Keep Standing | Selena Greiner

So if you're taking notes, uh the title of my message is Keep Standing, Keep Standing, Amen.

How many of y'all have ever uh felt like you didn't want to stand anymore?

Right?

That you just wanted to throw in the towel, forget it, you know, uh what's it worth?

Um why keep standing?

Why keep fighting?

Uh, you know, I don't see any results.

But the word says to keep standing.

Amen.

The word says to keep standing.

And uh Jeremiah, my first scripture is Jeremiah 6.16, and Pastor Trina uh mentioned this scripture at supernatural relationships, and it just like stood out to me.

And I just wanted to share it with you guys.

Jeremiah 6.16 and the New King James says, Thus says the Lord, stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths where the good way is, and walk in it.

Then you will find rest for your souls.

And so here Jerusalem was was facing uh enemies, and God's telling his people, hey, there's like, you know, we're in crisis, and and so you need to stand in the ways and see the aim, he was referring to the ancient ways, like God's brought you through all kinds of stuff.

Why are you forgetting?

Why are you trying to make new stuff up?

Like follow the old way.

God's been faithful to you.

Why are you forgetting that?

They had they had abandoned the ways of God, and it's easy to do, right?

Uh it's easy to do back then, it's easy to do now.

Forget the ways.

But here Jeremiah is saying, stand in the ways and see.

Ask for the old paths, where where the good way is and walk in it.

And so when you do that, then you'll find rest for your souls.

And these paths are eternal paths, right?

They're eternal paths.

They're not just, I'm gonna pick that path because so-and-so said that path was good, or that relative went down that path and it worked out for them.

Surely it's gonna work out for me.

No, we have to seek God and make sure that it's the path that He wants us to take.

Amen.

Uh, in Ephesians 6, 13 through 28, Ephesians 6, 13 through 28, and I'll read it in the New King James.

Um, actually, when Andrew, how many of y'all here were uh the here this morning when our our missionary, wasn't that powerful?

When our missionary shared and just testified of all the things and what God is doing.

Um and when he told the story uh of his almost death, almost dying, right?

In in the in the lake, in the ocean, whatever it was.

It was a super cold lake, it was a lake.

Jay said it was a lake.

I was listening.

I was listening.

Thank you, Jay.

Um and where you know he swam out and it was for cold and it was freezing, and then he came back and couldn't quite make it back.

And he just he remembered, right?

Somebody was praying for him, and you know, praying much in other tongues, but the humor just float.

And when he said that, immediately immediately the Lord's like, Ephesians 6.

I'm like, Ephesians 6?

What do you mean, Ephesians?

That's stand.

He's not standing, but then like as he was kept on, he he was standing on, he was floating, but the strength in him of having praying much in the Holy Ghost, and all of the years of praying much in the Holy Ghost, and somebody else praying for him, and and God brought to him the remembrance hey, just turn over, quit, quit trying to do it in your own strength, right?

And so Ephesians 6 verse 13 says, Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, everybody say, having done all, to stand.

Ephesians 6:13

Stand, therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, righteousness, and having shod your feet with the proportion of the gospel of peace, above all, taken the shield of faith, which with which you will be able to stand to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.

Verse 17, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.

And I wanted to read, I brought this book by Rick Renner, and I read a little bit of it uh when I was doing a Wednesday night live stream.

I don't remember uh when it was, like two months ago.

You know, when we were in the pulpit from time to time, sometimes it gets a little like, when did I preach last?

And what did I preach on?

And it all kind of mixes together because I'm in the youth as well.

Um, anyways, but here he uh I haven't read the entire thing, but dress to kill, it talks about spiritual warfare and about the armor.

And I just wanted to read to you um page 259.

So it talks that he's talking about Ephesians, and he's talking about um the loin belt of truth.

Um let me let's see.

Stand so next statement stand, therefore, having your loins girded about with the truth.

Uh now we come to the first piece of weaponry, the Paul lists in this expanded version of spiritual armor, the Roman loin belt.

And so he goes on to say he talks about each piece.

And then over here he talks about the most important weapon.

And uh he said, now let's take some time to look at each piece of the spiritual armor in depth.

Um, the loin belt uh he talked, he talks about it was the least attractive, the least noticeable, and the most boring piece of armor that the Roman soldier wore.

Uh and then he goes on, like it's just a little belt, but it's easy to fall apart when you don't have your belt on.

You'll spend most of your time trying to keep your pants pulled up.

You won't feel very confident, and you certainly won't want to make any fast moves.

