Priscilla Shirer speaks at the 2018 Passion Conference for TBN’s Praise. Listen as she teaches the importance of wearing the armor of God as you fight daily battles. Watch more TBN content for FREE: https://watch.tbn.org/
Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) – Sharing the Word of God to all the nations of the World! TBN is the world’s largest religious network and America’s most watched faith channel. TBN broadcasts programs hosted by a diverse group of ministries from traditional Protestant and Catholic denominations to Messianic Jewish, Non-Profit Charities, Interdenominational and Full Gospel churches. TBN also offers a wide range of original programming and faith-based films. #tbn #passion #priscillashirer 0:00 Intro 1:20 Perspective 2:57 Family Testimony 9:40 Identity Changes Your Strategy 16:42 Putting on the Armor of God 19:04 Knowing Your Real Enemy 24:45 Spiritual Weapons 30:02 Righteousness 39:15 Who Are You Impressing? 42:30 Call to Action
your spiritual heart is comprised of
four things your mind the way you think
your emotions the way you feel your
ambitions what you purpose to do and
your conscience
your conscience is not the voice of god
but your conscience is like this wiring
that helps this microphone amplify my
voice the the conscience is the
microphone that the holy spirit uses to
help you hear the voice of god
[Music]
i cannot even begin to tell you how
excited i am
to be here
thrilled
finally to be a passion this is my
first time being at passion i i’m
the new kid on the block
thank you for making the new kid feel
welcome it is a privilege to be a part
of what god has already been doing
through this movement for these years
these decades that god has been sowing
seed into the lives of
of you
y’all don’t even know what it is that
the lord has in store you can’t even
imagine i’m trying to tell you that
whatever is in your mind right now about
what god might do with your life
it is too small for what he’s actually
planning to do
too small
you cannot fathom what god has in mind
for you
the reason why i can say that with that
much boldness
is because while there are 30 plus
thousand of us that are gathered
together in these three arenas and then
those that are on the other side of the
screen in their homes
30 000 sounds like a big number unless
you consider the fact that with seven
plus billion people on the planet
the fact that he’d let us be the ones
that are recipients of what he’s done
over these last few weekends really it’s
just our last few days really it’s just
a drop in the bucket 30 000 sounds like
a lot but in the grand scheme of all the
people that could have been here y’all
he chose us
that means he intended for you to know
you’re an arrow
that your expectation is that you’re
getting ready to go places the likes of
which you could never imagine
oh i like y’all y’all talk back to me i
go to that kind of a church where they
talk back you know i go to the kind of
church where if the preaching gets
really good to us we might throw
something at the pastor
a shoe a baby anything might go flying
up there
y’all are my people y’all came to have
church
so i have three boys
um it’s a little bit scary to me that
they are nearly it will be very soon in
the next few years will be about your
age three sons the distinguishing
characteristic about my boys is that
they are giants they are huge boys my 15
year old is six foot two inches tall he
wears a size 14 men’s shoe my 13 year
old is about 6 1 he wears a 13 men’s
shoe
and uh they tower over me i have a
nine-year-old who’s coming up in the
ranks with his brothers they are
tall boys somebody come help me feed
these people
and one of the distinguishing
characteristics about or what makes
their size work for them rather is that
they do love sports so whatever sport is
sort of in season that’s what we’re
playing at the time my second son for a
lot of years he’s into basketball now
but for a lot of years baseball was this
thing and i enjoyed that i enjoyed
baseball season i liked going out there
for spring ball i liked spring ball
because you go sit in the cool of the
evening while your kid is practicing i
remember all those years of of little
league when he was just coming up and
we’d sit out there in the cool of the
spring evening under the lights of the
bleachers watching and practice and
enjoying just
that that whole atmosphere i like spring
ball so much the only problem with
spring ball is that it is going to
become summer ball
and i don’t know what happens where you
live wherever you’re coming from but i
can tell you in dallas texas which is
where i still live
and where i was born and raised in
dallas texas in the summertime it
doesn’t warm up slightly
it gets hot
i’m talking about slap your mama hot
that kind of hot the kind of hot where
you feel like the sun must be mad at you
about something like you did something
to the sun and the sun is trying to get
you back all summer long that’s what it
feels like and you’re sitting out there
at a game trying to enjoy your kids game
and it really still is okay when there’s
just one game the problem is that at the
end of every season there’s a tournament
so you got to be out there on a thursday
at 8 a.m and 10 a.m and noon and 2 p.m
and then depending upon how your kids
team did you’re gonna have to come back
on friday at 8 a.m and 10 a.m and then
they give you a little lunch break but
you got to come back for the 2 p.m game
the 4 p.m game and then if your kid’s
