In Unison

Thank you Lord, say by faith, say by faith.

You know a lot of times in the in in the church, especially the

modern day Church of the in the United States, faith when spoken

of is spoken of typically in two categories.

Faith to be born again, filled with the Holy Ghost.

Again, that's elementary, very beginning teachings of the Word

of God. But then it seems to jump over

into personal benefits. Where is faith to receive?

Whether that's prosperity, prospering in your own life,

whether it's promotion homes, whatever that may be, or health,

faith, Those are the categories that we hear it in most.

However, you understand there are many situations.

In fact, your whole life is to be LED by faith, which means any

situation you find yourself in, you should be able to go live it

by faith. Meaning say, and the Bible does

tell us because Jesus told us he says in this life you just might

on occasions once you're born again is not as common.

No, no, you will have trials and tribulation, which means when

you then enter a trial, you in turn then confined scriptures

and trust God in that word to overcome that trial.

And this is not just for personal, it's for the nation,

is for your local government, it's for, you know, our national

government, it's for things going on in the world.

We can literally any situation going on in life, we can get

into the word and say, OK, according to the word by faith,

Lord, we believe you'll do this because you said you would do

this. Amen.

So when things are speaking contrary to your word, you said

you would do this. And we're believing we're going

to see that come to pass, even if it's not a direct benefit to

us, but because of what's going on in the world, Hallelujah.

You know, the Bible, we should be believing that the church,

the latter church, is going to be greater than the former

church. It should be a perpetual belief

system that when we wake up, we should be like, man, the Church

of Jesus Christ on planet earth is going to be greater in these

last days than in the days of Pentecost because why not?

Because we're hope it's that way, wishes that way.

No, he said it will be that way. And so we're saying now, Lord,

you said it would look like this.

So when I go into scripture and I start seeing where the Bible

tells us that we are one faith, 1 spirit in unity, I'm like, I

believe I'm going to see that. I'm going to see that group of

believers that they're going to be unified, come together.

They're of one mind, 1 accord, no selfishness, no selfish

ambition, no, you know, personal pursuits.

It's all going to be for him, His Kingdom, working together,

causing things to come. We can believe God for that and

see it manifest in our life. Amen.

Which means God would allow will navigate us so that we can see

the things in Scripture come to pass.

I am am firmly persuaded that we are definitely in the generation

we know we're in the generation that's closest to the return of

Christ than ever before. No one's ever been there closer

than us. But you start looking at the

signs of the time you could, you could almost conclude it would

be highly probable that it's in our generation.

It can be highly probable. I mean, you would not be missing

the mark to be able to say, I believe, Lord, I am the

generation that will be transformed in the moment, in

the twinkling of an eye that I'm going to put on immortality,

that I'm not going to go into the grave.

I'm going to be caught up together with you in the sky.

I mean, some generations going to be that and the things that

have happened just in the last 50 years shows us the

acceleration of this timeline. Hallelujah.

Now if he tarries, OK, but you know what, somebody needs to

stand around and believe that they're in that.

I'm going to be the one that can believe that and stand that way.

Amen. But in Ephesians chapter 6 verse

Ephesians 6:10

10, it says finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of

his mic. Now I'm reading now the new

American standard translation. Then he goes on in verse 11, Put

on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand

for firm against the schemes of the devil.

For our struggle is not say is not say is not say is not say is

not against flesh and blood. So that means you cannot look at

your neighbor and say it's your fault.

I'm not doing what I should be doing.

I mean, honestly, you can blame no person on the planet.

You cannot blame a person on the planet for why you're not

accomplishing something. Our battle is not against flesh

and blood. It's not against flesh and

blood, is against principalities and powers.

Now what I am not advocating or teaching is that there is a

little demon in every little corner of nook and cranny of

the. I'm not saying that.

I am not saying that. Now I don't have time to teach

on demonology today, but I will give a little insight #1 Satan

is not the opposite of God in power.

He is not. He is not all knowing like God,

which means for many people in this room, he doesn't even know

you exist. He doesn't know you've not even

popped on his radar. It says he roams the earth like

a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.

