Strongholds

[0:00] Thank God. I'm not going to keep you very long. Praise God. Everybody in here cool enough?

[0:16] Good, because I don't want to chase notes. Praise the Lord. If you have your Bibles with you, let's turn to 2 Corinthians 10, verse 3. And while we're going there, does anybody know what 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17 says?

[0:38] For all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

[0:52] So that means that every part of the Word of God applies to our life. And it's up to us to find that, to rightly divide the Word of truth as it comes forth, and to study to show ourselves approved as a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word.

[1:10] And I'm looking just like you are. I don't mark anything. 2 Corinthians 10, verse 3. Like I said, I won't keep you very long.

[1:24] I promise. If I had the chalkboard out, it would be a different story. No, I don't want the chalkboard. 2 Corinthians 10, verse 3 says, Tonight I'm going to talk to you about one word, and that's strongholds.

[2:08] The word stronghold is actually a place of safety. But what happens is the enemy has strongholds in our life.

[2:20] And when we come to God, those strongholds are still there. When God gave the land of Canaan to the children of Israel, there were places inside that land.

[2:31] He ran most of the people out before they ever got there. Before they ever got there, he ran most of them out. He sent bees, ran them out.

[2:44] But there was a few people that he left there. And those few people lived in these strongholds. We're going to talk about two of the strongholds that were in the land of Canaan here in just a little bit.

[2:56] But tonight, what are the strongholds in your life? What are the things that you make as a place of safety in yourself, but really it's a place of hidden sin and corruption in ourself?

[3:11] Where does the enemy fight us? We started a study here just a couple of weeks ago on the threefold nature of man. And one of the things that we talked about was our sense of sight in the spirit, which is, or in our soul, which is what?

[3:25] The imagination. And that's the way that the enemy fights us a lot of times. The first place that the devil attacks us is in our imagination. We don't have a whole lot of problems, but the enemy makes us imagine that we have a whole lot.

[3:45] He wants us to believe that we cannot make it. And he uses our imagination to make us think that. Because our imagination works with our reasoning that we talked about the other night.

[4:01] And it gets us to where we believe just about anything. But the imagination is the first place that the devil attacks. And what happened was, as a result of Adam's sin, when Adam fell in the garden, man's imagination became corrupt.

[4:17] Before, we had the mind of God. Adam had the mind of God. All the animals came to him, and he named them all. He had the mind of God.

[4:30] But sin came in, and his whole being became corrupted. And so, the imagination became corrupt. Proverbs chapter 2 and verse 1 says, Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing?

[4:51] Something that's vain, is empty, and foolish. So, why do the heathen rage? Well, it just looks like the enemy's just all around us, and he's just going crazy.

[5:05] And the people imagine a vain thing. Lord, we can't make it in this mess. The enemy's just too great. We can't win this battle. We can't get through this.

[5:16] So, what are we going to do? So, vain means empty and foolish. And our imagination, my imagination, your imagination, is empty and foolish without the governing power of the Holy Ghost leading it.

[5:31] And it's the devil's job to convince you that you cannot make it. He doesn't have any power over you.

[5:48] But he influences you. He tries to convince you. And he comes and he talks and he whispers in your ear and he tries to convince you that you can't make it.

[6:06] First Peter chapter 5 verse 8. Turn over there real quick and read this. Read this verse before we start talking about the strongholds real quick. First Peter chapter 5 verse 8.

[6:27] Hallelujah.

[6:41] Hallelujah. First Peter chapter 5 verse 8 says, Be sober. Be vigilant.

[6:51] Because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. Whom he may devour.

[7:03] The way that the devil devours us is by convincing us that you can't do it. God has given us all the tools to succeed and what he wants us to accomplish. But it's up to us if we quit.

[7:18] If we stop before we reach the point that God wants us to reach, then whose fault is it that we fail? Mine.

