☰
Learn From The Pure Example of
St. Joan of Arc to Always Please God
if You Want Victory Over evil!
"IT IS NOT ENOUGH THAT GOD BE WITH US, BUT WE MUST BE WITH GOD!"
When St. Joan of Arc took command of the Army of France she knew the extreme importance of being totally with God in order to be victorious in battle so she immediately challenged her soldiers to stop committing the kind of sins that God hates and become an army that honored God. "IT IS NOT ENOUGH THAT GOD BE WITH US, BUT WE MUST BE WITH GOD!" Like most armies of the medieval age the Army of France was rife with prostitutes, gambling, fighting, swearing and many other vile behaviors that St. Joan would not tolerate because she knew it angered God and they needed all the help from God that they could get. St. Joan understood well what is written in 2 Chronicles 15:2: “Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin. The Lord is with you when you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you, but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.”
Because of St. Joan of Arc’s great leadership in purifying her army before God they went on to achieve some of the greatest military victories that the world has ever seen. We all need to learn this important lesson because our battle against the forces of evil today is one in which we need all the help from God that we can get. We all need to be more like St. Joan of Arc and always make it our priority to please God in everything that we do. One of the great stories about St. Joan doing precisely this was when she was severely wounded during the Battle of Orleans and one of her soldiers tried to give her a magic charm for healing. Her response is what we all need to say whenever anyone, even if they are well intentioned as her soldier was, tries to get us to go against God: "I would rather die than do a thing which I know to be a sin or against the will of God."
Unfortunately in our world today so many Christians just do not understand the great importance of always being with God which is why evil is taking over our society. If we want to be victorious against the forces of evil then we need to purify the body of Christ here on earth today just as St. Joan of Arc purified her army. This means eliminating everything that offends God which means EVERYTHING that goes against His perfect will even when it is something that may be well intentioned. An example that has become a huge problem in many churches today that is really crippling the overall effectiveness of all Christians to overcome evil are the many self-proclaimed female ministers that have become so prevalent in certain denominations. The Apostle Paul in teaching the proper role of women in Christian churches made it very clear that: “I do not allow a woman to teach or usurp authority over a man!” (1 Timothy 2:12)
ST. JOAN OF ARC SHOULD BE THE GREAT EXAMPLE FOR ALL WOMEN TO FOLLOW WHO WANT TO BE LEADERS TODAY! In being the greatest leader of men in all of history she speaks clearly on the issue of female ministers because she never once presumed to “usurp” the role of the properly ordained ministers of God by leading her men in worship. Even though St. Joan was very much a spiritual leader and did everything she could to turn all of her people back to God she knew that only men are called to be ministers which is why she always had male priests with the army to lead the worship services and minister to her men.
Ultimately we all need to have the same commitment to pleasing God as St. Joan of Arc and have the courage to say: “I WOULD RATHER DIE THAN DO A THING WHICH I KNOW TO BE A SIN OR AGAINST THE WILL OF GOD!” This is what it means to really be with God and is what it is absolutely necessary to be able to receive His full power for victory! The Lord Jesus Christ is of course our greatest example of how to go forward to victory over evil. On His last night here on earth just before He had to go and lay His life down to achieve His ultimate victory over evil He prayed earnestly to His Father in Heaven for help and even asked: “Father, if it be possible , let this cup pass from me.” (Matthew 26:39) But Jesus was totally committed to doing His Father’s will above and beyond everything else which is why He ultimately prayed: “not my will, but Thine, be done.” (Luke 22:42) Jesus is also the great example for us to follow whenever we must deal with people, even those who may be well intentioned, who try to interfere with us performing the will of God. When the Apostle Peter thought He was offering help to Jesus by telling Him he would never allow Him to be taken and killed Jesus harshly rebuked Peter for trying to interfere with the will of God: “Get behind Me satan! You are a stumbling block to Me. For you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” (Matthew 16:23)
Let us therefore cleanse ourselves of anything and everything that keeps us from truly becoming God’s army here on earth because we are in an all-out war against evil and God expects us to be winning instead of losing. We must live out the words that we pray to God that “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven” by being totally with Him so that He will answer our prayer and FULLY unleash His mighty power through us to help us win. THIS IS HOW WE ACHIEVE VICTORY OVER EVIL TODAY just as our Christian ancestors once did with their immortal words of victory always upon our lips and in our hearts: “Thy will be done!” “Deus vult!”
ADDENDUM: Several years after I finished writing this paper God brought a female minister into my life to show me that He is now having to call some women to step up and do the job that all the cowardly male ministers are not doing by only hiding in their church buildings and being afraid to shine the light that God has given them out into the world as they are supposed to do. While I was at first very skeptical, after getting to know this particular woman better it was clear that she had a genuine love for God and desire to please Him in doing what the cowardly male minsters are not doing today so I had to ask God to further enlighten me on this issue. After praying to God He let me know that while female ministers are certainly not His Divine plan for His people any more than divorce is He has allowed it in a similar way that He has allowed divorce. I think He may also be using the female minsters today to try to shame the cowardly male ministers into stepping up to do the full job that He has called them to do. BUT just as St. Joan of Arc was a rarity in being called by God to lead the army of her nation so it is a rare woman today who may have been called by God to be a minister and all those women who are only living out their own selfish desire to rule over men as prophesied in Genesis 3:16 need to repent for their own sake and for the sake of all of us today who want to please God! The way to test a female minister to see whether they are truly called by God is to see whether or not they will step aside when a man of God is available to lead worship. If they are willing to step aside then they are probably legit but if not then may the Lord rebuke them in the same way that He did with Peter because they are clearly not interested in pleasing God and are instead just worried about pleasing themselves and other worldly people!
| 
