“Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 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 Tim. 2:3-4.
In this Royal book, we will consider some military-principles of the Kingdom of God. Now, if you live by them as a believer and a royal-soldier in God’s army, you will both please God and do well.
Firstly, understand that these army-principles to be discussed were modelled by our dearest Lord Jesus, as the King and Captain of the armies of His Kingdom, when He was on earth.
Two armies of the Kingdom
You know, every Kingdom or nation has got armies – some in charge of the air, sea and land. The Kingdom of God as a nation has got two main armies who are in charge of two realms – the visible and the invisible realms of God’s Kingdom.
Yes, the Kingdom or rule of God is for two general realms of the visible and invisible, earthly and Heavenly, physical and spiritual. Now, the same royal principles are relevant to both realms, because as a System the Kingdom of God is integrated or interlinked.
The visible Kingdom-army
The visible army of God’s Kingdom comprises all believers on earth. They are in charge of directly bringing God’s Kingdom to the earthly or physical realm – Jn.5:27; Ps.115:16; Gen. 1:26; Phil. 1:6.
Entry into this royal army is really by the choice of God, when He chooses you to be a believer – 2 Tim. 2:4; Jn. 15:16; 1 Jn.4:19.
Beloved, it is important to emphasize this because if you think that you chose Jesus
(as is the religious concept of most believers), your ultimate allegiance will be to yourself. And so under pressure, you will seek out for your interests above His because the initiator is you.
But, if you are minded that He chose you, (the Kingdom concept) then your allegiance will be to the Lord Jesus your Captain. As such, you will die to yourself and seek out for His interests, although it may be hard to do.
Thus fundamentally, as God’s soldier, you are to be sold out to Him, not to yourself. This understanding is important for you to endure hardness in your soldiering-life on earth.
The invisible Kingdom army
The invisible army of God’s Kingdom are the angels. They are mandated and equipped to directly and mainly uphold and bring God’s Kingdom to the ‘spiritual’ realm.
Now, these roles of the visible army and the invisible army i.e. of believers on earth and angels cannot be exchanged. My friend, you are to do your job and to allow them to do theirs.
Please understand that, you can hinder angels from doing their job or operating in the way they want to, in collaborating with you to maintain and enhance the Kingdom or the royalty, rule and realm of God on earth – 1 Cor. 11:10; Heb. 1:14.
Trained and untrained Kingdom-soldiers
In God’s Kingdom or nation, although all believers are supposed to be in the visible royal-army, some are trained in the victory-life of our Lord Jesus and others are not. But bringing about the Kingdom of God requires training.
So, the patriarch Abraham who lived in the Kingdom system (Jn. 8:56) had three hundred and eighteen (318) soldiers who were born and trained in His house – Gen.14:14. Yes, it is not enough to be born again into the Kingdom. You need to be trained to function as a soldier in the Father’s Kingdom.
The credentials of a trained soldier
- Now, God’s trained soldiers fight from victory but the untrained ones fight for victory.
- The King’s trained soldiers know how to practically make use of Jesus’ victory on the Cross; and so they fight the good fight of faith by resting in the Lord, being strong in Him, not in themselves – 1 Tim. 6:12; Heb. 4:3 ; Eph. 6:12; 2 Cor. 12:9.
On the other hand, the untrained soldiers of the Lord do not know how to use Jesus’
victory practically. As a result, they are always fighting because they are strong in themselves and so settle every bad situation by traditional fight or struggle.
So, the trained Kingdom soldiers know which battle to fight and which ones to refuse to fight – Ps. 23: 5a. But the untrained ones fight all battles because they feel capable and therefore unfortunately dissipate their strengths needlessly.
- The trained ones are soldiers who have on the seven-fold armour of God; and the untrained ones are soldiers without God’s full armour – Eph. 6:12-18.
Understand that the emphasis in our immediate Scriptural reference is to have on the “whole armour of God”, not just part of it on you – See vrs. 11, 13.
- Beloved, the King’s trained soldier abounds in the Kingdom- word by which he fights, but the untrained soldier fights with the religious-word. Please understand that the Kingdom-word is an understanding from the Bible that promotes the Person, Principles and Performance of our dearest Lord Jesus for us.
The opposite is the religious-word used by the untrained soldier and that only promotes religious-living.
- The trained soldier lives by the five royal army-principles to be discussed in this book (from chapter four).
So, the untrained soldiers mind, attitude and outlook-on-life have to conform to God’s victory-bringing Kingdom-army principles. Understand that it is by these Kingdom-word principles that the rule of God is maintained and enhanced.
