Latest / The BLAZE (Bible Study) / Morning Devotion from Ephesians: Stand Your Ground

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Morning Devotion from Ephesians: Stand Your Ground · The BLAZE (Bible Study)

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Speaker 1: Good morning, family. Good morning. God bless you. Welcome back
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Speaker 1: to The Morning Devo. It's your bro, Sam Lopez, a.k.a.
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Speaker 1: DJ Sam Rock. The Morning Devo. I try to be
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Speaker 1: here on weekdays, 5.30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. And I
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Speaker 1: try my best to get into the studio on time
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Speaker 1: because I'm really, technically, right? Historically, I'm not a morning person.
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Speaker 1: This is all because of God, man. God is good.
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Speaker 1: He asked of me to do something, and he gave
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Speaker 1: me the strength to do it. That's why that scripture,
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Speaker 1: to me, is very important. that we could do all
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Speaker 1: things through Christ who gives us the strength to get
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Speaker 1: what he wants done. Amen. He gives us the strength.
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Speaker 1: So all glory to God for that. So make sure
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Speaker 1: this is up. All right. So that's good. I always
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Speaker 1: got to test my audio because sometimes I'll be sounding
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Speaker 1: like a robot when the audio doesn't line up or
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Speaker 1: jive correctly. So we're still in the book of Ephesians.
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Speaker 1: This is the last chapter, I believe, if I'm not mistaken.
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Speaker 1: This is the last chapter of the book of Ephesians.
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Speaker 1: This is chapter number six. And then we'll move on
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Speaker 1: from here. Amen. Lord willing, we'll get into another book
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Speaker 1: of the Bible. We'll pray about it. If you have
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Speaker 1: any suggestions as well of where you want to go next,
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Speaker 1: let me know. We'll pray about it. Amen. And if
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Speaker 1: that's what the leading of the spirit of God has
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Speaker 1: for us, all these morning devils, we'll go for it.
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Speaker 1: Trust God. Trust the spirit. Ephesians chapter number six, verse
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Speaker 1: number 13 is today. I'm calling this one. Stand firm.
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Speaker 1: your ground, stand your ground. Ephesians chapter six, verse number 13.
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Speaker 1: We're going to pray first during the prayer. I hope
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Speaker 1: you are inspired and encouraged during the prayer and after
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Speaker 1: the prayer and in the morning devotion, of course, and
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Speaker 1: that you will be inspired and encouraged to read the
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Speaker 1: whole chapter for yourself to make sure we're getting everything
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Speaker 1: into context. Amen. So Father God, thank you for right now,
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Speaker 1: for this day. Thank you for whatever you're doing that
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Speaker 1: we can't see, and thank you for what we can see,
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Speaker 1: what you're doing in our hearts and our minds and
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Speaker 1: our lives. I pray, Lord God, a hedge of protection,
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Speaker 1: that your arching angels, ministering angels, that the arm of
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Speaker 1: God that you will help us put on daily, Lord God,
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Speaker 1: will be more than enough to protect us and guide
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Speaker 1: us and guard us from the evil one, from the
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Speaker 1: evil influence, from the demonic influences out there, from people
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Speaker 1: who just don't like you or don't like your people.
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Speaker 1: I pray, Lord God, a hedge of protection over all
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Speaker 1: of us, The blood of Christ covers us. We know
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Speaker 1: that we are in your plan. And whatever happens that
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Speaker 1: you allow to happen is for the greater good for us,
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Speaker 1: even if we don't understand it. I pray health to
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Speaker 1: our bodies, strength to our bones, and a powerful name
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Speaker 1: of Jesus. I pray that over myself, my wife, our children,
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Speaker 1: our grandchildren, our families, our whole entire bloodline. I pray
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Speaker 1: for my mom, for my wife's aunt, every single person
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Speaker 1: that we come in contact with. that needs prayer for health.
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Speaker 1: We pray health and healing forward. I pray that also
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Speaker 1: over every single person that's listening or watching right now
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Speaker 1: in the powerful name of Jesus. And I pray, Lord God,
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Speaker 1: that you will continue to inspire us and encourage us
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Speaker 1: to move forward and to stand our ground. In the
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Speaker 1: name of Jesus, I pray this by faith. And those
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Speaker 1: who agree, we say amen to the amen. Let's go
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Speaker 1: for it. Let's get in this word. You can share
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Speaker 1: this out, like I said, to as many people as possible. Amen.
