264 ~ RECEPIE FOR REVIVAL ~ PART 3

We welcome you to the We Are Zion sermon podcast.

We are a church based out of Chennai, India.

We are thrilled that you tuned in today and hope that you will

be refreshed, revived, and energized by what you hear.

Our desire is that you will live life with a renewed sense of

purpose that stems from a vibrant faith in Jesus.

The year 2025 is 1 where we will be positioned by God to possess

our promise. We continue our sermon series

called A Recipe for Revival where we look at different

instances in the Bible where God poured his spirit out on His

people leading to reformation and restoration.

We hope that through this series, God will fill you with

the Holy fire so that you are blazing for Christ in a Dark

World. Sir Chaja, even as we have been

doing this whole series on the recipe for revival, we believe

we're in a season of a revival fire breaking out.

And today's Part 3 and I've titled it as Revival battles.

The interesting thing is the minute we begin to prepare a

clear ground for revival, it's almost like our warfare

increases, like it double S up right?

And you, you feel like all hell has broken loose over your life.

And the reason that happens is because the enemy hates the

thought of revival. You know, why not the actual

revival, But what happens just prior to that when hearts are

surrendered, when repentance is happening, when confession and

and forgiveness is, you know, being is being encountered by

God's people when lives are opened up to his touch, when,

when people are completely surrendered and submitted to

their Father in heaven, It's powerful ground for the power of

God to move it. It's the perfect setting for

revival. And the enemy hates that kind of

cleared up ground. He hates that things are coming

together for for the Lord's people.

He hates that there is, you know, expectation for something

to change. And therefore he heightens the

attack. He presses in, he unleashes all

the darts that he knows, he unleashes his minions to really

oppress the Saints. And I want to just encourage you

today that in the season of revival, whatever you're facing,

if you sense it is, it's a difficult season, you sense

there's push back, you feel there is a, a crushing that's

happening, you're in good company.

Because the minute we anticipate revival, the minute we prepare

for revival, the the armed forces of hell literally take

their position as well. And so God is calling us to come

to a place of the right stance in this battle.

Because the truth is this, if you want to see the fullness of

the revival that God has got for us, we need to stand our ground

and push back. We have to stand our ground, not

be shocked by the warfare and run and hide.

But we like have to go and take our stance opposite the enemy

and say, God of Angel armies, would you fight?

That is where God is calling us. And today we're going to be

looking at Judges Chapter 4. We're going to be looking at the

Judges 4 · chapter mention

story of Deborah. And, you know, it's such a

beautiful story. We're going to read it little by

little. Deborah is, you know, a

prophetess. She's the wife of Lapidoth.

She is a judge. In the time of the judges of

Israel, there was number real leader, there was number king.

This was prior to that, and they needed a leader.

So God raised up judges from within them and these people

provided leadership to the group of Israel.

It's not a large group of them. And the sad thing is when when

the book of Judges is written, it starts with this very sad

description of the climate, the the spiritual climate of the

land. There was a generation which

didn't have a clue about who God was or what God had done.

This is the same God, this the people whose ancestors had

walked through the parteds Red Sea.

These were the guys whose ancestors had gone and taken

possession of the promised land, driven out giants and occupied

the land. And they were at the the end of,

you know, the possession of the land.

And it's very interesting because in Judges one verse 19,

it says the Lord was with the men of Judah.

They took possession of the Hill Country, but they were unable to

drive the people from the plains because they had Chariots fitted

with iron. It's interesting because God had

said possess all of the land, drive out its people and take up

your position. But the people had found that

the ones who occupied are already had certain areas of

strength. Chariots fitted with iron

demonstrated power, demonstrated influence.

Because that was not, that was not even the Iron Age.

There was no they had no business having iron on their

Chariots, And yet they did, which meant they had influence

beyond their borders. And because of which that

intimidated the men of Judah and a couple of other tribes.

And they didn't drive them out fully.

They coexisted eventually. Yes, they put them under their

thumb, but coexistence with the enemy was not the plan of God.

God expected them to fully obey. He expected them to trust Him

when they went against the enemy.

And yet they kind of compromised.

And that is the setting for Judges, right?

And it's in this setting that we read the story of Deborah and

Judges chapter 4. And we're going to read few

Judges 4 · chapter mention

verses at a time, Judges chapter 4, verses one to three.

Judges 4 · chapter mention

Again, the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord now that

Ehud was dead. So this Lord sold them into the

hands of Jabin, king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor Cizera.

The commander of his army was based in Harochett Hagoem

because he had 900 Chariots fitted with iron and had cruelly

oppressed the Israelites for 20 years.

They cried out to the Lord for help. 20 years of oppression.

Why? Because these people did evil in

the eyes of the Lord. It was a clear cause and effect.

They did something. There was consequences.

And the hands that they've fallen into was a Canaanite king

so wicked, so wicked. And it talks about these

Chariots fitted with iron and his cruel oppression of the

people, right? If you look at Joshua chapter

Joshua 17:16–18

17, verses 16 to 18, the people of Manasseh and Ephraim come and

talk to Joshua and they're telling him, you know what, the

Hill Country that you've allocated to us is not enough.

