Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Spiritual Warfare Pt.4

Hallelujah! You might have seen me laughing a little bit; I was just talking to Chuck. We had a call and Ronnie headed over to Nairobi, two days ago, I guess it was, and they said, "You need to come to Nairobi." He gets to Nairobi, and they said, "Oh, the President just left the country." And I said, "You know, it seems like they operate on a crisis orientation, they're just trying to stamp out fires it looks like." And a lot of real, real disorganization, but at the same time it's humorous. As I was sharing the other day, here this small little church over there in Kakamega that we're trying to start, and a few hundred people, and it's got the president's ear. The president of the nation of Kenya is intimately aware of what we're trying to do over there and is saying, "We need this in our country; this is God. We have a lot of religion but this is God." It's very interesting to see how you don't have to be a representative of Pat Robertson or one of the big national ministries; it doesn't have to be Billy Graham's organization, the Lord can open doors that no man can close, amen? Aren't you glad to know that you, as insignificant as you might be, God can give you favor in the heart of the king. And we have to understand that, and I think that's a lot of what we're experiencing, and we need to just rejoice, and worship the Lord, and thank Him for what He has done and the doors that have been opened. It's supernatural, it can't be done by men, it's only God and we rejoice in that; and I think before long we'll have that registration that we need that started so many months ago.

Let's turn to First Peter for just a second. We want to refresh ourselves on the study that we've been embarking on here, and realizing that these are the last days. I was standing at the finish line at the races last weekend; we were down there, and a guy came through and his elapsed time was six six six, and a couple of guys standing along the fence were standing there and a guy said, "Six six six, I was told by somebody that's not a good number." And so I proceeded to tell him what the number was all about: the mark of the beast and the spirit of antichrist that's already alive in the nation today. Hollywood's made movies about it, and have tried to make it spooky. There's not going to be anything spooky about Antichrist. He's going to be a very, very well adjusted, accepted, elite, intelligent, motivated, compassionate individual who's going to win the hearts of the masses and be placed into a position of prominence to where ultimately he'll rule this world, erect that image of himself, and demand to be worshipped as god. Well here we are, and the spirit of iniquity, or the spirit of antichrist is already alive in our midst. We talked about it being a spirit of anti-Christ, anti-word, anti-church. There's the kingdom of darkness, the kingdom of Satan, and Satan doesn't always come as a blood drinking warlock type devil with horns and pitchfork, but the Scripture says he comes as an angel of light, "And with good words and fair speeches deceives the heart of the simple" (Romans 16:18).

He comes as an angel of light, and comes with, as we know, very philanthropic type of motivations to where he's helping people. But it's being done in the spirit of the knowledge of the fruit of the tree that was in the midst of the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. "Don't eat of it," God said; and yet Adam and Eve partook and their eyes were opened and they became as their own gods; and they were able to now be creative, and they were able to live separate from God's provision; and that spirit is the one that's preeminent in the world today; and that's what most people are living by. People are not living today by looking to God and looking to Him for their help, their source, and their trust. People aren't praying any more "give us this day our daily bread." But they're trusting in their own strength and their own abilities. And that's the spirit of Antichrist, the spirit of independence from God. And it's opposing everything that the kingdom of light, or the church, is standing for. And the Scripture says to be a friend of the world is to be what? The enemy of God (James 4:4). They're not neutral; they hate God. They may not shake their fist at God, they may not be taking the name of the Lord even in vain, but as long as they're living to their own program; as long as they're living for themselves God says, "They are at enmity with Me." Any decision that Satan can get you to make on your own without seeking the heart of God, without seeking the wisdom of God, is to be affected by the spirit of Antichrist. Any time you just take for granted that you can control things, "I've got a handle on this, I can do it myself, me do it myself." You get the little ones; it doesn't take long, right? "Me do it." And they want to show their independence. And of course, you know, in the natural we're excited when our children want to show their independence. You shouldn't have Bubba laying on the floor at 25 and you still have to tie his shoes, man. The kid's so stupid you've got to buy him Velcro. You want them to mature, to grow up a little bit, to take some responsibility. But in the kingdom of God, the Lord wants us to be absolutely dependent upon Him, not to the place of doing anything, but doing it as His bidding, with His grace, and His strength. And so there's that balance that we want to walk in of relying, trusting, and yet knowing that we're to put our hand to it because whatever we touch the Scripture says, prospers.

