I want to speak tonight about when heaven
decides to fight.
When heaven decides to fight.
Judges chapter 4, please, if you go there
in the Old Testament with me, right after
Joshua.
It's Judges.
Father, I come before you and all I
ask tonight is that this word be a
delight to your heart.
Lord, that your people be a delight to
your heart, that we hear what you're saying.
That we begin to respond with hearts of
faith and gratitude.
Lord God, I'm asking you that you commission
us into this battle.
Lord, this is a marvelous time to be
alive.
And you're fighting for the testimony of your
own name now.
And Jesus, thank you for opening our ears
and our inner man to understand this.
I pray for an anointing from heaven, God,
that you touch my mind and physical body.
That you would quicken me and enable me
to speak simply to every heart.
Lord, give me the ability, Lord, to move
beyond just reason and into the very heart.
And Father, I just thank you for this
with all of my heart.
And I pray that this be a delight
to you.
And I thank you for it in Jesus'
name.
Judges chapter 4, verse 1 to 3.
And the children of Israel again did evil
in the sight of the Lord when Ehud
was dead.
And the Lord sold them into the hand
of Jabin, king of Canaan, that reigned in
Hazor, the captain of whose host was Sisera,
which dwelt in Harosheth of the Gentiles.
And the children of Israel cried unto the
Lord, for he had 900 chariots of iron.
This is Sisera, the captain of the enemies
of God.
And 20 years he mightily oppressed the children
of Israel.
And, you know, folks, history repeats itself over
and over again.
God used Joshua and the leaders that were
alive at his time.
They went in, they conquered as it is
the land of promise.
They defeated 33 kings in just a very
short period of time.
And, of course, then after the initial defeat
of these kings, the resistance was essentially minimal.
Everyone was encouraged to go in and possess
his inheritance.
And, of course, many did.
Some didn't to their own detriment.
They became strong, and they thought they could
handle things that God had called them to
destroy.
Beware when you're strong, beloved.
Beware when you think you can handle things
that used to handle you, because it can
turn around on you very, very quickly.
The Lord says you're to put these things
away.
You're to get them out of your life
and out of your mind.
But some of the tribes of Israel thought
they could control, and they were better served
by making servants of their enemies than utterly
destroying them.
And, of course, they did so.
But, ultimately, these enemies that were servants for
a season came back and ended up being
their masters.
And one more time, infusing them with an
incredible mixture that caused God to have to
release his hand of protection and deliver them
one more time into the power of their
enemies.
And through the book of Judges, after Joshua,
you see this happening repeatedly.
The children of Israel go into this spiritual
nosedive, as it is.
They lose touch with God, and there is
an enemy raised up into whose hand they
are delivered.
And in the hand of this enemy, they
begin to cry out to God one more
time.
God being who he is, he is merciful.
The Bible tells us his mercy endures forever.
He hears the cry of his children, and
he would raise up what we know today
to be judges.
These are particular people that were raised as
spiritual rulers in the nation in that particular
season.
They were hearing from God.
They would rouse the people one more time,
and the people would go into battle.
Now, this was not a man's choice.
This was God's choice.
He chose one more time to rise and
defend his people and defend his own namesake.
Now, in this particular season, the Scripture says
that they were sold into the hand of
this particular king of Canaan, who had a
general whose name was Sisera.
Now, this man had 900 chariots of iron.
And for 20 years, he mightily oppressed the
children of Israel.
Now, this was not just an oppression but
a mighty oppression coming against.
You know, the Scripture tells us later on,
there wasn't in chapter 5 and verse 8,
the Scripture says they chose new gods.
Now, this is after the battle is over,
and Deborah and Barak wrote a song.
They're singing this in chapter 5.
And it says, Was there a shield or
spear seen among 40,000 in Israel?
So, in other words, this enemy was mighty.
These incredible chariots that you could not even
hope to fight against with a stick or
even rocks.
And there's not a spear, there's not a
shield, their weaponry is gone.
This man rides at will as it is
throughout what should be the promised land and
the kingdom of God, mightily oppressing the children
of God.
The spiritual condition is described again in chapter
5 and verse 6.
It says, In the days of Shamgar, the
son of Anath, in the days of Jael,
the highways were unoccupied and the travelers walked
through byways.
You can picture Israel.
This is supposed to be a land of
promise and freedom.
This is supposed to be a place where
people are singing hymns and songs as they
go down the road.
There's supposed to be an enduring testimony among
the people of God.
But yet we see in this season the
highways are virtually unoccupied.
I think of where Jesus said in Luke
chapter 14 and verse 23.
He said, Go out into the highways and
hedges and compel them to come in that
my house may be filled.
Now, we're living in a generation where our
testimony is supposed to be compelling.
