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Joel 3:9 tells us, "Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up." In this Scripture, Joel is telling the mighty men and women of God, the great warriors who had gone to sleep, to wake up and fight.

That verse astounded me when I first read it. I was greatly impressed that we cannot play church anymore.

The Problem with God's Army
Christianity is not about fun and games. It's a fight to the finish. But the truth is that most of us aren't ready for battle. God has called us to battle but His army isn't ready. So what is wrong with God's army?

We don't know who our enemy is. We have been so ignorant that sometimes we don't even know who our enemy is. We spend more time fighting each other than we do the actual enemy.

We don't know what our weapons are. God has given us weapons that we are supposed to use in our fight. What are our weapons? Speaking in tongues, the name of Jesus, and the Word.

We don't listen. I know most people don't like to hear that but it's true. We don't want to listen. Why do we think that we can do whatever we want whenever we feel like it in the most important army of all—God's army?

We've fallen asleep. We have been in such in a slumber that the devil has been able to take control of everything.

Where Do We Start?
We're not going to wake up and win by being religious. This is war. We have to make sacrifices. We have to get right in the middle of it. We have to get right in the heat of it. So, where do we start?

Blowing the Trumpet
We need to blow the trumpet and attack. The only thing that is going to get the devil's attention is blowing the trumpet and declaring war. I can remember the day I told the devil, "In the name of Jesus, you're not lord of this house. You're not lord of my life. You're not lord of my kids. In Jesus' name, you get out and don't you ever come back, because I'm fed up with your lies." He knew I meant business.

As long as you keep doing nothing except gripe, complain and whine about what you think God let happen to you, the devil is going to beat your brains out. The moment you get fed up with being oppressed, the moment you put your foot down, the moment you take on your spiritual weapons is the moment he'll have to flee.

Training
What good is a soldier if he's not trained? The Army doesn't take some civilian, stick an M14 rifle in his hand and say, "Go get the enemy." He has to go through training. He needs boot camp. It's not fun; it's not comfortable; but it's necessary. Well, God has His own boot camp. He intended from day one for us to get into training because, whether we've recognized it or not, God considers us soldiers, and we're going to war.

In military boot camp, if at the end of the eight weeks of training you don't pass the exams, you get recycled and have to go through it all over again. In God's army, if you do what God tells you to do, training doesn't take all that long. But most of us complain and whine. "I don't want to keep studying the Word." "I don't want to keep praying." "I don't want to go to church." "I'm sick." "I'm tired." "I'm sick and tired."

Boot camp is vital. God is aiming to make an army out of us, and He can't afford to have a bunch of quitters as soldiers. We have to hang in there. Why? Because God said so, and He knows best. You're going to have it do it sooner or later, so you might as well make up your mind right now to learn what God is trying to teach you in boot camp so you can graduate and get on to AIT (Advanced Individual Training).

Advanced Individual Training
This is where the Body of Christ belongs right now. We ought to have graduated out of boot camp, had a glorious ceremony and moved right on into AIT. Here is where the Holy Spirit begins to make specialists out of us. Here is where He tells you what your job is because you can now be trusted. You've got a soldier's intellect. You take pride in your uniform. You're ready for war.

He knows how to train people to do what He wants them to do. If you're a pastor, quit trying to be a teacher. If you're a teacher, quit trying to be an evangelist. If you're an evangelist, quit trying to be a prophet. Be what God has trained you to be.

Some of you go through things that other people don't go through and you don't understand why. God's trying to make a mighty man or woman out of you. He'll even use the trials that Satan puts you through. The reason is, He wants to make a winner out of you!

When It's Just Too Much
"In the last days perilous times shall come" (2 Tim. 3:1, KJV). The Amplified Bible calls this "times of great stress and trouble." We are living in stressful times. That's the reason so many people have lost their joy and are not experiencing something fresh in their life today. They are so beat down they can't even work up enough initiative to go seek God. Sometimes you just get tired. Life can be too much. But don't give up. God is on your side.

Paul reminds us, "I have strength for all things in Christ who empowers me [I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him who infuses inner strength into me; I am self-sufficient in Christ's sufficiency]" (Phil. 4:13, AMP).

Without Christ there is no empowerment. We don't have the power to do what we need to do on our own. We need to come to the place where we say, "God, I cannot do this anymore. I can't do all these things You've given to me to do. I can't carry the load of this anymore. It's too big, it's too much." We need Christ to work in us to become the mighty men and women He wants us to be.

Jerry Savelle Ministries International
All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Author Biography

Jerry Savelle
Web site: Jerry Savelle Ministries International
 
Dr. Jerry Savelle was an average, blue-collar man who was struggling and needed God's help. While he considered himself a "nobody," when he became a believer God told him not to worry about it because He was a master at making champions out of nobodies. God has since taken Dr. Savelle from being a constant quitter to a man who knows how to stand on the Word of God until victory is experienced. Because of the life-changing combination of God's faithfulness and Dr. Savelle's "no quit" attitude, his life is totally different than it was thirty-eight years ago.
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