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.
Other tapes are available by writing World Challenge,
PO Box 260, Lindell, Texas, 75771, or calling
903-963-8626.
You are welcome to make additional cassettes of
this message for free distribution to friends.
However, for all other forms of reproduction or
electronic transmission, existing copyright laws apply.
I'm going to speak this morning on spiritual
authority.
There's not a message I've prepared because we
are praying.
It's a message that God gave me because
I've been seeking him.
And he gave it to me for you
and for me today.
And if you'll go with me in the
New Testament to Acts chapter 3.
Acts chapter 3, and I'm going to begin
to read at verse 1.
Now, Father, I come before you today, and
I thank you for your incredible mercy.
Lord, it's because of your mercy that I
can stand here.
If you marked inequities, nobody could stand.
But there's mercy with you that we may
learn to fear you.
Jesus, I thank you for your presence.
I thank you, Holy Spirit, how you so
honor our prayers.
And you so come and manifest the glory
of Almighty God through Jesus Christ.
I thank you today for opening this word
and giving me the intelligence to speak it
simply.
I thank you, God, that you will take
me as always so far beyond any ability
that I may have in the natural.
And you'll take a hold of my mind
and even animate the way I speak, Lord,
so that I may disappear and you may
appear.
Jesus, I'm humbled before you.
I'm humbled that you'd even choose to use
me to speak your word.
But nevertheless, you have.
And God, I'm asking only that I may
glorify your name.
And I thank you for the anointing that
breaks every yoke of hell and darkness.
I believe that your kingdom has come and
your will shall be done in this place.
In Jesus mighty name.
Acts chapter three, beginning at verse one.
Now, Peter and John went up together into
the temple at the hour of prayer.
It was it was prayer time, in other
words.
And this was the ninth hour, of course,
in their time zone.
And a certain man lame from his mother's
womb was carried, whom they laid daily at
the gate of the temple, which is called
Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered
into the temple, who seeing Peter and John
about to go into the temple, asked an
alms.
And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with
John, said, Look on us.
And he gave him to them, expecting to
receive something of them.
Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I
none, but such as I have give I
thee in the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, rise up and walk.
And he took him by the right hand
and lifted him up.
And immediately his feet and ankle bones received
strength.
And he, leaping up, stood and walked and
entered with them into the temple, walking and
leaping and praising God.
Now, that's an incredible beginning to a prayer
meeting.
And they knew that it was he which
sat for alms at the beautiful gate of
the temple.
They were filled with wonder and amazement at
that which had happened to him.
Now, here are people praying.
Obviously, they're gathering, as they do perhaps daily
at the ninth hour to pray.
And they're all familiar with this man who
lives outside of the temple.
He sits at the gate and the gate
has a name.
The name is beautiful.
And he's carried there daily.
He's sat down, as it were, by his
parents.
And he's on the outside looking in.
And I'm thinking of all the people in
our own respective families, perhaps, who are we've
done everything in our power.
We carry them to the temple, literally.
But somehow they always seem to be on
the outside.
They can acknowledge that this is a beautiful
place.
They can acknowledge the beauty of God.
And perhaps even some of the history of
God.
But they themselves seem to be strangely on
the outside, always looking in.
It was the entranceway to something which this
man had been.
He'd heard of it, but he'd been denied
it all his life.
And I can't help but think of so
many people, especially those who are familiar with
the Christian church and are raised even in
some cases daily late at the gate, but
are so unfamiliar with the beauty as it
is of Christ.
Perhaps he'd heard the scripture in Psalm 96,
verse 6, where the psalmist said strength and
beauty are in his sanctuary.
And yet here he is, weak and certainly
without any kind of an exterior radiance of
any transforming work.
He's begging, asking for little tidbits of mercy
from the people who are coming in and
going out of the presence of God.
Isaiah, chapter 4, verse 2, had written that
the day was coming in which the branch
of the Lord would be beautiful, something that
God was going to do, something he was
going to give life to, he was going
to bring into existence.
And there would be a beauty about it,
there'd be a wholeness, there'd be a sense
of well-being, of health and fruitfulness about
this that was going to bear the mark
of the life of God in it.
Isaiah had further stated in chapter 61, verse
3, that in a future time, an anointed
messenger was coming to lead the way out
of ashes and into beauty.
And I can't help but wonder, did his
parents think or perhaps did this man think
that perhaps this is the day?
Could it be this is the hour of
the season when I'm going to be led
out of ashes and into beauty?
