You know, I like those young people’s choruses, but I also like those hymns. Actually, you could just about preach that hymn. That was so good—so much substance in it.
So I hope that the young generation here that is growing up will appreciate not only those choruses, because I do believe Jesus is the heart of worship, but also these hymns with substance. If you read over several times those two hymns we just sang, basically, I do not know—the guy copied my notes.
Now, we are talking about the enemy’s strategy to wear down the saints. In order to do that, we want to see the actual context of this phrase. We are going to look first in Daniel 7, and then in Revelation 12, reading verses that appear to be looking out of the same window of revelation.
A tremendous vision was given to Daniel regarding the end times. We will look at it in a few moments, but we want to see the crux of the matter. We will begin reading in Daniel 7:21, as he sees the little horn, which is the Antichrist, rise up.
“I kept looking, and that horn was waging war with the saints and overpowering them
until the Ancient of Days came,
and judgment was passed in favor of the saints of the Highest One,
and the time arrived when the saints took possession of the kingdom.”“Thus he said: ‘The fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on the earth,
which will be different from all the other kingdoms
and will devour the whole earth and tread it down and crush it.
As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings will arise;
and another will arise after them,
and he will be different from the previous ones
and will subdue three kings.
He will speak out against the Most High
and wear down the saints of the Highest One,
and he will intend to make alterations in times and in law;
and they will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time.
But the court will sit for judgment,
and his dominion will be taken away, annihilated, and destroyed forever.
Then the sovereignty, the dominion, and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven
will be given to the people of the saints of the Highest One;
His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom,
and all the dominions will serve and obey Him.’”“At this point the revelation ended. As for me, Daniel, my thoughts were greatly alarming me and my face grew pale, but I kept the matter to myself.”
Hold that passage, because we will come back to it. We also want to read in the book of Revelation, in chapter 12, which appears to refer to the same time period and is very revealing as to the intensity of this spiritual warfare and conflict.
“And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. The dragon and his angels waged war, and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven.
“And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
“Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, ‘Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night.
“And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.
“For this reason, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time.’
“And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. But the two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, so that she could fly into the wilderness to her place, where she was nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent.
“And the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, so that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood. But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and drank up the river which the dragon poured out of his mouth.
“So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.”
Let us just pray for a moment.
Our Lord, as we read these words, we can imagine that if we actually saw this revelation before us, as John did and as Daniel did, how perplexing it would be, how troubling it would be. The color would go out of our faces as we realized that this is not a pretend fairy tale, but the detail of the end time.
Our Lord, all we can do is ask that by Your Holy Spirit, You would awaken our spirits to the reality of the great conflict that is going on, and give us resolve in Christ Jesus and by His amazing grace to stand firm in this evil day.
Oh, help us, Lord, to understand these things and our life as it is before Thee. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Well, we can read these verses and see immediately that there is a great spiritual conflict ahead. We are in a spiritual battle, as has been said already, from the moment we are saved. As we come together as the Lord’s people, the battle intensifies because the issues are greater.
We looked yesterday, and I tried to be practical in this simple point: the devil, prowling about like a lion, is looking for some ledge, something of the natural life, or some sin in our lives by which he can grab hold of us and lay claim to us. Pride is the number-one citadel for most people that gives the enemy so much room to wreak havoc in our lives.
So we were looking at the matter of pride, and how, by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, He turns our pride into humility, where we find ourselves trusting in the Lord. We come to the place where we say more and more, by His grace, “When Satan comes to me, he finds nothing in me,” because of His precious blood and because we are clothed in His righteousness.
This is a spiritual battle on a personal level. Today, I said that we would talk about the weariness, the wearing down of the saints by the enemy. I was ready to go on it until my brother advertised this morning that I was going to do a good job, and then it all fell through.
Since that time, I have become very weary myself. I cannot imagine any topic that would wear the saints down faster than talking on the weariness of the saints.
But the Lord needs to give us grace and quickening by the Holy Spirit to remain attentive and try to understand these things. First, I would like to speak on what I am not going to speak on—that is to say, the actual meaning of this wearing down of the saints. I am not going to touch on it just yet, because saints are also wearied for other reasons, not having to do with spiritual warfare.
I felt in my heart that I could not just leave this alone without touching on these things, because we need to understand what the word means when it says this thing.
Let us make a few distinctions. First of all, there is a difference between being physically tired and being weary. “Weary” in English comes from the idea of wearing: something is wearing you down. Tiredness, on the other hand, may be the result of a good and productive day. We should all be tired at the end of the day.
We know what it is like to be tired. I know this is a favorite topic among Christians. All I have to do is say, “The wearing down of the saints,” and I knew everybody was going to show up, because everybody says, “Oh yes, that is what is happening to me. I know.”
Well, maybe you are just tired. You need a good nap. You can take one now.
Women who have babies under five years old, you know they are tired all the time. People who are working two jobs and never rest, you know that they are tired. Some of that they have taken upon themselves. Some of us are so out of shape that just walking from there to here, we are tired.
Now, the Bible is not talking about these kinds of things, but these are things that we ought to look at in our own lives. Our souls become weary because we still do so much in the flesh. We take so much upon ourselves.
