Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 660 -- taken from Closed Captioning Text

-- Brother Phil Enlow: If we are constantly looking into this Word, and learning, and listening to it as God would teach it to us...God's very willing to teach you and me, if we are willing to be good students, God will teach us what we need to know. And I'll tell you what--God is such a wise teacher. His lessons are suited to right where you and I are at. It's so incredible when you really stop and become aware of God's dealings with your life. How many of you know what I'm talking about?

( congregational amens ).

You have been in a particular situation and God has given you just the Word. Now, He didn't answer all the great theological questions, but He gave you a Word of faith for you to stand on.

( congregational amens ).

And I'll tell you, that's when we become responsible. That's God serving. Now, what are you gonna do? Just say, oh well...whoops, I can't handle that one.

( laughter ).

No! We're gonna have to take the racket and say, well thank God, You've given me exactly what I need and hit it back. God will give you exactly what you need to stand, if you're willing to be a student. Jesus said to those that believed on Him, "...If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed." You're 'really' my disciples, instead of ones that just profess to be. You're really my learners--my students. "And ye shall know the truth..." and, what?

-- Congregation: The truth will set you free.

-- Brother Phil Enlow: "...Truth shall make you free." That's become just a trite saying, like so many other things. But we need to become free from the power that salvation is all about rescuing us from! That's a convoluted sentence, but you get the point. We have to be rescued from a real power that otherwise would control our lives and our beings. And just because we come to Christ doesn't mean all the grave clothes, as it were, just suddenly are gone. There are habits--there are ways of thinking--there are things that cling to us all our lives and God will help us step by step by step by step.

You will never get beyond, in this life...beyond learning lessons. I'll tell you, I've been around some people at the end of their lives and their testimony, if they're really saints and they're sensitive to what God is doing is that, boy, you never stop learning. Some of the deepest, most clear lessons that I've ever had to learn, some of them will say, have been right here and they're just days, perhaps, away from going to be with the Lord. God will never stop teaching us, if we will just listen and learn. He will always give you what you need. You do not have to worry, if your life is in His hands.

( congregational amens ).

But, folks, we're gonna have to learn this and we're gonna have to learn how to measure the things that come into our heads. And, of course, Jimmy talked...last night, or the night before, whenever--last night, about the sword of the Spirit. That's when we go on the offensive. That's when Satan says something to us and we talk back. You ever talk back to the devil?

( congregational amens ).

You ever treated him like he really is--like it is a real personality dealing with you and not just some fantasy floating around. There are real spirits that come and they talk to you. You can't see them. But, I'll tell you, you can talk to them. You can become aware that there's something there that isn't right and you can talk back like Jesus did.

( congregational amens ).

I don't know if Jesus literally saw the devil when He was in the wilderness. It doesn't say. I mean, I don't think it does. But, anyway, regardless, He was aware that the devil was putting thoughts in His head. But the devil had no access to Jesus...why? Because He was strong? No! He was at the weakest point--perhaps the weakest point of His life, other than being on the cross--weak. The Lord allowed Him particularly to get to a place of weakness and then be tempted. That's a lesson for us...that if we will use the means that God has given to us, we are never too weak to win a victory! Praise God! Never too weak!

( congregational praise ).

"Cause the Word never gets weak. Its power doesn't change.

( congregational praise ).

It's a battle of Truth against error, which are we gonna believe? If we will learn to side with what God has said, we will be rescued in a practical, day by day sense from the power of darkness that would otherwise rule over our lives and make them miserable. That's the prescription, because it's always wonderful to come here and have devils cast out. That's great! Thank God! But, oh, we're gonna have to have something on the inside.

( congregational amens ).

We're gonna have to have Christ to give us new life to start with. We're gonna have to literally surrender the throne of our hearts to Him to come in and fill us. That's the starting point. But then, we're gonna have to take up His cross and learn of Him. Take up His Word. Learn it. Wrestle with the devil. I'll tell you, you got One inside of you when that happens, though, that is greater than he that's in the world.

( congregational amens ).

I'll tell you, if you don't' believe in the power of Christ--that the power of Christ is greater, then you're just gonna cave in every single time. Or, if you make the mistake of just listening to the devil and thinking, well, you're on your own 'cause you don't feel this or you don't feel that, you've been defeated. You've listened to the lie.

