He hath not dealt with us after our sins;
Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
Our brother opened with that this morning. Our God is a God of mercy. But when he shared that Saturday, it was indeed like a sword in my heart. It touched me deeply.
And this morning, as I came, I said, “Lord, may Your sword of the Spirit be active in all of our hearts today. For He hath not dealt with us according to our iniquities, nor rewarded us according to our sins.” Thank the Lord.
Brothers and sisters, that is the sword of the Spirit utilized toward man. God operates; His sword works. When it becomes living in our hearts, it is like the sword of the Spirit.
But the sword of the Spirit is also toward the throne, in the sense of clearing the air. Jesus Christ is Lord of lords and King of kings.
The Word of God is the sword of the Spirit. But we know that the Word of God has to become living through the power of the Holy Spirit. Then it becomes the sword of God, and we can speak forth and utilize this sword that God has given us as part of our armor, as we have previously read in Ephesians 6:17-18.
Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Let us pray.
Lord, we come to Thee this morning. Our heart, our real desire, Lord Jesus, is that we would meet You today; that we would be encouraged by Your Word; and, Lord, that we could learn to be warriors under the Captain of the host.
Lord Jesus, in this last hour, in these days of intense warfare, as You had already said it would be, Lord, may we learn. May You teach our hands to war.
Lord, we take up Your precious blood this morning as we consider this subject. I pray that we all will be touched by Your Holy Spirit according to Your will in each heart. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
There is that aspect of the sword with man. There is no other name under heaven by which a man can be saved.
Jesus Christ Himself said a man must be born again, born of the Spirit, made alive in the Spirit. Brothers and sisters, that is the Word of God. And when the Holy Spirit touches that, and He allows you to speak it, particularly to an unbeliever, there are times when the sword cuts. That one somehow is touched by this sword.
And as we come together, even this morning as we worshiped and praised our Lord, part of our ministry, even in the very beginning, is our words of declaration, using the Word of God.
Jesus Christ is on the throne. He is the Lamb who is worthy. I think we started with that this morning. He is the Lamb. Is that not the truth? Is that not the Word of God? But, brothers and sisters, even more than that, is that not the living Word of God?
He is the Lamb. He is the One who gave up His life on Calvary’s cross for you and me. There is no other way in which a man can be saved except by accepting Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior.
Sword of the Spirit. Thank God that you and I were ones who, at some time in our lives, were touched by these words: that Jesus Christ was our Savior, that Jesus loves us. We responded in our hearts because the sword of the Spirit was at work.
So this sword is, in a sense, used toward man, but it is used toward heaven. The declarations that we make—“Worthy is the Lamb”—brothers and sisters, when said in a living way, when they are in our hearts, when we are subject to the Lamb of God, and we share those words, they cut through.
They cut through all the angels of darkness that are in the air trying to block that worship from getting to the throne. It cuts through to the throne, and the throne is able to respond and pour out His blessings upon His people.
This Word is also used toward our enemy. The Lord has exhorted us to resist him, and he must flee. There are times, brothers and sisters, when we have to take our stand and say:
I come under the blood of Jesus Christ, and I rebuke this in the name of Jesus, for it is against the Lord, and it has come against me. I rebuke it in the name of Jesus Christ.
I resist this in the name of Jesus Christ, because I am under His name. I am given to that name, and that name He has, brothers and sisters, given to you and me.
So it is not that we come in our own strength, or in any of our own worthiness, or maybe in our righteous deeds. We always come on the basis of the blood of the Lamb and the work of Calvary’s cross. On that ground, we can stand and resist our enemy. And it is like a sword.
I think, in this battle and this warfare, all three of these really work so much together.
Remember one of the battles in the Old Testament, how the Lord had the singers sent out ahead of the army? As they began to worship and praise God, the other army went into confusion and was defeated.
The sword of the Spirit—how God wants us to be able to utilize this sword in this hour.
Let me read a number of Scriptures. For the sake of time, I will read them as quickly as I can, but they are all very important to what is on my heart this morning.
Genesis 1:26:
And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness: and let them have dominion.
Exodus 14:15:
And the Lord said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto Me? Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward.
And lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it.
Exodus 14:21:
And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all the night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.
Matthew 16:18-19:
Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Matthew 18:18-20:
Verily I say unto you, What things soever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and what things soever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father Who is in heaven.
For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.
Revelation 12:5:
And she brought forth a man child, Who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and unto His throne.
