“Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty and one years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah of Boscath. And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the way of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left.” (2 Kings 22:1-2)
Let me ask you a question. Who does the Bible say was the greatest king that ever lived? It wasn't David. It wasn't Solomon. Believe it or not, it was an 8 year old boy named Josiah, that we read about in 2 Kings. Just look at what the Word says about him in 2 Kings 23:25, “And like unto him, was there no king before him, that turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him.” There was no one before or after like him. That is an amazing statement when you consider kings like King David, who was a mighty warrior and a lover of his God.
Can you imagine being an 8 year old boy and being anointed with oil to become king of a nation? I mean, he's still a kid, no matter if he is king. But this was no ordinary kid. He was now the anointed of God, and the anointing makes the difference. The Word tells us that he was a good, moral kid. He lives that way for eighteen years. But get this, from the time he was 8 until he was 26, during those 18 years, he did nothing that amounted to any significance. There is not one biblical account of anything he did of any real lasting value. Sort of sounds like a lot of modern Christians does it? Most of us are just existing and aren't doing anything. But there is more to serving God than just existing, and Josiah found that out.
But then, when he turned 26, something really strange took place. He had commanded people to restore some of the areas of the temple that were damaged. Now, there were in the temple at that time, perverted priests. They were sacrificing to Baal. There were idol gods all over the place. But Josiah didn't think anything about it. You know why? Because his evil father had put them there while he was king. So Josiah was raised to believe that they were right. I wonder how many in our churches today were raised to believe in man made traditions that aren't even biblical? May God open our eyes in these last days to see the truth.
Now, during this restoration, something shook him up. While they were taking up offerings in the treasury box, Hilkiah, the high priest, found a hidden scroll. They took it to Josiah and read it to him, and when they got through, Josiah tore his clothes in half. The reason being, they had found a hidden copy of the Pentateuch, and after reading it, Josiah found out that they hadn't been living the way God had said to. He then asked, “who can we go to about this?” Now this is what is so neat. They could have gone to three major prophets that wrote books in the Bible that were men, but they went to a woman. They went to a prophetess by the name of Huldah. Huldah read it and then said, “This is a Word from the Lord for our nation. Go tell the king that because he tore his clothes before his God, that if he'll follow God and do what this Word says, he's going to prosper all the days of his life and that no evil shall come to him.”
Upon hearing this word from the prophetess, the warrior anointing came upon him, and Josiah went into an absolute rage. This 26 year-old king immediately went to the temple, got the vessels of Baal out, burned them and took the ashes to Bethel. He then comes back, goes into the temple and takes all the false priests out and kills them. He then goes and tears down all the groves where sacrifices to these demon gods had taken place. I mean, he went into an absolute rage. One thing after another he got rid off until he had purged the land of all of his father's false idols.
As Josiah is purging the land of all the false prophets and all the idols, something happened that got him really excited. In his fervor he went to the place where the dead were buried, and he got looking around at every sepulcher that had the word prophet on it. He would inquire about that prophet, and if they told him, “Oh that was a false prophet,” he would then tell them, “Dig up those bones and burn them on the altar. They don't deserve to be buried here.” While he was doing this, he came to one grave and said, “All right, who do we have buried here?” And one of the men with him turns to him and says, “Son, this is the grave of the Prophet from Judah that predicted your birth.”
You see, in 1 Kings 13, while the evil king Jeroboam was still in power, a man of God out of Judah went to Bethel, where Jeroboam was burning incense upon an altar. And here's what the prophet said: “Behold, a child shall be born into the House of David, Josiah by name, and he's going to burn men's bones on this altar!” Now you have got to understand something, 352 years have gone by, and here stands Josiah, reading a scroll in his chamber, and he gets to 1 Kings 13, that predicts his birth, and he screams and he tears his clothes and then proceeds to destroy all the false idols. And now here he stands at the grave of the man who had predicted his birth. Do you know what he said? He said, “Let him alone. Don't one of you dare touch his bones. This is a man of God!”
Why did I tell you all of that story? Well, how would you feel if one day you were reading the Word of God and you came to a verse that told your name, where you live and what you do? You'd get fire in your eyes too! Spiritual warrior, you might not have your name written in the Bible, but if you've been washed in the blood of Jesus, your name has been written in the Lambs Book of Life. We need to realize that and then transfer into a warrior anointing like Josiah did. For too long we've been content. For too long we've been just satisfied. It's time we get a warrior anointing and move out for the Kingdom of God.
You have been destined by God to be a mighty warrior. You have been destined because God saw within you a seed of possibility. And that seed of possibility is the heart of a warrior. The heart of someone that is willing to look the devil right square in the eyes and say, “Enough is enough devil! I'm tired of your filth. I'm tired of your attacks. No more! I said, "No more!” It's time for the church to transfer into the warrior anointing and start pulling down the strongholds of the enemy. It's time to rise up in the power of our God like Josiah did and start destroying the devil's tools. I’m telling you, there's more to this Christian life than just getting by. There's more to it than being just nice little Christians. It's time to be the anointed warriors that God's called us to be. We are warriors. And when that warrior anointing comes on us, watch out, because we're coming through and there ain't a demon or devil of darkness that can stop us!