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You Have Power Over the Enemy with the Armor of God

Priscilla Shirer (guest speaking on T.D. Jakes, “The Potter’s Touch”) and Tony Evans teach that YOU have power over the enemy! As you see him try to infiltrate different areas of your life, put on the Armor of GOD and go into battle. You are called to walk in VICTORY!

I’m not just gonna stand here and let you run rough shot over my family and over my own peace of mind and peace of heart and over my marriage and over my finances and over my health and over my business and over my ministry.
I’m gonna be a woman guarding in the armor that will bring me victory in battle.
The Holy Spirit guides us. He pulls us. Now you can walk.
You should walk, but you’re walking on some power. You’re walking on some undergirding.
You’re walking on some strength because you’re walking with the mind of the spirit, consistent with the rebel and word of god so that he can override.
Even if you are not convinced about what it is the word of god declares to be true about you, even if you’re not sure about the nuances of your inheritance as a cold air to the kingdom of god, even if you are convinced that you have rights and privileges that you have access to the throne room of god, as the scripture says, even if you are convinced, you need to know that the enemy is.
He knows who you are He knows that you have been made competent by the spirit of god.
He knows that you have been qualified.
He knows that you are already forgiven He knows that you’ve already been made free.
He knows that there is therefore now no condemnation for those of us who are in Christ Jesus.
He knows that he can form a weapon against you, but that that weapon has absolutely no possibility of prospering in your life.
He knows that in the end, we win.
What a shame it would be for him to believe more about your power than you do.
I believe at least in part, that is why the Apostle Paul writes to us in the book of Ephesians.
Now y’all know the apostle Paul was a bad brother.
He wrote letter after letter to the 1st century christian churches to make sure they knew who they were, to disciple them, to to mature them, to bring them into full knowledge and awareness of what it would mean to be in relationship with Jesus Christ.
And of all of Paul’s writings, which gives us about 2 thirds of our new testament, scholars say that the pinnacle of all of Paul’s writing, the cherry on top of the cake, really, the creme de la creme of all the apostle wrote to us, really, ephesians is that cherry on top of the cake.
And part of the reason why is because of the 6 chapters, he spends more than the first half of the book just telling you who you are.
I mean, he keeps tripping over himself with robust language to try to communicate to the people of god, the power that they have says to by virtue of their relationship with Jesus.
He wants you to know that you have been blessed with every spiritual blessing He’s gonna tell you that god’s grace has been lavishly poured out upon you.
He wants you to know in the first and second chapter that you are holy and blameless and forgiven, and that you are free.
Oh, if you haven’t taken time to read it, read through the book of Ephesians, because it’s gonna tell you that you are a co heir with a hefty spiritual inheritance.
He wants you to know that even if you’ve been rejected by everybody else, your god has handpicked, hand selected you, chosen you, adopted you, Grafted you into the family of god.
He wants you to know you’ve been snatched out of darkness and flung into his marvelous light.
He’s gonna trip over himself to make sure you know that you once were dead in your trespasses and in your sins but you’ve now been made alive, together with Jesus Christ.
He wants you to know that you are his workmanship. You’re a masterpiece.
Piece of art recreated in Christ Jesus for good work so that you can walk in them.
In fact, the Apostle Paul, y’all, he gets so worked up trying to make sure we know how powerful we are that before he even gets through the first chapter, He bursts out in a prayer and says, I’m praying that the eyes of your heart would be opened.
Because if you would just know the hope of his call again choosing you, the riches that have been made available to you, it’s gonna change the court of your life.
So he spills over himself going over and over trying to figure out how do I make sure the believers know who they are so they can walk in some semblance of victory and freedom as they live the abundant life to which they have been commissioned.
I want you to see the apostle Paul writing this letter.
He is in a Roman prison at the time, probably on house arrest, see the apostle Paul in your mind’s eye sitting on the cold, horror floor of his cell trying to figure out the right words under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to make sure that the sec sacred text communicates exactly what it should.
And he gets to the end of this letter, having given us all this robust language about our inheritance and our power and our potential in Jesus Christ.
And he’s trying to figure out how do I close this letter?
How do I make sure that they don’t get tripped up, that they live in the victory that is there?
See the apostle Paul sitting on that cold floor hanging over his parchment paper, ink quill in hand, waiting for the inspiration of the Holy fear to figure out how do I put an exclamation point on this letter?
How do I make sure that they will walk in victory all the days of their life.
How do I make sure to close this thing with such clarity and such power that they will know at the end of this They’ve been called to walk in victory.
