This word is submitted by Teresa Seputis [ts@godspeak.net]

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                  Do Not Enter The Battle Unprepared


Too many of My people are running to the front lines of spiritual
warfare before they have been prepared for the battle. Then they
are wounded, and they wonder why.

Think of it in the natural. What commander or general sends his troops 
to the front lines before they have been trained for battle? The 
recruits first go through basic training, where they undergo rigorous 
physical and emotional conditioning. They are trained and prepared for 
battle; they are taught how to effectively use the weapons of their 
warfare.

What commander in the natural sends his troops to the front lines 
without giving them both protective gear and offensive weapons? What 
good can a solder do in a battle if he has no weapons and no armor?

Dear child, do you really think I would send My troops into the thick
of battle with no training, no armor and no weapons? Do you think that
I am a foolish commander who has no idea of what it takes to win the
war? That is not Who I am, dear one--I am the mighty conquering king
Who cannot be defeated. I possess all power and all majesty and no
force and prevail against Me. I understand the battle and I adequately
prepare My troops before I dispatch them to the front lines.

Why is it, then, that so many of My own flee from their basic training
and run headfirst into a battle that I have not prepared them for? It
is because they don't like My preparation process, where I refine and
purify their lives. They don't like it when I convict them of sin or
wrong attitudes, or where I make them face hurts of the past in order 
to break it's power of them. Some feel the training that yields maturity
is too difficult for them, or too uncomfortable. So they run away from 
My boot camp straight into the battle. They place themselves into a place 
of greater harm and greater danger because they don't want to submit to 
My preparation and to My refiner's fire.

They don't realize that My refiner's fire is not designed to torment 
them or to damage them. It is designed to remove those impurities from 
their life, because those impurities prevent them from putting on the 
full armor that I give to each of My own. 

My maturation process is designed to train and condition and equip you 
so that you will not fall prey to the whiles and traps and snares of 
your enemy. It is designed to protect you when you come under attack, 
so that you can be highly effective in battle. It is to keep you from 
being wounded in spiritual warfare; it is to mature you and make you 
victorious.

Dear child, do not fear My refining process in your life, and do not 
resist it. I am not doing this to heap coals of fire upon your head. I 
am at work in your life to remove the barriers and obstacles that keep 
you from walking in success and victory. I know it is uncomfortable at 
times, but it is necessary that you endure it in order that I might 
make you an overcoming one and a powerful warrior in Me.

My will, My plan and My desire for you is that you succeed, and that 
you are fully equipped for all that I call you to do. Then I can send 
you into the deepest recon mission behind enemy lines, and you will 
return unscratched. I can send you into the fiercest battle and you 
will not be harmed. The purity of My holiness will protect you from 
the fiery darts of the enemy. The power of My presence in your life 
will keep you from falling into the pit of condemnation, rejection 
and shame. I will make you so strong in Me that the enemy cannot shake 
you, and he will not be able to defeat you.

But you must cooperate with Me in your training. Do not run from My
refiner's fire and do not resist My sprit as He works in you to convict
you and to purify you. Welcome this preparation in your life, for it
will carry you victorious through the fiercest of spiritual battles, and
it will make you a mighty warrior in Me.

Trust Me, dear one, and allow Me to train and equip you for all that
lays ahead.