Well, if he knew who to devour, he wouldn't have to seek.

He he just show up. No, he's having to look for the

things that give him access. Now he knows his own kids

because they're of his nature, right?

And we know there are people of his nature.

For Jesus himself said you are of your Father, and it wasn't

God, he said. So we said we're all God's

loving people. We were all originally created

in the image of God. But after Adam fell, a new

nature of a different being came and death entered the earth and

the spirit of the devil became part of man in the context that

he was in full rebellion to God. And Jesus clearly stated to

religious people, we're talking people who could quote

scripture, you are of your father the devil.

Now you have to understand everyone on the planet while

Jesus was ministering Father was the devil because no one has yet

born again. Are you hearing me?

I'm not saying that some were not righteous because you

obviously could live righteous concerning what you knew in the

word and that allowed you to be able to go into what we call

paradise. Abrahams bosom.

They were the righteous dead awaiting for the blood of Jesus.

Glory to God, because when Jesus died he went down to paradise.

What did he tell the thief? He said today you will be with

me in paradise and in paradise there's a gulf of fix between

paradise and Sheol or the grave where there's great torment.

And those are the dead who never lived in any form of

righteousness and had redemption.

They had total rejection of God. Jesus leads captivity, captive

at at his death, burial and then resurrection.

So paradise does not exist today.

Today, if you are born again and you're leaving your body, you do

not go to paradise. You go straight to where he is

and he is currently residing at the right hand of the Father in

heaven. However, he is making plans to

come back. Hallelujah, I said, He's coming

back and we will be with him. Glory to God, so so spirits have

to roam around and and and look at scenarios and situations and

circumstances. You understand that.

But with that being said, he's telling us we need to be strong

in the Lord and our battle is not against flesh and blood.

But there are things that behind the scenes are moving to either

keep you one in your flesh. These are what they're doing.

The principalities and powers are doing a few things.

One's they're trying to maintain a veil over the lost.

They want to keep them blind in darkness.

They're constantly trying to shield the light from being able

to penetrate them. But if the light penetrates and

you become born again, that doesn't mean they leave you

alone. That just means they try to pull

on your carnality the the areas of you that you've not renewed

to the word and submitted to the word.

Now your spirit man's alive in Christ when you're born again.

Are you hearing what I'm saying? You become a new creature.

How in Christ, and we know Christ is not a last name.

It's title. It's the title of Jesus.

Jesus is the Messiah in the Hebrew, in the Greek he's called

the Christ, which translates to the anointed 1 and his

anointing. Well, what is that?

That's the King. Jesus is the King.

The King came to save the world from their sin, their treason,

their rebellion against the throne of God.

And when he died without sin, pouring out his blood on the

mercy seat, in essence, it paid all the penalty for everything

we've ever done wrong. And when we call on his name,

that spirit man that was no longer, that was dead to God is

evicted out of this skin suit. And he plants in us a brand new

spirit. But not only that, there's more.

He puts the Holy Ghost, the third person of the Godhead, on

the inside of us, and he bears witness with our spirit that we

are children of God. Can I get an Amen at that point?

He says. Now I have given you the

teacher, the instructor of Kingdom affairs, and he will

renew your mind to think royalty, to think like a king,

to think in this new nature that you are in.

Christ Jesus restored us to the same position that the first

Adam had, which is in Genesis chapter one verse 26.

Then God said, let us make man in our image according to our

likeness, and let them rule or have dominion over the fish of

the sea, over the birds of the sky, over all the cattle, over

every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and over all the

earth. So man was always to have a

position of rulership with God. God ruled all of mankind, of

which mankind ruled in his sphere or assignment in the

earth. So he, by all rights, Jesus, is

the king of. And who are those kings?

We are those kings. And so in order to function as a

king, though, you're going to have to think like one.

And our old thinking is not kingly thinking.

That's why He tells us that we are to renew our minds, to have

our minds transformed by the renewing of our mind, so that we

will know the will of God, that we can walk out God's perfect

will, that we can side with the Spirit.