And so it's it was said that the loin belt was the most vital part of all the weaponry the Roman soldier wore.

Uh, the majority of the spiritual armor is invisible.

For instance, you can physically see the breastplate of righteousness.

Sorry, you can't.

You can't physically see the breastplate of righteousness.

You can't physically see your shoes of peace, your shield of faith, your helmet of salvation, your sword of the spirit, or your uh lance of intercession.

These are invisible weapons, but you can see one weapon.

In fact, there is only one spiritual weapon that is visible to the sight: the loin belt of truth.

The loin belt of truth is the written word of God.

Amen.

Is this the only spiritual weapon that has taken on a physical natural form that has passed tangibly from the spirit realm into your hands?

That's why China knows knows that, and they're taking pages out of the Bible.

And oh, this is the Bible.

No, that's not the Bible, right?

Did you catch that?

What he said this morning.

It is the most important piece of weaponry that we possess.

God is making, so I'm skipping around.

God is making a point here.

He's saying that the piece of armor that is in the middle of a man is the most important weapon to the man.

If you take that weapon off, the man will fall apart.

Likewise, when you ignore the word of God and cease to apply it to your life on the daily basis, you will willfully, you have willfully chosen to let your entire spiritual life come apart at the seams.

And then he goes on to say, the logos and the rhema.

Um, so there's two kinds of word of God, the logos, which is the written word of God.

You guys know this, and the rhema, it's a fresh, it's it's uh specially quickened and revealed word from God.

And this is it goes on to say, you absolutely cannot function as a believer without the word of God having an active and central role in your life.

Right?

Uh let me, I missed one.

But if you lay aside your Bible, your loin belt of truth, in time you'll begin to lose your sense of righteousness.

You're your uh lay aside the loin belt of truth, and you'll slowly begin to lose your sense of peace.

Lay aside the loin belt of truth, and you will uh feel the joy of your salvation begin to deplete.

Anyways, it was so good.

I never saw it um that way, but how important it is that we have the word of God.

It is the truth, right?

It keeps our whole armor together.

And so if we're not reading the word, if we're not, what are we standing on, right?

Like, what do you we can't stand?

If we don't know the word, if we don't, yes, the logos of the word, it's good to know the word, but then, but then the rhema word, right?

And you might not get a rhema every day, and that's okay.

But it's good to it's keep on, like just Pastor says, like basic instructions, read the word, right?

Apply the word.

And so the more you read that one scripture, you may not get it, but then revelation comes, like, oh, I get it.

Thank you, Lord, for your revealing your word to me.

It's coming alive.

Oh, I get it now.

The light has turned on.

And so that's the belt of truth.

That is so important when that's how we're gonna stand.

That's one way we're gonna stand, not by having, and he goes on to say, not not the loin belt of truth is not by having a bunch of programs at church, right?

It's not by having all these other things, it's the word, the word and the spirit.

And so it keeps you, it keeps you standed, it keeps you um steadfast, it keeps you firm.

For when the time to come, when you have difficulty in your life, uh, it'll keep you standing.

Amen.

Proverbs 420 in the New King James says, My son, give attention to my words, incline your ear to my sayings, do not let them depart from your eyes.

Keep them in the midst of your heart, for they are life to those that find them, and health to all their flesh.

And so we have to stand.

It says, give attention to my words, their health, their medicine, right?

We have we need to have our attention on the word.

We need to be occupied with the word, right?

So whatever you're attending to, whatever you put your focus and your time on, that's what that's what your mind's gonna go to, right?

And so we have to make sure we're not worried.

We're we have we need to abide, we need to abide in in in the word.

And there's so many things that talk to us.

Emotions talk to us, feelings talk to us, um, family talks to us, right?

All kinds of people talk to us.

And so we have to be interested in the word, we have to attend to the word of God, right?

Um, you can't be doing all kinds of other things and then um give your because when you're doing, I did this illustration once where I was like in youth and I had all these things.

I had a ju I had a boom box and I was eating a bag of Doritos, and then I was doing other things, and I was like trying to preach the word to them.

And I and I said my illustration was like so many of the times we do all of these things, we're checking our phone, right?

And we're doing all of these things, or we're thinking about something else, but really we just God just wants a relationship with us, He wants a fellowship, right?

He wants to, He wants to talk to us, and so but lots of things are talking, circumstances are talking, Facebook is talking, emotions are talking, many voices, enemy is talking, right?

And so, um, but you have to you have to put that aside.

