hello and welcome to class number 12 of spiritual warfare this is our final class and we'll wrap up the concepts of our previous lesson talk about some things and then you will have time to take your test which is included with this video let's pray father we thank you for your word we thank you for your holy spirit the great teacher who has opened our hearts in our minds to a greater knowledge and understanding of this particular subject matter lord we continue to thank you that we've been empowered to live by your word that as we put aside our own thoughts and opinions as we allow your spirit to minister truth to us we will be at peace we will have understanding and we will be able to live your word empowered by your spirit honoring you in everything we do in jesus name amen and i also just want to pray that you have the peace that surpasses all understanding as you take this class don't be worried about your exam and that he'll because the spirit of god will bring everything to your remembrance that you have already studied so just to kind of refocus us as we wrap up at this time i think what we've seen more than anything else is if we go back to the basic fundamentals of who god has made us the fact that we are new creations brand new man all things have passed away all things become new that we have the same spirit that raised christ from the dead dwelling in us focusing on these fundamental truths and then the realization that we simply aren't are to be focused on living those truths our warfare is not to stop the devil or defeat him per se because he's already been defeated his power has already been nullified by jesus christ himself who has made an open show on display triumphing over him in that defeat because of the cross so the the winning of the battle has already taken place what we are doing is living out the winning of that battle if i could say it that way we are now walking as the victors but unfortunately because as we talked in the very beginning of the deception of the devil and he is very good at it don't discount him in any way he is a formidable foe in the natural but in christ already defeated already done okay so that's what we have to be able to focus on so our battle takes place more in the mind and in us keeping our trust and our faith focused on jesus christ the secure secure secure work of the cross already done already secured cannot be challenged in any way cannot be nullified in any way does not have to come up for renewal in any way no payments toward it need to be made i get you my drift see we have we have a mentality of updates and renewals and a new thing there is no new thing here it is done the thing that was done on the cross is done and once and for all and forever we need not go back and update there are no patches that are needed applied to it we don't have to update our technology it never gets outdated in terms of the salvation process okay so now in our fast-moving world where things are constantly changing and being updated the work of the cross is done finished never needing to be updated again or added to or tampered with in any way hope that's clear you hope i'm hammering that clearly enough because you've got to counterbalance that constant push of what would we need to add to this what do we need to make it better we don't okay so our focus becomes on walking the walk that he has made us to the point where as it's almost like an icebreaker if you know what an icebreaker is those ships are designed with special hulls reinforced differently than most ships and the shape is different in the front and what they do is they go into areas that other ships can't and the because the ice would prevent them from going there but that hole is designed so that the icebreaker has a stronger push in terms of its ability to move forward in the power that it has and the design of the hull so that it just cracks and breaks up all that ice that's what you have in a sense you have the ability to move through areas that would stop anyone in the natural because you have the equipment and you have the power that nothing can stand in the way of it's there okay the ice is there but the icebreaker is not stopped by it he gets catch that the the captain of that ship doesn't say gee i don't know his ship was designed for that he was trained to sail that ship he knows exactly how to attack that ice what speed to go he knows all about it because he knows his ship we know the word and we know that there is nothing that is going to stop the word from accomplishing what it is sent forth to do because that's what the word of god says he watches over his word to perform it it will accomplish everything that it is sent forth to do so stay in the word you stay in the word if you're always walking according to the word nothing can stop you from accomplishing what you've been sent forth to do all right so let's get back to um the subject of humility which is with the subject we were talking in the last class about and that we're kind of wrapping with at this point and we were in philippians the second chapter um and we were talking about let this mind be in you we talked about you know uh the servant that paul presents himself as the servant who gives himself up to another's will okay and again in our day on our day in society my will is the primary will that is how most people are going to look at it but as believers we're saying his will is the primary will his will is the power and force behind what i will do see the captain of the icebreaker may have a will to do something but without the power of that icebreaker the ship the design and the power behind it he's