Walking By Faith in Perplexing Times - Habakkuk: Pilgrimage to Higher Ground

Hey, I'm Pastor Steve Hole.

I want to empower you today to walk in your true identity as a worshiper and warrior.

Today, embrace the power of God's Word and the Holy Spirit.

Welcome to the Born for War podcast.

I want to talk again about Habakkuk.

We're in the book of Habakkuk.

Sometimes it takes a little work to find Habakkuk.

It's okay if you need to go to the table of contents to find it.

This is our third week in the book of Habakkuk.

And the vision, the theme of Habakkuk is a pilgrimage to higher ground.

A pilgrimage to higher ground.

And what we learned in chapter one was how devastated Habakkuk is with A, the condition of his own nation of Judah, but also the fact that Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians, he calls them the Chaldeans, are coming and they're coming quickly to attack Israel.

And he's concerned about that, and he cries out to God.

He's the one prophet in the Bible that doesn't begin his book with a word from the Lord.

He actually has a word to the Lord.

And he's complaining to God.

And verses 1 through 4 at the beginning, he gives his complaint to God.

And if you recall, we talked about how it is in many of our lives that we complain to God about things that are happening in our lives.

And I said to you, and I'll emphasize it again, God can take it.

He's big enough to handle it.

And if you feel guilty about that, then I want to just kind of put grace on that and say, if you stay there, not good.

But we all have those times where we just don't understand what God's doing.

And that's the state of Habakkuk.

He doesn't understand what's happening, and he feels frustrated by it.

And the frustration that he's going through is not unlike what we go through.

So I want to talk about today about walking by faith in perplexing times.

Walking by faith as we look at the perplexing times that we're in.

So look at Habakkuk 2.

We're in chapter 2, and I'm going to just camp on verse 1.

Next week we'll cover the rest of chapter 2, but today I want to talk about verse 1.

So Habakkuk, if you recall, verses 1 through 4, he's just complaining.

He's crying out to God.

He's been praying about stuff, hasn't seen any answers to his prayers.

And then verses 5 through 11, God answers him and he doesn't like what God says.

So it's one thing to want to hear from God.

It's another thing to want to hear from God something that you think God should say and then he doesn't say it.

That's kind of tough.

Okay, so it's definitely a walk of faith in being a Jesus follower.

God doesn't always speak the way we want him to speak.

So he gives a word.

He says this.

He says, look, Judah is rebellious.

They're my rebellious people, and I'm actually going to use Nebuchadnezzar, and I'm going to use the Babylonians to destroy Jerusalem, basically.

He's saying it, he doesn't say it specifically, but that's where it's going to go historically.

Then in verses 12 through 17, Habakkuk's not done with God yet, and so he whips up another complaint to God.

But in the midst of that, there's a transition.

You may have caught this last week.

There's a little bit of a move in the heart of Habakkuk to the holiness of God.

He says in verse 12, Are you not from everlasting, O Lord, my God, my holy one?

We shall not die.

Surely that's not your plan.

O Lord, you have appointed them for judgment.

O rock, you have marked them for correction.

In other words, how could God be using a more evil people than us to correct us?

Well, I don't understand all that.

It's definitely a mystery.

But that's the state of being.

And then Habakkuk is kind of used up his bullets, and so now he takes a different tack.

So I want you to look at chapter 2, verse 1, because I think this is a word for us today.

In our state, in our nation, in your marriage, in your family, in your finances.

We come to that place, we've argued with God, we've tried to get ourselves out of the situation of that.

And then you have to come to this place.

You really do.

You have to come to this walk of faith, and this is where it starts.

I will stand my watch.

Verse 1A.

I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart, underline or circle rampart, and watch to see what he will say to me and what I will answer when I am corrected.

Now I think it's interesting that Abakak's already planning on getting corrected.

I mean, he's gotten, he's already gotten kind of blown away by God a few times, and like he's not expecting that God's that impressed with what he has to say.

But what's impressive here is that instead of talking so much, instead of arguing, instead of just petitioning God, he's now gonna go to a high place.

He's gonna go to a high place, and he's gonna take his stand there, and he wants to hear from God.

That's really important.

Some of you never do that.

