Are You A KNYHT In HIS Majesty's Sacred Service?

Tell me what comes to mind when you think of the word 'knight'? What sort of image does it create?
Perhaps an image not unlike the one that's posted on this particular entry.

We've all entertained romantic notions of knights from the wealth of literature and film that's been exposed to us since we were children.
Of late, we've seen epic adventures in such films as Star Wars and the Jedi Knights that are sworn to protect the Republic from all enemies; also, The LORD of the RINGS with such knightly heroes as Aragorn, Boromir and Eomer have warmed our hearts with their faithful and dutiful words and deeds.

The historical reality of knights however can sometimes present a rather dismal picture: knights were often quite self-serving, greedy, heartless, merciless vigilantes who would sell the use of their swords to the highest bidders, who were usually corrupt monarchs and aristocracy that plotted vile plans of conquest and subterfuge.

This is not to say, of course, that there weren't any knights that held true to noble and true-hearted causes; certainly there were those of honorable conduct that endeavored to hold their titles with the utmost of diligence in fighting for the cause of right. Its just that these sort were far fewer than one might presume.

Yet the concept of chivalry was born out of the lives of such men who swore allegiance to a goodly king and or noble cause, and these knights held fast to such a code of ethics and conduct.

I would like to discuss a knight of a different sort however, that is, one who is a KNYHT. A KNYHT is an allegorical term I made up to represent the Christian: one who is born of the Spirit of God, a citizen of the kingdom of heaven, one who is a subject to the LORD King, Jesus Christ our Redeemer, and a spiritual warrior sworn to His sacred (not secret) service.

Consider the word itself: 'KNYHT' and notice the letter at its very center: 'Y' which could stand for Yahweh, and certainly for the KNYHT, the very center of his heart and life encompasses the LORD God Who dwells there.

Also, if you look closely at the branches that stem from the letter 'Y' you will note that the one on the left is broader than the one on the right, which is much narrower: this speaks of the two paths- the broad way that leads to destruction and the narrow way that leads to everlasting life.

Just as Kings and Lords (of the wealthiest sort) would sometimes furnish knights with their coat of arms, a suit of armor, weapons, and wages and estates, so too are KNYHTS furnished by their KING, but far more lavishly!

For a coat of arms, we are granted the garments of salvation and the robe of righteousness!

ISAIAH 61:10
I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness. . .

For a suit of armor, we are granted such unequaled by any other!

2 COR 6:7
By the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left,

EPH 6:11,13
Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

And for weapons, we are given those which shall prove most lethal; the deadliest weapons ever to wreak havoc in the kingdom of darkness, which in centuries past have proven their worth just as they shall in any future campaign!

EPH 6:17
And take . . . the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

HEB 4:12
For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

EPH 6:18
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

For wages and estates, while we have no certain dwelling place here, and if our situation provides only food and clothing, we are therewith to be content (1 TIM 6:8); however we KNYHTs will receive no wages for the glory of entering heaven's domain; no, this is an entry established solely by the grace of God! And yet, we shall receive different degrees of reward and inheritance based on our performance in this world (MATT 25:21-23), on that Day of Judgment of Rewards; such an inheritance that we have coming would not merely stagger the imagination, but undo it entirely! Consider the awesomeness of this verse!

ROM 8:17
And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together.

In regards to the profundity of that verse, I can say with David (PSALM 139:6) "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it." It is true that as KNYHTs, soldiers of the Savior, we shall suffer in this world, but rewards for suffering for Christ's sake will equal an "eternal weight of glory", compared to such "light afflictions" (by comparison) we may endure here (2 COR 4:17). And even as we shall share in proportion to that which Christ shall receive for His inheritance from our Father, we shall acquire even more than this!
We shall know the depths of our precious LORD Jesus; the supreme Treasure of treasures! --- to know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable to His death (PHIL 3:10)--- and as it states elsewhere:

1 COR 13:12
For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

Can you even conceive of such an honor more glorious than that??? What is there about you that God doesn't know? He knows you through and through --- one day we shall know the LORD with that kind of thoroughness! Astounding!

