Hallelujah. Gloria Elbe

Jesus B. Amen. Precious Father in heaven, as we come before you tonight, we worship your precious and holy name. We thank you, Father God, for the privilege to come together as brothers and sisters in in the Lord and come as one, Father God, in the unity of the spirit to worship the one God, the one true savior, even Jesus Christ, our savior and lord. We ask, Father God, that you open that fountain, dear Lord Jesus, that you pour on us the bread that came down from heaven, which is Jesus, who became flesh for us. We uh need your word, Father God. We need that fountain of life in our midst, Father God. For we live in a dried and thirsty land, dear Lord Jesus. And we desire tonight to be filled with the bread that comes down from heaven to be washed and to drink of the water of the springs of life, Father God. And we thank you for your anointing here tonight and your favor, dear Lord Jesus. I ask that you bless each and every person that is here uh tonight and that you make us all a house of faith. Father God, we are your house, Jesus. You're the head and we're your body. We're your temple. And we pray, Father God, that life will come in into each and every one of us here tonight, Father God, that we may glorify your house, Father God, in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Praise God. Hallelujah. Everybody's got the notes there that would help you. I have a lot a lot of scriptures and we don't want to be here all night. So, but I want to make sure the the first page is going to deal with me uh revealing from the point of view of the Bible a principle. Uh we have to understand that everything operates through principles. uh there are physical laws or principle and there are spiritual principles understanding especially spiritual principles are vital uh uh for us to to be able to walk to receive the blessings. Now the message as you can see I title is in the light and that comes from the scripture Colossians chapter 1 verse 12. All of the scriptures that we're going to go through I have them there. Uh I think they're all uh from the New King James Version. Um, and only one we're going to go that um that you don't have down there. So, if you want to save time, you can check them later. But in Colossians 1:12, Paul writes, "Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light." Now, we all know what qualifying means. Uh, I used to ball in in in in tournaments and uh, the only one that I ever won was here in the Cobalt here in Wington a long time ago. Uh, some of you probably remember where the Cobalt used to be. But the way it was is hundreds of people will sign up for the tournament and all of the bowling lanes will be there and then you bowl all day long. That would happen on on uh on Saturday and out of the and you could enter as many time as you wanted to. If you didn't do good the first time, you would pay another $18 and and go again. And then what they would do at the end of the night after the last uh thing, they will pick up 32 people, the 32 highest scores qualified to go for the grand prize. Then next day, which was a Sunday, the 32 people bowl against each other. And then the top five, they qualified to go for the grand prize, which at the time was $500. And then those five bowlers used to do like they do in TV. The guy that finished fifth would bowl the fourth. The winner will bowl the third. I was top seated. That's I mean I bowl a lot and that was a freak of nature I guess. But qualification doesn't guarantee that you get the prize. It means that you are in the running for the prize. That's in other words, if I did not qualify on Saturday, I could go there Sunday. I couldn't bowl no matter how much money I brought. The only people that would bowl on the next day is the people that qualify. And then when those 32 people bowl, only the top five qualify to go for the grand prize. So notice that it says here and and I gave you that illustration so we get the meaning of it. Giving thanks to the father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints. We have been qualified but that doesn't mean we received that yet. This is what we need to understand. There was an effort. I even though I was topseated. I already had the second prize in my pocket which was $225. Meaning I could lose and I would come in second. I had the$ 225. But if I wanted to take the grand prize, the trophy and and my picture on the paper and all of that stuff, uh, you have to win that last game. Now, notice that it says here that he has qualified us. And what got my attention is that it says in the light. I mean, what does it mean? What does it mean to be qualified in the light? And so, that's the principle that I wanted before we get to the message. The message is on the second page. So I had to explain the principle that's all on the first page. Now look at James 1:17. It says, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the father of lights." That's where our qualification is in the light. In the light there's good and there are perfect gift. When we're in the light, we receive the gift. The gift is the grand prize, the first place. You're already qualified. We're already qualified. You show up and guess what? Your name is in the roster. You're already qualified to get the gift, but you got to get in the light in order to get the gift. That what he says there. You haven't been qualified to receive the inheritance of the saints in the light. And then he says that every good and every perfect gift is from above and comes on from the father of light. Now if you look to the next couple of chapters in James 3 1516 and 17 we get a little revelation as to what the light is. He says, "This wisdom does not descend from above, but it is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. But the wisdom that is from above," now notice that he says, "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the heavenly lights." He said, "But the wisdom that is prone above is first of all pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy." So we see that light is being equated with wisdom. Light is being equated with wisdom. And it says that there are two different types of wisdom or two different types of lights. There's a light that come from above from the father of the heavenly light. That means there's an understanding that comes from above from the father of heavenly light. And in that understanding there are gift. We already been qualified just the fact that we have accepted Jesus. We're already qualified to receive him. But we need the revelation. We need the understanding. We need the wisdom on how to receive this gift. And there is another wisdom. And he says that this wisdom is not from God or another revelation or another light. He says this wisdom does not descend from above but is earthly. That means it's physical not spiritual. Is sensual. That means that it's governed by the senses. Is what you can touch, what you can hear, what you can see, what you can smell, what you can taste. It's part of the physical realm. That's where the senses operate from. And then it says and is demonic, meaning Satan is in it. So that means that there are two ways to do things. one is going by our own wisdom by by what makes sense or you know what God told me I'm going to get that job and so I'm going to go by natural means to get this gift that I need. He says that when you go that route through the senses that Satan is in it. Demonic means that there's contaminated verses is other wisdom or revelation that comes from above. So basically what the principle is is that there are two kinds of wisdom. The one comes from God and one from from the world. There's two ways of doing thing. One is by the revelation of God and one is by the revelation of man. Okay. And in the light, whichever light we're in, will determine what gift we're going to inherit. Because if the light that we follow is the light of this world, Satan is in it. And if Satan is in it, Satan does not come except to what? To steal and to kill and to destroy. But it is the wisdom of God or the life that comes from above. Then there's life and there's abundant life. Now, let's look at some more scriptures that that prove this point. Going back to Colossians where we read in in 1:12 where it says, "Giving thanks to the father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saint and the light." In verse 13, he says, "He God has delivered us from the power of darkness and convey us into the kingdom of the son of his love." Now notice what this other wisdom is referred to power of darkness.