Some of us never do that.

We complain to God, we're upset at God, things aren't going our way, and then we just keep complaining to God and telling God and telling all of our neighbors about how hard everything is.

But Habakkuk, the prophet, the one who begins with complaining to God, finally has to put a stake in the ground and say, I'm gonna watch.

I'm gonna be a watchman.

I'm gonna be a watchman because I'm watching for something.

I'm waiting on God.

I need God to speak to my heart.

I don't know about you, but I can tell you from watching the news, podcasts, all the things that are out there, that it's really, really frustrating.

It's frustrating to see our nation so blessed, unbelievably blessed.

I mean, you got in your car today, you drove here, and you didn't see any violence on the way, you drove here, you saw clean streets, you saw clean sidewalks, you probably didn't even see a sheriff's deputy or a police officer anywhere.

There were no guards.

Now we I guess we do have kind of guards.

We have our security here, but you wouldn't know who they are.

I mean, you don't you do you know how rare that is in our in the world today?

That that you're not in a military, take a military control atmosphere with grime in the streets, gangs everywhere.

Now, some of our cities aren't all that great right now.

The Bay Area is not a great area in Chicago and New York and LA.

But by and large, it's amazing what we've been blessed by, and yet we see this soft totalitarianism coming in.

We see censorship gradually starting.

You only censor when you're afraid, listen, you only censor when you're afraid of truth.

You only censor when you're afraid, well, no, no, no, no, that's not true, Steve.

You're so naive.

Don't you know that you need to censor because it's misinformation?

Well, it is misinformation for them because it's truth, and when truth sets you free, you start having a new kind of love for your nation and where it's come from and where it's gotten you to hear.

And if someone's trying to change the very fabric of the nation, you've got to use their misinformation to censor the news.

And I'm not saying all the news, right or left, is always perfect.

I'm not saying that.

It's made up of human beings, and you do need to use a lot of discernment.

The point, though, is that we're blessed with so much, and we take it for granted.

And I want to challenge you, you need to vote.

Vote your heart, vote your conscience, vote your Bible coming up.

And then we see the moral decay of the church, Big Eva, the big evangelical church with all the scandals of the last year.

It's enough to drive you crazy.

It's like all the time you see stuff.

And so Habakkuk's experiencing this too.

He's experiencing the moral decay of Judah, and he's experiencing the work of the Chaldeans, the Nebuchadnezzar, and the Babylonians that are coming.

He takes his stand.

He gets himself on a high tower.

So I told you to circle or underline rampart.

Right on the side with your pen, high tower.

High tower.

So here's what we believe.

We believe that what happened with Habakkuk is he stationed himself on a high tower.

And high towers were very prevalent in medieval and ancient times.

And so you saw that in uh Lord of the Rings.

So the Lord of the Rings, and we see the towers notifying each other through bonfires of a coming enemy.

An enemy's coming.

So there's two types of towers at the time of Abakak.

There was a tower in the middle of an agricultural field.

So you had a tower in the middle of an agricultural field.

We might call that today a deer stand.

No, I'm not kidding.

But you had a tower in the middle of an agricultural field, and you were looking for thieves.

You were looking for people who were going to come in and steal some of the grain.

So that's one tower.

Then there was also a tower that was usually in the middle of a walled fort or a castle area.

And in the case of Jerusalem, it was probably on the corners, the different towers, where you could see an enemy coming.

So it appears that Habakkuk had a tower, and he probably went to the same tower each time because he saw himself as a watchman, a watchman over Israel.

Jeremiah, same time period, saw himself as a watchman over Israel.

This is during that time when Jerusalem's gonna be taken over by the Babylonians and Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they're gonna be stolen away from their homes and taken back to Babylon.

So he he stations himself in this high tower and he's gonna watch and wait for God.

Church, you need a high tower in your life.

You need a watchtower in your life.

You've got to go to the higher places.

If you don't go to the higher places, you'll stay in the lower places.

And God calls us out of the valleys of depression, out of the valleys of anxiety, out of the valleys of worry, into the high places of God's peace and his joy.

But you have to go there.

God's not gonna grab you and pull you up there.

He's asking you, he's inviting you to come.

I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart.

