Terrible as an Army with Banners

Being the Church militant

"Don’t be surprised if the wolves bite when you’re stealing their prey. The enemy doesn’t surrender his captives easily. Kingdom advance is a dirty street fight not an evangelical excursion of conscience-soothing dogoodersim.

Matthew 5:10-12

“You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom.

“Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don’t like it, I do! And all heaven applauds.

And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.”

Jesus’s first sermon ended with folks trying to throw him off a cliff.

“When they heard this, the people in the synagogue were furious. Jumping up, they mobbed him and forced him to the edge of the hill on which the town was built. They intended to push him over the cliff, -Luke 4:28-29

Maybe our sermons are too soft?

Devils don’t dance, they kill and outreach isn’t a mere act of mercy, it’s an act of war. We are stepping into a very real battle of life and death with an enemy who is on the prowl to devour.

The Church is a Bride dressed for battle.

“Who is this, arising like the dawn, as fair as the moon, as bright as the sun, and terrible as an army with billowing banners?” -Song of Songs 6:10

This is also why outreach is abandoned, neglected, skipped or personalized out of an actual accountable and measurable activity.

Storming beaches, busting strongholds and crossing enemy lines isn’t just rhetoric for faster worship songs, it's the very mission of God.

It’s why Jesus bled, martyrs burn and Heaven is in a continual building project for more mansions."

Pastor Eric.