Taking Back Your Half Acre

Carter Conlon from the historic Times Square Church in New York City. Israel has abandoned spiritual leadership, and they want a king to rule over them. So God gave them Saul. They thought he had the makings of being a good king, but they soon found Saul gave in to his own fears and frustrations. He lost touch with God, and now the whole nation was threatened by the Philistines.

But one day, Jonathan, Saul's son, stood tall and attacked the mighty Philistine army and secured a pivotal, small piece of land. Let's join Carter Conlon now with today's message, Taking Back Your Half Acre. So I'm going to speak to you about something that you need to hear. I'm going to talk to you about the significance of winning your half acre. You have a half acre battle ahead of you. It might seem like a little small thing in the scope of the magnitude of what we're facing in our society today.

Your battle might seem small and it still might seem impossible. And you're wondering in your heart, what kind of a difference could my life make? Oh, my brother and my sister, if you could only see the difference that your life could make. You know, some people will get to the throne of God one day, and it'll be only at the throne of God that they finally have, they're still in heaven, heaven is still their home, but they finally have a vision of what their life could have been. If they would have just taken that step that God had set before them, if they would have refused to bow down to their struggles or their self loathing, whatever it was that they were dealing with, and saw something a little bit bigger than just the place where they were, and they just got fed up. And they said, I'm getting up out of here, I'm getting out of here. I'm not staying here any longer.

And I'm really challenging some people. I'm hoping that you're going to get fed up with where you are. I'm hoping that you're going to get tired of the verbal barrage of hell itself and of the bondage and addictions and the despair and the hopelessness and all of the rest of it that's come into your life. I'm hoping and believing that some fight is going to get into you that God by his Holy Spirit will put there.

And you finally said, I've had enough of this. I'm getting up, and I'm getting out, and I'm going to make a difference. And I don't know how big that difference is going to be. And I don't know how many people it's going to affect. But I know that staying where I am is going to amount to very little in comparison to what God has for my life. And so you are the person I'm speaking to. If you have a Bible or any kind of device where you can follow along, I'm reading from the New King James Version of the Bible in 1 Samuel chapter 14.

That's all you have to find for the moment. Just if you can find it and just open your Bible. 1 Samuel chapter 14. Let me set the scene for you in chapter 14 of 1 Samuel. The nation of Israel have really abandoned spiritual leadership, and they wanted a king. So God gave them a king called Saul. He was an idea guy.

He stood tall above the rest of the people, and he looked like a king. He had an assemblage of a spiritual life when he started out, but he soon gave in to his own fears, his own frustrations. And he's on the trajectory now of actually turning to witchcraft, if you can believe it. He's lost touch with God.

He has around himself, the scripture says he was there. The nation is under assault, just as our nation is today. The forces of darkness have the high ground. That means that they have all the military advantage.

They have every conceivable natural advantage over the people of God who incidentally are called to be a testimony of the greatness and glory of God in the earth. The devil has constantly come against this throughout history, constantly yelled over the valley or from the mountain tops, constantly tried to convince the people of God that you will serve us. We will not serve you.

You will serve us. You see, my brother, my sister, this has been a spiritual battle since the Garden of Eden, and you and I have to understand this. And the only way this battle can be fought is in the spirit.

You can't fight it in the flesh. Saul tried to fight it in the flesh, and he ended up a coward. And he led an army that became cowardly. And he had a priest around him who had the ephod, which is the garment that priests wore when they're seeking God. And you got to imagine, he's sitting under a pomegranate tree.

Nobody around him has the courage to fight. He himself has become a carnal man. It means he doesn't understand the ways of God or the ways of the spirit. And there was one time when the ark of God was taken captive, there was a baby born at that time, and his name was Ichabod, which means the glory of God has departed. Now his nephew has now got the garment of prayer on him. He's in charge of the prayer meeting.

So here you've got Saul, a failed king. You've got Ichabod, the nephew of the glorious God in the nation. He's got the garment of prayer. And there's a young man sitting there.

His name is Jonathan. He's the only one left in this entourage that has a heart for God, realistically. And Jonathan finally just says, I'm out of here.

That's what I'm hoping is going to happen. I'm out of here. I'm tired of this leadership in a sense that's going nowhere and it's just filled with men's ideas. I'm tired of the prayerless places that are not touching base with God anymore. And I'm just going to get up and I'm just going to follow where the Lord leads me and I'm going to do something that will bring glory to God. And the scripture tells us that he decided to get up and go over to a garrison, or it means a squad of the Philistines, and engage in battle. And it said, but he did not tell his father. You know, here's the first point. If God is leading you to do something that you're going to need the strength of God to do, don't tell people around you who are prayerless and who are not able to follow the Spirit of God because they will do everything in their power to talk you out of the leading of God.

