hello and welcome to class number nine of spiritual warfare let's pray and get started father we thank you once again for your word we open our hearts and our minds to hear you speak to us through your holy spirit to embed truth in our hearts and in our minds and the power to live by your word we thank you for the truths that are being revealed to us and how they will draw us closer to you to trust you more and more we thank you for that in jesus name amen amen because that is our biggest battle right is trusting him we kind of hem and hall back and forth about that sometimes but trusting him is the key to everything i've got to trust him what else do i have can i can i handle life on my own no we can't anyway trust in him put your faith in him because he is worthy he is worthy to be trusted he'll never leave you or forsake you he'll never leave you in a bad position he will always be there for you all right so we talked about discipline and the importance of discipline and we see that in our lives in terms of as a believer okay not the flesh but it is by the spirit that we're empowered to live past the flesh but we've got to be disciplined in that we put the word first we trust him and we've got to not we've got to resist the temptation to do something different than what god is telling us resist the temptation to take something back i'm sure you've never done this oh boy i guess it's just me right to take something back that i've given to the lord to take care of i kind of you know give it give it to you lord and that's like yeah i just want to check on that or i just want to make sure you're doing it right or whatever trusting in him and being at peace knowing that he has everything under control we fight that battle every single day okay so today we're going to talk a little bit about unity and uh the importance of unity and let me just say this at the get-go you can't make yourself be united with others what will unite you is being on the same page if i could say it this way being devoted to the same cause okay in the natural being devoted to the same cause unites people in the middle of a disaster all right people if there's a rescue that needs to take place people know that all focus goes on saving a life all right so all behavior focuses in that direction we're not talking politics we're not talking religion we're not talking culture we're not none of that comes into play everything focuses on we got to save those people so everything else goes aside that unites the group it unites people in the middle of a disaster people who would never work together work together because they are able to kind of silo themselves and tunnel their vision on the situation at hand that becomes the most important thing so all of the differences that we might have are no longer on the important scale all right where they might be in our normal day-to-day lives everything focuses on the situation that we have so it's great while the situation lasts and you don't want a disaster just so that you can have people be united but unfortunately once things go back to what we would call normal everybody starts doing their own thing again because basically bottom line there is nothing that unites us let me say this to you not even your culture not your religion not the color of your skin not your nationality or your national affiliation because when push comes to shove all right and there's a difference in what you want and what they want you'll deviate that's what will happen because people do to each other all the same kinds of things it doesn't really it doesn't really transcend unfortunately but what will help us transcend is the fact that we are united by the power of the spirit of god if we focus on following him living his word it will draw us into that unity it can't be contrived listen you can send people to political sensitivity classes and you know how to be sensitive to other people and be politically correct and what they will learn is how to hide their real feelings in public places they'll still be saying and feeling they'll be feeling the same things okay they just won't say them or anyone can hear them it's a heart issue the only thing that can change my heart is the spirit of god that is what unites us as a church we are united by something that no other group can really surpass and that is in the heart we are united we're united around the word where you're not united around the process of salvation to a dying world we are united on following what god has put out there for mankind that's what unites us so if i'm walking according to the word i'm going to look here and i'm going to find out hey this somebody else is walking with me and wait a minute they're walking with me too and point is somebody else walking because we're all walking the word and if we're all walking the word we should all be heading in the same direction again i use that expression the true north heading toward true north which is jesus christ heading in that direction i hope that makes sense so that is where unity comes from unfortunately within the body of christ we're not always walking united and that is the thing that the devil will exploit okay against us and be so successful in we start to fight because when we're united you look back to the tower of babel what did god say he said these people are united and nothing can be withheld from them at pentecost they were in when one accord and the holy spirit came things happen when people are in one accord and the devil knows that so our being in one accord is something he will fight tooth and nail if i could use that expression against he will do anything to keep us separated from each other because then we cannot unite and where two or more of you agree nothing you know this is what the scripture says it tells us that when we stand together in agreement we can pray we can speak the word and things will happen so he he the devil keeps working in such a way to kind of keep us separated so we're just going to read some