Thank you Lord, say by faith, say by faith.
You know a lot of times in the in in the church, especially the
modern day Church of the in the United States, faith when spoken
of is spoken of typically in two categories.
Faith to be born again, filled with the Holy Ghost.
Again, that's elementary, very beginning teachings of the Word
of God. But then it seems to jump over
into personal benefits. Where is faith to receive?
Whether that's prosperity, prospering in your own life,
whether it's promotion homes, whatever that may be, or health,
faith, Those are the categories that we hear it in most.
However, you understand there are many situations.
In fact, your whole life is to be LED by faith, which means any
situation you find yourself in, you should be able to go live it
by faith. Meaning say, and the Bible does
tell us because Jesus told us he says in this life you just might
on occasions once you're born again is not as common.
No, no, you will have trials and tribulation, which means when
you then enter a trial, you in turn then confined scriptures
and trust God in that word to overcome that trial.
And this is not just for personal, it's for the nation,
is for your local government, it's for, you know, our national
government, it's for things going on in the world.
We can literally any situation going on in life, we can get
into the word and say, OK, according to the word by faith,
Lord, we believe you'll do this because you said you would do
this. Amen.
So when things are speaking contrary to your word, you said
you would do this. And we're believing we're going
to see that come to pass, even if it's not a direct benefit to
us, but because of what's going on in the world, Hallelujah.
You know, the Bible, we should be believing that the church,
the latter church, is going to be greater than the former
church. It should be a perpetual belief
system that when we wake up, we should be like, man, the Church
of Jesus Christ on planet earth is going to be greater in these
last days than in the days of Pentecost because why not?
Because we're hope it's that way, wishes that way.
No, he said it will be that way. And so we're saying now, Lord,
you said it would look like this.
So when I go into scripture and I start seeing where the Bible
tells us that we are one faith, 1 spirit in unity, I'm like, I
believe I'm going to see that. I'm going to see that group of
believers that they're going to be unified, come together.
They're of one mind, 1 accord, no selfishness, no selfish
ambition, no, you know, personal pursuits.
It's all going to be for him, His Kingdom, working together,
causing things to come. We can believe God for that and
see it manifest in our life. Amen.
Which means God would allow will navigate us so that we can see
the things in Scripture come to pass.
I am am firmly persuaded that we are definitely in the generation
we know we're in the generation that's closest to the return of
Christ than ever before. No one's ever been there closer
than us. But you start looking at the
signs of the time you could, you could almost conclude it would
be highly probable that it's in our generation.
It can be highly probable. I mean, you would not be missing
the mark to be able to say, I believe, Lord, I am the
generation that will be transformed in the moment, in
the twinkling of an eye that I'm going to put on immortality,
that I'm not going to go into the grave.
I'm going to be caught up together with you in the sky.
I mean, some generations going to be that and the things that
have happened just in the last 50 years shows us the
acceleration of this timeline. Hallelujah.
Now if he tarries, OK, but you know what, somebody needs to
stand around and believe that they're in that.
I'm going to be the one that can believe that and stand that way.
Amen. But in Ephesians chapter 6 verse
10, it says finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of
his mic. Now I'm reading now the new
American standard translation. Then he goes on in verse 11, Put
on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand
for firm against the schemes of the devil.
For our struggle is not say is not say is not say is not say is
not against flesh and blood. So that means you cannot look at
your neighbor and say it's your fault.
I'm not doing what I should be doing.
I mean, honestly, you can blame no person on the planet.
You cannot blame a person on the planet for why you're not
accomplishing something. Our battle is not against flesh
and blood. It's not against flesh and
blood, is against principalities and powers.
Now what I am not advocating or teaching is that there is a
little demon in every little corner of nook and cranny of
the. I'm not saying that.
I am not saying that. Now I don't have time to teach
on demonology today, but I will give a little insight #1 Satan
is not the opposite of God in power.
He is not. He is not all knowing like God,
which means for many people in this room, he doesn't even know
you exist. He doesn't know you've not even
popped on his radar. It says he roams the earth like
a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.