Is it all just rhetoric?
Is it all just something that people talk
about, yet there seems to be no authority
in all these scriptures that are expounded?
How many times did people get up in
the temple and read Isaiah 61 about a
messenger that God was going to send?
It was going to take people out of
lives of ashes and bring them into a
glorious beauty.
And yet hearing it, perhaps even at the
door, he could hear it when it was
time for certain to read the Old Testament
scriptures, perhaps even heard these things being read.
But he himself is lame.
He himself is a beggar with no beauty,
sitting and listening, but outside of this realm
of supposed glory.
And so he laid daily at the gate
asking and perhaps even longing for evidences of
kindness, even from God, possibly kindness that could
come to him and from those who seem
to know God and dwelt so freely in
his presence, coming in, talking about God, going
out, talking about God, hearing the scriptures.
And perhaps he just as they're coming in,
it's this man is sitting there saying, is
there a bit of kindness for me?
There's a without doubt he was familiar with
many who had an outward appearance of this
promised beauty of God, but it hadn't seemed
to change their interaction with him.
Perhaps some of them even seem to be
a bit annoyed or embarrassed that he was
even there.
Maybe this man at the temple gate called
Beautiful was a daily reminder that something that
God had intended them to have was missing.
Why, with the talk of all this power
and the talk of all these promises of
God, are there such impotent, powerless people who
are attending even the house of God?
Now, Paul, in second Timothy, chapter three and
verse five, warned us that in the last
days there would arise a spiritual condition, as
it is where there'd be a lot of
people who had a form of godliness.
There would be an exterior appearance of this
beauty of God, but their inward lives would
deny its power.
Their lives would be a very denial of
the power of God that he wants to
give.
You see, the beauty is an inward beauty.
There's something of Christ that can only be
truly reflected when it has been embraced on
the inside.
It's not enough just to go to church
and put on a suit and carry a
Bible and change a few words that we
speak on Sunday.
That's powerless.
There's nothing there.
There has to be an inward working of
God.
There has to be an embracing of Christ.
There has to be an illuminating of the
word of God by the Holy Spirit that
finds a resting place in our very inward
character and begins to carry us in the
power of God.
And there is a radiant beauty that begins
to emanate from the lives of those who
truly know God.
And Paul said, turn away from this form
without power.
If you are finding yourself and your religion
is all on the outside, Paul just said,
now just turn away from it.
I believe that as Paul says, reckon all
of that to be dead and give your
life to God and trust that the spirit
of Christ, the spirit of God that raised
Christ from the dead will also raise you,
quicken you and give you new life inside.
Jesus had his strongest words of condemnation for
the religious leaders of the day.
He said to the scribes and Pharisees, he
said, you appear beautiful.
You appear to be transformed on the outside,
but inside death is at reign in you.
You are full of dead men's bones and
of all uncleanness.
You have no heart.
Beloved, all religion that has no authority, it
has no heart for those who are outside.
The gate is powerless.
It's empty.
It's absolutely worthless.
You see, the essence of Christ is that
he came to us in our need.
He came providing the resource of his very
life that we may have access to the
life of God.
He came to us.
We were outside the gate, beloved.
We were outside of the realm of all
hope of any kind of abundance here on
this side of eternity and certainly any hope
to spend eternity in heaven with God.
He saw our bankrupt condition and came outside
the gate as it is to us and
gave his life, which was the only resource
that could give you and I access back
to God.
You see, the enemy, the Bible says, comes
to of humankind, comes to steal, kill and
destroy.
And those who do nothing to stop his
advance are by their very silence, identifying their
allegiance with him.
One of the psalmists in Psalm 50, he
said to those, he said, what have you
to do?
You say you've taken the covenant covenant of
God in your mouth.
You say you belong to God.
He said, but you are consenters with the
thief and consenting with the thief means I
see the enemy stealing.
I see him destroying.
I see him like a roaring lion devouring
all around me and I do nothing.
I do absolutely nothing to meet the need.
I'm not moved by the plight.
I have no sense of going to God
and crying out to the Lord and saying,
God, you've got to do something inside of
me.
My heart is like a stone.
It's dead.
You've got to take away the stony heart
out of my flesh.
I'm so consumed.
I have a form of righteousness, but there's
no power that exhibits the very heart of
God to fall in humanity.
God, you've got to do something in me.
You've got to take this out of me
or I'm going to end up just like
Paul said, self consumed with all this form
of holiness.
