Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Satanic Wiles Pt.2

Let's turn to Ephesians 6. Pick back up where we were this morning and preparing ourselves for the hour that we're living in. I believe, like I know most of you do, that these are the last days, and the Scripture says in the last days iniquity is going to abound, and the love of many is going to wax cold. Iniquity is going to abound, and the love of many who love Him today is going to cool off. Jesus talks about it, of course, in the book of Revelation in the departure from the first love. So the armor of God is guarding our hearts from seduction into the arms of another, into all of the false gods, and into the world system that would cause us to look for contentment, satisfaction, outside of His presence, outside of His communion with us. The thing that we have to understand is that because iniquity's going to abound, because the love of many is going to wax cold, the greatest, the greatest problem that any of us can face this evening is a lack of understanding of our own hearts, self-deception. Your greatest enemy is your own self in this warfare that we're engaged in. The greatest weakness that you can experience is when you think you're strong. Your greatest enemy is your self-reliance. Let me remind you—better people than you have fallen.

Until we understand that, then we're candidates for these different wiles of Satan. The Scripture makes it very clear that we're in grave danger when we think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. Take heed when you think you stand the Scripture says, what? Lest you fall. So when you're in that area of self-assurance, and you think you really have your stuff together you need to be very, very aware of the fact that you're helmet's not on because your helmet, the helmet of salvation, will continually remind you of your reliance on Jesus, of your need of His lordship in your life. That helmet of salvation will always remind you of your need of that blood, of the indwelling Holy Spirit, of the washing of the water of the Word. So anytime that you're comfortable outside of it you don't have your armor on. Whenever you think you've got it together you're probably in grave danger. "Finally, my brethren, [verse 10] 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." No armor, no standing. Take heed when you think you stand in your own strength—you will fall, period! "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 saw that we're to be able to stand, and now we see that we're to withstand. That word is very interesting; we've shared it before. In the Greek it's in the active form, and it really means to be offensive or to set out against. So the armor of God is preparatory for you and I to oppose principalities and powers. If you have the armor on, the armor in and of itself initiates an offensive against the powers of darkness. If you're not setting out against, if you don't find yourself actively opposing the powers of darkness, if you don't find yourself actively involved in trench warfare, casting out devils, laying hands on the sick, the bold declaration, the life of sanctification, then the fact is, you don't have the armor on. Because when the whole armor is on, you're going to be offensive. You're going to be moving against the powers of darkness. There will be nothing static in your lives as it pertains to this spiritual warfare. Those of us who have adorned ourselves properly in the full armor, you're going to find yourself in that particular mode setting out against the enemy. When? In the evil day.

So as we begin to define these ministries, it says then having done all, all the withstanding, then what do we do? Stand. So something's being spoken to us here as it pertains to our lives and to our ministries, and that is that we're to go back and take ground that the enemy's taken from us. You and I are responsible, every one of us this evening, in our lives to survey our hearts and say, Have I given back any ground to the enemy, or are there things in me that are lacking? Is there ground that I've never possessed or occupied in my own life that I need now to possess? We begin to set out against and drive the enemy out through an offensive push of prayer and fasting, true biblical supplication, as we begin to study the Word of God to show ourselves approved unto God, workmen that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing or cutting straight through this truth that reveals our own hearts. Then we see who we are, what our responsibilities are, we destroy the powers of darkness in our lives, and then you stand, and you don't give him back any of that real estate.

Tragically, many of us have given up real estate that we need to retake. The enemy's telling us that we're okay like we are, and that it's not necessary to become that militant. Well, of course your enemy's going to tell you that. It would be like getting ready for a heavyweight fight, and Lennox Lewis encouraging his opponent, You don't need to work out; you look pretty good to me; you're ready. Yeah, okay, so what you're forty pounds overweight—that doesn't matter. Don't look at yourself in reality, buy one of those funhouse mirrors that will thin you up. See yourself as you would like to be; don't deal with reality. You really do have your act together; you're not as weak as everybody thinks you are. You're not as ugly as you look. So we realize that all of these lies that will be told us by the enemy, by our own flesh, have to be dealt with. There's areas of our hearts that need to be retaken in this warfare for we are in the last days, we are in the evil day, and having then done all to attack, stand. Don't give any of it back; it's too valuable.

"Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, [verse 14] and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 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, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching there unto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints." So the Holy Spirit gives us this admonition, and we begin to see what's at stake here in this battle that you and I are involved in. We mentioned that greater people, better people than you and I, have fallen. We don't need to go to any type of contemporaries. We just need to go to the Scriptures and begin to see the methods that were employed by the deceiver, the evil one, and how he deals with our hearts.

In prayer and meditation before the Lord, as I've tried to do for all of these years, and then just reestablishing in His presence the things in my life that need to change—as we were away I was able to reflect on some of these things in some of the quiet time. In meditation, really opening my heart before the Lord, I believe that over all the years one of the things that has been an opportunity for the Lord to move in my life has been that ability to be truthful with myself—who I really am; what I really am. So as I prayed, I found out that the Lord was speaking to me very clearly—I really only have three things wrong with me. That's pretty good. How many of you think three's not bad? Would you think you have more than three things that you have to deal with? But I primarily have three. The Lord told me, He said, Really your only problem is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. So I didn't think three was all that bad. Every one of us has the same problems, don't we? And the Lord was tempted in all ways such as we are but without sin. So He's the prototype, He's our example. We don't follow anybody else. We can't set anybody else up as the standard. We can follow those who are following Jesus as the apostle said—Follow me as I follow Christ—but He is the only standard. He's the only perfect man.

As the Scripture shows us some of the great men of God in the past, we can learn some things from their lives. We learned something from Adam this morning. As you meditate upon Adam, the prideful man or the man who is a humanist would say, "What you were sharing this morning about Adam—Adam was just looking out for his family. Adam was trying to assume his responsibilities as the head of his house." And yes, Adam was trying to do what was God's responsibility because Adam had no way of reconciling Eve back. The compromise that he made, the elevation of himself trying to become the problem solver, was nothing but an expression of pride—the ability was not there to redeem her. We have to come to grips in our own life with where we lack, what we can and can't do as it pertains to the life, the ministry, that God's given us. Ministry pertaining to family, to vocation, whatever it might be. Well, we see that all of us have to deal with that particular problem, and in Adam's life I think it becomes evident.

We find great men of God like Abraham, and the anointing of God coming upon the father of faith. This great man who was not weak in faith, the Scripture says. But so many times the analysis, the biblical analysis, is the finished product and not every incident of our lives. We all know that Abraham made mistakes. We know the mistakes that were made when he brought about deception as it pertains to Sarah to try to save his own life. But I think one of the things we can learn about Abraham and apply to ourselves is when God first called him. In the call in his life God said, I want you to leave your household and follow me, and I'm going to take you into a land that you don't know anything of. You're going to go into a country that you've never seen. You're not going to know where you're going, but I want you just to trust me. Abraham did what so many of us do.

Now remember, we're talking about the wiles of the devil. In the midst of this I'm sure there was a reasoning that the biblical principle, of course, is that two is better than one. We can even justify it by New Testament example and say, Well, the Lord sent His disciples out two by two or whatever. But so many times we look for biblical examples to make excuses for why we can't solely trust God, and he didn't want to be alone so he brought Lot. Because the fact is, most of us are afraid of being alone with God. Most of us want some other input, companionship, and the enemy will always try somehow to play upon that aspect of companionship to bring you the wrong companions. So put it down in your hearts right now. Begin to understand that one of the places you are vulnerable as it pertains to your ability to just to be alone. How many of you are comfortable being alone with God? I mean even right how, how many of you can just be quiet with God, or do you have to have on a radio? You have to have on a tape; you have to be having some kind of activity. You can't just get alone with God?

