Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 679 -- taken from Closed Captioning Text

-- Brother Ron Peters: Praise the Lord. It was a great worship service. It's good to be in the house of the Lord, too. It's good to be in His presence.

( laughing ).

Praise God! You know, I don't know that I'm the one that actually should be up here but, you know, I had a thought come to me while Kenny was praying, actually. And, he was praying and asking God to deliver us--to deliver us and something just welled up within me and I just wanted to shout. God, I praise you that I 'am' delivered.

( congregational amens ).

And you know my thought is this. There's just a very thin line that keeps a lot of us from being delivered today, from everything. You see, because positionally, when Christ went to that cross, we were delivered. He delivered us from everything. He put the law--He nailed the law to the tree. I mean, there is no law over us anymore. Therefore, we are free. We're no longer in bondage.

And we were delivered in Him. But the thing of it is, you know you can keep asking for deliverance from now until the day you die, and you'll never get it. What do you have to do? There has to come a point in time in your life and in my life when we lay hold of the promise and we start thanking God for the deliverance.

( congregational amens ).

We start thanking God for setting us free, for things that we need. And I'm gonna tell you something, just because you start thanking God for something doesn't mean that from then on everything's just gonna be smooth sailing and you're just gonna coast into glory. You know, you think of what the...let's turn over to Hebrews chapter 11. I don't really know where to start. I had a number of scriptures come to me, but I just want to get this thought across and maybe somebody can pick it up and do it more justice.

But in Hebrews, chapter 11, you know the scripture says over here...it's talking about those who walk by faith and things that they had to go through. And, in verse 13, I just want to read this one first. It says, "These all died in faith, not having received the promises..." They claimed it their whole walk, but they never received a thing. But did that stop 'em? No! Because there was something in them that knew that God was faithful. They knew that God was their answer.

It says, "...But having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city."

God has done that for us this morning. God has prepared a place for us. And you go on down to...let's pick it up in verse 38, well, let's go back to verse 35. It says, "Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented."

Does that sound like they're just coasting into heaven? Beloved, these people are being tried. But what's their report? It says, "(Of whom the world was not worthy;) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith...." They believed God! He's the one that we need to worry about whether we get a good report from.

( congregational amens ).

It's not people down here. It's not this world, but it's God. We need to be concerned what God thinks about our walk. "...Having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect." I'm gonna tell you something, beloved. You know--I mean you can think of all kinds of people in the scriptures were in places where it was just hopeless. I thought of Moses over there when they left Egypt with the children of Israel. And let's turn over there for just a second, in Exodus.

Praise God! I'm just so thankful for what the Lord is doing. What he has done! And, I just want to encourage everyone that we begin to thank God. Let's don't keep just asking him. You know I thought of that service Brother Thomas was in up in somewhere, I don't...Virginia or somewhere, and he was preaching on devils. And he said the lady came down and she kept praying for the devil to leave her--leave me, leave me, leave me. And Brother Thomas told her, he said, sister, you keep asking, you're saying...it's the same thing as saying that he ain't left you. We need to start thanking God! We need to just start thanking him and praising him for what he has done.

Let me find this scripture here. I'm sorry. Okay, here it is. It's in chapter 14, and in verse 11. The children of Israel came to Moses. It says, "...Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness?" That's where these people were. They couldn't see that God was behind them and with them in what they were doing. They couldn't see this. It says, you've "...taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt? Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians?" That's where their heart was.

You know that scripture we just read in Hebrews...you know if they had a heart to return for this world--if they had had a heart for this world, they, no doubt, would have returned. That's where these people were. They didn't have the faith of God and of Christ. But it says, "For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness. And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever." This is God's promise to us, beloved.