And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels; but they prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven.
Revelation 12:11:
And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony; and they loved not their life even unto death.
Revelation 19:11-14:
And I saw the heaven opened; and behold, a white horse, and He that sat thereon called Faithful and True; and in righteousness He doth judge and make war.
And His eyes are a flame of fire, and upon His head are many diadems; and He hath a name written which no one knoweth but He Himself.
And He is arrayed in a garment sprinkled with blood: and His name is called The Word of God.
And the armies which are in heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and pure.
In Revelation 12, it says that they overcame by the blood of the Lamb, the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto death. In previous ministries, I have shared something on the blood of the Lamb.
The blood of the Lamb pays the price. It is the penalty for our sin. He chose to take our place, that our sins might be taken care of before God and that God could be just in forgiving you.
God could not have forgiven you if Jesus had not taken your sin upon Himself on Calvary’s cross. But through the work of the Son, the Father forgives. That is why He says that your sins are as far as the east is from the west. God, in all of His marvelous love, is able to forget.
I think that is just unimaginable. But this is what the blood has done.
The blood also removes the ground of the enemy, the accuser of the brethren. It says in Revelation 12 that the accuser of the brethren—he is the accuser. He accuses you, brothers and sisters, of every sin that he can in your life, every issue that is in your life. He accuses you constantly.
He even accuses you when there is no issue, because if you are willing to accept his accusations, then he has you under guilt. And under guilt, brothers and sisters, it is very difficult for our faith to arise in our hearts. So he wants to keep us under guilt.
Indeed, we are guilty before our Lord, but we do not have to take the accusation of our enemy. We do not have to come under that weight, because the blood of the Lamb has taken the accuser’s ground from him.
If he starts accusing you and you take the blood of the Lamb, what can he say? The blood has paid the penalty for that in your life.
If he accuses you—and sometimes he will accuse you of something that is not even real—you need to take the blood of Jesus Christ. Do not let that slide past in your life, or it will take a foothold. The blood of the Lamb takes his ground from him. It is our protection in the battle and in the warfare.
Remember, at the time of the Passover, the children of Israel were preparing to leave Egypt and bondage. The Lord allowed an angel of death to come in, and all the firstborn were destroyed except the ones who had taken the blood of a lamb and put it over the door of their house.
When the angel of death came and saw that blood, he could not cross that door.
Brothers and sisters, how often in the spiritual battle and the spiritual war that we are in, we must plead the blood of Jesus Christ.
I remember years ago, a brother came to us who had been under tremendous weight for a long time, and we did not even know it. We began to pray, and somehow the Lord led us into this prayer of the blood of Jesus Christ, the veiling over every sin and every accusation.
I was not told this for maybe a couple of months later, but the brother came back to me and said, “Jerry, when the blood was mentioned, this weight left.”
There is power in the blood. Oh, how we need the blood in this warfare.
Then I am going to go to the third point: loving not our lives unto death. I kind of touched that on the fact that the sword has to work in our own lives first because of our flesh and because of our natural man, who wants to do things even for the Lord but do them in his own energy and in his own way. He has to be dealt with.
The Lord has provided on the cross of Calvary and said, “Look, I agree with you. You need to agree with Me. The old man cannot make it in the kingdom of God. He will never enter it, and I am taking care of it in Christ on the cross of Calvary.”
We have been crucified with Christ, as our brother shared last Sunday in the opening. This is our foundation. This is the truth. This is the sword of the Spirit as it comes to our heart: that we have been crucified with Christ.
Brothers and sisters, all of that old man, all of the natural man, all that is of flesh in us—the Lord says it is under the cross. When it is encountered in our lives, we have to get on our knees and say, “Lord, this is under the cross. I thank You for the sword of the Spirit that has brought that to my heart.”
So you see, we are not to love our lives unto death. These ones in Revelation 12, the man child, overcame because they loved not their life unto death.
In other words, it was not their self-interest, their self-desires, their self-pleasure. Living for self was not their heart. Their heart was living for the Lord, loving the Lord Jesus Christ, wanting what He wanted in their lives—not what they thought was best for themselves, but what was best for the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is loving not our lives unto death, and it is essential in this warfare. Often we find ourselves caught by that little device of our adversary, where he says, “It’s okay, Jerry. Go ahead and do it. It’s all right. You need a little relief, Jerry.”
