in order to win your enemy, you need to know your Enemy. then you plan how to defeat your Enemy. This video talks about the steps every Christian need to take to defeat the Enemy and win the battle ahead of you.
and in judges chapter 7 he is getting
ready to show us how to win
a battle
anybody interested in how to win a
battle in your life
if you have your bible with you turn to
judges chapter 7 or your iphone your
ipad any manner of highness just flip on
over to
judges chapter 7 because
there are some details in here there are
many actually but i’m going to pick
three of them to share with you three
things that are going to help us know
how to advance into battle and claim the
victory that is ours
judges chapter 7 verse 15 starts this
way
and it came about
when gideon heard the account of the
dream and its interpretation from those
two men
that he bowed in worship let’s just
start right here
gideon was once insecure and timid and
paralyzed because he had no courage
gideon now is closer to the battle than
he has ever been the the rumors of the
battle are what have permeated the
verses leading up to this point but now
the battle is imminent he is uh more
close and more uh up close and personal
with the dilemma than he has ever been
before but we see him making a decision
to worship god in advance he doesn’t
know how he’s going to fight the battle
he doesn’t have a strategy for what
specifically he’s supposed to do he has
no details yet on how he’s supposed to
instruct the 300 as to how they are to
advance in battle and yet he shows us
that if we want to win a battle we have
to begin the battle on our knees we have
to choose to worship in advance before
we see how god is going to work out the
situation and so he worshipped in the
face of impending danger he worshipped
in the face of adversity he worshipped
even though he was still outnumbered and
stretched far beyond his reach he he
worshipped before one instruction of
strategy for warfare was given he
worshipped because the enemy was already
afraid of him before the battle was
already was begun and so even in your
circumstances my friend even if you have
no idea
how in the world god is gonna fix the
dilemma that you are facing in your life
right now the way you win a battle is to
begin that battle on your needs to make
a decision to be the kind of man to be
the kind of woman that worships god in
advance even though they have no clue of
how god is going to work that situation
out
think about joshua he goes into the
promised land with the children of
israel
and as soon as they cross the jordan
river there is a battle to fight jericho
sitting right there the scriptures say
that the walls were tightly shut up that
means they were
pretty much impenetrable they wanted to
be secure they had closed themselves up
and tightly shut up
walls
so that people could not get in and um
and wreak havoc in their city
but joshua and the people of god
surround them god gives them
instructions he says for six days you
walk around the walls
on the seventh day here’s what i want
you to do
walk around the wall seven times
and then shout
and then
the walls will come down
don’t wait for the walls to come down
and then shout
shout first
before you have seen one brick fall from
that impenetrable wall
shout in advance and in response to your
worship
i’ll make those walls come tumbling down
i just wonder if the walls that you’re
waiting to come down in your life you’re
waiting for the bricks to start falling
and god’s waiting for you to start
falling down on your knees with your
arms outstretched thanking him in
advance for the victory in your life
you want to win the battle whatever
battle you’re facing whether it’s in
your own mind or in your own heart or in
your marriage or in your family with
your children in your singleness on your
job if you want to win the battle if i
want to win the battles of our life we
have to make a decision to begin the
battles on our knees
i had the opportunity to go to um
kiev i was in the ukraine just a couple
of weeks ago and it is a a community a
city a country that is really steeped in
a lot of history and tradition and i had
an opportunity to visit a lot of uh
sites while i was there one of the
things that i could not wait to see was
the orthodox christian um
temples and churches that are still set
up there from centuries ago and so i was
able to go in into these very ornately
decorated kind of golden uh
the churches are just unbelievably
beautiful and you walk inside of them
and all the things that you might expect
just
golden ornate designs and candles lit
everywhere and there are a lot of
tourists like me that come in just to
get a glimpse of it you can walk down
into some stairs down some stairs that
go down underneath the church buildings
and many of them where there are caves
and labyrinths of um tunnels that take
you to where monks used to live
centuries ago and underneath there not
only are there rooms you can see where
monks used to live but there are caskets
glass caskets that contain bodies of
people that were considered to be the
saints of old those bodies are wrapped
up in towels and they’re there in glass
caskets and again there are tourists
just like me but there are also people
who very much still believe that there
is power in those saints the bodies of
those saints from centuries ago so we