Many of us came to the United States and are holding jobs that demand our soul, and we are giving our soul for the wage that we receive. So many people are oppressed by their jobs and by their own desire for wealth, prosperity, blessing, the bigger house, the newer car—whatever it is. These demands of our souls sometimes create weariness in us. But that is not what we are talking about today.
I do want to speak for a few moments on a spiritual weariness that comes in our own personal lives. Again, this wearing down, as we see in the Scriptures, comes upon a corporate assembly. Still, you as an individual and I as an individual influence the corporate whole, especially when so much of our weariness comes because of the dealings of flesh and spirit in our own lives.
I do not want to go in and preach on this matter as it were, but I want to remind you that many times we feel weary, but it is not just Satan wearing upon us. It is because of our own striving with flesh and spirit. We need to resolve these things in order to do spiritual battle. If we are too weary from our own spiritual life, we are not able to do the spiritual warfare that the Lord has called us to.
I want us to look at just a few Scriptures and think for a few moments about some areas that cause us weariness in our personal spiritual life. I have taken three verses in Isaiah, first in Isaiah 43.
The most interesting phenomenon in our lives is called becoming weary of the Lord. Do you ever become weary of the Lord? You probably would not confess it openly, but in Isaiah 43:22, Isaiah mentions it.
“Yet you have not called on Me, O Jacob;
but you have become weary of Me, O Israel.
You have not brought to Me the sheep of your burnt offerings,
nor have you honored Me with your sacrifices.
I have not burdened you with offerings,
nor wearied you with incense.
You have bought Me not sweet cane with money,
nor have you filled Me with the fat of your sacrifices;
rather you have burdened Me with your sins,
you have wearied Me with your iniquities.”
Now, brothers and sisters, it should not really have to be said, but can I say this? Sin wearies us.
That is true in two regards. If we are going to fight the good fight of faith, Paul says we have to keep our conscience clean, or weariness sets in. The first thing I am talking about is keeping what they call short accounts with God.
We need to confess to Him and ask forgiveness for our sins, and not let these sins remain unconfessed day after day after day, or a weariness sets in. It even makes us reticent to come into God’s presence. We become weary of God because we feel guilty every time we go.
No, we need to deal with our sins and know that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That should go without saying, but yet I say it for the benefit of the thought.
On the other hand, willful sin does even more damage. That means we sin, we know that we are sinning, and we keep on sinning. Willful sin not only affects our conscience, but it brings us under condemnation.
The book of Hebrews says that if we go on willfully sinning, a certain sense of foreboding and darkness comes over us, and we know that we are going to be judged. When we live that way, we live in a weariness of disobedience.
How can we do spiritual warfare? Every time we would go to God and begin to plead on His behalf, the enemy would shoot darts into us—condemnation left and right—and our hearts would leave us completely spent of any faith to pray.
So do not think that sin in our lives will not affect us. We cannot get together for spiritual warfare while we have unconfessed sin and willful disobedience in our lives. These things take their toll.
Let us turn to Isaiah 47. I find another verse about wearying. In Isaiah 47:13, I use just the first part of this verse to make a simple point:
“You are wearied with your many counsels.”
You know, brothers and sisters, we become weary when, rather than asking the Lord and waiting before the Lord regarding our needs, difficulties, or problems, we go and seek much counsel. Have you ever asked everybody what they think you ought to do?
Well, you get many ideas. You can be wearied from counseling. As the Lord says right here, if you want to go to astrologers, if you want to ask psychologists, if you want to talk to this guy and that guy and go to the pastor, and this guy delivers demons and finds out all about your problems, well, you will hear many things—but you may be wearied by all of that.
Why do you not go to Me? Who can save you except Me? Many counsels create weariness.
Then, of course, we all know Isaiah 40. Ernie was telling me there is a different translation to this thing, and I looked in my Bible and saw, of course, it is true: those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.
Not only will they mount up with wings as eagles, but it says they will put on their wings. Evidently eagles molt their wings and put on brand-new ones, and Ernie is claiming that for himself.
We all need some new wings.
But we all know this verse. In Isaiah 40:28-31, we see that even young people grow weary:
“Do you not know? Have you not heard?
The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth
does not become weary or tired.
His understanding is inscrutable.
He gives strength to the weary,
and to him who lacks might He increases power.
Though youths grow weary and tired,
and vigorous young men stumble badly,
yet those who wait for the Lord
will gain new strength;
they will mount up with wings like eagles,
they will run and not get tired,
they will walk and not become weary.”
Here I make a very simple point: you have a tendency to run ahead of the Lord, to do many uncommanded things. There are many Christians running around, Lone Ranger, doing things not commanded by God. They are weary, but those who wait upon the Lord have their strength renewed, for what they do is done in His life.
What a difference it is. There are many saints who really love the Lord, but they are so weary. They are doing so much for Jesus—only Jesus did not ask them to.
We all have to learn that. Those who wait upon the Lord are the ones who find the life of the Lord to do the things that He tells them to do.