But there's no real life in it.
There's no real power that enables me to
go out beyond my own needs and my
own hurts and my own wounds to have
fallen humanity all around me that are not
only doomed in this world, but damned for
all eternity without the grace of God.
God, you've got to help me.
It's tragic when the devil sweeps in on
a society or sweeps in on individual lives,
and we are seeing it in our generation.
Now, in the book of Nahum, I want
you to turn back with me.
If you go to Matthew, it's six little
books back from Matthew into the Old Testament.
Now, the book of Nahum.
Now, Nahum is a prophet that God raised
up to pronounce the end of a very
wicked reign, a very wicked kingdom called Assyria.
You remember, it's the kingdom that the Lord
had sent the prophet Jonah to about 100
years before Nahum and Jonah had called the
capital city of Assyria at that time, which
was Nineveh to repent.
And of course, they did.
And that's why Jonah was so adverse, because
the Ninevites or the Assyrians were so exceedingly,
they were an incredibly cruel people.
I believe in many regards, when you see
what they used to do, they were given
over.
They were a physical type of what the
devil does in the spiritual realm to those
that he captivates.
The Assyrian kings delighted in writing on the
pillars of their houses the history of their
conquests.
I was reading some of this, and it's
beyond understanding how they gloried in their barbaric
cruelty to conquered peoples.
The incredibly wicked and evil wasn't enough for
them just to conquer.
They had to torture and humiliate to the
to the worst degree everybody that came within
their grasp.
On one particular writing, I want to just
read to you to give you an example
of what they would do to a conquered
people.
They suspended their corpses from poles.
They tore off their skin and they put
their skin, attach their skin to the walls
of their cities.
They cut off their noses, ears, their lips
and their eyes.
They burned the young alive, young men and
young women.
They bored through their jaws with ropes and
tied them like dogs to cages outside of
the city gates.
They sent them on forced marches and cruelly
treated.
And of course, on these forced marches, many
of the people died.
Now, you remember, the Northern Kingdom was swallowed
by Syria after the division of Israel, and
many of them were forced to march into
distant lands.
And so you give you an idea of
the cruelty that came upon even the people
of God when they had turned away from
the protection of of Almighty God.
This is a physical type of a spiritual
reality that some even here today are are
aware of.
This is what the devil will do to
you if he gets a hold of your
life.
He will suspend you from a pole as
it is and prove you make an open
shame of you, show that you are powerless.
You can't stop.
He'll get you convinced and convicted, as it
is, that he is the absolute supreme ruler
of your life.
You have no power over your sin.
He will tear off your skin.
He will take away all your self-worth,
take away all of your defense.
He'll take away any feeling that you have
of of being a lovely or even worthy
to be accepted by God.
He cut off their noses, ears, lips and
eyes and take away all natural senses.
Your spiritual senses will be gone.
You won't be able to see or hear
or taste or feel anymore.
He burns the young alive.
I see a generation now that is so
given to lust and passion.
The television, the musicians, videos are becoming increasingly
sensual and evil.
We are moving very rapidly to becoming as
evil a society as Sodom and Gomorrah were.
And we see our young generation just burned
with this passion that is infused with the
devil himself, this immoral passion that is that
is godless and leads them nowhere but to
despair and desires for suicide and destruction.
And he bores through their jaws with ropes
and ties them like dogs to cages outside
the city gates.
And that's exactly what the devil does to
those he gets his hands on.
He finds a cage for you and ties
you to it and says, here, let it
be just a daily reminder of your powerlessness
to ever escape my grip.
And he ties them to pornography and he
ties them to a lying tongue.
He ties them to pride and fear and
hate.
He ties them to these cages and begins
to bore away and eat away at their
minds.
This is the type of what the devil
does to anyone he gets his hands on.
And this is what was happening to the
children of Israel.
Assyria was encroaching.
It had already encroached on the northern kingdom
and now was encroaching on the southern kingdom,
which was Judah.
And the Lord saw this.
And finally, he raised up a man called
Nahum.
And Nahum brought a word to the children
of Judah.
And in chapter 2 and verse 13, the
Lord said through Nahum.
Well, actually, let me go backwards to verse
13.
He says, behold, I am against thee.
For now, I'll break his yoke from off
thee and I will burst thy bonds.
And he says, I am against thee.
And actually, in the original, in a better
translation of that, it says these words.
He says, behold me, I'm against you.
