Part 2
Beloved Family… to unpack more of what I believe the Lord wants to show us about the training regimen He has in mind for His Last Days disciples I coined this phrase:
‘Spontaneous unexpected experiential disciple training’
So… what do I mean by that? I mean this: when you look closely at how consistently Holy Spirit moved and directed the disciples in the Bible, using sudden intrusions that came at them without warning, you begin to see a pattern… a consistent mode of operation that is not at all accidental or coincidental. It’s deliberate! So, we may as well get used to it! Let’s begin by probing deeper into the mysterious dynamic contained in the meaning of these three words in the title of this three part article: ‘Unexpected, Spontaneous, Experiential’.
Notice how closely God’s Spirit moves with, and directs the disciples in the book of Acts, and how they always somehow make it through all the sudden intruding setbacks that come at them without any warning. You begin to see a pattern… a consistent mode of operating that is not accidental or coincidental. The conclusion is that the Body of Yeshua is equipped to outlast and overcome all opposition! That’s what their apostolic training accomplished. And we must know what they knew!
So let’s dig deeper into what Scripture reveals about God’s Living Word, and about us: We were born into a cosmic spiritual war, and God’s Living Word, before and after He became flesh, is the Supreme Warrior Commander of Heaven’s Invasion Force! He is the one who will be leading us into every battle and skirmish.
“I will put animosity between you and the woman—BETWEEN YOUR SEED AND HER SEED. He will crush your head, and you will crush his heel.” (Genesis 3:17 TLV, Emphasis added)
“Now it came to pass when Joshua was near Jericho that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, there was a man standing in front of him with his sword drawn in his hand. Joshua approached him and said to him: “Are you for us or for our adversaries?”
“Neither” he said. “Rather, I have now come as Commander of Adonai’s Army.”
Then Joshua fell on his face to the ground and worshipped. Then he asked him, “What is my Lord saying to his servant?”
Then the Commander of Adonai’s Army replied to Joshua, “Take your sandal off of your foot, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.” (Joshua 5:13-15 TLV, Emphasis added)
Look closely and you’ll see that the entire Bible is a warrior manual! It informs, trains and provides the Wisdom that the Word’s disciples need, if and when we decide to obey our Commander’s call to follow Him wherever He leads. And, very soon, we all realize that He intends to lead us into deadly combat with the powers of Darkness! And we see that Creation has been filled with this Heavenly warfare since the first moment of its existence in space and time. This War has been raging from eternity past… between Almighty God with His Heavenly hosts, and Satan, with his band of rebellious demonic spirits… who, in their jealousy, hate human beings, and are intent on destroying each and every one of us.
So, as soon the Lord calls us, and we step forward to follow Him, we automatically become enlisted in His military Force! And we wear His uniform, and live under His command, and He communicates with us on a purely ‘need to know’ basis. Just as earthly generals do not share all they know with their subordinates, neither does the King of kings explain Himself to us at any length. Nor does He seek our advice, or our help!
This is because His Plan has already been set, His aims are already decided, and, in fact, God’s Living Word has already completely outmaneuvered, outsmarted, and totally routed the opposition! Actually, this War has been won! But, yes, the enemy still maintains pockets of residual earthly resistance. But God wants us to know that our Lord has already trounced all of the opposition! And very soon, He will return physically to Earth, to fully establish His Victory and His Kingdom. And our routed enemies know that, if and when He succeeds, they have no chance of ever gaining the upper hand or recouping the resources and territory they usurped from the Lord. And when He takes everything back, they are eternally doomed!
So, all we need to know, as our units are deployed across specific sectors, is what our personal orders require us to do in each of our immediate present situations. And, if each of us performs his or her duties, everything in every one of His units around the world will begin to ‘dovetail’. And God’s awesome Plan will progressively manifest itself and unfold by the end of this age. And note this: This war is not up to us to win! We don’t have to dream up ways to overcome our foes. All that has already been accomplished to Perfection by our resurrected Lord! So our assignment is simple: we follow Him believing the truth of this. And we do what He tells us, as He leads us each step of the way. And He will drive the final nails into the coffin of His enemy’s already-foiled ambitions.