It says that we were in under the influence of the power of darkness before we were qualified before we were brought into the kingdom of the son of his love. We were under the power of this darkness. Now what is that darkness? doing things in the way that seems right to your eyes.

Let's look at that. Look at the uh the only scripture that is not there is in First John. Uh when I was praying this morning, the Lord just brought it to me, so I didn't get a chance to put it. I had already made everything. go to first John

and look at uh chapter 1 and then we're going to read verse 5, 6, and 7. 1 John 1:es 5, 6, and 7. He says, "This is the message which we have heard from him, from God, and declared to you." John was just taken up to heaven. He wrote the book of revelation by the being taken up to heaven was told to write everything he saw. Many believe that first, second, and third John these three letters he wrote after he went to heaven and that the gospel of John he wrote after he came from heaven because he was taken up to heaven and he saw things from a different perspective. That's why Matthew, Mark, and Luke all make sense. They're called synoptic because those three gospels are all interrelated. John's does not have nothing to do with them. It's separate. He was taken up into this heavenly realm and he saw that this letter was written and look what he says. Now remember, we just read in James where it says that um uh uh uh every good and perfect gift comes down from above from the father of lights. Right? Now look what John who was up there where the light is says. He says this is the message that we have heard from him and declared to you. What is that message? God is light. God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. Now look at verse six. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and we do not practice the truth. Verse seven, but if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his sons cleanses us from all sin. Now, God cannot walk in darkness because there's no darkness in God. But we can walk in darkness because we were part of the kingdom of darkness before we came into the kingdom of the son of his love, the kingdom of light. So we do have a choice. Even though we're born again believers, even though we have been qualified to receive all of these gifts in the light, when we walk in darkness, we do not receive the gift. If I went over there and I bowled 10 gders in a row, I would never have gotten the prize. I was bowling against a guy that was a lot better than me. The guy had like a 220, 220 average. I got like a 160 average. But in the tournament, they use your handicap. So with my handicap, I started like with 25 points ahead of him. But man, I threw three uh six strikes in a row and that just blew him out of the water. Man, I cannot catch up with a six rackon plus a 30 some panhandah handicap. So I still had to troll even though I was qualified. I still had to do something to do it. And he's saying here you got to walk in the light. You were part of the kingdom of darkness, but now you're into the kingdom of the son of his love and you have been qualified to receive all of these gifts. What is the greatest gift? Look at verse seven. What is the greatest gift? And the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanses us from all sin. Did you know that sin is what keeps us from the blessings? Sin is what brings sicknesses. Sin is what brings poverty. Sin is what brings uh h uh you know lack of joy, lack of peace. Sin is is something that always condemning, something that always brings us down, right? Well, that is the greatest gift. We're walking in the light. Revelation from above. We recognize that our sin has all been forgiven, has been dealt with. And now we open ourselves to the joy of man, God loves me, and he wants to bless me. He wants to prosper me. He wants to heal me. He wants to set me free. And hallelujah, I begin to walk in that light. And as I walk in that light, in the wisdom and the revelation of God, the doors begin to open for me. Because without faith it's impossible to please God. And they that come to God must believe that he is. And we cannot come to God unless our sins are washed away. So this is the message we heard from the start. God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. So we need to walk in the light. Now this light it is talking about spiritual revelation. But God uses a natural setting for us to understand. If you're in a place and all of the lights go out and it's the middle of the night, all of the sudden all your senses betray you. Because if he just gets turned around a little bit, you won't know which way the wall is, which way the door is. Have you ever been I went into the uh the drainage down in there by by the LA River and we walk in there. That's a long time ago. And you get to a place where it gets so dark you cannot see your hand in your face. We have some flashlights and we turn them off completely. And I mean you can get totally and completely dis disoriented immediately. So the idea is that in the darkness we cannot see. We cannot find our way around. We will stumble. We will fall. So we need light to be able to see. So that's the same way in the spirit. If we're going to walk this walk with the Lord, we have to walk in the light, meaning in the revelation of the Holy Spirit. Now, look at look at the next scripture in Matthew 6:23. And this is in your uh in your note. Jesus speaking and he's using this natural principle and he says, "But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness." And then he says, "If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness?" Jesus is saying, just like in the natural, you need your eyes to be able to receive what the light reveals. In the same way, if you are guided by the wrong light, because he calls light darkness. There's a light. See, we're talking about wisdom. We're talking about revelation. We're talking about understanding. Spiritual understanding that means the revelation that the Holy Spirit gives us is light that comes from above and brings the blessings. But the light of the natural senses the way that we perceive this world is darkness because is demonic. Satan is in it and Satan is a liar. Satan is a cheater. Satan is false. Everything that he does is a trap. So if we walk under the light of the natural understanding, we fall into a trap. We fall into a trap because that is Satan's domain, the human understanding. That's why Jesus says, "How great is that darkness?" Now in Proverbs 14:12 and it appears also in Proverbs chapter 16 says there is a way that seems right to a man but his end is the way of death. So,