There finally came a time when God just
sent a word and he said to the
Assyrians, not to the children of Israel and
Judah, the Assyrians, their kings with all of
their pomp and all of their roaring about
like lions, all of their devouring power.
He finally sent a word and he basically
said, lift up your heads and look at
me.
Behold me.
Take a look at me.
He says, I'm against you.
You've gone far enough.
You've hurt my people long enough.
You've destroyed long enough.
Yes, they've sinned against me.
And many are deserving of the punishment that
has come upon them.
But God says, I will never leave my
glory in the enemy's hand.
I will never let darkness swallow my heritage.
Look at me.
I'm against you.
Behold me.
In chapter one, verse 13, or actually, yes,
it's chapter one, verse 13.
He says, now, now I'll break his yoke
from off of you.
Now he's speaking to the children of Israel.
And then he says, and I will burst
thy bonds in sunder.
Remember, he said in chapter two, verse 13,
he says, behold, take a look at me.
I'm going to do something now.
Kings of Assyria who delight in your cruelty
and your destruction of my people.
I am going to break your strongholds.
I'm going to do it.
God said it was just God's time.
There are times throughout history where it's just
God's time.
And perhaps finally, once and for all, God's
the ears of God's people finally open.
And they say, well, who is he?
Who is this God that we serve?
Why are we called his people?
And what is his intention towards us?
And finally, the Lord raises up and says,
I'm going to do something now.
He says, kings of Assyria, all the demonic
powers.
I have to understand the kings of Assyria
are only heathen humanity that are under demonic
influence.
I don't believe anybody other than other demonic
influence can do the horrible acts of cruelty
that these people have done to other human
beings.
We saw that in Hitler's Germany.
And we know that only depraved, possessed humanity
could ever do what was done to another
race of people.
He said, I'm going to burst your bonds
in sunder.
I'm going to break your strongholds.
Verse 14, And the Lord has given a
commandment concerning thee that no more of thy
name be sown.
In other words, your kingdom stops here.
It grows no more.
God said, I'm going to stop the advance
of your kingdom.
You are not going to encroach on my
people anymore.
I make a decree.
I make a declaration that this day your
rotten seed dies in the ground.
It no longer grows.
It no longer is going to have increase
in those that are mine.
He goes on.
He says, I will cut off the graven
image and the molten image, and I will
make thy grave for thou art vile.
He says, your image and the reflection of
your vileness upon my people will vanish, and
I'm going to put you in a grave.
Hallelujah.
Praise be to God.
That's exactly what Almighty God did on Calvary.
He took the vileness of sin.
He took the violence of the work of
the devil, and he poured it out on
his son and put it in a grave
and declared it dead.
And three days later, by the power of
God, he raised up Christ in newness of
life.
He said, devil, your reign of death is
over.
Your reign of terror is finished.
Your destructive rotten seed comes to an end.
I'm going to have a people, and these
people are going to know my power, my
glory, my life.
I'm going to take their ashes, and I'm
going to make them beautiful.
Chapter two, verse 10.
He says, she is empty and void and
waste, and the heart melts and the knees
smite together, and much pain is in all
loins, and the faces of them all gather
blackness.
Where is the dwelling of the lions and
the feeding place of the young lions, where
the lion, even the old lion, walked and
the lion's whelp, and none made them afraid?
The lion did tear in pieces enough for
his whelps and strangled for his lionesses, and
filled his holes with prey and his dens
with raven, or that means meat that's stored
for a future time.
The Lord says, you're going to be terrified
because your strength is going to be gone.
Now, he's speaking to the devil himself.
You have to understand this.
It's Satan himself.
It's always been a battle between Almighty God
and Satan himself.
And he's speaking to Satan, to all of
his powers.
He says, yes, for a season you devoured,
for a season you destroyed, for a season
you made people afraid, for a season you
tore them in pieces.
For a season you stored them up as
if they were meat for your vile kingdom
forever.
But he says, I'm against you, and I'm
going to terrify you and take away your
strength.
He said, I'm against you.
In verse 13, said the Lord of hosts,
and I will burn her chariots in the
smoke, and the sword shall devour thy young
lions, and I will cut off thy prey
from the earth, and the voice of thy
messengers shall no more be heard.
I'll cut off your prey, he said.
And it's interesting when you look at this
in the Hebrew text, the word cut off
means to cut covenant.
It's amazing.
God's basically saying, I'm going to cut covenant
with your prey.
That's why I'm going to destroy you.
I'm going to bring your prey into a
covenant that I'm going to make with God
the Father.
