I had a vision of a train rushing past a city in a black blur. It shook the ground and the buildings crumbled. The people in the city fell under the rubble. The train then went through the wilderness. The ground shook but the people planted in the wilderness remained steady.

The buildings in the vision represent paradigms, restricted theology, distractions, man made control- all the things that keep us from hearing God’s voice. 

If we do not move away from our structures of human understanding we will be crushed by our false securities as the earth continues to shake.

Hosea 2:14-23 says, “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.”

God is calling us to be established in the wilderness with Him. He longs to bring us out of Egypt, a picture of the world. Just as He did for the people of Israel, He has supplied abundant manna for us. We simply have to choose to collect it. Manna signifies the revelation of Jesus. It was sweet to the taste because He is the one we feast upon and His presence is like honey. The manna is the personal word He speaks to us, His beloved. Gathering manna is the first and most important thing we do daily.

Jesus calls himself the bread because it is the most available and recognizable symbol of nourishment across every culture. He is saying he is readily available and wants us to feast on the goodness of His presence. He sets a table for us which speaks of intimate fellowship and union.  

Jesus doesn’t want to just be the topic of our study he wants to be the substance of our experience. 

It is in the wilderness that I see an army of God rising up. We cannot pretend to be in the Lord’s army if we do not listen to the voice of our Commander and fix our eyes on Him. Soldiers daily train for battle and remain focused on their mission. They do this by following and trusting their Commander.

We are being called to attention. 

Our time and affection show our allegiances. Are we treasuring the Word and choosing to be set apart in this time seeking the Lord? Or are we continuing to fill our mind with distractions, treasuring the fleeting pleasure of this world? 

Are we trusting the voice of the main stream media or are we trusting the voice of our Shepard who calls each of us by name?

I feel the Lord saying that we can no longer be neutral. Jesus is coming back soon and we must choose this day who we will serve. 

“This is war, and there is no neutral ground. If you’re not on my side, you’re the enemy; if you’re not helping, you’re making things worse.” -Luke 11:23 MSG

The Bible says today is the day of salvation. All we have to become active in the Lord’s army is to repent. Repentance just means we change our mind. The Holy Spirit has been given to us as our teacher (John 14:26) and He guides us into all truth (John 16:13). Joining the Lord’s army is as simple as turning towards Him and purposing to give Him our attention. This sweet act of repentance can happen numerous times in a day as soon as we catch our thoughts wandering away from Jesus- the way the truth and the life. 

God’s presence is only in the present. We don’t have to reconcile any guilt for who we were yesterday or look to the future with anxiety. Jesus paid for our sins past, present, and future. Our job is to simply believe that we have the perfect Spirit in us and that we are a new creation. We can only be effective in the Lord’s army if we believe the truth of who we are in Christ and His power that is inside us.  

2 Corinthians 10:3-7 says, “For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete. Look at what is before your eyes. If anyone is confident that he is Christ’s, let him remind himself that just as he is Christ’s, so also are we.”

This is our confidence that as Christ was so are, we to the world for He lives in us. He is the only one deserving of all our attention and affection. He is the only Savior of the world, our Redeemer and Friend. 

If we want to hear God’s voice and know Him more deeply, we start by looking to the Word. He is the Word made flesh. The bible is living and active, it is our sword. It’s time we all pick it up and fight not for victory but from victory. 

You are an essential part of the Lord’s army but you will never believe that if you aren’t listening to the voice or your Commander. Every other voice will try to distract and keep you non operational through deception and false identities. It’s time to take our power back by speaking the truth of the Word and believing that the same power that raised Jesus from the grave lives in us. 

It’s time to rise up, soldier. Who’s with me?