Warrior-like Victories from Child-Like Faith | Dennis Santiago.

Father. We just thank you Father, this moment, your presence

is here. Father, we just we just acknowledge you, Lord,

We acknowledge you. We're so thankful. Yeah, our hearts rejoice

Lord in your goodness. We thank you Father that you've

brought us here today. We thank you for this word

that's uh gonna challenge us, it's gonna lift us up,

encourage us. Father God, I thank you Lord for every

heart that will receive this seed, this word, Father God,

I thank you that it will bear fruit, and it

will bear much fruit for your glory in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen, all right, let's go, come on, hallelujah,

warrior like victories from child like faith. We're going to

be reading in the Book of Matthew chapter eighteen, verses

one through four. Book of Matthew, chapter eighteen, verses one

through four. And we got some kingdom realities that we're

going to be sharing here today. And so let's just

dive into what to the world of God. So let's read.

It says at that time the disciples came to ask Jesus,

who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus called a little one to his side and said

to them, learn this well, everybody, repeat, learn this well.

Unless you dramatically change your way of thinking and become

teachable like a child, you will never be able to

enter in. Whoever continuously hume himself to become like this

little child is the greatest one in Heaven's kingdom. Realm, amen.

So I just wanted to share with you, just really quick.

There's some hopeful research that I was able to uh find,

and I wanted to share with you with regards to

the ability the ability of testing and finding out about

the genius, about the genius that is inside of each human.

So people were undergoing this test, and I want to

quiz you on it. I'm gonna ask you, maybe you know,

maybe you don't know. So of the people that are here,

who do you think scored the highest in creativity at

genius level? So I'm gonna give you four categories. Are

you ready? Category number one dum dum, dude, not yet,

not yet, okay? Category number one just three to five okay,

Category number two ages ten, Category number three ages fifteen,

and category number four adult age around thirty one years old.

So if you can just tell me which of these

categories do you think scored the highest percentage on genius level?

If you say it's ages three to five, raise your hand. Okay,

that's a good amount of people. All right, what about

ages ten? Excellent? Okay, a little bit excellent. Okay, let's

what about age fifteen? We know them, teenagers know everything.

Come on now, at least that's what I thought when

I was fifteen. What about adults averaging age thirty one? Good? Good? Okay,

maybe three or four? Right, and you're like, yeah, that's

my age group. Yeah, all right, Well, before I reveal,

before I reveal what the statistics shows is, I want

to be able to let you know that two things

that were tested here had to do with the way

that people think and so divergent and convergent. Convergent thinking,

which basically, for divergent thinking is the ability to just

be able to think of all of the thoughts that

just come to you and write and you're just like,

you're like this idea fairy almost you know, we can

use in different words. You're just like you've got a

plan for everything, and you can see solutions for everything.

And then the second aspect of thinking is convergent, which

is more like let's focus in. Okay, we got one

thing to do. We're gonna do this, and that's how

it's gonna get done. That's a little bit of what

you know. And both of them are necessary. We need

to be able to have both kinds of thinking in

our thought process. They're both good. But what I want

to be able to share today is a kingdom perspective.

It's a kingdom reality with regards to child like faith. Amen.

All right, So then as we look at the Book

of Oh, let me show you the chart. Sorry, ninety

eight percent of the kids that were tested between the

ages of three and five scored ninety eight percent of

the genius. Okay, ten of the same kids at the

age of ten were retested. This is a fifty six

year study that was done by NASA, well for NASA.

By these in the vials the age at the age

of ten, the percentile went down to thirty. Then at

the age of fifteen, he went down to twelve. And

then they retested not just these individuals, but they also

retested two hundred and eighty thousand people around the age

of thirty one and the percentile was two percent. And

so this kind of like sparks something in me because

the Word of God talks so much about the Kingdom

of Heaven, and it talks about how we need to

be like children to be able to enter in. Somebody say,

enter in. And the way of this world is like

upside down. The way of this world is upside down.