Let us look at a few other verses in Galatians 6. We are all familiar with this little phrase. Probably when I mentioned weariness, some of you thought of this one.
“Let us not lose heart in doing good,
for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.”
Now, this is a wearing down that has some parallel with the wearing down of the enemy. Many saints are faithful to the Lord, but they make a mistake after a while. They serve the Lord, they do good, they do what the Lord wants; but after a while, rather than looking to the Lord as their satisfaction, they look to the reward.
They are disappointed that they do not see the fruit, and they get weary. The farmer is plowing and working and working, but imagine—though this would never happen to a farmer—that he suddenly said, “I planted in June, and it is July, and it is just not ready. I give up.”
Of course, he waits until the end of August and he has the harvest. But sometimes, in spiritual labors, we work for a while and then grow weary because we are looking for fruit, reward, something tangible, instead of going to the Lord and trusting and waiting for Him.
So this becomes a weariness. I know many saints who say, “Oh, well, I used to teach the children when my children were young, but now that they are older, I have retired.”
Well, if you have retired from the Lord’s service, you are a very weary person, because there is yet much to do. Be faithful to the Lord, and you shall be fruitful.
The last one I want to mention—because, as I say, these things have nothing to do with what we are talking about today—is Hebrews 12.
After saying, “Run the race,” and “Looking away unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith,” who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God, Hebrews 12:3 immediately says:
“For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself,
so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin;
and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons:
‘My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
nor faint when you are reproved by Him;
for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines,
and He scourges every son whom He receives.’”
Now, it is one of the enemy’s tactics to get us to be those who are trying as much as possible to avoid discipline. The Lord is disciplining us as sons, and the enemy comes to us in a time of discipline and says, “He does not love you. That is why He is punishing you.”
It is not punishment. He loves you like a son, and He is disciplining you. So do not grow weary.
You know, when we hear, “The Lord wants to discipline you,” immediately we go, “Oh, not again.”
But if we go to the Lord and say, “Lord, You know I do not like the system, but I love You. So help me get through. Teach me. Lord, forgive me for the mistakes now. Teach me how to do this right,” you find the grace immediately.
I remember the times my children said I spanked them a lot. I do not think I did, but I remember sometimes after I spanked a child, the boy would be sniveling away and crying. Then they would come up into my lap, and I would hold them. Actually, they confessed that some of those were the sweetest times. They knew I loved them, and they loved me.
The ice was broken. The separation was closed. The discipline had been needed. If we give ourselves to the Lord’s discipline, we will not grow weary. But we will grow weary if we are avoiding and hiding, saying, “No, no, I do not need discipline. I will fall down and play like I am dead.” No, it does not work.
So these are matters of weariness in the Christian life. We need to stand again. We need to do violence against ourselves, deny ourselves, take up our cross in these various matters, and deal with the sin, compromise, and soulish ways in our lives. It is a warfare.
But that is not what we are here to talk about today. We are talking about this wearing down of the saints that you see in Daniel. This wearing down of the saints is not because of sin in their lives.
As a matter of fact, it is a wearing down of the holy ones, if you translate what the Scripture says. “He will wear down the holy ones.”
You see, this is not weariness with regard to sin. It is not that he has found ground and is now pulverizing a sinner. No, he is wearing somebody down to try to draw them out into sin.
He comes to the body, and he comes to the Lord’s people, looking to wear us down, to cause a carnal reaction, to cause some sort of reaction. When we see this passage in Daniel 7, we see the tremendous intensity of this battle.
The first thing I want to say about this wearing down of the saints, in the context of the Scripture, is that it comes at the very end, just before the Lord comes back.
This is an intensive wearing down. So great is this pressure that Jesus says that if the Lord had not shortened the days, nobody would survive. This three-and-a-half-year period—as most people interpret “a time, times, and half a time”—is a final period in which the enemy is let loose.
There is such pressure on the saints. I am sure it is physical, emotional, and spiritual. It is relentless wearing down.
Let us look at Daniel 7. I am not going to speak on the end times one, two, three, four, because I do not know one, two, three, four.
But in Daniel 7, Daniel is led into a vision. In this vision, he sees four beasts. Very quickly, the interpreter gives him to understand that these four beasts speak of four kingdoms that would come at the end.
There is a lion beast, the kingdom of Babylon. Then it is replaced by a bear beast, the kingdom of Persia, which was soon to come. Then there is the leopard beast, Greece.
Those three are passed over rather quickly, but then there is the fourth beast. It is not described as a cow or a dog or something. It is simply a beast with iron teeth that devours and treads down everything in its path. It is like a huge machine.
This huge beast, of course, is the Roman Empire, according to the interpretation. As this beast is rolling along, it crushes everything in its path and eats everything in its path.
This is all in line with the vision Nebuchadnezzar saw back in Daniel 2, of that huge statue with four parts. It is similar, except Daniel sees it as a spiritual vision. These four empires are not beautiful gold, silver, brass, and iron. These four kingdoms are demonic, driven by beasts behind them, as it were.
