The Art of War . Authority 2.0

We're going to jump into our theme tonight, Art of War.

And so, I have a story to begin, today with.

And so, this is the story of a conflict between the British

Army and the Continental Army of America in the late 1700s.

Do you know those movies, and there's lots of them, that have, like,

the red coats and the blue coats?

Do you know what I'm talking about?

Well, they were blue and white.

The blue and white were the, colonial, You know, in terms of the Americans,

and basically the British were wanting to maintain a sense of control.

We've got some people from the U.

S.

here, so they're going to probably check up on my data here

right now.

But essentially

it was a battle for indep independence from Britain, right?

There's a movie, The Patriot, who's seen The Patriot?

It's not necessarily historically Accurate, accurate, but certainly

it depicts that kind of dynamic.

So, imagine a, a picture from that kind of moment where there's two

sides on a very large open field.

On one side, you've got the red coats.

On the other side, you've got the blue coats.

Now, they're not, no one's fired a shot yet, but there's tension.

They're sort of poised, aimed, ready to begin the battle.

Who's going to shoot first?

It's kind of tense.

The tension is building.

On the other side of the field, out of view, the local arms dealer is

hidden in the adjacent forest, wanting to increase the sales of ammunition.

And so he decides to fire a shot from the trees and it hits one of the redcoats.

And the British, they think that the Americans have opened fire And in an

effort to only fire when fired upon, they return fire and suddenly the conflict

is in full swings, full swing and the, and many perish and the arms dealer

is rubbing his hands thinking about the masses amount of money that he's

making as both sides have fallen for the cunning strategy of the arms dealer.

I love this story because it begs the question, who is your enemy?

Who is your enemy?

Now we've mentioned this before, the enemy is actually not just defined as the

demonic force.

The enemy

we live in is both our, is our flesh, is the world in terms of the mechanisms

of thinking around how our world operates, and it's also demonic forces.

Satanic forces.

So specifically, I'm more addressing here the dynamic of the satanic forces.

So the question is, who is your enemy?

Because the enemy is not your spouse.

Nudge nudge, if you're sitting next

to them.

Your enemy

is not your neighbor.

Your enemy is not that person who is your co worker.

Your enemy is not your boss.

Your enemy is not that person who is driving next to you on the road

and apparently they don't know how to drive their car properly.

Your enemy is not the person, as I get a bit personal, who falls asleep

while you're preaching a message that you've prepared for all week long.

They're not your enemy either.

Your enemy is not that, As you know, we're into unity here at at the Red Door.

Your enemy is not that church leader down the road who's never come along

to a Thursday morning prayer meeting.

The enemy is not that person who leaves your church after you've spent so

much time investing into their lives.

They're not your enemy either.

Your enemy actually is the arms dealer.

The enemy is a satanic force that is out to steal, kill and destroy.

And the reason why I'm getting personal here, right, in my own sort

of analysis of who is my enemy, is because we need to get personal.

Because you need to understand, what does your enemy look, what the application of

that, what does that look like for you?

Because every reaction that is happening in you, and certainly a reaction to

a situation or to a person, actually says more about what's going on inside

of you, than it does about what's The person or the situation at hand.

The enemy is not the person sitting next to you.

There's a real enemy, he wants to get a foothold in your life so

he can steal, kill and destroy.

And he does this based on a few primary schemes, okay?

So I've got a bit of a slide on the enemy schemes.

So what is the schemes of the satanic forces, the dark

forces, the evil forces, okay?

Here's a good list.

Fear.

Condemnation.

If you're feeling condemnation, it's not God.

It's the enemy.

That's his scheme.

You're feeling shame.

That's his enemy.

Shame is not that you made a mistake.

You are a mistake.

That is the, this is a scheme of the enemy.

Intimidation.

Deception.

It's the problem with deception.

It's deceiving.

It's a problem.

Accusation.

Temptation.

Division.

These are the schemes of the enemy.

But in response to this, 1st Timothy chapter 6 verse 12 says this, But

you, speaking to you, man, woman of God, flee from all of this and pursue

righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness.

And in relationship to these schemes, this line has always captured my attention.

Fight the good fight of the faith.

Take hold, everyone say take hold, like it's an assertive active dynamic.

Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when

you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

take hold of the eternal life.

It's not some passive, apathetic kind of posture.

It's not kind of a going through the motions kind of posture.

It's active.

It's taking a stand against the enemy schemes.

