Lord, how this morning we all come and rejoice in Your victory at Calvary’s cross, Lord. Lord, thank You for Your victory over us, over me, Lord, in being able to finally bring me to my knees and be willing to accept You as Lord and Savior, Lord—willing to be a part of Your family; willing to forsake this world and all the things that I hold dear in order to possess the fullness of Jesus Christ.
Lord, we thank You that You have broken through. You broke through the resistance in our hearts and minds. Lord, what a victory that was over minds so darkened, so hardened, unwilling to yield. But Lord, You broke down those barriers. You broke down the mighty strongholds in our minds and souls, that we could be delivered from the darkness and transferred out of the kingdom of darkness and put into Your kingdom, the kingdom of God’s Son, the One Whom He loves.
Lord, we are so grateful this morning. Your mighty victory included us. Lord, we worship and praise Thee. Lord Jesus, in all that has happened to us, we find that today we are in a great battle. It is over the testimony of Jesus that You have placed in us, Lord, because You have saved us.
Lord, we pray today that we would be strong soldiers in Jesus Christ; that we would be willing to stand steadfast for the testimony of Jesus in our lives, in our company, in the body of Christ, Lord, that the world might no longer be deceived but know that there is a living God and that He reigns on high. Lord, we thank You in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Well, we should all rejoice this morning because we are the spoils of the great victory of our Lord Jesus Christ over Satan and death, over all of his lies, on Calvary’s cross. Satan thought he had won when Christ was crucified, but the Lord rose from the dead on the third day, and He ascended.
Lord, we are so thankful for this victory, which is secured—all that the Father has desired and wants, and that includes us. And we’re so thankful. Amen. Amen.
Well, we have been talking about this matter of the good warfare. Once you accept Jesus Christ and come into His kingdom, brothers and sisters, because you still live in this world, there is a battle going on. Praise the Lord, the victory is secure, but we are required, as His own, to stand in that victory and bring everything into subjection unto Him.
That means ourselves, as well as all that is opposed to Jesus Christ and His testimony on this earth.
This morning, I have a question: How many people in here are under forty years old? Under forty. All right. Tell me—you are not under forty, brother; I know that—what was the significance of June 6 yesterday?
All right, we have a young person under forty that remembers D-Day. I thought you were going to say the Triple Crown winner, the twelfth one. Praise the Lord. D-Day—do you know D-Day was a turning point in the war?
A real representative of the Antichrist rose up in this world. His name was Hitler, and he had swept through the European continent. His forces were set to overthrow everything, and his eyes were upon Britain.
Brothers and sisters, on D-Day, the U.S. forces sent somewhere around one hundred thousand troops over the ocean in naval vessels, and they hit the beaches of Normandy. Omaha Beach was probably the most well known. My uncle fought there and was one of the few survivors that landed on Omaha Beach.
For those that may have seen the movie Saving Private Ryan, probably the first ten minutes of that movie is a pretty accurate representation of what happened that day on Omaha Beach.
The significance of that battle was that, at the loss of about nine or ten thousand soldiers on that one day, they were able to secure the beachhead on Normandy, France, and from there advance on to liberate France and eventually all of Europe. D-Day was a great turning point in that war. It occurred on June 6, 1944.
Brothers and sisters, today we are probably not living under the extreme evil government that Hitler was trying to establish over the whole world because of those nine thousand men who gave their lives. There were many others that gave their lives in that war; don’t get me wrong. But they established the beachhead on which the remainder of the soldiers could break through and secure the victory.
Now, brothers and sisters, this is not unlike what has happened in this battle between Satan and our Lord Jesus Christ. The enemy had come. Adam was to have had dominion and subdued this earth under the name of God, but he failed. The enemy became the prince of this world, the ruler of this world.
Our Lord Jesus Christ came as a man. He invaded the enemy’s territory, so to speak, and at Calvary’s cross He set up the beachhead from which all the victory that He accomplished there would be accomplished in this whole world that we live in today.
We will see the final accomplishment of that in reality—when our Lord Jesus does return. With just the breath of His mouth, all the armies that will shortly probably be gathering around Jerusalem will be wiped out, and He will become King of kings and Lord of lords on this earth for a thousand years.