[7:30] George. It's up to us. We got to get in there and we got to do it. The devil wants you to believe that you are not capable to overcome the flesh that you have.

[7:41] well, I just can't control my mouth. Biggest problem for everybody in the whole wide world.

[7:59] Well, I've got this habit and I can't control it. No. You can't. But if you've got the Holy Ghost, you can't.

[8:11] He can't. The problem is we don't let him have control.

[8:21] We don't let the Holy Ghost work in it. We want to try and say, okay, God, here's my problem. There it is, Lord.

[8:32] Lord, I thank you, God, you're going to take care of my problem. I thank you, Jesus, that you're not going to let it bother me no more, Jesus. I just thank you, Lord. Before we're finished praying the prayer to ask God to help us with our problem and with our attitude, with our habits, we've already picked it up and started walking off with it again.

[8:57] We don't give it to him. Praise the Lord. Who wants a souvenir? Brother Gerald grabbed his hand.

[9:12] From last Saturday night. Or last Friday night. One night. Gave it away one night as a prayer cloth. The other night he left it laying up here, so that's the other one.

[9:28] But the devil devours us by convincing us that we can't do it. By convincing us that our flesh is just way too great for us to be able to handle it. Let's turn over to Numbers.

[9:42] Try and get where I'm trying to go tonight. Fourteen different things going over in my head. Numbers chapter 13.

[9:52] verse 31. In verse 31.

[10:13] Familiar story. Everybody's heard it. Everybody knows it. That's why we like it so well. But the children of Israel had been in Egypt for 430 years as slaves.

[10:31] And finally God sent a deliverer. Sent Moses down to lead them out. And after they had been gone out for just a few days, it was 12 days journey from Egypt to where we're at right here.

[10:51] Took them 40 years to get in. Numbers chapter 13 verse 31 says, It says, But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.

[11:11] And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land through which we have gone to search it is a land that eat it up the inhabitants thereof, and all the people that we saw in it are all men of a great stature.

[11:27] And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants, and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.

[11:41] We were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. If you think that you cannot make it, if you think that you cannot walk this way, you can't.

[11:57] But, remember, he's given us all the tools to accomplish everything that we need to get done. And here they are, they come up to the land, and God said, I will give you the land, go in, and possess it.

[12:10] Now that word possess means that there has to be some authority to change. That means that if you give me something, I think my money better not give it away.

[12:33] Praise God, you got a picture, Frank. who would like to have this picture, Frank?

[12:47] Come on up here, Timmy. And that's the way that the people were.

[13:00] God said, go in, and take what is yours. And they came up, and they walked up there, and they went in, and they looked throughout the land. Two men came back carrying grapes on a staff between them, dragging the ground, told them, man, the land, it's truly a land flowing with milk and honey, and we'd be more than able to go in and take the land.

[13:26] But the rest of them, the other ten, came back like Brother Timmy just did. I didn't do nothing. I'm innocent. I don't want no problems. But the only way that we get anything is if I say, here, hold that.

[13:55] You're going to be God. I figured he's the oldest looking man here. He may as well be. that's a good one.

[14:16] This is the land of Canaan. Now tell me something, God. Go take it.

[14:27] God told him to go in and to possess the land. That word possess man, the land means to go in and whoever has got it, you take it from them.

[14:41] He didn't say that there wouldn't be battles to go through. But he did say, I'll fight it. He didn't say that there wouldn't be problems.

[14:58] He didn't say that there wouldn't be trouble, but he did say, I will be with you in trouble. And we get mad at God because we have situations that we have to deal with in our life.

[15:11] And the problem isn't the situation, the problem is our stinking will. We don't want to bend to what God wants us to do. We want to stand up and say, okay God, this is the way that I think that this ought to be and I think that you ought to just do it for me right now because that's what I think.

[15:30] What we think does not amount to a hill of beans. What we think isn't going to get us anywhere. What we think is going to get us killed spiritually. But they came up here and they're ready to cross over.