And last, a few weeks ago, actually Luke, talked on this, the armor of

God in Ephesians 6 verses 11 and 12.

Ephesians 6:11

We're going to read that together.

It says this, put on the full armor of God so you can take your stand.

There it is again, taking your stand.

It's this active position against what?

Against the devil schemes.

That's the list I just read.

Okay.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood.

That's right.

It's not the person sitting next to you, right?

Our battle is against the rulers, against authorities, against powers of this

dark world and against spiritual forces.

We're in the heavenly realms.

Don't forget heavenly realms.

Now, where is the struggle to take place?

It's, it's happening.

It's not just a physical experience.

We're happening.

We're also having an experience in a, in a heavenly realm dynamic.

Now that's hard to get your head around and part of the sea, the part

of this, series that

we've been, we've had a bit of feedback where a lot of people have been like, Oh,

I haven't really investigated this before.

And that's a good thing, because we need to be aware of how life really works.

So we're not just, you know, physical beings having a physical experience.

We're physical beings and spiritual beings having a physical

and a spiritual experience.

And so, where's this battle taking place?

It's in the heavenly realms.

Now, the question comes, who's the boss of the heavenly realms?

Who's in authority in the heavenly realms?

Well, I'm glad you asked.

You're on the edge of your seats, aren't you?

Ephesians chapter 1, verses 19 to 21 says this.

Ephesians 1:19–21

Amazing scripture.

The power, that power, is the same as the mighty strength God, He, exerted

when He raised Christ from the dead and seated Him at His right hand.

In the heavenly realms.

So, in this case, Jesus, He's ascended into heaven, He's risen from the grave,

He's defeated sin and death, now He's seated at the right hand, in where?

Those same places, the heavenly realms, okay?

Now, where He's seated, right?

Is far above, All rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name

that is invoked, not only in the present age, but in the one to come.

So what this is saying is that Jesus is the ruler of the heavenly realms.

There's, there's forces in the heavenly realms, but there's Jesus who sits

far above in these heavenly realms.

He's the king, he's the winner, he's the magnificent one who

is greater than all things.

Make sense?

It's good preaching, Adam.

Very good.

Thank you, Lord.

So, Jesus has all authority in the heavenly realms.

Now the question is, who's seated next to him?

Glad you asked.

Ephesians chapter 2, verses 4 to 6.

Ephesians 2:4–6

But because of his, God's, great love for us, the Father in heaven,

who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead.

dead in our transgressions.

It's by grace you've been saved.

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us, who?

Us.

With Him.

With who?

With Jesus.

In the heavenly realms, in Christ Jesus.

So who's sitting next to him in this very prime position of the

ruler of the heavenly realms?

You are.

We are.

You're thinking, this is good teaching, Adam.

Yeah, because I'm trying to do it in a slightly different way, to try and

get it into our cerebral dynamic, but let it drop from here into our hearts

that we actually live like this.

With confidence and with the theme of what actually this is the theme

tonight is the theme of authority.

And so the macro story goes like this, the macro story, the

overarching story of human history.

In the beginning, God created all things and God gave authority

to man in the Eden story.

In the creation story, he gave man, humanity, dominion over.

And then, Adam, humanity, we lost it.

At the fall, we gave it to Satan.

So it was ours, and then we stuffed it.

And we, we, we let go of that authority.

And so now Satan has that authority, because we've given it to him.

And then Jesus goes, now I'm going to take that authority back, off you, Satan,

and I'm going to represent humanity, Jesus being a 100 percent Christian.

Man 100 percent fully human and 100 percent fully God.

I can't explain that, fit that in your brain, good luck.

But that's the reality.

He was a perfect representation of humanity, so he stepped into our place

and he took that authority back off Satan, died on the cross, rose from the

grave, defeating sin and death, and now all authority has been given to him.

Can I get an amen?

Thank you very much.

Then what does he do?

Jesus gives us that authority.

All authority is Jesus.

And then in Matthew 28, he basically says to humanity, all

of us, he says, go delegated authority to every single one of us.

We have the authority of Christ.

God delegated that authority to us.

It is not God's desire though, to settle all of our disputes.

He desires for us to utilize the delegated authority that is invested in us.

Did you hear me?

So he's.

Not there trying to solve every single one of your problems.

He cares, don't mishear me, but he's actually pushing and, and directing

you to utilize the delegated authority that you have to actually begin to

step into what we're describing in this series, spiritual warfare, in order

that you see that authority begin to shift the dynamics in this warfare

experience that we're all having.