You see it in little children. Little children—we always want some type of affirmation or attention so it's not enough just to do it; we have to say, Look at me. We want to be seen being about Father's business many times. Whatever it was that was motivating Abraham at that particular time we understand that it was going to cost him, and there was going to be a consequence to his inability to be alone with God. There's going to be times in your life when the Lord's dealing with just you, and others aren't to be included in this. So you have to realize that those are one of the areas that we find ourselves weak and vulnerable. The following of Him who's invisible, the ability to go not knowing where we're going.

You find from the great men of God many of these things that you and I are so aware of, and yet we think so often that exceptions will be made for us because we are the children of God, and the Lord knows that our frame's just dust. But let me remind you that in the life of Moses, this great man of God, who very obviously had a tendency to trust in his own strength, didn't he? In his own power he was going to go and set his people free, and he kills the Egyptian and buries him, and this comes back to haunt him. In the arm of the flesh he tries to bring deliverance and finds himself exiled into the wilderness. Finally he confronts God. In this confrontation we realize that the Lord, wanting to empty him of himself, speaks of his dependence to go back and set these people free. He [Moses] said, I've tried that and it doesn't work. He [God] said, You tried it in your strength, not in Mine. I want to give you a new weapon. Take that rod and cast it upon the ground and watch what happens, and it turns into a serpent. He said, I want you to take it up by the tail. That's not always a wise thing to do with a viper; it will turn and bite you. Yet contrary to natural wisdom and knowledge, he obeys God, and we know that it's turned back into the staff. God says, In that same dependency I'm going to set the people free. My power will be manifested when you stop going back to the schools of Egypt and all the science that you learned and trust me. I'm going to do things that are contrary to the natural laws, and if you'll believe that, you can become my instrument.

So this man who was depending in himself and now being humbled before God was used. In the Exodus and in the great wilderness this great man of God, the man who said, I'll not go up if you don't go with me, is the same one that said, Must I fetch you water from this rock, you rebels! He smites the rock, and the water comes forth because God wants His people spared. So many times we think that God using us is an acceptance of our behavior, and it's not. The fact that you experience the anointing, the fact that you experience miracles, doesn't mean that you have character or that your heart's right, because God will use even a donkey to meet the needs of His people. You see proof of that before you tonight. So we realize that as God's working in our lives, here's this man, and that same problem that he had to start with manifests again right in the middle of this deliverance, and it cost him the promise land.

Let's not forget what manner of man we are. Let's not forget who we are and by all of our successes think that somehow we're free. You will never, listen to me, you will never be free from what you are. What you are at this age in your life, what you are right now—who you are; who you were in those formative years; who you were made through environment, through your parents' examples; who you are genetically is who you are—and nothing will change that. Is that a scary thought? You say, Well, getting saved will change it. No, no, no, no—getting saved doesn't change it; it subordinates it. It puts it under the blood of Jesus. It puts it under the power of the Holy Spirit. You are not different until you put off this body! Those things that you are, are in your members, and they are there waiting to express themselves at any moment of weakness. Satan knows, and he will play upon everything that you are, naturally, to bring you down. So once we understand and know our own hearts and know our own selves and come to grips with it and can begin to adorn ourselves in the armor of God, we begin to be strong now. The apostle said, When I'm weak then your strength is perfected in me—when I acknowledge my weakness then your strength can be perfected in me.

Who are you? What are your tendencies? Do you have the tendencies of Abraham to want to bring Lot, to put your wife out here and endanger her so that your life can be spared? Are you a bold individual like a Moses that will stand and take on the armies? Come to grips with who you are, and realize that in all of these things there's areas that the enemy's going to try to use against us based on what our different personalities might be. But until you know yourself as you're known, then you're in some very, very dangerous ground. Let's look and understand what makes up man.