We are the church of the living God.
We are to go out into the highways
and the hedges.
We are to go where people travel.
And there's supposed to be in us a
presence of Christ, a renewed mind, a renewed
heart, a renewed spirit, wisdom beyond our natural
ability, gifts that God himself only could put
within us, a love that comes from the
heart of God, virtually emanating from our very
being, reaching out and beginning to touch people
that are all around us.
I'm not much of an airplane evangelist.
I know we have a lot of people
that visit pulpits, and they're always talking about
winning the world up in the air.
Some of them, it's worth taking an offering,
I think, to keep them up there.
They don't seem to have much of an
anointing on the ground.
However, I've never had much of an anointing
up in the air.
It seems to only work on the ground,
what God has given me.
I've never won anybody to the Lord in
an airplane.
I've shared a couple of times.
Half the time, I don't even really want
to speak when I'm traveling.
I'm just focusing and preparing.
But on the way home, I ended up
speaking to this man after leaving Ireland and
just asked me, what do I do?
I just, in conversation, just began to share
with him.
And he broke down weeping.
He's a businessman here in New York City,
openly crying on the airplane.
He was so confused and embarrassed that he
tried to compose himself, looked straight ahead at
something that was on the screen, got rid
of the tears.
And I said, do you have allergies or
something?
He said, no, no, I don't have any
allergies.
So then he composed himself and looked again.
And I just began speaking to him.
And as I began speaking to him one
more time, the Holy Spirit touched him.
He broke down weeping again, not even knowing
why.
But there is a love that was in
my heart for his soul, for his family,
for his children, for this man to know
that he needed a savior.
And I do hope that in the near
future he'll be attending this church.
I believe that he will be coming here.
And I thank the Lord for that.
You and I are to be a compelling
testimony.
We're not to be a complaining testimony.
We're not to be just an argument in
the midst of a whole hodgepodge of ideas
about the future and life and God.
We are to be a compelling testimony.
The presence of Christ is to be in
us.
This is not just a mythical thing about
God.
This is a living reality.
I bear in this earthly body the spirit
of Christ.
The very spirit of the living God is
within me.
The best thing I can do is cry,
God, get me out of the way.
Get this flesh out of the way.
Get this natural mind out of the way.
Holy Spirit, have dominion.
Take control of this mind.
Take control of this physical body.
And, of course, we walk in agreement with
God.
He doesn't overpower our personality or anything like
that.
But he does promise that we walk together.
He gives us his mind.
He gives us his heart.
He gives us abilities that we could not
even hope to have without the presence of
the living God within us.
And this is the testimony of the church.
Like the highways of New York City are
not to be unoccupied.
There is a Christian testimony that is to
be vibrant and alive in the places of
commerce and business and where we travel, where
we live, where we go to work, the
people we meet every day.
Our lives are not called to be an
argument.
They're called to be a compelling testimony.
There's to be a presence of God within
us.
And when God's people are singly focused and
singly minded, we become a testimony that is
set on a hill that cannot be hidden
from people around us.
Even if we don't want to speak sometimes,
there's a testimony that we're not even aware
of that God himself has established inside of
us that cannot be hidden from a world
that is living in darkness.
In this day of spiritual declension that we're
talking about in the Old Testament, the highways
were unoccupied.
The travelers were coming through Israel as it
is in chapter 5 and verse 6.
It says the travelers were walking through byways.
Actually, it says crooked ways is the original
translation.
They were taking other routes.
People who are, in a sense, coming to
Israel, as the Queen of Sheba might have
done, looking for God, are not finding him
in this place.
All they are finding is a cowering people
bowing down to iron chariots and the powers
of darkness, constantly just talking about the power
of the enemy, absolutely bankrupt in their minds
as to who God really is and what
land they really are living in.
And so travelers coming in are finding crooked
paths.
They're looking perhaps, and I'm drawing an allegory
here, you have to understand, but they're perhaps
looking for some semblance.
This is supposed to be the promised land.
These are supposed to be the people of
God.
So they're traveling through and having to find
crooked routes as it is to God because
they cannot see the presence of the Lord
being manifested among his people.
Chapter 5, verses 7 and 8 says, The
inhabitants of the villages ceased.
They ceased in Israel until that I, Deborah,
rose.
I rose a mother in Israel.
They chose new gods.
There was war in the gates.
And, of course, there was no weaponry.
Paul the Apostle in 2 Corinthians chapter 11
warns about this.
In verses 3 and 4 he said, But
I fear, lest by any means as the
serpent beguile thee through his subtlety, so your
minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that
is in Christ.
For if he that comes preaches another Jesus
whom we have not preached, or if you
receive another spirit which you have not received,
or another gospel which you have not accepted,
you might well bear with him.
