The cost of Prevailing Prayer (part 1)

So you can't build a prevailing church.

... that I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

We define prevailing as the ability to engage, to endure, and to overcome into victory.

The ability to engage, endure, engage in battle, or engage in taking something back or releasing

something, to engage, to endure, to overcome into victory.

Other words for prevailing that are used in different translations in the Bible, in different

verses, are words like overcome, words like conquer.

All these words come from the same root, N-I-K-A-H-O, which means to endure and prevail till victory.

So words like prevail, overcome, conquer, are words that come from the same roots in

the Bible, and you'll find them in different verses, like we did last week when we looked

at all the words in the book of Revelation where it talks about overcoming.

So you cannot build a prevailing church, which is the only kind of church that Jesus is interested

in building.

You cannot build a prevailing church unless you raise a church that contends in battle

through prayer.

Why?

Because none of our enemies are really flesh and blood.

Our enemies are spiritual, and therefore it's only prayer that can bring effective change.

That's the first point.

The second point is it is the mission of the church to go.

It is the mission of the church.

The church has no...

This is the church's primary mission.

It is the mission of the church to go and then to enter into Satan's strong house or

Satan's house, plunder his possessions, carry them off, and make disciples.

That is the nature of the church.

This is what Jesus came to do in Matthew 12, verse 29 and onwards.

Matthew 12:29

It says that you cannot enter the strong man's house unless you first bind him.

We go on to see in Colossians 2.15 that Jesus Christ actually bound the devil, where it

says that Jesus Christ, by his death on the cross, made a mockery or a public spectacle

of Satan, causing him to now dismount from the chariot he used to ride and instead be

paraded as a prisoner in Christ's triumphant procession, meaning now that Christ returns

as conquering king, the devil is someone who is part of his procession as a prisoner.

And so it is the church's mission.

It is Acts 29's mission.

It is your mission as a people to first go, because you can't do this without going, to

and then to plunder the strong house, as in plunder where the devil keeps his captives.

What does he keep captives?

Lives.

How do we know that?

It says in Galatians that the God of this world has blinded the eyes of people.

It says in Ephesians chapter 2 that the present world is under the sway of the prince of the

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

power of the air or the prince of darkness.

So we know that he gathers his captives and keeps them.

So it is the mission of the church to go, to enter his house because he is bound and

plunder, as in take people out of false ideologies, false religions, false ways of thinking, bondages,

to deliver them, to bring them out, individual by individual, people by people, tribe by

tribe, nation by nation, setting situations, peoples and nations into the freedom of Christ.

This is the nature of Christ, the head of the church, and therefore it is the nature

of the church.

Isn't it such a privilege for us to both study this and to enter into this?

How defunct is Christianity if it is only about enlarging, enlarging, enlarging our

own prosperity?

Just getting prosperous, just getting healed, just getting a little bit of more money, just

having a job when you lose a job, just having a slightly better house.

To live like that for the rest of your life?

That is so purposeless.

That's what rich people's kids do.

I've got nothing against rich people or their kids, but I'm saying there's more to life

than just sitting and prospering.

There must be greater purpose, and what greater purpose than this?

See, in the Bible in Ephesians 6 it talks about wearing armor.

You don't need to wear armor if you're watching TV.

It's crazy if you have a suit of armor at home and every time you come and want to watch

hockey or downtown something.

My God, the number of people who watched it.

And it's a great show by the way.

I haven't yet.

But imagine all of us going home to watch either hockey or downtown Abbey and getting

into the suit of armor that you have by your door.

And you wear it and now you clink clank your way onto your reclining chair and then you

watch the whole thing and then you realize you can't get out of the chair now.

So your cat helps you.

And then you finally come out of it.

The point being armor is only meant for people who that you'll have to train your cat to

help you because he'll have to press the button that brings the chair back.

But we're going into the mechanics of that.

Let's go back to what we're talking about.

The point is this guys, that at the end of the day, there is no point wearing armor that

the Bible prescribes if there is no war to engage in.

No point.

It just becomes heavy clanking machinery.

Because if there's no battle, there is no need to wear armor.

And you can't have a battle at home unless you can't have a battle at home.

And therefore to raise a prevailing church that contends in battle through prayer, there

is a cost.

And if you don't pay the cost, three things happen to people who don't pay the cost of

prevailing prayer.