Well, if he knew who to devour, he wouldn't have to seek.
He he just show up. No, he's having to look for the
things that give him access. Now he knows his own kids
because they're of his nature, right?
And we know there are people of his nature.
For Jesus himself said you are of your Father, and it wasn't
God, he said. So we said we're all God's
loving people. We were all originally created
in the image of God. But after Adam fell, a new
nature of a different being came and death entered the earth and
the spirit of the devil became part of man in the context that
he was in full rebellion to God. And Jesus clearly stated to
religious people, we're talking people who could quote
scripture, you are of your father the devil.
Now you have to understand everyone on the planet while
Jesus was ministering Father was the devil because no one has yet
born again. Are you hearing me?
I'm not saying that some were not righteous because you
obviously could live righteous concerning what you knew in the
word and that allowed you to be able to go into what we call
paradise. Abrahams bosom.
They were the righteous dead awaiting for the blood of Jesus.
Glory to God, because when Jesus died he went down to paradise.
What did he tell the thief? He said today you will be with
me in paradise and in paradise there's a gulf of fix between
paradise and Sheol or the grave where there's great torment.
And those are the dead who never lived in any form of
righteousness and had redemption.
They had total rejection of God. Jesus leads captivity, captive
at at his death, burial and then resurrection.
So paradise does not exist today.
Today, if you are born again and you're leaving your body, you do
not go to paradise. You go straight to where he is
and he is currently residing at the right hand of the Father in
heaven. However, he is making plans to
come back. Hallelujah, I said, He's coming
back and we will be with him. Glory to God, so so spirits have
to roam around and and and look at scenarios and situations and
circumstances. You understand that.
But with that being said, he's telling us we need to be strong
in the Lord and our battle is not against flesh and blood.
But there are things that behind the scenes are moving to either
keep you one in your flesh. These are what they're doing.
The principalities and powers are doing a few things.
One's they're trying to maintain a veil over the lost.
They want to keep them blind in darkness.
They're constantly trying to shield the light from being able
to penetrate them. But if the light penetrates and
you become born again, that doesn't mean they leave you
alone. That just means they try to pull
on your carnality the the areas of you that you've not renewed
to the word and submitted to the word.
Now your spirit man's alive in Christ when you're born again.
Are you hearing what I'm saying? You become a new creature.
How in Christ, and we know Christ is not a last name.
It's title. It's the title of Jesus.
Jesus is the Messiah in the Hebrew, in the Greek he's called
the Christ, which translates to the anointed 1 and his
anointing. Well, what is that?
That's the King. Jesus is the King.
The King came to save the world from their sin, their treason,
their rebellion against the throne of God.
And when he died without sin, pouring out his blood on the
mercy seat, in essence, it paid all the penalty for everything
we've ever done wrong. And when we call on his name,
that spirit man that was no longer, that was dead to God is
evicted out of this skin suit. And he plants in us a brand new
spirit. But not only that, there's more.
He puts the Holy Ghost, the third person of the Godhead, on
the inside of us, and he bears witness with our spirit that we
are children of God. Can I get an Amen at that point?
He says. Now I have given you the
teacher, the instructor of Kingdom affairs, and he will
renew your mind to think royalty, to think like a king,
to think in this new nature that you are in.
Christ Jesus restored us to the same position that the first
Adam had, which is in Genesis chapter one verse 26.
Then God said, let us make man in our image according to our
likeness, and let them rule or have dominion over the fish of
the sea, over the birds of the sky, over all the cattle, over
every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and over all the
earth. So man was always to have a
position of rulership with God. God ruled all of mankind, of
which mankind ruled in his sphere or assignment in the
earth. So he, by all rights, Jesus, is
the king of. And who are those kings?
We are those kings. And so in order to function as a
king, though, you're going to have to think like one.
And our old thinking is not kingly thinking.
That's why He tells us that we are to renew our minds, to have
our minds transformed by the renewing of our mind, so that we
will know the will of God, that we can walk out God's perfect
will, that we can side with the Spirit.
