Militant Evangelism! (6 page)

We must have a fighting spirit, not only in the realm of claiming God's promises for ourselves, but for the souls who are taken captive by the devil to do his will. We are to "earnestly contend for the faith" (Jude verse 3). Both the words "earnestly" and "contend," are the same word in the Greek language. They are both "
epagonizomai
," from which we derive the English word "agonize," and mean that we are to "contend for a prize . . . to contend with an adversary." Have you ever seen arm-wrestlers contending for a prize? Watch them psyche
themselves
up. Look into their eyes and see their commitment. Watch their muscles flex and the sweat pour from their brows as they agonize, strive and struggle to come to grips with their adversary. At that moment nothing else matters but the prize.

We are to do the same thing in our wrestle with the world, the flesh and the devil, and with the souls of the unsaved. We are to take a firm grip around the throat of that which wants to swallow us, whether it is the fear of man, fear of the future, or trials and temptations, and not let go until we see the light of day. We can see it through the eye of faith. Though it may be dark down the throat of affliction, we know that if God is for us, nothing can be against us, and by the grace of our God, we can hang on until we get the victory, whether it is in this life or in the next.

"...
take
up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one"

(Ephesians 6:16).

CHAPTER FOUR PRAISE THE LORD AND PASS THE AMMUNITION

"When I cry out to
You
, then will my enemies turn back; this I know, because God is for me" (Psalm 56:9).

N
o
armor
would be complete if provision is not made for the most vulnerable part of the body, the head. Once again, Paul admonishes us to "take" the helmet. If we will not take it and put it on, we will suffer the consequences. The helmet speaks of guarding the mind, using particularly the knowledge of God's corning deliverance. This use of the helmet is made clear in 1 Thessalonians 5:8,
" .
. . and for a helmet, the hope of salvation." The word hope comes from a Greek word '
elpis
,' which means more than the contemporary meaning of the word hope. It means a "confident expectation." David's hope in God was clearly evident in the opening Scripture of this chapter. He knew that God was for him, that the Lord would fight on his behalf; David was wearing his head-gear.

The Christian's hope is ultimately the Second Coming of Christ. He lives with the knowledge that Jesus will appear in unutterable power and
splendor
. The Captain of our salvation will burst through the heavens to do final battle with, and triumph over, the enemies of the Gospel. What a fearful Day for those who will not take heed to the call for surrender. Their proud, stubborn hearts will not allow them to lay down their weapons, lift up their hearts and cry, "All to Jesus, I
surrender,
all to Him I freely give."

As in any war, we may lose the occasional skirmish, but we, as Christians, have the knowledge burning within our hearts, that we have won the war already. This is the bold confidence of those who follow the Lord of Glory to whom all nations are as a "drop in a bucket." We have the key of promise that never fails to unlock any door the enemy may put in front of us. We know that the Scripture given to Adam must be fulfilled, that God "shall bruise
satan
under your feet." This must come to
pass,
therefore we need never lose courage.

In the opening verse of Isaiah Chapter 42, the prophet speaks of the office of the Messiah. In verse

4, we are told that Jesus was never discouraged. This verse is worthy of special attention because it tells us why, when it says, "He shall not fail nor be discouraged . . . " Jesus never lost His courage
because he knew that He would not fail!
How could He when the Father was with Him? There lies the key to not only the courage of the Son of God, but of Stephen, and every other hero of the cross who laughed in the face of the enemy's greatest weapon, death.

Our brethren had the courage because they knew they could not fail because God was with them! They had bolted down the helmet of salvation. They knew that death could not touch them
—it could only promote them.
It was merely a doormat on which they wiped their feet as they entered the joy of Heaven. Their strong consolation was, "No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment, you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of
Me
, says the Lord."

The Christian's righteousness has been given to him by God. That's why we can have boldness even on the Day of wrath. That's why we can have strong confidence in God. That's why we can have God fighting for us rather than against us. We know that He who is within us is greater than he who is in the world. Our eyes have been opened so that we can see who God is, and that one person who is on God's side is an infinite majority.

Imagine for a moment that you are in the front line of battle. The enemy is falling before you like flies. Courage fills your heart as you fire your machine gun after the retreating enemy. You laugh in victory. Suddenly, your laughter stops in your throat. Eight hundred enemy tanks, in one great arm of attack, rise over the hill in front of you. They don't break rank. They move as one mighty wall of metal toward you. Nothing will halt them. The ground shakes beneath your feet; your knees do the same. What then do you do?
You run!
What actually happened was you lost courage
because you lost sight of the victory!
Jesus knew that He could not fail, therefore He was never discouraged. Brethren, we have Him with us who could pulverize 800 billion enemy tanks into powder with the flutter of His eyelash!
Never, never lose sight of the victory.
Don't let the lies of enemy propaganda penetrate your mind. Remember the command, "Fear not; for I am with you; be not dismayed; for I am thy God; I will strengthen thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of
My
righteousness."

