The Healing Word

Pastor Jack Morris: All things are possible. What is he talking about? With God, all things are possible. He says, man cooperating with God, man cooperating with God makes all things possible, right?

Guest (Male): To win the battle, you must know both your enemy and your source of strength. Today on The Healing Word, Pastor Jack Morris continues his study of Jehovah Nissi, The Lord Our Banner, with a message called "The Essentials of Winning." From Exodus chapter 17, we'll see how prayer, God's word, and identity in Christ lead to lasting victory.

Pastor Jack Morris: The Amalekites, as I told you last week, came from their grandfather Amalek, or Amalek came from his grandfather Esau. Esau was the one who sold his birthright to his brother, twin brother Jacob. Jacob became head of Israel. Matter of fact, God changed Jacob's name to Israel, and the name in the Bible, Jacob, and the name Israel are used synonymously.

Esau became part of the Arab people. The Muslims have come from that group. These people are distant cousins. The people of Esau, the people of Jacob, these two brothers, twin brothers, both of them coming from the womb of Rebekah, the wife of Isaac. One was born only seconds or minutes from the other, and from those two came two great nations of people.

Israel, on the way to the Promised Land, they passed through the Peninsula of Sinai, and here are their distant cousins, the Amalekites. Here are the people of Israel or the people of Jacob. Here are the Amalekites or the people of Esau, distant cousins, and one opposed the other.

You don't know where your opposition is going to come from, but I can guarantee you, friend, the devil doesn't want you to know the peace of the Kingdom of God in your heart now, and he certainly doesn't want you to go to heaven someday. He's going to put everything and throw everything before you that he possibly can to hinder your walk with God.

So their enemy was the Amalekites. Your enemy, look under A, point two, our enemy number one, write down the word "self." And number two, write down the word "Satan." Self. We have within us this human nature called self. We inherited it, every human being, from Adam.

When Adam fell, he passed on that desire or that inclination to disobey God. He passed it on through his genes to all of us, to all of the human race. And we have this battle with self. Now, I have some scriptures there in Romans chapter 7, and here Paul gives a description of the conflict that he has with himself.

Sometimes our conflict is not with Satan. You and I very often want to always blame the devil for everything. "The devil made me do it." No, friends, it's just old mean you, sometimes. Sometimes when we lose our temper, sometimes when we have a disagreement, sometimes when we have a falling out, even with our spouse, it's not always Satan.

It's sometimes a selfishness within us that just rises up and does it. There was a cartoon, and the cartoon had Satan sitting out on the curb outside a church on a Sunday night. And he was crying and crying, just boo-hooing and crying. And somebody walked over to him and said, "Satan, why are you crying like that?"

He said, "They're having a testimony in there, and those people are blaming me for things that I never thought of doing. They're blaming me for everything." But listen to what the scripture says. You just listen, you don't have to look now, you have it written down in your sermon outline, you can take it home and look at it.

But this is what Paul says about this self within him and how contrary it is against spirituality. Paul said, "I do not understand what I do." Now, if Paul didn't understand some things, obviously we're not going to be able to understand everything either.

But listen, "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate, I find myself doing. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is in my sinful nature." Now, here is this man of God acknowledging that he has a sinful nature within him.

So he says, "I find this principle at work. When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. But I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind." Another law.

When Isaac's wife Rebekah was pregnant with these twin boys in her womb, Esau and Jacob. Now remember, Esau was the one that didn't want to follow spiritual things. He was the one that brought about the Amalekites through his genes.

In the womb was another one, Jacob, who took the birthright, actually stole the birthright, but he got the birthright and he became Israel and he became the head of the clan of the people of God, the peculiar people of God. And Rebekah says, in Genesis chapter 25, "There is a jostling inside me. There is a movement inside me, a jostling like a war, a tug, a pull, a conflict."

She says, "I don't understand what's happening to me." Read it when you go home, Genesis chapter 25. And God spoke to her and answered her and said, "Within your womb there are two nations and two peoples." Now within every Christian, there are two natures.

There's the nature you were born with. You got that from your mother and father, it goes all the way back to Adam. That's this adamic, fallen, sinful nature that wants to do its own thing. Selfishness, just plain self-centered selfishness. And when somebody crosses me, I get mad. That's that nature that is there.

But now that you have become a Christian, there is another nature, the nature of Jesus, the redeemed nature, the very nature that Adam had before Adam sinned. And you inherited that, that was born in you. Now you have two natures and they're tugging, they're pulling.

Every time you want to do good, there's that little thought that comes in your mind, that idea, that selfishness. It's there. Now, here's your choice. You have an opportunity to yield to whichever nature you want to yield with. But as long as you're here, there's going to be conflict. Did you hear me?

As long as you're here, there's going to be conflict. There's going to be that tug of war. When you want to do good, evil is going to be present. And when you start to do evil, thank God the spirit of Jesus is there to remind you and to pull you back.

