All the Power You Need // Your Road to Spiritual Victory, Part 2

All too often, God’s people – who we’re told are meant to be more than conquerors – lie bloodied and beaten on the spiritual battlefield we call life. What they need is power, but they just can’t seem to find it. Well what if I told you that God has already provided you with all the power you need?

IT’S TIME TO REPENT

I want you to imagine a person who wants to become an elite athlete, whatever their chosen sport may be. This person sets out to become a great tennis player or footballer or track and field competitor and yet all they ever do is they sit on the couch eating chips and sweets and drinking sugar-laden soft drink. Would you expect that person to realise their dream of becoming an elite athlete on that sort of a diet and that sort of an exercise regime? Not likely.

And yet that’s what so many Christians do. They want to live a life of spiritual victory in Christ and yet they fail to turn away from the things that are ruining their lives. Those things have a collective name in God’s Book – He calls them sin. Have a listen to the Apostle Paul’s take on all of this, Romans chapter 6, verse 21 to 23:

So what advantage did you get from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death but now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God the advantage you get is sanctification, the end is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

For much of my life I shied away from God simply because I thought becoming a Christian meant living out some out dated, irrelevant bunch of rules that would restrict me and constrain me, a bit like a straight jacket. That’s the view that so many people have of being a Christian – you can’t do this, you can’t do that, how’s a person supposed to have any fun in this life?

What surprised me though when I looked closer at it is that God only tells us not to do the things that are actually going to hurt us and hurt other people. And the list of do’s and don’ts, well it’s actually quite small in the scheme of things and yet still there’s always at least one of those that we want to hang on to in our lives, isn’t there?

Listen up, there is no such thing as a small sin. Hang on to any sin and eventually it’s going to kill you, let it go and the reward is freedom today and eternal life for the rest of eternity.

Over the last few days on the program we’ve talked a lot about the powerful transformation that happens to you and to me the moment we believe in Jesus. Our past is completely forgiven, as far as the east is from the west so far does God remove our transgressions from us. So much so that our past misdemeanours become completely irrelevant in God’s eyes and in God’s eyes we’re as pure and as blameless as Jesus Himself.

That abundant mercy and grace is a kindness and a generosity that is simply indescribable and that kindness and generosity is actually meant to have a transformative impact on our lives, Romans chapter 2 verses 3 and 4:

Do you imagine, whoever you are, that when you judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself you will escape the judgement of God? Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Don’t you realise that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance.

Isn’t it funny how quick we are to judge others and yet how readily we find excuses to rationalise our own behaviour. Maybe it’s time for us to stop kidding ourselves. Other people’s sin, by and large, isn’t our responsibility but our sin is and one day Jesus will come back and judge the living and the dead, each one of us, Christian and non-Christian alike will stand before Him to give an account for our lives, our behaviour and our sin.

Make no mistake judgement day is coming but right now God has done everything that needs doing, He has shown us every kindness, He has given us every opportunity to repent, to turn away from the things that we know are wrong and to turn our lives back to Him.

The right response, the only response to God’s kindness is repentance. The right response, the only response to Jesus death on that cross is letting go of our sin and loving Him in word and in deed. Surely that’s not too much to ask, is it? And it’s not as though we’re powerless to change because God gives us the very power we need to leave that sin behind. He never takes us to a place where temptation is more than we can bear, 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 13:

So if you think that you are standing watch out that you don’t fall. No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength but with a testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.

Let’s be honest we all struggle with sin, somehow each one of us has that one Achilles heel and one temptation, that one sin that we’re vulnerable to and doesn’t the devil know it. He waits for just the right time, when we’re tired, when we’re distracted, when we’re under pressure, when we haven’t prayed or opened our Bible for a few days or weeks and then whammo, he swoops in and he strikes.

The result, we succumb to the temptation, we stumble, we suffer guilt, we suffer condemnation and we want to run and hide from God just like Adam and Eve did. What’s your Achilles heel of temptation and sin? What are you struggling with? Are you wondering what you can possibly do to overcome it?

Well here’s a powerful promise from God, whatever it is He will never allow you to be tempted beyond your ability to withstand the temptation and He will always provide you with a way out. That’s Gods promise to you, He will always be there to help you overcome the temptation and that’s important because that sin robs us of the spiritual victory that He wants for our lives. That sin steals the very thing that Jesus suffered and died and rose again to give us, abundant victory.

God’s thought of everything, of forgiveness, to be set free from the past and of the power we need to overcome the future. Yeah, God’s thought of everything

THE POWER OF PRAYER

For many Christians prayer is one of those optional extras. It’s something we fit in now and then when we can and it seems we’re especially good at fitting in a quick prayer when things aren’t going so well. ‘Oh God please help me, oh God please stop the pain, oh God when are you finally going to show up’? Sound familiar?