We are a huge people. What do we do?

We want to go and live in in more areas, but people already

live there who have Chariots fitted with iron.

So this is almost a generation before where the same mindset of

oh, these people have iron Chariots.

I can't overrun them. But this is Joshua's reply to

them in verse 17. He says, but Joshua said to the

tribes of Joseph, to Ephraim and Manasseh, you are numerous and

very powerful. You will have not only one

allotment, but the forested Hill Country as well.

Clear it, and its father's limits will be yours.

Though the Canaanites have Chariots fitted with iron, and

though they are strong, you can drive them out.

Many times we look at what the enemy is throwing at us.

We see that he actually seems to have power.

We are so intimidated that we back down.

We tuck our tail between our legs like a frightened little

puppy, and we hide out. But here Josh was giving them a

clear instruction. He says, yes, they look like

they have great military strength, but God is with you,

trust him. And somehow fundamentally,

because they had done so much, even they had wandered so far

from God, God was there not their source of military

strength. They looked to themselves and

they fell short. And it's interesting, this very

area of weakness that they had felt they had.

They didn't have Chariots with iron.

The enemy had it. But God uses Deborah and Bharat

to deal with the same enemy who had iron Chariots back then.

Who's brought it in here? Right.

And God will use seasons of revival to pull down enemy

strongholds. Things that have been

accommodated and and tolerated for too long.

Maybe in your family generationally, infidelity was,

was just looked at like it was normal.

Maybe drunkenness and alcoholism was just looked at like it's OK.

This is just part of our bloodline.

Maybe brawling and anger, which is something that you've seen

growing up and you thought, well, you know what?

This is what I was born into. But God is saying in a season of

revival, when you come into repentance, you come before him

and say, Lord, here I am, work in me.

God is going to use you to pull down the very strongholds that

you thought was OK, that you thought this is, well, this is

something that has just been there for a while.

I'm comfortable with it. It's not harming me.

But he's going to call you to pull it down.

He's going to ask you to challenge the status quo.

That's what he did with Deborah and and with Barack.

Verse 4 says now Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lapidot,

was leading Israel at that time. She held court under the palm of

Deborah between Rama and Bethel in the Hill Country of Ephraim,

and the Israelites went up to her to have their disputes

decided. She sent for Barack, son of Abu

Noam from Kadesh and Naftali and said to him, The Lord, the God

of Israel, commands you, go. Take with you 10,000 men of

Naftali and Zebulun and leave them up to Mount Abbot.

I will lead Cicera, the commander of Jabin's army with

his Chariots and his troops to the Kishan River and give him

into your hands. There's not much of a huge

battle strategy that God is saying.

He's just saying you go, you take your position, take men

with you. He's giving him instruction from

which tribes to ask and lead them up a mountain.

And he's saying I will literally bring the enemy to your hands

because Cicera lived in a different place.

He's saying I'll actually bring them to you.

Verse 8, Bharat says if you go with me I will go, but if you

don't go with me, I don't go. Verse 9.

Certainly I will go with you, said Deborah.

But because of the course you are taking, the honour will not

be yours, for the Lord will deliver Cicera into the hands of

a woman. So Deborah went with Barack to

Kadesh. Debarak summoned Zebul in a

NAFTA league and 10,000 men went up under his command.

Deborah also went up with him. What is interesting here is that

you know the response that the banter between Barack and

Deborah. Deborah passes on the Word of

God. She was not a fighting woman,

she was a prophetess. She was a judge, right?

But when she gives His word to Barack, Barack must have

realized that he needed to hear God's military tactic more than

his. And he knew that she was the

voice of God. She was the the the mouthpiece

for God. And so he decided to keep her

close. Based on Deborah's reply, you

realize that that was not the best response he could have

given. Had Barack had a direct reliance

on God, he could have gone confidently into battle and had

this voice that he heard as a confirmation, as an overlay.

But instead, he was solely dependent on hearing God through

Deborah. And so he takes her along.

And, you know, The thing is, Deborah could have sat out.

If this was me, I would have said, hey, I'm just a

mouthpiece. I've done my part.

I'm going to stay up. But Deborah says, let's go.

She comes alongside him. And, you know, Deborah was

therefore called into a war that she was not originally planning

to enter. But as Barack was commissioned

for it, God had told Deborah, Barack has to lead the forces.

Barack was called to it. Deborah was almost, you know,

coerced into it. Verse 11.

Now Heba the Kinite had left the other Kinites, the descendants

of Hobab, Moses's brother-in-law, and pitched his

tent by the great tree in Zananem near Kedish.

It's a very weird interjection of information, but I want to

remind you of this, that the Kinites were basically the

Midianites. These were Moses's father in

law's family and they had come alongside and joined the

Israelites during the Exodus. And they were the ones who

showed them where the watering holes where the Oasis where

where they would, you know, get food.

And they kind of led them through the wilderness because

these guys were nomadic. They knew the wilderness.

They knew the desert well, right.