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Speaker 1: Let's get the gospel message out. Let's get these morning
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Speaker 1: devos out to as many people who are willing to listen.
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Speaker 1: It's not a forced ministry. This is, you know, no
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Speaker 1: one has to, no one is forced to the morning devo.
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Speaker 1: First and foremost. Amen. I'm not even forcing myself. I
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Speaker 1: consider it a blessing to be here and to get
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Speaker 1: up and God gives me the strength to get it done.
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Speaker 1: So let's go for it. Amen. I'm going to be
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Speaker 1: in Ephesians chapter number six, excuse me, verse number 13.
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Speaker 1: The Apostle Paul is inspired by the Holy Spirit. He's
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Speaker 1: in the middle of a thought here. So that's why
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Speaker 1: the sentence, according to our English vocabulary, the way our,
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Speaker 1: you know, how we set up sentences, it's not going
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Speaker 1: to sound like the end of the sentence because it's
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Speaker 1: in a thought here. We're in a thought. Ephesians chapter 6,
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Speaker 1: verse 13 says, Therefore, take up the full armor of God,
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Speaker 1: so that when the day of evil comes... you will
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Speaker 1: be able to stand your ground and having done everything
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Speaker 1: to stand. Amen. Now this day of evil is here, right?
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Speaker 1: The day of evil. Every time we wake up, we
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Speaker 1: are surrounded by the day of evil. Why do I
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Speaker 1: say that? Because not everybody's born again. Not everybody is
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Speaker 1: living according to the scriptures. So therefore we can't, or
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Speaker 1: I can't, you know, From experience, I can't hold people
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Speaker 1: to the scriptures that they don't follow. I could hold
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Speaker 1: myself to the scriptures and hold my friends, my brothers
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Speaker 1: in Christ, my sisters in Christ. I could hold them
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Speaker 1: accountable to the scriptures if they claim to be Christ followers,
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Speaker 1: but I can't hold outsiders to the scriptures. The reason
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Speaker 1: why I say that is because a lot of people
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Speaker 1: want to hurl Bible verses at people who are out
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Speaker 1: there lost. They need the love of God. They need
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Speaker 1: the kindness of God. They need the gospel, yes. They
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Speaker 1: need the truth of God. But more importantly, we can't
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Speaker 1: be insulting people because it's an insult. The Bible actually
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Speaker 1: says that the gospel is gibberish. It's nonsense to those
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Speaker 1: who are perishing, those who are lost, those who are
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Speaker 1: blind spiritually. So therefore, we can't be, oh, if you
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Speaker 1: don't do X, Y, Z, the Bible says, even though
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Speaker 1: it's true, the Bible does say X, Y, Z. If
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Speaker 1: you're reading the scripture, the Bible is true. But we
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Speaker 1: have to respect other people's ways, if that makes any sense.
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Speaker 1: I'm saying that because I don't really know why I'm
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Speaker 1: saying that. I'm saying it because in my experience, when
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Speaker 1: I first got saved, I used to just quote scriptures
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Speaker 1: at everybody. Everybody I met, regardless if I knew them
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Speaker 1: or not. I said, you know, the Bible says, and
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Speaker 1: then people would be like, okay, I don't believe in
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Speaker 1: the Bible, you know? So I had to learn as
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Speaker 1: I went along, and you'll probably have to learn as
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Speaker 1: you go along too, that not everybody jives with the scriptures. Amen.
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Speaker 1: The Bible literally says only the people who have the
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Speaker 1: spirit of God inside of them could understand the spiritual
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Speaker 1: things of the word. Right? Just remember who we were
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Speaker 1: before Christ saved us. We weren't jiving with the scriptures.
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Speaker 1: We didn't want none of that. We didn't want to
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Speaker 1: be a part of none of that. At least I didn't. Amen. Amen.
