Prayer Barriers

Vic preached a great sermon on Daniel 9 last week.

He didn't finish the whole chapter. Now, here's what we're going to do. I'm going to finish Daniel 9 this Wednesday because there's so much detail, I don't question your ability to understand.

I question my ability to communicate it. So Wednesday night, we'll kind of do a deep dive. It is an amazing passage. A lot of Jews have gotten saved after reading this passage. Isaac Newton's faith in Christ was strengthened after studying this passage. And it appears that 500 years before Jesus came on the scene, Daniel predicted the very day that Jesus would ride into Jerusalem.

And so we're going to be hitting that on Wednesday night. So let's skip ahead now to Daniel chapter 10. And I don't know about you, I think in terms of analogies, okay? Somebody says a prophetic picture, analogy, prophetic picture, whatever. When I think of prayer, I think of these old-time diving suits.

Do you remember this? The old-time diving suits these guys used to wear. And they would descend to the bottom of the ocean.

We may have a picture of that just so you can kind of visualize what I'm talking about. But these old-time diving suits, okay, these old-time diving suits, they would have a lifeline. They'd have this tube going from the top of the head all the way up to the ship. And the guys on the ship would pump the oxygen through this tube. You've seen this before, right?

I don't know. I think of prayer like that quite often. You and I are walking the bottom of this dark place called planet earth. The Father is in heaven giving us resources. But the way he gives us resources is through this tube descending from heaven to earth. And we call that tube prayer. And through that divine tube called prayer, God pumps wisdom.

At times we need direction. He'll pump down direction. We need peace through prayer through that tube. He'll pump down peace.

We want to have that relationship with God. He does that through that tube. We need the anointing of the Holy Spirit, and he sends that through this tube called prayer.

Does that make sense? Now there are things that can clog that tube. There are obstructions that can come into that prayer tube and clog that tube. And I want to talk about some of those things, those barriers that can clog that prayer tube today that the Bible is very clear about that.

Now I want you to understand. You say, I'm not a big pray-er. If you're a born-again believer, you are called to be an intercessor.

Y'all might disagree me on this. I'm still kind of processing this. I'm starting to question this idea that there's a select group of people in the church who have the spiritual gift of intercession. They are our intercessors. Here's my problem with that. Number one, there's no New Testament gift of intercession. Did you know that? Number two, there's no New Testament gift of intercession. Did you know that? Number two, Jesus said, be very careful people who build a reputation on being pray-ers. Did you know that? And then number three, anecdotally, experientially, I've had more problems with intercessors than anybody else.

And this finally hit me. We are all called to be intercessors. We are all called to be prayer warriors. And our prayer leadership team is now devoted to raising up an entire church of people who are intercessors.

And you say, I'm too old. In this passage, Daniel's 85 years old, and he's an intercessor. Well, Chad, I'm not a pastor. Daniel is not a pastor.

He's a government worker. Well, Chad, I get ADD. I have a hard time just sitting there praying. This passage is kind of interesting because this intercessory experience that Daniel has, he has it while he's prayer walking.

He's walking beside a river. If you have a hard time just sitting in one place to pray, that's fine. Get out and walk and pray.

You can do that. And so I want you to turn, if you would, to Daniel chapter 10 and understand that Daniel 9 and Daniel 10 go together. You understand the early Scripture did not have chapter and verse divisions.

It all goes together. In Daniel 9, you see Daniel praying. In Daniel 10, you start to see this answer to Daniel's prayer.

And here's what it says, verse 1. In the third year of the reign of King Cyrus of Persia, Daniel, also known as Belteshazzar, had another vision. He understood that the vision concerned events certain to happen in the future, times of war and great hardship. And when this vision came to me, I, Daniel, had been in mourning for three whole weeks.

All that time I'd eaten no rich food, no meat or wine, crossed my lips, and I used no fragrant lotions until those three weeks had passed. On April 23rd, as I was standing on the bank of the great Tigris River, I looked up and saw a man dressed in linen clothing with a belt of pure gold around his waist. His body looked like a precious gem. His face flashed like lightning and his eyes flamed like torches.

His arms and feet shone like polished bronze, and his voice roared like a vast multitude of people. Only I, Daniel, saw this vision. The men who were with me saw nothing, but they were suddenly terrified, and they ran away to hide.