And so these guys had actually come alongside and now for a

time had parted ways. But this came in handy because

he was wife was none other than jail who's going to be featured

soon, sooner or later on this story.

And I want to just remind you that every person that God

places in our life or moves out of our life has been placed for

a season for a time to bless, to help to aid in Kingdom purposes.

Nothing is wasted. No one was wasted.

You may have regrets about certain friendships for the time

that it is placed in your life, for the time that they are in

your life. God has a big purpose.

Even when when you know we part ways, there are purposes behind

it. God is divine, God is sovereign.

Verse 12 When they told Cicera that Bharat son of ABI Noam had

gone up to Mt Tabor, Cicera summoned from Harosheth Hagoyam

to the Kishan river all his men and his 900 Chariots fitted with

iron. 14 And Deborah said to Bharat Go, This is the day the

Lord has given Cicera onto your hands, Has not the Lord gone

ahead of you? So Barack went down Mount Abar

with 10,000 men following him. At Barack's advance, the Lord

rooted Cicera and all his Chariots and army by the sword,

and Cicera got down from his chariot and fled on foot.

This is amazing. I just want to pause here for a

second because it says that Cicera comes with his agent of

intimidation, the chariot fitted with iron, and it's not just his

but 900 Chariots. But the beautiful thing is that

when God gives the command through Deborah, Barack goes

down the mountain and his men are following him.

But God routed Cicera. It was not Barack who did it.

It's interesting. They had to take position, they

had to be obedient. But the one who fought, the one

who routed the enemy was God himself.

And it says Cicera got down from his chariot and fled on foot.

This is the beautiful thing. You know, the very thing that

the enemy uses to intimidate us is the thing that God will

remove from him and send him fleeing.

I love these verses in the Bible.

It says the enemy will come at you in One Direction.

He will flee from you in seven, which indicates the panic and

the disorder God will create in the enemy's camp to protect his

chosen ones, to protect his anointed ones.

When God fights for us, He detrones the enemy.

The intimidation was the iron chariot.

But when God routed Cicera and his people, Cicera had to run on

foot. His iron chariot didn't help

him. Isn't that amazing when God

fights for his people? Verse 16 Barack pursued the

Chariots and army as far as Hirosheth Hagoyam, and all

Cicera's troops fell by the sword.

Not a man was left. Cicera meanwhile fled on foot to

the tent of jail, the wife of Heber the Kinite.

Because there was an alliance between Jeben, king of Hazor and

the family of Heber the Kinite jail went out to meet Cicera and

said, Come, my Lord, come right in, don't be afraid.

So he entered her tent, and she covered him with a blanket.

I'm thirsty. He said, please give me some

water. She opened a skin of milk, gave

him a drink and covered him up. Stand in the doorway of the

tent, he told her. If someone comes by and asks

you, is anyone in there, say no. But Jael, Heber's wife, picked

up a tent peg and a hammer and went quietly to him while he lay

fast asleep. Exhausted, she drove the peg

through his temple into the ground, and he died.

Just then Bharat came by in pursuit of Cicera, and Rael went

out to meet him. Come, she said, I will show you

the man you're looking for. So he went in with her, and

there lay Cicera with the tent peg through his temple, dead.

On that day, God subdued Jebin, king of Canaan, before the

Israelites, and the hand of the Israelites pressed harder and

harder against Jebin, king of Canaan, until they destroyed

him. Isn't that amazing?

Look at these verses. Look at the way God uses a

simple woman who lived in a tent with her husband and his people

to actually pull down the enemy. It was one fell sweep.

The entire equation shifted. It's amazing.

I love the fact that she lured him in.

He said she just said, you know what?

Come in. You know, she offered

hospitality and you know, he had the audacity to say, you know

what? Guard the tent.

Tell them I'm not here. But Yale took the law into our

own hands. Now, when we look at this story,

what we're not asking you to do, we're not telling you you need

to take a tent peg and hit someone you don't like on the

head. That's not the point of this

whole story. The point is this, when this

happened, if you look at the last verse, it explains the

concept of revival. It says on that day God subdued

Jebin, king of Canaan before the Israelites and the hand of the

Israelites pressed harder and harder against him until they

destroyed him. The enemy, the enemy has to

become against. First of all, you know, many

times we just think that, you know, I pray one prayer and it's

1 and done. It doesn't work like that.

That's where travailing prayer comes in.

That's where fasting and prayer comes in because we need to

persist in seeing the enemy pull down.

We need to persist in seeing every stronghold come down till

the last brick is removed and we are set free.

God is calling us into that kind of warfare, right?

And so here when you look at it, please don't look at it

literally and say, OK, who can I go take the hammer and the 10th

peg to? Whose temple can I take it to?

That's not what the point is. Jail because of the fire of God

in her, because she knew who she was associated with.

You know, these were the people of God.

She knew that something was happening.

She was sensitive to the tide changing.

She was sensitive that something was going to change. 20 years of

oppression was about to change today.

