Glorious Way Church
Glorious Way Church equips believers for the work of the ministry and stands for God’s truth in our culture. We serve as a regional center, where people from all backgrounds find refreshing worship and true communion of the saints.
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Setting The Battle In Array | James Buntrock
This teaching draws from Old Testament imagery to reveal how believers can prepare spiritually for conflict. Just as armies positioned their troops strategically before battle, we must order our lives, align with God’s Word, and take our place in His plan. The message unpacks God’s power (dunamis and kratos), reminding listeners that they are seated with Christ in authority. It’s a call to readiness, discipline, and boldness in the face of spiritual opposition.
down and pick up your Bible and we'll raise it up and, as pastor says, make God glad and the devil mad. You know what you have in your hand right here. It's a, it's a sword, this is your weapon. It's not a long-range weapon, although you can send it. You can send the word and it will always accomplish the thing. We're into it ascent, but the word that describes the weapon that this is is really more like a dagger. It's close combat, hand-to-hand combat, kind of stuff, and what's written in here will cut, it'll divide, it'll separate, it'll pierce, and it's not meant to destroy people, but it brings people to a point of decision. And so, heavenly Father, say this with me. Say, heavenly Father, thank you for your holy written word. I declare that my heart is good ground. I'm ready to hear your word. Holy Spirit, breathe life on this word, cause me to hear everything that I need to hear and nothing that I don't, and I'll become a doer of your word and bear much fruit for your kingdom. In Jesus name, amen, y'all can be seated and be seated Well, I've got a message for you tonight, and the title of tonight's message is Setting the Battle in Array, and really that comes from lots of Old Testament passages where it was described, when you know, for instance, when the Philistines were contending against Israel just before Goliath came out. It describes that. It says that the Philistines arrayed themselves against Israel and one was on one side of a mountain, the other's on the other side of a mountain, and it speaks of a military strategy, an arrangement of your assets and your people. And it's described lots of places in the Old Testament. Whenever there was a conflict, they put the battle in array, they set it in order. It wasn't anything that was defined for them, it was something that they determined was the best strategy, and they put their troops and assets in the proper places. So setting the battle in array is the message for tonight.
Speaker 1:Now, a few weeks ago, I preached a message out of John 3.16. But everybody can quote that one For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes on him should not perish but have everlasting life. And and for the longest time I knew that for God so loved the world that he was obviously talking about people. For God so loved people, and that is true, but that is not the word that he used. Right there, I preached a message called God's orderly arrangement and in John 3, 16. For God so loved the world the Greek word for that. You know. There's no accidents in the words that Jesus chose. There's no accidents in the Hebrew language. There's no coincidence with God. In fact, coincidence doesn't exist in the Hebrew language. There is no concept for that with God. There's no accident here.
Speaker 1:Jesus spoke things deliberately and with words that the culture of the day would understand. And so the word there, for God so loved the cosmos, is the word in the Greek for God so loved the cosmos, and that means His orderly arrangement, that means the entirety of what he arranged and set in order. For God so loved all of that, so much that he gave his only son who shed his blood for us so that we could be brought back into right standing. So in the beginning the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep. It was in a state of chaos, and the answer to that was that the Holy Spirit began to hover over the face of the deep, over the dark waters. He hovered over that and God said let there be light. And he began to set things in order. He spoke things into existence and he set creation in order, creation that had previously fallen into a state of chaos and disorder. That had previously fallen into a state of chaos and disorder. And so when it says, for God, so loved the cosmos his orderly arrangement. That's what he loved, and he gave his son to bring us back into right standing so that we could then become stewards over creation once again. Adam was the steward and he lost his position when he violated God's commandment. He was charged to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it and have dominion over it, and he lost his capability to do that because he fell into sin. And Jesus restored us into that right standing. And so he loved the orderly arrangement so much that he gave his son so that we could then once again stand in that position of authority within creation and keep it and maintain it and possess it and cause it to be in submission to his words when we speak his words. And so that's the purpose there.
Speaker 1:Now we know from when we talked about this that there's a law of entropy that states that a system, any system, when left alone, will automatically go from a state or condition of order into disorder or chaos. That is the natural law to go from order into chaos, and so it doesn't even really require somebody maliciously trying to sabotage the system. It's just the natural order that if you leave it alone and neglect it, it's going to fall apart and fall into chaos and disorder. That's true with your automobile If you don't take care of it, if you don't even use it. Now, use will cause it to wear out. But also, letting it sit in your driveway and never starting it will cause great harm and it'll go into decay in your driveway. And never starting it will cause great harm and it'll go into decay. And so things fall apart when they're neglected. They also fall apart when things are attacked, and so there's the malicious side and then there's the neglect side, and so that kind of sets us up a little bit with that understanding.