But Calvary’s cross was that beachhead, brothers and sisters, that He established through His death on Calvary’s cross. Fifty days later, at Pentecost, there was a great move of the Spirit, and the Lord birthed His church: the soldiers that would continue on from the beachhead that He had established, to eventually be used in subduing the whole earth under the name of Jesus Christ.
Brothers and sisters, we are a part of that warfare. When you become a Christian, you become a soldier immediately in the army of Jesus Christ. I’ve said it before: you need to know there are no civilians in Christ. There are no civilians in the church. Brothers and sisters, we are all called into this warfare.
Last time, I shared some of the principles. The first one was the battle. The battle is a battle of faith. It is a spiritual battle, not a physical battle, and it is won through faith.
The just shall live by faith, and you shall also fight by faith, brothers and sisters. I will not go into any more; we do not have time.
The second principle was to maintain the high ground. That is true in any battle: you have to maintain the high ground. Interestingly enough, in the Battle of Omaha Beach, the reason it was so difficult is that the gun mounts were mounted on top of a cliff. When they hit the beach, they were at the mercy of the machine-gun fire, the cannons, and the mortar fire from the hilltop. The enemy had the high ground.
But praise the Lord, these nine thousand that gave their lives secured the high ground. Brothers and sisters, our high ground is Jesus Christ. You cannot remain on the beach to be wiped out; you have to get the high ground. Basically, that simply means keeping your life abiding in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is your high ground.
Secondly, I said that you are not a Lone Ranger. Brothers and sisters, this battle is not just individual. Actually, the great battle is fought through the church, His army. You are a soldier in that army. You are not alone.
As all soldiers in battle depend upon one another, what happens to one affects the whole unit. Brothers and sisters, that is our lives. We think sometimes in our Christian life that if we fail in some way, it is not really too harmful except to us. That is not true.
Remember, Achan failed in the battle of Jericho by taking things that were dedicated to God. He took them for himself, and that stopped the whole army of Israel. In fact, they were defeated at Ai in the next battle. So, brothers and sisters, our lives are important. Our relationships are important in Christ.
The fourth principle was putting on the whole armor of God, which I started, and we will complete this morning. The last one is this matter of prayer.
So, if we could turn to Ephesians 6:10, we will kind of go through this verse by verse.
Last time I spoke on the word “finally.” It refers back to all that occurs before in this book of Ephesians. It is really talking about how, in the fullness of times, all things will be summed up in Christ—the testimony of Christ in fullness is another way to say it. It is all about Him and over Him.
When we come to this sixth chapter, he is saying, “Finally, brethren, all of this is so glorious, but remember, there is a great battle over it.” The enemy is out to destroy the testimony of Jesus. In Matthew 16, the Lord even warned us that the gates of hell would come against the church, but they would not prevail. We know, brothers and sisters, from previous messages, that is because of the overcomers.
Well, let us go to verse 11.
Put on the whole armor of God.
Well, what is this armor? I think it is a pretty simple explanation as you read through all of these: your armor is Jesus Christ Himself. You take on Christ. In other words, He is relevant in your life now.
I like that word put on. It is an action word. In other words, brothers and sisters, when you accept Christ, you are in Christ. That is your objective position, what is given to you by the Father. But we can live our lives as if we are not in Christ, and that is the problem.
He says, “You have got to put on Christ.” In other words, actively make Christ a part of your life, a part of your everyday living. I do not know how else to say it: actively abiding, actively engaged. You cannot be passive.
One of the most dangerous minds in the Christian arena is a passive mind. Brothers and sisters, passivity leads to so many dangers and allows so much of the work of the enemy. We need to be active. Put on Christ. It is basically saying, “Put on your armor. Be engaged.”
Have you ever gotten up in the morning in your pajamas and gone to work in your pajamas? I have probably gotten to the truck before; I do not know. But, you know, this is really what it is saying.
In the morning, when you get up, you need to actively put on Christ before you go out in the day. You need to abide in Him. You need to actively engage the Lord that morning. Put Him on.
“Lord, I am going out into this world. I love You. I am going to be a testimony for You today. But Lord Jesus, I am going in You.”
It is just that thought of having Christ. I think there is nothing more probably important in the Christian life than, in the morning—even if it is only ten or fifteen minutes—just to meditate on the Lord, on a Scripture in the Word, or on a song that the Lord has given you. Something. Putting on that armor is so important, or you might be embarrassed that you go out into the world in your pajamas. So, do not do that.
