Charlie Orr emphasizes the reality of spiritual warfare, drawing from Revelation 12 to illustrate that while the devil is a defeated foe, many Christians live in defeat due to ignorance of his tactics and the weapons available to them. He encourages believers to recognize the supernatural, serious, and strategic nature of the battle they face, and to become active warriors in their faith. Orr highlights the importance of the blood of the Lamb, the power of testimony, and the necessity of sacrificial living as key weapons in overcoming the enemy. He calls for a revival of boldness and faith among believers, urging them to confront the devil with the authority given to them through Christ. Ultimately, he reassures that victory is already secured through Jesus, and encourages the congregation to live in that victory.

Let's open our Bibles this morning to the book of Revelation, chapter 12. Revelation, chapter 12, beginning at verse number 7. I would like to speak on this subject this morning, the winnable war. The winnable war. Verse 7, And there was war in heaven, and Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. And the dragon fought, and his angels, and prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that O serpent called the devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world. And he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ. For the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony. And they loved not their lives unto the death. I believe this morning that I don't have to spend much time convincing us here in this room that there is a war on. And whenever we even begin to approach the issue of revival, we get hot heat from hell. I don't want to exalt the devil today, he's a defeated foe, amen? But I believe today we ought to be aware that there is a warfare going on that can be won by the saints of God. As I pastored for a number of years and did revival ministry, it's saddening to my heart and saddening to our hearts to see so many saints that are defeated. Number one, because they are ignorant of the devices of the devil. Number two, they're ignorant of the weapons that have been provided through Calvary and Jesus Christ. And number three, because of the passivity that's involved when you've been beaten so much, finally you give up. How many of you have run across people that have absolutely given up? Here's their testimony. Well, Brother Orr, you just don't know what I've been through. You don't know the tragedies of my childhood. You don't know the tragedies of my church. You don't know this city. And don't you like this one, you don't know the culture we're living in. Don't you know that we're in the last of the last of the last days? Things are going to get worse and worse and worse and let's just hang on and hold out until Jesus comes back and let's just be a ragtag crew that's all whipped. I like to see some young warriors and older warriors that say, let's chase hell with a water pistol. I mean, I'd love to see a glint in somebody's eye and say, listen, I've seen the glory of the cross and the devil's defeated and I've just let him know it. I like what one prayer warrior said in the Hebrides Awakening. I ran across eleven tapes that Duncan Campbell did in a camp meeting in Pennsylvania and I got the tapes and I listened through all the tapes and on one of the testimonies, one of the dear brothers was aware that the meeting was jammed up and Duncan Campbell said that he spoke to this young man and said, Brother, I sense you're closer to God than I am. Would you pray? And so this brother prayed an unusual prayer. He said, Lord, excuse me while I address the devil. He said, devil, you're here in this meeting and devil, you're frustrating the purposes of God and devil, you're a defeated foe and on the basis of the blood of the Lamb and the work of the cross, I bind you off this meeting and said four men fell down in the kitchen and got converted within an hour. How many people do you and I know in our churches that are victorious warriors? That are full of faith in the Holy Spirit of God and when they wake up in the morning, the demons of hell say, oh my, they're up again. They're full of the Spirit of God. They're dead to self. They've already got the intercession spirit. Let's send a hundred more. Or do they wake up and say, oh, Miss Flapjaw's up again. Already talking about the pastor. Already feeling sorry for herself. Let's take a vacation. We've got her beaten. My question to us today, myself, dear brothers and sisters, is this. Have we won the war in our own personal lives? Number one, let's notice the warfare that we fight and it's threefold. Number one, it's supernatural. It's in a realm you and I can't see. It's a realm that you and I cannot understand unless God gives us revelation through his word and sensitivity in his spirit. I wish I'd known this years ago when I was pastoring that you wrestle not against flesh and blood. Somebody