The balance between careful planning and being available to inexplicable change is, prayer.

Without prayer, there is no walking in the Light. If the Christian Soldier is not walking in the Light, there is no course to chose other than the obvious, or the previously agreed upon plan.

When there is no divine Light, the obvious is always by sight, and faith has no input.

Why does most of the Church fail to walk in the delight of His Life? Because the flesh despises the faith-walk, and spends all its energy fighting faith. A weak or non-existent prayer life allows the flesh to braille its way through a gauntlet of negative emotion and human desire.

Soldier, pray. The most detailed plan may very well be the way to go. But it is prayer that will usher in the slightest, but undeniable restraint if the Holy Spirit is leading in a different direction.

There is no Light unless prayer is in accordance with The Word of God. Those who desperately seek an answer that does not line up with His Word, are not really praying.

Prayer begins with agreeing with God. The one who genuinely wants His way tells Him so and is looking for Him.

No Heavenly Light, no Heavenly sight!

What a tremendous thing it is to have something to rejoice about.

Unlike those who have no Savior, we are able to see eternity. We are able to go to the One who holds the stars in place with absolutely anything.

We have the confidence that He who designed and maintains the universe is in complete control of even the tiny things.

Read Zechariah 9:9. He let the whole world know He was coming as Savior, King, man and God.

There is never a time so bleak that it can obscure what we have in Jesus.

We are told to rejoice in the Lord. If we are determined to obey, He will lead.

There is much glory in suffering.

If you have to get recognition of how much you have suffered, you have no understanding of The Cross.

Soldier, in all of the human experience, it is not possible to make a comparison between what you have been through and what He went through.

The beauty is, He understands. All that we go through, He has experienced.

We have a Savior who has tasted it all and understands. It is not possible to tell Him something that He does not understand.

In the Kingdom of Heaven, there is no room for you to feel sorry for yourself.

Brace up. Look at Him. Take hold of The Word.

Move on!

"The beginning of Wisdom is, get Wisdom. . ."

There are those who desperately want to be perceived as being wise. There are those who are engaged in the thrill of the hunt. There are also some who want to satellite around those who are perceived to be wise.

Soldier of The Cross, Wisdom is a Person. When we walk in the Light, we see what He sees. Love rules. There is security.

We know what we are taught - that in this life, we do not have the capacity to understand it all. We can't even take it in.

Wisdom begins with obedience. It begins with the avoidance of foolishness. This is possible because God's word identifies foolishness clearly.

I have been with people who were not educated, not brilliant and not articulate. Yet, as they reflected His Presence on the countenance, it was not hard to see an absence of rebellion in their lives. Absence of stubbornness. Absence of negativity. Absence of offense. Absence of a need for attention. Absence of the need to achieve. Absence of wound-licking.

Presence of Jesus.

Refuse distraction.

God's Word presents a record of numerous Servants who refused to look away.

I am always struck by Paul. In the conditions well-known to be horrid, he was in prison, in coupling chains, and was deserted by most who had formerly claimed to be friends or supporters.

He was beaten and falsely accused. We know nothing of his family. It certainly seems that he might have mentioned it, had he had contact with family.

Extra-biblcal accounts tell us those prisons were cold and food was either bad or absent.

Yet, Paul pressed into his calling. He attended to the churches collectively and to individuals as well. It is evident that the Church was far more important to him that his own uncomfortable situation.

It is reasonable to assume that Paul experienced many discomforts that we will only learn about in heaven.

Soldier of The Cross, what is the thing that is most distracting to you? In fact, do you recognize distraction? Do you think it is acceptable to focus on the negative? Does negativity dominate your thoughts? Your conversation?

The Cross is the great leveler. Death is death. If you are dead unto the world and alive unto Christ, you are free.

This happens in prayer.

Maturity considers God's Word first and circumstances second. Gaze upon the things that are eternal - the things that count to God.

There is nothing else of eternal value.

Are you in some kind of prison today? He can set you free right where you are.

A Soldier of The Cross may not be a scoffer.

One who is honest in prayer, one who is determined to Serve The Master, one who is confessing sin, that Soldier may not allow his or her mind to dwell on the faults of others.

If there is disobedience to the Word in this area, the Christian will begin speaking ill of a brother or sister. Thoughts get entrenched in circles of speculation, wonder and fantasy.

The Word of God must be on your mind and in your mouth.

Why would you waste time on anything that is not in agreement with Him? Why would you fail to invest in eternity?

