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Wednesday night live is a weekly sharing of the word from the Father's Church in Dallas, Tx.
Hello everybody and welcome again to another episode of Wednesday Night Live. We are here in the last days of the month of August and it has been really a very unique temperature time here in Dallas, Texas. And as I sit here at the Father's Church and I'm reaching out to our Saints Network family throughout the Metroplex area and many, many parts of the world, I can tell you that we've had a stretch of very, very high temperatures here. And normally, I would have been warring in the spirit to drive off this high pressure system because over the years we've recognized the connection between how the enemy tries to create dominion in a region or in an area based upon the lack of rain or drought condition. And I'm making that statement, but we've over the decades lived it here in Dallas, and we've seen the power of the Lord bring rain, not only here, but broken horrific weather conditions throughout the world when we have gone there.
Speaker 1:Now we don't just don't just say, oh, you know what? It's pretty hot over in 5,000 miles away. We better send a word and stop that. I mean, that's not that's we don't play around with the power of the Lord, but when God directs us to do things, and we go to a place and then we see his hand move and things amazingly change, we know that it is a spiritual environment. We've testified of dozens and dozens of times.
Speaker 1:And here in Dallas, when I first came here in 1980, it was a summer from hell. I don't remember how many days, months, temperatures were not just over 100. I think one time it was 117 degrees. It was really hot. And for years, all we heard about was drought.
Speaker 1:There's drought here, there's drought here. And God gave us dominion and that stopped. And so when we came back from Brazil, so many different types of victories we were celebrating, but there were still contentiousness, in the spirit. And this weather kind of came in and I thought, we're in the latter days of August. It's not going to last very long.
Speaker 1:Pretty soon it'll cool down, which in Pennsylvania, where I grew up, it's already cooling down. But here it takes a little bit longer. But I didn't feel any leading to go to war over this. I almost felt like the Lord was just watching. And this isn't the theme of our time today.
Speaker 1:But over the weekend, I thought this is going on too long, and they're saying it's gonna be one zero eight, one zero one zero eight. What are you doing, Lord? What do you want us to do? And yesterday morning, early in the morning, I was praying, and I felt like the Lord said, I'm in control of this. Whatever the enemy is trying to do, I'm not oblivious.
Speaker 1:I'm not asking you to do anything. You just celebrate my victories and you move forward. Well, I came in to the church and it was cloudy. And by 11:00 it was only like 80 degrees, which for people in West Virginia that's sweltering. But here that was a full 20 degrees less than what everybody and their brother who forecast weather said it was going to be.
Speaker 1:And I even went out and walked around at like 01:00 around the parking lot, just giving thanks to the Lord that he was intervening, that he was showing that he's in control. Well, then today I got up and it was hot again. And I was driving over to the church and I got maybe about three blocks away and all of a sudden it started raining. It started raining. And I pulled into the church lot, and when I pulled in, a downpour hit.
Speaker 1:And it rained for probably ten minutes, and it was sunny all around. You could see the sunshine. I even I was giving thanks to the Lord because I knew this was miraculous. There wasn't any there wasn't any testimony of any of the weather forecasters that we were gonna get rain this morning. And I was just having a wonderful time praising the Lord and giving thanks.
Speaker 1:I looked at the radar, I didn't see any indication of any clouds. It was just a divine downpour. And I got out, because I have a lot of things to do here on Wednesday mornings, And I started walking in, the rain was misting on me, and I thought, thank you Jesus, this is such a gift. So I know God is in control, and I know we are in his hand, and I know that there are things that the enemy is trying to do to press his advantage, but one of the things I learned, I said this to my staff many years ago, I actually had a staff, you gotta pick your battles. In a church, you need to know when to lay the law down and when to just watch things.
Speaker 1:Because if you don't pick your battles and you're just fighting all the time, then you're not really much of a ruler. You have to choose the moment from the Lord. And I think that's indicated when David was told to get under the Bakkah, the mulberry tree, and wait, when everything around him would say, you go. So I just wanna give thanks to the Lord. It has nothing to do with me.
