We will be sharing on the Lord’s army this morning. You know, we need to be diligent and attentive if you are in the army, right? You have to listen to the Commander. I am not the Commander, by the way. The Lord is.
Let us begin with prayer.
Lord, we come to Thee this morning. You are indeed the Commander in Chief. Lord, we come because we want to hear from You this morning. We want to hear Your charge to us as Your people. Lord, we want to hear what You have to say to us.
So, Lord, we ask that Your Holy Spirit would fall upon us: that we can speak, that we can hear, and that we can respond, Lord, to what is on Your heart. That is my prayer today, Lord, that Your heart would be revealed in this matter of God’s army. I pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Well, I am going to be sharing on God’s army and spiritual warfare. There will be a series of messages—four to five messages—so it will take a little while before we get it all completed. But this morning, what is really on my heart is this burden for the Lord’s army to be raised up.
Let me begin by turning to Ezekiel 37.
By the way, do you all hear that wind? Do you feel the breeze? Go to Ezekiel 37; you will see what I mean.
I will be reading Ezekiel 37:1-10. I am using the King James Version, by the way. That is NASB? I am not familiar with those strange Bibles. There you go.
The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones,
And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry.
And He said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, Thou knowest.
Again He said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.
Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live:
And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the Lord.
So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone.
And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them.
Then said He unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.
So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.
Brothers and sisters, I thought I would begin with the burden that is in my heart. I think Ezekiel is a great illustration of the burden the Lord has laid on my heart concerning the army of God, spiritual warfare, and an awareness of what is going on in us and in this world.
As I thought about it, we run across this matter of spiritual warfare through the church in Ephesians 6. It is interesting that in the beginning of Ephesians, God was able to share with the Ephesian church His highest purposes—the thing that was so deeply in His heart.
That was something He was not able to share, for instance, with the Corinthian church, which we are beginning to study, because they were so fleshly. There was so much flesh there. What He had to share with them was Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That is what they needed in order to deal with the flesh.
But when He gets to the book of Ephesians, these are the ones—you remember—who were so ingrained in witchcraft that, when they saw the Lord, they took all their books and burned them in the city square. All those books concerning demonic beings, witchcraft, séances, and things like that were put into the fire. They gave them up. I do not know what the dollar value was, but it was very, very high.
Well, the Lord responded to those Ephesians in their love for Him and their desire to follow Him. He shared His heart with them in the book of Ephesians: how He was looking for a house, a dwelling place for Himself.
Brothers and sisters, He is saying, “This is what you were born for. This is why I created man: that I might have a house among men, to live in their midst and be their God, and they would be My people. But I want to be in the midst. I do not want to be far away somewhere, distant.”
“I am not a distant God. My heart is to be right with you—not only in you, but in your midst as a people of Mine: a living house, built with living stones, not with the hands of men but by the Holy Spirit.”
And I desire a holy priesthood—a priesthood of all believers. No one is left out. All are needed to form this priesthood of worship and service to God, and to follow Him.
This priesthood is so needed, brothers and sisters. That is why we are always encouraging one another to enter in and to be a part. It is not that we are trying to be legalistic at all. It is just that we want to come into the fullness of what God has desired in His own heart: a priesthood of believers where no one is left out, where everyone enters in, and where everyone serves the Lord in different ways.
But all serve Him, not out of duty, but out of love.
Brothers and sisters, He goes on to share His great desire for a bride, for a helpmate that will be with Him through eternity. Lord, we have no idea all that is going to happen in eternity. He is asking for a people, a bride, who will be His helpmate to reign and rule—not only during the kingdom age that will follow this age of grace, but in eternity.
We do not know all that God has in store. But I guarantee you, we will not just be sitting around floating on clouds. We are going to be actively serving God, serving Him in union with Him and with a heart for Him.
Brothers and sisters, that is our calling. That is why you were born.
Sometimes I think we feel like we were born to grow up, go to school, go to college, have a house, have a couple of cars—Mercedes preferred—and all of these things. These are the things that we tend to desire: a family. None of these things are bad in themselves, but brothers and sisters, that is not why God created us. That is not why you were born.
You were born to serve this purpose, to satisfy His heart. In satisfying His heart, He really does want to satisfy our hearts. But He knows your heart can never be satisfied with just worldly things, brothers and sisters.
You have to enter into God and His purpose to truly find satisfaction in your life. If you think you can find satisfaction without the Lord Jesus Christ, you have truly been deceived by the world.
Brothers and sisters, there is no satisfaction outside of Christ. It is only temporary happiness.