team had the nerve to do well you got to
come back again on saturday for the 8
a.m game and 10 a.m and noon and two and
man you’re sitting out there under the
blazing sun trying to be happy that your
kid is doing well
really you’re wondering if it’s ever
okay to pray they lose so you can go
home
i will never confirm nor deny that i
have ever done that
but i will tell you that we were sitting
out there at a tournament so several
years ago
sun was blazing
we were so excited for the lunch break
just because that meant we would be able
to go to a restaurant where there would
be air condition and ice water that
actually had ice in it
we got refreshed we came back
we drove our suv up into the parking lot
opened up the back of the suv so that we
could pull out all the gear that we
needed to go to the next game in the
tournament we were three days into the
tournament hot sweaty they were doing
well we were trying to be excited about
it
ready for the next game i was walking
behind my son to get from where we had
parked the car over toward the dugout
where the next game was going to be
played and so i gathered up all the
stuff you know the ice chest that you
have and the um the umbrella that you
might have to go over your head and you
know the water bottles the the backpacks
the the baseballs the mitts all that
stuff and i was following behind my son
my second son jerry junior is a fairly
gregarious personality he’s outgoing
he’s excited for a challenge
so i could see that in his step as i
followed behind him i could see a skip
in his step his chin was up his
shoulders were back he was excited about
the next game and i got to tell you he’s
pretty good in baseball he has a natural
knack for it i remember at 10 years old
was the first time he got a good hit and
sent it sailing over the fence line at
10 years old and i think it’s partly
because of his size just a lot of power
behind the swing a great as a first
baseman so we were really excited about
his success in baseball and and i
watched him as he kind of hopped and
skipped over to the next game just
excited about the next challenge in the
tournament
but because i was following behind him i
had my eyes glued on him and i could see
when something changed
i could see that as we took the short
walk from where we parked the car over
to the dugout i could see that his
shoulder started to hunch over and his
head hung down
i could see that that that skip that had
been in his step it changed he was kind
of walking like he was nervous he was
wringing his hands a little bit i saw
that he was looking around his eyes
darting and looking a little bit sketchy
i was trying to figure out what happened
to my boy it was a short walk from where
we parked the car over to the dugout and
all of a sudden his countenance had
completely changed so i started looking
around trying to figure out what was
going on why did he look so insecure and
fearful all of a sudden
i realized that as we were going toward
the dugout we were walking past
some kids from another team
they were all laying
on the grass underneath the shade of an
oak tree getting ready for the next game
as i passed them i could see this was
the team we were about to play next
kept walking and i kept getting a look
at these boys
and when i looked at them i realized
what my son’s problem was
we had faced this team before
we had faced them earlier in the season
and when this team had played my son’s
team earlier in the season they had
annihilated us
it had been a complete embarrassment a
complete upset this team right here
y’all they were serious baseball players
but we had to walk right by them to get
to the dugout
as we walked past there were two players
they were talking to each other one was
whispering to the other i think he
thought he was whispering but we could
hear him
he leaned over to the other one and he
said
there goes that big kid from the red sox
team
is he the one that hit the ball and it
went over the fence
yeah he was the one at first base the
one that caught any of the outs that we
got in the game that was him
so
that’s jerry
shire
when my boy heard his name
cross the lips of the opposing team
members
those shoulders that had been hanging
down all of a sudden i watched them pop
back again
i watched his chin go up i watched him
get a little swag back in his step as he
headed over toward the dugout
in fact we had to bring him down a few
notches before the game started
it’s amazing really how your countenance
changes
when you really overhear and understand
what the enemy thinks about you when he
sees you coming
it doesn’t mean that the challenge goes
away it means that in the face of it
you’re different your stance is
different because you recognize that
when the enemy sees a daughter or a son
of god coming his way he’s shaking in
his boots not because of you but because
of the holy spirit of god that lives on
the inside of me
i came to tell somebody today that even
if you don’t believe what it is that the
word of god declares to be true about
you you need to know that the enemy does
he knows that every single thing that
god’s word declares to be true about you
every word that has been declared over
you in these last few days of this
conference even if you’re not convinced
about it the enemy is
he knows that you have been forgiven he
knows that there is therefore now no
condemnation for those of us who are in
christ jesus he knows that you have been
given the victory he knows that you have
