Birth pains.

Welcome knights. It has been an incredible week or two with several incidents happening around the country from earthquakes to hurricanes, flooding and loss of life. It seems as though nature itself is rebelling. Could this be God’s judgment? Could it be a way to test our faith? Even though the answer to both of these questions could very easily be “yes”, I think there is a little more to it. Paul gives us a little insight into the distress of the earth in Romans.

Romans 8:18-24 “18  Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. 19 For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. 20 Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, 21 the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. 22 For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us. 24 We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it. 25 But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)

Did you notice that knights? All creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Creation fell with us when Adam and Eve sinned and has been caught in the same curse of death as we have. It too wants to be free. How much more so should we. This is why we fight knights. “Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later” and “ for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering…we wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us” Take heart knights because the day draws near. Every day is one day closer to our King’s coming to gather us home. Fight against the agents of the enemy. Run from every temptation. Crucify the flesh daily. Love your brothers and sisters completely. Our King is coming knights. We need to make sure we are about his work when he returns.

“Father, thank you for the hope you have given us. We do groan for your return and completion of the good work which you have started in us. Help us to see with spiritual eyes the things that are going on around us so we can see that all of creation is crying out for your return. Grant us the courage and love to bring as many as we can to you before you come. Thank you great King. Amen”

Look to the heavens knights, for our redemption draws near.

Tests and trials.

Welcome knights! I pray that you are having a wonderful day of celebrating all the King has done for us. Welcome to all our new brothers that are reading this. It is my prayer that you will be richly blessed by our King and Savior.

As we battle our way to the kingdom of God, I am sure you ask yourself a reoccurring question. I know I find myself asking it, sometimes more that once in a day. Why am I facing this battle? Where did this trial come from? Sometimes it seems like we are in a trial or test that doesn’t seem like it has any purpose what so ever except to exasperate us and weaken us. Why would God let me go through this? Today we will see what the King’s word has to say about these trials.

Our fellow knight, James “The Just”, the earthly brother of our Lord and Savior, Jesus, wrote a letter to the early Jewish churches. These believers knew what persecution, tests and trials were all about. Not only had they been kicked out of their Jewish gatherings due to believing in Christ, but they did not even have a place to meet openly so they would hold their meetings in one of the member’s houses. James himself was executed for his beliefs in A.D. 62. James starts his letter to these home churches this way.

James 1:2-4 “2 Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.”(NLT). Whoa, whoa, whoa James. Joy out of trouble? He must be mistaken right? You see knights, James knew that when troubles come it stretches and strengthens our faith. We can have joy even in hard times because we know that it is accomplishing something. It is helping us grow. Grow in faith, grow in endurance and grow closer to the King because that is when we rely on Him the most.

In 1 Peter 1:6-7, Peter gives us even more insight into this joy during trials and testing. “6 So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure many trials for a little while.7 These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.” (NLT) To increase the value of gold they need to melt it down with extreme heat to get the impurities out. God does the same thing with us. Each trial we go through makes the impurities in us rise to the top so God can skim them off and make us stronger and more valuable with each testing. God is so good, He doesn’t want us to just be okay, He wants us to be perfect so we will not miss out on any of the praise, glory or honor that He wants to give us when He comes back for us.

You may be saying, “okay so our faith is strengthened when we go through trials and learn to trust in God, but what is the final outcome of all these trials?” I am glad you asked that. Look back at James 1:4. “4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.”(NLT) God wants you to be in a state of perfect satisfaction where you have no more need. Also take a look at 1 John 5:4-5 “4 For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith.5 And who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.” (NLT) The ESV version puts it like this “4For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world---our faith. 5Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” Romans 8:37 tells us “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” Knights look to your King and see that he has not left you alone, going through needless trials and testings. He is using everything you go through to strengthen you so in the end we will be more than conquerors, in need of nothing.

