in order to win your enemy, you need to know your Enemy. then you plan how to defeat your Enemy. This video talks about the steps every Christian need to take to defeat the Enemy and win the battle ahead of you.

and in judges chapter 7 he is getting

ready to show us how to win

a battle

anybody interested in how to win a

battle in your life

if you have your bible with you turn to

judges chapter 7 or your iphone your

ipad any manner of highness just flip on

over to

judges chapter 7 because

there are some details in here there are

many actually but i’m going to pick

three of them to share with you three

things that are going to help us know

how to advance into battle and claim the

victory that is ours

judges chapter 7 verse 15 starts this

way

and it came about

when gideon heard the account of the

dream and its interpretation from those

two men

that he bowed in worship let’s just

start right here

gideon was once insecure and timid and

paralyzed because he had no courage

gideon now is closer to the battle than

he has ever been the the rumors of the

battle are what have permeated the

verses leading up to this point but now

the battle is imminent he is uh more

close and more uh up close and personal

with the dilemma than he has ever been

before but we see him making a decision

to worship god in advance he doesn’t

know how he’s going to fight the battle

he doesn’t have a strategy for what

specifically he’s supposed to do he has

no details yet on how he’s supposed to

instruct the 300 as to how they are to

advance in battle and yet he shows us

that if we want to win a battle we have

to begin the battle on our knees we have

to choose to worship in advance before

we see how god is going to work out the

situation and so he worshipped in the

face of impending danger he worshipped

in the face of adversity he worshipped

even though he was still outnumbered and

stretched far beyond his reach he he

worshipped before one instruction of

strategy for warfare was given he

worshipped because the enemy was already

afraid of him before the battle was

already was begun and so even in your

circumstances my friend even if you have

no idea

how in the world god is gonna fix the

dilemma that you are facing in your life

right now the way you win a battle is to

begin that battle on your needs to make

a decision to be the kind of man to be

the kind of woman that worships god in

advance even though they have no clue of

how god is going to work that situation

out

think about joshua he goes into the

promised land with the children of

israel

and as soon as they cross the jordan

river there is a battle to fight jericho

sitting right there the scriptures say

that the walls were tightly shut up that

means they were

pretty much impenetrable they wanted to

be secure they had closed themselves up

and tightly shut up

walls

so that people could not get in and um

and wreak havoc in their city

but joshua and the people of god

surround them god gives them

instructions he says for six days you

walk around the walls

on the seventh day here’s what i want

you to do

walk around the wall seven times

and then shout

and then

the walls will come down

don’t wait for the walls to come down

and then shout

shout first

before you have seen one brick fall from

that impenetrable wall

shout in advance and in response to your

worship

i’ll make those walls come tumbling down

i just wonder if the walls that you’re

waiting to come down in your life you’re

waiting for the bricks to start falling

and god’s waiting for you to start

falling down on your knees with your

arms outstretched thanking him in

advance for the victory in your life

you want to win the battle whatever

battle you’re facing whether it’s in

your own mind or in your own heart or in

your marriage or in your family with

your children in your singleness on your

job if you want to win the battle if i

want to win the battles of our life we

have to make a decision to begin the

battles on our knees

i had the opportunity to go to um

kiev i was in the ukraine just a couple

of weeks ago and it is a a community a

city a country that is really steeped in

a lot of history and tradition and i had

an opportunity to visit a lot of uh

sites while i was there one of the

things that i could not wait to see was

the orthodox christian um

temples and churches that are still set

up there from centuries ago and so i was

able to go in into these very ornately

decorated kind of golden uh

the churches are just unbelievably

beautiful and you walk inside of them

and all the things that you might expect

just

golden ornate designs and candles lit

everywhere and there are a lot of

tourists like me that come in just to

get a glimpse of it you can walk down

into some stairs down some stairs that

go down underneath the church buildings

and many of them where there are caves

and labyrinths of um tunnels that take

you to where monks used to live

centuries ago and underneath there not

only are there rooms you can see where

monks used to live but there are caskets

glass caskets that contain bodies of

people that were considered to be the

saints of old those bodies are wrapped

up in towels and they’re there in glass

caskets and again there are tourists

just like me but there are also people

who very much still believe that there

is power in those saints the bodies of

those saints from centuries ago so we

saw throngs of people

thousands of people coming themselves

bringing their babies bringing their

spouses bringing this the sick the

people that needed healing whether

emotionally financially or otherwise so

that they could come in and touch that

casket or kiss that casket so that some

of that power would leave this casket

and and come to them that person that

dead person and come to them and while i

was watching that happen i thought to

myself that that person dead certainly

can’t do anything for you because when

they were alive they couldn’t do

anything for you

but our jesus

is not dead he is alive and seated at

the right hand of the father and all

power is in his hand right this moment

to help us wage the battles in our lives

and not only that in one of those

churches i went there was a beautiful

platform kind of like this when it was

ornate and gold and candles everywhere

and people were coming in to kneel in

front of that platform and there was an

entryway almost like a parting right in

the middle of this um this staging that