been made competent by the spirit of god
he knows that there is therefore now no
condemnation for you or for me no shame
no guilt he knows that you have not been
given a spirit of fear but a power and
love and of a sound mind and y’all he
knows that in the end we win
and i’m saying what ashamed it would be
for the enemy to believe more about your
potential than you do
what ashamed it would be for us to go
out of here with all of this inspiration
that we have been given this investment
of god’s word that he has gathered us
together over the course of these days
to worship in spirit and in truth and to
hear his word declared true over our
lives what a tragedy it would be for us
to walk out of here and still live like
we were before we came through these
doors
so what the enemy will do is scatter
challenge in front of your life because
listen you’re going back home to
challenge y’all do know we going back
home in a little while right
and don’t we wish we could wake up to
this every single day
don’t we wish that we could have god’s
word spoken over our lives with this
much authority and power every single
day and be in the presence of leaders
who can lead us into the presence of god
and worship every single day like this
but the reality is
we’re going back home
the challenges of your university campus
the challenges of your home your
relationships your friendships on your
job those challenges will be sprawled
out in front of you would you get home
and let me tell you something what the
enemy hopes is that the sight of them
will cause you to shrink back in so much
fear and insecurity that you’ll never
step up to the plate of being who god
has called you to be
listen if you place faith in jesus
christ i hope you know that the enemy
understands he cannot destroy you
he knows his chances are over of
destroying you so he is going to spend
the rest of his time and the rest of his
energy just trying to discourage you
trying to distract you so that you’ll
shrink back in fear and insecurity and
not step up to the plate
and be who god has called you to be
it is at least in part to this end
that the apostle paul gives us a passage
of scripture
that has become a lifeline for me
in fact i was talking with christine
yesterday chris and i have known each
other for a very long time very close
friends and she was asking me
what i was going to speak on and i had
several thoughts
of directions that i was
leaning toward
but in the end we as we were talking
the question came up if there was only
one thing you could say to them
if there’s only one message that you
ever have the opportunity
to tell these students these young
people that will be gathered together on
this occasion what would that message be
and there was one thing that immediately
popped into my heart and my mind for you
at the end of this year’s passions
passion conference
it’s the words of the apostle paul
he writes them in the book of ephesians
listen
let me just tell you quickly before i
read this passage you got if you if
you’ve not read the book of ephesians
you’re gonna have to read the book of
ephesians
y’all listen
it’s it’s like for real
the apostle paul y’all know he was a bad
boy he gave us most of what would become
the new testament
letters written to first century
believers that now disciple us and help
us to mature as believers and as the
body of christ and scholars say that of
all of paul’s writing really the cream
of the crop the cherry on top of the
cake is ephesians
because in the book of ephesians y’all
he just spends the first half of the
book just rehearsing who you are as a
daughter or a son he wants to make sure
you step up to the plate rise to the
occasion of who you’ve been recreated in
christ to become those of you who place
faith in jesus christ last night who
stood to your feet at the end of pastor
louie’s message and you placed faith in
jesus listen the old has gone and the
new has come
you’re a daughter you are son and you
have full rights and privileges that
have been granted to you the apostle
paul wants you to know what is the hope
of his calling and choosing you he
writes in the first and second and third
chapter about the treasure that you have
he wants you to know about the mercy
that has been lavished upon you the
grace that has been given to you he
wants you to know that if you’ve been
rejected by everybody else you’ve been
hand-picked chosen and adopted by the
one true god he wants you to know that
if you’ve dug a pit of sin for yourself
that is so deep you can’t find your way
out of it that the mercy of god is so
great and so grand that it can reach
down into any pit and snatch you up out
of it once and for all in fact paul gets
so worked up that by the time he gets to
the middle of the first chapter he
bursts out in a prayer and he says i’m
praying that the eyes of your heart
would be open
so that you would just know what is the
hope of his calling and choosing you
and after going over and over and on and
on about the lavishness the richness the
grace the mercy the goodness the
adoption that has been poured out over
us the forgiveness that has been granted
to us he’s trying to figure out how do i
close this letter to make sure they step
up to the plate
how do i put an exclamation point on
passion 2018 to make sure that what god
has given them they don’t hand over to
the enemy as soon as they walk out the
door
and the apostle paul writes these words
to us
in ephesians chapter 6
beginning in verse 10.
