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Armor-bearer Coach: Step Into the Ministry of Assisting
I am with you heart and mind... "Do all that you have in mind," his armorbearer said, "Go ahead; I am with you heart and soul." ?1 Samuel 14:7. Have you ever had an overwhelmingly trouble-filled day, where circumstances seem to be against you on all sides? Look in on young Prince Jonathan (son of King Saul) on just that kind of day. It is a known fact his boss who was his father had backslidden from God. His dad had counted only 600 soldiers left from his 3,000-member army. He had just gotten the news that three war parties were dispatched from the enemies' camp. On top of those facts, the Philistines had banned blacksmiths in the land of Israel. Therefore, there was not a single sword or spear in the entire army of Israel that day, except his own and his father's. A day or so later, Prince Jonathan decided to go over to the enemy's camp with his armorbearer to spy out the camp. He did not tell anyone where they were going. They crossed a narrow pass between two steep cliffs. Upon arriving, he said to his armorbearer, "Let's go over to those heathen, maybe the Lord will do a miracle. It doesn't matter to him how many is in their army." His armorbearer said, "Yes! Do whatever is in your mind. I am with you heart and soul." The rest is history. Prince Jonathan and his armorbearer climbed over the cliff and killed about twenty men who fell left and right. After that, panic struck the entire Philistine army and at that same moment, a great earthquake came. The Philistines began killing each other in confusion. The Lord saved Israel that day through a man of God and his armorbearer.14 Have you been appointed to support someone in your leadership? Is your heart set toward helping this person accomplish their God-given tasks? If the answer is yes, then you are not alone. All over the Body of Christ, God continues to make specific appointments of helpers to assist His authorities. As an administration of the Helps ministry, He has uniquely formed the armorbearer's place in His support system. It is a part of His design for a team to strengthen His leaders. Recently, I listened to a friend complain about a Church project using a well-used phrase, "There are too many chiefs and not enough Indians around here. It seems everyone wants to be in charge." My mind drifted as I thought, "How many times have I heard this complaint about various teams over the years. I thought about the need of understanding God's authority structure. It is not a new struggle nor is it isolated to the New Testament Church, as I considered Moses and Aaron's conflict with Israelite grumblers. They had complained against the leadership of Moses and especially Aaron saying, "We are all chosen and holy, who set you above all the Israelites?" Under Old Testament law, judgment and destruction came to many of those who complained. God, in His mercy, approved Aaron's leadership with a budded, blossoming staff with ripe almonds hanging from it among the staffs that stayed the same. He then graciously reiterated the duties of the leaders and the supporters.1 It is a fact, not everyone is called to be a leader at the same time. Someone must lead and others must follow. From Scripture, we discovered God appoints leaders and those to support them. When Jonathan is found on top of the hill spying out the enemy's camp, we don't have to look very far to find his helper. He was there with him. Scripture says Jonathan turned to his armorbearer and said, "Let's go up?" His assistant's response was, "Do all that is in your mind. For I am with you heart and soul." 2 Those words are music to any leader's ears, whether he is a weary church leader or a pastor needing an arm of support. I believe the Body of Christ needs those who will support the man or woman of God in a more tangible way. God is looking for people who will be with their assigned leader heart and soul. With any ministry, gift, or talent God has entrusted us to use, we must develop it to reach its fullest potential. To develop the ministry of helping as an armorbearer, do this: · Build relationship. Get to know whom you are serving. Relationship will guard you. For example, one key thing relationship will guard you against are the baits of Satan (offenses). When he comes to distort the truth about your authority, you can say, "I know this person there must be a reason for this." Your leader may do the same for you through relationship. · Personalize your service. What one leader desires will be different from another. Each pastor or leader has a different set of gifts and needs of service than another. Learn what your leader's are and personalize your service. Allow the Holy Spirit to guide you. Be attentive to his promptings. He will teach you what works best for your authority. · Be pure in your service. Make sure your service is to your leader's benefit. For example, a pastor friend of mine expressed her disappointment at the immaturity of her assistant. She explained, "My armorbearer insisted she come to my speaking engagement for support. I said great, and then she asked if I would pick her up, which was fine but on the way, I interpreted two dreams, counseled her, and prayed with her before arriving at the meeting. I was drained before I made it to the platform." I agreed with my friend's frustration regarding the assistant's lack of consideration for her need. Remember, there is a time and place for everything. Allow your concerns and needs to take a backseat to discerning your leader's need. God is faithful; as you plant seeds of excellent service in your leader's life, He will remember to take care of you. · Wear Godly garments. Be careful of the attitude you wear when serving your leader. One of my team leaders says often, "I am careful of my attitude and mindset when I serve my leaders because whether I intend to or not I often transfer it to them. I don't want them to have to guard against receiving a bad attitude from me." If we strive to wear a garment of humility, kindness, and congeniality, our leaders may safely trust themselves to us. · Develop loyalty in your