[15:46] They've already, they've been in slavery for 430 years, 12 days out of Egypt, they're standing looking across the river at the promised land.

[16:00] So they send out spies. Go spy it out, look at it, see what you think of it. Ten of them came back with this evil report. Oh, we can't do it. In our own eyes, we're as grasshoppers in our sight.

[16:20] And in theirs too. The reason they were grasshoppers in the eyes of the giant is because that's what they thought. The word tells me that as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.

[16:36] If we think that we cannot make it, we can't make it. If we think that we can't accomplish what God's called us to do, we can't. And the thing is, God had given them the land. All they had to do was go in and take control.

[16:50] Go in and possess it. But they rebelled. And they were afraid. And because they rebelled and because they were afraid, they didn't go in and possess the land.

[17:02] And God said, okay, follow me. Cloud and fire started among them. they wandered around in the wilderness for 40 years.

[17:19] Grumbling, griping, and complaining the whole time when the reason that they were in the place is because they were afraid and rebelled against what God said when they were standing on the river banks, looking at what was theirs.

[17:36] And that's the way we are. God tells us that we can have freedom in him. But we refuse to deal with our stinking flesh. Oh, brother, you don't understand this habit is hard to break.

[17:48] Yeah, I do. Y'all don't know me. A lot of you don't. When I was 16 years old, I was on drugs and I was an alcoholic.

[18:02] But Jesus changed all that. Brother, you don't watch like smoke. Yeah, I do. I did it for several years.

[18:16] Quit when I was 17. 16. And a good something song, I forgot how old I was. Now I start telling my age.

[18:29] Yeah. Praise the Lord.

[18:40] You know, I've been serving the Lord for 20 years. 21 years.

[18:59] 37. Still younger than Billy. everybody having a good time?

[19:14] Good. I studied today. I thought, God, don't let it be like the last time I preached. I raked everybody over the coast much last time I preached on a Saturday night.

[19:33] It wasn't good. Didn't make me feel good anyway. I thought I was going to preach one of them wonderful jumping up and down messages in a cleaned house.

[19:45] But they wandered around in the wilderness for 40 years because of their fear and because of their rebellion against God. And after 40 years they wind up where?

[19:58] Standing on the banks of the river Jordan, looking across the river at the promised land. You know what's different now than then?

[20:09] They didn't send out spies. They sent a couple of people over but they didn't do it like they did before.

[20:22] They didn't go spy out the whole land. They went to one particular place. They went to the city of Jericho. And in the city of Jericho there they found a harlot named Rahab.

[20:39] And when they discovered there were some Israelites in the city and said we gotta find them we gotta kill them. But Rahab the harlot hit them and saved them to get back to go back and tell them we're more than able to possess the land.

[20:58] After 40 years everybody above the age of 20 years old except for Joshua Caleb and two priests died. The only people who were there standing on the banks of the Jordan River that had been there before were people who were younger than 20 when they got there.

[21:18] In other words they didn't have a clue what was going on they were just following mom and daddy. The rebellion wasn't in them.

[21:30] After wandering around the wilderness for 40 years they were ready to go somewhere besides the desert. Joshua chapter 1 verse 1 Joshua chapter 1 verse 1 and eventually I'll get to where I want to go to.

[21:54] Joshua chapter 1 we're reading verses 1 through 11 says here now after the death of Moses the servant of the Lord it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Joshua the son of Nun Moses minister saying Moses my servant is dead.

[22:24] You know sometimes we're just so stupid that God has to be real plain with us. Here they are everybody knew that Moses was dead. Moses went up on the mountain said I'm not coming back I'm going to die on the mountain and here we are after this has already happened and God says to Joshua Moses my servant is dead.