So I was left there all alone to see this amazing vision. My strength left me. My face grew deathly pale, and I felt very weak. Then I heard the man speak, and when I heard the sound of his voice, I fainted and lay there with my face to the ground.

Just then a hand touched me and lifted me, still trembling to my hands and knees. And the man, now in the original Hebrew, it does not say the man. It just said he said to me.

I believe, I'll talk about this more in a second. I think now this is a second entity, a second supernatural entity talking to Daniel. Daniel, you are very precious to God, so listen carefully to what I have to say to you. Stand up for I've been sent to you. When he said this to me, I stood up still trembling.

Then he said, Don't be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day you began to pray for understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your request has been heard in heaven. I have come with answer to your prayer, but for twenty-one days the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia blocked my way. Then Michael, one of the archangels, came to help me, and I left him there with the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia.

Now I am here to explain what will happen to your people in the future, for this vision concerns a time yet to come. While he was speaking to me, I looked down to the ground unable to say a word. Then the one who looked like a man touched my lips, and I opened my mouth and began to speak. I said to the one standing in front of me, I am filled with anguish because of the vision I have seen, my Lord, and I am very weak. How can someone like me, your servant, talk to you, my Lord? My strength is gone.

I can hardly breathe. Then the one who looked like a man touched me again, and I felt my strength returning. Don't be afraid, he said, for you are very precious to God. Peace, be encouraged, be strong. As he spoke these words to me, I suddenly felt stronger and said to him, Please speak to me, my Lord, for you have strengthened me. And he replied, Do you know why I have come? Soon I must return to fight against the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia, and after that the spirit prince of the kingdom of Greece will come. Meanwhile, I will tell you what is written in the book of truth, no one helps me against these spirit princes except for Michael, your spirit prince.

Wow. God's called you to be a prayer warrior, an intercessor, to pray, and people get saved. I believe this, to pray, and bodies get healed, demons get cast down.

God's called you to do that. But there are prayer hindrances that we've got to be aware of, and the first one I see is this, here's one prayer hindrance, is not praying through, in other words, giving up. You pray on Monday, you don't see an answer on Tuesday, you get mad at God on Wednesday. You look at verse two, Daniel said, I had this prayer burden from people, and I've been praying for three weeks for 21 days, I've been praying, and praying, and praying.

Jesus, did you know this? Jesus taught a lot about this whole concept of prayer. Jesus loved prayer. Jesus would spend all night in prayer. Jesus taught a lot about this concept of prayer. Do you know what one principle he talks about over, and over, and over, and over again, is this, pray and don't give up. Pray, keep on praying. I've had multiple ladies out of the blue come and talk to me in this church and say, praise God.

What? My husband I've been praying for for five years, finally got saved. My husband I've been praying for for 10 years, finally got saved.

I know of one lady, you won't believe this, I know of one lady, her son was the biggest reprobate drug addict, alcohol, he's a wicked man. She prayed for him for 60 years, and her son got radically saved, started going to church, started going to church, got another Lord Jesus Christ. He finally went on to glory, and this mama got to see her son get saved after praying for him for 60 years. One of the prayer hindrances is this, we don't pray through, we get discouraged and we quit. Daniel prayed for 21 days for the same thing. Second prayer hindrance is this, apathy. We just really flipped it when we prayed. And Daniel says in verse two, where this vision came to me, I have been mourning, I've been grieving for three whole weeks. Verse three, I've not eaten, I've fasted. There is an apathy that if we're not careful will hinder our prayers. We get very complacent, we read our precious moments devotional, or read a paragraph from our daily bread, we'll run through the Lord's prayer real quickly, and we're done. That's not how that man prayed.

He mourned, and he cried, and he sweated. I've heard people say this, prayer, to see these spiritual things birthed, prayer is like a delivery room. Neodatal, have you ever been in a delivery room before? It's a lot of things, but it ain't quiet.

I thought we were doing something wrong. You know, I kept hearing people talk about how beautiful childbirth is. Childbirth is the most beautiful thing in the world. I was like, well, it's great to have my kid, but it wasn't beautiful. There's a lot of screaming, a lot of shouting, a lot of blaming me for this predicament. It was a loud, noisy place.

If the prayer room is a birthing room, then at times we need to get a little bit intense and emotional when we're pleading on behalf of other people in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. A couple years ago, we had to put our dog down. We'd had that, I can't remember, I think we'd had that dog for 10 years, I don't know, the dog lived a long time. Took the dog to the vet, it was there when they put that dog down, and when I left, I had to admit this, I teared up a little bit, but I tear up now, just thinking about it.