Maybe you've been in a season, prolonged oppression, prolonged

setbacks, prolonged attacks, and you're thinking, God, when will

I have my breakthrough? God, I could use a win right

about now. Lord, something supernatural

would really help boost my confidence, would boost my

faith. Lord, it feels like my hope has

been deferred for so long. And you're seeing, Lord, I

really could use a change. This has felt prolonged.

This has felt too long. But that's when you need to be

sensitive to the fact that something is going to shift.

When the warfare has mounted up, when it has picked up strength,

the winds around you are howling, you feel like doors are

closed, but you know that something is going to shift.

That's when you know revival is coming.

And that day when the battle shifted, the one who brought a

definitive victory was Yale. When she actually took the tent

peg and hammered it into the enemy's head.

That was when she turned the battle in God's favour.

All of us, everyone of us have a role to play in revival.

But you know, before it becomes corporate, it happens within us.

Right before revival actually picks up fire and spreads

between people and changes entire communities.

It starts within us. But if revival involves warfare,

it feels scary. You're like, Lord, then I just,

I would rather not have revive. Correct.

But I want to encourage you that when you feel the warfare mount

up, you know, revival is just around the corner.

And for that, you and I, both of us, you and I need to know our

places in the battlefield. You remember this.

Deborah announced the battle plan.

Deborah announced that there was going to be a battle.

There was going to be a change. Barack was called into battle.

De Bora was forced to join the battle.

Yale knew her place. She knew that this is something

I had a chance to actually act on.

And that's what the fire of God will do in you.

The fire of God, when it when it fills you up, it leaves you in a

place where you can't stay the same.

You know that things are shifting.

You want to be part of it, right?

And that is what revival does. Irrespective of what brought has

brought the battle to you, it's time that you stand and fight.

Maybe it's a battle that you incurred on yourself because of

wrong choices. Maybe it's a battle that just

visited you because of the fact that you're positioned in such a

way with influence or family or whatever.

Or maybe you you just watched God train you through this

battle. Whichever it is, whatever your

circumstances are, I want to train you today to fight.

Because if you want revival, you have to fight.

It doesn't come easily. From Judges Chapter 5, we see a

Judges 5 · chapter mention

few details that I want to get into before I really, you know,

give you 2 pointers as to how to take this forward from Judges

Judges 5 · chapter mention

Chapter 5. This is basically a poem that

Deborah and Barack write together, right?

It's a song. And when you read it, you find

out a little more about the details of this entire battle

strategy and what actually happened because it's not

explained much in chapter 4, but in five, it gets expounded,

right? And this is what it says a few

of the tribes, verses 15 to 17 and verse 23, it says curse

Merose. And it says what was Ruben

doing? What was Dan doing?

What was Asher doing? It talks about only 6 tribes

being present at the battle. Now you have to understand all

12 tribes were being oppressed. All 12 tribes had, you know,

Jebin ruling over them, oppressing them cruelly for 20

years. But only 6 tribes made it to the

battlefield. Yes, Zebulun and Afterlife

explicitly called, but many didn't turn up.

And it talks about how God honors the willing participants,

the volunteers, the ones who volunteered themselves, the

leaders who came forth. But God is not pleased at the

ones who just stayed with their flocks, the ones who just were

thinking for long whether they should join in or not.

And I want to ask you this, are you one of those who's been very

reticent about joining the army of God in joining and fighting

the good fight of faith? Have you been playing it safe?

It's easy to just say, well, you know, someone else is praying,

someone else is worshipping, someone else is warring in the

heavenlies. I'll just chill.

I'll just, you know, kind of cruise through my Christian

life. God is saying enough of being in

this Demilitarized Zone where you don't think you need to play

a part. God is calling you into battle.

Fight for your marriage, fight for your children, fight for

your integrity, fight for your your being moved forward in

promotion. Don't be so laid back that the

enemy just takes over all your territory.

It's time to fight. The tribes that didn't join them

were called out by God, he said. I'm disappointed, but the ones

who were willing and volunteered themselves were honoured.

Second thing was leaders were made in battle.

You know, many times in our homes, irrespective of what your

home looks like, you could be a single parent, you could be a

couple with children, you could just be a newly married couple,

whatever. You could be senior citizens,

whatever it is. But you know, leaders are made

in battle. Are you battling for your

marriage? Are you choosing to battle for

generations to come because that is what sets you apart from the

madding crowd? Mothers, are you praying more

than you are planning? Are you praying fathers more

than you're advancing yourselves, are you interceding

for your families? Grandparents, are you relaxed so

much in your old age that you don't make time to pray for the

generations to come? Retired business people, what

are you doing in the time that you have?

Leaders are shaped and made in battle.

You know, Deborah could have just sat it out.

No one would have judged her for saying, hey, I'm not coming into

battle. I'm not made for this, but in

verse 7, she addresses herself as a mother.

She says I'm a mother. Why?

Because until she stepped up, no one came and followed.

When she stood up and said this is the word of the Lord, let's

do it. People rallied around and maybe

God is calling you into a place of saying, hey, will you stand

up and give voice to what I want to speak?

Will you be a voice for the voiceless?

