to do, and not do, and why we choose the options we do, must clearly reveal the Covenant Love for Him that is always to be at work within us. Like lighthouses in the midst of the darkest night, the heartfelt allegiance that is in our innermost depths must shine forth… revealing who and what we truly are. We will either render loyalty, service, courage and ongoing Covenant faithful devotion and service to our Lord, or we will betray Him. There is no third alternative. And so our Covenant Bond obligates and empowers us to do this with impeccable faithfulness and consistency. And this is why the Holy Spirit is here to train and equip and prepare and empower us to embody the Resurrection Glory of our All-Triumphant Lord!
“So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the Kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but YOU WILL RECEIVE POWER WHEN THE HOLY SPIRIT HAS COME UPON YOU and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” (Acts 1:6‑8)
So, how should this be manifested in real life? How will it be working within our hearts, souls, wills, affections and circumstances? Of what will our boot camp tests and trials consist, as they train and enable us to actually prove that we’re really ready to move to the front lines of the combat and engage in ‘the real thing’ for the sake, and in the Name of, our Covenant Lord?
This is how I envision it: this boot camp ‘crucible level of testing’ can only be legitimately undergone by people that have actually undergone the ‘born again’ experience. They must have actually been crucified… and executed with our Lord… and fully immersed into the Holy Spirit of God! Only the total demise and absence of our former Self-life will make way for the Life of our indwelling Lord to enter and work, and emerge, and make His Presence known. Only when He can be revealed in us and through us, will we be authorized to present actual proof to the demonic powers and the unbelieving world that we actually are living members of our Messiah’s Living Body on Earth!
“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to Life, and there are few who find it. Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
“You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits.” (Matthew 7:13-20. Emphasis added.)
True Spirit-empowered disciples are equipped and ready to PROVE that this awesome New Covenant fact is actually at work within them. Only they can serve as legitimate members of God’s Last Days Invasion Force! Only they are endowed with the necessary spiritual equipping that Last Days disciples will need to persevere, overcome, and cross the Finish Line that will usher God’s faithful warriors into the Joy of the Eternal Victory they will celebrate with Him, without end! And this is how God’s written Word describes them:
“Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the Covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My Covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord.
“But this is the (New) Covenant which I will make with the House of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My Law (My Living Torah) within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me ( be one with My Word, personally, directly and intimately) , from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the Lord, “for I will (make them worthy to abide in His Presence and embody My own Word back to Me, because I will) forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” (Jeremiah 31:31-34, Amplification and emphasis added.)
“Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you AND CAUSE YOU to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. (Ezekiel 36:25-27. Emphasis added.)
Yeshua’s Abiding Life Continually Bears Fruit From Within His Disciples
Through His New Covenant promises to Israel… and those who, by faith in God, allow themselves to be grafted into this Covenant… we become one with Almighty God, and one with each other! God has committed Himself to endow His Word’s Jewish and non-Jewish New Covenant disciples with the spiritual power and ability to actually honor and observe the Torah commandments contained in His written Word! How can He do that? He does it by making us to be one with His Living Word, the risen Lord of Glory! His Holy Spirit makes it possible for Yeshua to live and abide within, and operate from, each one of us! God’s Living Word Himself perfectly fulfills what is in God’s written Word, and does so in the name of His New Covenant ‘Blood brothers!’ He becomes our Righteousness, Purity and Covenant Lovingkindness as He obeys His Father in our name! This is how perfectly unifying and intimately close and genuinely Fruit-bearing, His Covenant Bond with us actually is!
The New Covenant bonds us to God’s Living Word to such an extent, that the Lord and His Living members think, choose, act, react and interact AS ONE NEW MAN IN MESSIAH! (See Ephesians 2.) This Covenant Bond makes this awesome interactive union possible. And as Yeshua continually abides within us, we can reciprocate by abiding continually within Him! We can penetrate the infinite depths of knowing Him more deeply and intimately and personally than ever before. And there is no end to exploring and knowing all that is contained in the Fullness of God that abides within His Living Word!
