CIVILIAN SOLDIERS- Open heavens devotional by Pastor E. A Adeboye

BIBLE IN A YEAR: Isa 37-39
CIVILIAN SOLDIERS Friday, August 13, 2010
MEMORIZE: “Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ” (2 Tim. 2:3) READ: 2 Timothy 2:3-5 Apart from experiencing the circumcision without hands, the chosen is also expected to be a soldier. 2 Timothy 2:4 says, “No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier”. In recruiting earthly soldiers, some are chosen while others who are unfit are dropped. That you are born again shows you have scaled through the first selection hurdle. What is next is to prove that you are a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Why? There are bad soldiers of the Cross. There are many supposed soldiers in God’s army who are no better than earthly civilians. In 1 Timothy 6:12, Paul enjoins fellow Heavenly soldiers to fight the good fight of faith. We have been called into a fight. It is a fight that is based on your faith in Christ. If you cannot fight to resist and terminate Satan’s operation in your life, family or church, you are a civilian not a soldier. If you cannot fight for God’s promises to be fulfilled in your life and circumstance, you are a civilian not a soldier. Can you imagine a soldier who is armed and at the battle front downing his weapons only to plead with fellow soldiers to assist him in shooting at his enemies? That is a civilian soldier! In the Christian faith, there are many civilian soldiers. If you keep relying on others to pray for you, you are a civilian soldier. If you give money to prayer contractors so that they can go to prayer mountains to be praying for you while you are sleeping at home like David in the midst of battle, you are a civilian soldier. Civilian soldiers make God to vomit. If you are a soldier of the Cross, you must endure hardness. If because of little trials - delayed conception, no money, or some persecution you decided to call it quits with your faith in Christ, you are a civilian, not a soldier. Soldiers are tough. They go through tough and difficult terrains. What would stop the civilians cannot stop soldiers. They are armed. They are disciplined and operate according to the orders of their superiors. They are paid to kill their enemies. They fight putting their lives on line. Are you a soldier or a civilian? ACTION POINT: Ask God to replace every spiritual civil trait in you with those of God’s ideal army.