ministry. Determine to be where your assigned leader is. Have you considered where Joshua was when Moses went up the mountain to receive the law of God? We can only assume he was somewhere close by because he was right there with him when he came off the mountain forty days later. Remember, how can your ministry to him or her be developed if you are not in place? · Develop a watchful spirit. Jesus said to his assistants on the first night of his trial, "Watch and pray?" Yet, they were unable to stay awake to watch. He then gave us the key to a watchful spirit in His last words to them saying, "The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak." 13 If it is your hour of trial or your leader's hour of trial, determine to build your spirit so that you may remain alert and prayerful. Our leaders are calling for us. They are looking for someone who will commit to the long-term. There are pastors and leaders who are weary in the fight because we have not taken our place. We must take our place as God appointed armorbearers, assistants, and helpers in His army. God will hold us accountable for the support that should have been given if that leader fails because of it. About the Author
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The forces that oppose you are no longer vague powers that threaten to overwhelm you from a distance - the law, the courts, the system. No. Your opposition takes on a clear material form in the shape of the other man advancing on you from the other corner. To get into that ring and to stay in that ring is to make a decision to give it a go ? to put your body on the line and to stand up to the punishment like a man. Fighting is more than a sport. It's a way of life. It is the defiant decision to confront your pain directly and not to be overcome by it. Mundine's gym taught me that, or at least it played a significant role. There was another vital lesson I learnt at Mundine's - perhaps even more important than what I learned about fighting. I learnt to respect the fight community. The fight community is a culture all of its own, and was certainly spawned on an entirely different planet to the church community. 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I think they were discussing relationship problems, though I didn't overhear everything. What I couldn't help hearing was one guy say very clearly 'So I grabbed her, and I punched her in the fuckin' head'. He said it loudly and enacted a downwards punching motion as he said it. Then he noticed me standing nearby and suddenly felt very self-conscious. 'Oh, sorry Father' he said. And then he corrected himself. 'I punched her ... (and he said it very slowly and deliberately) ... in the head'. If I'd had my wits about me that night I would have said something clever like 'I don't think the Lord really gives a fuck about your language brother, but I think He does care about your wife.' As it was, I didn't say anything. I think I responded with a feeble smile. At the time, I just couldn't work out how this guy had ever got it into his head that, as a priest, I would be more concerned about the fact that he swore than I would be about the fact that he beat his wife? Nowadays I take that sort of perception for granted. I think it's the church that has to bear the responsibility for the communication breakdown. So much of the church nowadays reeks of a sort of insipid middle-class moralism that really does care more about smoking and swearing than it does about domestic violence or world hunger. I don't think the Lord Jesus or St Paul ever intended to spawn any of these Christianized golf clubs that call themselves churches. Personally, I suspect that Jesus and the apostles would feel more at home in the average boxing gym today than they would in the average church. Of course they wouldn't like the threats and the violence, but they would love the honesty. Fighters are very honest people. One guy, again from the Mundine gym, summed it up for me. 'Around here nobody stabs anybody in the back', he said to me. Then he pointed to his heart and added emphatically: 'You stab here!' That's why I have so much respect for the fight culture. I know I can trust fighters. I know they won't stuff me round ? smiling to my face but stabbing me in the back when I turn around. I wish the same could be said for all church people. St Paul was a fighter. 'I do not fight like a man beating the air' he says. They had the ancient Pankration fighting in his day ? a vicious form of no rules combat that was concluding event in the original Olympics. Those guys certainly didn't 'beat the air'. When Ulysses came home from the Trojan War, legend has it that his own mother didn't recognise him. According to my friend and former trainer Kon, legend has it that when the Pankration champion came home from the Olympic Games, his own dog couldn't recognise him! Those guys knew what real fighting is about. St Paul would have made one tough bugger as a fighter. What I wouldn't give to be able to jump into the old Pankration ring with him to go a couple of rounds! You'd never knock him down though. I suspect most of the apostles would have been like that ? warm big-hearted men, but as hard as nails in the ring. I have a secret hope that when I get to heaven I'll be able to take on some of those boys and try my luck. I guess it's not everyone's idea of heaven, but it is mine. Give Him a Stone Luke 11:10-11:13 While the World is on Fire - Part Two Luke 19:49-19:46 This world is a tender box, of political, industrial and religious, differences. What is making the world that we call home, so violent? Religion is the biggest fuel to the coming fire than any other source. More people are dyeing today in the name of religion than at any other time in history. Suicide bombers, arson-est and snipers, to kill mame and destroy. All this in the name of religion. These are some of the causes, now here is the effect, in our coming future, what will you be doing while The world is on Fire? Luke 19:49, Jesus said, I am come to send fire on the earth, and what will I, if it already be kindled? There's a fire coming and you may be part of it. The Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, an at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him asunder, and will appoint him his portion with the un-believers. Luke 19:46. Can you afford to set back and think that every thing will be OK., that you'll be all-right, Cant you smell the smoke before the fire? Are you going to be among them that don't believe are you in that number that Jesus talked about are you the lost one that he's still looking for to save, well are you? Ask yourself, will I be setting around, lost, when Jesus breaks the eastern sky and takes his children Home, will you say, Jesus, I never had the time to pray. The Bible states that you will, cry out to the rocks and mountains to fall on you to hide you from the face of the Lamb and from the wrath of God. 