In the deliverance and the direction of Abraham, Lot's with him and of course Lot gets blessed for Abraham's sake. The Scripture tells us that. In the midst of this blessing you all remember the story how it goes that the herds couldn't remain together because of the prosperity, and so they were going to have to divide. So what does Abraham do? Abraham says to Lot, You go ahead and choose, and whatever you take, he said, I'll just choose the opposite. Now remember what caused this. It was because there was contention, there was strife. This thing didn't just come out of the blue. Abraham didn't just come up and say, Hey Lot, guess what? Go ahead and take carte blanche—whatever you want. It came because of conflict, there was strife. Because of the strive—who's the greatest, who deserves the best—Abraham being a man of God just stepped back and said, Look man, go ahead and take your best shot at this thing; God's my source.

What should Lot have done? Lot should have said, Hey man, everything I have is because God blessed you; you choose. You're the man of God; you're the one that the Lord has ordained. Everything I have is because you followed the Lord, and I've been following you. But see, that's not natural to man is it? Lot saw himself every bit as deserving as Abraham. I'm talking about your weaknesses. I'm talking about how you see yourself. I'm talking about how you want to promote yourself. How do you see yourself tonight? Do you deserve as much as Abraham? You deserve hell, is what you deserve. You got a whole lot more than you deserve. How do you see yourself tonight?

You see, that kind of an attitude can never be satisfied. That was in the heart of Lot. And, of course, given this opportunity he lifts up his eyes, he looks around, and says, Man, I'm going to go down there into the primo land. This is like the Garden of Eden down there. We know the story don't we? As his lust—the lust of the eye, the pride of life—as it drew him into that particular area, the Scripture tells us then that he became vexed by that spirit of avarice and covetousness.

That covetousness that drove Lot is a very, very dangerous spirit, of course, especially in the society that we're living in. So let me ask you again, What do you deserve tonight? Let me ask you again, How did you get what you have? Every one of us has to say we're debtors to the one who was called who obeyed. Jesus is the Lord of my life. Everything I have I have because of Him. How can I make any decisions that would not first honor Him, esteem Him, be kingdom first in our thought processes? As we look and begin to pat ourselves on the back because of our accomplishments and our multiple degrees and our rise in the company and our ability to make right decisions as it pertains to life's circumstances, what are we really boasting in and what is it that's the treasure of our heart? Because I want to tell you something. If that's what the treasure of your heart is, every time you lift up your eyes you're going to see another opportunity. If your heart is bound in those particular areas of self-exaltation, there's going to be many, many opportunities to vaunt yourself, but let another man declare your praise and not yourself. Drawn by worldly success—every one of us is in danger of that in this society that we're living in.

Now we're talking about putting the whole armor of God on. You don't have the armor on until you're aware of these general methods that the enemy uses. Every one of us here can speak toward the three aspects—lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life. We've talked so much over the years as to how these things manifest, and doctrinally it becomes something that we can spout. I'm talking about practically. That's one of the things that always interests me about the home fellowship groups. There's a statement that comes back so often on different reports as the pastors go and visit different groups. One of the things that I listen for is this: Well, you know, everybody was able to give the answers back, but it didn't seem that anybody really was able to come and touch with their own hearts. The doctrine, but my own heart. Not only the ability to see it, but the ability to reveal it so that others can really understand where you are and what your needs are so that we could truly pray one for another that we might be healed.

Now why can't we do that? Well, because of the main problem that every one of us faces—pride! We're more interested in an image than we are in truth. We're afraid that if people knew how bad we really were they wouldn't love us and embrace us. The fact of the matter is we're all alike. Oh, it expresses itself in different ways, but we're all alike. We all have to deal with that ugly power in our members called sin that is always, always, always putting self first—is always ready to move and to have its appetites satisfied by natural means—pride, lust, all of these things that work in our lives, and in our members. Until we really understand who we are and are not ignorant of our enemy's devices, then we're still prey. But when we can walk in the humility of the Master and truly be able to wash one another's feet and prefer others better than ourselves—it's not natural to you; it's supernatural. It's not going to be from your members; it's going to be from the Holy Spirit in you directing you. It's going to be because you have the armor on, and it is able to afford this discernment in your life as to what the circumstances are, and then you're able to make decisions accordingly.