Now in the midst of all this as we spend this little time in review, we said that the battle that we're involved in, this spiritual warfare is for our minds. Satan is constantly trying to seduce us and by deceit, little cunning devices, say, "you can handle this on your own, you're smart enough for this, you're mature enough for this; just walk a little bit independent from God, what's the big deal? You don't need to be one of those fanatic type Christians." We were in the back yesterday in our staff meeting, and I was talking and some of the pastors were sharing that some of our young men were witnessing to another young person, in fact a young person who used to be here and they're somewhere else, and just kind of wanting to fellowship a little bit and see what we're all about again. And they said that these two young kids were like really zealous. And they were saying, "well you know, some of it's just youth and maybe not the tactfulness that an adult might have or whatever," and I was listening to the whole conversation and I said, "yeah, and maybe they were a little zealous, a little exuberant, but if you're going to err man, let's err on the side of being fanatical." Amen? Instead of a lump. I said, "it sounds to me like these kids were a little bit fired up." And they said, "yeah." And I said, "when you see somebody on fire throw gas on them." Amen? People want to throw cold water. Throw gas on them, man. If these kids - if you see some of our kids on fire, throw gas on them. Let's see some excitement about the kingdom of God; let's realize we're not of the world. We're in it but we're not of it. We're separate, man; we ought to be in their eyes that peculiar people that the Scripture says we are. We don't think the way they think, we don't act the way they act, we don't trust in what they trust in. Our God is absolutely separate and holy and He said come unto me, separate yourselves unto me; come out from among them and be separate and I will receive you saith the Lord. Dear Lord, there are too many people calling themselves Christians that you can't tell any difference from them and the world. And I'm not talking about the way we dress or the way we physically appear, I'm talking about who we're trusting in. Let's be excited and let's be dependant upon the spiritual realm and what we're doing, do it in the supernatural and not in the natural. And so it's very, very important that we see these things in every area of our lives.

I was just sitting down with the president of a bank on Tuesday, and I was just sharing with him what God's been doing in our lives here, and in the ministry, and how we got here and what we're doing. And it was blowing this guy away. He's a Christian; his dad's a Baptist preacher. And I was sharing with him how the Spirit of God is ordering our steps and how we're believing God, and part of what I'm going to actually be sharing this evening out of Judges on moving in the elite, Gideon's 300. A people that aren't fearful; a people that aren't part of the world system; a people that get things done supernaturally. I just shared with him and I said, what we're doing right here, this transaction is supernatural. I said, there are a lot of strings that could have been pulled; we weren't doing that, we're looking to see God open doors and if He doesn't do it we don't want to be a part of it. And it's very important to understand that aspect.

So let's go over to First Peter for just a second, First Peter chapter five, and realize then that in this spiritual warfare we've got to, as Ephesians says, continue to put on the whole armor of God. We're at war. The devil is after us but we don't have to submit to his power or his deceits. We don't have to fail as old Flip Wilson did so often. As he said, "the devil made me do it." Now probably only twenty percent of us here know who Flip Wilson is. That's unfortunate -- for us that know what I'm talking about. The old people. And so we realize then that the Scripture says, the apostle speaking in this fifth chapter of First Peter; he says in verse six, "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, [submit yourselves to God's program, God's method, the way God does it] that he may exalt you in due time. Casting all of your care upon him for he careth for you." Do you believe that tonight? That's what it's all about beloved. Cast all of the care of this thing over on Him. Be anxious for nothing the Scripture says, but in everything with prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known unto God and the peace of God that passes all understanding keeps your hearts and your minds through Christ Jesus. Cast it all over on Him; don't be anxious about anything because God cares for you. God cares for you. He can call you by name, he knows the hairs on your head, and they're numbered. He's not an impersonal God; He's a loving heavenly Father. His intentions are good toward us the Scripture says. He wants to bless us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. It's Father's good pleasure, the Scripture says, to give us the kingdom.