Does that make sense?

To go a little bit deeper, when Jesus was on the earth, in Luke

Luke 10:19–20

chapter 10 verses 19 to 20, Jesus is hinting at this same authority.

Now the context is slightly different in that period of time, that moment in the

timeline, and he says these words, Now, he's saying these words to the apost,

the apostolos, the apostles, right?

Now, that's the context, but I want to go a little bit deeper because he says,

I've given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome

the power of the enemy, and nothing, everyone say nothing, will harm you.

However, do not rejoice that your spirits, the spirits submit to you, but rejoice

that your names are written in heaven.

Don't forget to read that bit.

So.

Fast forward into a post resurrection Holy Spirit authority

that all of us have been given.

With that in mind, that's actually not just for the apostles of that moment.

That same delegate authority is for you and I in this very

moment, in this time in history.

Jesus hints at it there, but it's not just for Christian leaders.

It's for every single child of God.

And so this key statement here in the scripture is, I have given you authority.

So authority actually means delegated power, not only the

responsibility, but also the spiritual power to enforce compliance.

It's an interesting phrasing, isn't it?

Enforcing compliance.

How am I going to enforce compliance?

Well, what we're talking about there is Jesus prayed in the

Lord's Prayer, as it is in where?

Heaven, so shall it be on where?

So this compliance dynamic is talking about seeing the kingdom

of heaven penetrate earth in a way that we see heaven on earth.

And being part of that, participating in that.

And authority is the right and power to act and speak as

if Jesus himself was present.

Who suddenly just felt the, Oxygen gets sucked out of the room because suddenly

we go wow that's a lot of responsibility.

Let me repeat it for you.

It says this, to act and speak as if Jesus were present.

Oh, that's tough.

You can see that going wrong real quick.

Has anyone seen that gone real, gone wrong real quick?

I think we all have.

I think church history represents that pretty well.

But understand, that doesn't mean the authority that God

has given us is invalid.

It just means care, discernment, the Spirit, the Spirit of

God leading these moments.

Does that make sense?

So activation is not just praying and requesting for the darkness

to flee, and that's a good thing.

In relation to the spiritual warfare we find ourselves in.

So what I mean by that, it's not just bringing requests to the Father.

It's not just praying, God, help me with this.

There's also another aspect of this where there's a declaration of the

victory that Jesus has won for us.

That declaring, it's like the enforcing.

Actually, no, that's wrong and this is right.

And guess what that takes to step into that sort of place?

It takes a little bit more of authority, doesn't it?

An awareness that, heck, I'm a child of God, but it's not to be handled lightly.

Spiritual warfare, though, is not a horizontal tug of war,

but a vertical chain of command.

We were never, we never should envision ourselves as operating on a level

playing field with Satan and his demons.

Alone, in the In our own strength, alone in the power of our own identity,

we don't stand a chance against him.

But in Christ, and on the basis of who we are in him, and in light of

the authority of the risen Jesus that has been bequeathed to us, Satan

and his demons are a defeated foe.

Don't ever think of yourself as the one at the end of the rope and

Satan at the other and you're both struggling to overpower one another.

No, you are in Christ who is overall and Satan is beneath you in Christ's name.

You are in heavenly realms seated with him.

This picture of authority is an interesting one because authority

doesn't necessarily mean just raising your voice and holding a microphone and

stomping and stamping around in some demonstrative way that is somehow forced.

Authority is more not what you do, but who you are.

Authority is more not about what you say, but who you are.

but the spirit that lives in you that comes through your actions and words.

I

remember, my biological dad, which, none of you

have, some of you have met, but not many of you have met.

He had a period of time where he was actively going to

church, and his name's Ken.

I love my dad.

I love him deeply.

He's on a different journey, and that's okay.

I still pray for him.

He had a time when he was going to church regularly, and,

and I was I was picking

him up.

Long story, he'd lost his license at that juncture.

We won't talk about that.

I was picking him up and I was doing this church service at

Riverview Church at the time.

And I had two services in the morning.

And so what I'd do is I had to do my work, so I had to do the work, then I'd

jump in the car between the services, go pick my dad up, and then try and get back

ready for the second service to start before, get back before it happened.

So it was a bit of a kind of taxi service.

And I remember One time, I was a bit more later than on time

with that schedule, right?