“But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead!” (Philippians 3:7-11)
And this is why the following text bears repeating and further unpacking… so, without apology, I put it before you one more time:
“Therefore if (since) you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the (Perfect Provision that Father has already provided for us. That Fullness is contained in the) things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God (for you must always realize that you and He are forever made to be One! Therefore). Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on Earth. (Join your Lord as He and the Holy Spirit intercede on humanity’s behalf before the Throne of the Father.)
“For you have died (to your former Self-life. It died with and in your Covenant Representative) and your Life (which is now His Resurrection Life abiding within you) is hidden (in great part, from the view of natural, Spirit-less earthly eyes for the time being. Nevertheless, even now, you are equipped to abide and to interact as one,) WITH CHRIST IN GOD!
“(So realize that,) When Christ, who is our Life, is revealed (that is, when the Fruit He is free to produce in you and through you, appears on Earth at the End), then you also will be revealed with Him (as His triumphant Blood brothers) in (the celebration of His Day of Ultimate Triumphant) Glory!” (Colossians 3:1-4. Amplification and emphasis added.)
God tells us through these texts that, as far as He is concerned, His New Covenant so unites us to His risen Son, that God will, from that time forward, consider us to be IN Him, and He will see Him, in us! Therefore, we are to abide forever, AS ONE WITH HIM! Wherever He will be, we will be. Whatever He will be doing, we will also be doing. And whatever He will receive from His Father, we too will receive it… In Him and… because of Him!
This is what the New Covenant makes possible. And, if we have already been brought into it by God’s Grace… our boot camp training will force us to drill and practice and rehearse, and drill and drill and drill some more… until the Reality of this awesome and magnificent Blood Covenant Union can actually flow between God’s Word and us with uninterrupted and unimpeded force. His Fruit will then be seen and felt coming out of His faithful disciple priests of the New Covenant! And, this awesome new identity and purpose are what we must wire and program into our brains and minds and wills and affections from now on.
“For through Law I died to law, so that I might live for God (and from the Authority of the Word and the Power of the Spirit of God. For this reason,). I have been crucified with Messiah; and it is no longer I who live, but Messiah lives in me. And the Life I now live in the body, I live by trusting in Ben-Elohim—who loved me and gave Himself up for me (as our New Covenant Representative).” (Galatians 2:19-20 TLV, Amplification and emphasis added.)
“For to me, to live (in my spirit) is Messiah: and to die (to my soul’s Sin-corrupted Self-life) is gain!” (Philippians 1:21 TLV, Amplification and emphasis added.)
Life on the Resurrection Side of the Cross
That will always be our situation until the actual moment of our personal Resurrection… when we will join our Lord on the Resurrection side of the Cross spiritually, mentally, and also PHYSICALLY! And this is why it’s so important that we remember to refrain from living out from what naturally abides within our fallen, Sin-corrupted soul faculties. They are very powerful and compelling when we develop them, but because of their Sin-corruption, the powers of Darkness can easily arouse them with their lies and deceit.
So if we allow our enemies to do that to us… they will use and manipulate the things that our fallen souls generate for their own deadly Anti-God purposes! The Self-life things that originate in our souls, become the Serpent’s legal property. That gives the unclean powers a ‘handle’ by which to captivate and manipulate us. So obviously, God will never use or accept or bless anything that comes from such a corrupted impure source.
God will only accept and employ what the Holy Spirit is free to transmit into our regenerated spirits, according to His Eternal New Covenant. And so we must abide with God on that spiritual level, by the obedience of our faith. We can easily get in contact with what is in our soul, by sight and by human intellect and by sensory feelings. But we can only get in touch with what is in our spirit by the obedience of faith. By faith we obey what God has revealed, commanded and promised to us through His written Word. And our rigorous boot camp training drills are what embeds that exalted lifestyle and mode of operating into us, until it becomes second nature for us to operate in it.
