And I sought for a man among them

Eze 22:30 And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.

Good morning readers! Well I have been giving a lot of thought on how we need to look at the life of a soldier and how he must endure hardness for the Lord Jesus Christ. First off I want you to look at this from the standpoint of what a soldier goes through, not as literally going out there and taking people out like real soldiers. Our weapons are different, our battle plan is different, and our motives are as equally different. I wanted to clarify before somebody gets the wrong idea about being a Christian. First off our war is not entangled with the affairs of this life, no we have some thing far more precious that we are battling for and that is the souls of people! The Bible says in Eph 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. There is much to be learned from this piece of scripture, and it should help us to focus on the objective, that is seeing souls saved from a devils hell. Let’s talk today before we ever talk about the soldier, about the why of being disciplined like one. There are three things that come to light.
· The Battle
· The Battle Plan
· The Battle Field

You see the battle rages everyday, we as Christians are constantly at odds with our flesh, our minds, and our hearts. In our Adamic nature we are always trying to go against what the Bible says, but when you are saved the battle gets a little easier because of who we have to help comfort and guide us, that is the Lord Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. When we desire something and temptation mounts we know from scripture that the Lord has made a way of escape, now we must be disciplined to know that and choose that route. Our minds are constantly bombarded with things of this world, by Television, the radio, the internet, the news. We have to remember that we have a higher calling than to meddle with self pleasure, we must be willing to forsake all to the glory of God! The Bible also says in Php 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Our minds must stay clear to think on the things that will bring us the victory. We must meditate upon the Word of God to have it hid in our heart, that way when the battle gets ugly we can throw a salvo or two with meekness back at our adversary the devil. Our hearts need to be guarded so as to be pure in motive, the Bible again says in Mat 15:18 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. Friends let not your hearts trouble you, or get you into trouble otherwise the battle will become hard to fight. Guard your hearts that they don’t become offended, or vile, or bitter. These things will start to weigh on you and put you out of the fight. Friends this is just somewhat of the battle that is described, not only are we at battle for ourselves, but that we are at battle for others. In the bible it speaks of one standing, will you be the one to stand in the gap for others, or will you join the millions of others that listen to all these health and wealth messages of rich Christians and how we must be abundantly blessed in order to have a victorious Christian life here on earth? Again we need to understand what we are fighting for, it’s not for temporal peace and enjoyment in this life, the Bible says it is appointed unto man to die once, then the judgment. Where will you stand, at the Judgment seat of Christ, or at the Great White Throne? Friends don’t be fooled by the covert tactics of the battle between yourself and the devil, for he seeketh whom he may devour, but Christ stands at the door and knocks and whoever lets Him enter in shall inherit life eternal! The other parts of the battle I will cover tomorrow so we have time to digest what we read today. May you be encouraged today as it says in Eze 22:30 And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none. Will you be found willing to stand in the gap and get fired up for God!