We're going to talk about the personal responsibility probably Wednesday night—your ability to make decisions to do the right things. We're living in a copout generation. No one wants to assume responsibility; it's always somebody else's fault, or it's the circumstances. For you and I, we're never going to be free from the satanic wiles as long as we're always trying to justify ourselves and make excuses. Until you and I can come to the place of such a hunger for truth and light that we'll fall on the rock and be broken, that there will be a true godly sorrow that will manifest itself in our lives, then we're still prey because of this image problem. What will people think? In all of our lives we're at different areas of growth and spiritual maturity. How free are you in your acceptance in the Beloved to be able to move beyond image into reality and truth? All of these different things—you know the image is such a big thing in our society today, and we talked about it a little bit this morning and how we dress and what we drive and fashion.

I love the spirit behind fashion. On the cruise one of the things they did—it was like a Broadway type show. They were going throughout the different times, and they were talking about the sixties, and it was the early sixties because really everybody was dressed in what became the seventies attire—the psychedelic time. They went from the bebop to the psychedelic in this and transitioned, but for the whole set that they were doing they were all dressed in the psychedelic clothes. They were singing some of the late fifties, early sixties songs in those clothes, and it didn't look right. They needed cigarette packs rolled up in their tee shirts, and they needed some Levis and the motorcycle boots. Different fads that go around.

I know in California in the late fifties one of the things that was really cool back then, the guys not only would crease their Levis, but they would sew the crease into them. You were bad, man, if your creases were sowed into your Levis. The day of the Converse all-stars, they had to be low tops—the black Converse all-stars. Stretch Levis made out of polyester that looked like they were sprayed on, tight around your ankles. The next thing you know, people are wearing bell bottoms and hip huggers, and it looked like there was an explosion in a flower factory. The seventies was the worst—orange and browns and all of this stuff stuck together and platform shoes and bell bottom hip huggers. Dear God, that was ugly! But somebody thought it looked cool so everybody else decides they'll do it, and it's image; it's being accepted. "I want you to know that me and my friends that all dress alike, we're nonconformists!"

It's what's in man. It's not easy to stand against the majority and to "come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you." Now some people, to be separate, got into other fads, and we know all of the pseudo holiness movements. We find the Amish, and they put little French fry baskets on their heads, and then you find the old Pentecostals with the collars that are up to here and the shirt sleeves and the little old ladies in black and sleeves down to their fingertips—that's holiness, and that makes us separate. No, it makes you doughty looking but not necessarily holy or separate because you're doing it to conform.

So we're looking at individual holiness and the ability to be free from the need of acceptance. What was it that was driving Ananias and Sapphira? It wasn't a hunger for holiness of God; it was to be accepted by a community, and because of that they were destroyed. How many of us here feel those community pressures, and we do things because we're being pressured, not because it's in our heart to do them. Thank God you haven't been struck dead, but I want you know something. You might be dead already and not know it if the motive is to please others and to be accepted of the community and not to please God. What's Satan got a hold of in your heart? What is it that he can use against you that shouldn't be there—you see, Jesus said, Satan's come but he has nothing in Me; there's nothing to get a hold of. Jesus was greased up, oiled up by the Holy Ghost oil, and every time the enemy would try to get Him, He would just squirt out, man.

We need that anointing and that inability for Satan to access our lives. Where are we when it pertains to these? Now every one of us has that tendency. Don't mistake what I'm saying. There's none of us that are so sanctified, so holy that we don't feel the pressure of acceptance, the pressure to conform—all of these things that we're talking about. But there's decisions that have to be made, and you can't make the right decisions without the armor of God. You'll never make the right decision as long as you can be deceived into thinking that this that you're moving in is acceptable. Compromise is never acceptable as it pertains to the Word of God.

