Sing Your Warsong Christian!; Devotional and Guide to Praising God in the Midst of Spiritual Battle

By Michael Winkelman

Life is a struggle. Most people understand this, but most don't understand the true nature of this struggle. The struggles of life are due to a spiritual conflict that is being waged between God and his enemy. At the foundation of this struggle is the heart of man. We feel this fight being waged inside of us every day, but for many, the fight is lost because they do not understand its true nature. For the disciples of Jesus Christ, the nature of the conflict has been exposed, and they can see what drives the fight that is inside of all of us. But for many Christians, understanding how to conquer the forces that relentlessly siege their hearts in day-to-day life seems like a losing battle. Sing Your Warsong, Christian! serves as a spiritual handbook that outlines strategies and tactics that will enable Christians to overcome the forces that seek to destroy them. Along with the handbook is a sixty-day devotional that will help equip the reader each day for the fight. At the core of this guide and devotional is the "warsong" concept--praising God in the midst of battle. Are you struggling? Does it seem the spiritual forces of darkness have pressed in on all sides? Take heart. Read Sing Your Warsong, Christian! and learn how to fulfill your purpose and live under the covering of Christ's victory. Sing your warsong!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 8, 2020
• ISBN: 9781645594314

Book preview

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Sing Your Warsong, Christian!

Devotional and Guide to Praising God in the Midst of Spiritual Battle

Michael E. Winkelman

ISBN 978-1-64559-430-7 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64559-431-4 (Digital)

Copyright © 2019 Michael E. Winkelman

All rights reserved

First Edition

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

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.

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Table of Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Note to the Reader

Part 1

He Is Faithful

The Lord Is a Warrior

Understanding the Cross

Discipleship

The Heart and Mind

Part 2

Equipping Yourself for the Day of Battle

Watch and Pray

Sing Your Warsong

Vision

Devotional

About the Author

Abba, Father, have mercy upon your servant and give me the strength to sing my warsong.

Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.

—1 Peter 2:11 (ESV)

Foreword

Singing your warsong. This is our calling in life, to exalt the name of Jesus.

As weapons of this world form against us, darkness comes barreling in, failure is on the horizon, and abandonment is all that is left, we as warriors and servants of the Almighty are called to do one thing, lift his name on high. Through obedience and longsuffering, children of the Most High receive an abundance of all things perfect—perfect love, perfect grace, perfect peace. There is no greater gift.

In Psalms 32, a maskil of David, a rejoicing takes place when our Everlasting Father forgives our confessed sin while choosing to sing songs of victory and deliverance over us! Being renewed with the Holy Spirit, we sing songs of praise. We acknowledge his goodness, and we are glad. No longer living in spiritual torment, but in freedom through our Sovereign. This is our warsong.

Darkness is a place of torment, a place of hopelessness and isolation. Coarse feelings of fear, anxiety, doubt, worthlessness, and condemnation strike you down. It consumes every part of your life because the enemy has been revealed to steal, kill, and destroy. He steals your joy, kills your relationships, and destroys your soul through sin and temptation—a true vortex of evil. But when all those feelings bring you to the point of utter collapse, an absolute desire to die, that is when you sing your warsong. We must fill our minds with the promises of God—a promise that he will never leave us nor forsake us. That he has set us apart to do good works. That we are adopted children of the Ancient of Days, coheirs with his one and only son, Jesus Christ.

Sing Your Warsong, Christian! is about one thing, knowing that God is good, no matter the pain, no matter the circumstance, no matter the outcome.

When faced with depression, violence, anger, unforgiveness, self-hatred, and suicide, God knew what I needed. I needed to hear him sing the song of salvation over me. He delights in his children, and because of his never changing character as a Good Father, the Mighty Warrior, I was saved from the chains of bondage. The Lord drew close to me by sending a dear friend in my time of need to show me how to sing my warsong. To remind me that I am not alone in the battles I face, but that when I lift his name, the name of Jesus, on high, I will be saved. To sing my warsong was not about self-fulfillment but instead, about promises kept. The Lord is my Redeemer, and he chose to keep his promise of being my hiding place, my Protector.

Time will tell why singing your warsong is the single, most significant thing you can do in your relationship with Jesus. It will be the healing in your soul, the broken chains of your bondage, the restoring of your relationships, the producing of your good fruit, and the fact that when God has called you righteous, you will be unshakeable. Through our freedom, we have more than victory; we have eternity. God has called us to this earth to guide the lost and broken by singing our warsong that Christ Jesus will reign forever. As said before, the weapons of this fallen world that have formed against us will not prosper because he, The Chosen One, will reign victorious. We have been given a duty to spread the Great Commission, and through that, we have been given a weapon; and our weapon is a melody. Not to pierce flesh and blood, but to heal soul and spirit.

