THE SWORD OF JUSTICE – The Overcomers in the Hand of God
“You are My battle-ax and weapons of war: For with you I will break the nation in pieces; With you I will destroy kingdoms; With you I will break in pieces the horse and its rider; With you I will break in pieces the chariot and its rider; With you also I will break in pieces man and woman; With you I will break in pieces old and young; With you I will break in pieces the young man and the maiden; With you also I will break in pieces the shepherd and his flock; With you I will break in pieces the farmer and his yoke of oxen; And with you I will break in pieces governors and rulers. “And I will repay Babylon And all the inhabitants of Chaldea For all the evil they have done In Zion in your sight,” says the Lord. Jeremiah 51:20-24
For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. 2Corinthians 10:4-6
After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory. And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird! For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury.” Revelation 18:1-3
*All scriptures are from the NKJV unless otherwise stated. *Image courtesy Free Bible Images
INTRODUCTION
Certainly, we are in critical moments in the history of the world and critical thinking, coupled with critical decisions and choices, must be made by each man, even as we see the Day of the Lord approaching. To give a little reminder of what the Day of the Lord is, here is a short excerpt taken from my previous article about the Day of the Lord. (You can check out the entire article at this link)
“The Day of the Lord is the day, in literal terms, in which Jesus, the Lord and King of kings, will appear in this physical world as LIGHT, bringing with Himself His saints of old who have gone ahead of us, riding on white horses, to be joined by those of His Overcomer Company here on earth. This Company of Overcomers will literally rise out of this body of death and corruption in the twinkling of an eye and be given glorious bodies of light like the Lord Jesus Himself has, and mortality shall be swallowed up by the life of Christ in them.”
This is the true reality of what the Day of the Lord really is, and it is quite the opposite of what the institution church has been made to believe, a concept which they call rapture, which is nothing but an escapist paradigm that teaches men that they won’t go through the tribulation. But I find that this very tribulation that men are taught to escape from is the very thing God wants to use to test men in the days of the anti-christ, especially those people who claim to love and worship Him. The Lord Jesus clearly promised that he who overcomes the trials and the testings in their flesh by taking accurate positions with the Spirit in all things, He, Jesus will keep from the trials (tribulation) that will come on all mankind to test those that live on the earth. See what He said in Revelation 3:10 “Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.” Meaning, if Christians will be made to escape tribulation through rapture, then there won’t be any need for Him to keep them from the trial that will test those who dwell on the earth.
In the article titled “The Day of the Lord – The Sword of Justice”, I mentioned that Jesus, Himself, is the Sword of Justice that will test all things and deliver accurate judgment for truth, by the truth of Himself as the Word of God, effectively destroying satan, all his agents and by that same sword of justice, judge iniquity in man. And, being Firstborn among many brethren, God has raised for Him volunteers who will also be swords of justice in the hand of God to purge creation of corruption. These are those who are refered to as the Overcomers.
THE OVERCOMERS AND THE DOMINION OVER THE EARTH
Because I have already covered certain aspects about the Day of the Lord in my previous articles, I will keep this article short concerning the Overcomers and their roles in the coming days.
Babylon as a world system is a system of corruption, mammon (The love and worship of money), the glorification of flesh and the worship of the bestial nature of man amongst other things. However this system of Babylon has been sentenced to destruction and must now be destroyed in this age of the Day of the Lord.
For obvious reasons, the stench of the abomination of Babylon has gone up to God and the time of her demise has come. For the truth is that Babylon has been judged from before now, but the reality of that judgment will manifest on the earth in this end time. Interestingly enough though, the destruction of Babylon and the reality of the workings of this coming age are not given into the hands of angels, but are given into the hands of man. Why? It was to man that dominion over this earth was given by God from the very beginning and that agenda has not changed. For by the fall of man, the dominion of the earth was lost to Satan who created the system of Babylon, and also by the restoration of man to God shall this dominion be restored . See what Hebrews 2:5-9 says “For He has not put the world to come, of which we speak, in subjection to angels. But one testified in a certain place, saying: “What is man that You are mindful of him, Or the son of man that You take care of him? You have made him a little lower than the angels; You have crowned him with glory and honor, And set him over the works of Your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his feet.” For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.”
