Battles Are Only Birth Pains: Shift the Atmosphere, Refuse to Panic

Sermon outline

Believers carry delegated authority to shift the atmosphere around them, and in the battle they win by staying joyful, calm, focused, connected to a mentor and fixed on the bigger picture God has for them.

1. Shifting atmospheres: discern it, displace it, replace it

   Life hits everyone, and like a pilot in a storm who trusts his instruments, the believer keeps his eye on the word. Step one is to discern the atmosphere: identify the spirit you are sensing and expose it to the light of God's word. Step two is to ask the Lord what opposing message to speak, because the devil is always broadcasting messages contrary to the word. Step three, if you have partnered with the prevailing spirit, ask God to forgive you and move on to displacing it. Step five is renouncing and replacing, which he demonstrates later in the service with jealousy.

   Illustration: Jealousy as the worked example. Renounce it: "I see you. I sense you, jealousy. I'm not partnering with you. I send you back in the name of Jesus." Then replace it: "Forgive me, Father, for partnering with jealousy. As you forgive me, I invite you to release humility and acceptance into this atmosphere."

   “When he speaks doubt, we speak faith. When he speaks fear, we speak strength. When he speaks poverty, we speak prosperity.”

   • 2 Corinthians 10:3-6
   • Ephesians 2:6
   • Ephesians 2:20

2. Make sure you are in the shelter of the Most High

   His fourth step: when you are engaged in spiritual warfare, make sure you are in the shelter of the Most High. He reads Psalm 91 through, explaining that to dwell is to sit down in the shade of God, that the Most High is El Elyon, the supreme God, and that God is a castle, a defence and a place of refuge. He stresses "surely he will save you", not maybe, and that God commands His angels concerning you.

   “Good times or bad times or what? God will rescue you.”

   • Psalm 91:1-16

3. There is a tangible economic shift

   Step six: the power of death and life is in the tongue, so when you face a financial challenge, know that there can be an economic shift, and call customers in from the east, west, north and south. His experience is that wherever they planted a church, the economy of the area changed. Step seven: atmospheres can shift on a personal, a regional and a national scale. The government needs our prayers, and in the Old Testament fasting and prayer brought a national shift.

   Illustration: Planting the church in Avoca was a huge struggle, with a large non-Christian religious institution dominant in the area. The Lord led him to call some friends for a week of crusade, fasting, preaching and prayer in a tent. After that the church began to grow, and over the years the marshland along Nandi Drive became prime property full of factories.

   “You must know what you're carrying.”

   • Proverbs 18:21

4. The enemy is no match for the Lord

   His last point on shifting atmospheres: no matter how strong the enemy appears to be, he is no match for the Lord. He gets the church on its feet and the teaching turns into praise. Stamp on your fears and your doubts, because we overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. From Nehemiah 8:10 he declares a day of breakthrough and calls the church to take back the joy that circumstances, people and pressure have stolen. After a time of worship he calls the senior leaders and elders forward and lays hands on them.

   Illustration: The anointing flows from the head downwards, so leaders matter: they set the people on fire and carry the presence of the Lord into whatever their station in life is.

   “No matter how strong the enemy appears to be, he is no match for the Lord.”

   • Psalm 27:1
   • Psalm 23:1
   • Revelation 12:11
   • Nehemiah 8:10
   • Micah 4:5
   • Psalm 103:1
   • Psalm 133:2

5. Back to the lesson: points 20 to 24 recapped

   He returns to his numbered spiritual warfare lesson with Proverbs 4:25: let your eyes look directly ahead. Someone told him he had missed point 20, so he repeats it: put on spiritual armour, picturing each piece as you pray. He then lists what has been covered: 21, refuse the whirlpool of worry; 22, pinpoint problematic people; 23, never fight half-heartedly; and 24, harness your mind.

   Illustration: As you pray, visualise yourself pulling down the helmet of salvation to protect your mind, putting on the breastplate of righteousness and the gospel of peace on your feet, and grasping the sword of the Spirit and the shield of faith.