Imagine that someone you love only ever talks to you when they’re in trouble, it wouldn’t make much for a relationship now, would it? I wonder sometimes if we don’t have a completely wrong view of prayer because the only sort of prayer that the Bible teaches us about is the sort that has powerful results.

Let me say that again just in case you missed it – the only sort of prayer that the Bible teaches us about is the sort that has powerful results. Now when you think of it that way you have to ask yourself, so why do I keep banging my head up against a brick wall? Here’s how Jesus put it, John chapter 15 verse 7. He said that:

If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you can ask for whatever you wish and it will be done for you.

In other words if we’re close to His heart, if we know what He wants then our desires will be aligned with His and in that context we can ask Him for whatever we wish and it will be done for us. That’s a powerful statement and when we live that out in our lives it yields powerful results.

We’re in the middle of a series of messages called Your Road To Spiritual Victory because that’s what God wants for you, for your life, spiritual victory. And as I said at the beginning of this program, you can’t have that sort of victory if you don’t spend time in prayer. I mean you just can’t.

So many of Christ followers want spiritual victory but they’re too busy to pray. Huh, that’s about as smart as the couple who want a great marriage but are too busy to talk to one another about the things in life that really matter, as though that was somehow going to work. Yeah I know what you’re thinking, you’re thinking, ‘Berni that’s great for you but I don’t have the sort of faith that you need to get powerful results through my prayer.’

Well you’re not alone, I know many a Christian who firmly believes they don’t have enough faith to go and ask God for the things they need, for the help they need and for the victory they need. It turns out that these people have more than enough faith to believe that they don’t have enough faith but not enough faith to believe that their loving powerful God could give them the breakthrough that they so desperately need.

I mean when you put it like that it sounds crazy but that’s exactly what’s going on here. Now let me warn you, I’m one of these crazy nut cases who takes Jesus at His word. In other words, if Jesus said it it’s not just true but it’s actually true for me. So what did Jesus say about how much faith that you and I need to overcome a whopping great obstacle that’s in our road? Matthew chapter 17 verses 19 and 20:

Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, ‘How come we couldn’t cast the demon out?’ and he said to them, ‘Because of your little faith. Look truly I tell you if you have faith the size of a mustard seed you will say to this mountain ‘get up, move from here, over there’ and it will move and nothing will be impossible for you’.

Did you get that? NOTHING will be impossible for you. The answer to how much faith you need is that faith the size of a mustard seed which was the tiniest of all seeds known to human kind when Jesus was walking this earth, faith the size of a mustard seed is more than enough to move the mountain, to move the obstacle, that’s what Jesus said. Question is, will you take Him at His word? Because it’s not about the size of your faith, it’s about the size of your God – a God who is so powerful that He created the universe.

Have a listen to this beautiful and powerful truth, Psalm 33 verses 6 to 9:

For the word of the Lord is upright and all his work is done in faithfulness. He loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.

Isn’t that beautiful?

By the word of the Lord the heavens were made and all their host by the breath of his mouth. He gathered the waters of the sea as in a bottle, he put the deeps in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord, let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him for he spoke and it came to be, he commanded and it stood firm.

When you and I are praying that’s the God we’re praying to, the God who created the whole universe, a trillion trillion stars by the breath of his mouth. Do you think that He doesn’t have the power to deliver on His promises? Really? And yet He’s the very same God who wants to hear the deepest thoughts and secrets of our hearts. He is the God who delights in the intimacy of prayer. He wants a relationship, a real conversation.

The sort of prayer I was taught when I was growing up was formal prayer, kneel down, bow your head, clasp your hands together and then come up with some really sensible words maybe words that someone else wrote for you. The problem is though that that’s not the sort of prayer that the Bible talks about at all.

Jesus, just before He was crucified we’re told, threw Himself on the ground and prayed, He poured His heart out to His Father in heaven, He told His Dad exactly what He was thinking and feeling. Matthew chapter 26 verse 39:

And going a little further he threw himself on the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it’s possible let this cup pass from me yet not my will but let your will be done’.

Think about it, God loves you more than words can possibly ever say and when you love someone that much you want them to be real with you, you want them to pour their hearts out to you to tell what’s really going on, right? It’s exactly what Jesus did when He was under that terrible stress of being crucified.

Well, your Dad in heaven wants the same, your Dad in heaven wants your quiet times of prayer as the most intimate moments that you and I will ever have with God.

THE WORD OF GOD

I guess in a good loving marriage if you love someone it’s not unreasonable to expect that they would from time to time, even reasonably often, say kind, loving, encouraging, uplifting things to you. Not an unreasonable expectation, right? And yet so many Christians have never heard God whisper those sweet nothings into their ears.

Why? I was having lunch with a friend the other day and he said something along the lines of, ‘Well, look, I don’t read my Bible, I find it boring. In any case I have a deal with God, as long as I have love in my heart that’s all that matters.’ Yeah right. My question to him was this, ‘So if you don’t read your Bible, if you don’t listen to the loving things that God has to say to you and about you how can you possibly have His love in your heart?’

