TV 1729 | Ready for War Conclusion

God, help us to recognize Satan knows how to declare the things that are facts. Does he ever kind of come to you and you think about it, that's really what he was saying? You got to face the facts. Look at what you did today. Look at how you failed. You got up this morning and you were going to live for God. Look what you did. That's a fact. Deal with it. Now you think you can overcome me? Ha! It's a fact. Accept it. So all the courage in the world is not going to help us right there if all we're doing is operating in us trying to face his facts. Because we don't have what it takes, and it's the reality. Thank God there are some facts out there that totally trump what he has said. Thank the Lord. Praise God. Praise the Lord, and that's where we have to get to. That's where God wants us to get to because you think about what Joshua actually had to face. Now the Lord was telling him what to do when he went against Jericho. What a crazy plan, march around the city for seven days and then seven times on the seventh day and shout. And the Lord fought the battle, didn't he? They had instances when the Lord won the battle, they had instances when they moved in themselves and didn't win it. But over and over again, they had to actually look to God and face real enemies. It's one thing to sit out there in the wilderness and say, yes, I'm going to be strong and I'm

going to be courageous. I get it, Lord. Yes, let's go. And then you're standing there looking at somebody who's nine feet tall with a sword in his hand, or you're looking at a walled city. Now they weren't all giants there, but there were giants among them. And walled cities, and okay, now what? And we're supposed to conquer that? How are we going to do that? And Satan is just sitting there filling their heads with earthly facts, earthly limitations, all that would stand in the way of us actually laying hold of what God has given to us. Do you think God actually means it when He wants to give us things? Do you think the things that He's promised us are real? Then why don't we have them? Because we're listening to Satan's facts instead of God's facts. And that's really what it comes down to, it comes down to what we all know these scriptures, we all know about faith. Faith comes down to not just sort of a mental belief in something. Faith is absolutely taking God at His word and taking action based upon His word. And that means I'm making a choice between God's facts and Satan's facts. And the thing is, Satan's facts are apparent, they're right here. There's a real wall, there's a real giant. I don't feel particularly strong today, forgot to polish my sword. You know, a thousand and one things where I'm aware because I'm living in a sense-driven world and all I can ... it's just what I can see and touch and that's what Satan throws in my face and says, nothing's going to happen. It's a fantasy to think God would pay any attention to somebody like you. Over and over again, we wind up in that kind of a circumstance and God is looking for people who will believe His promise and put that belief into action and absolutely trust in Him even when it makes no sense from any natural point of view.

Every fact on the ground is contrary. That's what ... well, David is the perfect example, I guess. When he understood the battle, he understood that this was not man against man, this was a devil against God. When he went out there with a sling and a stone, there's this young man trying to face a giant, he didn't just say, okay, I'm going to try this, I don't know how it's going to work. He ran because God was with him. I'll tell you, when we are willing to trust God and believe Him, He supplies the faith. Don't ever think that faith is something you've got to work up. We have every right to look to Him because faith itself is a gift of God. Praise God. I'll tell you, we live by faith in the scriptures that was read this morning about how we have peace with God through faith and we have access into what? What do we have access? Into God. Grace, what is grace? God's power at work saving undeserving sinners. It's not just that attitude, it's the actual invasion of God's power into our circumstances. We have access by faith, Lord, I'm in an impossible situation here, but I'm looking to you. That's what faith is all about, and I'll tell you, faith is something that has to make a choice to act. I've used this illustration so many times. What was it, what happened when they crossed the Jordan finally? What did God tell them to do? Put your foot in and I will move the water. Now how do we look at something like that? Our apprehension of something like that is, okay God, I'll believe you, I'll put my ... You move the water and I'll put my foot in, but that's not faith. Faith is absolutely, instead of believing in the power of the water and the danger of

stepping into it, we're believing God's promise more than we are believing in the water. God wants us to believe Him and His power more than we believe in the power of our flesh, our old nature, the circumstances in which He puts us that are naturally impossible. God is looking for people who will believe Him, and all you have to do is go through Hebrews chapter 11 and just look at the so-called heroes of faith. Abraham was the greatest one, and of course you back up from where, not JP, you back up from where Steve read in Romans 5, and you go to the end of chapter 4, and Abraham had some choices to make, didn't he? But that's one thing I like about this translation here, it says he faced the fact. See there was a fact that his own body was dead, his wife couldn't bear children. He faced all that, and he believed God anyway, because he says God's power is greater than all this, what happens down here. He has a promise and he can act in spite of everything I see that is ... It's real. They're facts. The fact's on the ground, but that's not what determines what's going to happen. I'm believing God's promise. That's what the Christian life is about, is us coming to the place where we believe God's facts more than we believe Satan's, and in every case that means a choice on our part, and that choice is not just some mental thing. That choice often times mean we take action, and we actually lay claim to something, okay? And then you could go through Ephesians chapter 6 and the battle and all of that, but what does it say at the end of the battle? God gives us all the armor we need, he gives us everything we need to actually fight the battle, and we understand how Satan is working, but what does he say at the end of that? Well, it'd be strong in the Lord, but I mean at the end of it he says, having done all, having done all to do what? Stand. One of the devil's greatest tactics is related to the fact that battles are not always instantaneous things. In fact, they rarely are.

