This message is one of the Times Square
Church Pulpit Series.
It was recorded in the Sanctuary of Times
Square Church in Manhattan, New York City.
None of these messages are copyrighted, and you
are welcome to make copies for free distribution
to friends.
My message tonight is entitled Breaking the Strongholds
in Your Family.
There is only one gospel.
You hear it spoken through different personalities, but
there is still just one gospel, and that
is that God had a son, and he
sent him to die for us, that we
were sinners, and Jesus Christ died on a
cross.
And when he did that, whosoever believed in
what he did, he gave new life to
them, and he cleansed them from their sin.
And then he said, now you're to live
a new life in the power of me,
that I would fill you with the Holy
Spirit, because you're cleansed by my blood.
And now I want to live my life
through you.
And all the world will stand amazed and
know there is something divine in his followers.
And so when we hear that gospel and
we surrender to it, we say, Lord, that's
truth.
My heart is recognizing truth, and I surrender
to it.
And he comes into our hearts.
That truth is designed to set us free.
And either we are getting more free, or
if we are not getting more free, then
something serious is happening in our lives.
Because the Bible says truth sets us free.
We have an enemy who is the father
of lies.
And truth is so potent, and truth is
so powerful, that anything and everything he can
do to take truth out of our heart,
to confuse us, to keep darkness in areas
of our heart and mind, he will do.
Because the power of truth is so incredible.
We are born into the kingdom, all of
us, as cripples.
We come with holes.
We are newborn babes with a lot of
needs when we come into the kingdom.
And when we come into the kingdom of
the Son, we come very needy.
And when we first get saved, it's like
we know we're needy, and we rely on
Jesus for everything.
That is if you're saved.
But then we begin the heart of man,
aided by an enemy, will try to take
us off a path that is for every
believer.
Beloved, that path is to follow Christ fully.
When Jesus Christ walked on this earth, he
did the will of the Father, and he
walked to a Gethsemane, he walked to a
cross, and then resurrection life.
And it's going to be the same for
you and I.
Because the God who made us and sees
deep into us, sees that he made us,
and we're before him now as his children
with two natures, a lower nature and a
higher nature, a sin nature, a flesh nature,
and a spirit nature.
And he knows that in order for him
to be seen in the way he desires
to be seen in his people, there needs
to be a death worked in us.
We need to learn from his hand by
the Spirit a crucified walk.
Now we shy away from that because we
don't understand that many times, we don't hear
it spoken many times.
The ironic thing is that today in this
house, I'm amazed at how God has been
speaking in all three messages the same thing.
And we will be wise if we say,
Lord Jesus, let me lay truth, this truth
to heart.
Teach me it.
The crucified life is when our wants, our
desires get submitted to God and say, is
that what you would have for me?
If he says yes, we rejoice in it.
If he says no, we lay it down.
As a body of believers, God wants to
get us to the point where he speaks
to us, we believe him and we do
it.
When he speaks in his word, we believe
it.
We don't act like spoiled children, always wanting
to know why or when or where, because
really that's just a procrastination.
You know, why did this happen?
Why did that happen?
Well, beloved, you can ask those questions if
you want, but it's just stalling.
We would get farther in Christ with a
fuller revelation of him.
He could bring us to that promised land
of complete trust and abiding in him in
an abundant, like we've never known if we
would just for a season, lay the wives
down.
I heard Elizabeth Elliott speak yesterday to the
women.
She said, you know, five minutes of radical
obedience will change a lot of things.
And I believe that.
And the crucified one lives in us and
he is going to show us what that
walk entails.
He knows that in us, there's a longing
to be whole.
And in order to be whole, we have
to become holy Christ.
You know, that word w H O L
L W H O L L Y holy.
And the word holy H O L Y
have the same root.
And anyone who truly is holy H O
L L Y is having by faith, the
holes in them filled by the person of
Jesus Christ, not by answers, not by psychology,
not by good fortune, but by Christ himself.
If the holes are being filled by anything
else, you're not getting whole and you're not
getting free.
If Christ is not feeling the ache in
your heart is not removed, exposing the sin
and filling it with himself.
We are still staying a people full of
holes.
Holiness is so far from being a long
face, heavy spirited religionist.
A holy person is a person getting the
holes filled with Christ and moving into a
joy in him that the world doesn't understand
becoming whole inside, not where you're grasping for
people to do something for you that people
can't do.
And that's living an unsatisfied life.
It's possible to be saved, but not satisfied,
but Jesus wants us saved and satisfied.
Beloved that comes through submission to him and
his will.
I am crucified with Christ.
Nevertheless, I live yet.
Not I, not my wants, not my desires,
but Christ lives in me.
And he's going to give us a whole
new set of wants and desires that are
going to be holy.
They're going to be full of life, abundant
life.
We're going to get a taste of what
it is to be forgiven and walking clean
of what it is to walk daily, hearing
his voice of what it is to know
the pleasure of being obedient, the power of
our thinking being changed to receiving the mind
of Christ.
But I'm not talking pie in the sky.
This is the gospel.
This is not a radical thing.
What I'm speaking to you is what Christ
wants for every follower, every child of his
that they be whole.
That means when we say, Lord, teach me
that walking with you is a crucified life.
That means it's not what I want.