I mean, I got teary-eyed, and later on the thought hit me. When's the last time you wept over a friend who doesn't know the Lord Jesus Christ? You have more compassion for that dog that you put down than people you know that are about to go into a devil's hell without the Lord Jesus Christ. And Daniel is an intercessor who doesn't give up, number one. Number two, he prays with intensity.

James 5 16 says this, watch this, have you seen this before? The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power. The earnest prayer, not the lackadaisical, complacent, obligatory prayer, it's the earnest prayer of a righteous person. So what are some prayer hindrances? Number one, giving up. Number two, apathy, no intensity. And then number three, now watch this, a lack of fear of God, a lack of respect for God.

Now I want you to look at verses five and six if you have your Bibles here. Daniel 10 five or six, here's a debate, Daniel sees this guy. And the question is, who is this man that he sees? I mean, it's so, the man's so incredible. Daniel just falls over like he's a dead man.

He's terrified. Is it Jesus? Some say no, it can't be Jesus. Because later on in that passage, it seems to appear that this person says, I wrestled with a demonic entity for 21 days, Jesus not gonna wrestle with anybody. He speaks and the demon disappears.

And I want you to see this. If you look in the original Hebrew and you follow the language, it looks like there are two people in this passage. Daniel meets this entity who I believe is Jesus. And there's an angel that's speaking to him. And now here's why I think that Daniel sees a pre incarnate Old Testament manifestation of Jesus.

I want you to look at verse five. I looked up and I saw a man dressed in linen clothing. He has a belt of gold around his waist. His body looks like a precious gem. His eyes flash like lightning. His eyes flame like torches. His arms and feet shone like polished bronze.

And his voice roared like a vast multitude of people. Okay, I want you to think about this. There's a term called Analugia Scriptura. Scripture is the best interpreter of Scripture. I want you to think about that description of this man that Daniel sees. And I want you to think about that while I'm going back to the very last book of the Bible. Revelation one. John the Apostle sees Jesus Christ in his resurrected state. And here's how he describes him.

Verse one or verse 13. He was wearing a long robe with a gold sash around his chest. His head and hair were white like wool as white as snow. His eyes were white as snow. His eyes were like flames of fire. His feet were like polished bronze refined in a furnace.

And his voice thundered like mighty oceans. So both of these guys, Daniel and in Revelation, Daniel sees a man wearing a robe with a gold sash around his chest. You see that Daniel in Revelation. Both these entities have eyes like fire. Both of these entities have feet like bronze.

Both of these entities have loud voices. So look, I am convinced Daniel sees Jesus in the Old Testament. He's in the presence of Jesus.

And what happens when he sees Jesus? Verse eight. My strength left me.

You know what that means? I just fainted. My face drew deathly pale and I felt very weak. Then I heard the man speak and when I heard the sound of his voice, I fainted and lay there with my face to the ground. He sees Jesus and he realizes I'm dealing with a being that is bigger, greater, mightier than I can even imagine. He is not flippant. He has fear. I think you and I, if you're one of those like I hope you are that have a daily prayer time, I think you and I need to start approaching Jesus in our daily prayer time with maybe a little bit more sense of awe than we've been approaching him lately.

I think one of the greatest hindrances to our prayer is we're very flippant about Jesus. In fact, you know, I've been watching YouTube videos. So I told you all a little while back, I got into the bloody animal videos like lions destroying wildebeests. Now I'm into true like these police videos like body cam videos and stuff and law videos.

I'm into that now. And there is one where this criminal is in a courtroom and the judge is up there on his, you know, bench. The guy who committed the crime is out there, young guy, the judge is talking to him and the young guy interrupts and says, here's what he says, he says, but bro, I did it, and the judge says, don't call me, I'm not your bro. Don't call me bro. I'm the judge of this courtroom. Who do you think you are to call me bro and found him content at the court? And I thought about that.

So I was thinking about this this week. When I come to the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, he's not my bro, he's not my homie, he's not my buddy. He is the sovereign living resurrected son of the living God who's going to judge this world one day. That's who I'm dealing with. In fact, you know, you see these little Instagram devotions. You know, there's one law back person has a coffee and their little prayer journal and their Bible and they the things that just kick him back with my homie Jesus.