said resist the devil, he'll flee from you. Resist the deacon, he'll fly at you. Most of my battles as a young pastor was fought with people, trying to wrestle with them, trying to deal with them, and I got ambushed right and left until I realized there was a demon or devil behind them and once I dealt with a demon or devil, they piped down. God put a lid on them. They were manageable. God could get to them. It's a supernatural battle. Number two, it's a serious battle. Be sober. Be vigilant. For your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. Most of us, including myself, sometimes aren't very sober. We're not very vigilant. We're not aware of the tactics of the devil. I mean, we let things go to the end until it's so bad that it's crisis time. I like to catch problems early. I recently had two staff members leave. One went to Oklahoma to a new church and I had my maintenance man leave and in the midst of this, I was walking out of my office down the hallway to the restroom and the Sunday school door was open to a class and the teacher wasn't there and that's when trouble comes. And I heard a man saying, do you hear why Brother so-and-so is leaving the church? And he went on this long exposition of how the pastor and the staff had treated him bad and how his feelings were hurt and he was leaving for wrong reasons. The reason he left, he took a position somewhere. Now, what did I do? With fear and trembling, I walked to the room and said, hello, how are you? And then immediately I addressed the issue. I said, my dear brother, I love you, but what you said was wrong. It's not the truth and let me tell the truth. You know how you overcome a lie? By speaking the truth in love. And a couple of those ladies, they were in their 70s, you know. When I walked in the room, you thought the devil had walked in. They put the evil eye on me. But you know, after I began to speak and I, in my spirit, began to tell the devil, you don't have a right to cause any trouble around here. You are a liar and a thief. Do you know what happened? That night, one of the ladies came to me and said, thank you, pastor, for pastoring us. The next day, guess who came by my office? The fellow that had been doing the talking and repented. And God put a lid on the problem. Amen. Serious. Supernatural. But it's strategic. You know, the devil and his demons have at least 6,000 years of experience dealing with humanity. They know our family lines. They know what we've done and they know where we've given ground. They know how to push our button. You know, as long as they can push the button, they're going to do it. One man came to this great, great, great Bible president. He was having trouble with the devil. And he said, would you hang your coat up on the wall? And he looked around and said, I can't. And the president said, why? He said, there's not a hook to hang it on. He said, that's your problem. You've got a hook and the devil can hang his coat on it all the time. Are we aware of his strategies? When we begin to pray for revival, are we aware when we leave this place today that I've gone out of many meetings, the glory of God on the scene, great revival, and I've opened my door and the devil met me at the door. I've left my church when I pastored before and come back in there. Five wildfires going on. An old couple from Florida taught me this thing of putting a wall of fire between heaven and earth around your family and your church while you're gone so the devil can't get through. It works. It's a strategic battle. If the devil can get to Lou and Ralph, he will. Some of you shared testimonies. He'll try to blow you out before you get home so you won't have a testimony. It's strategic. It's supernatural. It's serious. That's the warfare. Number two, who are the warriors? Who are the warriors? Well, obviously, in this text, we see our adversary, the devil. And he's called several things. And I want to quickly go through some of the names of the devil. He's called the great dragon. Now, whenever you saw dragons mentioned in the Bible, that's a dreaded and hostile power, cruel and ferocious. He's on the prowl. I've got a cat that my daughter owns. My mother-in-law gave the cat to us with not my permission. Amen. And he's an outdoor cat. This cat prowls all the time. He kills rabbits, birds, squirrels. He even tried to catch a rattlesnake and got bit. You talk about having an expensive cat. I was praying the cat would die. That cat's expensive. I watched him one day. He would take a step and just get so still you barely could see him. And he'd take another step. And he'd take another step. And then right at the right moment, he's got you. You know, let me tell you what the devil does. He'll watch us for a year. And the minute we drop our guard, he's there. Have you seen churches? Revival, God on the scene. It's not a year later. It's worse than when it begins with. Now, revival wasn't the cause. The devil