Why are we scrambling to try to build a kingdom of our own then? Why are we so fearful that we're going to do without and maybe somebody's going to best us? When God's for us nobody can be against us. That's the devil telling you you're going to have to do it in your own strength, you're going to have to watch out - God cares for you. Cast your care upon Him, He cares for you. If you believe that tonight, it brings a peace; it brings an ability to walk in the supernatural, to move contrary to the masses. "Everybody's doing this!" "Not everybody. I'm not! As for me and my house we're serving God." Amen? And so we're looking at these aspects and the apostle tells us, cast your care, He cares for you, now "Be sober, be vigilant..." Sobriety: be serious, don't be a clown; don't walk through life like some dufus just kind of stumbling through, and fooling around, and just looking to play and recreate, be sober. We're ambassadors of Christ. He sent us on a mission to preach this gospel, to live separate from the world system. Let's take serious our task at hand. You're not living to yourself here. God said, "I've called you and I've ordained you that you would go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain."

How seriously are you taking your vocation, your job? I want to tell you something, your job is not a computer engineer, your job is not a maintenance engineer, your job is not a train engineer; your job is a Christian. That's what your job is, and we've been called to exemplify the kingdom of God. How seriously are you taking that? Be sober and be what? Vigilant. Be alert, extend yourself, work hard, do the best you can do toward representing this kingdom. Be on a vigil is what it's talking about. It's sad how many true Christians aren't as zealous for the Jesus who died for them as some of these poor deceived Muslims are for their god. How vigilant are you as a believer in sharing the love that you have for your risen savior, the one that died on that cross with your sins? Jesus died with your sins. That 's what He was doing on that cross. Somebody had to pay the price to justify God's holiness and justice, and He did it for you. We ought to tell everybody. It's a great free gift; freely we've received let's freely give. "Be sober, be vigilant, [be on guard] because your adversary, [your opponent] the devil, as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour:" You better take him serious. I saw the replay of the heavy weight championship fight this last weekend. Lennox Lewis showed up, looked a little soft, very confident. Big tall man -- those of you who are not into boxing - good champion, good fighter, great left jab; he's throwing his left jab, kind of just a little soft, he wasn't ready. And this guy didn't stand a chance in the world, he would pop him with a left every once in a while, he's 6'6" or whatever he is. Pow! Right in the guy's face, you know, and he's doing about half the jabs he normally would, landing about fifty percent. Pow! But not serious about the fight. And the guy hit him with a good hand, and like most boxers do when they get hit, they kind of just grin like, "You didn't hurt me." And the guy caught him with a perfect right and he went down like a ton of bricks, man, and it's all over. Knocked him out, took his championship. Showed up in Baltimore to celebrate today, riding around in a convertible. They hit a car head on and he went flying out and landed in the street. What a way to celebrate!

How seriously are you taking your opponent? Can I tell you something? Your opponent reached into the Garden of Eden where there was no sin, where there was absolute innocence; took a man named Adam who had no sin in his members like you and I, you and I are born in sin, we are sinners from our birth, everything we do moves toward rebellion to God, reliance on self. You don't have to teach anybody to lie, cheat, be lazy, be prideful, be selfish, be stubborn, that's who we all are. Every person is this room is that way, we were born that way, and it's in us. The propensity for sin, the depraved nature. We are sinners in need of the savior. Adam wasn't that way, he was pure, he was innocent, and the devil brought him down. Moses, knew the anointing of God, talked to God face to face, saw Him on the mountain, received the tables of stone, had his face shining so that nobody else could look upon it, and the devil kept him from entering the Promised Land. David, the man after God's own heart couldn't build the temple because he was a bloody man, he hand numbered the nations. Where did all of that come from? The deceits, the wiles of the devil. Peter denied the Lord after having said, "though they all forsake you Lord, you can count on me. I'm the man; I'll never leave you. The other dudes, they're going to. They may bolt but I'm the man, I'm here, you can trust in me." Jesus turned to him and said, "Get behind me Satan." And as the cock crowed he had denied Him three times and hung his head and walked away sorrowfully. Paul gets in conflict with Barnabas and the missionary team is divided. How seriously are you taking your opponent? If he brought Paul to that place; if he brought Peter to that place; if he brought David to that place; if he brought Moses to that place who are you? Do you know who your opponent is and how dangerous it is to not put on this armor every day when you go to war? Satan is going about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. "Whom resist steadfast in the faith [verse nine says] knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world." We're all under the same test; we're all under the same attack. There's no hope for us without the armor.