Habakkuk sets himself on the higher ground.

So many of you remember the dream that Liz had back at the latter part of December of 2023 of a black wave.

A black wave was gonna come, and God said, you need to be on the higher ground.

And I don't know if that's the floods and the hurricane in Florida, North Carolina.

I don't know.

Several people have come to me.

People came up to me before the service, first service, and said, remember Liz's dream?

And I said, yes.

And they said, I think that's the hurricane.

And I said, could be, could be.

But here's here's the here's the teachable moment for all of us.

Got to go to the higher ground church.

So when Liz and I speak at the women's conference on unshakable, how do I be unshakable during shakable times?

That's what we're gonna talk about.

We're gonna talk about how do you come to the unshakable higher ground and leave the shakeable valleys of worry and doubt.

Everybody struggles with it.

It could be finances, it could be your job, it could be your marriage, it could be relationships.

Whatever it is, we all go through shakable times.

And doesn't it feel like sometimes just when you get through one shakeable thing, you got another one coming down the tube?

So, church, we can't change the shakable, but we can change us in becoming a people who are unshakable.

And in Hebrews it says that we're receiving a kingdom that is unshakable.

You have the kingdom within you.

If you're a Jesus follower, you have the unshakable kingdom.

So turn to Psalm 24.

Keep your finger in the back, go to the left, middle of your Bible, Psalm 24.

And this was, if you recall, you that were with us, at the beginning of the year, we had the New Year's Eve worship and prayer night, and Liz and I taught from Psalm 24.

And we said that God was telling us that it was Psalm 24 for 2024.

It was Psalm 24 for Psalm 24.

I had a prophetic guy who I heard up in Castle Rock a few months ago, came down to do a podcast with Emmanuel.

He came into a teaching I was doing with my staff on a theology of the kingdom of God class on Thursday.

This was Thursday a week ago, and he said, I listened to your wife's message about her dream and what you guys shared about Psalm 24.

I mean, you did.

He said, Yeah.

And I wanted you to know, remember, Highway 24 comes right through Colorado Springs.

And I'm like, man, there's a lot of 24s going around here.

I also wanted to tell him Willie Mays's number was not number 24, but I didn't say that.

Um but Psalm 24, let's look at that because I think it is a it is a picture of going to the higher ground.

The earth is the Lord's in all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein.

For he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.

Who may ascend the hill of the Lord?

Or who may stand in his holy place?

He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully.

He shall receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek him who seek your face.

So he's saying here that there is a group of people that can ascend the hill of the Lord, and they are those that have cleaned hands and a pure heart.

So he's talking about the outer life and the inner life.

And church, you say, I know we say, because we're a pretty vulnerable congregation, we're open about stuff.

Well, I'm not perfect and all that.

That's not the point.

He's perfect in all that.

He's perfect in all that.

And through the blood of the Lamb, through you receiving and putting your trust in him, you are one who at least positionally has clean hands and a pure heart.

We say we may not be there yet.

That's called sanctification.

I'm talking about justification.

You are justified before the Lord, you are fully forgiven, you're fully righteous, and the more you look in the mirror and see yourself righteous, the more righteous you'll become.

How many of you know that what you focus on, you become?

So if you focus on your unrighteousness, you're just gonna get more unrighteous.

Or you're gonna be so full of shame all the time you can't do anything good in your life.

And what God's saying is, no, I see you as forgiven.

I see you as a son of God, I see you as a daughter of God, you are beloved, you can ascend the hill of the Lord.

You can ascend the hill of the Lord, the tower of God, every day, if you desire.

Now look at this.

Look at what he does next, because this is really important.

Verse 7: lift up your heads, O you gates.

Be lifted up, you everlasting doors, and the king of glory shall come in.

Who is this king of glory?

The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.

Lift up your heads, O you gates, lift up you everlasting doors, and the king of glory shall come in.

Who is the king of glory?

The Lord of hosts, he is the king of glory.

Now listen to what I'm gonna say next.

It's really important.

You lift Christ up, and he will lift you up.

If you lift Christ up in praise and worship, if you lift Christ up in your prayers, if you lift Christ up in focus, he's gonna pull you up to the higher ground.

