Phil Beach Jr. emphasizes the ongoing spiritual war in the heavens that every believer is engaged in, urging the congregation to recognize the seriousness of this battle and to actively participate in it. He explains that this war is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces that seek to hinder the expression of Christ's character in the church. Beach highlights the importance of understanding our identity in Christ and the necessity of relying on the Holy Spirit to empower us in this fight. He encourages believers to pursue spiritual maturity and to resist anything that detracts from the glory of God in their lives. Ultimately, he reassures that God will triumph, and His glory will be revealed through His people.

Now, we're going to spend some time in the word this morning. If we could today, praise the Lord. Let's join together in a word of prayer. Father, how thankful we are today that you met us by the presence and power of your Holy Spirit. We thank you, Lord, for the ministry of the Holy Spirit that so adequately encouraged us and revealed to us the things of Christ, the beauties of Christ, and made real in our lives the cleansing of the blood and the power over sin that we have in Christ. We thank you, Lord, that you are so sufficient and so able. And now, Lord, during the ministry of the word, we pray that you will grant to us eyes that see and hearts that understand and that we will be encouraged and challenged and made to understand, Lord, the seriousness of the hour that we live in and enable us to be strong in you, we pray. For Jesus' sake, amen and amen. Listen closely for a moment, please. There is currently a war that's going on. This war that's going on is not being fought in the Middle East, although there are wars being fought there. It's not being fought in Africa or other parts of the country that have seen bloodshed. This war that is being fought is being fought in the heavens. There is a heavenly war going on this morning. And for a few moments, we want to look into the word of God in order to understand the nature of this war. This is applicable to each and every one of us here today. It is imperative, essential that we understand that there is a war going on. You are in a spiritual war today. I don't care how old you are. It doesn't matter if you're 10 or 11 or nine, and it doesn't matter if you're 40 or 50. You are in a war today. And you cannot approach this war in a passive mindset. You can't approach this war in an attitude of, well, whatever happens, happens. No, we can't approach it. So as we go into the word of God this morning, let us go in aware that we are in a war. Number two, let us discover what the war is about. And then number three, let us lay hold of how to fight in this war so that we won't be overcome. Because when you look into a war, you've always got a winner and a loser. We don't want to be losers in this war. I'd like to begin, if we could, by opening up our Bibles to Ephesians chapter six. Before we read in Ephesians chapter six, I want to read one verse in Ephesians chapter one, verse number three. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. The setting of the book of Ephesians opens up, beloved, in heavenly places. The book of Ephesians is written to the church and it is introducing to the church the actual, if I might use the word, location. Not geographical, but spiritual location that every single blood-washed child of God is living in. We have to come to understand, as we stay in the word of God and allow the Holy Spirit to open up the eyes of our heart, that as Christians, our essential identity is no longer earth of earth, but it is heaven of heaven. We are born of God. We have come, there is something that has become vitally part of what we are on the inside that did not have its origin from earth. It didn't have its origin from anything down here. It has its origin from heaven, from God himself through his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So, immediately, we are introduced in the book of Ephesians to the spiritual location that we are inhabiting as Christians. We are in heavenly places. I know that in the natural, we're in an auditorium now, but in spirit, we are in heavenly places because we are united by the power of the Holy Spirit in our spirit to the ascended Lord Jesus Christ, who sits down at the right hand of the throne of God. All principalities and powers subject to him. We are united to him. So, we are in heavenly places, not just floating around. We're not in heavenly places floating around. The difference between the mysticism and the Eastern religions that are infiltrating the world today and Christianity is they delve into the realm of spirit as individual entities doing what they want, seeking what they want, without recognizing that you don't do that. The church is in the heavenlies because we are united to Christ. We are anchored to the one who came from heaven. And so, our living in the heavenlies is directly related to Jesus Christ. It's not related to ourself and what we can do or getting power. There is a lust for power in the church today. There is a lust to have authority over people. There is a lust