Speaker 1:We'll speak on some new things tonight. In Romans 5.17, and this is in the Amplified, I'll read this in the Amplified Romans 5.17, for if, because of one man's trespass or lapse or offense, death reigned through that one, so that's speaking of Adam. How much it says. Much more, surely, will those who receive God's overflowing grace and unmerited favor and the free gift of righteousness, putting them into right, standing with himself. That's talking about us now. He brought us into right standing with himself, reign as kings in this life through one man, jesus Christ, the Messiah, the anointed one. And so we reign as kings in this life through Christ, because we have been brought into right standing with him, and it was a free gift, unmerited favor, and that's our position right now. That's where he's established us, and so we are charged to reign as kings in this life, and so we are charged to reign as kings in this life.
Speaker 1:Now, entropy goes from order to disorder. That happens from neglect, whether you intended to or not, it just is, it just does. But in addition to that, there is an enemy who's actively at work to keep us out of position. He's working to keep us out of that position of reigning as kings in this life. And so if we're not in position to reign as kings in this life, this thing will continue to go downhill on the downhill slide.
Speaker 1:The devil, our enemy. You know, some of these attacks are full frontal attacks. If he can, he'd love to kill you, every one of us. He wants to kill us. You know, charlie Kirk was killed because not because they're talking about it as if it's a political assassination. But he was speaking Jesus. He was killed for his faith. The words that he spoke were words of salvation and the devil hated him so much he was martyred for that, for that purpose and so the same purpose that he was killed, for the same reason that killed him. They want to kill us just as bad. The devil wants to kill us just as bad.
Speaker 1:If he can't kill you, he will work to marginalize you, to render you to no effect. Can't kill you. He will work to marginalize you, to render you to no effect. He'll work to sideline you and do whatever he can to get you out of position and make you just ineffective. If you're ineffective, then he doesn't have anything to worry about. In fact, he won't be busy attacking you.
Speaker 1:If you're just bumbling and fumbling along the sidelines, doing nothing for the kingdom of God, you'll just fall into the natural laws of things. You'll just fall into the natural laws of things. Your life will fall into the natural laws of order, to chaos, the entropy. Your life will slowly degrade until you're gone, and that's the natural order. But the devil doesn't have to be busy attacking you, attacking you, attacking you if you're sidelined and not effective anymore.
Speaker 1:So how many want to become effective? Now that I've made that pep talk, you want to become effective to God so that the devil can continuously attack you. You want to wear a giant target. It just comes with the territory. Jesus warned us about this. You will be hated for my namesake. People will hate you. They will want to kill you. That's a fact. You, that's a fact. So the devil is really only interested in coming after the threats. So I asked this to a group of people here in the morning before the morning service, some of you who are volunteering.
Speaker 1:When you woke up this morning, how many of you made the devil nervous when you woke up? Was he nervous when you got? When you woke up, when your feet hit the floor, did he get nervous about something? Or was he just like, eh, they're doing, they don't, they're of no effect to me, they don't, they don't get in my way, I'll leave them alone. Ask yourself that every day. When my feet hit the floor, how's the devil feeling? How are you feeling? Are you feeling dangerous? You know pastor tells that story about, uh, uh, the Navy seal in training Chris Kyle. Uh, he was an old guy, he was too old. They were trying to wash him up and wash him out. Nobody thought he could make it through the Navy seal training and, uh, they were putting extra pressure on him, wanting him to, to get out from under the stress of the training and go, ring that bell and tap out and give up. And there he is in the cold surf, the cold water, and they're asking him how are you feeling now? He said I'm feeling dangerous. And so you know, I hope when you wake up, you're feeling dangerous to the devil At any point in time in your life.
Speaker 1:Unfortunately, as a believer, as somebody in the kingdom of God, you are either coming into a battle, you're in the middle of a battle or you're coming out of one. But this is a war. This is a war for good and evil, this is a war for the kingdom of heaven and we're charged to be taking ground continually. Now I know that you can have periods of rest, you can be on the front lines, you can pull back from that, you can have periods of rest and you should. But just as a general picture of this, our life is about this long and the devil's time is very short, and he knows it, and he is very busy doing everything he can to attack the image of God, to attack the creation of God, to attack those who are charged to reign as kings in this life. He's coming after us and he's busy about it and he's very serious and I don't want you to think lightheartedly about it and take these things for granted. Just recognize that we're at war and we're going to be good soldiers through this war.
Speaker 1:Jesus warned his disciples to let not your heart be troubled. There are things that we can let in this life or things that we cannot let. Jesus warned his disciples to let not your heart be troubled. There are things that we can let in this life or things that we can not let. I said it this morning out of Matthew 16, when Jesus asked his disciples who do men say that I am? And they said Elijah or John the Baptist or Jeremiah, one of the prophets. He said but who do you say that I am? And Peter was the only one that got it right. Peter had revelation knowledge in that moment as to who Jesus was, and right after that he said you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And then Jesus said that I'm going to give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven and you're going to be able to allow and disallow things on earth and it's going to have a corresponding effect in the spirit realm. You can allow or disallow and we've been given that authority. So we can let or we can let not, and we have choices every day.