   “Put on your spiritual armor.”

   • Proverbs 4:25
   • Ephesians 6:11
   • Ephesians 6:13-17

6. 25. Learn to laugh

   When we get too serious and stressed we lose perspective and see only the negative. Find something that makes you laugh, often, and make it a conscious effort to release your joy that way. Physicians report that laughter speeds up healing in a sick body. He thinks the church needs to get less serious and lighten up.

   Illustration: On the National Geographic channel he saw laughing classes in India and elsewhere: people gather in a garden, stand in a circle and start with a put-on "ha ha ha" until the laughter becomes real and the stress drops.

   “God never said now that we follow him that we are swimming in lemon juice.”

7. 26. Refuse to panic

   Battles usually arrive suddenly and without warning, and being a Christian does not exempt you: the enemy will hit your marriage, finances, work and relationships again and again. Your biggest mistake usually happens in the first few moments of an attack, because when you panic you stop thinking straight. A well-trained soldier is not surprised by the enemy. Be still, listen for the inner voice of the Holy Spirit and give yourself time. You do not have to answer immediately.

   Illustration: The salesman who says you must sign today because the deal is on special. You have the favour of the Lord and you are not under pressure: if something is on special today, there will be another special tomorrow.

   “Patience is a weapon that forces deception to reveal itself.”

   • Philippians 4:6
   • John 10:10

8. Stay focused

   You cannot meditate on your past and your future at the same time, so focus on the future you desire. Everyone has made bad choices, such as buying the wrong thing, paying too much or trusting the wrong person, but look at what you have done right and how far God has brought you. Keep what he calls a victory table, a celebration table, because we go through the whole process of the pain and then celebrate so little.

   Illustration: Results from a course he and Pastor Zubeda had studied arrived by post and lay unopened. When he finally opened the envelope it said, "Congratulations, you passed." He also pictures the child who comes home with a detention note and gets punished again, while everyone forgets he did well in maths and that he is alive and well.

   “The secret of every failure is broken focus. The secret of every success is total focus.”

9. Consult your mentor

   Everybody wants to be original and chase a new revelation, a new prophecy or the excitement of the next conference, but everything that has to be revealed has been revealed: we have a sure word of prophecy. God and His Spirit have not changed since Pentecost, so we just need to get hungry enough. Church is not for excitement but for being built up and for your service to the Lord, and it is time to give out what you have learned. A mentor is someone you have chosen to teach you the word, and warfare is the ideal time to reach for that person.

   Illustration: Gideon was hiding in the winepress thinking himself insignificant when the angel greeted him as a mighty man of valour. Moses mentored Joshua, Paul mentored Timothy and Elijah mentored Elisha.

   “A mentor can either be a bottleneck or a bridge to your dream.”

   • 2 Peter 1:19
   • Jeremiah 29:11
   • Judges 6:11-12
   • Acts 2:1-4
   • Malachi 3:6
   • Ecclesiastes 4:9
   • Proverbs 24:5-6

10. See the big picture

    Whatever is being said privately, publicly and politically, there is a bigger picture God has for you, so whatever level you are on, do not settle. Dream bigger, and put pictures of the dream up on a wall at home. Paul was not afraid to suffer because he knew that those who suffer will reign with Christ. The big picture is seeing the future reward of your present endurance, and battles are only the birth pains of a great dream.

    Illustration: As a child he drew the car he wanted, with an aerial on the roof and wheels that came out a bit square. And a couple who left the church for London: she walked past a block of flats going up and kept confessing, "I will own a flat here," while her friends called her crazy. When her husband's papers and a contract came through they bought one, and he prayed over the new flat with them on a video call.

    “Losers make decisions that create a desired present. But champions make a decision that will create a desired future.”

    • 2 Timothy 2:12
    • 2 Corinthians 4:17
    • Amos 3:3