And then it also allows our minds to be able to keep our

bodies in subjection so that it doesn't get to do what it feels

like wanting to do our in our minds or our soul realm, our

emotions. We don't side with how we feel

about something. We say, wait a minute, what is

God saying? Because when we we were dead in

our trespasses of sin, we can only live by how we felt.

You treated me wrong. I'm going to treat you wrong

because that's how I feel about it.

But when I get over here into the Kingdom, well now I don't

respond to you how I feel like I respond to you how God leads me

to and he, the way he leads me is always righteous and just.

Hallelujah. And so in order for us to

function like that as a believer, we have to renew our

minds. And that is what the Bible calls

the saving of the soul. That is our responsibility to

yield, to allow it to be saved. God cannot force us to change

our thinking. We can't change our spirit.

Only God could do that. God has now empowered us to have

our minds change because he's put in us the third person of

the Godhead, a spirit that wants to obey God and not sin and

rebel against him. So these two are very powerful

that should be able to say convince your mind, hey, get it

together upstairs, right? Get it together upstairs.

It didn't work too good for you before you came in here.

You might want to do it our way. Yeah, but it feels so, so

awkward. I understand it feels awkward,

but it's what's right. It's what's holy.

It's what's just. It's what the Father says.

Jesus says. I don't do anything on my own

initiative, but only what? The Father has told me to do and

if Jesus would not communicate, respond or act in any situation

till he's heard from heaven by the Holy Ghost, why do we think

we don't have to do the same? Why do we think that is not

required of us? Well, it's obviously required of

us because we are to live life in the earth as he did.

But he said, finally be strong in the Lord in the strength of

his might. Put on the full armor of God, so

that you'll be able to stand firm against the schemes of the

devil. For our show was not against

flesh and blood, but against rulers, against powers, against

world forces of this darkness, against spiritual forces of

wickedness in heavenly places. Let me go ahead and hit verse 13

as well. Therefore, take up the full

armor of God so that you may be able to resist in the evil day.

And having done everything to stand, we know the next verse

starts, goes on and says stand, right?

So in this passage of Scripture, what's really important about

this element? Because this is where many

people launch out of here to talk about spiritual warfare.

OK, I'm going to say one thing real quick about spiritual world

warfare. Christ has already conquered

these principalities and powers. It's, it's a defeated realm.

Excuse me? So you're not, you're not

directly fighting them because you're having to defeat them.

The only way you engage them is with the word.

Now notice when Jesus dealt with the realm he did, he wasn't

carrying on conversations. I mean, you get into some

places, they'll name every spirit, they'll talk about their

origins and all. And I'm like, man, I mean, you

can get over into some crazy stuff trying to make yourself

seem like you're so intelligent about which honestly, many

people who may have that information have probably

stepped over into a different realm that they should have

never been so deep into to have that much information.

Because when we see Jesus's encounter, he's like, it is

written. When he talked to the chief

bells above himself, King James called him Lucifer.

The Bible calls him Satan, the Prince of the power of the air.

And when he speaks to him, he said it is written.

He only quoted the word to him. He did not say, well, where did

you come from, right? He didn't do that.

He didn't engage that kind of conversation.

He just said it is written. And through every temptation,

everything that he came, we obviously have 3 instances

recorded in Scripture that he always came back with.

It is written Now we know according to the Luke account of

Jesus's temptation of Christ, that the devil knows what this

is about. And many places do not know what

this is about because then again, they think it's just

about you being forgiven of your sin so that when you die you'll

go to heaven. However, the devil knows what

it's about because that's why I said, Jesus, let me take you up

here. Let me show you all the kingdoms

because this what you want, right?

He said. I'll give them all to you

because they've been handed over to me.

Luke chapter 4 he said they've been handed over to me.

Luke 4 · chapter mention

See a lot of times we say it this way will the devil stole

it. The devil did not steal.

Adam abdicated his authority as having dominion over all the

earth and gave it to Satan. He gave away what God legally

gave him. This is why God could not come

to the garden and take it from Satan as God only.