And as we place whatever abides in our soul under the Absolute Authority and Dominion of our risen Lord, Father and the Holy Spirit will utilize what comes into our regenerated spirits from Yeshua, to fulfill all of His Covenant revelations, obligations, and promises. So of course, the enemy will try to tempt us to wander away from what is going on in our spirits, and lure us back onto the ‘reasonable’ and ‘sensory’ ground of our fallen fleshly soul power. And this is why we must be thoroughly trained to ‘stand’ and ‘hold the Covenant Ground’ that God has entrusted to our care. These conflicting issues will serve as the raw material that our boot camp will employ for our training. We must allow the Holy Spirit to drill and train us to be deeply rooted in that obedient faith in God’s Living and written Word. We must practice and practice this throughout our training… and, most importantly, throughout every moment that we’re actually engaged in combat with our demonic enemies amid the chaotic situations and circumstances we will encounter in the heat of battle.
We will be sorely tempted to despise and rage against humans who despise and come against us. But that will arouse the ‘flesh’ that operates from within our fallen souls. And God warns us in His Word that the broken, deluded people who are being manipulated by the powers of Darkness are not our enemies! They are the duped victims of the invisible demonic beings that deceive, infest and blind people to the things of God. The demonic enemies can legally manipulate and force such people to execute their malicious, destructive, deceptive schemes. Stephen, however, was standing and holding fast to His Covenant Ground by focusing upon, and abiding within, the Presence of His risen Lord which the Spirit of God was transmitting into his spirit. So Stephen was not sucked into the demonic trap of obsessing over the activities of the human ‘puppets’ that were being driven and manipulated by the invisible unclean spirits that were able to infest them.
This is why we must also be trained to aim and direct our Firepower against the demonic beings that manipulate the ‘strings’ that are attached to the souls of such deceived and pathetic human victims. If it is at all possible for our Master to get through to their stony hearts… He will free them from their demonic bondage! So we must always leave the door open to that possibility. But our focus is to remain on opposing the real enemies of our awesome God, the demonic powers of Darkness.
Until the glorious moment of our Messiah’s Ultimate Triumph and Coronation over all the earth arrives, we must remain deeply rooted in the revelation of the New Covenant Reality that lets us know that we’ve been made to be one with God’s Living Word made flesh. He represents us before God in this Covenant.
Therefore, God sees us as being IN Him… and He also sees Himself, to be IN us! So God is telling us that our newly regenerated spirits are being filled with the Resurrection Life of our Messiah at all times, and that what He is, is in us… and that all that He has already done, is our Eternal Covenant Birthright and Inheritance. And, since we have nothing in ourselves at this time from which we can legitimately and effectively draw… we must be trained to draw continually from the Perfection that is in our Messiah’s Presence… at all times and in all circumstances. This is how we stand and endure and resist the evil, and wickedness, and deceit by which our demonic enemies hope to entrap and overcome us… with inexhaustible Resources… and invincible effectiveness.
But remember: at this time, the awesome Resurrection Life of Messiah is not something that we are able to see, touch, hear, feel, or generate for ourselves. We can only apprehend this Reality through our total belief and total trust in the revelation of the Living Word of God, that comes to us from His written Word!
So, in this arena, the obedience of our faith will be continually put to the test. We’ll be given continuous opportunity to prove that we have accepted and embraced and become one with our risen Lord… as we walk that Reality out, step by step, and moment by moment, through the obedience of our faith! It is upon Him, living in us, and His impeccable Credibility and Trustworthiness, that we must be drilled and trained to maintain our mental focus. And it is His responsibility to take care of all the glorious results that will come into us, and into the world around us, through our faith in Him.