so what he's talking about here, and I put it there on the notes, under the spiritual or the heavenly light, under the revelation of God, there are good and perfect gifts and gift graces that empower us that lead us to abundant life. In other words, if I have spiritual understanding, if I have spiritual revelation, if I understand the spiritual principles that are in the word in the word in the word of God and I follow them since I've been qualified by the fact that I am saved, then all of these gifts that God has prepared for me, I will find them because they are revealed to me. This blessing is now revealed to me. It's just like somebody turns the light on and then all of a sudden I see I am thirsty but it's dark and I don't know where the water is at. I don't know if the bottle that I found if it's totally dark, whether it's polluted or I don't know what it is. But when the light switch is turned on, the understanding the spiritual revelation of God I see was good. I see was bad. You see when I'm walking by the revelation but this revelation doesn't come by the human senses. See the human senses are contaminated by the devil because this physical world has been contaminated by the world. So in Proverbs two different chapters he tells us there is a way that seems right to a man. How do you see it? With your eyes. Oh, you know what? if I do this, if I do this, and there's so many people that are fooled all the time, the natural principles of this world, you follow them. If you want to be prosperous, you follow them. And you know, we're living in a nation to where we have the one of the highest wealth. And I'm not talking about just the rich people, but the middle class. Tremendous wealth. I mean, you can see just go by the marina, you'll see boats and boats. Go by the mountains, you see houses upon house. There's so much wealth in this nation. But yet, billions and billions of dollars are spent every year on drugs. I think by 20 years, every American will be on in in in in in prescription drugs. That's why they're putting a a drug house in I mean a drug store in every corner. This is the fastest growing industry there is. Everybody is getting ready. But why? Because that is where the natural understanding leads you. See the real things that have value in life are joy, peace, security, uh you know having a mind that it is sound. God has not given us a spirit of fear but of love and of power and of a sound mind. And that comes through spiritual understanding not natural understanding. And so we have to understand the spiritual principle that we're dealing with today has to do with light which means revelation, wisdom, understanding, knowledge. And that there are two types of it. There's a natural one, the one that we can make our own sense out of it with our own natural understanding or with the world's understanding. Or there is the the light or revelation that come from God that most of the time does not make sense. God's way do not make sense to the natural mind.

I mean, one day I was a sinner and on my way to hell. I stumbled into this church. I accepted the Lord. I came out and now I'm in heaven for eternity. I mean, I'm I'm all my sins are washed away. I'm set free. I couldn't understand. For 29 years, I tried. I was a Catholic and I tried I had prayed every night. I tried to deal with the burden of sin and nothing could take it out. Then one night without me understanding anything about it. I just said yes when the preacher asked for for hands for salvation and I was changed. I was changed. I walked out of that place. I could have walked on water. It doesn't make sense to the natural mind. I look in the mirrors and I look the same but it feels so different. You see, and now he could not take my salvation away. So now he's trying to take my ability to walk in the light. For he can turn me back into the ways of the natural men, then I disqualify myself even though I've been qualified already. Because the only way we can receive the graces or the gift of God are when we walk in the light. If we don't walk in the revelation that comes from above, we forfeit everything. Now under the natural or the physical light or understanding all roads lead to destruction. Now how did Jesus handle it when he was here on earth in Isaiah 11:es 2 and three. It tells us Isaiah is probably writing 800 years before Jesus came. And it says talking about the root of Jesse who would come in the Messiah. It says, "The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord." Speaking about Jesus prophetically almost a thousand years before Jesus died on the cross. His delight, Jesus's delight is in the fear of the Lord. And look what it says about Jesus. And he shall not judge by the side of his eye, nor decide by the hearing of his ears. You see, when Jesus was baptized, the spirit of the Lord God came down from heaven in the form of a dove and lighted upon him. And they use that word, we're going to go to it. United means he lit him up, open his understanding to the spiritual realm and therefore he did not judge according to what his eyes saw or to what his ear heard. You know what Jesus's eyes saw? He saw Judah Judah as a thief and as a traitor. He knew it. He was sitting there on the table after he washed their feet and he says, "Okay, Judas, you got to do what you're supposed to do now." Jesus knew it. The disciples later found out that Judas used to help himself to the money on the treasury. Jesus knew it. But you see, he wasn't looking with the natural eyes. When he looked at Judas, he didn't see a traitor. When he saw Peter, he didn't see somebody who will betray him either. when he sees you, he doesn't see somebody that's going to fail him a million times. You see, he doesn't make judgment by what he sees with his natural eyes or by what he hears with his natural ears. He makes judgment according to the wisdom and understanding. As a matter of fact, that there makes a perfect manora. The spirit of the Lord, it says wisdom and understanding, the fear of the Lord, the power, the knowledge, all of the things make a perfect manora. What is a manora? A candle light. This is the only article that is inside of the holy place that gives light that gives revelation. Jesus became a walking manora. The spirit of the lord came upon him. The understanding of the lord it says there that the uh the spirit of the lord came in. That's a center lamb. Wisdom is one branch. Understanding is the other one. Uh counsel is one uh branch. Might is the other one. Knowledge is one. the fear of the Lord of the elephant. He became enlightened by the spirit that came upon him and now he is able to look at the woman who committed adultery when everybody's judging her and he can say to her, "Where are those that condemn you?" Oh, I don't know. They all took off. Well, neither do I condemn you. Go away. Sin no more. You see, the only way that we can receive this revelation from God is when we don't look by what the eyes see. Did you know that you can tell people something,

but your feelings can betray you? How many married people we have here? Oh, honey, I didn't mean that. Your eyes betray you. Yes, you did.