Paul says, I know the ministry of Christ.
I know why he came.
I know who Christ is.
I know that he is the embodiment as
it is of the passion of God for
every man, woman and child ever created in
the image of God.
And Paul says, I'm afraid if somebody comes
and preaches another Christ, just as the serpent
came to Adam and Eve and said to
them, in effect, Use your position in God
for your own gain.
Use it for your own betterment.
Go to this forbidden fruit and partake of
it.
And in the day you do, your eyes
are going to be opened.
You're going to have greater knowledge than you
have now.
And you're going to be just like God
is.
In other words, you're going to increase in
godliness if you use your position that you
have in God for your own advantage.
And Paul says, I'm afraid of this, because
we're not called to use Christ to our
own advantage.
We are called to walk with Christ and
glorify Christ.
We are called to be partakers of the
heavenly calling that God the Father placed upon
his son, to go through this world proclaiming
the kingdom of God, to be healing the
sick and opening prison doors to those that
are bound, to be proclaiming this incredible, wondrous
news of God's love to those who are
physically poor, spiritually poor and poor in every
other way, to be making a declaration.
Our lives are to be this full declaration
in our generation.
The scripture tells us again in chapter 5
of Judges, verses 7 and 8, there was
war in the gates.
Now, the gates are those places of the
city where policy is formed, where leaders gather
together and decide how they're going to protect
the city as it is and what they're
going to do to better the lives of
its citizens.
But there was division in these gates and
arguments over various strategies and how they were
going to procure their freedom from this enemy.
In other words, there was no agreement.
They all knew there was an enemy, but
nobody knew how to fight this enemy.
Tragic that history seems to repeat itself over
and over again.
And while all of this is going on,
chapter 5, verse 11 tells us in the
victory song that they are delivered from the
noise of archers rather in the places of
drawing water.
And while all this stuff is going on,
the highways are unoccupied, travelers are taking alternate
routes, people are choosing another Christ, there's war
in the gates, there's this great division about
how do we fight this battle.
And while all this is going on, the
enemy is concentrating all of his force on
the places where people draw water.
In other words, he's attacking the living word
of God.
He's attacking the authenticity of scripture.
He's attacking the character of Christ.
He's attacking the very promises of God.
He's doing everything in his power, even in
God's house to move people out of the
word of the living God.
Move them into progressive revelation.
You have to understand where all this stuff
comes from.
It comes from the heart of Satan himself.
Move the people out of the promises of
God because there is no life apart from
this book.
And move them into this new prophetic revelation.
These new things that are happening.
This new Christ as it is.
That is, of course, was limited.
There are even people in our generation, folks,
that are saying that the Bible itself is
a dispensation.
It was a time.
The season of the Bible has passed.
Now into the new era of apostles and
prophets.
The brand-new leaders that are going to
bring a brand-new revelation of a brand
-new Christ.
Just as Jesus warned in the Gospel of
Matthew in chapter 24.
Now, all of this is going on until
God's people again begin to hear his voice.
In Judges chapter 4 and verse 4, it
says, Then Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of
Lappidoth, she judged Israel at the time.
And she dwelt under the palm tree of
Deborah between Ramah and Bethel and Mount Ephraim.
And the children of Israel came to her
for judgment.
She sent and called Barak the son of
Abinoam out of Kedesh Naphtali and said unto
him, Hath not the Lord God of Israel
commanded, saying, Go and draw towards Mount Tabor
and take with thee ten thousand men of
the children of Naphtali and the children of
Zebulun?
She began to hear.
She began to understand that God, And he
says, I will draw, verse 7, I will
draw unto thee to the river Kishon, Sisera,
The captain of Jabin's army, with his chariots
and his multitude, and I will deliver him
into thine hand.
Amazing.
God begins to speak again.
The Lord says, I've heard a cry.
I've got somebody whose ears are open to
my voice.
And I've decided to fight again.
There is a season when the Lord will
arise to defend his own name.
Hallelujah.
I believe with all my heart we are
living in that season.
I believe the time of imposters and thieves
reigning over the church of Jesus Christ is
over.
Christ is rising.
Christ is going to fight for his own
namesake.
He's going to fight for his church.
He's going to fight for every sighing mother
and father, every child that's out on the
street looking for reality.
Every person in the house of God was
saying, God, if you are still alive, would
you please show me who you are and
where your power might be found?
The Lord says, I hear the cry.
I hear the cry, and I've decided to
rise up in this last hour for my
own namesake and deliver those that are crying
out to me.
Chapter 5 and verse 20 tells us that
they fought from heaven.
There was an incredible battle about to take
place.
A people were about to enter into that
battle, and they were not going in the
natural any longer.