But you have to worship him.

Five times there, he says that he's lifting up the king of kings, that the king of glory shall come in.

So that's our responsibility, church.

We set the stage for the king of glory to come in.

And then he comes in.

And he's strong in battle.

He can fight your battles.

He's just looking for a people to let him fight.

He's armed, he's ready, he knows how to fight the devil and all his emissaries, he knows the issues you're going through.

He's just looking for you to invite him in, invite him up into the high tower, and he will be the watchman.

He will be the warrior.

He's warrior and watchman over our lives.

But will you do it?

Church, will you do it?

Will you start each day going into the tower, going up to the higher ground, and spending time with the Lord?

For me, it's a fire pit, man.

I like my fire pit.

And I like that fire, I got I figured out how to do fire pits.

I'm a fire pit expert.

I want you to know.

And it's really weird.

I mean, everybody's got their thing, right?

But I like fire pits.

So I got a fire pit.

And I take those Amazon boxes where we get, I'm I'm always ordering books and stuff, so I've always got boxes, and then I fill it with wood and I stick it in the fire pit.

And then I get up in the morning, I go, throw it, boom, fire.

Really good.

And then I also love my office.

I have an office up on the second floor and I go in there.

So what's your high place?

Do you have a high place so you go?

It could be a you're a little tiny apartment you live in and you got this little closet.

Well, then go in there.

Or you do it in bed.

You just, you know, put the pillows up and do it right.

I don't care, it doesn't matter.

But the high place is that spiritual place where God wants to meet with each one of you.

The name of the Lord is a strong tower.

The righteous run to it and are safe.

Proverbs 18, 10.

Worship you're about to be introduced into.

The opportunity this morning to worship as a family of God after I'm done, as a response to truth.

Look at the words that Josh and John have chosen.

They're about the higher ground, they're about the high place.

Do you realize that when we just when we say Jesus, we just say the name Jesus is a high tower.

The name Jesus is a high tower.

I have walked into many a haunted house.

You say, Well, Steve, I don't know if I believe in haunted houses.

You just need to hang out with me more often.

I can show you haunted houses.

But I've been to a lot of haunted houses and there are demons all over the place.

Probably murders have happened there.

I don't know what's happened there.

But when I come in, I'm always saying Jesus.

Jesus.

Jesus.

Jesus.

And peace of God comes.

And we cast those demons out in the name of Jesus.

When I've dealt with someone who's demonized, I say, Jesus, shut up.

I tell you, spirit, to just shut up.

I don't want to hear from you.

And I'm going to tell you to leave right now, and you're going to leave in the name of Jesus.

Not me.

I'm bringing the high tower with me, man.

I'm bringing the high tower.

And I'm kicking that lower valley out by the high tower of the name of Jesus.

So the great secret of the Christian is Philippians 4, 6 and 7.

Jot that down.

You should have it memorized.

Everybody should listen, you married couples in this room that don't pray together and read the Bible together.

I know it's a lot of you.

I know you're out there.

Okay, memorize this verse together.

If you can't make the big step of praying together yet, it's okay.

You're gonna get there.

You keep hanging out with me, I'll make you get there.

Um as you start to grow in the Lord, start with Philippians 4, 6 and 7 and memorize it together.

Be anxious for nothing.

But in all things, all things, through prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God, and the God of peace will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

That's the that's the secret of the Christian.

That's the secret to the high places, is going to the Lord with everything, praying with petition, with supplication.

In other words, guess what prayer is?

Prayer is not worship.

Worship is worship.

Prayer is not meditation, meditation is meditation.

Prayer is asking and receiving from God.

That's how Jesus defines prayer.

We just said it in the Lord's Prayer.

That's all petition, man.

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is.

Give us this day our daily bread.

Forgive us our trespasses.

We forgive those trespasses.

I like trespass better than I like who likes trespass better.

Yes, my people.

Yes.

I thought it had it in there.

I thought I had the traditional one.

I it's so hard to get the one that I really like.

But we'll we're gonna get there.

I'll write it myself.

Stop worrying and start praying.

Give everything to God and leave it with him.

Give everything to God and leave it with him.

This is so hard to do.

Everybody nod if you say, This is hard to do.

