Strong Man Of God Blog

            I have written much about why men must be restored at this hour.¹  In this post, the Lord leads me to encourage the men who have been restored to and in Christ and are aspiring to be strong men of God in His image!²  You are feeling the growing pressure of hostile rebellion from the world and compromising, professed Christians where you live, work, recreate, shop, gas up, get repairs, socialize and go to church.  The Lord has two words for you and me: “stand fast” (2 Thessalonians 2:15, NKJV)!  We are to stand our ground while continuing to proclaim the Gospel, witness Christ and contend for the one biblical faith passed down and entrusted to us by the Lord and His apostles!

            The phrase, “stand your ground,” has become well known in these latter days thanks to the Florida law that has allowed persons carrying guns to shoot to kill those they feel are a threat of bodily harm to them.  Identifying the enemy as “the devil” who leads “spiritual hosts of wickedness” in their unrelenting struggle against us as Christians, the apostle Paul commands that we “Put on the whole armor of God” that we “may be able to stand against” his “wiles” (schemes), “withstand in the evil day and having done all, to stand,” (Ephesians 6:11-13, NKJV).³  Clearly, the great apostle is concerned that we not be moved away from Christ and the faith as is evil’s intent if possible.

            The wiles of the devil are many as veterans of spiritual warfare know.  He does not fight fair and is extremely crafty, sneaky and deliberately patient waiting for the opportunity to spring traps long before set.  For example, having helped foster and exploit manmade and counterfeit forms of biblical Christianity over many centuries, evil is now inciting hostility against them and the real thing which in the minds of the haters are one and the same.⁴  Nurtured by Christianity the religion of men from its inception, our secularizing nation has been backing away from it at break neck speed since the 19^th century ascendancy of the sciences which ostensibly have the natural answers for everything.⁵ 

            In the process, of course, the rebellion against things Christian involves that which is truly of God and biblical and has reached the point of outrageously ridiculous as it concerns gender, marriage and family.  Political correctness, tolerance and moral relativism have also spawned a generation that has shifting boundaries; enabling confusion and lawlessness to proliferate.  America is not apostatizing since every single person in it from the beginning until now has not been a born again Christian.  But it is forcefully rejecting what was imposed on it by religionists and hoped for by Christ’s faithful.  In the midst of this satanically caused matrix of evil, Christian men are commanded to stand!

            We are to firmly stand our ground against the continuing onslaught of evil in God’s superior spiritual armor of truth, righteousness, the Gospel of peace with Him, all important faith and the three-fold wonder of salvation: justification, sanctification and the glory to come!  We also wield the mighty weapons of God’s Word as a “sword” (Hebrews 4:12) and in accord with the situation, prayers of intercession on behalf of others and/or petition for God’s intervention (Ephesians 6:14-18, NKJV) including with reinforcements (2 Kings 6:8-17; Acts 12:1-11).  On rare, Spirit directed occasions, the heavy prayer weapon of imprecation is employed against those deceived by Satan (2 Kings 6:18-23; Acts 13:4-12).

            This latter weapon is used only in the rarest of situations because our warfare is not with fellow humans we seek to see saved through repentance and faith in the Gospel!  This is why we are to stay alert and prayerful for each other to seize opportunities to preach the Gospel and witness Christ among the lost even while suffering their rejection and persecution; trusting God for vindication as Paul modeled (Ephesians 6:19-20).  Standing our ground, we wait on the Spirit’s clear prompt (if it will come at all) before engaging in imprecatory prayer upon those that attempt to hinder others from hearing the Gospel and God’s Word.  Such persons include professed Christian impostors, rebels and apostates legion among the numerous forms of manmade Christianity the religion (Acts 13:6-8).

            Indeed, when Jude wrote his famous exhortation “to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” he was concerned not about the world outside as a priority, but those from it coming into the churches by stealth as impostors, rebels and manifest apostates (Jude 1-4, 12-19, NKJV).  While without repentance they stand condemned (Jude 5-11), we in “holy faith,” continuing prayer “in the Holy Spirit” and “the love of God” “making a distinction,” are to care enough to attempt to reach and if at all possible, yank the impostors and rebels “out of the fire” (2 Timothy 2:24-26; Jude 20-23, NKJV).  May you and I stand fast in the evil day to God’s glory (Jude 24-25)!  The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, "Who is on the Lord's side?"

1 Read all of my posts under the Category, The Cause and my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics, available at all major internet booksellers, by order at your

   favorite brick and mortar bookstore or in the Strong Man Store.

2 This  encouragement  is  both  for  Christian  men now and prophetically, those known to God who will read it in the fast approaching future engaged in the most intense

   days of spiritual warfare since our Lord’s first century apostles.  Glory to God who has gifted, called and blessed me to be used of Him in this way!

3 See  the  June  8,  2014  post,  And  Then  There Is The War, under the category, Instruction and A Soldier’s Salute posted November 11, 2018 under the category, The

   Cause.  Also, in the Strong Man Store, purchase the four message audio series, We Are At War!

4 Read the two-part, August 2016 post, Christianity The Religion Of Men, under the category, Instruction.

5 See the September 4, 2016 post, Christianity The Religion American Style, under the category, Call To Repent.

            I have been thanking God for and will make the release of Pastor Andrew Brunson and our sister, Asia Bibi, from imprisonment for the faith this fall an important part of my Thanksgiving celebration.  Brunson, an American Pastor, had spent two years incarcerated in Turkey after living with his family and shepherding a church there 23 years.  He was freed after President Trump threatened sanctions.  Bibi, a Pakistan native, was arrested and held on death row 8 years as a Christian for the charge of blasphemy against Islam.  Prayerfully remember fellow believers suffering all over the world for the faith and give thanks for those God graciously delivers remembering next time, it could be you (1 Thessalonians 5:18; Hebrews 13:3, 23).¹  Have a blessed Thanksgiving!

1 Read this article about the arrest of an American Christian anti-abortion activist and why.