Warriors Way – Part 1

Okay, Felix and Kaylee actually run the church in Houston

that we go and visit occasionally.

I think a few guys from here have been there before.

Betty and Jeremy and others, so forgot to mention that.

And then we got to pray for Roslyn.

She was taken to hospital and there's some internal bleeding

and the cancer hasn't gone.

It's in fact become more invasive

and the doctors are putting her on a timeline.

And I know some of us have visited her

and it's not the same Roslyn.

She doesn't look her usual self,

but she still is expecting to live every day

that God has appointed to her.

And so let's just pray that the internal bleeding stops

and that she can come home.

Yeah.

So let's pray that.

Father,

we just want to pray for Roslyn right now.

Her daughter wrote saying that there's internal bleeding

and she's been taken to the hospital.

Father, when Heidi and I met her three weeks ago,

she still was talking about believing that

you have all the power to heal her

and that she is not afraid of death.

It was both these statements that she made

and both were true, Father.

Right now what we ask is for the bleeding to cease.

They don't know the source of the bleeding.

You do.

Her parts were wonderfully made by you.

So in the name of Jesus Christ, we as a church,

reach out right now to her and we speak,

one, the identifying of the source

and two, the drying up of the bleeding.

So we go to Luke 8 and we remember the woman

with the issue of blood.

And the moment she touched you, her bleeding stopped.

And so Father, because she's part of the body,

we touch you.

We touch you.

Father, we join our hearts together.

We agree concerning your power and we exert our faith

and touch you on behalf of Roslyn.

And in the name of Jesus Christ,

command the bleeding to cease right now.

You're the same yesterday, today and forever.

So on one hand we reach out to you,

on the other hand we reach out to her.

Allow us to hear, who touched me?

Let her be whole right now.

In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray.

Amen.

Dhillon, come.

So Jacob just asked me to share some stuff

that's been happening in Wally.

So like I encourage you guys to come out to Wally

and basically just see how God is moving.

And so like I was out yesterday

and before we start, we see where God is leading us

and which people God is leading us to.

So there was a couple of people that mentioned,

like Mark, we were praying and Mark had mentioned

we're gonna meet someone with an oval ring.

So just to give an example.

And so PK and Derek and myself,

we went out to a park and this guy just came up to us

and just started talking to us.

And then he came out of his car,

we asked him what his name was, his name was Gopal

and there was another guy in a car named Michael.

And as we're looking at him and he's talking to us,

we notice he has an oval ring.

I was like, and then we started, wow, this is incredible.

And we started sharing the gospel

and so his name is Gopal and Michael.

So we should pray for them and we meet so many other,

there's so many incredible stories like that.

So I just encourage you to come and see how God is moving.

And it also helps you to kind of walk in the spirit.

Like it's helping me to learn how to share the gospel

and just be bold and also to see

how God is preparing people.

Like you don't have to go to people.

People are just ready to come.

So I just encourage you guys to come out.

Do you wanna ask if anyone wants to come out this week?

Anyone?

A show of hands.

I'm already volunteering the guys

from Houston and Calgary.

Amen.

So that's three.

Anybody else who wants to go out this week?

What day this week, Dilna?

Saturday.

Saturday.

Ruth, you look like you wanted to put your hand up.

So Ruth, and then let's pick one from this side.

Kamal, you just put your hand up.

All right, Kamal and Ruth, thank you.

No, you did this.

Okay, it was Joan's birthday yesterday.

And it's Kamal's 80th birthday on, I forgot,

April 30th, March 30th.

So just remember to be nice to them.

All righty.

Hey, so this week we'll begin our moving into Victoria.

So just thought we'll go down this path

of a two-series, a two-series sermon series

called Warriors Way.

And so let me start with the fact that the church

at Antioch is the kind of church that Acts 29

is, will be, aims to continue being.

And so the church at Antioch in Acts 13,

what a special place it is.

What is special about it is it represented a governing,

territorial, apostolic church.

Who's playing the guitar?

Sade?

Okay.

So Antioch was a governing, as in it had the ability

to rule, it wasn't just evangelism and birthing people

into the faith, it was more than that.

It wasn't only discipling, it was, is it possible

to extend God's rule into a city, a town, a nation?

So there was this idea of governing.

It was territorial, as in there were areas appointed to it.

From Antioch, the gospel spread to Colosse, Corinth,

Ephesus, the regions of Galatia.

All these places were affected by the church in Antioch.

And so it was governing, it was territorial,

it was apostolic, apostolic means it was sent

with a message.

So the word sent, the dimension of being sent

was very active in Antioch.

So these three things were very specific to Antioch

and therefore it was able to impact regions

and it was able to impact territories.

And these were regions and territories

that were given into its jurisdiction.

So if you don't know your jurisdiction,

what do you mean by jurisdiction?

The area that you have permission in

and when God gives you permission in a certain area,

he gives you authority that goes with it.

That's what jurisdiction means.

So any questions on just that statement?

I may have spelled Colosse wrong, S-A-E, A-E.

Any questions on this bit?

So why use the word governing?

Because can a region or a territory be affected

by a church?

Can its leaders be affected?

Can its political, social, political,

social, economic structure be affected?

That's what governing means.

So when the church enters into Ephesus,

Ephesus' economy is affected.

Ephesus' rulers shift, Ephesus' powers,

both visible and invisible shift.

Read the book of Acts 18, 19, you'll see it.

So that's what we mean by governing.

It's not just evangelism and discipling.

We may not know the length and breadth of it,

but we know that it was example for us

and therefore must be imitated.

And the people in Ephesus were as ordinary as you and I.

So there was nothing special about that place.

Most of them ended up in Antioch

because of dispersion due to persecution.

And then from there on, they began to spread.