Reasoning, reasoning's in your mind are talking, oh, that doesn't make sense.

Oh, I should, you know, all that's from the enemy.

That put that aside.

You have to, you know, calculating things.

Uh, if I do this and if they do that, and then that no, no, no.

Like we have to stick to the, we have to take time in the word.

We have to pray much in the Holy Spirit.

We need to be faith.

Faith is not, you know, of the mind, faith is in a spirit, in our spirit.

And so the enemy wants to draw you into the mental arena, right?

That's where the enemy wants to keep you because if he keeps you in the mental arena, he knows you're not operating by faith.

It's just all right here.

Oh, I did it.

I figured it out.

No, it's faith is of the spiritual, right?

So we have to make sure that we're in faith.

Faith is not of the mind.

And so I wrote this down.

Faith is affected by what your attention is on, right?

Your faith, but if you're constantly on something else rather than what God wants your attention to be on in this season in life, right?

Usually our attention, you know, if you have kids or you know, um, like you're in a family, usually people we attend to the ones that scream the loudest, right?

We just, we just, there's a fire over here, there's something going on over here, you have my attention.

And that's fine at the moment, right?

But in the spirit arena, a lot of times that the enemy is distracting us over here, there's something going on over here, but really God wants you to be on this pathway.

So it's a distraction from fulfilling the plan of God for your life, and the enemy wants to keep you there.

And so you have to make sure, again, you have to make sure that you're sticking close uh with Jesus, that you're reading his word, that you're praying much in the Holy Spirit.

Praying much in the Holy Spirit.

And we have a lot of time to pray because if you're in the car all the time, what better what what better else thing to do?

Pray much in the Holy Ghost.

Pray much in the Holy Ghost.

Amen.

And so we have to, uh, so our faith is affected by what our attention is on.

And so if our attention, again, so man, my uh if you can tell your faith is depleted, you're you're kind of worrying and say, hey, what has my attention been on?

And it might be an okay thing, but it's not a God thing, right?

So you have to make sure that your attention is on the word of God, it's your it's your belt, it holds everything together.

Oh, it's just a belt.

I really don't need it.

Yes, you do, because you don't want your pants falling down, all right?

All right, so like you want to make sure that you have the belt of truth on, that you're you're digging into the word of God, that you're praying much in the Holy Ghost.

And it goes on to say Proverbs 4, uh 25.

I skipped a couple of verses, but those are good too.

Let your eyes look straight ahead and your eyelids look right before you.

Ponder, verse 26, ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established.

Do not turn to the right or left, remove your foot from evil.

And so we have to make sure that our eyes are looking straight ahead and that our eyelids look right before us.

Ponder the path of your feet, right?

Your word is a light, it's a lamp unto my feet.

It's not a floodlight.

Like you don't, our his his word says that it's a it's a it's a lamp.

Have you ever been camping and you have a lamp and you get up in the middle of the night?

I remember so um I didn't live in Mexico.

Praise the Lord.

Thank you, Jesus, especially at my grandma's house who didn't have running water.

And we would go to the well.

And I remember being a little girl, I wouldn't go over there all the time, but in summertime, sometimes we would go and um, so I would I would get a little pail, and no, it was it was a heavy pail.

Anyways, by the time I got to the by the time I got back to her house, I'd like the water had gone down.

I had sloshed it everywhere.

Anyways, but she had an outhouse.

That was the scariest thing to me as a child.

Like I had visions of me falling, nobody finding me.

Horrible, horrible.

Being seven years old, and I'm like, oh, maybe I can hold it till the morning time.

Oh, I was like, no, I gotta go.

And you know, and you and you and you get a lamp, you get a little lantern or a little flashlight.

I don't even remember what I had, but so scary.

But the word, it's a it's a lamp into your it like tells you the next step.

Sometimes it's not a floodlight where it's like gonna tell you 20 years down the road, and God might reveal those things to you, but your word, it's like, what is the next step?

Right?

What is my next step?

Should I have that meeting with so-and-so?

I know that information, but should I do that?

Because then it will ripple have a ripple effect on future generations to come.

Should I go to the supernatural relationship meeting?

That's where Allison heard that she should go to Remah.

Should we could have just said, you know what, we have too much work here to do.

You know what?

Back when she was in high school, you know what?

Does it really matter?

Just another meeting.

But the Lord spoke to her, right?

Oh, just another meeting.

No, it wasn't just another meeting.

God met her there.

And so you don't, you what's my next step?

Right?