If churches and believers don't pay the cost of prevailing prayer, then three things can

happen to such churches and believers.

One, they get ravaged.

Two, they get sterilized.

Three, they get deceived.

This is one of three things that happens to churches and believers.

If they don't first realize the cost that has to be paid, if you are to become, if we

are to become a church that prevails in prayer, as in begins to say, Oh God, our requests

are not going to be just about healing and jobs.

We want our prayers to be about setting peoples, individuals, and nations absolutely free into

your arms from the devil's clutches.

And that kind of prayer takes a toll.

There's a cost to pay.

And if you don't want to pay the cost and engage in that kind of prayer, then what happens

You either get ravaged because the enemy hits back or you get sterilized as in he just renders

you important when nothing works.

So you might as well just have these prayer meetings, which are meaningless.

And most churches engage in prayer meetings that are meaningless.

Or you get deceived where you go into error and start doing things that really are not

biblical but sound spiritual.

Any questions on that before we go on?

There's a cost to pay for prayer.

There's a cost to pay.

Yep.

Yeah, let's say someone told me this long ago, if you're calling down fire, make sure you're

wearing an asbestos suit or else when you're calling down fire, you get burned too.

Or like the story I was telling you about my mom earlier on, where there was a battle

that was fought.

If I didn't know better, had I not known better, my mom would have been in hospital by now.

So there was a way to combat it.

So once we know the cost we have to pay and we know how to pay it, then this becomes easy.

Otherwise, the enemy ravages you where you touch something of his and because you have

not learned to pay the cost, he has the ability to come and attack you back because he's ferocious.

He's fiery.

He's furious.

He's evil.

He's super powerful.

Thank God we have Jesus Christ who is far more powerful.

You cannot take on the devil on your own.

There is no, it's not a fair fight.

He beat us hollow, but thank God there is Christ and now it's not a fair fight because

Christ beats him hollow.

Here's the thing.

Especially in the West, we get sucked into this neutral zone, like that area between

peace arch and the Canadian border.

There's a no man's land.

We, because of the lack of pressure on us, get sucked into that neutral zone, no man's

land where we think that we are okay in Canada because everything is all right when there

is no such zone in the spirit realm.

We lose our edge as a church and our axes become blunt because we don't use them to

plunder.

It's a mission of the church.

There is no other mission.

We weren't put on earth to sing worship songs.

That's something we do on the side.

He put us on the earth so that what he began we could finish.

He is Christ the head, we are his body.

Their body finishes what the head orders.

Does that answer your question Nick?

Any other questions guys?

I don't know which is worse, being sterilized or deceived.

Because either way you end up in great error.

At least when you get ravaged you might hit back.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Deception happens on many different levels guys.

So sometimes we get deceived by saying that things that are evil are okay because they

are packaged well.

So that's one deception.

And then the other deception is, oh Satan is nobody.

I can handle him.

Both are deceptions.

I can handle him.

Both are deceptions.

The first one is that we have a tendency to package evil well.

And once you package evil well it is palatable.

So we receive it.

There are many different forms of evil that have come into Western Christianity packaged

well.

Just put a yoga mat under you and wear something that's slightly skin tight and you're ready

to change the world.

Doesn't work that way.

Lululemon doesn't help dismiss devils.

It just makes you look a little thinner when you're really fat.

That's all it does.

And I've got nothing against lululemon.

I mean I'll be so full of disclaimers on this topic.

The point is this guys.

Let me give you instances.

Churches open their arms to acupuncture.

Churches open their arms to Tai Chi.

Churches open their arms to yoga.

Churches open their arms to holistic methods of healing.

Not all of them are wrong.

But there are some where you cannot with a snap of your finger separate the spiritual

roots of certain practices just because you think so.

Doesn't work like that.

Thank God I come from the East.

We've seen it.

We've seen the demonic reality behind these things.

I remember a pastor once telling me the reason you're messed up in your mind is because you're

syncretistic meaning you mix the Eastern ways of religion and Western Christianity and he

was too old for me to fight so I didn't fight him.

But the point is that it's not syncretism when you say this thing cannot be received

into Christianity because the spiritual roots of something are so deeply entrenched that

you cannot remove them.

Yep.

So here are the critical costs of prevailing prayer.

The first one is know the size and the nature of the opposition.

Know the size and the nature of opposition.

Know the size and the nature of opposition.

