Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Jim Wilson
Read between
October 6 - December 11, 2023
The morale of combatants, the reason for fighting, and most of all, the implementation of the principles of war, are the main guarantees of victory.
Ultimate and limited objectives were clearly stated.
In war then, let your great object be victory, not lengthy campaigns.
These many organizations may be in existence, not because of doctrinal differences, but because God has given them different objectives under the Great Commission.
The first objective is sowing the seed. The second is reaping the harvest when the seed falls on good ground. If we sow the seed in every heart, but do not reap where the seed prepares a harvest, then we have not reached our objective. We have in effect added to the condemnation of men with the gospel. We have been a savor of death unto death rather than life unto life (2 Cor. 2:16).
Not to get there is failure to carry out the assigned mission: it is defeat. Even if people do not or will not respond to the message of good news, this has no bearing on the objective to communicate the message to them. God assigns the objective; the people do not choose their own.
The Church has been counting on the victory prophesied in the second coming, rather than seeking the victory commanded and mandated in Matthew 28:18–20 before the end of the age. This is a cop-out from present responsibility.
In warfare, the offensive is the means by which one takes the objective.
The aggressor is in the superior position.
This is also true in evangelism; the enemy does not like to be preached to, so he shoots back. Christians do not like to be shot at, so they have opted not to preach.
I would like to compare the six weeks of air bombardment to concentrated prayer. I can touch the enemy, but he cannot touch me. This concentrated prayer softens up the objective so that when I go in to preach I do not get shot at.
There are two things that determine a decisive point. The first is the relative importance of that point compared to the rest of the front. The second is the feasibility of taking that point. If it is not important, it is not decisive. If it is important but not feasible to take, then it is not decisive.
Most of this spiritual war is already history. Jesus Christ delivered the decisive blow at the decisive point at the decisive time.
What remains if the decisive blow has been struck? We must occupy the land. We must proclaim the emancipation to Satan’s captives. We must declare the means of freedom, the gospel, the defeat of Satan, and the victory of Christ in His death and resurrection.
We take the offensive under orders, praying and preaching in the Holy Spirit.
Our objective is people: individuals, cities, and nations. The enemy holds them captive at his own will. Then let us move out; let us advance toward the objective, praying and preaching.
Even if outnumbered in the air ten to one, Chennault’s two always outnumbered the enemy’s one. If each Flying Tiger had taken on ten of the enemy, probably we would not remember the Flying Tigers today.
In the chapter on the offensive, we concluded that the offense in winning men to Jesus Christ is carried out by preaching and prayer.
Once you meet him and before you minister together, you need to be one in purpose and as complementary as possible. Study together, pray together, talk together, and reprove one another in the Lord. There should be openness and honesty between the two of you, and no unconfessed sin to hide. Then you can meet the enemy with combined firepower.
I recommend Behind the Ranges by Mrs. Howard (Geraldine) Taylor and Mountain Rain by Eileen Crossman, two biographies of James Fraser republished by OMF International. These are stories of concentrated prayer.
In Christian evangelism, the greatest cause of immobility is fear.
It is fear of those who can kill only the body that immobilizes Christians.
The offense could never be mounted in concentration without the ability to move. An army must be mobile.
There are other ways of delivering the Word of God besides taking the messenger to the physical location. One is correspondence. God put His stamp of approval on this means of mobility when much of the New Testament was given to us in letters, this being necessitated in part because the messengers, Paul and John, were immobilized as prisoners. Praise God, His Word is not bound (2 Tim. 2:9).
Christian leaders are broadcasting the gospel of Jesus Christ on hundreds of radio stations and podcasts weekly. But this does not guarantee that people will be listening. A phone call, an emailed link, or a blog post to our friends would greatly increase the listening audience.
We must use it to the maximum of our capability. It has no limitations. The limitations are in us. Let us learn to use the Word as a defensive-offensive weapon.
If we are versatile in the Scriptures, we can strike an effective blow at the place of our choosing. Continual personal study of the Bible is the only adequate preparation for use of the Word.
Prayer of intercession has greater range, accuracy, speed, and power than the greatest intercontinental ballistic missile we will ever produce.
