Power Against Enticement | Pastor Dwain Wolfe

Hallelu hellnlu hellnlu. Good morning, Church, hallelujah. And it awesome to

be in the house of the Lord with the most amazing people on the planet.

And it's fun. Where is God? He's doing such amazing things with

us Matthew twenty five. And then the kingdom of Heaven will be comparable to

ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the groom. Five

of them were foolish and five were prudent or wise. For when the foolish

took their lamps, they did not take extra oil with them, but the

prudent ones took oil in flasks with their lamps. Now, while the groom

was delaying, everybody say, groom delaying. What did the groom do?

He delayed that groom what in the world. They all became drowsy and began

to sleep. But at midnight there was finally a shout, behold the Groom

come out to meet him. Then all those visions got up and trim their

lamps. But the foolish version said to the prudent ones, give us some

of your oil, because our lamps are going out. However, the prudent

ones answered, no, there must be no, there must certainly would not

be enough for us, and you too, go instead of the merchants and

buy some for yourself. But while they were on their way to buy the

oil, the groom came and those who were ready went in to meet him

to the wedding feast, and the door was shut. Holy bless your wear

this morning. Joel and I talk often about how our generation has never seen

a move of God. We've never seen an actual outpouring and awakening like a

even in our nation. Now, in our nation, there's been awakenings.

There's been the first grade awakening, second great awakening, et cetera, et

cetera. There's been and you can read about those and study those, but

we've never seen one. You in this building, we've never seen a great

awakening. And we're crying out to God, God, this generation needs a

great awakening God. This nation needs a great awakening. This nation needs the

outpouring of the spirit like never before. And it's in an atmosphere of prayer.

It's in an atmosphere of that kind of preparation that He longs to come.

And it's always been, it's always been with every awakening, not only

in the United States, but also around the world. If it was in

the New Hebrides, or if it was in Wales, or wherever God moved,

it was at the beckoning of prayer. It was those who had oil

in their lamps. It was at the beckoning of those who had oil in

their lamps. And so we don't know when the Groom's going to come.

We don't know when he's going. And this is not I'm not talking about

the second coming. We're not going to miss the second coming, but there's

comings in between. Acts three says repent, so that times of refreshing from

the Father would come. We repent. We ready our hearts. In repenting,

we rent our hearts and not just our garments. We become tender.

We live in humility. We seek him, yearn for him, We run

after him. We keep oil in our lamps because we don't know exactly when

he's going to come. But what we know is he wants to come.

What we know is he wants to come in this generation. We know he

wants to come. Now we've heard the words of the billion soul harvest.

We've heard the confirmation of how God wants to move. We know that God

wants to move in a unique way. God's drawn you in on purpose.

You have been touched in a unique way and drawn, and you've been hauled

into something significant in this generation. We know it's not an accident that you've

been called you're a glory carrier, you're a revivalist. The fact that you've

attended or tolerated New Horizon for more than three weeks means you are actually a

revivalist. You're actually a revivalist. You actually don't mind getting a little tipsy

on the Holy spirit. I mean you actually want more. You actually want

the glory of God to come and cover the earth like the waters cover the

sea. You actually have a desire for that because you've hung around, and

so I'm convinced. If you're not totally convinced, I'm convinced because there's a

reason you've hung around, because God is drawing you into something deeper, because

you are going to be the ones who carry the torch. And it's about

keeping oil in our lamps. It's about it's about not letting our lamps become

dry because we don't know exactly when he's going to come, and it's not

just his coming like in our midst though the value of him coming in our

midst is beyond description. But it's also him coming to us individually. We

have to keep oil in our lamps for him to visit us individually, And

a visitation of us individually is supreme. It's Supreme's it's not enough for us

to park in the garage. It's not enough. It's not enough for us

to come to church and and think we're going to get it all. It's

not enough to park in the gara and think we'll become a car We we

we actually want to burn for him. We actually want to be near him.

We actually want intimate fellowship with him. We actually want to be We

want to have words deposited in our inner man that shift and change our trajectory,

they change our lives. We actually want that. So the same way

that we keep oil in our lamps so that we're ready for him is the

same the same thing that we do when he appears. It's like it's it's

all about him. It's all about him, and the enemy knows that.