To be discouraged is to
dishonor
God. If He is with us we can never lose courage. Remember that
satan
is just a creation of Almighty God.
A blind, anaemic, feeble, sickly, dying, weak-kneed flea on crutches would have more chance of slaying a herd of a thousand wild stampeding elephants, than the enemy has of defeating God!
Over the years, I would often feel the weight of discouragement fall upon me when I didn't see fruit for my
labors
. Months would go by with many hearing the preaching, yet not a soul would be saved. But we shouldn't let any situation quench our zeal. A hen will scratch harder when worms are scarce. If souls are scarce, pray more, witness more, and you will get your worms . . . if you faint not. They that sow in tears
shall
reap in joy. John Wesley said to his preachers, "You have nothing to do but to win souls; therefore spend and be spent in this work."

In my travels I often meet ex-gang members, bikers, etc., who used to listen to my preaching, and they are now saved and going on for God. I have heard of people who have responsible positions in church, because they heard the preaching years before.

God wants to make His ministers a flame of fire. Look at the change in cringing, discouraged, cowardly Peter, denying that he even knew Jesus. After the Holy Spirit was given, fire burned in his bones. The Spirit of God opened to him a new realm of faith, courage and power. At Pentecost, tongues of fire came upon their heads so that tongues of fire would come out of their mouths! If we are filled with that same Spirit, we should also be filled with that same confidence. If God is for us, nothing can be against us ... "Take the helmet of salvation."

The Sword
Of
The Spirit

C.H. Spurgeon said, "We must thrust the sword of the Spirit into the hearts of men." The enemy does not like this part of our
armor
. This is the weapon he wants kept in its sheath. He doesn't want Christians to see the point of the sword of the Lord. The sword was to the soldier of Paul's day, what ammunition is to the soldier today. The Scriptures say, "And take ... the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God." This is the mighty weapon which God has issued to all who enlist for service. The Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword. It effectively cuts into the heart of all who oppose its gleaming blade. I have heard demons scream through the mouth of an unconscious girl when this weapon was used! When
satan
attacked the Son of God in the wilderness, Jesus did not react carnally. He picked up the glistening razor-edge of the Word of God and said, "It is written . .
. "
 He used the two-edged sword, and it was effective.

I was saved in April of 1972. About two weeks after my conversion, someone told me about what they called "speaking in tongues." It gave me the creeps. The person who led me to the Lord had been taught that it was satanic, and he gently shared his concern with me about the experience. I talked it over with Sue, and she told me that it was in the Bible, but some didn't believe it was "for today." I began studying the Scriptures, and read the words in Mark 16:17: "These signs shall follow them that believe ... they shall speak with new tongues." That was all I needed. If Jesus said that it was a sign which would follow those who trusted in Him, that's all there was to it. I made it a matter of prayer, and said, "Dear Lord, if speaking in tongues is of
You
, please change my attitude to the experience."

The next day I began to think thoughts like, "It would do a lot for my faith to speak in a supernatural language which I hadn't learned." That night I attended a meeting where about 1,000 Christians had gathered to hear a visiting speaker. I had taken a non-Christian friend, and he seemed to enjoy the singing until they began worshipping God and "singing in the Spirit." My friend quickly went outside for a cigarette. He was scared, but I decided to stay, and after the meeting I went up to the stage and asked the preacher to pray for me to receive the gift. He prayed and nothing happened.

That just created a greater desire in my heart. I began crying out to God for everything He had for me. The next night, the preacher made an appeal for those who wanted to be filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit. We were led out into a back room, and I was told to go over to a corner by myself and lift my hands and worship the Lord. This was something I longed to do, but up until then I had felt that I just couldn't do it.

I raised my hands and began to audibly praise God. As I did so, I began feeling a tingling in my fingers, which I rejected as an imagination. Then I felt the same feeling in my feet. I couldn't reject this one. My mouth went dry. Strange words began to form in my mind,
then
I began to speak in an unknown language. Love seemed to consume me. I began leaping up and down saying, "You really are there!" God had already proven Himself to me by making me a new person, but this was the frosting on the cake! That night I took my Bible to bed with me.

The next day I telephoned the brother who had led me to the Lord and explained that the experience was definitely of God. I shared how I felt so close to Jesus; how I could not help but lift up my hands in praise to
Him, that
this was the sign that Jesus said would follow those who believe. He didn't rejoice with me, but instead explained that he still thought that the experience was of the devil.

From that point on, every time we met there was a barrier. Neither of us wanted it, but it was there. Others, in the weekly Bible study we had started, were "filled with the Spirit," which created terrible problems. We would have a time of prayer before the study, in which those who had the experience felt like an eager dog on a leash. The prayer time was sincere, reverent, but oh so quiet. We wanted to praise with words. After the study, that is precisely what we did. We had a short time of fellowship with the others,
then
slipped into another room to let off spiritual steam. This didn't exactly help unity. In fact, we were set straight by some of the more mature brethren who gave us scriptures which they thought showed us that we were in error. We were told of terrible things which had happened directly as a result of this "tongues" thing. This was the beginning of my "wilderness experience."