I. Intro.
A. All Saints Day.
1. Today is All Saints Day on the church calendar.
a. We do not pray to saints, we pray directly to God because of Jesus Christ.
b. But we remember all the saints who have gone before us and follow their example of perseverance, hope and faithfulness.
c. Saints from the first century and our loved ones who have recently gone to be with the Lord.
2. Hebrews 12:1-3
1 Therefore 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, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, 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. 3 For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.
B. Many of us have been facing challenges lately.
1. Many of us need healing in our bodies. We need financial breakthrough and provision. Some of us need better jobs. We need breakthrough in our families.
2. I believe that we are being tested now, as we stand against the evil one.
a. Eph 6:13 “Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”
3. I believe that we are in a time of standing our ground. The battle will break, the tide will turn, but right now we have to be patient, endure the suffering and persevere until we see the victory.
C. Two things God is doing in us through this time of testing and how we should respond.
1. First, God is shifting our basis of belief from our experience to His Word.
2. Second, God is training us for battle.
II. Shifting our basis of belief. (From Wednesday nite.)
A. Have you been praying the Word but have yet to see the answer come?
1. Many of us are in a time of waiting on the Lord right now. We’re in the space between praying and receiving the answer to our prayers.
2. Ps 105:19 “Until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him.”
a. We’ve been praying the Word and it will come to pass, but right now it is testing us. Will we believe God? Will the trial make our faith mature?
B. What is your basis of belief? What does your belief in God rest on?
1. People ask me “Do you believe in divine healing?” And I always reply “Yes” because I do. But I used to add to my answer “I believe that God heals because I have personally experienced it and I have seen God heal others.”
2. The Lord challenged me on this. He showed me that I was basing my belief in healing on my own experience and not on His Word, and that is a dangerous way to believe.
3. God showed me that my experience of healing and seeing others healed is a testimony. Testimonies are good, they’re encouraging and they are one of the ways that we overcome the evil one. But our testimony should not be why we believe, they should be the result of believing in God throughout the trials of life.
4. The Lord convicted me to believe Him based on His promise, on His Word, and not on my experience or the experiences of others.
5. So does your belief in God rest on your experience or on God’s Word?
6. Two Examples:
a. Thomas: “Unless I see the holes in His hands and side…” Jn 20:19-29
b. His experience should have led him to believe.
c. Abraham: “…he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.” Gen 15:6
d. His experience gave him reason to doubt, but he believed God’s promise.
7. Rom 4:19-25
19 And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. 20 He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God,
21 and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. 22 And therefore “it was accounted to him for righteousness.”
23 Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, 24 but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, 25 who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.
C. Our faith in God’s Word is being perfected.
1. James 1:2-4 (The Word that came to me four times in two days.)
2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
a. various: many different kinds of suffering and trials that we endure in life.
b. trials: some translations say ‘temptations’, suffering includes temptations to atop trusting God, to blame others, to end the trial by works of the flesh
2. James says that we ‘fall into’ various trials. Sometimes trials just overtake us and the Lord has allowed them. We should not immediately assume that we are in sin, to blame, etc. (REGRET)
3. ‘the testing of your faith’ as we suffer, our faith is being tested.
a. Trials don’t produce faith, they test the faith that we already have.
b. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God (Rom 10:17) & purified in trials.
4. Peter says it this way... 1 Pt 1:1&7
6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ,
5. We need to add patience to our prayers, patience will perfect our faith.
a. perfect: finished, completeness, also a full grown mature adult.
b. Trials are not meant to destroy our faith, but refine it, perfect it.
6. Patience is an action, a verb. Patience is a work of the heart and mind to stay focused on God throughout the trial.
a. What is the other thing in the bible that produces faith? Hearing the Word of God (Rom 10:17)
b. So we’ve heard the Word and faith has grown in our hearts. Now trials are making perfect, mature and complete.
7. But we have to count this all joy, because unbelief, grumbling and bitterness will produce discouragement instead of perfecting our faith.
C. How do we respond to this testing?
1. Make sure that your faith is in God’s Word and not in your experience. Is my basis of belief going to be on my experience or on God’s Word?
2. Keep praying and proclaiming the scriptures in faith. I have been doing this for the last two months about 2 specific areas of life (mine and TRC) and it seems like things have gotten better in some ways and worse in others.