Know the size and the nature of opposition.

This is a cost we have to pay.

We have to take the trouble of finding out the size and nature of our opposition and

to not think that somehow being a Christian makes you impervious to the devil's attacks.

Just remember one thing.

Paul himself used to say stuff like I longed to come to you but Satan hindered me or prevented

me.

He was a man who was well versed in the ways of Christianity and yet there were times when

he would have to struggle.

This doesn't mean that we can't go further than Paul.

All it means is let's not assume things about the enemy.

This is a process of learning.

I mean if you were a wrestler or a fighter or a kickboxer you don't become a star overnight.

You learn and in the process you learn new ways of dealing with stuff.

And so the first scripture we look at is Ephesians 6, 12 where it talks about these different

characteristics of the enemy.

One it talks about we wrestle not against flesh and blood.

Immediately come to this conclusion that everything that is happening in your life, be it accusation,

be it sickness, be it death, be it decay, be it sadness, be it fear, be it pain, be

it disaster, be it the breaking down of relationship, be it different diseases and pains in your

body, be it your inability to escape from a certain way of thinking though you've been

trying for the last 20 or 30 years, be it an inability to stop being stubborn, stop

being pride, be it lying, be it cheating, be it covetousness, be it lust.

Take all these things together and know that your struggle did not begin in the realm of

That it has its roots, that it has its source in a place called the spiritual realm and

that because I have allowed it to master me, I am now enslaved to it because it says in

the Bible that whatever masters you, you become a slave of.

But everything has its beginning in the spiritual realm.

Unfortunately, all our wars are usually in the realm of flesh and blood when it's not

true.

It is not true.

Flesh and blood will soon tire.

You can only exert yourself so much in breaking down things.

After a while, your body, your mind and your emotions will tire.

But there is a place from which you fight, which is your spirit man.

The spirit man has Christ living there.

It is a realm of the Holy Spirit.

It has an inexhaustible supply of God.

It is rooted in God.

It is where God lives and it sources its strength from God.

Things happen easily there because God gives you keys from there when you fight.

Be you a doctor, a psychologist, a teacher, a soldier, when you begin to understand things

from that place, you will find that your victories are greater.

The time taken is shorter and the strength to endure is much more.

Everything issues from there.

Paul made this marvelous statement.

I mean, God inspired him to do it because every word that is in the Bible is God breathed.

And here's what God is saying to Paul, that your battle, Jacob, your struggle, your battle

is really not against flesh and blood.

Your battle in your family, your battle with your children, your battle with your spouses,

your battle with your relatives is not with flesh and blood.

That is not where it began.

That is not where it's coming from.

That's not where it's deriving its strength from.

Therefore, why are you trying to solve it there?

First, it has to be solved in another place before its physical effects can be solved

through maybe conversations, through maybe peacemaking, through maybe a good attitude,

through maybe this marvelous thing called love, through maybe mercy.

These are the characteristics of Christ, which by the way, also has been brought to you from

the spiritual realm into your life by someone who is invisible called the Holy Spirit.

Yeah, and therefore the spirit man where the Holy Spirit dwells is where everything emanates from.

It begins there and then our minds change.

Then our emotions begin to match up.

Our emotions will not change till our minds change.

Guys, emotions are like a wild dog that some days is castrated and can be normal and sit.

And other days is running wild, biting everything in sight.

You cannot let emotions decide things for you.

The mind has to be changed first.

And the mind can only come into alignment when the spirit man is the one who rules.

And therefore you think the devil doesn't know it.

If the devil can get the church in the west or the east to focus on thinking first.

And not the spirit man, not to understand that everything emanates from the realm of the spirit.

Then the victory is already won because with our thinking, we cannot defeat the enemy.

Because he is far greater in strength.

He was one of the chief angels in heaven when he was cast out.

One third of the angel army was cast out.

These are demonic beings who once used to be in the presence of God.

Corrupted. Yes.

But powerful, powerful beings, people who want experiences or encounters with angels,

don't realize that if an angel turned up, you would lie down flat on the floor and shiver.

Because it would be hard to even meet one of these angels.

Because everybody who met an angel in the Bible was not able to handle it.

Except in the New Testament, when angels would come in the form of

some being that would set Peter free.

Some being that would set Peter free from prison and stuff like that.

So here are the different things we need to know about our opposition.

Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but it is against principalities.

The word for principalities is RK.

RK means chiefs.

Against powers.

The word for powers is exousia, which means forces that have jurisdiction.

Against rulers.

Comes from a word called cosmocratos,

which means world rulers.

As in these are powers that have the ability and the right because of the fallen man to rule the world.

And then spiritual forces, which comes from a word pneumaticos,

which means non-bodied supernatural beings.

And what are these spiritual forces?

They are spiritual forces of wickedness.

And what is another word for wickedness?

Depravity.

This is the nature of your opposition.

And unless we grab the fact or grasp the fact that this is the nature of our opposition,

we won't even prepare for this because most of us don't confront this on a daily basis.

And therefore the church dulls itself into a place where it thinks we're in a neutral space

where everything is okay.

No man's land, neither American nor Canadian.

Sorry?

Sorry say that again.

Huh.

So, you're well-being is a question of thought.

Yeah, absolutely. Good example.

This is your opposition, guys.

Not a word has been added. I'm not exaggerated.

I haven't come up with my own explanation.

But this is your daily living.

We won't get through today's notes either.

But this.

This is your daily living.

You suddenly realize how out of sync we are

with the reality of being a Christian soldier.

Any questions on this?

And this is all in Ephesians 6.12. Just one verse.

Cosmocratos. Yeah, that's fine.

Maybe an E is in there. It's just S.

So this is what you're fighting.

These are the forces that are summoned against you.

It doesn't matter whether you believe this or not.

Guys, I always use this example.

Jump off a building and see if your unbelief in gravity will help.

Take a leap of the highest building you can,

saying, I do not believe gravity exists.

See what happens. It's the same way with this.

This is reality. Whether you believe it or not,

just makes one difference.

You don't know what hit you. Otherwise, you know what hits you.

I was reading this. Yeah, we won't go there today.

This is what is opposing you every day.

This is what is opposing your marriage, opposing your body,

opposing the church, opposing your pastor,

opposing when you go on a mission trip,

opposing you at work, opposing you to become silent in the face

of how the world does not even want to hear about Christ.

Why doesn't the world want to hear about Christ?

Because there is a blanket or a canopy that is being woven,

a tapestry that's being woven by these powers

so that the mention of Christ is silenced because it is the only name

and the only person who can completely dismantle this.

And therefore, if that name is not spoken,

you think the devil is not intelligent?

Across the Middle East, across many different parts of the world,

every day, five times prayers and chants from temples and mosques

and other places are broadcasted to invoke the names of other deities.

But the only people who have the ability to lay down their lives

to declare the name of Christ choose to be silent

because they want to be accepted.

This church has to rise and break out of the ceiling

of not being able to mention the name of Christ out there.

It's easy to sing about him here, man.

It is the only name that can deliver people.

It is the only name that can break down these humongous strongholds.

Yeah, culture is the collective thinking of a people.

The collective thinking of a people is heavily influenced by these powers

Read Ephesians 2 verses 1 and 2. Ephesians 2 verses 1 and 2.

Ephesians 2:1 Ephesians 2:1

And here's what it says in Ephesians 2.

When you used to, he's talking about us,

who did not know Christ long ago and now know Christ.

And so Paul is saying in Ephesians 2, verse 2 and 3,

Ephesians 2:2

when you followed the ways of this world

and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, or some version say,

the prince of the power of the air,

the spirit who is now the king of the air,

the prince of the power of the air,

the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.

All of us lived among them at one time,

gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following his desires and thoughts.

Over all this is someone called the devil,

or the ancient serpent,

or Satan,

or accuser.

Any of those names you can pick for him.

I prefer devil or Satan because when I say the word enemy,

it makes it kind of bland, just like using the name God,

because God can be anybody and enemy can be anybody.

Satan and the devil, it's become, it's crazy how we cannot even name the enemy now,

because you say the word Satan makes you appear spooky and spiritual.

So we will use words like the enemy, sounds a little more palatable.

You call the Boston Bruins the enemy too,

so it doesn't make much of a difference suddenly.

It has to be more than that.

So this is not a hierarchy by the way.

I'm not saying this is how it's hierarchically built.

The Bible doesn't say what the hierarchical order is.

I'm just giving you the explanations, but I know the devil rules over them.

Any questions before we move on?

So this is the prince of the power of the air.