And there's just one more scripture I want to read and it's in 1st John. It's in 1st John, chapter 3. You know we're down here and we're walking along and we...and of course, we've got a good buddy that always wants to show us these things. Too...show us our weaknesses, show us how lousy we are. We see too much of that. We look at that too much. We need to look at the One that's called us, the One that has promised to complete the work that He has begun. That's who we need to look to. We don't need to look at ourselves. We're frail. We can't do anything in ourselves.

You know that's our problem, is that we're too busy trying to attain to this rather than just believe God, thank Him, and praise Him and go from day to day. Go from glory to glory and let Him do the work. But he says this, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God...." What a wonderful love that He could look at somebody like me and say, I want you for My son. That's almost too much to...it's unfathomable to me, almost. That God would look at me and say, you're My son, I love you. That's just too good for words.

"...Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God..."--Now are you the sons of God. If God has begotten you this morning, you are His child. That seed, that incorruptible seed of God, dwells within your heart and it cannot be corrupted. It cannot sin. There is no sin. But it says this--"...And it doth not yet appear what we shall be...." It doesn't appear right now because we're...we look at ourselves and we look at each other and we say, my God.

( laughing ).

( laughter ).

It doesn't appear yet. But let's keep reading here. "...But we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." If you've got that hope within you, I don't care how many times you fall flat on your face...I don't care how many times you fail or what you do, if you have that hope, if you have that incorruptible seed dwelling in your heart this morning, that hope--that hope is gonna change you. That hope is gonna change you. It's the hope of Christ--it's the hope that Christ put within us. Let's start thanking Him. Let's start praising Him for our deliverance.

( congregational praise ).

Let's start praising Him when things go wrong or when we think in our carnal minds that they go wrong, and the devil tells us that they're going wrong. We don't have to hesitate. We just need to praise God. Say, thank You, Lord--thank You, Lord. And I'll tell you what, as we begin to do this, we're gonna get stronger and stronger and stronger in faith--in faith! I didn't say that things were gonna stop happening to you, and they might get more intense because the more faith you get, the more fire God knows that you can take. But He won't put more on us than we can bear. He's the faithful Creator and He said He'd make a way of escape for us. So let's just start praising him this morning! Let's praise him!

( congregational praise ).

-- Brother Phil Enlow: Praise God! Talk about on target. That's exactly what I need, at least. I praise God, this morning. I believe that there are some secrets here that God would have us to understand because this principle of faith, I fear, is something that we little understand and that's why we enjoy so little of what God has given to us. And it's exactly like Ron says, so many times we see a need in ourselves, we're conscious of it, and we know what the Bible says, but always in our mind somehow it's just a little beyond our reach. It's just sort of...well, oh, God, I'm reaching, I'm reaching, but we're never quite grasping and never quite obtaining.

And I feel like there's just some things that if we understood better, we could make some progress. And of course, one of them is...the beginning one is the one that Ron highlighted. It's the fact that sooner or later we're gonna have to take a stand. Now let me backtrack here a little bit and say that one thing we need to understand is that we have this treasure in earthen vessels. And a lot of times we are looking for evidence of faith in the earthen vessel. We're looking for something to register in our feelings, something to somehow change in our circumstances.

Some...God's got to do something to cause us...my natural being and my natural faculties to somehow become aware of this wonderful change that's supposed to happen. And so, in a sense, we're asking God and then we're waiting for something to sort of happen to us. And that's not the way of faith. Faith sees the promise of God and it believes it because...not because of how we feel, not because of how things look, but because of the One who promised.

( congregational amens ).

We get beyond believing in ourselves, and in our weaknesses, and in the devil who whispers in our ears, and our faith comes to be in the Word of One who cannot lie. How many of you had some battles this morning along this very line? I certainly have. Sitting here this morning, I know the devil was just pulling on every string that he could find. And the Lord helped me, in a measure at least, to do exactly what Ron was talking about.

Say, wait a minute, I have the victory. Lord, you said that I died with You on the cross and I accept that as a present tense reality. I do not necessarily feel it. It doesn't mean that the battle is gonna go away, but it means that I can believe, and my inner man can draw strength from you and I can, instead of being under the bondage to all these things that I feel, I can rule over them. Do you see the difference?

