Would you turn with me to a few scriptures? Just a verse here and a verse there, actually. John’s Gospel, chapter 17, verse 17:
Sanctify them in the truth: Thy word is truth.
Ephesians, the Ephesian letter of the Apostle Paul, chapter 6. We will read from verse 10:
Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might.
Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Wherefore take up the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand.
Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
withal taking up the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one.
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
with all prayer and supplication praying at all seasons in the Spirit, and watching thereunto in all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.
Then, in the second letter of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 10:3-5:
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh;
for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the casting down of strongholds;
casting down imaginations, and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.
Let us have a further word of prayer.
Beloved Lord, we are thankful that we are here, gathered in Your presence this evening. We believe, Lord, that You will answer our prayer, that we may be renewed and quickened in body, mind, and spirit.
Lord, will You enable us really to take in what is said this evening? We thank You, Lord, for the anointing which You have won for us at Calvary and made a living reality in the person of the Holy Spirit. Into that anointing, grace, and power, we want to stand by faith for the speaking of Your Word and for the hearing of it.
Let this be a time when we meet with You, Lord, both now in the ministry of Your Word and a little later as we seek Your face in prayer. We ask all this in the name of our Messiah, the Lord Jesus. Amen.
I want to speak this evening about a matter as important as any matter that I could speak about in connection with corporate prayer: the Word of God.
If you come to a prayer time without your Bible, it is like coming into a war unarmed—without your weapons.
The most important thing in the matter of prayer, whether you know it or not, is to know the Word of God and to be able to use the Word of God as the Holy Spirit applies it to situations.
The Word of God is not just theology. It is not just distant, impersonal truth. It is the only weapon which the Lord has given us in the warfare in which we are found.
Now, if you do not know anything about that warfare, well, I am amazed. The youngest believer is born into war.
When you think about it, it is not quite so ridiculous as it sounds. This world lies in the evil one; it is at war with God and with His Messiah. Increasingly, we are beginning to see those nations that once had a biblical foundation—biblical principles at the root of national life—beginning to contradict and let go of those principles.
The result is that the very atmosphere in which we believers are found is becoming increasingly hostile. I do not mean that people are necessarily more hostile. I mean that there is a hostility in the very atmosphere.
The gospel has done amazing things. Wherever the gospel has come—for instance, in Europe, in Scandinavia, in Britain—it has purged the whole atmosphere. Even though there were many things that were wrong, evil, and dark, it has purged the very atmosphere.
It has done exactly the same on the North American continent. It has purged the very atmosphere. That is now being lost, and the forces of darkness are taking up their stations where once the gospel had cleansed ground. We, therefore, are very aware of hostility in the atmosphere.
I can only tell you that forty or fifty years ago, when I was a young believer, there was not the same atmosphere of hostility in the air. I first began to notice it about ten or fifteen years ago, and I began actually to tell people, “Do you not feel this hostility in the air?”
I wondered whether, where it says in 2 Thessalonians 2 that that which restrains will be removed, that which restrains evil was being removed. Maybe it is because I am older now. As you get older, if you go on with the Lord, you become more sensitive to the things of the Lord.
I remember years ago, when I was convalescing in Lady Ogle’s beautiful home overlooking Ashdown Forest in the south of England. It was one of those days which comes once in a blue moon in Britain. It was cloudless. The sun was out, birds were twittering, grass snakes were sunning themselves on yew hedges. It was an incredibly beautiful day. You could see for miles.
I heard my name being called, and I saw Lady Ogle. She was sitting in a swing chair, and she said, “Do you want to take some tea?” Well, I thought, that is always a wonderful invitation for me. So I went straight up and joined her.
We were taking tea, and then she suddenly said to me, “Do you not feel colossal warfare in the atmosphere?” I nearly fell off the chair. It was the most glorious day. War and warfare were the furthest things from my mind.
I stuttered for a few moments and said, “Well, really…” “Yes,” she said, “you do not feel it?” I remained rather dumb. Then she said, “I got up for my quiet time this morning at five o’clock, and I felt this. I asked the Lord, ‘Lord, what is this terrific warfare?’ And the Lord said to me, ‘It is something to do with the Middle East.’”