Speaker 1:If we let things happen, if we just live our life in a condition where we're just letting life happen to us, you can be aggressive about it. You can make things happen. You know, you've got entrepreneurs out there. They don't just let life happen to them, they've got the hustle. They're going out there. They're figuring out how am I going to earn a living? How am I going to put food on the table? What am I going to do? And they're looking for opportunities continuously. They're not out there begging and pleading, they're looking for ways to take something of one value and add value to it and make it much more valuable and then marketable and sell that, be it a good or a service. They create value. Entrepreneurs create value with what they have, and so they're not letting things happen, they're making things happen. And so we can let or we can let not.
Speaker 1:If we let things happen, you're going to continually be on defense. You're going to be continually trying to make up. You're going to be losing ground and trying. Your whole goal in life is going to be to try to not lose too much and hope that you either. I said it this morning there's an old Irish toast may you find yourself in heaven 30 minutes before the devil knows you're gone. You know that's somebody who runs from the devil, who's hiding from the devil, who hopes to not be noticed, and so you know that's somebody who's going to spend their time in life trying not to lose too badly. And if that's your goal, well, you know, anybody can aim low and hit the ground, but we've got to set our sights a little higher than that.
Speaker 1:He wants us to go and possess the promises, to possess the promised land. When he described the promised land to the Israelites in the Old Testament, he said that you will inherit this land, but that Hebrew word for inherit is to take possession of, by dispossessing the inhabitants. There's a lot wrapped up in that word inherit in the Old Testament. So they had to literally go into the promised land and not let life happen to them, but be proactive and be taken step after step, city after city, and dispossessing the inhabitants of that land because God had given it to them. It was theirs for the taking. You got Joshua and Caleb that went to spy out the land, along with the other 10 spies. 10 came back with a bad report and said we'd be not able. There are giants in the land, we are grasshoppers in their sight. And ours and Joshua and Caleb were like let us at them. They're bred for us. Let's go right up at once, let's take it. And the 10 spies with the bad report? They didn't get to go in and that generation died out. But Joshua and Caleb did get to go in and take possession and they dispossessed the giants in the land.
Speaker 1:And so there's the difference between offense and defense that we're talking about. We can choose how we fight that fight and it is a fight and it's called a good fight. Paul called it a good fight of faith. So everything we do we've got everything you hear tonight there's a component of faith. We've got to mix faith with what we're hearing tonight. We're talking about setting the battle in array.
Speaker 1:I'll point out in the Old Testament talking about the sons of Issachar and so the different tribes of Israel, the sons of Issachar. They were unique in that they had understandings of the times. They understood what time it was, they understood what season it was, so that Israel knew what to do. If you know what time it is, you know what to do. If it's morning time and you've got to get to work, you know. Okay, the alarm clock went off. I need to put my feet on the floor, make the devil nervous, put on the whole armor of God, clock in for duty and then go report to work. You know, you know what time it is. If you know what season it is, you know what to wear. If it's wintertime, you know what to put on. So we've got to understand the times that we're in. We've got to understand what hour it is in the time clock.
Speaker 1:In God's time clock he said to watch Israel so that you're going to know what's coming next. We've got warnings about the times that we're in. You're going to see the nations that are attacking Israel. You're going to see the troubled times that we're in as a nation. Jesus warned of these troubled times. He said the end is near. When you see these kinds of things, when there's trouble, you're going to know that the end is near. So we know that the end is near, the harvest is ripe and the laborers are few, and the devil's time is short, and so he's ramping up his activities. We've got to be busy ramping up the kingdom business. The time is short.
Speaker 1:I look at this nation, I look at the direction that it was going, and we almost lost a country in the direction that it was going. God gave us mercy, a short window of opportunity to get things right in this country, and if we don't get it right in the time that he allots us to get it right in, we're done. And you know, this generation won't get to enjoy the benefits that we could have if we had been doing our jobs, and I have no doubt that ultimately he will raise up another generation to accomplish his purpose. I'm not even talking about this nation, but we're talking about when is Jesus coming back? He's coming back for a church that's without spot or wrinkle or blemish, a church that's doing its job, a church that's watching for the signs of the time, a church that's ruling and reigning as kings in this life. A church, an ecclesia, a group of decision makers in His kingdom that are making good decisions, that are limiting what happens on earth in one sense and allowing and disallowing in the earthly and spiritual realm, and so we've got to be busy about these things. And so there are strategies that we need to employ in our own lives.
Speaker 1:If we're going to set the bat, if we know we're going to be in a battle, you know that that's coming. We're either in one, we're going coming out of one or going into one, or in the middle of one. If there's a battle in front of us, wouldn't it be smart to think about? You know, okay, I've got something coming up, I've got an enemy out front. He wants to kill us, he wants to sideline, he wants to marginalize, he wants to steal, kill and destroy. He wants to take my family, tear up my marriage and wreck this country. He wants to steal my income and he wants to do all these mean, nasty, terrible and ugly things. If I know that that's coming, doesn't it make good sense that we? Okay, let me gear up for this battle, let me get prepared, let me gather up the tools, let me gather up the people, let me start positioning my assets in the right places so that, when positioning my assets in the right places, so that, when he approaches, we can come after him and we can take back even what he's stolen from us already. We can go from a defensive position into an offensive position. So let's talk about some of these things tonight.