On that basis, we are to continue to advance. He will assign tasks to us, corporately and individually. And, just as it is in every military force, He’ll give the individual troops and their units just enough knowledge to move them into their proper positions, and show them what they are to do next. And as His Plan is working itself out, it may appear to us to be random, chaotic, and helter-skelter. But that’s never the case. Just because events on the battlefields take place very suddenly and unexpectedly and seem chaotic, they never take our Commander by surprise. By His Infinite Foreknowledge and Wisdom, He maintains complete awareness and control over every aspect of it. But He only informs us on a ‘need to know’ basis.
Nevertheless, we who are part of His Force have an enormous advantage that equips us to move as one! The Holy Spirit is our Advantage. He is commissioned to teach and train us in the art of responding to, and working together, amid all the spontaneous, unexpected experiences that come at us with tremendous suddenness, speed and frequency. But shocking things need not upset, dismay, or deter us. Rather, we train to remain constantly in touch with Holy Spirit so He can tell us the meaning of whatever is happening and turn it to our advantage!
When you view the apparent chaos on the battlefields from afar, you’ll see that God’s forces are all moving as one all across the whole expanse. They are like well-organized, highly-disciplined squadrons of bombers flying over their assigned target areas in the midst of storms of opposing enemy aircraft and enormous amounts of flack that their terrified enemies keep firing at them. Amid the violent turmoil, the Squadron Commander knows exactly what He’s doing. He’s always aware of everything that is happening everywhere, among the enemy forces, and within the echelons of His own forces. He also knows how everything will turn out in the end! So I’m offering this aerial combat analogy to help us better understand the phenomenal way God equips His own to operate effectively and successfully.
In the course of directing His disciple squadrons to fly in strict, very tight formations over their assigned target areas, our Lord will even use, for His own purposes, unexpected turns of events. Such as sudden shocking setbacks and surprise ‘hits’ from enemy flack that damage and eliminate some parts of our formations. But casualties, such as what happened to Stephen never take the Lord by surprise. He has foreseen all of it. And although we experience those things as sudden unexpected setbacks, God’s Spirit uses these things, to teach, train and continue to direct our movements! He even uses our blunders, to sharpen our fighting skills and manage and redirect our movements amid the chaos and carnage. By His Perfect Infinitely Comprehensive Foreknowledge, our Commander foresees and anticipates these things and factors them into His Plan; so everything is already covered! And those who truly belong to God, even if they become temporary casualties, in reality, they do not lose a thing!
Our Trust is in Our Commander-in-Chief, Yeshua… No Matter What
Whatever we will need as we proceed has also already been placed into the Plan and awaits us! Our Lord is never taken aback by any unexpected happenings we encounter. That’s why we can afford to trust Him at all times! He has fitted everything into the Plan and uses whatever happens to train and guide our steps! Even chaos is His tool by which He reveals His Infinite Majesty and Greatness to us. He wants to communicate with us through these things, thereby keeping each of His squadrons fully aware and perfectly synchronized to maintain tight formations even as we maneuver back and forth to minimize the impact of whatever fire is unexpectedly sent against us. God is always ready to cover and redirect us from within, thanks to Holy Spirit’s indwelling. And thus He can direct each of us, enabling us to make necessary evasive maneuvers and formation-closing adjustments, in a way that’s very similar to that amazing instinct God has given to certain species of birds, fish and mammals that swarm and move back and forth at very high speeds – but always, as one!
Regardless of what our enemies try to do, our Lord keeps applying tremendous pressure on them all. And throughout Scripture, we see this invisible continuous interactive cooperation taking place between God’s Spirit and His people. But for now, consider how this works out in the Book of Acts. Notice that the Lord directs His disciples on a purely ‘need to know’ basis. He doesn’t provide them with maps containing large panoramic views of the overall master plan and highly detailed instructions. Instead He maintains close proximity and interactive ‘radio’ communication with His entire command, guiding all of them step by step, from moment to moment. He does this through His indwelling Holy Spirit. He lets them know the moment they have to adjust and change course, and adapt properly to the ever-changing battle conditions. He uses the sudden shifts in their situations and circumstances to redirect and update them so they can take evasive action and adjust rapidly whenever it’s necessary to counter and foil the enemy’s moves, and still be able to ‘bomb their targets’.