Then there is this Roman Empire that comes into being, and out of this Roman Empire come ten kings, ten horns. Of course, everybody has theorized about the ten nations of Europe and who the ten would be. But it appears that the ten have not fully surfaced yet, because the eleventh horn comes out of the ten, subdues three of the ten, and then really takes over in these last three-and-a-half years.
I do not think we are in the last three-and-a-half years. If we are, put on your seat belts. But I do not think we are. We do not know.
As we look at this unfolding, let us look again at Daniel 7:25 and these different aspects for just a moment.
First of all, this Antichrist, this eleventh horn, this one rising up out of the Roman Empire, will speak out against the Most High. There is a brave and powerful leader. He speaks out against the Most High God.
There must be some pride driving this man. He is a man. As a matter of fact, it says he has eyes and a mouth. That is how he is described: a horn with eyes and a mouth.
By interpretation, that means he is a horn that is very intelligent. He has eyes—very intelligent—and a mouth that speaks bold things. Here he comes into the high part of his ministry, and the first thing he does is speak out against the Most High.
The second thing he does is wear down the saints. Your translation may say “the saints of the Most High,” but actually, in Hebrew, it is not “the Most High” as in the Most High God in the previous phrase. This says “the high” in Hebrew.
Some Bible scholars think this means not merely saints of God—which, of course, is no problem—but saints of the highest place. The highest place is the equivalent of “the heavenlies” in the New Testament. They are the saints of the highest place. In any case, he wears down the saints of the highest places.
The third thing he does is intend to alter the times and the law. A lot of interpretation has been given to this. Some people think it means changing the feasts of the Jews.
But to me, it sounds like a much more profound thing: that the Antichrist will come and try to precipitate and change God’s calendar. God has set fixed dates for accomplishing His purpose, but the enemy would come in and try to precipitate Armageddon, or try to change the timing and framing of everything.
In any case, he will try to throw off our whole sense of timing. There is a lot of order in timing. You know when to get up, when to get dressed, when you have to be at work, when you have to be home, and what time the meeting is. There is an order in timing.
But what if somebody comes and changes all the timing? Suddenly we are off time. We do not know: is it day or night? Is it a time of persecution or a time of wrestling? The whole timing is thrown off by this powerful being.
He also tries to throw a monkey wrench into all the laws presently in existence, because he is the lawless one. If it is the Ten Commandments, he tries to take them away. If they are the natural laws of life, we learn even in Genesis that there are laws the Lord put into life, such as the law of marriage, the law of resting one day a week, and the law of women being submissive to men.
Here are laws we find way back in Genesis somewhere, and the enemy would come and try to do away with all that. “Women do not need to submit. Marriage is no more.” Maybe one day this might happen.
I think it is already beginning to be heard.
Then it says, “They will be given into his hand” for this three-and-a-half period of time. There is discussion over whether “they” means the times and laws or whether it means the saints. But the enemy is allowed to wreak havoc for three-and-a-half periods of time.
This is an intense time of persecution. You saw it in Revelation 12. With all this evil power thrown down to the earth—listen, I do not know, but when I even read these visions, I cannot say I have had a revelation of these things, but I do not want to be there.
With the devil thrown down to the earth, and his angels down on the earth, no longer in the heavens but down here—every one of them seeking somebody to devour—there is constant pressure all the time. This is really going to be something.
Of course, the thing about Daniel is this: we should really say he did not merely see a revelation of the four beasts. What he saw was two things: the revelation of the throne of the Ancient of Days, and the coming on the clouds of the Son of Man to receive His kingdom and dominion over the whole earth.
There is the vision he saw. You can have hope even in the vision of these end days, the beasts, and the persecution, if you know the end. And he saw the end.
In Daniel 7:9, he says, “I kept looking until thrones were set up, and the Ancient of Days took His seat,” setting up to judge everything about to take place.
Then the Antichrist does some more things, and Daniel says in Daniel 7:13:
“I kept looking in the night visions,
and behold, with the clouds of heaven
One like a Son of Man was coming,
and He came up to the Ancient of Days
and was presented before Him.
And to Him was given dominion,
glory and a kingdom,
that all the peoples, nations and men of every language
might serve Him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion
which will not pass away;
and His kingdom is one
which will not be destroyed.”
Daniel saw that the Messiah is coming, coming on the clouds. Even in the midst of all this bestial thing, God is setting up His throne, getting ready for the day of judgment.
With this vision, Daniel could run. Even through a time when he served in government over many years among Gentiles who lived debased lives, he could live because he had this hope in him. He saw this vision.
Now, this is the period of time when there will be a wearing down of the saints. I do not believe that technically this time has come upon us. But we know from the Scriptures that before the Antichrist actually comes, the spirit of Antichrist is already in the world.
You young people might want to look at this. In 1 John 2:18, John says:
“Children, it is the last hour;
and just as you heard that Antichrist is coming,
even now many antichrists have appeared;
from this we know that it is the last hour.”
He is saying that the Antichrist himself in human form has not come, but already the spirit of Antichrist is among us. Because of that, we can expect that some of the symptoms of what will happen in those very last intense days will begin to come upon us even now, as we live in this world.