So there are those two natures. So one of your enemies is self. It's invisible, it's in you, it'll be in you till the day you die. It'll be there. You're going to have this struggle and this tug of war within you. Within your heart, there are two nations or two kingdoms.

The Kingdom of God has come to you, but there is also that remnant leftover of the kingdom of self. You and I are still a very self-centered, selfish people. We still are. And we are going to have to fight that, and resist that, and pray over that, and win over that till Jesus comes.

The second is Satan. Your second enemy is Satan. The scripture says in 1 Peter 5:8, "Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for somebody to devour." Satan has an insatiable desire to eat you alive.

You're in a war. Don't tell me you don't need prayer, you don't need church, you don't need Christian fellowship. You do, and I do, and all God's people need to be together because there's an enemy there. The self and Satan within us.

Now, here is Israel's banner. Look at Exodus chapter 17, verse 15. Have your Bibles open, read that verse again with me in unison, just as you did last week. Together. Moses built an altar and called it The Lord is my Banner. Continue on. "For he said, 'For hands were lifted up to the throne of the Lord. The Lord will be at war with the Amalekites from generation to generation.'"

From generation to generation you're going to fight self and Satan. It's not going to stop. The war's going to go on. Hear it, understand it, and know the strategy of winning. That's what today's message is all about.

Now, the banner that the Lord gave to Moses to lift up over him was, what do you remember from last week? The Word of God and prayer. This was the banner, this was the staff, and he lifted it up and he put it over him and said that Israel is going to be in submission to the Word of God and live under the authority of the Word.

Now, as long as they were in submission to the Word of God, lived under the authority of the Word, stayed in communion with God, they continued to win the battle. So under point B, number one, the Word, and number two, write down the word "prayer."

It says under the Word in John chapter 15, verse 7, Jesus says, "If you abide or remain in me and my words remain in you, if," that's an if. That's something that we have to decide whether or not we're going to allow the Word to abide or to remain in us. And he said, "If you do," that's our responsibility to make sure that that happens.

We have to be very circumspect in this regard. He said, "If the Word, if the Word remains in you, then you will be able to ask what you will and it shall be done unto you." And then under prayer, the Psalmist says, "When I cried unto the Lord, then shall my enemies turn back."

I was going to have a blackboard here or a greenboard, and I was going to write up here, "Word" plus "prayer" equals "the presence and power of God." Say it with me. Word plus prayer equals the presence of God. That's what God does for his people. He brings his presence.

Friend, you will never win by yourself. You cannot win the battle that you're fighting, whether it's in your home or with your children or with your parents or with your employer or with your employees. You name it, you're going to lose.

You're going to lose. You're going to come out of that battle bitter and angry and blaming and calling names. And most of those people aren't even going to know that you're bitter, but you're going to know it and it's going to eat you alive. This is why we need to turn to the Lord and trust him and know this strategy so that we don't lose in the battle.

Okay, now we're down to point C. Israel's victory. And here are the four essentials of winning. Have your notes out. Number one, look at verse 9. Let's go to verse 9, Exodus chapter 17, verse 9. Moses said to Joshua.

You know, when I read that, I had to pause and stop. Here were the Amalekites attacking the Israelites. The Israelites had this long, elongated march toward the Promised Land, and the Amalekites entered into a guerrilla-type warfare.

They would swing around behind and they started killing off the people who were weak, who were elderly, who couldn't keep up, or children, or people who were just absolutely negligent and slothful, apathetic about spiritual things. They were swooping around and attacking from the rear and killing them off.

And then I read this. Moses said to Joshua, "Tomorrow I will stand." I thought, how does that man keep his cool? When the enemy starts fighting, don't start talking or acting before you think. May God help you to keep a calm spirit until you can get your perspective and know the direction you're going in, until you become aware of the presence of God.

Keep a calm spirit. Moses said to Joshua. Isn't that amazing? You know what I'd have done if I was there? "Get the Sunday school teachers, get the board members, get the choir, we're going to fight. Right now! I want everybody to come. This is a solemn, sacred assembly. We've got to do it now!"

But look at this man Moses. Moses knew something maybe that some of the others didn't know at the moment. He knew that he had God's banner over him even before he visibly put it over him. But I want you to notice these two things.

It was the Word and it was prayer that brought about this man's victory and the victory of the people of Israel. He didn't have the Word of God visibly, but in his heart he knew that he was living under the authority of and in submission to the Word of God.

And anybody who knows their place in God can be calm. Not because the calmness is there. No, there's a war going on within. There are two natures going on. There's the jostling going on. But if I know I'm under the authority of the Word, I can stand. I can remain. I can hold steady till the victory comes. Can you say "Praise the Lord"? Praise the Lord.

I just so enjoy this message from Exodus chapter 17. If we go on and read here, there are two names that I would like to point out to you. Joshua is one of the names, the other name is Caleb. Remember, it was Joshua that Moses dispatched along with 11 other men to go into the Promised Land to spy out the land.

