D-Day Lesson for the Church: Whatever the Cost, Take the Victory to Satan
But on that first trip in 1995 my own tears were drawn most intensely by what seemed to be the breeze of the Holy Spirit. I will not claim to be an oracle of God as the Apostles and Prophets. But what I heard that day in 1995 midst the graves of Omaha Beach still thunders in my spirit and soul: The first coming of Jesus Christ in His incarnation was the "Normandy Invasion" of the devil-occupied world.
The moment the first Allied soldier stepped on the Normandy beaches it was all over for Adolf Hitler. However, the victory had to be carried from village to village, nation to nation, until it finally reached Hitler's lair. So when Jesus stepped into the world the devil was finished.
The Invasion from Heaven has come; redemption draweth nigh.
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We are now living in the age of Kingdom advance. Our mission is to take the victory from village to village, and nation to nation. "This gospel of the Kingdom will preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end (the telos, the purpose of history) will come," said Jesus. (Matthew 24:14)
And so I seemed to hear the Lord saying that day in 1995 at Omaha Beach: "For too long My church has been a Dunkirk Church (Dunkirk was on the French coast north of Normandy where, in 1940, 360,000 British troops waited desperately to be evacuated as a Nazi onslaught approached), focused primarily on escaping the world (though to their credit the British and their Allies in 1940 wanted to escape so they could come back to fight)." Rather, I felt the Spirit say, "I want a Normandy Church, focused on advance, moving forward with determination — whatever the cost — to take the victory to Satan, the enemy of all humanity, and snatch from him every piece of territory he illicitly occupies!"
That first day in Normandy and all the subsequent visits changed my worldview and my life. We live and serve in the wake of Christ's victorious coming, not defeat. This is not shallow triumphalism, for I know there is yet much struggle ahead. But just as Roosevelt, Churchill, and even the Nazi command knew, the moment the Invasion occurred the war had been won.
Such knowledge encourages me in this desperate hour when the forces of the evil one seem to be making such gains.
Welcome to the Liberator. He has come, and is coming again. Be encouraged.