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Screaming, wailing and gnashing of teeth. You look around and huddle with fear, not caring any more for the money you used to take so highly, or the home, in flames, that you worked on Sundays not listening to the songs coming from the church, just down the street, the beautiful trees you planted all now ablaze going up with your home. Knowing in your heart, the position with the church as a decon, that you held with growing pride, was just a lie, something to make you look good, knowing that you were just fooling yourself, its all over in a heartbeat. Then you think, Ill run to the sea, it will be safe there, There's nothing there to burn, the water will cool my blisters that cover my flesh, thats what Ill do. Revelations 16:3. And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea, and it became as the blood of a dead man, and every living soul died in the sea. What then, where will you run, the mountains and islands are moved out of their place the grass is even on fire and the sea has turned to blood, what now, where to go, God help us all. You say, why are you telling us these things, why cant you say things that are nice to here? Look at Jude 22 and 23. And of some have compassion, making a difference, and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. Pulling them out of the fire, pulling you, out of the fire, thats our goal. Were coming down to the wire, You are just a heart beat away from judgement. Don't wait to be put into the hands of the Living God, bent upon wrath and judgement. Don't let today slip away and here again the question, What will you be doing, While The World is on Fire. White Sun - Tao of Heaven; What is Wisdom? To be awakened to the realization of one's True Self is wisdom. A person becomes awakened when he realizes that his True Nature is that of God. He longs for returning to God's kingdom and dedicates this to practise Tao. He makes sure that whatever he says, acts and thinks are faultless. He maintains tranquillity in his sensual organs. He gives convenience to others. He makes no distinction between himself and others. He conveys the truth to others so that all including himself can return to the Land of Bliss, Heaven. Keep on Singing The prisoners of Sing Sing, one of the most repressive, oppressive and dehumanizing penal institutions ever erected on the grounds of New York, were prohibited from singing during their incareration. The authorities felt that it would contribute to prison disturbance and ultimately, chaotic discord. In Divers Places Isaiah 65:17-65:25 Jesus is Lord: Lets Stop Usurping His Roles In five words Paul enunciates the basic principle of the Christian life: "You are not your own" (1 Cor. 6:19). 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This unholy trinity will be Satan, the Antichrist and the False Prophet. Satan is called the Dragon in Revelations. He has always wanted to be like God, if not God, and this will be his one and only chance to actually "play God" in the last 7 years on earth. Satan will take the role of God the Father, the Antichrist will take the role of Jesus and the False Prophet will take the role of the Holy Spirit. Being In-Between Religions Who said religion has to last a lifetime? America for War The Americans themselves billed the vote for now President George Bush in the US as a vote for war. Iesa and Jesus in the Pyramid The Sun god, Mithras, was the most widely worshipped deity in the Roman Empire in the first century when Christianity was first forming. Mithras was called the Son of God, the light of the world, he was a redeemer and savior and his birthday was celebrated on December twenty-fifth. He eventually died and was buried in a cave and was resurrected three days later. Sound familiar? Constantine is said to have converted to Christianity but that is pure 'Spin' from the editor of the Bible. He was a Mithras worshipper and they are Heliopolitans or Luciferians just like Hitler and his 'torch-bearer' crap. IESA is in Iesoos of the fish symbol and IXOYE as well as many other pre-Christian things they appropriated; which the Father of Biblical Archaeology says shows the Bible is a 'Phoenician literary legacy'. It is not the first time you have heard about it. Living Without Blueprints Some people look at the biblical book of Revelation as a blueprint for the end of time. It tells exactly when the end will come, how it will come and who will be punished when it happens. Those with this perspective buy up apocalyptic fiction like the "Left Behind" series and confidently pronounce that we are in the "end times." They may even associate certain modern day figures or happenings with supposed end-of-times events. There are three basic problems with this perspective: (1) It is counter to the pronouncements of Jesus himself; (2) It ignores the long history of people who have tried to use Revelation in this way; and (3) It is counter to the nature of faith itself. Let's look at these three problem areas more closely. The Exodus And the matter of who is doing the abusing is the most important thing we as a world full of equal people must ascertain. Who are the Benjaminites who were thrown out of Israel and later returned under Judas Maccabee? Who are these mercenaries who protected Egypt from the Elephantine stronghold?
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