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Speaker 1: until it became a reality in my life, until I
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Speaker 1: had a personal encounter with the living, holy, righteous God
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Speaker 1: of the scriptures. Then I said, wow, and God opened
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Speaker 1: my eyes, and then he opened my ears, then he
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Speaker 1: opened my heart and transformed my life. And he will
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Speaker 1: do the same to you. If you're seeking truth, you're
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Speaker 1: going to eventually bump into the Lord Jesus Christ because
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Speaker 1: he is the truth. So there's going to be times
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Speaker 1: and moments when our faith, right, is tested. How many
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Speaker 1: people could say amen? When your faith is tested, your
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Speaker 1: patience is going to be challenged. Amen. When you pray
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Speaker 1: that prayer, God, give me patience. Get ready. Your patience
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Speaker 1: is going to be challenged. And everything around you seems
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Speaker 1: to tell you to give up, to give in, that
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Speaker 1: it's over. That's it. Everything is going to line up perfectly,
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Speaker 1: almost perfectly to that end of giving up. The reason
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Speaker 1: why I say almost perfectly, because it's not true. With Christ,
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Speaker 1: we are stronger than Together and then we are apart.
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Speaker 1: The body of Christ united. It's an invincible force. Right?
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Speaker 1: As long as Christ Jesus is the head. But these
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Speaker 1: times are going to come. And these could be considered
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Speaker 1: days of evil, man. Days that you're not feeling the
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Speaker 1: Christ in you. You're not feeling him. He's there. But
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Speaker 1: at times when life starts lifing. Troubles, challenges, relationships, finances.
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Speaker 1: health issues, church hurt, whatever the case may be, you're
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Speaker 1: going to be facing challenges just like me. Amen. And
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Speaker 1: that's why I grin because I'm like, I'm not alone.
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Speaker 1: We're not alone in this. We're together in this. Amen.
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Speaker 1: And we need to stand our ground according to Ephesians
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Speaker 1: chapter six. So stand in your ground. And I wrote
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Speaker 1: this in the description. Stand in your ground doesn't mean
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Speaker 1: you never struggle. Let's get that out of our minds
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Speaker 1: right now. We're going to struggle. Yes, Christians struggle. The
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Speaker 1: world looks at that weird and says, I thought you
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Speaker 1: guys were in God. Why are you struggling? Because they
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Speaker 1: don't understand the scriptures. Well, yes, we're going to struggle.
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Speaker 1: It means we're going to refuse to surrender our faith.
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Speaker 1: We're going to refuse to surrender our faith when the
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Speaker 1: struggle comes, though. So even in the struggle, stand your ground.
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Speaker 1: Don't surrender your faith. Don't surrender your trust. Like, Don't
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Speaker 1: give up trusting God when you're going through struggles. As
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Speaker 1: a matter of fact, hold tighter on to the Lord
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Speaker 1: Jesus Christ when you're in the struggle. I can say
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Speaker 1: amen to that. You put on the full arm of God.
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Speaker 1: Put it on. We put it on. God will help us.
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Speaker 1: But we need to put on the full arm of
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Speaker 1: God and trust him, man. Trust him to give you
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Speaker 1: strength for whatever you're going through. Whatever you're going through.
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Speaker 1: I don't know what you're going through. Amen. I'm not omnipresent.
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Speaker 1: I can't be everywhere looking at everybody's situation. I'm not
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Speaker 1: all knowing. Amen. In other words, I'm not God. I'm
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Speaker 1: a man of God, part of God's kingdom, part of
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Speaker 1: his body. but I'm not all-knowing. Together, we know a
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Speaker 1: lot more, right? When we pray together, when we attach
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Speaker 1: our faith together, when we go to the scriptures together,
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Speaker 1: when we do these morning devos together, we become more
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Speaker 1: powerful together. But when we disperse and go about our
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Speaker 1: ways in our own lives, in our own regions, in
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Speaker 1: our own territories, Sometimes we face challenges and then it
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Speaker 1: seems like we're all alone. Isn't that weird that we
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Speaker 1: could be together, worshiping, trusting God, praying, and then when
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Speaker 1: we go on our own, it seems like, man, I'm
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Speaker 1: all by myself. Don't believe the lie of the devil, man.
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Speaker 1: There's someone praying for you right now. Someone praying for
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Speaker 1: me right now. Some are praying for our good and
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Speaker 1: some are praying for our bad. But ultimately, the arm
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Speaker 1: of God will guide us and protect us through it all. Amen?