I know what I'm talking about. When I was a young Christian and I started to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit in my life, I can't tell you the numbers of people professing to be people of God who tried to talk me out of the pathway that God had set before me. You have to get through it. If I knew then what I know today, I wouldn't have said anything to anybody.

I just would have gone. But I told people I thought they'd be excited that the Lord was leading me to do something only to find out that because of prayerlessness in many cases, and because many people don't understand what it means to walk in the Spirit, they will try to talk you out of doing. They'll give you all the reasons why it can't be done.

You're too weak. Get through your own struggles. They'll tell you all the reasons why what God's calling you to do just simply can't be done. Now, Joshua had a friend, and it's always good to have a friend, an armor bearer who just said, whatever's in your heart, let's do it. It's great to have a friend like that.

And I hope you can find somebody that's willing to undertake this journey with you. So they set out to engage in battle with a garrison. The garrison is probably about 20 or so soldiers.

So they're vastly outnumbered. The soldiers, their enemy soldiers are on a mountaintop. They're in a valley. They had to go up in verse four, it says, between the passes, which Jonathan sought to go over to the Philistines garrison, there was a sharp rock on one side and a sharp rock on the other side. In other words, there's some difficult, if you're going to engage the enemy in this particular day that we're living in, there's some difficult places you're going to have to go through.

You're going to have to pass by these places. The one rock, the name of it was Bozaz, and the other was Senna. And it's interesting because Bozaz means fine white linen and Senna means thorns. In other words, we're going to have to fight to get through and understand that we have a righteousness that's not our own. It's given to us by God. You know, sometimes people don't get into the battle. They say, well, I'm not ready because I'm still battling this and I'm still battling that. And I still struggle here and I still struggle there.

So they feel like they're going to be on the sidelines their whole life. When God says, no, it's not about what you have done. It's about what I have done for you. And I have given you a righteousness, a right standing with God that is not your own.

It was bought for you on the cross 2000 years ago. And the other one simply means Senna means thorns. That means I'll have to battle these thoughts in my mind that somehow I don't qualify for the battle. You remember a crown of thorns in a sense of the devil put on the head of the son of God. It was a type of saying, who do you think you are to make the declarations that you are? You declared yourself to be the son of God. You said you'd come to us here in another kingdom.

And so that crown of thorns in a sense is pressed into his brow. It's the devil's way of saying you thought you were going to win the victory, but I have the victory over you because that's where the ultimate battle is in the Christian life. So you've got to get through these first two battles. The first two battles are that you're not clean enough to enter into this battle.

So stay home, stay where you are, stay sitting in your chair, stay laying in your bed, stay on those pills because you're not clean enough. And who do you think you are to engage in this battle anyway? You're simply going to be defeated. You're going to make a fool of yourself or of the kingdom of God. The scripture in verse five says the front of one of these stones faced northward opposite Michmash and the other southward opposite Gibeah. And it's interesting because when you look at these two particular cities that it talks about, everything in the Old Testament is a type. That's the way at least I'm looking at it right now and speaking it to you.

Michmash means concealed place and Gibeah means past association. So you've got to get past this sense of unrighteousness. You've got to get past these thorns pressed into your mind that who do you think you are and who makes you think you're going to win a victory.

And you also have to get past these places that these thoughts that say there's some hidden thing in your life or something got a hold of you because of past association that disqualifies you from the battle. I want you to remember it's not in our strength that God is glorified, it's in our weakness. It's in our nothingness that he becomes everything. It's when we come to the end of ourselves that the kingdom of God starts to take over and he starts to carry us into places that only he can go. And when we win the victory at the end we say only God could have done this.

Only God could have done this. Jonathan said to the young man who bore his armor, he said let us go over to the garrison of these Philistines for the Lord will work for us. He said for nothing restrains the Lord from saving by many or by few. You see God's hand is not obligated to move because we can bring 10,000 people together to fight.

History proves that over and over and over again. All he needs is one person to faith. As a matter of fact all he needs is you. You. You with your struggles.

You with your trials. You who have to fight in your mind. You who the devil is after and saying you don't qualify because of what you did in your past or things that maybe have tried to attach themselves still to your spirit because of past association. You that the devil is trying to convince. You can't fight this battle because you certainly couldn't be clean. Think of the things that you have done. Think of the things that float through your mind now and again and Satan will come against you with everything he's got because more than you do he knows the threat that you are to his kingdom. Don't you forget that he's lived through moments like this that I'm reading about where somebody just got up and said I've had enough of this mockery of God. I've had enough of living in this powerless place.

I'm not going to sit here and lick my wounds any longer. I'm getting up and I'm going to do something that will bring glory to God. So they went up the hill. They went past these two obstacles these two sharp rocks that they had to go around in the journey up to fight with the this enemy army of the people of God.