Now, go to Ephesians real quickly and then we're going to go over to Judges, but go back to Ephesians real quickly, into the sixth chapter, verse 10, "Finally, my brethren be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." Without the armor you're not going to stand the wiles, the cunning devices. He knows which buttons to push on you; he knows where your appetites are. He knows where the carrots are to dangle out in front of you, those dollar bills. For some of us it's a hammock, you know, too lazy to chase dollars just give me a hammock, man. A little folding of the hands. "I don't need a new bigger home, I just need to turn over. Ahhhh." He knows who's who; he knows who's the workaholic, who's the alcoholic, who's the sloth. And you know who you are, don't you? And you know what it is that you have an appetite for. The Scripture says, "Give no place to the devil" (Ephesians 4:27). Guard yourself against those things that you know are the areas of weakness in your life. That's the armor of God. "Resist the devil and he will flee from you [James 4:7]." Don't give any place to him, put on the whole armor of God. "For we [verse 12] wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities [demonic powers in the spirit realm] against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" (Ephesians 6:12).

Now we're going to continue to deal with the armor of God, we're going to deal with all the different pieces of it as we go on in our study. We're going to have our helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, our loins gird about with truth, our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel or peace, the shield of faith, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; and we're going to then set out against the enemy. It's what Ephesians tells us to do, "Wherefore take unto you [put on] the whole amour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day." You know what that tells me? The "withstand" means to set out against; it means the more evil it gets the more we're to be on the offensive in attack. Can I ask you something? Are you in a defensive mode or are you in the offensive mode as it pertains to sin in your life right now? Are you just trying to maintain and not let this thing overwhelm you, or are you doing something about running it out of your life? The Lord tells us if your hand offends you what do you do? Eye offends you what do you do? What are you doing? You know what these areas are, what are you doing to set out against sin as it's trying to take over your life, or those that are around you, your brothers and sisters in Christ? But you see, not everybody is willing to pay the price to put on this armor, and that's what's very interesting about it.

Turn over the Judges for just a second and let me show you something. We were dealing with this on Sunday evening, you remember, as we let off the study. We were talking about the call of Gideon, the mighty man of valor; and he looked around because the guy was a coward, and he was fearful, and he did obey the Lord we saw in chapter six. Judges, chapter six, verse 27, he did obey the Lord, but he feared the people that were around him. So he did what the Lord told him to do at night so nobody could see what he was doing. How many of you periodically are undercover Christians? You know, you want to do what the Lord says but you don't want to become too obvious on the job because the promotions are going to the shakers and the movers, and the guys that can kind of rub shoulders with the elite. They're going to hate you for His namesake. Don't expect to be promoted because you're one of the boys. If you're one of the boys, you're not part of the kingdom of Heaven. God will promote you; God will give you favor like He did Daniel and Joseph. Cast your care upon Him, He cares for you.

And so we look here and we find out with Gideon that he does obey, but it's by night, verse 27 says, because he's fearful. And then we saw the big discourse where the father, Joash, mocks them for wanting to protect their God and he said, if you're upset because my son cut down your groves and turned over the alters of your god, if you're god's alive let him fight for himself. Aren't you glad that we have a God that fights for himself? It's not exactly like "Raiders of the Lost Ark," but not too far off. Any of you remember the movie, "Raiders of the Lost Ark"? I think that was the one, wasn't it, you know where all the laser beams come shooting out and were wiping everybody out and all that kind of cool stuff? We realize that the Ark of the Covenant destroyed the enemies. The Ark of the Covenant sat there in the temple of Dagon and when they came out in the morning to the temple the idol Dagon was on it's face, and they propped it back up, and they came out the next morning and the idol was down with it's hands and head broken off over the threshold. The plagues that came and the people that died. Uzziah touching and just immediately being smitten dead because of the glory. Our God is alive, He fights for Himself; He doesn't need us, but He includes us so that men could see the works and glorify our Father.