He said let's make man in our image according to our likeness

and let him have dominion on the earth.

So in order for God to have that dominion.

Being restored back to man, a man must come and get it.

This is why Jesus has to be born.

He has to send a son. Hallelujah, because the first

Adam lost dominion in the garden.

The last Adam gained it in the garden because he said Lord not

my will, but your will be done. Send me to the cross.

Aren't you glad he went to the cross, man, Thank God he went to

the cross. He suffered all that for us.

And man, we do not want to cheapen that gift.

We do not want to downplay it. We do not want to act like, oh,

it's just something. Well, that was nothing.

Well, yeah, because for us. Lord, forgive me.

I'm so I repent of everything I've done wrong.

I mean, you truly mean it. Lord, save me.

You know, I thank you for gave me of all my sin.

I call you as Lord and you knew the day you became born again

and what seemed like such a easy action for you was a

tremendously troubling, difficult, nobody could ever

handle moment but God in the flesh name Jesus.

So what we call free was at great cost.

So never see free as flip it, because the greatest value is

the blood of Jesus. All right.

And so when when the Lucifer, you know, Satan shows him all

the kingdoms and all and said all these they've been handed

over me and I can give it to whomever I wish.

So this is all that's got to happen.

If you'll just bow down and worship me, I'll give it to you.

That's what you came for anyway, right?

And what did Jesus say? It is written there's only a

couple of other places that Jesus when engaging the demonic

realm, which are of the lesser power than Satan himself, that

there was another word and that was with the Mad Men of Ghaderi.

And he said to him, what is your name?

Outside of that, there was no other dialogue.

Because at a word go, come out, they were coming.

I said they were coming because they obey.

I said they obey. They obey.

It's only us humans today that he is in these times saying you

choose, it's up to you. I'm not going to force you

either way. But what I'm going to say is if

you'll choose me, you'll have life.

But if you don't choose me, you're going to have death.

Either way. You'll have what I say, but I

want you to choose life because I never destined you to

experience death anyway. Hallelujah.

So again, our struggle is not against flesh and blood.

There are forces out there. And so the last place we want to

do is is be in in contention with one another when there's

something bigger. But he says finally be strong in

the Lord and the and the strength of his might.

What's really powerful about this?

It says this Oh, excuse me, it says it says.

In this detailed teaching of when again spiritual warfare, it

presents 2 essential elements. First, you must be strong in the

Lord and in the power of His might.

Then you must put on the full armor of God.

The two are essential. Much teaching on Christian

combat neglects the first we. But if we take a weak man who

can barely stand and put the best armor on him, he will be

ineffective soldier and be easily beaten.

And it doesn't matter. He has the best equipment.

Doesn't matter. OK so you must first be strong

in the Lord. When I was in the military they

are. They send everybody through

basic training and the majority of basic training is not weapons

qualification, it's physical education.

I mean, you get to do that day one, right?

Beat your face. I mean, we beat our face all the

time. Now for those that are just

civilian and don't know that term, we were not doing this all

day. We were doing push ups all the

time. Now it's amazing how strong you

can get just doing push ups, how much endurance you can have and

then you would run and you do sit ups and there's different

activities. They had us doing that man

within an 8 week period. I mean, you can totally be

transformed now. I was a small guy when I went

into the service myself personally, you know, I was

really small so I was hoping to get bigger.

I think when I joined I might have been 120 something pounds,

maybe 125 when I went in. So I was, you know, I was

ripped. Can I say it that way?

I was ripped. So you know, I ran some before

but not a whole lot. And I didn't do a whole lot of

PT per SE before I went to basic, although I did go through

a pre basic with the Army National Guard before they sent

me off to Fort Jackson. And so, but when I got there, I

had to take my first PT test. I was actually shocked that I

almost did not meet the minimum in sit ups for two minutes

because for my age, I was 21 when I went in 20, I was 20.

I turned 21. No, I was 19.

I turned 20 in basic and so I was 19 years old and I'm doing

these sit ups that I needed to do 52 in 2 minutes.