The spirit of Antichrist is here with all kinds of false teaching. He is here causing all kinds of problems, even among the saints in the days of John the apostle.
We also know from 2 Thessalonians 2:7:
“For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way.”
Here again we see that there is a mystery already at work—the mystery of lawlessness. These things are not as intense as they are going to be at the end, but what I am simply trying to say is that the enemy is already trying to wear down the saints. He is already trying to work lawlessness. He is already manifesting himself in spiritual ways as the Antichrist.
Now let us look at this matter of wearing down the saints as it applies to us today. As has already been said, spiritual warfare is a corporate matter, and this wearing down of the saints is primarily seen in a corporate context.
The saints of the Most High come under intense persecution. Revelation talks about living in the wilderness. It talks about the enemy going after the children of the woman. It is a real intense time of persecution.
But let us make it practical in this way. If we, as God’s people, live our own Christian life, read our devotional book, pray, and occasionally go through a meeting somewhere and worship, I am not sure this specifically applies.
But if a group of God’s people, because they love the Lord, say, “We want to stand as a testimony for the Lord Jesus,” then you know that the enemy will try to bring that down.
If this same company of people—perhaps only twenty people; size makes no difference, because size is not what shakes the heavens and the earth—if even a small assembly of people seriously gathers together for corporate prayer and says, “We want to do spiritual warfare. We want to bind and loose according to the will of heaven,” the enemy will come seriously against that purpose.
It is his purpose to try to destroy prayer. Everybody in this place who has been in a sincere prayer burden has felt the continual bombardment, weariness, distractions, and pushing of the enemy. He does not want such a vessel.
If he can bring our prayer meeting down from a time when we are doing executive praying, binding and loosing, and bring it down to a time of safe petition, then he has won.
If we set our hearts to really be a testimony for the Lord, and if we really want to be a prayer vessel for the Lord to accomplish His purpose, the enemy is going to target us. This spiritual warfare and spiritual weariness are primarily in the area of prayer.
Again, would you turn to Daniel 10? Daniel was such a faithful servant of God through his many years, starting with the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar and going right through to Cyrus of Persia. He was faithful.
In Daniel 10, Daniel shares something with us concerning a burden that came to him in prayer. He was in exile, and this was in the days of Cyrus king of Persia. He had been involved for seventy years.
“In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia, a message was revealed to Daniel, who was named Belteshazzar; and the message was true and one of great conflict, but he understood the message and had an understanding of the vision.
“In those days, I, Daniel, had been mourning for three entire weeks. I did not eat any tasty food, nor did meat or wine enter my mouth, nor did I use any ointment at all until the entire three weeks were completed.”
He saw some vision that caused him to mourn, pray, and fast. Here is our first lesson: if we are called into spiritual warfare, it comes through vision.
Daniel saw a vision that laid upon him a burden, causing him to pray for three weeks over this matter. At the end of the three weeks, he saw an angel, and he had no strength. Daniel fell down. The angel spoke to him and told him to stand up. He stood up trembling. He had no strength at all.
He had been intensely praying regarding the things he had seen all that time, and he had no strength. He was helpless under this vision and helpless under this burden until two things came to him.
The angel came to give him these two things. But as you know from the story, the angel was delayed for three weeks because the conflict was so intense in heaven that the angel was held up. Think of that.
We have no idea what is going on up there. But here is an angel, who I imagine had some clout. He was not just a taxicab, right? God said, “Get this message to Daniel.”
Underlying this whole thing is that Daniel had a strategic role as he was praying under this burden. He had a strategic role in helping that angel get to him. He was praying without strength and burdened, but he needed two things.
When the Lord gives us a sense of spiritual conflict and gives us a burden, He has to give us two things or we cannot survive. What are the two things?
Number one: Daniel had to receive from the Lord the word of the Lord to interpret and understand what was going on. His burden was so intense, but he did not understand it until the angel came to him.
In Daniel 10:14, the angel says:
“Now I have come to give you an understanding of what will happen to your people in the latter days, for the vision pertains to the days yet future.”
That is what Daniel was waiting for. As soon as Daniel saw the interpretation, it gave him strength. Remember Daniel 9: Daniel saw the word Jeremiah had predicted—that after seventy years the children would go back. He threw the windows open and began to pray, “God, send them back according to Your word.”
Here he had this burden concerning things happening at the end time, such tremendous conflict. He needed the word of the Lord that the Lord was going to be victorious: “Here is how the Lord is going to do it. Here is the interpretation.” As soon as he had that, he had the vision to run.
We need the word of God. If we just have a burden and cannot find the understanding in the word of God, we are cooked. Such a heavy burden, such spiritual conflict.
But Daniel not only needed a word from the Lord; he needed actual spiritual strength from the Lord. How can we bear a spiritual burden? By the strength of the Lord Himself.
When the angel came in Daniel 10:19, it says:
“He said, ‘O man of high esteem, do not be afraid. Peace be with you; take courage and be courageous!’ Now as soon as he spoke to me, I received strength and said, ‘May my lord speak, for you have strengthened me.’”
The Lord is so faithful. When He gives us the burden, He will strengthen us to carry it out, to pray through it, and to see it through to His end. He will give us a word of understanding.