Verse 12:
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Well, I do not know if you think about this when you get up and say, “Man, all these spiritual forces of darkness, powers in high places, they are against me.” We do not think that, and I am not sure it is healthy to think on that all the time. But, brothers and sisters, you do need to be aware that as we go out daily into the world, there are spiritual principalities and powers that want to put you down, get to you, depress you, discourage you, and take away your faith in Christ.
That is the way the enemy sinks the boat. All he has to do is get a small hole in the boat, and eventually it will sink. Sometimes it is just something—you go out and you are really not prepared or understanding what you are up against. You are not just up against your boss, other people, or circumstances. It is what is behind all those things that you have to be aware of and stand against.
I was talking about this matter of thanksgiving. Probably some of you all found it difficult this morning as you considered this matter of thanksgiving. I sensed an immediate heaviness trying to come on the meeting this morning. It is just that darkness that wants to envelop us in ourselves and keep us focused on ourselves instead of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It is probably a good thing, as we stand together, brothers, to really stand against these spiritual forces of darkness and heaviness that want to sit on our meetings. So I just say that. It is not us that is so much the problem. I guess our problem is that we sometimes allow the enemy to do that and do not recognize what is behind it.
Verse 13:
Take on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Our battle is not—I do not want to say it is not offensive, because an offense it is. We can go on the offense. But mainly, it is a defensive battle, where you are standing in what Christ has done and what He has already done: His victory.
“Lord, we stand in Your victory in this situation. It looks like we are being overwhelmed. It looks like the enemy is taking me out. In fact, Lord, I am not sure I can take much more of this.”
But you cannot stop there, brothers. It is okay to confess that to the Lord, but brothers and sisters, do not stop there. Please say, “But Lord, I trust in Your victory in this situation. Lord, I trust in Your overcoming power and life in me to respond appropriately in this situation.”
In other words, you are putting your dependence on the Lord Jesus Christ. What you are really doing is standing—to be able to withstand in the evil day and, having done all, to stand.
What is this “having done all”? It is actively putting on the armor, being engaged in Christ. But it is standing in the good of the victory of Christ. Brothers and sisters, you cannot obtain victory. Victory has already been obtained. All you can do, brothers and sisters, is stand in that victory.
Maybe a good example is in World War II, particularly with the Japanese. They surrendered, but, brothers and sisters, they found, I think, a Japanese soldier twenty years after the war had ended who still would not give up. Most likely, it took a couple of years in those islands that the Japanese had taken to actually clear them out.
In other words, they had to bring the victory that had been won to that island and bring everything into subjection to the victory that had already occurred. That is what we are doing: standing, standing in the victory.
Verse 14:
Having therefore your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness.
Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Truth can only truly be found in Christ. You can have a lot of knowledge, but real truth—because I want you to know, truth is a living thing. Truth changes your life.
The Lord Jesus says, “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Truth is an action word, so to speak. It accomplishes things. It overturns things that are not true. It stands in defense against the lie.
Our enemy is a great liar, and he lies to us all the time. So how can you defend yourself against such? It is by knowing the truth: knowing the Lord, knowing intimately and personally, knowing His Word, that you not be deceived. The way not to be deceived is to know the truth.
In 2 John 1:4, John says, “I am pleased to see that your children walk in the truth.” In other words, truth is more than knowledge. You walk in it. You obey the truth. It is something you obey.
I always like Paul’s words to King Agrippa. He said, “King Agrippa, I had this heavenly vision, and I was not disobedient to it.” So you see, the heavenly vision was a living thing. It was Christ. He says, “I was not disobedient to Him or what I saw.” It is walking in the truth.
In other words, not only must you know Christ and know His words, but you need to obey them in order to go into this battle that we are in.
Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness.
I think this may be one of our great failures in our Christian walk: not putting on the breastplate of righteousness. The breastplate guards your heart. It is a shield over your heart, and it says, “of righteousness.”
This breastplate of righteousness is one that God has given to us. It is the righteousness of Christ. Brothers and sisters, in this battle, you cannot stand in your own righteousness, even though we are to have the righteousness of the saints. It is the righteousness of Christ.
When God sees you, the reason He does not totally reject you, brothers and sisters—or me—is because He sees Christ. It is His righteousness that His eyes are upon. Thank the Lord.
