America is now mobilizing for war. We are gathering the necessary resources, positioning them, and making what we believe will be effective plans against our enemy÷terrorism. As we have discussed, the civil government has a different mandate than the church. The church is also now mobilizing for war, but our war is different. Because it is quite obvious that this attack on America was diabolical in nature, this is a spiritual war as well. We must mobilize for the spiritual war. How do we do that? How do we train and prepare? What are our weapons, and how do we use them? This is at least partially answered in II Corinthians 10:4-6:

"... The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the
destruction of fortresses.

We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the
knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of
Christ,

And we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is
complete"

That our weapons are not of the flesh means that they are not bullets, tanks, and planes, but are something infinitely more powerful. Our primary weapon is the truth of the Word of God, and it is more powerful than any weapon that mankind will ever devise. Even when the Son of God was challenged by the devil, He answered with the Scriptures. The truth of the Scripture is more powerful than any weapon that Satan has in his arsenal.

What is the truth that we use in this situation? Terrorism is obviously used for the purpose of controlling people with fear. As Christians we are not called to live by fear, but by faith. If the enemy is so blatantly trying to sow fear in America, we should determine as Christians that we are not going to let fear control us, we are going to live by faith not by fear, and that we are going to sow faith in others everywhere we go. It is better to die in faith than to live in fear, as Revelation 21:7-8 makes clear:

"He who overcomes shall inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be
My son.

"But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral
persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that
burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."

Here we see that the cowardly are counted with the unbelievers, abominable, murderers, immoral, even sorcerers and idolaters. Cowardice has no place in the Christian life. If we are true believers it is not possible to be cowards. True believers should have more confidence and courage in this life than anyone because we know and serve the King of Kings who is above all authority and power and dominion. Who should have more courage in this life than those who know that they have eternal life? To the degree that fear controls us, it is our lord in place of Christ. The degree to which we fear earthly things is the degree to which we really do not believe the message from above.

We may think that everyone is feeling fear and anxiety at these times. That is probably true to some degree. However, those who are abiding in the Lord are established in a kingdom that cannot be shaken. If these terrorist events have gripped us with fear, and are causing us to do or not do things out of fear, it is a clear indication of the weakness of our faith. If our lives are now getting shaky we have built our lives on the things of this world rather than on our relationship to the King of kings. This is a call to return to the Lord, and to walk by faith in Him, not by the fear of man or circumstances.

If we lose our job in this present shake up, and we are in fear about how we are going to make it, it is a clear indication that we have built our present life by our own will, and not in obedience to Christ. If we have been living lives in obedience to Him, we have a Source who can well meet all of our needs, and we need not be anxious.

As Christians we are called to be His bondservants, to live for Him, and not for ourselves. A bondservant does not freely spend his money because it is not his, but belongs to his Master. We may or may not have been made stewards of much, but we are still stewards. If we have been good and obedient servants then we have nothing to fear from any circumstances on earth. If we have not, we must repent. As C.S. Lewis observed, in Christ the wrong road never turns into the right road. The only way we can get back on the right road is to go back to the place where we missed the turn. That is what repentance is.

As we discussed previously, lukewarm ness is the worst state that a Christian could ever fall into. The Lord also warned about how at the end in Matthew 24:12-13, "And because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end, he shall be saved." If you drift into lukewarm ness you will soon drift into coldness. We are warned that this will happen to "most" in the last days. We have been given a wake up call by the grace of God. It is an opportunity to go back to where we began to drift away from the Lord and return to Him. It is an opportunity to see the true weakness of our faith, and determine that our faith in God is our most precious possession, and we will guard it from now on more than any other treasure that we have.
 
Our mobilization is to gather together to the King. As we are told in II Corinthians 13:5, "Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you÷unless indeed you fail the test?" The recent events are a pretty good test of our faith. A test is an evaluation. How are we doing? If we are not doing very well it is best to admit it, and determine how we can do better. What can we do?

First, go to the Scriptures just like Jesus did when He was tested. Find the Scriptures that address your weakness and learn those that will help to fortify you there. Write them down, memorize them, and quote them when you begin to feel anxiety or fear. Determine that all of the things you have been weak in are going to become your strengths. Nature teaches us that when anything stops growing it starts the process of dying. Determine that you are going to grow in the Lord and not stop growing again.

Second, when you are making a decision to do or not do something, determine that you are not going to let fear control you, especially fear of more terrorist attacks, which is exactly what they are trying to impose on us. They attacked the heart of economy, so we should determine that we are going to have faith in our economy, and sow faith in others. We should seek the Lord for words of life that are "faith bombs." The enemy has sown fear into flying, so determine you are going to do the opposite, and fly when you need to, and give these words of life to others to encourage them to do the same.

The stock market is basically the stock that we put in America. People are selling stocks out of fear. Do the opposite. The markets are likely to be shaky for a while, and some more dramatic drops may come, but this is the time to demonstrate faith, and there may have never been a better time to invest in America for the righteous purpose of helping America, not just making money. Live by faith not by fear.

To encourage means to impart courage. Impart courage everywhere you go. If we let fear dictate our future, then the terrorists have won. Determine that you are going to live a life of courage, not fear. Determine that you are going to walk in the peace of God, not the anxiety the devil is trying to spread.

The last Prophetic Bulletin that I wrote just before the attack on September 11 was on this very subject in a bit more depth. It has been posted on this website and you are free to download it, make copies of it, and distribute it in any way that think would be helpful to others. If you would like a hard copy of that Bulletin you may call our office toll free at 1-800-542-0278 to request one free of charge.