You see, our body speaks. Our action speaks louder than words and are known. But you see, the only way that you can walk in that light, the revelation is when the spirit of God is upon you. That is the revelation. That is the light. That is a wisdom that come from above. Now look at how this light came upon Jesus. Matthew 3:16. When he Jesus had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water. And behold, the heavens were open to him, and he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and a lighting upon him. Now, why do I say that? Because you and I when we were born again, the Holy Spirit came down and descended upon us and a light on us. Did you know that that's what qualifies us? It is that that qualifies. Now I did get baptized. We got baptized at the YMCA in San Pedro and I had a beautiful experience coming out of the water because reinforced but that's not when the spirit came. When I came out of the water, that's when I made a public confession. But the spirit came deny that I was born again. When I confessed my sins and accepted Jesus Christ as my savior and lord, there was an alike, an understanding that came upon me that I wasn't going to hell anymore. Oh man, it felt good. All my sins were forgiven. I am cleansed. And I could I felt like I could walk on water. That revelation cannot come through manmade works. You can repent all you want to. You can do all kinds of natural things. They do not bring peace. They do not bring understanding. They're of the earth. They're of the natural. They go by what you see. Oh, I'm doing good. I read my Bible three days in a row and I haven't said a bad word and I haven't lit up. And so you feel in the natural doing okay. And then all it takes is one little trip. Okay. And now you go again. Now your emotions go all the way. See, that is a natural understanding. That is a natural light. But when we walk in the light, the light is that Jesus loves me. The light is that Jesus died for me. The light is that Jesus saved me. And the light is that Jesus is going to bring me there no matter what takes him between here and there. He said, "I will never leave you. I will never forsake you." His blood will never ever lose his power. And as long as I walk in that understanding and that light, neither my peace nor my joy will ever be removed. There is nothing that Satan can do to take away that assurance of salvation, that peace, that knowledge of his love. That is what it's talking about. Now look at the next scripture. Luke 11:35 and 36. Therefore, this is Jesus speaking and it's related to the uh instance I think that um after being baptized he said therefore take heed that the light which is in you is not darkness. He says make sure this is a command take heed that the lie which is in you is not darkness. In other words, make sure that the lie that is in you is not human reasoning that comes out of a human understanding. Then he says, if then your whole body is full of light, this is a light that come from heaven above having no part dark. That means that there are some parts of us that could be in darkness. The whole body will be full of light as when the bright shining of a lamp gives you light. Talking about the minora when you lit up a huge candle. He says that's what it's going to be like. So then the spiritual principle that I spend this whole page before I bring the message which is going to start right now has to deal with the principle of light and darkness or spiritual revelation or natural revelation. And why is this so important is because our whole world system is founded in the false light. This is why you send your kids to college and when they come out their faith has been destroyed because all of those professor have one aim and one aim in mind and that is to destroy the word of God to destroy the faith of all of those who have placed their trust in the living God. So then uh now what I want to do is I want to bring it to the ancient the people of let's say uh the time of King David about 3,000 years ago. Why was it that the ancient people worshiped the sun? Because the sun is the natural replacement to what God is in the spirit. You see, the sun gives natural light. We saw Jesus using that light and darkness. Be sure that the light that is in you is not darkness. The sun also provided what they ate. You see, they planted their seeds. See, there was no sun. they wouldn't grow. The sun also baked their bricks that they build the houses with. They would take the clay, the mud, they would lay it out to dry it and boy, in one of those hot summer time, they could make a whole bunch of brick and build them a house. So, the natural light or the sun became the source of their life. And so what would happen is they would follow the sun. They would follow the moons. They were fascinated with that. So they found out as they would follow this that the sun after the summer solstice will begin to die. In other words, the the sun the time of the sun will be shorter. And you see that as summer ends, winter begins, the night get longer. Okay? And the sun gets shorter. So when it came down to about the end of December, at that time way back on December 24th, December 25th, the longest night came and the shortest day for the sun. There was snow, there was cold, the sun was so far down there that their crops wouldn't grow. They have to save the seed until springtime. So the very next day when the sun began to be longer again, that was a great time of festival that has been celebrated for you can go all the way back to uh Nimrod back to after Noah and his three son came out of the ark. So there's always been you you can look at it there there were gifts exchanged because they feared that if the sun kept getting shorter and shorter and shorter they will all die because their sustenance depended upon the sun. You need to understand this. This is very this is at the root of everything is that the false light and the real light. Now all of our system today we're refined. We don't say that to the sun and we don't say that but it's the same thing. All of our economy is based on that. If our economy fails then we all lose our jobs or we this happened. So everything works like this. Now I want to go to go to the next page and I'm going to show you how this affected the people of Israel. And this is going to be in the context of spiritual warfare. Spiritual warfare. Spiritual warfare is something that all of us are engaged into whether we like it or not. God, if you have accepted Jesus Christ as your savior and lord, the Bible says that everything that pertains to your life and to your godliness has already been made available for you. Colossians 1 where we read first scripture. You have already been qualified to receive all of this blessing. They are yours. You have been qualified to receive. God has provided them for you. Guess what? Satan does not want