And then it also allows our minds to be able to keep our
bodies in subjection so that it doesn't get to do what it feels
like wanting to do our in our minds or our soul realm, our
emotions. We don't side with how we feel
about something. We say, wait a minute, what is
God saying? Because when we we were dead in
our trespasses of sin, we can only live by how we felt.
You treated me wrong. I'm going to treat you wrong
because that's how I feel about it.
But when I get over here into the Kingdom, well now I don't
respond to you how I feel like I respond to you how God leads me
to and he, the way he leads me is always righteous and just.
Hallelujah. And so in order for us to
function like that as a believer, we have to renew our
minds. And that is what the Bible calls
the saving of the soul. That is our responsibility to
yield, to allow it to be saved. God cannot force us to change
our thinking. We can't change our spirit.
Only God could do that. God has now empowered us to have
our minds change because he's put in us the third person of
the Godhead, a spirit that wants to obey God and not sin and
rebel against him. So these two are very powerful
that should be able to say convince your mind, hey, get it
together upstairs, right? Get it together upstairs.
It didn't work too good for you before you came in here.
You might want to do it our way. Yeah, but it feels so, so
awkward. I understand it feels awkward,
but it's what's right. It's what's holy.
It's what's just. It's what the Father says.
Jesus says. I don't do anything on my own
initiative, but only what? The Father has told me to do and
if Jesus would not communicate, respond or act in any situation
till he's heard from heaven by the Holy Ghost, why do we think
we don't have to do the same? Why do we think that is not
required of us? Well, it's obviously required of
us because we are to live life in the earth as he did.
But he said, finally be strong in the Lord in the strength of
his might. Put on the full armor of God, so
that you'll be able to stand firm against the schemes of the
devil. For our show was not against
flesh and blood, but against rulers, against powers, against
world forces of this darkness, against spiritual forces of
wickedness in heavenly places. Let me go ahead and hit verse 13
as well. Therefore, take up the full
armor of God so that you may be able to resist in the evil day.
And having done everything to stand, we know the next verse
starts, goes on and says stand, right?
So in this passage of Scripture, what's really important about
this element? Because this is where many
people launch out of here to talk about spiritual warfare.
OK, I'm going to say one thing real quick about spiritual world
warfare. Christ has already conquered
these principalities and powers. It's, it's a defeated realm.
Excuse me? So you're not, you're not
directly fighting them because you're having to defeat them.
The only way you engage them is with the word.
Now notice when Jesus dealt with the realm he did, he wasn't
carrying on conversations. I mean, you get into some
places, they'll name every spirit, they'll talk about their
origins and all. And I'm like, man, I mean, you
can get over into some crazy stuff trying to make yourself
seem like you're so intelligent about which honestly, many
people who may have that information have probably
stepped over into a different realm that they should have
never been so deep into to have that much information.
Because when we see Jesus's encounter, he's like, it is
written. When he talked to the chief
bells above himself, King James called him Lucifer.
The Bible calls him Satan, the Prince of the power of the air.
And when he speaks to him, he said it is written.
He only quoted the word to him. He did not say, well, where did
you come from, right? He didn't do that.
He didn't engage that kind of conversation.
He just said it is written. And through every temptation,
everything that he came, we obviously have 3 instances
recorded in Scripture that he always came back with.
It is written Now we know according to the Luke account of
Jesus's temptation of Christ, that the devil knows what this
is about. And many places do not know what
this is about because then again, they think it's just
about you being forgiven of your sin so that when you die you'll
go to heaven. However, the devil knows what
it's about because that's why I said, Jesus, let me take you up
here. Let me show you all the kingdoms
because this what you want, right?
He said. I'll give them all to you
because they've been handed over to me.
Luke chapter 4 he said they've been handed over to me.
See a lot of times we say it this way will the devil stole
it. The devil did not steal.
Adam abdicated his authority as having dominion over all the
earth and gave it to Satan. He gave away what God legally
gave him. This is why God could not come
to the garden and take it from Satan as God only.