I submit to what you would have for
my life.
Whatever.
I don't reserve a part that Lord you
and I share.
I don't reserve a part to say, Lord,
that's too hard.
You can't expect me to give this to
you right now.
No, it's starting right now, saying whatever you
want for me in my life, whatever.
Lord, you'll give me the grace to pray
that prayer to mean it.
And when you take me up on it,
Lord, you're going to nail my foot to
the floor and I'm not going to run
away from it.
The desiring to be whole person embraces the
cross of Christ and says by faith, I
am no longer going to live to please
myself or Jesus.
I'm going to live to please you and
lead on.
Hell will throw everything.
It's God at a believer like this.
Hell will throw everything against a person who's
starting to have a cry formed in their
heart like this, because a heart cry like
this is the greatest threat the kingdom of
darkness ever hears.
And one man or one woman who determines
in their heart to say, I live for
Jesus Christ and him alone, that person will
break through every stronghold.
That person will in the power of Christ,
break the prison cell doors.
Every chain will be soaked off their wrist
and will set off a nuclear reaction in
their family.
The hardest place for it to happen will
happen there.
I want to show you a story of
a man very unique in his generation who
had the grace upon him that when God
spoke to him, he believed every word.
I'm sure the devil fought him every step
of the way, but the more that he
chose to believe the word in spite of
his feelings, in spite of the circumstance, the
more his faith grew, the greater his influence,
the greater if we can hear the way
he would speak to us tonight through his
life, we will see hope for our family.
Hope.
I know I speak for so many tonight
as we've been sitting, being fed God's word
week after week.
If you're truly a child of God, you're
getting a heart for your family.
You're getting a heart for the unsaved.
There's a longing in you to want to
see mother, brother, sister, spouse, in-laws be
saved.
Yet when we get around them, we get
shut down so many times.
It's like that is the hardest wall to
penetrate is that inner circle around us.
Christ experienced it too.
But I want us to turn to Numbers
14.
I want us to look at an Old
Testament man.
His name is Caleb.
Numbers 14 and verse 24.
It says, verse 24, but my servant Caleb,
because he had another spirit with him and
it followed me fully him, will I bring
into the land where into he went and
his seed shall possess it.
Now, who is this man that fully followed
the Lord and hence received the land, the
promised land?
Who is this man that everything God had
promised, he received it and was able to
pass it on to his seed?
What kind of man that he can pass
on this kind of inheritance?
You know, it's one thing to have a
faith in Christ.
It's another thing to pass it on.
After a lot, he was not able to
do it to his children or his generation,
but there is a man here who can.
It says here, he's a man of another
spirit and followed me fully.
Caleb was one of the, there were 12
spies sent into the promised land by Moses.
Many of you know the story.
10 came back with an evil report and
said, it's a land surely flowing with milk
and honey.
It's everything you ever said it was, but
it's still with giants and we can't have
this land.
But two came back with a report and
said, no, this is a land God has
given us.
We are well able to take it.
And in numbers 13, just one page over,
we hear the voice of Caleb and in
voice 13, verse 1330, he says, let us
go up at once and possess it for
we are well able to overcome it.
In numbers 14, eight, this man speaks again.
And he says, if the Lord delight in
us, then he will bring us into this
land and give it us a land, which
flows with milk and honey, only rebelled, not
against the Lord.
Neither fear ye the people of the land,
for they are bred for us.
Their defense is departed from them.
And the Lord is with us.
Fear them not.
But the congregation, all the congregation, they stone
them with stones.
Here's a man, here's another spirit speaking.
He says that God has said we can
have this land.
He goes to the, he goes to that
promise land.
He sees it all.
And what is burning in his heart is
that God says we can have it.
Then we can have it.
Then he comes back and these are princes
of the tribes of Israel.
And they're absolutely overcome by what they see.
And so Caleb begins to, his heart is
stirred because he can believe when God speaks
to him.
He can believe it when God speaks to
him.
And he says, don't rebel against the Lord.
He's saying, let God be God to us.
He said we could have it.
Now we can't get in ourselves.
So let's let God be God to us
and let him give it to us.
If he said he would, he says, do
not rebel against the Lord.
Neither fear the people of the land.
He's saying, you're looking at them and you're
fearing them.
But he'd be actually, what he was saying
was, and in the midst of the men
standing with me, there's a fear in them
and the imprint of their fear.
Yes.
We want to come against him.
And so he's turning to them and he's
saying, they're fearing you when you look at
them, but we do not need to fear
these people.
We do not need to take this imprint
of people.
God has spoken.
And if we will cling to God, he's
going to give us a spirit of faith.
He was saying, we don't have to fear
them.
He was rejecting the imprint of those that
were unbelieving around him.
He was rejecting the imprint of what he
saw with his eyes in that promised land.
He says, I see with another set of
eyes.
He says they are bred for us.
He's saying these enemies are for us to
consume.
They're saying their defenses departed from them.
10 men could not see that.
But because this man had determined in his
heart, when God speaks to me, I will
choose to believe him in spite of what
I see.
God gave him a set of spiritual eyes.
Our faith gave him a new set of
eyes and a new set of ears.
He could see something men that were fearful
and trembling when it was bringing a dishonor
to God for them to fear and tremble.
He refused it.
