This short (15-min) episode wraps up part one and is pulled from Pastor Joe’s MP3 series, Strong in the Lord.

The devil will have you believing that things are harder for you because you don’t have a certain gift or giftings. You’ll think to yourself, “If I was like so-and-so, I would be able to be a good Christian.” But even pastors don’t have any intrinsic gifting that makes them better able to stand in the face of trial compared to others.

This is actually GOOD news, because if the battle is the same for everybody, then victory is the same for everybody. Victory isn’t easier personally for anybody — and there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with you that will prevent you from becoming strong in God and walking in victory and fulfilling your destiny. Let it get a hold of you that you cannot be stopped.

To be unstoppable, the Apostle Paul commands you to continually receive strength through your union with the Lord. That means, then, that strength is available, and perhaps we’ve been passive in our job to simply receive it.

Additionally, the power to stand is closely related to the knowledge of love and our intimacy with God, knowing he loves us. Sometimes we kind of think of power in humanistic terms, just wanting to know where we can plug in the plug so we can get the electricity to flow.

• How do we access divine ability?
• How do we tap into power to be unstoppable?
• How do we receive the strength to stand?

Tune in to Episode 19 for answers!

Mentioned in this Episode

E.W. Kenyon

Additional Resources

Strong In the Lord – Full MP3 Series

Transcript

In the end, let me tell you, in the end, when the purpose and plan of God has been fulfilled, Jesus has come for a glorious church without spot, wrinkle or blemish. I’ll tell you what we’ll all be saying, “For the Lord is good, and His mercy endures forever.” The mercy of God will have defeated every scheme of the enemy. Now, I’m not telling you so be content to live in the flesh and fail. I’m saying, get it in your spirit that ultimately you’re gonna win. And now’s a great time to start. Put on the armor of God.

Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. The word power in the Greek text is the Greek word Kratos. Kratos is the word dominion. It’s the word that describes a force sufficient to subdue all resistance. Kratos means the very Dominion authority of Christ set in action. When When Paul writes, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might, power is Kratos. Might is another Greek word which means inherent power, power that resides inside of someone or something. So what Paul is telling us is be strong through your union with Christ, exercise his dominion because of the power that’s in him. He’s got all authority in heaven and earth, the fullness of the Spirit, it was given to him. And he’s able to give it to us.

Now I would like to say to you, just say, Lord, I take it. But you see, when Paul said to fight the good fight of faith, that was because there’s a war over your appropriation. Paul said to the Ephesians, he said, The Father of glory, pray that the Father of glory out of the riches of his glory would strengthen you with might in his in your spirit, by His Spirit in the inward man. We need to pray those prayers, and believe those prayers. We need to pray, proclaim and praise those prayers. Father, I petition you to fill me out of the riches of Your glory. Fill me with might, by Your Spirit in my inward man that Christ might dwell in my heart through faith, that I would be rooted and grounded in love, able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width, the length, the depth, the heigth. To know the love of Christ, which surpasses every other kind of knowledge.

It’s an interesting thing that power is related to the knowledge of love. Your appropriation of divine ability is related to your intimacy of loving fellowship with God. You’re strengthened through intimacy with God, knowing that your father loves you. To abide in his love, to receive the affirmation of Heaven, to be blessed with the knowledge of His mercy and grace, is to be strengthened. Sometimes we kind of think of power in humanistic, you know, it’s kind of like we just want to know where to plug the plug in so we can get the electricity to flow. And we think mechanically about power, but you see, to a Christian power is not mechanical, power is relational. Power comes, ability comes, strength comes out of abiding in the presence of God and drinking in the peace of heaven, drinking in the joy of sins forgiven, cleansed, washed away, intimacy with God.

Father, You have loved Me before the foundation of the world. You’ve accepted me, you’ve forgiven me, and you’ve called me to a marvelous place in your plan. I’m a person of destiny. Lord, you want to do great things through me, and you factored in, not only my weaknesses, but every love and desire of my heart’s been factored in, so that you can use my natural abilities, and all my things that I long to do are part of what you put in me so that you can use them for the glory of Your kingdom. And you began to drink in the, you see, most people in our society, they struggle with acceptance. Self acceptance. And you know, there’s a great self esteem movement. But what we need is not self esteem, we need God esteem. We need to know that we’re esteemed by God to be precious. We need to know that God loves us. We need to know that when He made us a new creation, it was so we could walk with him, so we could fellowship with him, so we could be intimate with Him, so that we could know the peace and joy of heaven, and walk in this earth encased in that peace, encased in that joy, strengthened by that love.