So, to maintain the order and integrity of our formations, and ensure the fulfillment of our missions, Holy Spirit trains and teaches us all to maintain a perpetual, laser-like focus on our indwelling Commander and what He is telling us to do from moment to moment. All of our various assigned tasks have been pre-calibrated and designed to work together in unison… keeping everyone in formation and on target, so as each individual’s assigned task is fulfilled, more and more of the eventual success of our overall mission comes into view. Let’s look at some examples of this in Acts. Here is what our Commander told His squadron leaders prior to the launch of the New Covenant Final Invasion against the realms of the powers of Darkness:
“So when they gathered together, they asked Him, “Lord, are You restoring the kingdom to Israel at this time?”
“He said to them, “It is not your place to know the times or seasons which the Father has placed under His own control. But you will receive power when the Ruach ha-Kodesh has come upon you; and (here are your orders…) you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and through all Judah, and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:6-8 TLV, Amplification and emphasis added)
(According to Luke, this was the pre-takeoff briefing He gave them, just before He left to return to His Father in Heaven. And Matthew’s Gospel elaborates further on some of the mission’s other details:
“And Yeshua came up to them and spoke to them, saying, “All Authority in Heaven and on Earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, immersing them in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Ruach ha-Kodesh, teaching them to observe all I have commanded you. AND REMEMBER! I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS, EVEN TO THE END OF THE AGE!” (Matthew 28:18-20 TLV, Emphasis added.
So He told them what the overall objective of their New Covenant commission is to be. And because He will always be with us, the goal is for every human to get to know Him, and become one with Him for all of Eternity, and to proclaim that God’s Word is coming back to Earth, in the flesh, to take over completely.
The revelation and manifestation of Yeshua’s Total Triumph is the Goal that our God has set before us. We are to become one with Him in that Triumph, just as He, and all that He has already accomplished, became one with us in the Eternal Covenant! Our oneness with Him and embodiment and proclamation of His Glory is the Prime Goal of the New Covenant Invasion. Maintaining this awesome union with our Messiah enables Him to be the New Life that God gives us in exchange for the original Sin-corrupted individualistic Self-life that we agreed to forsake and surrender for crucifixion and execution in and with our Covenant Representative and Champion. And once He truly wins us over, and is free to live His Life from within our flesh, He becomes for us the Perfect Fulfillment of all that God’s Perfect Standards of Righteousness, Truth and Justice demand. His Perfect Resurrection Humanity supplies everything that God requires of us. So, by becoming our New Life, He also becomes our personal Wisdom, Righteousness, Holiness, and Redemption! (1 Corinthians 1:30-31)
Our mission is to love, proclaim, exalt, embody and obey our Master. When we do that, the Fruit He has produced appears from within us, and we bear it for Him and share it with others, as directed. By this, He totally disproves the demonic slander His enemies make against Him; and He disarms and destroys the ploys and resources of Satan. And, since the Lord intends to speak and operate from within our flesh, we must submit and enable Him to work within us and through us, as He ‘mops up’ all remaining pockets of demonic resistance. We are here to proclaim and exalt our risen Lord… and allow His Spirit to work through us… regardless of what the powers of Darkness try to do to deceive and destroy us, in an effort to distract and discourage us and get us to fail to accomplish the missions we’ve been given to fulfill. To trust, rest, rejoice, and receive all that He has already supplied for us – is the commission He entrusts to our care. When we interact with Him like that in the presence of the enemy, the Father of Lies is exposed, discredited and confounded.
The Lord assured us that He has all the Authority there is to have in all of existence! That means that, since He’s the only Human that has overcome Satan, Sin, and Death, and has gloriously been raised from the dead by God, He now abides with His Father in God’s Glorious Eternal Perfection. His Resurrection Presence in our midst, which we are sent out to embody and demonstrate, is unassailable PROOF that He truly is the Eternal Word of God made flesh… and that all of His claims and promises, as stated in God’s written Word, are TRUE AND EVERLASTING! Therefore, when He appears in our midst, thanks to our obedient faith, there’s nothing the enemy can do to stop the advance of our triumphant Covenant Representative’s Finalizing Invasion.