Why is he called the prince of the power of the air?

Because the intent is that there is a heavenly zone,

there are heavens over us, and the air in a sense is the realm of these spirits.

So we're not talking about the dust, we're talking about the prayer,

ourselves, the world, the church, in the name of Christ?

Yeah, that's the whole idea of prevailing church, prevailing prayer.

A church that is able to pray certain things is able to behave a certain way,

and therefore that church is able to endure, is able to engage in battle, endure and overcome.

Because if we understand that, there should be a certain fear of the church being founded.

Yeah, a healthy fear that education can easily solve.

Yeah.

So Ephesians 2.2 says that, guys, please understand that these powers and principalities

are at work on a regular basis in the world.

This is why it becomes so hard for people who hear the name of Christ again and again

to not be able to receive Christ, because the God of this world has blinded the minds of those

that hear about Christ, blinded the minds.

Meaning, and this is why Acts 26, verse 18, just read it, such a marvelous commission to Paul.

Acts 26:18

Acts 26, I think it's 18, Acts 26, 18, I love this commission given to Paul.

Acts 26, verse 17.

Acts 26:17

God says to Paul, I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles.

And then look at what he says next.

I'm sending you to them to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light,

from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins

and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.

This is your commission, guys.

If you want to be a prevailing church, if I want to be a pastor of a prevailing church,

then this is my commission.

I am sending you, Jacob, and I'm sending you Acts 29 to them.

To do what? To open their eyes.

So what will happen? To turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God,

so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified.

We have absolutely no interest in making people Christians.

We have absolutely total interest in rescuing people out of sin and darkness and from Satan.

This is our chief interest.

We are not interested in making Christians or in adding numbers to this church.

Not at all interested.

Colossians 1.13.

Colossians 1.13 says it so clearly.

I mean, the last bit here says, spiritual forces of wickedness or rulers of darkness,

spiritual forces of wickedness, rulers of darkness.

I mean, never forget what you were delivered out of.

Colossians 1.13 says, he delivered us from the power or the domain of darkness.

Oi, how can you and I be delivered from the domain of darkness and then not do anything about it?

It's untenable. We can't behave like that.

You and I have been set free from the domain of darkness and been transferred into the kingdom of the sun.

Now we have the marvelous privilege of working alongside the sun to do the same.

Set apart by Christ to assist him in setting others apart.

Never forget that, guys.

We have been set apart by Jesus Christ to assist him in setting others apart.

That's our story.

We have been set aside by Christ to assist him in setting others apart.

What fun when you deliver people from this, when you deliver nations from this, when you deliver tribes from this,

when you deliver people groups from this, when you deliver situations from this.

Any questions before we move on?

Any questions before we move on?

No questions, no thoughts you want to add?

God wants to say to you, Eva, endure for a little longer.

Just hold on for a little longer because your dawn is coming.

Things will break in your life.

For a while now you've been thinking it ain't happening, it ain't happening, it ain't happening, it's going on and nothing is changing.

God is saying it's like Paul being let down over the Damascus walls.

He was put in a basket in the middle of the night and they started lowering him in a basket.

And you can imagine Paul in that basket being lowered.

His enemies are hunting after him and he does not know where the ground is because he can't see the ground.

They lower him 10 feet, 20 feet, 30 feet and he's saying where is the ground?

He can't see it.

But God is saying to you Eva that the ground is just a few feet away.

Do not cast away your confidence.

Make Hebrews 10, 34 something that is precious to you.

Do not cast away your confidence.

For with patience and with faith you will inherit the promise.

It's only a matter of a little while more.

After all that you endured now to chicken out, to give up, to quit, to lose any strength or relationship with God would be a shame.

That is exactly what the enemy wanted and that is exactly what you're not going to give him.

Just a little longer.

And while you're doing that, take the help of friends to hold up your arms like Aaron and her did for Moses.

And it will require that you open up your life to be a little more transparent, which may be hard for you.

But who cares?

Have Aaron and her hold up your arms for a little more.

And when breakthrough comes and it will come in a very short while, God will start an entirely new chapter in your spiritual walk.

Your spiritual walk will not look anything like it was before.

All these years have been adolescent years.

Now you enter into adulthood.

Hold on for a little while longer.

Guys, so you've got 13 minutes more.

Guys, these powers rule over nations.

They rule over nations.

