The Keep of God
By JD Jones
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About this ebook
So, you think you are a warrior for Christ, a regular soldier in the war against the devil? But are you armed? Are you trained? Do you know who's got your back? Come see how the Apostle Paul handled confrontation and the defense of the gospel. It may not be what you think. It most likely is not how you were taught to handle spiritual warfare. In this study on being a true Christian warrior, the author uses Acts, Chapter 24 as the foundation of a confrontation that is complete with all the elements of today's spiritual battles laid bare. Are you up for the challenge? Here's your chance to change the way you not only react to life's pressures but also to the way you see them. Learn how to develop that spiritual presence in all situations. Learn what it means to "take God with you" when you leave the church doors. Grow. Develop. Become the whole you that God intended from the beginning.
JD Jones
JD Jones now writes full time. As a minister, he and his wife of 30+ years spent their days working with at-risk youth. He has three children of his own who provide him with the source of his belief that he has succeeded. "The greatest pleasures in life are the simple things so many take for granted. All we can do in this life is make a lot of memories. Everything else is just so much stuff."
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The Keep of God - JD Jones
The Keep
of God
A Manual for the Christian Warrior
by
J. D. Jones Jr.
Copyright © 2018, James D. Jones Jr.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without the express, written consent of the author for any purpose, other than the inclusion of brief quotations in review.
Unless otherwise noted all scriptural references are
from the King James Version of the bible.
Smashwords Edition
License Notes:
This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be resold in any form or transferred, even if no compensation is given. If you would like to share this e-book, please purchase additional copies for other recipients. If you are reading this e-book and it was not purchased by you or for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the rights and hard work of the author.
Table of Contents
Foreword by the author
Chapter 1 It’s A Battle Out There
Chapter 2 Getting Ready
Chapter 3 Always, the Attack Must Come
Chapter 4 When a Christian Answers God’s Call
Chapter 5 The Attack Comes Full Force
Chapter 6 God Will Intervene
Chapter 7 Accusers Act Like Victims
Chapter 8 The World Will Gang Up
Chapter 9 It’s a Christian’s Choice
Chapter 10 Godly Worship Attacks the Devil
Chapter 11 Because Christians are Different
Chapter 12 No Offense Offered
Chapter 13 The Keep is Mandatory
Chapter 14 Relationships Matter to God
Chapter 15 Explain to the World
A Final word from the author
All references to scripture are quoted from the King James Version
Foreword
From the Author
Here you go!
You are about to enter a place I call The Keep of God
.
In the English language there are nine separate and complete definitions of the usage for the word keep
. Using these definitions as a starting point and the 24th chapter of Acts as an implementation guide, weaknesses are exposed in much of our current Christian walk. We can learn to overcome these weaknesses and thus, become better Christian examples and more importantly, closer to our God.
The way the apostle Paul fights his battle in Acts 24 gives us a fresh look at the way we have compromised our walk with God and taken to fighting the battles ourselves. Understanding Paul’s approach brings us back to putting God first and not trying to fight God’s battles for Him.
I believe God still wants warriors He can do His work through. Every battle has an element of warfare in it. Today’s warriors have been weakened and softened up because they have taken to seeking productive programs and rituals over seeking the presence of God. From the beginning God has only wanted to walk with His creation. He has never changed. The programs are not evil, just misleading when we come to depend too highly upon them.
This place of getting close to God I call The Keep.
Inside the keep is where God ministers to our every need. Each area of His character is identified by one of the English definitions of the word keep. Each area of our needs can be similarly identified. God’s character perfectly matches our needs. He is the supply for our every need.
Consequently, an understanding and practical application of God’s keep can revive a stalled walk with God and bring baby warriors to mature readiness in the service for God. It is every pastor’s goal to build up and edify the people of the church they serve. It needs to become the goal of every church member to be built up by their leaders. There are too many immature Christians sitting in our pews today. This makes them vulnerable in ways that most of them are unaware.
It’s time we wake up and get in God’s keep. We will never grow outside of God’s care. As long as we are taking care of everything ourselves, God will never get the chance to show us how He would do it.
Consider this a call to arms. Not violence and destruction like man’s warfare, but to love and security like God has offered His people since the beginning of time. We may live in a violent and destructive world, but God has ordained His people to be men and women of love and compassion for others. What the world needs is what only the church can provide. The only way the church can provide it is if the members of that church possess what is needed. The only way to possess what the world needs from God’s church is for the members of that church to get into the keep of God and receive from God.
In my life I have come to view every battle so that it does not become a matter of personal victory or failure. Instead, it is an opportunity for God to draw me into His keep. We need to be reminded that the battle is not ours but the Lord’s. (2 Chronicles 20:15, paraphrased) Once reminded we need to start showing off our God as we stand securely in His keep.