“Great King, I come to you today and lift up your Holy name. I lift up your knights to you Lord and ask that you allow their spiritual eyes to be opened so they can see the faith you have put in them, grow with every trial and battle they go through. Search each of us Father and melt us like gold so the impurities can be taken away and we can become even more valuable to you and your kingdom. Thank you King for having a plan for each one of us, and thank you for making us more than conquerors.”

Go forth knights. No matter what trial comes your way, stand firm for the King!!

The sword of the Spirit!

Welcome back knights. The last two pieces of armament the King has given us are the sword of the Spirit and praying in the Spirit. Eph 6: 17-18 “…and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.” As we look closer at these, I would like to point out that the sword is our only offensive weapon. The word of God Almighty is powerful enough that it is the only weapon we need to fight the dragon.

The word of God is our sword. This is what we use to combat and fight back against the dragon with. While Jesus was on earth, He showed us exactly how to use the sword in battle. In Matthew 4 we read that the dragon attacked Jesus to try to make Him fail. Notice that the dragon doesn’t always come when we are best prepared for him either. Jesus had just gone through 40 days of fasting out in the wilderness when the dragon came upon Him and Matthew tells us plainly that Jesus was hungry. Here comes the dragon trying to play on what he perceives is a physical weakness in Jesus. Matt 4:3 “And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”” Jesus will not be fooled by this attack and neither should we. Look at his response. Matt 4:4 “But he answered “It is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.””” Jesus used a verse from the Torah, the books of the law of God, Deut. 8:3.

The next verse shows us something very important about the dragons attack. Matt. 4:5-6 “5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple 6 and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written,”‘ He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” Did you notice what he is trying to do knights? He is trying to use the word of God, Psalms 97:11-12, to try to temp Jesus. His attempt to tempt Jesus ego was met with another quote from Deut. 6:16 “7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”.

The dragon’s last attempt to trick Jesus is one he tries on all of us. Matt 4:8-9 “Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Not only does he try to get Jesus to worship him but also he gives Jesus the opportunity to take the easy way out and get a kingdom now instead of waiting and having to go to the cross for us. Jesus answered in verse 10 “10 Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’” 11 Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.” Only our God and King shall be worshiped and served. Also notice that after this last confrontation, when Jesus gives him his reply, he also tells him to be gone. What does the dragon do? The only thing the dragon can do when ordered by the King, he leaves.

The word of God is vital to our victory knights. Do whatever you have to do to get it not only into your head but also into your heart. If you do not have a copy of the word of God, please get one. There are several good, free websites you can go to that also have wonderful reading plans to help you get through the word. If you don’t know where to start, check out the Blue Letter Bible online. It is free and has several translation and great reading plans and study notes. 

The last part of our armament is our communication devise with our King and Commander. Prayer! Praying always in the spirit. God has allowed us this unrestricted communication with Him because He loves us so much and He knows we need it to withstand the attacks of the dragon. God is our strength, our foundation, and our peace. The only way to receive those and be prepared to face the enemy is if we are in constant communication with God. Praying is not first thing in the morning and the last thing at night. Even though that is the best way to start and finish your day, what about all that time in between? We need to constantly talk with God and listen to Him to talk to us. He will tell us the right path to follow.

Father, thank you for giving us everything we need to make it home to you. None of our armor or weapons can be bought or earned. You have seen fit to give it all to us freely. Thank you for your grace and salvation and your long suffering with us as we learn to follow you and grow closer to you. I ask that you bless your warriors Lord that they might go out into this world in which we are passing through and stride forward with confidence that you will not let them stand and fight alone. AMEN!

Until next time, fight on knights!

The helmet of salvation

Welcome back knights. Today we will be studying about the helmet of salvation. Eph. 6:17 Put on salvation as your helmet,(NLT). When learning to fire guns for defensive purposes, one of the first things the instructor said about shot placement was if you aim for the head, you will take the computer out of the machine and the machine will stop working. In making the analogy that the mind is like a computer that controls the rest of the body, he was stating a simple yet profound truth. We are controlled by our minds and what better way to take us out of the fight then to just take out the computer or infect it with a virus? As you can see, this piece of armor is essential to keeping us in the battle and striving for the goal.