of the things that sun tzu says again about in the natural how armies will try to keep that that kind of distance between people because it works all right it works the bible wouldn't talk so much about us walking together walking out of court follow me as i follow christ all the things that the epistles talk to us about jesus i'm in the father the father's in me i'm in you that united that sameness united by the power of his spirit the same spirit that raised christ from the dead that dwells in us we all have that same spirit let's put aside our own personal preferences and agendas and follow the spirit of god when we do we will see our lives transformed the lives of those around us transformed and a world that needs jesus being transformed by our very presence all right so your lesson number five unity a key factor we must cling to each other at all costs sun tzu says national unity is an essential requirement of victorious war this could only be attained under a government which was devoted to the people's wealth there and did not oppress them you know interesting you keep seeing these these aspects of what he expresses of the need for those who are the leaders to care for the people that they lead and and we see this all over the world again we're tripping over things in the word that people in the natural have seen appreciate it and begin to put in action sun singing an authority on sun tzu said that sun tzu's theories were based on benevolence and righteousness interesting words unity stability and high morale are essential factors mental moral and physical factors operate in war wusu says when there is discordant within the country the army cannot be mobilized when there is discord in the army it cannot take the field when there's a lack of harmony in the field the army cannot take the offensive when there is a lack of harmony in the battle the army cannot win a decisive victory all right the first matter is concord concord is simply the harmony or agreement of interests or feelings it is being in chord one accord all right um attack the enemy's strategy what do you do you disrupt alliances don't allow your enemies to get together the master conqueror frustrates his enemies plans and breaks up his alliances creates cleavages between sovereigns and ministers superiors and inferiors commanders and subordinates his agents and spies are active everywhere gathering information dissension and nurturing subversion when and when the enemy is isolated and demoralized his will to resist is broken without battle the enemy conquers interesting though we see the devil doing this all the time within the body of christ that's why it's so important again we're not you know the mention of spies i'm going to talk a little bit more about that is in your outline we're not talking you know it may sound like you know so we're looking for spies in our midst that's that's not the purpose of pointing this out what i want to get across to you is just how the devil works to disrupt from within okay when we get in the flesh and i've said this to you before when we get in the flesh we do things that are fleshy and not spiritual and not spiritual according to the word of god those are times when the devil can slip things in brings fear on you so you react or your behaviors go a particular way because you feel afraid so you act in fear fear is not faith it's those are two different things when i start acting in fear okay if david had acted in fear he would have killed saul why fear that he was never going to get to be king because of what saul was doing that soul was going to kill him first so i better kill saul so he doesn't kill me because i need to be the king you hear what i'm saying no david we talked about this already how to fight that battle in his mind to fight away the fear and say no if god has said it that's the way it's going to be and he never let his behavior get in the flesh he kept his behavior according to the word of god joseph the same thing kept their behavior according to the word of god what they knew of god all right and kept their themselves in line with that true north toward god and then god unfolded everything on their behalf but the devil will look to destruct he will throw circumstances and situations in your way just like he did their way to get us to turn off and take control of the situation ourselves we're going to talk about the wilderness experience and how he tried to do that to jesus he tries to get you to take it into your own hands and operate in the flesh so that he can then play that he gets to say he gets a say there he gets to influence there and that's what we never want to do we never want to give him that opportunity to to influence um proverbs 26 20 and 21 where no wood is there the fire goes out so where there is no fail-bearer the strike ceases as coals are to burning coals and wood is to fire so is a contentious man to kindle stray strife among believers will open the door for confusion and for the work of the devil proverbs 6 16-20 so these six things the lord hates yes yes seven are an abomination to him a proud look a lying tongue hands that shed innocent blood i'm gonna stop here for a second and this is maybe it's a pet peeve of mine and maybe i'm on a soapbox a little bit but when we mislead people where i come from that's a lie you understand what i'm saying when we drop little pieces of information that aren't completely true in order to lead someone to believe something that i want them to believe let's just take a little example all right so i'm late for work i leave the house late for work and i hit some traffic so what do i say to my boss when i come into work oh i hit traffic is that a lie no it's not really because i did hit some traffic but i left late i was late already so the my lateness wasn't because of the traffic it was because of my leaving late in the first place but i speak words that mislead to what i want my boss to believe okay you see what i'm saying or people who forget to clock