So it doesn't really work. It's not equivalent. It's not

the same as the way of the Kingdom of Heaven.

So Jesus the Mighty Teacher, speaks to the disciples and

answers a question. There is a question that is raised

up by the disciples, by the followers of Jesus, those

that are seeing what Jesus is doing there. Some of

them are convinced, some of them are like, I think so,

and some of them are like, oh yeah, maybe not right.

We have a mixed crowd of people of followers of Jesus.

And so basically Jesus God has you know, just enters

into an invitation to the disciples and breaks it down

to them, to the disciples to hear the way of

the Kingdom. So, who then is the greatest in the

Kingdom of Heaven is the question? Who then is the

greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven? And So when we

think about this question and we look at the question

and we try to break it down a little bit,

it talks up it's saying who. And when it says who,

that means that the crowd that is present has some

kind of relation to what is being asked. So the

disciples are there, and so the question is like, okay,

so who amongst us, who that are close to you?

Who that has been working the hardest? You know, who

that has been you know, the most righteous? You know,

the best clothing that whatever it is right? Who? Who

of us is going to be in that position? Who

of us? So we see that in the human intellect,

in the natural realm, there is comparison, comparison saying it

hinders the ability to be able to walk in the

fullness of what God has called us to do. It's

the worst thing ever. But we could see that the

mindset of those that were following Jesus right here, there

was still some of that. They were like, well, you know,

we have a community, we have a culture, we we

we have an upbringing, and this is kind of like

how it goes for us. This is what we do.

We know, right, we work really hard and we do

this and we have ways of doing things, and those

are all good things so long as they don't come

into conflict with the Kingdom of heaven, so long as

they don't come into conflict with what the way of

the Kingdom of Heaven is. Like, that's good. Chips and salsa,

Praise the Lord. That doesn't offend anybody. Right, come on now,

go to Peru, have some sevice. Come on, now, everybody's blessed. Right,

we go to you know, steak and potatoes, whatever it is,

it's all good, Praise God. So those things we can celebrate.

They're not keeping us from being able to enter in

and live out the fullness of the Kingdom of Heaven.

So that's good, all right. So then who isn't the question?

Who then is the greatest? The second thing that we

could observe here in the question is that there's something

inside of them boiling up about seeking status. Because first

they're looking at who. Okay, I'm checking you out. I'm good,

is good? You all right? Know? The Lord bless your soul.

But great is like, that's what I want. I want

the greatest. And then we can see right that there

is a seeking of status because not just good, not

just awesome, but the greatest right. So there's a there's

a mentality, there's a thought process here that's being revealed

through this question, and so we can see the reflection

of the natural human tendency to compare positions and to

seek status. But I have news to share because many

people work really hard to build a certain kingdom, the

kingdom of religion, the kingdom of my way or the highway,

the kingdom of I know and you don't, the kingdom

of I walk how I walk, and you don't get

in my path because this is what the good old

Lord tell me to do for real. And you're by

yourself in that kingdom. Huh. Come on. So there's all

these kingdoms in the natural realm, but God is not

calling her to be a part of any other kingdom

except the Kingdom of Heaven. So in the Kingdom of

Heaven there is a question, and Jesus is explaining to them.