I said one time, “It is amazing how often, when Christians are kind of down and out, that is when they start buying things. They get away from the Lord, and they start buying things.” You know, it is so easy now. You just pull out one of these phones, punch it, and say, “Yeah, I need one of those.” You are just punching it.
Brothers and sisters, we are called to a high purpose. We are to be the house of God. That is why we are here. That is why we are joined together. That is why we love one another. That is why we want to help one another: to be the true house of God.
We are to be the helpmate of God, serving His purposes, fulfilling His works, reaching out to the world, helping one another, and building ourselves up in Jesus Christ. That is our calling.
Brothers and sisters, I find it very interesting that after God shares His deepest thoughts with us—His very heart’s passion—in the book of Ephesians, it ends with spiritual warfare in Ephesians 6.
I think it is very clear what the Lord is trying to show us: what He wants and what He desires in His heart will not be gained without spiritual warfare.
We know that our Leader, the Lord Jesus Christ, went to Calvary’s cross. We know that He won the battle there, putting the enemy to open shame. But brothers and sisters, the battle for us is still going on.
So, we are called to be the army of God—not only the house, not only the priesthood, not only the bride, but His army.
Now, brothers and sisters, being in an army is very rigorous. For those here who have been in the army, the Marines, the Navy, or whatever, it is very rigorous—particularly in wartime. It is extremely dangerous and fraught with many problems and issues.
So, brothers and sisters, I have this burden on my heart this morning concerning God’s army: that we might truly be a living part of His army.
Now, I read this Scripture from Ezekiel. The Lord had an army, but that army was laid waste in the valley. The bones of the soldiers were there: the fallen ones, the wounded ones who could not make it, the ones who got dismayed and could not go through, and the ones who, in the face of battle, pulled back. Their bones were lying in the valley.
Brothers and sisters, not only were there bones in the valley, but it says they were dry—extremely dry—because the world had begun to take its toll on them.
The sun—speaking not of the Lord Jesus, but of the actual physical sun—had dried those bones up. That is what the world does when we pull back from the Lord. That is what happens to us, brothers and sisters, as we become dismayed and fall away.
That is what comes to us when we get wounded and cannot recover. We fall, and the bones begin to dry out. The world and its ways take their toll on us.
I see those dry bones as the fact that the moisture was no longer there. The Spirit was unable to function as He should. Many soldiers in the Lord’s army were in the valley, brothers and sisters, completely dried out.
But thank the Lord: the Lord asked Ezekiel, “Can these bones live? Is it possible that they can be restored to an army?”
Ezekiel said, “Lord, only You know.” In other words, Ezekiel was saying, “Lord, I have no hope for these bones. I am sorry, I just do not. They are so dry. They have been inactive for so long. There are no sinews, no muscle; the flesh is gone. It is just dry.”
Lord, brothers and sisters, I think down through the ages, down through the years, the Lord’s army has been decimated. We have come to a place where there are many bones in that valley.
I think sometimes it includes me.
I do not know how we feel this morning, brothers and sisters. Do you feel a little dried out? Do you feel like your bones are drying out?
You know, it says that in the last days the enemy will wear the saints out. He is going to keep them from the fight any way he can. He will wound you with insults from brothers and sisters. He will attack you physically. He will put thoughts into your mind that are not true—thoughts about brothers and sisters and doubts about God.
He does all of these things so that he might destroy the army of God.
And so, the burden on my heart is that the Lord would send wind into the valley; that the Spirit of the Lord would move upon His people.
May the Spirit of the Lord blow into this assembly. May the Spirit of the Lord blow into assemblies all over the world. May the Spirit of the Lord flow into the church, and may the dry bones be lifted up once again into a mighty army.
That is the burden, brothers and sisters, that I have on my heart this morning.
Now, the fact that we are in a spiritual war—let me say it another way. In our daily lives, we tend to think everything is just natural circumstances and natural happenings. We become somewhat content with the way the situation is—or perhaps not content, but compliant with it.
We become a bit passive, and we are no longer really in the fight. No longer really in the fight.
Well, Ephesians 6 is very clear. I think it is Ephesians 6:10-13.
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.
Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
We will stop there. Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. We have to stand against the wiles of the devil.
We are not wrestling with circumstances. We are not wrestling with family members. We are not wrestling with issues at work. We are not wrestling with the issues that the world presents to us.
Brothers and sisters, behind so much that goes on in this world and in your lives personally are principalities and powers of darkness—spiritual wickedness in high places—that we stand against.
In 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, it says:
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:
(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God,
And bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
Brothers and sisters, that is warfare. My heart is that we might not only be a testimony to the Lord, but also be an instrument in the Lord’s hands.