Many times battles will go on. You read the account of the Israelites, and time after time they had to lay siege to a city. Now, a siege is not something where you just sit there and tonight we got the victory. This could go on and on and on. We are taking our stand in God, and even though I don't see the victory, I'm still seeing the facts on the ground, but God is still faithful. What happens to us, how many times, how often does this happen to us, is when we set out and we're all geared up and we say, yes, praise God, I'm believing God, and I'm believing God, and Satan is saying, okay, if you're believing God, why hasn't it happened? He's not listening. He doesn't care, and on and on comes the lies. When Satan is interpreting the facts as somehow trumping what God is doing, God is looking for a people who will not only believe him in the face of Satan's facts, but will continue to believe him and never give up. Now it's quiet. Am I telling you the truth? Is this an issue? We easily, far too easily, give up when God's command to us. us is to stand. It's so, well, he's not really ... We're listening to Satan's interpretation of everything that's going on instead of listening to God's word and saying, God, you have allowed this to go on because you're doing something in me. You want to do something through me. Thank God for that report we had. God wants to bring every one of us to a place where we can be a light, where we're free from so many things. Not only that, we can go out and actually do things and see God at work. God has called us to live for him in a time when ... This has always been the case. It's always been a matter of war.

If you're trying to serve God and avoid war, forget it. You've been called to be a soldier, and so have I, but God will equip every single one of us, and as we fight, we're going to grow up in him. We're going to be able to do all that he has called us to do. Thank God. Obviously, there's so many directions you could go from this, and Lord has a way of reminding me that when I'm weak, I'm strong, so if there's any strength here today, it ain't me. I feel super weak, but I thank God for his faithfulness. That's just something he's working in me right now. What's he working in you? What's going on in your heart, in your life? Are there choices that need to be made where Satan is saying, this is the situation, deal with it. You're stuck. This is it. It's going to be like this from now on. You've tried and failed and on and on, whatever the circumstance, or you've prayed for this person forever and nothing has changed. You prayed about this situation and nothing has changed. It ain't going to change. So and so is not going to ever change. From now on and on, the devil will paint a picture where we're expecting some instantaneous speak the word and it's done kind of victory. God can work that way if that's what he intends in a situation, but that's not typical. God is looking for people who will just listen to him, walk with him, and he'll bring a situation, a victory, or a battle, and again, it may be in here, it may be out there. And then what do we do? We take it to him, we look to him, we believe his promises, and we take a stand in our spirits. And whatever avenue of attack Satan has, we've got the righteousness, we've got the sword

of the spirit, we've got the shield of faith, we've got everything we need to fight because it's been given to us. I didn't earn that. Everything we have is given because God is merciful and faithful, thank God. So I mean, you could go on and on with the realities of this and the examples of this, but here's one other thing that came to my mind, and it's simply this. We tend, when we hear something like this, to think of ourselves just as individuals fighting battles against the devil. But we're not just called to a kingdom as separate little individuals, me and Jesus. Now it has to be personal, it has to have that dimension, but God has called us together. And so the battles that God sets before us are not just individual, private, personal battles. They're meant to involve everybody. You get what I'm saying? Think about how the Israelites conquered. You could go on and on with the realities of what happened. There were tribes that had already settled on the east side of the Jordan. They'd already conquered their territory. So what was the Lord's order for them? All of those people had to go over the Jordan with everybody else and fight. When they conquered cities and somebody's territory, it wasn't just the individual who was going to live there. It was everybody joined together to conquer this, to conquer that. There was a sense of community. Think about Caleb as a wonderful example. Caleb, you remember how Moses had sent out the spies and Caleb was one of them? And they were going to check out the land and bring back a report. Ten of the spies came back and said, there ain't no way we can conquer these people. Yeah, it's a great place, but we saw giants and walled cities. Facts on the ground say it's not going to happen.

And of course it discouraged the people. And Caleb said, let's go off at once. We're able to take it. And God recognized his faith and rewarded it. Well, he had to put, endure 40 years in the wilderness while everybody else was gone. else of his generation died, then they went in and for the first five years of the process of conquering the land, he was fighting with everybody else for everybody else. Finally, 45 years after his trip in as a spy, 45 years, he's 85 years old now. Of course, his testimony is, I'm just as strong now as I was at 40. Boy, I wish that were true now. But anyway, that was the reality. God had preserved him and he'd been fighting valiantly for everybody else and finally the time came, he goes to Joshua and says, you remember what the Lord promised me? So give me my mountain or give me my property. And it didn't matter that there were giants, he went in and took it and later on he was able to share with somebody else. And he was able to take some of the springs that were on his property and share with somebody else. God wants to give every one of us victory. But the reality, but I'm coming back to this, God wants a people who will not only realize it's not just about you. It's not just about you reaching this spiritual pinnacle where you're this wonderful conqueror and you're looking around, what's wrong with you? Of course, if you've got that going on in your heart, there's a lot you haven't conquered. I think you know that. But the reality is God wants us, in fact, many times this is part of winning the victory for ourselves. If we get so embedded and so self-focused, that's all we can think about and we're just dealing with all this. How many times have you been in a position where God's brought somebody else to your

attention and you change your thinking and you start focusing on them and their needs and you're praying and you're standing and you're encouraging, you're doing whatever is right. And I'll tell you, all of a sudden, hey, I feel freer. That's one of the big tricks of the enemy is to get us so self-absorbed. And he's got the upper hand because I don't, in the first place, I don't need to be self-absorbed, I need to be Christ-absorbed. If I'm self-absorbed, I'm looking in the wrong place and Satan is going to point out a whole lot of facts about me that help him and give him the victory. But I'll tell you, we need to lift up our hearts to him and as we do, he's going to knit our hearts together. There will be battles that we become aware of that we can absolutely join our hearts and our forces together and call on God and come against the powers of darkness and see victories won in hearts and lives where some, you know, individuals in situations, all kinds of situations. I'll tell you, God has victories in mind for us, doesn't he? Did he not pay the ultimate price on the cross for us to have the victory? Then why don't we have it? That's not meant to be condemning, but it is meant to be awakening. The Lord wants, he realizes, he knows where we're at and there's no, like I said, there's no magic thing that's going to suddenly catapult us to the end of it. We're going to have battles. But every time we come, we need to realize, be strong and courageous. I'm with you. I'll never leave you nor forsake you. You need to understand how Satan works. He's going to put out, he's going to point out every natural reason why believing him and just giving up is the only sensible thing. You've got to face the facts. And God wants us to lift our eyes from his facts to God's facts and recognize the reality.

I started by talking about things that we can count on, things that are, I forget the word I use now, but anyway, things that are absolutely reliable in the world. God's promises are the only things that are reliable because they look beyond all that this passing world has to offer. But God wants us, whenever the devil points out his facts, to immediately turn our eyes to his facts because Jesus has already conquered. The battle of the ages, as we sing the song, was fought at Calvary. Thank God it was already won, but God wants us to put our feet on the territory he has already given to us. It's not just handed to us without a fight, but he equips us for it. And as we fight, we're going to grow in him. We're going to be the kind of people that he wants us to be. Thank God. So let's fight the battles individually. Let's fight them as a people. Let's believe God, but let's understand the war. Let's be prepared for the war. Don't you think that there's a battle in your life? is wrong. It shouldn't be this way." Just say, God, you've allowed this. Just like the folks in the mountains. They certainly didn't plan on that, did they? But I'll tell you, there are things that happen to us that we don't plan. They just show up one day and all of a sudden we have to deal with it and Satan is right there to explain it to us. From his point of view, and God is looking for every one of us to turn our hearts to him and say, Lord, you allowed this. You allowed it for a loving purpose. You have the answers that I need. Equip me right now to put into action all of that stuff you told me about being courageous, being strong and courageous. This is now when it matters. I need your strength. I need your courage so that I can take a stand in the spirit and declare what you have said because that's the answer. That's what Jesus did in every instance when he was tempted. He had God's truth and that God's truth absolutely put down the devil's lie. Whether he's misinterpreting the word or tempting him or whatever it was, Satan's truth absolutely will dissolve before

God's truth. The question is, what are we going to choose to believe when the battle is actually in our face? When we're sitting there looking at a situation and the devil is saying, that's impossible. Well, Satan ... There are going to be a lot of things that are impossible, but nothing is impossible with God. I'll tell you, God's going to grow us up and use us. There are going to be instances, again, like what the brethren have been able to do in the mountains. God wants people who have actually been in the battle and they fought real battles and they have experienced real victories and they've learned more about the Lord and they've got courage because now it's not just something he said in the beginning before all the battles started. Now I've been in battle and I've seen God work. I've experienced his power and his victory. I've experienced what Jesus died for. Now I can tell you and I can share what Christ has done with you. Praise God. I don't think, again, I don't think I've said anything really that hasn't been said. How many times do we say that? But there's a dimension here that I've ... God just brought that to my mind over and over again. I need this. I'll ask the question again. Am I the only one? This is what God's people need in this hour because we are ... The battle of the ages in one sense was fought at Calvary, but the outworking of that battle, Satan knows his time is short. He is doing whatever he can within his realm to withstand what God is doing and we see God moving, don't we? God is moving in the earth in different ways. He is calling out a people in this hour. I want to be part of that. I want to be one that says, wait a minute, God's truth trumps every one of what Satan calls truth. He has already won the victory and it's my victory. I have the right to put my feet on what Christ died to purchase for me. It's not just about me to make me something, it's so that he can live in me effectively. I'll tell you, to God be the glory. Thank God. This has been the Midnight Cry broadcast. If you would like a DVD or CD of today's message in its entirety, please request it by program number. While it is not required, a donation of $10 for DVDs and $5 for CDs is suggested to help with expenses. Also, for those who request it, we will send you our quarterly publication, The Midnight Cry Messenger, free and postage paid. Send your requests to Midnight Cry Ministries, Post Office Box 685, Southern Pines, North Carolina, 28388. We invite you to join us again next week at the same time, and may God richly bless you until then.