Speaker 1:It's God who's our Lord, and he's letting us know that he's in charge. The enemy is trying to press his advantage here and there, but God is in control. And we, we have to know when to when to move, when to stand, when to wait, and when to act. And think that these last two days, the clouds and the cooler weather throughout that day, It did get hot in the afternoon, but it's Texas. And this morning, that downpour of rain, that just what a sign from the Lord.
Speaker 1:It was just such a blessing. So I declare over you that no matter what it is that you're facing, God is with you. You know, the skirmishes that the enemy attempts, God is with you. And you're you're triumphant because he is triumphant. And so whatever it is that you're facing, take heart because you are more than a conqueror through Christ.
Speaker 1:And the battle is the Lord's. It's not yours. The battle is the Lord's. We just obey. We're his goodly horse in battle, and that means no matter what's going on around us, we just don't take off galloping through because we can.
Speaker 1:We wait on Him. When He says go, we go. But He's in control, and I know that there is an incredible outpouring of His Spirit that's already with us, and we need to have confidence, and we need to know that joy is coming in the morning, and the morning is the night is far spent. Joy is is ahead. And so already begin to look to that joy set before you and rejoice in Him.
Speaker 1:So in just a few weeks, our seminar here in Dallas, our fall seminar will be occurring. It's entitled Patience. And I know tribulation works patience. We're going to be talking about that, but it's going to be a celebration of how God has led us together as saints throughout the world. It's celebration because God is good, but also that this is the fiftieth such seminar gathering that we've had here in Dallas.
Speaker 1:And I know some of you are probably you've got your abacus on out, maybe you've taken off your shoes so you can count more than just on your 10 fingers and you're trying to figure out, look, we've gone through this several different ways. And some bean counters here at the church have also gone through it. And they said, yeah, there are 50. I didn't think there were initially, but there are. So we're going to be celebrating.
Speaker 1:And we hope that you're planning to be with us. So very soon you'll have the opportunity to register online and, we we are looking forward to truly a time of giving thanks to the Lord and celebrating his goodness. Apart from the time at seminar where we focus on the principles of patience, which sounds kind of boring, doesn't it? But it really is a powerful thing to understand the principle and the flow pattern of patience, because when we understand that scripturally then it puts things in perspective and you see that patience is the musculature of victory. And it's not just wondering where God is or complaining, well, I thought you were going to do this Lord, I don't know where you are.
Speaker 1:I heard one guy preach one time, he says, how many of you want patience? Well, then you're going to want tribulation. And I thought, well, you know, it does say that, but it's not really the context that's being communicated there. So we're going to be celebrating that. We've got several international speakers that are gonna be a real blessing to everybody.
Speaker 1:But one of the things that God has been opening up as a surprise revelatory experience for me is this extended topic of righteousness and how it equates to the warfare of the spirit. And we've taught on righteousness. I've written books on righteousness. We've established foundational truths of righteousness. All of those are secure and true.
Speaker 1:But where God is showing us now is the warfare aspect of righteousness. And I'm really, at this point, receiving incredible amounts of insight from the spirit, from the word, and processing it, but then trying to figure out, out of the reduced number of sessions that I have, and I chose this, what do you want me to talk about? And so I believe that really righteousness is the marching order. It's it's the decree that sends forth the armies of the Lord on behalf of his eternal purpose and indicating his timing for a an application of that purpose in the fulfillment of of hagios, of holiness. So righteousness is is that, and we'll look at that.
Speaker 1:But today, I I really did feel that we needed to look a little bit at, the weapons of righteousness or some of the weapons of righteousness. And we wanna begin by looking at Romans six verse 13. Now this is Wednesday night, and I hope any of you have been paying attention to our strategy for prayer and bible study. We intend for you not to just have a teaching sheet that you can look over. We intend for you to get out your bible program and do a little work and pay attention to what's being said, but learn how to use the tools that God has given you.
Speaker 1:So if you pull up Romans six thirteen, we're going to read this verse and then from there we're going to study applicable passages that uses this same word that we're gonna focus on. And you're going to pull them up. I'll read them, but you're gonna pull them up for yourself. So get your bible program ready. Most of you should have that on your phone or your iPad or your laptop or or maybe your spouse or somebody near you has it.
