I want to read a verse from Romans.
13:12. “The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.
13. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.
14. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to [fulfill] the lusts [thereof]. Put ye on the lord Jesus Christ.”
How are we going to put Him on? Turn to Isaiah 59.
16. “And he saw that [there was] no man, and wondered that [there was] no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it
sustained him.
17. For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance [for] clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloke.
18. According to [their] deeds, accordingly he will repay, fury to his adversaries, recompence to his enemies; to the islands he will repay recompence.
19. So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.
20. And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD.
21. As for me, this [is] my covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that [is] upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever.”
That’s quite a promise isn’t it? And when the enemy comes in like a flood the Spirit of the Lord lifts up the standard. Who is going to fight the battle for us? The Lord is!
I’ll tell you a story. When we first started here we had a 16 year old girl and a few others here, when a lady comes in and starts to teach us the 10 steps of deliverance. We had a little boy here from Kansas that lived on a farm all of his life. She gets a hold of him and she starts delivering him using these 10 steps. Things he had never heard of in his life. These steps meant 10 different types of demons that were being cast out.
I told the kids to go on out and walk in the desert and talk to the Lord about it. Our young girl said, “I don’t even know if I know how to pray to the Lord.” It was a very strange experience for them. We learned how others did deliverance. I said to the Lord, “That isn’t the way you do deliverance; that’s man’s way. I want you to show me your way of deliverance.”
One day I felt I needed to minister on deliverance; but when I opened my Bible I couldn’t find one scripture on it in the whole book. I said, “Lord, forgive me.” So that night he brought me point by point all the way through to know that it was Jesus who does the deliverance. All He needs is our will on His side so He can do it. I read what Isaiah 59 says, now turn to Eph. 6.
10. “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.
11. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [places].”
Rom. 13:14. “But put ye on the Lord Jesus Chris, and make not provision for the flesh, to [fulfill] the lusts [thereof].”
Who is going to fight our battles and who paid the full price for our redemption? Our Lord, Jesus Christ! Do you know what that redemption includes? It takes us way back to the Garden of Eden, back to when man fell from this beautiful garden, from God’s perfect man to a fallen man. Then Jesus said, “Father I will be that lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world.”
Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the works of the flesh. Be strong in the Lord! Who is going to fight your battle for you? He says, “Put on the whole armor of God.” What is that armor? Jesus! We put on the whole armor of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. We stand there with Jesus in us and He will fight the battle for us.
He said, “Stand ye still.” Now, no one ever won a battle standing still. He says to put on the whole armor of God that we might be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against people. Why is He describing this? He wants us to know the battle is not against flesh and blood; but it’s against principalities and powers. It says to put on the whole armor of God that we may be able to stand against wiles of the devil. We’re standing against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, and against spiritual wickedness in high places. Why did He tell us that? So we could see how impossible it is for us to do it. We are no match for that. No way could we do it.
6:13 “Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” (Jesus is fighting it.)
14. “Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth…”
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” (Jn.14:6)
14. “Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;”
Think about who is standing there as we look on. We are watching this battle aren’t we? But we aren’t fighting this battle, He is. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the works of the flesh.
15. “And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
16. Above all, taking the shield of faith…” (Jesus)
This faith is not our faith it’s His faith. What is the first thing that He gives to us? That faith He gives to us, through His righteousness. He says we are having on the breastplate of righteousness and our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; and above all else take the shield of faith, “…wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.” What is the shield of faith? I think it is Jesus, don’t you?
17. “And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: 18. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
19. And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel.”
What is the mystery of the gospel? Christ in us the hope of glory! Who is going to fight our battle for us? Christ, in us, is going to fight that battle for us. The awesomeness of the spiritual warfare is that Jesus is in charge. Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Who is Jesus? Why did He come to fight our battles for us? He redeemed us with His own precious blood.
We had a young woman here and I am watching her outside. She is stretching and doing all kinds of things. I asked her what she was doing and she said, “I am putting on the whole armor.” I said, “I don’t think that’s the way it is.” This is the way she was taught. This is morning, what about the night when she didn’t have the whole armor on? She was putting it on in the morning. It would help her in the day time, but it wouldn’t help her too much at night. So I told her. “That’s not the way you do it, you put on the Lord Jesus Christ and He fights your battle for you. He put on the breastplate of righteousness for you and the vengeance against that enemy.”
