Cowboys And War Horses
Writer Author Rita Sue Hanks
Christian Article
:
Holy Spirit
- Fiction No
Please journey with me into some thoughts and revelations concerning some things I think we all love, cowboys and horses. For quite a number of years the Lord has been speaking to me through prophetic words about these subjects. I thought this strange for a while, but the words did speak to my heart mostly because I remembered my Texas heritage and my love for the legend of cowboys I had learned from the movies as a young girl. The cowboys I remembered were hard riding heroes who willingly left their comfort zones and loved the adventure of traveling many hard miles on horseback doing daring deeds. Some even loved to spend weeks or months of hard duty on wilderness trails herding cattle. Many were protectors of the ladies and the weak from the outlaw cowboys and wild west ladies. Roy Rogers was one of my favorites. Nearly every Saturday we went to the movie theatre and watched him as he so skillfully blessed us all with bold deeds performed with his beloved horse Trigger.. He always saved the ladies from the bad guys, and had a lot of funny friends and often sang pretty songs to us. I loved the wonderful song he sang ...."Happy Trails To You".......He was truly a good guy cowboy!
As I grew up, my interest in the cowboy never left me. My husband was also a lover of cowboys and horses and rodeos. He took steps to encourage our youngest son who had a love for horses to join a teen rodeo association. David, my son, began entering into the competition, calf wrestling and riding bareback broncs, and became very brave and pretty good at both. For a short time, he was considering riding bulls, but that never came to pass, thankfully, I thought at the time! He chose learning to ride the wild horse, and was staying on them for an impressive amount of time, although I don't recall that he ever completely broke one. Usually the horse won, but he was enjoying this! Needless to say, Mama was fearful he would get hurt, but he never did. Actually, I thought that fun and games that required two or three ambulances waiting in the wings was kinda questionable. But David, being the true soft hearted cowboy that he was, would constantly reassure me that everything would be alright. I will add that I did learn to enjoy the experience. My son went from being a rodeo daredevil to being a fireman and then a policeman. I was very proud of him, but Mama really had to come to a place of learning to trust God with her fear! I wonder if there is a God appointed King hiding in my boy!
I believe it's easy to see that the memory of these personal experiences caused me to look deeper into what the Lord was saying to me. I began to better understand the spiritual application of rhema words concerning cowboys. It appears that most brave cowboys love strong and gentle horses. They are happy doing what many would never consider, content with their lot in life. Good guy cowboys readily accept daring personal sacrifice and love to be heroes for the good of others.
In the books of Joel and Job, God teaches us some things about the way he sees things concerning these subjects. There is a good comparison to the good guy horse lover cowboy in the description of God's Joel army. He compares his brave saint heroes with the power of the horse.
Joel 2:
4 The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run. 5 Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devours the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array.
Yes, amazingly, God's kingdom saints are seen as his war horses. We are the war horse he trains and mounts up to ride in victory against our enemy the devil for the good of his people. .
We can also study deeper and find that bold courageous horses are spoken of by God in his word as being powerful and praiseworthy.
Job 39:
20 Have you given the horse his strength? 21 He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength: he goes on to meet the armed men. 22 He mocks at fear, and is not affrighted; neither turns back from the sword. 23 The quiver rattles against him, the glittering spear and the shield. 24 He swallows the ground with fierceness and rage: neither believes he that it is the sound of the trumpet. 25 He saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha; and he smells the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.
The horse is known to be powerful and for centuries has been tamed by man for service to man.
The difference is, unlike the the natural application, the spiritual man learns to trust in the horsepower of the Holy Spirit rather than in the animal's power, or his own. He realizes that the enemy armies also consists of strong horses, but that there is no evil horse and rider in satan's army that cannot be broken by God's power. Think on Pharoah's army at the Red Sea if you are inclined to doubt this.
And although some do not like the message of having to go to war for the Lord, scripture makes it clear that there is a devil to overcome and to fight to keep our faith active and effective. In the new testament application, war is fought against God's enemies with the sword of God's word in the spirit, under the power of the Holy Spirit.
Now, knowing that God speaks to us in the places where we are currently, but calls us up and out of old places into the new. I'm listening hard. He has my full attention. One would be inclined to think that God does not call his daughters to be as brave cowboys and war horses, bu I believe that is disproved by the true story of Deborah, the warrior who judged Israel in the book of Judges.
We must at all times remember that only those who are called and thoroughly equipped by the Holy Spirit go to war for God. When a fresh call is sounded, seek the Lord and he will help you to understand your place in his army. It's only for the brave and the free! Fear is ever present but for the bold who trust, but God's grace will impart the courage needed to overcome fear and to accomplish all we have been assigned by God to do.
2 Timothy 2:3
Therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
2 Timothy 2:4
No man that wars entangles himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.
I was blessed by a revelation from the Lord which a minister friend shared. She asked the Lord what he meant when he said she was "Broken"....He explained to her that it was as a wild horse is reigned in, tamed, trained and made ready to ride...
PRAY, WAIT, MOVE
Like learning to ride a well trained horse who waits for My Word and then moves forward in My timing... Dear one, learn to pray, wait, and then move. This is how I will build My kingdom, not with the hands and influence of men, but with the faith of men, as they learn to pray and trust Me, and then move when they hear My Word over the matter at hand.
Pray --Wait---Move ----shalom....
Editor's Comment:
About the Writer Author
State:
Texas
Country:
USA
Email:
ritahanks@sbcglobal.net
Website:
www.facebook.com/rita.hanks
Profile:
Click here!
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