As we said, through the Perfect Atonement that He made on our behalf, Yeshua, our Covenant Champion, has already won the War… and completely routed and destroyed the ability of our demonic enemies to rule and dominate over us! So, in Acts, when the Lord was revealing all of this to His own, just before He ascended physically into Heaven… He assured all of us that He will always continue to abide within each and every disciple, by the Power of the Holy Spirit. Now… He is not only with us, but He also actually lives and operates from WITHIN US! And because we’re one with Him, nothing in Creation can separate us from His Love (See Romans 8). This is why we must be trained to live and operate as one with Him, and identify with Him and His Perfect Finished Works of Creation, Redemption, and Restoration. We are more than just conquerors… We are newly begotten creations and sons of Almighty God… and co-heirs with our Supreme Commander of all that is His, in His Eternal Heavenly Kingdom! But we can’t just go around saying it… WE HAVE TO LET IT BE SEEN AND EXPERIENCED AS HOLY SPIRIT TRANSMITS IT FROM ETERNITY INTO OUR TIME AND SPACE EARTHLY LIVES!
So, leaving His first century emissaries with these instructions and assurances, He ascended, while they watched Him disappear into the clouds. Then they waited in Jerusalem, as they were told to do… until they received the tremendous overwhelming Gift of being totally immersed into the Fiery Spirit of God. And suddenly, they transformed into Light-filled temples of God’s Eternal, Perfect Presence! And they remembered Yeshua’s earlier commission… to teach and train other Spirit-empowered disciples to follow and abide as one with Him (see John chapters 14, 15, 16, & 17). So this is our New Covenant Commission:
“Abide in Me, and Proclaim and display My Resurrection Presence to the entire world. Cooperate with Me as I abide in you… and make disciples of all those who will believe and step forward to join your ranks. As I call them into My service and entrust them to the Holy Spirit’s care, I will also entrust them to your tutelage, so you can model and display and convey the lifestyle to which I am calling them.
“So… Love each other as I loved you! And remember, I will always be working within all of you… through thick and thin from now on… no matter what happens… we are forever one… AND WE HAVE ALREADY WON THE WAR!” Don’t allow the enemy to deceive you into thinking otherwise! Your job is to bear the Fruit I produce from within you. Don’t allow anything or anyone to stop you from doing this!
So Peter, James, John, and the other Jewish emissaries, and the disciples they were teaching and training, were sent to proclaim and embody the Reality and Presence of our Lord’s Resurrection Love and Glory for the rest of Israel and the rest of the world to experience! And we see how this began to happen in Acts 3 & 4 when Peter and John were suddenly directed by Holy Spirit to release the Lord’s Presence upon a crippled man who was begging for alms outside the Jerusalem temple. Suddenly the Lord directed them to allow Him to heal that man… and in the uproar that followed, Peter and John were blindsided by a sudden wave of intense opposition:
“Now when they (the Jewish religious elite) saw the boldness of Peter and John and figured out they were laymen without training, they were amazed. They began to realize that these men had been with Yeshua. But seeing the healed man standing with them, they had nothing to say in response. When they had ordered Peter and John to go out of the council chamber, they began to confer with one another, saying, “What shall we do with these men? For indeed, it’s obvious to everyone living in Jerusalem that a remarkable miracle has happened through them, and we cannot deny it. But so it won’t spread any further among the people, let’s warn them not to speak anymore to anyone in this Name.”
(Notice that Peter and John were not privy to what these men were planning at this time. The Holy Spirit was only giving them a minimal ‘need to know’ level of step by step direction even as serious opposition continued to build up against them):
So they called them in and ordered them not to speak or teach at all in the Name of Yeshua. But Peter and John (were not taken aback by this sudden move. They kept their eyes on their previously-assigned objective and, just as Stephen would know how to react to his unexpected experiential intrusions, Peter and John also knew how to respond. They remained focused on their assigned target and released more of their ‘bombs’. They) replied, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you decide. For we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard!”
