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Seeking the Perspective of Jesus

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” Ephesians 6:10-18 - NIV

As one who has been under more than normal spiritual attacks lately, I can tell you that it is a comfort to have men around me who know what it means to fight against the schemes of the devil and against the forces that he brings against God’s child. It comforts me to have men collectively raise their shields of faith over my family and me, as we step into a spiritual battlefield every day and attempt to live faithfully and fruitfully for our King. These men also have my shield of faith lifted over them, as I pray consistently for their protection, for I know that they must battle through their own struggles with the enemy who comes against them and their loved ones. But are we being as effective as we could? Are we using God’s best strategy with these weapons? Even though we know that the weapons we are given gives us the edge, are we using the best strategy that will cause us to stand firm and win against the assaults and schemes of our enemy?

This past week I met with some of our leaders, and they all said they could sense the evil schemes of the enemy, as they have seen his activity against themselves and many of our men. Because of this, and the discussion that followed, we have come to see that we can no longer simply observe and fear it. We must fight back. Therefore, we have made plans to gather our leaders for a “war counsel of prayer.” Now, I don’t know what your attitude is about prayer as a weapon. At one time, I thought it was a passive and weak response to an assault, and I would not have led a charge to pray. But I now see it as a strategic weapon to pull down the spiritual strongholds of our enemy. Allow me to share with you how this decision to gather our leaders for prayer evolved and what will come out of it.

Boyd Billingsley is one of the most experienced discipleship guides in our ministry. He has been an Influencer for seven years now and has led many groups of men to an abiding relationship with Christ through our discipleship groups. He is also an experienced combat soldier, as he served two tours of duty in Vietnam as a Navy Seal. I often call on him to share with our men and me about some of his experiences and knowledge about warfare. In a recent meeting, I shared how the spiritual assaults were increasing lately and I asked Boyd, “What do soldiers do when under an attack? What is a battle philosophy that is often used?” He answered, “We attack!” He then went on to summarize that Sun Tzu states in his book The Art of War: “When being attacked, the best plan and the most advantageous thing to do is attack back, by making a concentrated effort, using all the fire-power available against a specific area in the battlefield.” I did a little research on Sun Tzu and found out the man was born and wrote his book about 500 years before Christ. The book is a philosophy of war for managing conflicts and winning battles. It has been used for centuries and is even being taught and used for military strategies to this day. So Boyd’s reply seemed right on to me.

As I thought through the strategy Boyd and Sun Tzu mentioned about “attacking when attacked and concentrating the effort,” I related it to the spiritual assaults that God’s men and I have been getting lately. I then began to pray and “see” the problem. I began to understand that God has given his men tremendous resources for waging a winning war against the enemy and his demons, but we are not using them effectively. I could “see” that we are not fighting this war as a fighting team, but rather as isolated warriors. Because we are isolated from each other and doing our own thing, we are required to battle against a dangerous foe by ourselves, and this is not using the right strategy. Because we are alone, it makes us vulnerable to one of the most effective strategies our enemy uses, which is to lob in a bombardment of discouragement. Because we are alone, we are ineffective in our response to these assaults. I thought about how this insidious weapon, discouragement, frightens the most battle-hardened warrior when he is isolated and alone. It causes him to hunker down and become defensive driven, and Sun Tzu said, “Defense never wins a battle or a war.” I then began to “see” and “hear” that God’s men are trying to wage a war using only a defensive stance, while isolated and alone. I began to understand that God is telling us that it is now time that we battle as a team of Christian Soldiers and attack with a unified, concentrated effort against our enemy. It is time that we gather into one fighting unit and go against the force that is coming against us. It is time to put our weapons together and go against this enemy, and we need to begin by concentrating our efforts toward the Spirit of Discouragement that has come at us all. So, how do we do it? Let me share with you a recent strategy the leaders in our ministry have come up with:

Men praying in agreement with one another are more powerful than the spirit of discouragement. Therefore, our leadership team will be gathering in the evening to begin a prayer assault against the spirit of discouragement. This gathering will the first of many, as we will be gathering our leaders in frequent times of prayer, in preparation for our ministry conference. This conference will be billed as “For Such A Time As This.” We are expecting over 1,000 men, most of which have gone through our discipleship program in Northwest Arkansas and Oklahoma. It is our desire to gather our men, encourage them, remind them who they are, and launch an aggressive assault against the spirit of discouragement that has come against our men and others in God’s family. The conference will continue as an ongoing assault, for we will no longer battle in defense. Out of these conferences, new discipleship groups will be birthed, and it is through this means that God will raise up a mighty army of spiritual men who will begin to stand firm against this enemy of ours. Coupled with this effort will be introduced a new model for connecting our men locally. Never again will there be any reason that our men should be discouraged in their battles because they are isolated. These tribes will connect our men and keep them connected. These tribes will bind men together in a covenant relationship with one another to run the race, finish strong and take the land.

There is a God-given antidote that God gives to combat discouragement and isolation. It is gathering together and encouraging one another. From this conference in December will birth a new connectivity effort through technology that will link Influencers across the nation and globe. This connectivity will allow us to continue our assault on our mortal enemy’s strongholds, by linking our men in prayer using technology. We will not allow our men to live in discouragement because they are isolated from one another, and we will no longer be a defensive army. It is time to take the land.

Men, the time is now on us. We have been prepared for such a time as this, and God is preparing more men like us. We are starting to gather and rise up. Let’s begin our prayer assault right now that we will no longer listen to the spirit of discouragement. Pray that we will listen only to our King’s voice, and we will go where He leads us. Right now, I believe as I have never believed before that He is leading us to our knees.