I AM A SOLDIER!

 Praise The Lord everybody! Because He is worthy to be praised!! I am sharing with you all an article I wrote for my church web sight three years ago. At that time no one from my church read it but I pray that you are blessed by this re posting as I was when I first wrote it. 

I Am A Soldier

Posted on March 11, 2010 at 11:02 PM

2nd Timothy 2:3+4

3) Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 4) No man that entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please Him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.


I have noticed that there are many more "civilians" in the body of Christ in these last days. Civilians are noncombatants,some are conscientious objectors. They come to church on Sundays and enjoy the Gospel "show" many churches are putting on these days, then they go home and get caught up again in the cares of this world. Cares about jobs, getting raises, promotions and achieving wealth and fame. And when things get tough they fall apart, they can't stand, believing in God but denying the power there of. It's all just a show to them, a front and a private club to others. Some are oblivious to the fact that there is spiritual warfare going on all around them. Others know their is a war going on but they prefer to let others do their fighting for them like their Pastors for instance.

Paul talks about us being soldiers in the army of the lord called by God to fight the good fight of faith. The duty of a soldier is to serve and follow orders, the orders of his commander and chief and the commander and chief is God. A soldier knows he will endure hardships and even setbacks but he also knows that weeping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning. When he's having a valley experience he looks to the hills and he knows from whence cometh his help. If he falls he will not be utterly cast down. He knows that many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivers him out of them all. His desire is to serve the Lord because He first served us. He loves the Lord because He first loved us. Even when he is not in battle a soldier stays in training by putting his hands to whatever good he can find to do. He loves his fellow soldier and prays that none would be left behind. A soldier experiences many things during war, long sieges where the enemy tries to starve them out, but they know man does not live by bread alone but every word out of the mouth of God.

A soldier keeps his weapon clean and in good working order by studying to show himself approved, rightly dividing Gods word. A good soldier is well drilled and ready for anything, keeping his or her flesh under submission in order to stay on task and not look to the left or right.

As for me I don't know how much time I have left on this earth but I'm giving my all to Christ who has called me out of darkness into his marvelous light. Every morning as I put on the full armor of God and prepare to do battle in this world I look in the mirror and tell myself, "I am a soldier."

God Bless You all,
Brother Darrell

HOLD ON OLD SOLDIER!!!

Praise the Lord everybody fore He is worthy to be praised!! I pray everyone is enjoying Gods blessing. My wife and I are enjoying the blessing of a warm home during this nor-easter that is pounding our area today. God is moving in our ministries and we are still believing Him for our healing.
While in prayer yesterday He reminded me of an article I wrote for my churches website awhile back called "I am a soldier" all about soldiering in the army of the Lord and the things you have to endure while serving in His army. As I was thinking on those things a song came into my spirit "Hold on old soldier!" and as I sang that song to myself God gave me this scripture, 1st Samuel 30: 3-8
³ So David and his men came to the city, and, behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were taken captives.

⁴ Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep.

⁵ And David's two wives were taken captives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.

⁶ And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.

⁷ And David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech's son, I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod. And Abiathar brought thither the ephod to David.

⁸ And David enquired at the Lord, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all

I thought about how David and his men had been out doing what soldiers do and after another long battle were finally on their way home. They were looking forward to some rest, some peace of mind, a time of refreshing with their wives and children as they trudged home in anticipation of all these things. When they finally arrive home they are hit with another trial another heartache another let down. My wife and I have been experiencing the same thing lately, every time we think we're getting out something pulls us back in.

Davids men did not handle this well, they began to dis pare and became angry with David and even talked about stoning him but David did the right thing, he encouraged himself in the Lord. He asked for and as king put on the priestly garment and enquired of the Lord as to what he should do about all this.
We are soldiers, my wife and I but we are also joint heirs with Christ and as such are able to put on our priestly garments encourage our selves in the Lord. And that's exactly what we have begun to do. We are spending more time before God enquiring of Him, "what shall we do?" and just waiting on Him in his presence. What a wonderful thing.