Territorial, territorial,

there's a region that's allotted to you

and it can be different places, eh?

Very rarely has this church gone into a place

that we don't have permission in.

Tooney is doing a project where he's researching

how churches that build house churches work.

And so he's going to be sitting with Kaylee and Felix

to talk about what they're doing in Houston.

Different places he's going to be talking about.

So when we looked at the number of churches

that have been affected by what Chad is doing

and what I'm doing and what some of his people are doing

and what we are doing,

there were close to 263 churches

in the last four or five years.

Because we don't keep account,

we do not understand what has happened

with this tiny seed, Colax 29.

We don't understand.

263 churches, and if you look at what is at present brewing

and what has already been planted,

you're talking about 26 nations.

The only continent that hasn't been touched is the Antarctic.

So we don't realize the seed and its potency

because we are not keeping track

and because we look very ordinary,

so nobody keeps track.

Japan has been on our minds for years,

ever since Prashant got jumped out of a car.

And so ever since then, it's been this desire, Japan,

and now going into Japan.

So these are territories that are allotted to a church.

And then once you have governing and territorial,

then it has to be apostolic,

as in there has to be a sentness to the church,

as in a church that's willing to go with three hours notice,

15 hour notice.

It's highly inconvenient.

That is a word May kept using more than I'd wanted.

But it's an inconvenient and it costs, see?

And that's part of, sentness is inconvenient,

but sentness was highly inconvenient for Jesus.

And then he makes a statement in John 20 saying,

as I have sent, as the father has sent me,

so I sent you.

And then we talked about jurisdiction.

And jurisdiction is a very important part of our life.

So jurisdiction is the area you have permission over.

And once you know you have permission in a certain place,

with that permission comes authority.

And if you use that authority well, then you have immunity.

If you don't use that authority well,

then you don't have the kind of immunity

that comes with authority.

Power is not enough, eh?

You need authority.

Roland Tan would often tell the story of a man

who goes and checks out farms in the UK.

Yeah, we won't go there.

Any questions?

Basically, he went into a bullpen

and realized that he has authority,

but he didn't have power and so on.

But it's a complicated story, it doesn't fit right now.

Any questions on this?

Okay.

If that's the case, then we need to also know

that inheritance is given.

Inheritance is given.

And how do we know that?

We know that from Psalm two, verse eight,

where God says to Jesus, and now Jesus is saying to us,

ask of me and I will give you the nations as your inheritance.

So inheritance is given.

But inheritance, if it's given, must be possessed.

It must be possessed.

You read about that in Deuteronomy one, 20 and 21.

It talks about Israel, I'm gonna allot you land.

And this is the land that I have promised you.

I'm giving you this land, but as I may,

I don't see anything that you have come back with.

Oh, okay, sorry.

Oh, sorry, Betty, Betty.

Sorry, very sorry.

Yeah, so, sorry, very sorry, Betty.

So it has to be possessed.

In Deuteronomy one, verse 20 and 21,

it says that I'm giving you this land, God says to Israel,

but if I'm giving you this land,

it doesn't mean you can have it

without going in and possessing it.

But the moment we talk about possession,

we have another problem, because you cannot possess,

you cannot possess till you,

dispossess previous owners or occupiers.

Any questions on that statement?

May the occupiers sort of include everybody

that occupies that land?

We're talking spiritually.

Yeah.

We have to give New Testament examples for this.

Is this true?

Because everything has to be supported by scripture.

This is not a good idea.

Okay, thank you.

Yeah, I don't know, Betty isn't doing a good job.

Sorry, guys, this is on me.

I apologize, if you're new here,

if you're from Calgary or Houston, we apologize.

This is when I go out to the screen.

See, Derek didn't know that.

Yeah, so do we see examples of this?

So you go with Paul to Ephesus,

and the first thing he deals with,

Paul deals with Artemis,

because he knows that if Artemis isn't dealt with,

Ephesus cannot be taken.

So sometimes you deal with dispossession

in terms of actual spiritual entities.

In Ephesus, it was Artemis,

and in dealing with Artemis, she becomes so undone,

and this was the deity that was famous

throughout Asia Minor.

And then, once Artemis is dealt with,

50,000 drachmas, which was millions of dollars worth

of material that was from witchcraft and sorcery

was burnt in that city.

Let's go to Cyprus.

In Cyprus, there was a place called Paphos,

and then sometimes it's not actual spiritual entities,

it's actual spiritual people,

and in this case, it was a man called Elimas.

And Paphos, nothing happened in Paphos

till Paul dealt with Elimas.

Elimas was known as a great one.

He used to prevent governors and rulers in Paphos

from hearing the word of God,

and Paul goes and confronts him.

And once he's confronted,

Sergius Paulus, the governor of the island,

begins to listen to Paul and actually becomes a believer.

Sometimes it's human entities,

and then sometimes it is powers

that are structural or political.

Where do we see an example of this in the Bible?

We see it in Revelation two,

where Jesus actually says to the church in Pergamum,

that I know where you dwell.

You dwell where the throne of Satan is.

And why did he call it the throne of Satan?

Because in Pergamum,

there was something called the imperial cult,

and for the first time, at least in the history of Rome,

Augustus actually set himself up as God,

and there was an altar to him that was worshiped.

And then besides that, there was another God,

which we often see in the,

and he was represented by a serpent,

and it was Asclepius, which was the serpent savior.

And so for Christians in Pergamum,

they knew they were up against a very difficult city

because to not worship Augustus

was to basically be persecuted.

And both had altars.

As you entered Pergamum, it was built on a hill,

and the way the altars and the temples were built from far,

it would look like a throne.

And so Jesus says, I know where you live.

And so in different places,

the entities that have to be undone are different.

These things are not usually taught in church.

They're usually taught at some special course or something.