not going through that ice he may have a will to get from here to there but the ice will stop him unless he's in the icebreaker and the icebreaker has the power and the ability to cut through all that ice to take that captain from this spot to this spot which is where he needs to go same is true for us we have the same spirit that raised christ from the dead so paul who empowers us to then get from one place to the next so paul talks about being that servant all right who is swallowed up in the will of his master who sees nothing more important than the will of his master all right so um in verse 5 in the niv it says in there in philippians chapter 2 your attitude should be the same as that of jesus christ and we kind of went over that already so let this mind be in you that idea of rest and continuance staying in that attitude and we talked about the fact that it says in verse six who being in the form of god thought it not robbery to be equal with god he was not taking something that did not belong to him it belonged to him because he was god and is god and always has been god so it was his right so what does he do he makes himself of no reputation takes on the form of a servant and is made in the likeness of men a little lower than even the angels his created beings but he takes on that form of no reputation true humility emptying himself he makes it of no reputation as you see in your notes talks about um to make empty okay as jesus lays aside his equality with god as he walks on the earth in other words he did not walk on the earth in the power of his position and his right he walked on the earth basically as an old testament prophet as a man with the spirit of god in him that's how he walked the earth he of his own free will emptied himself put aside it was there but he did not use the attributes that he had and the abilities that he had emptying ourselves goes against everything in the human nature which is driven to make sure that everybody knows that we are full of wealth sometimes they know we are full of baloney full of nonsense we want to make people know that we're full of whatever jesus never took that stand he just was who he was he was found in the fashion of a man that says in verse 8 and humbles himself and we talked about that being humble to put place yourself in that lower position or rank and then it talks about how god highly exalted him that at the name of jesus every knee should bow and every tongue should confess that he is lord of all so he humbles himself and then god puts him in the position here what i'm going to say to you god puts him in the position that god wanted him in just like as we humble ourselves before him he will put us in the position he desires us to be in if i put myself in the position that i want to be in i'm over here okay at a position but if i allow him to put me in the position that he wants me in i'm over here right smack dab in the middle of his perfect will right in the middle of his perfect will that's where i want to be at all times not where i want to be but where he wants me to be so when i empty myself when i humble myself before him and say use me however you see fit he can plug me in where he sees fit and let me just tell you where god puts you is the best place you could possibly be anyway you can't find a better place for yourself he has the ultimate place for you worked out and ready for you when we talk about humbling uh the self we talk about no longer having a sense of what is deserved or owed it is a true bankruptcy and we talked a little bit about this in the last class a true bankruptcy of self i like that that concept of bankruptcy empty and we taught no expectation to be lifted up or put down no expectation for retaliation or abuse no expectation to be included or excluded simply no expectation at all i allow god to make the move i don't expect him to do anything except keep me in his will that's all i want is to be in his will that's the only expectation to to follow him um i was reading recently and and basically this the author was talking about being empty and saying and talking about how empty we look at empty as the end of something okay that's the end it's the end of the lineup empty i'm exhausted but for us as believers empty is not the end it is the beginning because when i am empty he can fill me if i already can't fill a cup that's already filled it's filled and more often than not we come to the lord filled with ourselves filled with our expectations our desires and he is taking us through the process of being empty do you feel like you're being emptied do you ever feel like that where you feel like everything has been poured out of you and there's nothing left sometimes that's a little scary when you feel like oh my goodness there's nothing left that is the time to turn to him and say fill me lord all too often at that signal we start trying to fill ourselves up with other things feel good about this try to feel good about that buy something new get a new hairdo buy a new car get a new spouse buy a new house whatever we try to take something external to make us feel filled because we don't feel filled we don't feel fulfilled we feel only lack and need we never feel like we have enough and yet that empty feeling should be the first trigger to you to go to god lord fill me i feel empty and allow him to fill and then that purification process takes place he's filling you with clean and pure just keep pouring it out he'll keep filling you up he it's his business to keep me filled it's my business to keep emptying myself out toward others okay um so we talked about the fact that the life on uh of