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Speaker 1: So I speak against witchcraft right now in the name
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Speaker 1: of Jesus, rebellion against God's kingdom in the name of Jesus.
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Speaker 1: I come against that right now. I thank you, Lord God,
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Speaker 1: for the power of prayer and that you help us
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Speaker 1: put on the armor of God. Some of that armor
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Speaker 1: is the helmet of salvation, right? Which we can trust in.
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Speaker 1: The enemy wants you discouraged. He wants you mad. He
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Speaker 1: wants you broke, busted, and disgusted. He doesn't want you
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Speaker 1: to trust. He doesn't want you to follow. He doesn't
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Speaker 1: want you to believe. He wants you discouraged, man. He
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Speaker 1: wants you out of here. He hates all of God's creation.
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Speaker 1: So all those people who even say they worship Satan, right?
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Speaker 1: Satan worshipers, he hates you too. There's no allegiance with
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Speaker 1: the devil. That's one of his tricks. He says, oh,
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Speaker 1: come on this side. I'll be your close friend. I'll
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Speaker 1: give you anything you your heart desires. I'll give you
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Speaker 1: anything the world offers. And then you go with that
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Speaker 1: because it seems like, hey, that's a friend and it's
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Speaker 1: easier on this side. But he hates you. He's a liar.
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Speaker 1: He's been a liar from the beginning. The enemy wants
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Speaker 1: you discouraged. He wants you distracted. And man, with the
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Speaker 1: social media, he just kind of likes the social media
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Speaker 1: because it's distracting. That's why I always tell people to
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Speaker 1: go to live.soulwinnerswithaz.org for these morning devos. no distractions over there.
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Speaker 1: Live chat there, some Bible tools there, a Bible interactive
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Speaker 1: Bible where you can subscribe to the podcast. It's so
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Speaker 1: much easier over there, right? He wants you distracted. He
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Speaker 1: wants you to question God's promises. Wow, right? Well, God
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Speaker 1: promised this and then he'll present the time, the gap
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Speaker 1: between when God promised you And when it's going to
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Speaker 1: actually happen, we don't know. He doesn't even know. But
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Speaker 1: he's betting that we're becoming anxious, that we're getting impatient. Listen,
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Speaker 1: there was a promise of God over my life. I
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Speaker 1: had to wait almost 16 years for that promise to
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Speaker 1: be realized. Was it easy waiting all those years? Absolutely not.
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Speaker 1: I wanted it like ASAP. I wanted God's word to be, boom,
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Speaker 1: right there on the spot. But I guess I wasn't
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Speaker 1: ready for it. Amen? And to the proper time. Plus,
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Speaker 1: our faith was being tested, right? Your faith will be tested.
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Speaker 1: God wants to strengthen us. He wants us to stand
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Speaker 1: our ground, but he wants us to know that he's
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Speaker 1: there and that he is our rock. He is our strength.
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Speaker 1: He is our redeemer. He is our restorer. He is
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Speaker 1: our savior. But you don't have to move according to
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Speaker 1: how distracted you are, according to how discouraged you become.
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Speaker 1: Definitely don't listen to the devil's lies. Don't hang out
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Speaker 1: with people who are following him. But listen, you don't
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Speaker 1: have to move with angst. You don't have to move
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Speaker 1: in fear, right? No. Stand on God's word. When you
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Speaker 1: stand on God's word, you are standing on solid ground. Nothing,
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Speaker 1: no one, nothing high, nothing low, nothing right in front
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Speaker 1: of you, nothing behind you can stop the word of
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Speaker 1: God in your life, especially when you're armed up and
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Speaker 1: ready for battle, right? Every day is going to be
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Speaker 1: a war, spiritual warfare. People are like, I'm not up
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Speaker 1: to that, man. Can I just sleep all day? You
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Speaker 1: can sleep all day, right? You could hide if you want,
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Speaker 1: but the enemy ain't sleeping. That's the thing. So if
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Speaker 1: we have an enemy that doesn't tire, doesn't sleep, right,
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Speaker 1: and is relentless, we should be even more relentless, guarding, guiding,
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Speaker 1: being more on the offensive than on the defensive. Amen?