Brothers and sisters, we have heard much about the testimony of Christ. That testimony is really how much you experience the reality of Christ in your life individually and in our life together corporately. That is the testimony that we have.
But we are also to be an instrument to carry out the will of God on this earth and to see that His will is carried out.
We experience all of these things in our daily lives. Brothers and sisters, we experience divisions in the church, problems in the church, and problems in the world and in our government.
We know that now our government is saying evil is good and good is evil. You happen to be the evil one sitting here in this room because you do not agree with what they are trying to push upon us as right and good.
Brothers and sisters, the warfare is all around us. It is even in your very being.
Have you not experienced heaviness in your soul at times in your life—a heaviness that you cannot really explain, but it is there? It is difficult to pray. It is difficult to read the Word. It is difficult to come and meet with brothers and sisters.
Have you not experienced a numbing in your mind at times, where you can read the Word but it just does not make sense to you? It does not click. The Spirit cannot seem to get through.
Have you not experienced coming here in our midst and sensing a cloud sitting upon us?
Brothers and sisters, have you not at times experienced in your emotions just a coldness? You want to express your love for the Lord. You want to express your joy for His salvation, but it is not there. You are just cold.
And this affects your will. You want to do the things of the Lord, but you just do not feel like it. You do not have the willpower. You do not have the will to say, “Yes, Lord.”
Sometimes it is just confusion. You simply cannot make a decision. These are the things that the enemy is doing.
So what is the problem? Well, we live in a physical world, do we not? What we see, what we touch, and what we hear—that is what is real to us. These are the things that we sense with our natural senses, and we say, “This is what is real: this physical world.”
Our mind, our will, and our emotions are all from our natural being. Brothers and sisters, we struggle, we wrestle, we get frustrated, we get dismayed, and we get confused.
Where is the joy of the Christian life?
There comes a kind of acceptance of the way things are. That is the danger: accepting that this is normal.
“This is just normal. Yeah, I do not seem to have any feelings. I just cannot read the Bible. I cannot pray. But, you know, that just seems to be the way it is for me.”
Brothers and sisters, what great danger we are in. One of the great tricks of the enemy is saying, “This is all natural—just circumstances. Yeah, you are having problems. You are having little problems, but it is just you.”
He hides behind these things.
Let me share with you a personal experience that happened this week in preparing for this message on spiritual warfare. I always share personal spiritual experiences not to promote myself. I would rather be hidden than exposed. But I think it will be helpful to all of us to see the very essence of what we are trying to deal with as the army of God—what you are as a soldier in Jesus Christ.
It was very interesting. I shared similar messages, but these are different, I can tell you, in Portland when I went there a couple of months ago. I have to say, I have been sick ever since I left Portland. I am getting a lot better now, but I really got hammered after that—physically, emotionally, and spiritually. I just testify to that.
As I was getting ready for this sharing, I said, “Okay, Lord, I need Your blood over me, because I know that the enemy is on the move. He does not like to be exposed for who he is.”
Friday, we were going to Longwood for our meeting concerning the conference coming up in the summer, Lord willing. We will share more about that Wednesday night. But that meeting went very well, by the way, brothers. Praise the Lord for answered prayers. We had a wonderful meeting, and I think we got some things hopefully resolved that will make the conference flow better this year. I was very encouraged by that.
But on the way down to Longwood, on Route 60—that long stretch through Powhatan, that two-lane road—I was behind a black Ford pickup, I think it was. We were going along at about sixty miles an hour, and all of a sudden he started weaving between the yellow line and the shoulder.
He was weaving and weaving. I said, “Got a guy doing that, using a cell phone. I know what he is doing. He is texting or something.” So, I followed him for about a mile, and he was still weaving like that.
Then all of a sudden, he weaved all the way into the other lane. He did not just weave in and out; he was in that lane. A car came over the hill, and he darted back in. When he darted back, he went all the way over the shoulder, ran off into the grass, and got back on the road. He never slowed down—sixty miles an hour.
So I started praying. I said, “Lord, this guy is going to kill somebody, including himself, if something does not happen. Lord, You have to restrain this man.”
He kept weaving all the way into the other lane. Twice, cars came up from the other direction, right on him, and he got right out of the way. Apparently, one of those people had called 911.
As I prepared to call 911, the police car came up behind me, went around me, and eventually got this guy to stop. It took him about a mile to get him to stop.
I said, “Lord, this is mighty strange. I have never run into anything like this before.” But we went on to the meeting and had a great time.
