Toughen Up

Proverbs 24:10 KJV If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.

Proverbs 24:10 MSG If you fall to pieces in a crisis, there wasn't much to you in the first place.

I am sensing something in my spirit that may not make sense in the natural, but that is usually how the prophetic works. It feels and perceives things on a spiritual level.

And what I'm sensing is a strong urging of the Holy Spirit to toughen up.

2 Timothy 2:1-4 Thou, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. [2] And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. [3] Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. [4] No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: [4] (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) [5] Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

If there is one thing Paul understood it was the spiritual nature of the warfare that he was in.

What the Roman soldier looked like in the natural... Paul was in the spirit.

The Bible is not written to the casual, onlooker. The Bible is written as a manual for spiritual warfare, for those who are actively engaged in fighting the Lord's battles.

In 2 Timothy 2:1-4 Paul writes... Thou, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. [2] And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. [3] Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. [4] No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.

That brings to my mind the question... What are the characteristics of a good soldier?

Teachable

Obedient

Faithful

Dependable

Team player

Disciplined

Hardened

That's why we have a boot camp program, to sift out those who have these qualities from those who don't.

The thing about these characteristics are they are within reach of everyone, but they are not automatic. You have to choose them, and you have to cultivate them.

Paul the apostle is exhorting his spiritual son Timothy to be a good soldier and endure hardness. Those words may not have meant much coming from someone else but this man had the credentials, he knew what he was talking about.

Lets look at some of the hardness Paul endured.

2 Corinthians 11:24-27 Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. [25] Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; [26] In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; [27] In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.

We need to embrace the mindset and the attitude of a soldier on active duty. All the time.

A soldier may not be wearing his uniform while he's on leave, but inside, in his heart and mind, he is still a soldier.

Tell your neighbor... I'm a soldier. Now say.. Toughen up soldier.

I have to say standing here this morning... these last few years have been a whirlwind. Early on beginning 2019-2020 it looked like America was sold down the river. There was a sense of hopelessness, and dispondancy.

But the church didn't throw in the towel. Instead we pushed forward and trusted that God could deliver us from the plans of the wicked.

And he did. God showed up. He caused every strategy, and every plan and assignment of the wicked to backfire in their faces.

And we saw the greatest what the secular world would call a political victory ever. But we know that it may have manifested in the political arena, but this battle was not political it was spiritual.

And though there was alot of hard work done in the natural, it was the supernatural power of God, that opened up the Sea for us, and drowned the pharoahs plan.