No longer five steps to victory.
Hallelujah.
They were going in the power and might
of almighty God.
These are a people who know how to
pray.
They know how to go to their knees
and get their instructions from God.
And they said, God, whatever you speak, that's
what we're going to do.
And we don't care how ridiculous it may
sound.
This is the way you've always done it.
You always take the foolish.
You always take the weak.
You always take the nobodies.
You always take the nothings of society who
can hear your voice, and you empower them.
You make them more than they are.
You give them strength they could not possess.
You give them battle plans that come out
of heaven itself.
And you send them against the powers of
darkness.
You'd find a people somewhere, even if they
live in an upper room, and you fill
them with the spirit of the living God.
And they step out into the open air
and begin to make a declaration of who
God is and what God has promised He's
going to do.
And by the foolishness of God, the foolishness
of preaching, as Paul says, bloodthirsty mobs that
were trying to crucify Him just days before
are now pricked in their hearts saying, what
must we do to be saved?
They fought from heaven.
Verse 14, chapter 5, tells us who fought.
Out of Ephraim there was a root of
them against Amalek.
Hallelujah.
Amalek was the land of the giants.
And I can't help but think of Caleb.
After the conquest of the promised land, when
Caleb came to Joshua, and he was 85
years of age, and he says, I've waited
40 years for these giants.
And he said, as my might was then,
my might is now.
I'm as strong now as I was then.
You see, because Caleb was not a natural
man.
He didn't walk in his natural strength.
He knew his strength was in God.
And he said, I've wandered through this wilderness
of unbelief with people who wouldn't believe to
go into the promised land.
And for 40 years I've been itching to
get at this mountain of giants.
Oh, Joshua, give it to me.
And Joshua gave it to him.
And not only Caleb, but his descendants became
mighty warriors.
And after the Benjamin, little Benjamin.
So there's a place in this battle not
only for the giant fighters, but the little,
the small.
People who are not much in their own
sight.
Benjamin was the smallest of the tribes of
Israel.
But there are people who come out and
say, I'm not going to be stayed by
my littleness any longer.
And I'm not going to let the devil
lie to me anymore and try to tell
me I have no power.
If I didn't have any power, he wouldn't
bother telling me.
There has to be a reason.
He is a liar and the father of
all lies.
Hallelujah.
Out of nature came governors, those that knew
how to lead in the ways of God.
Also out of Zebulun, they that handled the
pen of the writer.
I hadn't seen this before.
These are the people who began to fight
the battle.
Maybe too old to take up a sword
or chase an iron chariot, but not too
old to take up a pen.
And perhaps begin to encourage those who are
in the battle.
Maybe others just wrote a check to finance
some of the things that were going.
I don't know.
But they took the pen out and the
pen of the writer became mighty in this
battle.
Oh, folks, there's a lot in here that
you and I can learn.
Those that just simply began perhaps to put
on paper what God had done for them
and who they had learned God Almighty is.
And they began to use this and distribute
it and encourage others that were around them.
Verse 15 tells us the princes of Issachar
were with Deborah.
Even also Barak was sent on foot into
the valley.
Folks, there were people who went down and
they took on the dangerous places.
Just like David of old, there were giants
down there that were threatening the testimony of
God.
And there are always people who are called
to go into the valley.
Those who know that all they have is
in God.
And they have a passionate heart to see
the name of God Almighty vindicated from the
disgrace that these crying enemies have brought against
it.
And the trembling in the host of God's
armies.
And I can always see those who are
called to go down and fight these giants.
And there will be in our generation as
there was in theirs.
But not everybody fought.
Verse 15 at the end says, for the
divisions of Reuben, there were great thoughts of
heart.
Verse 16 says, why abode among the sheepfolds
to hear the bleedings of the flocks?
For the divisions of Reuben, there were great
searchings of heart.
So there were people from the tribe of
Reuben who didn't show for this battle.
And they used the fact that God is
searching our hearts as an excuse.
They were conference goers.
You see, we'd like to go into the
battle, but you see, we're having our hearts
searched.
And because of this, we can't go.
Folks, you have to be careful.
There are great diversions that can be found
even in the Christian church to really what
we are called to be and what we
are called to do.
And you can get so busy preparing, supposedly
preparing for the battle that you can never
go into the fight.
Searching our hearts.
Scripture talks about Gilead, verse 17, abode beyond
Jordan.
Gilead was a man who was far from
the battle and stayed there.
I like it where I am.
You go ahead and fight if you want.
But I found this comfortable religion.
I like it.
I like coming to church.
I like raising my hands.
I like singing the songs of Zion.
You want to go out and battle for
the souls of men and the honor of
God, you go ahead.