He is the one that fights our battles for us. The only reason we don’t see it is because we don’t give him the privilege of doing it. We struggle with the devil and he beats us down and we don’t realize we don’t need to take that beating from the devil. All we need to do is say, “Jesus I give you permission to do it.” We get strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Then we begin to understand what Ephesians 6 is all about. It is describing the powers we have to contend with; but the one that is going to fight the battle is Jesus. All we need to do is let Jesus fight the battle for us; but He won’t do it unless we ask Him. “Jesus, you fight my battle for me.” Then He will make us strong in the Him and He will show us how mighty He is.
Paul said to pray for him so that He could give this mystery of the gospel to the world. God is giving us the mystery of this. He said, “Because He found no man, He put on the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness and He had a cloak, a garment, of vengeance against the enemy. We are no match for that enemy! Christ died and lives in us, today.
Let’s go back to Eden when Adam and Eve sinned, God had given them the right to rule the world and He didn’t take that right away; but He sent Jesus. Jesus says, “I’ll do that battle for you.” All we have to do is remember, it is Jesus, and be strong in Him and in His love and faith. He has everything we need. He says, “Let me bring you back to Eden, let me take you back to the Father, the way the world was before Adam sinned. Jesus said to be strong in Him and He will show us the way to live and what to do.
In 2nd Peter He is talking to people with like faith that he has. He is talking about this faith that is in Jesus and he said this faith is through God’s righteousness. What’s His faith to us? Faith is the dynamo of God and He gives it to us, His faith. What else does He give us?
2nd Peter 1:1. “Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ:”
What is happening here is that we not only put Jesus on; but here is His faith through His righteousness. We also have His peace multiplied to us. The Lord Jesus Christ, according to His power, has given us all things that pertain to life and Godliness through the knowledge of God. He has given us every part of Himself, when He is in us, and brings forth a complete work. He is bringing us into a relationship in His glory for He has called us to glory and power (virtue is power). With Jesus in us we have the knowledge of how to overcome with His grace and peace multiplied to us. Then He gives to us exceeding great and precious promises that by these we might be divine partakers with Him.
Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the works of the flesh that you might be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world. How did we escape it? By putting on the Lord Jesus Christ? Isn’t that awesome?
Be strong in the Lord and the power of His might. And, besides this, give all diligence to your faith.
What He’s doing is putting His glory into us. Peter says, “And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue (power); and to power knowledge and to knowledge temperance.” Why do you suppose He put temperance in there? Some Bibles don’t have it they have self control but they take away God’s power when they put that in there. When they put in self-control it puts man in control rather than God. He says “To temperance patience; and to patience godliness.” Can you develop patience without godliness? Our nature isn’t like that but God’s is. He says, “…giving all diligence, add to your faith knowledge and to your knowledge temperance and to temperance patience.”
I wouldn’t understand quite so much about what He means by temperance if I hadn’t grown up close to the steel mills. Temperance is not about how much you eat or drink. I used to live in Ohio and across the river in West Virginia were the huge steel mills. They would light up the whole country with the fire. They were getting the ore out of the ground and processing it and tempering it with water and fire and testing it for tolerance.
When I go to San Francisco or New York and see the big bridges, I think about how I was raised right there where all that processing was done with the fire reaching high into the heavens. I realize they were taking the ore out of the ground so these big bridges can hold everything that goes across them. God is doing a processing in us that we will be filled with His glory and power because Jesus is in charge of us. He has determined one thing: He is going to glorify the Father.
He is going to bring us back to the Father and He is going to show us how it is done. He says, “Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the works of the flesh.” What is this processing? It is that we might have Jesus in us with His divine nature. It’s fallen man He has taken out and He is going to put back His divine nature, Jesus himself in us. He can do the warfare for us.
I believe we pay too much attention to the devil. We need to acknowledge that it is Jesus in us who fights the battle for us. The devil says, “I’ve got you now!” Jesus says, “Wait a minute, I redeemed them with my own blood and they belong to me. Get up and I’ll show you who I am and I will show you how I do warfare.” He is placing His love in us as He takes out all of this junk in us. We just say, “Jesus, you be the Lord of my life; you be the King of Glory in me.” He’s doing the processing in us so that the King of Glory can live in us. He is processing us so that the devil has no more control over us.
One time I was going into the dining room and the devil said, “I’m going to do you in.” I said,” Devil, I don’t belong to you. You’re not going to do me in.” Nobody was around and I start in the front door and the devil pushed me. Nobody was behind me. He pushed me on the floor, into the door of the dining room and said again, “I am going to do you in.” I told him again, “Satan, I don’t belong to you.” I thought I cracked every rib in my body but when I go to the hospital there were no ribs broken. I still had the pain. I told him again, “I don’t belong to you.” He kept telling me, all of the way to the hospital, “I’m going to do you in.” I kept telling him, “I don’t belong to you.”
