— Brother Phil Enlow: Think about how the Lord allows Satan to, literally, have some influence and be able to exert his influence upon people and situations. You see where the world is going, right? You see where the Lord’s gonna take His hands off, in the sense that He’s allowing Satan to pursue his dream?
You see what happened in Noah’s day? The Lord worked with men, but there came a time when He took His hands off and allowed Satan to, basically, rule humanity and bring them to a place where there was no more capacity in most people for God. Did God take care of His own? He sure did, and He’s gonna do it right to the end of the age.
And you see even though Lot was not exactly an exemplary follower of God, was he? He wasn’t exactly your super spiritual guy, but in his heart, he had enough of a knowledge of God to stand against what was wrong and to say I’m not going along with that.
And so, the Lord came to Sodom, and saw that the condition was such that people had made so many moral choices to embrace evil, they had lost the capacity to choose Him. And so, God brought Lot out of Sodom and destroyed it.
And in a sense, both Lot and Noah had to stand, didn’t they? They had to make a moral choice, a spiritual choice to say, I’m gonna serve God. I don’t care what the rest of the world does, I’m with Him.
Folks, that is what God is building in every single one of us, every single battle that comes. Oh, I’ll tell you, God has so many awesome things that He wants to do for us if we will only learn to make the little choices, and to see, not just, oh, the evil day as some big event, but to see the little events that happen in your life, some of which nobody else knows about but you and God…to see them as God allowing Satan to tempt, to test, to pressure.
Whatever form it takes, he’s gonna pull on your nature, gonna appeal to your nature in some fashion, and attack you, and God wants to build a people who know how to stand in the middle of that. Man, I need it, but you see where God’s going with this.
I’ll get to some of the rest of it in a minute, but…Jehoshaphat was a king who sought to serve God, at least in a great measure, was the king over Judah, the Southern Kingdom after the kingdom split. He was a Godly king, and yet, one day, all of a sudden, he gets word that there is an army, and if I…the best I remember, it was something like a million strong, that’s marching our way, and they mean to do business. They mean to take us down and tear us apart and, basically, dismantle us.
He didn’t go looking for that. There’s nothing he could say, well, I did this, and God’s…you know, he recognized this is just something that has come against God Himself and His promises to us. And so, the devil’s aim, in every bit of this, was to take him down, to conquer the nation that God had blessed, pick on their weaknesses, do whatever He could to take them down!
And so, they went to the Lord, and they lifted Him up. They lifted up His promises. They worshiped Him. They said, oh, God, we didn’t go looking for this. We think about what You’ve promised us, and now, our eyes are upon You. We don’t know what to do.
You ever been in that place? That’s a good place to be, because we don’t always know what to do. In fact, most of the time, we don’t, really. That’s a lot of what the Lord is looking for when we get in situations, because there’s no cookie cutter answer. You don’t go to a book of theology and say in this circumstance, aha, there’s the answer. There’s the formula.
God has a purpose and a way to work out every situation. Jesus never healed people the same way twice. Well, maybe some of them, but you know what I’m saying. He healed people all kinds of different ways, different circumstances.
But here, God answered the prayer and said you’re not even gonna have to fight in this battle. Whatever other battles that Israel had to fight, and there were huge…there was a huge carnage. There were, sometimes, hundreds of thousands of soldiers that died in some of the wars of that era. He said, this one, you’re not even gonna have to fight.
You talk about the choir. They sent the choir out ahead of the army. I wonder how…I hope the choir had plenty of faith. You know, you think about the literal situation. There’s a million-man army out there, and the soldiers are behind us, and we’re gonna get in between here. We’re gonna march out and sing.
Well, of course, it worked pretty good at Jericho, didn’t it? But anyway, they marched out and they sang praises to God, and God just absolutely turned everyone against each other. You remember how it all turned out. And where the Lord…where the devil meant to take them down, the Lord gave them so much plunder out of it, it took three days to gather what the…what they had left behind. So, here’s the devil looking to do some damage, and God turns it into a rich blessing.