Man’s dominion over creation will be restored and all created things, including man, will be brought back into Christ and God will be all in all. This is not some weird thinking that will happen in heaven, but a reality that shall happen here on earth. For at the coming of the Lord Jesus, corruption shall be wiped clean from the earth and that which seemed impossible will now be possible with God. For as many as walk in the patterns of the Christ by embracing their crosses and dying on them, will certainly – like Christ – also be crowned with glory and honor at the coming of the Lord. This is the hope of our salvation, the end of faith, in Christ, and for which we gladly embrace the sufferings of the Lord in our flesh until the appointed time.
THE OVERCOMERS IN THE HAND OF GOD
The plan of God is beautiful concerning man, and His original agenda for the earth to be full of His righteousness and holiness has not changed. For God in wisdom has kept the culmination of His program till this time in which creation will be restored back to Him in purity by the act of holy birthing and cleansing. However, and like scripture rightly says, this reality of restoration of all things back to God is not given into the hands of angels, but into the hands of man. And this glorious agenda of God, which is given to man, is not also given to every man, although every man has been given or will be given the fair chance to be part of this reality, even though the reality is that God is still not banking on all men to carry out this agenda for Him. For this, I believe, is where the Overcomers come in.
Over the ages and times past, God has used men to carry out various aspects of His agenda and will not stop using men. However, let me show you something that I figured out just a few days ago in my meditations. I will use the picture of the last assignment that God gave Elijah in the days of his flesh, before he was taken up to heaven, to paint a picture of where we are in the grand scheme of God. See this scripture:
“Then the Lord said to him: “Go, return on your way to the Wilderness of Damascus; and when you arrive, anoint Hazael as king over Syria. Also you shall anoint Jehu the son of Nimshi as king over Israel. And Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel Meholah you shall anoint as prophet in your place. It shall be that whoever escapes the sword of Hazael, Jehu will kill; and whoever escapes the sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill. Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.” 1Kings19:15-18.
This word, in the context of the time in which it was given by God to Elijah, has already come to pass, but in the context of prophecy, it will find its completion in these times of the end of days. God has always used mankind to carry out His agenda, irrespective of whether the men or man knew Him or not. The scripture above tells the story of three men that God chose by Himself. He instructed Elijah to anoint and give assignments to these men that would see God’s judgment meted out on the iniquity of Babylon, represented at the time by the house of Ahab and Jezebel – the royals of Israel at that time. The assignment speaks concerning Hazael, Jehu and Elisha. And then in the context of that assignment, God says he who escapes the sword of Hazael, Jehu will kill and he who escapes the sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill. And then went further to say, “yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him”. Please pay attention this. I personally love the assignment of these three great men of God, but my attention is on the assignment of the unnamed seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal and the influence of Babylon. I am very curious about who these seven thousand are and what their own assignment is within the agenda of God. But before I explain who I believe they allude to, let me tell you what or who the first three men represent within the context of my illustration.
Hazael as the king of Syria represents those outside of the fold of the covenant people of God, who however have hearts that carry what God needs to accomplish His plan. You can call these ones pagans that don’t really know God but carry out God’s plans. One such example is Cyrus, king of Persia, whom God used to rebuild his temple in Jerusalem. Of this Cyrus, a pagan king, it is written: “To Cyrus, whose right hand I have held— To subdue nations before him And loose the armor of kings, To open before him the double doors, So that the gates will not be shut: ‘I will go before you And make the crooked places straight; I will break in pieces the gates of bronze And cut the bars of iron. I will give you the treasures of darkness And hidden riches of secret places, That you may know that I, the Lord, Who call you by your name, Am the God of Israel. For Jacob My servant’s sake, And Israel My elect, I have even called you by your name; I have named you, THOUGH YOU HAVE NOT KNOWN ME. Isaiah 45:1-4 (Emphasis mine)
So we have those who God used in history who actually don’t know or recognize Him as God, but He used them anyway.