Amazing.
When you begin to see it in the
scriptures, he says, I'm going to cut them
off from you because I'm going to make
a covenant with the Father.
They're going to enter into that covenant by
faith, and you're going to have no more
access to them.
You're going to have no more authority over
them.
You will have no more power over them.
He says, and there will be no, the
voice of your messengers shall no more be
heard.
There'll be no more reports of victory in
hell against those who are mine.
No more, no more, no more devil saying
we triumphed over him or we triumphed over
her or we stole their family.
We took their kids and ground them up
to powder.
There'll be no more evil reports.
I'm going to make a covenant.
And those who come into that covenant by
faith will be no more a prey to
the works of darkness on the earth.
May him chapter three.
He says, verse two, the noise of a
whip and the noise of the rattling of
the wheels and the prancing horses and the
jumping chariots.
The horsemen lifted up both the bright sword
and the glittering spear.
And there's a multitude of slain and a
great number of carcasses.
And there's none into their corpses.
They stumble upon their corpses.
He says, your kingdom is going to be
a kingdom of absolute defeat, absolute death.
Verse five.
He says, I will discover thy skirts upon
thy face.
I will show the nations thy nakedness and
the kingdoms thy shame.
I will cast abominable filth upon thee and
make thee vile and will set thee as
a gazing stalk.
He says, I'm going to show the whole
world your powerlessness.
Every nation is going to know that I
raise up kings and I take them down.
And there is a time as God that
I just simply say enough, enough.
You've had enough encroachment in the houses of
my people.
You've tried to swallow up my heritage long
enough.
I am going to raise up.
I'm going to come into covenant with God
and with the people are going to enter
it by faith.
They're going to become a strong people.
They're going to do exploits for God.
There's going to be spiritual authority.
And these people, they're going to begin to
take back what you stole from them.
Everything the moth and kangaroo has eaten.
They're going to begin to rise up and
take it back.
You'll be no more reports of victory in
hell against those who are mine.
I will show your nakedness before all nations
and set you up as a gazing stock.
And that's exactly what Christ did.
Paul says in Colossians 2, 14 and 15,
he blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that
was against us.
Which was contrary to us and took it
out of our way and nailed it to
his cross.
And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made
a show of them openly triumphing over them
in it.
He made a show of powers and principalities
and triumphed over them.
He made a display as it is to
all of the world and all of the
worlds to come.
The powerlessness of the kingdom of darkness because
of the victory that he won for us
on Calvary.
Now, back again in Nahum chapter one, this
is what I love of this particular book
of the scriptures.
Verse 15, he says, Behold upon the mountains
the feet of him that bringeth good tidings
and that publishes peace.
He says, Soon a messenger will be coming
to you.
You can see his feet already climbing mountains
to bless you.
Yeah, he's on the way.
A messenger is coming.
A messenger.
Now, I may have been a physical messenger
in Nahum's day, but certainly a spiritual application
to Christ.
And secondarily, obviously, an application to you and
I who are the body of Christ, the
church of Jesus Christ in our generation.
He says, Now, don't be worried.
Yes, your enemies are on every side.
And yes, you seem to be outside of
the goodness of God's promises.
But I'm sending a messenger to you.
And this fellow is already on the mountains.
He's already climbing hard places.
He's made a determination in his heart.
I'm getting there and I'm bringing the good
news of God to these people.
I'm not going to let any mountain stop
me.
And if a mountain rises in my way,
by God's grace, I'm just going to say,
Get out of my way and be cast
into the sea.
I'm going.
I'm going where people are that need this
word of God.
I'm going to those who are outside of
the gate.
I'm going to those who are lame and
impotent and begging for arms and hoping just
for crumbs from the Lord's table when he's
prepared a feast for anyone who wants to
come to him.
I'm going to them.
I'm going and I'm bringing them a word
of peace.
The word in Hebrew is Shalom, which means
health, security, tranquility and wholeness.
He says, Behold, behold, you who are hungry.
There's a messenger on the way to you.
Somebody I found somebody and he's got good
news and he's heading up over the mountains
and he's just he's got a message.
Hey, the enemy has been defeated.
They're all dead corpses.
The powers that they once had are gone.
They can't touch our homes.
They can't touch our children because God is
for us.
God has risen up.
He has raised up his head.
He has confronted the enemy himself and said,
Look at me.
Look at me, devil in the face.
You are not going to touch that which
is mine.