Why would He give Daniel a vision unless He wanted him to understand something? Why would He give us a vision of spiritual conflict unless He wanted us to be able to do something?
We need to be in the word of God to understand the interpretation of the things we see. We also need the strength of the Lord. As soon as these burdens come, we have to cast our care back on the Lord, because we cannot hold such a great conflict and burden before us.
Here is Daniel being ministered to by the angels. What does that make you think of? Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Can I include ourselves? The disciples slept, unaware really of what the conflict was. Perhaps they were afraid that some soldiers might come, but they did not know that Jesus was sweating blood.
He was in such a spiritual conflict—not over physical pain or fear of pain, not over some soldiers coming. He just spoke His name and they all fell over.
But He was in such a spiritual conflict that the Bible says angels had to come and strengthen Him. The disciples did not even realize what was going on.
Brothers and sisters, I feel sure that if we say, “Lord, we want to be praying and doing according to Your will in this matter of spiritual warfare, taking and binding that which You have won and the victories You want,” if we give ourselves to this, the Lord will open our eyes to the conflict.
We will begin to see what is really going on over our fellowships. We think it is all flesh-and-blood stuff: the differences, all the problems. We think we need more money, or we need a brother to get out of there, or we need fewer children—whatever the problem is that we think is the problem.
But if we are really assembling together to be the Lord’s testimony, it is not flesh-and-blood matters. We do not wrestle against flesh and blood.
It is interesting: Paul said that when some men who called themselves apostles were saying, “Paul is not really an apostle,” he was not going to fight them flesh against flesh. Paul could have said, “Okay, you do this to me; let us see if I die. Then I will do it to you, and let us see if you die.” Of course, I think Paul would have won.
But he says, “I am not going to fight them flesh against flesh, because there is something over the top of this thing.” The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but spiritual.
In our assembly life, sometimes we see in retrospect how much of the conflict was really up there. It is like Job. He had no idea what was going on up there—the contest between God and Satan.
When he was down here on earth, going through all his rigmarole, his friends were wearying him with much counsel. Until he saw the Lord, he almost died.
As the church gathers, we experience weariness. We gather for prayer, and is it not interesting that many times just before the prayer meeting, everybody suddenly gets sick?
“I have a little sore throat. I feel something coming on. Is that a temperature, or am I just sitting too near the heater?” I do not know. All kinds of little symptoms come upon us, and we get weary.
We come to the prayer meeting and see two or three saints. It makes us weary immediately: “Oh no.”
The enemy has been working his best to keep us from the prayer meeting. It should be our most potent meeting. But many times just a few people dribble in, and somehow they were able to overcome all their little maladies and make it.
Do you not think it would be interesting sometimes to take a poll? When nobody showed up at the prayer meeting except two people who always go, you should check with everybody and find out. You will find that everybody had symptoms that were erased the next morning.
Phantom diseases, all kinds of conflict. If you are just about out the door, the phone rings. It is your boss with a one-hour conversation. There are so many things the enemy does because he does not want that prayer meeting.
It wearies us in all the meetings, until we cannot stand going to the meeting. But you should overcome that. It is important that you be there.
How can you say, “I cannot go tonight”? Oh, the enemy loves that. “Ah, I got enough.” He has won a victory in your life.
He wears us down. When you look at the churches in the New Testament, you see these things.
The Thessalonians were such young Christians. What did the enemy throw into them to weary them? False teaching. He changed the times on them. “The second coming has already come.”
Some guys brought in rumors, some letter supposedly from Paul, or some false teacher came through and said, “The rapture has already come.” And they said, “What about me?”
Their faith was thrown into confusion. They did not know, “Should I keep working or not working? When is the time? What about the dead people—the people who died in faith?” They got so upset. The saints were so weary and confused. False teaching scatters that in among poor, young Christians.
In Jude, we find Jude saying, “I wanted to write you a letter, but I had to stop and turn around and tell you that you need to contend for the faith, because there are tares among the wheat who have come in and sneaked into your love feasts, and they are raising havoc.”
They are teaching all kinds of things, and pushing themselves around with fleshly boldness. There is nothing that wearies true saints in a fellowship, who are willing to submit and find the Lord’s will, like men and women who push themselves around carnally.
It causes all kinds of things. Your spirit gets wrenched out by the quenching, boasting, and all this kind of thing.
In 2 Peter 2, there is a verse worth looking at for a minute, because it is true: the enemy will use anything to try to weary us.
Speaking of Lot, whom we feel was a man of compromise, but relatively speaking, compared with the men of Sodom and Gomorrah, he was righteous, 2 Peter 2:7-8 says:
“And if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men
(for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them,
felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds).”
I feel great compassion when I hear stories of what some saints who work in the workplace go through: some of the ungodliness, some of the vile language, some of the coarse life. It is a torment.
If you cannot find a way of fighting through that, you come home feeling so dirty. How can you go to prayer? You have heard curse words all day. You have seen all kinds of things going on that are not right.
This is a vile world when you really see it. Even Lot, who had compromised to go to Sodom and Gomorrah, could see what a vile place it was. It caused torment to his righteous soul every day.
