Mobilising God's Army

MGA

Mobilizing God’s Army

Entering the Promise Land

A new generation is emerging in the Body of Christ that will not settle for the promises of the land flowing with milk and honey, but will pay whatever price and make all necessary adjustments to step into the substance and tangibility of this promise land. It is one thing to be prophetic, but it is entirely another thing to be apostolic and work powerfully with the Spirit of the living God to earth and manifest all the prophetic speaking of God. Revelation and manifestation is becoming more and more intertwined and one in a peculiar breed of Christian, an unusual military force that is rising in the earth today. They hear clearly what God is saying and with radical faith, sacrifice and obedience, they are entering into the substance of these promises concurrently. The time between the divine utterances of God and its manifestation is being removed because a generation who is both prophetic and apostolic have arrived! It is a generation who hears and obeys, receives and proceeds; whose actions in the earth are congruent with the inner coordination of God’s voice in their spirit. In them, the speaking of God instantly becomes ‘bodily’ and ‘physical’ because of the intense and deliberate reconfiguration that they have undergone to be a medium for the prompt conversion of spiritual matters into earthly ones. They are called the promise land generation! 

For decades, the church has been teaching about the Christian pilgrimage in relation to the physical journey of the Israelites from Egypt, through the Wilderness to the Promise Land.  Although the patterns of the Christian walk and the Israelite’s journey bears great similarities, many in the kingdom have adopted a more physical and natural perspective to govern their spiritual pursuit and thus weaken the divine spiritual impetus and faith to expect the swift incarnation of what they have received spiritually. They fail to realise that in Christ, ALL the promises of God are “YES” and “AMEN” and believing in Him means entering the promise land (2 Corinthians 3:8). That as Christians, we no longer journey  through a physical wilderness to get to the promise land, but rather it is the wilderness of “the lack of knowledge” of the land we have entered into that we have to contend with. It is because of the lack of knowledge that people perish (Hosea 4:6).  But the abundance of revelation knowledge will suddenly catapult many from the ‘wilderness mentality’ to the abundance of God’s blessings in the promise land. Our promise land is Christ Jesus! It is not some journey that we have to take from one end of the earth to the next, nor do we have to go through the rugged terrain of life with its tests, trials and tribulations before we are appropriated to enter the promise land. NO! We enter the promise land the same day we receive Christ into our hearts. The natural pressure and constriction we encounter while being in Christ is the clamour and outcry of this physical world to keep us earthbound and so interpret and define our spiritual standing and reality from a carnal position. This explains the struggle and agony of many genuine Christians who are being led to believe that the promise land is some distant future away and much human effort must be employed to get there! Sadly, many have become so overwhelmed with this corrupt earthly carnal thinking, that they have totally abandoned their pursuit of God and His kingdom. It is time to set the record straight - that CHRIST is our Promise Land and we entered into the fullness of God’s blessing and promises on the day of our salvation. And the literal acquisition of all that belongs to us in Christ hinges on the conversion of our mental wilderness into the mind of Christ. It is the insufficient knowledge of the promise land in Christ that is the down fall of many. 

I am seeing that as many begin to subscribe wholeheartedly to this truth and concept, miracles and manifestations of the many things that they have hoped and prayed for, begin to take place.

The Joshua Generation

The Joshua Generation is known by many names, titles and descriptions.  But there is one definition that is integral to the life and ministry of Joshua, which is that THIS was a generation that entered and tasted the substance and reality of a land flowing with milk and honey.  Before Joshua, this was only a promise under the leadership of Moses. Moses was instrumental in bringing the Israelites from Egypt, surviving and enduring the wilderness for 40 years. During these times, the promise land was only a hope and dream which Moses promised the Israelites. But it was under the leadership of Joshua that the Israelites finally arrived at the reality of this promise that they had only heard about for 40 years.