He said let's make man in our image according to our likeness
and let him have dominion on the earth.
So in order for God to have that dominion.
Being restored back to man, a man must come and get it.
This is why Jesus has to be born.
He has to send a son. Hallelujah, because the first
Adam lost dominion in the garden.
The last Adam gained it in the garden because he said Lord not
my will, but your will be done. Send me to the cross.
Aren't you glad he went to the cross, man, Thank God he went to
the cross. He suffered all that for us.
And man, we do not want to cheapen that gift.
We do not want to downplay it. We do not want to act like, oh,
it's just something. Well, that was nothing.
Well, yeah, because for us. Lord, forgive me.
I'm so I repent of everything I've done wrong.
I mean, you truly mean it. Lord, save me.
You know, I thank you for gave me of all my sin.
I call you as Lord and you knew the day you became born again
and what seemed like such a easy action for you was a
tremendously troubling, difficult, nobody could ever
handle moment but God in the flesh name Jesus.
So what we call free was at great cost.
So never see free as flip it, because the greatest value is
the blood of Jesus. All right.
And so when when the Lucifer, you know, Satan shows him all
the kingdoms and all and said all these they've been handed
over me and I can give it to whomever I wish.
So this is all that's got to happen.
If you'll just bow down and worship me, I'll give it to you.
That's what you came for anyway, right?
And what did Jesus say? It is written there's only a
couple of other places that Jesus when engaging the demonic
realm, which are of the lesser power than Satan himself, that
there was another word and that was with the Mad Men of Ghaderi.
And he said to him, what is your name?
Outside of that, there was no other dialogue.
Because at a word go, come out, they were coming.
I said they were coming because they obey.
I said they obey. They obey.
It's only us humans today that he is in these times saying you
choose, it's up to you. I'm not going to force you
either way. But what I'm going to say is if
you'll choose me, you'll have life.
But if you don't choose me, you're going to have death.
Either way. You'll have what I say, but I
want you to choose life because I never destined you to
experience death anyway. Hallelujah.
So again, our struggle is not against flesh and blood.
There are forces out there. And so the last place we want to
do is is be in in contention with one another when there's
something bigger. But he says finally be strong in
the Lord and the and the strength of his might.
What's really powerful about this?
It says this Oh, excuse me, it says it says.
In this detailed teaching of when again spiritual warfare, it
presents 2 essential elements. First, you must be strong in the
Lord and in the power of His might.
Then you must put on the full armor of God.
The two are essential. Much teaching on Christian
combat neglects the first we. But if we take a weak man who
can barely stand and put the best armor on him, he will be
ineffective soldier and be easily beaten.
And it doesn't matter. He has the best equipment.
Doesn't matter. OK so you must first be strong
in the Lord. When I was in the military they
are. They send everybody through
basic training and the majority of basic training is not weapons
qualification, it's physical education.
I mean, you get to do that day one, right?
Beat your face. I mean, we beat our face all the
time. Now for those that are just
civilian and don't know that term, we were not doing this all
day. We were doing push ups all the
time. Now it's amazing how strong you
can get just doing push ups, how much endurance you can have and
then you would run and you do sit ups and there's different
activities. They had us doing that man
within an 8 week period. I mean, you can totally be
transformed now. I was a small guy when I went
into the service myself personally, you know, I was
really small so I was hoping to get bigger.
I think when I joined I might have been 120 something pounds,
maybe 125 when I went in. So I was, you know, I was
ripped. Can I say it that way?
I was ripped. So you know, I ran some before
but not a whole lot. And I didn't do a whole lot of
PT per SE before I went to basic, although I did go through
a pre basic with the Army National Guard before they sent
me off to Fort Jackson. And so, but when I got there, I
had to take my first PT test. I was actually shocked that I
almost did not meet the minimum in sit ups for two minutes
because for my age, I was 21 when I went in 20, I was 20.
I turned 21. No, I was 19.
I turned 20 in basic and so I was 19 years old and I'm doing
these sit ups that I needed to do 52 in 2 minutes.