Christian Soldier, you will see things according to the way you have prayed. If you have prayed about the matter according to God's Word, you will, over time, see things as God sees them.

Watch the tongue. Watch the thoughts. Honor The Word.

For years, the age old question is one that has haunted the intellectual and soulical searchings.

Those who have crossed The Line and made the decision to live according to The Word, understand that there is no gap and there is no conflict.

Prayer must go before everything. If there is waiting to be done, there will be a resistance to movement and it will not go away. It will seem slight and it may not be logical, but as long as there is prayer, it will be there.

Often, when the Lord is indicating a restraint, the agreement or confirmation will come from from another believer. If there is to be movement, the restraint will be removed and there will be confirmation from those who have private prayer lives and have experience with the Lord.

Soldier of The Cross, it is critical that you understand that no Believer does everything right by sight. When we get to heaven, we will know more. In the meantime, we are here and we are learning.

In the Body of Christ, the problem arises when there is a spirit of discontent and it always begins with a woman. Often there is criticism and complaint from one who wants to influence another in order to bring about change. It is not possible for the discontent person to keep the matter silent.

Learn to wait. Never catch the falling ark.

Soldier of The Cross, learn to remind yourself that we serve another who is able to lead us.

He never teases. He never hides.

There is no other communicator like our Lord.

There is no other leader like our Lord.

Do you have to know what is going to happen? Do you have to be right? Soldier of The Cross, when you told Him you would be His, there was no turning back. Your goal must be to be a Living Sacrifice. You must determine to recognize His voice, and to press into His agenda. What else is there? Soldier, look at those around you. They are lost. They need a Savior. They are in distress. Press into the battle. Do it in prayer. We have only a few hours. Let's redeem the time and hold up each other. To know Him, and the Power of His resurrection. Soldier, make this your goal!

I enjoy my office so much. It has been many years since I have had real privacy, and I am a terribly private person. Far more than most.

I can come into the office and when the door closes, no one will come in unless he is admitted. It is a large space and every piece of furniture has been prayed in. There are beautiful oriental rugs and lovely furniture. I have fresh flowers, and everything is neat (or at least everything except an occasional desk explosion.)

Today, I have a lilac scented candle burning all the time. It is the only place in our nineteen room missionary guest house where nothing is moved by anyone except me.

No one watches me. I work all the time and attend to each matter as it comes in without supervision.

Yet, even in my office, I live in transparency. The beings in the unseen world watch every move I make. Every breath I take. My idiosyncratic movements and expressions are closely examined.

I am never alone.

Far beyond that, I have a Savior. I have a Lord whom I love and serve. He attends to each little thing. When I approach Him in prayer, I am aware that there is nothing in my life that is truly private.

Love furnished this office.

If He wants to, Love can take it away. It really belongs to Him. Love watches me always. Love is there with the Everlasting Arms beneath me.

Love is waiting for something to correct, because I am being prepared for heaven.

Love prods me to go beyond my comfort zone. Love parades the needs of others before my eyes. Love never, never leaves me alone.

Loving the Lord is a matter of choice.

In fact, all obedience is a matter of choice. If we are told to Love Him with all we are and have, then it is possible.

As we live in a fallen world and have temporal bodies of flesh, choosing to obey Him is a matter of process. We made decisions and them proceed into the momentum of those decisions by faith when we declare our position to the Lord.

Such a declaration can not be a declaration of intention. It must be a reporting of what has happened - a decision already made in response to the Word of God. A decision already made under the challenge of the Holy Spirit.

Obedience is not to be confused with legalism, which is an attempt to earn God's favor by keeping rules.

Obedience happens when we take Him at His Word and press into it by faith, just because He said.

Soldier of The Cross, when you begin the day telling Him that you long to be dead to the world and alive unto Christ, when you tell Him you long to learn to obey Him, then there is an eagerness to serve the Master that supersedes the need of the flesh to know why.

We have to learn to obey. There are times when it is not possible to know which turn to take. When the Lord seems to be silent, one must either stand still or just do the thing that seems to be what should be done. If the matter has been covered in prayer, it will become apparent that He is not there. The ground must be recovered and the other fork in the road taken.

After a child knows he is loved, the most important thing for a child is to be trained to obey immediately. This prepares him to serve the living God and to watch, listen and follow after the One whose instruction is perfect.

There is not one tiny little thing that escapes His attention.

For those who are His Own, Obedience begins with the mouth. Then the mind.Then the body. Then time, money and service.

We are not on our own. We have the Indwelling Holy Spirit.

We are accountable.

There will be no excuse for independence.