Church Advance Forward, Boots on the Ground: A Clarion Call to the Church

By Valerie K. Thornton

Whenever God wants to do something, a child is born. From Adam, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Esther, Nehemiah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Hosea, Debra, Joel, Obadiah, Zephaniah, Malachi, John the Baptist, Jesus, the disciples, Paul, to you and me. God has raised you up to be his hands extended in the marketplace—your homes, workplace, government, the arts, religion, media, education, and calling you to advance forward with him to introduce all to the kingdom of light and overthrow the kingdom of darkness. We are to go to the high places (strongholds in our lives, our generation and the world) and tear the devil's kingdom down. He has shown us the way to him and have given us the charge to show others the way to him through the Word, his love, and our lives (2 Cor 3:2). We have been instructed to go in to all the world baptizing and teaching those under our sphere of influence what God has taught us. You do not have to wait for a position in the church or become a minister or pastor to do the work of God. If you are a born again, blood-brought child of God, you have the authority, through the Holy Spirit that lives in you, to proclaim the goodness of God (1 Pet. 2:9). The Bible said that "they overcame -Triumph over him by the blood; cleaning, forgiving, redeeming, blood of lamp and the word of their testimony. They did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death" (Rev. 12:11). Tell them what you have seen, what you have heard, and what you have experienced, so that they also may have fellowship with us, with the Father, and with his son, Jesus Christ (1 John 1:3).I will venture to say that we all have been placed in one of these cultural mountains of influence (arts, religion, media, education, family, government, and economy). This is a Clarion Call to the church, or should I say the Body of Christ. It is a call to advance forward, to go forth, a call to action. You are the boots on the ground. Go! Go! Go!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 16, 2021
• ISBN: 9781098037888

Book preview

cover.jpg

Church Advance Forward, Boots on the Ground

A Clarion Call to the Church

Valerie K. Thornton

Copyright © 2020 by Valerie K. Thornton

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

All Scripture quotations are from The Open Bible Expanded Edition King James Version, unless otherwise noted…

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

The Conflict

Thy Kingdom come

Boots on the Ground

The Battle

Agents of Change

Advance Forward: Clarion Call

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to the millions around the world that are working tirelessly as Agents of Change. Those that work in the cultural mountains of influence (arts, religion, media, education, family, government, economy, the corporate world) and maintain moral integrity without compromise. Those who are in the trenches daily—boots on the ground. Doctors, lawyers, file clerks, directors, supervisors, teachers, mental Health, counselors, senators, mayors, judges, presidents, CEOs, maintenance workers, actors, producers, cashiers, call centers workers, finance workers, waste management workers, police, IRS workers, government workers, etc., Godspeed!!!!

Foreword

by Rev. Dr. Faith A. Allen

Pastor Jamison Memorial Temple Christian Methodist Episcopal Church

Ours is an age of great trouble, but even greater opportunities. The key to our success is to take the enduring principles of God’s Word and aptly apply them to a waiting generation.

If our nation is to turn to God and to good, the Church must be revived and renewed in commitment and power and prepared to be on the front lines of God’s marketplace.

Pastor Valerie speaks powerfully about authentic discipleship and evangelism being the major needs of the Church. She speaks to not only to the reader’s mind, but also to our hearts and our feet. I cannot say enough to describe my gratitude for her vision and passion. She serves us with a classical piece of practical yet scholarly study that summons us to decision.

This book is provocative and instructive. It is a significant and most helpful production. Preachers and teachers will profit by a careful examination of this book.

No one can read this book without being challenged and instructed to make the Church all that Christ would have her to be. It is a stirring call to Christians everywhere.

Bless you Pastor Valerie! What a wonderfully powerful weapon for such a time as this! The clarion call to the Church has been extended to go in victory, authority, and power! It must now place boots on the ground. Not just boots on the ground but boots on the ground stomping and advancing forward as agents of change to bind Satan and to lose his victims. Clarion call extended; Clarion call received!