The next one is Jehu. He, within the context of my illustration, represents the physical Israel who by covenant were the oracles of God by which His agenda was meant to be carried out on earth, but because they could not enter into the rest of God, due to unbelief, they were cut off in order for the Gentiles to take their place in the agenda of God, even though they will be restored again according to the promise of God. (See Romans 11)
The next one, in the context of my illustration, is Elisha. Elisha, according to my illustration, represents the church, or if you want to use the actual words “The called out ones”, who were originally birthed by the blood of Jesus and sealed by the Holy Spirit. These ones are what scripture calls the Gentiles who were brought in to take the position of failed Israel. But again, these appointed Gentiles, called out in the place of Israel, have also failed God’s agenda, having bowed the knee to religion, unbelief, the worship of money, physical things, luxury etc. Painfully enough, these ones that were supposed to be the very hope of God in dealing with Babylon are right there with Jezebel on the bed of her fornication, drinking and eating at the table of her abominations.
But because the agenda of God cannot be stopped and neither will it fail, God must once again bring another set of people on the scene to finish what the others could not do. In the context of my illustration, I speak of the seven thousand who have not bowed their knees to Baal nor are partakers of the wine of the fornication of Jezebel. It is to these ones that the end of the grand plan of God in this age has come. These seven thousand, in the context of my illustration, are the Overcomers who have been hidden within the plan of God in the wilderness of their justification. They are the nameless and faceless sons of God, awaiting the time when God will manifest them on the earth. It is for these ones that this article was written. Let’s talk about them below.
THE OVERCOMERS IN THE HAND OF GOD
To help create understanding concerning the Overcomers in the hand of God, I will use the story of Gideon and his three hundred men. It is such an amazing story that tells of the wonderful wisdom of God and how it works in the life of anyone who gives their all to God. I tell you this without any apologies; the Overcomers are swords in the hand of God by which the entire Babylon narrative will be destroyed from the earth and also by whose hands God will restore earth back to Himself. To be part of this Overcomer Company is indeed a high calling. For as God uses their lives to remove Babylon and her corrupt influence, He will also use them to birth light and life in creation. I have shared some of these things in my previous articles on the Overcomers; you can check them out in the archives.
Within the context of the story of Gideon, and using the story to share about the Overcomers, I will talk about a few things that are critical for our days. To read the story of Gideon, see the book of Judges, chapters 6, 7 and 8.
Scriptures say that many are called but few are chosen, and to add to this, even among the chosen few, few will be faithful to the call that birthed them into God. It is important to note that God seems to favor within His wisdom, the concept of using few people from out of the larger crowd to carry out His plans. These faithful few among the chosen few are those who I refer to as the Overcomers, who are Overcoming daily in the trials and temptations of their flesh and waiting in hope till the redemption of their bodies – which is the exchange of mortality with immortality. They are few indeed. For like Gideon’s three hundred, they were separated from the thirty two thousand and separated from the ten thousand by God Himself, having gone through the test by the water of the word of God that birthed them. And like I had said earlier, these Overcomers are swords and weapons of war against flesh and Babylon in the hand of God.
There is a declaration in the story of Gideon that has never ceased to amaze me and which I only came to the understanding of a little bit, just some few days prior to the publication of this article. I speak of what Gideon charged his men with. See Judges 7:16-18 “Then he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put a trumpet into every man’s hand, with empty pitchers, and torches inside the pitchers. And he said to them, “Look at me and do likewise; watch, and when I come to the edge of the camp you shall do as I do: When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then you also blow the trumpets on every side of the whole camp, and say, ‘The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!’ ”
THE SWORD OF THE LORD AND THAT OF GIDEON
According to the story, Gideon and his army of three hundred men completely destroyed the fear-inspiring Midianites and Amalekites, all the people of the East, who were lying in the valley as numerous as locusts; who had camels without number, as the sand by the seashore in multitude. The introduction of the enemy that this small army of Gideon’s three hundred men defeated, paints a picture of the animosity of Babylon and her influence on the entire surface of the earth. For scripture says, she sits upon the waters, which are peoples, tongues and tribes of the earth. And this picture of influence, strength, power and control of the entire system of the world by Satan could make an Overcomer ask if it is at all possible for Babylon to be destroyed or perhaps even make the Overcomer shiver and think that they are not strong enough because of the size of the army. But this is not a useful assessment, for the strength of the army of the Lord doesn’t come from its size, for strong and mighty is the Lord who judges Babylon through the Overcomers.