3. Ps 105:19 “Until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him.”
a. We’ve been praying the Word and it will come to pass, but right now it is testing us. Will we believe God? Will the trial make our faith mature?
II. Training for battle.
A. This is a spiritual boot camp.
1. Psalm 144:1 “Blessed be the Lord my Rock, Who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle…”
2. The Lord has assignments for us, individually and as a church body, and in order to complete them, we will need to intercede, fast and endure.
B. Madison’s Word from the Women’s Retreat.
1. Jeremiah 51:20-23
20 “You are My battle-ax and weapons of war: for with you I will break the nation in pieces; With you I will destroy kingdoms; 21 With you I will break in pieces the horse and its rider; With you I will break in pieces the chariot and its rider; 22 With you also I will break in pieces man and woman; with you I will break in pieces old and young; with you I will break in pieces the young man and the maiden; 23 With you also I will break in pieces the shepherd and his flock; with you I will break in pieces the farmer and his yoke of oxen; and with you I will break in pieces governors and rulers. 2. Vs 20 Corporately and individually. Together we are a weapon as a church body, individually we are weapons that the Lord uses.
3. As a church:
a. battle axe: means war club, hammer, etc.
b. He wants to use us to break the power of darkness in this area and beyond.
4. As individuals:
a. weapons: a vessel, an instrument, shaped for a purpose
b. He has shaped and fashioned each of us with gifts, skills and the heart to destroy the works of the enemy.
5. Jer 1:9&10 (My commission)
9 Then the Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me: “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. 10 See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, To root out and to pull down, To destroy and to throw down, To build and to plant.”
6. We are to be a church that breaks the oppression of darkness. We break it’s power in our own lives and then in love we break it off others and help them stay free.
a. This is why the praying the Word and staying faithful to believe God is so important.
b. The Word is a hammer, a club.
c. 10 times in this passage God says “With you…” the blows of a hammer.
d. When we keep praying & proclaiming the Word we hit the works of the enemy with the hammer.
7. What does this look like?
a. Prayer assignments from the Lord to break the enemy strongholds.
b. HUB groups where we live this out (encourage, stand together, minister to others)
c. Houses of Light that draw the lost in.
d. Overflow to other churches and areas. (Can, Kan)
C. How do we respond to this assignment?
1. We need to show up. (gatherings, HUB’s, for one another, etc.) Mt 18:19
19 “Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”
2. We need to be in unity. Ps 133:1&2
1 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! 2 It is like the precious oil upon the head, running down on the beard, the beard of Aaron, running down on the edge of his garments.
3. We need to increase our prayer time, individually and corporately. James 5:16-18
16 Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. 18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.
b. effective: energeo, (energy) to put into action, to be at work, to be active
c. avails: ischyo, exerts power, exerts force, also the strength to overcome
d. The energy that we put forth in prayer exerts power and force to overcome
4. Above all, do not stop praying the Word.
a. Elijah had to pray 7 times on Mt Carmel for the rain to come.
b. The battle axe is the Word coming out of our mouths. Keep speaking and hammering there enemy.
c. People are not our enemy, they need our love and help to get free.
d. We wrestle against principalities & powers.
III. Closing.
A. Having done all to stand, stand. (Eph 6:13)
1. Our faith is being tested right now.
a. Rejoice: don’t get discouraged or depressed. Rejoice because God is perfecting your faith.
b. He is shifting your basis of belief from experience to His Word.
2. This is also a spiritual bootcamp.
a. The Lord is training us for the assignment that He has for us in the next season.
b. We are a church that overcomes the darkness of this age with the Light of Jesus.
3. Keep praying the scriptures over your life.
B. Prayers for healing, provision, freedom.
1. Healing
Mark 11:23&24 “23 For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. 24 Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.”
1 Peter 2:24 “…Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by Whose stripes you were healed.”
Psalm 103:1-3 “1 Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name! 2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: 3 Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases…”
Romans 8:11 “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life (quicken) to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”
2. Provision
Philippians 4:19 “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
2 Cor 9:8 “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things,may have an abundance for every good work.”
Luke 6:38 “Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”
3. Guidance, future, retirement.
Psalm 23:1-3 1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. 3 He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s
sake.
Psalm 32:8 “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.”
Isaiah 30:21 “Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left.”