God has given you the authority to operate in His name wherever he has put you.

     Of course, this does not mean that there is a place for a hyper spiritual display or that insensitivity can be deactivated.  It just means that when the Soldier of The Cross is in fellowship with the Lord, the ground under his feet is under the control of the Holy Spirit.

     The church, the home the workplace, the grocery store - aren't you His and doesn't He live within you?

    Thirty-three years later, I am still thanking the Lord for some folks who were bold enough to reach out to me when all they got in return was rude rebuff.   Just before I met the Lord, there were two who did not flinch, but were always available to initiate the Truth.

     Are you available? 
     Everywhere you go, people need Him.
     Everywhere.
     Everywhere.

    Soldier of The Cross, you have already rejected Security, Approval, Rank and Control as goals in your life.

     Because you have decided to follow Him, you have chosen the walk of faith as offered by Grace through the Blood of Jesus.

     So why do these things still haunt?  Because this life is about choice.

    You crossed The Line. You are held and wooed by the very One who loves you enough to allow you to choose victory over the things that produce spiritual death.

     What is the circumstance?  It must be something that looks impossible.  

    We serve a God who has identified Himself as the God of the Impossible.  Is your heart set on a particular result, or are you available to agree with Him?

     Soldier, you must let Him know, and it must be aloud.
     Today.       

    We have a God who is thorough and does an infinite and eternal work in us.

     We don't serve a band-aide Lord.  Hallelujah!

     He loves us enough to go beyond our frantic setting of boundaries and myopic flag-planting.  The goal is that God be glorified, and it is for our good.  The goal is that we be prepared for eternity.  The goal is that we be transformed into His likeness. 

     None of these things comes by merely learning about it, although there must be hearing before response.   The measureless value comes when the Soldier of The Cross is willing to be taken through the fire and, by faith, agrees with Him about it.

     In our wildest imagination, all we have is our wildest imagination.  We can't begin to design what is good for us.  But the One whose heart is ravished by our attention has already designed it.

     Are you a Soldier of His?  Have you crossed The Line?  Have you decided He can do anything with your life?  Anything?   Have you told Him so?  Aloud?

     Somehow we have a concept that His work within us is to accomplish a goal or hit a level.  That is not true.  He wants to produce His own Life in us.  That means that if we are available, we are always stretched.   It is the only way the burden is light.

     Open that door and let Him come in to sup with you.

      Lord, I am deeply grateful to be able to rest in you.  Thank you for allowing me the privilege of coming to you and trusting you with the past as well as the future.  Please teach me to lean on you more completely.

     I don't ask to understand, but I do ask to recognize you more quickly and to be keenly aware of you.  Please do whatever needs to be done in me in order to make me more like you.

     I bring you all that I have ever been or have ever had or will be.  By faith I declare that I will stand on your promise to redeem the bare patches and restore any crumbled ruins.  

     I  don't want to belong to time. 
     I want to be yours.

     Sometimes it is hard to tell what is really happening.

     The enemy is often disguised to the extent that it can be difficult to discern the source of the battering or source of distress.  And of course, he always kicks when we are down.   

     The issue is never the enemy.    The issue is always the One who holds the stars in place.   The issue is the Word of God.  The issue is Love.  The issue is obedience.

      So Soldier of The Cross, you must pray for Light to see what is really happening.  You do not need to know why and you certainly do not need to know anything right now.    He said He would never leave us nor forsake us and that our needs would be provided.  That is all we need to know.

     Absolutely, positively, we do not need to know why. And God leads on a need-to-know basis.

     So, do the next thing.  Do it with all your heart. 

     Are you tired?  Broken heart?  Grieving?  Visit the shut-in.  Offer to read a Psalm.  Go to a nursing home and ask to see the Alzheimer’s patients.  Hold their hands and tell them about Jesus.  You will be amazed at the response and the comfort and assurance in your own soul.

     Are you having financial problems?  Send money to a missionary. 

     Depressed?    Stand in front of the bathroom mirror and read Psalm 93 aloud.  Then, encourage someone else by calling or writing.

     Soldier, if there is any chance at all that you are under attack, take an opposite physical action. 

     Move!   Give!  Call!  Write!  Sing!   Pray!
     It is called "resisting the enemy" and he will flee!

     Soldier of The Cross, make sure you can not be bought.

     One who has enlisted in the service of the King of Kings must not be looking at how much he or she is paid as a factor in deciding on a change.  The assignment, the move, the change in career direction - all these must be because of the leading of the Lord and not just to advance financially.

    Do you know this hymn:

          My Father is rich in houses and lands,
          He holdeth the wealth of the world in his hands!
          Of rubies and diamonds, of silver and gold,
          His coffers are full, he has riches untold.

     Is it true?  Can He be trusted?

     Those who are His love to work and have a notable work ethic.  I have always enjoyed it that the Apostle Paul was probably a Master Tentmaker. It is likely that his father was a Master Tentmaker, and in order for him to have the background he had, Paul had to have been a master of some skill or trade. 