Picture the possibility that he looks up from his paper, his Roman cell, and he looks up to see 2 Roman soldiers.
Standing right outside of the doorway, posted up to make sure their prisoner stays put, and he would have seen the Roman soldiers equipped in their Roman regalia.
And then she crass these words.
In Ephesians chapter 6 verse 10.
He says, finally, In conclusion, in the very end after you’ve heard so much, and I’ve written so much, and I’ve entrusted so much to you, and I’ve explained so much after all these messages and all this teaching and all this seed that has been planted into the soil of our hearts, after all have been entrusted to us, after everything we’ve gotten from a co pastor Susie Owens and a Cheryl Brady, and a Bishop Jakes, and a Serena Jakes, and a Cynthia James, and and a Jackie McColl after our lives have been porting 2 for 30 strong years.
The apostle Paul says finally.
You ought to be strong in the lord and in the strength of his might.
The apostle Paul says, be strong.
Get some spiritual meat on your bones.
Be fortified in your faith.
Don’t you dare leave 30 years of ministry and walk out of these doors and be weak, willed women.
Paul decide by every new age, ideology, and philosophy of our culture be strong.
Don’t you dare walk out of these doors and be pulled aside by every impulse of the fresh beast strong?
Be strong in the lord.
And in the strength of his might, we’ve been too filled up and too blessed and taught beyond what we deserve.
People have poured their lives into us. We better leave here and be strong.
Y’all, we can’t keep waiting on other people to spoon feed us the word of god our entire lives.
We gotta grow up and be strong.
At some point, you gotta decide that I’m not gonna if on the milk of the word my whole life, I need some meat because I’m mature.
I’ve grown up. I need some strengths.
And I believe that part of the reason why the lord has allowed you and I this privilege to be a part of this final woman that hard to lose is because for so many of us that are in this room, these seventy 2 hours is about getting you your strength back.
To remind you that the joy of the lord is your strength Pulse has finally, you be strong in the lord and in the strength of his might.
And he says Here’s how you’re gonna be able to do it.
Put on the full armor of god.
So that you may be able to stand firm against the scheme. Somebody say schemes.
Come on. Y’all say schemes.
You gotta stand firm against the schemes of the devil for we wrestle not against flesh and blood.
But against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness that are in the heavenly places.
Therefore, you ought to go ahead and put down all the weapons that haven’t been working for you anyway, and take up some weapons that actually have power.
Take up the full armor of gun so that you can stand in the evil day and having done everything to stand firm, stand firm, therefore.
The Apostle Paul tells us how to walk in victory to remember that we’re not just children, but we’re children with power.
And he introduces for us in these three verses almost for the very first time, at least this overtly in the context of the new it’s been inferred throughout the new the old testament and at different places throughout the new, but this is the very first time that somebody comes right out point blank and says, you have an enemy.
And your enemy. Listen to me.
This is a revelation that’s gonna change somebody’s life.
Your enemy is not the person your enemy is not the spouse that you left at home a couple days ago.
Your enemy is not the boss that you work for or the co work her you sitting next to, you know, that one that if she says one more thing to you, you gonna knock her out.
That one if someone offends me or someone hurts me or does something to me.
It rolls off my shoulders pretty easy.
If somebody comes to me and says, hey, will you forgive me for what I did to you?
I’m a forgive them and say, girl, come on. Let’s move on. We’re getting this all right.
I’m just I’m wired that way. I’m easygoing.
But if I find out I’m saying don’t don’t get it twisted.
If I find out that someone’s been scheming.
That’s a whole different story.
Because scheming implies preplanning.
If you’ve been scheming against me, that means you’ve been watching for a little while.
You’ve tripping trying to figure out what it is about me that is most weak, most frail, most vulnerable so that you can take advantage of me.
You’ve been studying me to find out what my patterns are and what the predilection of my flesh is and what my preferences are that you can figure out the best time to take most full advantage of me and the people And with our fine gout that you haven’t just been scheming against me, but you’ve had your eyes on this man that god has given me to be married to for the past 23 years.
What I find out?
You’ve been studying him so that you can figure out what his weak points are so that You can try to take advantage of him and without figure out you’ve been looking into his history to try to figure out how you can make what’s in my history and in his history, combust so that we can’t have real smooth passion and intimacy and friendship in our marriage And what I’ll find out?
That you haven’t just been scheming against me and my man, but you’ve had the nerve to be watching these three boys.
That the lord has given to me to raise into men of god.
When I find out you had your eyes on my kids, and you’ve been studying them so you can already figure out at this young age, how you can trip them up so that they do not reach the destiny that has been assigned to them.