He's not your homie. He is the one who's going to come back and judge this world the living and the dead. He is the resurrected son of the living God who crushed the head of the serpent who walked out of the tomb. He is Jesus Christ, King of kings and Lord of lords.

That's who we're dealing with. Now, this is why it's so important in your prayer time. I want you to jot this verse down.

Just jot the address, you can look at the verse later. Psalm 25 14 says this, the secret of the Lord is with those who fear him. Now, that word secret is the Hebrew word is sold, S-O-D. Here's what it means, a cushion or a couch. You say, what is that? How do you get a secret secret from cushion or couch?

Here's what it's implying. You come to the presence of God with fear and awe and God will say, come up and sit with me right here on this cushion. You sit up here on the couch. There's some secrets I want to tell to you that I'm not going to tell anybody else because you fear me. You have a sense of awe and respect. You come to Jesus with awe.

He's going to say, come and sit on this sword, this cushion or this couch and let me reveal some things to you. So what are some hindrances to prayer? Well, number one, giving up. Number two, apathy, no intensity.

Number three, no fear of God. And I want you to jot this down, unforgiveness, unforgiveness. Daniel, all right, I'm going to give you a term right here.

It's a great term. I didn't make this up. I don't know who I'm ripping off, but Daniel had an unoffendable spirit. He forgave people real easily. You remember back in Daniel 2 when we were talking about Nebuchadnezzar, y'all remember this?

That was this church I preached at, right? Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel 2, Daniel has this love for Nebuchadnezzar. He has this horrible vision of what's about to happen to Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel says something like this, Nebuchadnezzar, I wish this vision was for your enemies, not for you because I care about you. This is the same Nebuchadnezzar that destroyed his country, burned down his city, killed most of his friends, probably killed family members, and Daniel somehow had forgiven that man and it has this compassion for him. Later on, King Darius has him bound up and thrown in the lion's den to kill him. The next morning, Darius comes and checks on Daniel and Daniel says, I can't believe you did this to me. I've been serving you faithfully for years. What kind of king would do this to a friend? Do you know what he says?

Oh, king, live forever. The guy just tried to kill you and you're showing him honor? That tells me Daniel has an unoffendable spirit. He forgives people real easily.

Now, I want you to watch this. Jesus gives us this great teaching on prayer. We call it the Lord's prayer. Do you know it's not the Lord's prayer? Because Jesus didn't have to pray that prayer. Part of that prayer is forgive us of our trespasses.

Jesus had no trespasses that he needed to be forgiven of. It's the disciples' prayer. He's showing us how to pray and he teaches all of these principles in prayer. Call God your father, honor him, all these principles. When he gets through talking about the Lord's prayer, he only revisits one concept.

Do you know what that concept is? Unforgiveness. He says, if you don't forgive others, your father's not going to forgive you. Of all the things about the Lord's prayer Jesus could talk about, he decides to go back and emphasize this thing of unforgiveness. Why don't you listen to me? You can keep holding on to that bitterness if you want.

You can keep going around talking to everybody about how they did your own. Well, Momo said I could have the dresser and after the funeral, my cousin went in and she got the dresser and that was 10 years ago and I ain't forgot it. I'd say, just give her the doggone dresser. Just let her have the dresser, okay?

What do you rather want? Answer prayer or that dresser? And at some point, you have to just let things go. Maybe that's why you're not seeing answer to prayer. You're so bitter, God wants to give you something. He wants to answer your prayer, but your spiritual hands are wrapped around the neck of somebody else and you don't have spiritual hands to reach out and receive blessing from God because you're still bitter towards somebody else. I just think Daniel's unoffendable spirit made him this incredible intercessor.

So let's go back through this. What are some prayer hindrances? What are some of those things that can clog the prayer tube? Well, giving up, just not praying through.

No intensity, just this apathetic attitude. No fear of God. Unforgiveness.

Let me give you a fifth one. Unconfessed sin. Now, I'm not going to get too much into this, but Daniel 9, last week, Vic was talking about this. Do you know what Daniel does in Daniel chapter 9? He confesses his sin and the sins of his people.

It's interesting, the order of operation. He does that. Then the answer comes. Here's what the Bible says in Psalm 66 18. If I see wickedness in my heart, if I know there's some sin issues in my heart and I'm not confessed that against to God, I've not gotten that right, God's not going to hear my prayers. You're still saved.

