–General James Green —
Matthew 28:19-20
WE have seen that Christ’s commission, His command in Matthew 28:19-20 is for ALL generations. These verses state the goal, responsibility, and commissioning of the Body–Church–Army of God. Teaching, baptizing, and commanding “of whatsoever I [Jesus] have commanded you” is the Christians’ order, covering all New Testament commands. Obeying these verses should be looked upon as our reasonable service. But, we can go “Above and Beyond” the call of duty. I guess it depends on the burning zeal of the Lord we have in our hearts. Some of us will go above the discomforts, circumstances, and hardships that can so easily beset us. Can we not go beyond our immediate locale and take the Gospel? Too many Christians only witness, if that, to their close surroundings.
The writer of Dust of Gold says, “There is nothing so kindling as to see the souls of men or women follow right over the edge of the usual into untracked land, for love of Him, for sheer love of Him.” “OVER THE EDGE”! This is “Above and Beyond” stuff. And I add that this may include both the physical realm and the spirit realm. Are we afraid to “GO OVERBOARD” for Christ? Some folks are literally afraid of giving themselves totally and completely to the Living God and Savior. How much are you missing, dear Christian, by withholding?
The problem, and I mean, PROBLEM, is that too many professed Christians are cowards!! There are lost sheep out there who need to be found! Is not one lost soul precious to the LORD? We cannot, dear evangelist, think of crowds. We must also think of the one, or two, or small group who are sincere. Will you let fear dim your vision of going to difficult, even dangerous places? Our cry should be as this poem goes:
“Oh, come let us go and find them,
In the paths of death they roam,
At the close of the day ’twill be sweet to say,
I have brought some lost one home.”
My dear readers, I have done this, have you? I have gone into many countries and preached the Gospel, have you? Are you a handicap of fear? of laziness? of unconcern? If we do not go, false teachers will SPOIL the harvest that awaits us.
Oh, yes, there will be “war casualties.” We’ve had a few ourselves. We must not let this stop us. NO! We can stand upon Exodus 23:20. That verse says, “Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared.” Friends, I have been very aware of Holy Angels many times as I have obeyed my calling. I have seen them fight in my behalf and protect me from death on the battlefields. Just don’t forget about verses 29 and 30, and understand that it takes time to completely conquer the enemies.
Danger, even death, stalks the land. Their effects touch both saint and sinner. Still God’s people are called to be steadfast and not easily disheartened. Grant you, some fields seem hard, bearing a self-confident spirit of invincibility. Yet we’re to ENDURE HARDNESS as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. Habakkuk 3:19 says, “The LORD God is my strength, and He will make my feet like hinds’ (deer’s) feet, and He will make me to walk upon mine high places.”
Remember, it is the LORD God who makes us prevail. He causes us to advance, conquer, and win souls for His Kingdom. Our feet must be “shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.” God forgive us for growing cold and slack in our mission objective–calling for men, women, boys and girls to repent, turn from sin, and serve the Living God!
The Gospel of Jesus Christ must be preached as repentance and remission (forgiveness) of sins, the promise of receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38), and the exhortation to separate from this wicked generation (v. 40). All this is to be done while waiting for the return of Jesus Christ from Heaven (Acts 3:19-20; I Thess. 1:10).
The purpose of our commission is not to make mere church members, but disciples, followers, disciplined soldiers of Christ Jesus. Churches are now overcrowded with lifeless, purposeless, dead matter! People are not even converted! Despite what modern churchianity teaches, evangelism and the missionary witness is to produce conversions. Also, once sinners are born again, they must enter into fruitfulness in word and deed.
What we have in this backslidden age of churchianity and political correctness is a concentrated effort merely to enlarge church membership. The goal is not to produce holy Christians, but to allow Christians to live as close to the world as possible, while still providing a supposed ticket for “fire insurance”! That is anti-Christ! Christ intends for us to teach, preach, and separate ourselves from the world. And it is foolishness to go into all the world as witnesses unless we’re going to teach and preach the Bible. What does I John 2:15 and 16 tell us? What about John 8:31? Reread these passages.
When was the last time you realized that countless false religions and insane ideologies abound on TV, radio, the printed page, the Internet, and just by word of mouth in everyday existence? When was the last time you took action for Christ?
The battle for souls is URGENT! URGENT!
What will you do about it? What are you doing about it?
The need for good, hard-hitting booklets, tracts, tapes, CD’s, and videos is desperate. Babylonian churches are producing too much junk that promotes self-love and world-love. Very few are speaking out against SIN, and those who do are living hypocritically or only religiously. There is a dire need for real instruction for new and veteran soldiers in Christ’s Army. More is needed for on-the-firing-line troops. The need is great.
We can’t afford to play church any longer. The hour is here to go to war against the evil forces that are literally engulfing this already weak world. We need to pray with urgency that the Word of God that has been planted by faithful Christians will be quickened, take root, grow, and bring forth fruit–30, 60, 100 fold. All to His glory.
We must go “Above and Beyond” the Sunday-school mentality and tell people to separate themselves from all forms of immorality. I find it repulsive for any Christian church to toy with the idea that we can cohabit with known sinners such as homosexuals, lesbians, liars, adulterers, cheats, frauds, drinkers, druggies, and so on. Yet we find these modern churches accepting and promoting such “stinking filth,” all in the name of God. Churchgoers, do you really think you’ll escape the damnation of Hellfire?