in the church today to be seen of men. Oftentimes, prayer meetings are filled with requests for the anointing to come and the power to come and the authority to come. But I would question and encourage every person to question why do you want authority and power and anointing to come upon your prayer meeting? Is it so that you might become something big in the eyes of the church? You might have some kind of power and influence over people. You might become some significant vessel that God is gonna use in the world today. We looked at several weeks ago that those very thoughts are the seeds of witchcraft and sorcery within the church today. So, the power and the authority and the anointing is not for those things, but rather they are for the purpose of emancipating us and liberating us from sin, from self, from ego, from the drive to be something independent of God. Yes, God wants to pour out His anointing, but the anointing rests upon the head. It rests upon Christ. So, the only way the church will know the anointing of God is if we give Christ the place of preeminence in our midst. Then God will anoint, because He'll anoint what is of His Son. Now, I know that so often we equate the anointing to some crazy thing, but God doesn't know of an anointing apart from the anointing that rests on His Son. And we have to get back to Christ. So, we are in the heavens. We're not there in order to be individual entities doing our own thing, but we are there in order to realize the centrality of Christ, the finality of His work, and then the supreme purpose of His heart. It is to form in us the character of Jesus Christ, so that when people see the church, and individual members in particular, they're seeing something of the heavenliness of Christ. Our purpose of existence in this world is that men and women might see the Lord. They might behold the Lord. They might see Jesus in your life. They might see the selflessness, the tenderness, the love for righteousness, the hatred for sin. Now, this is a big issue. There is a war going on in the heavens. So, to introduce us to this subject, we see in Ephesians 1, the church is in the heavens. Now, let's go to Ephesians chapter 6, beginning in verse number 10. Finally, my brethren, that is, in light of everything that Paul just wrote, from Ephesians 1 all the way down to 6, 9. Finally, brethren, to sum everything up. Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood. Did you know you were in a wrestling match? For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. So, here in Ephesians 6, we see that we are in a warfare. We are in a wrestling match. And beloved, I can't sufficiently communicate what is in my spirit. We can't take lightly this spiritual warfare that we are in because the very issues that are at hand are so vitally important to the Lord. Why is there a warfare going on against we who are in the heavens in Christ Jesus? Why is there a warfare? Ephesians 4. Ephesians 4. Let's just begin in verse number 1 of Ephesians 4. We've seen there is a warfare. We've seen that we are in the heavenlies. And we see that we are wrestling in spirit, not physically, but in spirit, against principalities and powers, against the rulers of darkness in this present age. But why is there a warfare going on? What is it about? Well, let me show you right in the Word of God what it's about. This is the most important truth that we can grasp as Christians. I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the calling wherewith ye are called, with all loneliness and meekness and longsuffering, forbearing one another, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. There is one Body and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one God and Father to all, who is above all and through all and in you all. But unto every one of us is given the grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore, he saith, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended far above all heavens, that he might fill all things. And he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry and for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God. Here it is, unto a perfect man. Or unto the manhood, the stature of manhood that we see in the Lord Jesus Christ. Unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and the cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive, but speaking the truth in love, may grow up, listen, into Him in all things, which is the Head, even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. Beloved, the warfare in the heavens is being fought with the intention, and that is the intention of the wicked one, the devil, the principalities and the powers. The intention is to somehow either prevent or stall the ultimate intention of God, which is to reproduce in the church the heavenly quality of life that is possessed by the Son of God. Every warfare, every battle that we are in spiritually now as a corporate body on this earth and individually as members, every warfare that we are currently in that is being waged by the powers and the principalities in the world are intended to do one thing and one thing alone, somehow prevent in your life and in my