We could understand that these ideas and the question that

was asked is rooted right on social and religious context

of the time. That they would know that they would differentiate,

They would know by the way that somebody looked and

the clothing that they were worrying where they were, you

know what they believed, right, they can tell, oh, this

is a pharisee, this is a sadducey, these are another

group of people, These are non Jewish people. The different

categories and the different groups right within that region, within

this time. So culturally we can see there's things that

there's markers that help to identify the differences. And again,

so long as those things do not hinder us from

being able to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, those

are all great things come on. And so we see

here the disciples really wanted to find out. They really

wanted to find out if their paradigm, if the way

that they believe the kingdom should be, would fit in

with what God was trying to teach and present about

the Kingdom of Heaven. So on verse two, Jesus calls

the little one in the crowd. There's a little kid

hanging out over there. And Jesus caused the little one

on his side. If you look at the at the

calling out of this kid, of this kid right of

this young person. We don't know if it was a

boy or girl or exact age, but he was a

young person. But in in the original language. When he

calls out the child to come next to him. The

word that he used is talitha. Does that remind you

of a certain story in the Bible, right where there

was where there was a girl that had seesed that

that that that ceased to live, And Jesus said, tita

kumi levan tat okay that the part of that was

not in the Hebrew, that was in Spanish. Rise up, okay, okay,

no more speaking in tongues. So now so we we

so And then even furthermore, it talks about a wounded lamb.

It talks about a wounded lamb, which actually what Jesus

is doing. The first thing that he does when the

question comes to him is he says, hey, little wounded lamb,

come over here. Let me let me place you right

here next to me, because I'm about to present something

that is so powerful, that's so amazing, that's gonna blow

the minds of the people that think they know so

much with something so very simple. Here we go, little

wounded lamb, come right here next to me, Talitha, come

right next to me. And I love that there's such

an invitation because even you and I as sons and

daughters of God. You may not even have a personal

relationship with God, and you're here for the first time.

Guess what Jesus still says, Talitha. He says, wounded lamb,

come to me, and I'm placing you right here next

to me, and you're going to be able to enter

in the Kingdom of Heaven. Wait a minute, how does

the wounded lamb get to be able to skip the line?

I've been here for thirty years. I've been here for

you know, I know this much. And Jesus is like,

wounded lamb, right there, come here, wounded lamb, Come let

me show you about the Kingdom of Heaven. And so

Jesus called the little one to his side. And then

as a kid, think about this. Culturally, this child was

in like a big situation because culturally the children were

not looked on highly. The children were just children and

they were left to be and the social status of

the communities. Kids were just like messing around with stuffed

sheep and helping out and bringing water and doing these things.

But guess what, in this moment, God calls that which

was looked under, that which was looked down upon, to

demonstrate the simplicity and the importance of being and having

child like faith to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.

And so as I was saying with with this kid,

he comes up right next to Jesus, and I just

imagine myself as that kid, And I'm like, who me

looking around, you know, like all these people around and Jesus,

the guy that everybody's talking about, the guy that's doing

the miracles, the guys that everybody's there to listen to. Right,

He's like, you're calling me, oh my goodness, but wait,

oh no, there's all these adults that are here, and

they don't they don't think of me highly. They just say,

I'm a kid. They're gonna probably kick me out of here.

Of entering into the kingdom of the simplicity of being

able to get away from your own thought process, get

away from your own paradigm of things that you've built

and you and the enemy has built, and and strongholds

that the enemy has built in your mind to keep

you from being able to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. See,

just because you come to church, it doesn't mean that

you've entered in Just because just because you could sing

a good song, it doesn't mean that you have entered

in just because you feel the hairs on your on

your arms and in your back and whoo, hallelujah. All

that is great, Amen, hallelujah. But that doesn't necessarily mean

that you have entered in. You're experiencing the presence of God,

you're getting to see the presence of God being manifested.

But have you entered in? Well, Jesus called a little

one and and he and he sees the example in him.

And then I came up with this, Like, as I

was reading this, I'm like, Okay, God, So the reason

why the children were not really like considered, you know,

as part of like the social status. The reason specifically

it mentioned is that it's because they didn't really have authority.

They didn't have authority, right, And once I read that,

I was like, Wow, God, I think that's a principle

that we as Christians really need to tap into. So

it's not being like a child, like we're ignorant, like

we don't know what to do, we have no wisdom.

It's not being a child like in that sense, but

it's being like a child in the sense of being vulnerable,

in the sense of being humbled in the sense of

knowing that as a child of God, you have a thought.