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Speaker 1: Just be alert. Be aware. The Bible says to be alert. Why?
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Speaker 1: Because the devil prowls like a roaring lion, seeing who
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Speaker 1: he can devour, who's the weakest link. He wants to
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Speaker 1: try to take us all out. But when we have
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Speaker 1: the arm of God, he's useless. He can't do nothing. Amen.
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Speaker 1: The devil, well, let me remind you, the devil is defeated.
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Speaker 1: We didn't defeat him. The Lord Jesus did. But in
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Speaker 1: the meantime, he's distracting, discouraging. His mission is to kill, steal,
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Speaker 1: and destroy everything. He's all about darkness. He's all about lies, gossip, slander.
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Speaker 1: He's all into that. And when you see people operating
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Speaker 1: that way, you know they're being influenced by him. He's
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Speaker 1: an enemy. He's not the devil versus God. God already
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Speaker 1: defeated the devil. It's just that he's trying to distract, destroy, kill,
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Speaker 1: steal from all of God's creation. Don't trust him. Stand
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Speaker 1: on God's word. Stand on God's promises. When you see
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Speaker 1: the promise of God, amen, stand on it. Some of
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Speaker 1: the promises of God are specifically for time and for people.
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Speaker 1: I understand that, but we can share those promises. We
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Speaker 1: can reflect on those promises and we can actually see
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Speaker 1: the historical promise completed or the promise that God did
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Speaker 1: for the people of Israel or whatever you're reading in
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Speaker 1: the scriptures, amen. When that promise came to pass, you
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Speaker 1: could see it like, wow, that's encouraging. If God did
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Speaker 1: it for them, He could do it for us, right?
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Speaker 1: Stand in your faith. Everybody has a faith in something. Amen.
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Speaker 1: Some people say, oh, Sam, I see you're religious now.
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Speaker 1: I always laugh when people say I'm religious. You don't
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Speaker 1: know what religion is then. If you think this is religion, wow.
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Speaker 1: I think this is freedom. I think this is a
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Speaker 1: relational thing. When I come on these morning devos, you
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Speaker 1: don't see any traditional things, right? There's really no candles here.
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Speaker 1: There's definitely no statues here. I'm not saying, okay, let's
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Speaker 1: bow five times. Let's look up a certain way 10 times.
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Speaker 1: No tradition here. This is relational. This is, let's see
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Speaker 1: what Holy Spirit has for us today. Let's move accordingly. Amen.
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Speaker 1: That's what this is. A morning devo, 20, 25 minutes
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Speaker 1: getting into the scriptures. Amen. Communicating, letting God speak. Amen.
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Speaker 1: Through the Holy Spirit and through his word. Stand even
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Speaker 1: when it's hard to stand. Stand when it's difficult. Not
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Speaker 1: every day is a good day. And I know that
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Speaker 1: sounds like, wow, thanks for the encouragement. No, it's just
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Speaker 1: the reality. If you lived in this world, as long
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Speaker 1: as I lived in this world, you know that every
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Speaker 1: day is not a good day. Things happen. Well, God
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Speaker 1: knows what things are going to happen before they actually happen, right?
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Speaker 1: He's all-knowing. So he went before us. He goes before us.
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Speaker 1: He knows the outcome. So I'm learning day by day
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Speaker 1: more as older, when I get older, as older. I'm
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Speaker 1: starting to learn that the outcome belongs to the Lord.
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Speaker 1: I can't figure everything out. I can't change anybody, right?
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Speaker 1: Outcome belongs to the Lord. And I'm really starting to
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Speaker 1: learn not to really care too much about what people
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Speaker 1: think about the outcome or how they would have done
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Speaker 1: it because they're not living in my situation. I'm not
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Speaker 1: living in your situation. So we have to be respectful.
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Speaker 1: But as long as we turn towards the Lord, In
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Speaker 1: our decision making, I believe that's all that matters. Accountability,
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Speaker 1: having friends, brothers in Christ, sisters in Christ that know
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Speaker 1: your situation and are praying you through your situation, very
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Speaker 1: important as well. But I'm not going to be put
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Speaker 1: on guilt trips and all that stuff. Earlier in my faith,
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Speaker 1: that was very effective. People used to put a guilt
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Speaker 1: trip on me, right? And I used to be like, yeah,
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Speaker 1: you know, you're right. I have to do this now.