you to be blessed to have joy or to receive this blessing. So, Satan, who is the false light, his is a kingdom of darkness, will do everything possible to keep you from receiving the blessing that you have been qualified to. Now, guess who is it left up to to make the decision? Guess what? It's you and me. We either walk by the light of a natural understanding which is called darkness which leads to death or we walk by the light of the revelation of the spirit of God. That is what spiritual warfare is. Satan says you cannot have it. You do not disturb it. You did too much uh uh uh uh damage. You hurt too many people. You betrayed too many people. You're a loser. You'll never amount to anything. This is all in the natural understanding. Okay? in the spiritual understanding says your sins have been forgiven. God has put them as far as the east is from the west and I qualify you to receive every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus. And there's nothing Satan can do about it as long as I walk in that light. And I'll have to make the fight because my natural senses are going to fight me every step of the way. They are going to fight me. Why? Because the demons are in it. It says the the wisdom of the earth is demonic. It's sensual and that thing will fight me. Now, what's happening over here on this chapter is a a battle, spiritual warfare that they fought way back then. It begins in 2 Kings 3:27. And of course, we're not going to have time to go through everything there. So, I'll just give you some highlights of what's going on. And and if you want to put in the time, you can go ahead and uh and and read it. But look at 2 Kings 3:27. It says, "Then he took his eldest son, who would have reign in his place, and offered him as a burnt offering upon the wall. And there was great indignation against Israel, so that they departed from him and returned to their own land." Now something happened in the spiritual realm when this man offer up his son as a sacrifice that caused a great deal of wrath. The word in the nation means wrath to arise against Israel and it kept them from fulfilling the word of the Lord that was spoken to them by the prophet. Now the setting in this sentence is Israel and Judah which are both Jews have become divided. When Solomon died his son that took his place abused the tribes of the north by putting too much taxes on them. So they rebelled against him and Israel became two kingdoms. The north were 10 tribes. They were called Israel. And to the south it was Judah and uh and Benjamin I think it was and they became Judah. So when you see here you will see that they are divided. Now the setting here is that when Ahab who was king of Israel died his son took his place. There was a nation which in this time it represents Satan. It was the nation of the world. Moab who pay them tribute. A 100,000 lambs and 100,000 skins of different animals they had to give the Israelite. This is speaking about blessings. This is speaking about blessing. Remember, we're in the context of spiritual warfare. That means that here's all these blessings that were coming to you. And then all of a sudden, because there was a change of kingdoms, the king of Moab said to the king of Israel, I'm not going to give you your tribute anymore. you wanted, you have gonna have to come and fight me. So the king of Israel says, "Man, I don't know if I can whip this guy or not. I mean, he was afraid of my dad, but he's not afraid of me." So he says, "Well, you know, those people over in Judah, they're Jews like us. We used to be one. Maybe he'll go and fight with me. So let me go talk to the king of Judah. See if he wants to join me and let's go and take care of." So he goes to the king of Judah. And the king of Judah, now this is only the natural. This is a spiritual battle, but you have to understand that they're all in the natural. The king of Judah said, "Yeah, man. We're the same. We're buddy. We look the same. We speak the same language, you know, I'll go with you." You know, of course, he probably expected a a piece of the pie, but let's go out there and let's go with you. I said, "Well, which way is going to go?" He said, "Let's go by Edom." Edom is a territory next to Moab. So, Edom, the king of Edom, wasn't an Israelite, but he really had no choice. They came and told Edom, "Okay, we need you to join us to get to know him." This just like the mob coming next to your house says, "We want to get to your neighbor." And you say, "Well, as long as you're not come here to get me, it's okay here. You can have my house." This was the idea. So, they get over there and as they get over there uh to go into a fight, they run into a problem. And the problem is there's no water for their animals. They're they're in the middle of the desert, which is what that is. And so the king of Israel, who is totally, remember, he's the son of Ahab and Jezebel. This guy is all messed up. He says, "Oh man, God brought us here to kill us." How many of us said that in the natural, man, God doesn't love me anymore. He He allowed this to happen so that I pay the price that I owe. That's was his natural mind. The king Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, who still has some semblance of, you know, God says, "Well, don't we have a prophet of the Lord here that we can ask?" You see, light comes through the word of God because God is the father of the heavenly lights and he's the one that gives revelation. So, he said, "Oh, man, what a revelation. Let's ask a prophet." So, the prophet, which in this case is Elijah, is brought in. Now, as he's brought in, Elisha looks at the king of Israel. Now, remember, Israel had separated themselves from Judah. They divided. They were not a nation with him anymore. And what Jeroboam, the guy that rebelled after Solomon died, did, he rejected the worship of Jehovah. He rejected the worship of God. And he instituted a new order of worship which was based on sun worship. They were sun worshiper. He erected a ba uh statue which was like a time clock to where the sun will go and will do the the shadow thing and they became sun worshippers. They made themselves prophets who were not the prophet line that God had ordained through Aaron the Levites. He made profits out of anybody. You know, if you had the right amount of money, you could become a pastor or a priest. This was what had happened. And so Elijah Elijah before it was taken to heaven, he killed 850 of the prophets of Ahab and Jezebel. So this guy did not have no prophets left. That's why he said, "Oh my God, he's going to kill us." So as they go to Elijah and they ask him, Elisha said, "You know what?" said to the king of Israel, "Man, I wouldn't even be on the same county with you. You're such an idol worshipper. I wouldn't be found in the same meridian with you. You know, I would be as far as you as possible." But he had aligned himself with Jehoshaphat, which was the king of Judah, who was a good king. And therefore, the prophet of God was obliged to speak a word to them. Now, let's go to the next scripture. Just give you a little background there. 