The Lord's soldiers climb over obstacles by praying to Him constantly.

The Lord's soldiers march straight in their own paths. They are neither passive nor ambitious and inventive. They present their body as a living sacrifice and prove the perfect will of the Father for their life.

The Lord's soldiers do not break rank. They are faithful and true, like their Lord. Other members of the Body of Christ can count on the fact that each soldier will be there in his place, not giving place to the world, Satan, his own lusts, or his personal ambition or willfulness.

In the line of battle, if the soldiers beside you are not trustworthy the enemy can attack your flank and destroy you.

Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk every one in his path: and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded. (Joel 2:8)

"Neither shall one thrust another." Satan understands very well the military strategy of dividing and conquering. One of the main problems in the Christian churches is that of division, special loyalties, envying, gossiping, slandering, personal ambition, supplanting, strife, and so forth.

All such special loyalties, divisions, strife, are evidences of the adamic nature, of spiritual immaturity. Such babies cannot be fed the strong meat of the Word of God. They are unfit for the conflict that is coming. Their hope of being resurrected and rising to meet the Lord at His coming is not founded on reality.

They will not appear with the Lord as members of the royal priesthood until they put away their adamic thinking, speaking, and doing.

"They shall walk every one in his path." Much of the history of the Christian Church for two thousand years has not been that of obedient servants of God performing their divinely appointed service but of the personal ambition of religious people. Millions of true believers have been murdered by the Catholic Church, for example, because of the fierce desire of the popes and bishops to govern God's people. The Protestant churches also have been responsible for the death of their brothers and sisters in the Lord. They also have been filled with strife, supplanting, and the desire of men and women to be preeminent in the churches.

No individual who is determined to have his own way, to pursue his own soulish course, will ever be able to walk in the path that God has laid out for him. Religious people who are filled with their own ambitions and ways cannot enter the rest of God. Neither do they have any hope of appearing with Christ in that Day.

"When they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded." The Word of God always "slays" those who are being prepared to ride with the Lord in His Day. They are dying to the world, to the appetites and lusts of their adamic nature, and to their own ambitions. They, like the Apostle Paul, are dead-living people. They no longer can be injured by the two-edged sword of the Word of God.

To be continued.