A warrior for God’s Kingdom is an equipped soldier who does not shirk from war.   After the first time I held a healing meeting when words of knowledge came specifically to three sufferers an extraordinary thing happened to me. I stayed in the church to pray after the meeting for twenty minutes, but on locking the door, was thumped in the solar plexus hard enough to floor me!  No one was around - and I slowly realized it was a demon on assignment.  I literally had to crawl up the road to the railway station. On finding another believer, I asked him to pray for me and I was immediately set free. What had been happening?   New levels .......new devils!   Quite an introduction to spiritual warfare. From 1982 until today I am convinced God is looking for warriors in the church, who, clad with the zeal of the Lord of hosts, will enforce the victory that HAS ALREADY been won at Calvary.

The first step is for believers to be drawn out of the antichrist-jezebelic system just as Moses was drawn out of the water as a baby. Warriors must be anointed, blessed, called and delivered sons and daughters who turn back the battle at the gates.   The delivered man can deliver others. After over 20 years casting demons out of places and people one longs for a new generation to take this aspect of ministry seriously. The longed-for revival is held back until warfare against supernatural agencies behind the scenes becomes a reality. Three qualities are essential.

1.  THE MIND OF CHRIST

 Without the Mind of Christ we are worriers and not warriors. The wisdom of God is  beyond learning information, ordinary education with the emphasis on the  frontal  lobe. It is beyond philosophy or the rulers of this age. One wrong belief system in  Christianity today is the influence of stoicism which advocates an inner fortitude  under adversity, but relies on self-sufficiency and not Christ. The revelation wisdom  of the Holy Spirit renews the mind along the line of the Word  of God. This revelation  will be mocked by believers who are not delivered from the antichrist system. The  first thing that happened to Paul was he became blind for three days.   Why?   To  begin the process of true humility so what eye had not seen and ear had not heard  could flow into his spirit. (1 Corinthians 2:9,10). An entirely new way of thinking  comes to those who are born again if the mind is surrendered to Jesus Christ. Two  germs of stoicism challenge the Bible.

 (a)  If you lead a moral life, you will be happy.

Many in 1914 and 1938 were leading moral lives, but lived in the heartache and despair of two world wars. We know from 2 Timothy 3:12 the godly will suffer persecution.

 (b)  If you are sick God is teaching you something or making you holy, or Punishing you.

In terms of the New Testament this “another gospel” still imbibes most church thinking in the U.K. Check out Revelation 3:18 - a verse for us. Our eyes need an anointing to SEE revelation if we are to be warriors. Revealed wisdom is BEYOND natural limitation, head knowledge, and our limited experience.
Once a mentor wisely said, “don’t ask yourself what the world needs, but ask yourself what makes you come alive, go and DO THAT, because the world needs people who have come alive.”
      
Revelation should make the saint come alive. What the world needs now is love - the obediences to revelation! The warrior judges the source of all things because he is not working things out by IQ, but receives divine guidance, through the mind of Christ.

2.  DISCERNMENT

The warrior will reach accurate conclusions to what is the enemy and how he operates. The children of Israel were under great oppression from Pharoah, a type of antichrist (Exodus 3:7). In the gospels God’s people were under a religious oppression with the same root, the Pharisees (Matthew 23:4). We can be controlled and dominated by hard work and intimidation of the world or the legalism of religion.   Moses and Jesus were warrior deliverers caught up in an unequal fight, but both gloriously victorious.

Warriors are needed today, not merely keepers of the aquarium, but genuine breakthrough ministries. The antichrist spirit has a throne in opposition to God (Revelation 2:13). From there an angry, stubborn, warlike religious spirit abuses the true church, blasphemes the saints and betrays the true cause of Christ.

Note the inquisition in Spain, communist hatred for the gospel worldwide, and now the new war of terrorism and suppression from Islam. Warriors are in combat with the beast (Revelation 13:1,2 and 17:3,8) or the man of sin (2 Thessalonians 2:3), two other names of the antichrist.

The warrior must also discern Jezebel in her universal deception that affects both men and women. The self-rule and self-pity of this essentially religious spirit pervades and insinuates itself everywhere - in families, churches, business and nations. Sorcery, a potent mix of flattery and criticism, mixed with false authority, spawns a passivity that in turn produces immorality (or as it translates ‘prochorus’ in Revelation 2:21) which more accurately means “to lead the spiritual dance.” The Babylonian pattern of worship of the mother goddess and her son god instils a form of emotional and spiritual incest. Men become fathers, husbands or sons of women who are not legitimate daughters, wives or mothers. Women become mothers, wives or daughters of men who are not legitimate sons, husbands or fathers. This falseness binds a ‘brother’ or ‘sister’ in Christ in relationships of co-dependancy. The “Diana” conquest of a man will rape him  of gifts, time, money and reputation. Paul rose up a warrior against her in Acts 19 and therefore could write the letter of spiritual warfare to the Ephesians.

3.  INTERCESSION

The third essential involves pulling down strongholds, declaring the word of faith, knowing our weapons in Christ Jesus, fasting and living for victory (see 2 Corinthians 2:14). My college principal once said that if everyone rejects you, vilifies you and throws out your name as evil, you can still go as a kneeling suppliant to the King of kings and learn the art of intercession. In the winter of 1981-2 I learned the joy of prevailing prayer when God directed me to a long wooden cabin in the grounds of an old folk’s home. Every evening from 7.pm I was to be there praying in tongues with an open Bible. The previous summer  I had left my charge as curate and saw my marriage annulled. God comforts in a season of sorrow. You fear friends will leave you, you fear your ministry is over, you fear nobody will believe you. God is greater than our fears and desires intimacy once our past hurts are healed. It was a prelude to a decade of  being a warrior and equipping scores of young people for foreign missions -

Praise His matchless grace.
      
Groaning like a young bride bereaved of her husband has to be learned (Joel 1:8, Jeremiah 9:17-21). Significantly, women who know about travail, incubation and birth are called to this ministry that is the foundation stone of the men and women of war God seeks for.

Have you noticed how the devil hates the places of great revival and outpouring of the Spirit?

 a) 1905 Wales : resulting attack of the enemy was liberal theology that made the churches dry and redundant.

 b) 1906 Asuza, Los Angeles : enemy attack, continuous divisions and ultimately materialism and the cares of this life.

 c) 1950 Hebrides : enemy seed was hyper-Calvinism that grieved the Holy Spirit by placing the Word of God to the eminence of the  Trinity.

 d) 1960’s 70’s Worldwide  charismatic movement : the attacks have been many and include:

  *  excess and spurious manifestations
  *  cult of hero-worship
  *  begging for money through mailing lists
  *  diminishing of the Word of God by neglecting doctrines of repentance and judgement.

The intercessor unblocks the wells of previous revelation and brings an anointing to impart spiritual realities to an honest, humble and hungry people.

 Intercession is JOINING TOGETHER

 1) DIVINE REALITIES WITH EARTH’S ACTUALITIES.
 2) ETERNAL LIFE WITH ORDINARY LIFE.
 3) WHAT GOES ON IN THE HEAVENLIES WITH WHAT
  GOES ON IN AND AROUND US.

The warrior knows in intercession we are blessed when we lose what is most dear to us, and only then can we embrace and be loved by the One most dear to you.