Interestingly, the name Joshua is the same name as Jesus. From the Hebrew name יְהוֹשֻׁעַ (Yehoshu'a) meaning "YAHWEH is salvation". The name Jesus comes from a Greek translation of the Aramaic short form יֵשׁוּעַ (Yeshu'a), which was the real name of Jesus. Here the name of Joshua and Jesus are the same and carries the same meaning, mandate, purpose and intention of God. It is suffice then to say, that just as Joshua put an end to the Israelites’ wandering in the wilderness and dreaming of the promise land and took them to its actual apprehension and possession; Jesus also ended the wilderness wandering of the saints and brought us into the actualisation of all God’s promises. Surely all the promises of God are ‘Yes’ and ‘Amen’ in Christ Jesus!

“For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us”
                                                      2 Corinthians 1:20 NKJV           

                                                                                        

The Joshua generation then only applies to those who believe that in Christ they are in the promise land. Many in the body of Christ are struggling with this belief and the result is a fruitless, weak and defeated Christian life. As the Joshua mindset and faith continues to rise and expand in the church, the power, authority and momentum of the church will suddenly explode. The militancy of the church will greatly increase and a generation hungry to possess the land and put the ‘Ites’ to flight will dominate the very fabric of God’s house. It is truly time for a new mindset, attitude and spirit to invade the saints and shift the disposition of God’s house from casual warm, to radical hot! The Joshua generation is the Jesus generation led by Christ Himself into the promises of the Father. They are armed for battle and ready to dispossess and crush anything that hinders their radical advance and forward progression.

Let us now possess the faith to enter and be a true soldier of Christ in His army that the Spirit of God is presently mobilizing in the earth! 

Identity and Purpose 3

The enemy’s principal area of attack among Christians is identity. He knows that to destabilise us here, is to disrupt all aspects of our life. The enemy is strategic in his onslaught of the people of God, so we must wise up and be miles ahead of his scheme at all times. Fresh wisdom, prophetic insight and understanding must inundate God’s people again so we can always live far above the snares of the devil. Identity is so fundamental to our lives and it is the true foundation upon which God builds and administrates His purpose. Certainly GOD is the rock of ages but unless we partake of this nature of His and make it ours, the rest of our existence will be unsettling and troubling. It’s critical that we are established in who we are in God before any other pursuits, because the enemy’s attacks will hit hard first at the very core of our identity. If he can conquer us here, he can conquer us everywhere else! 

“Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, "Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?" And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die! Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil"—Genesis 3:1-5 NKJV

Straight after the creation of man and his endowment with great power, authority and purpose, Satan in the form of a serpent immediately set in for the kill. He deliberately mounted an onslaught against Adam and Eve’s identity by questioning God’s command and hurling at them phrases like “For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God…” There was no need for their eyes to be opened and to be like God for they were chips off the old block per se, an exact representation of God Himself in the earth! They were more God than they knew, for God Himself breathed His very life into them. But Satan knew that if he could undermine them in their identity and cause them to doubt being fashioned in the image and likeness of the creator; he could pluck them out completely from God’s purpose. Sadly, the enemy was successful and Adam and Eve lost their purpose and their estate of rule and authority. This defeat and its consequences run deep in every person ever since, from generation to generation and the struggle to be reconciled with our true being and self continues to be humanity’s biggest catastrophe to date!

The Reinstatement

Before Christ the second Adam commenced His earthly ministry, Satan once again moved in for the kill during His temptation. Again the questions directed at Christ were an attack at the heart of who He was. 

“Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread." But He answered and said, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: 'He shall give His angels charge over you,' and, 'In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone. Jesus said to him, "It is written again, 'You shall not tempt the Lord your God."
Matthew 4:3-7 NKJV

“If you are the Son of God” was Satan’s opening line to Jesus and it was strategically aimed at destabilising His identity. He knew that if Christ for a moment doubted Himself, it would be the beginning of His end and His mission.  Therefore what hope would there be for humanity? The first Adam failed because of the same evil strategy and now Satan wanted to take Christ out also, the very begotten of the Father. Jesus deployed an amazing counter strategy which is the very thing Adam should have done in the beginning. “It is written” and the quoting of the preceding scriptures was all Jesus did, and this cut down Satan all the time. At the end, the enemy fled from His presence in bitter disappointment because he had been crushed by Christ.