I mean, I think I did 54. It was horrible.
I was I was concerned I was in the high 40s thinking am I going
to be able to punch this out now?
They would have not got gotten rid of me.
I just you know, they would have known where I was at.
Like, bro, we going to work on you push ups.
You know, I think I did maybe 60.
I was already upper 50s, sixties. 80 is the high point
for my age. 92 was the high point for sit ups.
And then the run I think was like 10 something.
You had to run it in 10-30 something and you had a perfect
score. OK.
And so I always said to myself, if I get the push ups, I'll make
myself run that 2 miles as fast as you're supposed to.
The most sit ups I ever did though in 2 minutes was 87 and
never hit 90. I mean, I, I didn't matter how
much I try to crank those things out, I just couldn't.
But in one minute I could do 80 pushups and I'd be up, I'd be
done like we're, we're done. So when you're in basic, you
know, when you're starting, all my military guys are laughing
because you're like, you're having flashbacks right now that
the drill Sergeant drops you down, at least in the Army.
And so they have this thing, you can't smoke a rock because they
are the rock. I mean, they do so many push
ups, you know, they do them in their sleep.
So when we first start, you're going to muscle failure.
And there's nothing more humiliating of the human body
than to watch a person go to muscle failure with a push up.
OK, I'll just give you an example what that looks like.
All right, So you're down like this and you'll start shaking
all crazy like this. I mean, as much as you want to
get up, you have met your muscle exhaustion and it's humiliating
looking, looking at all these guys flopping around like fish
out of water. You know, the drill starts like
can't smoke a rock, can't smoke a rock.
And you just like you. I mean, they RIP you down first
two weeks 'cause they don't want you.
They want the team, they want the unit, they want the platoon,
they want the camaraderie, they want the oneness.
OK so with that being said, by the time in a basic they had to
then trick us because when 1 jumped down, you know the one
that always started out doing that, you're like try me.
I mean we were like try me, I will smoke you.
I mean you were like you knew you had it in you and then they
would get up and switch the next one then it would come out can't
smoke or I like sure you got 70 push ups on us right now.
I mean, we have 70 push ups on you.
The point is it's amazing how strong it really exercises your
whole body. And the reason they do that is
so that when you do get into weapons qualification or
whatever you're doing, you are fit.
But believers just want to suit up.
You want to get born again and then suit up.
And I like you're going to get on a frontline like whoa, bro,
love you. I want you on the frontline too.
But we going to do some push ups first.
I just want to know, can you come to morning prayer at 6:00
AM? Me.
Can you come to morning prayer at 6:00 AM?
Because you not really ready to get out there and say you going
to fight the principalities and pull down the strongholds that
are all over, You know, Saint Augustine back in the back, you
know when they first came over, you know, and all the things you
ain't. You are not going to the beach
doing any of that. If you can't make simple morning
prayer or be committed to a local body church, be committed
to a unit, be committed to a body of believers that you can
March in unison together. Come on, don't make me do
arcanas again. You hear what I'm saying?
I mean, if we want to be with the full armor, we got to get
finally be strong in the Lord and you're not going to be
strong in the Lord if you're not reading the Bible daily, you're
not spending time in the word, you're not praying in the
spirit, building up your most holy faith.
And then we going to go try to fight, you know, a principality
and power. I mean, we struggle with
carnality, our own personal flesh, like putting down, you
know, it's raining today, probably won't go to church,
right? I mean, those types of things,
you know, can become problematic.
Now, why do I preach like this? Because it's the anointing in my
life. I'm here to inspire you to
continue to step out and do because you know what?
I'm going to continue to do my marching orders.
I'm going to do exactly what God's called me to do.
And then when the enemy comes, like he's comes and he cycles
through. And as you continue to grow and
develop as a believer, things are different in each stage of
your growth and development, and especially within the body that
you're assigned to. Because don't think the devil
just leaves the church unchecked.
He's afraid of us. I said he's afraid of us.
Listen, not every branch is created equal.
Come on. Air Force, stand up.