“As soon as they were released, Peter and John went to their own people and reported all that the ruling kohanim and elders had said to them. When they heard it, (these disciples also kept their focus on their pre-assigned target. And they also were not taken off guard. They maintained the integrity of their assigned ‘formation’ and) they lifted their voices together to God and said, “O Sovereign Master, ‘You made heaven and earth and the sea, and everything in them.’ You said by the Ruach ha-Kodesh, through the mouth of our father David Your servant, ‘Why did the nations rage and the peoples plot foolish things? The kings of the earth took their stand and the rulers were gathered together against Adonai and against His Anointed One.’
“For truly both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, were gathered together in this city against Your holy Servant Yeshua, whom You anointed. They did whatever Your hand and Your purpose predetermined to happen. And now, Lord, look at their threats, and grant Your servants to speak Your word with utmost courage—while You stretch out Your hand to heal, and signs and wonders take place through the Name of Your Holy Servant Yeshua!”
When they had prayed (and released their payload, they felt the tangible results), the place where they were gathered was shaken. And they were all filled with the Ruach ha-Kodesh and began to speak the Word of God with boldness.” (Acts 5:13-31 TLV, Amplification and emphasis added)
Laser-Like Focus on Yeshua is Our Greatest Weapon of War
Do you see how these disciples maintained their focus on their assigned objective, and how they realized that when Yeshua had been suddenly arrested and quickly tried, tortured, crucified and executed, God had been in total control all the while! The powers of Darkness weren’t running the show… God is always in charge, following His pre-determined strategy to perfection, even amid apparent shocking demon-instigated disasters! So, knowing their God like this is what enables disciples to remain firmly focused. And because they knew Him in all of His Perfection, they asked Father to replenish their courage and resolve, so they could further advance His Word’s Invasion into enemy territory and carry on the job of releasing their spiritual Fire Power on the areas containing pockets of residual, totally futile, demonic resistance. And now, notice how the disciples reacted to the sudden deaths of Ananias and Saphira due to the Lord’s instant battlefield Judgement that came upon them:
“Then Peter said to her, “How did you agree to test the Ruach Adonai? Look, the feet of those who buried your husband are at the door—they will carry you out, too!”
“Immediately she fell down at his feet and died. When the young men came back in, they found her dead and carried her out and buried her beside her husband. And great fear came over the whole community and all who heard these things.
“Meanwhile, through the hands of the emissaries many signs and wonders were happening among the people. And they were all together (maintaining their focus on the mission) in Solomon’s Portico. But no one else dared to join them, though the people continued to think highly of them. Yet more than ever those trusting in the Lord were added—large numbers of men and women. They even carried the sick into the streets and laid them on stretchers and cots, so that when Peter passed by at least his shadow might fall on some of them. Crowds were also gathering from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing those who were sick or tormented by unclean spirits, AND THEY WERE ALL BEING HEALED!
“But the kohen gadol (the high priest) rose up, and all those with him (that is, the sect of the Sadducees), and they were filled with jealousy. They grabbed the emissaries and put them in a public jail.
(Again we see the disciples blindsided by a sudden experiential interruption. But the Lord was on top of this situation also. He didn’t miss a beat. He had His servants covered in this as well! And they knew it, and expected Him to be their Covering. So, as one Man, they maintained their focus, stayed in formation, and proceeded to the next target to which the Lord was about to direct them.)
“But during the night an angel of Adonai opened the prison doors, and leading them out he said, “Go, stand in the Temple and speak to the people THE WHOLE MESSAGE ABOUT THIS LIFE.” Now when they heard that, they entered the Temple at daybreak and began teaching.” (Acts 5:9-21a TLV, Amplification and emphasis added)
Beloved, can you see that Acts is showing us that we should allow nothing to deter or stop our risen Lord’s Invasion? His first century disciples had obviously been well-trained and prepared to remain in alignment and proceed with their mission. They didn’t scatter in panic; instead, they maintained tight formation and remained ready to bomb whatever new target the Holy Spirit might bring to their attention. Great training and preparation enabled them to LIVE AND DEMONSTRATE this New Life, and because they lived it, they had the right to speak and teach it to others. This is how they multiplied and maintained discipline and formation integrity, and remained focused on their objective, as one Man. Thus Holy Spirit enabled them to adapt perfectly to their unforeseen setbacks, and to wait, calmly and patiently, for God to open the way for them to proceed in the ongoing destruction of their assigned targets.