humility is that on standby it's waiting for that next command um we have read from the book of john in 13 14 15 you should read those chapters when jesus talks about himself believe you know um that that i am in the father and that the father is in me i'm filled with the father the things that i speak i speak to you but i've gotten them from the father he is filled and constantly talking about the fact that everything i do everything i say comes from the father now when humble i am void of a sense of self and i must seek identity in someone or something else what i just like i was saying before i have to be careful about what i'm looking to fill myself with it's got to be with god that that i feel myself and allow only him to give me my sense of identity i could be a great orator and that may that becomes my identity or i may be a great painter and that becomes my identity or a great musician or whatever or whatever it is maybe you do for your livelihood whatever your career might be you may be very good at it but that's not who you are and that is not to give you your sense of yourself to the point where if that is taken away you wouldn't know who you were anymore that happens to a lot of people when they lose their career or retire or get laid off whatever of those things they're no longer applying themselves in that career track they lose a sense of themselves and it does tremendous damage to them they flounder in their lives your sense of yourself comes from god and who you are in him that we talked about in the wilderness experience that steady centeredness that comes from knowing him and that he lives in me and knowing and growing in the knowledge of who i am as a result of his presence in me really really important it was sufficient for jesus to achieve the goals of the father is that sufficient for me am i satisfied with achieving the goals that i know that jesus has laid out for me that the father has desired of me that the spirit is empowering me toward am i satisfied with that because if i'm not there's a problem there's a problem so if we we can look at even in jesus uh life if we look in matthew the 26th chapter when when he's in the garden and he and he falls on his face and he says oh father if it be possible let this cup pass from me nevertheless not as i will but as you everything he did was from the father none initiated by him even though he knew what it was here's the thing we need to wrap our minds around he knew what was to come but he only allowed himself to be empowered by god to do it timed by god in god's timing when god wanted it done and how god wanted it done he could have used his godly attributes to take over the world but he didn't do it that way he did it the way the father outlined so that he could achieve the salvation process for us so that he would go to the cross die and rise and redeem us redeem us that's what it was all about he was obedient served put aside his own will well you could say well that was easy for him because he was god no he did it as a man by the spirit of god just like i can do whatever god has called me to do as a human being by the spirit of god their oneness allowed him to always know and to do the will of the father he was in fact being himself but relied upon the power of the father the spirit of god within him the same he used the same equipment that we have to use i always think of this scene from the movie apollo 13 a true story of what happened to the moon landing mission of apollo 13. their oxygen tanks had shorted and blown and damaged the ship so that they could not actually land on the moon which is what they were supposed to do but had to return and even their return was jeopardized because of what had occurred and one of the things that happened was they didn't have enough oxygen to bring them back home so they had to build and a filter because the co2 the carbon dioxide levels were rising in the space capsule so back in houston they take the these scientists come into and these engineers come into a room with boxes of stuff and they throw all this stuff on the table and they say okay this is what they have up there we need to build a filter so that they can build the filter where they are what they had to work with was what they had in the apollo 13 spacecraft to work with and they had to make the air filter with only the materials that they had in the spacecraft okay here on the earth they did that all right so that may seem like a weird example but it's a concrete one to me because sometimes we forget that jesus only worked with what we have to work with he didn't use his godly attributes and position and authority as god to just mow down the whole situation he came in and operated and navigated with exactly what we have to operate and navigate with okay that's really important because then i can know that if i follow him i really can you know it's not like he's going to lead me to the edge of the cliff and then he's going to take off and fly and then he's going to say now you jump too and i go and pull right down off the cliff no he will take me and if he flies he's going to enable me to fly if he climbs down it's what i'm going to do whatever he does he does using the equipment if i could say it that way that we have to work with so important for us to remember so that we don't disconnect from him thinking well he's too god i can't go that way whatever way he's leading you follow he's going to open the doors he will empower it boggles my mind to see that he can do that but he does he's chosen to do that and he does it continually so whatever i'm asked to do i can do through christ who strengthens me