THE BATTLE WE MUST FIGHT!
THEME: MADE BATTLE-FIT
DATE: 1/7/2024
TOPIC: THE BATTLE WE MUST FIGHT!
TEXT: JEREMIAH 4:19
BIBLE STUDY: TITUS 2
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Glory be to the Lord for Juicy July 2024. Wasn’t it just like yesterday that we had the Juicy July 2023? Oh, how time flies! Thanks be to the Lord God who has kept us to this day to be able to launch into some very hot sessions of prayer again.
I want to specially congratulate those who took the just concluded The Woman in His Steps Discipleship Course because that was the stepping stone into this very prayer season. If you are now well accustomed to the ways of your Lord and King, you will be able to do battle well. So, congratulations once again and I do trust the Lord that He will go before us all on this journey and make us into weapons for Himself. Amen.
PRAYER
As we go into what the Lord has for us for today, can you just bow your head and ask the Lord to speak to you? That He would make His word real in your heart and that He might awaken you unto understanding. Amen.
WORSHIP
Take a worship song (A worship song is a song, not about how good the Lord has been to you, (that is ‘praise’) but how worthy the Lord is, how great He is, how mighty He is. It is not about you or your family but about HIM! Worship His Holiness, worship His greatness, adore His majesty. Make sure you really worship before you move on from here.
INTRODUCTION
We have been condemned to a fight whether we like it or not! We cannot NOT fight if we must live victoriously in this world and also make it to Heaven! But something must happen to us before we can fight! A natural man just wants to ‘relax and be taken care of’. There is even a Yoruba saying making the rounds these days ‘Se ogun laye ni?’ translated to mean ‘Is this life a battle?’ So, it is natural that so many people do not want to fight—no, no, they actually want to fight—using their mouths, their thoughts, their actions, their eyes, their pens, their money, lawsuits, manipulations and so on—but never with their spirits! Never on their knees! And this is the SINGLE fight we actually need to engage in all our lives! The only single one, I tell you!
Our text says in Jeremiah 4:19 that: “Oh, my anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain. Oh, the agony of my heart! My heart pounds within me, I cannot keep silent. For I have heard the sound of the trumpet; I have heard the battle cry.”
Something must happen to our ears! We must hear something! We must know something! We must see something! Or we will continue to live our lives anyhow. Imagine throwing someone who is completely blind and completely deaf and completely insensitive in her skin into the middle of a hot battle. Smooth, easy prey! Oh, fast way to becoming a victim!
If nothing happens to our spiritual senses, our hearts will be unchanged. And if our hearts are unchanged, we cannot engage in spiritual battles, much less win them!
Today, we need to ask the Lord to do something to our hearts, our eyes, and ears. And maybe God has started speaking to you via dreams and visions, but instead of seeing them as calls to battle, they weaken you and make you wonder, ‘Why is my own life like this? Why must it be a bad dream every time?’
Ah, dear sis, those are calls for battles that you have ignored! Those are battle cries that are meant to throw your soul into pains and anguishes that should make you battle in prayers to breakthrough.
The Devil needs you to be frustrated.
He needs you to be sick and maimed.
He needs you to live a failed spiritual life.
He needs you to be mentally and emotionally unstable.
He needs you to be a failure.
He needs you to be chasing the wrong things of life and never be anything close to God’s plan for your life.
He needs you to be manipulated and subdued.
He needs your marriage to become a home for him- a place of strife and an incubator of vagabond children.
He needs you to be financially unstable so he can keep you in destitution, desperation and have you start chasing around ‘nothings’!
He needs you to be kept in bondages of fear, insecurity and self-deceit.
He needs you to fulfill his agenda.
He needs you to fail God.
The Devil has a written plan for your life and if you dare try to work contrary to it by choosing the way of your Maker, his arch-enemy, then, the battle line is drawn!
Let me tell you a story to further drive home the point today.
THE TALE OF TWO SISTERS
In the peaceful village of Elmswood, two twin sisters, Althea and Selene, lived lives as different as night and day. Althea was dedicated to the way of the warrior. She spent her days training rigorously, mastering the art of combat, and fortifying her home with her husband, equally a warrior. Their children, even the youngest, trained with small swords, prepared to defend their home if ever needed.
Selene, on the other hand, embraced a life of ease and pleasure. She surrounded herself with friends, pets, music, and the simple joys of life. She laughed at Althea’s seriousness and hard work. “Why live in fear of battles that may never come?” she would say. Selene invested her time in accumulating wealth, clothes, pets, and all the luxuries life could offer.
The villagers often compared the sisters. Althea’s dedication was seen as extreme, even unnecessary. They mocked her efforts, especially her relentless construction of defenses around her home. “Why build walls in a time of peace?” they jeered. Selene, with her charm and carefree spirit, however, was praised and admired.
