Participants: Ivor and Atonte Myers
Series Code: BOF
Program Code: BOF000032
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00:15 Welcome to Battles of Faith. We are you host
00:16 Ivor and Atonte Myers. Today's program 00:20 is entitled The art of counter crucifixion. 00:24 And we've been talking about the war that 00:27 we are in as Christians and if you've been watching 00:29 the last several programs we've been going over 00:31 the different arts of how to fight and we are 00:34 continuing that today. Well, Atonte this program 00:38 is going to be we're gonna have to take this one step 00:41 by step because art of counter crucifixion 00:44 is something that I believe is a very powerful 00:46 principle, but we're gonna have to unfold 00:48 this, so we're gonna jump right into the scriptures 00:50 and we're gonna go to the book of 00:52 Psalm chapter 18 and in Psalm chapter 18 00:55 David is here writing and he is writing about the 00:59 victories that God has given him over his enemies. 01:01 And I want you to notice just a couple of verses 01:03 from this chapter in verse 37 notice what David says, 01:08 I have pursued my enemies and overtaking them; 01:12 neither did I turn again till they were consumed. 01:16 Notice verse 40, Thou hast also given me the necks 01:19 of mine enemies, that I might destroy them 01:21 that hate me. Verse 42, Then did I beat them 01:25 small as the dust before the wind; I did cast them 01:29 out as the dirt in the streets and we will read 01:32 couple more verse 47, it is God that avengeth me, 01:36 and subdueth the people under me. 01:39 Ye he delivereth me from mine enemies thou liftest me 01:43 up above those that rise up against me thou hast 01:46 delivered me from the violent man. 01:48 Now, David here speaking about his war conquest, 01:52 but we wanna take these verses and look 01:54 at them in light of the New Testament because 01:57 Jesus has come on the scene to give us victory 02:01 over our enemies. And the question Atonte is who 02:06 are our enemies? We are not talking about people 02:09 as we have seen in the past programs. 02:12 We are talking about the enemy of self, the enemy 02:15 of sin and temptation. Now, I want you to notice 02:18 Micah chapter 7:18. Micah 7:18, listen to what 02:23 it says here, who is God, Who is a God like unto thee, 02:27 that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the 02:30 transgression of the remnant of his heritage? 02:34 he retaineth not his anger for ever, 02:36 because he delighteth in mercy. Verse 19, 02:39 He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; 02:42 he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all 02:47 their sins into the depths of the sea. 02:50 We see here that God says I will subdue not physical 02:54 enemies, but your iniquities. So, if we would go back 02:58 and read the Psalms again, Psalm chapter 18 03:01 and read these verses about David pursuing his 03:04 enemies and overtaking them. The way that we ought 03:08 to read that as Christians is these verses are God's 03:12 promises of what he will do to our sins. 03:16 He will give us the power to overcome our sins 03:19 not only to, to, to avoid them but to actually over 03:24 take them. What is that mean to counter in a war. 03:30 It means that you not only maybe defend 03:34 yourself, but you also go after the enemy and, 03:38 and we are being told according to what we have 03:41 read here we've been told that God wants us 03:43 to go after our sins and subdue them grab them by 03:49 the neck counter crucify them as it were and 03:52 subdue them. You know as Christians Atonte 03:55 we often limit our warfare to defense you know 03:59 Oh! that was a close call miss, that was a close call 04:02 miss, but God says no I want you to do more than 04:05 that I don't want to just be on the defensive 04:08 I want you to be an offensive Christian. 04:10 I want you to go after your sins and to destroy 04:15 them in my power and by my grace. 04:17 Now, isn't that good news I mean that this to me is 04:21 the Gospel that's right. This is, this is what should 04:25 excite people and this is what we can take to the world 04:28 because right now sin is dominating our world 04:31 and it's dominating peoples lives and they are 04:36 hurting and their sadness and there are so many bad 04:38 things, but God is saying look, I want to use you 04:41 Mr. or Mrs. Christian to go and take this to the world, 04:44 but you must experience it first. That's right, 04:46 we have to move from a defensive based Christianity 04:50 to an offensive based Christianity the Bible says, 04:53 the violent take the kingdom of Heaven by force 04:57 and what the Bible is talking about there is not that, 05:00 that Christians ought to become physically 05:03 violent, but they must exert a spiritual violence. 