Your conduct on earth may change, but your righteousness before God never changes. Sometimes that is your bulwark in the war. You have to stand in that, because the enemy comes and says, “How can you, so unrighteous, even open your mouth on Sunday morning? How can you even pray for your children? You are so unrighteous.”
Brothers and sisters, you have to say, “My righteousness is in heaven. My righteousness is the righteousness of Christ.” He cannot attack the righteousness of Christ. It is pure. It is holy. It is perfect. You have to be able to stand in His righteousness.
Now, that does not mean that we can go out and practice unrighteousness. We do need to be a righteous people. The Lord says, “Be holy, as I am holy,” brothers and sisters.
It is important that we practice righteousness by the grace of God, that the enemy not have a foothold on which to attack us. A wounded conscience makes it impossible to really stand for God in the battle. You cannot stand with a wounded conscience.
The enemy is a great warrior as far as getting at your conscience. Brothers and sisters, you need the breastplate of righteousness, and stand in that and in the good of it in this battle.
The thing that I found in my life personally about this matter of the enemy attacking my conscience is that he attacks it even when I have not done anything wrong. He is the accuser of the brethren. He is always accusing—whether you have done something or whether you have not.
Brothers and sisters, your only protection is, “My righteousness is in heaven. My righteousness is the righteousness of Jesus Christ.” Your conscience has to stay free.
Verse 15:
Having your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
Where is your peace? Is not the Lord Jesus Christ your peace? The enemy sows discord, dissension, divisions. He is the one that creates the chaos.
What is your protection? Christ is your peace in the midst of chaos, in your circumstances, in your difficulties, in your trials. You can only find peace in the midst of all of this turmoil in Christ.
He wants you to learn to make Him your peace, even in the most difficult trials and tribulations, because He says we will have them. You will have trials and tribulations. He is your peace, brothers and sisters.
Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation.
I put those two together for a reason: the shield of faith to quench the fiery darts, and the helmet of salvation.
The helmet is pretty obvious, is it not? It is to protect your head. It is really your mind. The shield of faith is to get these fiery darts—poisonous darts, I call them.
The Lord Jesus has told us that the whole world has been blinded by the evil one. You know why? The fiery darts. The fiery darts of the pleasures of sin, the lust of the eyes, and the things of the world—brothers and sisters, those darts come in all the time.
What is going to stop those fiery darts? The shield of faith and the helmet of salvation. Brothers and sisters, the enemy builds strongholds in our minds.
I think it was Sparks who said the thing that the enemy is after is your will, but your mind is the battlefield. That is so correct. Oh, brother and sister, do you realize how much battle goes on in your mind?
All the strongholds that the enemy has built in people’s minds through the years keep them from coming to Christ. There is this stronghold: they have been told that God does not love them, that He cannot love them, that it is impossible for Him to love them. It is a stronghold. It has got to be taken down.
The enemy tells them, “There is no way you can believe in Christ.” It is a stronghold. It has to come down through the power of Christ, brothers and sisters. It is a mental stronghold that keeps people from Jesus Christ.
Mental strongholds—strongholds of tradition—that say, “You know, I cannot come and openly worship.” All these strongholds in our minds, brothers and sisters.
It can be strongholds where the enemy has used some Scripture negatively against you, and you cannot stand because your mind is captured. So, strongholds.
There is the other thing: poisonous darts are like thoughts that just come. Have you ever had those? I mentioned this, I think, in our Bible study, driving along: “Jerry, turn into the guardrail.”
Have you ever had that happen to you? Just weird things like that—that is a sudden thought. It is from the enemy. You should not just go on down the road, brothers and sisters, and let that thought kind of linger in your mind. You need to reject it in the blood of Jesus immediately. It is a thought from the enemy.
You say, “Jerry, it does not mean anything. I would never do anything like that.” Let me tell you: today you might not, but tomorrow, when you are depressed or something tragic has happened and the enemy throws that thought at you a second time, you may take him up on it.
Brothers and sisters, he loves to press things into your mind and put lies into your mind. Accusations—I have already mentioned that—but he just says, “You need to stay home this morning. You are certainly not good enough to be among the saints worshiping the Lord. How can you go to this table?”
He does that. You cannot allow those accusations, even if they are correct, brothers and sisters. You cannot allow them to stay. You have to use that shield of faith and say, “My righteousness is in Christ. The blood of Jesus Christ has taken all my sins.”