When our training drills have been sufficiently repeated, we will have absorbed and wired it into our brains and programmed it into our ‘onboard computers.’ And we’ll be equipped to automatically and instinctively manifest our Blood Covenant Loyalty and Faithfulness to our Lord. We will be able to embrace and walk out the Reality of His Absolute Credibility and Authority. We will have learned to think accordingly and act out from His Life that is always working from within us. We will learn to do this choice by choice… and moment by moment, until it becomes our one and only permanent response.
The Ever-Faithful Provision of the Eternal Blood Covenant
God has revealed to us that He is Infinitely Perfect in His Credibility, Reliability and Covenant Lovingkindness. And, if we believe and embrace and identify with Him on that basis, we’ll be able to afford to stake EVERYTHING and ANYTHING, on the Covenant Blessings that He has revealed and promised to us. And we’ll be able to choose to identify ourselves with Him and His infallible, unstoppable already-accomplished Success and Victory… according to this awesome mind-blowing God-given revelation!
Realize that our Lord has already defeated and devastated the enemies we must face, and know that He is abiding in us and leading us onto the fields of combat to engage those already-defeated foes. So we can proceed with outrageous confidence in our invincibility IN HIM… and remain focused on the proper God-glorifying eventual outcomes.
Even though we can’t see, or feel, or figure out the Truth of what He has revealed, we can choose to consider what is contained in His written Word as absolute Truth and Reality. We do this, not because of our personal perspectives, impressions, feelings, hunches, or imaginations… but because of the Perfect Eternal Authority and Trustworthy Nature, Character and Disposition of our Blood Covenant Friend. And we trust in the Eternally Infinite depth of the Love Bond through which He has joined us to Himself.
This is why it’s so important for us to be trained to see, think, act, react and interact from the data that Scripture and the Holy Spirit transmit into our spirits. This equips and enables us to ‘bypass’ and go around and beyond any demonic influence that can potentially invade the imaginations and perceptions and feelings that originate in our souls. So it is up to us… to take this awesome Truth, and do what it takes to download it into our brains and fallen souls, just as our Lord has entrusted it to us. Our Covenant God commands us to remain fixed upon the Heavenly realities and issues that reign at an altitude that is far ‘above’ all these earthly considerations. We are to divorce our hearts from the earthly horizontal data that comes into our perceptions. We do not look to sources or senses that come at us from things and beings that are ‘below’ and instead, we draw only from the vertical flow of God’s Grace that comes into us from above.
Pay close attention to the revelation contained in Acts 7. Stephen was being besieged and surrounded by the demonically driven murderous thugs that eventually killed him. Notice that Stephen was following this exact same procedure we’ve been discussing. And that impressed Saul of Tarsus so deeply, as he observed those demon-originated last moments of Stephen’s testimony to His Lord, that he never forgot what he saw that day. And later, after he himself had been radically pierced, penetrated and transformed by the Spirit of God, he became known as ‘Paul,’ the apostle to the Gentiles. And he began to describe for the Colossian believers, and also for the rest of the world, what he had seen Stephen do. And then spelled it out for us to replicate, in Colossians 3:1-4.
Stephen was so focused on His indwelling Lord, as He REALLY IS, that the Lord’s Glory, that was being transmitted into his spirit, was able to blot out and overpower everything that the powers of Darkness were stirring up all around him! Thus he remained invulnerable to demonic interference. And he persevered and transcended and overcame the earthly maelstrom that whirled all around him… to his very last breath! And he succeeded in delivering his magnificent, world-changing Testimony to the Glory of his risen Lord. And the obedience of his faith continues to inspire, instruct, ‘ignite’ and transform countless numbers of Yeshua’s disciples… to this very day!
Our Covenant Bond with God obligates those of us who belong to our Lord to choose to think, and choose to act, react and interact, according to what God’s Word has said He has made us to be and do (Philippians 2:12-13). Our Spirit-imparted, Spirit-empowered Covenant status gives us the right and duty to see ourselves, and to operate, as Stephen did. Like him, we too truly are sons, priests and prophets of our Eternally Triumphant God!