[22:49] He's wanting to make it real plain to him. Moses my servant is dead now therefore arise go over this Jordan thou and all this people unto the land which I do give to them even to the children of Israel every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon that I have given unto you as I said unto Moses from the wilderness and this Lebanon even under the great river the river Euphrates all the land of the Hittites and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your coast there shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life as I was with Moses so I will be with thee I will not fail thee nor forsake thee be strong and of a good courage for under this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land which I swear unto their fathers to give them only be thou strong and very courageous that thou mayest observe to do according to all of the law which Moses my servant commanded thee turn not from it to the right hand or to the left that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest this book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth but thou shalt meditate therein day and night that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein for then shalt thou make thy way prosperous and then shalt thou have good success have not I commanded thee be strong and of a good courage be not afraid neither be thou dismayed for the

[24:17] Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest then Joshua commanded the officers of the people saying pass through the host and command the people saying prepare you victuals for within three days you shall pass over this Jordan to go in to possess the land which the Lord your God giveth you to possess it God sent the word out God already talks to Joshua Joshua you're going to take the people and Moses is dead so now it's on you you got to take and you got to lead the people across the river Joshua was one of the two that came back and said we're more than able to possess the land Caleb was the other one that said Caleb got a mountain out of it God gave him his mountain gave him the possession that he wanted but Joshua sent the word through the camp to prepare to go in and possess the land God just a little sidebar to what we're talking about here verse eight

[25:17] God's talking to Joshua and he's telling him now you take this law and you meditate on it day and night and you put it you had it in you that you don't depart from it to the right hand or to the left keep your mind stayed on it and I will give you what's the last two words in verse eight good success sounds sort of silly doesn't it good success isn't all success good well if God said that he was going to give him good success then there must be some success that comes another way the way that you obtain good success and the way that Joshua obtained it was when he took the word and he hid it down in his heart and he didn't depart from the law of Moses but he kept it in his heart and he meditated on it day and night and he kept all the law of the Lord and then he got to have good success but the problem with Israel was and the problem with us is when things were going well for

[26:21] Israel they back slid every time God would bless them and bless them and bless them and they'd just be so blessed that they'd just forget about God and that's the way we do sometimes God blesses us and we forget about God we forget to pray we forget to fast we forget to read our word we forget to study and do all these things and so what's the difference in good success and success good success is born when we're faithful and we're obedient and we trust in what the word of God says and we hold to his hand steadfastly and we don't falter walking with him success like the kind of success that the children of Israel had a lot of times was born out of the whip that fell on their back because they forgot about God and they backslide and God would send somebody in overtake them take them captive okay let's go over here and you live over here for several years away from your temple away from your

[27:35] God you don't want to serve him anyway we'll take you over here and so they got their success a lot of times from the whip on their back a lot of time that's the way we get our success with God we get it from the whip on our back because we're disobedient and we don't listen to what the word of God says we wonder God why am I having all these stinking problems why is this going wrong and that going wrong and this going wrong and that going wrong well what are you doing are you walking and talking and doing everything that God has shown you that you need to be living are you living a half-hearted loose lifestyle that gives the enemy lead way to come in and say okay fine seeking whom what he may devour when we don't live a lifestyle that is totally committed and set apart to God then the enemy may come in so it's up to us what are we going to do Joshua chapter six strongholds the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but they're mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds

[28:50] Joshua chapter six verse one now when they first came and they spied out the land what did they come back and say those that had an evil report what did they come back and say and there's giants in the land we look like we're grasshoppers in their sight and because we think that you know that's what they see but here they are 40 years later and the same people are still living in the land that was there before the same giants are still living there but this time they didn't think about it they just went and they did as the leader commanded they walked as he commanded so Joshua chapter six and verse one says now Jericho was straightly shut up because of the children of Israel none went out and none came in now the city of Jericho if you've read any history talked about any history you know that the walls of the city of Jericho were thick enough that they raised chariots around the top of it so thick so strong that they could race chariots you know horses and chariots around the top and they're giants and here come the grasshoppers across this is one city they came out of