Praise God!

by Arnella Giles

I’ll begin by saying that this book is what the world needs now in times like these. Valerie Thornton has spent decades at the foot of the throne of God (Jehovah, Yeshua HaMashiach) while He has imparted pearls of wisdom to her by the Holy Spirit (Ruach HoKadesh), through the Word, and relationship. This book takes you on a journey through the Word that gives you a first-hand look at the relationship between mankind and God (Jehovah) in a warm and comfortable way, that causes you to feel right at home in Him. It’s like sitting in front of the fireplace with a blanket and your favorite hot beverage. Growing up having her as a big sister, I have personally gone alongside her for much of her journey and have witnessed a lot of it first-hand. I believe that the information contained in this book is useful for all generations. You will not be disappointed. Well, done, my sister, well done.

Acknowledgments

I have had the privilege of serving in the marketplace for 38 years and in those years, I have witnessed a larger percentage of men and women searching for Christ. They are looking to us and for us to show by word, and deed and our lives that Jesus Christ is alive. And that what he has done for us he will do for them. The world is hungry and hurting, and Christ is their only hope. To those who have an ear to hear let them hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church-the body of Christ, not the denomination, nor the religious sector, to the church-the ecclesia. This is a clarion call to take your prospective places in the marketplace, the cultural mountains of influence. This is not a call for more religious activities, nor is it a call to challenge you to more fervent service to the Pastor, the Bishop, the church, the denominations, etc. This is a call to contemplative fellowship and collective communion with God, to become an ally of the Lord, join forces, fuse, unite, partner with Him, for the benefit of the Kingdom and the world. This is a call to be like Elisha and stand before the Lord in the presence of God as a way of life. This is a call to enlist in the army of God and do battle his way…first by being obedient to the call, in faith (wholehearted devotion to Christ). Second, by giving him your life and allowing him to take you through the refiner’s fire and third, by allowing Him to deploy you to your prospective places of assignment in the workplace or the world. In doing so, He will endow you with a life so dynamic that serving Him will not be what you do, it will be who you are. It will become a lifestyle (1 Peter 5: 5-10; Romans 1:5, 16:26; Romans 12:1,2; Matthew 10:1, 28:18-20).

I’m always reminded that we are the sum of all the people we have known, met, and learned from. I’d like to acknowledge everyone who has imparted into my life and sacrificed their time and their prayers. I would like to thank the Holy Spirit-Spirit of Christ for his guidance direction and insight; Arnella Giles, Courtney and Anneita Thornton for their time, efforts, and talent in editing this book.

—Reverend Valerie K. Thornton

PART I

The Conflict

¹² How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! ¹³ For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:¹⁴ I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

—Isaiah 14:12-14

Webster’s dictionary defines war as a state of armed conflict between different nations, kingdoms, states or different groups within a nation, kingdom or state. That is where we find ourselves as humanity. We are right in the middle of a battle between the Kingdom of darkness and the Kingdom of Light.

In the beginning, we find our Heavenly Father preparing a place for his name’s sake, those made in His image. Translated from the Hebrew words tselem and demut means His character, His likeness, and His nature, so that He may commune with them and bring the Kingdom of heaven here on earth (Genesis 3:8; Matthew 6:10). Man is made in God’s image; therefore, they to have a spirit, which denotes an expression of God’s moral and spiritual nature, which places him above all other earthly creatures. In Genesis 1:27, God prepared a nursery as it were, known as the Garden of Eden. The Garden was a place that Father God so lovingly prepared for his children, making sure that they had all that they needed to live comfortably on the earth. He then placed Eden in their midst. Eden is described, in the Hebrew language as—"spot, moment, open door, pleasant place and presence, a delightful place, and atmosphere." The Hebrew term is also translated pleasure and moment signifying an open door to heaven. Therefore, he opened the door of Heaven and released His presence, in the Garden in that spot for the moment. Dr. Myles Monroe, Evangelist, and bestselling Author, put it this way, Eden is a spot for the moment where the presence of God is an open door to heaven. God took man and placed him in the spot where the presence of God was, and that presence followed man everywhere he went. Get this! He recreated that spot, that presence, in the Wilderness, on Mount Sinai and in the Most Holy place. The presence, an open door to heaven, went before them as a pillar of cloud to guide them by day and a pillar of fire to give them light by night. WOW!!!