Verse 31, "If he be a god let him plead for himself." They had a little trouble with that, arguing against that, so they thought, "well what are we going to do, what are we going to say about that?" Gideon then, puts the fleece out before God; and I don't want to get into the fleece right now, I want to go past the fleece. Everybody talks about Gideon's fleeces, and he fleeced the Lord, and the Lord assured his heart, yeah, this is me speaking to you. "Lord, if it's you, show me a sign would you please? I'm going to put this fleece out on the floor, and let it be dry upon all of the earth, dew on the fleece only." Okay. And it was so. And he rung out the dew into a bowl full of water and that should have been sufficient, right? Okay, God answered. He gave me a sign. Dew is nowhere but on the fleece. So he wrings it out, "okay, this is God" whew. "Let not thine anger be hot against me, and I pray thee, but this one [one more time, verse 39] but this once with the fleece; let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew," [and God did that]. Aren't you glad God's patient with you? I mean, He's getting ready to go do something; he's terrified; he's going to go fight the Midianites. There's no way. He's going to go down there in the natural and get killed. No hope for them; going to take them out, man. There's grasshoppers, the Scripture says, on the horizon. You know, we got a handful of cockeyed, one eyed, left armed rejects and they've got the finest fighting men around. We've got Don Knotts with his one bullet, Barney, and these guys have got tanks, and we're going out to fight them. I don't know about you, but that sounds like fleece time to me. Amen? Let's give Gideon a little bit of a break here.

And so God answers and encourages his heart, and he says, "okay, I believe that God's in this thing, let's go get them." And then the Lord puts another factor into this. See, what we're talking about, remember what we're talking about. Here's the subject: the battle for the mind. The natural mind has a way of doing things and then God has us do things supernaturally, in the Spirit. The whole battle of Joshua blows your mind. As you blow the trumpet - that's not the way to win wars unless God is the general. Gideon is going through the same thing here. Check it out. He says, "Okay guys, the Lord spoke, we're going." They say, "all right! Let's go down and get them!" And God speaks up in chapter seven verse two and says; "you have too many people with you." "What do you mean too many people?" Well, when you win you're going to think you did it in your own strength and you'll vaunt up your own heart [look at the end of verse two] and say my own hand has saved me." Oh, beloved, the best place you and I can find ourselves is beyond our own ability where we know that God did this. "Man, there is no way that I was able to do this in my own strength."

Do you have trials that you face that seem to always, and I don't mean every time, but I mean it's just with you, you know, we call it the besetting sins. You have victories, then you have defeats, but it's one of those that's just there. Other things you've gotten free from and you've walked out of in faith, and you studied and God delivered you, but there's that one area; and there's no hope for deliverance until you know that there's no hope for you to be victorious over that thing in your own strength. When you can finally say, "I'm whipped, I can't deal with it. I can't free myself from this thing." Now once you realize that, you know what else it will do? It will open your eyes to thinking, "man! Look what's in my heart that I didn't know was there. I've been taking credit for some of these other things I walked away from. I've been - you know, when I stopped smoking, I thought that had something to do with character and a little bit of willpower." It was grace. "When I stopped drinking, I just thought it had to do with the fact that I'd been saved for awhile and I'm getting more mature and I'm just getting stronger, praise God." It was grace. "When I stopped lying I just thought that finally I had disciplined myself and I was able to finally become humble and I'm so proud of that." It was grace. Without Him we can do nothing. Oh beloved, when we can come to understand that in that weakness the Scripture says, we're strong.