life the ever-increasing growth and expression of the quality of life and character that is found in Jesus Christ, the blessed Son of God. The whole intention of God in redeeming men from off the earth is to restore into them His own image and likeness. And we find that God did that through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore, it is imperative, it is so important that we remember that as a body of believers and as individual members that there is a warfare going on. There is nothing that so grieves and troubles the wicked one, there's nothing that so grieves him than to see in the life of the church more and more and more a place being given to the expression of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there is nothing that pleases the enemy more, there's nothing that makes him shout more. They probably hold parties in hell whenever they can succeed in getting a company of believers, whether they are two or two thousand, to somehow substitute in their life and in their church life something other than that which belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ. That which belongs to the expression of Christ that comes by the power of the Holy Spirit working in those who have accepted the sentence of death in their life. The sentence of death to all that I am in myself, all that I am in my flesh. And so therefore, hell is seeking in every possible way to get the church sidetracked today onto something that will prevent her from realizing the ultimate intention that God has, and that is to be a vessel in whom the glory of God can be seen in the world today. There is nothing, nothing, that can please God except that which is coming out of us and flowing through us that is coming from His hand, that's coming from the walk of His Spirit. Everything else is originating from ourself. No matter how nice it looks, or how religious it might appear, or how polished it might appear, God rejects it. He rejects everything except this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. This is what He said of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. God never said that about any other human being. God never opened up the heavens and spoke into the world and singled out an individual and said, I am well pleased, hear ye Him. Never did God ever do it. There is only one to whom God has ever paid such high honor, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. And now we are members of His body. We are bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh. The two become one in Spirit, Paul says. So now the goal of the church through the power of the Holy Spirit is to ever increasingly grow in the kind of character that is seen in Jesus. You see, it's God's intention to take the church and to fill it with the fullness of Christ Himself. So that when you look at the church, you see Him. When you look at the church, you touch not prejudice, not envy, not strife, not jealousy, not impurity, not rivalry, but when you touch the church, you touch Him. You touch something of Him. Revelation. The book of Revelation, please. Revelation chapter 12, verse number 7. Seven words. At least that's how the King James Version translates these Greek words into seven words. This sums it all up. And there was war in heaven. The war in heaven. Verse number 1, chapter 12. And there appeared a great wonder in heaven. You see where all this is taking place? It's in the heavens. A woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her foot. And upon her head a crown of twelve stars. Don't stumble when you read this by trying to interpret it in such a legalistic, rigid way. Don't do that. You'll get in a lot of confusion and trouble if you take the book of Revelation and try and departmentalize it. Don't do that. Just read it and let the Holy Spirit teach you and minister to you and help you to see the heart of God in the book of Revelation. So don't be wondering who this is, what's this, what people is this, and what's people's that. There's so much of a blessing that's been lost in the church today over the book of Revelation because it's been reduced to a book of eschatology. It's been reduced to a book of the future. It's been reduced to a book that has no application. And it just cuts off the ability to read through it and let God minister to your spirit. So don't read it like that. Understand that when you're reading verses 1 and 2, you're seeing something happen in heaven. But then verse 3, and there appeared another wonder in heaven. See? It's all going on in heaven. A great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns upon his head. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven and did cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered. What for? To devour her child as soon as it was born. Beloved, this war in heaven is against God's ultimate intention. Verses 1 and 2 speak of, whatever you think it means literally, it speaks of God revealing, getting, manifesting, and displaying His ultimate intention. This travailing woman, this child that is brought forth and caught up to God and to His throne, is the thing that the dragon, the enemy, is after. He doesn't want it to happen. He's after it. He wants to devour it. He wants to destroy it. It infuriates him. Psalm 2. Psalm 2. Same kind of war going on here. Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and His Anointed One. You see, the war going on is against the Lord and His Anointed One. Let us break their banes asunder and cast away their cords from us. You see, this war going on in Psalm 2 is the same war that's going on in Revelation 12, which is the same war that's going on in Ephesians 6. It's all the same. Different language, different settings, different time periods, but it's all representing the same thing. God is after something in the world. He realized it in His Son, but now that His Son is seated in the heavens, His Son is directly affecting many people on earth. That's the church. And the devil doesn't want the Son of God to realize in the church the full intention that He has, and that is to burst forth in the earth the kind of life that He possesses in the church. Oh, if we could only see how important this is and how this is what the war is. Anything that prevents or defiles the beauty of His holiness, the beauty of His person bursting forth in our life needs to be resisted steadfastly by the power of grace in our life. Anything, anything. Colossians chapter 1. This is the heart of Paul. Paul met up against great antagonism. He met up against great battle. He met up against great difficulty. Why? Because in Paul, God got a vessel that fully represented, fully declared, lived for the intention of God. It was Paul's passion to see in the church the thing that Christ died for. And it wasn't just forgiveness of sins. Now, we're not underestimating the forgiveness of sins. It all starts there and it continues right on through. Every time we sin, we thank God for the blood. But it wasn't just forgiveness of sin. It was total transformation. It was being released from our sins and then being changed. Several weeks ago, we taught on metamorphosis. That's the Greek word. To be changed into the image of Christ. Just as the caterpillar experiences a radical change and literally is transformed from one kind of species to another. One kind of creature to another. So likewise, the church is going through a change and we are being delivered. We're being changed from earthly to heavenly. From carnal to spiritual. From that which bears the image of the first Adam to that which is bearing the image of the last Adam. We're going through a change. God is transforming us. God is making us into the likeness of His Son. Hallelujah to God! And that's God's intention. It's more than just, hallelujah, I'm forgiven. No, it's literally being transformed. My God! Being reconstituted. God searching into the very depths of our being and rearranging us. Releasing us from all the impulses and drives of sinful flesh and bringing us into conformity to the beauty of His lovely Son. This is why the power of the Holy Spirit comes. In order to produce that. We don't want power to be seen. It's just the opposite. We want power so that we're not seen. So that it is no longer I that liveth, but Christ who liveth in me. I don't want power to have authority over people. I want power to have authority over sin. I don't want to be seen of men. I want to be seen of God. I want God to see me. My God! I don't want Christian liberty to mean to me, bless God, I can do what I want. I'm not under the law, I'm under grace. No! That's not what liberty is. Christian liberty is hallelujah! I've been set free from the law of sin and death that I might live by the power of God and become a slave to righteousness. That's what liberty is. There's a whole idea in the church today. I've got liberty. Throw out law. Throw out doing what is right. Throw out the idea of not being worldly. No, that's not what liberty is. Liberty has its roots in the book of Romans. And the liberty in Romans is not a license to sin, but it is a license to become a slave to righteousness because I have been liberated from the power and dominion of sin in Jesus Christ. Hallelujah to God! I have been transplanted. You have been transplanted out of the kingdom of darkness. You have been divorced from the law of sin and death. You have died to that old wife. You've died to that old husband. You've died to that old relationship. God says, I don't recognize it anymore. It's dead. You are over. Now you've been married to another Christ. Hallelujah to God! You are united to Him now. You are no longer in the flesh. You're in Christ. You've become a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, old things have become new. That's liberty. Watch out when folks want you to engage in a liberty that becomes a license to fulfill your own desires. That's not liberty. That's deception. That is spiritual deception, beloved. And whenever the Holy Spirit gets a hold of a person or a people, a group of people, Christ takes the preeminence. Christ becomes the focus of everybody. Christ is the one who is glorified. Christ is the one who we talk about, who we adore, who we admonish, who we worship. Christ takes the preeminence. Our personal lives, when the Holy Spirit is truly getting more and more of a place in us, is