You are not having those that call out
to me.
You have messed with my children long enough.
You have messed with my people long enough.
You are not going to have the homes
of the people of God.
Hallelujah.
I see Peter and John in Acts chapter
three, scaling mountains of religion, scaling all types
of personal struggles and difficulties.
We know that both had run in the
garden of Gethsemane.
They had failed Christ.
But nevertheless, they had finally come to understand
his mercy, knowing that in his mercy, their
enemies could never overpower them.
I see them going to the temple knowing
that the prayer meetings there have been so
powerless for so long.
I see them scaling these mountains of religion
to bring Christ to those that are needy.
Isaiah 52, 7.
Isaiah said, How beautiful upon the mountains are
the feet of them that brings good tidings
and publishes peace, that brings good tidings of
good, that publishes salvation, that says unto Zion,
Thy God reigns.
I see Peter and John coming up to
this lame man who's sitting at the gate
of this temple, which is supposed to be
the place of God's promise, the place where
God says, I beautify that which dwells nigh
unto me.
He saw Peter and John and asked in
arms.
He was so used to just looking for
little crumbs of kindness from perhaps those who
profess to know God.
But Peter, it says in verse four of
Acts chapter three, fastening his eyes upon him
with John said, Look on us.
You see, the same spirit that raised Christ
from the dead is now in us.
The same Holy Ghost that gave this word
to Nahum is now in us.
The same confrontational God as it is, who
loves to confront the powers of darkness is
now in us.
And I believe you see, this is always
a spiritual conflict.
It's not just Peter and John and a
lame man.
No, this lame man perhaps is in this
condition because of he's captivated.
At least I'm not going to say because
of his family or whatever, but he's in
this particular condition and the devil obviously has
him in that condition and loves to have
him placed every day to perhaps convince those
who are going into the prayer meetings that
there's no point in praying always there to
say, well, just consider the lame man at
the door.
You pass by every day.
Nothing happens to him.
He never gets blessed.
Here you are praying these prayers, these eloquent
prayers and and just look at this.
And, you know, the devil is doing this
in many homes even here today.
You come to pray and and the devil
is right on your doorstep saying, why bother?
Look at your own children.
Look at your husband.
Look at your wife.
Look at your own family.
Look at the mess.
Look at the lameness and the unsoundness and
the wholeness and and everybody's outside of the
temple.
And here you are going to pray one
more time.
And the attempt to use these captivations that
is established as reasons why you shouldn't pray
or there's no power in prayer or prayer
is fruitless.
But Peter and John, having plowed through all
of these lies of the devil and made
a determination that we are going with God,
we understand his power.
We know that what he does touch does
become beautiful.
They entered in and they looked at this
man and they said, look at us, look
upon us.
It's the same spirit that spoke through Nahum
and Nahum chapter two, verse 13 or verse
and said to the Assyrians, look at me,
behold me.
This is what God always says before he's
about to do something very powerful.
Look at me.
In other words, it's a face to face
confrontation that God is looking for.
And Peter and John said to the slave
man, look at us.
The same spirit is in them.
There's no cowering.
There's no let's all close our eyes and
just say some little prayer and hope that
God does something.
No, they're standing and say, look at us.
There's the same spirit is now multiplied that
rose Christ from the dead is now in
both of them.
They said, look at us, look on both
of us.
And there's something that rises up in the
heart of those who know Christ.
When we see the devil on a society,
on a people, on a country, on a
family, on a home, there's something in us
that just says enough, enough of this devil.
You've reigned here long enough.
You've captivated this people long enough.
I have come to declare that you are
defeated.
You have no authority here anymore.
You have no authority.
They're looking at this man and deep inside
saying the devil's reign of poverty, shame and
confusion and powerlessness is over.
You've sat outside the temple long enough.
I'm going to introduce you to the living
God.
They said silver and gold is not what
you need.
It's not what we have.
It's not our strength.
It's not what we trust in.
It's not giving us the ministry we have.
This is what we have in the name
of Jesus Christ.
Stand up and walk.
Stand up.
You don't have to be beaten down any
longer.
You don't have to be tied to a
cage.
You don't have to walk around like a
skinned animal.
You don't have to be led by the
devil.
Stand up in the name of Jesus.
Stand up.
There are people here today.
You've come looking for a word from God.
Well, now you're getting it.
Stand up.
Stand up and look the devil in the
face and say no more.
You've tied me to your cage long enough.
No more.
No more reigning in my house.