"Now you've got too many people because when the battle is won you're going to think you did it. I want to take you beyond yourselves. Now therefore go and proclaim in the ears of the people and say, whoever is afraid go ahead and head on home." I've found out one thing, it doesn't take long. You can disburse a crowd this way. Put a real hard task before them and say, "anybody that doesn't really want to take it just go on home." Rumble big cloud of dust. Man everybody; 20,000 people headed home, man. And you go, "whoa, I thought there were more people really looking toward the prize, the mark here, but that's interesting." The moment you say, "we don't have to pray on Thursday's anymore . . . " And they leave, 22,000 of them, and they go, "man, now we're down - 10,000 people against this host of military might. We didn't stand a chance with 32,000, now we're down to 10,000. And the Lord said to Gideon, you still have too many people. Now, you know Gideon at this time has got to be going, "oh man, I need another fleece. God look, when it was 32,000 and you answered with two fleeces you know, I would still wonder, but now we're down to 10,000 and I'm scared, and these people are going to thump our heads, and now you said it's still too many people?" "Still too many people. Let me try them" [verse four] and those that I say to you these are the ones that will go with you, sign them up, because I'm going to deliver by their hand. Now here's what I want you to do: take the people down to the brook, down to the water, and everyone that laps of the water with his tongue as a dog laps, him shall thou set by himself; likewise, everyone that boweth down upon his knees to drink, and the number of them that lapped putting their hand to their mouth were 300." What's he saying? He's saying, I want you to take the 10,000 people, go down to the water, and I want you to watch the way they conduct themselves. Now we're out here, the Midianites are there, you all know this is desert terrain, it's hot, it's dry, it's dusty, the camels are coughing. Smoking too much, those camels, and so they're out there coughing and now we're headed down to the creek. And as would happen so often, here's the water, and people are going to turn down there you know, and the majority of them just fall into the creek and oh, man, back stroke, feels so good. But 300 of them went to the creek and they knelt down like and they scooped some water up, they began to drink it and never took their eyes off of their surroundings, and were always alert and ready for the battle. He said those are the 300 I want to take. "I'll save by those 300." Where are we today in the putting the armor on, in the warfare, in being sober, and being vigilant knowing that the devil as a roaring lion is seeking whom he may devour? He'll take you out when you've got your head in the creek. Whenever you're looking for that time of ease, and comfort, and slack, you're giving place. Watch; pray that you don't enter into temptation.

And so he says in verse seven, "By the 300 men that lapped will I save you." And this is exactly what God has done in our midst here over the last number of years. And that's why there's still continual conflict in some of your flesh that are still here, and some of you we still have to deal with it, and the complaining, and the "I don't understand why, and how come it's so hard; and it just seems like there's too much being required," and all we've said to you and to everybody else is, "go home; go with the 22,000." Some of you didn't leave with the 22,000, maybe you're part of the 10,000; but the commitment is to faithful men, the 300; the sober, the vigilant. And it that's where our hearts are, those that are the 300, then the victory is assured, because if God is for us nobody can be against us. We're safer with 300 than 300,000; and once we understand that we've left the kingdom of darkness, we've left the world's realm and way of doing things, and we've entered into the supernatural of the dividing of the Red Sea, and the sustaining of our clothes in the wilderness, and the ability to walk on the water and feed the 5000. And how subtle he is to get us to trust daily in our own strength, and in the world's way of doing things, and to trust in our own little company that writes us a check at the end of the week; and to trust in the government's little subsidies, and to trust in everything except Jehovah Jireh, the Lord our provider.

What's our hope? Where is your victory? Isn't it in this? "Have not I sent you?" Are we about His business and going in His strength? "I'll save you by the three-hundred" He says in verse seven. "And it came to pass then that night [verse nine] that he said, arise and get down to the host, I have delivered it [the host] into your hands. But if you're afraid, go down with Phurah. [You've got to be in faith to out with a guy named Phurah] If you're afraid go with Phurah, and spy it out, listen to what's happening down there." Now, he was afraid to cut down the groves, he was afraid to go before the fleece, God says one more time, and "if you're afraid go down and check it out." Is the dude still afraid? Um hmmm. "Fear not, I am with thee." Fear is natural to us; subordinating ourselves to it is unbelief. Faith doesn't make fear go away; faith causes us to obey even though we're afraid. A lot of people think, "well if God will give me the faith then the fear will go away and I'll just to able to go do this thing without any opposition, without any trepidation at all, I can just go pull it off." You're going to be afraid out there in battle, it's scary, it's scary to go not knowing where you're going, as Abraham left his home country. It's scary standing on the stripes and the blood of Jesus instead of doing it the humanistic way and the scientific way. It's scary, and there will be times you'll say, "what in the world am I doing out here?" And you'll have a tendency to look at the wind and at the waves and you'll begin to sink, but beloved, in that time of fear if you'll just cry out, "Lord, help me!" He'll immediately extend His hand and sustain you.