Finally, the fire of God filled all three differently.

You know, you in this whole scheme of things, you can't look

down on Bharat and say, oh, what a wimp.

He did what he had to do. Deborah did what she had to do,

jail did what she had to do. And each of them were filled

with the fire of God to see the enemy pushed out so that they

could enjoy freedom. Freedom from oppression, freedom

from being curbed and contained, freedom to live the way God

intended them. Each of them carried a fire in

them and that is what brought revival in the land for the next

40 years. Isn't that amazing?

20 years oppression, 40 years freedom, 40 years blessing.

And it was interesting because the one who shifted the battle

was a woman, someone who others would have overlooked.

Or she just lives in the tents, or she's just a housewife, or

this person doesn't know anything, not married.

The labels on you can continue or they can release you.

Whatever your labels have been in, the fire of God comes and

the label falls off. You can do great things, great

exploits for the Kingdom if you allow God's fire to fill you so

that you can take a stand. You can, you can do the things

that are required of you to set free generations.

And so today God is calling all of us to battle.

Like I said, revival doesn't come without a battle.

There is a battle before revival.

But interestingly enough, and this is a very interesting and

nice fact, it's a fun fact. It's a rigged battle.

We are on the winning side. We are just being trained

through it. You might wonder then why do I

need a battle if I'm on the winning side?

If everything's already won, then why do I have to be in it?

Well, the truth is we are being trained through the bucket.

The enemy is already defeated. He's a defeated foe.

Picture this. We used to do this, you know,

experiments with anti venom, with snakes.

So we used to have our lab attenders get the snake.

It used to be, you know, cobras or the crate of, you know, these

venomous snakes. And they would have these

bottles with a, you know, a latex lid and they would milk

the venom of the snake, right? And so when they milk it, the

venom leaks out. They take it and then we create

antibodies and we create the anti venom.

But the truth is the enemy is actually like a completely

milked out snake. All the venom has been taken

out. He has literally has no teeth,

right? But he's still a snake.

He still scares the daylights out of us.

The problem is many of us are giving him way too much credit.

Many of us are looking at him like he owns our lives.

He he runs everything. But the truth is he's a defeated

4. He is under our feet.

Our heel is on his head. When Jesus crushed the enemy at

the cross, he enabled us to also stand in the same position

because we are coerced with Christ in seated in the heavenly

realms with us. So if it's if the enemy is under

his feet, it's under our feet technically too.

But many times we have allowed the enemy to take position here,

right about here, close to our temple, close to our mind, close

to our ears. All our senses are tuned to him.

So which is why many times we give in to the the needs of the

flesh. Many times our thoughts turn and

deviate into a place it shouldn't go to.

Because as much as I claim I have the mind of Christ, I'm

also listening to the voice of the serpent.

I'm also letting him twist his tail around my neck and choke

me. I'm also listening to him

putting venom between my in my veins when I think of someone

that I don't like or doesn't like me.

But the time has come to put the enemy where he belongs, which is

under our feet. It is time to crush his head

under our feet, right? That is what revival will

require. Revival will require two things

to remember that we face a disarmed enemy.

That's the first thing. Because today the battle went in

the way it went and the outcomes that came.

Cicera prided himself on those iron Chariots, but he was made

to run on foot like a regular human.

He was made like one of the Israelites.

He was equalised and maybe even made less.

He ran on foot into a woman's tent.

You and I, we face a disarmed enemy, and therefore we can

fight the good fight boldly. Enough of being intimidated by

the enemy. Enough of thinking.

He has the final say. Enough of thinking.

This is my lot in life. It will never change.

It will. It already did at Calvary.

You and I need to enforce that victory.

I'm going to be reading from Colossians chapter 2, verses 13

Colossians 2:13–15

to 15 to reinforce this point. When you were dead in your sins

and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with

Christ. He forgave us all our sins.

Having cancelled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which

stood against us and condemned us, He has taken it away,

nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers

and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them,

triumphing over them by the cross.

Look at this, He has disarmed the powers and authorities.

He has made a public spectacle of them triumphing over them by

the cross. My youngest son enjoys playing

nerf wars, and so he recently got a nerf gun and he and his

uncle were playing, you know, they were playing a nerf war

between themselves. And you should watch how the

warp nerf warp progresses. Once the bullets are emptied

out, no amount of pulling on the trigger releases anything.

You're up for grabs. The enemy is literally right

now, like a nerf gun without any bullets.

He is like a nerf gun without a loading area.

There is no trigger. But the gun on its own is

intimidating, right? That's why the enemy still gives

us reasons to fear. But the truth is, when we look

at Him for who He really is, He is actually nothing.

Too many of us are giving Him so much credence that we've

forgotten to live in a way that gives God credit for everything

that's happening to us. We blame everything.

We blame everything on the enemy.

Oh, the enemy made me do that. Oh, it's all the darkness in my

life. Oh, it's because of the area I

live in. When are you going to put him

under your feet, stamp Him and walk in the authority that

Christ won for you on the cross? When are you going to do that?

