They Have Awakened A Sleeping Giant

How fun we get to fan the flames for Bibles for Asia! We don't often realize the kind of sacrifice they're having to make in order to continue being Christians. Sometimes as Christians we look the other way and we say God will look after them. We can fan the flames for Bibles for Asia. Five dollars sends a Bible or a hundred sends twenty!

Go to TruthNetwork.com and click on the Fan the Flames Bibles for Asia! This is the Running with Horses Podcast and the emphasis for us from our heart to your heart is to be aware, be sensitive to acknowledge and see, you know, with your spiritual eye, with your natural eye, the things that God does in our lives. He's moving. He goes ahead of us.

He's behind us. He's on each side of us so that there are demonstrations of his power in our lives because of the agency of the Holy Spirit. And to live without a recognition of that very fact that God wants to be involved in what you're doing.

He is involved whether you realize it or not, whether you see it or not. This is not something we want to go on without seeing, without recognizing. We want to point it out as often as we can so that we'll be aware. This is an amazing provision from Almighty God simply because he loves us so much.

And we choose by our free will to acknowledge him, serve him, worship him, receive from him, look to him, depend on him. So that's what we do here. We're glad you're here. And thank you so much for being a part of the voice that we have that God is speaking throughout the earth that this is an amazing time. This is a time like no other.

Yes, the darkness is dark, but wow, is the light ever bright. Today we're speaking to this possibility that each of us have to be a volunteer, to contribute on the level that we can, not something we have to do. I like to think, and I used to, as when my children were young, would even say, you don't have to do this, but you get to do this. This is an opportunity that you are able to choose to prioritize, to make an important part of what you do, integrated into your routine, to be a volunteer, to come to whatever it is, to the gathering, to the meeting, to the marketplace, to the rally, whatever that you come realizing you have something to bring, something to give. You are basically a volunteer.

We are because the Spirit of God on the inside moves powerfully through us. Something that was said has caught my attention, you've probably heard me mention this or refer to it more than once, United States Colonel James Doolittle, who was an important mind, important part of the defense of the United States during World War II, actually also a Medal of Honor recipient, but he is credited with this important and famous statement, there is nothing stronger than the heart of a volunteer, nothing stronger than the heart of the volunteer, referring to men and women during the World War II conflict who made themselves available and volunteered for life and death situations for the sake of country, for the sake of honor, for the sake of their families back home, right? And so this statement is powerful to me. My father was a part of World War II. He served in our naval forces and growing up, we were made aware of the sacrifice that is the underpinning of what we are allowed to enjoy, freedom, in this case, liberties, really experience nowhere else in the world, and so our understanding from the time we were children is that a sacrifice has been made so that you enjoy the lifestyle you have now, the benefits you have now, because in the generation before you, that was not the case. There was a battle fought. There was a price paid. So, you know, this really marks the heart, marks the mind and the thinking and the worldview at a young age for someone who has the privilege of being around that kind of thinking, and I mean specifically those who served during the World War II conflict on all sides. I think it's safe to say on all sides at this point would have an understanding and if asked, would say, yes, you know, war is hell.

Avoid at all cost. So back to our point, the heart of the volunteer, and that there's really nothing greater, and that it's a privilege that we have as believers to think like this, to invest in God's kingdom every way we can, to invest in our family and local community every way we can, and you know this part of what is taking place around the world. I have friends in different parts of the world, and sometimes we can have real-time conversations. You would think, well, purely there's an overlapping of what they experience in their nation, what I experience in my nation, because you know God is at work, and so also the enemy is at work. The Antichrist spirit is at work to dissipate freedoms, to rob and steal liberties, and to be, as it were, an agent of death, hell, and destruction and loss on every side.

So that's another subject for another day, but this concept of being able to volunteer what God has gifted you with is our focus today, and that's our first point. A follow-up point, which again means so much to me, is the opposition to the American forces during the World War II conflict, there was a period of time when the United States was under attack and losing, losing and being destroyed. We were attacked, and the fight to repel that attack did not go well at first, and the first instance, an example of that fact, unfortunate fact, occurred at Pearl Harbor in December 1941. And for those of you who know history, the reality was that so much of the American naval fleet was destroyed during that surprise attack that December morning in 1941. The Japanese admiral who was an important part of that attack made this statement later.

I believe the date would be maybe 1942, but that's really irrelevant. Here's the statement attributed to this admiral from the opposing forces that day. Here's the quote. I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve, end quote. So you see, the reality is, as this admiral stated, that when something occurs, when an attack occurs, and you and I can make this very personal, we experience this every day, when there's an attack on any level that affects us, we have two options. One is to faint and fall away and to succumb, or to become stronger in our resolve, in the resolve that we possess, to do everything in our power, with everything we possess, to set things straight, to make it right. I think of the word righteousness connected with anything right, to make it right, to make it righteous. And in the history of what took place after this attack at Pearl Harbor, as I said, we were losing initially, but then at some point, because of the heart of the volunteer and other things, then the ability to repel the attack and secure the victory for the allies is actually the history that we now know.

And I just can't underscore enough the price that was paid, the price that was paid. I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve. We see this happening around the world now. You know, the enemy is encroaching and doing unbelievably insane things to disrupt the people, to create chaos, and to turn the people against one another when they're not against one another. But this Antichrist force is stirring this up. And our young people are being affected by that spirit, to stir up within them a false understanding of the history of how these things play out and to cause them to really partner with and agree with, to succumb to the strategy of the enemy of Almighty God. Satan's forces are very subtle and very deceptive, and they're working night and day. You know, they don't sleep.

Spirits don't sleep. And so night and day this is taking place, and you and I, because we discern and know, we have come to the place, you know, where your back is against the wall, and you see something so unrighteous and so profoundly corrupt, and something on the inside of you starts to work, and you just begin to little by little rise up, educate yourself, become aware of your surroundings, and then establish the voice that you do have, the contribution that you can make, because you see there's nothing stronger than the heart of a volunteer. So this thing comes full circle.

It does. There's the attack of the enemy, there's the encroachment, and the seemingly obvious outcome that those being attacked will succumb and be dominated by, and then something begins to build on a grassroots level, and there's a rattling like the dry bones that Ezekiel spoke of, and as God said to Ezekiel, can these bones live? And Ezekiel said, Lord, you know. And see, God is saying right now, yes, these bones can live.

These dry bones can live. And what has happened in the death of a thing, in the attack of a thing, is a sleeping giant of freedom has been waked up, and there is great resolve to restore kingdom, the kingdom of Almighty God, not only for me personally, my family personally, my community, my city, my state, my nation, but a global move of God's Holy Spirit. This awakening is coming through and manifest in the heart of the volunteer.

That's you and me. It's powerful. Don't doubt it. You have an important role to play.

The anointing on your life makes all the difference. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support this podcast, please share it with others. Post about it on social media or leave a rating and review. Don't forget to check out the show notes or visit acleartrumpet.org where you can subscribe to Shirley's email list. Download the ministry app and purchase your very own copy of Shirley's 365-day devotional, Running with Horses. Thanks again and we'll see you next time. you