And that's that's the thing, is that the enemy knows that if he can

pull believers off of their primary purposes, the enemy knows if he can entice

us away. We talked last week out of James chapter three that we're drawn

away into sin. I need to get a little closer to you, and

I won't be long today James chapter three. We're drawn away into sin right

when we have desires, and sometimes those are good desires. What we're talking

about right now, all the way through this. I mean, we can

have a lot of bad desires. Anybody ever had a bad desire? I'm

not even looking. Just go ahead and put up your hands. I'm not

talking about bad desire. I'm talking about good desires, noble desires, God

given desires. That's what I'm talking about. But each of us, if

we have these desires and these desires aren't getting fulfilled. And we introduced the

Big Heart to you last week. Remember the Big Heart, And we have

the handout for today. Where's your handout? Your handout has the ten Trees

of life on it, and you're free to look at the front of that

handout, but not the back. If you look at the back, you're

cheating and you'll get a spanking after the service. But we talked about the

ten trees of life, and these reside in your soul, not in your

spirit. By the way, these reside in your soul, and these ten

trees of life like health, finance, financial, well being, family,

romance and sexy stuff. Right, And we had up here influence and legacy,

and we had rest and recreation over here, and anyway, we got

all these. So you've got all these God given desires in here, and

you might even have some goals attached to that. Right. And what the

enemy knows, he knows that you are savvy, you're smart. You are

not going to transgress the Ten Commandments, So he knows that about you.

So you're not going to commit adultry, You're not going to lie. He

knows that about you. But what he's still trying to do is he's still

trying to mess up your effectiveness in the kingdom. He's still trying to diminish

your power. Because what he knows about you, he knows that you're an

intercessor that can move mountains. He knows that you're a king and a priest

in the earth. He knows that you're a ministry of reconciliation. He knows

some stuff about you. He knows that you're a walking house of prayer.

He knows you're a house of worship, just worship alone can shift everything.

You know that, don't sh You remember when Judah was sent out and Jehosephat

was at peril with the Midianites who had come, and they were beyond number,

and then the prophetic word came, and the prophetic word was to send

Judah first. And all they would do is just sing the Lord is good

and his mercy and do earth forever. And when they begin to sing it,

then God routed the enemy. Remember that just your worship alone is powerful.

Do you worship at home? How many of you worship at home?

Do you realize how powerful your worship is. Your power, your worship is

literally it can shift everything in your entire life. And all they did was

just sing that repetitively. They sang it, and ambushments were set up against

midian and a great victory was won that day. That's Second Chronicles, chapter

twenty. So prayer, worship. So the enemy is trying to pull us

off of this stuff. And by the way, this you know, this

is the kind of stuff that keeps oil in the lamp, right, but

it also does something else. Prayer and worship, intimacy, time spent adoration,

right, everybody say, time isn't time your greatest commodity. Time is

your greatest commodity. Money is not your greatest commodity. Time is Will you

spend it on him? See this is how we keep oil in the lamp.

This results in oil. And really, what happened with the five foolish

is the five foolish We're distracted. They were distracted away from the most important

thing. The most important thing was the arrival of the groom. The groom

shows up for me all the time. I don't know if he shows up

for you, but the groom shows up for me all the time. Because

I keep oiling my lamp. I don't know when he's gonna show up.

I just prepare the way for him to show up. Sometimes I'm just praying

in the Holy Spirit. Everybody say Holy Spirit. See the Holy Spirit gives

you a prayer language. And one Corinthians thirteen says it's either of angels or

angels, or it's a known tongue, known language. Right, we don't

know. But what I find is that I usually break into something with some

time spent three minutes in my spiritual language. Might not do much anything,

but but I'm still praying mysteries in my spirit. Something's still going on even

though I don't know or have the awareness in my mind right ris Conthien's fourteen.

Read about it when you get home if you want to PRIs Contien's fourteen.