saw throngs of people
thousands of people coming themselves
bringing their babies bringing their
spouses bringing this the sick the
people that needed healing whether
emotionally financially or otherwise so
that they could come in and touch that
casket or kiss that casket so that some
of that power would leave this casket
and and come to them that person that
dead person and come to them and while i
was watching that happen i thought to
myself that that person dead certainly
can’t do anything for you because when
they were alive they couldn’t do
anything for you
but our jesus
is not dead he is alive and seated at
the right hand of the father and all
power is in his hand right this moment
to help us wage the battles in our lives
and not only that in one of those
churches i went there was a beautiful
platform kind of like this when it was
ornate and gold and candles everywhere
and people were coming in to kneel in
front of that platform and there was an
entryway almost like a parting right in
the middle of this um this staging that
was at the front of this uh church and
you could look through this entryway
like someone could walk through the
middle of this stage and you could see
there was another golden ornately
decorated room through the center of the
of the of that church the stage there
and i said to the woman who was with us
who was helping us to figure all this
out and kind of giving us a tour i said
to her who goes back there
and she said well we can’t go back there
because women aren’t allowed back there
only men can go
and she said not all men can go you have
to be a certain kind of guy from a
certain echelon and life a certain
affluence in the community everybody’s
not allowed back there and i said well
what’s back there she said well it’s
kind of considered like the holy of
holies
and and only certain men can go back
there and as i watched people literally
standing at bay from what they consider
to be the glory of god the presence of
god the ability to worship god when i
watch them standing back and away from
that because they weren’t the right
gender or they weren’t the right race or
they weren’t the right affluential
status in society to be able to go back
there i thought thank you jesus christ
that 2000 years ago when you died on
calvary you tore the veil from the top
to the very
bottom and so we all have the privilege
we all have the privilege to worship god
y’all we should never take that for
granted that no matter what your gender
no matter what your race no matter what
your background no matter what
educational level you come from you and
i all have the privilege to go boldly to
the throne of god hebrew says and
worship him in spirit and in truth
we should never take for granted
never take for granted that we have the
privilege to begin the battle on our
knees
because y’all he listen now he doesn’t
need our worship
he receives it because he wants to but
he doesn’t need it
he’s still god whether we worship him as
or not
he just is who he is
and so we have the privilege
while others right now in the year 2013
still don’t think they have access to
him you and i can come boldly to the
throne of grace
he gives us the privilege
to win a battle
by beginning the battle on our knees
the question is why did gideon think or
what gave gideon the courage
to worship god even though the
midianites were were rallying their
troops for battle right there in front
of him what gave him the courage to do
that i think we find our answer at the
end of verse 15. it says gideon returned
to the camp of israel and he said
arise for the lord has given somebody
say has given
the lord has given the camp of midian
into your hands i love this so much
gideon goes back to the 300 and he says
to them get up boys
the lord has already given the victory
into our hands he does not say to them
y’all get up because i hope god’s going
to give us victory today
he doesn’t say arise let’s go in hopes
that maybe possibly if we work hard
enough we can claim the victory that’s
not what he says he says guys let’s go
because the lord has already given us
exactly what we’ve asked him for
you know how you win the battle you
begin the battle on your knees and you
face the battle from a stance of victory
there are some things in your life my
friend simply because you are a believer
in jesus christ that have already been
accomplished for you they have already
been done you are not fighting in in
your battle right now that you’re facing
in your life
you are not fighting for victory you are
fighting from victory you are already
victorious i am already victorious
because we are part of the family of god
he has already overcome the world satan
knows it you and i need to know it as
well that victory is already ours you
begin the battle on your knees and you
face the battle from a stance of victory
what does that mean you know what it
means listen
the bible is filled with promises that
are available to believers in jesus
christ
in fact there are over 8 000 promises
over 8 000 promises that are written in
the scriptures that can be claimed by
believers in jesus christ 8 000
opportunities for us to experience what
the bible says because i don’t know
about you all but listen i don’t want to
just know that he’s powerful because i
read about how he can divide the red sea
in the old testament how he raised