When they came back, the 12 came back and only two of them had a good report. It was Joshua and Caleb. Remember that? This was Joshua. Moses knew his men. He knew who to make a department head and who not. And he made him the department head to take a sword and go into the valley and to fight the battle and to fight the war.

Remember when Moses was praying and his hands got so heavy and they fell down? They put a rock under him and Aaron and Hur held up his hands. You know Hur? That's another very important person. Hur was the grandson of Caleb.

Now watch it with me. Watch how posterity follows the fatherhood and the motherhood. Here is Joshua and Caleb going into the Promised Land, coming back saying, "We can do it. We can root out the giants." 10 people against two, but the two said, "We can go in there and do it. We can conquer in the Lord's name."

Caleb has a son who is named Hur, and Hur is one of them holding up the man of God's hands and saying, "Come on, let's pray, let's fight, let's march. We have the promises of God." We read on into Exodus chapter 31, and we read that Hur's son... Caleb, Hur... now Hur has a grandson, Bezalel.

Exodus chapter 31. That son was instrumental. God called him to build the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle that Moses carried and the priest carried that represented the Kingdom of God. You see what happens? Your sons and your daughters are going to pick up your nature and they're going to follow your example.

And friend, be careful what you say around your kids. Look at Caleb. Look at Hur. Look at Bezalel. He was anointed of the Spirit of God. Read it in Exodus chapter 31 to do these mighty crafts and build that beautiful Tabernacle for God.

But then go back and look at Esau. Look at Amalek. Look at his posterity and see an ungodly nation. You become like the people you associate with. Your children become like their parents, whether godly or whether ungodly. I just couldn't pass by mentioning these two names.

The first is a calm spirit. Second, write down human responsibility. Continue now looking at verse 9. It says, "Choose some of our men and go out and do what? Fight. Fight. Fight." God didn't say, "I'm going to send down 10,000 angels and all you have to do is just relax, I'll take care of it."

No, God is saying, "I'll give you the battle, and you will be a winner, provided you fight. You go in there, you do something. It's not just going to happen. Anybody can run away. Anybody can give up. Anybody can lose.

But those people who have their place in God and are marching under the banner of God and know that they're called of God with a specific mission from God, those people are able to win the battle in the name of the Lord. Don't think that God's going to do it all.

It says in Matthew 19:36, "With God, all things are possible." What is he talking about? With God, all things are possible. He says, man cooperating with God, man cooperating with God makes all things possible, right? Say it with me. Man cooperating with God.

You cooperate with God. You feed your soul, you study the Word, you keep a prayer life, you stay part of the company of God, you do your part, God will do his part. But you drop back, become negligent, wait for somebody else, or look to the Lord without any involvement on your part.

"I'm too busy. I don't have enough time. I don't have enough money." You can come up with a thousand excuses, but when you do, you lose. You lose the battle because our excuses don't ring with God.

Number three, write down the word "prayer." Still at verse 9. Moses says, "Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands." I have been believing this, Moses said. I have been believing this, I have been practicing this, I have been living this, tomorrow I'm going to make it visible.

I'm going to put my faith out there where it can be seen, where it can actually do something for God, where it can do something tangible, measurable for the Lord and for the Kingdom of God. Tomorrow I want you to look up because I'm going to have the staff of God in my hand.

Moses on the mount, Joshua in the valley. Moses with the staff of God over him, symbolizing, "This is how I've lived. This is how I've lived all my life. This is how I'm living now, and this is how I'm going to win." Joshua taking the part of human responsibility in the valley with the sword.

I think of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Joshua in the Old Testament is the pronunciation and the spelling, meaning Jehovah is my helper or my salvation. The word Joshua in Hebrew is the Hebrew word for the Greek word Jesus.

If you say Joshua, you're speaking Hebrew. When you say Jesus, you're speaking Greek. They're one and the same. They mean the same thing. Jehovah is my helper. And with the Word and with prayer, you can win the battles because God will come to your help, but he's not going to come and do it all for lazy, selfish, self-centered Christians.

Only Christians that are ready to work and pray and fight and travail until the victory is completely and ultimately won. And number four, write down the word "divine intervention."

It says that Joshua... verse 13. So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword. And then Moses built the altar and said, "The Lord is my Banner." Martin Luther wrote this verse to this hymn: "Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing."

If you're going to trust yourself, you're going to lose. But if you know who you are, if you know you're a child of God, if you know you're a child of the book, if you pray and you have a relationship with God that brings the presence of God.

You see, the Word of God is the activity of the mind of God. You have to come in contact. And with prayer and the Word, there is that divine impartation to you, and regardless of where you are and what you're battling or who you're battling, you will win.

Guest (Male): When prayer and the Word meet faith, victory follows. If you're building a stronger spiritual foundation, a year of weekly devotionals can help keep you rooted in God's truth. And many more messages are available now at thehealingword.com.

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