The question I want to ask tonight is this: are you out of the boat? The Lord is not concerned with the fact that some of us have begun to sink. I don't know about you, but I've done more than begin to sink at times, if there were pictures that you could take in the spirit realm - I'll tell you one thing though, I get out of the boat. I can see one mental picture of myself one time being out of the boat, and the Lord's walking me back to the boat, and it's not He's walking back with His arm around me saying, "Well, son, you've been doing a pretty good job man, don't worry about it, we don't always get it right." It's He's walking back to the boat holding my hand like this and I'm under the water going, (demonstrating). And I was afraid, but it didn't keep me from getting out of the boat the next time. And that's what He's looking for. And He said, "If you're afraid go on down; check it out." So verse 12 says, "and the Midianites, and the Amalekites, and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude." They've got 300 guys; these guys have hundreds of thousands. Now I've been in some bad situations before, the worst I can ever remember is - as I told you, I used to be in a gang and some of these different things, and the worst I can remember was in Santa Cruz and we were in a situation at the Coconut Grove, and I'd gotten us in trouble up there. Actually, one of my buddies was responsible for the thing, and he was hitting on this other guy's girl, and they got into this altercation and so I was there and I just decided to put an end to it. So these two guys were talking and he took a swing and he hit J----, and as soon as he did I fired on him, Pow! Took him out into the girl's bathroom and knocked him out. He's laying in the rest room, the girl's rest room, and I thought that was the end of it. So, we go our way and didn't think anything else about it and left the Coconut Grove that night and we're walking down the street heading to the car and the next thing I know man there's a crowd gathering. And I thought ... They weren't there to sing our praises, they were there to destroy us. It was this guy, he was a hometown boy, and it was all of his buddies, and they just kept showing up, and showing up, and the guys with me they were only like, there were only six of us. And they said, "What should we do?" And I said, "Just keep walking." So we're walking, (whistling) and finally, we get in my car, I'd just painted it, man. Beautiful, metallic, we called it - it was Hamm's beer can blue; any of you remember Hamm's? Hamm's beer can, a gorgeous blue color on the car, it was brand new.

And we were a little sauced, and so we get in and we're going to make our escape, man. We're starting to leave and this guy picks up this city trashcan, 55 gallon drum, and he throws it up against the side of my car. Boom! I slammed on the brakes and jumped out and went after that guy. Bad move! Bad move! I grabbed the guy, pop! Took him down. I turned around and the other guys were piling out of the car. We're now being jumped by all these guys and so my buddies - the next thing I know I turn around and I see B----, and he's got this guy and all I can see is this guy across my car and blood just pouring out. He'd stabbed him about six times with an ice pick and my other buddy, M----, jumped out and took a bayonet to this guy and he went down and things went bad. And so we were - we proceeded to fight and things were going on, and I saw this guy coming at me and I had a jack handle that was ground down to a point, and it had lead on one end and so you could use it, and I saw this guy coming at me with a cowboy belt and I thought, "you're stupid man!" But later I saw that cowboy belt in the evidence counter and it had two straight razors that had been put in with rivets and riveted across the belt so as he was swinging that thing had two straight razors on it, and so he was not real stupid, I guess, except the fact that I ducked and hit him with the jack handle. But it was bad; things were deteriorating. So we proceeded to fight our way out of that. Arrested, assault with deadly weapons, on police officers, and we were all in jail. I don't know how I got off there other than to say I remember them looking like grasshoppers, they just kept coming, and we kept beating them down, and they kept coming. We finally fell back into back-to-back and just hit everything that moved. Tragically it was a few police too, so that didn't make things good. And I can appreciate to a small degree how Gideon felt; it's not real comfortable being out numbered. In that particular fight - that's why it came to my mind, because it was even in the police report - they had said - they talked about the people that we had hurt - but how many of those there were, but the fact that there were thousands of them and there were six of us. Over a thousand, I say thousands, not plural, but about 1000 of these guys, man. They had a lot of friends, or they just really didn't like us. I can't figure out what that was but it's a scary thing. And they just keep coming. And I can remember that, just thinking, "Dear Lord, when are they going to stop coming?"