But if all of us, or at least the ones that are willing,

we'll talk about that later.

If all of us are planning to be a church

that goes to the islands and begins to affect it,

then all of us need to have an understanding

of what we're dealing with.

Any questions?

Yep.

What's the difference between like,

I guess, the individual versus like...

Yeah, I've got the answer.

I've got the answer.

I'm gonna come to that.

So guys, you must go forth and subdue.

You must go forth and subdue.

You must go forth and subdue

so that you can multiply and replenish.

To multiply and replenish.

It's part of the Genesis mandate.

It's part of the Genesis mandate.

And I've said this before, perhaps.

I think I've said it.

The kingdom of God is advanced

through warfare.

And cannot be understood apart from,

cannot be understood apart from spiritual conflict.

Any questions, any thoughts?

The kingdom of God cannot be advanced

or is always advanced through warfare

and cannot be understood apart from spiritual conflict.

Any questions?

So you can't think of kingdom without thinking of warfare.

You cannot think of warfare without thinking of kingdom.

Both are mutually inclusive.

So one cannot talk about kingdom without realizing

that there are other kingdoms

that will contest life and land.

And you cannot think about warfare without thinking.

It is not about casting out a demon necessarily,

but it is about advancing the reign and the rule of God

throughout the earth, one life at a time.

So.

If I can just back up to what you were talking about previously,

how do you know that we have authority in the world?

Okay, so how do you know you have authority

in your office over a certain place?

Because Jesus said.

No, no, no, I'm talking about the office, real office now.

Yeah, how do you know in your workplace

what you have authority over,

the rooms that you can enter,

who you can ask to do things where you cannot go,

how do you know?

Someone has to give it to you.

Someone gives you permission.

So in the same way, in the kingdom,

permission is again given through the arrangement

that God has established.

So in a home, it will be parents.

In a marriage, there's a husband who's first among equals.

In a church, it's elders.

Among the elders, it's the one that is appointed.

In a nation, it's the king or the president

or prime minister and so on.

When it comes to law, it's the police.

In the police, it's the head honcho and so on.

So there's an arrangement that God has established.

God has established.

So permission comes through an arrangement

and if the person gets it wrong,

then everyone under begins to struggle, strive, suffer.

Therefore, it says righteousness exalts a nation

while unrighteousness or wickedness tears it down.

So we are given permission by someone over us.

And then in the context of the kingdom,

once permission is given, then one has to talk about it

so that others, because God doesn't operate

through any one man.

He refuses to because that one man then becomes Christ.

So he may deliver a message to someone,

but then he has to talk to him and her and me

and now it begins to flesh out.

The permission is given to the church.

The permission is actually, God's hope is

now that I've given permission to this particular tribe,

I hope this tribe will go and do what it's supposed to do.

So when Caleb says, give me those hills

where the anach dwell, he's not gonna take it alone.

Caleb belongs to a tribe.

And so the tribe goes and takes it.

So the tribe goes and takes it.

So the tribe goes and takes it.

So the tribe goes and takes it.

So the tribe goes and takes it.

And so the tribe goes and takes it.

And there are people in the tribe who want to go.

And there are people in the tribe who don't wanna go.

There are people in the tribe who've trained to go.

There are people in the tribe who haven't trained to go.

There are people in the tribe that are young

and inexperienced.

There are people in the tribe that are veterans.

There are people in the tribe that are afraid.

There are people that are in the tribe who are not afraid.

There are people in the tribe

that are walking in obedience and purity.

There are people in the tribe

that are not walking in obedience and purity.

So those things matter, but at the end of the day

when we go and get what God has promised us,

everyone gets a share of it.

Nobody is left out on the basis of were they obedient,

not obedient, pure, not pure,

were they trained, not trained.

No, everybody benefits from the spoils.

If we use the arrangement that God has established,

is that the same as the order of the Utah?

Yeah, but whenever we use order,

something in us begins to rebel,

so I prefer using arrangement

because it's the same thing,

but when you use order, it's like...

Okay, so the church is warfare.

Yep.

Yeah, you read Hebrews 13 and Romans 13,

and you will basically get the hang of

how to handle tyrannical masters who have...

Because God appoints people to positions,

but they can turn tyrannical and corrupt and nasty,

and sometimes that ends up in us

having to bear unfair burdens,

and so during situations like that,

I'm still supposed to follow the law

except when it contravenes the law of God.

So if you go to Romans 13,

I'm sorry.

Everyone must submit himself to governing authorities,

for there is no authority

except that which God has established.

That sounds so contradictory sometimes.

How could God establish such a certain thing?

But sometimes God gives you the choice

to accept, vote for a certain person,

and people in their rebellion can vote for someone else.

Sometimes people get what they deserve,

sometimes people get what they don't deserve,

but has been imposed on them by that which is evil

because we live in a fallen world,

but let's read the rest of it.

Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities,

for there is no authority

except that which God has established.

The authorities that exist have been established by God.

Consequently, he who rebels against the authority

is rebelling against what God has instituted,

and those who do so will bring judgment upon themselves.

For rulers hold no terror for those who do right.

This is God's standard.

But sometimes, like James is saying,

what if they get tyrannical?

Now, new issues arise

when you operate under a tyrannical ruler.

Do you stand up for justice or do you not?

Do you stand up for someone else's justice or do you not?

Do you stand up for things that are God's law versus

the law of the land?

I met a well-known actor from Hollywood recently,

and he said there are three types of Hollywood stars.

There's one type that are believers,

he's talking only about believers.

He said there's one type that are believing Hollywood stars,

and they will keep quiet and keep acting.

They do not speak about their Christianity,

so that's one type.

Then he said there's a second type

that realized that this is too much.

Their values are always clashing with how Hollywood operates,

and so they eventually quit.

