Armed for Battle

Isaiah 6:1-7 ESV

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;the whole earth is full of his glory!” And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

This is what we are lacking in America, the fear of the Lord. We, as the people of this nation, overall, severely underestimate Almighty God, and as a nation we do not honor him and give him the respect and veneration that he so deserves.

For, too many people who call themselves Christians in this nation do not take God and His Word seriously. And, that has been our downfall.

So, God is allowing this nation of ours to go through a time of tribulation and suffering in order to bring this nation to its knees, and in order to get the people of this nation, and the world, too, to see God for who He truly is, and so that they might worship him in spirit and in truth.

Thus, God is in this situation that the world and our nation (the USA) is going through. And, although Satan means it for evil in our lives, God intends it for good to bring his adulterous church to humility before him, and to repentance, and to walks of obedience to his commands. For, he intends to revive his wandering ones and to restore them to himself.

The purpose of this trial, thus, is to bring the church to revival, and the false confessors of Christ to true faith in Jesus Christ, and it is to bring many people now outside of faith in Christ to genuine salvation from sin and eternal life with God.

Woe is Me!

But, what needs to happen is what this describes here. If we have not gotten to this place yet, we need to see that we are lost in our sins without Christ. We need to acknowledge before God that we are sinners in need of the Savior. But, this is not a light or a trivial matter. This is not a mere intellectual or emotional assent to what is said here.

We need to see ourselves by contrast to a holy God. And, it needs to shake us to the very core. And, we need to come trembling before him in true humility and bow down before him with contrite hearts, and truly turn away from our sinful practices, and submit to him as the ONLY LORD of our lives. And, then we need to obey him and his commandments to us.

The scriptures describe this transformation of our hearts and minds, of the Spirit of God, as us dying with Christ to sin and to self, being changed in heart and mind of the Spirit of God, and as us forsaking our idols and our former lifestyles of sin. And, in surrender to God, now walking in his ways, and in his truth, and in his righteousness – all in the power of the Spirit of God now living within us and working his will within our lives (Lu. 9:23-26; Rom. 6:1-23; Rom. 8:1-17; Eph. 4:17-24; 1 Jn. 1:5-9; 1 Jn. 2:3-6).

Then, when this heart transformation takes place, which is of the Spirit of God, but only as we yield to the Spirit’s control, then we are delivered out of our slavery to sin, and we are given new lives in Christ Jesus which are now to be lived to his righteousness, in his power and strength (1 Pet. 2:24).

Isaiah 6:8 ESV

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”

And, this is where it all needs to take us, too. We all need to come to that place where we realize that our lives are not our own to be lived however we want. Jesus bought us back for God with his blood shed on that cross for our sins, that we might honor God with our lives. He has a plan for our lives, which is his plan, not ours. So, we need to learn what that plan is and follow it – follow HIM!

We have to be willing to go wherever He leads us, too, which may not always be what we would choose for our own lives. For, as followers of Jesus, we are called to a life of suffering. We are called to be so separate from the world that the world will hate and persecute us for our walks of faith. The world will no longer love us as its own.

We have to be so willing to give our lives to Jesus that we are ready to lay our lives down – to lay them on the line in order to follow him, for that is the reality of where we are now. If we don’t get that now, we soon will.

Isaiah 6:9-13 ESV

And he said, “Go, and say to this people: “‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand;keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’Make the heart of this people dull,    and their ears heavy,    and blind their eyes;lest they see with their eyes,    and hear with their ears,and understand with their hearts,    and turn and be healed.”Then I said, “How long, O Lord?”And he said:“Until cities lie waste    without inhabitant,and houses without people,    and the land is a desolate waste,and the Lord removes people far away,    and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.And though a tenth remain in it,    it will be burned again,like a terebinth or an oak,    whose stump remains    when it is felled.”The holy seed is its stump.

The Lord Jesus has been calling his wandering ones back to him for a long time. He has been warning of divine judgment, and he has been confronting the church with their sins of idolatry and spiritual adultery. And, he has been calling his adulterous church to repent of her sins and to return to him. But in America, at least, few seem to have responded, for their ears were closed.

So, the Lord is taking us through this time of difficulty in order to open blinded eyes, and deaf (stopped up) ears, so that they can see, and so that they can hear from the Lord, and so that they will repent of their sins, bow before him in true humility, and so that they will surrender their hearts to him before it is too late.

Personally I believe this trial is not going to be a short one, and it is over, and that we will then return to business as usual. I get the strong impression that this one is the big one that has been planned by the powers of the world for a very long time. And, if so, life will not ever go back to “business as usual.” Now we will have a new “normal,” and it isn’t good.

Our world leaders have been plotting this takeover of the world for a very long time, and now they are seeing the results of their long awaited plans unfolding, I believe.

Our government in the USA is shrinking. But, this is at the hands of our government leaders, so they are doing it to themselves, but not just to themselves, but this is against us, the people. For, they are traitors to the people of this nation, and they have sold us out. And, now, according to the news, the national guard is being deployed to 18 states (not sure which ones).

But, don’t take my word for it. Again, I ask that you take this to the Lord in prayer. Seek God’s face. Ask him to show you what is really going on. Don’t trust the words of politicians and the news media. Their words cannot be trusted. Their job is to deceive and to trick you. Don’t fall into their snare. Listen to the Lord in this, and then follow the Lord where He leads.

We are in for some hard times ahead, I believe, so we need to get armed and ready for battle, but not with the weapons of this world, but with the armor of God, for this is a spiritual battle here we are facing, and we need to win this battle in the strength of the Lord.

Soldiers of Christ Arise  

Lyrics by Charles Wesley, pub. 1741

Soldiers of Christ, arise, and put your armor on,

Strong in the strength which God supplies, through His Eternal Son.

Strong in the Lord of Hosts, and in His mighty power,

Who in the strength of Jesus trusts is more than conqueror.

Stand then in His great might, with all His strength endued,

But take, to arm you for the fight, the panoply of God;

That, having all things done, and all your conflicts passed,

Ye may o’ercome through Christ alone and stand entire at last.

Leave no unguarded place, no weakness of the soul;

Take every virtue, every grace, and fortify the whole.

From strength to strength go on; wrestle, and fight, and pray;

Tread all the powers of darkness down and win the well-fought day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44GUiMdFApA

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