You're still going to heaven. I got it, but that can cut off your prayer life if there is unrepentant sin in your heart. Now, let me give you one more. Jot this down. What are some prayer barriers, some things that might be disrupting your prayer life?

Let me give you a sixth one. Spiritual warfare sometimes hinders our prayer. Daniel been praying to God. God sends an answer to Daniel through an angel, but it takes 21 days to get there.

Why? Verses 13 and verse 20, the angel said, the reason this has taken me so long is while you've been praying down here in the scene realm, watch this, in the unseen realm, you're in the unseen realm. There have been demons and angels and supernatural entities and archangels fighting in the spirit realm. I wish, I wish for like two seconds God could take off our spiritual physical lives and put our spiritual eyes and see what's going on all around us right now. Do you know that there are demons and angels and entities all around right now? And when you pray, you're entering that spiritual warfare zone.

And it's interesting. The Bible gives us just a little bit of a glimpse here. If you combine passages from Genesis, Deuteronomy, Psalms, what we see is the human race used to be one big group.

They are separated at the Tower of Babel. You put all these verses together. Michael Heiser in his book, The Unseen Realm, talks about this. Every nation now has a supernatural entity over that nation. And a lot of them are bad, bad entities.

In fact, you see this in verse 13. The entity, the nation called Persia. Now Iran up to 1935 was called Persia. This is ancient Iran. There was a spiritual entity over that nation of Persia or Iran. You want to know something?

He's still over it. Why do you think there's been so much attack from Iran on Israel? It's because the same thing you're reading about here is taking place now where that supernatural entity over Iran or Persia in the spirit realm is fighting and the war we're seeing is a manifestation of that. Does that make sense to you?

And the Bible goes a little bit further. In verse 20, the nation of Greece. This angel says there's a spiritual supernatural entity over that nation and I've been trying to come back to you with an answer to your prayer but I've been fighting Persia. I'm gonna be fighting the supernatural entity over Greece.

Here's my point. There is in the spirit realm this very complex organized system. Satan's a lot of things but he's not chaotic.

He is very systematic and we see this in Ephesians 6 when it talks about the different levels of spiritual entities. Y'all believe that there's a supernatural entity over America right now? I believe that.

I believe over each city there's a supernatural entity. Y'all remember back in college, I've not really looked this up. I'm just gonna tell you what my professor said. She's a brilliant professor. She said, Asheville, North Carolina, here's what she said, has more witches per capita than any other city on the east coast except for Salem, Massachusetts.

Why is that? I believe, I believe there might be a supernatural entity, a strong entity, strong entity over Asheville. Just witches and lesbians everywhere in Asheville, okay? And so is that a spiritual thing?

I believe it is. I think homes can have those entities as well. I know of one house where then these people weren't related. This man had committed suicide in this home. A little while later a family moved in.

They had a tragic accident, multiple people killed. Later on somebody else moved into that home and there was suicide. Could there be a supernatural entity over that home? And so what Daniel is trying to tell us is when we pray, we're starting to enter this spiritual realm where things are happening and one of the reasons, maybe, maybe you're not seeing the prayer answer you want right now. Could it be that there's a spiritual war going on and God has sent that answer and that answer is going to come to you, but you got to let the spiritual forces do their thing and that answer is going to come to you.

Y'all would be on that? All right, let's start winding this thing down. When we pray, we are entering the realm of spiritual warfare. This is real stuff.

Now you have two choices. You can say that this is a book full of fables. There are no demons. There are no spiritual entities.

There are no strongholds. That's one option or the other option is that book knows exactly what it's talking about. They're all around us in your family, in your marriage, in this church. There is a spiritual war going on. Those are your only two choices when it comes to what this Bible say. And in the midst of this demonic battle, look at what the angel tells Daniel. I love this.

So you understand, here's the context. Daniel now, he's seen Jesus. He sees demons. He sees his entities.

He sees all this stuff going on. And here's what the angel says, verse 19. Daniel, don't be afraid for you are very precious to God.

Peace. Daniel, be encouraged. Be strong. As he spoke these words to me, suddenly I felt stronger. Look at his angel says two things I love. One of this is gonna revolutionize your prayer life.

Watch this right here. He says, Daniel, you are very precious to God. I'm gonna tell you something that's gonna revolutionize your prayer life. Do you know God wants to spend time with you more than you want to spend time with God? See, a lot of times I think I'm having to, I know God's so disappointed with me. He's distracted with all that's going on. You know, God is sitting on the edge of his throne wanting you to come into his presence. God wants to meet with you more than you want to meet with him. You are very precious to God. The second thing he says to Daniel is, Daniel, be bold.