[30:33] Egypt they walked up to the Jordan River man there's giants in there we can't do it there's a city the first place that we're going to get to is a city and there's giants in there and they race chariots around the top and we can't make it we can't do it there's a city there there's a few thousand people that live in there but here they are they're standing on the other side of the Jordan River looking across and they see the city two three thousand people in there two three thousand giants in there and we can't do it there's only six million of us you ever stop to think about that there was six million of them standing on the other side of the river waiting to go in and possess the land but because there was one city there with a few thousand people we can't do it we don't know what we're going to do Joshua chapter 6 verse 1 now Jericho was straightly shut up because of the children of Israel none went out and none came in and the

[31:44] Lord said unto Joshua see I have given thine hand Jericho and the king thereof and the mighty men of valor and ye shall compass the city all ye men of war and go round about the city once thus shalt thou do six days and seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of ram's horns and the seventh day you shall compass the city seven times and the priests shall blow with the trumpets and it shall come to pass that when they make a long blast with the ram's horns and when you hear the sound of the trumpet all the people shall shout with a great shout and the wall of the city shall fall down flat and the people shall ascend up every man straight before them and here's the thing for them to get the victory everybody all the children of Israel didn't do the marching they had men of valor they had warriors warriors we got warriors one of them sitting back on the back row one of them sitting over here on the second row we got warriors but they had warriors and he told them he said you take your mighty men of valor and you call them up and you set before them the priests with seven ram's horns with the ark of the covenant what did the ark of the covenant represent it represented the headship of

[33:23] God our problem in our battles is we don't allow God to have headship in our life and in our battles we want to try and work it out in our own ways in our own stupid conscious way and try and figure out what the mind of God is when we don't have a clue what it is and so here he is they tell him take them and you put them up and you first day they march around one time and tell them not to say nothing and the second day you tell them you take them to go out they come out from among the camps and they line up and they march around the city again and they don't say nothing and the same the third day and the fourth day and the fifth day and the sixth day tell them to march around and not say nothing but on the seventh day a valuable lesson to learn here how many days did they march around and not say nothing how many days did they march around and then after they marched around they blew the trumpets and they shouted one that last day they marched around you ever get the idea that sometimes

[34:48] God wants us to keep our mouth shut that's why he gave us one mouth and two ears he wants to listen twice as much as we talk but we got a you got they got this thing going and so here they are they're marching around and they're going around and what do you think was going on inside the city here they are the giants are shut up inside the city nobody went out nobody came in if you were stuck on the outside whenever they shut the gate you were out of luck you're not getting in they're not letting anybody in and so you come up and here they are they're there and they're marching around the walls and nobody's saying nothing you know the giants have to be looking at each other and say what's going on there's 40,000 people out there walking around and they ain't saying nothing what's going on a lot of times we need to keep our mouth shut about the situation that we're going to except for praying we need to pray but I don't need to come over and tell brother brother you know that's my situation let me tell you about what I'm going through let me tell you about my problem a lot of time we need to keep our mouth shut and allow

[36:23] God to work in the stronghold because you know by the sixth day the giants that were standing in there standing guard and here they are there they go again they weren't worried about guarding the city anymore they were wondering what's going on then on the seventh day they marched around seven times and at the end of their seventh time around they blew the horn and they shouted with a great shout so there's some times that that we need to keep our mouth shut and let God work in the stronghold but then after that time there comes a time for a shout to bring the stronghold down because we've been on obedience and following God and everything that we're doing and we know that God's working in it and the thing with it is God knew what was inside the stronghold he knew what was inside the city of Jericho he knew there were giants in there he knew all the things that were in there and he knew the gold and the treasure and the precious robes and all those things that were in there but he told him go in and destroy everything it's mine so they went in and they marched around that wall seven times okay they marched around six days didn't say nothing that's six six number man on the seventh day they marched around seven times seven's the number of completeness six and seven together you get thirteen which is the number of bride which is the complete man because it's all about getting back to where we were in the beginning let us create man in our image let's give him our mind let's make him think like we think give him our intellect let's let him take care of the garden give him anything he wants but it wasn't enough sin came in man grew up now for the past six thousand years we've been trying to get back to the garden give me just a second I'll figure out how I got all the way over there but God's wanting to do something so he brought them up and they took the city and here's the thing the strongholds that are in our life can be a lot of things you ever get your feelings hurt first thing you do when you get your feelings hurt you start building walls and we start building walls and we build walls walls until there's a stronghold there and we're a prisoner inside of ourself can't nobody