05:06 In other words, a spiritual just all their energy, 05:13 all their force in order to take the kingdom of heaven, 05:16 because we must serve God with all of our heart, 05:18 heart, all our souls, and all our mind and that means 05:22 that when it comes to our enemies, which itself 05:26 the temptations the sins. Not only are we to be to 05:30 defend ourselves in the grace of Christ, but 05:34 we are also to turn around and to grab hold of those 05:37 sins and destroy them put them away as our 05:40 Second Corinthians 10 says, bring every disobedient 05:44 thought into captivity to Christ, to cast down 05:47 those thoughts. And interestingly enough the 05:50 Greek definition for the word cast out means to 05:53 destroy. So God is here calling us to destroy not just 05:58 bring into captivity these thoughts, but destroy 06:01 every unclean thought, destroy every temptation 06:03 when temptation comes we are called not only 06:07 to defend ourselves against it, but to counter 06:09 crucify. Do you sometimes feel that your situation 06:13 is hopeless that your sin is so big and so much 06:16 stronger than you that there is just no hope. 06:19 It is our prayer that these messages will be a blessing 06:22 to you and that you will believe that God can 06:25 do this in your life because even as, 06:28 as we're recording I can just imagine Satan being 06:31 angry because it's like wait a minute we are going 06:34 over the steps, where that they are understanding 06:36 the formula what it takes to defeat me and I know 06:39 he is not happy, but praise God. That's right, 06:41 we wanna layout some principles in this particular 06:43 program on how the Art of Counter Crucifixion works 06:47 and the first thing we want to talk about is defense. 06:51 What is it mean for Christian to be on the defense 06:55 to be ready for an attack and to ward off that attack. 07:00 And Atonte the answer is amazingly simple. 07:04 We're gonna talk about stance for a moment 07:08 or position, position. Now it's a, it's a known fact 07:12 Atonte that you know if you have a person standing next 07:15 to you, they're just standing outright straight and you 07:17 were to push that person what would happen 07:20 that person would fall over why? Because 07:22 his center of gravity is what? High, 07:25 is high, but if that same person were to get into 07:29 a stance and that's what they teach in any fighting 07:33 system, any physical fighting system they teach you 07:36 that before you begin to fight the first thing 07:38 you must do is get down into your stance or your 07:43 position. Why do they say that because you have 07:47 to have balance. Your center of gravity has to be low 07:53 when your knees are bent hint, hint when your knees 07:57 are bent and your feet are wide apart, your center 08:01 of gravity is lowered and if someone were to try 08:05 to push you over it will be more difficult for you to be 08:09 pushed over when you are low than when you are high. 08:13 Now, this principle is crucial Atonte because 08:17 I want you to notice in Psalms 18 Verse 36, 08:20 how David points this out he says, 08:22 Thou hast enlarged my steps under me, 08:27 and the margin actually needs to widened. 08:29 So David said you had widened my steps under me 08:32 so that I did not fall or so that my feet did not slip. 08:36 What do we talking about here, we're talking about 08:39 a stance we're talking about a position, you have 08:43 placed me upon the rock and you have lowered 08:46 or widen my steps so that I would not fall or 08:49 would not be pushed off balance. You know, 08:51 Atonte unfortunately many Christians are push 08:54 overs when it comes to the Devil, 08:56 when it comes to temptation. All the Devil has to 08:59 do is push why? Because our center of gravity is what? 09:04 High, is high. The first thing that we must learn 09:08 in this Art of Counter Crucifixion is how to lower 09:12 our center of gravity. What I mean when 09:14 I say lower our center of gravity it means to become 09:21 humble. It means to become lowly. 