guides me by the spirit okay so we must become so immersed in the person of the lord that we begin to think like him love thinks the best hard one for us to do that we act like him never behaves unseemingly the first corinthians 13 when i am being myself i need to be his self if i could say it that way not great english but great concept when i am being myself i am being his self allowing him everything about him must become ours he does what he does because of who he is what's on his mind what's important to him those are the things that need to become important to me our prayers for others it's often more for ourselves than for them we want them to be good so they'll leave us alone or stop bothering us or whatever it enables us to see people from god's point of view when we really pray for them and pray for who they are and see them from god's point of view what they're capable of what they could be and pray not to make ourselves more comfortable but to help them come to be who god has made them to be really important pray for their best regardless of myself you catch that not so that they're nicer to me but so that they are closer to him then well and us interacting better will always be a natural outcome but that's not what i'm praying for i am praying for them to be their best in christ okay um humility is easy sometimes when we're all together when we're in church and you know have but it's when we get outside and then we or someone challenges us and somebody talks to us in a demeaning way or puts us down somehow expresses that maybe we haven't been quite good enough and our natural reaction is to prove that we are i can't prove i can't prove to somebody who's made up their mind based on false information something about me i i can't i can't do that what i learned from god directly in situation after situation is if i let it go if there if their mind needs to be changed he'll do it if not he'll change me so the situation he'll change me regardless because i'll learn to walk more in love and if that person's view of me needs to be changed he'll change it if that person's actions toward me need to be dealt with he'll take care of it my position is to just keep walking in him stay on track keep heading towards my true north so it's easy when we're in church when we live in our day-to-day lives that's where things can become hard humility is not found on an occasion but it is a way of life and it may not be the first thing i feel to respond with uh it may in fact be the very painful sublimation of feelings that i may have that almost feels like i'm drowning because i feel so overwhelmed because of that sense of inferiority that can be communicated to me sometimes and maybe i want to react either by pushing back at the situation violently or withdrawing from the situation into a depression either way is wrong okay what i need to do is get back to my place in christ who do you who do you say that i am he's not telling me i'm better than anyone else he's not telling me i'm worse than anyone else he's not allowing me to push myself up over someone else because he tells me not to think of myself more higher than him than i thought but he's also not pushing me down and saying you're the weak worm of the dust he has highly exalted us as we humble ourselves he will lift us up he's highly exalted jesus i'm going with him where he goes so sometimes uh sometimes we feel so insignificant that nothing we do even registers on the radar of life unless we force others to recognize our existence kind of like you know being the youngest sibling in a large family you know where you feel like you're the low person on the totem pole that i feel like i need to push back against that i can push back all i want to it's not going to change anything see god has made us all equal there is neither male nor female juno group i agree i can't push above everybody else because there is no above everybody else if that if you could understand that i hope i'm making myself clear sometimes and i've said this to you before we don't want to just be equal we want look we want equality across the board as long as we're a little more equal than everyone else i can't push myself up above anybody there is no area there is no existence there i can't be better than everybody else i may have better skills in certain areas but i am not better a better person more loved by god than anyone else i'm not more special than anyone else i am with the body of christ moving in unison toward the end results that god has established for the body just like jesus did and it was good enough for him it's good enough for me only when we are pure in heart can we see god as god and see ourselves as he sees us that is vitally important if we don't have a pure heart we're not it's like it's like having splotches on my glasses that block portions of what i'm looking at and that has to be cleaned away purify my heart and then i can see him clearly which allows me to see me clearly and see others clearly and that's vitally important matthew 5 8 says blessed are the pure in heart or the pure in mind for they shall see god pure purified by fire cleansed as we talked about as your definition shows you by pruning and so fitted to bear fruit free from corrupt desire free from sin and guilt free from every admixture of what is false or not genuine not sincere it is free of any impurity so that it is not obstructed in any way it's unstained pure only through god can we reach that when we talk about the heart we talk about the soul of the mind as it is the fountain in the seats of thoughts pure and that purification of thoughts passions desires appetites