I mean, I think I did 54. It was horrible.

I was I was concerned I was in the high 40s thinking am I going

to be able to punch this out now?

They would have not got gotten rid of me.

I just you know, they would have known where I was at.

Like, bro, we going to work on you push ups.

You know, I think I did maybe 60.

I was already upper 50s, sixties. 80 is the high point

for my age. 92 was the high point for sit ups.

And then the run I think was like 10 something.

You had to run it in 10-30 something and you had a perfect

score. OK.

And so I always said to myself, if I get the push ups, I'll make

myself run that 2 miles as fast as you're supposed to.

The most sit ups I ever did though in 2 minutes was 87 and

never hit 90. I mean, I, I didn't matter how

much I try to crank those things out, I just couldn't.

But in one minute I could do 80 pushups and I'd be up, I'd be

done like we're, we're done. So when you're in basic, you

know, when you're starting, all my military guys are laughing

because you're like, you're having flashbacks right now that

the drill Sergeant drops you down, at least in the Army.

And so they have this thing, you can't smoke a rock because they

are the rock. I mean, they do so many push

ups, you know, they do them in their sleep.

So when we first start, you're going to muscle failure.

And there's nothing more humiliating of the human body

than to watch a person go to muscle failure with a push up.

OK, I'll just give you an example what that looks like.

All right, So you're down like this and you'll start shaking

all crazy like this. I mean, as much as you want to

get up, you have met your muscle exhaustion and it's humiliating

looking, looking at all these guys flopping around like fish

out of water. You know, the drill starts like

can't smoke a rock, can't smoke a rock.

And you just like you. I mean, they RIP you down first

two weeks 'cause they don't want you.

They want the team, they want the unit, they want the platoon,

they want the camaraderie, they want the oneness.

OK so with that being said, by the time in a basic they had to

then trick us because when 1 jumped down, you know the one

that always started out doing that, you're like try me.

I mean we were like try me, I will smoke you.

I mean you were like you knew you had it in you and then they

would get up and switch the next one then it would come out can't

smoke or I like sure you got 70 push ups on us right now.

I mean, we have 70 push ups on you.

The point is it's amazing how strong it really exercises your

whole body. And the reason they do that is

so that when you do get into weapons qualification or

whatever you're doing, you are fit.

But believers just want to suit up.

You want to get born again and then suit up.

And I like you're going to get on a frontline like whoa, bro,

love you. I want you on the frontline too.

But we going to do some push ups first.

I just want to know, can you come to morning prayer at 6:00

AM? Me.

Can you come to morning prayer at 6:00 AM?

Because you not really ready to get out there and say you going

to fight the principalities and pull down the strongholds that

are all over, You know, Saint Augustine back in the back, you

know when they first came over, you know, and all the things you

ain't. You are not going to the beach

doing any of that. If you can't make simple morning

prayer or be committed to a local body church, be committed

to a unit, be committed to a body of believers that you can

March in unison together. Come on, don't make me do

arcanas again. You hear what I'm saying?

I mean, if we want to be with the full armor, we got to get

finally be strong in the Lord and you're not going to be

strong in the Lord if you're not reading the Bible daily, you're

not spending time in the word, you're not praying in the

spirit, building up your most holy faith.

And then we going to go try to fight, you know, a principality

and power. I mean, we struggle with

carnality, our own personal flesh, like putting down, you

know, it's raining today, probably won't go to church,

right? I mean, those types of things,

you know, can become problematic.

Now, why do I preach like this? Because it's the anointing in my

life. I'm here to inspire you to

continue to step out and do because you know what?

I'm going to continue to do my marching orders.

I'm going to do exactly what God's called me to do.

And then when the enemy comes, like he's comes and he cycles

through. And as you continue to grow and

develop as a believer, things are different in each stage of

your growth and development, and especially within the body that

you're assigned to. Because don't think the devil

just leaves the church unchecked.

He's afraid of us. I said he's afraid of us.

Listen, not every branch is created equal.

Come on. Air Force, stand up.