[40:27] get to us we can't touch nobody God don't even faze us anymore nobody treat me that way and the enemy gets our imagination he gets it working over time and over time and over time building up all those walls so we're prisoners inside ourselves but then there's times that we start hiding sin well that ain't gonna hurt nobody that's just me unfortunately it's me that's gonna send me to hell unless I deal with it one place in the word says to him that knoweth to do good doeth it not to him it is sin so if I know that I need to be doing something and I'm not doing it because if I do that then that means

[41:41] I'm gonna have to deal with my flesh over here and I don't want to deal with my flesh so I'm not gonna do that we just wind up sending our own self to hell we wonder why our life is hell we're just getting ready to go but we hide sins and we build those walls around and protect them because we don't want people that have discernment coming up to us and figuring out what's wrong in our life we can put on a good show we can put on a good front we can look holy and we can act holy when the preacher's around from the church house is around but what are we doing when we by our self you know what character is character is what you are when there ain't nobody else watching when there ain't nobody else there to judge you but you and

[42:48] God that's what our character is that's what we really are and in those secret places a lot of times we get our pets in out and we look at it and we enjoy it but then somebody else comes around we gotta hide it again put on the dog but like brother man says a lot of times when you try and put on the dog all the pups come running out of porch something's gonna happen we're gonna be exposed we don't like to be exposed we don't like for people to see us for what we really are because when somebody else sees us for what we really are that means we gotta start dealing with it as long as we can keep it hid we don't have to deal with it but when it comes to the light then we gotta deal with it my sin your sin whatever it is but they went into the city of Jericho and when they went into the city of

[44:08] Jericho God told them destroy everything don't bring nothing out don't keep nothing for yourself get rid of it all destroy it it's mine they didn't have to fight they went up they walked around they let God work in their battle they shouted the walls fell down flat do you ever wonder how they all walked up straight in front of them and went into the city the walls fell down flat okay these walls are thick enough to raise chariots on top of so they're probably as thick as this church is this way they can't fall down like that because then it's 40 feet tall laying that way what happened to it they fell down flat they went everybody went straight up in front of them they walked across the roof of the wall why because they were obedient in what

[45:16] God commanded them to do and they went in there and they had to destroy everything had to destroy all the people and all that but there was one man here you've got three to six million people going in into this land and you've got these warriors 40,000 warriors going up a piece of gold take it hide it my hand ain't nobody going to know about but the problem was he was supposed to destroy it and that's what God wants out of us he wants us to destroy the things that are hidden in our secret strongholds he doesn't want us to keep them and hang on to them and play around with them when we hold on to the things that we're supposed to be destroying that's when we have serious problems I don't understand why I'm going through this have you dealt with your flesh lately

[46:21] Joshua chapter 7 it's right over the page there so they come and they go in and they possess Jericho and they take it and Jericho is destroyed all except for these few things that they can hold on to he took them and he hid them in his tent and the next place they go and here they are their confidence got built up and they go and they look at the next city the next city is a place called Ai Ai and one of them says don't send everybody up there because it's not necessary for everybody to go and work don't send all 40,000 of us up there just send a couple of thousand people up there and we can we can take the city so we go up here chapter 7 verse 1 but the children of