affections purposes and endeavors need to take place it's used of the understanding the faculty and seat of the intelligence that's we when we talk about the heart it is used of the will and the character it is used of the of the soul so far as it is affected and stirred in a bad way or a good way so when we talk about the heart we talk about that that center of who we are that's an expression that is used for that we need to be pure in heart unmixed in the heart unmixed in the mind and not mixed with anything else what would i mix the word with my own opinions my thoughts my ideas my visions no i wouldn't want to do that oh yeah i'd want to do that but is that what i need to do absolutely not pure purely from the word that's the way i need to go it is truly humbling to have to have great plans ideas visions and to have to submit them to someone else's leadership even if it is god sometimes we want to show everyone that we do have a little intelligence and you know what it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks or how we look and we have to be okay with that because if i need to be shine on or highlight it in some way god will do that but i will tell you this that becomes a narcotic okay that attention i think we've talked a little about this before that attention feels good and then i want more attention and more attention and that becomes that validator of self that is external rather than the validator of self that comes from the knowledge of who i am in christ i've got to resist those things because it's so easy to allow externals to tell me who i am that i'm a great preacher or teacher because everybody says amen or buys my recordings or watches me on youtube or whatever i am to i need to get my affirmation from god and that will allow me to remain in that place of humility empty is not the end it is simply the beginning of where god can then fill me on an ongoing basis sometimes our dreams masquerade as his way as we try to be more like what we think he wants us to be we convince ourselves sometimes that he's directing us when in fact we are directing ourselves we see that in moses and listen i'm not saying that to put him down we need to learn from each other moses sees or has a sense of his destiny so he steps out to step into that destiny and that's not the way he's supposed to be going that's not what god wants him to do so he messes he gets messed up there and then god puts him back on track in exodus 14 1-4 um when mo when god speaks to moses and he sends him to pharaoh and he says speak unto the children of israel in verse 2 there that they turn and encamp before um pie okay and between megdol and the sea over against bazel fung and before it shall you encamp by the sea but pharaoh will say to the children of israel they are entangled in the land and the wilderness has shut them in and i will harden pharaoh's heart that he shall follow after them and i will be honored upon pharaoh and upon his host that the egyptians may know that i am the lord. so they did so so what is god saying here he says i'm going to bring this stuff to pass so it will be clear who i am because pharaoh this will hearten his heart he will continue to be who he is and i will be honored upon him because you will be you will see who is truly god in the results of what takes place he has planned this verse 4 it says in the new living translation i have planned this so i will receive great glory at the expense of pharaoh and his armies after this excuse me the egyptians will know that i am the lord god will humble those who refuse to recognize him for who he is and lift themselves up in their own pride we are to humble ourselves and keep on humbling ourselves and allow him to lift us up not ourselves that is not lift ourselves up in deuteronomy 8 16 who fed thee in the wilderness with manna which thy fathers knew not that he might humble thee and that he might prove thee to do the good at thy latter end how can he lift you up when you're not in the right place in the first place because you're busy lifting yourself up be where he wants you to be and that he can lift you up james 4 10 humble yourselves in the sight of the lord and he shall lift you up matthew 23 12 and whosoever shall exalt himself shall be a base and he that humbled himself shall be exalted first peter 5 6 humble yourselves therefore unto the mighty hand of god that he may exalt you in due time all of these words as you see in your notes are the same word to lift up on high to exalt to raise to the summit this is how he raises you but only he can do that no one else can raise you to the place that god will raise you again i can't pretend i'm being humble so god will put me up on top of the heap that's not what this is about but if you want to get to the place where you can be the best you can be in christ all he's created you to be be at peace with yourself and everyone else let him put you in the place you belong you will never be happy if you push yourself forward but also let me say this you will never be happy if you drop yourself down to avoid the conflict of having to walk your walk because it goes both ways one is not it's not more acceptable to shy back when he has given you a place to stand here stand where he puts you do what he's called you to do that's all i need to do we build with wood hay and stubble he builds with gold silver and precious stones talks about that in 1st corinthians 3 9 through 15. that's first corinthians 3 9 through 15 and it tells us that fire will reveal so you know what i found out i went through a particular experience when i was a young christian and i saw it i actually saw