lazarus from the dead in the new
testament i appreciate what he did in
the scriptures but what i want is to see
all of that experienced in my own life
i want to experience god for myself so
he’s given us over 8 000 opportunities
to experience him
through the scriptures to experience him
personally in our life
but most of those promises he did not
place in our hand he placed them within
our reach
that means that there is a process
involved you have to cooperate with him
in order to experience the victory
that’s already yours it’s not that you
don’t have the promise it’s just that
you have to cooperate with him in order
to experience it and grab hold of it in
your life
you and i have the opportunity to walk
in victory to claim the victory to
experience the victory that is already
ours do you remember when joshua and the
children of israel when they went into
the promised land joshua chapter 1
god said to joshua
every place you put your foot
that land it’s yours it’s already yours
but you have to put your foot on it and
claim it in order to experience it and
to enjoy it do you know that the
children of israel spent
um many years dozens and dozens and
dozens of years holed up in a little
side of canaan when the entire land of
milk and honey the entire promised land
of milk and honey was available to them
they were holed up in one little corner
of the promised land because the enemies
were over there and they didn’t want to
risk what it might take to fight those m
enemies they were so intimidated by the
enemy in canaan they stayed in one
corner instead of experiencing all that
god had for them it wasn’t that it
wasn’t theirs it’s just they weren’t
willing to go get it
what would happen if you and i decided
we’re not going to be intimidated by the
enemy over there anymore that we’re
going to decide to stand on the victory
that the scripture says is already ours
and then place our feet firmly on the
promises of god believing that what he
said is exactly what he can accomplish
in our lives
you win the battle my friend
[Applause]
you win the battle by beginning the
battle on your knees
and facing the battle from a stance of
victory
think about how the 300
must have been affected
when gideon came back and said arise
the victory’s already ours
i mean think about that because the last
time they saw gideon he was leaving the
camp
in fear and insecurity to go down to
listen to those two men
on the enemy’s team to talk about him
when he left he was insecure and he
lacked confidence but now he’s coming
back and his head is up in the air and
he’s saying guys let’s go get us a
victory
how do you think the morale of the 300
changed when their leader came back
confident in what god had said
the whole camp was completely 100
different the morale rose their
confidence all rose it swept through
there like a wildfire because one person
came back believing in god
what would happen if you were the one
that went home confident that that maybe
our marriage can be saved
i’m going back assured because on the
authority of god’s word the two of us we
can make it on the authority of god’s
word i am standing confidently on what
god says believing that victory is
already ours what kind of environment
would change
in your life on your job in your home at
your high school in your university if
you just went back believing that god is
who he says he is and that he can
accomplish what he says he can
accomplish
everything hinges
on one person believing god
on one person choosing to be the one
that will take god at his word
i have a friend that lives across the
street from me her name is rachel she’s
actually uh been one of my closest
friends for about 10 years now so it’s
neat to leave to be a neighbor with a
very close friend and uh jerry and i
live in a very rural part of dallas fort
worth we like it that way um there are
creeks and and trees and mud and bugs
and all the things little boys need in
their life and so we like living there
for that reason um i like to send them
outside to play anytime they come inside
and say mom we’re bored i say oh no
you’re not
you see that tree out there go play with
it
you can eat it you can play tag with it
i don’t care what you do with it but
you’re not gonna be bored today out in
the country here boy
so we love living out here but i’ll tell
you a problem we had we first moved um
out to this this little area of dallas
and and i moved there because my friend
was there and i would go visit her and
we loved the area so much every time i
would visit her we thought oh let’s see
if we can find a place for ourselves out
there we found a wonderful little house
and this little house actually is um we
weren’t as much as excited about the
house itself which is a great little
house but it was the land that i loved i
love that my boys could run and play
tall trees i just love trees and this
house is nestled
underneath a bunch of tall trees and
it’s beautiful but it posed a problem
because we could not get for the life of
us
a strong
signal so that we could get wi-fi
high-speed internet access it was a
problem it took us about two or three
months to figure out how we needed to
navigate on the air space so that we
could kind of peel through these tall
trees and get the signal we needed for
for this high-speed internet access and
you know it’s hard to go back to dial up
