Jul | 27 | Order No 227

Dream Word – COURAGE

Hebrews 10:37,38 "For yet a little while, and He who is coming will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him." NKJV

Order No 227

On this day in 1943, the monster Joseph Stalin, issued Order No. 227, the "Not one step backward" order, declaring that, “Panic makers and cowards must be liquidated on the spot. Not one step backward without orders from higher headquarters! Commanders who abandon a position without an order from higher headquarters are traitors to the Fatherland.”

If you’re fortunate you can catch courage. You can be inspired to ‘stick it out’ even in the most dreadful of circumstances, drawing your strength from the steadfastness of other brave souls around you. It’s tough, but courage can be taken up into yourself by osmosis. Slowly, steadily, surely.

Cowardice on the other hand, spreads like wildfire. It’s easier to catch than the common cold, ten times as nasty and who can measure the depth of self-loathing destruction, that for years to come, still festers in such a rotten and a running heart.

Our text for tonight sends, not a dictators communiqué, but never the less, a clear message to troops whose chief motivation is the pleasing of their Captain. He says, "those of you who cower, shrink, withdraw, keep back yourself, be half-hearted, half-committed, live a 'one foot in, one foot out' kind of Christianity, well, I shall take no delight in you." Tell me now my brethren is there any worse thing a soldier of Christ could hear? Wouldn’t being shot on the spot be far better?

Some of you need to ‘get a grip tonight.’ Some of you need to become whole-hearted tonight. Some of you, tonight, wish you could just be taken out and shot, yes, some of you wish you could just be put out of your yellow-bellied misery. ENOUGH OF THIS! Death is not the answer, no, an overwhelming sense of His displeasure toward You, is a far greater judgement and may I say a far greater solution. For everything within our new man wants to please Him. Yes, the great vacuum-like void of His displeasure will draw what little courage we have to the very surface of our lives. If you are a double- minded Christian, then such words should surely shock you back to the courage of counting the cost? Surely! However, in this Laodicean age of blind paupers, all yellowed with deceitful riches and the cares of this world, all saddled with niceness and a good pension plan, if this is you and these words do not move you from yellow to red, then I suspect you are not a Christian at all, but rather a feigner of faith, a faker, a fruitless tree, a false prophet, even a blind leader of the blind and all your riches shall lead to ditches all full of cissies with certificates of every kind; all blind leaders of the blind. These words from the Captain of our Salvation never worry the illegitimate, but the child of God however, seeing themselves lost in Laodicea, is shamed by them, moved by them, changed by them.

I am thankful to be able to tell you that there is always a comeback for cowards. By our confession, our repentance, yes by His grace and strength, we can once again feel His pleasure, we can once again stand and not draw back.

Meanwhile on the morrow, let us be wise and let us engage in osmosis, making a decision to surround ourselves with people of strength and courage.

“I am going to my Father’s; and though with great difficulty I have got hither, yet now I do not repent me of all the trouble I have been at to arrive where I am. My sword I give to him that shall succeed me in my pilgrimage, and my courage and skill to him that can get it. My marks and scars I carry with me, to be a witness for me that I have fought His battles who will now be my rewarder.” Heard from Mr. Valiant for truth on his crossing the river to the City of the Great King.

Listen: - No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. 2 Timothy 2:4-5 NKJV.

Pray:- Lord, grant strength to us Your people, yes Lord, give us good courage, that we might please You and feel Your pleasure. Lord let us never take but one step back, amen.