09:23 And the Bible says pride cometh before a fall. 09:25 That's right, so you got to be pretty puffed up 09:28 when you puffed up it's easy for Satan to push you 09:30 over. Pride comes before a fall and a Holy Spirit 09:34 or rather Holy Spirit comes with pride can goeth 09:37 before destruction, right, and a Holy Spirit 09:39 before a fall, right. This is how temptation works 09:43 Atonte. The Devil knows that all he has to do 09:46 is to cause you to rise and you know that's what 09:49 temptation does it causes us to rise. 09:52 Someone says something to you and all of the sudden 09:54 you rise, that's right, because you are now under 09:57 defense and as soon as you rise your center 10:00 of gravity as it was spiritually speaking your 10:03 center of gravity is not lifted up and all the Devil 10:06 has to do is to sweep you. Just sweep those legs out 10:10 from under you and what happens we fall, we fall. 10:13 So if we can learn how to master humbleness 10:17 how to remain low and that's why Jesus never fell, 10:22 because he never what? Exalted himself, 10:26 his center of gravity was always low. You know 10:30 I has had a thought you not, you don't get as offended 10:33 as much the places where you get offended 10:35 the most are in your home with your spouse or with 10:38 our children and at your church I mean my husband 10:41 is a pastor I'm a pastor's wife we work with people 10:43 all the time we know there is always offended 10:45 people over something and people always saying 10:47 something that they shouldn't be saying and it's 10:49 completely Satan, but these things wouldn't happen 10:52 if we were getting puffed up if the pride if we just 10:55 did, if we just laid low. Satan would not able to, 10:58 to push us over. That's right, the Bible says, 11:00 "Great peace have they which love thy law: 11:02 and nothing shall offend them. " In other words 11:05 temptations cannot come in and cause them to rise 11:08 any temptation you look at the temptation of adultery. 11:10 Temptation comes in and says man you deserve 11:14 this you deserve better than what you have right now. 11:17 Temptation causes us to rise and once we rise once 11:21 our center of gravity has been lifted up the Devil 11:23 just comes in sweeps and we fall. We make his job easy, 11:28 exactly, we need to make his job very hard. 11:31 If we surrendered and stay low with God 11:35 like Jesus. Jesus was humble and meek and if we would 11:39 allow God to work those attributes in us Satan's job 11:43 to try to get us to fall would be much harder right now. 11:46 It's very easy, push and sweep, that's right. 11:50 Or lift and sweep and don't be a push over, right. 11:53 You know this bending the knees idea, idea of bending 11:57 the knees. So, that you can get lower how do we get 11:59 lower there is only one way to get lower and it is by 12:01 bending the knees. This is why the art of deep 12:05 breathing is so important. These things have set us 12:08 up step by step to learn how to deal with the 12:12 actual crisis. You know, in, in, in war, in battle. 12:16 In war I should say there is the drill and then there 12:22 is real time conflict or what you do in the drill matters 12:28 but what you do in real time conflict matters more, 12:32 that's right. You see, it's not about what we talk 12:35 and what we hate, this is what you do in the when 12:37 the Christ comes. We can talk these things, but what 12:40 happens in the midst of the crisis that's what really 12:43 counts and these things learning to still and beside 12:47 in, learning to focus and to breath deep, 12:49 leaning to know without knowing and fight by, 12:54 by not resistant God. Knowing these things and 12:58 understanding these things and mastering these principles 13:01 will help us to this, get to this ultimate level 13:04 of actually overcoming counter crucifying as it were 13:10 the temptations that the devil throws out at us. 13:13 Now, I was never a martial artist, but for what I 13:15 learned from my husband and when I can see 13:17 from people who, who do that, that art that training 13:21 or whatever, if you are low you can see the enemy 13:24 coming better, that's right, you have a better 13:26 understanding of your surroundings. 13:27 You have control over the situation instead 13:30 of the situation taking over you? That's right, 13:32 when we are on our knees when we are praying. 13:34 When we are praying for humility we can never be a 13:38 offended if we are low, right, in Christ and that's why 13:42 the Bible Jesus says come unto me for I am meek 13:44 and lowly, I mean he was trying to tell us something 13:48 here the way of escape is by coming to Jesus 13:52 and he teaches us how to be meek and how to be lowly 13:56 and those who are lowly cannot be pushed around 13:59 or pushed over by temptation. So that's the first 14:02 principle understanding our position, our stance if you 14:06 are falling check your stance, that's right, 14:08 check your position, your position, your center of 14:12 gravity is too high and you need to come down 14:15 and when we come down Satan exalted himself. 