Thursday, July 30, 2015
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Since we're not all military types, it's probably good to explain what a beachhead is before we talk about one. A beachhead is not where the beach begins. And it's not a guy who just thinks about getting to the beach all the time. In wartime, a beachhead is pretty serious business. It's a small piece of ground that you try to take as your first step in taking all the ground that your enemy holds.
For example, during WWII, two of the world's greatest generals went against each other when the Allies set out to take North Africa back from the Germans. General Dwight Eisenhower, the commander of the Allied forces, planned to land and take three important beachheads. German general Rommel, the famous "Desert Fox", basically said, "We must stop Eisenhower within 48 hours of his landing or we won't stop him." They didn't stop him. And five months after Eisenhower successfully captured that first beachhead, Rommel had to flee and surrender everything, including 250,000 soldiers. But he lost it at that first beachhead.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Why It Gets Worse When You're Getting Better."
Satan, the commander of hell's forces, is determined to stop you from ever becoming what Jesus died for you to be. And like any smart general, he knows he has to stop you at that first beachhead, before you gain any more ground. His strategy is revealed in our word for today from the Word of God. It's in Mark 4:15. "Some people are like seed along the path," Jesus said, "where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them."
God's Word has landed in your heart. You're starting to gain some ground spiritually and your enemy is alarmed. He comes immediately to try to take away the ground you just gained through God's Word.
It's important to understand that. It helps explain why things have suddenly gotten so tough for you, why things are going wrong, maybe why you don't have the spiritual enthusiasm you did before. Your logical reaction, "I've been really trying to do what God wants. What's wrong here?" The answer is, "'Nothing's wrong! It's because something's right!"
You have started to take a beachhead for God and the enemy is worried. So suddenly he's interested in you. He didn't have to bother you when you weren't a threat. But now he's got to get in there and make it hard. He's got to stop your forward progress fast or there's no telling how much ground he's going to lose!
Satan gets busy whenever God has made a major landing in your life. He's got to stop the beachhead. Maybe you've recently made a new surrender of your life to Jesus or you've said yes to His call on your life. You've stepped up to leadership. Could it be that you've begun a new work for the Lord? Made a new commitment to be the marriage partner or the parent you should be, to give more to the Lord's work, to live by new priorities? Guess what? Alarm bells are going off in hell.
But don't get discouraged. Don't go back to the old ways. This is just your old enemy trying to stop this progress while it's new and fragile. If you keep going this way, your enemy's going to lose big time and he knows it. So step up and launch a Biblical counterattack. In the words of James 4:7, "Submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Come near to God and He will come near to you."
Charles Spurgeon said, "The greatest sign of God's will and God's power is the Devil's growl." If you're hearing the "growl" you're probably on the right track. The battle for the beachhead... it might be raging around you or even in you right now. Hold your ground, soldier.
You're not losing or the enemy wouldn't bother with you. You're on your way to some of the greatest victories of your life!