“Take counsel, execute judgment; make thy shadow as the night in the midst of the noonday; hide the outcasts; betray not him that wandereth.” (Isaiah 16:3)
There comes a time when you are called to make a stand against things that are wrong, and answer the call to fight against the oppression of the weak and innocent. God calls us to first take counsel and understand what you are doing and why. Whenever you stand up to resist the oppression of darkness, you need to understand that you will pay a price for your convictions, but stand anyway because it is the right thing to do. You may not win, you may not come out of it unhurt, you may pay a higher price than you’d like to, but there is a point when, knowing and realizing what the price may be, you make that decision anyway. It is a determined call that rises out of your soul that cries out that this is right and that is wrong, and you refuse to give in to the intimidation of iniquity. Count the cost and make a decision that you will stand for that which is right.
When you do stand, it will be in stark contrast to the landscape around you – as the shadow of night in the midst of the bright noon day. There is no mistaking who you are, what you are doing, and what you are standing for. There is a boldness to righteousness that fuels a faith that is defiant. It is a David kind of faith, the kind he took out into the field to defy Goliath; the kind that galvanized his feet to stand in that field of barley in 1Chronicles 11 with his two friends and defy the entire Philistine army. It is the type of defiant faith that Jonathan declared as he rose up to scramble up the rocks that “there is no restraint to the LORD to save by many or by few.” These were men of faith to whom the odds did not matter. It was not about winning or losing, or personal safety or advantage. It was not about blessings and prosperity. It was that “Damn the torpedoes!” call to a battle for righteousness. What were the odds against David when he and his two friends faced down an army that was so fearsome that the entire army of Israel had fled? Who cares? They stood to fight for the honor of God and it didn’t matter what the odds were! Did it matter to Jonathan that there were only two swords among all the Israelites to fight over 30,000 men of war? Not hardly. To men such as these, the victory belongs only to God. The only thing that matters is what is right.
God thrusts us into opportunities of challenge to strengthen and forge us into men and women of conviction, champions of righteousness, and defenders of the Faith. It is not an opportunity to be missed. Our weapon is the Word of God, our armor is our faith and our righteousness, and our determination is fueled by the zeal of the Lord of Hosts. We stand, not because we count the odds, but because it is right.
We have been called to hold up the Blood Stained Banner in the battle for the greatest cause of all time. Let us stand in such contrast to the world that we are as a great shadow of night in the midst of a glaring noonday sun that we may give refuge to a lost and dying world that has been beaten down with the forces of darkness, where victory has been stolen and trampled upon, where hope is but a faint glimmer in a dark world, and where courage is in great demand.
Brother Dale
Revivalfire.org