Psalm 16:1 declares, in your presence is fullness of joy; at your right hand there are pleasures forevermore. Where the presence of God is, is an open door to heaven. So, then God placed man in the spot in His presence in the open door to heaven where he had complete and uncontaminated communion with them. He gave them dominion and rule over the earth. So, Eden is an atmosphere, an environment, not a place. The Garden of Eden is a garden where God’s presence presides. Austin Miles wrote a song that gives a glimpse of that moment, that spot, that open heaven…in his presence. (In the Garden) "I come to the garden alone, While the dew is still on the roses, And the voice I hear, falling on my ear, The Son of God discloses. He speaks, and the sound of His voice, is so sweet the birds hush their singing, And the melody that He gave to me, within my heart is ringing. I would stay in the garden with Him, Tho’ the night around me be falling, But He bids me go, thro’ the voice of woe, His voice to me is calling. And He walks with me, and He talks with me, And He tells me I am His own, And the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known" (by C. Austin Miles (1868–1946). To enter the garden/ secret place, is to come into the presence of God. (Exodus 13:21; Exodus 33:14; Joshua 1:5d; Matthew 28:20"

My family and I were assigned to a church, that was about to experience a split. When we first started going to the church, it was evident that the Spirit of the Lord was in the place-due to the atmosphere. We sensed there was an open heaven. Then after the split, we went to church and my oldest son, who was about 12 at the time said, Mom, it’s cold in here. I said, here, put on your sweater. He said No mom, the atmosphere is still. Nothing is moving. I don’t feel God in here anymore. He knew nothing about the split.

The song, Anything Can Happen by Jonathan Nelson, gives a clear picture of Eden. The song states The heavens are open, the portals are open, my spirit is open, for God to do anything. Because anything can happen in here. This presence, this atmosphere in Eden, followed mankind everywhere they went. And so, it is with those that draw near to God (James 4:8). We sing the presence of the Lord is here. I can feel it in the atmosphere. The moment you create an atmosphere for God through worship and prayer, you enter Eden.

One evening, after communing with Father, I had a dream. In this dream, I was at a dinner party, and I had on a beautiful black shimmering gown. As I was walking, I recognized a familiar face sitting at the bar. He had a bird’s eye view of all the balls rooms. I know right! It appeared that he was waiting for something or someone. I walked up and said Hi. He smiled, and I asked what He was doing there. He said waiting to be introduced. We engaged in small talk, and I bid Him goodbye and started to walk away. He said, wait, I will walk with you. Given the level of His importance I was shocked when He ask to walk with me, someone who was insignificant in comparison. I assured Him, that He did not have to walk with me. He said No! I would like to walk with you and put His arm out for me. As we walked, I introduced Him to everyone I met. Some knew him, some did not. He would stop from time to time to engage in conversation and after conversing, we would continue. As we were walking, I spilled whiteout on my dress. I know of all things, right! Because the dress was black, the whiteout was extremely noticeable. He never looked down or commented on the spot (John 3:17). He just continued to walk. It was funny, because even though I had a large white spot on my dress, everyone was so overwhelmed by my guest that they did not notice the spot. He outshined the spot (Romans 5:20 NLT). As we walked, little by little, the spot began to disappear. When I woke up, I realized who the guest was, it was Jesus. The people were so taken back by His presence, at that moment and in that spot, that they did not notice the stain (my inadequacy’s) on my dress. I asked Him why He insisted on walking with me. He said because you introduce me to everyone you meet. What am I trying to say? Like the Garden of Eden, God’s presence will be with you everywhere you go, and He will make himself known if you acknowledge him and invite him to be a part of your life. (Act 2: 17-18; Prov.3:6, 26; Micah 6:8; Exodus 33:14).

The conflict in Heaven interrupted that atmosphere, that moment, that communion with the creator. The creation (Lucifer-literally meaning the light-bearer) wanted to exalt himself over the creator. Well, anybody with half a brain knew that was not going to fly. Isaiah 14:13 declares that God exposed the "heart" of the created one, Lucifer, who made a bold and haughty declaration, For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. We all know how that turned out. Isaiah 14:12, "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!" Satan could not rule heaven; therefore, he turned his sites toward earth after he was kicked out of heaven. To rule on earth, he had to turn the hearts of