Stand up. Air Force, those in the Air
Force stand up. Anybody.
I know I had some Air Force guys.
Air's not here. OK, well, they eat the best.
I just want y'all to know they have the best food ever.
They really do. Anybody that's fair.
It's true. I mean, when we get Mr. ES, they
got steaks. We're like, what's happening?
You know, way more controlled climate environments for them.
You know their PT rigor was not the same.
Not the same at all, right? How many Marines I have in here?
Come on, stand up. I need a Marines now.
Did y'all do 12 weeks basic 1313?
OK, do 100. Oh, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK.
OK. Now now we you want to come up
here, you and I both will be cramping everybody laughing at
us right? Be like 10 OK y'all had to do
100 before you could be done. Now the pull ups is interesting.
I was at Six Flags with the youth crew.
I was a youth pastor in Oklahoma.
And so the Marines were there with the pull ups.
OK. And so they, you know, wanted to
give you a T-shirt if you could do 20.
Wait, we're looking for new recruits.
And I was like, with the youth, I'm like, I'll do that.
So I jumped up there. I snatched out 20 and dropped me
goes, why did you quit? I said, well, that's all that
was required to get the T-shirt. You didn't tell me that we were
competing, which I wish they would have known because you
know, then they posted somebody at 25.
I'm like bro, I could have beat that anyway.
But pull ups and chin ups are a serious deal and all branches
should do that for sure. OK, but not all branches are the
same, nor within the branch. There are some again in the Army
we have the Green Berets, but then we have this other group
called Rangers right now. At the end of the day, I was
neither of those, right? I was telecommunication.
I was in a Conex air condition, Coke and Little Debbie Cakes
working on radios and then they would come in and they are all
sweating and stuff, you know, looking like tough guys, like
wow, what's going on? Y'all doing all right?
Is it hot out there? What happened to you?
Ready. Yeah, bro, here we got you.
You know, we're one unit now don't get me wrong because at
the end of the day I want them there.
And I'll be the first one to say if I was standing, I have no
qualms saying that's the man right there.
And I have no problem saying that I have not put in the work
to be that soldier. Now we've all put in the basic
training in the Army, everybody is infantry.
Even if you have a different MOS, you're all infantry.
Because at the end of the day, if you need to take a weapon and
go to a line, everybody can take a weapon and go to the line.
However, there are some that are more skilled because they are
well trained to be able to do things and I do not have their
skill set. So I don't even pretend, right?
Don't even pretend. Well, you have to ask yourself
the question, what unit do you want to be on?
I had to ask the question, Lord, what church are you building and
which unit am I putting together?
Because you know, the other service trying to think of that
elite group, what are they called?
Navy Seals, thank you. The Seals, OK.
I mean those boys, they go, but man, they will tap out.
They get, I mean, there's many that try, but they do not
maintain the mental with resolve to be that elite of a soldier.
Debbie, did you see many Navy Seals when you were in?
No, Really. Never popped through.
Never had a foot problem, huh? That's too bad.
That's been kind of neat. So what happened to your foot?
Where were you at? OK, anyway, you know, not
everybody passes these things, OK?
But in God's Kingdom, if you want to be elite, now you can
be. And the only thing that stops
you from being elite is your mental toughness is your ability
to renew your mind, to get so locked into this word that you
are going to find yourself strong in the Lord.
Because use like I, I'm not going to let my carnal fleshly
self stay because my carnal fleshly self can't do this.
I have to be strong in the Lord. So I got to die to self so that
I can live to Him. I've got to crucify self so that
I can live to Him. I got a deke.
I have to decrease so that he will increase.
And when I'm weak, I acknowledge Him and his word, and He will
then make me strong. And in these last days, God
definitely wants us to be strong in the Lord and in the power of
His might. Because when it comes to put it
on the full armor of God, the whole armor is designed for one
thing, to advance. If you read it, you're going to
gird your loins with truth. You're going to put on the
breastplate of righteousness, you're going to shod your feet
with the preparation of the gospel of the peace.
You're going to take up the shield of faith.