Folks, if we will learn to trust God in every circumstance and every battle, no matter how hard it is at the time, we’re gonna discover God bringing us into a better place. Not just getting back to…
( exhaling ).
…Okay, but a better place. God longs for us to have more, to be more…to get more experience under our belt, to be stronger in Him. How can we be ready for ‘the’ evil day if we can’t even handle our little evil days? See, we’re in the lion and bear stage here, I think, most of us.
But I’ll tell you…and some of us are in the Peter stage. We’re still trying to unlearn what we think of ourselves and learn to really see ourselves through God’s eyes, but it’s not God’s eyes of condemnation. Look at you, you weakling. It’s God’s eyes saying, I know what sin has done. I know your need, and I’m not basing anything I’m doing for you on anything other than that I love you, and I have a plan if you’d just give yourself to me and humble yourself in My hands.
I have the power to bring you out. I’m not looking down on you because you’re weak. I love you, and the weakness in you causes my heart to want to reach down and lift you up, and bring you into a better place if you’d just let Me. I want to let Him, don’t you? Oh God, help every single one of us.
Like I say, you can go through the scriptures, and Jesus Himself…the evil day certainly hit Him…the evil day of all days, but yet, look what God has brought out of it. When He made the choice to go to that cross and say, I will honor Him. I will lay down my life if that’s what it takes to fulfill His purpose.
Isn’t that what He called us to do, to lay down our lives? Maybe not literally. I don’t think anybody here is likely to be nailed to a literal cross, but who knows? But I’ll tell you, whatever God calls us to do and to come through, God is gonna bring us through it. Praise God! Those are some of the thoughts that I had.
Anyway, let’s just go ahead and read that passage very quickly, because it’s very familiar to us in Ephesians chapter 6. “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.” (NIV). Whose mighty power?
( congregational response ).
Yeah. “Put on the full armor of God…” not just part of it, “…so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.” So, it isn’t just power on power that the devil employs. A lot of times, he comes in under the guise of something else. He’s gonna find any opening that he can possibly find into your life or mine.
Do we have weaknesses he can exploit? Yeah, and the Lord’s gonna allow him to come at us through those weak places so that we can learn that we have them, and we will learn to bring them to Him, to the cross and trust God, and learn how to fight that particular battle.
And boy, as we do, we’re gonna grow. We’re gonna have experience. Like Paul says, all these things give us perseverance, don’t they? Perseverance produces character. Character produces hope. And nobody’s gonna come to the end and say, what a fool I was to hope in God! Look what it got me. Man, we’re gonna be so blown away with what God has given us, because we have fixed our hope in Him, in spite of everything that has come along.
But I’ll tell you, the devil has schemes against you. He knows your weaknesses. He’s been around you, followed you your whole life. That’s not to make us afraid. But it is to make us aware. It’s to make us…what did Peter say? I’m trying to remember the language that he used. Be on your guard. Be aware. Be alert. Okay?
“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood….” How many times do we react to something in life, and we’re reacting against the people involved? God, help us to see past that. Folks, the devil has control of so much in this world, and even in the Body of Christ, people have weaknesses. And there are gonna be things that you and I are gonna have to be patient with one another about.
But here’s the deal, and this is something we’ve said so many times. I don’t care what, even if the Devil uses somebody to do something that is hurtful to you in some fashion. That is never, ever, ever, ever an excuse for you to have a bad spirit. In fact, the Lord might have allowed that to expose that need in you so you’ll learn how to surrender it to Him.
What does the scripture say? If there’s somebody who’s overtaken in a fault, what do we do? You who are spiritual…now, he’s not talking about some high-blown picture that we would paint, but somebody that’s walking with the Lord and has their spirit right. Okay? You go to them with a spirit of condemnation and contempt…no, with a spirit of meekness, and then, what does it say? Consider yourself lest you also be tempted.
Oh, God just wants to change us into His likeness! Are we willing? See, yeah, that’s the kind of circumstance that will really find out whether we’re gonna follow our old nature or His. Yeah, examine yourself. Let’s ask God to help us in those kinds of battles. But remember, “…our struggle is not against flesh and blood…” We need to see past that.