But, oh, if we could always be in the place where we can say with confidence, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." When I'm weak, I'm strong. There's so many times God will put you in situations 'cause He wants you to know that! He doesn't want you simply to put it down in your little doctrine book that this is what the preacher says and what we're supposed to believe. He wants you to know it personally.

( congregational amens ).

I'll tell you, there's a scripture that talks about a time of darkness and it talks about the people who know their God! Those are the ones that are gonna be able to stand in that day. It's people who know their God. Well, how do we know Him? We know Him through His Word and what He has taught to us. He will give you His Word, like I said, on a day-by-day, personal basis. Every one of you can have a personal relationship with this God...

( congregational amens ).

...where you continually lift your heart to Him in your circumstances and He can give you wisdom. It may come directly to your heart. It may be something where you're reading the Word and He just quickens a thought. He may bring something back to your mind that you heard in a service. Someone may just speak a word of encouragement...and how we ought to do that. That's critically important that in our communication one with another be of a spiritual sort that's designed to help people. Get rid of that negative talk. Get rid of that gossiping, critical, negative talk, and lift people up and help them, encourage them.

( congregational amens ).

Give 'em what the Word says. Give 'em what God says. Oh, I'll tell you, His wisdom is pure and peaceable and gentle, easy to be entreated, full of good fruits, with no partiality or hypocrisy. God's wisdom is wonderful. That other kind will just drag you and every one that's within range of your mouth down. God wants to deliver us, folks. Praise God, He is. What He's wanting to do is to arm you. He doesn't want you to go away with just a wonderful feeling and experience. He want you to go away with something fresh that will enable you to keep that victory.

( congregational praise ).

Praise God, even when the feelings are gone, you can still have a victory and a confidence that God is with you because you're doing it on the basis of the Word.

( congregational amens ).

You know, in a sense, this is like a legal document. You know, you might get in a situation where there's a contract and someone says, well let's do this. And then you go to the contract and say, well can we do that? I mean...what does the contract say? Or, you're in a legal dispute, and what do you do? You go back to the legal contract.

But, God wants us to continually measure everything by the legal contract that He's given to us. This is His covenant, folks. If we cannot go by that, we have no grounds. If you're going into a court in a dispute, you're gonna bring up every legal fact that you can muster to present your case. Well, I'll tell you what, we have got 'the' case of cases.

( congregational amens ).

We have got the perfect legal ground to stand against every devil who would ever talk to us.

( congregational amens ).

But we are gonna have to learn to be sensitive and to recognize that we're gonna have to be sober. We're gonna have to be on guard--vigilant, because our adversary the devil is like a roaring lion. He's looking for people he can devour. Don't be devil's food. Don't listen to his lies.

Learn...God will teach us to recognize his lies. You don't have to suddenly jump to way over here. You just have to start where you're at and say, God, help me. You know where I'm at. You know my weaknesses. You know everything about me. Help me today. You know, if you think about all the rest of your life, that stretches out like...my God. I know it doesn't stretch very far for some of you.

( laughter ).

Farther for some than others. But still...the longer term, we think the harder--the harder and higher...the more it's unobtainable--something seems. But, I'll tell you, God can get us through the morning. And then if He can get us through the morning, He can get us through the afternoon.

( congregational amens ).

I was never...I was always pretty fast when I was young, but I never had a lot of endurance. So, you didn't put me in a marathon. I didn't run with the cross-country team. That would have been ridiculous. But there were a few times in my life, I would learn--I would try to learn to run and jog and...what I call running and jogging would make some of you laugh.

( laughter ).

You know, what was to me a real accomplishment you would have just blown by me at 90 miles an hour. But anyway, there were times when I was just really trying to stretch myself beyond what I'd been able to do and I learned a simple technique that helped me. I might be running along a dirt road and I'd say, well all I have to do is run to that bush up there. It might be 50 feet ahead of me. Then I'd get to the bush, and I'd look up...there's a sign. Hey, all I have to do is run to the sign. All I have to do is run to that tree up there. You know, you can take life in small bites and it becomes very manageable. We need to learn to say, God, help me to get through today. Help me to get through one hour, if that's what it takes.

( congregational amens ).

But, Lord, to go by Your Word and to look to You, I know that You're gonna give me what I need when I need it. I tell you what...I was just thinking, the ministry itself...sometimes stepping up here is like...I know I'm gonna need a sword. And God puts me in a position where I've got to do this before I've got a sword in my hand. Some of you know what I'm talking about.

( congregational amens ).