So I literally dumped the car on the side of the road, chucked

in the keys, and said, I'll meet you inside, and I ran in in a

rush.

So, you know,

the service is now 20 25 minutes into it, and I have, I can't see where Dad is.

So I'm looking around, where's Dad?

He's got my keys, you know, like, what's happened?

Anyway, so I go outside, and, if you've ever been to Riverview, it's kind of

the building there, and there's, it's a good street, I think, and I'm standing

there, And the car knows there, and I look over there, and he's standing on

the side of the road, kind of like the curbs there, with this kind of dumbfounded

look on his face, like not really

with it, sort of looking

off into space, if you know what I mean, right?

So I said these really spiritual words, right?

Here we go.

Ready?

Ready for it?

Not knowing there was something spiritual going on.

And so I said, Oi!

That was it.

That's all I said.

I said, Oi!

Right?

And so what happened was, he's standing there, and suddenly he's

like, come to, like, reboot, you know?

Okay, and then he walked over.

And then he begins to tell me the strangest vision that he had.

Where he's standing against, against the kerb there, and he literally

had a wall, in front

of him, where he couldn't actually see, like, the building or Riverview there.

Like, he, he just had this, like, physical wall in front of him, and he was stuck.

I'm like, did you think about Rodger going around?

You know, he was just kind of rendered useless.

And then Adam steps in and says the highly authoritative words.

Oi, everyone say oi, and he, his experience was that this, this wall kind

of just dissolved and then he walked across and went into church and it was

great, but I just remember thinking about the idea of authority that we walk

in authority and sometimes if we didn't even know that we walk in authority,

like walk into the room and because Jesus lives in you, the light just

walked in and you shift the atmosphere, not because You've done anything.

It's just because you're a vessel of who the creator of the universe

is, and he lives inside of you.

And see, that's the wonderful thing about authority.

It's almost like I'm saying to you, don't try to have authority, just receive it

and walk in it and don't try too hard.

Does that make sense?

It's not like you're trying to force something.

If you're forcing something, it's not necessarily like

the authority that you have.

I didn't know I was going to tell that story, but that was just for free tonight.

See, life works like this.

I've got a little picture.

I've said this multiple times, and I feel like I'm going to be

saying it until I'm on my deathbed.

Truths That you carry, the truths that you believe.

Now some of you have lies that you're believing, but they're

still your truths, right?

And how you see truths affects how you feel, and your feelings

affect the decisions you make, and the decisions you make affects the

habits you make, and the habits you have affect your life trajectory.

This is how I Life kind of works, and I'm happy if you disagree with

me, but this is one thought for you.

Now, in the process of this, you can imagine if the enemy's going to have a

crack at you, and he probably will, he's probably going to infiltrate either some

of these things, one of these things, or he might even infiltrate in between

these moments as you walk through life.

However, in this process, As 2nd Corinthians chapter 10 verse 4 says,

we have weapons to fight with, and the weapons we fight with are not weapons of

this world, on the contrary friends, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.

What are the strongholds?

Well, I just mentioned them, they're almost the schemes of the enemy, fear,

condemnation, shame, intimidation.

Deception.

Accusation.

Temptation.

Divisions.

And these can be dismantled by truth.

Because the enemy's primary tool is lies and deception.

The thing that he will go to, most often than not, begins in the mind.

It begins how we think.

It begins on what we're pondering on.

Lies and deception.

You can just, you know, So a thought that actually is taking you down a line,

which is not true, but it begins to affect and infiltrate your world, that

suddenly your feelings are affected.

And because I'm feeling a certain way, I'm deciding things that aren't wise.

And now because I'm deciding things and I'm suddenly in this, in this

kind of rhythm of making poor decisions, now I'm in a habit of this.

And now, now my life's going down this particular pathway.

I didn't necessarily want it to do.

And so the subtlety of this process, actually lies create

a foothold for the enemy.

So how you fight the lie is, if you see the lie, and that's probably

the big question, if you actually are able to discern the lie, one

great thought for that is that like, why am I feeling like this?

Why am I feeling so anxious?

Why am I feeling so troubled?

Why am I feeling so angry?

When we think that way, we can sometimes See the, the lie that

we're believing, it gets exposed.

And when we see the lie, the first step is to say, Lord Jesus, please forgive me

for believing something that's not true.

Forgive me.

Repentance.

Living a life of confession is how we fight.

Then we retake authority over that lie.

We renounce the lie off our lives.

What does renounce mean?

