Ephesians-Our Battle Manual 3 – The Lamp & Light Post

Do not give place to the devil.

Ephesians 4:27 nor give place to the devil.

Romans 13:14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.

Deception no. 1 – The Devil doesn’t exist.
Deception no. 2 – God doesn’t exist.
Deception no. 3 – We humans are ok. There is no judgment.

Various forms like God doesn’t answer prayers.
Blinded the mind of them that are not saved.

2 Corinthians 4:3-4 ³But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, ⁴whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.

I want to talk to you today about the principle of receiving only when we believe.

Mark 11:12-14, 19-25 ¹² Now the next day, when they had come out from Bethany, He was hungry. ¹³ And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it. When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. ¹⁴ In response Jesus said to it, “Let no one eat fruit from you ever again.” And His disciples heard it.

¹⁹ When evening had come, He went out of the city. ²⁰ Now in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. ²¹ And Peter, remembering, said to Him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree which You cursed has withered away.” ²² So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. ²³ For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. ²⁴ Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. ²⁵ “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.

We’ve prayed, we’re standing in faith, waiting for it to happen.
One day we’re going to be healed.
One day we’re going to have our breakthrough.
One day we’re going to be vindicated.
Is that enough? we judge a tree by the fruit

Jesus gives us an important principle. He said, “whatever you ask for when you pray, believe that you have received it, and you will have it.”

He didn’t say believe that it’s going to happen.
No, to be precise, He said believe that you receive when you pray.
Believe that it happened in the spiritual realm right there and then.
Not in a week, not in a month, but right when you prayed, our Heavenly Father has set the miracle into motion.

What God is going to bring to pass is not what you asked for, but what you believe you receive when you pray.

We pray for our healing, our breakthrough, our vindication
That’s good but that in itself is not enough.
Follow it up with, your belief that it has happened.
When you pray, you receive it because you believe God.

Isaiah 53:1 1 Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

Change your report from I’m hoping to that it is already done.

It’s just a matter of time before what happened in the unseen realm shows up in the natural realm.

Part 2 – According to God’s will

1 John 5:14 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

If you’re asking according to God’s will, you can be confident. Yes, is the answer.

When you believe that your received what you asked for, that it already happened in the spiritual realm, this is the confidence we can have in our Heavenly Father.

You don’t have to beg
You don’t have to wonder,
Accept his yes by faith.

When we ask in faith, and when we receive it into our spirit, we can be confident that in the unseen realm something shifts.

Isaiah 26:3 You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You.

Part 3 – No unbelief!

Now here’s another key

It doesn’t do any good to pray for something and then go out and talk negatively about it.

Don’t cancel out your prayer with negative talk.
You just nullified your prayer.
You can’t pray for victory and confess defeat.

James 3:10-12 Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. [11] Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? [12] Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.

Like the Fig tree right now, nothing has improved, but you by faith the unseen realm, believe that things have changed.
It’s just a matter of time before you receive what you saw in your spirit.

James 1:5-8 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. [6] But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. [7] For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; [8] he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Though this is talking about wisdom, the same principle applies.

This says when you’re double minded you can’t expect to receive anything from God.

How long will you falter between two opinions?

When you ask God, be sure you really expect him to answer.

1 Kings 18:21 And Elijah came to all the people, and said, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people answered him not a word.

Are you going to believe what God promised you, or are you going to let doubt, negative voices, convince you it’s not going to happen.

You have to make up your mind.
Doubt comes to us all.
You have to guard your mind.
Romans 13:14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.
When you dwell on those thoughts and
You start believing that the things are not going to work out,
You’re giving the unbelief life
You’re allowing it to grow.

Part 4 – Don’t believe lies

The enemy would love to talk you out of what God put in your spirit.

Don’t believe those lies.

2 Corinthians 5:7 For we walk by faith, not by sight.

You received it by faith, now you have to walk by Faith.
Just because you don’t see anything happening doesn’t mean God is not working.
In the unseen realm what you received in your Spirit, became (past tense) a reality.
It’s just a matter of time before you see it show up.

Jesus was hungry, so he walked over to fig tree, but it didn’t have any figs on it, so He cursed it. But when he cursed it, nothing on the outside looked any different.

The disciples had seen wonderful miracles done by Jesus, but when he spoke to this tree nothing changed. There was no visible evidence that what he said had happened.

The next morning, as they were passing by, the disciples to their amazement, saw that the tree was all withered up.

They didn’t think anything had happened at the time when Jesus spoke
None of the outside circumstances looked any different
But when Jesus spoke, things changed in the unseen spiritual realm.

And later in verse 24, Jesus told them this principle, “when you pray, believe that you receive it, and you will have it.”

He was showing us through the fig tree, you may not see anything changing.
All the evidence may look the same when we believe, but do not get discouraged by what’s not happening.
You can’t see into the spiritual realm with your eyes.

This is where your faith is activated.

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Jesus started off this passage by saying, “have faith in God.”

It’s not faith in your circumstances.
Not faith in what you can do.
Not faith in your parents, your doctor, your pastor.
That’s all good but they are not God.
They didn’t speak worlds into existence.
Our Heavenly father is all powerful, El Shaddai!
Nothing can stand against him.
What you’ve received in your spirit may look impossible, the odds are against you but it’s nothing for our God.

One word from Him makes all the difference.

Part 5- Don’t keep asking once you make it known to God

Once you ask God for something, you don’t have to keep asking.

The key is to receive it.
Don’t let what’s not happening convince you that God is not working.
Don’t get talked out of it.

Believe that it happened and then instead of asking over and over, start thanking him.

There’s an unseen spiritual realm that our physical eyes can’t see.
Everything starts in the spiritual realm.
Through our faith we can bring it in to the natural.

If you continue to ask for the same thing over and over, even though you may be sincere, you are not showing God that you trust him or His word.

If my children came up and asked me for something, and I said, “yes”, then if they came back an hour later and the next day to ask me the same thing again and again, that would indicate that something is wrong, it will certainly make me feel bad that my word/yes does not have value.
You don’t have to keep begging me.

It’s the same way with our heavenly Father.

Proverbs 17:21 He who begets a scoffer does so to his sorrow, And the father of a fool has no joy.

Psalm 14:1 The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, They have done abominable works, There is none who does good.

When you ask, that’s fine.

Matthew 7:7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

Philippians 4:6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;

But Jesus said, don’t stop there, believe that you received what you asked for.

Believe that your Father in Heaven said yes to what you’re asking for, when you asked.

Yes to the healing,
Yes to the breakthrough.
Yes to our vindication.
But not an imaginary, illusionary, fairy tale, intangible, blind belief!

Philippians 4:6–7 6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Living God who answers our prayer and supplication.
A tangible peace that surpasses all understanding.
We are not alone.

Summary

Start starving your doubts and feeding your faith.

You control the doorway to your thoughts.

Daily declaration of faith

Romans 12:1–2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Maybe you’ve been wavering between two opinions, going back and forth.
You’ve been unsettled till now.
That’s okay.
Today you can set your mind. You can make that decision.

You need to stand in faith when nothing is improving,

believing when you’re not seeing,
thanking God when there’s no sign of it.

Psalm 27:13 I would have lost heart, unless I had believed That I would see the goodness of the LORD In the land of the living.

Instead of losing heart and giving up, we need to believe that we would see the goodness of the LORD In the land of the living