Speaker 1:In Ephesians, chapter 1, verse 17, and this is the. You know the fame. If you're part of this church, if you attend on any regular frequency, you're going to hear this repeated very often. So Ephesians 1, 17, we're going to read through the end of Ephesians and we're going to make our way into a couple of places in chapter 2. So, ephesians 1, 17, actually 16, do not cease. This is Paul writing here. He says I do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers. That the God of our Lord, jesus Christ and the Father of glory may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of him. We need the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge that your eyes, being the eyes of your understanding, become enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of the inheritance in the saints and what is the exceeding greatness of His power.
Speaker 1:His dunamis Pastor talked about the dunamis power towards us. What is the exceeding greatness of His dunamis towards us who believe according to the working of his mighty power. So let me read that phrase again in verse 19,. And what is the exceeding greatness of his dunamis? So remember what dunamis was from this morning. That was how the Greeks described the power of a tornado, of a hurricane, of the earthquake, the ability of the condition where the earth shakes so much that buildings come crashing down, mountains start falling apart, the earth opens up and swallows whatever was there. It's that kind of power, so that we can know what is the exceeding greatness of his dunamis towards us who believe according to the working of his mighty power.
Speaker 1:A different kind of power. This is dominion kratos, according to the working of his mighty dominion, which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand in heavenly places. Far above all principality and power, above all, exousia is what that power is there so far above all principality and authority and might and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age but that which is to come. And then he put all things under his feet and gave him Jesus to be head over all things, the ecclesia. Remember what that is, over his body of decision makers, his people who are down here operating under his authority. He gave him to be head over his church, that's us, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all Now chapter 2,. And you he made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sin, in which you once walked. According to the course of this world We'll visit that again in a little bit According to the principality of the air and the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also, we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as others. Verse 4,. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love, which he loved us even while we were dead in trespasses, he made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved, and he raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace, his kindness towards us in Christ Jesus, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. There is so much good stuff right in the middle of all those verses. I want to talk first of all about moving from defense to offense, and you don't have to turn there, you can just mark it down.
Speaker 1:In 1 Samuel, chapter 30, is the account of David, where the Amalekites attacked Ziklag and they burned it with fire. And so David and his mighty men were somewhere else. The women and children were at Ziklag and all their spoils, all their riches, all their stuff, all their houses, and the Amalekites snuck in and burned the city and took the women and children and took all their stuff. And so when David and his men came back, they see their city burning. The women are gone, their kids are gone, their stuff is gone. And it says the men wept. His mighty men wept until they had no more power to weep and David was distressed.
Speaker 1:It says, and it said that the men spoke of stoning David, he was at his wits end, at his lowest point, right there. He was on the defense and he wasn't even defending very good because he just about lost everything, and he was about to lose his own life, because his own men were about ready to stone him. And what was the answer? Right there, it says David encouraged himself in the Lord. If you're on the defense, if you're up against the ropes, if you've lost ground, if you've lost things in your life, what do you do? You're on defense. You encourage yourself in the Lord.
Speaker 1:David had to start there because he wasn't going to gain any ground if he was still having a pity party, if he was still weeping and sad and giving up. Don't give up. In that moment you can encourage yourself in the Lord. Jesus said let not your heart be troubled, but if it is, stop it anyway. If your heart gets troubled, stop it. Encourage yourself in the Lord. Find scriptures that build you up. If you can't, if you don't have the strength to do that, have a good friend, someone who can encourage you in the Lord. Until you can encourage yourself in the Lord, it's good to have good friends around you. That's the horizontal ministry where every joint supplies Only be strong and very courageous, it said. Jesus said be of good cheer talking about the trouble. Be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. In other words, the connotation is I have overcome the world, I've already deprived it of its ability to harm you and I've positioned you to be able to maintain that position. And if you lose that position and you're in Christ and you have what he has, then you can also overcome. If he overcame, then you can also overcome. That's the connotation right there, amen. And so encourage yourself in's the connotation right there, and so encourage yourself in the Lord. It starts there.
Speaker 1:The next step David went through, so he's on defense here. The next step he went through was he had to find out God's perspective on the matter, and David had this question for God. He said shall I pursue them Now? We just read in Ephesians that he would give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation, knowledge in the knowledge of him, that the eyes of our understanding would be enlightened so that we may know. So that's the Ephesians prayer. We ought to be able to know.
Speaker 1:You have the right to know things that the Holy Spirit knows. Why? Because he takes to the Father and he shows it to us, and he shows our spirit. Our spirit gets to know things before our brain gets to know things, and so we're not talking about your brain trying to understand things. Your brain can have head knowledge about stuff, but then there's a knowing on the inside that you may not have enough information around you to make a good decision and still you have the capability to make the best decision because the Holy Spirit has communicated with your spirit. On the inside, you have an inward witness. I don't have enough information to know what I should need to do, but I know what step I've got to take because I know, because he's given you insight, that the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know.