On the way back, I had to stop and pick up my hearing aids, which I do not have today. I speak louder when I do not have hearing aids. Anyway, they had broken and were going to fix them.
I pulled in, went in and got them, then came back out and got in my truck. I looked behind me. There was a car there, but there was an empty space. I thought, “I am just going to go in that empty space.”
I do not know what happened to my mind, but I had my mind on other things. I was backing up, and I hit that car. I would say there was about $4,500 worth of damage.
I said, “God, what have I done?” I did it. It was not anybody’s fault but mine, and I was really disturbed by that.
There was nobody there, nobody around. Eventually, I left a note saying who I was, along with my insurance number and all those things, so the owner could get in touch with the insurance company. But I was still disturbed.
That was Friday. Friday evening, I was still upset. Since Friday was our workday, our group met Saturday for Bible fellowship. When we were together, I asked the brothers, “You all need to pray for me. I have been standing in the blood of Christ, but my mind is on this thing and it will not let loose. There is just kind of confusion. Here I am trying to get ready.”
So they prayed, and thank the Lord, it lifted. That sense of confusion, concern, and worry lifted. I am thankful for those prayers and for the prayers of many saints whom I know were praying for this time together.
I say that because, brothers and sisters, we cannot just take things that happen in our lives as merely natural occurrences. They may be. Sometimes you forget, do things that are wrong, or mess up. But this had an extra element added to it. That is the difference.
Saturday morning, before I got here and received the prayers of the saints, I said, “Lord, I am still disturbed. Is this the enemy? I do not know if it is just me or the enemy.”
I get a daily word on my little computer here. Immediately after I asked the Lord, I said, “Lord, I need to test this. I need to know if this is the enemy I am dealing with in this thing.” This is the word I had:
Today, resist the devil. Because of Jesus, we have the power to resist him and put him in his place under our feet. He uses his tricks to control and confuse us. When we see his attack, we must put on the whole armour of God and tell him to flee. He is like a roaring lion.
Actually, part of our sharing that morning was from James 4. We had not quite gotten to Corinthians yet; we were still in the book of James. You know where that verse comes from:
Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
That is James 4:7. So, it was confirmed to me by the Lord that the enemy was really involved in this thing. He was really working on me, but I could not get clear.
When I came to fellowship, that was when I asked the saints to pray with me. They did, and it cleared up. I am thankful. So, we do need one another in this warfare. It is not an individual thing.
You need to learn to test things, brothers. Do not just passively take things in your life. They may be perfectly normal and natural things, but perhaps the enemy is adding his little piece to it—his little power to it.
I thought this might be helpful. Remember, Paul had a thorn in the flesh. Remember who that thorn was from? Satan. It was Satan’s thorn in his flesh.
Most people think it was malaria because he operated in a region where malaria was prevalent. It affects your eyes, and it is very painful to your eyes. Many people think that is what it was.
But Paul went to the Lord about it. He said, “Lord, this is affecting my ability to minister. This is affecting my ability, Lord. How can You operate in constant pain?”
You all know, if you have had pain, that it is hard when you are in pain to read the Bible. It is hard to pray in pain. It is hard to gather together in pain.
Paul said, “Lord, this is really interfering in my life—not only in me, but in the ministry.” He went to the Lord. The Lord did not say anything. He went to the Lord a second time. As far as we know, the Lord had not yet responded. He went to the Lord a third time.
Finally, the Lord said to him. Now, these words are not in the Bible; these are a little bit of my thoughts on it. I think it probably went like this:
“Paul, the issue is not you. The issue is not sin, or that you have done something wrong, or that you are being punished, dealt with, or disciplined. I am doing this for your good. I have allowed Satan to do this to you for your good.”
“You were taken up into the third heaven. You heard things that no other man has ever heard. You saw things that are unspeakable.” That is what the Word says about his going into the third heaven.
“I had to allow Satan to humble you, lest you become proud and defile all the work.”
You know, it is hard to be proud when you are hurting, when you are weak, is it not? You do not feel that strength.
But that is the way the Lord wanted Paul: without his own strength. He said, “Paul, you are going to learn a much greater lesson: My grace is sufficient.”
So you see how the Lord uses these things. But brothers and sisters, I want to say that I think it was important that we see Paul went to the Lord three times.
I think that tells us that the Lord waits to see how serious we are about our prayer, how serious we are about the burden He lays on our heart. Are you really serious? Are you really that concerned?
And so He waited. Well, thank the Lord, Paul got his answer. He tested the spirit, basically: “Lord, what is going on? What is happening?”
So I want us today to realize that we cannot simply accept natural occurrences as being natural. Sometimes there is a supernatural force behind them. We cannot afford to have a passive attitude.