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Speaker 1: Nothing here is forced. I don't see nothing forced in
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Speaker 1: the scriptures other than evil dictators or evil leaders forcing
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Speaker 1: their people to do stuff. God is not part of that.
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Speaker 1: God doesn't force anyone to do anything that they don't
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Speaker 1: want to do. You're not going to find an unwanting
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Speaker 1: person of God that didn't love God in heaven, right?
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Speaker 1: You're not going to find a person in heaven The
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Speaker 1: kingdom of God that doesn't want to be there. Amen?
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Speaker 1: That was forced into the kingdom. None of that. That's
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Speaker 1: not what the word says. Stand when it's difficult. Stand
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Speaker 1: even when you don't understand. Stand. Right? Do all you can.
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Speaker 1: The Bible says you'll be able to stand your ground.
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Speaker 1: And having done everything to stand, continue to stand. I
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Speaker 1: remember years ago when I lost one of our children
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Speaker 1: in Philadelphia. Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. I had to get
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Speaker 1: that right. And we lost our daughter. I passed away.
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Speaker 1: So I called my pastor at the time. He wasn't
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Speaker 1: feeling well. He still picked up the phone. Shout out
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Speaker 1: to Pastor Randy at the time. He was my pastor
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Speaker 1: from Life Church. And he picked up. And I think
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Speaker 1: it was late. And I told him what happened. He says, hey,
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Speaker 1: we've been praying. And I remember this like yesterday. He said,
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Speaker 1: you did everything in faith to stand. So I was like,
20:09
Speaker 1: so what do I do now? He goes, keep standing.
20:13
Speaker 1: Right here. Ephesians chapter 6. Never forget that. I never
20:16
Speaker 1: forgot that. That really, you probably don't know until now.
20:21
Speaker 1: Give him his flowers while he's alive. That really helped
20:24
Speaker 1: me through. I was like, yeah, I'm going to keep
20:26
Speaker 1: on standing. I didn't understand why that happened. But I
20:30
Speaker 1: decided from then on to keep on standing. Became very
20:34
Speaker 1: stubborn with my faith. And the enemy was losing ground.
20:38
Speaker 1: trying to get my mind at that point, trying to
20:41
Speaker 1: get me discouraged. My daughter had passed, and I was like,
20:45
Speaker 1: you know, your mind starts saying, well, where's your God now?
20:47
Speaker 1: All that stuff. I had even a doctor in that
20:51
Speaker 1: hospital come right up to my face. I know that
20:54
Speaker 1: was a demon. Came right to my face and said,
20:57
Speaker 1: not even your God can cure your baby. Like, that
21:03
Speaker 1: was crazy. While I was preaching to my reading the
21:08
Speaker 1: word over my daughter in the hospital room. My wife
21:10
Speaker 1: was singing worship songs, and that lady came right up
21:13
Speaker 1: to me and said that. But after it was all
21:15
Speaker 1: said and done, it seemed like we lost, right? It
21:18
Speaker 1: seemed like we lost that battle, but we didn't. We
21:20
Speaker 1: actually won that battle. We were encouraged by the man
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Speaker 1: of God who was inspired to take this portion of
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Speaker 1: Scripture and apply it in real time to the situation
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Speaker 1: that we were actually facing. Stand. Stand your ground. Your victory...
21:36
Speaker 1: isn't always found when you're fighting harder. Like, I'm going
21:41
Speaker 1: to fight hard. Yeah, you should fight hard. Amen? Because
21:44
Speaker 1: the enemy is fighting hard too. But it's not always found.
21:47
Speaker 1: That's not where your victory is always found when you're
21:49
Speaker 1: fighting harder. Sometimes your greatest act of faith that will
21:54
Speaker 1: bring you to victory is refusing to fall into the nonsense.