Thus we’re required to assess our God-given capabilities in combat based upon God’s Revelation which is transmitted into our newly regenerated, Spirit-indwelt human spirits, and which we are to transmit to, and through, the faculties in our own bodies and souls. That constant practice and drilling will develop the necessary Blood brother level of Faithfulness in us. And that equips us to operate in the certain knowledge that the Resurrection Life of our Messiah-Redeemer is always abiding and working and protecting us… from within our eternal spirits! And nothing else will matter after that.
This is the issue that will always be confronting us as we make our way through each moment and circumstance and situation of our daily lives in this world: We will be faced with having to choose which of those two lives we will identify with, and which we will choose to live from. Will it be our soulish Self-life, or will it be the indwelling Life of our Messiah that the Holy Spirit transmits into our regenerated spirits? One is earthly, and the other is Heavenly. And it will be up to us to choose which one we will reject, abandon, crucify, and bypass, and which one we will embrace and allow to prevail. One or the other must be executed. And that’s why we’re always forced to choose for ourselves between those two possible lives, moment-by-moment, and choice-by-choice.
“I call the heavens and the earth to witness about you today, that I have set before you, Life and Death, the Blessing and the Curse. Therefore choose (the Living Word’s) Life (to operate from within you) so that you and your descendants may live!” (Deuteronomy 30:19 Amplification and emphasis added.)
“Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for Israel is for their salvation. For I testify about them that they have zeal for God—but not based on knowledge. For being ignorant of God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit themselves to the righteousness of God. For Messiah is the Goal (the ultimate target destination) of the Torah as a means to righteousness for everyone who keeps trusting (that our risen Messiah is truly living and obeying His Father, from within us).
For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on Torah, “The man who does these things shall live by them.” But the righteousness based on faith speaks in this way:
“Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will go up into heaven?’ (that is, to bring Messiah down),or, ‘Who will go down into the abyss?’ (that is, to bring Messiah up from the dead).”
“But what does it say? “The Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”—that is, the Word of Faith that we are proclaiming: For if you confess with your mouth that Yeshua is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart it (God’s Living and written Word) is believed for righteousness, and with the mouth it (the Living and written Word of God) is confessed for Salvation!
“For the Scripture says, “Whoever TRUSTS (rests) in Him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all—richly generous to all who call on Him. For “Everyone who calls upon the name of Adonai shall be saved.” (Romans 10:1-13 TLV. Amplification and emphasis added.)
“If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
“Love (Himself, who abides and operates from within us) is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the Truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (as only God Himself can do).
“Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect (one) comes (to abide and work within us), the partial will be done away.
“When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a (Spirit-empowered and Spirit-led) man, I did away with childish (earthly, self-originated) things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I also have been fully known. But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love (Himself, who is here to live His Life from within us).” (1 Corinthians 13, Amplification and emphasis added.)
Do you see the implications of this? For fallen self-centered, soul-driven people to live according to God’s revelation and commandments and promises is utterly impossible! But, when we give God’s Living Word and Holy Spirit sole ownership and authority over our inner workings, they can indwell and operate from within us. And then, and only then… ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE! (Matthew 19:26) So, throughout each situation and event and fork in the road, and each ‘what shall I do?’ type of decision that we will be forced to make throughout our days in this world… this is the issue we will continue to face and about which we must always be making our either-or choices.
We Must Choose The Holy Spirit Empowered Life Each and Every Time
And you might find the consideration process in your mind beginning something like this:
- To which of these two possible lives shall I defer?
- Have I truly died to my original Adamic Self-life?
- Is it true that for me to live is my Messiah?
- Or should I just cave in under the pressure my fallen flesh is exerting on me at this time and go back to my old ways?