out when they're leaving early from work oh i don't want to step on any toes that's misleading that's a lie and i think these are the things that sometimes we need to look at in our own lives are we letting those little foxes get into our lives and compromise who we are listen everybody does things sometimes but when it comes to our attention and we know we're not telling the truth then just shut up or tell the truth don't speak or tell the truth okay that's just a little freebie i'll get off my soapbox now all right a heart that devises verse 18 wicked plans feet that are swift and running to evil a false witness who speaks lies and one who sows discord among the brethren my son keep your fathers commanded do not forsake the law of your mother proverbs 16 27-30 an ungodly man digs up evil and his lips and in his lips is a burning fire a fro with man sows strike and a whisperer separates chief friends a violent man entices his neighbor and leads him away to into the way that is not good he shuts his eyes to devise forward things and moving his lips he brings evil to pass if a ruler listens to a falsehood all his officials will become wicked lies misrepresentations sin in our midst personal agenda these are things that will disrupt our unity and keep us from operating in the power that we can have as believers when we walk together and satan will do everything in his power to keep us from being united talk a little bit about spies another aspect of unity is the enemy being affected is the army excuse me being affected from within by certain key individuals will become available to the enemy for his use whether or not this begins as a conscious effort it can be just as devastating consider judas right and i say it this way a child with a gun can shoot you just as dead as the perpetrator who comes to your house to do just that you're dead either way so innocence may intention may not be there but that's why it's important to keep ourselves focused on walking in god's word and in his presence because then i don't have to worry about that then that's not something that i'm going to be doing okay so there's different types to be uh of agents to be used in warfare and you can read that over um we we look at people look let's look at this i just want to read that passage mootoo says among officials among the official class there are worthy men who have been deprived of office others who have committed errors and have been punished there are cycle fans or flatters and minions followers or a minor official who are covetous of wealth there are those who wrongly remain low long in lowly office any of these things sound familiar those who have not obtained responsible positions and those whose sole desire it is to take advantage of times of trouble to extend the scope of their own abilities these are those who are two-faced changeable and deceitful and who are always sitting on the fence as far as all such are concerned you can secretly inquire after their welfare reward them liberally with gold and silver and tie them to you then you may rely on them to seek out the real facts of the situation in their country and to ascertain the plans directed against you they can as well create cleavages between the sovereign and his ministers so that these are not in harmonious accord okay are we looking for spies in the church no what is my point here offense okay this describes offended people all right and i have seen it happen when you stand in one place long enough you see a lot of things going on around you and i have seen this happen over and over again people get offended when things in the church aren't done the way they think they should be all right a person promoted when they thought that they should i remember years ago um someone was put in charge of a particular department and this other person who thought they should have been gripen and i turned around and said to them i said hold on one second i said you're never gonna get where you think god has put you if you keep complaining and griping about it i said you you need to get behind that person you need to get behind them and work for them and help them be as successful as you can and this person actually did listen and wound up spearheading some great things as the head of that department now it did happen that way it wasn't like they kicked the other person out they moved on and this person moved up they weren't ready at the time that they thought they were that's another thing if we could get so offended then that means i'm not really ready to hold that position pass the test pass the test okay that shows my ability it demonstrates to me that i am ready that i can still be mature that i can still walk the godly walk like david did to not kill samuel he assumed he did not kill saul he walked according to what he knew was the right thing to do and he and he he he saw the fulfillment of everything that god had promised pass the test don't allow yourself to be pulled to the side by people who speak over the years before i was made before i was ordained as a minister i was i've been at the church for some years i was in charge of the bible school at the time and i remember this particular person you know kind of chirping in my ear saying how come you're not a minister it's because you're it was another woman because you're a woman that's why and it's not fair in this ministry you know they don't they don't promote women they don't give women positions of of responsibility and i say well wait a second if i'm in charge of the bible school i said i think that's a position of leadership and last time i looked i'm a woman i said so i i really don't see what you're saying anyway dismiss now eventually i was ordained as a minister but you know what i needed to pass the test and not turn around and go you know what she's right well why am i look at that slaughter man they're a minister how come i'm not a visit you you get where i'm coming from you have to be able to look and say i am where god wants