And he said, because of that, God is
giving me something to see.
You see the 10 princes that went in,
they were not novices in the things of
God.
They had been brought from Egypt.
They had been brought to a wilderness.
They had seen God work in their midst
miraculously time after time after time again.
And it came a time for that people
to have faith.
It came time for that leadership to say,
God has been so faithful to us.
God has done nothing but deliver us.
It is time to look what we see
with our natural eyes, declare him to be
true, declare him to be faithful to his
word and not fear.
These men were sinning by fear because they
were not novice.
Caleb was given a new set of eyes
because he chose to believe God.
And finally he said, the Lord is with
us.
What more guarantee can we have?
What more can be said, take the rest
away, but leave God is with us.
Just see Caleb believed that.
Caleb laid that to his heart.
If we do not lay the words of
God to our heart, we will get a
hardened heart.
How many times must God speak to us?
And we don't believe before we run the
risk of a hardened heart.
Oh yes, it is easy to doubt God,
but there's a choice that you and I
that are well taught have to make.
Say, I refuse the feelings, the circumstances.
Lord, when you speak, I'm going to crucify
the doubt.
I'm going to choose to believe you.
It will cost me to follow you in
these words you are speaking because many times
I just don't want to enter that land.
But if you are my God and you
say that you are to lead me, then
go, I will.
And that's what Caleb did.
And he was now becoming a man in
their midst with another spirit.
Of course, his contemporary said stone him with
stones.
That's the religious world's response to faith.
That is your family's response to your faith.
Many times, shut you down, shut you up,
and give you such a fierce look that
you'll turn away and you will not speak
to them.
Give you such a fierce countenance that you
tremble before them.
Stone them with stones.
Joshua and Caleb urged and encouraged, but those
brethren would not hear.
Interesting enough, those 10 men, those 10 princes
of Israel died by a plague right before
them.
And all the nation of Israel went back
into the wilderness of sin for 40 years.
God could not believe his people, his own
people that he loved, that he lived among,
that he died, he fed, he directed, he
watered, could doubt him.
And he knew how infectious unbelief was.
So that generation died.
All those men, 20 years old and up,
that received into their heart an evil report
about him.
Really, the evil report was about him.
God can't deliver us.
The giants are stupid.
The giants were their God.
He was not.
So he says back into the wilderness and
they went.
And any male, 20 years old and over,
died in that wilderness and a new generation
was risen up.
And now God leads them back to the
promised land.
This time with Caleb and Joshua in leadership.
Men now that had to go back into
the wilderness with that group, though they were
believing, though they were faithful, though they trusted
God, though they believed with everything in their
being, that God could have given them the
promised land that time.
They went back and wandered with them.
Beloved God does not toy with our lives.
That generation under their leadership now had a
heart to fight.
Their faith, their light, ignited hearts around them.
Now God is giving a new word to
a new generation under the leadership of Caleb
and Joshua.
If you would turn with me to Joshua
1, we'll read this new commission.
He says in Joshua 1, starting at verse
3, every place that the soul of your
foot shall tread upon that have I given
unto you, as I said, unto Moses, verse
six, be strong and of good courage for
unto this people shall thou divide for an
inheritance, the land, which I swear unto their
fathers to give them only be thou strong
and very courageous.
First nine have not.
I commanded these be strong and of good
courage.
Be not afraid.
Neither be thou dismayed for the Lord.
Thy God is with the weather.
So ever thou goeth, nothing had changed.
The heart of God still longs to be,
to grant an inheritance to his people.
He was determined to give to his people
the inheritance that he had promised way back
in the days of Abraham.
He longed to give this land to his
people.
He said, be strong in me, be courageous
in me for the Lord.
Thy God is with thee wherever thou goeth.
He said, wherever your foot walks, I have
given it unto you.
I'm not.
I will give it not.
If you're win, I will give it not.
If you're good enough, I will give it.
I have given it to you.
So be strong and be courageous, be strong
and be courageous.
I am with you and I have given
you the land.
Now the land that they went into was
inhabited by the enemies of Israel.
They did not just cross over the river
Jordan and walk into a land empty.
They were going into a land inhabited by
their enemies.
There were strongholds in that land.
There were people who had dwelt there for
generation, had tilled it.
There was wells, there was cattle.
They were going to fight to the death
for that land.
The enemies of Israel, the Jebusites, the parasites,
the Hivites, the Amorites, the Ammonites, they were
there.
And when they first crossed the river Jericho,
they fought together under the leadership of their
general Joshua, and they took down the city
of Jericho.
And eventually they took the city of Ai.
But over time they were to divide up
the 12 tribes of Israel, and they were
apportioned a piece of the promised land.
So they never, no longer fought as a
unit, but they were now to go and
claim their inheritance, each tribe.
And they would have to fight whoever the
enemy were of that area.
They would have to fight for that land.
And the interesting thing is that when they
divided up now and they had to go
and fight for their portion, their inheritance, each
tribe, you know, some of them had to
fight in high country.
Some of them had to fight in low
country.
Some of them had to fight the ground
across the coastal land on the seas, some
the plains, some the mountains.
It required different styles of fighting, different tactics.
Beloved, I'm reminded today that for us, when
we go in to claim our promised land,
that is very similar.
For some of us it's a stronghold of
pride.