he says
finally
you be strong in the lord
and in the strength of his might
he says put on the full armor of god
so that you may be able to stand firm
against the scheme somebody say schemes
against the schemes of the devil he says
we wrestle not we struggle not against
flesh and blood but against the rulers
against the powers against the world
forces of this darkness against the
spiritual forces of wickedness that are
in the heavenly places he says so
therefore you might as well just go
ahead and put down all the weapons of
this world that aren’t working for you
anyway and take up some weapons that
actually have some power he says take up
the full armor of god so that you may be
able to resist in the evil day and
having done everything to stand firm he
says you ought to just stand firm
therefore
in these few verses of scripture the
apostle paul begins to introduce to us a
concept
that has not been at least in the
context of thus far in church uh
development at that time had not been as
overtly described as it is right now
in paul’s letter
he brings up the topic
of spiritual warfare
he says
you have an enemy
he says i want to make sure that it’s
loud and clear there are other places in
the old testament and throughout
throughout the new york where we can
infer that we have a spiritual unseen
battle going on but this is the first
time that an author comes right out and
says you have an enemy
and he is scheming against you that when
you leave this place in just a little
while when i leave this place in just a
little while you need to know that there
is an enemy he is against you he is not
for you
he plans to do anything and everything
in his power to stir up challenge in
your life enough to cause you to shrink
back and not rise up and stand firm in
the victory that you have been given in
christ jesus that’s why the apostle paul
says
stand
firm
because you have an enemy
an enemy that wants you to think that
just because he is invisible he is also
fictional
he wants to be chalked up to nothing
more than a caricature
a cartoon picture a myth a a character
for a kid’s nursery rhyme he doesn’t
want you to recognize the influence that
he has over your life possibly to to
cause you to never walk into the full
expression of god’s grace and goodness
in your life he is sinister he is a
master illusionist and he is a deceiver
and he hopes to cleverly disguise
himself behind life’s most pressing
problems to where you will forget he is
even there he wants you to point fingers
at him or at her at your boss at your
parent at that particular professor or
your r.a in your dorm he wants you to
think it’s that advisor or it’s that
financial problem anything flesh and
blood because he knows as long as we’re
looking at the flesh and blood we will
direct all the wrong weapons at the
wrong culprit
we’ll think our money will work we’ll
think our rationale and logic will
actually work we think that the diploma
we’re about to to achieve and receive
we’ll think the diploma will be work
worth it we’ll think that the
connections will work anything natural
cannot take care of the supernatural
when your problem is unseen and
spiritual you need weapons that work in
that realm
so the apostle paul says you got to know
first of all that your enemy is not the
person you are sitting next to today
that your enemy is not your parent at
home your enemy is not that professor
that is difficult to work with your real
enemy is not your boss on your part-time
job your real enemy is unseen he is
hoping y’all that we will forget he’s
there
he is the master deceiver
so there’s a little church around the
corner from
my house
in dallas i’ve been taking my kids there
since they were little
to harvest festival that’s basically
this church’s answer to halloween
so we will go there for harvest festival
and this church has a good old-fashioned
trunk or treat
does anybody know what i mean when i say
trunk or treat
okay all right so trunk or treat for
those of you who are not clear on what
that is that’s when members of the
congregation volunteer
they volunteer to bring their cars into
the parking lot on harvest festival
night so that they can open up the trunk
of their car so you go into the parking
lot all the trunks are open
and each person has basically crafted a
carnival game or some sort of fair game
out of the trunk of the car so kids line
up one trunk after the other they play
whatever the game is and then most of
the time whether they win or lose the
person that owns that car gives them a
whole bunch of candy and sends them home
we’re always so grateful
so we stand in line
one car after the other waiting on bags
of candy and we play one game after the
other a few years ago
the biggest line the longest line at the
carnival wasn’t behind the a car it was
behind the bed of a truck it was really