But what happens is somewhere I break through a threshold. Right somewhere,

I break through a threshold when I'm praying in the spirit, and all at

once I leave this realm and I start connecting at a deeper place. And

what happens is with all of this, wherever we keep oil in our lantern,

how's that this is the spout where the goodies come out. I could

do better if I had time, but not much better. But what happens

is the thing that puts oil in your lantern and keeps oil in your lantern

Church, it's the same thing that opens up the heart of God to deposit

in you the things that will give you the power to resist the enticement of

the enemy. Now, enticement happens whenever there's a delay, And what happened

in this case the groom delayed. Wherever there's a delay on any desire coming

to pass, even if it's a god given desire, a god breathed desire

or a raima word given desire. Wherever there's a delay on a noble desire,

you and I, we become more vulnerable to temptation or enticement to fulfill

things on our own. We become more vulnerable to fear that it's not going

to come to pass, so we can begin to move into anxiety. Whenever

we move into anxiety, we usually start to move next into control, foolishness,

wasting time, self effort. Everybody, any self effort. People in

the building, I'm still not looking. Go ahead, raise your hand if

you'd like. I've moved into a lot of self effort. Pastors can move

into a ton of self effort. They sell all these books about church growth.

Run just run, run away from the book quickly, because he is

church growth. He is church growth. And by the way, it's not

church growth anyway, it's people growth. Grow the people. Don't grow the

church, just grow the people. Right, but self effort, every one

of us can get drawn. We're more vulnerable to be enticed and to get

into self effort, and to get into anxiety and to get into fear.

This is what happened to Abraham, right, Genesis chapter twelve. Go to

the land. I'm gonna show you. I'm gonna bless you. I'm gonna

make your name great. I'm gonna bless those that bless you, curse those

that curse you. This is gonna be awesome. I got something really good

for you, abe. And so he goes to the land, right,

but he was distressed of soul because him and Sarah didn't have any children.

Perfect baby dedication sermon right here, Maybe we got it going on. They

didn't have any children. And so he begins to talk to Father about this,

right, and this was the greatest This is family. We'll just put

family here. That was finance, and here's family. And so he begins

to talk to Father about this. And he's telling Father, you know my

number one desire as a child, Sarah and I. We don't have eight

children. Ah, I've got to Elia's this dude like my chief servant.

He's cool, but he's not flesh and blood. I'd like something on my

own. So he's talking to Father about this. We don't hear the promise

until Genesis seventeen. Genesis seventeen in conversation, then God begins to say,

I'm going to give you a child. But then the word comes and it's

definitely a rama. And the rama always comes wherever we're keeping the oil filled

up, right, keep the oil filled up, that's where the rama flows,

okay. And that rama is literally it's that rama from God. It

contains in it the power to resist enticement. That's what the Lord wants you

to see today. This is remember remember the power in the rama. May

say raymon. Now, Rama means it's a living word. Right. Logos

is a written word. Rama is a living word. God literally talked to

him and gave him a living word. And that's what enabled them to press

through for twenty five years until Isaac came against contradiction, against trouble through the

delay. And this is what this is why I felt like the Holy Spirit

was trying to say to us today, is that not only do we keep

oil in our lamps by taking time for Holy Spirit every day, but we

also in that manner open up our heart to receive from him living words.

And those living words give us the power to resist the enticement of self effort

and the enticement of wasted time, the enticement of folly, the enticement of

distraction, the enticement of all sorts of foolish stuff that will pull us off

of this, because what happens is when we get enticed and we get into

self effort, and we get into all of that realm of anxiety and fear

and trying to make it happen, is we no longer have time for this.

So we move from wise in the foolish. We move, we shift

category all at once. We don't have time for this because we were up

till midnight shopping for this, Or we don't have time for this because we

had to get up super early to watch that webinar, Or we don't have

time for this because we've got so many things competing for our time, because

we're so anxious and wrought up that the very thing that God is calling us

to that he gets fulfilled. So we forget the word. We don't keep

the Word centered at the forefront of our heart and our mind. If I

ever do that, a couple of us in the building prays the Lord.