[47:29] Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing for Achan the son of Carmi the son of Zebdi the son of Zerah of the tribe of Judah took of the accursed thing and the anger of the Lord was kindled against the children of Israel and Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai which is beside Beth Avon on the east side of Bethlehem spake unto them saying go up and view the country and the men went up and viewed Ai and they returned to Joshua and said to them let not all the people go up but let about two or three thousand men go up and smite Ai and make not all the people to labor thither for there but a few so there went up thither of the people about three thousand men and they fled before the men of Ai and the men of Ai smote them about thirty and six men for they chased them from before the gate even unto Shebarim and smote them in the going down wherefore the hearts of the people melted and became as water so here they are they told them there's just a few people up there they've gone from forty years before standing on the other side of

[48:33] Jordan with three to six million people saying we can't go in there and we can't possess that city that's got two or three thousand people in it because they're giants and here they are they're going up there's just a few in that city just send a few of us up there to fight the battle but what they didn't know was somebody in the camp had some hidden things from the stronghold left over and because there was some things left over from the stronghold God was mad at them I can think of a few people that I don't want mad at me God is number one on the list but here they are God was mad at them and because there was sin in the camp they went up to fight the battle at Ai and they came back and 36 of them got killed because somebody had sinned what are we going to do their hearts melted they had to get sin out of the camp when they got the sin out of the camp they went up and they had victory and here's the thing that you get the biggest part of the time when you start talking to people about dealing with their flesh but it's so hard got a scripture or two for it's so hard folks

[50:01] Galatians chapter 2 verse 18 Galatians chapter 2 verse 18 says when we come to God what's the first thing we do we start looking for stuff thank God is this wrong let me lay this aside God is this wrong let me lay this aside but then after a while the fire starts dying and we start thinking well it's not so bad if I pick that up and I do that it won't hurt nobody well I just thought to myself that it was wrong that news for you if you thought it was wrong you laid it down you better leave it alone

[51:04] Galatians 2 18 says for if I build again the things which I destroyed if I pick up the things that I laid aside if I start doing the things that I've quit doing if I start going the places that I quit going for if I build again the things which I destroyed I make myself a transgressor but it's so hard if I build again the things which I once destroyed then I make myself a transgressor and where it's so hard comes in at is over in Proverbs the 13th chapter 15th verse the last half of it says the ways of a transgressor is hard we having it hard and we can't make it because we doing all the garbage that we done quit doing we ain't dealing with our flesh that's why we can't make it it's hard yeah it's hard going on for

[52:05] God when you ain't going on for God make sense it's hard going on for God when you're not going on for God I can't do it nope did nobody say you could it's all him so what happened they got the sin out of the camp they went up and because God was directing how the battle went they had victory if we'll allow God to work in us and to show us the things that he wants us to get out of our life and begin to work in us what he wants we're going to have victory time to quit playing with all the things that the world has to offer all you're going to do is get snake bit there's some snake bites first things that happens to you when you get bit your eyes quit working right you can't breathe they have what's called a neurotoxin works on your nervous system we get spiritually snake bit the life of our spiritual life the breath of our spiritual life is our prayer life the first thing that happened to us when we get spiritually prayer snake bit

[53:52] I can't see the need for going to prayer meeting I can't see the need for going to Bible study I don't know why they gotta go in have a prayer meeting for 30 minutes before service starts ain't nobody praying why they gotta do it we lose our sight when we lose our sight when we lose our vision of what God wants out of us we die it says in the word without a vision my people perish gotta get a vision for what God wants in our life God wants us to go in and possess this land there's giants in the land there's strongholds in the land but God has given us a Holy Ghost and a word that we can go in and we're more than able to go in and possess the land he's given us the tools to do the job with it's up to us to pick it up and allow

[55:07] God to lead us because when the Lord leads in the battle victory is guaranteed because it's not our battle we're just walking through it praise the Lord God bless y'all man we have any announcements tonight sister Belinda shh brother thee you you you and you you