So now, let’s see what we can learn from Stephen when he was blindsided, and what we can learn from the other disciples when they were suddenly forced to deal with an unexpected wave of intense persecution:
“Now Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. But some men from what was called the Synagogue of the Freedmen—both Cyrenians and Alexandrians, as well as some from Cilicia and Asia—stood up and began arguing with Stephen. But (because Stephen’s laser-like focus remained fixed upon His Lord, he did not get rattled, and he stayed on course, so) they could not withstand the Wisdom and the Ruach (the Spirit) by whom he was speaking.
“Then, (to try to blindside and totally derail Stephen) they secretly instigated men into saying, “We have heard him speaking blasphemous words against Moses and against God!” They also incited the people, the elders, and the Torah scholars; and they rushed at Stephen, seized him, and led him away to the Sanhedrin. They set up false witnesses who said, “This man never stops speaking words against this holy place (the temple) and the Torah. For we have heard him saying that this Yeshua ha-Natzrati will destroy this place and change the customs that Moses handed down to us.” Watching him intently (to see how he would react), everyone who was sitting in the Sanhedrin saw that his face was like the face of an angel!” (Acts 6:8-15 TLV, Amplification and emphasis added)
Stephen was undeterred. He too remained focused on His Lord and on what He had been instructed and taught to do… namely, to embody Yeshua and testify on behalf of His resurrected Messiah, continuing to magnify Him and proclaiming His Truth and Reality. He manifested His Lord’s Perfect Presence through his own yielded, Spirit-empowered flesh. Just as Peter and John had done, Stephen too remain focused on fulfilling his mission. Despite the firestorm of murderous rage fired at him by the unbelieving Jews that were pressing against him. Nothing could break Stephen’s concentration upon his risen Lord. He too had been well trained and thoroughly prepared to fulfill His commission. He stood up to the spiritual elite of Israel, who were occupying the ‘Seat of Moses’ at that time. And he held his New Covenant Ground against all comers. And, after he fulfilled his commission and went gloriously to be with his Lord, the time came for all the other disciples in the vicinity to have the rug suddenly be pulled out from under their feet as well:
“Now Saul was in agreement with Stephen’s execution. On that day a great persecution arose against Messiah’s community in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the region of Judea and Samaria, except the emissaries. Some devout men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him.
“BUT SAUL WAS DESTROYING MESSIAH’S COMMUNITY, entering house after house; and dragging off men and women, he was throwing them into prison!
“Now those who had been scattered (instead of panicking and going to pieces, they maintained focus and) went around proclaiming the Word. Philip went down to the main city of Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah to them. The crowds were paying close attention to what Philip was saying—AS THEY BOTH HEARD AND SAW THE SIGNS THAT HE WAS DOING. FOR UNCLEAN SPIRITS WERE COMING OUT OF MANY WHO WERE PLAGUED, SHRIEKING WITH A LOUD VOICE. MANY PARALYZED AND CRIPPLED WERE HEALED ALSO. SO THERE WAS GREAT JOY IN THAT CITY.” (Acts 8:1-8 TLV, Amplification and emphasis added)
Do you see what I mean by ‘unexpected spontaneous experiential disciple training’? Can you see how beautifully and effectively the first century disciples had been trained to cooperate with the Holy Spirit and follow His lead as He led them on this ongoing New Covenant Invasion? Regardless of how terrible their situations and conditions appeared to be, as chaotic upheavals raged all around them, Holy Spirit enabled them to be like a flock of starlings… flying together as one… veering and swerving in unison all across the sky. They maintained perfect integrity in their amazing formation. And nothing deterred them; nothing was able to force them to lose their concentration or cause any of them to break ranks. Despite the murderous demonic firestorm that was hurled at them, no matter what was happening around them, this ‘flock’ of disciples maintained formation. They flew in unison, maintaining the proper course to their next assigned ‘bombing run’… as one New Man in Messiah!