Brothers and sisters, thank God for the cross of Calvary. I am so thankful that it says that we were in Him on the cross at Calvary, because we will not put ourselves on the cross.
Oh, let me say it another way. I will be a little lenient: we are very reluctant to take the cross when it comes in our lives. I will say that, anyway, for myself. And it is true.
The third issue is the word of our testimony, and that is the utilization of the sword of the Spirit.
Our testimony, brothers and sisters, is what is real in our lives of Christ. That is what we can use. That is what a testimony is.
A testimony and a story about something are two different things. What you know of Christ—if you know Him as your Savior, and it is real—you can testify to that because it is real.
You know Him as your Victor, and you can testify of that because you have experienced His victory in your life. And so there is a testimony there: the word of their testimony.
It is a firsthand knowledge of the Lord. You know, the Lord is marvelous, brothers and sisters. He will not let us be satisfied with knowing about spiritual warfare.
He is going to see to it that we have to enter into it, that we have to be a part of it, that we have to experience it. Not for the sake of war, brothers and sisters, but so that we can experience Him—His victory in that situation, His life, His overcoming resurrection life in that situation.
Brothers and sisters, it is the resurrection life that overcomes. It is not our gritting our teeth that gets us through. It is a powerful sword: the word of our testimony.
Something has happened in your life, and now you are able to declare it. It becomes a sword against our enemy, against the principalities and powers.
Now we can speak it.
Remember this: through the church will be made known to the principalities and powers the wisdom of God.
Through the church will be made known to the principalities and powers—both powers of darkness and powers of light—the wisdom of God.
I believe this is particularly important this morning. We commune with the Lord Jesus Christ. We commune quietly in our spirits. We can come and worship the Lord in our spirits together without really saying a word. We can do that.
But, you know, the principalities and powers have no idea what is in your heart until you speak it. Think about that.
Now, the Lord knows. The Lord knows our heart. He knows the intents of our heart. He knows everything about our heart. But the enemy has to deduce what is in our heart from our actions and our words.
So what I am trying to say here is that when we gather together, it is important that we use the sword, that we speak what is real, that we speak the truth.
I think it is interesting that when Moses, in that Scripture I read, cried to the Lord, the Lord said, “Moses, why are you crying to Me? Lift out the rod of authority. Divide the waters.” It was time to speak. It was time for action.
I have to reemphasize: it has to be real.
Now, how does this affect us in our worship together, brothers and sisters? How critical that is, not only for the Lord. I mean, that is what the real battle is about.
Tozer, I think, made that so clear, and Sparks: the battle is over who will be worshiped—Satan or God.
Brothers and sisters, the principalities and powers, both the evil ones and the good ones, the ones who are under the Lord Jesus Christ, all these multitudes of angels that have remained faithful to Christ—they learn. They listen. They hear.
Amazing, is it not? These creatures are so much more intelligent than we are, and they are learning. We have experienced something, brothers and sisters, that is amazing, and it is called grace.
We who are sinners, we who have failed, we who have rebelled—like a third of the angels did—we almost, to them, seem like them. But somehow God, in His grace and mercy, through the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary’s cross, has redeemed us.
They saw this, brothers and sisters. They know what the Lord has done for us, and they see us returning worship. They hear this worship, if we worship.
Now, as far as the Lord is concerned, He knows what is in our heart. The worship is in our heart if we do not say anything. But it is important to the principalities and powers that they hear, because that is the way they know and the way they learn.
That is also a way the evil powers are taken back. Worship can often destroy much that the enemy is trying to do in your life, brothers and sisters. Particularly if we are down and under a heavy load, often it is worship that breaks us through. It is the sword of the Spirit.
But I find, at least in my own life, that most times I have to speak it out loud before it seems to be effective.
Lord, I praise You today. This job is terrible. It is awful. My boss is on my back. I have all these complaints coming in from four thousand residents out there in public housing, and they are not very happy with the service that we are giving. The more we do, it seems like the more they expect.
But, Lord, I praise Thee today. You are on the throne. This is not what it is all about. The enemy is using all these things just to worry a man, to get me down, to keep me down, and to wear me out, having to wrestle with these things. Lord, it is in Your hands. I take the name of Jesus over all of this activity today in my life.
I do not know if you have ever done that, but it does make an amazing difference. The sword of the Spirit.
Let me say this: not only is this true concerning the principalities and powers, but the same thing is true in our prayer life together, particularly our corporate life.