One fateful day, the tranquility of Elmswood was shattered. Marauders descended upon the village, bringing destruction and terror. The villagers, unprepared for such an attack, were thrown into chaos. Selene’s friends fled in panic, their screams piercing the air. Their fortunes were left defenseless, and the marauders set everything ablaze.
Selene, paralyzed with fear, watched helplessly as her world crumbled. Her beloved pets were slain, her wealth stolen, and her beautiful clothes reduced to ashes. The life she had built on ease and comfort was being torn apart before her eyes. As she tried to escape, an arrow struck her side, and she fell, writhing in pain, moments away from death. As one of the enemies prepared his sword to cut off her head, a five-headed arrow hit his side and he fell down dead. Selene managed to look up and it was Althea, standing over her, her sword stained with the blood of the enemy. She had been fighting for the land. She lifted the bleeding Selene onto her shoulders and the latter hung so dearly to her neck shivering in pain and losing her life with each drop of blood she was losing.
With great determination, Althea carried Selene through the burning village, fighting off marauders with one hand while supporting her sister with the other. “We must fight, or we lose everything we hold dear,” she whispered fiercely.
As they approached Althea’s fortified home, they found it surrounded by enemies. Undeterred, Althea singlehandedly fought off the attackers, her sister still hanging down her neck. “This is an off-zone! How dare you!” she shouted, striking down foe after foe.
Inside, Althea’s husband and children were defending their home with skill and courage. Even the youngest children held little spears that they were throwing over the fence. Their pets were safe, and their supplies intact, thanks to the preparations Althea had insisted on.
Inside the safety of the defenses she had built, Althea laid Selene down gently. Selene, weakened and in pain, looked at her sister with sorrowful eyes. “I never understood why you chose this path,” she said, her voice trembling. “But now I see. Your strength saved us all.”
Althea nodded, her eyes softening. “The battles we must fight are not chosen, but they define us. To live without fighting is to live as a victim. We cannot not fight or we perish!”
Selene, tears streaming down her face, whispered, “I was wrong. I should have listened. You saved us all, ah.”
In the days that followed, Althea’s home became a sanctuary. Villagers knocked on her door, seeking help and comfort. Those who had scoffed at her preparations now looked to her for guidance. Althea and her husband shared their food supplies with the hungry, and the village began to rebuild.
Many villagers, realizing the importance of being prepared, enrolled in training under Althea and her husband. Even the children learned to wield small swords, understanding that “A fortress stands long after a cottage falls.”
The story of Althea and Selene became a powerful lesson for Elmswood. They learned that a life of ease might seem appealing, but it is the warrior’s heart that protects and sustains. “There are two choices of living. One is to live as a victor and one is to live as a victim,” Althea would often say. “The battles of life will come one time or the other to reveal the paths that we chose!”
THE BATTLE CRY
Can you see this story? Isn’t it so loaded with so many lessons? Extremely loaded! However, the key thing is that there was an unwritten battle cry somewhere! Oh yes! There was the sound of the trumpet that Althea heard which others couldn’t!
There was something Althea must have heard in her spirit that others couldn’t hear. There must have been things written on her visions, in her dreams that kept her on her toes. She couldn’t sleep off the way other people were sleeping.
They made a joke of her but she kept building her fortresses. They laughed at her to scorn but she couldn’t stop mounting up her defense. That was not normal. It was because she had heard something. Oh, dear sisters, we need to hear something! We need to see something!
Oh, how I pray that our souls are disquieted within us until we arise to pray. Oh, how I desire that our hearts begin to pound to the extent that we cannot be silent! Oh, that the sound of the trumpet, the battle cry we hear, be potent enough to turn our prayer lives around. Oh, may we not be quiet any longer. Oh, may we not be weak anymore. Oh, may we leave the yard of victimhood and now begin to rise in the arms of victory! Amen.
“Oh, my anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain. Oh, the agony of my heart! My heart pounds within me, I cannot keep silent. For I have heard the sound of the trumpet; I have heard the battle cry.”
WHAT DO WE FIGHT FOR?
- We fight for our homes
- We fight for our spouses and marriages
- We fight for our glory/destiny
- We fight for our children, born and unborn and their futures
- We fight for the Presence/Glory/Will of God in our space
- We fight the good fight of faith/the battle for righteousness
- We fight for our extended families
- We fight for the church
- We fight against worldly pleasures and temptations
- We fight for our friends
- We fight for our communities
- We fight for our health
- We fight for our calling and purpose
- We fight for the lost and the unsaved
- We fight for all those prayer requests in our journals
PRAYER TIME
WORSHIP
Have a concentrated moment of worship. When you are done, you can move on.