me to be because no one can push me off place of where god has me established and ordained for nothing's going to change that except me getting in the flesh or abandoning before the time comes i've watched people leave this church because they weren't their gifts weren't being appreciated they saw themselves as having to be or needing to be in a in a position of prominence of visibility and when they didn't get those positions they left and went to another church you know what happens i those people spiral out almost every single time listen people will leave a church people will leave a church they will go on to other things we fully expect to see people trained and then become available to other ministries who need help who need trained people we're a training ground advanced christian training school we train people we hope that you will fulfill the destiny god has for you that's what we want to see happen like it to be here because we want everybody to be here that's good all right but you may be called to be someplace else god bless you and go and go the right way don't go with that chirp chirping going on don't be one of these people who are easy i watched it over and over again these people all of a sudden come out of the woodwork and they start talking to people church or chirping and that person goes off in offense separated from the voices of leadership who could speak into their lives and help them because they won't listen they only want to hear certain things they close their ears to the truth don't be one of those people don't be vulnerable to that attack of the devil it works so well he does it over and over and over and over again we should know better by now we should know better and yet we don't offense over and over again compromises people in their position and makes them available to works of the flesh don't put yourself in that position that's that's why i kind of you know pulled this out i thought this was interesting in a natural sense but it's vital to understand for us in a spiritual sense don't let yourself be pulled off base by things that somebody else says to you that kind of connects with something you may already be feeling here's another one somebody starts to say that maybe i already think it myself but when i hear it it sounds ugly and as soon as i hear that and it has that to sit then you need to start casting down vain imaginations lord i'm sorry if that's how i've been thinking lord cleanse my heart i i commit myself afresh to your plan and your purpose if something comes to your attention root it out get it casting down vain imaginations and everything that would attempt to exalt itself against the knowledge of christ in my life get rid of that thing uproot that thing and allow yourself to be cleansed you'll find yourself in a much better place not tormented by those things relax god will bring it to pass say this again relax god will bring it to pass in your life it is not your job to open up the path of righteousness he does that for his name sake and the path that you're to be on he'll keep you on it trust him trust him all right so i think again this is interesting people in leadership they feel that they've been mistreated they get offended others who are already in rebellion will seek them out and kind of court them and soothe them all you know they should you know how come you don't get the i can't even tell you how many times that's been said to me how come you don't get to fill in the blank well how come they never fill in the blank and this is always years and years and years this has gone on stay focused stay focused um it's written here and and i think it's in your notes um but it is very amazing how discontents find each other easily i remember a couple that left the church to start another church and they left with the blessing of the pa of pastor demola at the time this was some years ago and they left with a blessing what started happening is people actually started showing up at their house that had left the church in offense and you know didn't know that they left in good graces because people don't take the time to find that out and started chirping to them and they were like you know what not having any part of this not having any parties they did the right thing and god blessed them in terms of what they were doing but you wonder how do people find these things it's like this whole little crew gravitates toward the situation they're listening to the wrong voice when you're spiritually sensitive you also have to be able to discern between the voices that you're hearing because the devil will try to slip his voice in there too and you may be hearing a voice but you better be careful you're not listening to that voice that you keep the voice of the good shepherd alone in your ears okay all right um all right i think that's all we need to say from there you can again read over everything um the outline number six on wisdom you can go over those those are just some sayings or some statements from sun tzu one thing that i think is important to take out of that he talks about some roads are not to be crossed some armors are not to be attacked under certain conditions you just let something go some roads are not to follow some ground that should not be contested you can look at that why would i bring that up because sometimes we think we have to fight every battle and we don't sometimes we're better off not responding to a situation even though it may look like it's going to go badly for me so you need to follow the spirit of god i'm not saying to never but what i'm saying to you is when a circumstance or situation comes up you need to get with the spirit of god and let him lead you in that circumstance sometimes you need to step in and you need to say something and sometimes you just need to back off and shut up and let whatever thing it is to play out you know jesus talks about in the parable about the wheat and the tears he says leave them let them grow up together and then what