14:19 Jesus humbled himself even unto the death of the 14:22 cross and that's what we ought to do in the midst 14:24 of crisis and trial. And that's why the Bible says 14:26 "Great peace have they which love thy law: 14:29 and nothing shall offend them. " For a long time 14:31 I struggle with that because I thought look how make 14:34 it not appears you what they said was rude you know 14:36 but if you are like Jesus, Jesus was never offended 14:39 and people were rude to him, but he wasn't 14:42 offended they were very mean to him. 14:43 But if you lay low like Jesus did the offense 14:46 can't touch you it's almost like the offense 14:48 doesn't go that low. That's right, now we're gonna 14:51 to talk about another principle Atonte in this art 14:53 of counter crucifixion and that is protecting the 14:56 center line. Protecting the center line again 14:59 in any system of war fighting system of war 15:02 you were taught that you must protect your center 15:04 line because the vital organs are found in the 15:08 center line. They are not found on the outer parameters, 15:11 but right in the center and in the same way as Christians 15:15 we need to understand that the devil is out to attack 15:18 the center line. What's in the center? Our minds, 15:22 our hearts and, and, and once we realize 15:26 what were Satan is aiming? We've got to learn 15:29 how to protect these center lines. Now, 15:31 you say what how do we protect the center line what 15:34 are our deflectors. What the Devil really has you know 15:37 a few ways of entering into the mind, but one of 15:40 those ways is through the eyes, one of those 15:44 ways is through the tongue, the mouth, 15:46 one of those ways is through the ears and what we need 15:50 to do as Christians is to understand that our eyes 15:53 and our ears and our tongue are to be the deflectors 15:57 as it were, that deflects Satan's blows from coming 16:01 in here. So, when the Devil tempts us with, with, 16:03 with sight our eyes ought to deflect move away from 16:09 what the devil is trying to show you. Turn your eyes shift 16:11 them. Use your eyes as deflectors and not receptors. 16:17 You know, lot of people say man if I was only, 16:19 if I was just blind life would be so much better. 16:21 I wouldn't have any temptation to deal with it, 16:24 if I was just deaf you know things wouldn't 16:26 offend me all the time. No our ears ought to be 16:29 our defense mechanism, our eyes ought to be our 16:32 defense when we dedicate our eyes to Christ 16:34 and our ears to Christ as we're walking throughout 16:37 the day and we hear something instead of receiving 16:41 those things into our ear and allowing them to dwell 16:44 in our hearts. We, we, we deflect those we say Lord 16:48 I give this over to you I will not allow it to enter 16:50 into my heart and to hit the target. 16:53 We've got to learn to protect as it were the center line, 16:57 the same is true with the eyes, the same is true 16:59 with the ears. Protect don't allow the Devil 17:01 to come in and lodge his thoughts into our minds 17:04 and then into our hearts. Now, what is trapping? 17:07 Okay, we're gonna talk about the next principle 17:10 which is trapping and this is a really amazing thing 17:15 Atonte because in Second Corinthians chapter 10. 17:18 Second Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 5, 17:21 the Bible tells us there and we've read this verse 17:25 a few times already, but the Bible talks about bringing 17:30 into captivity every thought to be obedience of Christ 17:35 and it uses the word captivity. Now, I would say 17:38 you what does captivity mean? Well, what you 17:41 would answer to me captivity means, that you have been 17:44 caught or trapped. Second Corinthians 10:5, 17:49 Casting down imagination, and every high thing 17:51 that exalted itself against the knowledge of God, and 17:53 bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience 17:58 of Christ. We are seeing in this scripture that when 18:02 Satan sends one of those thought bombs we are 18:05 talking about earlier that, that when he is addresses 18:08 or tries to lodge his temptations into our hearts 18:12 these evil thoughts and evil feelings we ought to trap 18:17 them. We ought to bring them into captivity one of the 18:21 ways in which many fighting systems of a worldly 18:25 nature operate is you know if you throw a punch 18:28 at someone, they would trap your hands 18:30 that you would not able to throw another punch. 