The enemy has been pushed off the iron chariot.

He will flee from you in seven directions by foot.

He's no longer got anything to intimidate you.

And so don't let him trick you into thinking he's more powerful

than he is. And you have to understand this.

The enemy likes to take up territory that belongs to God in

you. You know, God has marked our

territory saying this is for my child, this is what I want him

to live his purpose out in such and such a way.

I want him to to, you know, have influence in this space.

But the enemy has come and occupy the territory and it is

important for us to know that he is already a disarmed enemy so

that we can boldly go in and take back the territory that

belongs to us. His technique and his tactic is

fear and intimidation. But you need to keep reminding

yourself, God, you disarm the powers and authorities.

You have made a public spectacle of them.

He'll keep his gun trained on you because he is the accuser of

the brethren. He'll say, what can you achieve?

I know who you are, but you say I am a new creation.

The old has gone, the new has come.

When you know who you are in Christ, you will also discover

that the enemy is disarmed. So that's the first thing.

Knowing you're in battle requires that you know you face

a disarmed enemy. The second thing is you must

remember this is that you must decapitate the enemy.

Many of us are content to know that the end.

This is the enemy that I'm fighting.

If you're in a troubled marriage, you'll be able to

sense there's a disruptive spirit that keeps acting up.

But it's time that we don't just entertain the spirit.

We actually cut its head off decapitate Colossians chapter 3

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

says this verse one on with sorry.

Since then you have been raised with Christ.

Set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the

right hand of God. Set your minds on things above,

not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is

now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life

appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

Verse 5 Put to death, therefore whatever belongs to your earthly

nature, sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and

greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of

God is coming. You used to walk in these ways

in the life you once live, but now you must also rid yourself

of all such things as these anger, rage, malice, slander and

filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since

you have taken off your old self with his practices and put on

the new self which is being renewed in knowledge in the

image of its Creator. Isn't that amazing?

What is he saying? You have a new life in Christ,

right? You are living completely hidden

with Christ, which means that I am just Christ in me, the hope

of glory. When people see me, they should

see Jesus. But because I'm still in the

flesh, I wrestle with the flesh. And he keeps reminding his

readers to crucify the flesh, to kill the flesh.

What does that look like? It doesn't mean I actually take,

you know, a piece of wood and smash my hand, which causes me

to steal on that. No, it's actually saying I'm

putting to death the deeper issues which cause me to sin.

And you have to understand that putting to death is a complete

annihilation. It's not saying well, today I

will not watch porn tomorrow I'll think about it.

No, it is deciding today I'm done with this and I'm going to

work at it. I'm going to put things in place

that keep me accountable to other people.

I'm going to choose to unsubscribe from such and such.

I can take a break from social media if that is my trigger.

It is not saying let me take each day as it comes.

Let me just figure this out. I don't know how tomorrow's

going to be. If you're struggling with anger,

you're like, I don't know, I could burst into rage anytime,

but we'll see. Or it's choosing to go to God

and say, Lord, I want to kill this.

Take it out from the root. It's probably doing the hard

yards of walking through therapy and saying, you know what, I'm

going to get to the root of it and pull it out completely.

It's time to put to death the things that are killing me

silently. It's very important.

Let's not kid ourselves about what we are actually putting

ourselves through what our families through.

Some some of us are going through chronic issues, but

we're just entertaining it, saying you know what, this is

how my mother was. This is how I've always been.

We excuse ourselves. We give ourselves these, you

know, these ways out. We find a way to blame others

for the things we are stuck in. But God is saying what you feed

will grow, what you starve dies. Is that simple.

Will you kill the fleshly desires with the ferocity that

Jael used to kill Cicera? She could have, you know, if it

was US, one of us who was less, more, you know, scared of blood

and gore, would have just probably, you know, hit him on

the head with a mat or something and just passed him out till,

you know, Bharat came into the tent and then you kind of

restrained him till she finished the job.

Putting to death requires a complete commitment.

And saying I am on the Lord's side.

I want to live in the light. No more darkness.

Enough is enough. It's closing a door on that

relationship. It is closing a door on the

things that are leading me astray.

It is deciding that, you know what, no, I'm a new creation.

I want to live like that. It's so important in order to

see revival that you decapitate the enemy that you identify.

Many times we identify the enemy, but we make a table for

them and sit at the table and we live our lives in and in a

cahoots with this enemy. In Psalm 23, it says you prepare

a table in the presence of my enemies.

That is different from this. That is not entertaining the

enemy. It is God blessing you in in the

sight of the enemy. But in this case, you can't sit

at the table and cohabit with the enemy.

You know the Israelites had done that for the longest time when

God said enter Canaan and push the enemy out and then occupy

the territory. He never said live beside them.

Because he clearly said if you entertain them, they will lead

you astray. They will cope, they will

intermarry, their children will become your children, their

grandchildren will be yours, and you will perpetuate the

idolatry, the the Pagan rituals, the the immorality.

And too many of us have entertained the enemy instead of

killing him. We have entertained the enemy's

thoughts, the enemy's lifestyles, the enemy's cultural

ideas. We have entertained it.