overturned. God deals with every area of inconsistency in your life when the Holy Spirit has got a hold of you. I don't care if you talk in tongues. I don't care if you can dance with the best of dancers. You can shout with the best of shouters. You can wave banners. Now, it's not that I have anything against that. I've done it. And the Bible says, dance before the Lord. Shout unto God with the voice of triumph. I believe in that. But there's a danger because we've equated that stuff as evidence that God's doing something. It's no evidence necessarily. Not necessarily. He might be doing something, but He might not even be in the church. He might not be there. The only evidence we have that God's doing something is our life is being changed. Our conscience is being disturbed when sin gets a root into us. The only evidence that God's doing something is we desire Him. We love His Word. We're growing in desire for Him. That's the God stuff. Now, we might sing. We might dance. We might shout. We might have banners. We might do a Jericho run and a Jericho march. Hallelujah, I'm all for it. But are you being changed? Is God getting a hold of you? How do you talk to your wife? How do you talk to your kids? What do you do when nobody's looking? Well, it don't matter, brother. Because when I go to church, God's presence comes all over me. If you love me, you'll shout. Uh-uh. If you love me, you'll dance. Nope. If you love me, you'll talk in tongues. Sorry. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. Love for God is evidenced by an ever-increasing obedience to His Word. And he that loveth me and keepeth my commandments is loved by my Father, and we, the Son and the Father, will come and make our abode with Him. God has a strange attraction to people who love and obey Him. He is strangely attracted. He draws close to those who fear Him and tremble, what? At His Word. This is the warfare to get these things out of focus. To major on minors. To become preoccupied with outward trappings. How good does it look? How much does it fit in with the contemporary thing? Beware, beloved! God is not interested in us fitting in to the contemporary religious movement, but God is interested in us coming to the place where we are living on the meat that Jesus lived on. And you know what meat that is? John chapter 4. I have meat that you know not of, Jesus said to His disciples. That is to know and do and finish the will of God. That's the meat that Jesus wants us to feast upon. Hallelujah to God. So the warfare that we're in is seen by trying to overthrow the centrality of Christ. The finality of His finished work and His ultimate intention. And that is a company of people who bear His image. Who bear His likeness. Who obey His word. Like the church in Philadelphia. Who kept His word. Faithful to His name. Colossians chapter 1. Here's the heart of Paul. And this is why Paul came up against so much trouble in his ministry. It wasn't because Paul in himself was anything. He wasn't. But Paul was apprehended and possessed by God. He was driven by the love of God. Paul lost his life on the road to Damascus. He lost his life. Old Saul became Paul. Just like Jacob became Israel. He lost his life. Paul became a living martyr. We always talk about martyrs who lose their life for Jesus. Every Christian's called to be a martyr. Every one. You might not lose your head in Russia or Africa or Madagascar. But you need to lose your life in Jesus Christ. Amen. Paul was a man who was driven by a heavenly passion. The things of this world no longer enticed him. He wasn't moved by the desire to become something in the eyes of men. He wasn't moved any longer in order to be seen by the religious system of the world as being Paul, a Pharisee. Blameless. Hebrew of Hebrews of the tribe of Benjamin sat at the feet of Gamaliel. I am where it's at. Paul didn't have that in him anymore. He didn't have that drive. You say, how did he get like that? He met the man of Galilee. He met the sea walker. He met the man who came and said, I am the resurrection and the life. He met the man who came and said, I and my Father are one. He met the man that said, whoever believes in me shall not perish. The way you and I become like Paul was was meet the same man. Here's what the man, Paul's passion was. Colossians chapter 1. Verse 24. Who now rejoice in my sufferings? Paul rejoiced in sufferings. We can't take every one of these because it would go on and on and on. But oh how we need to learn to rejoice in sufferings. Rejoice. Be joyful in tribulation. Patient in tribulation. Joyful in hope. Rejoice in the Lord always. And again I say unto you, rejoice. Praise you the Lord. Rejoice. He giveth songs in the night, Job says. God wants us to learn to rejoice. What did Paul and Silas do at the midnight hour when their feet were in chains and it was inevitable that they might end up with their heads off? They had a prayer meeting and began to sing praises to God. They rejoiced. And God sent an earthquake, released them, released the other prisoners, and God did a great thing. Why? Because men were not bound to their circumstances, but rejoiced in spite of them. Oh God do that in us. Help