What is the need for salvation? We all have the need to be saved. We were born into this world as children of this world with the original sin of disobedience in our DNA, passed down to us from Adam and Eve. We can not just blame them for our condition though because we have all disobeyed or rebelled against God in our own ways, each and every one of us. We have all said in one way or another that we do not want or need God. We are helpless, hopeless and far from our Creator without some way to save us from ourselves. Salvation is the way our King has made for us to have a life with Him instead of death on our own.

 What is Salvation? Our King could not bear being separated from His creation so He created a way for us to once again have fellowship with Him and adopt us into His family. The King laid aside His privilege and glory to walk among us, that had strayed from Him, as a servant, not as the master. He lived perfectly while here and died a criminals death, even though He was blameless of any crime, and paid the price completely for our rebellion with His life, saying “It is finished” or maybe a better translation would be, “Paid in full”. After being in the grave for 3 days, He again rose to life and took back His Kingdom and invites anyone who is willing to come, to come and have life. This is the salvation we hold to. John 3:16-17 "For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.” That’s correct, you read it right, He says EVERYONE! This is the salvation we are to wear.

How do we wear it? Romans 12:2 says, “Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” Philippians 4:7 tells us, “Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” Our salvation should result in a mind and heart that are at peace knights. We know that our King loves us and is always there for us, therefore how can we let the battles or concerns of this present world cause us unease or worry. Be at peace knights.

What happens if we don’t have our helmet on? 2 Corinthians gives us a very dark and lonely description of what happens to those who do not wear the helmet of salvation that our King freely gives. It says “Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don't believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don't understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.” Do not allow the dragon to steal this glorious light from your vision. Do not let go of your salvation. The price is to great knights! We must wear the salvation our King has given us to protect ourselves from the blinding the dragon tries to cause in us.

If you have never received this salvation that we have been talking about, I urge you to talk to God right now and ask for it. It is the most important and life changing talk you will ever have. Acknowledge that you are a sinner, let God know that you believe in the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, and ask Him to forgive you and give you a clean slate. If you are a follower of Christ and you have fallen away from your faith and the salvation you once loved so much is sitting in a closet getting dusty, I invite you to come back to your first love. Let the love, mercy and grace of God our Father wash the dust off of that helmet and give you a new perspective and a new outlook for the rest of the time you have here in this world. Let God make you ready for the battles to come and renew you so you can make it to the finish line.

If you have prayed today to allow Christ into your life or have been set back on the right road to the kingdom, I ask that you contact me so we can share you joy with you. Comment of Facebook or Twitter so your fellow knights can begin to pray for you. Don’t forget you are loved and you are not alone!

“Father, King, we come before you and thank you for your grace and mercy that has allowed us to be called your sons and daughters. We are humbly honored to be in service to you. King, grant us the peace that comes with your salvation and the right thinking that comes with the new mind you have given us. Lift up, encourage, strengthen and renew my fellow knights as we fight on for You, waiting for Your return. AMEN.”

May God richly bless you. Fight on for the King!

Shield of faith.

Welcome knights. I would like to welcome and thank all of the new followers. I hope our Great God and King blesses you beyond your wildest dreams according to His riches in heaven.

Today we will learn about our next piece of amour. The shield of faith.

 [16] In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one;

(Ephesians 6:16 ESV)

Notice knights that it says “take up”. The words take up imply that you can choose to try to go into this battle without it. How far into this battle do you think you will get before taking a mortal wound if you do not have your shield to block the majority of the attacks the dragon will throw at you? We must take up this important defensive tool and use it the way our King instructs if we are to make it through till the end.