was at the front of this uh church and

you could look through this entryway

like someone could walk through the

middle of this stage and you could see

there was another golden ornately

decorated room through the center of the

of the of that church the stage there

and i said to the woman who was with us

who was helping us to figure all this

out and kind of giving us a tour i said

to her who goes back there

and she said well we can’t go back there

because women aren’t allowed back there

only men can go

and she said not all men can go you have

to be a certain kind of guy from a

certain echelon and life a certain

affluence in the community everybody’s

not allowed back there and i said well

what’s back there she said well it’s

kind of considered like the holy of

holies

and and only certain men can go back

there and as i watched people literally

standing at bay from what they consider

to be the glory of god the presence of

god the ability to worship god when i

watch them standing back and away from

that because they weren’t the right

gender or they weren’t the right race or

they weren’t the right affluential

status in society to be able to go back

there i thought thank you jesus christ

that 2000 years ago when you died on

calvary you tore the veil from the top

to the very

bottom and so we all have the privilege

we all have the privilege to worship god

y’all we should never take that for

granted that no matter what your gender

no matter what your race no matter what

your background no matter what

educational level you come from you and

i all have the privilege to go boldly to

the throne of god hebrew says and

worship him in spirit and in truth

we should never take for granted

never take for granted that we have the

privilege to begin the battle on our

knees

because y’all he listen now he doesn’t

need our worship

he receives it because he wants to but

he doesn’t need it

he’s still god whether we worship him as

or not

he just is who he is

and so we have the privilege

while others right now in the year 2013

still don’t think they have access to

him you and i can come boldly to the

throne of grace

he gives us the privilege

to win a battle

by beginning the battle on our knees

the question is why did gideon think or

what gave gideon the courage

to worship god even though the

midianites were were rallying their

troops for battle right there in front

of him what gave him the courage to do

that i think we find our answer at the

end of verse 15. it says gideon returned

to the camp of israel and he said

arise for the lord has given somebody

say has given

the lord has given the camp of midian

into your hands i love this so much

gideon goes back to the 300 and he says

to them get up boys

the lord has already given the victory

into our hands he does not say to them

y’all get up because i hope god’s going

to give us victory today

he doesn’t say arise let’s go in hopes

that maybe possibly if we work hard

enough we can claim the victory that’s

not what he says he says guys let’s go

because the lord has already given us

exactly what we’ve asked him for

you know how you win the battle you

begin the battle on your knees and you

face the battle from a stance of victory

there are some things in your life my

friend simply because you are a believer

in jesus christ that have already been

accomplished for you they have already

been done you are not fighting in in

your battle right now that you’re facing

in your life

you are not fighting for victory you are

fighting from victory you are already

victorious i am already victorious

because we are part of the family of god

he has already overcome the world satan

knows it you and i need to know it as

well that victory is already ours you

begin the battle on your knees and you

face the battle from a stance of victory

what does that mean you know what it

means listen

the bible is filled with promises that

are available to believers in jesus

christ

in fact there are over 8 000 promises

over 8 000 promises that are written in

the scriptures that can be claimed by

believers in jesus christ 8 000

opportunities for us to experience what

the bible says because i don’t know

about you all but listen i don’t want to

just know that he’s powerful because i

read about how he can divide the red sea

in the old testament how he raised

lazarus from the dead in the new

testament i appreciate what he did in

the scriptures but what i want is to see

all of that experienced in my own life

i want to experience god for myself so

he’s given us over 8 000 opportunities

to experience him

through the scriptures to experience him

personally in our life

but most of those promises he did not

place in our hand he placed them within

our reach

that means that there is a process

involved you have to cooperate with him

in order to experience the victory

that’s already yours it’s not that you

don’t have the promise it’s just that

you have to cooperate with him in order

to experience it and grab hold of it in

your life

you and i have the opportunity to walk

in victory to claim the victory to

experience the victory that is already

ours do you remember when joshua and the

children of israel when they went into

the promised land joshua chapter 1

god said to joshua

every place you put your foot

that land it’s yours it’s already yours

but you have to put your foot on it and

claim it in order to experience it and

to enjoy it do you know that the

children of israel spent

um many years dozens and dozens and

dozens of years holed up in a little

side of canaan when the entire land of

milk and honey the entire promised land

of milk and honey was available to them

they were holed up in one little corner

of the promised land because the enemies

were over there and they didn’t want to

risk what it might take to fight those m

enemies they were so intimidated by the

enemy in canaan they stayed in one

corner instead of experiencing all that

god had for them it wasn’t that it

wasn’t theirs it’s just they weren’t

willing to go get it

what would happen if you and i decided

we’re not going to be intimidated by the

enemy over there anymore that we’re

going to decide to stand on the victory

that the scripture says is already ours

and then place our feet firmly on the

promises of god believing that what he

said is exactly what he can accomplish

in our lives

you win the battle my friend

[Applause]