For some it's a stronghold of fear.
For some it's rebellion.
But the Lord said, be strong and courageous.
I have given you this land and you
will possess it in me by faith.
Now, Joshua in chapter 14, because Caleb, when
he had first gone in to spy out
the land 40 years earlier, when he had
gone in there, he had seen a mountain.
And the Bible tells us that after that
first tour through the promised land, he wanted
that mountain.
He wanted that piece of land for himself.
And the Lord had said he could have
it.
And when the tribes went in and Caleb
was leading the tribe of Judah, he reminded
the leadership that God said he could have
a mountain to himself.
And the Bible says in verse 12, in
Joshua 14, it says now, therefore Joshua declared,
give me this mountain.
I'm sorry.
Caleb said, now, therefore give me this mountain.
And it tells us in verse 11, he
says, as yet, I am as strong this
day as I was in the day that
Moses sent me.
As my strength was then, even so is
my strength now for war, both to go
out and to come in.
And he was saying, I was a threat
to the enemy then 40 years ago.
I'm still a threat today.
That's what a man of faith is.
He does not diminish.
He does not lose ground in God.
He may not understand the ground God takes
him through in winning his promised land, but
as he followed, he goes from strength to
strength.
And here's this man, undiminished, still a man
of war at 85 years old.
The Bible says that on that mountain, it
was inhabited the giants of the giant, the
giant of the giant, the Anakins.
And there were three fierce brothers.
And the Bible says that Caleb was able
to take that mountain.
He won it completely.
He possessed that mountain.
Faith arose in him.
He says, give me this mountain.
It was a sense of saying, give me
the highest place.
Give me the hardest place that all may
see how awesome and faithful my God is.
Give me the highest place so that all
can see it's not about me.
But when I believe his words in me,
look what he can do for me.
And so in this huge mountain in the
land, all those that could look to the
mountain and see Caleb's mountain could see it
was the mountain God gave Caleb, a man
burning for God's glory.
Now the tribes entered the promised land and
they divided up and they were told that
they were to fully possess the land.
They were to make no peace with the
enemy.
They were not to make allegiances.
They were to drive them out of the
land that was God had given them.
They were to demolish the enemy.
They were to throw down their altars and
cleanse the land.
They were to fully possess their inheritance.
I want us to quickly go to judges
chapter one and see how they fared out.
The next book over judges one in judges
one, starting at verse 19 says, and the
Lord was with Judah and he drove out
the inhabitants of the mountain, but could not
drive out the inhabitants of the valley because
they had iron chariots.
So we see that Judah had a partial
victory verse 21 and the children of Benjamin
did not drive out the Jebusites that inhabit
Jerusalem.
Verse 27, neither did Manasseh drive out the
inhabitants of Bethshean.
Verse 29, neither did Ephraim drive out the
Canaanites that dwelt in Giza.
Verse 30, neither did Zebulun drive out the
inhabitants of Kitron.
Verse 31, neither did Asher drive out the
inhabitants of Achal.
Verse 33, neither did Naphtali drive out the
inhabitants of Bethshemesh.
Verse 34, and the Amorites forced the children
of Dan into the mountain, for they would
not suffer them to come down into the
valley.
Beloved, I was stunned one day in my
reading coming through this.
It was like I did not realize how
little the children of Israel possessed when so
much had been promised to them.
I did not realize in the face of
all God had said to their fathers and
to them, when everything at their disposal to
take the land promised to them, they took
so little.
And then the tribe of Dan, not only
did they just partially dwell in the land,
the Bible says that when they went into
their inheritance, they were so overpowered by their
enemy.
They were forced up into a little corner
of the land, shut up, very prophetic to
what was to happen to that nation.
Beloved, they did not obey.
They did not believe all they needed to
drive out the enemy.
And they did not do it.
The Lord in chapter two answers this people.
He says, an angel of the Lord, Judges
two, verse one came up.
I made you to go up out of
Egypt.
I brought you unto the land, which I
swear unto your fathers.
And I said, I will never break my
covenant with you.
And you shall make no league with the
inhabitants of this land.
You shall throw down their altars, but ye
have not obeyed my voice.
Why have you done this?
Wherefore, I also said, I will not drive
them out from before you, but they shall
be as thorns in your side and their
God shall be a snare unto you.
It's like God was striving with a people
he loved.
It was what more could he say?
What more could he do?
He said, I'm your God.
I am with you.
Be strong and courageous.
I will go with you.
I have determined to give you this land.
Beloved.
The land is the Lord Jesus Christ in
the new Testament.
The Bible says in the psalm that it
says, Jesus Christ, he is my portion.
The Lord is my portion in my cup.
The land is a full possession of Jesus
Christ and Jesus Christ fully possessing us.
This is the land in the new Testament.
The North, the South, the East and the
West.
It's all our heart, all our soul, all
our mind, all our strength.
God says, it's my will that you possess
all of me.
And I possess all of you.
But beloved, this whole Testament story has a
new Testament application.
In spite of all the promises that we
receive and we hear, why do we not
believe him?
Why are there still strongholds?
Why is there no freedom in our lives?
Those that say we love the Lord.
In this group here, it says here, God
says, finally, he says, I will not drive
them out.
I have told you the land is yours.