But there is an element of faith...God is gonna put us in a position where we have got to exercise faith. We have simply got to step out and believe that when we do what God said, He will be with us.

( congregational amens ).

He may not show up...in one sense. He's there all the time. I understand that. But He may not show up in a way that you're aware of until the very moment you need Him, but He will never let you fall.

( congregational amens ).

And He will never let you down when you trust in Him.

( congregational amens ).

I want to qualify that, 'cause I say sometimes God...we need to fall in the mud a little bit. So I want to allow for that and not give the devil some room, if you fall in the mud, well, Praise God. Take it and learn from it. That's not forever. You can get up and go on. That's why the blood cleanses from all sin.

( congregational amens ).

I'm not trying to give us something that's beyond our ability to attain. God will help us. He knows your weakness. He's like as a father pities his children. He pities those who fear Him. He's with us. He knows exactly what He's doing. That's why we need to put our life in His hands and trust Him. But we do have to learn how to fight. We have to learn how to believe what God says. That's the eternal...not eternal. That's something that goes through our life.

( laughing ).

But that is the battle. What the devil says and what God says. Which are you gonna go by in your life? That will determine whether you are successful or just fall in the mud in defeat as a Christian. And I believe with all my heart, God wants to go with every single person in this building. He knows about every one of you. He loves you. He cares about you. When Jesus was on the cross, He had you in mind.

( congregational amens ).

He didn't spare His own Son. He saw your need to that degree that He did not spare His own Son "...but delivered him up for us all..." as the scripture says, "...how shall he not with him also freely give us..." what?

-- Congregation: All things.

-- Brother Phil Enlow: "All things"--all things. And Peter said, all things that pertain unto life and godliness have been given to us through great and precious promises. Oh, I'll tell you, we've got a treasure here. You want a bank full of gold? You got something here that's worth more than a thousand worlds.

( congregational praise ).

God can create everything in us that we need if we will allow His Word to go to work in our lives, if we will allow our minds to be ruled by that and not by what the devil tells you. You go back--you point him back to this every time and you will be amazed to watch the growth and the victory that God will give you and me.

I'm real conscious of needing this. The devil was just working on me this afternoon...all kinds of thoughts. I'm just like you. It's like Tony was saying. We're targets. You pray for us. But I know you are. I know that's why I can even stand up here. There's a lot of you praying. There's a lot of you that God is concerned about. This has nothing to do with me. This has to do with a God who sees you and loves you.

( congregational praise ).

That's concerned enough to take a jackass and put a few words in his mouth to help you. God is a wonderful Lord. Wonderful! Faithful!

( congregational praise ).

I'll tell you, one day we're gonna look back and we're gonna understand--we're gonna appreciate like never before--like we're not able to now. We're gonna see what...well, like the old song, "Jesus Led Me All The Way."

( congregational amens ).

He's gonna go with us all the way to the other side. He'll never leave you. You put your life in His hands. You believe His Word. That's not rocket science, like Jerry likes to say. But, I'll tell you, it's critically important in our lives. God will help us, if we'll do it. Praise God.

-- Brother Ben Johnson: Praise God! I thank Him for this Word tonight. I'll tell you what--I believe this service is an answer to prayer. I know in our prayer meetings that we've had, there's been times when I've felt the...felt like I've been led to pray, Lord, teach us about our enemy. Teach us his ways. Teach us his schemes.

We don't walk through this Christian life unopposed. We've got an opponent that is actively working against us and we need to understand the way that he operates. And I'll tell you what, this is an answer to that prayer tonight. I know for me it is. I tell you what, the wisdom that comes from above, there's a peace and there's...it's easy to be entreated. You can just...it just bears witness to your spirit that it's the truth.

And I thought about something...I've had some of the same thoughts that Phil's been ministering here tonight on my heart over the last...I don't know, two or three weeks. I've thought a lot about this scripture that he started with there in Ephesians. There's one aspect of it particularly...I don't really think that we need to confirm that this is the Lord tonight. I think that's the witness of everybody that it has most definitely been Him.

But I just thought about something here, you know another little aspect of how the enemy's thoughts work. It's that scripture there in verse 16 where it says, "Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked." (KJV). In the NIV there, it says "the flaming arrows."

You know those arrows, they are Satan's thoughts. I mean, that's the way that he deals with us. He can't directly come to us and just...you know, you remember the story of Job there...what the devil had to do to get access to Job. He couldn't just walk up to Job and take his children and take his cattle. There was a hedge, that's the way it's recorded in the Word that Satan described it. He said God had put His hedge about him and he couldn't get through that.

