The Happen Stance

How to Make Things Happen In Your Christian Life

(This volume also published under the title Warfare Weapons.)
K. Neill Foster

THE TENT WAS RIPPLING in the breeze. The crowd was not especially large that August morning on the prairies of Saskatchewan, but our speaker had given a great message. The silence of the people said a whole lot about what they felt.

They had sensed the unction of the Holy Spirit upon the servant and the service. The message had been Christ- honoring and devil-defeating because the minister had taken for his subject, "Binding Satan."

"Victory is ours through Christ," he had said. "Isn't it time we sent in the offensive team?" His hour-long theme had been "the authority of the Christian believer." Now finished with his message, he closed in prayer.

But he was not through!

As he stepped off the platform onto the grass floor of the tent, he shouted one word loud and clear - "CHARGE!"

It was electrifying. And in the Spirit. It was not long before I began to toy with that word. "Charge! Charge!" I liked it. It seemed to say something I had been thinking for a long time.

I had been in the Christian warfare at various times throughout the years. I had even developed a series of Bible studies on "The Weapons of Our Warfare." But the circulation had only been 2,000 copies. The only publisher who had seen the material had rejected it. And deep within I had agreed with him.

Somehow that whole area of truth had to be popularized. Nothing had to be changed, but somehow I had to put flesh on those old bones. Somehow I had to find a way to express the excitement that comes when one really knows the Lord Jesus Christ as the Conquering Lion of Judah. This volume is my attempt to put flesh on those bones.

The speaker that afternoon gave me this introduction without knowing it. I am hopeful that this whole idea of the offense will catch in our minds.

I have several reasons for sharing the truths in this book. Often, it has seemed to me that we Christians only react. We never seem to act. We have been told the world can never be won for Christ. And we have believed it!

That is why there are so few giants among us today. Church history abounds with men who claimed whole nations for God - men who waged holy war on the devil - men who expected no quarter and gave none.

Knox, Wesley, and Finney are the names of a few. These men changed church history, world history, and, much more important, populated the kingdom of God.

On overseas trips I have seen the massive penetration of the Christian church into some cultures. As these lines are being written, current statistics tell us that 50,000 people become Christians and 200 new churches are formed each day. (Peter Wagner, Stop the World, I Want to Get On, (Glendale, Calif.: Regal, 1973) pp. 3-7.)

Frankly, looking at what has been accomplished, I am inspired. Some missionaries have had tremendous vision. Perhaps someone forgot to tell them it is impossible to win whole nations for God. So they have tried. No, they have not won every battle, but their accomplishments are overwhelming.

Some changes are needed here in North America. For example, it is time churches stopped limiting their fights against liquor interests to those times when the industry seeks to open more doors to its product. I am still waiting to hear of a group of God's people who - on their own initiative - call for a plebiscite to put the cap on the devil's brew.

I am also writing for another reason. A missionary asked me, "What would you do?" She was seeking to aid a drunken man who truly seemed to want help. But her prayers, sincere as they were, apparently were not placing even a dent in the devil's armor.

My answer wasn't helpful. I simply said, "I don't know." But my answer wasn't really true. I did know. Fasting could have broken that case open. Or the authoritative use of Jesus' name. Or love, which never fails. Or some of the other things which I am about to discuss.

Now I certainly don't know everything about the spiritual warfare and I have lost some rounds too, -- but what I have learned in the battle, I want to share with the troops. If you are ready to charge, if you are ready to press the battle, read on. But if you are fainthearted, there is still time to turn back. Your bookseller might even be persuaded to take this book back.

Chapter 1