You have to stop these fiery darts with faith—not faith in your own strength, but faith in Christ and what He has done. There is just doubt. I think that was the real one that got Eve: “Hath God said?” Just the way he worded it—boy, just a little bit of doubt about God, and it got her.
She did not challenge it. She let it stay. Then he began to tell her, “You will be like God,” a direct lie. But it was an arrow into her mind, and she accepted it. It was a poisonous dart. That is what I call them: not just arrows, but poisonous arrows. They get in, they affect your system spiritually, and you fall under it.
Imaginations—that is another big one. “So-and-so does not like me. I can tell just by the way he looks at me.”
Brothers and sisters, the enemy has put that there. Go up to them and say, “Hey, brother, what is it you do not like about me?” Most likely, they will say, “What are you talking about? I love you. I am sorry you feel that way, but it is not true.”
Brothers and sisters, these are all the things that the enemy uses: poisonous darts. It is the shield of faith and the helmet of salvation. You have got to realize he is attacking your mind. You need not just let him do that. You have got to deflect these darts with the shield of faith.
Your faith is not in yourself. You will never stand there. It is in Christ and what He has done on your behalf at Calvary. Not only that, sometimes you have to stand in the fact that you are a new creation in Christ.
What he is really attacking is the flesh in you. That is what he attacks anyway. You have to say, “I was crucified with Christ on Calvary’s cross. Thank the Lord for that. But I have been raised in Him.”
It is through faith, but we need to recognize the works of the enemy. They will stick, and once you let them stick, brothers and sisters, he will take you down.
It is not a sin to be attacked. If you are getting these thoughts, that is not the sin. The sin is when you allow them to remain. Then they grow. Then they become poison to your system.
Let me say it another way. A lot of times he will put thoughts in your mind—evil thoughts or unrighteous thoughts. After a while, you begin to think, “I am thinking these thoughts. That is me. That is who I am. I am this way.”
Boy, if he ever gets to that point in you, he has got you. Once you accept his thoughts as your own, he has really got you, brothers and sisters. It is a deep pit to get out of. Oh, how he wants to get at our head. You are in Christ. Never forget that.
You always have got to be lifting up Christ. I mentioned this Scripture before:
The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.
And what? Imaginations. Strongholds and imaginations. Jericho was a spiritual stronghold, and it came down because they lifted up the ark and ended up in praise, a shout of praise. It was the presence of the ark that brought down that stronghold.
Imaginations are great strongholds in our minds and can only be brought down by bringing in the victory of Christ, by lifting up Christ. Brothers and sisters, how important it is to remember Christ in this battle.
Verse 18:
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.
Praying always with all prayer. Praying always with all prayers.
Your weapon is really—we talk about the sword of the Spirit, and that is true, the Word of God—but your weapon is Christ. He is the Word of God. Your weapon is Christ: lifting up Christ, bringing Christ into the particular situation you are involved in.
Prayer is the way of executing that great weapon of Christ in your life. It is through prayer, through travailing prayer, brothers and sisters.
The great battle at Calvary was preceded by travailing prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. It was in the travailing prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ that we now have salvation.
Brothers and sisters, travailing prayer preceded the victory of Calvary’s cross—the prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ. How important is travailing prayer in this battle.
In Acts 1, the Lord Jesus, when He ascended, said to the saints, “Wait here in Jerusalem until you receive power from on high.”
Brothers and sisters, they were in one accord, with one heart, in travailing prayer for ten days preceding Pentecost.
The greatest work ever done on this earth was the work at Calvary, which was preceded by travailing prayer in the garden. The greatest movement of the Spirit of God, brothers and sisters, occurred at Pentecost when the Spirit was poured out.
Not only the indwelling Spirit, but the outpoured Spirit for power. Brothers and sisters, that great movement was preceded by travailing prayer, lifting up Christ—the risen, victorious Christ—for ten days, until the will of God was brought down to earth through prevailing prayer.
In Galatians 4:19, Paul says:
My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.
Travail for the body of Christ to be built up. Travail for brothers and sisters. A lot of times, we find in our fellow brothers and sisters that there is a stronghold, an issue, or a problem. They are not really growing in Christ. The enemy has them on the run. They remain babes; they are not moving on. They are strongholds.
Paul says, “I travail”—travailing prayer for these churches. Paul went through the great list of things that he had suffered at the hands of men, and then finally he says, “And, besides those things that are without, there is that which presseth upon me daily, anxiety for all the churches.”
