Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Sharpen Your Sword Pt.4

We've been talking about the spiritual warfare in this age, the day we're in. Somebody had asked me if I'd seen on the news what was going on in the Middle East. I hadn't; I don't watch the news. There's nothing worth watching. I've got all the information I need: Jesus is coming back soon (amen?). "Even so, come [quickly], Lord Jesus" (Revelation 22:20). Everything that's happening is just preparation for the coming of the Lord, and we're excited about that. I heard from some of the guys last night: there's a little shaking up in the Middle East. I always love hearing about that: the working of [the spirit of] antichrist, and the signs showing us that it's sooner than we first believed, praise God. When we begin to see the signs, that blossoming of the fig tree, the generation that sees the sign will not pass away (Luke 21:29-32), and we are the people who have seen it, and we are a people living in expectation of the coming of the Lord. One thing we do know, as the Scripture said: "Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold" (Matthew 24:12). So, what are we doing to prepare our hearts for this hour? Iniquity is abounding and, as we've shared so many times, if Satan is going to increase in his power-and the Scriptures say, if the days were not shortened, even the very elect would not stand (Matthew 24:20-22)-if iniquity is going to abound, then you can't stay where you are and be successful. You are going to have to get stronger; the enemy is getting stronger. We are going to have to step it up, to make sure we are adorning ourselves with the full armor of God, prepared to resist the devil; then, the Scripture says, he will what? Has he been fleeing in your life? Have you caused him to flee, or are you fleeing (James 4:7)? Has he got you beat down, or are you beating the principalities and powers of darkness?

So, we've been taking a few sessions to talk about that: making sure our weapons are sure, and (we saw as we started the study) our weapons aren't carnal; they are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds (2 Corinthians 10:4). I shared that we need to examine our hearts, because I'm convinced that, as a fellowship (some of us, as individuals, are doing great, and you know if that's you, so I'm talking to the other people) but, as a fellowship, I believe many of us, in recent months and even over years, have been deceived by the wiles of the devil, and many of us have begun to trust in carnal weapons and don't even know it; that's how the enemy works, that subtlety of the evil one. Some of us have trusted in the strength of unity we have-there is strength here in our unity; do you realize that? The Scripture speaks towards that: One puts a thousand to flight; two put [ten thousand to flight] (Deuteronomy 32:30). It's not just talking about multiplication, it's talking about singleness of purpose, the multiplication of purpose and unity; and we are very strong in our unity here, and in our community. We've taken years to build that (it's a biblical principle), and we need that, but we can't trust in that alone: it's faith that holds it together (amen?); it's preferring one another; it's being able to allow our gifts to be used as He has placed us in the body, and [we are] not to have personal ambition and these things that are destructive to true spiritual harmony and unity. Let's not trust in the machinery of what the Spirit has built: having begun in the spirit we will not be made perfect in the natural or in the flesh (Galatians 3:3).

So, as God has been working in our lives, we have to step back and ask ourselves: Are we somehow seduced by our prosperity, the ease we have as a people? How quickly we transition in this society today! Does anybody remember something called 9/11? We've almost forgotten, as a nation, haven't we? Do you know, in the body of Christ, we face 9/11 disasters-catastrophes-on a daily basis? Lives are being destroyed; households are being broken up; the enemy, the deceiver, the father of lies, has come into our midst and deceived some of our young people, and has worked havoc in our midst. What are we doing to protect ourselves, and to make sure our weapons are sure: mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds? How long has it been since your last major trial; have you already forgotten? For some of you, it's been only weeks since you've come back from Africa, and made certain resolves and [because of the] things you saw your life was changed forever for three weeks! "I'll never be the same!" Three weeks have passed-and you're the same. You have a memory, but has your life been affected? What are you doing differently? What had you learned over there to enable you to walk by faith and not by sight? That's what we have to do; we just have to be truthful with ourselves, look inside, and ask, "Who are we, really? What are we?"