When David enquired of the Lord, He was told " Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all" And God is telling us the same thing today. Pursue your hopes, your dreams, your desires and most importantly your needs. you will not only catch up to them but you will "overtake" them meaning like David not only will you get what you went after but you will get more than you had hoped for like they did.  More importantly you will "recover all" recover your family, your friends, your job, your career, your wife, your husband and your life, whatever was stolen from you. PRAISE THE LORD!!!!. 

           HOLD ON OLD SOLDIER! PERSUE, OVERTAKE, RECOVER ALL!!!!
                                     God bless you all, Brother Darrell, A Watchman
 

CRY LOUD AND DON'T HOLD BACK!!

Praise the Lord everybody! Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! I pray everyone is enjoying Gods many blessings. My wife and I are still holding on to Gods promises. It seems like God is still way down the road somewhere, no where in sight. The word says that "we walk by faith and not by sight." and it's a good thing that we don't because I probably would have stopped walking by now.

We love the Lord, we've witnessed His work in our lives on numerous occasions in our lives but some trials, some tribulations are so painful you feel like dropping out, giving up before the blessing comes. Right now my wife and I feel like we are reaching the end of our rope and we've begun to cry out to Jesus "when!! when are you coming!" some of the people who were there praying with us from the beginning are starting to fall away, They have stopped believing for us and are starting to say "maybe it's time for you to stop crying out and praying, maybe it;s time to accept the fact that it is not Gods will for you to be healed." and I was starting to believe them until God Gave me this scripture Matthew 20: 29- 34  And as they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed him.
³⁰ And, behold, two blind men sitting by the way side, when they heard that Jesus passed by, cried out, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou son of David.

³¹ And the multitude rebuked them, because they should hold their peace: but they cried the more, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou son of David.

³² And Jesus stood still, and called them, and said, What will ye that I shall do unto you?

³³ They say unto him, Lord, that our eyes may be opened.

³⁴ So Jesus had compassion on them, and touched their eyes: and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed him.

You see we are like those two blind men right now sitting on the side of the road, waiting for something to happen in their lives and we, just like them, know that Jesus is our only hope. we can't allow ourselves to be discouraged by friends and "church folks" who don't understand your faith and have not heard what you heard from God. We must cry out all the more "Jesus!" and stop holding back out of fear of what people might say or think. We must stand on His promise because He is not a man that he should lie.

Jesus is walking by right now in our lives and we are not going to be stifled hindering spirits sent by the enemy to deprive us of our blessing. WE WILL CRY LOUD AND NOT HOLD BACK! JESUS WILL HEAR OUR CRIES AND SAY "WHAT WILL YE THAT I SHOULD DO UNTO YOU?"
AND WE WILL BE HEALED!!
We have built up our "spiritual stamina" over the years and now we have to put it to work, we will hold on even as others fall away we will persevere.

                  God bless you all, Brother Darrell, A Watchman


 

HEAD STRONG FOR CHRIST!!

                                   

    Praise the Lord ! For He is worthy to be praised! I Pray you are all enjoying Gods blessing. My wife and I are holding on to Gods unchanging hand. I am asking everyone to pray for my wife that God would heal her body or reveal to the doctors what is wrong with her so they can fix it. We are both being tested and stretched to our limits but we are holding on to our faith and to His promise that everything was going to be alright and I don't have no better since than to believe God. HALLELUJAH!!

Recently God has been dealing with me about being obedient to Him and the animosity, jealousy and friction that can cause. Have you ever found yourself living everything you know how for the Lord and catching a lot of grief for it? He spoke to me through this scripture, Ezekiel 3: 8-11 Behold, I have made thy face strong against their faces, and thy forehead strong against their foreheads.
⁹ As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead: fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house.

¹⁰ Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, all my words that I shall speak unto thee receive in thine heart, and hear with thine ears.