She said, “You and I will listen to the six o’clock news.” At six o’clock she switched on the big radio in her marvellous home, and the first item was the murder of the royal family in Iraq—the murder of the royal children, and the murder of the governess, who was a wonderful believer and a deep personal friend of Lady Ogle.
It taught me an amazing lesson. I thought, “Will I ever be sensitive to such movements in the unseen?” I did not think it would be possible. But I think, as we get older, we do become a little more sensitive. If we go on with the Lord, we become more sensitive to the things that are happening.
There is something happening in the atmosphere, and the forces of darkness are gradually seeking to take over this earth as we know it.
That is why I believe that the demise of the United States is so important. This one great bulwark, with all its faults and weaknesses and sin and disobedience, has been the guardian of minorities in the world—Christian minorities, Jewish minorities.
The very presence of the United States has stopped China, for instance, from throwing her weight around much more than she already does, as far as believers are concerned. The same is true with Russia, India, Indonesia, and a whole number of other countries I could mention. Britain was the guardian in the world for many hundreds of years; then the United States rose in place of the United Kingdom.
You and I need to know our Bibles. It is a tragedy when a child of God is ignorant of the Word of God.
This Bible that you hold in your hands has come to us in our mother tongue at enormous cost. Jan Hus, John Hus, the Bohemian reformer, was burned at the stake for suggesting that the Word of God should not be in Latin but should be in Czech.
William Tyndale died in Belgium, in Antwerp, first strangled and then burned. Why? Because he said, “I have lived to see the Word of God in the hands of every ploughman in England, in the language that he understands.”
As he died, he cried out, “O God, open the eyes of the King of England.” Within a year, God opened the eyes of Henry VIII, and he made a royal decree that that Bible, principally the work of William Tyndale and Coverdale, should be chained to a lectern for the use of ordinary people in every parish church in England and Wales.
You and I have little idea of the battle there was over this book we call the Bible. An enormous battle raged over the production of this book in a language that everybody could understand.
But if we are so familiar with it that we often leave it closed, or dwell only on favourite passages, we never get to know the book.
This book is not just words or thought. It is alive and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword. It divides between soul and spirit, and actually exposes the motivating forces and factors in a human being. It is amazing.
For those of you who like literature—I do not know how many Americans do—I remember that one of the most cultured American ladies I have ever met was Miss Saunders, and her sister Bella. I have never forgotten them.
They could quote Thackeray, Dickens, whole Shakespearean speeches from memory. I shall never forget my time with those two extraordinary ladies. They redeemed America in my eyes. I thought, “At least there is some culture in America.”
I have always remembered how one of them said to me, “Do you think that Henry IV murdered those two little boys in the Tower of London?” I thought, “What are they talking about?” They said, “Do you know that one of your top detectives has written a whole documentary on this—that it could not have been the hunchback king who did it, but someone else?”
Well, I will not go on about this. It has not much to do with the matter. But the fact is this: Shakespeare was a genius. Goethe was a genius. Schiller was a genius. Dante was a genius.
But I have never found an alcoholic delivered from alcohol, or a drug addict delivered from drug addiction, or a broken marriage healed, or a life near suicide redeemed, by anything that Shakespeare wrote, or Schiller. Not even The Taming of the Shrew has done anything to save a marriage from shipwreck.
But this book—a single phrase can jump out of it by the Holy Spirit, expose the intents and motivating factors within a human being, shed light right into the heart of that being, and save, deliver, redeem, and transform.
You and I have within our hands the most incredible thing: this book, this Bible, with its sixty books. Every part of it is relevant. Every part of it is inspired. Every part of it is authoritative.
We have grown so used to holding this Bible in our hands that some of us hardly ever open it. The only time we do is when someone preaches, and we happen to have a Bible with us. We open it to look at where they are starting their message.
This Word of God is the only weapon that the Holy Spirit gives to us in corporate prayer.
It is so important for you and me to understand this. The Lord Jesus said:
Thy word is truth.
Now, sometimes we think of truth as doctrine only. That is not wrong, but may I use another English word to translate this Greek word? Thy Word is reality.