What must Christians in the 21^st century learn from this? Firstly, our identity is foundational to our existence and God’s work on earth and this is the principal area of the enemy’s attacks in us. Secondly, it is crucial that we know the word - the very word that reflects who we truly are and can deflect Satan’s fiery arrows at all times. The reason for widespread identity crisis in the church today is because many Christians are not grounded in God’s word. There is a famine in the church for the unadulterated and uncensored word of the Lord. There is so much spiritual fluff and flakiness in the church that Satan has taken millions of Christians prisoners to   doubt and confusion of who they really are through simple lies and deception. Many saints are feeding off watered-down and sugar-coated preaching that lacks the substance and the meat of the word.  A great many depend immensely on the latest Christian songs/music that ministers mainly to the soul to keep them going spiritually. This is the pathetic condition of the body of Christ today and it warrants the need for radical reform where the word is elevated back to the place of pre-eminence.

We cannot take this issue lightly anymore because there are many casualties in the kingdom because of the lack of knowledge and understanding in this area of identity. The bible says that people perish for the lack of knowledge, and God’s ultimate intention in the final analysis is that all Christians would live by the word and the word alone, for man shall not live on bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God 

(Mathew 4:4).

Bless you all and see you next time…

David Vaka

  

Identity and Purpose 2

The questions: ‘Who Am I?’ and ‘What Am I Doing Here on earth?’ is common and universal, and intrinsic with our make up as human beings.  People of diverse culture, colour, language, creed and experience are frequently asking these questions irrespectively, whether consciously or not. Generation after generation have pondered and reflected upon these queries and the consequences are reflected on both the good and bad of our history. Our interpretation today of these very same questions will determine the present and the future development of our lives, families, communities, nations and the world. So it is absolutely imperative that we answer these questions wisely and correctly because a lot is at stake if we get it wrong.

Identity always precedes purpose and it is the best foundation for any charitable and enduring work on earth. It energises any effort for the goodwill of mankind and its fruits will outlive any other humanitarian works built on a less robust foundation. A strong self-belief based on one’s knowledge of oneself can lead to great innovating, life-changing and impacting endeavours. Consider Gandhi, Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King. These were ordinary individuals who accomplished extra-ordinary feats with global consequences. The hidden secret to their prodigious accomplishments that were visible for all to see was ‘identity’. They knew who they were and they gladly embraced it. Their self-belief and confidence were tested many times but what kept them going regardless was their deeply anchored belief in ‘who they were’.  They had the same attitude as Christ of Whom the bible described as: 

“A bruised reed He will not break and smoking flax He will not quench”

 Isaiah 42:3 NKJV

The true strength and power of every individual lies within, and this is aroused and emboldened when Jesus becomes Lord. The great achievers mentioned above can trace their success to the unbending will and resilience of their inner resolve because their ‘God encounters’ resurrected their true inner-self. It was the realization of who they were, accompanied by deep satisfaction and exhilarating joy of one’s identity, that moved these people and many alike in the world to perform astounding works that became the marvel of many. Jesus was a bruised reed but unbroken because He knew who He was. A smoking flax but unburnt because His strength and resolve was not in what He did, but in who He was.