Right, it's hard to do, right?

But yet, Paul says be anxious for nothing.

I mean, this is this is like a kingdom health principle.

All right?

Worry is the number one reason you get sick.

Stress is one of the number one reasons why you get sick.

So it's not germs in the air, it's germs in your spirit.

Because you worry about stuff.

And so what you do is every time you worry, you're just chopping down your immune system.

You're just chopping down your immune system.

How many of you hear bad news and within 24 hours you started feeling sick?

Nobody's raising their hand because nobody wants to admit it, but I know it's true.

He says, I will stand my watch, set myself on a rampart or higher ground, a high tower, and watch to see what God will say to me and what I will answer when I am corrected.

So Habakkuk determines to watch and wait on God.

So this is this is an Abak lesson right now.

You have to stop, you have to watch, and you have to wait on God.

Waiting on God and watching God.

Psalm 25 says, Lead me in your truth and teach me.

For you are the God of my salvation, on you I wait all the day.

Psalm 62.

Truly my soul silently waits for God.

From him cometh my salvation.

He only is my rock and my salvation.

He only is my defense.

I shall not be greatly moved.

Isaiah 30, blessed are all those who wait for him.

Isaiah 64, for since the beginning of the world, men have not heard nor perceived by ear, nor is the eye seen all that God has for you, and how he acts for those who wait for him.

Tremendous blessings promised all through Scripture, hundreds of passages, that if we'll wait on God, God will bless us.

If we'll watch and we'll wait, if we'll go to the high tower and we'll watch and we'll wait, God wants to bless that.

He's gonna honor that time spent.

Listen, church, waste your time by watching for God.

Waste your time by watching for God and watch what He will do.

So, how do we wait on God?

I want to give you four quick steps.

How do we wait on God?

Number one.

Number one, you gotta have a high tower somewhere.

You gotta have some high ground.

You have to have a place where you go.

It could be a chair with a lamp, and that's all you got.

It could be a closet, it could be your bathroom.

Wherever you can find a place that you can close the doors and be quiet, and all you mothers out there that have little kids, your sanctuary is the bathroom.

I know it is, because I watched this thing for many, many kids, okay?

So you find higher ground.

Number two, pray.

Pray and listen.

Pray and listen.

Pray and listen.

Pray and listen.

Share your heart.

Be anxious for nothing, but in all things through prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.

So you share your heart, but then slow down enough to listen.

And then thirdly, read God's Word.

Open God's Word.

90% of everything you know and everything you need to know is found in God's Word.

And then fourthly, watch and listen.

Watch and listen.

Watch and listen.

So don't rush in and rush out.

Don't rush in and rush out.

How about going to that high place, wherever it is, wherever you go, seek the Lord, read His Word, get quiet, like I did today.

I get up early.

I'm an early riser.

A lot of you are not.

That's okay, but that's what I do.

I get up early and I work out.

So I work out for at least 30 minutes, and then I go up, either I go up into my my room, my office there, and what I like to do is just have all the lights out.

All the lights out, and I just flick on the fire.

Another, isn't that great?

I can just flick on the fire.

So I flick on the gas-powered fire, and it's just a flicker of a flame, and I get really quiet before the Lord.

Before I open the word, do anything.

I just listen to the Lord.

And listen, 99% of the time I don't hear anything.

I don't hear anything.

But I do it because sometimes I do.

How many of you know that one piece of advice from God is worth about a hundred from other people?

Okay?

So we wait on God.

And so some of you are in a pickle financially, in a pickle in your marriage, in a pickle at your job, in a pickle in your relationships, because you don't ever do that.

You don't ever wait on God.

You don't even go to the high tower.

You don't even go up and spend time with Him.

And so God says, Fine.

Reality is what you hit when you're not listening to God.

Reality is what you run smack dab into when you're not listening to God.

So people come and say, Well, what about our marriage, Steve?

Can you help us with our marriage?

Yeah, I can help you with the marriage.

Before we have even a meeting, why don't you take 30 days and you guys pray together and read the Bible together every day and then come back and see me?

Oh, no way we could do that.

Well, what do you want me to say?

Read Mad Magazine.