But I like it where I am.
Scripture tells us that Dan remained in ships.
Dan was a businessman.
He had a lot going.
It perhaps would have been costly for him
to get into this battle and obey God
or at least find out what God would
have him to do.
And he really wasn't interested in finding the
will of God for his life.
And so he remained in his ships.
And I don't know what excuse he used
to stay out of the battle.
And again, it talks about Asher continued on
the seashore and abode in his breeches.
And Asher is a man who had found
a comfortable river, as it is.
He found a place, a stream, a rivulet
somewhere.
And he was smooth in this place.
And he had nice sailing.
And why disturb it?
I'm really happy the way I am.
I like my Christianity the way it is.
And so why ruffle it with this call
to battle?
And so he stayed there in his comfortable
place.
And yet there's one other type of people,
which when you look at it, it seems
very harsh.
Because I don't know why the Lord so
hates this.
But in verse 23 of chapter 5, he
said, Now,
the only thing I can see in the
New Testament that coincides with this is in
Philippians chapter 3, verse 17 to verse 19.
And Paul says it this way.
He says, Now,
Paul, the apostle, is talking about a people
who profess to know Christ.
They profess to walk with Christ.
They profess to be disciples of Christ.
But they are the actual enemies of the
cross of Christ.
Now, you have to really think about this.
The cross of Christ represents taking up the
will of God and doing the will of
God that the name of God and the
heart of God might be glorified and satisfied.
It was Christ himself who said, Father, glorify
yourself.
And, of course, the glory that was going
to come to God through his son involved
a cross.
Jesus said, if you're going to be my
disciples, there is a will that God has
for your life.
And you are just simply to walk with
me in an honest and sincere relationship.
And as you walk with me, you will
find that will for your life.
In effect, it's your cross.
You're not going to be nailed to it
for people's sin, as Christ was, obviously.
But there's a will that God has.
Do you believe that?
Do you believe there's a divine purpose for
your life?
I believe it.
God began to speak to me about it
when I was just a young Christian.
That, yes, I could live in the church
where I was all my life and I
could do things and perhaps even still scrape
into the kingdom of God.
But there was a divine purpose for my
life.
It would involve some forms of self-denial.
It would involve a pathway, as with Peter,
that perhaps I'm not even able to walk
in my own.
It might even involve, in the latter years
of my life, being led into some places
that I can't go in my own strength.
Only God can take me there.
He spoke these things to Peter.
He said, he signified through this by what
death he would glorify God.
I don't know, but I do know that
life, an abundant life, is found in the
will of God.
It's not found in a pretending religiousness.
It's not found standing at the foot of
the cross like a pile of vultures just
simply taking this sacrifice of Christ's life and
gorging one's belly on it.
And so many today are coming to the
cross.
They're coming to Christ and they're just gorging
on this sacrifice of Christ's life.
Like vultures, what is in it for me?
Fill my belly.
Fill my belly again.
Fill my belly some more.
Make me better.
Make me more powerful.
Give me more influence over the lives of
men.
Make me richer.
Make me happier.
Make me healthier.
Just gorging.
But they are themselves enemies of the cross.
They fail to understand the call of Christ
on the Christian church.
We're called to represent Christ in our generation.
We're called to stand for God.
We're called to be a voice for righteousness
in a darkened time.
We're called to passionately love God with everything
that is in our heart, soul, mind and
strength.
We're called to love our neighbor as we
love ourselves.
We're called to stand as burning lights in
a darkened time.
We're called to be extended hands to people
who are starving, to be keys to people
who are in prison, to be salve to
people who are blind and wounded in heart.
This is the call of the Christian church.
Your life and my life.
He says, curse, Meroz.
Curse this form of religiousness that does not
even have a desire to come into the
battle.
Couldn't care less about dying humanity.
Only at the cross to fill their bellies.
Oh, folks, we are inundated with this type
of religion today.
A belly, belly satisfying and filling religion that
comes to the cross for everything it can
get and vultures standing in the pulpit and
leading the people of God.
Chapter 5, verses 18 to 19 says, Zebulun
and Naphtali were a people that jeoparded their
lives unto the death in the high places
of the field.
Speaks to me about pastors and leaders, godly
men and women who fought in the place
where the enemy has said, it's all over
for you.
You see, this place of Megiddo is where
Josiah was shot by Egyptian archers.
It's this lie of the devil that says
the promises are too high.
They're unattainable.
They might have been for another generation, but
they're not for you.
And it's it's about the spiritual leader.
It's about the father in his home.
It's about the single mother.
It's about those that are given authority in
the body of Christ.
Let's say we're not bowing down to this
anymore.