When I find out that you’ve been scheming against me and the people that I love, well, if it’s a war you want, It’s a war you gonna have.
The war you gonna have.
Because because I’m not just gonna stand here and let you run Russia.
Over my family and over my own peace of mind and peace of heart and over my marriage and over my finances and over my health and over my business and over my ministry.
I’m gonna be a woman guarded in the armor that will bring me victory in battle.
We gotta be strong.
Hal says get dressed for victory.
He says you’re gonna need some stability in your core to make sure that you’re not pushed to the left or the right with the schemes and the employees of the enemy against you, you’re gonna need to be girded in your court, your corps, with a belt called troops.
And then he says, you’re gonna need something to guard your heart.
You’re gonna need a breastplate called righteousness.
And then he said that if you want any hope of being able to move forward successfully on the terrain of this life, you’re gonna need something for your feet Your feet better be shot with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
He says, oh, you’re gonna need a shield because there are not just arrows, but flaming arrows that are going to be sent by the enemy into your life.
And the flaming arrows are not meant to kill you.
They are meant to set fire on everything around you so that you’re so distracted putting out fires that you don’t have time to advance against this kingdom.
So you’re gonna need a shield to extinguish the flaming missiles of the evil 1, and that shield is your faith.
You will need something to cover your mind because the enemy is trying to erect strongholds.
Which are basically partitions that stand against the knowledge of god so that you can’t hear clearly the voice of god in your life.
You’re gonna need a helmet, and that helmet is your salvation.
And then he says, you’re gonna need a sword of the spirit.
The sword that he’s referring to is not the three foot long sword that we most picture.
Now, This is a 12 inch dagger. He says, you’re gonna need a dagger of the spirit.
It was reserved for when the enemy encroached beyond the first lines of the and the enemy was in close combat.
He’s all up in your face.
He says for the moments in life, when you’re in encroached upon by the enemy, you’re gonna need something to make sure that you save off the enemy.
You need a dagger of the spirit. And that dagger is the word of god.
And you’ve lived long enough you’ve come to realize that life is not always easy.
And while we cherish those times of fun and frivolity and play and excitement.
We dread those times of pain and anguish and struggle.
Someone has said that life can be described as being bittersweet.
It has those sweet moments that we cherish and embrace and those bitter moments that bring us to tears, hurt, and pain.
Paul is writing, and he concludes his treaties to the church at Ephasis.
To talk to them about the battleground of life. We call it spiritual warfare.
But he’s not just talking about any kind of battle.
He describes this one specifically by calling it the evil day, the evil day.
The evil day is when all hell breaks loose on you.
The evil day is when you are overwhelmed. Yes. Life has its normal ups and downs.
But that’s not what he’s talking about here. He’s talking about when you are under major attack.
When your world is being shattered, your dreams are being destroyed, your hopes are being dimmed, and where you look out and all you see is the light of an oncoming train.
Because that the evil day the day when hell is after you, and your name has come up.
He says, when that day comes, when that period of time, when you’re under major assault comes, He says, I want you to understand how to how to approach this.
Because he says, on that day, you’re going to need the strength of the lord verse 10.
Normal stuff is not gonna work. And playing church show nothing won’t work.
He says, on that day, you’re going to need the supernatural.
And so he goes into these verses.
Leading up to the subject of prayer to tell us how to approach this time in your life in my life.
Now I wanna make sure that I’m not wasting my time or this sermon.
So has anybody here know what I’m talking about when I talk about an evil day?
An evil day. When you’re under massive spiritual assault.
Well, let me remind you that everything visible and physical is preceded by that, which is invisible and spiritual.
Everything visible and physical is preceded by that, which is invisible and spiritual.
So Paul wants you to know if you want to address in the time of your attack, the visible and physical, you need to do it from the perspective of the invisible and spiritual.
He gives you the term that he uses throughout the book of evasions of heavenly places.
Havenly places means the spiritual realm.
And what he’s saying is that when you are under assault, when your life is being shattered, you’re trying to be in the will of god.
You’re trying to walk with god, but you’re being attacked. Your well-being is being attacked. Your dreams are being attacked.
Your health is being attacked. Your stability is being attacked. Your resources are being attacked. Your future is being attacked.
You are just under assault. He says during those times, you have to view things from the location of heavenly places or the spiritual realm, if you’re going to be strong, to walk through, work through the times of those attacks.
And he wants to set the plan in place for how you’re gonna make it through the evil day.
For those of you who’ve not yet been to the evil day, keep living. It’s coming.
When you’re under assault, and your stability, your world is being shaken.