Now, speaking of the sword of the Lord and of Gideon, what does it mean? I believe the answer is very simple and precise within the context of the story and by the spirit of prophecy. Concerning the sword of the Lord and that of Gideon, the question is: who conscripted Gideon and his three hundred into this army? God did. Who chose the trumpet, the clay pot and the fire torches as weapons? Gideon did. Meaning that in the context of this story, a man or a weapon is a sword to the one that chose it. Let me put it this way, Gideon and the three hundred men instantly became swords in the hand of God because He, God, was the one that conscripted them and the clay pot, fire torch and the trumpet became the sword of Gideon because he, Gideon, was the one that chose those weapons. For clearly it is not written that God instructed Gideon to make the choice of weapons even though he must have done so by the Spirit of God. For it is unusual for any man to choose a clay pot, a trumpet and a fire torch as weapons of war, except it be by divine directive. Meaning that the sword of the Lord is Gideon and his three hundred men, while the sword of Gideon are the unconventional materials he used for the war. So it is with the army of Overcomers. They are the sword of justice in the hand of God to destroy Babylon and the sword in their own hands is the trumpet, the clay pot and the fire torches of their unique ordinations and callings in God. For nothing that escaped the sword of Hazael (Pagans in the hand of God), the sword of Jehu (The chosen people of Israel) and the sword of Elisha (The compromised church) shall escape the sword of justice of the Lord – The Overcomers. It is a glorious calling, worth laying all down for that which the Overcomers have been called into by God. For by their lives in the hand of God, laid down as living sacrifices before Him in humility, Babylon and her influence will be totally destroyed, for strong is the Lord who judges her.
So dear brothers-in-arms and Overcomers unto God, though it has been a painful process on the journey of dying to yourself on the cross of your faithfulness to God and the cross of Christ, do not waver in your commitment to the cross of Christ, for you shall inherit all things if you overcome all things in your flesh. Let me say this here and now, do not rejoice that by your life as sword in the hand of God Babylon will be destroyed, but rejoice that God, the Lord and King of the universe chose you to be one with Him and then numbered you among the few called to overcome. For as the Lord Jesus admonished His disciples not to rejoice that demons obeyed them but that they should rejoice because their names are written in heaven, so also I admonish you as sons of God not to rejoice for the calling to remove Babylon, but to rejoice at the presence of the One who called. For He alone is the desire of all nations that we all must rejoice for.
In conclusion, I will give a word of prophecy that the Lord gave me while meditating, prior to writing this piece. The year 2019 for the company of Overcomers is the YEAR OF THE SWORD OF THE JUSTICE OF THE LORD. This will certainly mean different things to different people, as God will give interpretation by His Spirit, but in a general sense; it is the year in which the judgment of flesh, sin, and this world system will increase by God through the various ordinations of the Overcoming Company of the Lord. This in itself is not the complete demise of Babylon, but an act of “occupy till I come” that will surely lead to the complete destruction of Babylon. For the demise of Babylon will be full when the Lord comes in Light to manifest Himself in the bodies of the Overcomers in the first resurrection of the dead. 2019 is going to be brutal against the works of darkness by the workings of God through the Overcoming Company of the sons of God. Meaning that as one chosen by the hand of God to be part of the Overcoming Company of the Lord’s army, right in the area of your daily influence, which could be your family, job, office, business, school, ministry, charity, government etc, you will begin to bring judgment, justice and the mind of God into places and create new ecosystems that break down the influence of Babylon in such places. The foundation of Africa will be touched by these swords of justice in the hand of God and her true self will begin to emerge. The year 2019 will bring these acts of justice into place and will not stop until the Lord comes to finish all things. However, here is a warning to the Overcomers for the coming days: “You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.” 2Timothy 2:3-4. Hardship here doesn’t necessarily mean poverty or any such thing. It simply means submission to the will of God, or if you want to see it in another way, it means obedience or embracing the mind of Christ which is that mind that says, “not my will but Yours be done” even if embracing such leads to death. Note that every act of obedience to God creates death of self in our lives. And because the natural man wants to be in charge at all times, obeying God always takes us through some form of hardship irrespective of how huge they may appear or how small.
Take up strength dear Overcomers unto God, forget the mistakes of the past, keep your eyes on Him who is the anchor of your hope even as you see His Day come. For in a little while, He that is to come will come and all will be restored into God.
God bless you.
