December 8 2017 – Click here to listen
Yesterday I met with the leader of one of the best ministries in the world. Out of the blue he contacted me the other day and said he would be in the southeast and wanted to meet with me. His organization has planted churches all over the world and so many people have come to know the Lord through their efforts it is amazing. It was so encouraging to be around him. I get his newsletters and am constantly amazed at how God has blessed this ministry and I talked to him about it at length.
He of course wanted to know how the Jesus Alliance was doing and I reported that after many years of struggle we were finally making excellent progress and are well on the road to achieving some of our goals. He inquired about the many people who initially signed up to help and I told him that when we did not immediately succeed, regretfully most had faded like flowers in the hot sun. I related some of the numerous attacks on my health, wealth, and family, and how some whom I thought were friends, really weren’t.
I whined that sometimes I was discouraged beyond the pale and questioned the cost of being in the ministry and whether or not it was worth it. I related that I sometimes mused at what life would be like if I just retired, and more than once had tried to convince myself that I’d worked hard in life and I deserved retirement, but for whatever reason I’d refused to allow myself to quit.
He ruefully looked at me and said that is precisely the reason God had chosen me to lead the ministry. He said he’d felt the same way on many occasions over his forty years of ministry. He said the going was really tough for him in the early years and he often shook his head at the decision he made. Now 40 some odd years later with his ministry in full bloom, he told me that he still experiences the pain of running a ministry but as he thought about those early days and the Lords help a big smile appeared as he mentioned all those who had decided to follow Christ.
Yeah it was worth it!
Years ago, this man had told me a story concerning some mountain people in Vietnam who were known as fierce warriors that lived in the mountains in a very remote area. I asked him to retell the story and he said that they had hiked into this remote region to try and spread the gospel and it had taken an act of God to get permission from the Vietnamese government to visit this tribe. During the Vietnam war they were recruited into service by the American Special Forces in Vietnam’s mountain highlands, and they defended villages against the Viet Cong and served as rapid response forces. The Special Forces and the . . . Vietnamese called the tribal people mọi, or savage. The current regime was none to interested in stirring them up, but finally reluctantly agreed.
He told me that when he finally arrived onsite with them, these rather primitive people were receptive to hearing God’s word and he helped establish a church for them. They began visiting neighboring tribes and many people were coming to know the Lord. My friend was visiting with them and training more of them to do this work and they were traveling to neighboring locales to share the Good News. They traveled to one village and as they traversed the mountains they noticed artillery going off and many sounds of war and flashes of gunfire below.
Undeterred they proceeded to their destination and had a great revival. When they returned to the place they had seen the battle raging, they asked the locals what had happened and who was fighting. They were met with blank looks. The locals said they were unaware of any battle and there was no evidence of one anywhere.
They had all witnessed it and went into deep prayer about it and the Lord revealed to them that the battle they had witnessed was not a physical battle, but a spiritual battle between angels and satanic forces that did not want them to succeed in their efforts of reaching those people for the Lord. God showed them the behind the scenes war to encourage them that they were not alone.
I wish sometimes the Lord would allow me to see the angelic forces that are fighting on behalf of me and the Jesus Alliance. At the behest of Elisha, his servant had his eyes opened to see that they were not alone in their fight, and it greatly encouraged him.
Satan, the god of this world, blinds our eyes, and so deludes us it can ruin us;
but when God enlightens our eyes, we see that we are not captives to Satan, but
victorious through Christ.
Let us not be overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. With or without God opening my eyes to actually view it I know that angels are intervening for me daily and I for one am resolved to fighting the good fight for as long as it takes – no matter what . . .
I guess I’m just stubborn that way.
The Bible is clear that we are in a spiritual battle against powerful foes. If it were not for Jesus Christ intervening for us we would handily lose and be slaughtered. I believe prayer, reading the word of God and fellowship with other Christians like my friend is essential to defeating the discouragement spewed by Satan. Do you think God was intervening by sending this friend to encourage me?
I do . . . And I think God has opened my eyes to it . . . thank you Jesus!
2 Kings 6:16
So he answered, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Then Elisha prayed and said, “O LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” And the LORD opened the servant’s eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
Have a great weekend and go to church this Sunday!