once you’ve had a taste of high speed it
just
it just doesn’t work out too well and at
the time i was in the middle of writing
a bible study and so i really needed the
research easy access quick access of my
uh computer
and internet and
i had to send huge files back and forth
to publishers and so i was really having
a lot of trouble
so i was so grateful for my friend
rachel
because my friend rachel even though she
has a lot of huge trees around her house
as well they had long since figured out
this internet thing and so i would just
grab up my book and grab my bible and
grab my laptop and i would grab my purse
and i would march across the street and
sit down at her kitchen table and mooch
off of her high speed internet access in
fact she began to expect me one time i
went over the door was just wide open
just there was just a screen door there
she knew i was coming she wasn’t even
home she just left the door open the
screen door and i walked right in and
there at her kitchen table she put a
lamp right there and a cup of coffee she
knew i was coming
so i sat right there every day for quite
some time and just mooched off of her
high speed internet access it was so
great to have somebody near me that had
the connection that i did not have based
on the positioning that i was in right
then
it should be that in your life and in
mind that when our circumstances
position us in a place where we’re just
underneath a lot of tall circumstances
and issues and dilemma that are keeping
us from having the high speed connection
that we want to have of peace or joy or
faith we got to have people in our life
where we can go over into their life and
mooch off of a little bit of their high
speed faith or joy or peace
relationships worth having that there
are people that change the entire
environment of our home or our job or
our organization because they come
firmly established on the promises of
god
but even more important than us looking
for somebody else to do it how about you
do it
how about you be the one that other
folks can come to because you’re the one
firmly planted on the truth of god word
god’s word how do you win a battle you
begin the battle on your knees and you
face the battle from a stance of victory
now i don’t know if it was while gideon
was on his knees or while he was racing
back to the 300 um to tell them arise
let’s go i don’t know when exactly it
happened but at some point god
downloaded to him the instructions the
strategy for the battle
verse 16.
he says to his men
or he divided the 300 men into three
companies he put trumpets and empty
pictures into the hands of all of them
with torches inside the pictures verse
18.
he said to them when i and all who are
with me blow the trumpet then you also
blow the trumpet around the camp and say
for the lord and for gideon
now in my bible there are headings that
are above i read from the new american
standard bible and there are headings
above each chapter just a little
synopsis of what that chapter is about
but also
inside of each chapter there are verses
grouped together they’re they’re
actually called pericopes they’re these
sections of scripture that are grouped
together and above each pericope there
is another label in my bible so you
might have a couple of verses together
in the bible in your version and then
it’ll have another label above it so you
can see what these verses in particular
are about
above the verses that i just read you
are right right in that vicinity there’s
a heading in my bible that says
the confusion of the enemy
now i know the bible is completely
inerrant and that nothing should be
changed but if i had been writing this
particular part
i probably would have labeled this part
the confusion of the 300
because if gideon had come back to if i
were one of the 300 and gideon had come
back and said go get a jar a light and a
trumpet
and let’s go to battle
i would have said you have got to be
kidding me
you mean you don’t want me to get a
sword you don’t want me to get a bow and
arrow you don’t want me to take off my
jewelry and take on my earrings and ball
up my fist and get some vaseline and get
ready to rumble
you got to be kidding me what kind of
battle strategy is this it makes
absolutely no sense and here’s the deal
my friend most of the time god’s
strategy doesn’t make sense you want to
know how to win the battle you begin the
battle on your knees you face the battle
from a stance of victory and you choose
to plan for battle using divine strategy
god’s strategy will rarely match up with
your strategy in fact isaiah 55 puts it
this way his ways they just aren’t your
ways his thoughts they’re just not your
thoughts we would be so much better off
if we stop trying to make his thoughts
our thoughts stop trying to make his
ways match our ways i don’t know about
you guys but listen i oftentimes
rationalize myself out of being obedient
to god
because if it doesn’t make sense to me i
think it must not be god but the
contrary is often true if it doesn’t
make sense to you it’s probably god
because only god could come up with
something like that
and some of you have had a solution for
that problem bubbling up in your spirit
for a long time you’ve been thinking
about it and it wakes you up in the
middle of the night but you keep
discounting it because it doesn’t make
sense
and maybe the spirit of god is saying to