“…But against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Anybody here naturally able to handle that?
( congregational response ).
You ready to go after them? There’s a lot of power. The power of evil, the power of sin is very real! And the nature with which you and I were born, that still lives in this flesh, is very much a part of that! It’s in harmony with that! I need a Savior, folks.
( congregational amens ).
I need something supernatural if I’m gonna have any help. You can’t give me rules to follow. You’re gonna have to give me a Savior.
( congregational amens ).
You’re gonna have to give me a new heart and a new life that gives me power. You notice, he begins this section here with the power of God, His mighty power. Then, he comes down to Satan’s mighty power. Which one do you want? I want His mighty power.
( congregational response ).
Thank God! And that’s the thing, we can be strong…we can be stronger than the devil, not because we are anything, but because we’re relying on Him. David found that out, didn’t he and the whole army? Two armies found out…that God plus a little boy or a young man with a sling and a stone is better than a giant, because God is with him!
I want God to be with me. I want to experience His strength in situations like I felt this…what I felt earlier in the week. I want to experience His strength in that in a deeper way. How do I get there without having to go through it? How do we ever acquire the label ‘overcomers’ if we’ve never overcome anything? God is gonna send battles your way and mine.
But oh, what He’s given us to fight. It says, “Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground….” That’s all God’s looking for. Use the armor and stand. He’s not looking for you to fix the situation, not looking for you to save America, as we said recently, not looking for you to straighten out the person that caused your problem. God wants to straighten you out! And if we will be the kind of person God wants us to be, that’s gonna do more for somebody else, if it can happen, than anything else.
But oh, how hard a lesson that is to learn. It is so contrary to everything with which we were born. So, if God keeps putting you in conflict with somebody, you need to understand what’s going on. It’s not because He hates you, not because He’s mad at you and punishing you. He wants you to learn something.
And I’ll tell you, the more we learn, the more He’s gonna be able to put Himself on display, because it’ll be Him coming out of us and not us fighting our own battles. Oh, I’ll tell you, we have a God who knows what He’s doing, doesn’t He? Wouldn’t it be good if we’d just seek Him and do what He says and learn to do things His way? That’s not an easy thing, is it? Okay?
All right? “…May be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.” Do you believe there’s gonna be a people in this age, even right down to the end, who will be able to stand? How are they gonna do that?
( congregational response ).
Yeah, in the Lord’s mighty power and with His armor. It ain’t gonna be because they got better theology. It’s gonna be because they’ve got Christ, and He is active in their hearts and lives, and they’re doing things His way. “Stand firm then, with the belt of truth….” These are things we’re familiar with. I just want to go through it real quickly.
But the belt of truth…the devil is going to come at you with every lie that you are naturally inclined to believe. It might be a lie about yourself. I’m bad. I’ll never amount to anything, or you name it. Every one of you that serves the Lord, you know what I’m talking about. There’s gonna be some lie that is gonna put the focus on you as the reason why this is happening. God doesn’t care about you. You’re bad. You’re getting what you deserve.
Did Jehoshaphat get what he deserved? He didn’t do anything except live and serve God, and the Lord allowed a great battle to come against him. Did Job go after what happened to him? Was God punishing him? See, all the things that the devil tried to get him to do, and even through his friends who didn’t have a clue what was really going on. The devil is gonna come with every reasoning that he can.
Folks, we need truth. We need a knowledge of what is really true, and that’s gonna come from Jesus who is ‘the’ truth, “…the way, the truth, and the life.” (KJV). Man, if it didn’t come out of the heart of Jesus, don’t you bank your heart on it. Don’t you bank your life on it. Don’t you go by it. We’re gonna need to know what is true and stick with it when it doesn’t look like it, when it doesn’t feel like it. I need the truth! It’s the truth that’s gonna set me free and nothing else. Okay?
“…The breastplate of righteousness…your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.” (NIV). As Paul said, that when we come to Him by faith in what Jesus did, there is a…we come to a state of peace with God! Don’t ever let the devil assault that position! He will try to drive a wedge between you and God in your mind. He’ll accuse Him! God’s responsible for this!