Speaker 1:So let's get rolling with it. Romans six thirteen, and the title of this message is righteousness is for battle. Think about that. How the church, when I was growing up, righteousness and justification, well, we heard all these one zero one things. It's the same word.
Speaker 1:And you know what it means? What is justify? Well, it's just if I have never sinned. And we always said that justification and righteousness was just right standing before God. And to a degree, that is true.
Speaker 1:It's the beginning point. But when you look at how righteousness is used throughout the scripture, it is warfare footing, even all the way through the book of Revelation. And the church has absolutely ignored this, that we have. And so we're gonna look at righteousness over these next few months. And I think that it is not just for our understanding, which the understanding of the word is precious, but it's a release of something God is giving us at this time, and it's going to equip us for the going forward.
Speaker 1:Amen? So Romans six thirteen. Neither yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. Now instruments is not a three piece band. It's not the worship team.
Speaker 1:Instruments is a word that is used for weapons, and not just weapons, but a a specific type of weaponry. I joked with you. A specific time of an arsenal and a strategy of of what the whole Greek world knew because this was written in Koine Greek, and it uses terms that were known to the Greek people. This was not written to a Roman audience. This is not in Latin.
Speaker 1:This is Greek, koinae Greek. So these terms were known, and because the Holy Spirit chose them, we need to understand what these terms really meant to the people who were hearing. So instruments used twice in this verse is the Greek word hoplon, h o p l o n. And we'll look at some other usages of this same word in just a few minutes, so you'll have the opportunity to click ahead and look, but pay attention to what I'm saying now. Hoplon was derived from a type of warfare that for centuries was observed in Greece.
Speaker 1:And it was from the hoplites, H O P L I T E. And these were citizen warriors that were trained. They had a circular shield. They had a helmet that covered their head and then came down, almost like I like to think when I see a depiction of it, almost like fangs down the front of your face. It's very similar to what Russell Crowe wore in Gladiator, that helmet that he wore.
Speaker 1:Well, I never watch those things. But anyway, it was very similar to that, but it was distinctive and it was what these citizen soldiers wore. And they had a shorter sword that was more like a machete, and they had a spear that was probably I I none of these have really survived except for the ornamental ones, probably four feet long. And, the original hoplites, they would come together in war and their strategy of warfare was to form what we know militarily as a phalanx, phalanx. Phalanx.
Speaker 1:And for them that was a front line and then you had lines, lines, lines all forming a big clump of people. And the ones at the front particularly, and even, you know, throughout, I don't know what the third and fourth lines, I never saw this in operation, nobody did. But the ones at the front had these round shields. They would hold them in their left hand, and they would have their spear extending out. And they would move forward like a block.
Speaker 1:And and that's important for us to know because it explains some of the other places where this verse where this word is used in the Bible. And we'll look at those in just a few minutes. So this was a the way that the Greek city states ward from Sparta to Athens, all the Greek city states, they would all do this. And, you know, Alexander the Great, he, he adopted this same progression, but he also added a couple of things. He made their spears longer, and he also had contributing skirmishers that would go out from the sides of this phalanx.
Speaker 1:And sometimes he would have attack groups of horsemen, cavalry that would go out. But those were not the front line. It was always the phalanx that went first. And so the Greeks, when Alexander moved forward, this was the primary strategy that he had, and he was able to defeat army after army after army. He defeated the Persians with this.
Speaker 1:He defeated the, the Egyptians with this. He he he just was amazing by augmenting this hoplite strategy. And even when Rome was then rising up. You know, we talk about the Roman Empire and how they were indomitable and they took over the world, but not in the initial few hundred years of their existence. They would go to war and they would lose.
Speaker 1:They would lose battles where they would lose 60,000 to 80,000 men. The Carthaginians did that to them on their home turf. But the things about the Romans was that they would learn, and they would add things from their enemies and amalgam that into their battle strategy. And they lost a few big battles to the Macedonians, which was the hoplite things. And they they learned how to integrate this same strategy, but then the Romans put their own spin on it.