clever
a huge truck had been
parked in the parking lot
and they’d put a step ladder right at
the bed of the truck so that a kid could
walk into the bed of the truck they had
attached a tabletop which was about the
same size as the bed of the truck they
had attached it to the side of the truck
cut six holes into it put some fabric
some drapery over it and out from those
holes every few seconds a puppet would
pop through
they gave the kid a huge plastic mallet
and the job of the kid was to run up and
down the inside of the bed of the truck
as he tried to hit the puppets on top of
the head it was a homemade whack-a-mole
game is what it was
and it was the longest line me and jude
at the time he was like four jude is my
youngest me and jude are standing in
line we’re waiting on our turn behind us
there’s another kid he’s with us his mom
he’s probably four or five as well and
y’all he was hysterical
because he was annoyed at this whole
situation and he was making sure she
knew it
he was first of all annoyed because mom
i don’t understand why i got to stand in
this long line didn’t we come to the
carnival to have fun this ain’t fun
standing in line ain’t fun i have an
idea mom how about this how about i go
play all these other games while you
stand in line and hold our place and
then when it’s our turn i’ll come back
and join you in live
but he was not only annoyed about the
line the four-year-old was also annoyed
because mom i don’t even understand this
game why in the world would i waste all
my energy running up and down the inside
of that truck to hit the puppets on the
top of the head if when i hit them on
the head they’re going to disappear but
then they’re just going to come back as
soon as i hit them on the head what’s
the point of this game
so everybody in the line is laughing
hysterically because this four-year-old
this five-year-old is talking so much
about all of his frustrations
finally he gets so frustrated
that he works himself into a frenzy to
where all i saw out of my peripheral
vision was a four-year-old flash running
past me as he ran forward and he grabbed
the drapery off of the table top and
pulled it clean off
underneath there were three adults with
puppets on each hand
that day we all got a good laugh but we
also got a good lesson
there is always something you can’t see
influencing what you can
and if you spend all of your time your
energy your effort trying to hit at what
you see popping up in your life you’re
gonna be so frustrated and by the way
exhausted because as soon as you take
care of one thing another one is coming
back unless you do what the apostle paul
says pull back the curtain and let the
enemy know we got our eyes on you
and we’re going to use some weapons that
actually work back there behind the
curtain y’all i wish i had learned this
when i was 18 19 20 21 years old that
that person that physical problem isn’t
really where you need to invest your
energy pull back the curtain use the
weapons that actually have power
the apostle paul wants you to know that
the tactics of the enemy are serious
business and so he uses a specific word
to describe them
he says
schemes
listen to me he knows your weaknesses
he knows how to dangle what carrot at
the right time in the right way to make
sure you are snagged in particular
have you ever wondered or found curious
that that particular carrot is always
dangled in front of you when you are
most tired
when you are most vulnerable when you
happen to be most hungry
most alone most weak that particular
carrot the one that wouldn’t mess with
your friend because it’s not her deal
it’s not his deal he’s not enticed by
that but the one that entices you always
shows up at the right time yo that’s not
coincidence that’s a scheme
the enemy is trying to derail you he’s
trying to make sure that you don’t walk
in a manner worthy pleasing of the lord
that you come in here but that you don’t
go out of here the
purpose to live for the glory of god
he’s trying to trip you up
not only for his own benefit but because
he does not want you having access to
everything that you are privy to
as a rightful heir to the king of kings
and the lord of lords
it’s a scheme
so if he’s got tactics
we need tactics
the apostle paul outlines them for us
i’m just going to read them to you
because he says in verse 13 you need the
full armor and here’s what they are
verse 14. he says make sure that your
loins are girded with truth then he says
you need a breastplate and the
breastplate is called righteousness and
then he says in verse 15 you got to have
something for your feet if you want any
hope of being able to move forward
successfully so your feet need to be
shod with the preparation of the gospel
of peace and then not only that but he
says there are some flaming missiles of