God’s Precious Holy Spirit is our Awesome ‘Internal Guidance System’
He is the one who makes all of this possible! He empowers us to keep flying relentlessly and successfully through the waves of opposing aircraft and all the exploding ‘flack’ that comes against us! The indwelling Omnipotent Power and Infinite Wisdom of God is always working on our behalf! God Himself is our Guide, Protector, and Fire Power! Yeshua, GOD’S WORD, is our ‘On site Squadron Leader’. And Holy Spirit is our Internal Guidance and Communication System that keeps us connected to Yeshua and to each other! He also renders Yeshua’s abiding Presence to be alive and active within our spirits so that our Commander’s own Courage, Integrity, Motivation, Righteousness and Faithfulness can work continually from within us, in our name! He is the Full Armor by which God intends to cover us!
And Holy Spirit is the Guidance Mechanism that brings and keeps us directly over our assigned targets despite any turbulent opposition we encounter. He is also the Explosiveness in our spiritual payload that destroys demonic targets… our Laser-guided Explosive Fire Power of Yeshua’s Resurrection Reality and Truth pierces hearts and liberates more and more people who are still captivated by the demonic predators. And so more and more of them continue to be set free!
So now I offer one last example for your consideration. In Acts 16, Paul and Silas were assigned to proclaim Yeshua in Philippi. And they encountered an initial barrage of flack that was directed at them through a young woman that was demon possessed:
“It so happened that as we were going to prayer, we met a slave girl who had a spirit of divination, who was bringing her masters much profit from her fortune-telling. Following after Paul and us, she kept shouting, saying, “These men are servants of El Elyon, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.” She kept doing this for many days. But Paul was irritated and turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the Name of Messiah Yeshua to come out of her!” And it came out of her that very moment!
Dear ones… we’re seeing that first century apostolic-level disciples knew how to deal with demonic ‘flack’. The Father of Lies always uses the same tactic against God’s people. Just as he did with Eve in Genesis 3, his tactic is to get our eyes off of our Supreme Commander and what He reveals to us and commands us to do. God’s enemies try to get us to doubt His Word, to suspect His motives and intentions toward us. If they succeed, they drive a wedge into our hearts that separates our minds, hearts and wills, from the mind, heart, and will of God. And that causes us to leave our formation and go off on our own, assuming that we can get away with thinking, living, and acting apart from God, as radically independent agents… ‘judging for ourselves what is true, false, good, evil, right or wrong. So we idolize the homemade versions of reality and truth we concoct… and move ever further and deeper into the darkness of demonic delusion… toward our eternal destruction!
When we no longer respect, revere, or depend on the One True God and Source for whatever is real, true, and good, we try to raise ourselves to the divine level, hoping to take God’s place. Thus we become the image and likeness of Satan. But nothing created can be real, true, or have any real value and substance, unless it comes originally from the Word of Almighty God! If it really comes from God’s Word, we can legitimately use it and offer it back to God and share it with other people. And we can know for sure that Father will have regard for it and accept it as we offer it to Him and endorse and validate it with powerful signs and wonders. But whatever does not come to us from God, is a demonic trap… a ‘baited hook’ that the father of lies and his demonic band of predators use to try to embed into our innards to capture, and manipulate us into promoting and enhancing their malevolent, deadly schemes! And, of course, God will reject that, and those who insist on relying on it.
So, when that demon-possessed woman acknowledged, praised, and endorsed Paul and Silas, and their companions, the demonic spirits that were manipulating her were setting a trap! And Paul could see it; so he commanded the demons in her to depart, and God set her free! Of course, that set off another firestorm of opposition that the disciples, who now had to deal with even more demon-manipulated people who began to attack them:
“But when her masters saw that the hope of profit was gone, they grabbed Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities. And when they brought them to the chief authorities, they said, “These men are throwing our city into an uproar! Being Jewish (disciples of Yeshua, who they claim is the resurrected Messiah of Israel who was foretold by the prophets of Israel), they advocate customs which are not permitted for us to accept or practice, being (Idol-worshipping) Romans.”