Speaker 1:So David says shall I pursue them Now? In the Old Testament days he didn't have the Holy Spirit dwelling on the inside of him. He had the anointing upon. The Holy Spirit rested upon the priest, the prophet and the king. So David had a right to know, he had a right to inquire of God and to get an answer back. And so he inquired shall I pursue? The answer came back pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and, without fail, recover. All That'll encourage you when God says yeah, you go after him. And not only will you go after him, you're going to run him down and you're going to get back everything that was taken from you. So you just went from defense to recovering lost ground, and so that's an offensive maneuver. That's an offensive position. Encourage yourself in the Lord, find God's perspective and shift from defense to offense.
Speaker 1:The next point on my list here is we have to get out of our natural position and into our spiritual position. We are people. This is flesh. That's not how we walk in this life, not according to the flesh. We have flesh. Our flesh is going to whine and scream and kick and wail and fight us every step of the way. The flesh does not like to do things. Your brain is the decision maker there and your spirit is the one with the secret knowledge, the insight that comes from the Holy Spirit, and so your spirit and your flesh can be at war. And what you know in your brain, what you pick up, what you know, what you inculcate, what you put in, what you ingest. By coming to church, by studying to show yourself approved unto God, by reading his word, by having a prayer life, you get to know some things. And so we don't approach these battles from a natural position.
Speaker 1:It says that you once walked according to the course of this world in Ephesians, you once walked according to the course of this world. What was the course of this world? It is a natural tendency to go from order into disorder. Your life started out orderly. You had a great plan, things were going great and you weren't really having a prayer life, you weren't reading your Bible, you weren't coming to church, you weren't employing these things in your life and you just thought you could do it all by yourself. And your life ended up going from order to disorder and you're in a mess. And you're wondering why? Because you walked according to the course of this world. What's the answer? Stop it. Find out what this Bible says about your condition and about your position and start doing that instead, and you will go from disorder into order. You'll bring order back into your life, you'll let the Holy Spirit hover over the trouble in your life and things will begin to get in order. So simply neglecting leads to deterioration and wasting away. That's the course of this world.
Speaker 1:The natural position. We don't fight these battles from the natural position. We don't fight these battles from the natural position. It says that we've been raised up together with him and seated in heavenly places far above the natural position. If we take our seat of authority and we operate from that higher position, knowing that I am seated together with Christ in heavenly places and all things are under his feet and his feet are in the body and I'm part of that body. So all these troublesome things are under my feet. Start putting your feet down, starting standing on those things. Start putting pressure on the devil. Start speaking the word in those situation, um applying the word in your life.
Speaker 1:Um when, when Jesus said those things to Peter and he recognized that Jesus, you are the Christ, the son of the living God, that was supernatural. He did not have the natural knowledge of that. Jesus pointed that out to him. Flesh and blood did not reveal that to you. That was not a natural understanding. But my father, who is in heaven, revealed that to you. That was revelation, knowledge that was given to Peter. He had a realm change. Suddenly he recognized something spiritual and supernatural where he was very much in the flesh a lot of the time. So that's good news. If you're in the flesh a lot of the time, there's hope.
Speaker 1:If Peter can do it, you can too. We can all do this when you get out of the natural and start operating in the spiritual position. All of heaven's assets are at your disposal. You can begin to set your battle in a ray. You can begin positioning your assets where they're going to come against the enemy, where you're going to have the high ground, where you're not letting the enemy do something to you. You're like I see you, I know you're coming and I'm calling heaven's assets and I'm going to put some over here. And I'm going to put some over here and I've got a line set up in the middle, right here, and I've got air cover over the top and you're fixing to be toast devil and you've positioned yourself. You've set things in array that make the most spiritual sense. So I'll give you an example.
Speaker 1:We've got a friend, senator Heather Cloud, in Louisiana. She was the one that took us up when we offered to help them host church services in their state capitol during legislative sessions. I met with her, I drove five hours from here to there, met with her and her husband and her legislative aide at lunch for about an hour and a half, and then I turned around and drove five hours back home Five hours for lunch, one hour and a half there, five hours back. That was my day and I sat down with her and I made the pitch about this project and she just described a scenario. She said you know, when I come into our capital it is so dark and so heavy and I walk in that space and I feel the oppression. She just kind of had tears welling up in her eyes and she said I don't know if I can do this again. She said I'm a mom. I saw a problem locally and I ran for position there and I won and people pushed me into this role, to run for Senate, and I did, and now I'm serving in the Senate in the state of Louisiana and I don't know if I can do this again. It is such a dark place. She almost didn't take us up on our project. She almost missed it. Take us up on our project. She almost missed it. Thankfully she didn't and it's turned things around there.
Speaker 1:But she described another scene. She said you know, I was in a committee where she was presenting a piece of legislation. So it goes in front of a committee before it ends up going through the rest of the legislative process and gets voted on by the Senate and then the House. So it was in an early stage, in front of the committee. She said look, I'm a smart lady, I know my stuff, I'm studied up on this.