Do you remember how we started this study? We looked at Ephesians concerning the armor of God, and the Scriptures said, "Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, [and to] put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to [withstand, set out against,] the wiles of the devil" (Ephesians 6:10-11). We talked about the church in Ephesus, and we went to the book of Revelation, you remember. Some of you were on vacation [during these] three weeks, so we have to repeat a little. This is the only time of the year when we have big chunks of people gone. So, for those of you who missed it, let me quickly bring you up to date. We started off in Ephesians, then went to the book of Revelation, in Chapter 2, where Jesus speaks of the Ephesian church and said, "The thing I want to say about you Ephesians is this: you are people who are zealous of sound doctrine and the truth, and "thou hast tried those who say they are apostles, and are not," and your work and your faith and your diligence is outstanding." They were people who were laboring in the Lord, and were genuinely the by-product of faith. He said, "You have love for the Word of God and sound doctrine. "Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee"-your work is great, your doctrine's great, you attend church faithfully, you tithe, you witness, you love your wives, you love your children, there's community in your midst, but-"because thou hast left [say it] thy first love." You've become distracted from the eternal into the temporal." See, losing your first love is just transferring from the eternal kingdom into the temporal kingdom; it doesn't have to do with immorality, it doesn't even have to do with false doctrine, it has to do with relationship-the anticipation. You remember: we talked about that. When you love somebody, you can't stand to be out of their presence. When they are away, you are thinking about them, you're talking about them, you're anticipating their appearance: you can't wait to hear what they were doing during the moments they were out of your presence. When you love somebody, you never tire of their presence. I spend every day-almost every hour-with my wife. Some of you say, "Dear God! That would drive me crazy!" Not if you love her. "Well, I love my husband (my wife), I just don't like him." If some of you spent all day with your husbands and wives, you'd be surprised: you might not kill each other; you might fall back in love. When you love somebody, you can spend every moment of every day with them, and you never tire; it's always exciting; it's a team; two are better than one (amen?). I've been blessed to be able to do that, and I know that, in many of your vocations, you're not able to. Yet, some of you are: in your small businesses you have family [involved in the] different things going on. What a privilege to be able to work together with your wife or with your husband, with your family members, to be able to work and experience the love of God. As great as that is in the natural, that's what the spiritual is supposed to be. Does anybody in the natural distract you from the love of Jesus? Does anybody in the natural fill a void or fulfill your life to where you don't need Jesus in that part of your life? "Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love" (Revelation 2:4). Have you been content, now; are you content with relationships? Are you content with your wife, and your children, and your friends, whom Jesus gave you, so now you don't need Him?

So, this is what it's all about. When we talk about spiritual weaponry, this is the first thing Jesus refers to; He says, "Look, if you're going to be strong in the Lord, if you're going to wield these weapons properly, and your weapons be spiritual and not carnal, you've got to fall back in love with me." Then we went over and we talked about the fact that you can have all the doctrine and the name and you remember we talked about David and how he said, "Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts" (1 Samuel 17:45), amen? And that kid and his little rock rocked Goliath's world! How confident are you in that name which we name in prayer? Do you believe that, when you pray in the name of Jesus, what you said is going to come to pass, praise God (John 16:23)? Heaven and earth will pass away, His Word, and that name, and faith in that name, will never pass away (Mark 13:31)! Is it that same anticipation, that same excitement, that relationship you once had, or has it waned a little bit?