you today
plan for battle using that divine
strategy
lord you want me to apologize to my
spouse you know he started it right
lord you want me to give that five that
little five dollar financial gift uh to
this particular ministry that that’s not
gonna accomplish anything and and it’s
my starbucks money i know you don’t want
me to give my five dollars to the church
lord you want me to move here even
though it seems like there’s a better
house over there lord you want me to
take this job even though they’re gonna
pay me more money at this job lord you
want me to leave corporate america and
go to ministry it makes absolutely no
sense at all nobody’s gonna understand
because i don’t even understand my
friends are gonna think i’m crazy that’s
the exact strategy that you might need
to win the victory that’s in front of
you my friend
you have to
decide you and i have to decide if we’ll
be like simon that when when god said to
him push out into deep water and cast
out your net again
will we be willing to say it doesn’t
make sense but at your bidding
i’m gonna say yes lord anyway
battles are won when we begin the battle
on our knees face the battle from a
stance of victory and plan for battle
using divine strategy
i’ll close with
this i was thinking about a friend of
mine that works um
well she worked for our ministry she was
an intern for the summer she traveled
with us a bit
she wasn’t familiar with the dallas fort
worth airport
and if any of you have ever flown
through dallas you know that we have a
airport in dallas
it is big so we’ve got terminal a
terminal b
terminal c
terminal d and terminal e so before you
can even start to begin to find your
plane you have to at least get to the
right terminal once you go to the
terminal there are about 30 gates or so
in each terminal
then some of those gates have an a part
and a b part so it might be gate 30 a
and gate 30 b
so you really have to be detailed on
where you are going and on this
particular trip that we were taking we
were leaving from terminal d so we drove
up to terminal d with with my entire
family and our new friend katie and um
this was her first time really at the
dallas-fort worth airport
and so we got uh into the airport we
went through security and you know what
that means we basically took all our
clothes off to get through security
and katie happened to get into a line
that was going really slow so my entire
family made it through security before
katie had even gotten uh close to going
through and so we saw her there on the
other end of the line and my husband
decided to send her a text and he said
hey we’ll meet you at the gate our gate
is 22 a
now once you came through security in
the d terminal our gate was literally
right to the right i mean it wasn’t far
at all just a few steps and so we said
we’ll meet you at the gate gate 22-8 she
waved back at us and said i’ll meet
y’all there
well we sat there at the gate waiting
for her and then they they started
boarding the flight we were still
waiting for her we got on the plane and
we sat down man the minutes were
clicking we were getting really um
nervous because it looked like she was
going to completely miss the flight we
had no idea where she was she was just
right there in security which was just a
few steps away from our date we sent her
texts she didn’t answer them we could
not figure out what was going on
but after just a few moments and i mean
literally right before the plane was
getting ready to take off
i mean to the point where they had
started to call her name across the
loudspeaker in the airport like you’re
the last person to board this white we
are getting ready to leave you you know
you are in trouble when they start
calling your name
she finally raced down the jet bridge
she raced onto the airplane she was
sweating her hair was plastered onto her
face she looked completely spent she
plopped down on her seat and i said
katie
what in the world happened
she said well jerry text me to come to
22a but i just i assumed that he meant
a 22.
so i went to a terminal i got on the
tram that takes you all the way around
the entire airport and went all the way
to a terminal because i just assumed
that’s what he meant and jerry overheard
her say that and he just shook his head
and he said katie man if you would have
just believed
that what i wrote was what i meant
it would have saved you so much time and
energy and sweat
i just wonder today if the divine
strategy you’ve been given the one that
you’ve been discounting because it does
not make sense i just wonder if the holy
spirit of god today is saying to you if
you will just believe that exactly what
i’m saying is exactly what i mean
victory will be yours and i’ll save you
a whole lot of sweat on the way
you want to win the battle
begin the battle on your knees
face the battle from a stance of victory
and plan for battle
using that strategy yeah that one that
sounds ridiculous to you
you use that strategy and victory will
be yours
let me pray for you
lord jesus thank you so much for this
clear simple word from scripture i pray
lord that you would cause it to be
embedded and sealed into our hearts so
that it changes us and transforms us i’m
praying that circumstances that are
represented by those who are all over
this room circumstances will be changed
victory will reign down over them in
jesus name amen