A couple of days later I get a call from Taiwan and he said, “The Lord told me to give you a call and pray for you”. He didn’t speak English so he said, “I have to pray for you now in Chinese.” All the pain left as he prayed. The devil was trying to upset me, but Jesus was in charge and He is in control.
Jesus is the creator of the whole earth and God is going to bring forth the glory of His son. He says the ultimate He is doing in 2nd Peter is giving us the knowledge about temperance. The processing of temperance is to take out everything of our nature, so that He can place within us His love. After He tempers us we receive patience; then after patience is godliness and to godliness He adds brotherly kindness . By nature we are self-centered and we don’t think of anyone else so He has to process us all the way.
The last we receive is brotherly kindness, so we can show His love to the world. All that processing is to put His love in us so that we can let him fight the battles in us. If we don’t let His love in there, we can’t let him do it. We are going to let His love flow and change our lives so He is not only doing spiritual warfare, He is changing our lives. Then we can live in Him and He can live in us, with His love for the brethren. Jesus brings His peace and grace and multiplies it. His grace is so mighty that He moves mountains by it.
This faith is His and He can move all of the mountains you want moved, just let Him move it with His faith. We have been trained a little bit wrong. Jesus fights our battles; but we have to give him permission. He brings us back to Eden, perfected in Jesus Christ, so the enemy doesn’t have a chance.
I feel it is very important that He wants to become King, in us. We don’t want to be brow beaten and torn down by the devil. The spiritual warfare is Christ, in us, fighting the battle. Be strong in the Lord and the power of His might for He is the one that is going to fight this battle for us. We struggle and fight with the devil; but you don’t belong to him, you belong to the Lord. Come on, let Jesus be Jesus in you. Let him be glorified and realize that the battle is the Lord’s no matter what we have been through.
He came to save us from sin and to restore us back to the Father, perfected in Jesus, all the way back to Eden. Think about what kind of world it is going to be when God restores all of us back to Eden. He says, “But unto you that fear my name shall the son of righteousness arise with healing in his wings and ye shall go forth as calves of the stall.” Has any of you ever been around a gate when the calves get out? Try to catch one of them. No way! When that gate opens, they are gone. He says, “Like calves of the stall. The wicked shall be ashes under your feet in the day that I do this.
I was in India in a Catholic home and the man asked me to pray for his daughter who was recovering from surgery. The young man asked, “Aren’t any religions ok if you believe.” I said, “God will hold no man guiltless who rejects his son.” All at once the Lord takes me back before time was. I knew I was in the realm of eternity and I heard the Father saying to the Son “I have this love and I have no one to give it to and when we create man we know he is going to fall.” The Son answered, “I will be that lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world.” He takes me from the creation in Genesis, where I see this beautiful creation and all God had made, to the birth and life of Jesus. He takes me to the birth and resurrection and into the heavens. I hear the saints saying, “Tell the saints to stop murmuring and complaining so the bride groom can come again.” It was an awesome experience. I don’t know what I ate or what I said as we sat there at the table. Oh, it was so wonderful. God’s love is so mighty and how much He loves us. Why don’t we want to trust him? He created this beautiful world and the creation is perfect. As took me down through history, I realized how mighty the Father’s love is for His creation.
He takes me into China and all across it; He is pouring His love through China. Christ said to me, “I died for everyone in the whole world but they don’t know me or of my love for them. I want them to know me and when they do it will be because of this love and He spread it out over both sides of our airplane over China.” We need to understand the love of the Father that came when Jesus came to live in us. He came with His love and glory that the world might know who the Father is. We have the privilege, no matter what we have gone through, of allowing Jesus to be in charge and letting Him be the King of Glory in us. He is going to bring this whole world back into submission to the Father. This is spiritual warfare. This is the Father and Son in us.
Father, we praise you for your awesome word and thank you for giving your Son that everyone could know you. That everyone could bring forth your kingdom and glory within and the fulfillment of your Word. Bless everyone here. We give you glory, for you are the King of Glory. Thank you, Lord Jesus. You are the one that is going to do the battle and we give you glory. Bless this word and let there be a blessing on the people. We give you glory for this word. We thank you for exalting your word and you do rule and reign in us. Let us hold strong to the Word of God. You will bring the victory in all circumstances that we may know the Father. In your mighty name we ask it. Amen.
April 16, 2003