Speaker 1:I was prepared, I had all my notes in front of me and I got up to speak and there was so much demonic oppression in the room and she was specifically talking about the LGBT jihadists in the room she said it was just demonic. And I got up to speak and I couldn't talk, I couldn't have a clear thought, nothing was coming into my mind. She said I had this headache and it was just like there was a clamp, something pressured on all the way around my head and I couldn't do it and I had to go sit down and delay what I was about to do. And so the best thing that she knew to do was she called a friend and she asked her friend to come in the room and pray. So one friend she called an asset, one of heaven's assets, to come in that room and position themselves in the corner unnoticed by the devil, and her friend just sat there in the corner and just sat there and began to rebuke the devil and take authority. That friend sat in a spiritual position in high places, far above the principalities and powers and dominions and wickedness. They were positioned well above that. So this was air support above the problem.
Speaker 1:She called in heaven's assets, air support to fly over that room and after about 30 minutes of spiritual warfare by one of heaven's assets in that room, the oppression broke. The demons began to turn and run. They were under fire. There was heaven raining down I would say there's hell raining down on them, but there was heaven raining down on them and she said, suddenly the headache was gone and she got back up and she positioned herself at the podium and she had her notes in front of her and she presented that legislation and she did it with all authority and power and made it right through that committee and sailed on to the next position.
Speaker 1:She was trying to fight a spiritual war with her physical body and she was doomed to fail and it wasn't until she recognized this is spiritual warfare and maybe I'm a little bit ill-equipped, but I've got a friend, let me call in some heaven's assets. You see how this is working. She started to. She didn't know, but she started to put the battle in array how it should be. She set things in order and as soon as she did she had results. As soon as she employed that she had results.
Speaker 1:And so in Ephesians 6, 12, it says for we are not wrestling with flesh and blood, and in the Amplified it says contending only with physical opponents. There are physical opponents in this world and just about every battle that we fight in this world has a person associated with it. Now we're not out here to kill people unless it's necessary, when it's necessary, it's necessary. But we're not fighting against the person, but there are people in this world who are influenced and being used demonically against us and against heaven and against the kingdom of God. And when those people get in the way, they got to get right or get left, and the answer to that is God's word in every case. And so we've got to find God's perspective in those battles.
Speaker 1:When we're encountering people, you got to find God's perspective when they're coming against you. What is God's perspective on that issue? You find where it's written about that thing, where it's written about you, where it's written about that issue, where that thing it's got a name, and I guarantee you if it was happening today it's already happened back then. We're not experiencing anything new. There is nothing new under the sun. It is the same devil, the same demonic powers, the same thing over and over and over through humanity. There is nothing new. And the answer to all those troubles is the Word of God.
Speaker 1:And so I look at what Charlie Kirk did. He would go into enemy territory and he would set up and say prove me wrong. And you've got a crowd of students out there. Some are there, they got their bags of popcorn, they're there for the spectacle of the event. And then you've got the ones who are demonically influenced, being used as pawns of the devil. They're tormented in their own right and they're there to attack Charlie Kirk. And they would get up there in their microphone. Notice, charlie wasn't afraid, he was never intimidated by the devil, and so he invited them to say their piece, invited them. What do you think about this? What's your position on that? I'm going to make a statement and then I want you to respond to it. And they did.
Speaker 1:And so it wasn't an argument with the person. He would answer the person Really. He would answer the demonic power with the Word of God. He was most powerful, most accomplished, most effective when he spoke the Word of God and when he gave an answer. He became more and more skilled at that as he moved on from his early times when he started out he was kind of rough around some different issues and he got better and better and he honed. And you know, iron sharpens iron. He found people who could sharpen him. He found godly people in his life that would sharpen him. So you look towards the latter and he was really all about the kingdom of God and the salvation of our Lord and Savior, jesus Christ. He was unashamed of these things and so he would answer.
Speaker 1:So if you argue with a fool, you start to look like a fool to everyone else around you. You know, when you start having to argue what a woman is and isn't, you start looking kind of dumb. So we don't argue with them, it's not an argument, but you answer that and you answer with God's word. That's what Jesus did. He would answer things along the way and when he answered, you know the person then had an opportunity to choose, to recognize that there's truth in what was just said and maybe I need to reevaluate my line of thinking and consider what I've just said that I might be wrong. So they were brought to a place of decision. That is what believers are charged to do. We are charged to go into that world and bring people to a point of decision, to bring people to the valley of decision. And so that's what Charlie did.
Speaker 1:The benefit to all of the audience was that they got to see what a real fool looked like, how stupid the demonic argument really is and how powerful the Word of God is when it's spoken. And the harvest happened with all of the people who heard it. They recognized the fool. Happened with all of the people who heard it. They recognized the fool, they recognized the wisdom of heaven and they got to make a good decision in their life. And so there's abundant harvest because of that.