One other thing, and I want to go on. There's so many of these different areas that we want to talk about, but look over at Genesis 25 for just a second. You can look up the other passages that we referred to—Genesis 3 for Adam, Genesis 13 for Lot. Now Genesis 25, again another story that we're all familiar with, but I want you to see it. It becomes one of the things that I want to emphasis for tonight, anyway. In Genesis 25, interesting story, of course, about Esau. Verse 23 talks about the two nations that are within the womb and two manner of people.

I think we need to stop for just a minute there, and let me share something with you. How many of you that have had your children, you've had two children, and they were two manner of people? The one thing you can't do is try to make them conform to your preferences. They are who they are. Environment will influence them, instruction will influence them, all of these different things, but God's made us all different; we're unique. We all have to conform to the lordship of Jesus and to the Word of God, but we don't all have to be cookie cutter type Christians or cookie cutter children after the prototype of dad—because I'm so perfect, my children need to be exactly like me. No, there needs to be a change. You're not that good. So one of the greatest expressions of pride is when parents try to make their children conform to a preconceived image—the inability to accept Jesus' lordship of making our children and gifting them as He wills. We try to make them something they're not. They need to be the best that they can be, but they may not be the best in the group. They may not be the best at whatever it is you think you would like them to be a part of. You may be Joe macho man, and all you do for your steaks is ring them out and eat them. You've got so much of the testosterone you look like you're wearing an ape suit, and now you have this little frail child, and you're wanting him to be a linebacker, and he wants to be a ballerina. That's hard to deal with sometimes. The minute we are unable to accept God's working in uniqueness in the lives of our children, it's the expression of our own pride, and it can be damming as it pertains to raising your children.

There were two manner within the womb. Foreordained through the foreknowledge of God that the elder will serve the younger contrary to biblical protocol. The first came out an Indian, red—looked like a hairy garment. "Here's my son the rug." Can't you see it? This kid looks like he belonged in the Adams family—that "It" thing or whatever. So here he was, and after that his brother came out, and his hand took hold of Esau's heel, and his name was called Jacob. We all know the story. Verse 27, Esau was the cunning hunter. Dad liked this guy, man— he was a man's man. He was out there bringing him the kind of food he likes, and Jacob's in the kitchen baking cookies. Isaac is delighting in Esau, and verse 28 says, "And Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat of his venison: but Rebekah loved Jacob [because he had a good taste in curtains and made an awesome quiche]," and so that's where we are.

In this particular situation, now we begin to see that after a day in the field Esau comes, and we know the story how he said, Feed me, I pray that I could be sustained, and let me have some of that red pottage for I'm faint. And Jacob said, Sell—do you think he knew his brother or what? I mean, that's not your first thing: "You hungry?" "Yeah." "Sell me your birthright." Where did that come from? He knew early on that Esau was a person who lived for the moment. As strong as he was, he was weak because he served his flesh. Anything his flesh wanted he met that need momentarily. He was ripe for the taking, man, and Satan knew it, and in this particular time, regardless of what it might be at this time that would soothe you or satisfy you for the moment, and Satan said give me your birthright. It's not a momentary decision that's made; he had a whole lifetime of despising his birthright. It never meant anything to him—only himself, only the self-gratification. The food, the nap, the playtime—whatever it might be that he ministered to.

Sell me your birthright. He said, Well, I'm going to die. You think this guy's going to die—what do you think it had been, twelve minutes since he ate? I'm going to die anyway, I might as well. That's the attitude that so many of us that serve our flesh have. "Well, if I can't have it now, what's the use. I don't care." We throw away a whole lifetime for momentary pleasure. What a sign of weakness—lack of character. Esau is one of the greatest examples of a lack of character that you can find in the Scripture—self-serving. He appears to be valiant, appears to be strong, and he's weak because of his bondage to his own flesh. I'm at the point to die anyway; what profit shall the birthright do?