Speaker 1:The Romans had somewhat of a phalanx, but they had different groupings. And there was a big battle, a famous battle between king, one of the kings of Macedon and, I can't remember the name of the Roman general. And they clashed, they clashed, they clashed, and finally Rome won. But as Rome did, they basically plagiarized Greek society. They basically took the myths, deities of the Greeks and just turned it into something that then they renamed.
Speaker 1:Like even the word for righteousness that we talked about. It was from that Greek demonic being, dike, that then the Romans turned to justicia, same demonic identity. We talked about that last week. So the instruments of righteousness is hoplon, which really says the cardinal truths of what the hoplites did for centuries is what your warfare really should resemble. And you know, it's very interesting.
Speaker 1:There was a philosopher named Plutarch, and he wrote about Hoplon, this hoplite strategy. And he says of the place Phalanx, listen to this, because this describes our warfare and it describes how the enemy uses his strategies to destroy what God has put in motion. So listen to this. Some of you may have tuned out. Wake up and pay attention to this.
Speaker 1:The phalanx, this is Plutarch, is like some animal of invincible strength, but only as long as it functions as one body and can keep its shields locked together as one. If it has been broken up into its parts, each of the fighting men lose their individual force. Its strength lies in the mutual support of the parts of the whole body rather than the individual itself. Isn't that interesting? So when God sends us out to do warfare, we are operating basically with shields, discipline, accord with one another at his direction.
Speaker 1:You've got a spear which is dominion taking. Remember we studied about weapons in scripture and how the spear was the dominion. It was the weapon of kings. And so our strength lies in the mutual support of the parts of the body. Now the Romans became more crafty, more flexible.
Speaker 1:They were ready to fight in this way, but they also learned how to break out as a detachment. And that was a strength, but that's not what God's word used to describe. God does not want you innovating on his plan. Yeah, he can he can give you direction. He can change course, but that's by the spirit.
Speaker 1:It's not by your own direction. How many times have I seen us begin to move forward as saints and then somebody gets jealous or somebody gets prideful, and they think, well, why am I not being showcased? And so they decide they're gonna split off, or they decide they wanna bring dissension in the ranks. And then there's a gap, and the enemy breaks through. But if we stay in one accord in the direction of the Lord being directed by him, this army of the Lord is invincible.
Speaker 1:Let's look at some of these places where this word, I didn't choose this word, I didn't choose the definition, This is God's spirit that chose this. Romans 13 verse 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 hoplon of light.
Speaker 1:And that's something. I think even our network is like citizen states because we train, we know our weapons, we know what the word is, we study together, we eat the same spiritual meat, same spiritual drink, we pray, but when God gives an assignment, we all come together. We submit to one another. We follow the plan. We stay focused.
Speaker 1:And how many times did the enemy try through emergencies, urgencies to splinter us or to detract us or to take us off target. And then if you're not running to help the person that's taken off target, then people with kindness issues will say, well, you don't even care. You didn't even go over there. Stay in the battle. You know, you you gotta stay locked.
Speaker 1:The enemy's strategy is to direct you away. So we have to put on the armor of light, the armor of God's ways. Let's look at another one. You've got it pulled up there. Can just click on it.
Speaker 1:Second Corinthians 10 beginning at verse three. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare, strataea, that strategy, are not carnal or fleshly, but mighty, the dunamis of function through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against what God's knowledge has directed to you, bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of what you are supposed to be doing as an anointed son being Christ like. Having in a readiness to revenge or to immediately seal the ranks of disobedience when your obedience is then brought to the forefront to be fulfilled. Do you evaluate things on the outward appearance?
Speaker 1:If any man trust to himself that he is Christ, let him of himself think this again, that as he is Christ's, even so we are Christ's. What's he saying all that for? Look at that again. If any man trust to himself that he is Christ's, let him of himself think this again, that as he is Christ's, even so are we Christ's. What's he saying?
Speaker 1:We've all been receiving the same mission in this phalanx. We're all going forth at the direction of the behest of our Lord. We're all sons of the most high, we're all anointed. So in the midst of that, if there's any other kind of imagination or a high thing, which is basically pride or jealousy or competition, that goes, that directly comes against what God has said to do, you have to bring that into captivity and bring it back into what you've been commissioned to do as a son in that moment as part of the core. Are you judging things after what it looks like to little old you?