No more stealing my children out from under
my roof.
No more.
Stand up.
He took him by the right hand and
lifted him up.
And immediately his feet and ankle bones received
strength.
He leaping up stood and walked and entered
with them into the temple, walking and leaping
and praising God.
All the people saw him walking and praising
God.
And they were filled with wonder and amazement.
Now Romans chapter 10.
I'm going to close with this.
Verse 14.
Says, how shall they call on him in
whom they have not believed?
And how shall they believe in him of
whom they have not heard?
And how shall they hear without a preacher?
And how shall they preach except they be
sent?
And as it is written, how beautiful are
the feet of them that preach the gospel
of peace and bring glad tidings of good
things.
How shall they preach except to be sent?
The word sent in the Greek New Testament
means thrust forth as a sickle among corn.
Means literally thrown into the harvest field.
It means the ability given to go from
one place to another.
It also means backed by the full authority
of God.
How, how shall they preach except they be
thrust forth among those who need God, except
they be willing to go from one place
to another as God leads them, except to
be backed by the full authority of God.
And I believe that's the key for the
Christian life.
It's the heart that says, God, send me
out where the need is.
Prayer meetings are nice and I should be
there.
Peter and John were going to the prayer
meeting, but outside there was a need.
Send me where the need is.
Make me willing to go from where I
am to another place.
Not necessarily just physically, but spiritually.
Take me from place to place in my
understanding of God.
Cause me to grow in the grace and
knowledge of Jesus Christ.
And ultimately, it means that you will back
the message you give me by the full
authority of God.
There will be spiritual authority in my life.
It will not just be empty words.
A mixed heart has no power, beloved.
A person who's, who's not fully given to
God.
Remember the seven sons of Sceva can say
in the name of Jesus, come out and
the devils themselves will say, we know, Paul,
we know Christ, who are you?
There's no authority in the mixed heart.
The authority comes from those who are willing
to be thrust out into the work of
God.
Are willing to get the mixture out of
their lives.
I think it's time today for many to
say, it's enough of the powerlessness in my
own life.
You see the standing up against the devil
has to start in ourselves.
Before it's going to be exportable anywhere else.
There has to come a time where we
say, Christ, you are my all in all.
I understand that from the temple as it
is, but God show it to me now.
I, I, I've got, I'm, I'm gripped by
so many things that I, I, I don't
seem to be able to fully lay hold
of the fact that you really are everything.
Show me why, show me how, guide me
into this understanding.
Cause me to stand up to the devil
and say enough.
Enough of this powerlessness.
Enough of this compromise in my life.
Enough of, of half in the kingdom of
God and, and half of me in the
world.
It's a horrid place to be.
So mixed that my life sends a confusing
message to the people who need God.
Enough of the captivity.
I know there are people here today that
spiritually speaking, you have a rope board through
your jaw and you are tied to a
cage.
Now, you know what I'm talking about?
You, you can't get out and the devil
walks by you every day and you bow
your head and humble submission, but you need
to shock him today.
You need to get up.
And as he comes walking into his evil
city, finally, somebody stands.
You may still have a rope through your
jaw and you may still look like a
captive, but you stare him in the eye
and say enough.
I've heard something today.
I've heard that you've been defeated.
I've heard that the decree has been signed.
I heard that the list of things that
kept me here has been blotted out.
I heard that I'm the righteousness of God
in Christ Jesus.
I've heard that I'm sealed in the father's
hand and nobody can take me out of
the father's hand.
I've heard that no weapon formed against me
can prosper.
I've heard that every tongue that rises against
me in judgment that I can condemn because
this is the right.
The heritage of the servants of the Lord.
I've heard that I've been given power to
tread on serpents and scorpions and over all
the power of the enemy.
And nothing shall by any means hurt me.
I've heard these things.
And so I stand up to you and
say enough.
I'm not I'm not tormenting my mind enough,
causing me to be chained to the iniquity
of sin, enough of these things in my
life, enough of bearing the shame of my
youth.
Enough of grinding my face in my past,
because the Bible says that the list of
all the things that I had been done
has been blotted out by blood that was
shed 2000 years ago for me on a
cross called Calvary.
Enough of the shame of my past.
I am fully accepted with God.
I'm accepted with God in Christ Jesus as
if I had never committed a single sin
in my life.
The word of God says that I am
as righteous as God is in Christ Jesus.
I'm the very righteousness of God.
Enough grinding my face in my past.
It's time, beloved.
