The joy of the Lord is my strength.
When the devil tempted Adam and Eve to give up their right to the earth, it was about global domination. That has not changed. We are the governing church. We are the ones that bring the will of God into the earth. He gives us all the tools that we need to be what He wants us to be. We get the picture and then we know exactly what to do.
If we win this war, then we are a liberating force. We are not the ones dominating. We are the ones that bring liberation.
I want to call us the liberation movement. It’s time to attack for liberty. I want to make a declaration this morning that this church of the Lord Jesus Christ; we attack with the love of God, we attack with the joy of God, and we attack with prayer.
1Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us (Hebrews 12:1 NKJV). This that we’re doing is an endurance thing.
1… let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2looking unto Jesus – the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him… How did He keep Himself going with endurance? Joy, joy. Joy like a river. I’ve got to have joy. It’s like a river; it just flows. I’m the one that’s got joy because I win.
My business is to pray and ask the Father and do what He tells me to do. The winning business is His business. The attacking business is our business. We attack with joy. 2…who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:1-2 NKJV). I can’t do this thing without joy. I can’t do this thing without the love of God inspiring me to do it.
I have the joy of the Lord that is my strength.
God delivered His people from a system of slavery in Egypt. God used Egypt to allow them to grow. Joseph was the one who rescued Jacob and the sons of Jacob so that they could have food. They survived seven harsh years of drought because of the favour that was on Joseph’s life. They stayed there and as a nation, they grew there, they flourished there, they had their own territory called Goshen there but the time came when there were so many Pharaohs that came and went, and the time came when no-one knew who Joseph was. When that Pharaoh arrived, he began to put the children of Israel to slavery because he became aware of their might and their strength as a people and he became afraid of them. What is a good thing for our growth today could be our slaves tomorrow. It could be our slavery system tomorrow.
I want you to see that He took them out of a place where they used to flourish but it became their place of enslavement. I’ve got to trust God to move me out of that place. God moved them out of that place in power and He provided them everything they ever needed in the harshest conditions. As much as His miracle power was providing for them, that was not the relationship He wanted with them. He wanted them to go to a promised land that He promised Abraham. My blessing will be on you in that place. My covenant with you will grow to a new level.
The Promised Land is where God wants us. It’s a land where He’s interactive with us; that the people that are around us that want to do war with us, He gives us the military strategy and the strength to do war with them and defeat them every time. He pours His blessing on the work that we do. He wants us to be an interactive life force receiver, we live out His life force and we are blessed.
In the New Testament that place is the place of Ecclesia. That place is a church that understands what they need to do and how they need to operate and how they need to be on the earth. The children in the wilderness; there was no feeble among them, there was no sick, none of them was hungry. They were blessed. That’s not where God wanted them. God wanted them in the Promised Land, so they could go to war and defeat their enemies. They could walk around Jericho’s walls and have it implode by the power of God. God wanted to have that relationship with His people so that He could show Himself mighty and strong on their behalf.
Our attack is a Jericho attack. They walked around that Jericho wall, one day, one day, one day, and then on the last day, seven times, and then made a big noise. When they gave their praise and their shout to God, He multiplied that noise as the power of His Word and it just imploded an entire city. That’s how we attack. We walk in His love, we walk in His protection, we walk in His favour, we walk in His blessing.
We keep doing this with endurance.
The first time you go on a run for a kilometre or two kilometres and you haven’t run for a long time your muscles are aching. You go do that for a couple of days, a couple of weeks, and now you start to; your muscles start to acclimatise and accommodate. Now you suddenly can run 5, 10 K’s and you begin to get into a groove and a rhythm and that gets easier. Your endurance begins to pick up. We have to do this thing with endurance and not quit. Joy and the love of God and the life of God are what we have to use as tools to keep us moving forward.
18My dear children, let’s not just talk about love; let’s practice real love (1 John 3:18 MSG). I can talk about it all I like, but I’ve got to actually end up doing it.