Speaker 1:And if any man trusts to himself that he's walking as an anointed son on behalf of the father, don't think that way in the outward appearance that you alone are God's chosen one because all the rest of us are as well. That's really what Paul's saying. And I'm grateful that for us as saints, God has brought us so far along in this. And I think the main lesson of the hoplites is that you go forth in battle as a unique group in one accord and your strength is in unity and in obedience to Christ. Otherwise you're just a ragtag outfit that will scatter and when you scatter you're probably going to be defeated and you're sure putting your brother or sister in harm's way.
Speaker 1:Amen. Rouch. Let's look at another verse in second Corinthians, verse seven of chapter six. Second Corinthians six seven. By the word of truth.
Speaker 1:This is a directive that God's asking you to do something that has not been done before, something that has been hidden but now is being revealed, Something that is without the yeast of yesterday's victory or whatever you've been listening to on the Internet. Word of truth. And by its God's power, by the power of God, and by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left. That is great, isn't it? Let's look at another verse that speaks, well, let's talk about this here for a minute.
Speaker 1:The wonder of this is that the Hoplons would often arrange their phalanx at kind of an angle, not a big angle, but an angle, because you're holding your shield in the left hand. You're you're only going out because God says it's time to enforce what I've said. And so the right hand of prophecy is what your direction is. It's what your what your assignment is. But you gotta have the shield of faith in your left hand to make sure that you're sticking to the plan, that you're sticking to the timing, that you're sticking.
Speaker 1:And so what guards your right? Well, it should be your brother or your sister on the right and their shield of faith. There's such importance there. And this, the thing about it, the reason they would angle themselves is that they were marching this way and the phalanx would turn gradually to the right. What does that symbolize spiritually?
Speaker 1:That God is gonna fulfill what he promised. I think that is phenomenal. So you have to have righteousness on the left and on the right. If you're if you're walking in faith and you're holding on, that's gonna support your brother or your sister, and the person beside you on the right is also doing that for you. What you don't need to hear is somebody bellyaching or saying, well, I don't know why this is happening.
Speaker 1:You have just destroyed the person on your left because your shield of faith is gone. And now they are having to grapple for themselves while they're fighting the enemy, something that you should be covering. So this is why you have this righteousness as an armor on the right and on the left. Because you've been directed by God to something that he has said to do in truth, and it's his power that's going to be in the victory, but you have to march. You have to move forward.
Speaker 1:And I think that is just an incredible thing. Now, let's talk about one more thing about armor. And that is that in Ephesians six, which we we've also talked about, you have the shield of faith and you have some references to armor there. But, you know, think about what that wonderful passage really talks about. It says that your your belly is gird about with truth.
Speaker 1:And you have to be knowing that you are fulfilling what God put you on this earth to do. And in light of in light of what we've learned as saints in praying in the spirit and our spirit praying and moving forward, based upon what God has created us to be, but be being in communication with him, his son, speaking mysteries. Because when you speak in an unknown tongue, the Bible says your spirit prays. It's born again only through Christ. I don't need to reteach this.
Speaker 1:Some of you who tune in for the first time, I apologize. I'm not just barking these things out of the blue. That's where truth gains its core identity. If you've heard this goofy phrase before, it's not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog. Do you really believe that God has commissioned you for this?
Speaker 1:Has he empowered you and called you for this? That's that belt of truth. And because we're not wrestling against spiritual forces in the natural, even though there may be people involved. You're wrestling against principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world. So you take on this panoply of the armor of God, and you're going to stand your ground, and you're not going to flee.
Speaker 1:So you're standing. You've got your loins gird about with truth. You have the breastplate of righteousness, which is your indication of that God has sent you there. You know, in in this passage, Ephesians six, it's the breastplate of righteousness. In Isaiah 5nine 17, God's breastplate is said to be righteousness.