And here's Gideon, and they're like grasshoppers, like sand by the sea the Scripture says in verse 12. "And when Gideon was come, behold there was a man that told a dream unto his fellow..." And they sneak up and all these guys, this whole big army and they sneak up there, and they hear these two guys talking, and this one guy says, "I had a dream, he said, you won't believe it. I dreamed a dream and a cake of barley bread came tumbling down a hill into the host of Midian, into our army, and rolled into the tent and destroyed it. Knocked it down, over turned it, and just flattened it out, a little barley loaf. Now you've got to remember, barley was the food of the poor, the insignificant. Barley is what they were stealing from them. You remember when I said that Gideon was threshing at the floor and he was trying to hide some out? It was very insignificant, it was an indication really of poverty and weakness, but he said this one little old wheat barley loaf came rolling down and wiped out the tent of Midian. And the guy interprets the dream and said this is nothing else save the sword of Gideon. And Gideon is going, "whoa Jack, we're bad man, look, God's fighting for us." And this is part of what's taking place. "And it was so [verse 15] when Gideon heard the telling of the dream and the interpretation thereof, that he worshipped and returned into the host of Israel and said [God's for us man, we're taking them out.]" And then he divided them into the different camps and they surrounded them, you remember, with the pitchers and the light, and all the different things, and when God gave them the command they broke the pitchers and the lights began to shine forth and the people thought they were surrounded and then began to blow trumpets. And they cried, "the sword of the Lord, and of Gideon [verse 20 tells us and confusion came into the camp and every man set his sword against his fellow]." They started killing each other. And you'll find that's God's method because the world talks about being your friend and your buddy but they'll kill you in the time of battle. Thank God for 300 that will die with you and for you. Where are you tonight as you prepare yourself to go into the battle, into the fray? Into a world that's saying, "come and be a part of us man, we'll incorporate you, we'll love you, we'll take care of you." Make sure that your friends are proven, that they're trusting in the same God that you are; for how can two walk together except they be agreed? Don't be overly zealous to strike covenant, but be followers of those who through faith and patience are inheriting the promises.

Father, we thank You for the Word of God tonight, and we just ask that as we're being confronted on every side by the wisdom of the world, the way that men do things; it looks good man, people are prospering, they're driving big cars, living in houses, and they're saying, "we've done it this way." They're losing 800 pounds on some new fad diet, "just come and follow us. You can eat anything you want, you don't have to exercise, take the magic pill and everything falls out in the bathtub and you're out of there, man." It doesn't require character, and diligence. They're selling happy pills, man, and God's calling us into another arena, the straight and the narrow, the highway of holiness. There is no lion there.

Let's stand before the Lord tonight. We'll take just a moment as Gary plays for us. Do you have the armor on tonight? Are you serious about your role? Have you taken the devil lightly? You say, "Oh no man, I realize Satan's a powerful being." Do you act like it? How many things have you taken into your own hands then? That's his realm. You are only as aware of Satan's power and wiles as you are dependent upon God. As long as you think you can do it - "I've just got to suck it up, I've just got to try harder, I've just got..." I've got to realize there is no victory in this flesh, I can't do it, I've got to have God living in me and through me, and doing it by His strength and for His glory. It's not about me; it's about Jesus. Make it real Father, we ask, make it real to us. In Jesus' name. Let's sing this together and just thank Him tonight, as we get ready to go our way, for His lordship in our lives. Lord, help us to come and rely only on Your presence. Yes Lord, help us to walk in that which is pleasing to You, lives that are totally dependent, Lord. Not leaning to our own understanding but in all of our ways acknowledging our God and You will direct our path. For that we say, "Thank You, Father." In Jesus' name. Amen, amen. Before you go turn to somebody next to you and say, "Put the armor on." Go in peace, God's love go with you.

Back to Top | Audio   |   Purchase Audio   |   Bible Teachings   |   Print