2 Kings 3:19. This is what the prophet tells him to do. First of all, he tells the king of Israel, "Stop being so negative. God did not bring you here to kill you and to destroy you. God is going to bless you." He told them what they needed to do. It was a supernatural miracle. They They didn't have no water. He said, "Dig up ditches." Imagine digging a whole bunch of dishes in Bars in the middle of summer. He said, "Just just just dig a whole bunch of uh holes in the ground and you'll have plenty of water." They all look at each other, "Man, is this the word of God?" Well, remember the word of God is not natural. It's spiritual. God moves through the spiritual realm. You're in the middle of the desert. You don't have no water. Make holes, right? Just make holes. Okay. So, what happens is you know about flash floods. You can be in the desert. You can be 100 miles from where there's a huge storm over there, but man, the water comes down and it runs. So, God causes some flash blood way over there someplace else. And by the time morning comes back, that desert, all of those dishes are full of water. Completely full of water. Just I mean, they wake up in the morning, they hear no thunder, no lightning, no nothing. And there's water all over around their cup. Say, "Wow. Now the dirt over there mo more is red. There's like red clay over there. So as the sun is rising and the dishes and are all full of water and this red clay, the enemy who is up on the hills looks and he sees the valley and they think it's full of blood. He said, "Man, look at all the blood." What happened is they believe Israel got into it with Judah and with Edom and they kill each other, which used to happen all the time. when you get an alliance of people that didn't, you know, so they said, "Let's go take the spoil." So they come down running and they fall right into the hands of the three kings that are there. I mean, they were, "Oh, they're coming. Let's get him." So they go in and they begin to destroy all of them. Now, the prophet gave them a very specific command. Now, remember, the light or the revelation from God cannot be compromised. This is what we need to understand. spiritual principle as if God says to do something we have to do it 100%. You cannot do it 90 soul did it 99% or lost his kingdom. Okay. The principles of God have to be done completely. If God says trust me on this, you got to trust him and let everything else go. As long as you're holding out to anything else, God will not bring the blessing because he said, "I will not share my glory with that." You have to let go. Okay. Now, this is what the prophet told him to do is our second scripture on the second page. 2 Kings 3:19 says, "Also, you shall attack every fortified city and every choice city, and you shall cut down every good tree and stop up every spring of water and ruin every good piece of land with stone." He says, "I'm going to do you a miracle when you you you know put them to flight. Every city that you go to, I want you to destroy their walls of their fortification. I want you to cut every tree. I want you to throw a stone in the piece of it. Now, think of this. Back in those days, they will build the city next to a fertile valley. Here will be a valley where everything grows. They will build the city and they would put walls around it and that's where they slept. But during the day, the gates were open and they went into the field. Now, you have an army of 30 or 50,000 men and you're coming through the hills. If each one of you picks up a rock, as you're going through that field, you drop a rock there, you drop 30,000 or 50,000 rocks. Now, if you are part of the field, you know how long it would take you to take 30,000 rocks out of a field so you can uh plant on it again. Okay? Your trees, you know, like your fig trees, all the trees, cut them down. Why? Because it takes at least five years before you can get a a fruit producing tree. the wells that they go dug up to use the water stopped them up. What that meant is that area that they just went through became useless. They rebel against them. They had to pay a price. They would lose everything. That was that. Now look at to see if they did it. In verse 25, 2 Kings 3:25 says, "Then they," this is the Israel, Judah, and Edom, "they destroyed the cities, and each man threw a stone on every good piece of land." So far so good. And they fill it and they stop up all the springs of water. That's good. And they cut down all the good trees. That's good. But look what it says. But they left the stones of Karaset intact. However, the slingers surrounded it and attack it. So they were unable to finish the job for some reason when they came into this city. Now they have already destroyed everything. The king of Moab who had rebelled against Israel which in this case represents Satan is in his last stronghold. They have already destroyed the walls of fortification of every city. Their whole army has surrounded the city. But it says there that when they came to it for some unknown reason they would not do nothing about the stones. They said, "Man, I don't want to touch that stone. Let's just throw sllayings at him." It says that the king panicked. If you read it, he panic. He took 700 of his strongest fightest men. He opened a gate and tried to make a run for it. Go through the line. It says that the army of Israel and Judah and Edom was so strong that he couldn't. So, I had to back up back into the city. Had to back up back into it. But he realized these guys are afraid of my wall. For some reason, they don't want to touch my wall. There's something about this stones on this wall that they don't want to touch. I wonder if I can do something on the wall that would cause him to run. And that's the scripture where we begin. He take his son, his eldest son, the one that would be king after he died in the presence of all of the army that's around. He brings him to the top of the wall, which usually you have a space for at least two, three chariots around one of those walls. He brings him up in there. He cuts his throats. He lets the blood run down the thing and he offers his son as a burnt offering. And as soon as that happened, he says all of the Israelites just fled panic. He says that that wrath rose against him and they lost. They were never able to defeat the king and they were never able to complete that. Now that is a spiritual thing that happened and for the sake of time I'm not going to go through all of the scriptures but you can look up what the curse was that there was on your bone and stuff like that. But here at the end of the scripture, 2 Kings 3:25, this is why they wouldn't touch