18:32 What Christ is coming us to do here is that when the 18:34 temptation comes in you trapped that thought you 18:38 bring into captivity to Christ you don't allow that 18:41 thought to wander around in your heart and in your mind 18:43 and just have it's own will. You trap it and you bring 18:47 it into captivity to Christ and again this is another 18:51 principle this another lesson that can only be learned 18:55 and that can only be exercise through the grace of Christ. 18:59 We need to be still, be silent focus and breath deep 19:04 without breathing deep, without understanding the 19:08 indwelling of the spirit of God it will be impossible 19:12 for us to capture these thoughts and bring them into 19:15 captivity to Christ. So, you have to identify though, 19:18 that's right, and know that, these are evil not be 19:21 a denial and that's what I think some of us are stock, 19:26 you know we think oh it's not so bad you know 19:29 I can think about that or do that. But you must identify 19:33 it as evil. That's right. And now Atonte that same 19:35 verse up in verse 5 very first line it says casting 19:38 down imaginations we saw earlier that the word 19:42 for casting down implies to destroy, alright, 19:45 look at that, the Bible is telling us here that through 19:48 the grace of Christ we can actually destroy imagination, 19:52 counter crucifixion. Evil imagination, 19:55 evil imagination God calls us not only to bring that 19:59 evil thought into captivity but then to destroy it. 20:02 So, we trap and then we Destroy. We take no prisoners 20:06 of war. No prisoners of war, no evil thoughts 20:09 running around in our hearts. We captured, 20:12 we trap, and then we destroy. You know, sometimes 20:17 we say Lord give me a clean heart make my 20:20 heart pure. God is saying, I will do that for you 20:23 if you are willing to allow me to do that, 20:25 it's not just like a zap boom magic kind of thing. 20:28 God is saying look you surrender each thing to me 20:32 and I will do that for you. And so if we really want 20:36 a clean heart a pure heart it's really our mind. 20:38 We want clean thoughts and 20:40 pure thoughts and God says I will do that for you. 20:43 You know there is another verse Atonte that is the 20:47 powerfully illustrates this point, it's actually found 20:49 in the Book of Galatians chapter 5, 20:52 Galatians chapter 5 and verse 24 and it's says here. 21:00 And they that are Christ have crucified the flesh 21:05 with the affections and lust. Now, you've never read 21:10 that verse in your life before Crucified the affections 21:14 and the lust, now remember the lust and affections 21:17 and temptations are busy trying to do what? 21:20 Crucify us, yes they are trying to kill us, 21:23 they are trying to destroy us, but the Bible says 21:25 that they that are Christ have crucified the flesh 21:30 and the affections and the lust. Wait a minute are you 21:33 telling me that you are calling me to counter crucify 21:40 sin to counter crucify lust and the Bible says yes that's 21:44 exactly what I'm telling you. If you live in the Spirit 21:47 walk in the spirit it is by the spirit of God that we 21:51 learned how to eliminate that temptation by actually 21:54 crucifying the affection and the lust. That means 21:57 bringing it to an end, destroying it. 22:01 The question is how in the world, do we astray, do we 22:04 counter crucify sin. We've seen God said here, we 22:08 seen it in his word that he calls us to do this. 22:11 You know when you are fighting a battle against 22:13 someone and that person seems very strong. 22:15 You know you ask yourself one question does this 22:18 person have a weak point, does this person 22:22 have a weak spot and we ought to ask the same question 22:26 of temptation. Does temptation have a weak spot? 22:31 You know on face value it seems like temptation 22:35 can have a weak spot, temptation is impervious 22:37 to anything, temptation cannot be defeated, but 22:40 Atonte we know that temptation must have a weak 22:43 spot because we are told to do what? To crucify, 22:46 to crucify, to crucify the lust, to crucify affections. 22:50 Now, we do know from this verse, but we also know 22:53 it because Jesus himself over came temptation. 