That's when they kill them off in some series,

or in the end of the movie,

the guy has to save the girl,

and he jumps off a building and she gets saved.

That's usually how you know that,

poor guy, he couldn't handle Hollywood.

And then he says there's a third category,

and this guy belongs to the third category,

and he says you speak up.

But if you speak up, you get ostracized

by the entire Hollywood community,

and you become like a pariah.

Those are our choices when it comes to tyrannical,

powers that are structural.

And sometimes you end up in trouble

because you speak for someone else's injustice.

You're not being treated unjustly,

but you cannot hold back from speaking up

for someone else's oppression.

So the church's warfare is Christocentric,

as in it is centered on Christ.

It focuses primarily on Christ.

But how does it focus on Christ?

It focuses on Christ as the warrior king.

That's how it focuses on Christ.

It doesn't focus on Christ as the gentle lamb.

It doesn't focus on Christ as the one

who comes riding in on a donkey.

It focuses on Christ as the warrior king.

When you look at the motif of scripture

right from Genesis to the book of Revelation,

it is replete with the portrayal of Christ as a warrior king.

Like every book in the Bible

has him appear as warrior king.

There's not one book in the Bible where it's not shown.

And so the church's warfare is Christocentric,

or Christ-centered, and the primary focus

is on Christ as a warrior king,

and not on principalities and powers.

That's not the primary focus.

So one of the things you often hear,

and is we have to focus on Christ,

not on the evil powers.

So on one hand it is true, we have to focus on Christ.

But after focusing on Christ,

we have to be aware of the wilds of the devil,

the devices of the devil.

One of the things we have to understand,

is that it's never this or that.

It's always held in tension.

The sooner we get over that, the easier it is.

So be Christocentric, but after being Christocentric,

go examine the wilds and devices of the devil.

Because if you don't, all you have is stock.

So now to answer Jill's question, which I cut off.

The church's warfare on one hand,

Acts 29's warfare, let's say Acts 29's warfare,

is on one hand, is one corporate.

As in, it is,

it is,

it is,

it is,

it is

the community

that is involved,

not individuals.

This is a rarity in churches.

The reason we have these things called

deliverance ministries,

and it's crazy common in South Africa,

is because churches think that dealing with powers

and principalities is some speciality.

And Jesus' words to the church was,

those that believe in me,

will speak in new tongues, will cast out demons,

will heal the sick.

It is supposed to be a corporate affair,

not highly individualized affairs.

And when it becomes highly individualized,

then we have this healing ministry

and that deliverance ministry,

and this freedom course, and that freedom course,

and a few people teach it,

a few people specialize,

the rest of us go attend,

and we really don't know whether we're doing right or wrong.

That has to end,

because this was supposed to be

something that was done corporately.

Strange how Israel wouldn't select a few to go and battle,

all the men that were above 20 had to go out to war.

Wasn't like, I'm above 20,

but I want to be an environmental engineer, too bad.

Both the brothers would have been registered for war.

Of course, one would put another one in front of him,

and we know which one.

Well, that's another person who's coming next week.

The other brother's wife is coming next week.

Oh, yeah.

For the last month and a half,

that other brother has had this constant excuse,

I'll ask him to come to New York,

ask him to come to LA, ask him to come to Timbuktu.

I have to buy groceries because my wife is coming.

Ah!

By now, he must have a grocery store.

For those of us who don't know who this brother is,

could you please stand?

Would the real brother stand?

Would the real brother stand?

So, if it's not corporate,

then it becomes, it's just highly individualized,

and that's not the way to go.

Second,

it is strategic.

As in, it does deal with principalities and powers,

and this requires

us to be

trained

by

the word,

by

the spirit,

by

practice as in going and actually being an apprentice.

And the moment I say apprentice,

you have to go with someone

who's done it before.

Who is experienced?

Experienced in what?

Experienced in the word,

experienced in the spirit,

experienced in practice.

This is how it works,

and if you don't do this,

you can't participate in this.

So, I guess the question doesn't work out.

Yeah, so there's a third category,

and the third category is

the church's warfare is personal

because spirits are personal beings.

And they assault individuals.

They assault individuals.

So they assaulted Adam,

they assaulted Judas,

they assaulted Peter,

and they assaulted Jesus.

And so individual believers

have to learn

how to

fight especially in the

battlefield

of the mind.

2 Corinthians 10,

verse three to five talks about it.

Taking down every high and lofty thing

that raises itself up against knowledge of God.

And so it's on three different levels

that a church needs to operate.

On one hand, it's corporate,

on one hand, it's strategic,

on one hand, it is personal.

And so on one hand,

you cannot ignore someone who's demonized

and needs help,

and you go cast out the demon from that person.

On the other hand,

if you're going into a place,

you have to be strategic,

and you have to know

what is God asking you to deal with?

And you only deal with that.

There may be a hundred things that you are facing,

but if God says deal with one thing,

you deal with that one thing.

And on the third,

it's corporate as in it shouldn't be

a few specialized individuals.

Over a period of a year,

the whole church should be able to deal with it.

When more people learn how to deal with it,

this spreads faster.

As long as you have experts that do it,

everybody will have to seek out those few experts.

This is what happened to media.

You had amazing newspapers

and a few big time reporters.

Now, anybody with a phone can report news,

but it spreads faster.

It's as true or false as the regular media,

but at least it spreads faster.

Any questions?

What?

Go ahead.

So I guess my question is about

like dealing with, okay, spiritual warfare, whatever,

you know, individuals who are just saying,

like going to, somebody going to like a Buddha

and saying, you know, spirit of Buddha

is a lean kind of thing,

which I don't think is quite our mandate here.

No.

And sometimes people get in trouble.

Yeah.

That kind of thing.

Yeah.

