Stepping Up and Into Your Destiny

Wes Leake

Sunday 30 June, 2013

Today we are going to look at…

• How the Enemy Works

• Our Primary Method of Warfare

• Who you are!

• Are you a Frog or Lizard?

• Our Role

• Key words for our vocabulary

How the Enemy Works

Satan is..

• The Adversary, the Lawless One, the evil One (1 John 5:19)

• The Ruler of the kingdom of the air (Eph. 2:2)

• He incites the people of God (1 Chron. 21:1)

• He roams throughout the the earth (Job 1:7)

• He seeks to condemn those who are blameless, upright, those who fear God and shun evil, and those of integrity (Job 1:8, 2:3)

Satan is…

• He can present himself before the Lord (Job 2:1)

• He can rise up against nations and incite the people of God to do what is contrary to God’s purpose for them (1 Chronicles 21:1)

• He can inflict physical issues upon us (Job 2:7)

• He will accuse us (Zechariah 3:1)

Satan

• He will accuse us relentlessly – even day and night (Revelation 12:10)

• He is a stumbling block to what God wants to do in and through our lives (Matthew 16:23)

• He is a tempter (Matthew 4:3)

• He tempted Jesus as the Son of God to capitulate to a counterfeit plan in the areas of His Messiahship –economic, wonder-working and political. He attempted to shift homage to himself and away from God’s eternal plan of salvation for humanity (Mathew 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13 & Luke 4:1-13)

Satan

• He can bind up people from entering their destiny (Luke 13:16)

• He can enter our lives when we least expect it (Luke 22:3; Acts 5:3)

• He attempts to blind people from the knowledge of the glory of the living God (Acts 26:4-18, 2 Corinthians 4:4)

• He masquerades as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14)

Satan

• He will attempt to block God’s plan for our life (1 Thessalonians 2:18)

• 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10 – “the coming of the lawless one will be in accordance of the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those that are perishing.”

Satan

• He has access to the world (the cosmos –meaning the structures and systems of life), he is relentless in his activity in our midst. He constantly prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:18) Therefore, he has the right of access on the physical realm (land, cities and nations) to the degree that we give access to him through our sin and fallen stewardship. He is not God’s equal but he is powerful.

However

• Isaiah 54:16 reminds us that God is still in charge, and can even use the devil to His advantage.

• Having an adversary can be a means of our experiencing the Grace of God at work in Us (1 Corinthians 12:7-9)

Why Talk so much about Satan?

• We are in a battle

• To win a war we need to know who our enemy is and put the appropriate strategies in place to not only guard against him, but literally to take territory from him

• The battle is for your own destiny, your families destiny and the destiny of the church as a whole

Our primary method of warfare

Stats on Bible Reading in Australia

Australian Church Life Survey showed that:

19% of church attendees read the Bible daily or on most days;

12% of respondents read the Bible a few times a week,

5% once a week,

27% occasionally and

37% hardly ever or never!

Biblical Worldview Stats

• 9% of Christians have a biblical worldview

We need to pray as we read

“Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.” Psalm 119:18

Why?

Because Satan blinds our eyes!

PRAYER IS SO KEY!!!!!!

2 Timothy 3

• 10 You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, 11 persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. 12 In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13 while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God[a] may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Hebrews 4:12

• For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

Joshua 1:8

8Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

We need to know who we are!

• I am complete in Him who is the Head of all principality and power (Colossians 2:10)

• I am alive with Christ (Ephesians 2:5)

• I am free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2)

• I am far from oppression, and fear does not come near me (Isaiah 54:14)

• I am born of God, and the evil one does not touch me (1 John 5:18)

I Am…

• I am holy and without blame before Him in love (Epheisans 1:4; 1 Peter 1:16)

• I have the mind of Christ (1 Cor 2:16, Phil 2:5)

• I have the peace of God that passes all understanding (Philippians 4:7)

• I have the Greater One living in me, greater is He who is in me than he who is in the world(1 John 4:4)

I am

• I have received the gift of righteousness and reign as a king in life by Jesus Christ (Romans 5:17)

• I have received the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Jesus, the eyes of my understanding have been enlightened (Ephesians 1:17,18)

• I have received the power of the Holy Spirit to lay hands on the sick and see them recover, to cast out demons, to speak with new tongues. I have power over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means harm me (Mark 16:17,18)

We need to change the picture of us in our own minds!

Are you a Frog or a Lizard?

Frog vs Lizard

Several years ago I was at a world wide congress on evangelism in Manila. (Lausanne, 1989) A few of us as business leaders had a small part on the program with pastors, missionaries, church leaders, and seminary professors from all over the world. A Hong Kong stock broker was given the responsibility of sharing our thoughts as the workplace representatives in just a few minutes. You will enjoy Lee Yih’sanalogy of “Frogs and Lizards-Why more and more of the best ministers are lay people”:

“Have you ever noticed how differently frogs and lizards acquire their food? The frog sits and waits for the food to come to him. When an unlucky insect happens to fly by, he simply sticks out his tongue and reels it in. If the lizard sat around like the frog, however, he would starve to death. So he goes out into his word and hunts.

Now the frog in this analogy is the Vocational Christian Worker. He goes off to seminary, gets a degree and goes on staff somewhere. Before, you know it, ministry opportunities are coming to him and he has his hands full. In fact, when big frogs come to town they have to hade in hotel rooms or they’ll be swamped.

Frog vs Lizard

The lizard, on the other hand, is a layperson. Ministry does not come seeking him out. Instead, he must move around in his environment; assess his sphere of influence; establish friendships; serve people; and, once that he has earned the right to be heard, be ready to give an account for the hope that is in him.

I think the main problem today in world evangelization is the under-utilization of the lizard. And a big part of the problem lies with the frog. Let’s face it; he has a tendency to steal the show.

What’s more the layperson looks at the Vocational Christian Worker and says to himself, “I can never be as great as that.” And he’s probably right-as long as he defines ministry in frog terms!

The lizard needs to know how god can use him as the lizard that he is! And when he catches that vision, when he learns that evangelism is not an event but a process, and when he tastes the joy of seeing a friend find the Savior, he’ll never want to give the ministry back to the frog again!”

Everyone’s Calling

• Acts 26:18: “I am sending you to them 18 to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’”

Everyone’s Calling

Matthew 10:8 “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.”

Matthew 9:35-38

35 Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

Key Words/Actions

• Honour• Thanksgiving• Worth• Courage• Shame• Love• Honesty• Truth• Testimony• Forgiveness

Fruit of the Spirit – Galatians 5

• 19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

• 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

Key Prayers

• Father expose that which is not of you

• Father how do I help this person in front of me right here, right now.