We're not bowing down to these iron chariots
that tell us the day of God is
over and the day of promises and where
God worked miraculously is somehow relegated to the
past as if Christ is not the same
today as he was yesterday.
Scripture tells us they came and fought, verse
19, chapter 5, they fought the kings of
Canaan and Tanak by the waters of Megiddo,
and they took no gain of money.
You see, this is really the key.
Their motives became pure.
They were not in it for the money.
They're in it for the glory of God.
They're in it for the honor of God.
If money got involved in this thing, they
would have lost the power that God was
willing to give them.
Verse 20 tells us they fought from heaven.
The stars in their courses fought against Sisera.
The river of Kishon swept them away, that
ancient river, the river Kishon.
Oh, my soul, thou has trodden down strength.
They fought from heaven, and they brought them
down to the ancient river.
That's what God had told them to do
in the beginning.
That's the word that came to Deborah.
Gather Sisera.
Gather his lying chariots.
Gather all his power and bring them down
to the ancient river.
Now, try for a minute to suppose what
this ancient river is.
Hallelujah.
What do you think the ancient river is?
You think it might be found in the
Gospel of John?
On the last day, the great day of
the feast, Jesus stood and cried, If any
man thirst, let him come unto me and
drink.
He that believes on me, as the Scripture
has said, out of his belly shall flow
rivers of living water.
God said, I've found a people that are
hearing my voice.
So I want you to gather your enemies,
and I want you to bring them down
to the river, the old river, the proven
river, the tested river, the tried river.
Bring them down, and you and I together
will sweep them away.
History tells us that they drew them down.
There was not even a weapon.
There were only 10,000 against 900 iron
chariots.
In the natural, it was impossible.
But Caesar and all of his chariots came
down to the river Tishon, and all these
people had was faith in God.
They might have had the odd stick in
their hand, but there was no weaponry.
And here come the horses and the chariots
one more time, just like in the days
of Egypt and Pharaoh.
Here they come down with all their names
and all their threatenings and all their shining
armor.
And history tells us that God sent an
incredible rain right at that moment, and the
river Tishon overflowed its banks.
And all of Caesar's chariots got stuck in
the mud.
They couldn't move.
They were bogged down.
And the army of Israel, the 10,000
that rose up to fight, went into battle
and began to chase them.
And the Scripture tells us they killed them
virtually to a man.
Now, an interesting thing is that when Deborah
called Barak, who was the captain of what
was then the host of God, Barak said
to Deborah, listen, I'm not going if you
don't go.
And that's the interesting thing about this battle.
There are no big names, no little names,
and nobody much cares who gets the glory.
This is too big for us, and this
is about the honor of God.
And then Deborah said to Barak, well, if
you don't go, I mean, if I go
with you, the honor won't go to you.
It's going to go to a woman.
And he said, fine.
He didn't really care.
Of course, he would have thought she was
speaking about herself, but she wasn't.
In the midst of the enemy's territory, there
was a man called Heber the Kenite.
And Heber the Kenite was a compromised man.
He made peace with the enemy king.
And he resettled his family right in the
middle of the enemy's territory.
And Sisera, the captain of the enemy's host,
knew where his house was, and he was
used to coming down to his house, snapping
his fingers, and getting his way.
But Heber the Kenite had a wife, and
her name was Jael, and she's the type
of a godly woman, type of a person
who perhaps you're here today, and you're hearing
this message, and you're saying, fine.
I really appreciate the fact that we're called
to fight, and heaven is speaking to us.
And I acknowledge that, but look it, you
don't understand.
I live in the midst of Brooklyn or
the Bronx or Queens or someplace.
My husband is compromised.
My family's a mess, and I've got all
I can handle right in my own home.
And you're talking about fighting for the nation
and the glory and the honor of God.
Man, my house, I've got all I can
handle right in my own house.
And that's exactly where this woman was.
She was in the midst of a compromising
house, a compromising situation.
And I'm sure she heard the reports of
this battle.
And she heard the reports of these people
gathering to fight, and she'd go daily to
the door of her tent and stand there
and say, how can I get involved in
this battle, and what can I do?
God, I would dearly love to be part
of this, but I don't know what to
do.
I don't know how to do it.
And it's as if the Lord said to
her, Jael, I see your heart, and I
see you want to be part of this
fight.
Just stay right where you are, and something
miraculous is going to happen.
And one day she walks out to the
door of her tent.
I can picture her in prayer.
I can picture burden, because this nation has
been mightily oppressed.
Her family is compromised.
And over the hill, not in a chariot,
but on foot comes Caesar, the captain of
the enemy army.
Out of breath, exhausted, sweating, heading down to
her house.
And he comes to the door of her
tent, and he's just so used to getting
his way.
Snapping his fingers, coming in.