So then, which is why we go here?

This is super important, eh?

And that's why I said,

without training, you cannot do this.

You cannot.

It's just not right.

You haven't earned the right if you haven't chosen to train.

That's each person's choice.

And how do we train?

Very simple.

This is how Jesus trained them.

He gave them the word.

He anointed them in the spirit.

He took them along with him.

And once he had done this,

he was able to send them out.

And he sent them out two by two,

so that even there, they had people to depend on.

And so if these three things aren't your cup of tea,

then drink coffee.

So.

Yeah.

So, this is important.

Diana, are you giving her questions?

No, but I'm silently cheering her on.

Okay.

I'm highly suspicious if you're sitting behind her

and being completely quiet and she's asking all of it.

I'm just like, I don't know.

All righty, go ahead.

So, I knew I raised this system a quick before,

but we do have examples in modern missionary history

of, say, a Japanese looser or the little woman.

Gladys.

Gladys Edwin.

Yeah, yeah.

People that didn't go by themselves.

So how do you, and there's other people that,

they got a call to go somewhere and.

These two ladies tried like crazy.

They begged, they pleaded, they manipulated

mission boards to send them and send them with a team.

And the man dominated mission boards at those times,

refused, and got to go.

It's not his preferred method, but he took over.

And then they trained people under them

so that that would not happen to them.

These women were exceptional.

Gladys Edwin, when it begged, she would try to give her age

as less than what it was, or more than what it was

so that she could be selected.

But women are only supposed to be prayer warriors

who intercede in the basement of the church.

It's men who go, ah.

So that's what happened with Gladys Edwin

and with Jackie Pullinger.

And then they changed it around, eh?

When they had their turn, when they were established.

And they, I mean, Gladys changed how China used to raise

its babies, man.

Leave alone the evangelism that happened through her.

Jackie Pullinger changed Hong Kong's triad gangs

and changed the drug culture.

One woman, just by the sheer power of the Spirit of God.

Always remember, guys, I remember preaching on this.

It's always one man, one woman.

Starts there.

It is God's way of starting.

It is not to show that this man is a champion

or this woman is a champion.

It's to show how powerful he is

because one woman or one man cannot achieve it.

Thank you.

And Jacob, just so we know, I don't know

if Gladys' story is, I'm gonna read that,

but Jackie, when she got there and she ran a big difficult,

she encountered other Christians again.

Support her.

It's a fabulous book if you haven't read it, eh?

Chasing the Dragon.

That's really good.

I've got a copy of it.

Yeah.

Excellent.

So these are the three ways the church must battle.

Any questions on that?

Okay, so Christ the Warrior King.

Christ the Warrior King.

There are very few songs written about the Warrior King

because the church cannot relate to Christ

as the Warrior King.

The max we go to is Lion of Judah.

But then we don't know what to do after that.

Christ the Warrior King continues his mission today

against Satan and an army of demonic forces.

And he does it amazingly through the church

or through us.

And when he finds that a church is not willing to rise

to this, he has to find a few people.

But he would prefer doing it through the church

because it is his body.

Remember one thing, that in the world,

there is only one thing under attack, the body of Christ.

But that shouldn't give us a victim mentality

because the one thing that is under attack

is the only thing that remains standing.

It's very odd how this works.

There is nothing else on the earth

that everybody seeks to attack

because the systems of the world have only one intent.

Can we undo, damage, destroy, kill, steal from the body

because it belongs to Christ, the King of the universe.

Everything in the world is geared towards that.

But what they don't realize is, at the end of the day,

it is the only thing that remains standing.

So the mentality is not that of a victim.

So Christ the Warrior King wants to fight

with and through the church.

And there are some things he does that he wants us to do.

He wants us to thwart subversion, as in,

can you prevent the subversion of the kingdom?

Can you prevent it from being contaminated, adulterated,

diluted, polluted, hybridized, mutated, distorted?

Can you prevent that thwart subversion of the kingdom,

of the kingdom of God?

Second thing he wants us, can you advance the kingdom?

Advance the kingdom of God?

Because the gates of hell must not prevail against.

There must be an advancement.

What does advancement look like?

Advancement doesn't look like a Republican

being in the White House.

Advancement looks like people being brought into the kingdom

and raised to be sons of the kingdom,

so that they can be sent out.

Third, can you assault darkness?

Isaiah 49, 44.

And lastly, can you rescue prisoners?

We must say, no, this God can do.

Why should we do that?

Can't we just worship the Lord

and just focus on discipling and evangelism?

Hey, someone did this for you.

Colossians 1.13.

That someone was Jesus, but besides Jesus,

people had to do this for you.

Colossians 1.13, you have been transferred,

removed, rescued from where?

From the kingdom of darkness.

Into what?

Into the dominion of the sun.

There was this guy called Daniel Igali from Nigeria.

Through many hardships, he came to Canada.

He was a wrestler.

He was able to go to the Olympics as a Canadian wrestler.

He wins the gold medal.

First thing he does after he wins the gold medal

is grab a Canadian flag.

He puts it, and it's just automatic.

He isn't even thinking.

He grabs a Canadian flag that someone throws,

puts it in the ring in the middle,

and he runs around it, and he's so happy for Canada.

And he kisses the flag.

Why was he doing it?

Because he knew what he came out of,

and he knew what he came into.

And bearing that flag was a matter of honor.

So I'm asking you, do you bear this with honor?

And will you bear it with honor the way God has prescribed?

There should be a passion for the bride and the kingdom

that arises in our hearts by this time,

at least in this church.

These are four things that we will have to begin to think

along the lines of.

And when it comes to strategic,

I don't use the word strategic just to make things sound

good, because there is something called

strategic-level spiritual warfare,

which requires us to find things

that God wants us to deal with.