If you want to hear God speak read your Bible, if you want to hear God speak audibly then read it out loud. That Bible is His love letter to you.

As we journey through this series on living our lives in spiritual victory we have to talk about one of the greatest maladies in Christendom today, the Biblically illiterate majority who are so longing for victory, real victory over sin, over the devil, over trials and obstacles and circumstances and situations and yet they leave the one offensive weapon in their armoury locked away in a cupboard somewhere.

The Apostle Paul had this to say about the spiritual battlefield on which we live, have a listen, it’s Ephesians chapter 6 verses 10 to 17:

Finally (he writes) be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armour of God so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our struggle isn’t against the enemies of blood and flesh but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of the present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places.

Therefore take up the whole armour of God so that you may be able to withstand on that day of evil and having done everything to stand firm. Stand therefore and fasten the belt of truth around your waist and put on the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the Gospel of peace. With all of these take the shield of faith with which you’ll be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God. (Ephesians 6: 10-17)

So there is one of the best pictures of the spiritual battlefield on which you and I live that you will ever find in the Bible. The point he’s making is that we focus on the things we see, the things of flesh and blood and yet there is a spiritual battle raging in the spiritual dimension, in the heavenly places, that is every bit as real as anything you and I can see or feel here and now.

A spiritual battle that sits aback of the trials and the troubles that we experience in this world. A spiritual battle that we ignore at our peril. We can’t have spiritual victory without being aware of that spiritual battle and then doing the things that we can do to win it. As Paul puts it, ‘Putting on the whole body armour of God’ not just part of it but all of it.

Now when you think about it armour is by and large defensive, in other words, it’s there to protect you. The belt of truth holds things together, the breastplate of righteousness protects your chest, your heart, your lungs, the shoes for your feet they make it easier for you to run, the shield of faith quenches the fiery darts of the enemy, the helmet of salvation protects your head. All of those are passive and protective to stop the enemy attacks from hurting you, great.

But you don’t win a battle just by defending yourself, you win a battle by attacking, by going on the offensive and in that whole list we are given only one offensive weapon, did you pick it? It’s the sword of the spirit which is the Word of God. In other words your Bible – the living Word of the living God is the one offensive weapon in your armoury.

When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness the devil came after Him by misquoting and twisting God’s Word, how did Jesus respond? Each time He responded with the truth, He defeated the devil with the truth, with God’s Word, Luke chapter 4 verses 3 to 12.

Jesus filled with the Holy Spirit returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days and when they were over he was famished. The devil said to him, ‘If you’re the Son of God command this stone to become a loaf of bread’. But Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, man does not live by bread alone’.

Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world and the devil said to him, ‘to you I will give their glory and all this authority for it has been given over to me and I give it to anyone whom I please. If you then will worship me it will be yours.’ Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, worship the Lord your God and serve only him’.

Then the devil took Jesus to Jerusalem and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple saying to him, ‘If you are the Son of God throw yourself down from here for it is written ‘he will command his angels concerning you, to protect you and on their hands they will bear you up so you will not dash your feet against the stone.’ But Jesus answered him, ‘It is said, do not put the Lord your God to test. When the devil had finished every test he departed from him until a more opportune time.’

Three times Jesus hit back at the devil with His one offensive weapon, the sword of the spirit which is the Word of God. But leave the sword in its scabbard; leave the sword in the scabbard at home in the storeroom and it won’t do you any good. We need to get it out, to read it, to let God speak to us through it, to listen to what He has to say about us and this world rather than the perversions that the devil will whisper in our ears.

Let me be perfectly blunt, you cannot, you simply cannot live in spiritual victory without regularly reading your Bible, it just isn’t possible, get it? You and I don’t have the power to defeat the devil, we don’t have the power to overcome the obstacles in life but God’s Word is so incredibly powerful. Why do we miss that? Why do we trifle with the Word of God?

One of the most frightening things that I see in the Kingdom of God today is people who call themselves Christians and yet they trifle with God’s Word. They have a Bible to be sure but it collects dust on the shelf or it’s tucked away in a drawer somewhere. They listen to sermons most Sundays, well sort of but by the time they’re having that post Church service cup of coffee their heart and their mind has already wandered off somewhere else.

In the very first chapter of the Bible, Genesis chapter 1, we hear how God created the universe but let me ask you a question, exactly how did God create the universe? Answer, He spoke it into existence, Genesis chapter 1.

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was formless and void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’ and there was light and God saw the light and it was good and God separated the light from the darkness.

God spoke the whole universe into existence. As the Apostle Paul said later in Romans chapter 4 verse 17:

God calls into existence the things that do not yet exist.

That’s the power of God’s Word. I wonder what things, what blessings God wants to call into existence in your life through His Word. And His Word is the place where you’ll discover the spiritual victory that you’ve been looking for all this time. The sword of the spirit which is the Word of God – your one offensive weapon. Don’t leave home without it.