God's End Time Hidden Warriors
	I received a letter in response to a Firefall article "Small Isn't Always Bad". It reminded me that many of the people we know are going through similar struggles and I realized that it might be helpful to share what God has shown me about His hidden warriors. Here are the comments that got me thinking.
	"It was so refreshing to hear your point of view. I always tried to stuff down my thoughts about church growth. Our church (and others of course) seem to just want to grow big, but I could never really see the point of growing big for the sake of just getting bigger. I always felt my thoughts seemed rebellious; and of course, not many really understand because it seems so "good" to have lots of people coming to your church. But we really must stop judging by appearances!!! Just because there are lots of people coming, that doesn't mean that the church or pastors are any more "on track" with God, than those that have very few coming, God knows the hearts.
	Also the material on the tabernacle, tent and temple was very interesting. I've been going through a very hard time because I just cannot seem to "fit in" to our church. I just keep feeling squeezed out. But, some how, I feel like I'm being prepared for something "later on". The part of Psa. 27:3-6 that spoke to me was "For in the day of trouble He will conceal (hide, keep secret) me in His tabernacle (established church), in the secret place of His tent He will hide me".
I realized that instead of feeling rejected and "squeezed out", I now believe that the Lord is hiding me for a while in this church (not that I'm anything great). I do believe that the Lord is calling His church to be so much more than is visible now. Thanks so much for the encouraging articles. I feel like I've been given a bit more strength to wait for the new wineskin.
	You may find that you identify with the person who wrote this letter, because it seems that we keep bumping into Christians all over Canada and the U.S. who have very similar feelings. In fact, that is one of the main purposes of the Firefall paper; to connect up those people with others who feel the same and to encourage them to keep hanging on.
	In most cases, the people we have met who do relate to this, really are not the rebellious type at all. Even though they sometimes are accused of it, in fact usually they are very committed, solid Christians and many of them are pastors. The problem is that they just don't feel peace with what is going on and when they try to express it, they are shot down or misunderstood and often branded as a radical. Very often, they decide to be quiet about it, but that doesn't help because they still don't have any peace and now they are getting frustrated because they don't know what to do.
	I believe these people are God's hidden warriors. In Isa. 49:2 The Messiah says "and He has made my mouth a sharp sword; In the shadow of His hand He has concealed Me. And He has made Me a select arrow; He has hidden me in His quiver."
	This indicates that although many of God's weapons are very open and obvious, there are some that are hidden ones. Since this verse speaks most directly about Jesus, let us examine the following:
How He was a hidden weapon.
	Basically, H was hidden by the humble circumstances of His birth and life. The people in His village were surprised when He began His ministry. He had been right under their nose and they had never seen anything that would indicate that He was the Messiah.
	In fact, as far as we can tell from the scriptures, Jesus was completely hidden from the enemy. Jesus is born and dedicated and lives for up 2 years before the enemy is even aware of Him (Lk. 2:16) and then, it is only because the Magi told them where to look.
	Next, the enemy wasn't even aware that Jesus had escaped. In fact, we don't see the enemy actually knowing where to attack until Jesus is publicly revealed at His baptism. This is confirmed by Col. 3:3, which says, "that our life is hidden with Christ's in God." So we see, Jesus? life was hidden in God, until God revealed Him. Likewise, our lives are hidden in God until He reveals us.
	In Jesus? case, the only ones who recognized Him were the angels and Simeon and Anna. The magi figured it out by the stars and the angels told the shepherds.
Are their other hidden weapons in the bible?
	Yes! Look at the life of Joseph. Objectively, he was the second youngest son of a nomad, who because of a series of injustices went lower and lower in situation and stayed there hidden from even his father until, in God's time, he went from prisoner to Prime Minister in one day. He had been hidden by humble and afflicting circumstances, but was brought out at a crucial time to save the whole Jewish race.
So who are God's hidden weapons today? They are just normal people who have been called by God for this and who have, because of it, have been undergoing a rigorous training program. From the world's perspective, however, they are nothing special.
	Since they are hidden in Christ, the enemy can't actually see them in the (spiritual realm), therefore, he must try to figure it out who these weapons are through observation. However, since he sees things from a worldly perspective, he keeps looking for people who are in positions of power and prestige, and therefore, just can't seem to find them.
	I believe that right now the enemy thinks the church is easy prey, because, from what he sees, even if the church receives power, very few a ready to use it. The reason why the church isn't ready is because the coming move of God is different than past ones. In this revival, the signs and wonders won't work for anyone who use them in pride or for selfish ambition. Only those walking in humility and obedience will be able to flow in this move. Unfortunately, a lot of the church today hasn't taken the time to let God do this work in their life and so, they won't be ready.
	It is at this future point in history, that God will raise up His hidden (in humility and affliction) army to stand up as a standard against the enemy as He floods in. They will, by God's grace, hold them back long enough for the rest of the church to get ready.
If you are one of these hidden warriors, probably time after time you have felt on the verge of breaking through and then everything stopped or died. Hopefully, now you can see that God has been allowing this to keep you hidden.
So then, what do you do?
The answer that we have been receiving is "get prepared"! As the Lord leads you, even if it doesn't seem to make sense, (like building an ark in the middle of a desert) keep preparing the things He leads you to. Be one of the 5 wise virgins who were over prepared and because of it were able to enter in.
When the time comes, you are going to need to move quickly to do what God tells you and you want everything to be ready. You don't want to discover that the thing you need was something God told you to do three years ago, but you didn't do because it seemed too silly.