We can pray silently before the Lamb, and He hears us. But when we are corporately together, brothers and sisters, I am spiritually weak, and I do not always pick up unless you pray.
I really do not know what the Lord has given to your heart, what He is saying to you, or the burden that He has given to you. If it is not expressed in prayer, it is difficult for me to join in and say, “Amen. I agree,” because I do not know.
The Word of God says that faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. When we worship, we need to realize that our worship is really in faith, for all that is not of faith is sin. Our worship is in faith. Faith has to rise in our heart. We have to believe what we are saying.
There needs to be faith there. The same is true in prayer.
There needs to be faith. But, brothers and sisters, as one brother prays or worships the Lord, faith begins to increase in my own heart, and we share that with one another.
But it has to be audible so that we can hear one another, so that our faith can be strengthened, so that we can pray together intelligently before the Lord, and so that we can worship Him before the Lord.
I wonder how much has not yet made it to the throne because sometimes we do not use the sword of the Spirit and speak the Word.
I hope you all will bear with me a little bit this morning, but I have always been impressed with the fact that we can never lose sight of what this battle is all about.
I myself, often in the midst of the battle, in the midst of the storm, get caught up in the battle itself and lose sight of what the battle is about.
I think it is important for me to share once again just the origin and nature of this battle. If you have heard this before, brothers and sisters, bear with me, but may the Spirit speak to us.
Lucifer was the high archangel. From the Scriptures, we understand that he was musical, that he was beautiful in his appearance, and that he was one of the archangels next to Christ, leading the other angels in worship before God.
He was a created being, as all the angels are. Yet, as he looked upon the Lord Jesus Christ, something happened in his heart.
He began to consider himself and his position. He became conscious of himself, and he began to wonder, “Why is Christ in that place? Am I not worthy of some honor here? Am I not worthy of some recognition and glory?”
“Am I not worthy of some little word? I am the most beautiful of all the angels He has created. I know I am the most intelligent. Surely I know what to do and how to do it. I am capable. It just does not seem fair.”
Self, at that point, took on a life of its own, brothers and sisters. It became the essence and the very nature of Lucifer, and Lucifer became Satan, the enemy of God.
He rebelled against God’s government. He rejected that Christ should be over him, that he should have to follow Christ and follow what Christ was ordering him to do. He felt that he could carry out things on his own.
Self-interest, self-importance, and self-desire became the nature of this one. The reason it seems so close to us is that we have sensed that same self in our own nature.
Unfortunately, when Adam fell, his seed that followed him took on this nature. That is why the cross was necessary. That is why it says we have been crucified with Christ on the cross, because it is the only way it could be dealt with, brothers and sisters. Self cannot enter the kingdom of heaven anyway.
Think of this: not only did Satan himself turn against the Lord, but he convinced a third of the angels that he was right. He convinced a third of the angels that it was in their best interest to follow him.
He told them that if he got to where Christ was, he would take care of them. They would then be at freedom and liberty to choose to live as they wanted to live and not be constantly under the direction of Christ.
So he convinced a third of the angels, and they followed him in rebellion against God and His Christ. It says God threw them out of heaven.
It appears that he came to this earth. We know that God makes everything and makes everything good. We know that in that original creation, surely there must have been harmony throughout, until this one discord of self-life arose.
But we know he was cast down to this earth. It appears that all of the destruction and darkness that we see in Genesis 1:1 was a result of the enemy’s work—the result of Christ being put out of a location or place and not honored. It destroyed this earth.
The Lord did not destroy Satan at that point. Now, He could have. There are some things in God’s plan that, though we can understand them with our mind, are still beyond our grasp. But He did not destroy Satan at that point. He could have ended the destruction then.
But God chose another way. It was His choice. He is God. What He chose to do was raise up a man. He would make another created being after His image and according to His likeness.
This man would be body, soul, and spirit. It was this man that He would use to bring this earth back under God’s control.
This man would take dominion, as I read in Genesis: created in His image to have dominion over this earth.
God realized that man in his natural state, as He created him, could not overcome. Also, God did not want mechanical beings, in the sense that whatever He said, they would do, with no choice in it.
He gave man a choice—one of the greatest gifts, but also a gift that is used so much against us because we make the wrong choice so often. But He has given us choice because He wants us to serve Him out of love, as He loves us.
We have to make that choice. This is the man that would overcome the enemy and take back dominion of this earth for God.
