This sermon discusses the concept of dealing with spiritual warfare in high places, whether through physical actions like flying planes to high altitudes or climbing mountains to confront demonic strongholds. It emphasizes the importance of being aware of spiritual battles and the need to bind the strong men, representing spiritual principalities. The message also touches on the role of believers in evangelism, highlighting the spiritual blindness caused by the enemy and the necessity of penetrating that darkness with the light of Christ. Additionally, it delves into the story of David and Goliath, illustrating the preparation and determination required to face and overcome spiritual giants.

Flying, you know, jumbo planes across the heavens in California to deal with the spiritual weakness in high places. So in order to deal with the spiritual weakness in high places, you've got to be in the high places. At least that was the theory. And so they literally rented planes and did that. I've seen others climb up in the Himalayas because they felt that there was some strong man up there and somebody made a movie of the whole thing. They're up above the tree line up to a place where there are, you know, nothing but ice. And they discover that there's, you know, some sort of demonic stronghold in this huge block of ice. And the guy is there with a, you know, one of these ice picks flailing away trying to destroy this principality. And I mean, I've seen it all. So let me say this, be a good Berean. Be a good Berean. I always get a bit of a kick out of that. If you don't know what a Berean is, the Bible says the Bereans were more noble than those in Thessalonica because they searched the Word of God daily to see if these things were so. What is so amusing to me is that their teacher was the Apostle Paul. How would, you know, imagine the audacity of saying, Paul, I'm not going to believe what you say until I check it out in the Word. Now if they did that for the Apostle Paul, you certainly have my permission to check out what I say. Yeah, so be a good Berean and make sure you get into the Word of God and substantiate it. If not, just toss it out. Let's begin in Matthew chapter 12. I'll read a portion of Scripture there. Beginning, I won't read the whole thing. Verse 25, and knowing their thoughts, He said to them, any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and any city or house divided against itself will not stand. If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? And if I, by Beelzebul, cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? Consequently, they shall be your judges. But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. And then verse 29 is the verse that I want to focus on, or how can one enter into a strongman's house and carry off his property unless he first binds the strongman, and then he will plunder his house. In other words, Jesus is saying, just as he is the shepherd of his sheep, and he looks after his flock, the enemy likewise has his house, and he looks after his own. And the only way that you can set those captives free, so to speak, is to bind the strongman and then go in and plunder his goods. But you'll notice that it is a priority unless he first binds the strongman. Not as a last resort, but as a first priority. And as I mentioned this morning, and you can turn to it if you like, in 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 4, Paul makes a statement. He says, the God of this world, verse 4, in whose case the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is in the image of God. The God of this world, in other words, another name for the devil, has blinded the minds of any unbeliever. So like I mentioned this morning, if you were in the first session, that whether you are praying for a unsaved loved one, husband, wife, child, daughter, whatever the case may be, whether you're witnessing to a friend at work, whether you're doing mass evangelism, child evangelism, door-to-door evangelism, whatever it is, if you are dealing with unbelievers, the God of this world has blinded the minds for one simple reason, lest the light should penetrate. So we are involved in spiritual warfare in any type of evangelism. The enemy does not want to give up his goods, so to speak. He guards, he protects his own, and so Jesus said you've got to bind the strong men. So for a little while now we're going to look at some strong men. I'm going to look at a strong man over an individual, strong men over a group of individuals, strong men over a city, and a strong man over a nation. So let's begin in Mark chapter 5, and this is a familiar story, I'm sure to many of you. It's the story of the Gadarene demoniac. Jesus, of course, arrives, crosses over the sea. Here is this man that is going crazy, basically. Everybody's tried to control him. They've tied him up with chains, bound him with chains. He's got supernatural strength. He tears the chains off. And so on, Jesus comes upon the scene, find the scripture here, and it says in verse 6, and seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up, and he bowed down before him, and crying out with a loud voice, he said, what do I have to do with you, Jesus, the Son of the Most High? I implore you by God, do not torment me. For he had been saying to him, come out of the man, you unclean spirit. And he was asking him, what is your name? And he said, my name is Legion, for we are many. I want you to notice that little phrase. My name, singular, is Legion, but we are many. In other words, I am the strong man. I am, if you like, a Roman legion, supposedly was somewhere between two and six thousand troops. I can't remember exactly how many, but many, many. And of course, there would be a commander, if you like, in charge of that. This man, this demon, is saying, listen, I am the number one man. Under me are thousands. In this case, we know for a fact that there were 2,000 demons, because Jesus cast them out. They went into a herd of swine, and plunged into the sea, and we know that there were 2,000 swine. So whether they all had a few each, I don't know. We got one each, but we know there were at least 2,000. But notice what Jesus does. He deals, first of all, with this principle of strong men. He doesn't go to some little dude, so to speak, and say, you know, I'm going to cast you out first, because you're going to be easy, and then I'm going to work my way up to the strong man. No, he deals with the strong man, and once he binds the strong man, the others basically are ready to go. It would be like me walking down the street, and this is purely an illustration. But, you know, here are ten men that are going to accost me, and beat me up, or something. One of them's obviously the leader. He's a great big guy, you know, six foot eight or nine, weighing 300 pounds of pure muscle. And I go up to him, and the other guys are all six foot plus, but this guy is extremely tall, and with sort of one blow, I take care of him. You know, the rest of them are going to flee, and that's purely an illustration, you know. The day that happens, you know, you'll read about it on CNN. But in other words, I bound the strong man. The other guys think to themselves, wow, if he can take care of the chief, we don't have a chance. And so Jesus binds the strong man, in that case, his name is Legion, and all the rest have to leave. So there you have a strong man, if you like, over an individual. One demonic entity that was in control, and once he was bound, Jesus could go in, if you like, and set the others free, or chase them out. Then over into Acts chapter 13, and this is an interesting little incident here in the life of Paul. Paul and Barnabas are on the island of Cyprus, verse 6, and they come across, in verse 8, a man by the name of Elamus, the magician, for thus his name is translated, who was opposing them. Now, let me go back. Verse 6, and when they're gone through the whole island, as far as Paphos, they found a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet, whose name was Bar-Jesus, who was with the pro-council. Pro-council is simply a provincial governor. We would call him a governor today, or a mayor. And it says, he was with the pro-council, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, and this man summons Barnabas and Saul, and he sought to hear the Word of God. So here is the situation. They're on this, the island of Cyprus. One of the provincial governors hears about them, and he takes the initiative, and he invites Barnabas and Saul to come and talk to him about the Word of God. It's not very often that you get a phone call from some politician saying, listen, would you mind dropping by my office sometime? I hear you're a Christian. I'd like to know a little bit more about the Word of God, but that's the situation. So this man is obviously hungry. He's obviously desirous of hearing what Paul has to say. But when they get there, along with this provincial governor, is a magician by the name of Elements, a Jewish false prophet. Now notice what happens. It says, Barnabas, the magician, for thus his name is translated, verse 8, was opposing them, seeking to turn the pro-council away from the faith. So this man is bent on doing one thing, and that is stopping this provincial