Stand up. Air Force, those in the Air

Force stand up. Anybody.

I know I had some Air Force guys.

Air's not here. OK, well, they eat the best.

I just want y'all to know they have the best food ever.

They really do. Anybody that's fair.

It's true. I mean, when we get Mr. ES, they

got steaks. We're like, what's happening?

You know, way more controlled climate environments for them.

You know their PT rigor was not the same.

Not the same at all, right? How many Marines I have in here?

Come on, stand up. I need a Marines now.

Did y'all do 12 weeks basic 1313?

OK, do 100. Oh, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK.

OK. Now now we you want to come up

here, you and I both will be cramping everybody laughing at

us right? Be like 10 OK y'all had to do

100 before you could be done. Now the pull ups is interesting.

I was at Six Flags with the youth crew.

I was a youth pastor in Oklahoma.

And so the Marines were there with the pull ups.

OK. And so they, you know, wanted to

give you a T-shirt if you could do 20.

Wait, we're looking for new recruits.

And I was like, with the youth, I'm like, I'll do that.

So I jumped up there. I snatched out 20 and dropped me

goes, why did you quit? I said, well, that's all that

was required to get the T-shirt. You didn't tell me that we were

competing, which I wish they would have known because you

know, then they posted somebody at 25.

I'm like bro, I could have beat that anyway.

But pull ups and chin ups are a serious deal and all branches

should do that for sure. OK, but not all branches are the

same, nor within the branch. There are some again in the Army

we have the Green Berets, but then we have this other group

called Rangers right now. At the end of the day, I was

neither of those, right? I was telecommunication.

I was in a Conex air condition, Coke and Little Debbie Cakes

working on radios and then they would come in and they are all

sweating and stuff, you know, looking like tough guys, like

wow, what's going on? Y'all doing all right?

Is it hot out there? What happened to you?

Ready. Yeah, bro, here we got you.

You know, we're one unit now don't get me wrong because at

the end of the day I want them there.

And I'll be the first one to say if I was standing, I have no

qualms saying that's the man right there.

And I have no problem saying that I have not put in the work

to be that soldier. Now we've all put in the basic

training in the Army, everybody is infantry.

Even if you have a different MOS, you're all infantry.

Because at the end of the day, if you need to take a weapon and

go to a line, everybody can take a weapon and go to the line.

However, there are some that are more skilled because they are

well trained to be able to do things and I do not have their

skill set. So I don't even pretend, right?

Don't even pretend. Well, you have to ask yourself

the question, what unit do you want to be on?

I had to ask the question, Lord, what church are you building and

which unit am I putting together?

Because you know, the other service trying to think of that

elite group, what are they called?

Navy Seals, thank you. The Seals, OK.

I mean those boys, they go, but man, they will tap out.

They get, I mean, there's many that try, but they do not

maintain the mental with resolve to be that elite of a soldier.

Debbie, did you see many Navy Seals when you were in?

No, Really. Never popped through.

Never had a foot problem, huh? That's too bad.

That's been kind of neat. So what happened to your foot?

Where were you at? OK, anyway, you know, not

everybody passes these things, OK?

But in God's Kingdom, if you want to be elite, now you can

be. And the only thing that stops

you from being elite is your mental toughness is your ability

to renew your mind, to get so locked into this word that you

are going to find yourself strong in the Lord.

Because use like I, I'm not going to let my carnal fleshly

self stay because my carnal fleshly self can't do this.

I have to be strong in the Lord. So I got to die to self so that

I can live to Him. I've got to crucify self so that

I can live to Him. I got a deke.

I have to decrease so that he will increase.

And when I'm weak, I acknowledge Him and his word, and He will

then make me strong. And in these last days, God

definitely wants us to be strong in the Lord and in the power of

His might. Because when it comes to put it

on the full armor of God, the whole armor is designed for one

thing, to advance. If you read it, you're going to

gird your loins with truth. You're going to put on the

breastplate of righteousness, you're going to shod your feet

with the preparation of the gospel of the peace.