you win the battle by beginning the

battle on your knees

and facing the battle from a stance of

victory

think about how the 300

must have been affected

when gideon came back and said arise

the victory’s already ours

i mean think about that because the last

time they saw gideon he was leaving the

camp

in fear and insecurity to go down to

listen to those two men

on the enemy’s team to talk about him

when he left he was insecure and he

lacked confidence but now he’s coming

back and his head is up in the air and

he’s saying guys let’s go get us a

victory

how do you think the morale of the 300

changed when their leader came back

confident in what god had said

the whole camp was completely 100

different the morale rose their

confidence all rose it swept through

there like a wildfire because one person

came back believing in god

what would happen if you were the one

that went home confident that that maybe

our marriage can be saved

i’m going back assured because on the

authority of god’s word the two of us we

can make it on the authority of god’s

word i am standing confidently on what

god says believing that victory is

already ours what kind of environment

would change

in your life on your job in your home at

your high school in your university if

you just went back believing that god is

who he says he is and that he can

accomplish what he says he can

accomplish

everything hinges

on one person believing god

on one person choosing to be the one

that will take god at his word

i have a friend that lives across the

street from me her name is rachel she’s

actually uh been one of my closest

friends for about 10 years now so it’s

neat to leave to be a neighbor with a

very close friend and uh jerry and i

live in a very rural part of dallas fort

worth we like it that way um there are

creeks and and trees and mud and bugs

and all the things little boys need in

their life and so we like living there

for that reason um i like to send them

outside to play anytime they come inside

and say mom we’re bored i say oh no

you’re not

you see that tree out there go play with

it

you can eat it you can play tag with it

i don’t care what you do with it but

you’re not gonna be bored today out in

the country here boy

so we love living out here but i’ll tell

you a problem we had we first moved um

out to this this little area of dallas

and and i moved there because my friend

was there and i would go visit her and

we loved the area so much every time i

would visit her we thought oh let’s see

if we can find a place for ourselves out

there we found a wonderful little house

and this little house actually is um we

weren’t as much as excited about the

house itself which is a great little

house but it was the land that i loved i

love that my boys could run and play

tall trees i just love trees and this

house is nestled

underneath a bunch of tall trees and

it’s beautiful but it posed a problem

because we could not get for the life of

us

a strong

signal so that we could get wi-fi

high-speed internet access it was a

problem it took us about two or three

months to figure out how we needed to

navigate on the air space so that we

could kind of peel through these tall

trees and get the signal we needed for

for this high-speed internet access and

you know it’s hard to go back to dial up

once you’ve had a taste of high speed it

just

it just doesn’t work out too well and at

the time i was in the middle of writing

a bible study and so i really needed the

research easy access quick access of my

uh computer

and internet and

i had to send huge files back and forth

to publishers and so i was really having

a lot of trouble

so i was so grateful for my friend

rachel

because my friend rachel even though she

has a lot of huge trees around her house

as well they had long since figured out

this internet thing and so i would just

grab up my book and grab my bible and

grab my laptop and i would grab my purse

and i would march across the street and

sit down at her kitchen table and mooch

off of her high speed internet access in

fact she began to expect me one time i

went over the door was just wide open

just there was just a screen door there

she knew i was coming she wasn’t even

home she just left the door open the

screen door and i walked right in and

there at her kitchen table she put a

lamp right there and a cup of coffee she

knew i was coming

so i sat right there every day for quite

some time and just mooched off of her

high speed internet access it was so

great to have somebody near me that had

the connection that i did not have based

on the positioning that i was in right

then

it should be that in your life and in

mind that when our circumstances

position us in a place where we’re just

underneath a lot of tall circumstances

and issues and dilemma that are keeping

us from having the high speed connection

that we want to have of peace or joy or

faith we got to have people in our life

where we can go over into their life and

mooch off of a little bit of their high

speed faith or joy or peace

relationships worth having that there

are people that change the entire

environment of our home or our job or

our organization because they come

firmly established on the promises of

god

but even more important than us looking

for somebody else to do it how about you

do it

how about you be the one that other

folks can come to because you’re the one

firmly planted on the truth of god word

god’s word how do you win a battle you

begin the battle on your knees and you

face the battle from a stance of victory

now i don’t know if it was while gideon

was on his knees or while he was racing

back to the 300 um to tell them arise

let’s go i don’t know when exactly it

happened but at some point god

downloaded to him the instructions the

strategy for the battle

verse 16.

he says to his men

or he divided the 300 men into three

companies he put trumpets and empty

pictures into the hands of all of them

with torches inside the pictures verse

18.