leader, this governor, from hearing the Word of God. And that is his assignment, if you like, a demonic assignment, and he is doing everything he can. It goes on to say, but Paul, who was also known as, but Saul, who was also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, fixed his gaze upon him, and he said, you who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord? Now if you meditate on that a little bit, you'll notice that there is a period of time that has gone by. Paul here is doing everything he can to make the Word of God, as it says here, to make it straight, to make it simple, to make it direct, to make it understandable, and this man, every time Paul opens his mouth, he's twisting what Paul says. And Paul, obviously, is growing frustrated. Now if you muse on this, that's the conclusion you have to come to, because eventually he recognizes, this is a demonic thing that I'm up against, and so he turns to this man, and he says, how long, meaning this has been going on, how long will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord? So there's a period of time that has gone by, where Paul, you can understand, is trying his best to convert this man, to lay out the plan of salvation or whatever, and this man is twisting it. And so finally, he comes against him, and he and he binds his spirit. Now let me go on. It says, go back to verse 10, you who are full of all deceit, your deception and fraud, obviously he's a son of the devil, who was a liar from the beginning, so he's a one that is full of lies, fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord? In other words, quit twisting everything that I say, and now behold the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and not see the sun for a time. And immediately a midst and a darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking those who would lead him by the hand. Then, underline that word, then, if you believe in underlining your Bible, then the procounselor believed when he saw, number one, what had happened, and being amazed at the teaching of the Lord. Two things convinced this man, the power of God, and then the word of God. He was amazed at the teaching of the Lord. That's what Paul was trying to get through, but this man was twisting and distorting everything that Paul said, and it was going on and on and on. So you can see, a strong man, can have an influence over a group. In this case, even the Apostle Paul and Barnabas, two great men of God, came, if you like, under the spirit of this thing, to the point where finally they realized we're not wrestling flesh and blood here, but principalities and powers, if you like. This man is a son of the devil. He's an enemy of all righteousness, and we've got to take care of him, bind the strong man, before we can affect his goods. But the moment the strong man was bound, they believed, or I shouldn't say they, this man believed, being amazed at the teaching of the Lord. So that was, you know, Paul's message was a great message, but the enemy was distorting it, and so we need to learn a lesson from that. I will never forget, my wife and I, when we first got married, worked with David Wilkerson in New York City, and we were assigned the first week we were there to work with mum Wilkerson, David's mother, who ran the coffee shop in the middle of Greenwich Village, and we would go down there three nights a week from about seven o'clock at night till maybe eleven, eleven-thirty, and we would serve coffee and doughnuts. It was a subterranean coffee shop that they would come to, and we would sit down at a table and just share the gospel. People would drop in, especially in wintertime, we'd serve sometimes, you know, two hundred people a night. The free coffee and the doughnuts would bring them in, but we would witness, and I remember one night, it was somewhat quiet, and a couple came down. I can't remember now if it was a couple of guys, and they seemed very interested in what I had to say, and I was sharing the gospel. They were asking all the right questions for the right reasons, you know, genuine, well, what about this, and what about that, not to try and trip me up, but, you know, genuinely wanting to hear what I had to say, and then a couple of other people came down and sat down at the same table and got involved in the conversation, and one of them in particular repeatedly kept, you know, sort of, we would say, throwing red herrings into the situation, you know, what about this and what about that, just to try and trip me up, and I sensed, you know, just a frustration that all of a sudden, you know, he'd taken the conversation away from me and was beginning to put doubt in the minds of these men, and I will never forget, a young Christian at the time, just out of Bible school, but silently under my breath, I took authority over Satan, and I said, Satan, in the name of Jesus, I just looked at the guy without verbalizing anything, I take authority over you, and I bind the spirit of confusion, and literally, and I've never had it happen quite this quickly before, but within a matter of moments almost, he sort of scratched his head, he said, I can't remember what I was going to say, and turned the conversation back, you know. Now, that doesn't always happen quite as clear as that. I think God was, you know, just showing me something as a young Christian, but nevertheless, we are up against, you know, strong men, and they are enemies of righteousness and enemies of the kingdom of God. So, you've got a strong man over an individual, strong man over a group of individuals, and then if you go over a few chapters into Acts chapter 19, we have a strong man over a city. In this case, it's a strong lady, but anyway, whether demons have got gender or not, I don't know, but we'll see. Now, the city of Ephesus was a place where Paul, in his writings, makes statements like this, there's a wide and effectual door of ministry that is open to me in Ephesus. In other words, there is tremendous interest in the gospel, but, he says, there are many adversaries. So, there's a wide and effectual door, but there are many adversaries. Another place, he says, I fought with wild beasts at Ephesus. Now, we have no record of Paul being in some sort of arena, you know, fighting with lions and so on and so forth. I believe that those were spiritual entities that Paul encountered. I have a friend who, for many years, worked with the Assemblies of God in Rome, and he is a just a real plain-Jane sort of a guy, not one of these, you know, funny, you know, crazy charismatics in the, you know, the extreme sense. He's a very solid guy, and he told me this story. He said, one day, I was walking across the Vatican grounds, and he said, a shadow went over my shoulder. And he said, I thought, initially, he said, I didn't think too much about it, and then he said, it happened again, and he said, I was right in the middle of the Vatican Square there, and he said, this shadow went over, and he said, I turned around, I looked, and he said, there were no buildings or anything that was sort of casting a shadow. He said, I couldn't quite understand it. He said, he walked a little further, and again, the shadow came, and he looked up, and God opened his eyes, and he saw these huge winged creatures, you know, black, like, huge eagles or whatever, flying, and God said, this is what you're up against here. Now, you know, I remember Nicky Cruz was still at Teen Challenge when my wife and I were there, and his mother was into exorcism. I can't remember now if it was the good exorcism or bad. It seems to me it was bad exorcism. I think his mother was into witchcraft, if I remember. Don't set that in concrete. But he said it would, it was not uncommon to see animals running through the house. In other words, animals, demons expressing themselves in the animal form. There's a word for it, fancy word, lycanthropy, I think it is. You can look it up in the dictionary if you can spell it, but it means a demon that transforms itself into an animal. I am not condoning the Harry Potter series. I've never read a book and never been to a movie, but I remember when the first advertisements came out. You remember the school teacher where the cat, I think it is, is sitting on the desk, and the cat jumps off, and in the process is transformed into the teacher. I have met missionaries, and it's not uncommon in different mission places for them to experience these demonic entities, and I believe that when Paul says, I wrestled or I fought with wild beasts, it was literally a wrestling where he says, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities. That Paul had that encounter. I could tell you some stories that would, you know, put goose bumps on you from people that have experienced those sort of things. But here we are in the city of Ephesus. Let's pick up the story in verse 17, and this became known to all, both Jews and Greeks, who lived in Ephesus, and fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus Christ was being magnified. Many of those who believed kept coming, confessing and disclosing their practices, and many of those who practiced magic brought their books together, began burning them in the sight of all, and they counted up the price of them, and found it