You're going to take up the shield of faith.

You're going to have on the helmet of salvation and the

sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

When you look at the armor which this was a Roman centurion that

he was modeling, that was all what was on the front.

We are not talking about what's on the back.

Now the breastplate of righteousness obviously has a

back to it because they put it on, but the emphasis is the

battle was in the front of them. And in Romans mentality is that

we're not retreating. We are advancing and anchor

faith church. We are always advancing.

So we are always in the position of moving forward.

And here's the thing, it may because if you can just imagine,

we're all here, we have our shield and this shield is not

like Captain America stuff. I mean it cover it could cover

your whole body. OK, you're going to come in and

you're going to put that shield down.

You're going to be behind it. You've got your sword, your

helmet, your bread. I mean, you're covered up and

and the enemy can't even really see your body because it's

covered. You are covered in the word and

the enemy's arrows can't even get past the word.

So once you absorb his lies with the word 1st and it allows you

to strike with the word. I mean, you got the word with

the shield and the word with the sword.

And it may be you're like standing here and here's the

onslaught when you've done all the stand, stand.

But it's not because I'm doing this and we're never doing that.

I said we're never doing that. We're doing this, period.

And I don't care what the barrage is.

I don't care how bad the attack is.

I don't care how many to the left or to the right seem like

they're falling. The church is not retreating

church and retreating. That elite group is steadfast

standing and then at 1 moment they'll in unity because this

last church will say March, boom boom, one step and we'll get

momentum in seasons that we'll go take full territory.

Why? Because the gates of hell cannot

prevail against the church. So the only time that it seems

like we're not advancing is because we are up against a

principality. We're up against the gate and

we're pressing on this gate now, and when you're pressing on that

gate, then all of a sudden the enemies throwing everything down

from the wall, trying to keep you off the gate, off the wall,

But you just stand. You just keep pounding.

You just stand there and you keep taking a step in unity and

eventually the wall's coming down.

We're going to go ahead and take that territory, take all that,

and we'll go to the next gate. That's what it looks like.

Amen. We don't retreat just because

there's a challenge. And when there's heavier

seasons, it's time to gird up, buckle down, pull your

bootstraps and you find people who are not falling off you link

arms, you like, let's get this thing.

We going somewhere, we got somewhere to go, something to do

cuz man, listen, you can start with a group of 33,000 and the

Lord says, but the army's a lot larger than you.

I mean 185,000 strong or 1:35 I think it is.

And he says, well, we're not going to do 1:30.

So let's find out because when it gets hot in battle, who's

going to who's really just afraid to go in the 1st place.

If you're scared, go home. 23,000 people like we out of

here, bro, we gone. But I thought you were part of

us. Now we, you know, I mean we are,

but we're not that. I mean we are, but we not that.

Well, you know, again, if you aren't, you aren't.

I mean don't make don't make the the the 10,000 something less

that you're not. Now, don't try to talk down the

10,000 that didn't hear that 23,000 leave 10,000 like we

gonna move on. And he's like, man, look a

little large. They're looking large.

I think we going to have to wean it out.

Let's get let's get some drinking going on now.

I'm not talking drinking. You know, we're sipping water.

All right. And so what's he doing?

He says I'm, I'm, we need to weed out all who have

self-interest because the ones that put their face down have no

concept of what's going on around them.

Their only self preservation. I'm thirsty, I'm taking care of

me. I don't care about you beside me

and I'm going to get my water. You watch out for me.

But the ones are like, I watch out.

I got you, I got you back. 300, man, 300 became a mighty moving

force because you get around 300 and link up right now.

I don't say you're going to stay at 300.

I mean you could be 5000. The issue is everyone has to be

linked up. They have to decide that it's

not about me, it's about us. It's about the whole thing.

And again, when we are going to advance with the armor of God,

we're going to be strong in the Lord because first we are a

complete unit that is unified to continue to March on.

And we will only do what God says, even if it sounds as crazy

as showing a light. You want me to do what?

Just break. Just break it and blow a

trumpet, man. That's it.