Yeah, no, no, no, no, I'm sure every one of

us. Abraham struggled, but this is the central key to victory against the

enemy. See Jesus Hebrews twelve, Jesus endured the cross for the what for

the joy set before him? He saw you and me new word the cross

in other wards. He didn't veer off course, though there were opportunities to

do so. He's dealing with Satan himself, and those opportunities to do so.

He didn't veer off course because he kept in his sight, the vision.

He kept in sight, he kept And this is this is central.

If you don't have a word on and this is what I'm trying to say

to you, is it You need a word on your health, what to

believe for and how it will come to pass? You need a word on

your finances, what to believe for, how it will come to pass?

In the other words, is it through music? Is it through real estate?

You need a word what to believe for? On your family and how

it will come to pass? You need a word what was our Oh Roman,

you need it, I'll put it. I want to remember that.

You need a word what to believe for, how it will come to that?

Every one of these? Then where are you going to get that?

Where where are you going to get that? You're going to get that over

here? If you are not spending time draw near to me, James for

seven and eight, Submit to God, resists the levil. He will leave

from you, Draw near to me, Come near to me, draw near

to me. We haven't if we can find it, draw near to me,

and I will draw near to you. Well, I'm not hearing from

God. I mean, it's like I don't know. I'm just I'm just

gonna work this thing, and I'm just gonna try to make it happen.

I mean, I this is what you know I'm desiring, and I believe

that's of God, and and and I'm just gonna make this saying happen.

But I'm really not hearing from God. Draw near to me, and I

will draw near to you. Draw near, draw near, draw near,

Draw near to me, and I will draw near to you. Now,

the enemy's always got some alternative path. And the alternative path will cost you

more than you can imagine. And it may not be written with a big

clear sin sign held up by somebody in a red suit with horns on their

head. No, no, no, what if your wife holds up the

sign. Well, that's what Sarah did. Sarah said, honey, honey,

honey, this is not coming the past. This word is just not

coming to pass. But I've got this sweet little thing here that works in

the house Haygar. And I don't know, I just seemed like there's so

much delay on this and I don't know, I just I don't know if

I believe the whole thing. Anyway, Remember in the beginning, Sarah Laft,

when the promise came and so Abraham was enticed to go in with Hagar,

and it produced Ishmael, which has been the biggest problem on the entire

earth ever since it happened. Hello, somebody, do you want the biggest

problem you've ever had in your entire life? Keep going with self effort.

Just keep going with self effort, Keep going without oil in your lamp,

keep going discouraged because the groom hasn't come, keep going, just making it

happen without this. Don't take time for him, Keep not taking time for

him. I mean, you know, once a week, that's a lot.

That's enough right there. Besides, he's sovereign. If he wants to

do something, he'll do it. No, no, no, what you're

looking for is Ishmael. You're looking for a problem. You're looking for the

biggest problem you've ever had. And after it comes, you have to feed

it, take care of it, and beg God to bless it. He

begged God, can't you just bless Ishmael. Let's stand every one of these

trees of your life. They're worth praying over. We're submitting to the Lord,

frequently, yielding to his lordship, declaring his superiority over every desire of

your heart, every noble desire of your heart, honoring him above those things

what he loves. You know what? The coolest thing the Holy Spirit is

not when you bring him something you can't stand. It's when you honor him

and you say, I love you more than this, I love you more

than the greatest things that I love. I love you more than I love

the fulfillment in any their area of your life. It's powerful when you bring

these things before him, and you marinate these things in prayer, and you

wait before him on these things, and you invite him as the groom,

like grooms and brides are supposed to talk together, are supposed to be one.

And so you invite him to be engaged in every one of these trees

of your life, and you allow him him to have the precedent and the

priority and the pre eminent spot over those desires of your life. And you

do this in prayer. You do this in prayer. But usually because you

do that, he will feed you with the nourishment of living bread of Rayma,

words from above that will sustain you and empower you against temptation or enticement

into that which is stupid, foolish, costly, or a waste of time

when you're not even looking for it. That's what happens. It's like because

you choose him first, because you keep him first, because you don't worship

your time, but you give him first place with your time, then he

begins to drop down upon you when you least expect it. If missus Wolf

and I we say let's go do a romantic thing, let's go be romantic.