to be 50,000 pieces of silver. Now, Paul was having a tremendous response to the gospel. As a result of that response, people were coming, and they were bringing their books. Now, you've got to understand, books were not rolling off printing presses in those days. This is long before Gutenberg, and long before the printing press. You know, these were manuscripts that were written out by hand, and so on, and the pile was so big, just one single bonfire, that it was worth 50,000 pieces of silver. I don't know what the price of silver is these days, you know, 16 or 20 dollars an ounce, but you can imagine 60,000 pieces of silver. How much that would translate into? Possibly millions of dollars. You know, I mean, that shows you the state of the city of Ephesus. They were involved in all types of witchcraft, and primarily, it had to do with a woman, a spirit, by the name of the goddess Diana, or Artemis, and they believed that this goddess came down out of heaven, and she established her throne in the city of Ephesus. You'll notice that because of Paul's effective preaching, the trade, people would come from all over the known world, and they would pick up these little shrines to Artemis, just like you go to Paris and pick up a little Eiffel Tower, or whatever, and they would take these shrines back, and they would bow down, and they would worship, you know, these demonic entities, and so on, and because Paul was being so effective, the trade fell off. People were not buying these little shrines, and so all the silversmiths got together. This is the first union meeting in history. First recorded union meeting. Silversmiths Incorporated. Let me read it to you. It says they came together, verse 27, and they said, not only is there danger that the trade of ours fall into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis, or Diana, be regarded as worthless, and that she whom all of Asia and the world worship should be dethroned from her magnificence. In other words, Ephesus was the center of a worldwide religion. This goddess Diana, you know, had a major impact on all the surrounding nations, and so people would come, like they go to Rome today, or they go to Mecca, or wherever. They'd come on their pilgrimages, pick up these little shrines, and so on. These guys are getting upset because they're not selling them, but they're also concerned that this goddess is going to be overthrown, that no longer are people going to be worshiping this goddess, and so they start a riot in the streets. It goes on for hours and hours, and they're crying out, great is Artemis. You can read about it in verse 28. Finally, we go to verse 35. After quieting the multitude, the town clerk said, men of Ephesus, what man is there after all who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is guardian of the temple of the great Artemis, or Diana, and of the image that fell down from heaven? So they believed, again, that this city, they were the guardians. This here, you then have, if you like, a strong man over a city. In other words, this stronghold influenced everything that went on in that city. Now, it's interesting, out of all of Paul's writings, and of course, he gave us the letter to the Ephesians, and well, I'll deal with the Ephesians. He gave us the, you know, wrote to the Romans, and the Corinthians, and the Thessalonians, and the Galatians, and Colossians, and so on, but it's when he writes to the people in Ephesus, the Ephesians, that he deals with spiritual warfare. Isn't that right? Because he's speaking firsthand. So turn with me, if you will, to the book of Ephesians, and let's begin in chapter 5. Now, many, many years ago, when my wife and I were pastoring in New Zealand, I was asked to write a paper for a Christian magazine, and the topic that they gave me was Ephesians chapter 6, and I thought to myself, you know, what more can be said about Ephesians 6 that hasn't already been said? You know, we all know about Ephesians 6. When I was a kid raised in church, whenever somebody said, turn to Ephesians 6, two verses immediately came to mind. Children, obey your parents. Conviction always came, or we wrestle not against flesh and blood, and I used to think that those two had nothing in common whatsoever. You know, that Paul's sort of riding along, he's dealing with this whole thing of children, you know, submit to your parents, and so on and so forth, and then he's running out of parchment or something, or his candle's getting low, and he says, oh my goodness, you know, I meant to say, you know, finally, let me change topics. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities of power, and I thought it was just a sort of a, you know, a break, if you like, and a brand new topping, until I realized, when I started reading this, that really, Paul is laying a foundation for what he's about to say. So let me pick it up. If we go back, remember, there's no chapter divisions in the original. These were letters, the way you would write a letter, and unless you write awfully long letters, you don't divide those letters into chapters, nor do you divide them into verses. Some monk, a monkey somewhere, put them in later on, so we could find our way along. But, so we go back into the previous chapter, verse 22. Wise, be subject to your husbands. Ask the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is also the head of the church, and so he deals here with this whole area of submission to authority. Now, I don't want to get into the husband and wife situation, other than to say, God always protects the one that is under authority. In other words, you know, he doesn't say to husbands, you know, do whatever you want with your wife, you're the boss. He says, remember, I'm over you, and you need to love your wife as I love the church, and so he deals with this area of submission. Then he goes into the family, and he says, children, obey your parents, and then to protect the children, he says, parents, don't threaten your children. In other words, don't discipline them out of anger, or anything else that, you know, don't do that, because I, you know, I'm going to be watching you, so to speak. And then he speaks about slaves, and he says, you are to obey your masters, but then he also says, masters, remember, you too have a master in heaven. In other words, you are not the final authority, I'm the final authority. Parents, you're not the final authority. I'm over you, and I hold you responsible for the way you deal with your children. Husbands, I hold you responsible for the way you love or you don't love your wife. Masters, I hold you responsible for your servants. Servants, you are responsible for your master, but you know, I'm also out to protect you. Those masters are under my authority. Now, why does Paul do that? And then he changes gears, it would seem, and he says, my Bible keeps flipping around on me here. Hold on a second. I'll give you the right verse. Verse 10, finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his might. Put on the full armor of God. Now, it would seem that, again, Paul is sort of changing gears here. I don't believe that anymore. I believe Paul is laying a foundation. We are now going to enter in, he says, to spiritual warfare, and in order to be effective in spiritual warfare, you have to have a submissive spirit. Because if there's an inch or a smidgen, to use Obama's term, if there is a smidgen of rebellion in you towards your parents, towards your husband, towards the Lord, towards your master, or whatever, you have already aligned yourself with the root of how Satan became Satan. He rebelled against authority. He said, I don't want to be in a place of submission. I want to take you my throne and put it above your throne. In other words, it's like a wife saying, I don't want you to be the head anymore. I'm going to be the head of the house. After all, I earn more money, and I've got a degree, and you don't, and so on and so forth. You know, I'm going to be in charge. You know, that sort of rebellion is what Paul is dealing with here, and he says, if there's any sort of rebellion in your spirit at all, you've already lost the battle. You've already aligned yourself, as we would say, you're already in cahoots with the devil, and therefore, you are powerless to do anything. That's why the centurion says, I too am a man under authority, and I say to this man, go when he goes. So as long as we are in a place of submission to the lordship of Christ, then we have the authority necessary to deal with the powers of darkness. Now, we also need to throw in there, and I don't have time to develop this, but you know, we need to understand, too, that sin in our life makes us ineffective. I have literally in my old Bible, this is a second, this is a new binding on this one, but my old Bible that I wore out, I've got about maybe 50 scriptures that deal with Israel, and particularly in the Old Testament. One of them, of course, is when the Achan went, and he stole something that was under the ban, remember, and they can't figure out, they've already defeated Jericho, major city, and the next little city on the map is a little place called Ai, and they think we don't all have to go, this is a tiny, you know, this is a this is an easy place to defeat, and they get walloped, they get beaten, and they come back with their tail between their legs sort of thing, and they fall down, and Joshua in particular cries out to God, and he says, get off your feet, Israel has sinned, therefore they cannot stand against their enemies. In other words, sin in our life renders us powerless. We have to put on, part of the armor is the armor of what? Righteousness. The Bible says in righteousness he wages war. The Bible says God's throne is established in righteousness. So it's important, again, that not only are we in a place of submission, but we are in a place, again, of righteousness before God. If there's sin in our life, again, we've already aligned ourselves with the enemy. So here we are now back in the city of Ephesus, and out of all the letters that Paul writes, it is to the Ephesians, in particular, that he mentions this whole area of spiritual warfare. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers. So we've had a strong man over an individual, strong men influence a group, and now a strong man, if you like, over a city. Now turn with me to the book of Daniel, Daniel chapter 10. Some of you are familiar, obviously, with this passage. It's one of the very few times in the Bible, if not really the only time, where we have a little bit of a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes, so to speak. You know, there is a very real spiritual realm that unless we have understanding and revelation, you know, we are blinded to it. You know, there could be angels all over this building, and yet we can't see them unless we've got spiritual understanding. There may also be demonic entities here trying to destroy this meeting. You know, there's a there's a realm out there that you and I are not aware of, but it's just as real. Daniel, of course, is in Persia, and there's been a prophetic word from Jeremiah that 70 years are going to pass before they're going to be set free, and Daniel is praying and seeking understanding from God concerning what is going to happen to them. So we pick it up in verse 2. In those days I, Daniel, have been mourning for three entire weeks. I did not eat any tasty food, nor did meat enter or wine enter my mouth, nor did I use any ointment at all until the entire three weeks were completed. So Daniel is doing what we call a Daniel fast. That's where we get it from. It's a partial fast, and he says, I wasn't eating any tasty food, so, you know, he gave up, you know, sweets and so on and so forth. He didn't eat any meat, no wine entered his mouth. He didn't use any aftershave or whatever ointment is until the in three weeks were completed. At the end of the three weeks, an angel shows up. We pick it up in verse 10. Then behold, a hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and my knees, and he said to me, Daniel, man of high esteem, understand the words I'm about to tell you and stand upright, for I have been sent to you. And when he spoke these words, I stood up trembling, and he said to me, do not be afraid, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart on understanding this, on humbling yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to your words. Now here we have a little bit of a problem. This man has been fasting and praying for three weeks. At the end of three weeks, an angel shows up, and he says, God has sent me. I'm the answer to your prayers, and from the very first day that you started to pray, I was sent. I was commissioned by the throne of God, if you like, to bring you the answer to your prayer. And so the question is, why does it take an angel three weeks to find its target? It simply proves that angels are males, and they don't like asking directions. There, ladies, you have a theological problem solved that you've always wondered. Why won't my husband pull over? We don't have to do that now. Thank God some lady invented the GPS, I think. But no, but the reason was, he goes on to say, but the prince, verse 13, but the prince of the kingdom of Persia was withstanding me for 21 days. Now notice, Daniel is in the kingdom of Persia, and in this kingdom, we have this prince, this demonic prince, that says, this is my territory. But also in that kingdom, you have another man, Daniel, who is part of God's kingdom. And he is wanting revelation. He's wanting understanding, and this prince is basically saying, not on my watch. The kingdom of God is not going to be advanced under my watch. I'm not going to let you get through with this revelation. And so for three entire weeks, this angel is interrupted by the prince of the kingdom of Persia. Finally, it says, again, verse 13, but the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me for 21 days. Then behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia. So finally, God sends another prince to meet a prince. In other words, you've got a prince now dealing with a prince. It's Michael, who's obviously associated with the prince over the children of Israel, and God dispatches from the throne Michael. And this lesser messenger, if you like, this angel, gives an understanding to Daniel that he's looking for, and then we pick it up again in verse 20, and then he said to me, Do you understand why I came to you? But now I shall return to fight against the prince of Persia. So I am going forth and behold, the prince of Greece is about to come. So he says, I'm leaving you and I'm going back to fight against this prince of Persia. This is a spiritual battle going on behind the scenes, and then he says, and behold, the prince of Greece is about to come. Now, there's two ways to interpret that. One is that it's a chronological thing that the next great empire to take over after Persia was the Grecian empire. So he said, listen, after this prince is dealt with there's going to be satanic rule that's going to come in again now under Greece. The other way of interpreting that, which is also a possibility, is just as this angel had to call in reinforcements and call in for Michael to help, the prince of Persia may have reached over to the kingdom of Greece and said, listen, things are quiet on your side. I need help. I'm up against the prince of, I'm up against Michael our chief prince. Would you come and help me? And so the prince of Greece is about to come. So one of those two, you know, is the answer. I say that for this reason. You know, there's a lot of teaching, and I'm not saying it's all wrong, but the teaching goes like this, that you've got to find out, you know, what went on in your city. Let's say that, you know, this is an area where there's been a lot of Indian activity and so on or some major war here and so on and so forth, and so you do all sorts of research at your local library, and you find out that, you know, there was great bloodshed and this and that and the other thing. Oh, there was a gold mining rush, and so you come to the conclusion that there is a spirit of greed here, but also in order to keep all the miners happy, they imported all sorts of women to act as prostitutes, and so there's a spirit of lust, and that's what we're up against, you know, in Rapid City. Now, obviously, that's just an illustration. Don't take that as a fact. And so we come against this spirit of lust and so on. Now, while there may be a measure of truth to that, what I'm saying is this, that things could change overnight and the Prince of Greece could come in, and there's no record in your library against the Prince of Greece. In other words, that has not happened yet. It's not something that you can do research on because the atmosphere has changed. Now, again, Paul says we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities. A principality is a geographical location that has a prince over it. I was born in England and raised for a few years in Ireland. My mother's Irish, my father's English, but I'll be going, not next month and month after, I'll be going back to Wales. And as you know, if you know anything about British history, we have what we call the United Kingdom. It's not quite as united as they'd like to make out, but it's made up of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. And Wales is literally called the Principality of Wales. And there is a prince over that principality to this day, and his name is Prince Charles. Prince Charles, his legal right, his legal title is Prince Charles, Prince of Wales. Now, there was a time when a prince was equal to a king. And Wales at that time, of course, would have a prince, and it was called a principality. But the same thing is true in the spiritual realm, a geographical area where there is a prince that rules, if you like, what goes on and influences what goes on in that particular principality. And I believe there are still, as Paul says, there are principalities and powers that, you know, you can go into some areas and there's tremendous darkness and violence and so on, go into other areas. It's almost like crossing into a totally different atmosphere. Let me tell you a little story. My older brother had the privilege of working with a man in Argentina by the name of Edward Miller. Edward Miller is dead now, but he was a man that you either loved or hated. But back in the late 50s, my brother said Argentina, my brother went down in the mid 60s, but