It says in Deuteronomy 32, go quickly there.

Deuteronomy 32, strange words there.

Deuteronomy 32.

Verse 8.

What I'm going to say, hold not too tightly.

Just consider that what I'm saying could be the truth, but don't make a doctrine out of it.

Hold it loosely.

Verse 7.

Deuteronomy 32, verse 7.

Deuteronomy 32:7

Remember the days of old.

Consider the generations long past.

Ask your father and he will tell you.

Your elders and they will explain it to you.

When the Most High gave nations their inheritance, when he divided all mankind, he set up boundaries for the peoples according to the numbers of the sons of Israel.

For the Lord's portion is his people, Jacob is allotted inheritance.

Guys, the sons of Israel there is some versions don't say sons of Israel.

Some versions say sons of God.

I would suggest to you that God's intent was that every nation, every people that he placed on the earth would have his angelic protection.

That was his intent.

Unfortunately, because man has chosen to worship other deities, they still have divine guardians, but these guardians are not necessarily from God.

So there are nations where you can go and nations have demonic deities presiding over them.

In the Book of Daniel, you find that God says to Daniel, listen, there is a guardian angel over Israel.

But he named them, he calls them Michael, but he says before I came to help you, I had to fight the Prince of Persia.

And he was not talking about a video game.

And I had to fight the Prince of Greece.

There are divine guardians over nations and peoples.

Demonic deities that preside over these nations because these nations have chosen to either subscribe to or surrender to or devote themselves to a certain ideology,

a certain religion or a certain sin.

It ravages the entire nation.

And therefore, to even begin to stand up and prevail as a church will require first to break, to be able to understand and then pray for these nations.

We'll just look at one thing and then stop.

At six points, we have done one.

We'll finish one more and then keep going at this.

Our nations are not bound by boundaries anymore.

Why is it that you can be Mongolian or East Indian or Chinese or British and leave Mongolia, Britain, India and China and come to Canada and still have a culture and live out a culture with its faults, its defects and its positives in a brand new country?

It's not the boundary that changes things.

It's a culture that we cultivate over a period of time and we come into a new nation and nothing changes.

And the only way that will change is when an overarching culture called the kingdom culture, the culture or the way of thinking that Jesus Christ prescribes begins to take over an entire people.

Therefore, it is impossible at Acts 29 to be British or Indian or Chinese or Mongolian and survive.

You cannot.

It is not that either of these cultures are bad.

It is that they are secondary.

They are no longer primary because there's another culture that takes over.

It's amazing how nations have a certain way of thinking, certain ways of treating men, certain ways of treating women, certain ways of treating children, a certain religious affiliation, certain sin aspects.

It's amazing how each nation is different.

Let's just talk about Jesus Christ and then.

So the cost of prevailing prayer, we said, is to know the size and opposition, size and category of the opposition.

Now, the next thing is to know the ascended and risen, the risen and ascended Christ, risen and ascended Christ, to know him.

That is a second part of the cost of prevailing prayer, to know the risen and ascended Christ.

If Christ just rose, it wouldn't have been enough.

Christ died. That wouldn't be enough.

If Christ didn't rise, his death would have been useless because that just meant that Christ died for my sins, but he had sins of his own and he did not rise from the dead.

So that would not have been enough.

Had Christ risen and stayed somewhere here on earth or somewhere between the heavens on the earth, that wouldn't be enough.

Because, yes, my sins would have been forgiven, but I still would not be able to connect with his father, nor would I be free from the devil's oppression.

Christ rose and then he did this amazing thing.

Forty days later, he ascends, he ascends and is now seated in the highest place in the universe.

By highest, I don't mean the number of kilometers up there, highest as in there is no other superior place.

Now that he's seated there, I have the authority that he delegates.

Otherwise, the devil could still have a lot of fun with blood washed Christians.

And there would be no setting free of others from bondage because we would be ones who receive Christ, but we would never be able to cast out a demon from someone because the demon still occupied a place higher than us.

But because Christ has ascended and is seated in a place that is above every other place and because he says I have lifted you up and seated you with me now.

The Cosmocratos and the Exusia and the Numaticos and the Arche have to obey.

The ascension of Christ is so critical to our mission as a church.

Without ascension, we'd be a bunch of martyrs with no power except when our blood is spilled.

And so how do we know the risen and ascended Christ? How do we get to know him?