Jeremiah 33:3 says, “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.” Let us ask for big things, things that we have never previously experienced.
The effectiveness of our ministry in the spiritual war largely depends upon the individual mobility in the use of our capabilities: the Word and prayer.
If there is no turning point, the defender will be defeated. There will be no turning unless a stand is made in a defensive-offensive battle. Yet, seemingly, in the minds of many Christians, a defensive position in the spiritual life is considered a virtue and an offensive position a sin. Defense is associated with the innocent party, as though we expect only the wicked to take up the offense. For this reason the virtuous pride themselves on being defenders, instead of taking up the offensive for truth, justice, holiness, and a powerful personal witness. This sometimes results in the pathetic
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Cooperation is a prelude to concentration, and concentration is one of the keys to victory.
Thus, if there is any breakdown in the principle of cooperation, it is not on the part of the spiritual Commander; rather, it must be traced to the individual combatants.
A proud man wishes to win a struggle alone so he may take all the glory. When he loses no one else knows about it, or so he believes.
Our determining factor is the person Jesus Christ. A man may not be with our group, and we may disapprove of his methods, but if we agree with his loyalty to Jesus Christ and with his message, we should cooperate.
The other fellow’s motives should not be our concern. This is easy to say, but to enter into an open-hearted willingness to work with someone from another camp is not so easy. The problem is that we, as allied groups, are not close enough to the Supreme Commander, the Lord Jesus Christ.
The solution, then, is to spend more time with Jesus Christ individually, in our group, and with other groups. This time should not be spent in thinking or talking about distinctives or differences, nor should it be spent in accusation or introspection. We should spend our time with God in prayer, praise, worship, reading, study, and meditation. When we listen to Him, talk to Him, sing praise to Him, and talk about Him, we will come to know Him better. We will begin to realize more of His love and power, and to follow more closely His commandments and purpose.
With unconfessed sin in his life, the Christian has no desire to read, hear, study, or meditate upon the Word of God. He now neither communicates with God nor receives from him. It may have been a minor sin that severed the lines of communication, but once severed and not immediately restored, a man is set up for a decisive defeat by Satan.
It is mandatory in the war with Satan that we have daily communication with our source of supply. We must receive from the Lord via the Word enough for all of the day’s needs, and we must store up provisions of the Word of God in our hearts and heads for any future time when we have a prolonged engagement with Satan.
She was too busy serving to receive: if we are too busy to spend time with the Lord, then we are too busy.
Offense: “Going” economizes forces; it takes less force to mount an offense against one point than to defend all points.
It is better to have one’s force scattered in driblets at decisive points than to have it concentrated at a nondecisive point.
The much-needed application of this principle is that we must send people who are willing and ready to go to the decisive points. As it was with Gideon, it may be that 22,000 are afraid to go and another 9,700 are not ready to go. Perhaps only three hundred men are willing and ready to go with the message of Jesus Christ.
Let us consider how to carry out spiritual pursuit. First, we must be convinced that many people are ready to receive Christ and will receive Him if they are cut off and confronted with their sin and the Savior. When a man begins to run away, he is ready to be captured. This does not mean that he will not put up a last desperate struggle or will not continue to run. Thus it is important to cut off his retreat.
God’s revivals may start with God-picked people, but they continue only if every Christian, weak or strong, joins in the pursuit.
Our greatest mobility is in the quantity of Christians who can testify of the saving grace of Jesus Christ. At that time, every Christian should testify to everyone he or she meets.
Furthermore, an ultimatum should be used in our message, citing the judgment of God on the unrepentant. This is the only effective means that will cause a fleeing man to surrender to Christ. Judgment is the reality he cannot escape if he persists in fleeing from Christ, and therefore, it has great force in causing a fugitive to stop in his flight. Yet our warning should be given in love and joy.
God does not ask for volunteers, nor does He challenge His own children. When Jesus called His disciples, He did the choosing. He said, “Follow me.” It was a simple imperative. There were also a great many volunteers who followed Jesus. The volunteers did not last.
“If we obey God’s commands, then we are sure that we know him”
Even our repentance into life was commanded by God. In fact, it is a command to all men.