He gave the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That was Adam’s choice. I have shared on this so many times, but brothers and sisters, this is absolutely critical, because we get that same choice every day in our lives: between the tree of life and the knowledge of good and evil.
Adam was to partake of the tree of life. What that meant was this: Satan is a spiritual being, and it would require a spiritual man—listen to me, it would require a spiritual man—to overthrow Satan.
It requires spiritual life. Even God’s life is the only life that could overthrow this enemy of His. So He provided the tree of life that Adam might partake of it and take in that life.
It would be that life that would grow in Adam and mature in Adam through the resistance of the enemy. No doubt, through the years, the enemy would resist. But if Adam would take of the tree of life, continue to take of the tree of life, and constantly take of the tree of life, then he would be able to overcome and have dominion. This earth would be restored back to God and His Christ.
It became a test for Adam. We know what happened. Adam failed the test. Adam and Eve failed this test that God had given. They did not take of the tree of life, and therefore became subservient to Satan, to our enemy.
Now I want to say this: God, in all of His great mercy, did not destroy man at that point. It was a vessel that had been marred. It was a vessel, brothers and sisters, that did not carry out its purpose.
Yet God, in His mercy, did not destroy Adam and say, “I am going to start again.” He provided a way of redemption for Adam. He provided a way that Adam would once again be able to take of the tree of life.
Through this very, very weak vessel, He would put His enemy down.
Praise God, though Adam fell, our Lord Jesus came two thousand years later. He came both as the Son of Man and the Son of God. He took on humanity—that is the best way I can describe it, brothers and sisters. He was indeed man, and He was indeed God.
He became the man that God had been after all this time to overthrow our enemy. We know that He too was tested.
For forty days and forty nights, He went without food or water. I do not know if anybody can go without water for forty days, but our Lord Jesus did, as man. He went through those forty days.
At the end of those forty days, Satan came and confronted Him directly and tempted Him in three different ways. In every way, he was challenging the Lord to look out for Himself, to take care of Himself, because God was not taking care of Him.
He needed to take care of Himself. He needed to lift Himself up, to save Himself. The enemy challenged our Lord Jesus. He wanted Him to act out of His own self, and the Lord refused to.
Eventually, the enemy could find nothing in our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord Jesus spoke that word of rebuke: “Get thee behind Me. Get out of here. Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
So He was tempted, it says, in every way that we are, and was sinless. God had His man. He had His Victor.
Brothers and sisters, it is so strange. This victorious, sinless Man—the enemy, when he could not cause our Lord Jesus to fall, decided to annihilate Him. He used man, the religious world, the world itself. All rose up against our Lord Jesus Christ and crucified Him on Calvary’s cross.
Outwardly, at that point, it appeared that the enemy had won, that he had taken the victory. But we know that three days later, God raised Him from the dead.
Not just returning His soul to His body, which He did to Lazarus, but there was a transformation into a spiritual body. Resurrection life came forth.
After forty more days, He rose to the throne at God’s right hand. God had His Victor, and the Victor was on the throne. Jesus had overcome our adversary.
But, strangely enough, He did not destroy Satan at that time.
The Head had been attacked. The Head overcame. The Head is at the throne of God, the Head of man.
This man that God is after was more than Christ in His physical body for those three years on earth. That was not what God was really after. What God was really after was a man: Christ the Head and the church, His body.
His body would cooperate with the Head in overthrowing the enemy and taking dominion.
They would be able to do that because they would have the life of the Head, the authority and power of the Head. They would become the vessel for that and be able to restrain our adversary, to restrict him, so to speak, to take care of him.
Last week, as I shared about my letter, I mentioned that today it is like the church is the restraining force on our adversary. We are to have dominion and restrain him.
As an outpost for the King on this earth, we are the King’s kingdom on this earth. We are to maintain that here on this earth until the King Himself comes back and sets up His millennial reign on this earth.
The church is to be His instrument.
Just prior to going to the cross, Jesus had warned His disciples that He would be going to the cross.
In Matthew 16:21, He began to show His disciples how He must go to Jerusalem, suffer many things, be killed, and be raised on the third day. He shared about the cross with His disciples.
But, brothers and sisters, that was after a revelation was given. That revelation was that when Jesus asked His disciples who He was, Peter responded:
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Jesus responded, “This is not something that flesh and blood has revealed to you. This is something that the Father from heaven has put in your heart and given to you.”