Real love is – if I see that you need something from me – some money, some food, something – will provide, will help. Real love is also if I see you taking over in a fault, I’ve got to come talk to you. I’ve got to give you the hard words. But I’ll be there for you every part of the way. That’s real love.
19This is the only way we’ll know we’re living truly, living in God’s reality (1 John 3:19 MSG). You want to live in God’s reality; you’ve got to live in the love of God. If you don’t receive the love of God in this season, you can’t attack.
The team game is much more powerful than the single star game. And we have to attack as a team. We’ve got to attack the devil wherever we go, as a community. This is where the collective greatness comes in. This is where we thrive.
This is our attack time now. We’ve got to find answers. We’ve got to find solutions. We are the church that can bring the solution. Our church; we are the people that can pray this in. We are the people that can bring the love of God into the situation.
The joy of the Lord is my strength. I’ve got the power. It is living in me. I am not going to allow the devil to keep me in Goshen and be a slave to his system. Babylon is falling and I am out of there. I am going with God all the way.
18-20…It’s also the way to shut down debilitating self-criticism (1 John 3:18 MSG). When I see things going wrong in my life and issues happening in my life, it is the devil trying to come back and use my humanity to try and bring self-criticism to debilitate me. I might be human, but I’m also spiritual. My humanity is not going to defeat me. My humanity is just here to keep my spirit here so that I can win. The love of God is what saves me.
20It’s also the way to shut down debilitating self-criticism, even when there is something to it for God is greater than our worried hearts. And knows more about us than we do ourselves (1 John 3:20 MSG). I receive Your love, I receive Your strength and now I let the joy of the Lord rise inside of me. I let Your peace come upon me so that I no longer end up in self-criticism, self-ashamed, self-judgment. I’m ready to go and do battle.
21And friends, once that’s taken care of and we’re no longer accusing or condemning ourselves, we’re bold and free before God! (1 John 3:21 MSG).
Collectively we can do this.
21…we’re bold and free before God! 22We’re able to stretch our hands out and receive what we asked for because we’re doing what He said, doing what pleases Him… (1 John 3:21-22 MSG). We win the game, because we did what pleased Him.
1Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart (Luke 18:1 NKJV). I can pray and lose heart. I lose heart because I pray, and I don’t get the results.
I can lose hope or heart in praying if my faith doesn’t have endurance in my prayers, or I quit my prayer life because I don’t see my answer in time. The unjust judge would not give vengeance but because of her persistence, he gave it to her. How much more will my heavenly Father who hears what I’m saying, bring vengeance for me or bring help to me speedily, even though it may take time? God’s hearing my prayer, He’s answering it speedily. I don’t lose heart. I don’t lose hope. I keep praying.
My job is don’t lose hope and don’t lose heart. It’s attack time. It’s that moment where I’ve got to push; spiritually I’ve got to push, joy we’ve got to push, prayer we’ve got to push, the love of God we’ve got to push, we’ve got to keep our peace –we’ve got to govern again.
My first fruit is working. My tithes and my offerings are working. My prayers are working. The love of God is working for me. If I’m losing my peace, I say, “Thank You, Lord, that You are my peace. I receive the peace of God that passes my understanding and the peace is upon me. I walk in peace, I walk in joy, I walk in life, I walk in love, I walk in power and as I walk, my light shines and I’m already attacking the devil with my life.
The joy of the Lord is my strength. The peace of God comes upon me and rests mightily upon me like a blanket and just shields me and covers me from all of the stress and all of the anxieties and all of the issues of the world system. The wisdom of God empowers me and begins to create in me a knowledge of what to do next and how to go about things in my life. God is creating opportunities for me to be abundant and be successful and have favour and have good things in my life. I give all of who I am to Jesus. I give Him my words. I give Him my heart. I give Him my love. I let the love of God rise up big inside of me because then all fear is cast away.
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