the evil one that he fully intends to
send sailing into your path you’re gonna
need a shield and the shield is your
faith and then you know there are lies
there are strongholds that he’s going to
try to erect in your mind you’re going
to need something to protect your mind
he says you need a helmet and the helmet
is your salvation but not only that he
says that you are going to need a sword
really a dagger of the spirit it was
about 18 inches long or so the one the
apostle paul is referring to you need a
dagger so that when the enemy is all up
in your space you’ve got something close
at hand to make sure that he stays at
bay you need a dagger of the spirit and
the dagger is called the what
the word of god
but y’all he doesn’t stop at those six
can i just say that there is one more in
18 verse 18 traditionally it’s taught as
six i really believe there are seven
pieces of armor because in verse 18 he
says
pray
says pray
[Applause]
not like you know a prayer a day to keep
the devil away
not like a prayer over your meal
just because that’s what your mama did
and your grandma did and that’s what
you’re supposed to do
not something quick and casual
fervent
prioritized prayer
y’all you can’t have victory if you
don’t pray
do you hear what i’m saying to you
prayer is the key
that unlocks the resources of heaven so
that they can be unleashed on planet
earth
prayer is the key he’s actually given
you to get all the good stuff down here
because i don’t know about you but i
don’t want to wait to get to heaven to
experience all that god has for me any
bits of heaven he plans to give me on
earth i want it right now
prayer accesses the bits of heaven he
intends to give you now
and prayer listen prayer is what pushes
the kingdom of darkness back
it’s what pushes it back that’s why
jesus said my house shall be called not
a house of good preaching
not a house of good singing
not a house of great spotlights and
production not a house of great cafes i
hope you have all of that enjoy it but
jesus said at the end of the day my
house better be called a house of prayer
because spotlights and fog machines and
great singing and great preaching that
won’t necessarily push the kingdom of
darkness back but when my people who are
called by my name when they will humble
themselves and when they’ll pray he says
then i’m gonna hear from heaven i’m
gonna heal the land the enemy will have
to bend the knee at the name of jesus in
prayer
so pray
there’s one other piece of armor i
couldn’t get by without talking to you
about it for a few moments y’all still
awake everybody game
it’s in verse 14.
he says put on a breastplate
called what
righteousness
righteousness
jerry and i live in a fairly rural part
of dallas fort worth
we like it that way close enough to the
city we can get there quick
but it’s quiet and lazy we live on a
little two-lane sleepy road somebody’s
got some horses over there there’s some
cows over there
and one of my closest friends
lives across the street that’s why we
like it because she’s got a pond in the
front of her property
so i’ll get the boys and the two fishing
poles i bought on sale at the local
walmart i have a tackle box too that i
got on sale there because and you know
we need things we need extra hooks
because the boys always lose the hooks
extra bobber thingies you know because
we need extras of those i also have
gloves in the tackle box because you all
know i don’t mind going fishing but i
ain’t gonna actually touch no fish
so we walk across the street with
whatever hot dog meat we’ve got left
from the week because you know we’re
professional fishermen so our hot dog
meat is our bait
we walk across the street we stand in
this little cove underneath some trees
and we fish just right there most of the
time just a little sun perch stuff like
that we can catch quick in an hour we
can catch like 10 or 12 fish just a
little quick easy little fishing trip
every now and then though i’m feeling
adventurous
what that means is is that we will get
into my friend’s little rowboat they
bought on craigslist it’s metal it’s not
a big deal it’s just a little it’s sea
worthy it can hold us up that’s all we
need
i’ll swim i will uh row out into the
middle and we’ll fish from there every
now and then
but i always think twice before i do it
and here’s the reason
because in order to get in it we first
have to turn it over
they leave it upside down as they should
to drain water while nobody’s using it
so i gotta turn it over to get in it and
what i do know for sure
is that when i turn this thing over
something’s either going to hop out from
underneath it
something’s going to waddle out from
underneath it or worst of all oh
something’s going to slither
out from underneath that boat because
the environment under there is moist and
damp and perfect for critters