( congregational amens ).

God has not called us to live a life that is without conflict, without difficulty, without trouble and without trials to contend with. We all know that. But the thing is, what God is nurturing is this new life that's down in there, and it's real. If you've been born again, there's a real life in you. And what God desires for us, is that we know how to possess these vessels. That means we're not simply ruled by the desires that come from these natural vessels.

If you're born with an especially impatient nature...we all have a lot of it. I fall in the category of one who is especially impatient. But you see, God has given us the provision so that I do not have to be ruled by that. I can exercise the inward man and exercise his control over that.

Now one of the big problems that people think about when they think about deliverance--one of the big hindrances, I believe, is people expect something to be a cataclysmic experience. And all of a sudden, I'm going to go from this terrible bondage that I have, to complete and utter freedom! And I'm just gonna never...I'm not even gonna feel the battle any more. And so we're waiting for some great and grand something, instead of exercising the faith we have for the present tense situation!

Just because I exercise faith against the devil to stand up here, for example, doesn't mean he's not gonna continue to jump on me about this, and that, and the other thing. I'm gonna have to, moment, by moment, by moment, by moment, stand on the Word of God! That doesn't mean that I'm always gonna be in the middle of a whirlwind. God can give us respite. He can give us joy and peace, and there's times we experience those things.

You know, as far as deliverance is concerned, if you've got somebody that is just totally bound and the source of that is demons that live there, and those demons leave, yes, you can have a very sudden change take place. But I'll tell you, with children of God who know Him and who are contending with things in our nature that are just part of our natural makeup, they're part of our personalities, those changes are not necessarily gonna come like that.

In fact, it's almost certain that they won't. We're gonna have to take the land just the way that the children of Israel did--little by little, little by little. They're gonna...you know, I'm gonna have to get up and to contend with the thing that's right in my face in the morning. I'm gonna have to say, God, I believe You instead of this.

( congregational amens ).

I have the victory over this now! I don't have to say, Oh, God, please make this bad devil go away! I can say, thank You, Lord, because of the cross, I can take my stand on what You did and I can declare the victory even though I don't necessarily have some grand feeling, even though it just doesn't seem like it goes away. The clouds are still there but I can have sunshine on the inside.

That's what it means, possessing my vessel. Who's in charge? We allow our natural beings to be in charge of how we feel and what happens to us. It's so much of our lives. That's where our bondage comes in. Oh, God, I'm just waiting to feel differently. I'm waiting for you to do something. I don't know what it is. Oh, God, I don't want to feel this way any more.

But God has given us the means to begin to take the land. This is the land we've got to take. And He's waiting...you're waiting on Him and He's waiting on you to believe His Word, and to say, Lord, I thank You that right now I have victory over this thing and I am gonna take my stand on that and I'm simply not going to listen when the devil says, oh no, you don't have control. I'm gonna say, yes I do. I have the right to rule this vessel!

( congregational amens ).

Praise God! Something comes back to me that I used as an illustration back during the meeting and, of course, it came back to me because I was doing the transcript for it, or working on the transcript for it yesterday. But anyway, it was the fact that when I was young...I, well still true...I have never been a person who had a lot of endurance. I was a speedster, if anything, in athletics. I could run fast, but I couldn't run long.

And the technique that I developed, I'll remind you of what it was. I would jog down a road, and to me thinking about running a mile, two miles, whatever, was just, oh God, I'll never get through that. It's just not in my nature. Some of you would just lope for ten miles and not even be breathing hard. Well, I would be dead.

( laughter ).

But you know, I found a simple thing. I could run to a bush that was 50 steps down the road. And so, I would just simply break my run up and I would say, all I have to do is get to that bush. I'd run to the bush, and then I'd look ahead. I'd pick some other mark. There's a sign on the side of the road. I can run to that sign. I can run to this. I can run to that.