¹¹ And go, get thee to them of the captivity, unto the children of thy people, and speak unto them, and tell them, Thus saith the Lord God; whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear.
Some of us like Ezekiel are called to ministries where we appear to be strange to a lot of people, we're a peculiar person amongst a peculiar people.
God has you fasting, praying, living holy, set apart and avoiding the very appearance of evil, yet people, church folk, are turning away from you. Some turn away due to jealousy some because they are convicted by your presence. They call you out of your name with back handed compliments like "hey it's apostle Paul or Peter or Holy Ghost" They tell you "It don't take all of that to serve God!" and the unsaved are watching your every move waiting for you to fall.

When it seems everyone around you has a problem with your relationship with God, this is what you do.
KEEP SERVING GOD!! NO MATTER WHAT! KEEP SERVING GOD!!
If God calls you to fast, fast. If God calls you wear white everyday for a year, wear it. Be obedient. God told Ezekiel not to be afraid of the people because as He said in verses eight and nine He has made our "foreheads strong" and our "faces strong" against the peoples. "an Adamant" which is "Impervious to pleas or reason, stubbornly unyielding, an extremely hard substance."
We can not be influenced or turned around by people who just don't understand, They ask "how do you know it was God who spoke to you? maybe it was the devil." You tell them What God says in his word JOHN 10: 4-5  And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice.
⁵ And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers

When one of your Brothers or sisters in the Lord tell you you need to "lighten up" with all that fasting and holyness you tell them like Jesus told Peter "get behind me satan" because they don't have in mind the things of God, the things He has called you to do for Him. Above all I say again:
BE ADAMANT IN YOUR FAITH! KEEP SERVING GOD!! NO MATTER WHAT!!

                     God bless you all, Brother Darrell, A Watchman



                                                                                                                                                 

IS YOUR GOD HIGH AND LIFTED UP?

Praise the Lord everybody! For He is worthy to be praised!! I pray everyone is enjoying Gods blessing. My wife and I are blessed and were blessed today at the "Hour of power" service at our church and our Pastor Elder Johnny Green was anointed and brought forth a powerful message from Philippians chapter three called "Watch them dogs!" It was during that teaching that I began to think about how we perceive our behaviors and our sins based on how we perceive God.

You see it all around you in the body of Christ, "Christians" performing and condoning all kinds of ungodly acts. I think of myself and how many years ago I was a young, new convert just out of drug rehab. and answering the call into full time ministry. God was using me and it was great! for awhile anyway. Then I began to fall apart. When I fell I fell hard and my Pastor at the time had to sit me down, I was devastated he was disappointed. He said to me "Brother Darrell your problem is you don't fear God" I felt like he insulted me, "I fear God." I proclaimed. "I love the Lord as much as anyone!" I said. I did not understand what he meant at the time, I would learn later he was right.


Isaiah 6:1-5 In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.
² Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.

³ And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.

⁴ And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.

⁵ Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts

Isaiah feared the Lord. He saw the Lord for what He was and that reminded him of who he was in comparison. At that time I still had a lot of pride, I had a college degree in Nursing, I worked the emergency room at one of New York's best hospitals and I was good and I made a lot of money, I felt unstoppable and not even God could deny that I felt. Yes I loved God in my own way but I only needed Him to help me with stuff I couldn't handle myself or so I thought.

I was just like a lot of believers and even non believers, we tend to put God in a box and pull Him out when we need Him. We just refuse to believe we are not in control of our own paths in life. I did not see God "high and lifted up." I tried to bring him down to my level, an equal partner in our kingdom.
Then one day God let me know who He was. He Stripped me of the thing I treasured the most in my life at that time, my career. He shut me down and closed every door and this hot shot Nurse could not get a job as a nurse anywhere. He used a job as a telemarketer to to teach me the fear of the Lord.

It was the year that my ego died and I saw the Lord and for the first time I saw him and He was high and lifted up and his train filled this temple. It was then I realized I was not a Nurse but a man of unclean lips who was living among a people of unclean lips. I was not in charge, it was not my will but his will, it all became clear and when it did guess what? God gave me back my career, blessed be the name of the Lord!

The bible says in Proverbs 9: 10+11
¹⁰ The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.

¹¹ For by me thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life shall be increased.

Our lives are in His hands and it;s at His pleasure that we live and breath and have our being.
When you become aware of this you will fear Hod in all you do.
                             God bless you all, Brother Darrell, A Watchman

 

 

 

 

 

ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL!!