That sounds kind of planned. And so during that time of something romantic,

we've gone out to Stanley and Seaforts or something, you know, So

we get kind of dressed up a little bit, throwing a little cloth,

and we head out there. You know whatever it would be appropriate for me

to, you know, say something nice to her. We're on a date.

Oh you look beautiful tonight, littlely that would be appropriate. But you

know, the coolest thing ever is when we surprise one another when there's no

date, right, and we surprise one another. And I think that's kind

of how the raiment works. It's like you're over here and you're not asking

even or you're you're in the midst of the congregation, or you're in your

your your dedicated place, like it's been the garage for me or different rooms

for me. You know, I'll dedicate a spot and it's kind of my

spot where I get away with God and I have this courtship time with him.

But I'm not looking for an answer, and it's just in those times

that He just loves to surprise me. It's like the kiss from above comes

on my heart right and I pay attention and it sustains me. And now,

why would I want what the enemy's offering? Why would I want self?

Hebert? Why would I want this path, that path, the other

path? Why would I want to spend my wheels or waste time? Why

would I want to do anything that would harm this sacred relationship I have with

him, this daily connection that I have with him daily. Everybody say daily,

it's a daily connection I have with him? Why would I want to

harm that with anything. Why would I want to harm that with anything.

Now I'm out smarting the enemy. The enemy thought he had me, But

now I'm out smarting the enemy because it's not just the ten commandments that he's

trying to entice you to break. He's trying to entice you away from your

supreme love, trying to draw you away. And he's using your own healthy

desires to do it, your own ambition to do it, by distracting you

away from the main thing, the one thing, and out of that one

thing, out of that main thing, everything comes and everything flows. I

keep oil in my lamp, and I'm ready for the visitation of the groom

on my heart constantly, the visitation of a living word that's so much better

than anything the enemy would draw me away into or from Holy Spirit. We

say yes to you. We ask you to visit us this morning, that

you will draw us back to daily communion, that she will draw us into

the refreshment of the oil that flows when we turn to you and we look

to you, when we set aside time for you, when we honor you,

when we pray, when we worship, when we adore you, when

we intercede, when we engage in spiritual language, the tongue you've given us

from the Holy Spirit. We ask, we ask, we ask right now

today, today, today, that we will embrace a repenting of a lifestyle,

heart mindset, that we will embrace a repenting of mindset, that we

will turn it back to thanking you the center and the foremost and the supreme

thing that will put you back into the place where you belong in our lives

and in our walk. Lord. As we said last week, we say

it again, Holy Spirit, loose discernment on us. Loose discernment on us

to know that which is not of you, that which is enticing us away

from you. Provocus with discipline. Even we ask you, Holy Spirit,

to provocus with a discipline that says, no, I will not let anything

steal my romantic courtship, my romantic times with the Lord. I will not

let anything steal it. Let our lives be driven around our altar. Let

it not be that our alter has to conform to our lives, But let

it be that our lives are driven out of our alter and from our altar.

That our alter is supreme, and that we live, we live,

We partake of life out of all that happens and transpires in and through the

altar that we build to you. Thank you for this. While the worship

team starts to sing this song because it's just the appropriate, beautiful song for

this day. As they begin to sing it, which you just repent before

the Lord. Wherever the word is just touching you, I don't know that

it is. And this is not about condemnation or bondage. This is not

about making you feel bad. But this is a about the Holy Spirit,

our loving groom, calling us back into a balance of union with him.

So just allow him to talk to your heart. Allow Holy Spirit to just

touch your heart, and wherever an adjustment's needed, let it come. Come

into agreement that you'll make the adjustment, and then promise him, Promise him

today that you'll keep the oil filled up in your lantern so that the rama

will come. Because you don't have the power to overcome without a rama.

You don't have the strength of the spirit to overcome without that rama. Not

only the what, but the how the vision Proverbs nineteen twenty nine eighteen.

Without a vision, the people cast off restraint. Without a vision, Holy

Spirit wants to loose on you a vision over every tree of life, a

holy spirit inspired vision that will sustain you, empower you, uphold you,

strengthen you against all enticement, and keep you knit to the spot where the

oil is poured in