You don't know what it is when you
make peace with the enemy.
You do not know what you're bargaining for.
He says, there are going to be thorns
in your side.
That means there will never be a comfort
in your walk within your religion.
There will be an anguish and beloved for
many, many.
That will not walk the way the Lord
Jesus is asking us to walk.
He is saying, I want you to learn
to deny yourself and take up your cross.
Then I'll bring you into freedom.
And they say, no, I want to be
a Christian on my terms.
And God says, fine, then you'll live with
an enemy.
You'll live with thorns in your side.
I will not drive them out.
You will live with anguish and the God
that you say you do not serve will
be a snare to you.
You will be a captivated people proclaiming you're
free.
And we'll call it a Christian walk.
Then we'll say to our loved ones, oh,
come to this light.
Jesus said, if the light be in you,
darkness, how great is that darkness?
The light we're offering our family or those
that know it's the most have to be
the pure light.
If we have settled down, we have not
taken possession of the land.
If we have made peace with our enemies,
if now we live with thorns in our
side, there's an anguish in our spirit.
And if there's no peace, and then we
tell them, come to this light, it is
a wonder they don't come.
I could see in this generation, the leadership
coming together, having church, a captivated leadership of
these tribes.
They could reassure themselves that what was pervasive
must be permissible with God.
If everybody around that they look was captivated,
partially captivated, it must be God's will.
In religious conferences, they could have titles like
living with your realities should be subtitled living
with your rebellion, how to maintain peace with
the enemy, sharing false alters.
Is this really abomination?
But I'll tell you what was never said,
make peace with the enemy and your children
will live in bondage.
I would say, live with it.
Live with the reality of letting the enemy
settle down with you.
Settle down in your heart, make a stronghold.
God knows you've been hurt.
God knows you've been betrayed.
God knows there's a pain.
The enemy wants you and I on a
treadmill of why God, why God, why God?
Because we sound religious.
But believe it, beloved, it's truly called living
in disobedience.
God says, I'm giving you the land.
I will give it all to you.
But you come my way.
You fully follow me.
Because I'll tell you something, when we see
disobedience for what it is, beloved, there is
an accompanying price tag that we don't want
to pay.
And Jesus knew that.
How much more difficult it was going to
be trying to set our own way, our
own Christian walk, not led by the Lord
Jesus Christ.
You know, they would have, Caleb was in
their midst in a high mountain while they
lived in captivity with an empty, with a
promise ringing in their ear.
But I could hear what they would say,
Caleb is not reality.
I mean, he's a super Christian.
He has something, you know, we don't have.
Which was true.
He just simply chose to believe when God
spoke to him.
It was that simple.
The mountain for us in our generation, I
believe, is the cry, give me my family.
Let me lead my family to Christ.
Let the light in me overcome the darkness.
That's a Caleb cry.
That's a Caleb call.
If you're here tonight and it is Lord
Jesus, I would be the light in me
to even break the darkness in my own
Jerusalem, the place closest to me.
Beloved, it's going to take more than just
a promise of God.
It's going to take more than you and
I being a forgiven Christian.
It's not, it's there comes a point.
It's not enough to be forgiven, but we
must become a forgiven and a free people
to reach our family.
That's the promise land Caleb.
It tells us in numbers 1424, it says
Caleb, my servant, he had another spirit and
he followed me fully him.
Will I bring into the land?
Beloved, we can apply that directly to our
lives.
There's a call going out tonight by the
spirit of God.
It's saying, I've given you the land.
I would that you possess all of Jesus
Christ in his fullness.
And he wants to possess all of you,
all of me.
Don't let the devil tell you that's a
pie in the sky.
Unreality.
It is a shore up promise as the
ones made to the children of Israel.
It is.
But if we have to say, Lord Jesus,
lead your way, lead through the past, I
don't understand, but don't let me be fine.
Be found carrying how far behind you saying,
why this way?
Why through the rocky road?
Why through these boring coastal land?
Why this?
Why that we should settle it in our
heart tonight.
Lord Jesus, give me the heart that when
you speak, it is enough that Caleb, my
servant, that's what servant is.
That's when he was described, Caleb, my servant.
This is the first, first entrance way into
a faith that can smash strongholds found in
our heart and subsequently in our family.
When he said my servant, that's someone who
constantly bows their knee and their head to
their Lord, his will, not ours.
And it's as simple as that.
When the Lord speaks, we learn the first
reflex is to bow the knee.
It's as simple as that.
But if you walk with them any length
of time, God has asked you stuff you
don't want to do.
He has asked me things I have not
wanted to do.
And there have been times I have not
done it.
And then I get entangled in the land.
Then all of a sudden this Christian walk
becomes hard and complicated.
It just took obeying him.
That's a crucifixion.
We have a stronger will than you and
I know.
But when we learn to say, when you
speak, I will bow my knee, that's a
crucifixion of our will.
But beloved, it resolves in a life that
we know so little about when we live
a disobedient life.
It's a daily dying.
It's saying your will, not mine, if we
have to say it a thousand times a
day.
The Holy Spirit is going to learn to
teach those that want to possess Jesus Christ.
That's an automatic response.
Caleb had another spirit.
It was a cleansed temple.
The Holy Spirit filled this man.
Beloved, if you belong to Jesus Christ, that
means his blood has cleansed you.