do you know what i’ve noticed every
single time we turn it over something
comes out and never once have i had to
write a golden sealed invitation and
send it into the brush nearby
to invite the critters to come and join
us at one o’clock today you’re welcome
never once have i had to invite them
because the environment created by the
upside down boat is invitation enough
righteousness
is right side up living that invites the
sunlight of god’s favor and blessing
upon your life
unrighteousness
is upside down behavior that is out of
alignment with the truth of god that
you’ve been sitting underneath for the
last few days it’s behavior that is out
of alignment with the truth of god to
where you don’t have to invite the enemy
and come and make himself at home in
your life you just keep living upside
down
and the environment created by upside
down behavior is invitation enough
listen to me you can pray against the
enemy till you’re blue in the face but
if you and i leave passion and we do not
walk in holiness we do not live in a
lifestyle that is in alignment with the
truth of god we will have wasted our
breath in prayer
paul says somebody’s got to live right
it’s flat out straight up
holiness
it’s holiness
it’s a word that our our grandmothers
and our grandfathers back in the good
old days when you went to church and you
sat on a wooden pew
it’s before some churches became so
pre-seeker sensitive
i remember y’all i went listen i’m off
track listen i went to a church and they
said we are a pre-secret sensitive
church and so we actually want to sort
of uh in a way they said dull down the
actual
literal name of jesus just so we can get
people in first then we will we will be
more direct later on i said oh you have
invited the wrong person
because there used to be a day in time
where it was just black and white
where there were fewer gray areas and
tolerance yes come as you are but don’t
stay as you are
holiness
brothers and sisters i implore you by
the mercies of god to walk in a manner
worthy of this calling by which you have
been called that every bit of truth that
you have received this weekend to align
your lifestyle to it
to not determine that you will still dig
your heels into the ground and live
immorally or speak immorally or do the
things habits and lifestyles and choices
and relationships that you know are
outside of alignment with the truth of
god turn the boat right side up
so that you can invite the favor of god
on your life the apostle paul says
righteousness is your breastplate the
roman army in the first century they had
many pieces of armor as you know
but the breastplate would have been one
of the most critical the reason why was
because
it obviously protected the most vital
organ they had their heart
the heart is the lifeline for your
physical well-being all of the blood
flow the vitality the energy that you
need to function in every level of your
life comes from the vitality of your
physical heart what the physical heart
is to the physical life your spiritual
heart is to your spiritual life all of
the vitality the energy that you need to
be who god has created you to be to have
fervency in your prayer life to follow
him with passion and with fire to read
the bible and not just be ink on a page
but you hear his voice speaking to you
to have clear reception between you and
the holy spirit you need a vital
spiritual heart that’s why if i were
your enemy more than all else i’d be
after your heart
because one shot to the spiritual heart
will wipe you out
your spiritual heart is comprised of
four things your mind the way you think
your emotions the way you feel your
ambitions what you purpose to do and
your conscience
your conscience is not the voice of god
but your conscience is like this wiring
that helps this microphone amplify my
voice the the conscience is the
microphone that the holy spirit uses to
help you hear the voice of god
so if i were your enemy i’d be after
your heart because if i could get to
your heart that would mean i would have
automatic access to your mind now i
could tinker with your thinking i’d have
automatic access to your emotions i can
mess with the way you feel and make sure
they’re out of alignment with the truth
of god i can mess with your ambitions to
where what you want to do is totally out
of alignment with what god wants you to
do and more than all else i’d want to
make it sure i have a shot to your heart
so that i can short-circuit the wires
between you and the holy spirit
now you can’t even hear god speak to you
because you didn’t have a breastplate on
the apostle paul says holiness is your
breastplate
holiness blocks you from a full frontal
attack of the enemy
holiness keeps the enemy at bay to where
when he comes looking around for some
people that he can infiltrate some