It's time.
You see, so many people are themselves in
captivity.
That's why our prayer meetings are so powerless.
Sometimes there has to come a time when
we say enough.
There has to come a time when the
people of God finally stand up and say,
we're not staying here anymore.
I refuse to be counted among those who
pray without power.
I personally refuse to go into places that
are spiritually captivated without a sense of God's
majesty and power in my own heart, without
knowing it at home.
First, I refuse.
I refuse.
The Lord has shown his hand to be
very, very strong on our behalf.
We have seen the miraculous.
We've seen it overseas.
Nigeria was nothing less than an absolute miracle
of God.
There's no other way you could describe it.
Jamaica was a miracle, an absolute spiritual miracle
of God.
We've been invited, at least invited, as far
as it's gone so far, but into very
difficult, some of the most forbidding areas of
the world.
To sing and teach and preach the gospel
of Jesus Christ.
We're living in an awesome hour.
But the Lord is making a promise to
us.
We've had message after message from this pulpit
that the time has come to take authority
for our own families.
But in order to do so, the power
that we know must be more than just
an exterior show.
There has to be an inward knowledge of
that power.
Otherwise, we just scream at the ceiling and
get nowhere.
There has to be this calm, quiet confidence
in God that says to the devil, look
at me.
Stand up, you coward, and face me.
Oh, this is not just puppeteering bravado.
This is a reality.
We have that authority.
We have the authority to tell every power
of darkness, just look at me.
I don't cower from you.
I don't back away from you.
You have no authority over me.
All you can do is what God allows.
You're powerless otherwise.
I take authority over your evil dealings in
my own family, my own home, among my
own friends and kinsmen.
This is an incredible hour that we're living
in.
Beloved, I'm going to give an altar call,
both here and for the education annex.
For those who in your heart today would
say, with the rest of us who would,
enough of the captivity, the compromise, the powerlessness,
and the shame.
Enough.
I'm coming to this altar, and I'm standing
up to the devil himself.
I'm going to say to the devil, I'm
not going to be counted among those who
cower before you any longer.
I'm going to call out to God and
say, God, save me, sanctify me, and send
me.
Put an authority in me.
Put a spiritual authority in me that will
cause me to stand against the powers of
darkness and see them defeated by the life
of Christ and the promises of Christ in
my heart.
If the Holy Spirit is drawing you at
this time, let's all stand together in the
balcony.
You can go to either exit.
Make your way down here.
Please meet me here.
We're going to pray together.
Main sanctuary, slip out of wherever you are.
If you're backslidden, come back to God.
Come back to God.
Let's put the devil to flight today.
If you're captivated by sin, come to this
altar.
We're going to pray together and believe for
victory today.
And for those who just want to say,
Jesus, I want to be sent.
I don't want to just preach.
I want to be sent.
There are a lot of preachers out there
who are not sent.
They have no authority.
There's absolutely no authority in their voices.
God, I don't want to be among them.
I want to be sent by God.
I want your authority to thrust me into
the harvest field.
I want your authority, O God, to go
before me and behind me.
Hallelujah.
Pray with me now.
I stand here as a testimony that Jesus
Christ is faithful to me.
The devil has buffeted me.
And tried me.
Tried to take away my life in Christ.
But today, I've heard the word of God
to my heart.
And Satan, I stand up and I say
to you today, look at me.
The spirit of the Lord is upon me.
God has set me free.
God has cleansed me.
God has justified me.
God is changing me.
God is sending me as a beautiful messenger
of a beautiful Savior.
So I stand before you.
And I say to you, your kingdom is
over.
I serve you no longer.
I no longer am under the weight of
your devouring power.
I am alive.
I am staying alive because of the power
and the majesty of Jesus Christ in my
life.
And furthermore, God is going to send me
into the harvest field.
To everyone who's outside of the kingdom of
God.
And he's sending me wherever he wants to
send me.
And he's sending me with the full authority
of Jesus Christ in my heart, in my
life, and in my voice.
Thank you, Jesus!
Thank you, Lord!
Thank you, mighty God!
Thank you mighty God.
We praise you.
We bless you.
We worship you.
We glorify you.
Hallelujah.
Victory is ours.
We believe in God.
We believe it from the depths of our
heart.
Victory is ours.
Hallelujah.
Thank you Jesus.
Thank you Lord.
Hallelujah.
And what's more, we're taking back our families.
We're taking back our families for God.
Hallelujah.
This is the conclusion of the message.