was, and they dropped their guard. He's a great dragon. Number two, he's called the old serpent. Now, when you think of a serpent, cunning and crafty. Now, one of the greatest moves of the devil today, he comes as an angel of light. And as much being said, that's revival. My friends, you men and women know it's not. And we ought to address the issue with love and firmness. Subjective experiences, it's not necessarily revival. And the enemy will come. And it will look just like the Lord. But unless you're discerning and know the book, you'll be off. Let me ask you a question. What's the most dangerous clock? One that's off an hour or one that's off five minutes? Obviously, the one that's off five minutes, the one that's off an hour. You know quickly it's off, but five minutes you might not know, but they're still off. That's why Miss Penn Lewis and Evan Roberts wrote the book, War on the Saints, to try to counteract the counter-revival that the devil had in the Welsh Revival. It would do us well to read the unabridged edition of that to find out how the devil's working, especially in the area of passivity today. He's called the devil. And the word devil there in the Greek is diabolos. He's a slanderer. He's a father of lies. He'll tell you a lie and try to make you believe it. Here's one of the greatest lies he tries to tell us. We're not worth a hoot and we'll never be worth a hoot. That is true, but it's not. In Christ Jesus, we've been accepted in the beloved Son and we have throne rights. And because we have throne rights, if God's accepted me, I'm going to be fully on the devil. He's also called Satan, the open enemy of God, our adversary. Then he's called the accuser of the brethren. Now, the devil loves to accuse. He loves to accuse us, number one, in the area of unconfessed sin. If he can do that, he can whip us more. Now, when God convicts, I love what Luther and Ralph have taught, when God convicts, he pours out one thing, leads us to repentance, we get cleansed in the blood and we get free. When the devil speaks, he throws the whole book and even after you confess it, you still feel dirty. Have you ever had someone who's a Christian accuse you of something that wasn't the truth and you got under their condemnation? How many of you have ever had somebody clean your clock? And they enjoy doing it. Just raise your hand. I want to see if I'm in the right place. Clean your clock. I mean, if we're in this long enough and if the devil knows we're carrying two chips on our shoulders, he'll have the nicest of people call us things. He loves to tell us we can't have victory. He loves to tell us things are just fine. He likes to lie about our spiritual condition. That's how he operates. But also in this text we find an army of overcomers. Now, I'm glad that they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony and they loved not their lives unto death. I'm glad the Bible specifies that we're more than conquerors through him that loved us. I was an athlete in high school and college. I never liked to lose a ball game. We never had a party after we lost the game at the last minute. My senior year we had a great basketball team. It was overtime. This sorry team was beating us and we tied them up and went into overtime. They were winning by one point. I broke away for a layup, Brother Ralph. Clear basket. Overtime. The best player on the team. One of the five best in the conference I was in. I go up to shoot the ball and I was so nervous I shot it over the basket. I choked. We lost the game. Did I go back to the locker room and say, boys, let's go have a party. We lost the game. Hallelujah. No. I was so down I didn't want to talk to my girlfriend. I didn't want to talk to my parents. I moped. Why? Because I had been the one that lost the game. A lot of Christians are shouting on credit. Shouting about things that's not even God. I mean, they got a crowd. They got music. They got a great pastor. They're doing this. And if God showed up, it's scared to death. But I'm glad today you and I can be more than conquerors through Him that loved us. Now, the last thing I'd like to say this morning is what are the weapons that we are to use? In this text, there are three I just want to talk about today. Number one, there's the judicial weapon. The judicial weapon. Verse 11. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb. What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Now, when we think about using this weapon, it's not just a magical potion. I think we need to know exactly what the blood has done for us and what the blood has done before the Lord. The blood has justified us. What does it mean to be justified? Now being justified by His blood, Romans 3, 9. It's the act of God. It's an act where God declares us righteous in Jesus Christ. Now, this is so beautiful. You know, all of us here are saints. If you're not a saint, you're an ain't. And I know that's bad English. Now, if we're a saint and God through His blood looks at us, He sees all of us righteous. Why is that important? Well, if I know who I am in Christ Jesus, the devil doesn't have to tell me. I said, yes, you're right, devil. I have sinned, but look at the blood. That is free. Well, preacher, what do I do when somebody tells me I've done them wrong and I've repented and made restitution and they still accuse me? I won't listen to them anymore. They're out of order. If God's declared me righteous in Jesus Christ, in the future, by my exile, I'll treat them better than I used to. They can keep on railing. We don't have to listen to that in our spirit. We're justified. Number two, it brings us redemption. 1 Peter 1.19, we're redeemed by the precious blood of the Lamb. We're bought back with a great price. We're in the devil's jailhouse. God bought us out with His blood and now we're in the kingdom of God. Amen? He is our propitiation. Romans 3.25, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood. You know what propitiation means? His blood satisfied the law of God and God's wrath against sin. It's satisfied. God's satisfied when He sees the blood. Then it brings reconciliation. Ephesians 2.13, but now in Christ Jesus ye who were sometimes afar off were made nigh by the blood of Christ. That means we're brought back into fellowship with the Lord and given great peace. Isn't it wonderful to know that we can have peace with God and the peace of God through the blood of Jesus Christ? And also it talks about sanctification in Hebrews 13.12, Jesus also that He might sanctify the people with His own blood. That means He has set us apart unto Himself. It occurs by the blood. Listen, we can't sanctify ourselves. We're sanctified in Jesus Christ. Then also it's our communion. It continually cleanses us from all sin, the blood of Jesus Christ, 1 John 1.7. Hebrews 10.19, we have boldness to enter into the holiest by what? The blood of Jesus. Now, this is so beautiful. All I have to do is know what the blood has done for me, what the blood has done for God, and the blood gives you and I an entrance into the holy of holies to pray with God and talk with God. It's not what we've done. It's what He's done that gives us the privilege of going before the Lord. It's also our protection. Remember over there in Exodus He said, When I see the blood, I'll pass over you. The blood protects us because the blood has given us the opportunity to be one with God. Now, you know, that judicial weapon ought to be used every day. In our hearts, we ought to realize that because it has justified us, it has sanctified us, it's our propitiation, it's our protection, it's our peace with God. Let me tell you what, folks. We ought to just say, Thank God, if I confess my sins up to date, I'm full of the Spirit of God, I'm as right with God as though I can ever be. The devil has no part of me because I'm seated in the heavenly places with Jesus Christ. We're shooting down on the devil in the person of Christ. Now, in our modern church work, now, you folk are fundamentally in what you believe, but I've been in a lot of churches where they're trying to remove the blood out of the hymn books. I mean, it's rare to hear a saint use the blood of Christ against the devil. And sometimes when they do it, if you're not in line with the Lord, it does no good. But when you know it and the enemy knows it, he can't stand the blood. He can't stand to hear us talk about the blood of the Lamb that was shed on Calvary's cross that washed away our sins. He doesn't like that. And he wants us to be passive about it. That's our judicial weapon, but number two, let's talk about the evidential weapon. The evidential weapon. And by the word of their testimony. Now, the word for word is the Greek word, of course, logos. But the word for testimony is the same word we get the word witness from or the word martyr from. It actually means martyr. Now, you know what that means? You and I ought to be living epistles known and read of men. And we ought to understand the power of this book. Now, I'll tell you, I'm so grateful that as a young, young, young Christian, I had a pastor that told me this was the infallible and inerrant Word of God and told me to meditate on it, to study it, to memorize it, to live it. And he said, every time God speaks to you, Charlie, you come to the altar. The first six months I was a Christian, I was at the altar every service. You know why a lot of us don't have evidential weapon? We quit obeying what he told us to do a long time ago. I mean, evidence means that we are doers of the Word and not hearers only deceiving ourselves. My dear friend Manly Beasley, he's gone to be with Jesus. Brother Russell knew him well and some of you may have met him. The last six years of his life I had intimate fellowship with Manly, watched him closely. He lived what he believed. And he used this story one time. He said, I hope when I die it can be said of me what