FAITH: [11:1] Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

(Hebrews 11:1 ESV)

Knights, I draw your attention to two words. Assurance and conviction. Faith is not wishful or hopeful thinking! The dragon will lie to you and whisper in your ear “that sounds nice but how can I believe that without seeing it or touching it?” We are to be assured and convicted that what our King has told us it true whether we can see it right now or not. We are not wishing for a better day tomorrow, we know that our King is on the throne and will return to take us to Himself when the time is right!

How are we supposed to gain this faith that we are to use as a shield? Once again it is the free gift of our King to prepare us for the battle before us. The King has provided a way for us to increase in faith and make our shield larger. Look to the words of our fellow knight Paul,

 [17] So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

(Romans 10:17 ESV)

Do not be lied to into thinking that you can fight this battle alone with out a band of brothers and sisters to strengthen you. The King has made us to rely on one another and learn from one another. If you do not have a band of kingdom residents to support you, I encourage you to find a body of believers in your area to worship with, learn from and hear the words of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. If you are having a problem finding one, please contact me or someone you know is a believer in your area and we will be happy to get you hooked up with a local body.

I bring one precaution to you knights. We no longer live by the law but by faith. You will be lied to and our brother James’ words will be misrepresented to you. James says:

[26] For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

(James 2:26 ESV)

Works do not lead to faith or salvation! Paul tells us:

[28] For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

(Romans 3:28 ESV)

We are justified by faith and saved by faith. The Kings decrees even tell us that the faith by which we are saved is not even of our own so that no one can boast. How can these two verses both be true? Did our King make a mistake? No! The Word of our King stands true. Work does not save, justify or give us faith, that only comes from the King, but because of our true and genuine faith we do good works which is an outward expression of what our King has done for us on the inside. Continue with your good works knights out of a spirit of love and a grateful servant’s heart in honor to our King, not because you think it will gain you anything because it won’t.

“King and Father, I lift up your knights to you this day and ask your guidance and strength for each of them. Lead them to the place in Your kingdom where they will be feed and encouraged and grow in faith by hearing your word. Father, give to each of them the faith they need to be more than over comers in the battles they have ahead of them. Thank You for Your grace, mercy and love great King. May Your will be done here as you would have it done in your kingdom. Amen”

Please remember to pray for our brother Brendon and his family as his father fights cancer and keep each other in prayer. God bless you all.

Shoes prepared to spread the gospel.

Welcome back knights. I pray our great and mighty King has blessed you greatly since our last meeting. Today we will be looking at the next piece of armament that our King has provided for us. Eph. 6:15 For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared.(NLT) The ESV version puts it like this “15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.” The HCSB puts it this way “15 and your feet sandaled with readiness
for the gospel of peace.” Notice how in all of these the general idea is for us to be ready to spread the gospel of peace. These are the marching orders from our King.

We live in a world at war knights, but the war is not being fought to gain land or to further some great political advantage. We fight for the hearts and souls of the living dead. We are in a war for dead people that our King wants to bring back to life. You may think that our King Jesus came to heal the sick or make the blind see or even to cast out demons. Even though our King did all of these things while he walked on this earth, His mission was much more important than that. He came to make the DEAD, LIVE! What good is healing or seeing if you are dead? What benefit is there in being relieved of demons if you are going to die anyway. The gospel, or good news, of peace that we are commanded to share is that by the blood of our King we have been brought from death to life and our King wants to offer that life to any who would come to Him and believe. Not just life here on earth, but life eternal and more abundantly than we could ever imagine apart from our King.

Knights, our King has already won the war even though the battle rages on around us. He already holds the keys to death, hell and the grave. In our attempt to thwart the dragon, we must be prepared to set his captives free with the good news of the gospel and not attack the captives in a misunderstanding of who we fight. Peter and Paul did not use elegant words to sway their listeners but instead used straight forward truth from our King to reach the captive hearts of the dragon’s prisoners. Do not be afraid to share about our King. Do not think yourself unworthy. Do not be lied to by the dragon that you are not effective enough to make a difference. Our King gives you all you need when he brought you from death to life and He is with you always to guide you and strengthen you.