That means you are a fit place for
the Holy Ghost to dwell.
And the Holy Ghost, if we're saved, we
have a measure of him.
And it is our privilege every day to
lift our hands up and say, fill me
Holy Spirit and give me the mind of
Christ.
We don't have to flounder around all the
time.
Is that God speaking, the devil speaking or
my flesh speaking?
We just submit the thought to the Lord
and ask him to show us.
And you know what he does?
We live in constant touch with him because
we ask every day for a filling of
the Holy Ghost.
And when the Holy Ghost begins to come
and give us the mind of Christ, he
does something incredible.
The Bible says that in Romans 5, 5,
because the love of God is shed abroad
in our hearts by the Holy Ghost.
If you have trouble receiving the love of
God for you, if you have trouble truly
believing an awesome God that loves you and
gave himself for you, died for you, longs
to cleanse you, longs to give you his
heart, longs to show himself strong, longs to
be your father, longs to be your brother,
longs that you be his cherished bride.
And you have a hard time receiving that.
You ask for a daily filling of the
Holy Ghost because the Bible says it's the
Holy Ghost that sheds that abroad in our
heart, makes it real, makes it clear, makes
it full, makes it abundant, another spirit.
Hallelujah.
And finally, the Bible says that this man
Caleb, a man full of faith with a
servant of God, he had another spirit.
And the Bible says he fully followed, he
fully followed.
If Jesus had stopped short of the cross,
not followed the will of God fully, but
if Jesus had stopped short of the cross,
where would you and I be tonight?
What would our lives look like had he
not fully followed?
Beloved, we determine with our will, I will
follow you fully in the power of the
risen Christ, but we determine in our will,
I will follow you fully wherever you lead.
There will be a grace for me to
follow.
There'll be rocky places, flat, boring places, places
we don't understand.
But if we commit to follow him, something
incredible is going to happen.
And I want to show you, if you
would just quickly turn with me to Mark
nine, Mark chapter nine, fully
following is something we determined to do.
Through the good times, through the bad times,
when it makes sense, when it doesn't make
sense, when it's fun, when it's not fun,
when we cry, when we laugh, nothing deters
us.
We make a determination in our heart that
we will fully follow him.
In Mark nine, chapter two, sorry, verse two,
chapter nine of Mark says, and after six
days, Jesus taketh with him Peter, James, and
John and leadeth them up into a high
mountain apart by themselves.
Now, Jesus had 12 disciples.
Yes.
The interesting thing is it says he leadeth
three of them up.
And I had to think just for a
minute, when Jesus made it known he was
going to a mountain, he was able to
lead three up.
Did he say he was going there?
And for the rest of them, was it
a hot day?
Was it going to look like an arduous
trip?
And a lot of them just, you know,
they loved him, but it was those who
love his presence, got up and went with
him.
Those that love his presence can be led.
Those that want him can be led.
And so what happens?
They go up the mountain.
Going up a mountain is going up a
mountain.
That means it was not always easy going.
They get to the top.
And what happens?
Those that follow get the revelation.
And all of a sudden, Jesus Christ begins
to transfigure, begins to change before them.
It's like they're seeing him like they've never
seen him before.
The Bible says that all of a sudden
his raiment was a white on that no
white on earth can be seen or found.
And his presence in his countenance was changed.
And the Bible says that cloud overshadowed them.
And a voice from heaven said, this is
my beloved son.
Hear him.
And they got this incredible revelation of Jesus
Christ, that God in heaven spoke and said,
I have a son.
This is him.
Hear him.
I'll tell you something.
I know they had doubts.
I know they had doubts all the way
up the mountain.
But I tell you something for one glorious
moment, all the doubts were gone.
And it was so glorious.
Peter wanted to stay there.
But Jesus said, no, you got to follow
me down the mountain.
So they got up and they follow him
back down.
And when they go down in the valley,
they meet a family in total disarray.
Family with a demon possessed boy and the
darkness and the horror of having a demon
possessed child that paralyzed everyone in that group.
And the disciples that had not followed him
up the mountain were now the same people
dealing with the demon possessed boy.
Or should I say not dealing?
Because when that blackness and that horror comes
into their midst, there was nothing they could
do.
And they knew it.
In fact, they never knew anybody who could
do anything about it.
And Jesus comes and he's coming down the
mountain.
He turns to those three men and he
says, say nothing of what you've seen.
And then they come down into this situation
of family and disarray.
And the father comes and you know the
story.
He says, do something with my boy.
And Jesus said, if you can believe all
things are possible to them that believe.
And then he cries out, if I could
paraphrase it, well, that's the point.
I believe, but only to a point.
Now and then I end off believing.
And beloved, this is the point now where
Jesus Christ is leading.
Jesus Christ in our walk with him will
lead us to the exact place in our
walk where our belief ends and unbelief takes
over.
Because he loves us.
He knows the areas of our heart where
we really don't believe where we want to,
but we don't fully follow him.
Because the Bible, he takes us to the
point.
And now these three disciples that know like
they know that he is the son of
God can see themselves and the other apostles
who look totally overwhelmed at this whole situation.
But it's like these three disciples now can
see, this is what I look like before
the mountain.
Now I've come down the other side of
the mountain.