Speaker 1:In Genesis 2eight 15, the high priest had a breastplate of judgment, the mishpat, and first Thessalonians five seven says that we should have the breastplate of faith and agape. So our breastplate, really our raison d'etre, everything that we are, why we exist, why we're out there has been commissioned by the righteousness of God based upon his purpose. It is our permission, our decree, our validation for being there, and that's on our breastplate. God has this. So as a son we are that way.
Speaker 1:The high priest in the Old Testament had a breastplate that was called one that was focused on the Mishpat, God's eternal purpose. And first Thessalonians five says that it's a breastplate of faith, so you've been commissioned by the right hand of God, and you're moving forward because you are agape. You are moving, breathing hard after what God's purpose is. It is your passion. So your feet are shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, which means that you are devoted to the mission.
Speaker 1:You're gonna accomplish what God sent you out to do. And no matter what comes against you, you're gonna stand. You're prepared for it because of that. You have that shield of faith, which you're holding in your left hand, and you quench fiery darts of the wicked. Those things that are sent to try to extinguish and consume your reason of being there.
Speaker 1:You have the helmet of salvation, which should be guarding your thoughts and identifying you as part of this army. The sword of the spirit, which you use, which is the word of God, that's when the hoplites would draw this or even the Romans. Romans modified their sword, but they used him for the same reason. If somebody of the enemy broke through that phalanx, you could quote the word and you could vanquish him. But it's not a you like in the middle of the Colosseum swinging broadswords like, you know, Braveheart.
Speaker 1:It's basically for use. You could use it in other places, but it was basically for use if the enemy got through. And then you could use that shorter sword to extinguish that threat to the unity in the accord. Praying always with prosuice and deesis and watching with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. So this weapons of our warfare, this armor of God, this armor of righteousness, was named after the Hoplites or the Hoplites, Hoplon.
Speaker 1:And I want to read again a description of a well known Greek philosopher's, and if we could hear this, this is not equal to the scripture, but let's say that this is a prophecy that came to you. The phalanx of the hoplites is like an animal of invincible strength, but only as long as it is one body and can keep its shields locked together as one. If it has been broken up into its parts, each of the fighting men lose their individual force. Its true strength lies in the mutual support of the parts of the whole body rather than itself as an individual. Isn't that something?
Speaker 1:So we as saints are in the army of the Lord. We are. And some naysayers was, oh, I don't know about that hoplite hoplon business. Well, why don't you go to the author? Maybe maybe God's having a a book signing somewhere, and you could say, you know, I have a bone to pick with you, Holy Spirit and Jesus.
Speaker 1:You know, you're the living word, and I don't like the fact that you described the weapons of warfare and the armor after this group of ancient warriors and this particular type of warfare. I don't like that at all. I'd rather just interpret it on my own. How about if we just talk about the Romans? Because the Romans defeated yeah, they did.
Speaker 1:But they took their lumps from the hoplites on several occasions. And they finally found ways to strategize how to break that phalanx. And this is the enemy. He seeks for some way to break through. He says a roaring lion roaming about seeking what he may devour.
Speaker 1:And it seems that the only thing that can defeat us is if we start doing things on our own or strike out in a way that really showcases our wonderful self, we start thinking other things, we start doubting the mission, we start going forward but complaining. We take down our belief in what God has said. Hath God said. It's so important. It's so important.
Speaker 1:So I go back to the point that this is the term that God chose, and through this, the prince of Grisha conquered the known world and set the stage for the Koine language that the New Testament was written in in all these terms. Yeah. Rome took it and expanded it, but they basically plagiarized Hellenistic society. Now I was doing a study about some of those big battles that occurred between Rome and the Macedonians. And, the the the weird thing that I read over and over again was that these Roman generals and these aristocrats were so enamored with Greece.
Speaker 1:Most of them spoke fluent Greek because they it was a sign that they were sophisticated and scholarly. They memorized Greek philosophies. They memorized all of the Greek myths and stories. They collected Greek art, and they collected vases and mosaics. So as great as the Roman Empire was, it was basically built upon the things that we're talking about here in the word.