Great King, I come to You today and praise You for Your mercy, grace and forgiveness that you have shown each of us. You have brought each of us to life and taken away and fear of death. I ask Your favor on Your knights as we go forth into the battlegrounds and set free the captives that the dragon has enslaved. Mighty King, You have given us everything we need to accomplish Your will here on this earth. I ask for Your strength, Your guidance and Your peace for all of Your knights. Bless each one of them according to Your riches in heaven.

Go forth knights and be prepared to tell the captives of the good news that our King is alive and will make them alive also. God bless each of you.

Breastplate of righteousness

Let me start by welcoming all of the new followers to the Knights_Of_God. Over the last few days while I was away there have been many new followers on Twitter, Facebook and the blog site. Thank you all for following and reading what our King has placed on my heart to share.

As we go through the armor that God has provided for us to fight and defeat our enemy, the next important piece is the breastplate or body armor of righteousness. The breastplate is a piece of armor that protects the front and usually the back of the wearer. You may be more familiar with the breastplate that the knights in the police dept. or the military wear called body armor. It is an essential part of protective equipment that protects some of the body’s most vital organs, one of which is our heart.

If you have been in the King’s courts for long or read His proclamations to us, then you have no doubt heard the word righteousness many times, but do you know what it actually means? Righteousness is defined as: an attribute that implies that a person's actions are justified, and can have the connotation that the person has been "judged" or "reckoned" as leading a life that is pleasing to God.

The Hebrew meaning makes it a little bit clearer. “The Hebrew word for righteousness is tseh'-dek, tzedek, Gesenius's Strong's Concordance:6664—righteous, integrity, equity, justice, straightness. The root of tseh'-dek is tsaw-dak', Gesenius's Strong:6663—upright, just, straight, innocent, true, sincere. It is best understood as the product of upright, moral action in accordance with some form of divine plan.^{[citation needed]”}

If we are to wear righteousness (upright, just, straight, innocent, true, sincere and moral action) as armor, then we are all in trouble. The Kings proclamation states in Romans 3:10-18:

 ¹⁰  as it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one;

¹¹   no one understands; no one seeks for God.

¹²   All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one."

¹³   "Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive." "The venom of asps is under their lips."

¹⁴   "Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness."

¹⁵   "Their feet are swift to shed blood;

¹⁶   in their paths are ruin and misery,

¹⁷   and the way of peace they have not known."

¹⁸   "There is no fear of God before their eyes."

Don’t let that discourage you knights. Continue reading.

²¹   But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it---

²²   the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:

²³   for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

²⁴   and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

²⁵   whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.

²⁶   It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

²⁷   Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith.

As you can see by our King’s proclamation, we can’t earn or buy this piece of armor. It is given to us freely by our King just for believing. If you have joined God’s wonderful kingdom then you are already seen as righteous in His sight by what He has already done for us, by taking the form of a servant and dying for us. Rejoice knights for our King is mighty above all. Live in the righteousness that our King has provided for you and don’t ever take it off because that is when and where the dragon will strike to try to take out your heart to carry on with the fight.

If you have not entered into the King’s courtyard yet and you are reading this looking for answers and wondering what we are talking about, I encourage you to look back at an earlier post about who we are in God’s eyes. It will tell you who you are and where you fit into this battle. If you join the kingdom or need help making a decision, I encourage you to write me or talk to someone you know follows Jesus to learn more about becoming a kingdom resident.

“Great King, I pray for your knights today that you will show each of them how much we need you. It is not by our own might and it is not by any type of protection that we can fashion that will get us through this battle but only by your unending love, mercy and grace. Thank you my King for providing us everything we need to fight this war for You.”

Put on the righteousness that God has given to you knights. Don’t let it sit in the corner and rust away. May our great God and King bless each and every one of you. Fight on for the King!!!