Could it be? Could it be that the reason sometimes

that you're experiencing certain things in your life is because

you're acting like you're not a child of God, and

you're acting like you don't have the power of the

living Christ inside of you. Is that because maybe you're

not putting into practice the authority that God bestowed upon

your life. That's just a question that came to me,

and I'm sharing it with you. So in the spirit realm,

when I saw that in the spirit room, I thought, well,

demons don't respect because if there's no authority, if there's

no power, then what are they going to be able

to submit to? They can't You're going to continue on.

In the first century Jewish society, status was often measured

by age, wisdom, or adherence to the law, and so

again children did not fit into the status or that category.

So this young person that Jesus calls out and joins

him embraces vulnerability and humility, revealing to us that your

worth isn't based on your achievements. Your worth is not

based on your achievements. Your worth is based on the

affirmation from the one who's truly significant and has declare

your value and your worth. If you think about it

for yourself, you would never come out of the crowd

and sit next to Jesus. But because, but because you

are truly humble, you receive and you respond to the

calling of the Lord over your life. And you said,

you know what, I'm going to be humble. God has

given me authority. God has given me power. God wants

me to enter into the Kingdom and live out all

of the great things that are from being a part

of the Kingdom. I'm going to be humble. I'm going

to accept that, and I'm going to be raising dead people,

and I'm going to be healing people, and I'm going

to be having a restored marriage, and I'm going to

be having great kids because it's part of being in

the kingdom. So even though culturally children were often not

valued or honored, they were dismissed as insignificance simply because

they lack authority. This child, this child dared to stay

in and be next to Jesus. There was a right

side up way of the Kingdom, the way of this world,

the way of the natural man, and the fallen nature

is the right side down, right or upside down. I'm sorry,

upside down. But in the Kingdom of Heaven is right

side up. And so this uh, this understanding. Jesus called

the young person out and places him where next to him.

Come on, wounded lamb. Wait, but there's there's this big

buffy one over here. There's this you know, there's there's

this one that has a lot of money over here.

Why are you calling out the wounded lamb? Oh? Yeah,

come wounded lamb right here next to me. Receive, receive

the healing, receive the restoration, receive the righteousness that I'm

imputing into you. I'm placing you right here next to

me where you could experience complete healing and restoration, so

that then you can live out everything that I have

set for you in the Kingdom of Heaven. In Verse

three says learn this well. Unless you dramatically change your

way of thinking and become teachable like a child, you

will never be able to enter in. Before anyone there

was thinking about all the different possibilities of their ways

of how to do things, the Lord had to help

them understand by breaking it down and making it simple.

It's okay God does that for us. He loves us

so much that he make sure that we're able to

take it in, that we're able to go from the

very basic basic foundation entering into the Kingdom of heaven.

Unless you dramatically change the way of thinking. You must

realize that just to enter in, you need His thoughts

for you. Just to be able to enter in and

walk out all of the great things that He has

the sign and in his heart and his desire for you, you

need his help. He's so good that we can't even

understand or comprehend the level of goodness unless we have

the Holy Spirit to help us receive so much goodness

in our lives. I just sensed that the Lord was saying,

in order for us to be able to have warrior

like victories from childlike faith, we need to be able

to enter in. We need to be able to lay

aside our paradigms, our way of doing things, and we

need to be able to receive the mind of Christ.

The Bible says in Jeremiah twenty ninety eleven. For I

know the thoughts that I have towards you, declares the

Lord thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give

you a future and a hope. His wonderful thoughts over

us are innumerable. You cannot even count them. There's so many,

so so, so many, so many, so many, and we

need the help of the Holy Spirit. The reason why

I brought up that chart from the very beginning is

because there's hope. The way that we've developed our education system,

the way that we've molded ourselves and made ourselves fit

into the structure of education, even in our country or

the countries you know where we came from, has kept

us from being able to live out the fullness of

what God has called us to do. The reason why

is because we want our kids to hurry up and

grow up, get a job, get a career, go to college,

do all these things. Those are all great things. But

God is calling us to grow up and to promote

into childlike faith, that we would be able to come

at His feet, that we would be able to speak

to him continually, continually, unless you dramatically change the way

you think we need to continually be able to do this,

take every thought captive, like the Bible says, right, He's

able and willing. His thoughts are higher are greater. Verse Corinthians,

chapter two, verse sixteen, it says, for who has known

the mind of the Lord, that he may instruc them.