He says, during those times, three times, he says, I want you to stand firm, stand firm, stand firm.
Don’t quit. Don’t quit. Don’t quit. Because the temptation is easily to throw in the towel.
When your world is collapsing right in front of your eyes.
He says, the first thing I want you to understand is that you wrestle not against flesh and blood.
In other words, people aren’t the source of your problem.
They may be the conduit for your problem, but they’re not the source of your problem.
For we, Christians, wrestle not against flesh and blood, but principalities and powers and world forces that are located in heavenly places or the spiritual realm.
So if you address the resource without addressing the source, all you’ve done is created a delay for it to come back up again.
Because you’ve not gotten to the root of the problem, we’re just addressing the fruit. Of the problem.
And so what he is saying is the source is spiritual.
He, first of all, wants to set the stage by saying on the evil day, when you’re in this season of attack, I want you to stand firm which means to hold your ground in the lord.
It says be strong in the lord, to hold your spiritual ground.
It is easy to be swayed and moved off of center when you’re suffering.
It is easy to be swayed and moved off of the source of your hope when you’re going through it and you see no exit sign.
It is easy to be moved, but he says during those times, When you are under assault and your world is being stripped from right underneath you, he calls it the evil day He says during that time, I want you to grab more tightly your faith.
Don’t loosen it up. Stand firm when you’re under the fire of the evil one, when you’re under fire of demonic attack, when you’re under the fire of suffering, you do not run away from god when you are in the evil day.
You have to run to god when you’re in the midst of the evil day because you’re now engaged in spiritual warfare.
He says, Stan Firm. Hold on to your faith.
He then tells you how to dress for spiritual success. He gives you the armor of god.
He tells you I want you to get dressed for the batter.
Now when you’re in a war and when you’re in a parade, a military parade, they show the weapons.
When you’re in a war, you use the weapons.
Because in the evil day, this is not showtime at the Apollo.
This is time when you gotta get dressed. He says, you gotta put on truth. Put on righteousness.
Put on peace. He goes on. He says, you gotta put on faith.
He says, you gotta put on the helmet of salvation.
Then he says, you gotta use the sword of the spirit, which is the word of god.
He gives these 6 pieces of spiritual arsenal or spiritual armor that the believer is to utilize when it comes to taking a stand in the evil day or when you’re under spiritual attack, and spiritual oppression that’s affecting your physical financial, circumstantial, emotional, family well-being.
Take your stand harder than you’ve ever taken it before, but put on this armor.
But now you may not remember all the pieces of the armor.
So let’s make it easy because Romans chapter 13 verse 14 says, put on Christ.
If you can’t remember all the pieces, remember this one. Put on Christ. Why?
Because he says, I want you to be put on truth.
Jesus says, I am the way the truth and the light. He says, I want you to put on righteousness.
Script just says, Christ is our righteousness.
He says, put on peace Jesus said, in this world, you will have tribulation, but I give you my peace.
He says, put on the helmet of Salvation. Scripture is clear.
Jesus is the author and finisher of our salvation. And then he says, put on the word of god.
Use the sword of the spirit. John 11 says in the beginning was the word.
The word was with god. The word was god. Verse 14, and the word became flesh. And dwelt among us.
Jesus says he is the word. So if you don’t remember truth, remember Jesus.
If you don’t remember, righteousness, remember Jesus, if you don’t remember peace, remember Jesus.
If you don’t remember faith, remember Jesus, If you don’t remember the helmet of Salvation, remember Jesus.
If you don’t remember the Bible, remember Jesus because Jesus is the full armor of god.
This is centered in god’s son who is the revelation of god, the manifestation of god, who is the power of god, to manifest himself, particularly in the evil day.
Now you wanna do it all the time, but you better do it in the evil day.
When the doctors don’t have answers, when the bankers don’t have answers, when your friends don’t have answers, and show enough when you don’t have answers.
You need to be centered on the person of Jesus Christ, and all the tools that he offers you, but he says, you gotta put him on with all prayer and petition.
Pray at all times in the spirit.
And would this of you be on the alert, with all perseverance and petition, for all the saints.
The way you put on Christ that is practically utilize him to equip you to move through the battle you face is with prayer.
Now prayer is relational communication with god.
A lot of people wanna pray when they’re in spiritual warfare, who have not prayed till they got the spiritual welfare, In other words, they don’t know how to stand strong in the lord because they haven’t been standing with the lord.
But now that they’re in an emergency, they need the lord.
He’s talking about staying in touch with him all day.
That’s why 1st thessalonians 517 says pray without ceasing. In other words, stay in touch with me.
