Are You Unarmed?

Do you want to follow God or serve a king? 

1 Samuel 8(NIV):
19 But the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We want a king over us. 20 Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.”
 
The age of the Prophets was known as a Theocracy because Israel followed God through the words of His Prophets. Literally, a government led by God. The Israelites grew tired of listening to the voice of God and longed for a King who would fight their battles for them.
 
So many times people give up their personal responsibility to seek the Lord. They desire that God’s anointed do all the work of the Kingdom for them. They refuse to hear or take up the Word of the Lord and long to have God’s will dictated to them by someone greater who they wish to have fight their battles.

Look at the modern church today and you will find many who have put the burden of their spiritual walks on one man, the Pastor. They want the Pastor to preach, prophesy, lay hands, teach, greet, run bible studies, cast out demons, lead worship, collect the offering and raise our children. They have not equipped themselves with the Armor of God(Eph.6:10-17), instead they wait for a man of God to do the dirty work for them.

And many Pastors have bought into this by refusing to replicate their leadership. In so doing, they have limited the church to the extent that they are able to carry out the vision themselves.

1 Samuel 13(Living Bible): 
19 There were no blacksmiths at all in the land of Israel in those days, for the Philistines wouldn’t allow them for fear of their making swords and spears for the Hebrews. 20 So whenever the Israelites needed to sharpen their plowshares, discs, axes, or sickles, they had to take them to a Philistine blacksmith. 21 The schedule of charges was as follows:

For sharpening a plow point, 60¢
For sharpening a disc, 60¢
For sharpening an ax, 30¢
For sharpening a sickle, 30¢
For sharpening an ox goad, 30¢

22 So there was not a single sword or spear in the entire “army” of Israel that day, except for Saul’s and Jonathan’s.

To me it’s no surprise that the Israelites were unarmed. Earlier they asked for a king who would fight for them. Removed of their responsibility, what would they need weapons for?

If we are not possessing our own Sword(the Word-Hebrews 4:12), the world will fashion the tools of our growth(plow point, disc, ax, sickle and ox goad) for us. And the world will sharpen those tools to its own benefit and it will cost you. If you aren’t carrying your own “sword”, you won’t have anything to fend off the enemy when he attacks. And where will he attack? Your mind.

Romans 12:2
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

And it’s the Word that “…is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”
 
You can’t have a Sword without the Word. If we aren’t in the Word… if we aren’t seeking God’s voice ourselves in prayer… we will be unarmed and unable to fend off the enemy. If we do not wield our s(word), we will allow the world to dictate how we should grow. And we will live out of that.

Romans 8
5 Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.

Thankfully, as sons and daughters of the Most High we don’t live according to the flesh.

Romans 8
9 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.

So we pick up our S(word) and this is what we do with it.

2 Corinthians 10
3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. The S(word) penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

We need more Blacksmiths We need more people who are willing to equip God’s people to defeat every scheme of the enemy. The people wanted a King to fight their battles. They wanted the King to carry the s(word) because they didn’t want to. King Saul should have been equipping the people to wield their own s(word) so that he wouldn’t have to do all the fighting by himself.

2 Peter 2
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

We are all God’s Anointed! All of us are called to hear God for ourselves and …to declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light.

2 Timothy 3
16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Ephesians 4
11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

With the Word you are equipped for every good work!
 
Let each of us pick up our S(word) and hear God for ourselves so that we may grow according to the Spirit, not according to the world.

And let each of us become Blacksmiths so that Christ’s body is equipped for works of service, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Arm yourself. Arm others. The enemy is afraid of a church that knows who it is and whose it is. The Kingdom of God is advancing and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.