“Then the crowd (of their fellow-idolaters) joined in the attack on them. So the chief authorities ripped their clothes off them and commanded them to be beaten with rods. After inflicting many blows on them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to guard them securely. Having received this charge, he threw them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.” (Acts 16: 16-24 TLV)
So here’s a great example of unexpected spontaneous experiential disciple ‘raw material’ that Holy Spirit used to teach, train, and perfect the combat-readiness of these disciples. He used this sudden setback to let the disciples under His charge know that He was redirecting and redeploying them into a new sector of the battlefield, and giving them an unexpected assignment and another opportunity to inflict shock, awe, and trauma upon the unsuspecting powers of Darkness. So, thanks to their training, Paul and Silas responded beautifully to this challenging new situation. They maintained perfect focus on their mission, and God backed and empowered them to improvise beautifully and sent His Validating Supernatural Power into that situation through the entry channels that were created by their obedient faith:
“But about midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a great earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. Immediately all the doors were unlocked, and everyone’s chains came loose.
“When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors opened, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Don’t harm yourself! We’re all here!”
“The jailer called for lights and rushed in; and trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas. After he brought them out, he said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
“They said, “PUT YOUR TRUST IN THE LORD YESHUA AND YOU WILL BE SAVED—YOU AND YOUR HOUSEHOLD!” (Acts 16:25-31 TLV, Emphasis added)
So… Holy Spirit was there, within them… and Paul and Silas didn’t miss a beat! They remained focused, and drew whatever they needed to know and receive as God supplied it for them. They were Spirit-equipped, empowered, and directed to release their ‘payload’ which released the Fire Power of their Messiah’s Love directly upon the new, unexpected target area to which He had so suddenly ‘redirected’ them.
“Then they spoke the Word of the Lord to him, along with everyone in his household. He took them that very hour and washed their wounds, and at once he was immersed—he and all his household. The jailer brought them to his house and set food before them, and he was overjoyed that he with his entire household had put their trust in God.” (Acts 16:32-34 TLV, Emphasis added)
So now that this part of the target area was taken care of, Holy Spirit redirected these disciples to another part of the Philippi area:
“When day came, the chief authorities sent their police officers, saying, “Release those men.”
But the jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, “The chief authorities have sent orders to release you. So come out now, and go in shalom.”
But Paul (echoing the internal voice of the Holy Spirit that was faithfully directing him) said to the officers, “They have beaten us publicly without a trial—men who are Roman citizens—and have thrown us into prison. And now they are sending us away secretly? No! Let them come themselves and lead us out!”
The police officers reported these words to the chief authorities. They became afraid when they heard they were Romans, so they came and apologized to them. After they escorted them out, they kept begging them to leave the city. When Paul and Silas went out of the prison, they visited Lydia’s house. And when they saw the brothers, they encouraged them and then departed.” (Acts 16:35-39 TLV, Amplification and emphasis added)
So that section of Philippi was ‘carpet-bombed’ by the Lord’s New Covenant ‘Squadron’. All immediate objectives were ‘hit’, and the Squadron left that area, leaving the enemy emplacements in a shambles of smoking rubble. I hope these examples of what we mean by ‘Unexpected Spontaneous Experiential Disciple Training’ prove to be a help for you. The Jewish and non-Jewish disciples of the Last Days will have to learn and master this. So, beloved, get as thoroughly acquainted with God’s precious Holy Spirit as possible… while we still have time to practice interacting with Him at all times, and in all things! If you do, Yeshua will become more real to you, in you, and through you, than He has ever been before!
A closing note:
I offer a link to a movie that gives an accurate ‘feel’ for what we mean by ‘military-level focus on accomplishing our missions’, and ‘maintaining formation integrity’, and ‘fighting for something much bigger than ourselves’. In case you haven’t seen it, here it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyUgqk6z7rY
Dear ones, we must take to heart the warnings He has given to each one of us:
“Then Yeshua said to His disciples, “If anyone wants to follow after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it!” (Matthew 16:24-25 TLV)
“Do not think that I came to bring shalom on the earth; I did not come to bring shalom, but a sword. For I have come to set ‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household.’
“He who loves father or mother more than Me isn’t worthy of Me, and he who loves son or daughter more than Me isn’t worthy of Me. And whoever does not take up his cross and follow after Me isn’t worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:34-39 TLV)
Beloved, we’re part of something that is infinitely greater, vaster, and much more valuable than any of our individual existences, and much more vast and important than any of our individual hopes, dreams, and aspirations. Beloved… He must increase… in our estimation… and everything else, including ourselves, must decrease. If we are willing to lose it all for His sake… we will end up with EVERYTHING!