This book is reality. Jesus put it so simply: “Sanctify them through the truth.” Set them apart. Make them special through the truth.
In other words, this book is alive. It is creative; it is active. Just as when God spoke, it was done—when God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light—when God created this whole universe out of nothing by His Word, it was all through His Word.
So it is that this amazing Word of God is active and creative. It is sharper than a two-edged sword.
I cannot overemphasise this simple little fact. When the Apostle Paul comes to the end of this Ephesian letter, with the tremendous revelation that has come to us in it, he says, “Look, if you do not learn to stand in the whole armour of God, and withstand, and having done all, stand, you will lose everything.”
If we look at the history of the church, that is exactly what has happened again and again. When there has been some great move of the Holy Spirit, and millions of people have been saved, and whole national societies have been changed and transformed by the gospel, it has been lost. That is exactly what is happening now in the United States.
Now, when we come to corporate prayer, the Apostle says by the Spirit of God, “Put on the whole armour of God.” He says it a number of times, and then he defines what this armour is. This armour is the Lord Jesus.
If you are in Christ, you are in the armour of God. God has not brought you forth as a child of His, born of His Spirit, and flung you into a world that is evil and dark. He has done an amazing thing. From the moment you were born, He provided armour.
He has provided exactly what any child of God needs, not only to be safe but to see the purpose of God fulfilled, whether in our personal lives, our family life, or church life.
The way we see anything fulfilled is by standing. We do not go back, we do not go forward, we do not go to one side: we stand.
In other words, we understand what the purpose of God is. We understand the finished work of the Lord Jesus, and we stand in it. The Lord Jesus put it simply in John 15: “Abide in Me.” The word is remain. Remain in Me.
You do not have to fight to get there in Christ. That is your position if you are born of God. You are already positioned in Him, and in Him is the armour. He is the armour.
Think for a moment. There is only one single offensive weapon. Everything else is defensive: the breastplate, the helmet, the loins, the feet, the shield—everything defensive.
Except for one single matter: the sword of the Spirit. That sword of the Spirit is the Word of God in its entirety—not your chosen parts, the parts you like, but in all its parts. That Word of God is the sword of the Spirit.
This dagger was the thing given to a soldier to finish off the enemy. It was the one offensive weapon. Here we are in corporate prayer, and what we have to learn is how to be safe within the Lord Jesus, how to take our position in Him. Then we are ready for warfare.
In this warfare, we neither go back nor forward. We simply stand until it is fulfilled. It is a position of absolute faith. But you need the sword.
Now, please notice: it is not just a general application of this matter to the whole Word of God—the Word of God which is the sword of the Spirit. In my estimation, it means that the Holy Spirit has to take from this amazing book, this Bible of sixty books, some sentence, some promise, some revelation of the mind and purpose of God, and apply it in corporate prayer so that you and I can use it.
This is the thing that is so often missing in our corporate prayer. We petition and petition; we ask and ask; we stand together for things to be done; but there is no use of the Word of God.
But when the Word of God is used, tremendous power is released. Do you understand what I am trying to say?
This means, you young ones, you need to get to know your Bibles.
There is not much point in reading three chapters a day and falling asleep whilst doing it. Then you have it all going through your head, and the idea is to get through the whole Bible in a year. I am not sure that is always the best way to get to know your Bible.
I am all for reading the Bible right through from Genesis to Revelation. I suggest you get a modern version; that can be very helpful.
I remember when, for the first time, The Living Bible came out, and everyone made such a fuss about it. They did not think it was good. My own understanding of The Living Bible is that it is very near to the Hebrew.
I said, “It is wonderful. When it says that Isaac began to be merry, it says, ‘He threw a party.’ This is exactly what it means. Isaac threw a party—or was it Abraham who threw the party? But anyway, he threw a party.”
Then there is another lovely one, when Elijah was speaking to all the priests of Baal: “Where is your god? Perhaps he has gone on a tour. Maybe he is asleep.” In the American edition of The Living Bible, it says, “Maybe he is sitting on the toilet.” The British found it too much, so they changed it in the British edition.