LET US TAKE THIS SONG
Battle Cry by Feast Worship
We fight a battle that cannot be seen
We’re in a place where we have never been
We’ve seen the strongest warriors flee in fear
We take position for our God is here
Give up our armors and lay down our shields
For in our weakness, You will be revealed
We drop all weapons and then we take aim
We press on forward in His mighty Name
So we sing Hallelujah
Our victory has come
We sing Hallelujah
For the One who’s overcome
We sing Hallelujah
They bear their swords we fight with slings and stones
Odds are against us, but what they don’t know
We’ve wrested lions, we were rescued then
He made it happen, He will do it again
So we sing Hallelujah
Our victory has come
We sing Hallelujah
For the One who’s overcome
We sing Hallelujah
Arms raised in surrender
Not for defeat but victory
For this battle has been won now
We leave no room for the enemy
Arms raised in surrender
Not for defeat but victory, but victory
For this battle has been won now
We leave no room for the enemy
They bear their swords we fight with slings and stones
Odds are against us, but what they don’t know
We’ve wrested lions, we were rescued then
He made it happen, He will do it again
So we sing Hallelujah
Our victory has come
We sing Hallelujah
For the One who’s overcome
So we sing Hallelujah
Arms raised in surrender
Not for defeat but victory, but victory
For this battle has been won now
We leave no room for the enemy
So we sing Hallelujah
Our victory has come
We sing Hallelujah
For the One who’s overcome
We sing Hallelujah
NOW, SHALL WE PRAY?
Oh Lord, thank You for Your Word that You have spoken to me today. Glory be to Your Holy Name in Jesus’ Name.
Oh Lord, open my ears to hear. Spiritual deafness, leave me alone in Jesus Name! Leave me alone! (3x)
Every veil covering my eyes from seeing spiritual happenings and realities, fall off now in the Name of Jesus. Fall off now! (3x)
Every demon assigned to keep me perpetually bound in victimhood, you are a liar, I break free from your hold now like a free bird in the Name of Jesus Christ.
I will not be a victim in the battles of life in the Mighty Name of Jesus.
Father, wake me up. Help me not to sleep the sleep of death when I am meant to be fighting.
Oh Lord, take all the energies that I have which I have devoted to other foolish things and convert all of them to spiritual energies oh Lord, I plead. So that instead of chasing unnecessary things, I would be doing things beneficial for my life and all the lives attached to me in Jesus Name.
Oh dear Lord, please help me to be spiritually prepared and alert. Grant me the wisdom and discipline to build my spiritual defenses and be ready for any battle, in the name of Jesus.
Battles of life will not swallow me up in the Name of Jesus! (7x)
Any battle of life that has started to consume me, oh dear Lord, rescue me from it now. Rescue me from it now in the Name of Jesus (3x)
Oh Lord, awaken my spiritual senses so that I may be vigilant and alert to the enemy’s schemes from this day forward. Help me, deliver me from all the schemes and traps of the enemies that I have already walked into unknowingly, Father.
(Place your hand on your head and pray fervently till you are led to move on) Awaken my spiritual senses, oh dear Lord in Jesus’ Name.
Oh Lord, please deliver me from the spirit of complacency and ease. Teach me to value spiritual growth and preparation over every temporary comfort, in the name of Jesus. (Mean this very well, dear sisters)
Oh Lord, I repent of any laziness and spiritual negligence. Renew my heart and mind, and help me to commit fully to spiritual vigilance and warfare, in the name of Jesus.
Father, let me hear a cry in my soul that will keep me on my toes in fervent prayers, I plead.
Oh Lord, protect my home and family from spiritual attacks. Help us to build strong spiritual defenses and stand united in faith from this day forward, in the name of Jesus.
I receive the strength to fight and win from this day on in the Name of Jesus Christ.
Father, deliver me from the lure of worldly pleasures and temptations. Henceforth, help me to focus on what truly matters and pursue a life of holiness, in the name of Jesus.
Oh Lord, grant me the wisdom to recognize spiritual battles henceforth and give me the wisdom to overcome them all.
Oh Lord, open my spiritual eyes and ears to perceive Your guidance and warnings. Help me to respond promptly and effectively to Your call, in the name of Jesus.
Oh Lord, help me to be so strong that I would be a warrior for others in their spiritual battles.
Continue to pray as you are led.
NOW TO OUR PRAYER JOURNALS
Let us raise our prayer list to the Lord and tell Him all about our requests. Let us ask the Father in the Name of Jesus to turn those requests into testimonies for us according to His Will in Jesus’ Name. Let us pray fervently on them before we move on.
PRAISES
Sing a song of praise to the Lord for the success of the prayer for today.