We have actually gotten intimate with it.

We have now inculcated it, and now we feel it's too late.

But here we have proof that you can put it to death.

What are some of the things that the Apostle Paul is asking us to

put to death? Earthly nature, Sexual

immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, greed, or he says this

is idolatry. So maybe you and I don't worship

before, you know, a, a, a big altar.

We don't have, you know, pictures or, you know, anything

of that sort. OK, But if you have these in

your life, it's idolatry. He says because of these, the

wrath of God is coming. He says you once lived in such a

way, but it's time to change. I want to tell you, if you want

revival in your home, if you want revival in your children's

lives, you want revival in your marriage, you want revival in

your singleness, this is a must. This is a must because when the

enemy comes at you with all he's got, you need to go for the

jugular. You need to get him at the neck.

Because when you get the head of the enemy, the voices stop the

lies, stop the lies he's been whispering that you'll never get

out of it. The lies that he's been saying.

This is essential to your very existence will stop.

It's time to go for the head of the enemy, decapitate him.

Don't entertain him. One of my friends recently

shared this WhatsApp story and it really got me thinking

because I felt it's something that a lot of us have to say,

have to, you know, really absorb into our lives.

It says not everything is a demon.

You can't cast out the flesh. Some battles don't need

deliverance, they need discipline.

Deliverance won't fix what obedience is meant to kill.

Crucify your flesh every single day.

You have to remember that your enemy is a disarmed foe, but you

also have to decapitate him in order that you kill your flesh.

When you know he's disarmed, he has no power over you.

You go for the head. You say enough is enough.

Jail was not compromising about the enemy.

She knew who Cicera was. She knew what he had done for 20

years. She saw the rampant damage all

around her. Her husband might have taken

them out of that setting and moved away, but she knew what

was going on. She was sensitive to the season.

She was sensitive to the time. And she knows this is it.

God's literally, it's like, you know, in tennis, they'll say

they lobbed the ball to you. So you just, you know, just

smash it in. God actually lobbed Cicera into

her hands and she took the chance.

What is God giving you a chance to reckon within the season?

Has He opened the doors of your addiction wide open so that you

can see it for what it is? Don't miss the timing when God

opens things up and reveals things in your life so He can

deal with it as only He can. You know when God deals with it,

it's so beautiful. Yes, it's painful when He rips

it out by the roots. Yes, it's painful when He

confronts us. But the end result is always

good. It's freedom in Christ because

the truth sets us free. It's living in the light and not

in the darkness. Because remember, in the

darkness all kinds of unhealthy things grow, but it's in the

light where things thrive. And I want to ask you, what

mouldy stuff have you been allowing to grow in your life

because you have been so well cocooned in the darkness?

It's time to decapitate the enemy, the tent peg.

Was an instrument of destruction in Yale's hands and it brought

her a victory today. I believe that the tent peg is

representative of Jesus himself in Zechariah chapter 10 verse 4

Zechariah 10:4

it says from Judah will come the cornerstone from him the tent

pig from him the battle bow and from him every ruler.

You know a tent peg when you if you've ever been to the circus.

My family just went to the circus recently.

I don't like the circus. Something about it disturbs me

but the circus tents are always set up in such a way that they

have these huge tent pegs that are you know dug into the ground

and then strong ropes are used to harness the tent to the pig.

So even if there's heavy rains or you know winds the tent holds

and the tent has to house hundreds of people and animals

and you know the performers and all of that.

The tent of our lives has to be tethered to the tent peg of

Jesus. The problem is too many of us

have built our tent pegs, have built our tents and tethered it

the wrong things. Our tent pegs are either sex,

our tent pegs are friendships. Our tent pegs is our money.

It's accumulation of wealth, pursuing of our pleasure.

The tent pegs have been placed in the wrong things.

The tent peg is sometimes the very wrongest of things.

And God is asking you today if you would come back and if you

would make him the tent peg of your life, if you would say,

Lord, you are the the one I'm going to be holding onto because

you remember this tent peg has a rope tethered on it.

And the tent of our lives, you know, the, the circle of our

lives, a little bubble that we have as our lives, our family,

our marriage, our children, our jobs.

If that is tethered to Jesus against all odds, against every

storm, it will hold. But if it's tethered to the

wrong things, if our tent pegs are Askew, we can be assured the

tent won't last long. You can be assured that when the

winds of change come in, when the the revival fire begins

sweeping across the place, it will pull you down South.

You have a choice. Would you live a cleansed life?

Would you walk in victory knowing your enemy is disarmed?

Would you walk in victory knowing He is beneath your heel?

He can no longer whisper those lies.

He can no longer control your mind.

He can no longer push you to do the things that you don't want

to do because now you have the mind of Christ.

Now you are being led by the spirit of truth into all truth.

I want to encourage the women specifically today.