22:58 He crucified it. So, we need to understand yes 23:03 temptation does have a weak spot well the question 23:06 is what is temptations weak spot? And the answer 23:12 is again amazingly simple. What is the power of 23:16 temptation? Temptation causes us to what? Rise. 23:21 The center of gravity as it were for temptation 23:26 is in its height. Remember Satan exalted himself Jesus 23:33 humbled himself. Where do we strike at temptation 23:37 is the question. How do we strike a temptation? 23:40 The answer is we strike low, very low, we strike low 23:46 in responding low, in striking low. 23:49 Remember Jesus said I'm meek and what lowly in 23:54 striking low Jesus was always able to overcome sin. 23:59 He never allowed sin to lift him up and thus give 24:04 temptation the advantage, he always kept himself low 24:08 and he struggle. You say what do you mean strike 24:10 little? Pastor listen. Someone says something to you 24:13 and it in your natural mind you would in your 24:17 natural response you would strike high. 24:18 And you will go, defend myself, I'm gonna defend 24:21 myself. How dare you that's what call striking high. 24:24 You are striking back high, 24:26 You strike low by refusing to retaliate evil for evil. 24:31 I imagine it this way like temptation is coming 24:34 and looking for the person to tempt them, 24:37 but the person is laying so low that they can't pick 24:40 the temptations right were we can't kept pick 24:41 the person. That's right, the radar of temptation 24:43 cannot pick you up because you are underneath 24:46 you are low, you are underneath its radar 24:48 screening. And you are heading Christ. 24:49 You know, when Jesus was blindfolded and the 24:53 Roman soldiers were, were, were hitting him 24:57 and saying prophecy unto us who swear you? 25:00 Atonte, I always imagine this Jesus could call 25:04 blindfolded that he could call their names out, yes, 25:07 and probably giving them a heart attack, but 25:10 he did not, he did not try to prove himself 25:15 he strike low, how did he strike low? 25:17 By not answering a word, how do we strike low 25:20 by doing the humble thing, how do we strike low 25:25 by when temptation says men don't you deserve 25:27 this you say no I don't deserve that. 25:30 You strike low, when temptation says man you 25:32 deserve better than your husband or your wife 25:34 and you ought to go out and do this. You ought 25:36 to indulge yourself you strike low by saying 25:39 no I'm not worthy of that. I'm not worthy 25:41 of bearing the cross of Christ I'm not worthy of, of, 25:45 of you know I am the lowest of the low and Jesus 25:48 says those who are will humble themselves 25:51 will be what? Exalted, but those who exalt 25:54 themselves will be humbled. So, in as is Atonte 26:00 what is the message we have? Be still, 26:05 be silent focus and breath deep know without knowing 26:13 fight without fighting and counter crucify 26:19 and if we learn this process whenever 26:22 temptation arises we learn this process of being 26:25 still, silent, focus, breathing deep asking 26:28 for the spirit of God to fill us know without 26:30 knowing. Lord what's the way you want me to go? 26:31 How do I deal with this? fight without fighting 26:33 by refusing to engage the enemy counter crucify 26:39 by trapping by staying low trapping and destroying 26:42 that sinful thought in the grace of Christ we become 26:46 masters over self. And he who has master self 26:51 is greater than he who masters others. You know, 26:56 I feel compelled right now because I know many 27:00 people are watching and to make an appeal to ask 27:04 them to make a decision to say Lord I want to learn 27:08 these arts I want this to be a part of my life, 27:11 I want to trap my enemy, which is Satan and self 27:18 and to make that decision and to make the decision, 27:21 make a conscious decision say this is what I want 27:23 in my life and I want God to give me the power 27:27 to do that. That's right, you know as warriors 27:29 we need to learn how to fight and be persistent 27:32 in fighting. Many times we get knock down, but Atonte 27:36 real fighters always get up they say where did 27:39 I go wrong they study that how do I make it? 27:42 How do that I mess up there they study it and they go 27:45 back to there master Jesus Christ and they say 27:48 master continue to teach me and eventually day 27:51 by day they become better and better in the grace 27:55 of Christ until they master self. 27:59 Well we all at a time until next time God bless. |
Revised 2014-12-17