We are in a WAR

HGC Men’s fellowship + paintball game – 17^TH Sept 2012

PAINTBALL GAME - a war game

For most of us this is the first time we are in a paintball game.

We learned many precious lessons – practical and painful lessons.

Firstly jokingly I told the gang – please don’t shoot me, I am the pastor. They all started laughing and said WE WILL SURELY SHOOT YOU! THE BATTLEFIELD IS NO RESPECTER OF PERSONS. We must realise that we are in a battlefield – we are at war!

The Battlefield was fierce – I got shot many times. At one time I grasped the flag and ran back – and they shot my back – it was painful. At other times I got shot on my head, on my arms, on my face mask, on my leg etc. If it is real bullets I would have died many times. I still have a blue black mark on my arm.

We need to have our whole armour on!

The real bullets can kill.
We need to fight as a team. We’ll be dead in no time if we fight alone.

We must have a clear strategy to win. Every soldier must be clear what they are to do. If he is attacking, he must do his part well. If he is defending, he must cover his attacking team well. Etc.

We must be fit.

2 days after the game I’m feeling the pain in my muscles. We must have regular training to stay fit!

 

PRE-GAME TIME

In the pre-game time we had a time of Praise and worship. It was powerful, liberating, anointed and Christ exalting!  There was indeed a breakthrough as the men praised the Lord loud and free and also danced before the Lord!

 While worshipping I was reminded of Ps 29 – The voice of the Lord

The voice of the LORD is over the waters; The God of glory thunders; The LORD is over many waters.

⁴       The voice of the LORD is powerful; The voice of the LORD is full of majesty.

⁵       The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars, Yes, the LORD splinters the cedars of Lebanon.

⁶       He makes them also skip like a calf, Lebanon and Sirion like a young wild ox.

⁷       The voice of the LORD divides the flames of fire.

⁸       The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness; The LORD shakes the Wilderness of Kadesh.

⁹       The voice of the LORD makes the deer give birth, And strips the forests bare; And in His temple everyone says, "Glory!"

 

Man is made in the image of God – we ought to have a powerful voice like God too.

Man must not be silent.

When the world was void and without form – GOD SPOKE ORDER, DESIGN, PURPOSE  AND BEAUTY into being – Gen 1

God made man first before making woman because God wants man to lead out of a relationship with Him.

 The enemy’s plan to foil God’s plan for man is to silence man.

Adam was right beside Eve when the serpent tempted her – but he said nothing – he was silent. He didn’t say, “STOP it! God said NO! Don’t do it! We must not disobey God etc.”  He should have said something!

Today the devil is trying all out to stop man from speaking God’s will, God’s order, God’s word, counsel, judgment etc.

One area is that he is trying very hard to stop men’s praise and prayer; authoritative, bold, strong prayer.

And it is not just in the area of praise and prayer. Many men today are silent when they ought to speak up.

Many fathers say nothing about their children’s life – they don’t give their approval or objection – they don’t rebuke and neither do they affirm.

Because of that many young people today are insecure, lost and weak or they are simply fed up, frustrated and rebellious just to get attention.

They lack the strong father leader figure over their lives.

 God has a calling for man – to rule!

How are men supposed to rule?

One most vital area is to rule with their authoritative, decisive, strong, wise yet loving VOICE!

 If men say nothing, the devil moves in and speaks lies, deceptions, perversions, unrighteousness, accusations and all his evil schemes.

 Where do men start to move towards being a positive, strong, righteous voice for the Lord?

Let’s start with PRASING GOD for we are called to praise the Lord!

1 Pet 2:9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;

 Praising God is powerful!

 Psalms 22:3

But You are holy, Enthroned in the praises of Israel.

 Praising GOD enthrones HIM.

That mean it dethrones everything else.

The enemy always seeks to dethrone God from our hearts.

In fact the WARFARE we are in is the battle of the heart – who is going to be the LORD of man’s heart – THE LORD HIMSELF or any other things. The devil wants us to enthrone self, money, power and lusts and he will tempt us to do that. Anytime we allow these things to be number 1 in our hearts we lose the battle and the devil wins. He subtly deceives us to put self-interest above God and if we fall for it – guess what? He wins and we are defeated.

 So men let us decisively with determination and zeal, in unity and in strength choose to PRAISE THE LORD with all our hearts, souls, mind and strength!

 And I know out of that the LORD will release into our hearts HIS STRENGTH, COURAGE, POWER, LOVE, WISDOM ….AND HEAVEN’S BACKING into our lives and we will be HIS VOICE ON EARTH – THAT WILL BRING HIS ORDER, HIS RULE, HIS BEAUTY TO EARTH!