And let's say God shows us something that we can't do.

Let's say God shows us something about a territory

that has to be dealt with.

As he showed Paul, as he showed Paul in Cyprus,

as he showed Paul in Ephesus,

as he showed the church in Pergamum.

Then, can our prayers, it starts with prayer, eh?

It starts with prayer, so everybody can at least start there.

Starts with prayer, and our prayers have to be sustained.

As in, it's not a one-time thing.

Our prayers have to be incisive,

as in penetrating.

It can't be these general prayers.

And how do we avoid general prayers?

It's very easy.

Take orders.

If you're going to a restaurant and say,

I want something with meat.

Doesn't work.

You have to give an order.

I want a, not Beyond Burger, what's the...

Yeah, you have to be specific.

Once you're specific, you get what you need.

How do you pray incisive prayers?

Incisive prayers are prayed by listening first to God,

and then asking whoever is in charge,

how do you want us to pray?

And then stick with it.

I've taken people with me.

I'm not talking about this church.

I remember going to a place

where really nasty stuff was happening,

and we're sitting in a church in the middle of nowhere.

The church is called the Church in the Wilderness.

It's St. John's Baptist Church in the Wilderness.

That's the name of the church,

and it's actually in the wilderness.

And we're sitting and we're praying,

and very specifically told people how to pray.

And three other people prayed specifically.

The other two went and prayed for everything under the sun.

I'm waiting to think, why?

Why can't you take orders?

What is it in us that begins to rebel

every time we are told to take orders?

Even if you don't agree, deal with it after the fight.

You're not in the thick of the battle.

And this is only found out when you take a person with you.

Tigab, it's easy for you to say you're in charge

and so you get away with anything you want to say.

Yes, but I also went through not being in charge and serving.

I didn't get here, I didn't drop out of heaven,

obviously you know that.

Let there be no question about that.

But I had to serve and I had to learn how to take orders.

Sometimes things that I didn't like, but you do it

because you can ask the questions later.

I had to trust those I didn't trust.

Yeah, then know that you can say,

do you think this is a good idea?

And then just follow.

Because you will be the only one that's safe

because you did it right.

There's something about following the arrangement of God

that protects you, even if the person in charge

gets it wrong.

It's crazy how this works.

God says.

I'll give you an example from Elmer and Anne's life

that they shared publicly.

Elmer and Anne had to make a decision

and it was a decision that would be financially

affecting them.

And Elmer said, I want to make this decision.

Anne said, no, I don't think it is.

But Elmer said, no, I think this is the right way to go.

This is simple decision making.

And Anne remembers going and talking to the Lord

and then she comes and says to Elmer,

you know, I don't think this is the way to go

and I do not necessarily agree with you,

but I recognize you as the first among equals

and so we are going to go with your decision.

The decision was wrong.

But because this woman went about it right way,

they had no loss.

If that can happen in finances,

you can't imagine how it works in the spiritual.

It has to be incisive.

It has to be strategic.

As in, what is the Holy Spirit saying?

Why does he, why did he not allow Paul and Barnabas

to go to Bethinia, to Mycea?

Why?

It doesn't even say that the visa guy

did not stamp the visa.

It says the Holy Spirit forbade him from entering Mycea.

Why?

It has to be cohesive, as in together.

Not done in isolation.

Sometimes it's symbolic, our prayers.

We do things that are symbolic.

It's often declarative.

You should read Psalm 29, declarative.

The voice of the Lord thunders.

The voice of the Lord tears the sedders of Lebanon.

The voice of the Lord causes the floods to subside.

The voice of the Lord splits the deserts open.

The voice of the Lord causes the streams to flow.

The voice of the Lord dries up the seas.

The voice of the Lord.

And what am I supposed to do with that?

Take the words of the Lord and become his voice here on earth.

The church is supposed to be both the pillar of truth

and the announcer of truth.

Sometimes the way we fight is so simple.

What do you mean by prayer is so simple?

Sometimes what you do is just,

I mean you're not even praying much,

but you do something symbolic like carrying,

Israel would carry the ark into the water first.

Why?

Why carry the ark into the water?

And yet the waters would part.

It was just a symbol of God.

It wasn't God.

Why does Moses lift up his hands and sit on a mountain

with Aaron and her holding up his hands?

Some things that God advises just have to do

even if it's foolish.

Yep.

So when you say symbolic,

would it be like something physical you have to do?

Something physical that God asks you to do.

Yeah, because otherwise you can have a lot of people

doing symbolic things.

I went for one service where a woman was flying

like a plane saying this is symbolic.

And then another lady was setting a cannon on fire

like saying we got to blow up the thing.

So boom, she kept doing that.

Then she looked at me and I wasn't participating in it

so she asked me if I was a Hindu.

So, no, it really happened, I'm not kidding you.

Actually, not a word of exaggeration there.

We also need our gospel shoes on.

And the sword of the word.

These are the things that prayer should look like.

And so over the next little while

we will shift to this at Encounter.

We can start taking more.

Stuff like this then begins to shake

the foundations

of

political

systems and structures.

You know, we don't know these people, but the generation, not my generation, the generation

before me, there were hundreds and hundreds praying for the fall of the Berlin Wall, for

the end of the Iron Curtain. Hundreds of them prayed, praying for years on end they would

pray, and then in one minute the whole thing begins to collapse. We don't realize it. We're

not a generation that prays, right, because everything has to be instant. Now Jesus is

selling prayer on Facebook, meaning the chosen Jesus. I dislike it when people who represent

Jesus in a movie then start selling stuff. Not a problem, I'm just saying. I find it

odd when Jesus is selling things. Okay, this is a super important statement if you haven't

heard it before. In the Old Testament, I'll end at 1.15 guys, regardless of how far we

get. In the Old Testament, the warfare, Israel's warfare, in the Old Testament Israel's warfare

was about preserving the messianic seed, preserving the seed of the woman. So let me explain that.