Speaker 1:So I'm not here to glorify Greece. I'm not. But I do wanna remind you that it's important that we understand these concepts as the spirit allows us to see them and to recognize that a large part of what the New Testament was written to were these city states, whether it was Thessalonica, whether it was Corinth, whether it was Paul being on Mars Hill in Athens, whether it was even Ephesus, was a Greek speaking outpost, Alexandria, the great Greek city on the Southern Coast of the Mediterranean and Egypt where the Septuagint arose from, it was using these these lang this language. And so if we're gonna understand why some of these terms are used, we have to recognize what they really meant for those people. And then we have to recognize that God is the one who chose this idiom.
Speaker 1:And so where are we as a network? Well, God is about to bring us all together for a triumphant celebration. God's gonna be restoring, healing, promoting. We're gonna be offering thanks for God's goodness and his fruitfulness. We're gonna be revisiting some things that God has done over the years that have been miraculous.
Speaker 1:And we're gonna talk about some challenging times and then how God broke through. We're gonna intersperse these in the midst of the gathering as a thanks to God. But I do believe that God is girding us up in righteousness. And the battle that we're gonna be engaged in in the years to come is one of righteousness because the scripture says this. And it you know, as I end, it amazes me that even today the general church would talk about justification and righteousness in that very simplistic entry level way.
Speaker 1:And we're grateful for that. I was raised in that understanding. But as I've studied this throughout the expanse of the word of God, righteousness is something far beyond that. And it's such a part of battle and warfare on behalf of the throne. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added.
Speaker 1:Amazing. Amazing. And at the very end, Revelation, you find the Lord going forth to war, leading the army of the Saints, and he's battling on behalf of righteousness and the justice of God. That's what the scripture says. He's not battling because somebody down home went up to an old fashioned altar and knelt down, and now he's justified.
Speaker 1:I've never sinned. Well, that's a beautiful thing. It's the beginning point. We cherish that, But that's really not righteousness. I dare say, please don't get offended, that most Christians, due to the lack of the understanding of the word, don't function in any measure of righteousness.
Speaker 1:They may be born again, and I am not trying to take that away from them or denigrating them. But when was the last time God took them out on their own and they looked up into the sky and God talked to them? If they believe God can talk to them in that way and said, this is what I wanna do. Will you believe for that? And they say, yes.
Speaker 1:And God said, this is righteousness. When was the last time that happened? Or do they on the other hand learn a bunch of scriptures and they think, you know what, I want to be a millionaire by the time I'm 20, and I want to be driving this kind of car, and I want to live in Highland Park, and I want to have this, and I want to have that, and God is that okay with you? Will you bless that? Well that's faith.
Speaker 1:I declare it. I decree it. That's my dream and you're going to give it to me. Is that righteousness? Well God may allow that.
Speaker 1:You may accomplish that just because you're really intelligent and you have gifts that you're going to use to maneuver in the financial market. And I bless you if God is giving you that kind of favor. But is that righteousness? Not according to the scripture. Abram left everything.
Speaker 1:He went out apart from what he had known. And I think that that measure of the Chaldeans, they were very wealthy and successful people. He launched out on his own following God in faith. He wasn't putting his five point strategy how to how to, you know, a rich prophet's handbook. You know, it wasn't that.
Speaker 1:Even faith has been plagiarized and really bastardized in a way, taken away from the father. And and before you get offended, said that. Scripture uses that term. They have no father. And I I know that when God allows us to really grasp this concept of righteousness and the warfare and the empowerment of what it really means, we are going to see great strides forward in the kingdom that God has reserved for this time.
Speaker 1:So the armor of the Lord, the armor of light, the armor of warfare. Are we ready to say yes to the Lord? To be a warrior there in your own household, not just waiting till you have some great revival meeting and then you can go and do all the cool things and then live like the devil for the next three months? Are you ready to war at all times for him? Are you in fellowship with him?
Speaker 1:And when God says it's time to go, will you take your place and march in agreement? Because when that happens, it's an invincible strength. I pray God will help us with this. But that's his armor, and that's us. God bless you all.
Speaker 1:Thanks for joining, and it's gonna be an interesting time, these next few weeks, but God is with you. So until this Friday, we share another power devotional. May God bless you. Let's keep fighting the good fight, and, Jesus Christ is Lord.