Why don't you guys just read Mad Magazine and Newsweek every day and just see if it gets better?

All right, five ways God speaks today.

I want to finish up with this.

Five ways that God speaks today.

I am not a cessationist.

Okay, for you that know what cessationism, the idea that the gifts, the power gifts, all ceased after the first century.

I don't believe that.

So I believe I'm a continuous.

So here's the first one.

And this is the most important point.

God speaks through his word.

God speaks through his word.

90% of everything that you need to know about your life is found in this book right here.

It's knowing God's word, it's reading God's word, and then it's obeying it.

Then it's obeying God's word.

Right?

And we all mess up, we all have struggles, but it's spinning time.

It's a lamp to our feet.

It's a lamp to our path and a light to our feet.

It's a lamp to our feet.

It's a light to our path.

Well, a lamp, old timey lamp, only shown a certain amount of space.

It wasn't like the high-powered flashlights like we have today.

So it's a lamp to our feet.

In other words, it's your next step.

The best thing when you feel overwhelmed is just do the next right thing.

Don't worry about five years from now.

Don't worry about a year from now.

What's the next right thing to do?

And you do enough right things, and you'll end up right where God wants you to be.

Guess what?

Don't spend any time in the Word, you'll do the next wrong thing.

You'll just do the next wrong thing because you're not listening to God, and before you know it, you're way over here in left field.

You know, well, how did I get there?

Because you weren't going to the high place, spending time in God's Word and letting Him speak to you.

They say, Well, what do I do?

I'm way over here now.

We're bankrupt.

We have nothing.

Everything's going to a pot.

Do the next right thing.

Just do the next right thing.

Don't listen to the next right podcast.

Listen to the next right thing in God's Word.

Just do that.

And you know, it won't happen overnight.

You're not gonna have demons aren't gonna go flying all over the place.

You're gonna just have to just keep doing it and keep doing it each day, and gradually you'll get back to that narrow path that God has for you.

So number one, God speaks through his word.

Number two, God speaks when we listen.

Hello.

Anybody here married?

Okay.

Listen to your wife, men.

Listen to your husband, women.

Alright, listen.

Anybody know that you people usually quit talking when nobody's listening?

And God sometimes needs you to be willing to listen so he can speak.

He'll speak if you'll listen.

So listen up in prayer.

Number three, God speaks through wise counsel.

Wise counsel.

I'm not talking about your cubicle mates that are, you know, full of the culture and full of what everybody else says.

I'm talking about godly men and women.

Getting counsel from godly men and women, getting counsel from talk to someone about finances who's successful at finances.

You don't need a pool of ignorance to add to the ignorance that you already have.

But get wisdom from others.

I have counselors in my life.

And for different things, I go to different people to get wisdom.

God speaks through wise counsel.

God speaks through visions and dreams.

God speaks through visions and dreams.

In the first sermon by Peter at Pentecost, he said, In these last days, in these last days, your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.

So at my age, I'm dreaming more than envisioning.

Okay?

But God speaks through visions and dreams.

In Liz and I's life, we wouldn't be here.

We took 40 days and nights to seek God about whether to start the road church.

We were in a process of three years from Okinawa back to the States to start Mountain Springs Church.

So God was speaking through visions and dreams.

And then lastly, fifthly, God speaks in your spirit.

You guys, God speaks in your spirit.

So that's that peace that comes when you heard from God.

And if you don't have that peace, then don't do anything.

Don't take that step unless you've got a peace from the Lord to take that step.

I think that life should be about going from peace to peace, not from turmoil to turmoil.

Or thinking that we're in turmoil, so that means I need to run to peace.

Like the kind of the grass is the greener, grass is greener on the other side of the fence mentality.

No.

Make your dead grass green right where you're at.

Find peace there, and God will open up the next one, next peace, the next peace, the next peace.

Does that make sense?

So God speaks today.

God wants to take us from the valley of worry to the high ground of peace and faith.

That's where Habakkuk's going.

And we're going to see the next part of that, big next part of that next week.

Thank you for listening to the Born for War podcast.

We hope today's message has empowered you to make a difference in your world.

To connect with Pastor Steve's sermons, books, and blog, visit Steve Holtonline.org.

God bless.