When the enemy is overtaking you, your family and your nation, what is one to do?

Due to the sin of the Israelites, they were overtaken by the Canaanites.

Due to the sin of Americans, we were overtaken by the evil one.

• Oppression came instead of blessings.
• People became tired and weary.
• The heaviness that comes with sin and slavery is overwhelming.

Those in the Lord’s army, under His watch, forgot who they were.  They had prostituted themselves to other gods and were left with shards of their royal heritage.

BUT, there was one who called for a revolution.  There was one who awakened the sleeping.  There was one who called the “things that are not as though they were.”  Her name was Deborah.

A judge, a leader, a mother in Israel put a stake in the ground and said, “No more…. Not on my watch.”  Through her time with the Lord, she heard Him calling for His people to rise up and take back that which was stolen from them.

She called up Barak and the warriors of the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun to overthrow the Canaanite slave masters, and overthrow them they did.

The most profound revelation of Judges 4 & 5??  It was a remnant that arose and fought.  In fact, the rest of the tribes were convicted for their lack of engaging in the fight.

The tribe of Reuben rested with the sheep, Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan, Dan lingered by the ships and Asher remained on the coast and stayed in the coves.

But it was Zebulun and Naphtali that risked it all for freedom.

How often do we stay back, concerned with things that are of lesser importance, staying where it’s “safe” or comfortable?  Do we resign ourselves to slavery and just make the best of it because we are fearful of taking up our “swords” and advancing toward freedom?

God is wanting us to rise up and take the lead to usher in His righteousness, to call our families and nation to repentance and to overthrow the infiltrating enemy.  Just as the Israelites held back and didn’t fight, so we too, in Christian families, in our nation, have held back and have not taken up the fight thereby allowing ourselves, our families and our country to fall into the hands of the oppressor.

“Villagers in Israel would not fight; they held back until I, Deborah, arose, until I arose, a mother in Israel.” (Judges 5:7) It’s time for the mothers to arise and take back that which has been stolen.  No more on our watch will our families be plundered and brought into slavery.  Rise mothers and take back that which has been stolen from you.  It is our time in history to not shrink back but to exhort those around us to take up arms against the enemy of our souls.

An urgent message for us all:

March on, my soul; be strong!

Rooted in Him,