First Battle!

Post 244

Even before publication, it is quite apparent that our Blog review of the Exodus journey has had a tremendous affect as I am presently communicating with several long-term rehab individuals who are just now seeing variations of the very real war that God was concerned they would turn back from if they saw its reality before they had taken the course. I expect there are far more reading this Blog and finding themselves there too and so I am compelled to address the common arguments of the enemy that they must deal with.

These people are standing on the hill overlooking the battlefield, all dressed in their shiny armor of new or renewed faith, but now they have just received their actual orders; Go in and conquer that land!

And the sudden cold sweats of real fear is bone chilling;

“This could actually destroy me!”

Each of these have been given different battlefronts, personal battlefronts. And the feeling is that they are all alone, confused, unsure, untested, unready, and afraid.

Welcome to your first battle of the war!

First:

I must clear up the potential confusion of just where this battle takes place.

Our simple imagination wants to track the Exodus journey as a linear course where every stop is a sequential representation of our linear spiritual journey, moment for moment, and it is.

But the supernatural is just that; Super (more than, beyond), and I have already shown that scripture tracks with patterns and repetitive increasing cycles rather than simply linearly. This is why some can have been baptized into the faith years ago but still find themselves at the beginning wilderness of Shur only just now finally partaking of the bitter water, while others though having been physically baptized long ago, are just now finding themselves pulling away in fear from the “sure doom” of Pihahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, over against Baal-zephon, before experiencing the real baptism of commitment to the faith into Christ, before continuing on in their long delayed rehabilitation journey. And still others are making that fateful decision at the brink of the Jordan, never to have this opportunity again.

It’s just not that important to figure out which it is, because the proper response is the same at all places; Obey in faith.

I do not expect these to understand that their vision of reality is still reversed, like looking through the wrong end of binoculars as it were, but along the way in obedient faith it will become clear that their great fear is due to a focus on the irrelevant potential consequences to the flesh instead of seeing the true reality of the Spiritual realm. The magnitude of this confused reversal of perception is not that important to understand at this time other than to be aware that this first battle in the form of spiritual baptism is all about turning those binoculars around;

“And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, The LORD will be magnified from the borders of Israel” Malachi 1:5

(see also Philippians 1:20).

By the nature of their relative domains it is impossible to view both realms from the same end of the binoculars; by viewing the one from this end of magnification, means you will see the other through the opposite end. Too many Christians on the scoliosed path have never figured that out as they continually magnify this temporal world;

“This I say then, Walk in the spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh” Galatians 5:16 (see also Romans 8:14-18).

Whatever your particular warfront, the fear is very real, the consequences are very temporal *1 and right now the temporal is all that you see magnified and therefore all that is real to you. The spiritual is still a far away concept that you are trying to grasp through the temporal end of the lens while your magnification end is focused on the wrong realm;

“This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind. Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God though the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:” Ephesians 4:17-18.

Until now, my writing may have been safely interesting, curiously educational, intellectually enlightening, even spiritually stimulating, but here at this first battle is where it will be determined if it is a work of fiction or nonfiction; Will you move forward in faith or turn back to Egypt *2? It is the similar decision at the beginning of baptism through the Red Sea as at the end in baptism through the Jordan River. The first is a work done almost entirely for you while in ignorance, and the latter is a work you do in mature faith. Both provide a lot of reason to fear and fear is the evidence of weak faith.

But like temptation, fear is not sin, though the focus on it and the giving into it, is.

Secondly:

It is a common tactic of the enemy of your soul to whisper in your ear that you have already passed your allotted provocations and it is now hopeless for you. I marvel that while I read at each provocation that God forgave them through Moses’ atonement so that they could continue to develop their faith (Exodus 32:30), many readers of the same review saw only the hopelessness of failure. This is simply a result of recognized guilt. If you find yourself thus under conviction, there is only one solution; Humble your heart before your Maker, confessing your stubborn self-will, and Repent of it (Acts 8:22)! Clearly God has shown a strong willingness to forgive while you figure it out, but that willingness has an end! Stop playing games with God.

Thirdly:

I feel it very important to warn against the draw to legalism now. Having been so long in spiritual anarchy it will be easy to cling to the law as a rescuer, it is not.

The law has little function beyond the exposure of your sin so that it can be dealt with, but the law cannot then deal with your exposed sin (Romans 3:20, 8:3, I Corinthians 10:18, Galatians 2:16) *3. Legalism and Anarchy are sisters of the same death, but having come to this place of finally understanding your guilt by reading the law of book one, you are now almost ready to begin contemplating liberty in book two.

* * *

But first there is the need of this little battle.

I know all about it, I have been there too. And nobody’s battle is as horrific as yours! The stakes are high, the risks high too, in fact this is the battle of the century because it determines your entire spiritual life. Will you follow Christ in reality, or relegate him to a hypothetical realm of safe intellectual faith? The battle is scary, the refusal safe… but the battle is life and the refusal is death, even if like the apostles the temporal turns out opposite! *4.

Will you follow Christ in reality, or wander the “safe” wilderness for the rest of your miserable life?

In all reality, both temporal and spiritual, this battle is all about leadership; Who will be in control? There are many onion layers to this meaning but it all boils down to that:

This is the battle you face where it is decided if You are in control, or Christ.

This is the battle you face where it is decided if your Mind is in control, or the Spirit.

This is the battle you face where it is decided which end of the binoculars you will view life through, the Temporal or the Spiritual.

And don’t let the “analogies” diminish the warfront, it is a very real battle indeed and someone will be a casualty; either your spirit or the mind of your flesh *5.

Will you cross your Jordan River as commanded and expect in excitement to see God conquer your enemies through you, or will you refuse to go in because your giants are just too big to fight?

This is your moment, be not afraid,

GO IN AND CONQUER THE LAND!

* * * * * * *

*1 Temporal:

adj. Latin. [temporalis, from tempus, temporis, time, portion of time.] 1. Of, pertaining to, or limited by, time. 2. Pertaining to the present life, or this world; secular; also, transitory; temporary;- distinguished from sacred or eternal. 3. Civil or political, as distinguished from ecclesiastical. 4. Gram. Expressive of time. - Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary 5^th Edition 1948.

*2 Turn Back to Egypt or the Wilderness?

Book Two will go into significant detail regarding the specific meaning, but used universally here; Egypt or Wilderness, neither is entering in where the Lord desires us to go.

*3 Law or Legalism?

The carnal mind will wrestle this confusion to death never coming to the right answer. In book two I intend to develop the lengthy understanding that shows the law will continue even through the Thousand Year Millennium, so clearly it has its continuing place though no longer the schoolmaster (Galatians 3:24-25, See also II Corinthians 10:5).

*4 Apostles Deaths:

Nearly every apostle died horrible executions for their faith, many Christians today suffer the same abuses. But all of these have seen the truth that the spiritual life is what is important even at the cost of the temporal life. Everyone must eventually die, so to cling tightly to this temporary life at the cost of the life that never ends, is to choose the life that leads to death;

“For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live”

Romans 8:13 (see also Romans 14:7-8).

*5 The Flesh:

The scripture uses this word to describe a temporal perspective of life in contrast with the spiritual perspective in faith (Galatians 5:17, Romans 8:13, II Corinthians 4:11-12, John 3:6, Romans 7:5,8:5-8), but the word has more meaning than simply a perspective, it also describes the actual life in this flesh (Hebrews 12:9, Colossians 2:5, Ephesians 6:12) that to Christians is not as important as the spiritual life, and this too is a perspective issue all wrapped up in this word flesh.

“And he said unto them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall loose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it” Luke 9:23-24.

*