Brothers and sisters, travailing prayer is to deliver brothers and sisters—not only for the sake of their deliverance, but that Christ might be formed in us. Are we moving on in our growth in the Lord Jesus Christ, or are we stagnant? Brothers and sisters, we can pray. It is the great prevailing prayer that precedes release and increase.
In Romans 8:26, it says the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings. Brothers and sisters, do you ever sense that groaning inside, the travail?
Broaning, brothers and sisters—there are pressures in this world that we have never known before because of the closeness of the Lord’s return and the fierceness of the battle that is going on in the heavenly realm and being manifested on this earth now.
It is being manifested in wars, politics, commerce, economics, and our school systems. It is a great war going on, being manifested. It is against Christ and His Anointed. There are all of these pressures all the time—at work, in the family, in the house of God. There is always pressure.
How do we deal with it? There is just groaning inside to be free. Brothers, it is travailing prayer. We need to pray.
Revelation 12 says the woman was in travail. But we know that the real travail was coming from whom? The overcomers within the womb. What were they travailing about? They were travailing in preparation for the coming of the Lord Jesus.
Travailing for the church; travailing that she might be prepared for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ; travailing in prayer that they might know the fullness of Jesus Christ, to be conformed to the image of Christ. Travailing in prayer—not just assuming that it is going to happen, but prevailing in prayer.
The man child, the one to be raptured to the throne, is to introduce the way of the Lord back to this earth.
Revelation 22:17, I find most interesting. It does not say the Spirit is saying, “Come, Lord Jesus.” It says the Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” Travail.
The Spirit is travailing for the Lord to come back. His bride should be travailing as well—His church. “Lord, come back.” Travailing prayer, brothers and sisters.
Prayer is so important. Oh, we have all the victory. We have all of the power, and it lies with us to pray. I think that is why Wednesday nights are so important. Brothers and sisters, we need to learn how to pray travailing prayers because the Lord is preparing to come back soon.
So, I would like to leave you with this challenge this morning. I have talked about a passion for Christ, and I think that really is where it begins. Brothers and sisters, you will never fight the good fight without a passion for Christ Himself.
I have talked about a passion to finish the course—your course, the purpose that God has laid out in your life. You will not finish it and complete it unless there is a passion for Christ Himself.
A passion to overcome. Brothers and sisters, the Lord is looking and expecting us to overcome, to be overcomers, to be among those who are raptured to the throne to welcome Him back to the earth. But we will not overcome unless there is a passion in our hearts for Jesus Christ and His purposes.
A passion to fight the good fight, brothers and sisters. Fighting is hard work. Fighting is life and death. When we really consider that we are not just praying for the Lord to bless us, but we are really praying that the Lord’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven, brothers and sisters, that is tremendous warfare.
The Lord did not soften in any way what we would be up against when He spoke of the gates of hell. If you are going to stand as a body of Christ for the testimony of Jesus on this earth; if you are going to pray and stand with Him for the brothers and sisters being conformed to the image of Christ; if you are going to pray that the Lord Jesus return, then all the gates of hell will be against you.
Brothers and sisters, I do not want us to be lulled to sleep in the thought that we are not in warfare. Another way to say it is that I think one of the greatest deceptions of the enemy is to get us to be passive.
“We are going through life. Yeah, I have my own problems and issues, but, you know, I am hanging in there. I am going on.” No, no, no, no, brothers and sisters. We are in a warfare over the testimony of Jesus. It is a war. You are in a battle.
Boy, if you ever watch Saving Private Ryan and see what happened to that first wave of men that hit Omaha Beach, almost all of them in that first wave were taken out—almost every one of them. Most of them never fired a bullet. Many of them drowned in their armor. Brothers and sisters, they were wiped out right at the beginning.
That is when we learned that we were really in a war.
Lord, we just come to You this morning. Lord, we do not want to be ignorant of the enemy, of his devices, of his deception, of his lies, of his constant attacks, Lord, to press us down and take us out.
Lord, we pray that by Your Spirit we would simply be aware. Lord, make us aware. Do not let us be deceived or caught off guard. But Lord, we want to be faithful soldiers in the army of Jesus Christ.
Lord, I have to say, it is by Your grace—the only way it is going to happen. In Jesus’ name. Amen.