And so you want to make sure all the voices around you, and then also ask yourself, am I am I just another voice in that somebody's life, in somebody's life or nagging, nagging, nagging, talking, talking?

No, hey, listen.

We have yes, we have to, but then we also have to like, how am I in that person's life?

Am I an encouragement to them?

Do I bring them down?

Do I talk their ear off or they can't even hear the voice of the Lord?

I don't want them hearing my voice.

I want them hearing the voice of the Lord.

Right?

That's what we want.

And so it's it's so here when when I read this scripture, ponder the path of your feet.

It's like, what's my next step, God?

What is this the doctor you want me to go to, or should I get another opinion?

Pretty important step, right?

Major, life or death, life or death.

And so, and God will show us that we have the Holy Spirit living on the inside of us.

We have the Holy Spirit living on the inside of us.

Isaiah 41, 10.

I'm gonna read this in a couple of uh different translations.

In the New King James, it says, Fear not.

We say, Fear not, for I am with you.

Do not be dismayed, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you.

Yes, I will help you.

I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

And then the New Living Translation, it says, Don't be afraid, for I am with you.

Don't be discouraged, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you and help you.

I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.

I like this one.

This one was my favorite translation in the message.

Isaiah 41, 10 in the message.

Don't panic.

That could preach just right there.

Don't panic.

I'm with you.

Everybody say, Don't panic.

I'm with you.

There's no need to fear, for I'm your God.

I'll give you strength.

I'll help you.

I'll hold you steady.

Keep a firm grip on you.

Like God's got you.

Right?

You don't have to panic.

What can man do to me?

Hey, listen, we we don't have to panic.

God is with you.

He will give you strength.

He will help you.

He'll give you the right words to say in certain in all situations.

When we wait, when we you know, that still small voice of the of the spirit, like, hey, should I say that right now?

Is right now the good time?

Is it should I make that phone call?

Should I, Holy Spirit, show me, right?

Show me.

And so He, we don't have to panic.

We don't have to panic.

Oh, I'm just, and sometimes we think, oh, we're it's just a it's just a little, you know, we I might miss that opportunity.

And I there are certain situations where, yeah, seize the moment and and seize that opportunity, but then also, but there's also other situations where like, you know what, Lord, I don't, I don't know if it's the right time, but Holy Spirit, you show me, and He'll show us.

We don't have to panic.

God is with us.

Amen.

Second Timothy four sixteen through seventeen.

This is Paul talking.

At my first offense, no one stood with me, but all forsook me.

May it not be charged against them.

What a good prayer.

Pretty, pretty.

Hey, you know what?

They bailed on me.

May it not be charged against them.

They didn't have my back.

Lord forgive them.

May it not be charged against them.

But the Lord, like verse 17, but the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that the message might be preached fully through me, and that all the Gentiles might hear.

The Lord stood with me and strengthened me.

Everybody say that.

Say it again.

The Lord stood with me and strengthened me.

And so here, Paul's like, hey, nobody at my first event, nobody was here.

Nobody was here to bail me out.

Nobody, they all left.

But God was with me.

The one, the one that really mattered, the one that matters was with me.

He never all forsook me but one.

Right?

You want the one in your corner, and that's Jesus.

You have the one in your corner.

Amen.

And so we keep standing, we keep encouraging ourselves.

Um it's the Lord who keeps us.

It's the Lord who keeps us, right?

It's the Lord who keeps me every day when you get in your car.

Thank you, Lord, for keeping me.

And you gotta pray that here in Houston.

Thank you, Lord, for keeping me, like just out of the neighborhood and on the free, and like on the field.

You thank you, Lord, for keeping me.

I will not fear, right?

And so uh He's given us so many promises.

Right?

And so we have all the help that we need.

We can keep standing.

Roma, you can keep standing.

Romans 4, sorry, Romans 14, 4 says, for God is able to make him stand.

God is able, God is able to make you stand on the inside.

God is able to make you stand when you when you maybe have forgotten in all your life, you're told this and that and the other, but no, God is able to make you stand.

God will bring to your remembrance.

God will bring back to your remembrance all the times He's made you stand, He's kept you, right?

He's kept you, and and He'll bring sometimes we when we're in certain situations, we tend to forget.

You know, we're just focused on this, and and but we tend to forget, man, God, you brought me out of so much.

You delivered me from so and so, and you brought me out.

You you I had stinking thinking, and you delivered me from stinking thinking, like all of the things, right?

He's able to make you stand.

Hebrews 13.

Uh, let's see, verse six.