upsell side down environments that he
can fester in he can’t find that with me
or with you because we’ve chosen right
side up living
aligning ourselves with the truth of god
breath place in place securing us
against the schemes of the enemy
holiness is your breastplate
i came to tell you to live right
i came to tell you not to just have
heard all of this
to go home and live in accordance with
it
be
ye
holy
not by your power not by your might but
by the spirit of god
there is no relationship you’re in that
if it is out of alignment with the truth
of god that the holy spirit himself
won’t help you to sever so that you can
walk in holiness
there is no lifestyle you are living
that is too uh that you’re too wound up
in that you can’t break free from no
matter how you feel in this moment you
can walk in holiness
there is no way you have been speaking
no addiction that you have no habit that
you have been festering in your life
that you have been harboring in your
life that the holy spirit won’t empower
you to break free from so that you can
walk underneath the banner the favor of
holiness in your life be
ye holy y’all listen
listen
back in our grandmama and our
grandparents days
great-grandparents
they wanted to honor god more than they
wanted to impress people
see the problem with instagram and
twitter and social media if there’s a
problem y’all the problem is
we want this
we want to be impressive
and if i’m worried for our generation
it is that
we are impressive
but we don’t have breastplates on
it is that we have the applause of
people and our selfies are perfectly lit
and we have a whole bunch of friends and
a whole bunch of instagram likes and
people are following us and the enemy is
thrilled because we have sacrificed
holiness
on the altar of impressing people
you gotta live for the applause of
heaven
you gotta decide i will not be
politically correct before i will choose
to be holy
i will not be impressive before i will
choose to be holy
i may not be the the person that
everybody wants to be around i may not
be the most impressive but what i will
be is holy because a time is coming
y’all where we are gonna see our savior
face to face
and when we see him he will not ask us
how many instagram followers we had
he will not ask us how many friends
liked our post
he will not want to see the selfies that
we took when we see him face to face
he’s going to ask us did we do business
with his son jesus christ
and then
and then we’re gonna give an account
and i don’t know about y’all
but i’m looking for
well done
[Music]
i want a well done
i want jesus to look at me and say you
did the thing girl
not because they bought the books they
bought the bible study they saw the
movie no you did the thing because you
honored me
whether with an audience of one or an
audience of 30 000 you honored me
i came to tell you brothers and sisters
walk with integrity
be
in the dark
who you are in the light
everything that your god has entrusted
to you over these last few days the
enemy does not mind he doesn’t like but
he doesn’t mind that you heard him he
didn’t mind you came here what he minds
is if you leave here and live by what
you heard
[Music]
praise you father
[Music]
if you’re here
[Music]
if you’re in this room stay standing if
you’re in this room or one of the other
arenas that are at home and you know you
are living in a way that is out of
alignment with the truth of god your
breastplate is not in place you are open
to full frontal attack by the enemy
because you haven’t girded yourself with
holy living and maybe you’re in a
situation where you’ve been trying to
live right but by your own strength and
power you just can’t seem to pull it off
and you need the holy spirit to do what
he does
to set you free to empower you to rise
up in victory to step up to the plate
and hit a home run for the kingdom of
god
[Music]
y’all remember
y’all remember in the lion king
[Music]
simba’s messing with the hyenas and he’s
like where and they’re like
seriously
and he does it again
and they’re like you got to be kidding
he does it again
[Music]
and they’re like
no you’ll never take us down you’re too
weak you’re too small you’re too puny by
yourself
he tries it one more time
he lets out his best roar but it sounds
like something big and giant and it
echoes off of the mountains nearby and
the enemy enemies go running away not
because he was the roar but because his
daddy had come up behind him and mufasa
had let out a great roar
the roar of the father is behind you
walk in victory in jesus name amen
[Applause]
at tbn our mission is to use every
available means to reach as many
individuals and families as possible
with the life-changing gospel of jesus
christ thank you for helping
make
the gospel of grace go around the world
without you we couldn’t do it god bless
you