That's why we are taking time for this study; we're going back and examining our hearts. Many of us think, "I'm doing well, praise God; I'm pretty confident in this weaponry." Then we read Revelation 2, and had to come to a stark realization. As we pointed out a couple of sessions back, many of you were with us on that trip when we walked the streets of Ephesus, where the doctrinally strongest church of the first century existed: the doctrinally strongest church. Read the letter to the Ephesians. Only Ephesians and Romans carry the depth of doctrine we're talking about here: the profound revelation of who Jesus is, of who the church is. [That] church stood victorious in the midst of the religion: "Great is Diana of the Ephesians!" (Acts 19:34). [Ephesus was] the great cultural center: the library of Ephesus was second only to Alexandria's. But it's not there anymore. We walked the streets, and you know what we found? We found the library of Ephesus, and we found the coliseum of Ephesus, and we found the brothel of Ephesus, but we didn't find the church; [there is] almost no indication that a church was ever there. "I have somewhat against you Ephesians: your doctrine is great, your works are great; fall back in love with Me," Jesus said. So, here we are being called to return to that intimacy. When I talk about falling back in love with Him, I'm talking about loving Him as He loved Father. He said, "My meat is to do the will of Him who sent Me; that's where my gratification is; that's where I get my strength; that's where I get all of my joy and peace, my satisfaction" (John 4:34). Are you satisfied, are you content in life, do you have the joy of the Lord the Scriptures [describe], which is our strength? The first love is seen in this: "If you love Me you will [say it] keep My commandments" (John 14:21). So, we look and we say, "Okay, the commandments of God," and we see them being fulfilled as we're loving our wives and training our children up and preferring one another in the community; and those are all signs that we know the love of Jesus, and that it is manifesting here in our midst. I think we are doing really well in that area; we can always improve, but I think, as a fellowship, we're doing really well. Where we're missing it (I believe), as a fellowship, is in that withstanding-setting out against, that zeal for the name of Jesus-the holiness of God, that ability to stand up in the midst of a generation that propagates, at all cost, tolerance, that wants nothing to do with anybody who is going to speak contrary to normative behavior, socially normative, social political correctness. So here we are, a people who stand up and say, "Hey, not everybody who names the name of Jesus is a Christian;" people aren't going to be happy with that. You're going to have to fortify yourself, and be ready to stand in this last day, because you're the one who's going to be hated. He said, "They are going to hate you for My name's sake. They hated Me: they're going to hate you" (Mark 13:13, John 15:18-20).

As we get ready to go out into the highways and the byways in evangelism, we've talked about believing God now to reach souls, and pray, "Father, whom are You going to lead me to? I'm believing You for at least one life to be transformed, to be plucked as a brand from the fire." Is that zeal still burning in your heart? That's something we put before us as a fellowship, each one. Is every day an excitement for you-an anticipation? "Today's the day! I'm going to reach them today. Who is that person? Father, order my steps." That's the first love; that's the excitement about seeing the name of Jesus exalted, and realizing that that's what He died for. We're thankful for our eternal life; we're thankful for our sonship; but He didn't die to just let us have friends and be at peace here. "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel (Mark 16:15); make disciples, baptizing them in My name (Matthew 28:19-20). But understand this: you're going to be hated by everybody out there. They're not going to hear you, because they didn't hear Me" (Matthew 10:4, 22). Are you going to boast in that, delight in that, as we talked about the other day while we were looking at the five words that revealed the faith of Moses? We did that study on those five words, that ability to delight in the reproof and hatred of the world, the stigma of who we are as sons of light in the midst of a generation that prefers darkness because their deeds are evil. We boast in it. I don't mean we're to be arrogant, but we're proud of it (Matthew 5:11-12).

It's interesting, as you go around: how many of you have ever looked at people who have an external expression of this-and there's nothing wrong with that, unless you're trusting in it. But, have you ever, whether it's the Mennonites or some of the Pentecostal Holiness organizations: the Mennonites have the little French fry baskets they put on [their heads], and many of them dress very conservatively; many of the Pentecostals, of course, dress that way. Do you ever look at them and say, "Oh, man, I feel sorry for them." How many of you have look at people like some of the old Holiness Pentecostals or Mennonites, and feel sorry for them; you almost have a tendency to be embarrassed for them? "Because, I mean, everybody else is walking around fashionably; looking sharp. They've got on all of the latest duds, and look at that frumpy, dowdy... That's almost embarrassing, because they are calling themselves Christians." Hear what I'm saying: I'm not saying we need to dress that way, and I'm not saying that makes them more spiritual than we. What I'm saying is: The people who are doing that as unto the Lord are boasting in it: they are not embarrassed; they are proud! I don't mean pride in a way that's derogatory or sinful; they realize that there's a cost, there's a separation, "There's a distinction between who I am and who you folks are." If you're not going to dress that way to make a distinction, what are you doing to make it? Does everybody know that you are not one of them, that you are different? You see, loving Him, taking up those weapons, speaking in the name of Jesus, is what sets all of those parameters: being able to boast in that name and delight in the things God's doing in our midst. Our weapons are not carnal; we speak spiritual truths; people look at us like [they are thinking], "What planet are you from?" Heaven (amen?); we're the aliens. We're citizens of a different planet. Oh, we're going to rule and reign here, but our citizenship is in heaven (John 8:23, Hebrews 11:13).