In Philippi, there was weariness because of contention between two women. In Corinth, the saints who were truly spiritual were wearied by continual contentions among men in leadership.
Even in the book of Revelation, you see the wearying process of the enemy. The church in Smyrna—bless their hearts, such precious Christians—was under intense persecution.
The Lord told them some of them were going to lose their lives. The synagogue of Satan was pressing in on them. There was such religious persecution that some had grown weary. Instead of realizing they were rich in the Lord, they sensed that they were simply poor.
The Lord says, “I know your poverty. You are poor, but really you are rich.” But they had turned somehow from recognizing their richness to looking at their poverty and feeling their misery.
The church of Philadelphia was another church living in a city where the synagogue of Satan was. It was harassing this little group of people so much that all they felt was their littleness.
The Lord comes in and says, “I open the door that nobody can shut. I know you have little strength, but go through and be faithful. You have kept My word. Now keep on going.”
They were so pressed down by that great religious machine. They felt themselves disqualified, too small, of no account. So the enemy sends these kinds of harassments. We can call them wearing down or call them something else.
He sends all kinds of losing spirits, phantom accusations, and rumors. When we come together to worship, he will sit on our worship sometimes. We come to the prayer meeting, and he will sit on our prayer meetings sometimes. Even a gospel meeting, if he can, he will sit on it. Maybe this is why it is so tough for us to get going.
Now, what can we do about these things? We see these things happen in the corporate assembly.
There are two mistaken reactions that I want to note in the Bible before I mention just a few things that we all already know.
The first mistaken reaction is found in the case of Moses, in Exodus 18:18. Jethro, his father-in-law, came to him and said, “Moses, you have taken too much on yourself. You are trying to be responsible, trying to see everybody, and trying to handle everybody’s problem.”
He said, “The problem is, Moses, now you have become weary, and now the saints are weary. We have to have other men also responsible.”
This is one of the wrong reactions when things get tough: people take too much upon themselves. Instead of asking the Lord, “Please, Lord, raise that song,” they try to take it on themselves, and they weary the saints and weary themselves. Leaders have this problem.
The second mistaken reaction is to throw out the problem. Paul says that we should know the schemes and devices of the devil. When there is somebody—some Achan—who has let in a problem into the fellowship and caused havoc, he says, “We do not toss the person out. We do not throw them away. We try to recover and restore them, because we know the enemy’s schemes.”
The enemy would like to destroy that man’s life. So in 2 Corinthians 2, Paul says, “Receive that brother back. Restore the brother. Do not keep him on the outside. Do not be mean. Do not just try to throw out the problem.”
If there is a problem in our midst, it is not really just the problem in our midst. There is some problem over it that is creating the problem in our midst. Our reaction is either to take it upon ourselves or to kick the thing out. Both are wrong.
What we need to do is humble ourselves before the Lord and find out what is really going on.
How do we handle the weariness? I am going to give you one answer in a few parts, and here it is: we overcome by taking hold of the Lord’s life, just like we sang. The Lord overcame by His life. We overcome by His life.
Let me put overcoming in a simpler context than we sometimes think of overcoming in a day of decline in the church. The church is imperfect because you and I are in it.
Even if we gather together to be the Lord’s testimony, and even if we gather together to engage ourselves in real corporate prayer and spiritual warfare, we have problems. We have imperfection. The enemy finds ledges and places to lodge and problems to cause.
Yet the Lord allows that because He wants to train us and teach us. What we need to do is take hold of the Lord’s life.
Overcoming means that if everybody else is going downstream, how about you standing up and taking the higher ground?
Let me mention five things. We need to take hold of the overcoming life. We need to be steadfast. We need to be patient. We need to look up and keep our hope before the Lord. And we need to dwell in the word of God.
All of that has to do with living by the life of the Lord. When people are going through problems and everything, we need to put on the Lord Jesus and live by His life.
Paul exhorts Timothy: “Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called.” Take hold of the life of the Lord Jesus. We do not overcome by our own life, but by living by the life of the Lord.
In the assembly, if somebody can see you living this life on a higher level, it can turn the whole situation around. Take hold of the life of the Lord Jesus.
Number two: be steadfast. Sometimes the enemy lays things upon us just to see whether we are going to move. We have heard our brothers, and I am sure Ernie is going to talk more again about standing firm: stand, be firm, and be immovable.
If we set ourselves that we are going to stand in the Lord in this matter, that is half the battle. The enemy knows he has lost. But if he thinks he can get us to retreat a little bit, he has gained some ground.
Stand. Be steadfast, immovable in the service of the Lord. But who can be steadfast? The Lord Himself. It is His life in us.
How steadfast are you? I know some of you are covered, but that is natural strength. In spiritual things, who can say, “Stand still”? I think only the Lord really can.
The Lord says, “Stand still, stand still.” You say, “Wait a minute, they are coming with the chariots. I see them.” The Lord says, “Stand still, stand still.” “Well, they are coming. They are getting closer and closer.” He says, “Stand still, stand still, stand still. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.”