So throughout the Old Testament, every battle that Israel had was only about one thing,

Genesis 3.15. In Genesis 3.15 it was about the war between Israel and Israel. It was

about the war between Israel and Israel. The war between Israel and Israel was about

one thing. Genesis 3.15. Genesis 3.15 it was said that the seed of the woman will crush

the head of the serpent. That was what it said in Genesis 3.15. The seed of the woman

will crush the head of the serpent. The moment that was said, there was only one intent the

woman will live. And so Israel was the woman through whom the seed would come, the Messiah.

And so every battle since the beginning of time that has been launched against the Jewish

people has been with one intent only. If the woman can be undone, then the seed will not

come. And if the seed does not come, the head of the serpent will not be crushed. Every

battle has been about that. When Haman wants to exterminate the Jews, when the Philistines,

Canaanites, Heavies, Jebusites want to destroy them, when Pharaohs and Herod's want to destroy.

What is the intent always? The intent is can the seed of the woman be stopped from being

birthed? To the point that even Herod who had Jewish ancestry is now being used to do

what? Can the king be stopped from being birthed? Let's go slay every child that is less than

two year old in Ramah. Send midwives so that as soon as the Egyptian women give birth,

Israelite women give birth, these children can be killed. The intent was very simple

throughout the Old Testament. Prevent the seed of the woman from being born so that

the head of the serpent will not be crushed. And then the seed of the woman is born. He

bruises the heel of the seed, but the seed crushes the head of the serpent. So that's

the Old Testament scenario. Any questions on that? May this be heavy? May this be heavy?

May this be heavy on you? This message should be heavy on you. It should change your thinking.

This shouldn't be taken lightly. What is the intent now? What are the New Testament

battles about? The New Testament battle is can the body of Christ be prevented from proclaiming

the Messiah? That's the battle now. Can the body of Christ be prevented from proclaiming

the Messiah? In NT, in the New Testament, can the proclamation of the Messianic Kingdom,

of the Messiah be prevented from proclaiming the Messiah? Can the body of Christ be prevented

from proclaiming the Messiah? Can the body of Christ be prevented from proclaiming the

Messiah? Can the body of Christ be prevented from proclaiming the Messiah? What are the

Gospels' intentions about Jesus' kingdom? Be stopped. That's the intent now.

flesh and blood. In the New Testament, the battle is not against flesh and blood.

Huge difference. But the strategies that were used in the Old Testament for war

are wonderfully used in prayer in the New Testament. And we don't know how to

do that. That is part of the training. Any questions?

So just to clarify, like Winning said that it's not against flesh and blood now, so that means the verse that's talking about is about physicality and darkness.

Yeah, Ephesians 6, 10 onwards.

So what is the church doing now? In Christ, we are trying to crush the head of the serpent. In Christ, we are trying to, not in Christ, we are crushing the head of the serpent.

Trying, yes, but we are. How do we know that? Because Romans 16, 19 says that. Romans 16, 19 says, remember that song that you learned when you were young?

Be excellent in all things.

It wasn't around when you and I were in youth groups. It was a song written after Diana.

And it says, and Christ will soon crush Satan under your feet. Not under his feet, under your feet. Under our feet, yeah.

So in Victoria's strategic, I mean I can see this is Victoria needs a strategic for all of BC because that's where the government is.

Yeah, and we'll be talking about that in the future, but it might be off camera.

Yeah.

Guys, maybe we'll end with this thought. That one of the first, the way Jesus began, the way Jesus began his conflict, once he came on the earth, Jesus began his conflict.

With a personal, yet cosmic victory, as in universal victory.

This is just at the beginning of his missionary when Jesus is finally coming on stage. That's another fascinating thing.

We know he's born. We know at 12 he's in the temple. And then we don't see him for 18 years. It's crazy. This is the savior of the world.

There's no clue about his growing up. There's no clue about his carpentry. About him being a small time businessman, having to take care of four sisters, two brothers and a mother.

No, nothing about him. 18 years he's silent and now he comes on stage.

One of the first things that happens once he's revealed after the baptism is he's led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness.

And that is where he has his first conflict. But it is so telling.

Jesus begins his conflict with a personal, yet cosmic victory in the wilderness by resisting temptation.

This is such a critical part of what this church must learn how to do. Resist temptation. But look at what he resists.

This is eye-opening. He resists temptation towards provision, towards protection, towards possessions.

Read this in Matthew 4, 1 to 11.

It is not possible to be walking the warrior's way.

It is not possible to step up into being a warrior until I overcome the three things that prevent us from serving.

And those are our temptation as in a pull towards taking care of provisions, finding our own security and protection.

And three, getting what we think is our right in terms of possessions.

The three temptations that happen is, hey, you have the power to make bread out of stones.

Hey, take a chance. God will protect you. Hey, I'll give you what you've come for.

This is why Paul later on says to Timothy, in 2 Timothy, he says, no soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs.

No soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs.

Three things that soldiers don't get entangled in. Provision, protection, possession.

That's it.

Then we'll continue next week with part two.

There's a lot of interesting stuff in part one.

There'll be one or two visits to the island this week.

I'll ask some of you to just visit the island and tell you where exactly to go.

I just want us to pray for two things before we leave.

The first one is, can we pray from Exodus 14.20?

Can we pray from Acts 20.28 and 29?

Can we just pray that and then we can go?

Yeah, if you turn to Exodus 14.20 and see what it says in Acts 20, verse 28 and 29.

Acts 20:28

Exodus says that when Israel was crossing the Red Sea, God came as a pillar and stood behind Israel.

To the Israelites, he was light. To the Egyptians, he was darkness and confusion.