It is exactly what the Hebrew says: “He has turned aside.” Beautiful phrase. What does it mean when you turn aside? It means you go to the toilet. At least that makes this Bible come alive to some people.
You need to read your Bible. You also need to memorise the Bible. Get to know it; memorise it.
When you hide the Word of God within your heart, you will find that your mind is cleansed. When you hide the Word in your heart, you will discover that you do not sin against the Lord. There is a check there within you.
This whole matter of getting to know the Word of God is extremely important. But in corporate prayer, we need to be allied to the Holy Spirit, actually taking a portion of the Word—a promise, a phrase, a statement—and applying it to a situation.
When this happens, and a person reads that Word, someone else may be able to witness that they had the same Word. Now we have the weapon in this time of prayer.
I remember very well, in the assembly in Richmond, Surrey, England, where I was, when we spent a whole week in prayer about Britain going into the European Union. This was years ago. Oh, how we sought the Lord. Night after night, we appealed to the Lord.
Then one of our dear older brothers, who was a Cambridge don, a Greek scholar, and one of the top artists in the British Commonwealth of Nations, said, “I believe the Lord has given me a word,” and he read it:
The lot is cast into the lap;
but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord.
At first, we could not understand it. What could this mean? Then we felt that the Lord was telling us that there had already been unofficial meetings behind the scenes, and it was already agreed that Britain should enter the European Union.
But we stood on that Word, and we had a glorious time. From being a time of appeal and supplication, it turned into a time of triumphant praise and worship, and we all went home.
The news was very depressing. The whole country was ready to go into the European Union, but at midnight President de Gaulle, the Lord bless him, vetoed it. Britain never went in.
The lot was cast, but the disposing of it was wholly of the Lord.
Well, how many years later we came back to the same thing, and this time the Lord said very clearly to us through a prophetic utterance, “Do not ask Me to keep you out. You are going in because of unbelief and compromise, but I will use your going in to bring an army of believers out of the European Union.”
That is precisely what has happened. It is amazing what has happened in Portugal, in Spain. So many have come to the Lord. It is so exciting. I think of Bulgaria, Hungary, and Poland. The things happening now within the extended European Union are amazing.
But what I am trying to say is that we need the Word of God. We need to learn how to use the Word of God in corporate prayer.
I am not asking people to give expositions and sermonettes and all this kind of thing, which is the bane of any prayer meeting. When people believe that somehow they have to read a whole passage of Scripture and then almost expound it—well, a prayer meeting is not for that. A prayer meeting is for prayer.
But what we need is the Word of God, as it were, related to the burden over which we are concerned.
Now, I must watch myself on time, but I will just mention this. Listen: your angry words, your passionate words, your fervent words, mean nothing to Satan.
You can cry. You can be full of zeal. You can shout your head off. It means nothing to Satan; he is used to it.
But the moment you use the Word of God, it is the truth, and that shatters the powers of darkness. Your crying, your emotion, your zeal will do nothing.
You can be like the prophets of Baal—jump up and down and cut yourself until blood comes out of you. Satan will enjoy it. He will say, “Simply fireworks tonight. They are having fireworks.” But it will not do anything.
But the moment, by the Holy Spirit, you stand on the Word of God in corporate prayer, it shatters the powers of darkness. It paralyses them.
The one thing the powers of darkness cannot bear is truth. Why? Because they have to accept it. They can do no other.
They know, as I said this morning, that Jesus has won. They know that they cannot dethrone the Lord Jesus. They know they cannot in any single way mitigate or compromise the finished work of the Lord Jesus. It is complete, and it is the basis for total victory for the saints on earth.
That is the importance of the Word of God in corporate prayer. I wish I could explain it more clearly, but it is vital.
Satan knows he has lost when the Holy Spirit puts into the hands of God’s children in corporate prayer the Word of God. He is the father of lies. The whole infrastructure of Satan’s authority and kingdom is built on lies, and when the truth comes in, it paralyses.
I wonder whether you noticed that Scripture we read in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5. It is very interesting:
The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty through God.
That is the normal translation. My translation is, “mighty before God.” But the best way to understand it is: the weapons of our warfare are mighty in the presence of God.