You know, if we're His children, there is a hedge about us. There's a protection and Satan can't just come and do what He pleases with us and whenever He wants to. He has to get God's permission. But, it's through the mind that He has access to us. That's where he's got his access.

You know, I don't believe that he has to run to God every time he wants to give us a thought. I believe God has set up such that He has, more or less, free access to come and talk to us. And God wants us to learn to battle him on that ground. Through His Word, He teaches us how to do it, but that's where the battleground is.

And where it says here, "the fiery darts of the wicked," it doesn't just say the darts or the arrows. It says they're fiery. And I think there's a key to that. And I hope this is the Lord. Y'all can judge, but I felt like this was something the Lord showed me. That, you know, the problem with Satan's thoughts...it's not just that they come. They're not just arrows, but they're fiery. There's a diabolical wisdom that comes along with that.

If you think about fire, and I'm no fireman, Joseph or Kevin can probably tell you a lot more about the natural aspect of it--but if you think about fire, we all know what it is. It's a destructive force--powerful destructive force. But the thing is, it's got the ability to start out very small. You can take a tiny little spark, and if you don't check that thing and you just let it go, it can turn into a raging forest fire.

We've seen it where they track some of these huge forest fires that burn hundreds of thousands of acres and they think it started when somebody flicked a cigarette out the window or something. And that's the way Satan's thoughts work. They start just with a tiny little thing--just a tiny little spark. And if you don't check it with the Word of God, then that thing is gonna grow and it's gonna destroy a lot in your life and it can spread to other people's lives and destroy a lot in their life, too.

( congregational amens ).

You know, if you read this here...I've always thought it was interesting. I always used to think when it talks about the shield of faith...if you notice, it doesn't say wherewith you shall be able to block or deflect all the fiery darts of the wicked. And that's what you think about, when you think about a shield. You think about blocking something.

I always used to think, why doesn't it say that you can block 'em? Well, the fact is, as long as we're in these bodies, he's gonna have access. There's no blocking in the sense that we're gonna get to such a level that Satan can't talk to us anymore and we just kind of float through life and we're super-spiritual. That isn't gonna happen. But what it says is, we can extinguish the fiery darts of the wicked.

( congregational amens ).

That's what faith allows us to do...stop those things in their tracks. We don't have to let it spread. We don't have to feed it. We don't have to debate it and consider it and let that thing grow. That's where the battle is. The battle is not to say, oh boy, if I just pray a little harder, I'll get to the point where the devil can't talk to me anymore. Brother and Sister, that ain't gonna happen as long as we're in this realm.

( congregational amens ).

But we need to learn how to quench his thoughts right when they come. You know, I thought about the account of Eve. I think Phil mentioned something about that. That's a perfect example of this tactic of Satan--the way he works. You know, all he did was fire that one little thought in there--that one little question of, does God really have your best interest? This really might be something good for you.

If you notice, if you read what he said, there's never one time the devil actually told her to go eat that fruit. There's never one time he directly said, Eve, go eat the fruit off that tree. He didn't have to. All he had to do was fire that little arrow and step back and let the fire work. Let it build. Let it grow. And Eve did the rest herself.

And I was...I guess that's the thought I had. You know, Satan's thoughts...that's what they do. He can't compel us. He can't control us, command us. We've got Someone in us that's greater than him.

( congregational amens ).

But what his thoughts do, if we don't check 'em with the shield of faith, they give us just enough rope to hang ourselves. And that's exactly what all of Satan's thoughts are designed to do--is give you enough rope to hang yourself if you don't stop 'em in their tracks. I don't know, I just had that on my heart and I wanted to share that.

I pray the Lord will help me to do this because the shield...it's something you've got to exercise. You've got to actually pick it up and use it. I mean, the Word pictures salvation as a helmet, and righteousness as a breastplate. If you think about those pieces, once you put 'em on, you don't really have to do anything else for them to be effective. All you have to do is be wearing 'em, and by virtue of wearing 'em, they're gonna do their job. You just have to be wearing 'em.

But a shield isn't like that. A shield is a piece of equipment that you've actually got to pick up and use when something's coming at you. That's what I believe this encouragement is tonight. We know what to do. Praise God, let's exercise it.

( congregational amens ).

Let's use the shield of faith.

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