I get this all the time: I say things, and people look at me like [deer-in-the-headlights look]-especially professed Christians-like [that]. These things are spiritually discerned, the natural mind cannot receive them (amen?). How well do you fit in? "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds" (2 Corinthians 10:4). Like Paul, we are not ashamed of the gospel; we just speak the simplicity of the Word of God, the truth of the lordship of Jesus, the absolutism of this gospel: "You're either for Me or you're against Me, you love Me or you hate Me, it's light or it's darkness" (Luke 11:23, Luke 16:13, 2 Corinthians 6:14). "It can't be that simple!" It is (amen?). That's what God has called us to, as we walk and prepare ourselves. Turn to 1 Timothy 6. As Paul is writing to young Timothy, remember who Timothy was: Timothy was pastor of which church? Does anybody remember? [Timothy was pastor of] the church in Ephesus. Do you see why Timothy was having some problems, and why Paul kept writing to him and trying to encourage him? [There was] prosperity, cultural progressiveness, tolerance. So Paul writes to Timothy, and says, "Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life [Chapter 6, verse 12], whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses." "Fight the good fight of faith." We all know what faith is, and we know where faith comes from: "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God" (Romans 10:17); "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). But more simplistically: Faith is just trust, reliance, and the assurance of Jesus' lordship in our lives. I rest in the fact that I've given my life totally to Him: I have no agenda; I am absolutely amendable to the sovereignty of God; my steps are ordered; I possess nothing. When Paul writes to Timothy-look at the first chapter of this epistle, verse 18: "[I charge you, Timothy.] This charge I commit unto thee..." Remember, we studied and learned a little bit about Timothy, this pastor of the church of Ephesus: there was a natural timidity in the man; Paul, you remember, sent him to Corinth, and the Corinthians beat the tar out of him! They were some ornery folks, in the Corinthian church; they really got Paul worked up on different occasions, and they really tore poor Timothy up. Paul then pulled Timothy out, and sent Titus down there to deal with those guys. That's when Paul wrote the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, in which he said, "You don't want me to have to come down there. You are talking about my charisma, you're talking about my presentation of the gospel, and you're more impressed with Apollos. You are into flash, and I'm not flashy; but you don't want me to have to come down there, because I'm coming in power. I'm going to show you the sword of the Lord if I have to come down there. Now, Timothy you ran off. Titus is there, and you had better do what he's admonishing you to do." Timothy needs some encouragement, so Paul writes to him and says, "Look, Timothy: here's what I'm charging you, here's my instruction to you: ‘[Remember] the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare.' Remember how you began in the spirit; don't go back to trusting in yourself. Yes, there is a natural timidity, but ‘God hath not given us the spirit of fear [he says in this epistle]; but of power, and of love, and of a [disciplined] mind'" (1 Timothy 1:17). Timothy: put on the full armor of God; don't trust in your natural resources; don't believe what Satan is saying about you. These things are ‘mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds!'"

"Timothy! [2 Timothy, Chapter 2 [verse 4]] Understand this principle: ‘No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.'" He is not only admonishing Timothy, but, as a pastor, of course, Timothy has to learn these principles first, and then be able to pass them on to the people. It sounds to me, whether it's the person of Timothy, or the fact that he is the "angel of the church of Ephesus"-the messenger, the pastor, as Jesus refers to it in The Revelation (2:1)-but it's obvious to me that somewhere in this church in Ephesus, he's trying to cause them to be aware of the immediate danger-the warfare they are in, the environment surrounding them, the same environment of Sodom: idleness, ease, prosperity, thinking of themselves more highly than they ought to think. He says, "Don't get entangled with the affairs of this life." Let me say it again: Don't get entangled with the affairs of this life! I'm not just talking about your job; we have a lot of things we do. The word that comes to us here is the word entangled, those little foxes. John said, "All that is in the world [is] the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life" (1 John 2:16). We [must] guard our hearts against them. The thorny ground, in which the seed is being planted (which we have talked about so many times in the parable Jesus told), just begins to choke out the Word. The things that used to be precious, the faith you used to stand on-it's so easy now to go take out a loan, to pull equity out of your homes. Beloved, those of you who are being deceived in these ways, who are taking out equity loans: that's false equity. All these numbers are fake! And some of you, who are trying to sell houses, are finding that out. Look, this is not real; all this prosperity is not real. These things people are trusting in, the methods they are using-now, I am not saying, "Don't borrow." I'm not saying there might not be a time that you would want to use a home equity loan. Don't overreact to what I'm saying. What I'm saying is: Are you standing in faith? You used to pray and believe God for these things, but now you pop pills. You used to say, "My God supplies all my needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19), but now it's Visa and home equity loans. We used to cast out devils, but now we send them to Christian psychologists to try to figure out what it was in their background that caused all these problems. We're dealing with sin; we're dealing with pride; we're dealing with satanic wiles! The point I'm trying to make tonight is: We need to go back and take up the weapons many of us have laid down, and again remember how to pray the prayer of faith, how to walk by faith and not by sight, and how to trust and rest in the presence of God. Christians have it all figured out, and we're seeing everything the way the world sees it. We see how to invest money: we talk about all these portfolios we have, we have the equity in our homes, and all these different things; but, I want to admonish you in something. You remember, when we studied Moses, we saw how he was following Him who was invisible. There's another way to do this: there's a way to do this that nobody around you can see but the man who is walking by faith. They'll look and say, "I don't know; that's scary. I don't know if we can do it that way. I don't know if I can trust, I don't..." Which kingdom are you in? Do we, like Timothy, need to be admonished to stir up this gift, which came to us in prophecy, that we might fight the good warfare, and be able to make our boast in the Lord?