You're going to have on the helmet of salvation and the
sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
When you look at the armor which this was a Roman centurion that
he was modeling, that was all what was on the front.
We are not talking about what's on the back.
Now the breastplate of righteousness obviously has a
back to it because they put it on, but the emphasis is the
battle was in the front of them. And in Romans mentality is that
we're not retreating. We are advancing and anchor
faith church. We are always advancing.
So we are always in the position of moving forward.
And here's the thing, it may because if you can just imagine,
we're all here, we have our shield and this shield is not
like Captain America stuff. I mean it cover it could cover
your whole body. OK, you're going to come in and
you're going to put that shield down.
You're going to be behind it. You've got your sword, your
helmet, your bread. I mean, you're covered up and
and the enemy can't even really see your body because it's
covered. You are covered in the word and
the enemy's arrows can't even get past the word.
So once you absorb his lies with the word 1st and it allows you
to strike with the word. I mean, you got the word with
the shield and the word with the sword.
And it may be you're like standing here and here's the
onslaught when you've done all the stand, stand.
But it's not because I'm doing this and we're never doing that.
I said we're never doing that. We're doing this, period.
And I don't care what the barrage is.
I don't care how bad the attack is.
I don't care how many to the left or to the right seem like
they're falling. The church is not retreating
church and retreating. That elite group is steadfast
standing and then at 1 moment they'll in unity because this
last church will say March, boom boom, one step and we'll get
momentum in seasons that we'll go take full territory.
Why? Because the gates of hell cannot
prevail against the church. So the only time that it seems
like we're not advancing is because we are up against a
principality. We're up against the gate and
we're pressing on this gate now, and when you're pressing on that
gate, then all of a sudden the enemies throwing everything down
from the wall, trying to keep you off the gate, off the wall,
But you just stand. You just keep pounding.
You just stand there and you keep taking a step in unity and
eventually the wall's coming down.
We're going to go ahead and take that territory, take all that,
and we'll go to the next gate. That's what it looks like.
Amen. We don't retreat just because
there's a challenge. And when there's heavier
seasons, it's time to gird up, buckle down, pull your
bootstraps and you find people who are not falling off you link
arms, you like, let's get this thing.
We going somewhere, we got somewhere to go, something to do
cuz man, listen, you can start with a group of 33,000 and the
Lord says, but the army's a lot larger than you.
I mean 185,000 strong or 1:35 I think it is.
And he says, well, we're not going to do 1:30.
So let's find out because when it gets hot in battle, who's
going to who's really just afraid to go in the 1st place.
If you're scared, go home. 23,000 people like we out of
here, bro, we gone. But I thought you were part of
us. Now we, you know, I mean we are,
but we're not that. I mean we are, but we not that.
Well, you know, again, if you aren't, you aren't.
I mean don't make don't make the the the 10,000 something less
that you're not. Now, don't try to talk down the
10,000 that didn't hear that 23,000 leave 10,000 like we
gonna move on. And he's like, man, look a
little large. They're looking large.
I think we going to have to wean it out.
Let's get let's get some drinking going on now.
I'm not talking drinking. You know, we're sipping water.
All right. And so what's he doing?
He says I'm, I'm, we need to weed out all who have
self-interest because the ones that put their face down have no
concept of what's going on around them.
Their only self preservation. I'm thirsty, I'm taking care of
me. I don't care about you beside me
and I'm going to get my water. You watch out for me.
But the ones are like, I watch out.
I got you, I got you back. 300, man, 300 became a mighty moving
force because you get around 300 and link up right now.
I don't say you're going to stay at 300.
I mean you could be 5000. The issue is everyone has to be
linked up. They have to decide that it's
not about me, it's about us. It's about the whole thing.
And again, when we are going to advance with the armor of God,
we're going to be strong in the Lord because first we are a
complete unit that is unified to continue to March on.
And we will only do what God says, even if it sounds as crazy
as showing a light. You want me to do what?
Just break. Just break it and blow a
trumpet, man. That's it.