On the very first thing when they said they revealed themselves they actually revealed themselves to the Philistines. We're here to fight with you. I think there's something in my spirit that's right I can't fully explain it but I just think there's somebody that's getting up and saying I'm going into the battle. I'm just done with this.

I'm done with this. I'm done dragging my sword into the into David's cave like walking in like a defeated soldier every week. I'm just going to pick that thing up and recognize I'm a child of God and I'm going to fight for something bigger than just getting out of my own struggles. And so the Philistine said look the Hebrews are coming out of the holes where they've hidden. That's the very first thing you'll have to face when you step out to do something for the glory of God you will face the mockery of every devil of hell.

You see the demons believe James said and they tremble they know what can happen to them when somebody raises up in faith again and they will hit you with mockery. Who do you think you are? You've been hiding all these years and suddenly you're just going to become a soldier suddenly going to fight with us. Don't you know we have the high ground? Don't you know you're in the valley? Don't you know that we've got you?

We're the dominant voice in the culture today. What makes you think you can stand up and fight against us? The second thing they said to Jonathan and his armored bears come up to us in verse 12 and we will show you something. See the second thing you will face after mockery is threats. This is going to hurt if you continue on this journey this is going to be painful.

It's going to be difficult. You're going to suffer if you continue on this journey. So everything in the voice of the enemy is telling these men turn around and go back to that place of powerlessness. Turn around and go back and sit under that leadership that has no mind of God and under the priesthood that doesn't pray and is not connected with God anymore.

Go back, go back, go back and maybe somebody else will do something but not you. Verse 13 says Jonathan climbed up on his hands and knees with his armor bearer after him. This is really interesting. Second chronicle 714 says if my people who are called by my name will what? Humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways I will hear from heaven forgive their sin and I will heal the land. I want you to notice that Jonathan did not approach the battle in arrogance. He approached it in humility.

He of all people at this point would have recognized if God is with us we will win a marvelous victory and if he's not, if God is not with us, if we walk up with pride, the scripture says God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. And so on their hands and knees, now can you imagine from the Philistine perspective this must have looked like quite a spectacle. Here come these two guys. They're crawling up the side of the mountain.

You've got 20 soldiers guarding this half acre parcel ground on the top of the mountain. They have all the weaponry. They've got the muscles. They've got the swords. They've got the numbers.

And here come two guys up the hill literally crawling towards them up the hill. And it must have looked like a joke to them. And quite often throughout history what God uses to tear down the powers of darkness looks like a joke to the powers of darkness. But I guarantee you you're no joke to the kingdom of God. Oh hallelujah.

Hallelujah. We are a mighty army in the hand of God. Yes, for a season we lost sight of who we are. For a season, I guess because we sailed some pretty smooth seas for a while, we forgot that we're called to fight and bring glory to the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We forgot we had power to tear down serpents and scorpions and all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt us. We forgot that our weaponry and prayer is to stand against thoughts that are in high places and pull them down and bring every thought into obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. We forgot who we are in Christ. We forgot the might of our God. Maybe we even forgot the willingness of our God to take us in our failure and use us for his glory. Maybe we thought we had to have it all together before God could use us or we had to be as strong as our enemies were forgetting.

It's not in our strength. You see your calling brethren and the Apostle Paul says, not many mighty, not many noble, not many wise, but who has God chosen? He's taken the foolish things of the world and the weak things of this world and things which are nothing and things which are despised to bring everything that stands against God in its own strength down into nothing that no flesh can glory in his presence. Praise be to God.

We have what we have and we are who we are because of the grace of all mighty God. Jonathan and his armor bear stood up and in the natural they have no chance of winning this victory. But you see, they're not walking in the natural.

They're walking in the supernatural. And this is where we as the people of God must return again, standing against the forces of darkness that are pitted against our children in this generation, our families, our homes, our marriages, our minds, and the very testimony of God himself. I feel that fire of young King David coming into my soul again, even in my old age, where David came into the camp of Israel and they're traveling before the Philistine army one more time. And King David said, is there not a cause? Why are we not fighting for the glory of God? Why are we letting these enemy armies mock the people of God and mock the testimony of God in the earth? Does anybody here know that God reigns in this earth, that he's in total cause?

The heaven is his throne and the earth is his footstool. So Jonathan and his armor bear stood up to fight. Verse 14 of first Samuel chapter 14 says that first slaughter which Jonathan and his armor bear made was about 20 men within about a half an acre of land. Now it doesn't look like a big victory, does it? Now listen to me, the whole nation is being threatened, border to border, north to south, east to west. I don't know how many square miles that is, it's a lot.

It's a lot. The Philistine armies in the thousands or tens or maybe the hundreds of thousands, they've come against the people of God. They've got the high ground, they've got the upper hand, they've got the weaponry, they've got the big voices.