he said to them when i and all who are

with me blow the trumpet then you also

blow the trumpet around the camp and say

for the lord and for gideon

now in my bible there are headings that

are above i read from the new american

standard bible and there are headings

above each chapter just a little

synopsis of what that chapter is about

but also

inside of each chapter there are verses

grouped together they’re they’re

actually called pericopes they’re these

sections of scripture that are grouped

together and above each pericope there

is another label in my bible so you

might have a couple of verses together

in the bible in your version and then

it’ll have another label above it so you

can see what these verses in particular

are about

above the verses that i just read you

are right right in that vicinity there’s

a heading in my bible that says

the confusion of the enemy

now i know the bible is completely

inerrant and that nothing should be

changed but if i had been writing this

particular part

i probably would have labeled this part

the confusion of the 300

because if gideon had come back to if i

were one of the 300 and gideon had come

back and said go get a jar a light and a

trumpet

and let’s go to battle

i would have said you have got to be

kidding me

you mean you don’t want me to get a

sword you don’t want me to get a bow and

arrow you don’t want me to take off my

jewelry and take on my earrings and ball

up my fist and get some vaseline and get

ready to rumble

you got to be kidding me what kind of

battle strategy is this it makes

absolutely no sense and here’s the deal

my friend most of the time god’s

strategy doesn’t make sense you want to

know how to win the battle you begin the

battle on your knees you face the battle

from a stance of victory and you choose

to plan for battle using divine strategy

god’s strategy will rarely match up with

your strategy in fact isaiah 55 puts it

this way his ways they just aren’t your

ways his thoughts they’re just not your

thoughts we would be so much better off

if we stop trying to make his thoughts

our thoughts stop trying to make his

ways match our ways i don’t know about

you guys but listen i oftentimes

rationalize myself out of being obedient

to god

because if it doesn’t make sense to me i

think it must not be god but the

contrary is often true if it doesn’t

make sense to you it’s probably god

because only god could come up with

something like that

and some of you have had a solution for

that problem bubbling up in your spirit

for a long time you’ve been thinking

about it and it wakes you up in the

middle of the night but you keep

discounting it because it doesn’t make

sense

and maybe the spirit of god is saying to

you today

plan for battle using that divine

strategy

lord you want me to apologize to my

spouse you know he started it right

lord you want me to give that five that

little five dollar financial gift uh to

this particular ministry that that’s not

gonna accomplish anything and and it’s

my starbucks money i know you don’t want

me to give my five dollars to the church

lord you want me to move here even

though it seems like there’s a better

house over there lord you want me to

take this job even though they’re gonna

pay me more money at this job lord you

want me to leave corporate america and

go to ministry it makes absolutely no

sense at all nobody’s gonna understand

because i don’t even understand my

friends are gonna think i’m crazy that’s

the exact strategy that you might need

to win the victory that’s in front of

you my friend

you have to

decide you and i have to decide if we’ll

be like simon that when when god said to

him push out into deep water and cast

out your net again

will we be willing to say it doesn’t

make sense but at your bidding

i’m gonna say yes lord anyway

battles are won when we begin the battle

on our knees face the battle from a

stance of victory and plan for battle

using divine strategy

i’ll close with

this i was thinking about a friend of

mine that works um

well she worked for our ministry she was