Brothers and sisters, this morning I wanted to remind us all that we live in a spiritual world—not just a physical world, but a spiritual world. It is around us all the time. It is very real.
The enemy and all his demonic forces are working diligently to take us all out—every one of us, without exception. He uses the world. He uses our flesh against us: our self-life and the desire to please ourselves instead of the Lord. He uses all of that against us.
He even has his little minions going around, putting little thoughts into your mind: “You know, I just do not like that brother or sister.” Or, “You have been really bad. There is no recovery for you. There is no help for you. You have gone beyond God’s grace and mercy.”
I know you have heard these things in your own mind: “You are useless. You are no good. You are helpless. So, I am justified before the Lord now.”
Brothers and sisters, he can put those little doubts into our hearts. It is a spiritual world that we live in. It is very clear that your wrestling, brothers and sisters, in this spiritual realm is not against people. It is against what is behind those circumstances with which you are wrestling, and it is spiritual.
It says in Ephesians 6 that this wrestling is in the heavenlies. Our wrestling is in the heavenlies.
One of the greatest deceptions of the enemy is that he is not real.
Most of the world out there does not believe God is real. They do not believe there is a God. He has deceived them.
Most people do not really believe there is a heaven or a hell. They will say little quips like this: “Well, if there is a hell, I will have plenty of company.” That is true. That is absolutely true.
But brothers and sisters, they have no idea what eternity in hell will be like. We do, as Christians. We get that sense of the darkness there—no light of Christ there, just complete darkness and living with all those selfish people.
Thank the Lord, our selfishness will finally be dealt with when we are raised to be with the Lord Jesus Christ. The sinful nature will no longer be with us. Thank God for that. But for them, it will still be there.
What a tragedy. I think of the grief they may experience because they missed the Lord. I do not know; I do not know. But I know it is not a place where I want to be, or a place where I want to go.
The enemy has convinced them it is not real: there is no such thing as heaven, there is no such thing as God. Some will even say there was no Christ, but history proves differently.
Brothers and sisters, the enemy’s greatest deception is to make us believe that he is not real. For us Christians, his greatest deception is to make us believe that all these things occurring in our lives are merely natural, normal things that we all experience and simply have to learn to live with.
“Certainly, you do not need the Lord. What you need is your own self-will to take care of things.”
Well, our eyes do need to be opened. Second Corinthians 4:4 says:
The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not.
Do you know that unbelievers are blinded by the devil? They are full of pride. They are full of all these things that the devil has to work with, these reasonings that he uses to keep their eyes from being opened.
I often think that, in our hearts, we say—and I have said it myself—“In the United States, you can share the gospel, but it just rolls off like water off a duck’s back.” It is as if there is no power there.
Well, brothers and sisters, they are blinded. God needs His army to rise up in prayer and say, “Lord, take the blinders off these people with whom we are sharing.”
Glenn Miller is going this morning to meet with three men who do not know the Lord. He asked me to pray with him, and I did. But brothers and sisters, we have to pray that the blinders will be removed—ripped off—that they might see.
They are being held enslaved by the enemy and his thoughts. They are unable to see the Lord, and it takes prayer to break that.
Ephesians 2:1-2 says:
And you hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air,
The spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.
You were dead in iniquity and sin. You know that? You thought you were probably doing okay without the Lord at one time, but it says you were dead. In God’s eyes, you were just dead. You had no relationship to God and no relationship to Christ.
You were ruled by sin and iniquity in your heart. You thought you were in control of your life, did you not? You thought you were on your own. But indeed, you were a slave. You were a slave to the enemy, and you did not even know it.
You lived according to the fashion of this world. You wanted to be in the fashion of this world. You did not want to be different, as Christians need to be. You wanted to flow with it.
Peer pressure, brothers and sisters, is not only for young people and teenagers. It is for adults too. We get hit with peer pressure to be like the world, to go the way of the world, and to think like the world.
We are influenced by it every day: the things you see on television and the things you get through the internet. They are all the way of the world—the influence of the world entering our hearts to control our lives.
You did not realize it, but you had been indoctrinated by the enemy.
You had no hope. I guarantee you that every one of us in this room had no hope of salvation without the grace and mercy of God, who was somehow able to touch our hearts and open our eyes.
For many of us, I think there were those who were praying. That may be the only reason we were able to come to the Lord: prayers of grandmothers and grandfathers, prayers of aunts and uncles, prayers of friends.
The Lord listens to all those prayers. Most of us are probably the result of someone’s prayer. I know mine was the result of my mother.
So, brothers and sisters, we think we are free before we come to the Lord, but really we are slaves. We have a slave’s heart.
The people of Israel were slaves for four hundred years. Finally, they became so oppressed in slavery. Probably in the beginning it was not too bad; they were well fed and taken care of. But then they started putting the load on them, putting the work on them, and they did not care whether those people lived or died.
They were slaves, and they began to cry out. God set them free, praise the Lord, to go into the desert. But they began to run into obstacles and problems: “Where is there water? Where is there food? God just brought us out here to die.” That was their attitude.
They still had a slave’s heart. They had been set free, but they had a slave’s heart.
Brothers and sisters, you and I have been set free. Let us not go back into slavery. But that was what they said. They said, “Hey, we would rather go back and be slaves in Egypt.”
The Lord, of course, intended to take them through. They went through those forty years in the desert. It says their shoes did not wear out. They did not get sick. The Lord took care of them.
But unfortunately, their unbelief—that slave heart—was still theirs. They were still in captivity. Anyway, take heed is all I can say.
I think a large part of it is our mind. That is why, in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, it speaks of the pulling down of strongholds and reasonings.
The enemy builds up these strongholds in our minds and reasonings that you do not realize. You have to really go to the Lord: “Have I got a stronghold here? Have I somehow been thinking in a way that is not right? Lord, set me free from these things.”
Well, praise the Lord, there is hope. I am running out of time. Colossians 1:13 says:
Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son.
Brothers and sisters, you have been put into a brand-new kingdom: the kingdom of the Lord, where you can hear the Lord, respond to the Lord, be the Lord’s, and serve the Lord.
He has taken you out of the power of darkness that controlled your life and held you in slavery. You have been put into His kingdom, set free to serve Him.
You live not only in a physical world, brothers and sisters, but in a spiritual world. In that spiritual world, there are two kingdoms: the kingdom of darkness is operating, and the kingdom of Christ is in operation.
These two kingdoms, in the spiritual realm and in the heavenlies, are at war with each other. We experience the effects of that war on this earth and in people. It is the satanic kingdom and God’s kingdom.
This warfare in which we find ourselves is really centered upon man. We will see more about that the next time I share.
Brothers and sisters, what is on my heart today is that we would be awakened to this spiritual realm that is affecting all of us, and that we would become effective soldiers in the Lord’s army.
Our battle is not against flesh and blood. Remember this: rulers of darkness, principalities, and powers are arrayed in the heavenlies, and they are all against us. They are against Christ. They are against His church.
You might say, “Well, Jerry, we have been taught through the years that Christ had the victory. He was completely victorious.” And He was.
The Word says He put the enemy to open shame, came out of that grave, and was raised to the throne of God. He is King of kings and Lord of lords, and everything is under His feet. That is so true.
The heavenly victory is in Christ. Christ Himself won that tremendous victory over the enemy, over self, over sin, and even over death itself.
But brothers and sisters, that victory needs to be experienced in you and me. The victory that He has won needs to be experienced in our lives and in the life of the church.
Let us be very clear about this: Christ’s work on the cross, including His victory over the world, the flesh, sin, death, and Satan, is complete and final. The victory has been won. He overcame in Himself, and that victory is full and final.
But it is not yet full and final in us. It is not full and final in the church yet.
We become complete, full, and final in that victory as we experience it through faith—the victory that our Lord has won. In other words, we have to appropriate the victory that the Lord has won in our lives personally and in the life of the church.
The great victory remains in full force. Yet, in this world, we see evil and death. We see satanic forces of darkness still at work, and they are to be overcome.
Revelation speaks of overcoming: “He who overcomes.” We are called to live a victorious, overcoming life—overcoming and being victorious because of the victory of Christ, not our own victory.
Thus, our victory is in trusting the victory of Christ to be applied to our circumstances and our lives.
Is not the church’s prayer:
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
It might end up being six messages, where I am going.
Hebrews 2:8, I think, explains it as well as anything. It says:
Thou hast put all things in subjection under His feet. For in that He put all in subjection under Him, He left nothing that is not put under Him. But now we see not yet all things put under Him.
In other words, He has won the battle. He has put everything in subjection under Him. That is what Hebrews 2:8 says. He left nothing that is not under Him.
Often we say, “Well, what is going on, Lord, if You have this great victory?”
The Word of God says that Christ was revealed to destroy the works of the evil one. Yet Hebrews goes on to say, “But we do not see all things under Him.”
Everything is under Him, but we do not see it. We are still experiencing this warfare. We are still experiencing the enemy’s work.
It is our responsibility as Christians to enforce the victory that Jesus has won. That is the best way I know to put it. We are to be enforcers of the victory that has already been won.
The war has been won. The articles of surrender have been signed. The Lord says, “Now enforce the victory that I have made.”
But we see Jesus. In other words, the enemy is still at work, but the Word encourages us to keep our eyes on the Lord in this, because He is the Victor. Keep your eyes on the Victor.
I remember Stephen Kong once shared that we are involved in a mopping-up war—a mopping-up work. That reminded me of World War II, particularly with the Japanese.
Their culture was a warrior culture, and they would not give up. They would not surrender. It was actually an amazing thing in that war that they signed an article of surrender.
That happened in 1945, after Germany had surrendered. But, interestingly enough, the soldiers had to go back into all those specific islands where the Japanese were and rout them out.
The victory had been won, but the enemy was still there. They had not surrendered. In their minds, they did not know anything about articles of surrender. They were not going to surrender.
In fact, there was a Japanese warrior called Hiroo Onoda. They found him twenty-nine years later, and he would not surrender. They finally captured him.
Brothers and sisters, that is the work we are involved in: cleaning up after the Lord’s victory.
The spiritual realm is there, and we are involved in it. We need to be awakened to it once again. I think many of us have realized this warfare, but perhaps we have become a little passive in our hearts. We need to be reminded.
I will not read all the examples that I had, but let us look at Elisha in 2 Kings.
Before I look at Elisha in 2 Kings, do you remember Job? In Job 1, it says there was a day when the angels appeared before God, and Satan actually came. The Lord said, “Have you noticed My servant Job?” You remember that?
That was going on in the heavenlies. That is the spiritual realm. All that Job experienced on this earth was a result of what was going on in heaven. That is the point I want to make.
The account of Elisha is in 2 Kings 6:8-23. This is about Elisha, the servant of God.
At that point in history, Israel was at war with Syria—or Syria was at war with Israel. The Syrian king had, on a number of occasions, worked out a plan to trap the Israelites in battle.
Elisha was a heavenly man. He operated in the heavenlies. The Lord revealed to him, “The king of Syria is about to entrap the king of Israel in this war over here.”
So Elisha warned the king, and they moved to a different area. Of course, Syria’s plans were thwarted. That happened two or three times.
Finally, the king of Syria called all his counselors. He said, “Okay, which one of you guys is a spy? There is a spy in our midst, because every plan that I make to capture the king of Israel is thwarted. He somehow finds out what I am about to do.”
The counselors said, “Whoa, whoa, whoa. The problem is not us. You do not have any spies. What you have is Elisha, the prophet of God, who keeps telling the king of Israel what you are doing.”
The king said, “Okay, I will take care of that. I want all of my army to go after Elisha, and we are going to kill him. We want to destroy him.”
So they finally found him in Dothan—not Dothan, Alabama. The king sent the whole army down, and they surrounded the place.
That morning, the servant of Elisha woke up, went out, and looked around. He saw all the army of the Syrians around the hillside, with chariots.
He went in, quite disturbed, and told Elisha, “Look, the army of Syria has surrounded us.”
Elisha said, “Well, do not worry about that.” Of course, that stunned the servant.
Elisha took the servant out, where he could see all those chariots, and he said:
Lord, open his eyes. Open my servant’s eyes.
The Lord opened his eyes, and he was able to see the spiritual realm. What he saw was the Lord’s chariots and angels all surrounding them, between them and the enemy.
Elisha said, “You do not need to worry.” Then Elisha prayed, “Lord, blind them. Blind the enemy.” And He did.
Brothers and sisters, the point is that Elisha’s servant’s eyes needed to be opened to see where the real battle was—to see into the heavenlies. That is what we are called to, brothers and sisters, as the army of God.
Oh boy, this time is short. Take a few more minutes. We have pizza getting cold, by the way. I cannot compete against pizza.
I wanted to share a personal experience. I will share that, and then I will end. Next time, I will share on Daniel.
You remember Daniel. He had been praying to the Lord. He had a real burden before the Lord concerning what was going to happen to the nation of Israel. They were turning from the Lord.
The Lord sent a messenger to Daniel. Daniel prayed for three weeks. Remember that: we need to pray. Daniel prayed diligently, fasted, and prayed for three weeks. Finally, the messenger showed up.
He said, “Look, I heard your prayers. The Lord heard your prayers as soon as you prayed, and He sent me out to give you the answer. But I was delayed by the prince of Persia—the prince of darkness over Persia at that time.”