They seem to have the upper hand in everything. So in the midst of it all, this one man and his armor bear climbs up this place of difficulty, casts off all the threatenings and all the mockery and all the fear of failure of the past and takes back a half acre of land. It's not very much, half acre, roughly 110 by 110 square feet. It's not very big, but they took it back.

And what happened when they took it back? The first 15 says there was a trembling in the camp. Amazing. Hallelujah.

I want you to picture this with me. They just win a battle of a place that's probably about the size of this room. And when they take back that piece of ground, there's a trembling goes through the whole host of the enemy, in the camp, in the field, and among all the people. Suddenly there's a trembling. It means like there's a fear that is released among the people. There's a sense as if there's been like a nuclear explosion in our midst. Somebody of faith has risen up again.

That's the one thing the devil fears more than anything else. Somebody of faith rises up. The garrison and the raiders also trembled.

Now this is amazing. These are the trained soldiers started to tremble and the raiders are parties. They're called spoilers actually. And the original King James, they're parties, little raiding parties that are sent out in advance to kind of terrorize towns where the armies of the enemy are going to come. And sometimes they raided towns. Sometimes they just circle the walls and started declaring the defeat that it was coming the way of the people of God. And the raiders who are not even there begin to tremble. In other words, a trembling went through the whole host of the enemies of God and God's people. And the earth quaked so that it was a very great trembling. Even the ground started to shake.

One man and his armor bearer climbed a mountain and took a half an acre. Then also what happened in verse 20 it says, every man's sword was against his neighbor and there was great confusion. Now, not only did the enemies of God's people start trembling, they turned on each other. I can't overemphasize to you the importance of taking back our half acre, each of us in this generation.

I can't emphasize it enough. Every man's sword was against his neighbor and there was a very great confusion. This is what we ought to pray for our generation. For those who would destroy this nation, for those who would take away our Christian heritage, for those who would trample on everything that we hold dear and precious in this time, let there be a confusion.

Let them not achieve their objectives that they have in their heart. Moreover, it says the Hebrews who were with the Philistines before that time, who went up with them into the camp from the surrounding country, they also joined the Israelites who were with Saul and Jonathan. So there were a lot of people who were mixed. As a matter of fact, realistically, they were in the enemy's camp. That's where they were.

They shouldn't have been there, but they were there. And when they saw the victory coming back into the camp of Israel, they left their association with people where they shouldn't have been and came back again into the kingdom of God. And likewise, it says in verse 22, all the men of Israel who had hidden in the mountains of Ephraim, when they heard that the Philistines fled, they also followed hard after them in battle. So the Lord saved Israel that day. In other words, the people of God came out of their place of fear, and they got into the battle too as well. And there was a great victory that day.

The Philistine army is completely routed. The enemies of God have turned their swords on each other. Those that are backslidden, may I put it that way, have come home. And those that were fearful have gotten into the fight.

And it all happened because one man and his armor bearer says, I'm up and I'm out of here. You have no idea what could be unleashed through your life today. If you make the choice to say, I'm not living here in defeat any longer. My life is not destined just to try to get out of this battle and out of that battle and out of this struggle and out of that struggle and just survive another day. I'm done just trying to preserve myself.

I'm going into the fight for the glory of God. And as the spirit of God leads me, I'm going to follow him and I'm going to take back my half acre. Your half acre might be your home, your family. Your half acre might be just the escape or the getting away from your own addictions, whether it's pornography or drugs or alcohol or some kind of mental addiction, whatever it is that you're struggling with. Your half acre might be your children. Your half acre might be your husband or wife who's left and you're hanging by a straw believing that God's able to bring them home again. That might be your half acre.

But I'm telling you, if you'll get up and take that half acre by faith, by faith in what God has done for you through his son Jesus Christ, by faith in what God is able to do when you are walking in the spirit and according to his will, there is a trembling that starts going through every devil of hell that's pitted against you and your family. A trembling. And suddenly the enemies that were focused on you are now focused on each other. Suddenly those that were backslidden start coming home. Suddenly those were fearful start getting into the fight.

Suddenly everything changes just because you got up. Instead I'm not living here anymore. And I'm going to get beyond those obstacles and those hard places that tell me I'm not worthy. And I'm going to get beyond the mocking voices.

I'm going to get beyond the fear of my own heart. And I would rather die fighting for the kingdom of God than live in defeat. History is recorded time and again, when one vessel gets up, one Gideon, one Esther, one Moses, one Elizabeth, one Mary. Look at it all through scriptural history.

Somebody got up and began to fight and hell was pushed back by the power of God himself. God's called you to be a warrior. That's who you are. That's what your calling is. That's what your future is.

I don't know what your half acre is. I know for sure that people on the sidelines will get up and start to fight with you. By the grace of God a great victory will be won. You've been listening to Carter Conlon from Times Square Church in New York City. For more information and resources to help you in your walk in Christ, log on to tsc.nyc. That's tsc.nyc. And be sure to be with us next week for A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon.