31 July 2026
Most of today’s Christians live a defeated life. It’s tragic to even speak but it is true. You can see it in the consistent failure to live righteously. This failure is evident in the missed opportunities to win souls for the kingdom of God. You can even see it in the weaknesses in their prayer life. If you can read the word of God and see the overwhelming promises of victory, the answers to prayer, and the lengths and means in which God will go to work in us and through us and then focus on our life to examine the empty void, or lack of that Christian life reality in our own lives, then you must clearly see that something is terribly wrong.
But along the way; ever so often, we see individuals of another breed. We see believers that seem to be cut from a different cloth. These people are different. They are committed, consecrated; they are intense spiritual warfighters. They have nothing to desire in life but to live for Christ. They march daily with one single cause. They are an example to everyone. They don’t live to be an example though. They only desire to live to be what God has asked them to be.
Most of the time we choose to view them as a rare case. We put them in the category of believers that God is doing a special thing in them because they have a special purpose. This is nothing more than another attribute in the false doctrine of “Calvinism Culture.” If you honestly think God picks and chooses some over others to shine forth his life to the world, then you have a false understanding about God Himself. The truth is God is no respecter of persons. He is just as willing to shine forth His life through you as anyone else in the world.
This proper understanding about God then must challenge us to look into our own hearts. Those individuals of another breed I mentioned are not special. They simply chose to fully give of themselves to the Lord. They have presented themselves to God to be that living sacrifice.
The challenge that we all face today as soldiers is simply this; will we be the example?
1 Timothy 4:11-16 These things command and teach. 4:12 Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. 4:13 Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. 4:14 Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. 4:15 Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all. 4:16 Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.
Until someone comes along and shows forth a new standard; a real example, then this modern generation of believers will not know that a greater victory can be achieved. Until we rise and take on the responsibility of seeking the example, then we will not understand what is possible in our Christian life. The Marine Corps holds every soldier to the highest of standards. Tragically, the modern church world holds believers to the lowest of standards. It’s time for you as God’s Soldier to rise up and be the example, live the example, and stand against a lost world and a cold complacent church and declare to all, this is the standard.
Matthew 16:24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
The root cause in modern American Christianity is people are following people and not following Christ. Following people is much easier because it doesn’t require any study or seeking of the Lord. When you follow people, all you have to do is watch and mimic. This is where we have failed. But somewhere along the battlefield, we are placed in positions where the true example of God’s soldiers is exemplified. It is then we come to the threshold where we are challenged to come out of the cold and emptiness of our compromised Christianity to the real example that is displayed before us.
2 Corinthians 3:3 Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy table of the heart.
How you change those around you is to set the example. Be the example before them. As long as every believer is compromised or living a dull, empty, lack-of-fire Christian life, then there is no example to challenge their condition. However, when a genuine child of God comes along with the fire of eternity in their eyes, the flame of fire in their bosom, and the righteous intensity of battling the devil on all fronts, and pushing him backward wherever we are, then that atmosphere will drive change to all believers around.
Your consecration will smite the heart of the compromised believer. Your faith will be an affront to their casual unbelief. The spirit inside you will be an evident token of their lack of genuine walk with the Lord. Most of all, the world will finally see what real Christianity should be.
Your ammunition for today: LEARN THE EXAMPLE & SET THE EXAMPLE
If we ever expect to get back to the power and influence God expects of the church, then we as God’s soldiers must learn from the word of God alone what the Lord expects from us; and then carry out those standing orders.
The early church set the example for all generations of the church that follow. They walked in daily in the power of God. They marched gloriously through the darkest cities and pushed the armies of hell completely out of their way as they stood for God. They impacted their generation for all of eternity. Many of them were martyred. There was much blood shed as they lived in complete obedience to God. Was their blood spilled in vain? Where is that church today?
You’ll experience the power of the Holy Spirit daily as you walk the standard daily. Once you learn what victory can be in your life, then walk in that victory, you will become the standard. You will set the example!
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