Primacy of Salvation 

God’s primary work in our lives is to restore our identity before the outworking of His purpose. This is His commencing point with people, and it is inherent with His nature. When Moses enquired of God about His name for the great deliverance of Israel from Egypt, God’s answer was “I AM WHO I AM” (Exodus 3:14). He didn’t say “I think I am” or “I am the God of this and that”. God went straight to the heart of the matter and identified Himself not by His great power to deliver Israel, but by Who He is. Jesus followed the same pattern by making bold statements like “I am the way, the truth and the life; I am the light of the world; I am the bread of life” and much more. The ‘I AM’ part was the essence in the identification of God and Christ to man and the same pattern is expected of every serious pursuer of God. Identity was the first thing God gave man in creation and it was the first to be lost in the Garden of Eden. Man was created in God’s image and likeness and when sin entered Adam and Eve, the image and likeness of God in man was severely crushed and distorted and the grace of God through Christ today is to reinstate man’s identity in God again. Without a thorough renovation of identity, our lives and works on earth will be on makeshift and shaky foundation. Matthew admonished us to ‘hear’ and ‘do’ His word for by doing, we are building our house (life) on a rock-solid foundation that life’s myriad of pressures cannot prevail. The hearing and doing of God’s word equates to the restoring of our image and identity in God because in this process, we are partaking of His divine nature. And the more we take on God, the more His nature becomes ours and we are surely transformed into who we really are in Him. As we find and behold God in hearing and doing His word, we are finding and beholding ourselves at the same time. This is the sure foundation for life. 

"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock”

Matthew 7:24-25 NIV

From Simon to Peter

“When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?"  They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets." "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." 

Matthew 16:13-17 NKJV

When Jesus addressed His disciples about the question; “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” He was engaging them in a dialogue on the issue of identity and subtly including them in the people category. It didn’t take long for the disciples to respond; “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets”. Jesus again made His intention clear by saying “What about you…Who do you say I am?”. And while they were pondering on the question, the Spirit of the Lord inspired Simon Peter and he said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God”. This is exactly what Jesus waited for; the capturing of His identity by His disciples where their identity would also be reflected and apprehended. We can only find ourselves when we can truly find God by the revelation of the Spirit. The result for Peter was that Jesus instantly changed his name from Simon the reed to Peter the rock. When Peter grasped who Jesus was, Peter also grasped who he really was and Jesus knew that a name change was necessary to suit his new identity. Peter instantly moved from Mr Unstable, inconsistent, oscillation and always speaking and acting on impulse; to Mr Stability, consistency and trustworthy. This was always the Peter in Christ’s mind but Simon needed a personal revelation of Christ in order to have a personal revelation of himself. He was not a reed as the name Simon designated but a rock in which the work of God could predicate. What happened after this was absolutely amazing. Jesus announced to Peter the very purpose of this encounter which was:

1.    The erection of a foundation for the building of His church so that hell could not prevail against it

2.    The entrustments to man of the keys of the kingdom

3.    The gaining of heaven’s response and endorsement on whatever Peter bound and loosed on earth

See how critical identity is? God wants to reveal His purpose and endow us with His divine authority, but the church must have a fresh authentic encounter with Christ in such manner, that we truly secure who we really are. An attainment of our true identity will warrant us the right to serve God’s purpose with all the resources and the backing of heaven. Let us press deeper into God until heaven declares upon us a name change, for we have attained the true us.

Identity and Purpose Part 1

The primary work of Christ through His word and the Spirit is to restore man’s identity before he is commissioned to serve His purpose. This is the correct order of God’s divine work because the consequence will either be devastating chaos or colossally positively life changing! Restoring our   identity or who we are should be the chief pursuit of every Christian or anyone who desires to live a successful and overcoming life on earth. Identity is the foundation for any noble and enduring work. When man is confused and fragmented in his perspective about himself, the same nature and fragmentation is reflected in all his dealings and relationships. Nothing he does carries a true sense of authority, fullness and conviction. In fact, his work might have the appearance of authenticity and legitimacy, but a closer scrutiny only reveals hollowness, illusion and misperception. His relationship with people may seem candid and genuine, but underneath this veneer is much perplexity and discontentment.  He is like an impressive edifice with state of the art design built on a fractured and cracked foundation.  Over time, the true character of this edifice will emerge much to the horror of those who were once bewitched by its beauty!  