is written of me. Can it be said of us what's written of us? That's why a lot of people get turned off to our Christianity. They don't see what we say we believe. And he said, I hope maybe one day if the Lord carries my children will have children and their children will have children. And he paints this picture. He said, I hope one day that they'll be up in the attic and they'll be musing through some old items and they'll run across an old picture. And my great-great-grandson will say, Who's that? And my grandson will say, That's your great-great-granddaddy Manly Beasley. I met him when I was a young child. What he like? And he said, I hope and pray my grandson would say, Oh, he was a man that when he walked in the room God walked in with him. He was a man that could get God in one hand and the need of man in the other and bring them together. He was a man that loved God with all of his heart and all of his soul and all of his mind and all of his strength. He was a man that was a living epistle known and read of men. And he said, He was a man that believed in revival. He said, I wish that would be true. If we died today and thirty years from today somebody picked up our picture, what could be said of us that would be living reality of Christianity? You know what chases the devil off? If someone knows you're real and they can sense you walk with God, they won't mess with you a lot. There have been some people I knew that were right with God. I was afraid to deal with them. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him. You know in our pulpits are full of day preachers that don't know God. That's why they get eaten alive by their congregations. There's no option, anointing, power, fervor. Just playing games, in it for the salary. I'm one of them. It burdens me. I look out in the congregation and I pastor that bad group of people. And I'm no better than the rest of them, but I'll tell you, I only see a few Red hot for God, it burdens me. But I see us being satisfied with numbers and nickels, Brother Ralph. And just satisfied with the quo. And the glory's not around. And yet the devil knows that he plays all kinds of games because there's not enough evidence in our community that our church is alive. I've intentionally, as a pastor, tried to set up a situation where there's not a lot of draw and carve beside the Word of God. Good hymn singing, good praying, a few activities, come hear the Word. You know what happens when you get them that way? They stick when you preach the book. We put a lot of hooks, bait on hooks today that'll get them in. If you don't put that bait anymore, they'll leave you. Christian rock. Why are you addressing that, Pastor? It's out of the pit. I'm not trying to be controversial. I'm just trying to help you. I came out of the rock culture. It grieves God. Wouldn't you like to see a group of young people get together and say, listen, let's not play this stuff. Let's pray and have a prayer meeting and preach the Word of Brother Charles. Evidential weapon, judicial weapon, number three, the sacrificial weapon. And they loved not their lives unto the death. When you love not your life unto death, one of the other translations said, they held their lives cheap. It did not shrink even from death. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies to living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is a reasonable service. Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that you'll know the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. You know, we have such an easy time in our culture that sacrifice is a curse word to many Christians. All night prayer meetings. What are you talking about, preacher? My time is valuable. Whose time is it? Mine or God's? It's the last time we were led to sacrifice and we knew we were doing it just for the Lord and we didn't brag about it. We did it for God. Where are the saints that are being shipped off to farm fields? Men who are paying the price. Men and women who have laid down their lives. Where is that group of young men and women being raised up today? No, we've got people saying, what is it in for me, pastor? David Brainerd was a man, you've read his diary, that would sit out in a snowstorm and pray until the snow melted around. He hazarded his life for Christ. Jonathan Edwards saw him on his dime bed and it greatly impressed his heart. He loved those Indians. He was mistreated. Wesley would be spit upon. Rocks thrown at him. Yet he would go on for Christ. The Moravians loved Saul so much that they saw a group of men and women who were slaves going to an island and they'd spend their life over there. They loved Saul so much, several young men sold themselves into slavery just to be missionaries on that island. Where is that spirit today? William Borden. You've heard the story. Gave up a great amount of wealth for the Lord. Went to Egypt, going to a mission field. He died. They said, what a tragedy. They