Today is Mother's Day. The world celebrates Mother's

Day. You know, motherhood is the

highest calling. I believe it sanctifies us like

nothing else can. With each of my children, I've

told this to many young women. Each time I had a baby, got

groomy in faith, but he also changed things intrinsically

wrong within me, right? But I want to encourage those of

you who are yet to be mothers. I want to encourage you that

your journey is not over yet because you have tremendous

things ahead of you. I want to encourage those who

have birthed children that you won't be so limited to only your

children, to only your child. But you look at the horizon like

Deborah did. We don't know whether Deborah

had birthed any of her own children, but she mothered an

entire army. She mothered an entire nation.

She gave them words of encouragement, wisdom, insight.

She LED them by example. She taught them to worship.

She revived a land. And today we women play a very

vital role in revival in our homes.

You play a vital role. Only you can fulfill that place.

You may not be a natural mother, you may be a spiritual mother.

Maybe you don't even consider yourself that.

But I want to tell you this, I want to encourage you.

From Isaiah 54 verse one to three in passion translation, it

says this. Rejoice with singing, you barren

1 You who have never given birth, burst into a song of joy

and shout. You who have never been in

labour for the deserted wife will have more children than the

married one, says Yahweh. Increase is coming.

So enlarge your tent, add extensions to your dwelling,

hold nothing back. Make the tent ropes longer and

the pigs stronger. You will increase and spread out

in every direction your sons and daughters with con carnations

and revitalize desolate cities. Revival belongs to you.

Not just the men, not just the youngsters, not just, you know,

the experienced. Everyone of us have a role to

play. Mothers, women, you are playing

a role because the ones you will nurture and love will be the

ones who go out and revitalize entire cities, entire nations.

Your job is so important. Don't kid yourself, don't check

yourself out. Remember that increase is

coming. Enlarge your tent, stretch wide

the ropes and place the tent pegs deep.

If your tent peg is Jesus, however deep he takes you with

him, you're safe. Your tent will stand the test of

time. I pray that each of us would

host a revival within us first. You know, those, you know, when

you read about those revival stories in the 1800s and the 19,

early 1900s, it happened in these huge tents and people

would just walk in. And when they came into the,

the, you know, the arena of the tent, the Spirit of God would

fall upon them. They would, they would worship,

they would repent, they would fall before God and such

surrender. And I pray that each of us, our

earthly bodies, which are likened to tents, would host

such a revival first, you know, before we, we start asking God

for that, you know, corporate revival which is going to

happen. It has to begin in here because

the enemy hits US first here. And I would pray that you would

host the revival fire within your tent and that you would

allow God to actually help you face off on this disarmed enemy

and go for the head, decapitate him.

Stop entertaining sin. Stop feeding it.

What your starve will die. What your starve will die.

Even as we close. This is my prayer for you that

when the battle rages, you won't give up, you won't turn and run

for the hills, but that like David, you would go out and say,

yes, I'm facing a nine foot giant.

I'm just 5 foot 7 but it's OK. I have 5 stones.

I have the name of God. The Lord of Angel armies is with

me. Who is this uncircumcised

Philistine? Know your enemy, but you don't

have to engage in so much conversation with him.

You do what you're called to do. You battle him, go on the

offensive, take him down, decapitate him.

Just like David hit that stone into Goliath's hell.

He fell down. He didn't leave it there.

He went stood over Goliath, took his sword out, cut his head off.

God is calling you in for the violent.

Take the Kingdom by force. No more entertaining the enemy.

No more telling him. You know what?

You're right. You have legal access to my

life. Oh, yes, This is something that

I'm going to allow. No more.

No more. We're going to take him by the

throat. He's done for.

Can we just pray together? Father, we just thank you for

this time. We thank you, Lord, for

disarming the principalities and powers in the high places and

making a public spectacle of them when you died on that

cross. Thank you that death is

defeated. Sin is no more because of your

resurrection power, God. And today I pray for everyone

who could be wrestling with any of these things of the flesh for

sexual immorality. Mal is slander, filthy language,

lying. God I pray they will put off the

old self and put on the new. Father I pray that you would

enable us to walk in truth. Help us God to to face you as we

are. I pray that Lord people will

come to you as they are repentant, submit, submitted,

surrendered. Father, we pray that we will be

able to take back the the things that the enemy has stolen and

that you will send the enemy fleeing in seven directions.

We believe that. Father.

I pray for those who are stuck in things that they wish they

never got into. I pray today a revival fire

would break out within them, setting them free from the

bondages that they have been locked in.

I pray that you would break down every stronghold and release

them into wholeness. We love you.

We thank you. Go before us into this week,

help us God. I pray for each person that Lord

as they enter their week that they will experience the power

of God. I pray that you would bless

their bread and water, you would cover their homes with your

precious blood and I pray that Lord you will work in and

through them in a powerful way. We love you, we thank you, we

honour you. In Jesus mighty name I pray

Amen. Amen, Church.

As you get into this week, I pray that you will remember not

to fix your eyes on the enemy because he's now under your

feet, but you will fix your eyes on Jesus, the author, the

perfector of your faith, a mighty man of war who goes out.

He leads heaven's Angel armies. He fights for you.

You are not alone in your battle.

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