Only He can be that life—steadfast and sinless. So many things shake out all right if we will stand still and ask the Lord to deliver us and gain the victory in the situation. Stand still. It is so important.
Number three: be patient. I heard on the radio and TV over the last few weeks that one problem with Americans starting wars is that we are very impatient. We want to get into a war, get it over with, and be home by Christmas.
But Bush is saying, “Oh, we are going to have to be very patient,” while all the generals are hanging out. We are very impatient. It is a good thing all the Christians are patient, huh?
But just in case we are not, let us look at James 5. James was such a righteous saint, such a prayer warrior, and he sees that there is such an issue here in being patient with one another.
This patience is patience with one another, as you will see in a moment. James 5:7-9 says:
“Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord.
The farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil,
being patient about it, until it gets the early and late rains.
You too be patient; strengthen your hearts,
for the coming of the Lord is near.
Do not complain, brethren, against one another,
so that you yourselves may not be judged;
behold, the Judge is standing right at the door.”
How can you be patient until then? The ones who will be on earth when the enemy brings this weariness upon the saints will have the greatest weariness brought upon them just before the Lord breaks through. Can we be patient until the coming of the Lord?
Who can be patient? Who has endurance, patience, long-suffering? Did you ever see anybody with so much patience as Jesus with His disciples? Indeed, the Lord is patient. He is so long-suffering and patient even with us. It is amazing how patient He is with us.
We need to take hold of that life because in our assembly, as we deal with these various things and the heaviness of Satan comes upon us, we need to be patient and long-suffering with one another.
God loves you and God loves me, and He is working in our lives. We need to pray for one another, help one another, and be patient with one another. The Lord sees us.
What if we all fracture out? In America, that is what people do after they have been married for a couple of years: “This is hopeless.” But, as we know, when you have been married for a while, it takes a couple of years before you really get to fighting.
The Lord is going to make us one. It will be through a patient process. So be patient.
Then, of course, in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus says, when you see all these things coming upon you, what does He say? “Panic?” No. He says, “Look up. Your redemption draws near.”
Probably the quality that enables us to endure and overcome through a very difficult time is the hope that we have in us. Do you have real hope that the Lord is coming through?
How about this matter of the church being His spotless bride? If you do not have hope, it is a most discouraging thing to look around. Do you believe the Lord can recover His church? You have to have your hope in Him.
When we have our hope in Him, it is the most wonderful overcoming. Sometimes when we are gathered together praying and getting nowhere, somebody says, “Oh, but we are anchored into the Holy of Holies, and there is Jesus interceding for us.”
The whole thing lifts right off us, and we realize that Jesus is still going to get the victory. That hope is so important.
The last thing, of course, has been talked about, and I think Ronnie will share some on it tonight: truly abide in the word of God.
I am very thankful that I travel so often among assemblies of people that at least have a desire to know the word of God, because it is so much more difficult for the enemy to wreak havoc in an assembly that honors the word of God.
There are people who allow anything into their midst because they have no discerning understanding of Jesus through knowledge of the word of God.
May we be those who dwell in the word of God richly, and may it dwell in us richly, in such a way that the enemy will not even come too close to something that has enough light.
May the Lord help us. However the enemy wants to weary us, look up. It is a sign that the end is near. Be faithful and be patient. Let us take that life of the Lord together and stand in the victory, in Jesus’ name.
Lord, we just come to You. I know that there are some saints here who truly have experienced the wearying stratagems of the devil and have come through to victory time after time.
How often we have dragged into prayer meeting and floated home by Your wonderful grace. Oh, teach us to be overcomers—not in some proud way, but to have so much of the life of Christ in us that it encourages others.
May it help others look higher than just the immediate circumstance. May it give others opportunity to be reconciled and to change, if You have to deal with us in the assembly.
Oh Lord, it is so impossible for us to work in the assembly. Only You can do it. But we do believe that You are, in this day, building Your church and preparing Your bride.
All these attacks of the enemy will only serve to redound to Your glory and to a greater victory. We expect to be trophies of grace, that are yelling up with all our voice, “Grace, grace be unto us.”
We know who put the top on the whole thing. The Lord laid the foundation. The Lord finished it up. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Oh, give us such an overcoming heart by the pulsations of Your very life within us, that we cannot quit and become downcast when these various oppressions come upon us.
Help us to be ready, because of knowledge of the word of God, for the evil day that lies ahead, and not be caught unawares. We know the enemy even now is prowling about.
Oh Lord, we want to pray just for a moment for all the assemblies represented here. We know the enemy is on the prowl. Oh God, have mercy on us. Oh God, cover us.
We thank You for the victory of Jesus, that we have been made His fullness and are part of those people who are building the footstool out of His enemies.
Oh Lord, we stand together as brothers and sisters who are aware that in our local assembly something is being enacted that is much wider than just the locale. You are building something magnificent that has overcoming life, the very life of Jesus, in it.
Oh Lord, help us to stand fast, wherever we are, however big or small, to stand with You and for You, patiently waiting until You come through.
Lord, we give You this time and pray that You will seal these things in our hearts, in Jesus’ name. Amen.