No where else can any King boast of such benevolence towards his knights or even his own royal line! And that's precisely who we are in Christ Jesus: His royal house, His princes and princesses!
As KNYHTS, we are His soldiers (2 TIM 2:3), His priests (1 PET 2:9), His ambassadors (2 COR 5:20), His very household of sons and daughters!

And just as knights were subject to oaths of loyalty and fealty to their lords and kings, how much more are we as KNYHTS to swear our undying allegiance (even if our own bodies die in order to maintain that allegiance; 2 TIM 4:6) to the KING of Kings and LORD of Lords, He who is the Holy King of Heaven, that humbled Himself to such an inconceivable degree as to take on human flesh, walk among us sinners in this sinful world and ultimately, to become sin for us on that cross (PHIL 2:7-9); He who knew no sin (2 COR 5:21)- - went to such lengths for us: what level of dedication, commitment, faithfulness, and zeal should be considered "over much" in light of this???

And in this age, and in this very time in which we live, we are engaged in a holy war, but of an entirely spiritual kind. Grave indeed was the error of the Crusades, where men in the name of Christ took up swords forged by human hands, and spilled the blood of others, contrary to the command of Christ Who told us to "love our enemies, do good to those that hate you, and pray for those that spitefully use you" (MATT 5:44).

Make no mistake, those who marched in the Crusades did so by the command of Popes, not by scripture nor by the LORD Christ Jesus!

Paul stated emphatically who our enemy is, and what sort of warfare we are to conduct:

2 COR 10:3-4
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)

EPH 6:12
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Warren Weirsbe long ago made the statement that has stayed with me for the length of my Christian life: "We battle not FOR victory, but FROM victory!"

In other words, in this spiritual warfare we as KNYHTs are engaged in, the ultimate victory has already been claimed and achieved by the Captain of our Salvation, the LORD Jesus Who purchased our salvation by His own blood, and broken the power of the enemy.

Witness the truth of this statement in the following verse:

COL 2:15
And having spoiled principalities and powers, he (the LORD Jesus) made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

Its clear that in the context of the verse above, this was achieved on the cross when He redeemed us from sin and death, but at this same time, He "spoiled" (skinned, like one would an animal, stripping of power) the very powers of hell in regards to His beloved! Such was His victory that not even the highest authorities in Satan's domain can interfere in the love of God towards us, His beloved:

ROM 8:38, 39b
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come . . . shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So what sort of warfare is this spiritual warfare?

On a side note: you may cringe at the very idea of spiritual warfare and of battling against the forces of Satan, and say, 'Sorry, this isn't my sort of thing.' Yet if you are a Christian, you must realize that this world system that's all around us belongs to Satan, who is the god (ruler) of this world (2 COR. 4:4) and as a Christian, you already are a marked target! It's either FIGHT or FLEE and become a VICTIM! There is NO THIRD CHOICE! Yet have hope, saint of God, for you have a brilliant weapons Master who will teach your hands to war (PSALM 18:34)!

This is a very broad subject and one worthy of dozens of books containing hundreds of pages each, but I have endeavored to get into detail about spiritual warfare, and what it entails in these TTUF articles at The TRUTH Under FIRE, a web site (See the link under "Spiritual Chow" on this blog site) I co-author with one Anne Kisly.

For now let me state as briefly as possible (IS such a thing possible for me??) that our warfare is two fold in its military objectives: the first objective is internal integrity, and the second is external evangelism.

Satan, the god of this world can do nothing against us KNYHTs where our salvation is concerned: once the LORD God has purchased us with His own blood, and we receive the redemption of our souls, this is a covenant that can't be corrupted by the great enemy, and he knows this!

What he can do however, is get us compromised: to so sway us by slow subtlety and gradual deceit that we eventually cease to walk in the Spirit, and begin to walk in the flesh; to sow to our flesh in such replete fashion that we can't engage in spiritual warfare: he will have effectively deprived us of our armor, as we carelessly leave it all behind, and walk naked behind enemy lines (this world), vulnerable and weak.