he said he was told by various missionaries that Argentina was like walking into layer upon layer of darkness. In other words, incredible darkness in that country. And Edward Miller was a missionary and God spoke to him and he said there will never be a move of God in Argentina until the prince of Argentina is bound. In other words, there is a principality that controls the atmosphere of this nation. And until that principality is bound, there will never be a move of God. Now, Argentina is a Catholic country and I'm not trying to tread on anybody's toes if you come out of Catholicism, but Catholicism, nations that have been under Catholicism have tremendous demonic stuff going on. You see, if I said I was praying to my great-grandmother before I came to the meeting, you would shoot me down and say, that's necromancy. You know, you're not allowed to do that. But if I say I was praying to a saint, it's acceptable in the Catholic Church, but you're really praying to the dead. And when you have thousands of people praying to the dead, whether you call the dead Mary or you call the dead some saint or whatever, it changes the atmosphere of a nation. And there's tremendous darkness that comes in. Now, again, my apologies if you come, you know, if you're a Catholic or I should say a Roman Catholic. We're Catholics. Catholic means universal. God has a universal church. I'm a Catholic. I'm just not a Roman Catholic. But Roman Catholicism brings tremendous darkness. Anyway, this man by the name of Edward Miller, God spoke to him and he said, I want you to stop what you're doing and I want you to pray. And I believe it was for six hours a day he prayed for something like six or eight months. There were other intercessors that joined him. There's a little booklet, if you can still find it, it's called Thy God Reigneth. And it tells the history of the Argentine Revival. But at the end of that period of time, they were in a prayer meeting and God just came down. And it was a major breakthrough. There was angelic appearances at the Bible school called Peniel that they had. One man in particular was struck dumb. He was not able to communicate in the natural. He could communicate, but he could not. On this occasion, they gave him a piece of paper and a pen, and he wrote down what God was going to do, various cities that God was going to visit and so on. My brother went down there in the mid-60s and he said that the power of God was so present. He said you could have a meeting and after three or four songs, the tangible presence of God would settle. And he said people would be on their faces before God for literally hours. And he said when they got up, there would be literally pools of tears under deep, deep repentance. And he said, I'm not talking about, you know, big sins, although that would happen too. But he said that when the Spirit of God comes, even attitudinal sins, you know, you're a little too hard on your wife or you're a little too, you know, caustic about the way you talk about others or whatever it is. And my brother said that was, you know, what it was like. I remember Edward Miller coming to our Bible school in New Zealand. And he shared some things and I've never forgotten them. He said there is a difference between a word of knowledge and the manifest presence of God. He said one night a lady came forward in the altar call and he said God gave him a word of knowledge and he said to the lady, he said God's telling me that you've been involved in witchcraft. And she denied it, said no, I've never been involved in witchcraft. And he kept getting this strong impression. And so he said well somebody in your family has been involved in either your husband or your, you know, your parents were involved. No, no, no. And she just, you know, adamant and he said he prayed, nothing happened. And that was that. He said the next night the manifest presence of God sort of came into the meeting and he said this lady came screaming to the altar delivering herself. She could not stand under the manifest presence of God. I've been involved in witchcraft. God set me free. Please deliver me and so on, you know. Another time he said, and this is an illustration I've never forgotten. He said you imagine going outside at nighttime and you pick up the hose. And you think, you know, you're quite happy with having a hose in your hand. You're going to water the plants or put some water in the car or whatever. And then somebody flips on the outside light and you realize that what you've picked up is not the garden hose, but it's a serpent. It's a snake. And he said the moment you see it, you know, you just, he said, you know, you can't wait to get rid of it. He said that's what happens with sin under the manifest presence of God. He said people literally, you know, scream out, God, you know, I can't stand this sin. You know, I've never forgotten that. But that was the power of that Argentine Revival. On the heels of that Argentine Revival or when it began, a man by the name of Tommy Hicks, it was an American evangelist, went down to Argentina for some meetings and God spoke to him and he said you need to rent the arena, the great big soccer stadium that holds tens of thousands of people. People laughed at him, said there's no way you could get that. Number one, it would cost a fortune. Number two, it's all tied up with the government and so on. So he went to the White House, they call it the Pink House down there, but it's the, where the Premier, what do you call it, Prime Minister of Argentina was at the time. That was Perón. Remember Eva Perón? They made a movie about, she was involved in witchcraft. But he was not seeing anybody. He got to the gate, the gatekeeper stopped him, said who are you and blah blah blah. He said I'm an American evangelist. I need to see the Prime Minister and he said well, you know, he's not seeing anybody and besides, you know, you don't have the necessary credentials and this man was sick. I can't remember what the problem was, but he prayed for him and he was instantly healed. He said if you come back tomorrow, I'll get you in. So long story short, he was able to come in, talk to Perón. Perón had some sort of disease at the time. He prayed for him, he was healed and as a result they had the, that huge arena open up and literally they took away truckloads of crutches and so on. I mean major, major miracles that happened as a result of that thing. I say all of that to say this, this is the major leagues. You know, I talked this morning, if you're in the first session, we have two realms of spiritual warfare. The minor leagues and the major leagues. The minor leagues are our own little skirmishes with the enemy, you know, overcoming lust or pride or greed or resentment or anger or whatever it is, but this is the major leagues and very, very few people ever get into that realm. But we've got to believe as believers that we have that sort of authority. You know, one will chase a thousand and two ten thousand. Now, I realize time has gone by. If you need to leave, please do, but let me take you to 1 Samuel and I'll try and cover this as quickly as possible. 1 Samuel chapter 17 and it is a well-known story. It is the story of David and Goliath and the tragedy with this story really is the fact that we've reduced it down to a little story to share with our children and it's become nothing more than something that, you know, we entertain our children with. David, you know, we used to sing it when I was a little boy in Sunday school. Only a boy named David only had a little sling and, you know, we'd twirl it around and the giant would fall and we'd all fall on the ground and, you know, we'd have fun while the adults were, you know, in the other auditorium studying all the deep things of God. But let me quickly go through this. 1 Samuel 17 verse 1. Now the Philistines, and as you know, if you've read the the Old Testament, the Philistines were the one nation, possibly more than any other nation, that were constantly a thorn in the side of Israel. After they'd driven out the the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Jebusites and all the otherites, the Philistines seemed to be there constantly and Israel was always at war with the Philistines. Isn't that right? So the Philistines gathered their armies for battle. So there is a war going on verse 3. And the Philistines stood on a mountain on one side. Israel stood on a mountain on the other side with a valley between them. Mountains in the Bible are synonymous with kingdoms. A mountain in the natural is a, you know, is a major sort of fortress in the natural, isn't it? And then so here you've got two kingdoms represented, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan, if you like. These two mountains, there is a valley between them. Verse 4, then a champion came out from the army of the Philistines named Goliath from Gath whose height was six cubits and a span. The word champion literally means a man of intervention or if you like, a strong man. You can check that out in your Strong's Concordance, if you like. So here we have a man of intervention. We could spiritualize that and call it a man of intercession because he's intervening on behalf of his people. An intercessor is somebody that cries out