found these three words in the fly leaf of his Bible. No reserves. No retreats. No regrets. Where is that spirit today? You know, when the enemy knows you and I could care less about our lives, what can he do to us? What can he do to us? If someone's dead, what does Christism do to them? Nothing. They're dead. The enemy loves to attack our faith. He says, don't pay the price. People think you're crazy. Most folks that love the Lord on fire are oddballs as far as the world's concerned in modern Christendom. Revival? That's not a popular word when you preach what real revival is. Brother Ralph? Modern day Christendom's not going to fly but when it does come, God will sweep them in. What the devil loves to do with all of us is discourage us not to believe God that revival will come. I refuse to doubt the Lord. I refuse to. For a preacher, don't you know? I've seen the book. You've seen the book, haven't you? You've seen it occur. What would hinder God from sending revival today? He's sovereign. He can do it when he wants to. We set ourselves up to catch the winds of God but when it does happen, I hope mine are up. I stayed with a man in South Africa called George Matabuka. He's a black man. Very, very black. I stayed at his home outside of Pretoria. He was a man that just four months before I stayed at his home, his house was broken into and he was threatened to be killed. Several years earlier, because he was such a fine gospel preacher, he was kidnapped by three men, thrown into the trunk of a car, carried to a small hill outside of Pretoria and they were going to necklace him. Put a car tire around his neck, put barbed wire around him, doused the car tire with gasoline and set it aflame. They began to talk about that. I've heard him tell this story. I've met him. Preaching in his church. And in the trunk of the car, he heard them saying, we can't necklace him. We forgot the gasoline can but let's just strike a match and throw it in the tank and blow this car up. It's an old car. We'll steal another car. The minute they struck a match, God sent a rain storm and blew out the match. Well, they said, we got this machete that's just cut his neck. He's an enemy of our government. He's the white man's puppet. And they opened the trunk and they said, when they opened the trunk, there was George smiling from ear to ear. They said, George, why are you smiling? We're going to kill you. And he said, these were... And it scared them to death and they backed off and said, George, your God is greater than I, let our God go. And he walked for a number of hours to get home and when he got back to his house, there was his wife and his church on their knees praying that George would be delivered. Now listen, when that man walks in the pulpit, God walks up with him. Were you afraid staying in that home, Brother Charlie, knowing that bandits could come in? Of course not. My time's in the hands of God. I'm just as safe in South Africa as I am on the freeway in Atlanta. Maybe safer. We're so tiptoe through the tulips. Let's watch where we're going. Boy, I'd love to see some people wide open for Christ. They said, Brother, why do you preach the way you do? Why are you so gregarious? I don't know. Ask him. I've been this way since the day I got saved. Have we defeated the devil lately? Have we routed him? Have we used the evidential weapon and the judicial weapon and the sacrificial weapon? Hey, when he comes against us, we run him off. It's my encouragement to you and myself today. There will be people of God aware of the warfare, but more aware of our own God when the devil does come. We just treat him as a defeated foe. You little old puppy dog. The devil reminds me of a little Chihuahua puppy I used to have when I grew up. His name was Sandy. He weighed all of two pounds. And he got old and lost all of his teeth. And one day the oil man was pumping some oil into the big tank behind the house. Sandy had a big bark. And the way that my house was built in the country, it sounded like a lion coming. He went, woo! I saw a 200-pound man climb on top of his truck at the bark of a two-pound Chihuahua dog. I laughed out the window, pointed at it. That's the way a lot of Christians are. They're up on the side of the wall and the devil's barking and they don't know that he's nothing but a Chihuahua who's had his teeth plucked out at Calvary. He's spoiled all principalities and powers. We have delegated authority, folks. Let's take the devil on as God gives us the unction to do it and let him know who has already won the victory. Let's bow together and pray. Father, take this very simple message. The points that you want to drive home, keep them there, Lord. Those that, Lord, you want to let go, you do it. May we understand that the war has already been won. Help us to be more aware of your presence in the devil, but when he does poke his head in, we can use these weapons to be victors in you. In Jesus' name, amen.