Speaker 1:And so we find out what God's perspective is on any of these things and we answer it. If you're going to put your battle in array and set things in order, find out God's perspective on these things, speak the Word only. Do not fear. Speak the Word only. Jesus said when you do that, you're going to begin to reign as kings. When you speak His Word, things start to move, things start to happen. Creation recognizes the voice of its creator, recognizes the words of its creator. Now, I didn't create the world, but the creator's on the inside of me, and when I speak his words, it's as if he spoke it and creation begins to respond to it. So you begin to reign as kings in this life and to operate with our delegated authority. That he said go into all the world, go into all these places, and then we've got the Holy Spirit, the dunamis power, on the inside of us that will back us up if you'll just be not afraid and not let this stuff happen. Now we can start taking back ground that's been lost. We can start possessing by dispossession, going in these places and getting it back.
Speaker 1:And so you've got to get determined. I want you to think about your own life right now and think about are you on defense in any area of your life? Has the devil stolen from you? Has the devil talked you into you know the devil doesn't physically just go and take things from you. It's a battle in your mind where thoughts are planted, bad ideas come in and you respond with those bad ideas and then you end up doing dumb things that cause loss and trouble in your life. And so has he talked you into some dumb things. We've got to get determined to take back that ground in our own life. You've got to get determined to take back that ground in our own life. You've got to get determined Husbands.
Speaker 1:If you're a husband, you've got to be determined to protect and defend your family, to protect your wife, to protect your marriage, to protect your kids, to train your children up in the way they should go and not let the world do it for you. We've got to get serious about that. You've got to protect your peace, protect the atmosphere in your home. It's a battle. He's coming for your home and so set that battle in array. What are you going to allow to come in your home? What are you going to disallow in your home? Where are the boundaries of your home? You set those boundaries, you determine. You can have what you determine and so you define. This is what my home's going to look like. These are the boundaries right here. Here's the bloodline. I'm pouring the blood of Jesus around my property. The devil cannot cross this line. I'm not letting it come in through my television. I'm not letting it come in through my phone. I'm not letting.
Speaker 1:If I hear things in your workplace, if you got people around you that are pouring bad things in your ears, you can let that happen or you can put a stop to it. You can answer that. You can have an answer, and so I know it's not comfortable. You're in the workplace. Maybe that jerk that's filling your head with bad stuff, maybe that happens to be your boss Okay, that could get kind of awkward, I get that. But if you're going to take background, that's been lost. You're going to have to get real comfortable with being on offensive position. You're going to have to get real comfortable being offensive and we don't offend people for the sake of offending them. But we can't be afraid to speak God's word and to answer with his word and worry about whether or not they're going to be offended and their feelings are going to be hurt or not. What you did is you brought them to a point of decision and now they have to choose between right and wrong, good and evil, truth and lie. And again, that's what we're charged to do to bring people to a point of decision. So you got to get comfortable being offensive if you want to take background in your life.
Speaker 1:In Ephesians, chapter 5, verse 8, it says for you were once darkness, but now you are the light in the Lord. You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness and truth, finding out what is acceptable to the Lord and have no fellowship. No fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. That's getting kind of well. People are doing some things over here. I know what's wrong. I'm just going to not bother with that. I'm not looking for trouble in my life, I'm just going to go over here and leave that alone. But that's not what it said to do. It says have no fellowship with them, don't hang out with them, don't give place to them in your personal life. If you're at work and you have to be around them, you don't have a buddy-buddy relationship. That's one thing. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. But then it says I have to expose that. Then it says I have to expose that If there is evil happening. I've got to put light on that. I was once darkness but now I'm the light of the Lord. So now I'm offensive.
Speaker 1:People don't like bright lights when they're in dark places. It's blinding, it's harsh. But we're charged to have no fellowship and fruit for works of darkness, but rather expose them. And so you know, if you're going to do that, don't try to do that without the holy ghost. Let the holy ghost light you up. First, get lit with the holy ghost. Jesus said that we are light and we are salt, and that we should. You know, if the salt loses its flavor, its savoriness, what good is it? Nothing, it's good for nothing that we're the light of the world and we shouldn't hide our light under a basket. We can't be closet Christians. There needs to be a new level of boldness about you when you go out and interface with people. You need to be not ashamed of these things, and so you need to get lit and be salty wherever you go. Be that light, be that salt. Bring people to that point of decision.
Speaker 1:Romans 1 16 says for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. 16 says for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the dunamis of God to salvation for everyone who believes. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It is the power of God unto salvation. Why don't y'all say that with me? For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It is the power of God unto salvation. I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.
Speaker 1:Once you say that ten times when you're at home, before you get up in the morning, once you look in the mirror and just stare at yourself and say I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. I'm about to start my day. My feet have hit the floor. The devil's nervous and I'm coming. I'm putting on the whole armor of God. I'm putting on the helmet of salvation. I put on the breastplate of righteousness. My loins are gird with truth. I'm putting my shoes on. I'm ready to carry the gospel of peace everywhere I go. I take the shield of faith and quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one, and I take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and I'm ready to go to war. I'm clocking in for duty. I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. I challenge you to start your day like that when you get up tomorrow. Start your day like that Ten times. Look at yourself. I am not ashamed. Say it until you're convinced of it, until you believe it, until you're just like.