us to sing. Help us to have a song in our heart. And it's not so much a song on the mountaintop, because anybody can have a song on the mountaintop. Who wouldn't sing when everything's going all right? Even people who don't know God are happy when their life is going well. But the thing that separates the men from the boys is when everything around about us is shaking and the carpet is pulled out from under us and we don't know where and why and who. And as Job said, I turn to the north and I don't see him. To the south, to the east, to the west, I can't find him. And in that midnight hour we begin to say in our spirit contrary to how we feel, contrary to our emotions, we begin to say, praise you God. Hallelujah. You are faithful. You know the way that I take. And when I am tried, I shall come forth as gold. I praise you in spite of how I feel. And I'm going to praise you Lord, even though I... About to close. So hold on for a few moments. I rejoice in my sufferings for you and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body's sake, which is the church. Wherefore I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you to fulfill the word of God. Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations past, but now is made manifest to His saints, to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Listen. Whom we preach. Paul preached Christ. He didn't preach principles. He didn't preach success. He didn't preach how to get rich. He preached Christ, Jesus, crucified for you. He preached if you come to Christ, then you accept a death sentence on your own life. That's the gospel. Whom we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, here it is, that we may present every man perfect, full grown in Christ. Paul was so apprehended by God that his passion for the church wasn't that it would grow numerically. It wasn't that it might be the happening place. That wasn't his passion for the church. His passion for the church was that every single member would be presented mature before God. Spiritual maturity was Paul's passion for the church, which reflected Christ's passion for the church, which is the very thing the devil fights hook, line, and sinker. He doesn't want spiritual maturity because spiritual maturity means Christ gets the full place he deserves in our life. And if Christ gets the full place that he deserves in your life and my life, then the enemy has nothing in us. Nothing. And if he's got nothing in us, then God's got everything in us. And if God's got everything in us, it is a house of his glory. It is a house of his praise. It is a house of prayer. It is a house of love. It is a house where man's wisdom is absent. Man's works are absent, and it's a place filled with the beauty of Christ individually being expressed by the members. That's God's thought. And I have good news in closing this morning. It's found in Revelation chapter 21. I have good news. I've read the end of the story, and guess what? God gets what he's after. God gets it. The battle's been won. Jesus is the victorious one, and he will have a people in whom the glory and praise of his son will be displayed for all generations to come, now and forevermore. Hallelujah. World without end. I have good news. I have good news, beloved. Chapter 21, And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away. And I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband, a bride without spot, a bride without wrinkle, a bride arrayed in the splendor of his glory, a bride whose life is Christ, a bride whose beauty is Christ, a bride whose righteousness is Christ, a bride whose will is Christ alone, a bride that is beautified by the beauty of Jesus. Oh, she's in earth, but she's of heaven. Oh, she lives down here, but oh, she survives by the man in heaven, a bride, a virgin, pure, without spot. Hallelujah. Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people. And God himself shall be with them and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write, for these words are true and faithful. And he said, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to him that is a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things. And I will be his God, and he shall be my son. Hallelujah to God. There's a war. It's in the heavens. It's against the full expression of Jesus Christ in our lives individually and in our lives corporately, but God has provided the means by which we can overcome, and that is a life of utter dependence upon the Lord Jesus Christ and the word of God. Don't faint. Don't be discouraged. Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might today, beloved. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for challenging our hearts by the word of God, quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. Thank you for bringing light to our heart, understanding to our minds. Strengthen us in this battle. Enable us to fight the good fight of faith and lay hold of eternal life, letting no man steal our crown. Father, we commit the word into your hands. Prosper it. Bring it forth into our lives and produce lasting fruit by it. And we thank you and praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.