The battle then is for our internal integrity, that we maintain such a walk pleasing to God, in fellowship with Him that loves us so, He willingly offered up His own Son on our behalf. We must remain diligent in the Truth of God's Holy Word, not just in understanding its doctrine, but in their practice, and not just in their practice but with the right motivation--with a heart full of undying, unrivaled love for our LORD Who first loved us (1 COR 13)!

We shall partake of communion in prayer with our heavenly Father, and in exhortation and fellowship with our fellow warriors and saints, admonishing and encouraging each other, and so much more so, as we see that Day approaching (HEB 10:25)!
Essentially, the battle is for holiness (Christ-likeness), or in other words sanctification in our lives. If we offer ourselves as willing vessels, our God will be faithful and diligent to fill us with such grace and power that our objective of internal integrity WILL MOST CERTAINLY BE ACHIEVED!!! And subsequently to this, our second objective will be successfully fruitful!

Show me a warrior strong in the LORD, who laughs at temptation, who sneers at the power of the enemy, who exalts in the love of His LORD, and I will show you a warrior who is sanctified with the genuine work of the Holy Spirit in his life!

To learn more about what it means to be sanctified, I am pleased to present to you some articles I've done, which I pray will encourage you to pursue a holy walk in your every day life:

The Simple and Serious Gospel of Salvation – Phase II The Sanctifier is the Saint's Fire (part two and three are likewise found in sequence on The TRUTH Under FIRE).

The second objective is external evangelism, and you might think that such an objective can hardly be considered spiritual warfare; evangelism isn't about warfare, its about sharing the gospel!

Yet what is the goal of the gospel? To see souls saved from sin, death and hell, right? And can we honestly assume that Satan will politely step aside while we empty his kingdom of his enslaved subjects?? Absolutely not! He will bring all his forces to bear when even once his domain is threatened by such heralders of the gospel as we!

I recall an old Jamaican saint that we missionaries of Operation Mobilization once knew in England back in 1987. We were sharing the gospel with immigrants of Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist faith, and this gentleman seemed hugely successful in bringing Muslims to Christ! When we asked him how he managed to do this, he simply said in broken English, thick with Jamaican accent:
"Before I say one word to the Muslim, I say ten thousands words to LORD Jesus!"

This man understood intercessory prayer, and the nature of spiritual warfare as it relates to the Gospel!

I've heard it said that spiritual warfare is all about "UPrightness and OUTreach".

Reaching out to the lost, first with prayer on their behalf, and waiting upon God for the opportunity to share the Gospel, and then be empowered by God by His Spirit to go forth and wage war valiantly against the enemy, prying his claws from off the sorrowing, sinful soul who knows not what bondage he is in, breaking every chain that enslaves them in the darkness of that vile kingdom is what the KNYHT is all about.

As loyal soldiers, devoted to the KING of Kings, the Regent-Redeemer of the Heaven of heavens, we must heed His command and obey without question or hesitation, even more so than any earthly knight would for their own king who is but a man, whose breath is in his nostrils.

May we all, myself included, repent of any obstinate rebellion against our Holy King, and commit anew our vows of chivalrous service as KNYHTs in His Majesty's Sacred Service! Amen!

Hear my battle cry!
Nikaeo Aionios A.V.R.A.S.!
(Eternal Victory - Absolute Victory [in life] Requires Absolute Surrender [to Christ])

agape, grace & peace,

brother James a.k.a. KNYHT FIRE

post script:
May I please solicit prayer on my own behalf regarding a manuscript that I have (a novel not completed) which deals with much of these ideas of KNYHTS and warfare, but in story form. I have not worked on this manuscript for some time due to other more pressing needs to work on The TRUTH Under FIRE, as well as both blogs in getting the word out about the times in which we live and the extreme urgency Christians need in preparing spiritually for the dark days ahead.
If it's the LORD's will that I some day re-visit this manuscript and get it published it could prove a useful tool in the encouragement of the saints, as well as a means of presenting the gospel to the lost.
I would appreciate prayer for sensitivity on my part in hearing the LORD's voice and for sure direction and timing according to His will.