happens is it becomes obvious which of the wheat and which are the tears and they could be separated at another time and i have to tell you by experience now experience is not what we base our lives on we based our lives on the word but when i have followed the word in that area i have always seen that happen that god always will bring out truth always i say always i say it again always he will always bring out the truth don't let don't let yourself step into god's place because when he brings out the truth he brings it out completely and whole and that doesn't mean that i should stand by those i told you so i told you so that's a little temptation i knew it all along shut up let god have the glory for the situation at hand i have watched it over and over again and at times i have to tell you i could be blown away by how it happens and when it happens and but consistently he will always do it he will work on my behalf i used to say to myself this way he will take this place apart brick by brick for me if that's what needs to be done now do i want places torn apart blow it up no my point is he's going to work on my behalf therefore and it's not that i'm waiting for everything to be leveled or blown up what it says to me is whatever it takes he will do on my behalf therefore i need to back up and let him do what he needs to do on my behalf really really important that's an important thing for us to recognize so um we see that um again some roads not to follow some ground that should not be contested a road though shortest should not be followed if it is dangerous all right um i want you to pull out i i sent this to you some quotes from war fighting which is the u.s marine corps book of strategy um the enemy uh in the first statement the enemy seeks to resist our will and impose his own will on us that's what the enemy is trying to do at all times all right going down a little further talks about destroying the enemy's will to resist i want you to go through all you just read them over they're interesting again in conjunction with what we've talked about um strategy is derived it says within strategy we distinguish between a national strategy and a military strategy just to know strategy is derived from national policy and must be clearly understood to be the sole authoritative basis of all operations this is our national policy this word is our policy this word is the basis from which we derive all things and all direction that we take okay so all of our strategies everything that we do is derived from this word that is how we work i think the thing that i like the best about these quotes again this is from the u.s marine corps book of strategy that provided the best definition of doctrine that i had ever found so on your sheet it's on the back side um on doctrine it says doctrine establishes a particular way of thinking about war and a way of fighting a philosophy for leading marines in combat a mandate for professionalism and a common language in short it establishes the way we practice our profession it establishes general guidance and requires that that requires judgment in application therefore while authoritative doctrine is not prescriptive so what does that mean when you get a prescription from the doctor the prescription outlines for you exactly how to take the medication you need to follow that prescription exactly as it says taken with or without food taken so many times a day you know of the day take it at a certain time of the day take it with this much liquid and for this length of time most people they take their medication for a while and they stop taking it take it if you take if you go to the doctor listen to what the doctor says so you take your medication for as long as is required okay that's a prescription there's no deviation there's no interpretation doctrine is not that way doctrine provides guidance for how we do our business if i could say it that way how we spread the gospel how we live our lives it is authoritative but it is not so rigid that says now you need to wear a robe and sandals to be like jesus okay it's not like that it establishes the way we practice our profession it says in the handbook so it establishes the way we live our spiritual life in the earth today so again i thought that was really really good um just above that the most effective way to be to beat excuse me the most effective way to defeat our enemy is to destroy that which is most critical to him we should focus our efforts on the one thing which if eliminated will do the most decisive damage to his ability to resist us by taking this from him we defeat him outright or at least weaken him severely this is why okay the devil tries to bring talk to us about being independent standing on your own two feet why because that tears down unity he wants to tear down unity he also wants to tear apart the love that we have for one another because that's what jesus said would be that effective display of who we are to a world around us so unforgiveness brings in that unforgiveness you can't love people you don't forgive you can't love people you don't forgive ouch ouch right sometimes we get upset with people forgive let it go you know as it's i've heard it said so many times unforgiveness is like drinking poison and thinking it's going to kill someone else it's poisonous to me let it go that is a work of the enemy trying to stop you from getting where god wants you to be all right so just read over those statements and um and we'll pick up in the next class we're going to be talking about uh read over lesson six as well on wisdom and you can you can read over the one on leadership as well we're going to be talking about humility which is a great weapon for us to use we're also going to be talking about the wilderness experience and how that impacts us as believers and just what that is as a part of our spiritual warfare so we'll be talking about those things in the next couple of lessons all right well god bless you and we'll see you next class