an intern for the summer she traveled

with us a bit

she wasn’t familiar with the dallas fort

worth airport

and if any of you have ever flown

through dallas you know that we have a

airport in dallas

it is big so we’ve got terminal a

terminal b

terminal c

terminal d and terminal e so before you

can even start to begin to find your

plane you have to at least get to the

right terminal once you go to the

terminal there are about 30 gates or so

in each terminal

then some of those gates have an a part

and a b part so it might be gate 30 a

and gate 30 b

so you really have to be detailed on

where you are going and on this

particular trip that we were taking we

were leaving from terminal d so we drove

up to terminal d with with my entire

family and our new friend katie and um

this was her first time really at the

dallas-fort worth airport

and so we got uh into the airport we

went through security and you know what

that means we basically took all our

clothes off to get through security

and katie happened to get into a line

that was going really slow so my entire

family made it through security before

katie had even gotten uh close to going

through and so we saw her there on the

other end of the line and my husband

decided to send her a text and he said

hey we’ll meet you at the gate our gate

is 22 a

now once you came through security in

the d terminal our gate was literally

right to the right i mean it wasn’t far

at all just a few steps and so we said

we’ll meet you at the gate gate 22-8 she

waved back at us and said i’ll meet

y’all there

well we sat there at the gate waiting

for her and then they they started

boarding the flight we were still

waiting for her we got on the plane and

we sat down man the minutes were

clicking we were getting really um

nervous because it looked like she was

going to completely miss the flight we

had no idea where she was she was just

right there in security which was just a

few steps away from our date we sent her

texts she didn’t answer them we could

not figure out what was going on

but after just a few moments and i mean

literally right before the plane was

getting ready to take off

i mean to the point where they had

started to call her name across the

loudspeaker in the airport like you’re

the last person to board this white we

are getting ready to leave you you know

you are in trouble when they start

calling your name

she finally raced down the jet bridge

she raced onto the airplane she was

sweating her hair was plastered onto her

face she looked completely spent she

plopped down on her seat and i said

katie

what in the world happened

she said well jerry text me to come to

22a but i just i assumed that he meant

a 22.

so i went to a terminal i got on the

tram that takes you all the way around

the entire airport and went all the way

to a terminal because i just assumed

that’s what he meant and jerry overheard

her say that and he just shook his head

and he said katie man if you would have

just believed

that what i wrote was what i meant

it would have saved you so much time and

energy and sweat

i just wonder today if the divine

strategy you’ve been given the one that

you’ve been discounting because it does

not make sense i just wonder if the holy

spirit of god today is saying to you if

you will just believe that exactly what

i’m saying is exactly what i mean

victory will be yours and i’ll save you

a whole lot of sweat on the way

you want to win the battle

begin the battle on your knees

face the battle from a stance of victory

and plan for battle

using that strategy yeah that one that

sounds ridiculous to you

you use that strategy and victory will

be yours

let me pray for you

lord jesus thank you so much for this

clear simple word from scripture i pray

lord that you would cause it to be

embedded and sealed into our hearts so

that it changes us and transforms us i’m

praying that circumstances that are

represented by those who are all over

this room circumstances will be changed

victory will reign down over them in

jesus name amen