And he comes in, and he says, get
me a glass of water.
And the Bible tells us that she got
him instead of a bowl of milk.
That should have been the first sign to
him.
Something in this woman's heart said, you're not
running my house anymore.
You're not coming in here and snapping your
fingers any longer and dictating to my husband.
I see Caesar coming in like the devil
comes into people's homes with a little bit
of drugs in his pockets for your kids,
and a little bit of alcohol for your
husband, and a little bit of pornography for
this person.
Coming in, snapping his fingers.
Everybody doing his bidding.
So used to mightily oppressing the children of
God.
But here's a conflict that is a phenomenal
conflict.
You can see it.
Here's the captain of this enemy army that
has mightily oppressed the entire promised land for
over 20 years.
And confronting him now is this single woman
whose husband and family are deeply compromised in
the midst of the enemy's territory.
And then he says to her, if somebody
comes over the hill looking for me, you
tell them thus and thus.
You tell them you haven't seen me.
You tell them all of this stuff.
And she says, here, you look a little
tired.
Lay down.
Covers him.
He tells her what to do.
He says, stand at the door and guard
me.
And then he falls asleep.
And the Scripture tells us that she put
her hand to the nail.
Chapter 5, verse 26.
Folks, it's time.
It's time that you take the power of
the cross one more time.
There were nails in that cross.
There was a victory won in that cross.
Nails went through the feet and the hands
of Jesus Christ and triumphed over the powers
of darkness.
Defeated hell and death.
Defeated the power of the devil.
It's time to take the nail in your
hand one more time.
The Bible says clearly, the weapon of our
warfare is not carnal, but mighty through God
to the pulling down of strongholds.
Casting down imaginations.
Casting down the devil's imagination that he can
contain the testimony of God.
He can rule Christian homes.
He can defeat our families.
It's time to take the nail in your
hand one more time.
She took the nail as he was sleeping
and placed it very strategically right on his
temple.
Because that's where the devil rules.
Rules with thoughts and imaginings.
Folks, he was defeated on Calvary.
He was triumphed over on Calvary.
He has no power anymore but false reasonings
that people buy in their minds.
And J.L. is the type of a
believer that says, enough of this.
Enough of you snapping your fingers in my
home.
Enough of you running my house and my
children.
Takes the nail of Calvary and drives it
right through the temples of the enemy.
The captain of the enemy's army.
Right into the ground.
And fastens him there.
And the Bible says, blessed above women shall
J.L., the wife of Heber the Kenite
be.
Blessed shall she be above women in the
tent.
He asked water, she gave him milk.
She brought forth butter and a lordly dish.
She put her hand to the nail.
And her right hand to the workman's hammer.
And with the hammer she smote Ciceron.
Smote off his head when she had pierced
and stricken through his temples.
At her feet he bowed.
He fell.
He lay down.
At her feet he bowed.
He fell.
Where he bowed there, he fell down dead.
You see, this is where the glory belongs.
If heaven's going to honor its heroes of
this battle, it's the mother, the grandmother, the
sister, the brother, the weak, the ones who
are in places of difficulty, who finally say
enough.
And God begins to give them spiritual authority
and brings your enemy right to your feet.
Enough.
And actually she's the one that the victory
goes to.
It doesn't go to Barak.
It doesn't even go to Deborah, the prophetess.
It goes to J.L. Don't you love
it?
It goes to her.
This woman who's way down in the enemy's
territory.
Doesn't want to be there, but that's what
she is because of circumstance.
But she just says no more.
No more.
In verse 31, chapter 5, it says, So
let all thine enemies perish, O Lord, but
let them that love him be as the
sun when he goes forth in his might.
And the land had rest for 40 years.
Let those that love you, God, be like
the sun.
I don't know if you've ever been up
early enough to see.
Can you see the sun in Manhattan?
I'm not sure.
But if you can see a horizon somewhere,
when you see the sun coming up, in
all of its power and all of its
strength, and you know that because it comes
up, there's going to be life.
Things are going to grow.
People are going to be able to see.
Darkness is dispelled.
Let all those that love you, O God,
be as the sun rising in its strength.
You have spiritual authority.
You start taking it in your own home.
You start taking it in the areas of
your own life where the devil has come
in and snaps his fingers, makes you go
into that store, makes you watch that movie,
makes you speak a certain way.
But something gets in because you're hearing the
voice of God.
No, this is much bigger than just my
own little battle.
God, you're fighting for the honor of your
own namesake.
And you join the ranks of those that
say, Enough, enough, enough.
You're not snapping your fingers in my life
anymore.
I have authority over you.
I have Christ in me.
And the Bible says, If God be for
me, who can be against me?
The Bible says, I have the power to
condemn your tongue that rises against me in
judgment.