OK, so I'm going to like, break this and blow.

Yeah, but now there's 135,000 people down there.

Yeah, I know. And you just want me to blow a

trumpet? Don't move.

Nope. OK, we got this.

Now, it sounds illogical, but they trusted the word.

Now in the scripture, they route themselves, but it's not like

everyone dies because Gideon takes these boys and they go

pursue and then they go conquer others themselves.

They do become a part of the battle and conquer.

And man, when you stay in the fight and get to the victory of

your faith, there's nothing like getting around somebody saying,

right, did we do it? Did we do it?

Did we do it? And when I say we do it, did not

God do what he said he would do? Did God not say what he he would

do what he was going to do? Did we not just be in the most

miraculous thing that's ever been a part of our life?

I am so glad I experienced God with you in this moment.

Wow, how powerful is that? So again, in these last days,

our struggle is not against flesh and blood.

It's not a people problem. There's other things that we

need to contend with but if we're ever going to get into

that kind of battle that we are not going to yield to their

devices. The devil's divide to resist in

the day of evil, then you're first going to have to be strong

in the Lord and that is the simple everyday mundane, not

flashy. Nobody even knows it's

happening. No one even knows you exist.

No one even knows the time you're putting in Tom that makes

you the elite. I'm going to close with this

thought I was listening to a coach talk to his team.

We have a team rally coming up Friday.

Hallelujah. You ready?

And so this this college coach was talking to his team and he

was talking about, you know, who's the greatest NBA player of

all time. He said, now I'm Michael Jordan

fan. He said he goes I never would

have put Kobe Bryant there ever because when I watched his game,

I considered him a ball hog. He was just a ball hog.

You know, he always had the ball.

He always took the shot, everything he said.

So I just considered him a ball hog till I heard him in an

interview one day and I thought I have misjudged him because in

the interview he says he was it was a in a practice and he his

teammate was like, why would you pass the ball to me more?

He said, why would I pass you the ball in the crucial moment

when you fall asleep and practice, you fall asleep in the

in the film room that you don't come early and you don't stay

late. You're not putting in any of the

extra work. Why would I give you in the most

crucial moment, the time to be able to make that shot when you

don't put in the effort to be at the level to make that shot?

He identified with his own teammates their inability to

want to be greater of themselves.

And I remember a personal interview itself where one of

the guys that played with Kobe said that they had just lost a

particular game, you know, and they and, or a series or

whatever the case may be. And he's like, man, I'm going to

get in early, you know, thinking about what Kobe does.

And he said, I showed up two hours early before anybody was

going to be there. I think I'm going to be the

first one in. And he said, I walk in and

there's Kobe with ice wrapped around his knees.

And he was like, seriously? Because when I walked in early

before everyone else to practice, before anyone else

did, he had already finished practicing and was icing his

knees. See, we love to watch

Spectacular People, but we don't want to do.

Everybody wants to be Elijah or Jet Paul, but we don't want to

do. We just want to assume, well,

Christ lives in me. I have the Holy Ghost too.

It does not come just because. It comes because you submit

yourself to seek Him. And what stops Anchor Faith

Church? Nothing but us.

And I would just submit. Nothing's going to stop us

because we're going to be unstoppable because we're

willing to do the extra. Hallelujah. 6:00 AM, Morning

prayer. Come on, come get some.

And if you want to get froggy and be here at 5, fine.

You won't get in the building, but you can drive around the

parking lot and pray. Hey, we don't have a problem

with that. Amen.

Put in the effort. Put in the hours of praying in

the Spirit, Put in, put in the time of reading the Word.

More than just a Bible study or checking the box of the daily

Reading Bible plan. Read an extra book.

We can do it. Amen.

No one's making you. No one made Kobe do more.

His coaches didn't. But because of the team he did

when he lived beyond himself, he worked beyond himself.

And he's saying to us, be strong in the Lord.

Lord, just cry, children, come to me.

Just come to me because the more you seeking, the more you're

going to reflect him and that's an amazing thing to be.

Amen. I want more too.

Let's just do more.