     We know he worked at his craft and worked hard.  Nevertheless, it was the leading of the Holy Spirit that took Paul from place to place. 

     Soldier, we must all work.  It is not about money or savings - it is about ministry.  The Body of Christ.  The Great Commission.

     I am not saying it is wrong to move because of a job.  I am saying it is wrong to choose a job just because it pays more than another job.   It is just a wrong as a missionary choosing a mission board over another because it provides more predictable support.

     He taught us  pray in our daily bread.  We must learn to do this.  Those who have learned to pray in their daily bread do not take credit for supporting themselves.

     What about this great song:

           I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold;
           I’d rather be His than have riches untold;
           I’d rather have Jesus than houses or lands,
           I’d rather be led by His nail pierced hand.

     Soldier, agree with God about money.  Give liberally and learn how to pray about this matter.  He will teach you.  His Word says a great deal about it.  

      Work and work hard.  Saving is great. So is investing. The issue is, if something happens to the money, was it His, or was it yours?   

    I am often asked what should be done if thus and so happens or does not happen.

     I am rarely able to answer that question.  The fact is, we were created to watch and wait for Him, to grow in Wisdom and to learn to be led of the Spirit.

     In particular, it is important to learn that the Lord often gives insight at the moment needed, but not before.  Oh, how we want it ahead of time!  If only we knew the answer before the question is before us, we would feel more in control.

     Some things can be pre-determined.  For example, if your house burns down, a newscaster should not be showing you broken and declaring that everything you ever had is now gone.   Those who raise their children on their knees commit the children to Him each day and know that their lives are in His hands.  Although losing a child is probably one of the hardest things that can be experienced, the one who has offered the child to the Lord each day is going to agree with God in the loss.

     Wanting the answer ahead of time is different.  It springs from human insecurity. 

     Soldier of The Cross, there are times when others want you to help. You must be sensitive and obedient. It is possible that the Lord will not give you some great sounding thing to say.    There are also times when the Spirit will give you an insight that offers release.  Pray with the person of course, but resist the temptation to sound like you have a handle on the matter.

     It is His business.  It is not about your having the right thing to say. It is not about the problem.  It is about the One who is sovereign over the situation and knows what He is doing.

     Learn to live walk in the Spirit.
     Pray about it.  Aloud.
     Tell Him you are available.    

     The God of all existence loves you to the extent that He has a special name for you and it is written on the palms of His hands.

     He went after you.  He called your name, and you turned to respond to Him.  You are an adopted son, and you can not go back.

     He longs to hear from you and is a tender, adoring and eager listener.  Real love is not squishy and He is not interested in spoiling you.  He loves you enough to let you know how to pray and to let you know that you must come to Him always, and with everything.

     You do not have the ability to understand this Love, but appropriating it by faith creates a capacity to receive and experience it.  You are then empowered to love others without condition.

     Soldier of The Cross, what do you want?
     Love.

     Then, let Him know you are His and you are available to be trained in prayer.
     There is nothing else.
     There is no one else.

     All my life I have heard the phrase ”in the flesh."

     After many years of walking with the Lord, I have decided that doing something in one's own strength simply means  that if the Lord is not in it, there is nothing but dead end in the planning, in the doing, and in the result.

     If the Lord is not in it, the plan is myopic.
     If the Lord is not in it,  the visible result is the goal. 
     If the Lord is not in it,  there will be constant counting of men and horses.
     If the Lord is not in it, sooner or later it will sag and drop.

     Soldier of The Cross,  the Spirit brings vision that breaks through the veil of time.
     The Spirit empowers with energy that is not broken by physical difficulty or discouragement.
     If the Lord is in it, the matter can be put on hold, then revived later, only to sparkle and shine with the Glory of God.

     One is Life and the other is death.  One defies explanation and the other meets only human standards.

     One passes quickly.  
     The other is for ever and ever. 

     What can wash away my sin?

     Not psychology.
     Not apology.
     Not fixing it.
     Not community service.
     Not talking about it all the time.
     Not wrestling with it in the middle of the night.

     Only the Blood of Jesus can and has washed away my sin.

     We know that it is right and necessary to make amends as much as possible.  And, we are privileged to be able to put the burden down at the feet of the One who said we should do so.  We are told that the past is under the Blood.

     It is one thing to deal with it in prayer, give it to Him and let Him restore, heal and renew.  It is entirely another thing to be marinated in guilt and regret.

     He is not in the business of making us miserable.  He intends to reveal Himself and He will heal the land and restore the ruins of the Soldier of The Cross who is available.

     How could Paul live from day to day after his conversion?  He had pursued and approved of the death of the martyrs (Acts 8:1).   He was free to exult in the Lord and attend to the Body of Christ because his sin was forgiven by Grace, through the Blood of Jesus Christ.

     The same for me.
     The same for you.