That's another trick that the devil has of keeping us in bondage. We think about our whole life! Oh, my God! I'll never deal with all this. God doesn't call you to deal with your whole life right now! That's why we're here so long. It seems so long, anyway. It's really short.

( laughter ).

We've got a lot to deal with. But we only have to deal with what's in our face right now. God can take care of the rest.

( congregational amens ).

You can't fight a battle that hasn't come yet. You gonna have to leave the ones in the past, in the past. Thank God, we can do that! We do not have to wallow in defeat just like Ron said. You fall down, you get up. We just need to say, God...we need to start taking hold of what Jesus has said is ours! Is it ours, or is it not? What are we waiting for? What are you waiting for?

What is the thing where...and you have a battle right now? That's the thing that's uppermost in your mind. I'll tell you, I've got some. The devil just constantly hammers on certain things that I'm asking God to deliver me. Well, you know what happened this morning was that some of the very things I'm asking God to help me with, that are part of my being, part of my makeup, I just had a special battle right here this morning. Oh, God, if I'm supposed to have victory, why am I having such a horrible battle? Why does it seem worse? And the Lord said, well, I'm answering your prayer.

( laughter ).

You expect me to just sort of dump this magical thing called victory in your soul. I sent you a battle, because I want you to believe that what I said is true and that 'you' win the victory!

( congregational amens ).

God has called us to win the victory through faith. That's what these heroes of faith did. You know, as far as receiving the promise was concerned, they didn't go all their life and not receiving anything. They received plenty along the way. What they didn't receive was the end product which is that the Eternal Kingdom. They saw that afar off and they were loyal to that. But, I'll tell you, God was with 'em throughout the journey too.

( congregational amens ).

And God will be with us through our journey, even though we see the Kingdom--the ultimate Kingdom is something we see by faith afar off, because God has made it real to the hearts of His children. But oh, all we have to do is...you know the old story, sufficient unto the day are the potatoes thereof.

( laughter ).

And that's a story of the woman who was considering marrying a man who loved potatoes, and she hated to peel 'em. And so, it was a great battle to her. Am I gonna marry this man, or not? I can just see this mountain of potatoes! And then we're gonna have kids, and they're all gonna love potatoes. Oh, my God, I see this huge mountain and I'm sitting there peeling. That's my vision of my life.

And the Lord said to her, sufficient unto the day are the potatoes thereof. You only have to peel ones for the day. That's all the battle we have to win. Only battle we have to fight is the one we face today. God...we can trust God!

( congregational amens ).

We can trust the promise of His Word that He will not put more on us than we can bear. But He will, with the temptation, make a way of escape. What is that way of escape? That we may be able to bear it. You see, that's the thing. The thing may still be there. The storm may still be in our face, but there will be an inward strength that does not cause us to collapse under it, to go down in defeat under it. We will have the strength of Christ growing within us to enable us to stand firm and to praise God in the face of whatever comes.

That's...we don't have that strength. I don't. That's why God has made us dependent upon His Son. We need Him. It's Christ in us, the hope of glory! I have no hope if it's not in Christ. But oh, His life and what He has done and what He is in me is enough for me to gain the mastery over this awful fellow that plagues me. But I can only do it one day at a time, one hour at a time, one minute at a time! But I can do it through Christ. Because, like Paul said, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."

Praise God! Is he strengthening you today? Or are you sitting there waiting for him to do something? Praise God! Let's just thank him for what he has already done! Thank him for what we possess, because victory is not the absence of conflict. Victory is what happens to us on the inside in the face of that. Do we just give up in the face of it? Or do we say, I am victorious right now, right here over this thing?

( congregational amens ).

If God wants to move it, He can. If he wants to give me strength in the middle of it, He can do that too. But I 'am' the victor, and I'm the victor now! Praise God!

( congregational amens ).

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