In other words, the Word can only be used in corporate prayer in the presence of God. It is under the direction of the Holy Spirit, by the empowering of the Holy Spirit. When the Word is used in that way, something happens.
I do not want to belabour this too much, but I think it is tremendous. These are the only weapons that the Bible speaks about.
Do you remember what David said in his wonderful Psalm 18? He said, “Lord, You have taught my hands; You have trained my fingers for war.” I will read it as it is in Psalm 18:
For Thou wilt light my lamp:
the Lord my God will lighten my darkness.
For by Thee I run upon a troop;
and by my God do I leap over a wall.
As for God, His way is perfect:
the word of the Lord is tried.
That sometimes means that it does not happen immediately. The Word of the Lord is given to us, and it is tried before it comes to pass. We inherit the promises through faith and patience. Remember this.
When the children of Israel came to the River Jordan, it was in full flood. But the Lord had said very clearly to them:
Whatsoever the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you.
That was the Word of the Lord. When the priests’ feet went down through the harvest flood and touched the riverbed, instantly there was a blockage of the river farther up. The whole river dried up, and they went over on dry ground.
Most Christians want it that way. They want something instantaneous. The moment we command something, the moment we possess some promise, the moment we stand on a promise of God, we want to see the Lord act.
There are times when the Lord does exactly that. In a single moment, when we stand upon a promise, it is done, and we praise the Lord.
But when they came to Jericho, they had to walk around Jericho once a day for six days in the heat. On the seventh day, believe it or believe it not, seven times.
You might well ask, if you had been one of the children of Israel, “What is wrong with the Lord? Is He asleep? Do we have to walk around these walls once a day in the heat for six days, and on the seventh day seven times, while He gets up steam to bring the walls down?”
Or they might have thought, “What is wrong with Joshua? Maybe he sinned. Maybe he has been disobedient. What is wrong with our leaders?”
“Surely, when we crossed the River Jordan, the moment our feet went down into the river, it was done. Surely all we have to do is stand here before the walls of Jericho and say, ‘Lord, bring these walls down,’ and they will come down.”
Now, was not divine psychology in it when the Lord said, “No talking”? They were not allowed to say a single thing. You know why? Because we all demoralise one another the moment we start talking.
We go around and say, “Look at those walls. They are never going to come down. See the strength of those walls? They have been there for ages. They are not going to come down.”
But the moment, at the end of the seventh circuit, they blew the shofar trumpet, the walls came down—on time, by an act of God.
This teaches us something. Why did the Lord do this? He could have done it right at the beginning. The Lord can do anything. He could have saved them all that tramping around those walls, looking at the walls and having people say, “Are you tourists from Egypt? What are you doing, walking around the walls each day?”
The Lord could have done without all that, but He never did. Why? Because there are some things that take seven days, and there are some things that take hundreds of years.
They could have taken Jerusalem, but they never did until the soles of David’s great men were placed down within the shaft that went up into the Jebusite city. The moment their feet touched the bottom of that shaft, Jerusalem became theirs. It took hundreds of years.
There are some things that happen in a moment; there are some things that happen in weeks; there are some things that happen in months; and there are some things that take years. But the Lord always honours His Word.
Hebrews says, “Do not be sluggish, but imitators of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” You do not only need faith; you need patience.
The Greek word for patience is a little different from the English word. Patience normally means that you put up with somebody, and you are very patient and longsuffering, and you simply put up with them. But the Greek word actually means that you endure. It is not just patience; you endure.
The two ideas go together. It is through faith and enduring patience that you inherit the promises.
Well, I think it is time for me to shut up. But when you look at some of these wonderful Scriptures about the Word of God, they are very exciting. How are we to use the Word of God?
First of all, what is the purpose of God? What is the purpose of God? Many of you understand what the church is, which is a good deal more than many believers do. Does the Word of God have something to say about this? Yes.
It says:
Hallelujah: for the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigneth.
The bride hath made herself ready.
So we know from the Book that, at least in a remnant of the faithful, the bride will make herself ready. We can stand on that when difficult times come and the Holy Spirit brings it to us. This is the largest view, the widest horizon.
