Ready for Battle in a Moment

9/6/1991

As Mike was talking, I remembered a time that there were several of us gathered at Lake Camelot in the Fullers’ front room. We had talked that night a little bit about some of the things that Mike just mentioned. I thought I’d share these with you because I know not everyone was there, but they were really valuable to me.

It was on three levels. It was “backwards,” with three as the lowest and one as the highest. The third level, which was the lowest, was “foolish fellowship.” The second was “friendly fellowship,” which Mike just talked about. And the first was walking into a room with your sword drawn, looking for the enemy’s advancement in the lives of your brothers and sisters. It’s being on the edge, being forceful in the Kingdom, and really looking because you really love and care for people and you’re looking for any advancement whatsoever against them, where the enemy might be getting a hook in them, might be getting a foothold in their life in some way. It’s walking in with that type of a heart, that type of an attitude anytime there are two or three gathered in His Name, and even one-on-one when you’re entering into a person’s house.

I really don’t have a whole lot to say. I just was reminded of those things. If Mike has more to really elaborate on those, I’m sure he will. But it was really precious and valuable to me, and I’ve kept those in my mind and I think about that. Remember, number three was the “foolish fellowship,” which I don’t think we even need to define what that is. Two is the “friendly fellowship,” which we just discussed. And the highest way was to enter in with your sword drawn, looking for the enemy’s advancement in the lives of your brothers and sisters.

I should add that with the highest form of fellowship, that doesn’t mean there can’t be a lot of laughter and enjoyable times. That doesn’t mean that everyone is grim. If you’re grim, then probably someone needs to sit on you for awhile because that’s not the heart of Jesus, who leapt for joy in the Holy Spirit as the Scriptures say. He was a man that was filled with a peace and a joy, and He said, “My peace I give to you.” A dominant quality in His life was peace and fullness.

But, it DOES mean that while you’re laughing and there’s a fullness and a strength and a gaiety in your heart, there is something much deeper in your eyes. There’s something much more serious. In a moment, you’re ready for battle. You can laugh and have a good time and elbow in the ribs and all of that, and it’s super. You can chuckle at a high pop-up in the softball field where eight people collide in the middle and all fall down. You can roll in the dust laughing about that, but in a minute you’re ready for battle. You see, you hear, you understand. You see those that are not in Christ that are in our midst. You see the warfare raging around them, and while you can laugh with them and you can frolic if you will, there’s a clarity in your heart and your mind about it. It’s not just “hardy-har-har” and that’s as deep as it goes.

The embrace (I want to stress this point) of Jesus of Nazareth comes as a result of life transferred, either silently or spoken. The embrace AFTER a life has been touched, after the word of God has been declared and God has broken through and shattered the darkness. An embrace fits then, it makes sense. Another time, when you’re seeing a saint that you walk that way with, there’s an unspoken communication of, “Yeah! We’re in this together. I’ve been praying for you, and to see you is the most natural thing in the world, because you’ve been in the eyes of my heart and in my spirit already.” There’s a commonness of purpose, and an embrace there makes sense.

But just to yuck it up, buddy-buddy pat on the back, “hardy-har-har,” that sort of thing—even when there are saints, or at least what we believe to be saints involved because they happen to hang around and profess Christ—if there isn’t discernment behind it and if the basis of life isn’t truth, it’s some other basis, then it may be the “friendly fellowship,” or it may even be just “foolish fellowship,” which is an abomination before God, just to foolishly surround yourself with idolatrous sorts of things and gather around the created thing rather than the Creator, Who is ever to be praised.

So, I want to reemphasize the point that that highest form of fellowship of walking in the light together will probably very likely include laughter and fun and fullness. But there’s that heart that’s just grabbing and reaching and looking, with sword drawn as Gary said. In an instant, you’re ready to love the children, to laugh, to sing, to worship, to deal violently with something that would grab on to one of your brothers or sisters and strangle them. You’re ready, always ready. You’re seeing no man after the flesh, and your basis is on that alone. Your fellowship is on the basis of that alone, and it’s surrounded by that as the purpose and the intent. The other things are just part and parcel of that.

Father, I pray that You would help my brothers and sisters to see how to sow good seed in this area, and to reject the chaff that You’ll ultimately burn up by fire of Your mouth and Your judgment seat. Our God, we want to be purposeful people. We do love to laugh and we love to frolic together, but God, help us to be like the saints in Nehemiah’s day that built with a trowel in one hand and a sword in the other hand. We can fellowship, we can dance around the top of the wall as Nehemiah’s people did, we can pray deeply from the heart, we can be gathered by family units as they were in Nehemiah’s day. But we also want to have the same heart that Nehemiah did to rip out the hair of the beard of those that would defy You, that would blaspheme Your Name or compromise You in any way. We want to have that same kind of heart that our brother Nehemiah taught us to have.

Teach us how to fellowship around You and around light and around liberty and truth, rather than carnal or banal things. And Father, most of all, we ask You to strike down any foolishness that’s in our heart. Any coarse jesting, anything lower than Your Son is unacceptable to us—either a religious spirit that’s always grim and hyper-spiritual, or a shallow spirit that fellowships with anything that walks towards it and has the right qualities that we appreciate. Father, strike that down. Help us to see only what You see by the eyes of Your Spirit, and to grab ahold of that which is You. In the Name of Jesus.