22:00
Speaker 1: When you refuse the nonsense or the sin or the
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Speaker 1: temptation or the discouragement or the anxiety, or those people
22:09
Speaker 1: who claim to be Christ followers, but they move in different,
22:12
Speaker 1: they move in wrong. When you refuse that, you actually
22:15
Speaker 1: have victory right then and there. And that doesn't even
22:18
Speaker 1: cost you a lot. It just costs you. Sometimes it
22:20
Speaker 1: costs you friends and relationships because you're walking away from it, right?
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Speaker 1: But that's not a hard fight. That's actually you walking
22:28
Speaker 1: away from something that will distract or something that will
22:32
Speaker 1: take you and put you on a different road. So
22:35
Speaker 1: that's a victory right there. That's standing your ground. I
22:39
Speaker 1: know you guys are doing that and it seems cool
22:42
Speaker 1: and you're in some kind of secret society in Christendom
22:46
Speaker 1: or Churchendom, whatever you want to call it, Churchendom. Is
22:49
Speaker 1: that a word? But I'm not a part of it.
22:53
Speaker 1: I don't want to be a part of that. And
22:54
Speaker 1: it's okay. You might be alone on it, but eventually
22:58
Speaker 1: others will realize, hey, I've got to get out of
23:01
Speaker 1: here too. And then there's going to be groups formed.
23:04
Speaker 1: A lot of leaders in church don't like that. They say, oh,
23:06
Speaker 1: spirits attract spirits. Yeah. Holy Spirit will attract Holy Spirit
23:10
Speaker 1: filled people. And the opposite applies. You know, unholy people
23:15
Speaker 1: will attract only other unholy people because they have that
23:19
Speaker 1: unholy spirit. But spirits, you recognize spirit, right? When you're congregating,
23:24
Speaker 1: when you're in a fellowship, when you're in a ministry,
23:26
Speaker 1: when you're in a church, there's groups. Unless you're in
23:30
Speaker 1: a small church like I am. There's not a lot
23:32
Speaker 1: of groups. But In larger churches, there's groups, and they
23:37
Speaker 1: will gravitate to each other. People who are kind of
23:40
Speaker 1: like one foot in the world, one foot in the church,
23:44
Speaker 1: they'll kind of hang out with each other. People who
23:46
Speaker 1: are more serious about the Lord and His Word, they
23:48
Speaker 1: hang out together. So there's a little divide. I have
23:51
Speaker 1: to admit, when religious people see us, they'll be like,
23:54
Speaker 1: your church is not even united. Capital C, not just
23:58
Speaker 1: my church. They say, they start pointing fingers. You Christians,
24:01
Speaker 1: I'm not even on the same page with everything. And
24:04
Speaker 1: The answer to that is you're right, but neither are
24:08
Speaker 1: you and your religion. Your people are not. Because people
24:10
Speaker 1: are people. We all have different attitudes. But in the
24:18
Speaker 1: faith of Christ, we have one spirit, though. That's where
24:22
Speaker 1: they get it wrong. We have one spirit, one faith,
24:24
Speaker 1: one Lord, one God, amen, one baptism. We don't have
24:30
Speaker 1: ten gods, ten faiths, ten truths, no. We have one God,
24:35
Speaker 1: one faith, one baptism, one church, amen, and it belongs
24:38
Speaker 1: to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what we all agree on.
24:41
Speaker 1: If you're a Christian, if you're a Christ follower, if
24:43
Speaker 1: you're not only believing but following, you have to believe
24:46
Speaker 1: and follow, and then you'll see the crowd that you'll attract.
24:50
Speaker 1: It should be all the brothers and sisters in the Lord.
24:53
Speaker 1: Because Jesus Christ is the only one who gives us
24:55
Speaker 1: the right to become children of God. We all create
24:59
Speaker 1: in his image, and even that is, you know, It's
25:03
Speaker 1: debatable because in Genesis, there's a scripture that says one
25:09
Speaker 1: of the children were born in the image of that man,
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Speaker 1: that father. Amen. Don't quote me on it. Go do
25:16
Speaker 1: your research. I believe that's what it says. So prayer,
25:22
Speaker 1: the word, fellowship, people who are filled with Holy Spirit,
25:29
Speaker 1: we need to stand on our ground. Don't believe the
25:32
Speaker 1: hype of this world. That says, oh, you know, that's useless.