Does the Lord say anything about Israel? He most certainly does. He says:
And so all Israel shall be saved.
Is that not a marvellous promise? Whether the States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, or Japan forsake Israel, it does not matter. The Lord will not forsake her. The greatest thing of all will be the salvation of the Jewish people. It is written in the Book.
Let Satan do a war dance. It does not matter. He will just tire himself out, because God is going to fulfil His Word. Here is something you can use in prayer.
I knew a man—I must curb myself now—his name was W. S. B. Burton. He was one of the great pioneer missionaries of the Southern Congo. He brought so many cannibals to Christ.
He was an extraordinary man. I used to marvel at how many people with terminal diseases he laid his hands on, and they were healed. But he said, “All my successes were with unsaved people, and all my failures were with believers.”
He believed that somehow this was the gospel. It was the way the Lord broke into these cannibal tribes. Some of the stories of his antics amongst the cannibals were screamingly funny, and he was a man with an enormous sense of humour anyway.
I used to wonder, “What is the secret of Willie Burton’s ministry?” I was young then, and he was old.
I remember on one occasion he said to me, “You know, I have spent my whole life reducing long English words of many syllables to just one or two syllables. I have taken all kinds of words in English and made them very simple, so people could understand.”
“But,” he said, “there are two words that I have been totally unable to reduce from their much longer number of syllables. One is reconciliation, and the other is immutability.”
He said, “I cannot reduce that word.” That night, he preached on reconciliation. But he had gone to the Lord before he ever preached amongst us on immutability.
It came to me suddenly: that is it. In Hebrews 6:17, it says, “the immutability of His counsel.” That was the thing that gripped him.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and for ever. His counsel is immutable—that is, impossible to change, impossible to transform into something else. It is immutable.
It is something for us to remember when we are in the battle in corporate prayer: the immutability of His counsel. The Lord does not say one thing one day and another thing the next. His counsel is immutable.
I hope that what I have had to say this evening may be of some help.
When God gives you a passage, contribute it. Do not necessarily pray on it. Find out whether somebody else can take it up and pray on it.
I think it is sad when someone contributes the Scripture and then feels that they have to pray on it, because it destroys the sense of the Holy Spirit as the conductor.
If God gives you something, read it. Just give the promise, and see whether someone else will not take it up and stand on it. If they do not, you can come back on it and stand on it.
There is something wonderful about the body of Christ. One person has the Word; another person stands on it; then someone else takes it up; then someone else expands it; then it goes a little further; and suddenly into our hearts comes a sense: it is done. It is done.
We have no ground for it, yet we can almost begin to praise the Lord. It is exactly what the Apostle Paul said: supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings.
When intercession really is powerful, thanksgiving is the last thing that settles it. It is the testimony of the people of God: the Lord has won. In this matter, He has won.
May the Lord help us in these things. This question is not an easy matter. But remember Daniel: his whole ministry for the return of the Jewish people to the Promised Land was based on the Word of God.
He stood before the Lord three times a day according to the word that God had given King Solomon: that even if you are in exile, if you open your windows towards Jerusalem and pray toward the place where God has caused His name to dwell, God will forgive your sin, bring you back, and restore you to the land.
Upon that basis, Daniel stood. He stood and withstood, and having done all, he stood. Satan was so furious that he prepared a lion’s den for him.
People went to the sultan and said, “Do you realise that Daniel is breaking the law? He is praying when the only person you can pray to is yourself.” When it was established that he was opening his windows and they could hear him praying, he was fed to the lions.
Then the Lord had a problem: should He take Daniel home via the lions, or should He stop the lions’ mouths?
The Lord said, “Daniel is the most important person to Me on the face of the earth. He is standing with Me for My purpose to be fulfilled, standing on the Word.” The mouths of the lions were stopped.
It was Moody who said they became like great cats, purring away, as Daniel shifted one around for a pillow, put his head on it, and went to sleep.
Dear child of God, we are not playing games. We have tremendous battles ahead of us, and we know that Jesus has won.
May He take these words and get them into your heart. Even if you are the youngest person in this place this evening, let the Holy Spirit do something in you. Let the Word of God get into you. Learn how to use it.
Thank you.