God doesn’t send it; He does allow it. He allows it for a loving purpose, but God is not punishing. He’s not sending something on you to destroy you, to hurt you. I am at peace with Him. I have a place to stand that is sure, and it’s not based on, again, on anything I did.
“…The shield of faith….” See it’s wonderful to know what’s true. It’s another thing to, sort of, entertain and allow things to hit, and say, wait a minute, Devil. There’s an active part that I take in repelling your lies, repelling every attack that you would make upon my mind. I believe God!
And it’s like the faith of Abraham, where I have to…sometimes I have to go against everything that I feel, everything that I see. But I know that God is true. It’s taking that belt of truth and lifting it up against whatever the devil would throw. I actively believe God, and I don’t need to see it or feel it to know that it’s true, but I’m gonna stand anyway.
Folks, the devil understands that. Do we? May God help us, every single one. Yeah, I needed that this week. Did you? Yeah. All right?
“…The helmet of salvation…” Isn’t that the next one? The helmet of salvation. I guess you can emphasize a lot of things, but one thing that shows to me, is that my entire way of looking at life, at myself, at God, at the world, needs to be shaped by the concept of salvation…that I am, in myself, a hopeless, helpless sinner. I deserve nothing. My only hope of escaping this world and having any relationship with God, is that He’s gonna have to do it! I need a Savoir!
I can’t be like Peter and say, no, Jesus, I’ll never do that! Peter was sincere when he said that, but he didn’t know. He didn’t have the power to do that. I need a Savior. I need somebody who can come in and rescue me from what I do not have the power to do.
Folks, that’s a way…that’s an entire way of thinking about everything. Does that govern your thoughts? Do you know every moment of every day you need a Savior, not just in some broad general sense, but I mean, every day, I need a measure of salvation ministered to me every single day.
And I need it when I’m in those circumstances, when I’m in the battle, when the evil day comes, especially I need it. We can sit here, maybe, and rejoice in the Lord and feel good. But I’ll tell you, we need this when the evil day comes, and you can’t see anything but darkness, and you can’t feel anything but darkness. Is this still real? See, if we’re gonna be able to stand in this hour, these are things we need to know, and the Lord’s gonna be faithful to teach us. Thank God!
“…And the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” How many times have we talked about that? The one thing the Devil fears is a Christian who not only believes the Word of God and forms such a conviction in their hearts, that they stand, and they quote it, and they say this is what I’m going by, Devil. You can say what you want, but I know what God says.
And I’ll tell you something about that. I was thinking about this, even this morning. You know, we talk about how preaching needs to have the anointing upon it. It needs to be not just the words of a human being. There needs to be life in it. God’s life needs to literally flow in the same sense that it did when He said, let there be light. It may not be as powerful now, but there needs to be…in other words there needs to be God’s life in it.
I’ll tell you, when a Christian stands in a time of darkness, in a day of evil, and the devil is throwing everything he can at that person, and we stand, and we say, it is written, we’re not just quoting proof text! I’ll tell you, God gets in that! There is life! Every single Christian can speak the Word of God and God be in it!
You think the devil feels that? He doesn’t care about your theology, he cares about your Christ. He can’t stand that, and that’s one way the Word needs to become flesh, because it became flesh perfectly in Him, didn’t it? But God wants the Word to become flesh in us, and that’s part of the process of this happening.
God’s got us in school, folks. And part of that school is that we’re gonna have things, we’re gonna have evil days. You will have them. It’s part of your training as a child of God. God knows about it. He permits it. He uses it for a purpose, but don’t ever forget that everything you and I need to experience victory in those situations, He gives us! He gives us, and He doesn’t give it because we deserve it. He doesn’t give it to us because we’ve measured up and kept the rules. He gives it to us because He loves us, and we need it.
What are we doing with it? Are we learning how to use that, or are we just fighting in our own strength and fighting our own battles? I’ll tell you, God is on the throne. He is for His own. He has given us everything we could possibly need to stand. We just need to pick it up and use it and learn, and He will be with us all the way to the end. Praise God!