OK, so I'm going to like, break this and blow.
Yeah, but now there's 135,000 people down there.
Yeah, I know. And you just want me to blow a
trumpet? Don't move.
Nope. OK, we got this.
Now, it sounds illogical, but they trusted the word.
Now in the scripture, they route themselves, but it's not like
everyone dies because Gideon takes these boys and they go
pursue and then they go conquer others themselves.
They do become a part of the battle and conquer.
And man, when you stay in the fight and get to the victory of
your faith, there's nothing like getting around somebody saying,
right, did we do it? Did we do it?
And when I say we do it, did not
God do what he said he would do? Did God not say what he he would
do what he was going to do? Did we not just be in the most
miraculous thing that's ever been a part of our life?
I am so glad I experienced God with you in this moment.
Wow, how powerful is that? So again, in these last days,
our struggle is not against flesh and blood.
It's not a people problem. There's other things that we
need to contend with but if we're ever going to get into
that kind of battle that we are not going to yield to their
devices. The devil's divide to resist in
the day of evil, then you're first going to have to be strong
in the Lord and that is the simple everyday mundane, not
flashy. Nobody even knows it's
happening. No one even knows you exist.
No one even knows the time you're putting in Tom that makes
you the elite. I'm going to close with this
thought I was listening to a coach talk to his team.
We have a team rally coming up Friday.
Hallelujah. You ready?
And so this this college coach was talking to his team and he
was talking about, you know, who's the greatest NBA player of
all time. He said, now I'm Michael Jordan
fan. He said he goes I never would
have put Kobe Bryant there ever because when I watched his game,
I considered him a ball hog. He was just a ball hog.
You know, he always had the ball.
He always took the shot, everything he said.
So I just considered him a ball hog till I heard him in an
interview one day and I thought I have misjudged him because in
the interview he says he was it was a in a practice and he his
teammate was like, why would you pass the ball to me more?
He said, why would I pass you the ball in the crucial moment
when you fall asleep and practice, you fall asleep in the
in the film room that you don't come early and you don't stay
late. You're not putting in any of the
extra work. Why would I give you in the most
crucial moment, the time to be able to make that shot when you
don't put in the effort to be at the level to make that shot?
He identified with his own teammates their inability to
want to be greater of themselves.
And I remember a personal interview itself where one of
the guys that played with Kobe said that they had just lost a
particular game, you know, and they and, or a series or
whatever the case may be. And he's like, man, I'm going to
get in early, you know, thinking about what Kobe does.
And he said, I showed up two hours early before anybody was
going to be there. I think I'm going to be the
first one in. And he said, I walk in and
there's Kobe with ice wrapped around his knees.
And he was like, seriously? Because when I walked in early
before everyone else to practice, before anyone else
did, he had already finished practicing and was icing his
knees. See, we love to watch
Spectacular People, but we don't want to do.
Everybody wants to be Elijah or Jet Paul, but we don't want to
do. We just want to assume, well,
Christ lives in me. I have the Holy Ghost too.
It does not come just because. It comes because you submit
yourself to seek Him. And what stops Anchor Faith
Church? Nothing but us.
And I would just submit. Nothing's going to stop us
because we're going to be unstoppable because we're
willing to do the extra. Hallelujah. 6:00 AM, Morning
prayer. Come on, come get some.
And if you want to get froggy and be here at 5, fine.
You won't get in the building, but you can drive around the
parking lot and pray. Hey, we don't have a problem
with that. Amen.
Put in the effort. Put in the hours of praying in
the Spirit, Put in, put in the time of reading the Word.
More than just a Bible study or checking the box of the daily
Reading Bible plan. Read an extra book.
We can do it. Amen.
No one's making you. No one made Kobe do more.
His coaches didn't. But because of the team he did
when he lived beyond himself, he worked beyond himself.
And he's saying to us, be strong in the Lord.
Lord, just cry, children, come to me.
Just come to me because the more you seeking, the more you're
going to reflect him and that's an amazing thing to be.
Amen. I want more too.
Let's just do more.