on behalf of their people, cries out on behalf of the church or whatever. Excuse me. So it says he was a champion, a strong man or a man of intervention and his name was Goliath. Goliath literally means a soothsayer or an exile. That's what that word means. Again, you can check it out. A soothsayer or an exile. What is a soothsayer? It's somebody that's involved in the occult. Different nations in the Old Testament had different associations, if you like. Remember when God said to Saul, I want you to go and destroy the sinners, the Amalekites. The Amalekites were a type of sin. When the children of Israel came out of Egypt, the very first thing to attack them was sin. When you and I come out and we have a deliverance from the powers of darkness, what's the very first thing that wants to come back into our life? Sin wants to come back into our life. But in the case of the Philistines, it was basically witchcraft. Now, let me just quickly show you in Isaiah chapter 2 verse 6. They have abandoned thy people, the house of Jacob, because they are filled with the influences from the east. They are soothsayers like the Philistines. So the Philistines were known as soothsayers, but here you have a champion soothsayer. In other words, if you like, the strongman of all the soothsayers. Now, it also means an exile. What is an exile? An exile is somebody that was once accepted in a particular realm, but now he's had to flee and he's no longer welcome back. For instance, years ago in the Philippines, there was a man by the name of Marcus. He was the prime minister. Was prime minister the right word? President. He was the president of the Philippines. And remember, his wife Imelda was the lady that had a problem with shoes. She had 6,000 or 16,000. I forget how many. But literally, I mean, she would go out and it was in the thousands. Anyway, I think it was 6,000 pair of shoes. But he would take all the money that was given by various nations because of that third world country and he would live a grandiose lifestyle. And as a result, when all the corruption was found out, he had to flee. Even though he was the head man in the Philippines, he had to flee. And of course, we gave him sanctuary in Hawaii. And he was in exile until the day that he died. Now, it's interesting that the devil was once a part of God's kingdom. Not only was he a part of God's kingdom, most theologians believe that the devil was right up there with Gabriel and Michael and all the other archangels. He was right in the top stratosphere, if you like, of God's hierarchy. But corruption was found in him and he was thrown out and he's no longer welcome back in that kingdom. He now lives in exile. Right? The devil. And so here we have this champion and he is a representative of the kingdom of darkness and he is the strong man. Now notice in verse 8, he stood and he shouted to the ranks of Israel. He said to them, why do you drop in battle array? Am I not the Philistine and you are servants of Saul? I'll come back to that. Choose a man for yourself and let him come down to me. If he is able to fight with me, now notice this, if he is able to fight with me singular and kill me, then we will become your servants. In other words, my name is legion. We are many. I am the strong man. I am the champion. If you kill me, then I've got men under me that you'll have no problem destroying if you can get a hold of me. You know, I am the Philistine and you are servants of Saul. Now when we get serious about this realm of spiritual warfare, one of the things the enemy will do, he will try and get us to recognize who we are in the flesh. You know, don't you realize I am the strong man, if you like, of Rapid City and you are just a servant of Saul. In other words, you know, you're a ex-druggie or you've got a criminal record or you've had an abortion or you've got this or you've got that and he'll try and get us to look at who we are in the natural and you'll see how David did not do that in a few moments here. So it said here that again, verse 10, the Philistine said, I defy the ranks of Israel this day. Give us a man that we may fight together. When Saul and all the men of Israel heard the words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid. Now here are God's people and they are terrified of this one individual, Goliath. And it says he stood every morning and evening, verse 16, and the Philistine came forward morning and evening and took his stand for 40 days. Forty is always a type of testing in the Bible. Jesus tempted for 40 days in the wilderness, you know, 40 is always synonymous with trials and testing. So for 40 days every single morning this man comes and he issues a challenge. Give us a man that we may fight together. If he can kill me, we will become your servants. If I kill him, then you'll become our servants and serve us. Then we're introduced to David in verse 19. It says, well, let me go back to verse 17. Then Jesse said to David, his son, take now for your brothers and Ephah this roasted grain, these 10 loaves, run into the camp to greet your brothers. Bring also 10 cuts of cheese to the commander of their thousands. Look into the welfare of your brothers and bring back news. So David, of course, is a lot younger. His brothers are already enlisted and fighting. So his dad says, listen, run into the battle, see how your brothers are doing, bring some more supplies, some food, and then come back. Let me know what's going on. Verse 19, for Saul, and they and all the men of Israel are in the valley of Elah fighting with the Philistines. So notice there is a certain amount of fighting going on because David is told that by his father. There's fighting, but nobody was going after the Goliath. It reminds me, you know, we can stand on the street corner and fight, so to speak, pass out, you know, a few tracks here and there, you know, protest outside the abortion clinic and so on and so forth, but nobody's talking about the prince over Rapid City, so to speak, you know, and so there's a certain amount of conflict going on. Verse 20, David rose early in the morning, and he left the flock with a keeper. Keep that in mind, that little statement. He took some supplies and he went to Jesse who commanded him, and he came to the circle of the camp while the army was going out in battle array shouting the war cry. So they've just got through with a time of praise and worship and they've been shouting the war cries. You know, God's got an army marching through the land or if you're a little older, you know, onward Christian soldiers or whatever the new warfare songs are. Those things seem to have gone by the wayside of all that militancy, you know. Somebody said we've got to develop a two-fold approach to worship, the feminine and the masculine. We have way too much feminine, you know, God give me another kiss or, you know, and it's all lovey-dovey stuff, but there's also the onward Christian soldiers. We've got to remember that we're in an army and we need sometimes to have the masculine and declare, you know, who we are. So anyway, they got through, you know, doing their masculine thing. You know, the mighty men, you know, thing has been going on and they step outside and Goliath shows up. But verse 22, David left his baggage in the care of a baggage keeper, ran to the battle line, entered in order to greet his brothers. As he was talking, behold the champion, the Goliath from Gath, sorry, the Philistine from Gath named Goliath was coming up from the army of the Philistines and he spoke these same words and David heard them. What were the same words? Give us a man that we may fight together because the Bible says morning and night. He did that for 40 days. David comes in and he hears this challenge. Give us a man that would fight together and something rises up in David. And the men of Israel said, and this now David is the newcomer, he's just come in and oh, sorry let me go back, verse 24. When all the men of Israel saw the man, they fled from him and were greatly afraid. I mean here they've just got through singing the war cries, here they got through just reading all the scriptures, so to speak, building themselves up in the most holy faith and they step outside and all of a sudden Goliath's there and they take off. Yeah, not exactly the greatest worship time in the world. It didn't do them too much good. Verse 25, and the men of Israel said, have you seen this man who is coming up? Now, they're talking to David. Surely he's coming up to defy Israel and it will be that the king will enrich the man who kills him with great riches and will give him his daughter and make his father's house free in Israel. And David spoke to the men who were standing by him saying, what will be done for this man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should taunt or he should defy the armies of the living God? Now notice something in this particular verse. David is not out to get his picture on Time magazine with a giant head, you know under his feet and say look what I did, you know. He's got one thing in mind listen, there is reproach that has been brought on the church. The church is the laughingstock of the whole valley. The church is the laughingstock of the world. They're just deriding and, you know, mocking us. You