One of the prayers that I want us to pray is, Father, as we step into this command as a church beginning to affect the island,

could you please be our rear guard so that to us things are clear, but to the enemy, he's not able to track our steps.

There's confusion in the enemy camp. They know that God is leading this church into something, but they can't track.

So can we pray that? So that's one prayer.

Then if you go to Acts 20, verse 28 and 29, it says that Paul is at the beach in Ephesus and he's talking to the leaders.

Acts 20:28

And he says to the leaders, guys, I'm leaving, but after I leave, just be careful because there'll be savage wolves that come to destroy the flock.

And then before that in 28, what does it say in 28?

Take careful attention to yourself.

Yeah, as we do this, we don't leave Ziklag unguarded.

If you remember 1 Samuel 30, David went out for a conquest, but he left Ziklag unguarded.

And Ziklag was where his wives and children were. When he comes back, the city is burnt and all their families are taken.

So just pray these two prayers that the church remains protected and that the enemy remains confused.

So let's just pray that.

Okay.

So I'll just ask a couple of people to pray.

So last Derek and Jane and Tilly and let's throw in the other brother too.

Okay.

If you guys can take the mic and pray.

And since you didn't do much today, can you just give the mic to different people?

You can choose who wants to, who should start.

Now you have power.

Father, I want to first pray from Acts 20, 28, 29.

Jesus, this church belongs to you and this church families.

All of us, we belong to you. We are blood bought. You bought us.

We are not, we are people who were paid for by your blood.

And so this church is yours. This embassy is yours.

And so we establish and declare your rule ship over our lives.

Everything that we have belongs to you.

Everything that we are comes out of you.

And so we come under your covering, Jesus Christ.

And we also recognize the arrangement as we heard today that you have established for us.

As we go into the places you invite us into, we follow you by following your ways on earth.

So Jesus, we speak protection over every single person at Acts 29 and our families.

That comes from your, it is blood bought. It is blood bought.

So we thank you, Jesus, that you have already defeated the devil.

And now we participate with you in your work. In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Holy Spirit, help us to conspire with you so that you illuminate the lay of the land for us as we enter Victoria.

Would you illuminate the lay of the land? Give us the blueprint.

When the Israelites crossed, they didn't know initially, but you knew exactly where they were going to go.

You knew exactly where they were going to go. But we have the ability now to call on your Spirit.

Holy Spirit, we want to conspire with you. Show us the lay of the land.

Show us the lay of the land and then make it dark for the other side so that they don't see anything.

It is a privilege that you are giving to us. A preview. Access to your blueprints.

And I just cast darkness on the other side. That our steps are hidden. That the plans are hidden.

That they walk in darkness. The enemy walks in darkness as we enter every step of the way.

That they see nothing. They see nothing. And that's what I declare in the name of Jesus.

They see nothing.

Awesome.

Father, we thank you that one thing as we go in this is that we'll walk in high awareness.

Because as we walk in awareness, we can be aware of both the camp that we're going out to and our home base.

Father, it's so highly aware that as we go, we walk with your strategic planning.

Your awareness of, okay, this is how the camp needs to be guarded.

This is what needs to be set in place. This is how you need to function this time.

Because it can't become a method, but it has to be a high awareness of, hey, this time this is what needs to be done.

This time, as these people go, this is who needs to stay in guard.

And may as we go, we not put more weight over one than the other.

May we be aware of, hey, there's an importance to both.

There's an importance to both. And it's not more important to go. It's not more important to stay.

There's no room for conflict to come in this time, Father.

Because we need to walk in a unity. A unity of body as we go and as we stay, Father.

It's critical because otherwise we're opening doors to things that should not be opened.

So we thank you for your pillar of cloud that goes before us and comes behind us, Father.

It surrounds us. But in that we commit, we say we will walk in unity.

We will walk in unity. We will not let pride. We will not let conflict.

We will not let comparison come in our way.

Because that will open doors to things that are not permitted here, Father.

So may we resist those three things that we talked about at the end.

May we be so highly aware that our provision has to come from you.

Our protection has to come from you.

And our possessions have to come from you, Father.

That in this there cannot be comparison. In this there cannot be conflict.

Because we will not let those wolves come into this camp.

We will guard against it. We will guard against it in your name, Jesus.

And right now we acknowledge that this is something we will be highly aware of.

Because we are aware of you.

And you are the one that we are running after.

You are the one who we are letting say, hey, when something comes up we'll quickly shut it down and say, no.

This is not the focus. This is what God is up to.

And this is the truth that I stand on.

So we thank you, Jesus.

Father, thank you for the opportunity.

As a church to do the things that you have planned for us in Victoria in the name of the Father,

we thank you because you are our King. You are our Lord.

We are doing things with you.

We are not doing things on our own.

But we are doing things with you.

You lead and we follow.

You are our Father.

You own everything that we have.

Everything that we are, you own it, Father.

This church has always been your plan.

The way we are raised is by you.

We will follow your voice.

The sheep will follow the shepherd's voice.

And the voice of the stranger, they will not follow, Father.

So we will listen to your voice.

We will follow you.

We will listen to your strategies.

And when we do all of this, Father, in humbleness, we will follow you.

In humbleness, Father, in humble obedience, when we do all of this,

we know that we will be taken care of by you.

Our home base and people who go out will all be under your protection, Father.

Your fence will be around us.

The wolves will not attack us.

You will be a covering and shield around us, Father.

For your angels will be surrounding us.

We declare this because we know your nature and we know your plans for us.

In your precious name, Jesus, I pray. Amen.

Thank you, guys. Bless you.

If you need groceries, you know who to approach.

If you have a problem, talk to the guys from Houston.

And I think that should be it.

Thank you.

Thank you.