Now let me explain why this is so important. The evil day is principalities, powers, and world forces.
This means you are under attack.
This means that this attack is coming from the devil and demons.
It is unfortunate that far too many Christians have lost sight of demons.
Demons are angels that went rogue.
Demons are the spiritual mafia that attacks us in the spiritual that brings about our pain and the physical.
And the Bible has an answer to demons. The answer to demons are angels.
So here’s how this works. The Bible declares every Christian has been assigned an angel.
And the job of the angel is to look after the well-being of the believer.
So every Christian has an angel that is assigned to you by god.
One of the jobs of your angel is to throw out the demonic attack that is coming against you because angels know how to fight angels.
And so when the demonic angel comes to bring pain and anguish and defeat in your world and in your life, you have an angel.
The Bible says, when we pray, We engage god the Holy Spirit.
And I’ll talk about him in a moment who was who activates the angel assigned to you to deal with the demonic oppression that is coming against you.
So he says, with all prayers of heroes, But he tells you something else, and it’s the key.
He says, pray in the spirit. Verse 18.
Don’t just pray, meaning don’t just have conversation, but he says, I want you to pray in the spirit.
Uh, questions. What does that mean?
The Bible talks about the role of the spirit is to deliver the mind of god.
1st Corinthians, chapter 2. Verse 910.
But just as it is written, things which I have not seen, and erred not heard, and which has not been entered into the heart of man, all that god has prepared for those who love him.
For to us god revealed them. He’s not talking about heaven. He’s talking about earth.
To us god revealed them through the spirit.
For the spirit searches all things, even the depths of god.
See, when you’re in the evil day, that means folk can’t help you.
When you and the evil day, they have limitations that they can do for you.
And you need something that I have not seen. Ear has not heard, and the imagination is not conceived of.
You need the supernatural to enter into the natural.
Now being in the spirit is opposed in scripture to being in the flesh.
To be in the spirit, let me start with, uh, the part is simple in.
He wants you to be in the spirit. So he does not want you visiting and exiting.
He wants you operating in the realm of the spirit.
What is the realm of the spirit? The realm of the spirit is a spiritual mindset.
In Romans chapter 8 verses 1 to 13, He gives this extended discussion about the spirit.
And he says, when you have the spirit, you have the mind of the spirit.
So this has to do with how you’re thinking. The mind is your thought.
He wants you to think spiritually, not secularly. He wants you to think biblically, not worldly.
He wants you to think the mind of Christ, not the mind of man.
Galatians 5 verse 16, but I say walk by the spirit.
And you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.
For the flesh sets its desire against the spirit.
And the spirit against the flesh for these are in opposition to one another so that you may not do the things that you please.
He says there is a battle, and it’s a battle between the spirit and the flesh.
Let me define the flesh. The flesh is the desire to please self independently of god.
The flesh is the desire to please yourself as opposed to pleasing god.
We all battle with the flesh. Walk in the spirit, and you will not fulfill the desire.
Please don’t misread that. He didn’t say you won’t have the desire.
Because the flesh wants what it wants.
So you won’t have the desire, but the spirit will override it don’t read the verse in reverse.
Don’t read to get rid of the desire of the flesh walk in the spirit. That’s backwards.
Walk in the spirit, and it will overrule the desire of the flesh. It will overrule it.
The capacity to do what you need to do or what god wants done will be activated in your experience as you walk in the spirit.
Now, many times, people will say, I’m praying, but nothing is happening. What? Let me explain.
Many Christians pray They’re doing the right thing, but they’re doing it in the flesh.
They’re doing it in the wrong environment.
And if you’re doing the right thing, in the wrong environment, the right thing won’t work.
So just because you say your prayers in the morning, say grace at dinner and say your bedtime prayer That’s the right thing.
But the question is, have you been walking in the right environment?
Because if you’re not walking in the right environment, doing the right thing won’t work.
And in fact, it could help kill you quicker. So he says, all, all, all, all.
I want you to be consumed with being in my presence walking in the flesh, he says, will put you in a spiritual graveyard.
But walking by the spirit will put you And here’s how you know, because you’re no longer having to force things.
When you’re in the spirit, but the Bible calls the spirit a wind. Yes.
Yes. A wind. It blows. The Bible says the Holy Spirit guides us. He pulls us. Now you can walk.
You should walk, but you’re walking on some power. You’re walking on some undergirding.
You’re walking on some strength because you’re walking with the mind of the spirit, consistent with the revelation and word, of god so that he can override.
Yes. Even though you still have to walk.
And even though you may have a ways to go.