Speaker 1:I don't care what people think of me. I don't care if I offend every person that I come across today. I'm not trying to be offensive, but there's a lot of people that are going to be offended at the gospel of Christ. They're going to be offended at the light that I'm ready to shine. They're going to be offended at the salt that I'm ready to sprinkle. I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. I'm not afraid of who I encounter today. I'm on the offense. I'm taking ground. The harvest is ready, the laborers are few, but, by God, I'm going to be busy from dusk till dawn, putting in the sickle. I'm bringing people into the kingdom of heaven. I'm going to populate heaven. I'm going to make heaven crowded. That's what I'm going to do today. I'm not ashamed of the gospel, of get on the offensive.
Speaker 1:Start taking back ground. Start take back ground. If you don't like the place where you work, start changing it. Take ground back until you like it. If I, if they refuse, you then find a new place to work, but start taking ground. They don't like you at the grocery store. Start taking ground, taking ground. If they don't like you at the grocery store, start taking ground.
Speaker 1:There are people that need to be found out and defunded and unemployed out there. You're seeing Facebook comments. You know making horrendous comments about Charlie Kirk and how he deserved to die. We need to find people like that, seek them out, look for them. Like we're talking offense here, you need to be on the offense. We need to be looking for that devil and making sure that they are defunded and unemployed at the end of that day. We need to be taking out those devils wherever they are. I'm not talking about people, but there are people that are demonically influenced and if they're going to let their life be used for the devil, they are enemies of mine and I'm taking back ground. That's been lost. We got to get on the offense here.
Speaker 1:In Hebrews 10.35, it says do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. It says you have need of endurance so that, after you have done the will of God, you may receive the prize. And the endurance right there is not. Like you know, god's putting stuff on you, weight on you, and you're just like let me see how long I can take it and endure this pain and suffering and punishment. God doesn't put stuff on us. The world does that. There's plenty of stuff that can come on us. But the endurance right there is like an active fortitude. It's putting your shoulder into it and leaning hard against it. It resists weariness and it resists defeat, and so that's the kind of endurance we're talking about here. But the preceding verse in 35, it says Hebrews 10, 35, don't cast away your confidence, which has great reward.
Speaker 1:The Greek word for confidence right there literally means boldness of speech and all outspokenness. That means we've got to open our mouth more. We've got to have something to say, we've got to have an answer for the hope that lies within. When you hear something that's wrong, that's off, you turn around and answer it and put light on it. Don't let these things go unanswered in our life. Answer these things. Wherever you are, you are probably the only light that that person's going to see. If you're there, you might be the only light that that person's going to see. And if you hear it and you're like, ooh, I don't like confrontation, let me just let that one go. Well, you're not having fellowship with them, but we have to put light on it. Don't let them think that that's okay to say that, to do that, to act that way. Let's make that behavior abnormal. The thing that we've let for so long has become normal and it's wrong and we've got to take back that ground. And I'm going to wrap this up here.
Speaker 1:In 2 Corinthians, chapter 2, verse 14, it says now thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph. He's leading us in triumph. Triumph is the ultimate celebration. If you're a football fan, it is the end zone dance with the whole team on the field, everybody who's on the side. It's the ultimate celebration. It's triumph. It is spiking the football, it's rubbing the nose of your opponent in it that they are losers and you are winners. It's that kind of celebration and that's what he leads us in. He doesn't lead us into trouble, he doesn't lead us into a fight. He leads us through the fight on the other side to the victory celebration.
Speaker 1:Thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ and, through us, diffuses the fragrance of the knowledge of him in every place. And so, wherever we go, we've got to be diffusing the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ in every place. We've got to be speaking Christ in every place. We've got to be shining that light in every place. We've got to be salt in every place. There are no exceptions to this For some.
Speaker 1:It says in verse 15, we are, to God, the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are being perishing. So people are going to recognize you're a fragrance of Christ. Those who are being saved recognize it. Those who are perishing recognize it. To the one we're an aroma to death, leading to death, and others aroma of life leading to life. That means there's going to be people that you encounter that will not choose life. It's going to be an aroma of death to them and I'm sorry, but not everybody gets to get to the land in heaven. They all have the same opportunity, but not all of them will take it and it's not up to you to force feed people.
Speaker 1:You just go around and be in a fragrance of Christ and people alongside are going to be like, hey, I like that, I want that, I want what you have, I want to turn my life around, I got to get things right and you're an aroma of life leading to life. And others are going to just be vicious and vile and awful and we're going to expose them and defund them and get them fired and run them out and it's death leading to death and they may not receive eternal life if they don't ever repent. It's their choice, but we're going to lead them to the choice, and so we've got to shift our life from being on the defense to getting on the offense and taking back all the things that's been stolen from us. In our personal life, in our public life, everywhere, every aspect, there are heaven's assets that are available to us, and we got to take advantage of them and put them to use in our life. Employ heaven's assets, set the battle in array, and so that's my message for you.