know, what will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? You claim your God is a God that heals, your God is a God that delivers and so on and so forth, but you've got more sick people and more people possessed and you know, in other words, the enemy is a master at doing this and something rises up in David. He hears the challenge of this man and he says listen, give us a man to fight together and David says I'm going to be that man. And so he's concerned and it says then David spoke to the men who were standing with him saying what will be done for this man, sorry, for who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should taunt the armies of the living God. David sees himself not as a servant of Saul, although we'll see that he is a servant in the servant heart, but he also sees himself as being part of the army of the living God. In other words, we've got to see who we are, not in the natural, but who we are spiritually. We are children of the living God. You know, our God is God of battle. Lift up your heads, all you gates, that the king of glory may come in. Who is the king of glory? The Lord what? Mighty in battle. We forget that our God is a warring God. The psalmist says good thy sword upon thy thigh, O mighty one, and release your arrows into the heart of your enemies. I pray that many, many times. If I don't, you know, know specifically what I'm praying about, I know that God knows who the enemy is and I'll say God, good your sword upon your thigh and ride on in majesty, but also release your arrows in the heart of your enemy. You know, God has enemies, but he's counting on us also to, you know, rise up with him. And David says, you know, who is this uncircumcised Philistine? In other words, this man doesn't know God. He's an unbeliever. He's just an uncircumcised Philistine. He doesn't say, oh, this guy's a great big giant. No, he's just an uncircumcised Philistine. I'm a child of God. I'm part of the living God. I'm part of the army of the living God. Now, unfortunately, his brother didn't see it that way. Verse 28, And Eliab, his older brother, heard when he spoke to the men. Eliab's anger burned against David. He said to him, why have you come down? With whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? There will always be an older brother that will try and deride you in some way and say, listen, you know, you need to get back there and look after those few sheep. That's big brother talk, you know, dad left you with a few sheep. But notice what David did. Verse 20, David rose early in the morning. He left the flock with a keeper. We have to be faithful with a little before we can be faithful in much. And what may seem very, very insignificant to put somebody else in charge of those few sheep, David was able to face Goliath without any guilt or any sort of conscience of saying, oh, my goodness, I left those sheep, you know, maybe a lion or a bear is going to take them and so on and so forth, you know. And so we've got to be responsible for the little things in our life. David then goes to Saul and Saul says, listen, you're just a youth. Verse 33, Saul said to David, you're not able to go and fight against this Philistine to fight with him. You're just but a youth. He's been a warrior from his youth. And David said to Saul, your servant was tending his father's sheep when a lion and a bear came and he took a lamb from the flock. I went out after him, attacked him. I rescued it from his mouth. And when he rose up against me, I seized him by the beard and I struck him and killed him. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear. And this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them since he has defied or taunted the armies of the living God. That's what David's motivation is. God, your name is being blasphemed. You know, I'm sick and tired of being called a sort of an underdog, a weakling, that I'm part of your army, but, you know, your army doesn't have any credibility anymore and so on and so forth. You know, I'm going to change all of that. He's not out to make a name for himself. He's out to, you know, rectify, if you like, the damages being done to God's name. But he also says, I kill the lion and the bear. Now we go again from faith to faith. This is the minor leagues of the lion and the bear. In other words, you've got to kill the lion and the bear in your own flock. It may be you've got to overcome alcohol or drugs or sex or, you know, pornography or some other thing, whatever it may be, that is your lion and bear before you go against Goliath. Because, believe it or not, you know, Goliath is going to destroy you if you can't, first of all, destroy the lion and the bear. Again, we go from faith to faith and victory to victory. So David takes a stick in his hand. Verse 40, he chose five smooth stones. I've heard all sorts of wild exposition on that. Five stones represent the fivefold ministry and so on. The fact is, Goliath had four other brothers and in chapter 21, David killed, along with his men, killed the other four brothers who were also giants. So I believe David was prepared. He took five stones knowing he'd done a little bit of research. There's not just one giant, there's five of them, and I'm determined to kill all five of them if necessary. At least that's my interpretation. It's got a little bit better scriptural backing, I think. David comes now, verse 41, and he, sorry, and the Philistine came and approached David with his shield-bearer in front of him. Now what is interesting about this, to me at least, is David does not waste any ammunition, in this case stones, on the shield-bearer. I think many times we're fighting shield-bearers instead of Goliaths. In other words, let's say we outgrow this building, which you guys are about ready to do, and the only other building in town is, say, the high school auditorium, and you know, you approach the high school and everybody's in favor of you renting it on a Sunday morning, except one man. And he's on the school board and he says, not over my dead body, and I don't want that church in there, and so on and so forth. And so you start to pray, and you're praying against, you know, let's say his name is Tom Brown. And all the conversation is, you know, God, do something with Tom Brown, and so on. Tom Brown is just a shield-bearer. Behind him, there is a satanic power, if you like, that does not want this church to expand and grow, and so on and so forth. Again, Paul recognized that we wrestle not against flesh and blood. There are principalities and powers that are influencing that flesh and blood. And we've got to see beyond just the flesh and blood. And so here we have the shield-bearer, but David doesn't waste any time on him. Verse 42, And the Philistine looked, and he saw David. He disdained him, for he was but a youth, ruddy in a handsome appearance. And the Philistine said to David, Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. Let me just say this. The Bible says, A curse without a cause does not alight. In other words, there were no grounds for cursing, and so David doesn't have to run off to a counselor and get that curse broken, like most of us think we have to do. No, the Bible says there is no divination against Jacob. The enemy cannot affect me as long as I don't give place to the devil. If I have sin in my life, if there's disobedience and so on, obviously then I'm subject to the attack of the enemy, but if not, he can't touch me. There's no divination, the Bible says, against Jacob. You know, a curse without a cause will not alight on a person. So David is cursed here, but it doesn't seem to faze him, because it didn't do anything. And the Philistine said to David, Come to me, I'll give your flesh to the birds of the sky, to the beasts of the field. And David said to the Philistine, You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you with a slingshot. No, I come to you in the name of the Lord of Hosts. In other words, David is not trusting in his own ability. He doesn't pull back his toga and say, See these gold medals, last four Olympics, number one with a slingshot, you've met your match, buddy. You know. No, he doesn't ever even mention that. He says, Listen, I have a weapon that I'm going to use. They overcame with the blood of the Lamb, but we have a name that is above everything, the name of Jesus. We have weapons, don't we? And David recognizes that he has a weapon, and that weapon is the name of the Lord of Hosts. Notice again, he is a God of war. He has a whole contingent of hosts. And so David said to the Philistine, You come to me with a sword, a spear, a javelin. I come to you in the name of the Lord of Hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have taunted. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands. I'll strike you down, remove your head from you, and I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky, to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know there is a God in Israel. David's motivation is pure. Not that all the earth may know that, you know, I'm going to be on next month's Charisma magazine as the world's greatest giant slayer. No, that all the earth may know there is a God. Not that I'm around, but that God is around. That is David's motivation. Motivation plays an incredible part in this. I remember, I may have mentioned this before, I was talking to my friend Winky Prattney many, many years ago, and he looked at me and said, You know, David, when we stand before God, He's not going to ask us what we did. And I thought, Wow, you sure, Winky? My dad's, you know, I've been raised under my father's ministry, and one of his great messages was the judgment seat of Christ and, you know, so on and so forth. And I said, What do you mean God isn't going to ask us what we did? He said, I don't believe God will ask us what we did. He said, I believe God will ask us why we did it. It's not what I did, it's why I did it. Motivation. I may have built the biggest church in town, but if my motivation is to prove that I'm the best preacher and the greatest, you know, then my motivation is wrong. I'm not interested in the God of Israel advancing His kingdom, I'm interested in promoting my own agenda. And God looks, and He discerns, what? The thoughts and the intentions of the heart. It's the intent that God's interested in, not the result, necessarily. I heard the story years ago, I'm getting off track here, but the lady that was very impoverished and barely able to make ends meet and feed her family, and one day there was a knock on the door and a gentleman stood there with all sorts of boxes of food. And he said, I hear you've had, you know, some need. And he said, I just want you to receive this. This is a gift. And so on, sort of went his way, didn't give his name or anything, but news spread around town about this wonderful person. Nobody quite knew who he was, but he had given this woman just a, you know, some money as well as all of this food and so on. A few months went by, there was another knock on the door, and this time it was another gentleman. He also had all sorts of bags of food, and he said, listen, I understand that you've got a need, and I want to, you know, just give you these. There's no, you don't have to pay me back. This is a gift. By the way, my name is Tom Brown, and I'm running for mayor. You see, his motivation was not the same as the other person's motivation. They didn't care if anybody knew. He thought, boy, this is a good way to get a little bit of publicity. You know, God is the one that weighs the thoughts and the intent, and David's motivation is the God of Israel. His name has been defiled, and I want to restore that. And so he comes here, and he says that all the earth may know there is a God in Israel, verse 46. And then verse 47, sadly, he has to add, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not deliver by sword or by spear, for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hands. Not only does the world need to know there is a God in Israel, the church needs to know there is a God in it. That all this assembly also, David has to say, this assembly has lost sight of who God is and who they are. We are part of the army of the living God. We're not servants of Saul, you know. So it's not just to prove to the world, it's to prove to the church. That's his desire. Then it happened, verse 48, the Philistine rose and came towards David, and David ran quickly in battle line to meet the Philistine. Notice the difference between verse 48 and verse 24. Verse 24 said, when the men of Israel saw the man, meaning Goliath, they fled from him. David sees him, and he runs towards him. That's the difference between unbelief and faith. You know, faith has got that boldness to go into battle. He doesn't flee, and so David sees him, and he runs towards him. David put his hand in his bag. Verse 49, he took a stone, slung it, struck the Philistine on his forehead, and the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the ground. Thus David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling, with a stone, and he struck the Philistine and killed him. There was no sword in David's hand, and David ran, stood over the Philistine, took the sword, drew it out of the sheep and killed him, chopped off his head with it. When the Philistine saw that their champion was dead, they fled, and the Philistine saw their champion. In other words, a strong man has been bound, and the rest of them are now cleared off. Then finally, verse 53, and the sons of Israel return from chasing the Philistines and plundering their camp. Jesus said, bind the strong man, and you will plunder his house. Here we have an illustration of binding the strong man and then plundering his house. But in the spiritual realm, this is in the natural realm, in the spiritual realm, there is a dimension, I believe, that God is wanting us to enter into, and I'm not saying that we enter into it lightly, but at the same time, I think we need to, you know, grow up as believers and say, listen, there are principalities and powers that we can deal with, and there are weapons that God has given us. The Bible says the weapons of our warfare are what? Not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb. In other words, the cross. They weren't pleading the blood, as a lot of people do. It was on the basis of what Jesus Christ accomplished. He stripped principalities and powers when he died, and he triumphed over them. You know, we need to have songs of declaration about, you know, the greatness of our God and so on and so forth. But then we have the Word of God, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. You know, we have weapons that we can use. I personally believe that speaking in tongues can also be a weapon. Now, take this with a grain of salt, because, you know, this is my own little theory, but I believe that there's a measure of truth. And the Bible says, though I speak in the tongues of men or of angels. Why do I speak in the tongue of a man? It's so I can communicate. If I was speaking to you in Mandarin this evening, none of you would understand. Number one, I can't speak Mandarin. My daughter can, she's in China. But in order to communicate, you've got to communicate in the language that you can be understood in. Isn't that right? So I'm speaking to you in English, and you can understand English. But the Bible says, though I speak in the tongues of men or of angels. Now, why would I communicate with an angel? Number one, the Bible says that we are not to worship angels. Remember, John fell down when he was having the guided tour of heaven, and he fell down and began to worship. And the angel said, don't worship me. I'm one of your fellow servants. But the Bible says that angels are ministering spirits, and they are sent out on behalf of those who are heirs of salvation, not heirs of conversion. We're already converted, but salvation is that all-inclusive term that applies to when we have our glorified body. We are heirs of the ultimate salvation. And so when I speak in the tongue of an angel, it's not me that's speaking. It's the Spirit of God, isn't it? It's a gift. It's not something I make up. It's not a bunch of gibberish. It's a gift of God. And so it is the Spirit of God speaking through me and, if you like, summoning angels who are ministering spirits and sending them out on assignment. And I believe that there is that dimension because tongues is so despised by the evangelical world as though it's just a minor little thing. And I think the enemy knows there's something more to it. Yes, we build ourself up. We can have our, you know, speaking in tongues, building ourselves up, and so on. But I also believe that, you know, when we speak in tongues, the Holy Spirit is commanding angels because the Bible says they stand around the throne of God basically waiting for their orders. And I believe as we get involved in that, you know, so again, we have weapons, let me put it that way, that we need to start using. One will chase a thousand, two ten thousand. In other words, let's do it collectively. And I'll close with one final thing. A friend of mine who is a intercessor of prophetic news in the prophetic realm, I won't mention his name, but he said to me many, many years ago, he said, David, he said, God spoke to me, and this is, I'm talking about 25, 27 years ago now, I guess. He said to me, God spoke to me and said, one of the greatest weapons is the communion service. One of the greatest weapons. Because when we hold up those emblems, we proclaim the Lord's death. And part of that proclamation is not only forgiveness, but absolute victory over the enemy. When the Passover, the original Passover, in the Old Testament, God said, this night I will pass through the land of Egypt and I will declare my supremacy over all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. And the fulfillment of that was not just over all the gods of Egypt, but Jesus stripped Satan, the Bible says, made an open display of him, publicly displayed his triumph over him. And when we lift up those emblems, we are declaring the principalities and powers, our God reigns. I think there's an awful lot I could do, not quite a whole session, but there's something about communion, I think, that we don't fully grasp. But that's one of the things about it. You know, we have weapons we need to start using. I know we've covered a lot of ground tonight. Again, be a good Berean, but let's close in prayer. Father, we thank you tonight.