I know who he is.
And now we begin to see that Jesus
will bring us when we fully follow him
to a point where our belief ends and
unbelief starts.
That's what was happening with the other disciples,
that they may believe that he may reveal
himself.
He's so gracious to us.
And he cast the demon out of that
boy.
Beloved, when we fully follow him, he will
reveal himself to us in ways we need
to do it.
Then he'll take us back down to the
mountain.
He'll put us in places where we can't
believe him.
We only have our faith runs out.
He leads us to that point because then
he's going to reveal himself as the only
one who can come up against the devil
and win every time.
Don't sit there tonight and say, I don't
have the faith of Caleb.
That's all right.
You keep following, keep following, but you fully
follow him.
Don't stop halfway.
Don't look at the situation and say, I'm
overwhelmed.
It is Jesus Christ leading you and I
to the point where we are overwhelmed that
he may take us to the next place,
a complete faith in him.
Hallelujah.
When that man cried out, Lord, I believe
help my unbelief.
I'll tell you something.
It was a cry of the spirit.
When he cried, help my unbelief.
When we fully follow, we get past the
cries of the flesh.
Oh God, why?
We push into a cry of the spirit.
I don't believe help my unbelief.
You're the only one who can give me
belief for this journey.
You're the only one who can confront the
devil and win every time on your turf.
Lord, help me believe and we'll see a
faith grow beloved and following fully.
He's going to take us by the hand
and he's going to teach us a lesson
of obedience.
Mark nine.
No.
Yeah.
Mark eight.
Sorry.
Mark eight.
Jesus in verse 22, there's a blind man
in a town of Bethsaida and the Bible
tells us that Jesus leads this blind man
out by the hand out of the town.
Verse 23.
And he took the blind man by the
hand and led him out of the town.
And when he had spit on his eyes
and put his hands upon him, he asked
him if he saw it.
And he looked up and said, I see
men as trees walking.
And after that, he put his hands again
upon his eyes and made him look up.
And he was restored and saw every man
clearly.
And he sent him away to his house
saying, neither go into the town nor tell
it to any in the town.
Now, beloved.
Jesus leads him out of a place.
He did not heal him in that town.
He very pointedly led him by the hand
as a blind man out of that town.
And the Bible says he spit and he
and then said, what do you see?
And he said, men as trees walking.
Now, the one who made the eye to
see did not have a temporary miracle disconnect.
The one who made the eye see.
Did that on purpose for that man's sake
and for our sake, he touched him again
and then he said, now, what do you
see?
And he said, it's restored.
I see clearly.
Then Jesus said to him, don't go back
in that town.
And he said, and don't talk to the
people in that town and don't have anything
to do with those in that town.
Beloved, I'll tell you something.
That miracle was about those last instructions.
Because when you and I, so many times
when we get in a spot and we
say, Lord, by faith, I want to walk
with you, I want to learn a walk
of faith.
And he takes us by the hand because
we're blind without him.
We're blind to what's in our heart.
We're blind to the situation.
So many times we need to be led.
But when we're led out of a situation,
he says, I want to show you a
principle.
What happens if you take matters back into
your own hands?
If you do not learn a walk of
obedience with me?
He put his hands on his eyes and
said, what do you see?
He says, I see men as trees walking.
I could see.
Beloved, tell me something.
Is that man blind?
No.
But does that man see?
No.
He's not blind, but he doesn't see.
What is he?
Jesus put his hands back on and now
he can see again.
And then he said, now I've got a
direct command for you.
And he was showing him if you disobey
me, if you go back into those places
that I have led you out of, if
I am taking you by the hand because
you want to learn a walk of faith
and only I can bring you through this
walk of faith and I begin to ask
you to do things.
Obey me, because otherwise I'll tell you what
will happen.
We'll become Christians who say we see and
we see nothing at all.
We will become people blinded, going to our
relatives and going to our families.
They don't you wish you could see like
I see and we will be a reproach
of the gospel.
You see obedience, beloved.
This is how we love him.
We obey him.
That takes a crucifixion.
That's a crucified walk.
But beloved, when we decide, yeah, Lord, I
will fully follow you.
I will fully follow you.
And in that following, that is going to
mean I'm going to have to trust you
and I'm going to have to obey you.
But as he takes us through that crucifying
of our flesh, when our will is crossed
and we learn to bend our knee first,
ask the question second, and we learn that
kind of walk with him, I tell you
something, the strongholds in our heart are going
to be smashed wide open.
We're going to start to be a people
filled with the spirit of God.
We're going to start to be truly free.
And do you know something?
Our family is going to know it.
This doesn't mean you and I never fail.
This does not mean that there's not times
that we don't doubt, but we make a
determination in our heart.
Lord, when you speak, I remember this is
God speaking to me.
I put my hand out and I trust
you.
I obey you.
I follow you fully.
And believe that the stronghold in us are
broken.
And that was what Caleb did.
That is the story of Caleb's life.
And that's why in the midst of a
backslidden apostate religious group that he could say,
give me that mountain for all of those
thorn stricken God and little G God ensnared
people would look up and he would be
a thorn to them.
That God is real and God is able
to give us the mountain.
God is able to give us the inheritance
when we follow him.
But as we live, as we become more
and more free people, I'll tell you something.