Praise the Lord everybody for he is worthy of all glory, honor and praise! I pray everyone is enjoying Gods blessing. This is the year, 2013, that my wife and I are expecting big things from the Lord concerning His church, our ministry and our healing. The year has just started and I feel him all over me. The following is one of many teachings God has already started dealing with me about. This year God wants to make it happen for you but you have to be in the right position to receive it. The position God wants you in.

Remember when you were a kid and you would see people on T.V. or in the movies or even in every day life. People like Firemen, Policemen, soldiers, athletes and also Doctors and Lawyers. After watching them in action you say to yourself "I want to be that!" and we set out to make ourselves into whatever "that" is.

We bring the same attitude into the Church. We see people in positions of authority and ministry we say "I want to be that!" and then we begin to plan how we are going get to be "that". but things don't quite work that way in the body of Christ.

Ephesians 2:10 says "We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God
prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."

God has already given us our gifts and prepared works for us to walk in before the foundation of the earth. It is we who have to stop trying to fit our size nine Flintstones feet into somebody Else's size seven shoes. We do it all the time. We don't seek God for our own calling and place in the body of Christ and try to force our way into a position that God prepared for someone else. We have to get in line with God not He with us. God has a nice comfortable pair of shoes just for us, custom fitted, and all we have to do is ask Him for them.

The following scripture has caused many to pray amiss because they miss understood it.
Psalms 37: 4-6   Delight thyself also in the Lord: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
⁵ Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.

⁶ And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday

A lot of  Christians read this scripture and run with it, thinking they can ask God for anything and He will give it to you and He can but if you look closely you will notice there is an all important clause. First of all you must "delight" yourself in the Lord and "commit thy way" to Him. If we do this our desires fall into line with His desires for us and if we commit our ways to Him then when we pray we will not pray for anything outside of His will for us. Whatever it is He will make it known to us.

So let's stop hurting our feet and hurting the body of Christ in turn by sticking our feet in the wrong shoes and Let us seek Gods plan for our lives and follow it and watch the body of Christ work like a well oiled machine.  
                      God bless you all, Brother Darrell, A Watchman









 





 

CHOICES: WE MAKE THEM or THEY WILL MAKE US

JOSHUA 24:14-16  CHOOSE YE THIS DAY
Praise the Lord everybody! because He is worthy to be praised. I pray everyone is enjoying Gods blessing. My wife and I are growing together in the Lord more and more everyday. I would like everyone who knows how to pray to pray for my Pastor and his family as there have been four deaths in his family in the last three weeks. Even with all that he continues to choose every morning to put his trust in God and serve the Lord.

Every minute of every day of our lives we make choices, from what to eat, wear, say, do etc. But the most important choice we make is who are we going to serve. Every morning when we wake up we need to make a conscious effort to choose whom we are going to serve that day because if we don't our flesh will try and make it for us. In Joshua 24:15 the people are asked to choose and Joshua lets them know he has chosen.
¹⁵ And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

The world is full of distractions, live and electronic, all competing against God for our attention.
IN THE COMING YEAR MY RESOLUTION IS TO MAKE A CONSCIOUS CHOICE EVERY MORNING TO SERVE THE LORD!!!
^" Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good."(ISAIAH)
"THOUGH HE SLAY ME YET WILL I SERVE HIM!"(JOB)
"TO WHOM SHALL I GO FOR ONLY YOU HAVE THE WORDS OF LIFE!!"(PETER)
"NEVER THE LESS NOT MINE BUT THY WILL BE DONE!"(JESUS)
Just as they chose we must choose. It is not a natural instinct but a free will choice to serve God.

Every morning from here on I'm going to make a conscious choice to serve God in every decision I make. The bible is filled with men who made the wrong choices and served themselves or other Gods like Nebuchadnezzar, Judas Iscariot, Satan and many more and we know what happened to them. So remember Make the right choices don't let them make you!
                                                GOD BLESS YOU ALL, AND

                                         HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

                                                                                       BROTHER DARRELL