Be strong. Yeah, demons are real. Yeah, the Prince of Persia is real. Yeah, the Prince of Greece is real.

Yes, this stuff is real. But you're not a victim. Be bold. Be strong, Daniel. I think God's saying the same thing to us in this place today. Yeah, this world is messed up. Yeah, it seems like our nation is going to hell. Yeah, all this crazy stuff is happening. But don't sit around sad, sick, and sorry. Rise up, be bold, be strong, for the Lord thy God is with thee.

That's what God's saying to us. I love this story. During World War II, there was a general named Jonathan Wainwright. Wainwright, I'll make a long story short. He'd been told by Douglas MacArthur, do not surrender to the Japanese. The Japanese surrounded him and his group.

He had to surrender. Wainwright was the highest ranking American officer captured during World War II. And after they captured Wainwright, they took him hundreds of miles by enemy lines to Mongolia. And so there in Mongolia, he's put in prison, and there's this vicious Japanese commandant that's guarding him. And now that he's got this prize general, he's taunting him, he's teasing him, he's abusing him.

Wainwright for months and months was in this prison at the hands of this wicked Japanese commandant. And then one day, the Americans won. War is over.

America won, Japan lost. Did you know that commandant did not let Wainwright know the Americans had won? Even after the war was over, he still kept him as a prisoner, taunting him, subjugating him, and that commandant lived in constant fear that one day this general was going to get the news that my people won, your people lost, you are now my prisoner, I am now the conqueror, you are now defeated.

The Japanese commandant tried his best to keep that good news from Wainwright, and the day came when the news came to Wainwright, we have won, they have lost, the victory is ours. And I want you to know something, Satan lives in terror that some of us one day are going to get this news through our head and our heart that 2,000 years ago, our man Jesus Christ defeated Satan at the cross. He won, Satan lost, you don't have to be a prisoner anymore, you can rise up and be strong. Listen to me, Satan has some of y'all in prison to anxiety, fear, lust, depression.

Why are you in that prison? You are more than a conqueror through him who loved you. You are on the winning team, and God says to Daniel, Daniel in the midst of this conflict, I'm telling you, rise up, be bold, be strong, stand firm, and I'm saying the same thing to you today. In the midst of this spiritual conflict going on with demons and angels and principalities, rise up, be bold, be strong, we're more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Would you stand on me right now and can we lift up hands and lift up voices and praise the one who died on the cross, who walked out of the tomb, who crushed the head of Satan, who ascended to the right hand of the father, and who is coming back one day, and today may be the day, lift your hands and lift your voices and church let's praise the name of Jesus Christ. Praise when I'm number, praise when surrounded, because praise is the waters my enemies drown in. As long as I'm breathing, I've got a reason to praise the Lord, oh my soul.

Praise the Lord, oh my soul. I'll praise when I feel it, I'll praise when I don't. I'll praise because I know you're still in control. Oh, my praise is a weapon, it's more than a sound.

My praise is a shout that brings Jericho down. As long as I'm breathing, I've got a reason to praise the Lord, oh my soul. Praise the Lord, oh my soul. I won't be quiet, my God is alive, how could I keep it inside? Praise the Lord, oh my soul.

Man, I got this, it's a weird fertile imagination. A lot of Sundays I stand up here and I feel like I'm some kind of general or colonel looking out of the army, sending the troops out, not with bombs and guns and missiles, but with prayer and the word of God and the gospel. We're in a war, y'all believe that? We want to save as many souls as possible, get them ready for Jesus Christ to come out. I feel like we're an army of the Lord Jesus Christ and we don't know how powerful we really are. When we leave this place and we walk into a room, demons ought to scream and flee in our presence. When we go into a spiritually dark place in the spirit realm, life ought to be coming off of us and pushing back that darkness.

Does that make sense? Y'all are warriors of the Lord Jesus Christ, so put your head up, throw your shoulders back, walk with a little bit of divine cockiness and remember that God says to you what he said to Joshua, which means church, be bold, be strong. Y'all don't be afraid and you don't be terrified of anything.

Why? Because the Lord your God is going to be with you everywhere you go this week. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, we pray. Amen and amen. God bless you, beloved. Let's go change this world for Jesus Christ.