But we have the mind of Christ. I'm going to

invite you to stand with me today and if you

were to just extend your hands this afternoon, and just

like a child with childlike faith. The reason why these

kids within the age of three to five score so

high in their ability to be considered genius in creativity

is because unlike us, we don't put all the We

put all the excuses, but kids they don't. They hear

the voice of Father saying, hey, you could do this,

and what do they do? They believe it? Would you

believe the Father over your life today? Would you be

bold enough, would you be humble enough to say, Okay, God,

I'll take you at your word. I'll take you at

your word. It doesn't matter what age you you are,

whether you're young, whether you're older, it doesn't matter. From

this very moment, the mind of Christ has been made

available to you and I so that our thoughts are higher,

that our ways are higher. Not way long time from here, no,

right here and right now. You can say, just like

a child with child faith, like you could say, God,

I receive your word. I'll take you at your word.

I'm going to do this. I'm going to conquer the

sin that's trying to put me down. I'm going to conquer.

I'm going to have a great victory over my mind

and the thoughts from the enemy that tell me otherwise.

I'm going to have great victory because your thoughts are higher,

your ways are better, are higher. So therefore my ways

are higher and better. Hallelujah your ways, Hallelujah. He makes

the path straight that you could walk, Thank you Jesus.

Childlike means remaining teachable, humble, vulnerable. Verse four says, whoever

continuously humbles himself to become like this little child is

the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. Well, I humble

myself thirty years ago. That's good enough. No, it's not.

Well I humble myself. You know that one time or

that second time. No, continually humble yourself. Continuously humble yourself.

Even right now, you believed a lie of the enemy

that stopped you from being able to live out the

fullness of God and living the Kingdom of Heaven, entering

into the Kingdom of Heaven. But today no more in

Jesus Name no more. In Jesus Name, today you enter in. Today,

you humble yourself again. You acknowledge that he is the

King of Kings, that he's the Lord of Lords, that

he forgave every single sin that you have committed, that

I have committed, That he's God great plans for us,

that his thoughts are greater than the grains of the sand. Hallelujah.

I'm going to humble myself today because I want to

be able to experience warrior like victories in my life.

I'm going to humble myself today and I'm going to

have a child like faith, and I'm going to receive

his word because he said it. I believe it so. Father.

Right now, I just thank you, Lord, that we remain teachable, humble,

vulnerable dependent on You of God. I pray right now,

Father God, that we would have the innocence of a child,

that we would completely trust in You and you alone,

Father God, not in the systems of this world, not

in the kingdoms that we have built for ourselves, Lord,

but for the Kingdom of Heaven, Father God. I thank

you Lord for the child like faith imparted in the

people here today. Lord, I thank you God for the

childlike faith. Hallelujah that moves mountains. I thank you that

your Holy Spirit is helping us today, Father God, to

receive your word and to walk it up so that

we can have warrior like victories. In Jesus' name. Amen

and Amen, God, bless you and less. If you are

here today for the first time, or if you want

to have an encounter with Jesus, you want your life

to be transformed. You want to receive the mind of Christ.

You want to receive the higher thoughts. You want to

receive the new life. I'm gonna invite you to come

up to the front. I want to pray with you,

Destiny Team. Will you come join me in the front.

If you have believed the lie of the enemy that

you're not worth it, if you have believed the lie

of the enemy that you should end your life. If

you have believed the lie of the enemy that you

are not worth we want to pray. We want to

pray with you. We want to speak the word of

the Lord over your life. In Jesus' name. Amen,