It is time now to seek God through prayer and reading the Bible. It is time to learn your warsong through revelation of the Holy Spirit, choosing to study and meditate on it. And when the time is right to sing your warsong, sing it on high; and when darkness tries to consume you, sing it louder and louder.

Yahweh Nissi—the LORD is my Banner.

This is my warsong! I sing it loud, I sing it proudly, I sing it boldly, and I sing it in love.

Thank you, Mikey, for the humility that you have shown me through my darkest moments. Thank you for your sacrifice, thank you for your prayers, and thank you for your friendship. It is an honor to go to battle with you, knowing Christ Jesus goes before us and behind us, and to sing our warsong on high!

Strength and honor.

Nathan Burrow

Acknowledgments

To my parents, thank you for your unwavering love and support throughout the years. I am truly grateful.

To my brothers in the faith, there are too many to name who have locked shields with me throughout the years but a specific few deserve mentioning. Dave, thank you for bringing me to the land of milk and honey, and exposing me to this way of life I can now call my own. Thank you for being my brother, and sharing the same drive to fight the good fight and advance God’s kingdom. Nate, thank you for growing up with me. The experiences we have shared together have shaped who we are, and it is a joy to see God’s hand in it all even when we didn’t. Thank you for being my brother, one I can truly share the spiritual struggle with as we have exposed to one another the darkest depths of our hearts. Johnny, thank you for sharing the vision of a godly brotherhood that will change the world. Thank you for being my brother, for courageously engaging men and gathering them into the fold. Though you may deny it, your zeal and genuine heart inspire and convict me regularly. To Phil, thank you for being my spiritual authority and one that I can rely upon as a steadfast pillar of the faith. Thank you for being my brother; for leading me, teaching me, loving me, and caring for me in ways only a Christ-following pastor could.

To my beloved bride Krystal, words of the human tongue cannot fully express the appreciation and gratefulness I feel for you. Your unflinching support and devotion have been the glue that has held everything together. I love you. Thank you for your love and companionship in this glorious journey we call life.

Finally, all praise and glory be unto the Lord Yeshua the Anointed. I am forever thankful for the calling he has placed upon my life, and for the strength to fulfill it. Father, glorify your name!

Note to the Reader

This book, at first, was a letter. The letter was to a dear friend who was walking through the deepest of valleys and facing the darkest of trials. My dear friend, my brother in Christ, was fighting a titanic struggle within himself as his flesh waged absolute war inside of him. I wrote a letter by the guiding hand of the Spirit to my brother. This letter outlined the nature of the spiritual struggle inside of us, and it outlined a method for him to fight back. As I gave my dear brother the letter and rallied beside him to aid in his trial, I felt the Lord inspire me to continue in this project. It has culminated into what you now have before you. The first section of this book is in essence the letter. It is a guide, a strategic and tactical handbook expounding on the nature of this conflict and the application of the principles that are established. The second section is a sixty-day devotional designed as ammunition for the Holy Spirit as the reader prepares for the day’s battle. I highly encourage you to read the daily devotional as you study the guide.

The friend I spoke of, what of him? In the end, I do not know to what extent the Lord used the initial letter in the deliverance of my brother. What I do know is that shortly after receiving the letter, he had a personal face off with the demons that tormented him; and in the power of Christ, he rose triumphant. My brother now witnesses to others facing the same struggles, and he is a mighty champion in the kingdom of God. Let us all follow the example of my friend and be awakened, rising in the light of Christ to face off against the forces of darkness. This one is for you, Nate. I love you, brother. Christ is victorious.

To my brother in the fight, grace and peace to you in the Lord Jesus Christ. Brother, the war rages on. Behind the physical realm’s chaos and underneath the geopolitical unrest is the spiritual struggle you know so well. The sovereign Lord has given his creature free will. He created us to love him and to be loved by him, and true love requires a choice. He allows this unrest to occur because in our free will, we have rebelled. Though we willfully chose enmity with our Creator, love prevails.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom. 5:8, NKJV)

We who have chosen Christ under the covering of God’s sovereign grace now live our purpose of holy love, of covenant relationship with our God. The born-again believer is called by his Master to battle. We are called, dear friend, to confront the darkness with the love of our God. As you know, this battle begins from within us. The flesh, our earthly members, still war against us. In order to gain the offensive by smashing the enemy’s strongholds within the hearts of those around us, we must relentlessly submit our own hearts to our Master and wage the war inside. In this central struggle, we take hold of our calling as soldiers of Christ and sing! In the midst of adversity, we have a song to sing—our warsong, brother. This song embraces the notion that our Warrior-King arises from within us and fights for us. This fight is our destiny, our purpose designed by him. He calls us to the