“For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.” Isaiah 9:5-7 ESV)
“In that glorious day of peace there will no longer be the issuing of battle gear; no more the bloodstained uniforms of war; all such will be burned…. This is going to happen because the Lord of heaven’s armies has dedicated himself to do it!” (Isaiah 9: 5, 7 TLB)
Everyone is probably familiar with Isaiah 9 and its prophecy concerning the birth of the Christ Child. “For to us a child is born. A son is given. The Government shall be upon His shoulder. His Name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end on the throne of David, and over his Kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth.” We’ve all probably grew up having ministers read these verses to us during our Christmas services. But what we were not told, what was not preached to us, was that the prophecy of the coming of the Christ Child was included in such powerful war analogies. Most ministers never read verse 5, and they certainly didn't read the end of verse 7 the way it is written in The Living Bible, that “the Lord of Heaven's armies has dedicated himself to do it.”
You see, in the Old Testament, after a great battle, it was customary for the warriors to burn the broken weapons and the torn uniforms. Now in studying these verses, I found out that they give reference to the destruction of every instrument of satan when Christ’s Kingdom is established. When Jesus came to this earth and died for mankind, a great victory was won. Jesus Christ took every instrument and every weapon of satan and destroyed them. He was the Ultimate Warrior in the greatest battle that has ever been fought. And praise God, He won that battle and he burned satan's weapons.
Through Christ’s victory over satan and His ascension back to the right hand of the Father, Jesus was forever proclaimed to be the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. The establishment of Jesus as King of our lives will be accomplished through our acceptance of Him as both Savior and Lord of our lives, and by being God's warriors, those who are willing to take by force what is rightfully theirs from the clutches of the enemy, the devil himself. Jesus showed us the way to have victory over the devil and we must follow His example if we are going to have that victory. We must become mighty warriors of the faith. If we truly want to see God's power manifested in our lives, in our church services, like it should be, we will have to become warriors.
I want you to know that you can become a mighty warrior in Christ. It doesn't matter who you are in the eyes of others. It doesn't matter where you live, or how rich or how poor you are. It doesn't matter how old you are. You can be a warrior in God's army. Mom, dad, son, daughter, young person, teenager, senior adult, you can become a mighty warrior. You might not have a calling into ministry, but we all have been called to be warriors in God's army. You aren't saved by grace just so you can coast along on easy street in this life and then slide safely into heaven. You have been saved by grace to win this sin-sick world to Christ and to reclaim this earth for the Lord Jesus Christ. The enemy of our souls is not going to give up easily. You will have to fight for whatever you expect to reclaim for the Lord.
Start thinking of yourself, not as a nobody, but as a somebody, in the Kingdom of God. You are a child of the King. You have been washed in the blood of the Lamb. Your name is written in the Lamb’s book of life and you're on your way to heaven. So lift up your voice, lift up your shield, lift up your sword, and become the mighty warrior in the army of the Lord that He has called you to be.
Second, you have to develop a warrior mentality. Start thinking of yourself as a soldier equipped with a mission. You have a task to do. There is a battle cry to be given. We must proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord. We must put on the whole armor of God and follow our Commanding Officer, the King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords, the Captain of our souls.
The Word tells us, “as a man thinketh, so is he in his heart.” If you think yourself to be some kind of a defeated Christian, then that's exactly how you'll live your life. But if you think yourself to be someone special in God's eyes, you'll live your life with a spark and a zeal that non-Christians will not understand and will have to ask you about, giving you the opportunity to tell them about this wonderful Savior Jesus.
For too long, the Church has thought of ourselves to be the underdogs. We've let satan come in and sow his seeds of unbelief and doubt into our thoughts. It's time to cast off the serpent and quit letting him ride piggyback on our shoulders, whispering his evil words into our ears. It’s time to cast off the unfruitful works of darkness and once again lift the blood-stained banner of Jesus Christ up high. We must develop a warrior's mentality if we are going to be victorious in this life.
Third, you have to start seeing the devil as your personal enemy. Christians easily think of Jesus as our personal Savior and Lord. That proclamation is the foundation stone of our faith. But as His warriors, we must also begin to see that the devil is our personal enemy. How do we accomplish that? As much as you love the Lord for saving your soul, on the other end of the spectrum, you must hate the devil for trying to destroy your soul. I mean, really hate the devil. You see, to love the Lord and His works is to hate the devil and his works. The more you love the Lord, the deeper your hatred will be for anything that the devil throws your way. The deeper your hatred for the devil himself. A warrior is one who hates the devil with a fierce hatred born out of his love for Jesus Christ.
Satan is not just the adversary, he is your adversary. He is not just the enemy, he is your enemy. He is not just the devourer, he is the one who is coming to destroy you and to eat you up alive and spit you into hell. The devil is our enemy. The question that you must ask yourself this day is, do you long to become a mighty spiritual warrior in the army that God is raising up today? Then develop the mentality of a warrior. Get a fix on your enemy, the devil himself. Hate him with a holy hatred and get ready to take action. God's people are being mustered and put into position. It's battle time.