Topic: Principles in Building the City Church Part 2: Fit
For Battle
4. Recognize the Need for Men Fit for Battle
1 Chronicles 12:8:
And of the Gadites there separated themselves unto David into the hold
to the wilderness men of might, and men of war fit for the battle, that could
handle shield and buckler, whose faces were like the face of lions, and were as
swift as the roes upon the mountains.
There are three aspects necessary for someone to be fit for
battle as it pertains to building the city church. They must be physically, psychologically and
spiritually fit. Sounds strange? Let’s examine!
Physically Fit:
It is necessary for the sons of God to get physically fit for
this work. We must take care of our
physical housing because it necessary for functioning in the earth. We must watch what we eat and intake and get
necessary exercise. Building is hard and
you need to be physically fit in order to go as the Lord would have you to go
and do as the Lord would have you to do. We must take care of our physical housing and
that requires one to eat properly and get exercise.
Psychologically Fit:
This one is a doozy for many believers. One of the first aspects of being
psychologically fit is one cannot carry a damaged self-esteem. With so much spiritual warfare and the enemy
constantly trying to fire darts of doubt and uncertainty in your direction you
cannot afford to have a damaged self-esteem.
You must be steadfast and unshakeable in your identity as a son. The sons who are called to build the city
church must be grounded in their identity.
The second aspect is the sons must be delivered from the
“worry of what people think” syndrome.
Here is one area I struggled in initially in embracing my sonship
because when you have been institutionalized and your mind conditioned to a
certain way then to step out of that way and go a different direction
challenges all that you think you are. But the beautiful aspect of being a son
of God is you are validated and approved by the Father and what others think do
not matter when the Father speaks to you and about you. In addition when He speaks through you, your
words are very simple:
John 5:19: Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth
the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son
likewise.
As a son of God we are called to simply do and say what we
see and hear the Father do and say. So
let us get free of people’s opinions and live by God’s truth towards us and His
work.
Spiritually Fit
In 1 Chronicles 12:8 it says that the Gadites had faces like
the faces of lions. We know that Jesus
Christ is the Lion of Judah. For the
sons that are building the city church, the face of Christ must be seen. The only way this is possible is with a personal
relationship with God. As we decrease
and deny ourselves, Christ increase and we are revealed in glory with him. We
must get ourselves in the right spiritual position for this to be a
reality.
Second the Scripture says they were as swift as the rose
upon the mountains. For the sons
building the house, sons need to run swiftly into the purposes of God. They also must learn how to train under
pressure. Think about it? A gazelle running swiftly up a mountain is a
feat. There is a lot of pressure to do
that but moreover it takes a lot of endurance and strength and the sons of God
that are called to build the city church must have this swiftness, endurance
and strength for the task at hand. One
of the ways that you can prepare is to train with people better than you. Sounds strange? Thank about it! A father trains his son in the craft of
carrying on the family business. By the
time the son reaches maturity he is well equipped and about to run the
business, smoothly and as efficient as the father did. It is important to humble ourselves and learn
from someone better than us so that they can impart the wisdom that we can be
prepared with in the time to come for what lies ahead.
In the next message we will continue to look at more
principles to build the city church. So
far we have:
1.Recognize the David (Son carrying the Grace) within the
House
2. Recognize the Helpers with a Pure Motive
3. Recognize the
Crossing Over Necessary to be Used for the Work
4. Recognize the Need for Men Fit for Battle
Peace and Grace,
Calvin Calhoun