How strong is your flesh in these areas, that these things just have to be had? I have to have this and I deserve this, and what good is all of the spiritual sacrifice going to do anyway? I don't see any benefit from it. There's nothing momentarily beneficial. Why not eat, drink, and be merry; tomorrow we die? What kind of an attitude do you have? You see, if that's your tendency though you may not have sold out your birthright yet, if that's your tendency, if you find yourself so easily seduced and so willing to gratify the flesh—you know it's time to study the Scriptures, and as soon as you open the Bible you fall asleep. But you can stay up and watch Johnny Carson—oh, he's not around anymore, is he? If you're watching Johnny Carson, you'll probably get arrested for peeping Tom or something. Or whatever it is. So you have to deal with your flesh.

I know one of the things I've shared with you—one of the things I used to do studying late into the night, and you have to deal with your flesh. There is that natural tendency—you're tired, you get still, you're going to have a tendency to fall asleep. So one of the things I used to always do, I'd study on my back, and if I had my Bible, and I was reading my Bible, I'd always lay on my back like this, and when I'd fall asleep, I'd drop it in my face, and it would wake me up, and I'd read some more. That was dangerous with your Strong's concordance, but I've done that—almost knock yourself out. Now, today with computers it could really be dangerous. You have to know the weakness of the flesh and deal with it. How bad do you want to stay awake? How bad do you want to study, or do you want to cater? "Oh I'm sleepy. I haven't had my eighteen hours today." No time for the children; no time to study. "Oh, you're going out to play golf? Yeah, be right there, man." Fishing? Hunting? Yeah, three o'clock in the morning, get in a tree—and you can't stay awake for fifteen minutes in prayer on Tuesday night? Esau, I'm talking to you.

The time's going to come when that birthright—it's already sitting there; it's ripe for the taking. The only reason it's not gone is the grace of God, and God has sustained you. Esau didn't experience that grace because it was already predetermined by God through foreknowledge for your example and my example. Most of us here have been through these things, and a lot of us here have had our birthright up there for the taking, and God's grace is the only thing that's sustained it. But we need to come to grips with who we are and to put this armor on and protect those things that are valuable. How valuable is your birthright to you tonight? When you serve this physical appetite, and you are a weak individual because of self-serving, you're in danger. All of these things that need to be observed in our own lives.

The spirit of God is speaking to us to adorn ourselves in the whole armor of God, to come to grips with what manner of men we really are, hopefully to show you tonight that you're not unique. We're all in this same situation. You know, the thoughts that you have, the fears that you deal with, the insecurities, the pride, the lust, the avarice, the covetousness; the different areas that everyone of us deals with: the fear of rejection, the inferiorities. We all have it. You're not unique, you're not strange; you're not the only one in here that's dealing with that stuff. We all are. Get it put to rest. We're all dealing with these things in different manners in our lives, different degrees. Different things have greater hold on different individuals, but we're all dealing with the same problems. Once you can come to grips with that and recognize the flesh for what it is and recognize the grace of God in your acceptance in the beloved for what it is, then the armor will begin to benefit you.

It won't just be some relic that stands in the hallway of a damp castle, but it becomes a daily attribute of your walking in the spirit and the inability of Satan to take advantage of you because that helmet of salvation assures you of your acceptance in the beloved. The zeal for right living and holiness, that breastplate that guards your heart because now the treasure is Christ likeness, the truth that girds your loins is able to deal with what manner of man you really are and whether what it is that's being spoken to you is of biblical accuracy or not. That sword of the spirit that's accessible to you that you can take in your mouth and say, Devil, I hear what you're saying, but I want you to understand something—it is written, praise God! We walk in a daily warfare and momentary victory if we can adorn ourselves and be strong in the power of His might.

We're going to deal Wednesday with a couple more major areas concerning these avenues that are accessible to the enemy. Then we're going to talk about practically how to put the armor on and to walk in the spirit. Examine your own heart tonight. Who am I? What type personality am I? You know, of course, they try to categorize all of these things. I think I have a problem because I was reading all of the different categorizes one time, and I think I'm all of them. Either I'm schizophrenic or I'm a sinner. We can all identify with all these different personality traits.

