Convictions as Your Commander

I think this is worth a few minutes of time: The Woke Purge Is Coming For The Military. Unlike the author, I’ll say it outright — The US is under a nascent Stalinist regime. There will be obvious differences, but the fundamental nature is very much the same. Everyone who doesn’t toe the line is a terrorist, traitor, etc.

The Prophet Zechariah addressed the issue of bad leadership. The latter half of his book is written from that multilevel viewpoint, where the spiritual truth must first stand before the literal promises can come true. The Covenant was not a “law” in the sense of what that word means in English; it was the expressed moral character of the Sovereign. Thus, Zechariah warned in the latter chapters of his prophecy that if the sheep of His pasture didn’t follow His voice, then He would send bad shepherds to work among them.

This is the same as saying that you have opened the door to demons. If you do not stay within the boundaries of divine moral privilege, then you have wandered into Enemy territory. That grants him access to your life.

Bad shepherds are more like predators than keepers. They are a bigger threat than those coming in from outside; they are the true traitors of God’s covenant shalom. They seek to plunder the sheep instead of seeking the welfare of the flock. In a very perverse way, they insist that their plundering is in the flock’s best interest. This was the literal experience for those who misunderstood the spiritual meaning of the Covenant, who kept wandering outside the boundaries of divine privilege.

In chapter 10, one of the foundations of staying within the boundaries is to never presume upon the mercies of the Lord. A sense of entitlement is a Satanic doctrine. God says you must come to Him and ask. Even if it’s for something that seems utterly natural, you should come to Him and ask, thus declaring your full awareness of your dependency on Him. Don’t buy into the Western cultural lie that the physical universe is ordered and predictable. God still has His hand on all things. Prayer makes a difference in the literal outcomes.

Failure to assert for your own welfare this sense of dependency calls on the Father to send bad shepherds to His flock. Even though He will punish them for being bad shepherds, it is He who sends them. Your false choices call on Him to open the situation up for demonically controlled people. So what do you do when you find yourself in this bad situation? How do you regain the peace with God so that He grants good shepherds?

You learn to awaken the link between your conscious mind and your convictions. Ignoring your convictions is what got you into trouble in the first place. Notice the imagery here:

From [the Lord] comes the cornerstone,
From him the tent peg,
From him the battle bow,
From him every ruler together.
They shall be like mighty men,
Who tread down their enemies
In the mire of the streets in the battle.
They shall fight because the Lord is with them,
And the riders on horses shall be put to shame. (Zechariah 10:4-5 NKJV)

This is a Messianic passage, obviously. Jesus is our cornerstone, the stabilizing anchor for our lives (our tents). He is the battle bow that strikes the Enemy from a long distance, and keeps his forces of Darkness away. What is the spiritual meaning of “leadership” in this context? It is your convictions. When you have crappy leaders, trust your convictions as you would the leaders they are supposed to be.

Yes, this requires that you spend a lot of time seeking the Lord, asking for those latter rains (“spring rains”) that might be utterly natural, but still requires His mercy in an on-going personal relationship. It means seeking His face as a child who never gets enough of Daddy’s attention. It means going to the Source of All Things to know how He wants you personally to deal with adversity. It has nothing to do with your personal guilt that brought the bad leaders; you might be personally innocent. Rather, it has to do with your responsibility to know your mission within His domain. The mission is not static; it is based on a living fellowship with Him.

From Him comes every good or bad ruler, but from Him also comes the convictions that guide you in obeying those rulers. There is a fine balance there between holy subservience and false servility. The former means you’ll do what is in shalom’s best interest, which means that sometimes ignoring bad orders is also in the bad leader’s best interest. Bad leaders are supposed to fail. Your true ruler is the Lord above, and He speaks first and always through your convictions. Your convictions will tread down the Enemy.