this in my heart all right a building that was built and it had perishable materials but underneath was a superstructure made of gold silver and precious stone but you couldn't see any of that because of the perishable materials that were built around it and it was all going up in flames because that's what my life felt like at that point that i was all going up in flames but the only thing that was burning were the things that were perishable that i built and what was revealed underneath was what he built the fire will reveal it's hot it burns it hurts it's not comfortable but what you get in the long run you would never trade back i can say this to you honestly and truly what i have gone through in my walk just like you can probably look at and say the same way some of the most devastating times in my walk with god have have really solidified me more than anything else if there was another way like jesus says if we could do this another way let's not do it but not my will thy will be done because what i see that comes out of what he does in my life is everything i want every single time he never leaves me less by the end of whatever it is that i have done or am doing okay so it's really important to remember that because it doesn't feel like that when you're going through it so that fire let the spirit of god by fire reveal what is truly made in you the gold the silver and precious stones um in second corinthians 12 uh verses one through eleven paul talks about the man that he knew uh caught up into paradise he used unspeakable words for spore which is not lawful for a man to hear of such in one i will glory yet not of my self i will not glory but in my infirmities and paul talks about his infirmities and there are those who have taught that his infirmities were that he had a problem with his eyes or some physical thing i personally do not believe that i don't see that indicated in this portion of scripture nor do i see it indicated in scripture that god would give you a disease in your eyes so that you would be closer to him i just don't see that validated in scripture but what i do see validated in scripture is that there are things that will come into our lives that will attempt to compromise us but the grace of god is sufficient for us all right whether that is in the form of opposition that comes on the job from another person through situations through circumstances up my own infirmities and inabilities okay but his grace is sufficient for me that allows me to overcome in that situation listen i would rather every challenging situation never happened that would be wiped away and that everything be smooth sailing for me all the time not gonna happen because his grace is sufficient for me i can be confident in the fact that regardless of what comes my way he empowers me to live beyond my own infirmities my infirmity would say you can't do this but his power in me says i will enable you to do this not because you real not because now i'll be tall enough or strong enough or smart enough but because he is tall enough he is strong enough he is smart enough and he is in me so his grace his empowering grace is an empowerment it's not just a nice loosey-goosey feeling it is an empowerment to do and to be all that he has called us to do and be full circle back to what we've been talking about all along walk the walk that is our warfare talk the talk be the bee be him let myself be his self as i walk on the earth he has empowered me because i have the same spirit that raised christ from the dead dwelling in me and because i have his spirit i have the power to overcome any situation circumstance any demon from hell the devil himself it doesn't matter we have the name that is above every name the name in which every knee must bow and every tongue confess that he is lord over all use the name of jesus pray the name of jesus speak the name of jesus in your situation in your circumstance in your life every day that is how we overcome by his word by our testimony that he is alive in us a living testimony of who we are demonstrating who we are living who we are in the world in our community on the job in our church that is our living out the battle and the war he has already won we used to sing the song jesus fought and he won the battle and he gave it all to me i cannot be defeated and i will not quit but sometimes we need to focus on that and realize everything that needed to be done has already been done i need to simply walk in accordance with it you have the same spirit that raised christ from the dead dwelling in you you can do all things through christ who strengthens you follow the spirit of god in your life each and every day and you will never be stopped walk in love because love never fails you want you want to get in that icebreaker get in love walk in love walk in christ walk in the word i hope you enjoyed this course hope you got a lot out of it and it should only be the foundation for what you will study and learn in the days to come walk with that confidence that you can stand boldly in the presence of god because you are his righteousness there is nothing that the devil can do to stop you ever it's all a deception that he tries to bring to you to make you back off from who you are already in christ amen as you take your test remember read the questions completely either it's true or it's false if it's a true and false if it's a multiple choice read all the all the um the selections and then pick the best one don't pick the first one that looks good read them all i know you're going to do well thanks for joining us in this course god bless you continue to study his word