Well, part of verse five says, I will never leave you nor forsake you.

I mean, just right there.

Hallelujah.

Thank you, Lord, that you will never leave me nor forsake me.

So we may say quietly.

No, it says, boldly, we will boldly say, What shall we say?

The Lord is my helper, I will not fear.

What can man do to me?

Let's all say it.

The Lord is my helper, I will not fear what can man do to me.

I'll say it one more time.

The Lord is my helper.

I will not fear.

What can man do to me?

God is our helper, he is our helper.

He'll he'll be there for you no matter what.

When you know circumstances come to everybody, God is God is with us, right?

God is God is for us, He is not against us.

I like Pastor Trina's um uh actually, I didn't know the backstory of um you probably heard her say it, but it's a declaration.

God is on my side, the blood has been applied, um, every need shall be supplied.

So I enter, I don't interest or arrest.

I got God's best.

I will receive God's best.

I have passed the test, and I will get God's best.

So that came from 30 years ago when people had left her church, and there was just some things going on, and just her and her four crazy friends.

Poor and her, all you need just a couple of crazy friends that will get down with you and pray, right?

And that came out of that, where that confession, you know, has held her for 30 years, right?

And so the blood's been applied to your situation.

You can rest, you don't have to feel stressed, right?

God's got the best for you.

And so we have to, the word will work when you work it, right?

The word works when we work the word, when it's coming out of our mouth, when we're applying the word.

Um, we can't be silent, we'll lose by default, right?

We gotta keep proclaiming the word, like, oh, I don't feel like talking.

Well, you we better talk, right?

And um, you know, we have our young adult kids, and you know, we're we're always their parents, even as young kids, teenagers, young adults.

We hey, I'll always be your parents, I'll tell you straight up, right?

And um, but but we have to, we we gotta stir up the word, we gotta keep applying the word, we gotta keep speaking the word, right?

Um, so just a couple of of quick uh points going back to, and I got these from from Jeremiah, the first scripture, stand in the ways and see.

So number one is stop.

So it doesn't say run, it says stand in the way and see, look at the old path.

So don't continue, I put don't continue automatically in the direction you're going.

Like, stop, stand, stand is like look, stand here, but then look, look where you're going.

What are you doing?

Right?

What does God want you to do?

You gotta stop, you gotta, you gotta look.

Number two is look, examine the path you're in.

You gotta look, hey, where am I going?

What am I doing with my kids?

What's the future?

What does God?

You see the desires of my heart, you see my every need.

Show me, right?

And really that's three, ask, show me.

Seek God's wisdom in every step of the way, right?

Pray much in the Holy Ghost.

Ask God, God, what do you want me to do?

Right?

And then four, walk in it.

And then the verse goes on, you'll find rest.

Right?

When you keep standing on the word of God, you'll find rest because it's not you doing it, it's God, it's the Holy Ghost working on the inside of you, right?

And so uh we keep standing on his promises.

We keep shouting, we keep proclaiming, we keep standing on the word, we keep standing on the promises, we keep standing um on what God said to us today, what God said to us years ago.

We keep standing on the word of God, even when you don't see certain situations turn around.

And even when things get worse, right?

Like I prayed, and then it looks 10 times worse.

You keep standing, right?

You keep believing, you keep speaking the word of God, right?

You keep because it's not only for you, but it's for future generations to come.

The logo and the rhema.

Your word, your kids can't just see you on the logo.

They need rhema, they need to see you acting in the rhema word of God, the supernatural.

Because it can't just be here, it has to be, hey, you gotta believe God.

I believe God for this, you gotta believe God for this.

Amen.

Amen.

So, um, you know, the enemy's after your calling.

He doesn't care how your hair looks, he don't care if you're having a bad hair day.

He cares about keeping your mouth shut.

Uh, people need people need to see you shine bright.

People need to see you keep standing, people need to hear your testimony and to know what God has done in your life.

Amen.

So keep standing, keep believing, keep praying, keep praying much in the Holy Ghost.

Doesn't matter if you're young or middle-aged or old.

Hey, listen, there's no, I just saw somebody, somebody was talking about retiring.

I was like, we don't retire, we re-fire.

Right?

We re-fire.

Where is there retirement in the Bible?

Right?

We re-fire, we keep on going.

We keep the plan of God doesn't stop at 50 or 70, right?

There's a plan and a purpose.

And so you keep keeping on, you keep standing, you keep believing, you keep coming to church, you keep speaking words of life over your kids and over your family and over situations.

Amen.

Amen.