The Bible says, I have a righteousness that's
not my own.
It's given to me by Almighty God himself.
If you want to get to me, you've
got to get through my Christ first.
And you can't get through him, so therefore
you can't get to me.
Now the tables are turned.
Now I take authority over you.
Folks, I was only saved a short time.
I had been nine years living in the
hell of fear.
But I had one promise from the word
of God.
Went down to my living room one night
about midnight.
The enemy's trying to just infuse this fear
into my life one more time.
And I spoke those very words.
It was the beginning of a fight that's
taking me to countries all over the world.
I said, Devil, you throw everything you've got
at me.
All you can do is kill me.
And you can only do it if God
allows you.
And if he does, I'm going to heaven.
I have nothing to lose.
I win either way.
And I spoke it out loud.
I said, So you throw everything you've got
at me.
But I throw back at you what I
now have.
I said, In the name of Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, I resist you.
That's all I said.
And nine years of fear left.
That very moment.
And I've never returned.
And God took a fearful man.
And he's sending me to places all over
the world to declare what he can do.
That's what he wants to do with your
life.
I'm not an exception.
I'm just the rule, really.
That's the way God works.
But somebody has to hear him.
Somebody's got to get some fight in them.
Somebody has to say enough.
Enough.
I'm not living my life running to the
pill closet.
I'm not living my life cowering down to
these voices.
For the honor of God.
For the honor of Christ.
I'm going to stand.
And make a difference.
My house first.
My generation second.
I'm going to make a difference.
Because this is about the honor of God.
If this is in your heart tonight.
The Holy Spirit is speaking to you.
If the devil's been snapping his fingers at
you.
I want you to join me here.
And we're going to take authority tonight.
Would you stand up in the balcony.
Education Annex will wait for you.
Make your way, please.
Just come right out of your seat.
And those that are saying tonight enough.
And we're going to take authority together.
And believe God for victory.
All of the single mothers.
All of the mothers that are here.
That have felt that you have no authority.
You've been buying a lie.
You have incredible authority.
You go to your knees.
Or you just stand on your feet.
Whatever you prefer.
But you begin to pray.
You take the authority of the cross.
And of Christ against your enemies.
Take the authority that God gives you.
Over the weapons of the devil.
That are being formed against your children.
Take God's authority.
Stand.
In my house one day.
A few years back.
I just was in my apartment here in
Manhattan.
And I just had enough.
The devil was trying to batter a couple
of my kids around.
And I just raised my hands.
And started to scream into heaven.
I said enough of you.
Enough of your weaponry.
Get your filthy hands off.
I take authority over you in the name
of Jesus.
You begin to pray.
And you watch God begin to turn every
situation around for his glory.
You see God starting to do what only
God can do.
Hallelujah.
The devil tried hard to kill my daughter.
With all kinds of asthma.
And all kinds of different things.
And the Lord has undertaken.
And the enemy has not succeeded.
And God is going to use you powerfully
for his glory.
Thank God for that with all of my
heart.
Hallelujah.
The enemy will never try to kill your
kids if God doesn't have a promise.
And a purpose that he is going to
fulfill through them.
Now we are going to pray.
You and me.
And we are going to believe God.
With all of our hearts.
Well let's wait until everybody gets here.
But we are going to believe God.
And take authority.
Take authority.
You have authority in the name of Jesus.
This is not just a mind game.
This is the living word of God.
You have authority over all the weapons of
the enemy.
And nothing shall by any means hurt you.
I give you power over serpents.
That's wrong ideas about God that bite you
and try to infuse you with poison.
And scorpions.
Things that the enemy sends to sting you
and wound you.
And cause you to doubt the power of
God to heal and to sustain you.
I give you power over these things.
And over all the power of the enemy.
And nothing.
Nothing.
Nothing shall by any means hurt you.
Nothing.
Some people asked me recently.
Aren't you afraid of dying in some of
these places where you go to preach the
gospel.
I said absolutely not.
I am until God says I'm not.
Hallelujah.
And when God says I'm not I'm going
home.
Absolutely not.
Refuse ever to give in to that again.
Hallelujah.
Now Father in Jesus name.
Hallelujah.
In Jesus name.
We take authority.
Over every power.
Every false reasoning.
Every imagination.
Of the devil.
Satan.
I stand against you.
In the name.
Above your name.
Above every name.
You must bow.
You must bend your knee.
You must confess.
With your mouth.
That Jesus Christ.
Is Lord of all.
In his name.
I take authority.
Over you.
Over your lies.
Over your power.
And I command you.
To flee.
From my mind.
My life.
My family.
My home.
My testimony.
Everything around me.
I take authority.
In the name.
Of Jesus.