Turn to 2 Kings, and let me show you something, as we begin to wind down for this evening. In 2 Kings, Chapter 6, what are we talking about, folks? Returning to your first love. Who's getting the glory from your success, your prosperity, your gain, your ease, your comfort? Who's getting the glory? Who's the source? Can you stand and say, "It's not going to be said that any man made Abraham rich"? Again: don't misunderstand what I'm saying. That doesn't mean money's going to fall out of heaven; it means we're going to be diligent; we're going to lay our hand to the plow; every place we put our foot, God gives it to us; there's going to be work involved. We are not talking about the spooky, the supernatural, or angels showing up with bags of money for you. At the same time, we're talking about another realm called faith, the eternal, the spiritual, weapons we can wield that don't allow us to faint when everybody around us is panicking; we just rest in God: "I'm not concerned." We talked about it in some of the natural things: do you remember how people got all concerned about anthrax, and then people got concerned about this sniper who was shooting folks, and then people got concerned about the latest-whatever? We've not received the spirit of fear, God's given His angels charge over us; no weapon formed against us can prosper (amen?). Are you at peace? Things are going pretty well right now, but how about knocking a few more buildings down, how about an explosion in the subways of [Washington,] D.C., how about a Taliban invasion of Reston, [VA]? Whom are you trusting? That's all we talk about, yet we think we are [trusting in God]. But when opportunity arises, which kingdom do you operate in most proficiently? Let me show you in this passage, and we're all very familiar with it.

Let's look at verse 12, the reference made to the king [of Syria] concerning "Elisha the Prophet that is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speaketh in thy bedchamber." Supernatural: words of knowledge you hear from God. We are children of light, we know "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he [first] revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets" (Amos 3:7). So we're waiting to hear the still small voice of God; we're resting in that. I want to point one thing out: you remember they are under attack and in imminent danger. Elisha turns to his young associate, in verse 16, and says, "And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them." They that be with us are more than they that be with them. Remember the size of this army, and the magnitude of the opposition. How do you see the trials you are facing today? How do you see the onslaught of the enemy as he is warring against your children, against your life, against our society? "And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray Thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed unto the Lord, and said, Smite this people, I pray Thee, with blindness. And He smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha." What kind of weapons are you using? How proficiently are we walking in the supernatural to speak against sickness and fear, as we go out and stand against principalities and powers?