Guys, begin to pray this prayer. These are prayers that you must write down and once a week or twice a week pray it.

It's in Ephesians 1.18. It says in Ephesians 1.18 and then verse 20. I'll skip verse 19 just to get the point across.

Ephesians 1.18, Paul says, Hey guys, I pray and now don't let Paul pray for you. You pray for yourself.

Ephesians 1.18, that the eyes of your understanding be enlightened. Why? So that you may know what is the exceeding greatness of his power towards those of us who believe.

According to the working of his mighty power, which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand in heavenly places.

Plead with God, Oh God, we are going to become a prevailing church. Oh God, I don't want to be left out of this experience.

Oh God, would you enlighten my eyes? Would you open my understanding so that I might see the greatness of your power?

Greatness of your power so that I can understand that my God, you lay dead on a stone and then suddenly life entered you.

You rose again and then you ascended. Oh God, could you open my mind and my spirit to begin to grasp the fullness of this power that you have?

Because if I don't understand it, I cannot handle the opposition.

And when you ask God this, the Holy Spirit begins to show you things, man.

He begins to show you things and your mind begins to expand.

He'll show me things that I can teach you. He'll then help us train together.

That is the whole intent. And one day different people will go to different parts of the world from this church.

Which has already begun, but that it becomes something that saturates the church.

Just one more scripture. Ephesians 1, 20 and 21. Ephesians 1, 20 and 21.

It says Christ when he rose was seated at the right hand of the Father. Christ when he rose was seated at the right hand of the Father in heavenly places.

I love the next two words. In any Bible it's the same. And the next two words are far above. Far above.

Guys, it's one thing for Satan to be called the Prince of the power of the air.

The heavens are above us and he occupies the realm of the air. But Jesus Christ is seated far above.

Like Paul didn't even waste time explaining how far above because far above was sufficient because it's that far above.

Far above. And then look at the rest of the words. It says far above what? Far above principalities.

Which was what we were talking about the enemy. RK. Far above. What's the next word?

I'm assuming you're looking at the scripture. Far above authority. Authority comes from the word dunamis.

He's added a few more things, Paul, so you can expand your list of the opposition and know that Jesus Christ trumps all of it.

RK, dunamis, far above authority. What else? Powers, exusia and dominion.

And every name that is named. The word for name is a Greek word, onema, which means influence and authority.

Dominion comes from, I forgot the word. Dominion comes from this beautiful word.

You know, do you know the word for Lord in Greek? Obviously not.

I said that almost like a scholar. The word for Lord in Greek is kurios or k-u-r-i-o-s. It means Lord.

And so dominion comes from this word. This is not important guys, but it tickles me that the word dominion comes from a word kuriotis,

while Jesus Christ is absolute kurios or kurios, which means Lord.

Oops, ran out of space.

There's no dominion before him. He's the only one. He's the only king.

I carry these things on my phone and read it again and again, especially if I'm going to a nation where I know there are things involved.

I don't want to know the size of the opposition because that can frighten you.

I want to know the size and the magnitude of Jesus Christ and I can't wrap my head around it.

Because there is no comparison. And so you can add these four to the other guys from your opposition and still come up absolutely prevailing.

Go ahead.

No, it has to be held in tension. On one hand, we need to know the size of our opposition.

Yet the moment we get overwhelmed by the size of opposition, breakthrough does not happen.

I must know the size of the opposition just so I know how big the door should be so I can push them out.

Because it will be harder to push them through a narrow door.

So that is why. So it both has to be held in tension. You know the size of your enemy just so you can push them out.

So that is why. So it both has to be held in tension. You know the size of your enemy just so you know how much strength you need to use to shove them out.

I mean throwing Jeevan over the balcony is much easier than throwing Don over the balcony.

That was the wrong example, right?

Gravity would affect both of them. Gravity would affect both of them.

Okay, cancel. We won't be throwing any of you over. Not till after the fine dining experience.

Because you guys are making the fish. Chicken. Any questions guys? I'll stop here.

Any questions?

Any questions?

Yep.

First let me verify if you are David or Donald.

Okay, then you must be David. This is like when I used to play with the Sedin Twins. I never knew which one was which. But go ahead.

Who is this?

Okay.

My name is...

I'm not sure if you can confirm your name.

Yeah. Wayne you can stop the recording. I'll answer the questions.