You see, love is the highest power force in the world. It was love and love alone that caused Jesus to go from Gethsemane to Calvary. It wasn’t sanctified willpower. It was love. And the ultimate fulfillment of your destiny is that you know the love of God for you. That love is reflected back to him. And out of that flow of love comes the love for the world. That’ll empower you. See? I love Him because He first loved me. And I love Him and worship Him, because I’m so glad he loves me and accepts me. “But doesn’t God deserve to be worshipped anyway?” Yeah! But how many have found with it when you feel alienated and separated from God, you don’t have a whole lot of worship to offer?

Hallelujah. All right now be strong in the Lord in the power of his might. We got that? Part of that verse actually talked about, but you know what, I have found myself preaching the same things over and over for years. And our intellect often wants something new, but our spirit desperately cries to lay hold of the simplicities of the Word of God, so that our human spirit is strengthened. We live in a society see, if you think about it, some of us are a little older, but MTV-itis has gripped our society. And what that is. So you don’t know what that is. That’s a rare disease. But unfortunately, it’s not that rare. But what it is, is I need to be constantly stimulated by some input, otherwise I’ll get bored. The devil is trying to program people to be unable to think or listen or meditate or absorb truth by constantly flashing their minds until they can’t even think or read or study or pray or do anything, but they have to be entertained. And it’s true of the older generation, they just like a different kind of entertainment, but the lusts of the mind, in Ephesians two, one and two and three, Paul talks about the lust of the flesh and the lust of the mind. One of the lusts of the mind is “I must be entertained.” Particularly in America. It must be entertaining. Don’t expect me to sit and listen to somebody preach for an hour or teach the Bible. Here, God, I need to be entertained. So let’s build big big church buildings, big churches with twenty minutes, sermonettes. “Don’t make ’em think. Don’t challenge them to actually get into the Bible. Dear God, it’s America.
This is the Northwest, we got yuppies.” I’ll tell you what, if you feed ’em sermonettes, you’re going to create Christianettes.

Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Be strong, Paul says. It’s a command. It’s an imperative in the Greek, be strong. He says I’m commanding you to be strong. Now, the good news about commandments is God doesn’t command us to do something he’s unwilling to help us do. So if God says, “Be strong,” then he’s saying, “I’ll help you to be strong.” It’s also a present tense, which means continually be strengthened in the Lord. It’s also a passive verb in the Greek, which means that the subject receives the action. So what Paul says is, I am commanding you to continually be receiving strength, through your union with the Lord. That means then that strength is available. And that we’re passive in that our job is not to try to force it to come but to receive it. To be in the place of receiving. Sometimes the battle is to get into the place of receiving.

How many have ever had your mind, will, emotions or body talk to you about prayer time? You can hear your body say in the morning, “We don’t want to do this.” You can hear your mind say, “We’re not functional.” You can hear your emotions say, “This won’t be any fun.” And you hear your will say, “Do we have to?” But if you listen a little deeper your spirit man’s saying, “Oh, I get to be with Father. I get to be with Jesus. Oh, let’s get in there! I get to pray! Where’s my bible?

Somebody’s gonna win. Day by day, somebody’s gonna win. But you know what? Habits are formed by repetition. If you do it enough days in a row, he’s gonna do it anyway. Your mind is often like a rebellious child. Your mind resents not being in control. That’s why praying in tongues is resented by the human mind. I believe there’s grace in this time, there’s grace to help us pray. You know, we taught for many weeks on our private prayer time, the importance of that. There’s grace to be strong in the Lord. Now I want to have you say this with me as we close this portion of service. Part of winning the war is accepting the challenge to fight. Putting on the armor means I’m choosing to fight. I’m not going to just give in to my flesh. I’m gonna fight.

Why don’t you stand up? I want you to wake up. I want you to say this with me: “Father, I am willing to be a soldier in this war. I will accept the call and the responsibility to fight Satan and his demons in every area of my life. I make the decision of faith to be a good soldier of Jesus Christ and to endure the hardship of spiritual warfare without caving in. I choose the love of the truth. I willingly yield myself to you Holy Spirit. I desire to turn from all deception and embrace your truth in every area of my life. The written word of God is the final authority of my life. Father, sanctify me in your truth. Your word is truth. I believe your Word will set me free in every area of my life as I grow in faith and knowledge. I will stand and fight for the truth of God’s Word in my life, Amen.”