25:37
Speaker 1: It's not relative anymore. The word is ancient. There's some
25:41
Speaker 1: stories of truth in there. There's some stories that are fabricated. Like,
25:45
Speaker 1: don't believe all that. Trust in God's spirit, Holy Spirit God.
25:50
Speaker 1: He will help us put on the armor of God.
25:54
Speaker 1: Full armor. Put it all on, man. Put it all on. Because...
26:00
Speaker 1: You're going to have a day and I'm going to
26:01
Speaker 1: have a day when all the smoke is going to
26:03
Speaker 1: be coming towards you. So you might as well have
26:05
Speaker 1: the full armor of God on, right? Before, you know,
26:11
Speaker 1: just so that the enemy, he can't sleep on us.
26:16
Speaker 1: But when he sees that there's like no armor on,
26:19
Speaker 1: then he's going to throw some more arrows at us.
26:22
Speaker 1: And some of those arrows might hit, right? But when
26:25
Speaker 1: you have the full armor of God and you have
26:27
Speaker 1: to read, Ephesians chapter 6, to know what the full
26:30
Speaker 1: armor of God is. Amen. I kind of purposely stood
26:34
Speaker 1: away from it. Amen. Because I want you to see
26:37
Speaker 1: it for yourself, the full armor. But I know something
26:39
Speaker 1: about the full armor. And when you put it on,
26:41
Speaker 1: it will help you stand in any circumstance. The enemy
26:46
Speaker 1: can throw whatever he wants at us. But when we
26:48
Speaker 1: have the full armor of God on, he ain't doing nothing. Right?
26:54
Speaker 1: He ain't doing nothing. Your victory... isn't always found when
27:00
Speaker 1: you're fighting harder. Your victory sometimes is found when you
27:04
Speaker 1: simply walk away from situations that you and I shouldn't
27:07
Speaker 1: be involved in, especially when we know that we showed
27:11
Speaker 1: up without the armor of God, without the full armor
27:14
Speaker 1: of God. And you're in a situation, in a fight,
27:17
Speaker 1: or in a rumble, in a scuffle, or if you
27:19
Speaker 1: have this vibe, this sense that you're like, those people
27:22
Speaker 1: are not vibing the same way I'm vibing, you could
27:25
Speaker 1: remove yourself from the situation. It's okay. People are going
27:28
Speaker 1: to talk, oh, look, he's afraid. Oh, look, he thinks
27:31
Speaker 1: he's better than us. Oh, look, you know, look, he's religious.
27:35
Speaker 1: Whatever they want to say, it's all good. But you'll
27:37
Speaker 1: live another day. Amen. You could pray for them. Amen.
27:41
Speaker 1: And you could get out of a situation where you
27:43
Speaker 1: know Holy Spirit is telling you. It's not the spidey sense.
27:46
Speaker 1: It's not the spidey tingle. It's Holy Spirit God telling
27:49
Speaker 1: you you need to get up out of there. And
27:51
Speaker 1: it's okay. Amen. Let them talk about you. Let them
27:53
Speaker 1: say whatever they want to say. But at least you
27:55
Speaker 1: live another day. to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. And
27:59
Speaker 1: then you make sure that you're putting on the arm
28:01
Speaker 1: of God next time, the full arm of God. So
28:03
Speaker 1: be encouraged, Brother John. I see you. Great FYI, be
28:07
Speaker 1: prepared because the enemy is watching. Yeah, he's watching. And
28:11
Speaker 1: he's trying to, you know, strategize his every move. Amen.
28:15
Speaker 1: But when we have the full arm of God, he's like,
28:18
Speaker 1: what am I going to do now? He's pretty much done.
28:22
Speaker 1: So I thank you so much for coming through. God
28:24
Speaker 1: bless you all. Thank you so much. for coming through
28:27
Speaker 1: these morning devos. I believe this is the last chapter
28:30
Speaker 1: of Ephesians because I have to start another book. Amen.
28:32
Speaker 1: I'm going to pray about it. Help me pray about it.
28:34
Speaker 1: If you have any suggestions of where, what book we
28:36
Speaker 1: should go next, let a brother know. So God bless
28:39
Speaker 1: you all. God keep you all. And remember always that
28:43
Speaker 1: God is good. Peace.