You may have come across many in your life whom at first impression are all-inspiring and next to none!  They appear to have it all together and emanate great confidence in themselves and their destiny in life. But after a season of close acquaintance and the establishment of a certain level of trust, those impressive walls begin to give way and the actual person inwardly diametrically contradicts everything that astounded us in the first place outwardly. There are many disappointing stories like this all around the world and the saddest of them is; it is so prevalent among Christians, the very people who should embody the cohesive and wholesome life of God.     

In this present season of reformation, God is recalling many Christians back to the quarry of His reforming work so that Christ may be fully formed in them before any further kingdom endeavours. Apostle Paul agonises over this critical issue with the Galatian church when their growing ignorance of the gospel of grace sabotaged God’s intention of a fully formed Christ in their midst, from which their identity derived. 

“My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you” –Galatians 4:19 NKJV

Our identity is intrinsic with our knowledge of Christ Who accurately reflects our very image and who we really are. Our knowledge of Christ parallels our knowledge of ourselves. To know Him is to know us and fully knowing Christ is to fully know ourselves. On the flipside, our partial and deficient knowledge of Christ distorts our image and perceptibility of ourselves. Our identity is inextricably linked to Christ Himself! We find ourselves and who we truly are in Him. The closer we get to Christ the closer we get to ourselves. And the further we are from Christ only increases the distance between us and our true identity and it intensifies the blurry perspective of our true self. That’s why Paul called for more apostolic labouring in the Galatian church till Christ was fully formed because it galvanised their individual and corporate identity, leading to empowerment and increased authority in the entire church for a powerful execution of their purpose in God. 

Christ, who is also the Word, is the mirror that gives the perfect and actual image of our selves. As we calculatingly and explicitly behold Christ in His perfect word, the clearer our image becomes, and reflects in the beauty of His holiness.  Increasing identity crisis among believers and non-believers alike is due to much time spent on literature that distorts and gives false knowledge about our self-image rather than digesting the truth of God’s word that sets man free! We will forever be in self-delusion if the bible is at the bottom of our library and other literature and popular opinion takes precedence and shapes our thought life.  God’s absolute truth liberates man on all levels and anything outside this only imprisons and enslaves us starting with our mentality.

“For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing” – James 1:23-25 NRS     

            

“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" – John 8:32 NKJV

Looking intently in the mirror of God’s word brings us into a head on confrontation with the naked truth about God and ourselves, the truth that eternally sets man free. Identity derived from our knowledge of Christ is true and permanent freedom and liberation!  

In the beginning, God knew that man’s identity was crucial and that it was the ultimate precondition to serving His purpose.  So He issued a command that man must first be made in His image and likeness before he is endowed with authority to rule the earth. Authority on someone with an identity predicament is a recipe for much trouble and disaster. Our authority and effectiveness in what we do, increases with every degree of identity acquisition and consolidation. God created the perfect man in the beginning by making him like God. This is the state of perfect identity for man, and God is inviting us to come back to that standard through Jesus so that we can restore the earth back to His original intention. 

“Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth" 

– Genesis 1:26 NKJV

The word image and likeness are synonymous with identity and it is worth noting that God used these words as preludes to dominion and rulership.  Christians can and should rule the earth and all created things, but it comes when our pursuit of God’s image and likeness becomes our highest priority, even in the 21^st century. Many are chasing power and authority over identity and this is a clear violation and evasion of God’s divine order. Identity naturally attracts power and authority, but the opposite of this leads only to much corruption and abuse! 

In closing, let us aggressively run after the restoration of our identity in God at the beginning of 2012, for it is the only foundation for a prosperous and successful year. Let’s find God again in a fresh way so as to find ourselves afresh also. We can’t find ourselves by moving to new geographical locations, new relationships, changing churches or jobs, acquiring lots of money and whatever other methodology others have employed for apprehending one’s self. We will only find ourselves by finding God deeply and for real, and not superficially. We are hidden with Christ in God and we need to press deeply in to God to truly and fully embrace who we really are.

“Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God”—Colossians 3:2-3 NKJV  

What we need in 2012 is a new us that enhances and empowers all that we do in God.

God bless you and see you next week….

David K Vaka