The enemy of our souls is still trying to kill the church. He is working around the clock to cause damage, destruction and mayhem to any and all who dare associate themselves with God’s institution. Yet the church world muddles along, for the greater part, as though every thing is going okay. We get upset when news reports show a decided favoritism against the things of God. Abortion, marriage, family issues, all seem to be under fire. Yes, we get upset. But what are we doing about it? Not just what actions are we taking? What are we doing to prepare ourselves?
I’m not talking about activism. That’s all well and good in its proper usage. (After God has anointed the individual to carry out the action) But too often we have replaced God’s plan and structure for the Christian warrior with some watered down, loud, and publicly minded version of a Christian bulletin board, as though our very presence changes things. Face it. You and I could not save our own souls, we will never be able to save the world from itself, either. We need greater fire power than any of us has. We need God’s fire to get in the middle of our lives, and everything we are doing, and make some things happen. Not according to our agenda but according to God’s plan. Otherwise we will be found fighting against (You’re either with me or against me,
Jesus said. Matthew 12:30, paraphrased) the very God we supposedly support.
Christians everywhere need to rally around our God. We’ve become so good at rallying around the flag pole, or at the park, or for this holiday or that holiday that the average Christian man and woman today has forgotten how to rally around their God for every day things or else they are too busy to accomplish it. The average Christian today has forgotten how to get so close to God that they can feel His actual presence in their lives. We need to reclaim that experience. Christian warriors everywhere, stand up and move back into complete union with the merciful Father in heaven who called you out in the first place.
Chapter 1
It’s a Battle Out There
Since the first day I decided to give my life to Jesus I have noticed a tug of war with the things of this world. In the beginning it was always a battle to put aside old habits and move on to the new life God had granted me in Jesus Christ. Every time I tried to live that new life something popped up to remind me of the pleasures of the old life. Granted, the old life had its share of bad times, even more than its share. But the rewards of the sinful life refused to lie down and be quiet while I learned this new way.
Every day since then I have been the recipient of what I call the world’s advertisements. Over and over again, people, corporations and even church members make offers that seem enticing on the surface but are only another well-dressed package of Satan’s lures. Credit card applications, loans, new deals for this car or that truck, special pasttimes and hobbies, relationships and friendships galore. Everything seems so innocuous on the surface. But I have established a series of questions to weed out God’s true offers from the world’s false offers.
Face it, we Christians are in a battle every day. If we do not stand up for what we believe we will fall for what the world seeks to impose upon us. It is how we stand up that makes the difference. I remember Paul Harvey, the great radio commentator, making the statement one time that a hypocrite is the person who complains about the sex, drugs and violence on their VCR. Today that would be our DVD. This statement is a sad truth of the average Christian walk today. Too many Christians are saying one thing and living another as they give in to the seemingly inevitable battles of every day life. We justify far to many excesses and overlook too many faults in one another. The battle is not in the physical attack as much as in the mental resolve of God’s people to do the right thing no matter what.
I ask myself how the things I do affect God’s church. Because I know God would never do anything to destroy His church, the body of Christ, I am also assured that God would not move me in such a way that the church would be harmed. If it is not God then I choose not to be in it, no matter how attractive or how many others desire me to. Sometimes I have been asked if I ever wondered if I had somehow missed God. How can I miss God if God is not in it?
I ask myself how the things I do affect families and parents and children who make up families. God created families as a relationship unit to bear one another up and cause each other to grow. That’s why we call the church congregation the family of God. God would never tear down the family structure or jeopardize those within it for any reason. He is the Father who wants good things for His children. (Luke 11:11,12) No offer or temptation should ever cause us to cause harm to what God is building.
It does not matter about our personal prosperity or our personal happiness when we make decisions. Matthew 6:33 is my personal scripture for how to live my life. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
If I only look at whether my next decision benefits me, then I can justify most anything. A large part of God’s plan is that everyone sees themselves as a part of the bigger whole. The enemy’s attack strategy then is to separate us and make us feel as though we are being cheated or left out somehow. The enemy makes all decisions seem personal and small. God makes all decisions inclusive of things much bigger than ourselves. What we have for lunch today, where we eat it, how we eat it, and who we share it with could impact the lives of others if only we allow God to get into it.
So how do we approach these battles every day? How do we learn to follow God and put aside the offers of the world? Well, we get into the keep of God and see the world from His perspective.
God’s people have always had to fight for the things this world would seek to take from them. It is a documented fact of the very existence of God’s people. Yet, today it seems, most Christians have fallen into a pattern of belief that creates the misconception that God has supplied all they need so just go on and be satisfied. This is an outright deception of the devil and needs to be revealed as such right now.
The systems of the world were at odds with the people of God from the beginning. They will remain at odds until the deceiver has been removed from the earth. There is no peace for the Christian with the world. There is only the calm of the knowledge of God.