I've shared with you, over the years, the numerous times our lives have been threatened, and on different occasions standing [by faith]. The other day, I was able to share with somebody a testimony I hadn't shared for years. In fact, I hadn't even thought about it for years: When we were down in Haiti, years ago, and the voodoo witch doctor put a curse on us. He did the whole thing: the voodoo curse, and the doll, and-I made jokes. I never saw the doll, but I made jokes: I can see it, with a little pull over golf shirt and the needles sticking-they believe that stuff, and people die of that: people die of fear. Right now, in Africa, Tony was telling me the other day, it's the same spirit they deal with. In Aggrey's village, a lot of the people are afraid because of the witch doctors there, and they have put curses on a number of people who wanted to involve themselves in our ministry, and they died! So, now what do you do? Does Aggrey just say, "Well, that power isn't real"? Yes, it is: they died. It works; do our weapons work? What we told that young man to do was to stand up in the very midst of that city, just like Elijah did on Mount Carmel, and say, "The God that answereth by fire, let him be God" (2 Kings 18:24) (amen?). "Yes, that's real, but I want to show you something. ‘Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the [Most High God]' (1 Samuel 17:45). How dare you mock the name of Jehovah?" That fellow in Haiti, that witch doctor, by that same spirit, put that curse on me, and told the people I was going to die that next night. Steve Gardner was there, I believe. We were there in Duvalierville, and we went down there. What a crowd we had that night: everybody came out to watch the preacher die! There was only one problem (amen?): God showed up! We stood up, we defied the powers of darkness, and we spoke the name of Jesus. We took authority over principalities and powers; we prayed for the sick, and they were healed: we have the pictures. One of my favorite pictures is of that little deaf boy, born deaf, as his ears were opened and his eyes were aglow, and he was able to hear, and the blind saw, and the lame walked, praise God. The witch doctor got saved, (amen?). That's exciting stuff! It seems to me we need a little more of that. I'm not talking just to you, I'm talking to myself. Now, I know God is sovereign; I know He puts us in these places according to His wisdom and His purposes. The question I'm asking is: Are we ready? These things don't just happen. The seven sons of Sceva: "We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth, [come out, devil]...And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?" (Acts 19:13-15). I wonder if my name is still on the [Devil's] ten most-wanted list. If it's not, I want to get it back on (amen?). I'm not content with man's methods, with our ease of life. We want to know the presence of God and be able to stand against the enemy, see God confirm His Word with signs following in our lives, and see God smite the enemies with blindness.

Are you ready to be used that way for the glory of God; are you praying to be used that way? "Well, I'd rather not stir up the devil. Things are calm; just leave it alone." Set out against (amen?). I think we need to stir up a little trouble, as we begin to pray and believe God to show Himself mighty in our midst. Now, I don't mean in the natural, I'm saying: In the spirit. I'm not talking about going out, verbally sparring with people, and getting into arguments; I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about being ready to stand in the spirit, to be able to pray the prayer of faith, trust God to open our eyes to see who is on our side (praise God), and let that fear diminish, let it pass from you (praise God), and be willing to go, and say, "Here am I, [Lord,] send me."

Father, it's our heart's desire to be used of You in this generation. The majority of us deal with some portion of Timothy's timidity. There are some of us who are pretty high on ourselves, but the majority of us: we know our frame, just as You do, Lord-we're dust. Who am I?

His strength is made perfect in your weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). God doesn't need people who are great in the natural, He needs natural people who can be moved into the supernatural: people just like you and me, just ordinary folks who return to our first love and say, "‘Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required' (Luke 12:48). You've done so much, Lord, how can I not be emptied out for your glory? I'm just an unprofitable servant: nothing I do is of any merit or extraordinary; it's just normal Christianity to offer myself up daily, to embrace this cross, to go forth and do exploits." No boasting: "Wow! Did you see that guy? He laid hands on that man and he was healed; and the lame walked; and the blind saw; and demons were cast out." So what? We're going to make him a superhero? He's just a Christian. "And these signs shall follow them that believe in My name..." (Mark 16:17). He's not "Super-saint;" he's just a Christian. How's it going in your life? We wrestle not against flesh and blood, so our weapons must not be carnal (Ephesians 6:2, 2 Corinthians 10:4).

Help us to fight the good fight of faith; stir up the gift that's in us; we've known it, and it's in us.

Paul didn't say you have to get it. He said, "It's in you; stir it up." You don't have to go get it again; it's in you; stir it up, praise God! And let Him confirm His Word with signs following.

For that we just say: Thank You, Father. Our boast is in You; our delight is in giving as freely as we have received. For that we just say: Thank You, in Jesus' name; amen. Amen.

Before you go, turn to somebody and say, "Our faith is the victory, praise God." Amen. Go in peace; God's love go with you.

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