Thank God, the sword of the Spirit that day reached Peter’s heart. He testified to this reality that had come into his heart, that he had seen that day: Jesus indeed was the Christ and the Son of the living God.
The Lord said, “Upon this revelation”—He said, “Peter, upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
In other words, in this revelation of Christ and His church, I think it is very interesting that the Lord immediately says, “The gates of Hades will not prevail.” The gates of hell.
That should tell us, brothers and sisters, that there is nothing more the enemy hates than the church. It is not the church in itself; it is the fact that the church has the life of Christ, and that is what he hates.
The testimony of Jesus is held in the church. Regardless of how weak and poor it may be, that is where it resides. The enemy hates anything of the testimony of Jesus, and he is out to destroy it.
The Lord wanted them to notice. He said, “Look, this is a great revelation, and I want you to know that I am going to build My church, My body, as My representative on this earth. But the gates of Hades will be against it.”
But praise the Lord, He also added, “They will not prevail.”
Now, brothers and sisters, just like it seemed that the enemy prevailed on the cross of Calvary, today it seems like he is prevailing. Let me say this much: he will not prevail.
Our Lord Jesus is still Lord of lords and King of kings. The church, with all of its weaknesses and flaws and spots and wrinkles, will prevail. One day there will be no spot or wrinkle, by the mercy of God, by the grace of God, and by His loving-kindness toward each one of us that will not let us go.
So right away, brothers and sisters, we see that upon the revelation of the church, the Lord makes it very clear that there is going to be a great warfare over this matter of the church being the testimony of Jesus Christ and His instrument to overthrow the gates of hell.
In Matthew 16:18 is the only direct word that the Lord uses about the church. First, we just heard it: “Upon this rock I will build My church.”
That reference in Matthew 16 is the universal church. It is the church in its entirety, with all the brothers and sisters all over the world and all down through the ages as a part of it.
In Matthew 18, though, we see two brothers having a problem. Once again, the Lord uses this word:
What things soever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and what things soever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Again I say unto you, that if two of you on earth shall agree touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father Who is in heaven.
For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.
In Matthew 16, He said, speaking of the church:
I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.
So we see the universal church on one hand, and in Matthew 18 we see the local church. In both cases, He talks about binding and loosing.
We have a responsibility as the church to bind and to loose. The church has no authority in itself, brothers and sisters. Its only authority is to be a vessel of God’s authority.
But we are to be the instrument through which His authority is exerted over the enemy. The words He uses are bind and loose: to bind up anything that is not of Christ, to bind up what is against Christ, but to loose what is of God.
For instance, in this recent terrorist attack, our prayers have been on three or four different fronts.
First, that God would be merciful to those who have lost loved ones; that He is the God of all comfort; that He would comfort them, brothers and sisters.
How important this is. We have run into this in our lives before. How difficult it is to comfort those who have lost loved ones. Some of the greatest comfort sometimes is just to listen. But it is God Who comforts. It is God Who comforts.
Now, we do have a responsibility to share the comfort of God with one another as He gives it.
It is the church’s responsibility to bring heaven’s will down to this earth. Heaven’s will to this earth. It is worked out in these terms of binding and loosing.
Back to our prayers: the other prayer is, “Lord, search our own hearts.” Our own flesh has to be dealt with when you go into battle. “Lord, search our own hearts.”
We know that revenge is just a hairbreadth away in our own hearts when we are under attack, that we not fall into the same trap of hatred that created this situation in the first place. We have to lift ourselves before the Lord.
I say this not to offend anybody, but patriotism is not what is going to bring the forces of hell down. It is the prayer of His church.
But then we also have prayed, “Lord, bind up our adversary. Lord, bring confusion to our enemy and to all of his plans that he is trying to carry out. Lord, protect those who are having to go into this battle.”
This battle of terrorism is not going to be won on the battlefront. It will be won in prayer behind the scenes, with the prince of darkness that resides over that land.
You remember the prince of Persia? Daniel—the Lord had sent a word down to Daniel, and it was held up for twenty-one days. Michael the archangel, or perhaps Gabriel—I cannot remember which one brought the words—said, “I was held up for twenty-one days by the prince of Persia.”
Now, that was not a good prince. That was a prince of darkness. They had to overcome him for that answer from the throne to get down to Daniel.
There are spiritual forces just as real as our own army today. There are spiritual forces out there, and there is binding and loosing.