Even Jesus could not walk this earth with peace around Him. His peace was inside Him from God. Around Him were the anger, frustration, torment, and desperation of the world. Those He encountered needed something from Him. He was a supply of strength, wisdom, knowledge, and hope of everlasting joy. But still, the world attacked Him because He was not of the world. He was in
the world but not of
the world. It’s a fine distinction that has become blurred with time and adverse cultural conditions.
Today the average Christian person has very little to give to the spiritually hungry souls they meet, caught up in the cycle of world events and daily situations. To be sure, most Christians have a desperate need of their own. Finances, marriages, rebellious teens, rocky relationships with other church members, wrong pastimes, unproductive careers. All these things
have become the mountain to be climbed for each Christian.
This is the same daily life the non-Christian faces each day. Most Christians of today have fallen into the small deceptions of the enemy, which pulls on us to be like the world instead of like Jesus. Christians have taken the fire into their bosom and have been burned. It is time for God’s warriors to come out from the world. It is time to be a separate people for a great God.
Many are called Christian. How many are called Christ-like? We Christians are in this battle together and must help each other understand it. The world attacks Christian values and Christian individuals on a daily basis as though they were assaulting the greatest fortress ever built. God tells us the reason for this intentional attack pattern is the relationship between children of the light and children of the dark. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
(James 4:4) The devil’s warfare with God’s people is an established fact.
With each deadly wave of the enemy’s forces it becomes increasingly obvious the enemy is taking the battle very seriously. As time unfolds it seems just as obvious the Christian is not taking the battle as seriously. Or, perhaps more correctly, the Christian is not acting like he/she is even in a battle. The average Christian, without even being aware of it, has accepted social compromise instead of God’s promise. The time has come to take the promise into the battle where it belongs.
Most assuredly it is a battle. We can call it whatever we want, a game, a contest, or a face off. Whatever we call it does not change what God calls it. Ephesians 6:12 says, For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Literally translated it reads, ‘They are not against flesh and blood, but against chief officials, against strength of privilege, against the lesser demons of darkness in this age, against ethereal evil in celestial places’. We are against a power that wants to defeat us, an organized power capable of bringing destruction to our unprotected lives. A supernatural army follows us everywhere and awaits our moment of defenselessness.
I do not have any problem with those who prefer to think of our Christian battle as a game or contest. To describe or parallel the battle using a game or action other than warfare does not diminish the contest. All competition between humans is based on warfare in one form or another. All physical and mental contests can be explained with and ruled by biblical principles. God is all in all and nothing we can do will eliminate His importance in our lives.
In case there is still an unclear mind when it comes to God’s command in this situation we can read further. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds.
(2 Corinthians 10:3,4). Not only is it a war, but God supplies the weapons. They are not our weapons. They are not wimpy, carnal weapons but they are supernatural. And it really is our
warfare.
See it in a new light, brother and sister warrior. Review Luke 5:24,25. We have heard this preached many times to tell us of the good things Christ has for His people, but we must start thinking like warriors in all we say and do. We must see the reality of the enemy’s attack. But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power upon earth to forgive sins, (he said unto the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thine house.
This is not a sign to let us merely know Jesus has power. Read it again. It is the description of how we demonstrate that we know Christ has power to forgive sins. Jesus says, ‘Change your position. Stop acting like you are defeated. Act like you are made whole in all things.’ Jesus said to the man, Go! Possess that which is yours
.
And immediately he rose up before them, and took up that whereon he lay, and departed to his own house, glorifying God.
(Luke 5:25) Immediately! Immediately! Do we really understand what that means? This man was waiting for the instruction to complete the battle he was waging with the enemy. He was waiting, do you hear? As soon as he heard the instruction, his immediate
response was to follow through with the given instruction.
He took possession of that which had previously had possession of him. He now took control over his own sickbed. Then he went to his own house. All this glorified God. Everyone in that room was thanking and begging Jesus for something. It is a guarantee that everyone was giving God glory and praise in order to usher in some healing or wholeness for themselves. But, look at this. The one who got up and did as he was told and took possession of what the enemy control of was the one who gave real glory to God. How many there that day did nothing and thereby missed their opportunity? The message is clear. Let the glory of God be manifested through every action of the Christian warrior. Even the newest Christian convert can give God glory for the things He has blessed them with that day by taking control, not acting like a victim, and acting like they are doing what they are doing because God has blessed them to do it.
Warriors Stand Up
Now, the sad part. Many Christian warriors do not even know, for the most part, that they are in a battle. How easy it must be for the enemy to defeat an unarmed Christian. How easy it must be to wipe out us Christians who are not even facing forward in the attack. We should not be worried about being taken advantage of by the neighbor who is blowing leaves onto our property. We should not be obsessed with catching the guy at work before he stabs us in the back over a promotion we feel belongs to us. Every day, we are being attacked and murdered by the enemy