And then, as you apply the Covenant Truth with which you are renewing your mind, it becomes:
- But… if I have truly died to my former Self-life with and in My Blood Covenant Lord and Brother… then the Life of God’s Living Word made flesh is the only choice that remains on my mental ‘menu of options.’
- Therefore, His Life in me will be my perpetual choice from now on. And so therefore I pray:
“Beloved Lord, I defer to You. To prove that my Blood Covenant ‘Chesed/Agape’ for You is true, I defer to You in this situation and set of circumstances. Lord, I choose to forsake my old Self-life and keep it out of Your way completely. Live in me and through me. I will rest and rely upon You, and You alone. Lord, obey our Heavenly Father to perfection through my flesh, and in my name. I am not an independent agent. I am one of Your living members. So I gladly join You in loving and glorifying and giving total satisfaction to our Father… no matter what it may cost, and no matter what it may lead me into. I will follow You into His service, with total peace, rest, joy and confidence.”
“By Your Holy Spirit, I will continue to defer to You constantly, so that You may live Your precious Life in me… through me… and ‘as me.’ In the sight of our Heavenly Father, and before the powers of Darkness, and before my brethren in the Faith, and in the sight of the unbelieving humans who still languish under the chains of demonic deception, I release You, who are my precious Life… into this moment, and this situation, and this earthly activity. Live, Lord, and obey our Heavenly Father and fulfill His Plan in so far as it pertains to me… in me, through me, and as me, for Father’s Eternal Glory and Satisfaction… and for the best and highest Good of the people He has sent You to redeem, save and include in our Covenant Family!”
“Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes, and I shall observe it to the end. Give me understanding, that (because You are living Your Life in and through me) I may observe Your law and keep it with all my heart. Make me (to be one with You, so that I may) walk in the path of Your commandments, for I delight in it. Incline my heart to Your testimonies and not to dishonest gain. Turn away my eyes from looking at vanity, and revive me in Your ways. Establish Your Word to Your servant, as that which produces reverence for You. Turn away my reproach which I dread, for Your ordinances are good. Behold, I long for Your precepts; revive me through Your righteousness.” (Psalm 119:33-40. Amplification added.)
“The Lord your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers. Moreover the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live (in and from His Living Word who dwells within you). The Lord your God will inflict all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecuted you. And you shall again obey the Lord, and observe all His commandments which I command you today. Then the Lord your God will prosper you abundantly in all the work of your hand, in the offspring of your body and in the offspring of your cattle and in the produce of your ground, for the Lord will again rejoice over you for good, just as He rejoiced over your fathers; if you obey the Lord (in and from the Living Word of) your God to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this book of the Law, if you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and soul.” (Deuteronomy 30:5-10. Amplification and emphasis added.)
Beloved friends… this is some of how I try to see and express these very important considerations. It is what I believe Blood Covenant Faithfulness and Loyalty to our God entails and what is going to be required of those of us who are chosen to serve as our risen Lord’s disciples during these critical Last Days… So we must be trained to walk in the Wisdom that was given to the beloved and utterly faithful disciple, Stephen:
“Now when they heard this, they were cut to the quick, and they began gnashing their teeth at him. But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into Heaven and saw the Glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; and he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”
“But they cried out with a loud voice, and covered their ears and rushed at him with one impulse. When they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him; and the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul. They went on stoning Stephen as he called on the Lord and said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” Then falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” Having said this, he fell asleep.” (Acts 7:54-60)
“Therefore, if you have been raised up with Messiah, keep seeking the things above—where Messiah is, sitting at the right hand of God. Focus your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Messiah in God! When Messiah, who is your Life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him, in Glory!” (Colossians 3:1-4. Emphasis added.)
May we all, in these most critical days of human history, be found to be ever-faithful to the calling and Blood Covenant destiny into which our beloved Commander-in-Chief has engrafted us! May we also be deeply grounded in the Truth that Stephen, and Paul, and so many other awesome disciples have known throughout the ages… Amen.