That's when our family says there is something
to this because they know us.
They know who we are.
They know what we're made of.
But will we begin to turn truly and
submit to the Lord Jesus Christ?
You know what?
He lives his life through us.
They cannot confound the words of Christ.
They cannot dispute the miracles that will happen
in our lives because Christ's working through us.
They will begin to see and hear about
the mind of Christ and a wisdom that
we never had.
An understanding we never had.
A way of dealing with people.
We didn't have to be right all the
time.
Now there's a softness in us.
There's an understanding heart and we love like
Christ loves.
Beloved, we so often are the ones that
block our families from coming to Christ.
But if we would determine in our hearts
to be a free people, that's our inheritance.
We can be a free people, fully following
him, taking up our cross, denying ourselves, taking
up our cross and following him.
We will be free.
Our seed and those around us will see
it.
And we will pass on a living legacy
because they'll say, I want that.
People who sit in darkness want light.
People who are abound want freedom.
They want reality.
They want the real thing.
And when Jesus Christ is seen in a
light, he is irresistible.
He is longed for when he is seen
in us.
Caleb was just an ordinary man.
He was no different from you and I.
He ended up far above where most of
the church is today.
A man of flesh and blood making a
surrender, believing God when he spoke to him.
Beloved, there are many, many in this place
tonight.
God has been speaking to you.
God has been speaking something to you repeatedly.
We do not set the terms of the
relationship.
When Israel thought that they could ignore God,
they paid a very high price.
Beloved, tonight, God is telling us it is
possible for you to have such a radically
different life, to be free in him as
never before.
It is possible.
It is possible if we will believe him.
For those of you that you know the
Lord has been after something and speaking to
you about something and you have been resisting
him, there is an altar here saying, Lord,
I realize I have been blocking the block
in my family because I have been full
of holes that I have not let you
fill with yourself.
I have been preaching Jesus but not living
Jesus.
For some, you just really don't believe it,
that you can have the fullness he offers
because you have tried and not a lot
changes.
I say to you, fully follow.
The work is not over.
We cannot see with our finite mind what
he is doing and the steps that need
to happen.
Fully follow.
The son of God will see us through.
We determine in our heart, God, you will
be God to me.
For many, the call to have a community
lighthouse is an exciting thing.
It is an exciting thing.
But you will reproduce after your own kind.
If the walls are down in a certain
area, there is a stronghold of unbelief, there
is an untamed lust.
As much as you love Jesus, the enemy
will punish you for stepping out in faith.
And any access he can gain, any and
every access he will take.
Those that want to step out in faith
and say, Lord, use me.
When you begin to step out in faith,
you say, Lord, use me.
But the first prayer is, Lord, search me.
Show me where you are not in control
of.
Because I will tell you something, the enemy
plays dirty and he plays for keeps.
And if he can punish you, if he
has access to you, he wants to blow
you sky high and ruin your testimony and
your family everywhere.
You know, I am not saying this to
scare us.
I am telling you something.
We have an enemy who can take the
truth of God and twist it.
He wants to lead us out into a
place of a false presumption where there are
areas he knows we have not surrendered.
There is a stronghold of unbelief in us.
We have not surrendered a certain area.
God knows it and you know it.
And when you step out, the devil will
push in there.
But it doesn't have to be so.
Because God says, will you believe me if
I say I will give you the land?
Will you fully follow me?
Will you bow your knee to me?
Will you let me take you through a
crucified walk because you will be a free
person?
When your lusts, your wants get crucified, you
get Christ instead.
That is life.
And everyone around you will know it as
the real thing.
It is so worth it.
We live in a generation of counterfeits and
phonies.
The world is desperate to see a true
Christianity.
And anyone who will say, Lord Jesus, I
believe you.
It doesn't matter my failure record.
It doesn't matter how many times I have
tried.
It is just tonight I am hearing you.
And you are saying to me, you will
give me a new start when I believe
you.
You are going to set me free.
You are going to take me right into
the promised land by the hand.
We are going to confront every enemy that
owns territory in my heart, in my mind,
in my life.
The enemies tell me it is too hard.
I tell you, he is a liar.
You tell him he is a liar.
What is harder is trying to live a
double standard Christianity.
Let's just lift our hands up.
Those that say I make a glad surrender
tonight.
Those that say, Lord Jesus, I surrender.
Lead me the way you would have me
go.
Set me free.
Let me possess all your heart.
All your mind.
Lord, take all of me.
No part borrowed from you.
I thank you, Lord Jesus, that you want
me.
And that you will change me.
And that I will be a light in
my family.
I will be living water to my family.
And I will give you all the praise
and all the glory in Jesus' precious name.
Amen.
Now, beloved, we believe that.
We, by faith, rejoice.
We, by faith, leave this place knowing we
put our hand in a crucified hand.
Knowing that the God will lead us through
right to the enemy gates and give us
those gates.
Give us that land.
He said, be strong and very courageous.
Every place your foot trods, I will give
you.
If your foot trods all over your house,
he will give it to you.
Hallelujah.
The key to the victory in our home
is us.
One surrendered life.
One committed life.
One life fully following.
One life fully surrendering.
One life saying, your way, not my way.
And the land is ours and to our
seed.
Hallelujah.
This is the conclusion of the tape.