The Lord Is a Warrior – Yes, Jehovah is His name! Exodus 15:3
by Syb Brodie
Be Strong! It matters not how deep entrenched the wrong,
How hard the battle goes, the day how long:
Faint not – fight on!
Tomorrow comes the song. Babcock
When I was eleven years old, my girlfriend Ann Taylor encouraged me to attend the Salvation Army. This may have seemed odd to some for a Catholic girl who had just finished her First Communion, but I felt God calling me elsewhere.
I thank Him for sending me such a dear friend as Ann. She was born with a severe heart condition and has been with her Lord and Savior for many years. In spite of her affliction she was a good Soldier, and I’m sure has heard her Savior say… “Well done my good and faithful servant”.
At an early age the Lord placed on my heart a real yearning to get to know Him better. I was soon walking down the Salvation isle when I accepted Him as my Saviour, forever becoming His child. Not that I led a very obedient life after that! In fact this Soldier was AWOL for many years, living my way and not His.
One thing I did learn while attending the Salvation Army, was that I was a ‘Soldier’ in God’s Army. The song I loved to sing then, but is rarely sung or even known today, was… ‘Onward Christian Soldier’. As a recruited soldier, harvesting of Souls is God’s, and should have been my top priority. As His soldier He wanted to use me to accomplish His purpose for His harvest. At the time I did not know what that purpose was, or what it was that God wanted me to do?
Roberts Liardon in his book Final Approach helps to answer this question when he says … “When there are battles to be fought, God always prepares a generation of warriors. The Lord chose us to be His soldiers. This is not a volunteer army; every Christian has been drafted. There are no conscientious objectors in His army. We are Soldiers, and that’s all there is to it!”
There are many soldiers throughout the Bible that God has used, and one in particular that stood out for me was Jeremiah. God chose to use him to tell the Israelites about their sin and His truths. The words sound eerily applicable to our present day as Jeremiah says in 5:30-31… “An astonishing and horrible thing Has been committed in the land; The prophets prophesy falsely and the priests rule by their own power; And My people love to have it so, but what will you do in the end?”
Having faithfully done what God told him to, Jeremiah was not rewarded by the Israelites for his warning, but was put into stocks with the people mocking and ridiculing him. Distraught he cried out to God in 20:9… “Then I said, I will not make mention of Him, nor speak anymore His name.”
Many of us have been to that point of discouragement, but at this point God did for Jeremiah what He will do for you. He came alongside him strengthening his heart, mind and body so that he responded in 20:11 with…. “But His word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, And I could not.”
Just like Jeremiah, I got to the point where I just could not hold back any longer telling others about Jesus! I had wasted enough of my years on worldly things and pleasures that I thought would satisfy. I became so weary of holding back the burning fire He had placed in my bones so many years earlier, I finally allowed them to take root. I could not be a conscientious objector any longer by holding back no matter what the cost. I finally understood, and became a true Soldier that God could use for His purposes.
The Lord of the Harvest is lining up His warriors today just as He has done in ages past. Have you been AWOL from telling others about Jesus for many years? Have you spent your years like I did by holding back? We win the race by letting Jesus use us to accomplish His purposes in this end of time battle.
Good times; Bad times; End times; Harvest time;
Wasted Time!
Don’t waste your earthly time like I did!
Onward Christian Soldiers
HARVEST TIME IS HERE! 
Onward Christian Soldiers
Sabine Baring-Gould
Onward Christian Soldiers
Marching as to war
With the Cross of Jesus
Going on before!
Christ the Royal Master
Leads against the foe
Forward into battle
See His banner go!
At the sign of triumph
Satan’s host doth flee
On, then, Christian Soldiers
On to victory!
Hell’s foundations quiver
At the shouts of praise
Brothers, lift your voices
Loud your anthems raise!