“There is a prince of darkness, and he delayed me. Finally, I had to get the help of Michael, the archangel—probably one of the strongest angels—to come and assist me. He is still struggling with him, but I got free, and I came to let you know three weeks later.”
There is a real battle going on in the heavenlies, brothers and sisters—a real battle, even between the angels of darkness and the angels of light. We need to be awakened to that.
Let me share my personal experience. I have shared it before, but it might be helpful to some of you.
In the early years, as we were meeting together, we began to get together for prayer—for corporate prayer, to stand as a church. The Lord really opened my eyes to this matter of spiritual warfare and to the need for prayer, the need for corporate prayer, and the need for saints to stand together and pray before the Lord.
So I committed myself to the Lord. I said, “Lord, I intend to be at that prayer meeting. It is not optional anymore. I need to be there.”
But I had no idea what was about to happen and could not anticipate what would happen the very next Wednesday night.
I went home and began to get sick—nauseated. In fact, it was just nausea. I said, “Well, Lord, I am just not going to be able to go.”
But the Lord said, “Jerry, prayer meeting is important.”
I said, “Okay, Lord, by Your grace, I will go, sick or not.”
So I did. I got in the car and stayed nauseated all the way until I got to the Huguenot Bridge. As soon as I crossed over the bridge, the nausea left. I went to the prayer meeting and was fine. I was fine.
I said, “Well, hallelujah, Lord. But why? Why?” I had never experienced being attacked like that before.
Why such a thing? You know, we do have natural things, particularly on Wednesday night and Sunday morning for the table: disturbances, problems, sickness, perhaps not feeling well, or just being tired. Particularly on Wednesday night, you are tired.
Is it not natural to be tired in the middle of the week? Well, it is. But I can tell you that the enemy adds weight to that tiredness. If you have not committed yourself, you will not come. You will say, “Well, Lord, I am just not feeling up to it tonight. I am going to stay away.”
What I did not realize was that, because the Lord had opened my eyes to the living Body of Jesus Christ, to His church, and to His spiritual warrior army, I began to see the results of that.
In other words, it was not because I was any different. It was because of what I had seen. The Lord was showing me His church, the reality of this organic Body, this army of the Lord. So the enemy attacked me. That is why he attacked me.
Brothers and sisters, why would the enemy go after me? I am nothing.
He goes after every soldier in the army to try to get you out of the fight by whatever means he can utilize.
Why is that? Because the church is the instrument God is using to defeat the enemy on this earth—to bring the victory of Christ into the immediate things that are going on upon this earth, to affect the enemy, and to bring him to the feet of Jesus.
Revelation 12 speaks of the man-child, and that is what the army is supposed to be. The whole army of God is supposed to be this. But in Revelation 12, it speaks of overcomers and the man-child.
Who is this man-child? It is those who have remained in the army, stood faithful, and become prayer warriors for the Lord.
He says they will break through in prayer. When they do, He will raise them to the throne. This is Revelation 12.
When that happens—when they break through the power of the prince of the power of the air, the atmosphere surrounding this earth where the enemy and his demons take residence now—then the angels of the Lord will war against the angels of darkness, and they will be cast down to the earth.
The great tribulation will begin to end it all. Brothers and sisters, that is why he does not want an army. That is why he does not want that.
He knows that eventually the army of God—these overcomers, these spiritual warriors—will be responsible for his end, because they are going to break through his stronghold in prayer.
Then the angels will take care of getting him cast down to this earth, where he will be fully exposed for who he is.
But brothers and sisters, I want you to know that the enemy did not immediately give up on me. That went on for a number of months.
Every Wednesday night, I would get nauseated. Every Wednesday night, I said, “Lord, by Your grace, I am going. I am taking the blood of Christ over me, and I am going.”
I stayed nauseated until I got to that bridge. Once I crossed the river, I was okay, and greatly empowered as I went into prayer.
So that, my brothers and sisters, is what the enemy does. He tries to hide behind natural circumstances, natural events, and things that we take as normal, when in actuality, many times, it is his spiritual forces against us.
But my burden for today is this:
Lord, I just come to You. I pray that You will send the wind into the valley. Lord, send Your Spirit into the assembly. Raise up these dry bones, Lord. Put real meat upon us. Have real warriors in Your army, Lord, to complete the work that You have called us to.
Lord, in that day, Lord willing, may we be part of that man-child, Lord, to overcome the adversary.
Lord, that is my burden: that You will send Your Spirit. Fill us with Your Spirit, Lord, not only to be the warriors that You need, but to be the house of God, to be the priesthood that You need, and to be Your helpmate.
Lord, do this work in our midst. Once again, fire up our spirit through Your Spirit. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.