the wall. It says, "But they left the stones of K Harasset intact." You know what K means? Means wall or a stone wall or perimeter of wall. Haras mean city of the sun. This wasn't just a regular wall that they had put like they did on the cities where they would take a stone, they would cut it and fit it and they would put it until they had high wall. These stones were specially made by the sun. That's what my commentaries I got two or three commentaries that I read on that. Those bricks or stones were baked by the sun. Now remember these people are sun worshippers. Israel sun worshippers. You read the other scriptures. We'll show you. As a matter of fact, I got one in uh right before that. 2 Kings 23:5. That's the next to last one. Then he removed the idolatrous priest whom the king of Judas had ordained. They had already been contaminated like Israel to burn incense on the high places in the cities of Judah and in the places all around Jerusalem. and those who burn incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the consolation, and to the host of heaven. Meaning that when these people came to complete the work that God gave him to do and totally and completely destroying the enemy, they saw a wall that was built with bricks that had been baked in the sun that had been placed in there and they have become an altar to the sun. And since they were corrupted, compromised, polluted in their own self when they came into the wall. Oh man, I don't want to go there. No, you go do it. No, I don't want to go there. Why don't you want to go do it? Oh, no, man. That that that that that's that's been erected to the sun. That's belongs to the sun. We'll just throw rocks at it, but don't touch the wall. You see, many Christians are like that. Many Christians have a natural understanding, some form of revelation that they gotten a hold of that is belongs to them. And when God many times in in the ministry of deliverance, we come to that place to the stronghold on a person's heart. And we need to deal with that stronghold in order to gain the victory so that they can be set free. Many time there's get up and walk out. I cannot do that. I will not touch that. For some people, it's unforgiveness. Remember that the the Korean boy we were ministering to? His father was such a jerk and has hurt this boy so much. Never ever will I forgive my father. But yet he wanted to be delivered. He wanted to be set free. Said to him, "You cannot be set free." Jesus said, "If you don't forgive others their trespasses, neither will your father in heaven will forgive yours." But you don't know what he did to me. But you see, it doesn't matter. That's the natural. The in the natural, there are fortifications within every person's heart which we say to God, "No, don't go there, Lord. Lord, I don't want you to touch that, Lord. No, I'll give you anything go but that I won't do that. It could be having to go to somebody and apologize for something that you didn't even do. Say, I'm sorry. I I want to have peace in between you and me. Let's get this dealt with and over with. Oh no, God. I I Oh Lord, please don't send me to Africa. I'll be a missionary for 15 years, but not that. Please, Lord. You know what I'm saying? In this spiritual battle, in the spiritual battle between light and darkness, all of us have a fortification within us that's been erected to the natural to the things of this world. And when God says, "In order for you to receive the blessings, in order for you to get the victory, I need you to take those stones down. I need you to break down that wall and I need you to get to that king who rebelled against you and I need you to put him to the sword. You see, when the children of Israel who were sun worshippers that we saw there saw the blood of the very son of the the king run down the wall, they were so superstitious about it that they fled for their lives. Even though the guy had just a little army and they were completely Did you know that? That's how it is with us, too. Did you know that? If you read the next few chapters, you'll see the curse that was upon the king of Israel now being felt by the very men of God that told them what they needed to do. Elijah said, "You need to destroy every city, every choice city, and every wall. You need to bring it down." All of the good cities had always a wall around them. A village may not have and and they were for they were raided every now and then, but this city wall they needed to destroy. Did you know that Elijah as soon as he left there, you can read the next chapter uh the wife of one of his priests came in. He says, "My husband died and now my two sons are going to be taken away because he owed money." Back in those days, they lock you up for owing money if you couldn't pay. I I was reading the history of the United States. They did that hereund and some years ago, man, all of us will be in jail today if that was the case. But they used to lock you up if you had money that you couldn't pay up. But but anyway, one of his pastors, one of the sons of the prophet, because see that was the curse that was on Israel. The curse was that uh uh uh your sons will be slave. They will die. They will never amount to anything because you've been worshiping the sun. You see, there's a way that seems right to the men to the eyes, but that way is destruction. That was a curse. the prophet who wouldn't dare touch this godless man, but because he was connected to somebody who was told them what to do. But because there were still idolatry in their hearts, they wouldn't do it. And now the man of God is summoned to deal with the fact that one of his pastors dies and his two sons are going to be taken up as slaves. So, he needs to call upon the anointing, the oil that comes in and doesn't stop until they fill a bunch of barrels. Then all of the um uh uh uh the the prophets uh I mean the the sons of the prophets uh are eating something and there's poison in it and the prophet has to deal with that. He blesses a woman with a son, five, six years later the son dies. There are consequences to living that wall up. That's what we need to understand. There are consequences to leave that wall up and the whole curse just ends. Uh um let me see uh it's in 2 Kings and then we'll close with this. Like I said, you'll have to read it and I gave you enough notes up in there. But in chapter 4 of 2 Kings, Elijah is having to deal with the consequences of the disobedience of those people. And it says there in in 2 Kings chapter 4 verse 38 it says and Elijah returned to Gilgal and there was a famine in the land. Now the sons of the prophet were sitting before him and he said to his servant put on the large pot and boil stew for the sons of the prophet. But see that curse that come upon the sons of the prophet. Now he said, "So one went into the field to gather herbs and found a wild vine and gathered on