I have an ancestor, my tenth great grandfather, Sir Anthony Jackson to be exact, who was the king’s herald. You know, the guy who went throughout the kingdom announcing the king’s proclamations to the people. That isn’t a great thing as far as I’m concerned but when it dawned on me that I am a King’s herald also, it became a lot more real. All Christians are expected to be heralds of the King of Kings! Sir Anthony had a pretty simple job, but ours is considerably more involved. He did get locked up in the tower of London for several years because of his job working for King Charles II, which reminded me of the way that very big problems sometimes come our way just for being Christians.

But what we are thrust into, that Sir Anthony did not have on his plate, is soldiering. As we work for our King to tell others of His truth and His gift of salvation, we face fierce spiritual warfare against the adversary who would like nothing better than to destroy us.

1 Peter 5:8-9 (CJB)

8 Stay sober, stay alert! Your enemy, the Adversary, stalks about like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 

9 Stand against him, firm in your trust, knowing that your brothers throughout the world are going through the same kinds of suffering.

I’ve never been a soldier but I have listened to my husband tell what it was like to be a common soldier during the Viet Nam War. He said that you have to be confident that your commanding officer knows exactly what the battle plan is, and you must obey his every order, and very importantly - you must know your enemy. For this reason we are exhorted in scripture to, “Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.” (2 Timothy 2:3 NAS) as well as other places where we are told to put on the full armor of God, etc.

An army can’t just sit and wait for the general to DO everything. The general has the battle plan but he needs his individual soldiers to each do his/her part to carry it out. In the same way, as soldiers in God’s army, He expects us to carry out His commands, orders, battle plan, etc. If He was going to do it all FOR us rather than WITH us, there would be no need to exhort us to endure hard things. The well-known and much loved stories in the Old Testament tell of Gideon, David, Deborah and Joshua’s great successes in battle against their enemies. And their first move was to ask God what He wanted. There are stories of failure there too, and they are there to show us what happens when we neglect to get the plan from God and follow it.

Remember when David said to Goliath, “Today ADONAI will hand you over to me. I will attack you, lop your head off, and give the carcasses of the army of the Philistines to the birds in the air and the animals in the land. Then all the land will know that there is a God in Israel, and everyone assembled here will know that ADONAI does not save by sword or spear. For this is ADONAI's battle, and he will hand you over to us." (1 Samuel 17:46-47 CJB)  God got the glory for that, not unlike the general of an army getting the credit for winning. I remember seeing old newsreels from WWII and General Eisenhower being honored for success against our enemies. Eisenhower got the glory but you can be sure he didn’t win all alone out there.

There were times when God did all the hard stuff Himself like when He parted the Red Sea for the children of Israel – BUT Moses still had to do his part by holding his staff up in the air so they could all get across. God got the glory for that to this day, and rightly so. As Moses did, we are to work together with God, not sit on our behinds and expect Him to make everything turn out the way we think it should. This is where the false doctrine so prevalent today deals a devastating blow to Christians. They have been taught that Jesus did it all and all we need to do is ask Him to do for us, and say, “in Jesus’ name” and we will have it. Then when whatever it is doesn’t happen, Christians get discouraged that their prayer wasn’t answered. Because the ‘Jesus did it all’ doctrine is so incomplete, people cannot comprehend the fact that we have responsibilities toward God as our part of the covenant. Once discouraged, it is pretty easy for the adversary to keep us discouraged and ineffective. As the saying goes, “been there, done that.”

I was raised in church but always felt like I was missing something. Now the Word of God excites me! My curiosity enhances the pursuance of discernment. I have often felt discouraged, but not totally defeated knowing that in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.