Doing Gospel work is not always easy or pleasant. There are times–much of the time–that God allows Satan and his dirty devils to contest every step of our way of service, but we must, in and by faith, claim the victory and not give way to defeat and despair.
Fatigue will try to overtake our bodies and minds, but we must always remember Genesis 17:1, where the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “I AM the Almighty God.” In other words, He is our ALL SUFFICIENT ONE.
As we arise to the call for action, let us not be overcome by suffering, persecution, loneliness, or any other negative force, including terror and temptation, that presses on all sides. These things are sent to discourage us, shake our loyalty toward Christ, and bring defeat. Let us combat these forces by looking solely unto our Lord Jesus for strength.
Let me finish with this: Who can tell of the work of the Spirit, or how far-reaching may be the prayers of the ones who, for some real reason, cannot GO? Your prayers of intercession, your faithful giving will go a long way in this war for souls. Even those who are crippled may be shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace–their hearts may walk across nations. Be not discouraged. With God ALL things are possible.
The blood-stained cross we carry today will be our crown of glory tomorrow. All the insults, persecutions, contempt, will all work together for our good. . . if we love the Lord. “If so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together” (Romans 8:17).
Let us never forget that it is the darkness that flees from the Light, not the Light from the darkness. Why be engulfed in silence, in darkness? It is God’s Holy Spirit that lightens the darkness. Be of good cheer. Purpose yourself to go “ABOVE AND BEYOND” the call of duty.
WOS – Good Leaders Follow Holy Spirit Orders
I speak unto you and I say those who are Good Leaders in the Labors for My Kingdom are the ones who know how to follow orders because they have yielded themselves to My Spirit’s commands and dictates. They do not try and do the work I have called them unto by choosing their own way, they do the work by living in obedience to Me.
There are multitude who want to have things their way because they have not died to their pride and consequently are left in desolation and despair. If you stop and think of the condition they are in, it is not a wonderful place to be, it is a wretched place wherein they partake of proud thoughts to the extent those actually smother the Spirit Life I intended for them.
Because of their blindness to their own ways, they are forever boasting and bragging of how great they are. Literally when I move then they try to take the glory which belongs to Me and by such determination they reap corruption. I do not want you to reap corruption when you are meant to remain in triumph and victory each day.
There are multitudes who have gone down in desperation, despair, devastation and damnation because they thought their pride more important than anything else. When I sent circumstances to them which were humbling they still refused to see their need to humble themselves and cry out to Me. Instead, they chose to defend their pride, rather than follow My Spirit’s orders to them.
Pride is abomination to Me and when any one will cling to their pride, defend their pride, and cherish their pride, it is not ME they love, it is themselves. Because they have made an idol of themselves, they can so they imagine, do no wrong. Therefore they are continually carrying on in the show of pride which is disgusting to Me and causes them to crush or undermine others in order for them to keep their pride.
Know that such behaviors are not meant to be found among those who are Mine because in such they represent darkness rather than Light and in the darkness of self-idolatry, they will find themselves lonely and locked-in. Do not choose the pathway of self-centered living for the same is the antithesis of what Jesus declared was essential for disciples to deny self. He gave that command because in order to truly be His disciples, those who would listen to and obey the Holy Spirit would have to practice self-denial and not pamper themselves. The ones who are choosing to pamper themselves are putting a damper on their ability to hear clearly the Voice of My Spirit. There are many ways in which the old nature will convince people of their need for pampering and try to get those who are to endure hardness as good warriors to become soft and comfortable. No matter which way the devil will offer through his many invitations, enticements, and enchantments to get the warriors to compromise do not fall into the snare. Rather continue to resist, refute, and refuse because if you do not, you can easily become a cast-away. Be aware that your carnal mind is the enemy of My Spirit and will always be full of demonic inspirations to convince you how much you need worldly vanities. However you must continue to resist, refuse, and rebuke going onward in the way I desire by obeying the Holy Spirit rather than demon spirits.
I have no intention for My people to be always walking in the nonsense of the world then imagining I am pleased in them when they choose such behaviors above Me. Those who are still worldly minded and defending their pride will not be good leaders because they are refusing to deny self, take up the cross and endure hardness as good warriors. Continually they will justify self-centered indulgences and claim the same is fine. However their claims are based on self-love, not on the love for My Kingdom purposes. Literally some cave into the lusts of their flesh and by doing so they feel bad about themselves then want to blame and accuse others. I do not want you to blame and accuse others, I want you to come forth giving Me thanks and praise always.
Therefore in this wicked, perverse, and vile generation, let it be Me that you love and want to please. As you choose to be under the Mind of My Spirit you will find yourselves able to be well pleasing and obedient to Me in all I ask of you. Your life will be full of joy because you will be shown how important it is to follow the Mind of My Spirit in every circumstance and situation. Over and over you will see how far above the wiles of the devil and his demons is the Mind of My Spirit and you will be able to bear witness to others encouraging them to learn of Jesus and His Way.
While there are those who want to complain against the Way of Jesus that it is too hard, all they do is show their love of sin above their love of Life. Such are choosing to be losing because they are so short sighted in their self idolatry they do not see the end of sin is death and damnation. How foolish it is when people steadfastly pursue and desire the lusts of their flesh above the Way of My Spirit. Over and over they will be found going down into the muck and mire of sin all to their own destruction. Take warning and obey each day the commands of the Holy Spirit for the same will keep you in the Way of Truth, rather than the way of lies and liars.