It means that the effects of this lie that's been affecting me for so long,

I sever it, I cut it off my life so it no longer has the effect on me.

It's renounced, it's, it's cut, it's severed.

And then you still can't stop there.

You got to do something else.

You got to say, Holy Spirit, please come and renew my mind to your way

of thinking, to your way of being.

Renew my mind, renew my heart, renew me, rewire my brain.

And praise the Lord, you are not alone in this process.

The Holy Spirit is here to help us.

Now, why am I talking about truth all of a sudden?

The connection between truth and authority is so strong.

See, if we walk in truth, we're going to be walking in authority.

So you can grow in authority and you can

carry it.

Joe, you

had a great scripture earlier that there's this root going deep.

And as that root goes deep, one of the things that's happening, we're growing.

But we're also, we're growing in our authority.

Now don't mishear me, it's not like when you got saved, when you said yes

to Jesus, you weren't, you were given authority at that moment, like a God.

But we're talking about how do I grow in my ability to walk in the

very thing that I already have?

I have authority, but how do I grow in the operation of the

participation of that authority?

That's what I'm talking about here.

So this, please don't mishear me.

I'm going to be ultra clear.

This is not saying, you need Jesus plus authority.

No, no.

What I'm saying is you need Jesus full stop.

And what he's given you as part of his gift is an authority

based on him being the truth.

So truth is not a what, it's a who, it's, it's Jesus.

And so as we walk in that truth, as we walk in authenticity,

as the truth is permeating our mind, our body, in obedience.

The truth is molding us with a pure heart, clean hands.

It's giving less and less room for the enemy to run riot in our lives.

So when the enemy does attack, we can see it for what it is.

Like a baseball batter.

Ready to strike the ball.

You see the ball out of the pitcher's hand real quick.

Oh, I know where this is going.

This is nowhere good.

You're growing in your discernment.

You're growing in your wisdom.

And when we see those moments, we respond with rebuking, renouncing,

resisting the enemy's strategies.

Now, I just want to say a couple of things about those three words.

Rebuking, renouncing and resisting.

That sound like real warfare kind of words to you?

Ah, rebuke, I rebuke that lie in the name of Jesus.

I renounce the effects of that lie in the name of Jesus.

I resist that temptation in the name of Jesus.

It's a good prayer, it's a good statement.

Right?

Now, You will, if you're in, particularly in those kind of declaration moments, you

may experience, as we talked about last week, do you remember the four models

of deliverance that Dale talked about?

Do you remember them?

There was gospel, truth, and faith.

Power and Therapeutic.

Do you know what I'm talking about?

Hands up if you know what I'm talking about.

Just so I know.

Okay, if you haven't listened to that, you've got to listen to that podcast.

That was pure gold.

Really helpful.

Now, when we rebuke, renounce and resist, sometimes we experience

something that's very powerful.

But not all the time.

Sometimes we experience something that is really just the declaration

of the gospel into my own heart and suddenly I find freedom from some,

some sense of captivity or lie.

Sometimes it's actually replacing the lie just with the truth.

What is the truth about this situation?

Suddenly have a breakthrough.

And other times it's actually some deep healing that's needed and an internal

wound that, That therapeutic journey.

I'm saying that because when we talk this way, we can sometimes land this

conversation in one of those four locations and become unbalanced when we

think, oh, it's always a power experience, this rebuking, renouncing, and resisting.

It's not always that way.

Sometimes it's gentle.

Sometimes it's not obvious.

Does that make sense?

But walking in truth is the key to authority.

Walking in truth is akin to walking with Jesus, who is the truth.

So, no Jesus, no truth.

No Jesus, no authority.

This story comes to a head in Acts chapter 19 verses 13 to 20.

Acts 19:13–20

As I bring this home tonight, and we're going to have a little bit of time

just for some discussion and chats.

Now this is a story that's a little bit of a, a crazy one, so hold on.

Here we go.

It's in the Bible, in case you wondered.

Acts chapter 19 from verse 13.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke

the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon possessed.

Okay?

They would say, oh, interesting, in the name of Jesus whom Paul

preaches, I command you to come out.

Now, the seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this.

So these were the, the seven sons and this priest were doing this.

Why were they doing this?

Because they'd seen it being done and they want, I want in on that.

That's what's going on, okay?

Then one day the evil spirit answered them, oh dear.

Jesus I know, Paul I know about, but who the heck are you?

Heck's not in there.

Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them

all, gave them such a beating they ran out of their house naked and bleeding.

When this became known to the Jews and the Greeks living in Ephesus, they

were all seized with fear and the name of the Lord was held in high honour.

Many of those who believed now came to openly confess what they'd done

and a number of them who practiced sorcery brought their scrolls

together, burned them publicly and when they calculated the value of the

scrolls, they came to 50, 000 drachma.

In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in influence and power.

Mad story, hey.

If you haven't read that one for a while, it's like, whoa, that's a corker.

But you can understand what's going on.

These people had a cognitive reference point to the name of Jesus, the person

of Jesus, but there was no intimacy, there was no, a sense of surrender to

the name of Jesus, the person of Jesus.

They actually weren't walking in authority, all they were

walking in was information.

Right?

Now, I don't know whether they'd proclaim Jesus as Lord.

We don't know that information.

But it can certainly be true, is that you can walk in a posture that is not

within the authority of who Jesus is.

And when you are walking in authority, I promise you,

this is not even a fair fight.

Because Jesus is so much greater than the powers of darkness.

When the light walks in, the darkness flees.

Now, authority is not always demonstrative, like I said before.

It can be quiet.

It can be something that's not forced.

I like the

idea that, One way of

thinking about the glory of God is, has something to do with weight.

And you know when Jesus spoke, he spoke as if one with authority.

Like his words were just laden with weight.

Like, when this guy speaks, my goodness.

You ever met someone, when they talk, you're like, oh, you listen.

You know, like, there's something about their words.

Like, oh man, I just want to, I want to sit down with that person, you know?

And so I think about the idea of weight, and how does one

have words that are weighty?

And the only way I can say is, is does the Word of God weigh in, in you?

Because if the Word of God's not weighing in on you, when you speak,

your words won't have much weight.

Does that make sense?

So when we speak with authority, what's happening when we're speaking with

authority, we're actually, his words are weighing in so deeply in my heart

that I'm like, oh they speak, there's a, I'm carrying a natural weight to

them because his words are eternal.

I'm just the vessel to carry what his words are.

So as I bring this home, I said this once before, sorry.

When we take authority over the forces of darkness, remember

you are not doing this alone.

This is all about in partnership with Jesus.

The authority you carry as a believer is only as strong as your

work walk with Jesus is strong, as you're intimate with Jesus.

If you walk alone, there's not much authority there.

So authority is not about method, or volume, or tone of voice,

or saying the right words.

It's actually about knowing who you are in Christ.

And knowing that the power to do anything is not your own.

That power comes from the power of the Holy Spirit

working in you and through you.

In Jesus name.

So for the last 15 minutes of our session together this afternoon, I've got

these questions for you to ponder with.

I'd love you to have a chat in groups of two for this.

And so, how have you, how has, sorry, what has been your key

takeaways in this series so far?

Because something might have not been, must have been said last week, or the

week before, like, I actually don't

want you to, potentially

miss meditating on something that you need to talk about tonight.

That's what that, that

is there.

But if, if

it's something that's happened tonight, great, talk

about it.

How do you

find yourself responding to the topic of spiritual warfare?

Do you feel encouraged?

Do you feel fearful?

Do you feel encouraged?

Discouraged?

In your words, explain how truth and authority I've had a crack at it tonight.

I'm not an expert on this.

I've had

a crack.

So I'm hoping

that you can ponder that as well.

And then question four.

Again, this is not about getting through all the questions.

These are just prompters.

How does understanding Christ's position in the heavenly realms influence

our understanding of the believer's authority over demonic forces?

How should this impact the way we pray?

And how should this impact that we face spiritual battles?

Just to be clear, not every battle is a spiritual battle.

Okay?

Some battles are just like you are lazy and you got to get off your

ass and you got to do something.

Right?

I just want to make sure we're clear as we consider this topic.

We're looking at it in a balanced, discerning way.

Not just concluding there's a demon around every corner.

Are we cool?

Excellent.

You've been a wonderful audience.

Goodbye.

No, fantastic.

Let me pray for us as we begin this conversation.

Father, we thank you that today we have clarity of mind in Jesus name.

Every confusing spirit be crushed and removed in Jesus name.

And that, Father, we would have access to an open heaven tonight by the power of

the Spirit to continue to grow and learn and discover and walk in the authority

that you have generously given us.

What a gift.

What a gift.

May we cherish that.

Jesus, be with us tonight.

In your name.

Amen.