People really have trouble when I share with them out of my own heart in the different areas. It's really funny when I share with people the aspects of my personality and being a person who's really basically kind of in some ways shy. I don't like to be in front of people—insecure in many of those different ways. I was sharing that with my family as we were on the trip. They were talking about when that guy called me up on stage. I didn't finish the story. I didn't only sing "Charlie Brown," I got called up to be one of the backups in the Temptations. I was really not enjoying that. I don't like being in front of people; I'm very uncomfortable in that situation. Even my natural family, who really doesn't know me, they said, Are you kidding? I said, No, I'm not kidding. I really am uncomfortable in front of people. They said, Well, how can that be; you've been preaching for thirty years? I said, That doesn't mean that I'm not uncomfortable. I don't like it; I don't enjoy that. When you begin to really understand who you are and can cope with it—when I was able to finally really identify in my own heart the fact that I wasn't a mean individual, and thankful for that, but that I was a fearful individual, an insecure person, and that's why I would attack people. When you begin to identify who you really are, it begins to take away the subtlety of the enemy and being able to draw on image and lies, and you're able to walk in light. There's a liberty there, and it comes from putting on the armor of God.

Father, make it a reality for us. Cause us to seek Your face and to give access to Your lordship in our lives. Help us, Father, to in every area be accessible. Human nature never ceases to amaze me. So many people that are able feel inapt, and so many people that are inapt really think they can do it, man. That one never ceases to amaze me. But as you begin to allow the Holy Sprit to examine your heart, we're talking about the opposition that's going to come as we begin to hunger and thirst for the presence of God in our lives, and the power of God—it's not going to go unanswered. We're talking about whether you're going to be able to stand in the midst of His glory as His presence comes. Are you going to be able to stand what comes with the presence? Will you be able to survive your successes? Will you be able to deal with your failures, or will pride induce counterfeit revivals and testimonies like are so prevalent in our day? Let's hunger and thirst for a true righteousness and a true manifestation, and if we hunger and thirst, we will be filled. Father, we thank you for that in Jesus' name. Let's stand before the Lord.

As Gary plays for us, just allow the Holy Spirit to speak. We addressed some major areas in all of our lives. Are any of them predominant in you tonight? We're going to talk about how to deal with them as we get into putting this armor on. But the first step, the most important step, is the ability to identify who we really are. How so often we put who we are upon others. We overreact to our children because we think they're as vile as we are. We assume everyone's out to get us because we're out to get everyone. I'm not talking about the ability to be truthful with the condition of your children or being naive as it pertains to what's in man. I'm talking about judging out of our own hearts. The tendency for natural man to want to live in the Eden of Sodom and not in the dust cloud of the wilderness. It's natural to us. The desire to have our appetites met now, but it's not all acceptable behavior so we need a girdle of truth. The hallmark of everything we decide to do: is it just, is it the Word of God, is it true?

We're going to deal with how to approach the flesh when you're as weak as Esau. How do you deal with this? How do you deal with that spirit of Lot and Achan, that spirit of avarice? How do you turn down all of the benefits like the prophet and not get caught up as Gehazi? How do you do that? Are these people immune; do they not have that kind of an appetite; is it foreign to them? No, it's not. It's there; it's in them. So we're going to talk about, hopefully Wednesday, how to make these right choices. The desire to glorify God more than gratify self. It really doesn't have anything to do with any of us being any better than anybody else. It's all a gift; it's all grace. It all has to be acquired, accessed by faith. Work it in me, Jesus, that You might be glorified. Prepare us in this last day to stand when the love of many is waxing cold.

Let's sing it together before we go tonight. Just glorify Him. Thank Him for His presence—In Your Presence. Thank You, Jesus. Lord, cause that likeness to manifest in us. Jesus, that we could demonstrate Your love and Your grace. We just want to be like You, Lord. We know what we are without You, and anything good in us that's manifested has been because of You, and we give You the glory, Father, in Jesus' name, amen. Praise God. Before you go turn to somebody next to you and say, Keep your hat on, praise God. Go in peace. God's love go with you.

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