“Lord, bind up our adversary. Restrict our adversary. Restrain our adversary. Lord, keep our adversary from prompting anything that will generate Armageddon before its time.”
Those are the prayers of the church.
“Lord, loose Thy gospel to this nation that is in darkness. Loose Thy gospel and the power of Thy gospel. Lord, there is a great enemy there, and he has restricted Your gospel from being able to get through in that land and in that nation.”
“Lord, give us the prayer that will break this darkness, that will get through so the gospel can get to these people and to this nation that is in so much darkness.”
So that is binding and loosing. It is a responsibility of the church.
I see that I am going to have to stop for today. I think it would be better, brothers and sisters, to take at least another thirty minutes or so to finish.
But what is on my heart is that we have a responsibility as a house of God. Indeed, we are a weak vessel, but the Lord has called us all to be responsible in binding and loosing. That is the church.
We have this tremendous warfare going on, and so often it seems to be hidden.
Let me just share this. I know John has mentioned a number of times how much this terrorist attack is just an outward expression of the way Satan has been working all along.
They are hidden. They are elusive. You cannot really touch them. You cannot seem to find them. You cannot seem to get to them. That is the way the enemy works, and that is the way the powers of darkness work in our own lives. We do not even recognize that it is the enemy.
Now let me say this. We had an embassy destroyed. I do not know if we even remember that. Somebody blew up one of our embassies in another nation.
Then, in 1993, the World Trade Center tower was attacked, and there was an explosion. It did some damage, but it was not that serious. We thought, “Here are some more madmen trying to blow up this tower.”
A year ago, the USS Cole, a ship in a foreign harbor, was attacked. It was a terrorist attack. Did it really affect us?
I speak for myself, brothers and sisters. Honestly, I feel sorry that I did not have enough spiritual intuition, enough spiritual insight, to recognize what was going on.
I failed. The church failed. We were asleep. Our nation was asleep. I was asleep.
But on September 11, 2001, the enemy hit in such an obvious way, and so hard and so quickly, that it astounded us. We were in shock.
I was. I could not believe it. Somebody came into the office and told me. I happened to be in a training session, and I thought it was one of those things where they were trying to fool us and set up some scenario to see how we would react.
You know what my reaction was? I was just sitting there, waiting. “Okay, they will tell us the truth here in a little bit.”
It was true. It had happened. It was unbelievable.
Now finally, we are awakened to this enemy who has been working for years behind the scenes. Thank God, the church is awakened all over this nation. Saints are praying. Saints are standing.
I think the precursor to this, frankly—and forgive me for those who might feel differently—was when our president was elected. Remember all the warfare and prayer that we had? It did not seem like it should be that necessary.
But God knew. God was getting us ready.
Unfortunately, we were not awakened until the attack took down two of our buildings and over five thousand lives. Brothers and sisters, this is the enemy. This battle, let me say it again, is really spiritual warfare.
There is a prince of darkness in this thing. That is what has to be bound.
The Lord Jesus said that you cannot plunder the strong man’s house until you first go in and bind him.
Our government can be used to restrain the outward aspects of this evil. We pray that it does. I do not know if you can really have justice in this situation, but at least this thing can be brought under control. God will use our government to do that.
But our government is not going to be effective in that way unless first the strong man is bound. That is the responsibility of the church.
May the Lord help us. First of all, do not ever forget: they overcame by the blood of the Lamb.
It was not the strength of their prayers. Yes, they prayed. They bound. They loosed. But they could only do it on the basis of the blood of Jesus Christ.
It is Christ Who is the Victor. The church is not the victor. Christ is Victor. The church can only apply that victory to the situations to which it is called.
So I do want to say: it is Christ and Him alone. Christ and Christ alone.
Lord, we just come to Thee today. We look to Thee. You are the Almighty God.
Lord, Your plan in all this is amazing. Lord, Your ways are beyond our ways and higher than our thoughts.
But Lord, in these days, I pray that we will carry out our responsibility as Your church, to be a praying church. Lord, to be a church that will withstand the gates of hell.
Lord Jesus, we have failed in so many ways. Honestly, Lord, I personally have failed so many times. I ask Your forgiveness, Lord, and I thank You for that precious blood today.
Lord, our testimony is: You are the Victor. You are the Lord of lords and the King of kings.
We worship Thee and praise You, Lord, in Jesus’ name.