a lotful of the wild gourds and came and slice him in the pot of stew." Though they did not know what they were, they served it to all of the men to eat. Now it happened as they cried out and said, "Men of God, there is death in the pot." They were all now being poisoned. This curse was coming down to everything that Elisha touched from the two sons of the his uh servant that died to the uh uh uh the the woman that had the son that died and and it took him a long time to revive him until finally he sneezed seven times. The spirit came out to now this here. He's having to put flour into it to break the curse. But I want you to see this last scripture right here in verse 42. Verse 41. So he said, "Then bring some flour." And he put it into the pot and said, "Serve it to the people that they may eat." And there was nothing harmful in the pot. So he had to do miracle after miracle. This anointed man of God to break the curses that were coming because of this. And then verse 42 says, "Then a man came from Baal Shalisha." Remember Baal means Lord. This is what they used to worship the son god and brought the men of god bread of the first fruit 20 loaves of barley there's a miracle while he multiplies the bread well you know what ba salicia means salisha means the third idol of the lord of the third idol the curse was not broken until that third idol had to come into the man of God and bring an offering and says okay we could not break you

And what I'm saying is that when we refuse to tear down that natural altar within us, our natural understanding. Yeah, Lord, I trust you, but I got to hold on. Sorry, Lord. I mean, I I know you're good and everything, but you know, God has a different way of dealing with things. As long as we're holding to something, as long as we're leaning on something, he will not move. something about God that he just had to make sure you are not holding on to anything. Okay? It wasn't until until they let go to everything that the curse was broken. And thank God for Elijah, the man of God, the men who would not compromise. But all of us over here are affected by it because every single thing that goes on in this world is worship to the son god or to the natural light or to the god of the natural. And we are affected every single day by that because there's a curse on that. There's a curse on everything that's in the natural. And so as spiritual people, the lesson that we can learn tonight is if I walk in the light, how do I walk in the light, Lord? Walking in the light is the Lord bringing to revelation of what the stronghold in my life is? What is it that I need to bring down within me? Lord, did you know that sin, whatever addictions we may be under, whatever influence is only the result or the consequences or the symptoms of something deeper. You know that if you go to the doctor because you have blisters, he's not going to bother to put anything on the blisters until or a rash until he find out what's causing the rash. See, what are you allergic to? What are you eating? Are you eating onions? Are you eating fish? Are you eating scallops? What are you eating? Once the doctor identifies what you're allergic to, he will give you something for the rash, but he says, "From now on, you cannot eat this anymore. From now on, you cannot partake of this anymore." So, you see, we may look at our sinful ways, and we're always dealing with a rash, aren't we? We're always, "Oh, oh, Lord." And I and and we're and we keep bringing it to God and God says that's just a symptom. This moral weakness or this whatever it is that you're dealing with is a symptom of something within you that has become a stronghold that allows the enemy to bring curses upon your life. And if you want to deal with this, then you better walk in the light. Walk in the understand. Get into the word of God. Get the revelation. Was my dad cursed? Was my mom cursed? Was my wife or my husband cursed? Where is the curse? What opened the door to the curse? Why did the curse come in? You see, I'm already being qualified. I am qualified. All I need is a light. I'm already qualified to receive everything that I need. All I need is the light, the blessing, the understanding. Lord, what do I need? You see once the Lord gives you the revelation he says the reason why you have this situation that keeps recurring in your life whether it's being poverty lack whether is debt whether it is uh uh sicknesses whatever it is as soon as the Lord reveals that wall and believe me not going to be easy it's not going to be fun but the Lord reveals says you know here's where the problem is and it would have to do with something in the natural that we're infatuated or connected with something that we do not want to let go, a wall that we do, Lord, I'll throw stones at it, but I don't want to pull those bricks down. And Satan sees that and immediately he comes in and boy, he says, "Oh, yeah, this holy. You better don't touch this." Where some people is their religion, you know, like I said, I was born and raised a Catholic. For for some people, if what their religion, I remember one man telling me, I was born a Catholic and I'll die a Catholic. I said, 'Th that's fine. What I want to know is whether you going to die in and go to heaven or go to hell because the Catholic church is not going to save you anymore that the Protestant church can save you. You see, what saves you is faith in the son of God. That's the revelation. But for some people, that's the wall. Oh man, no, I will not betray that faith.

And so we need to identify what the stronghold is because once he a stronghold is then praise God then we can pull down those rocks. Father in heaven in the name of Jesus we thank you and we praise you father God that we are children of the light. And father God that as such we welcome the light that exposes sin. the light that exposes all of those creatures of darkness that keep us from receiving the blessings of your abundance. Father God, in the name of Jesus, I pray that as we begin to seek you, seek the revelation that comes from above, Father, that we will have the strength in the Holy Spirit, Father God, to bring down everything that has to do with the natural, every stronghold that we have made because of things that we seen or think we know, Father God, that we may come into the fullness of the revelation of your grace and your mercy. that we may apply the blood of Jesus to the stronghold and break it, Father God, that we may be set free. Thank you, Father, for blessing each and everyone that's here. And as we get ready to minister, for those who will come for prayer, that you will bring the anointing for it is the anointing that breaks the yoke. Men cannot heal anybody. It is the anointing of God, the one that brings healing, deliverance, and restoration. So in Jesus' name, Father, we thank you and we praise you for blessing us tonight. Amen.