Stretch your spare toward the enemies

[Ebn Barbara]

But without faith it is impossible to please Him… " (Hebrews 11 : 6).
Don’t try.. don’t exhaust yourself.. don’t search for other ways.. because it is impossible to please God without faith.. and this is for a simple reason, as the next verse says:
" … For he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him ".
The matter.. is to trust God beloveds.. because when we don’t trust God and His promises, we are telling Him in a direct and indirect way that we don’t believe and trust Him !!!
More than that, we are despising God.. and this is not my own conclusion, this is what God’s word says.. HE.. The Lord, said this to Moses, when the people refused to believe that He will take them into the promised land:
" Then the Lord said to Moses: How long will these people despise Me? And how long will they not believe Me, with all the signs which I have performed among them " (Numbers 14 : 11).

Unbelief.. not trusting God.. not believing Him.. is an insult to Him..
How long will we despise the Lord?
The result of not trusting the Lord.. is that we won’t enter the promised land.. the land of rest.. the land of fulfilled promises.. and prophesies.. and vision, for all those who witnessed God’s glory and wonders, didn’t see the land.. the promised land..
All with no exception.. Didn’t enter the land of fulfilled promises..
Except two: Caleb and Joshua.. because they believed in God and trusted His promises..
The Apostle James tells us in the New Testament:
" 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. 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. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord " (James 1 : 5 – 7).
Let him ask in faith with no doubting.. at all or devoid of..
Let no one think that he might get anything from God without faith..
You won’t get anything from God without faith.. this is why we didn’t receive many of the things we prayed for, this is why our life circumstances didn’t change.. so I plead you all after this speech.. to examine your records.. and ask the Holy Spirit to open your eyes, so you might understand what had happened and still is happening to you concerning this issue.

The people of God went through three battles, we will take a look at them to see how did they win them:

First:
" Then the Lord said to Joshua: Stretch out the spear that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand. And Joshua stretched out the spear that was in his hand toward the city. So those in ambush arose quickly out of their place; they ran as soon as he had stretched out his hand, and they entered the city and took it, and hurried to set the city on fire. And when the men of Ai looked behind them, they saw, and behold, the smoke of the city ascended to heaven. So they had no power to flee this way or that way… And they struck them down, so that they let none of them remain or escape… Joshua did not draw back his hand, with which he stretched out the spear, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai " (Joshua 8 : 18 – 26).

Second:
" Now Amalek came and fought with Israel in Rephidim. And Moses said to Joshua: Choose us some men and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand. So Joshua did as Moses said to him, and fought with Amalek. And Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. And so it was, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses’ hands became heavy; so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. And Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. So Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword " (Exodus 17 : 8 – 13).

Third:
" So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outpost of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just as they had posted the watch; and they blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers that were in their hands. Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers—they held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands for blowing—and they cried: The sword of the Lord and of Gideon! And every man stood in his place all around the camp; and the whole army ran and cried out and fled. When the three hundred blew the trumpets, the Lord set every man’s sword against his companion throughout the whole camp; and the army fled… " (Judges 7 : 8 – 13).

Three battles.. war battles in which the warriors fought face to face..
It is known, that wars are conquered by force, and victory is to the bigger, stronger and more equipped army.. but the situation here is completely different.. and if any army commander or strategic analyzer read these passages.. his reaction would be:
These are myths.. this is ridiculous..
And I won’t blame him logically.. because what military logic:
- Would make a commander stand and stretch his spear toward a city, so his
followers would defeat the enemies they are facing?
- would make another commander stand on the top of a hill and stretch his rod
toward the clouds, so his followers would defeat the enemies they are facing?
- would make 300 men break the pitchers and blow the trumpet, to terrify
thousands of warriors and make them kill each other?
- would make the shouts of a people tear down the great high walls of Jericho?

Yes.. according to logic and by sight this is imaginary..
But according to God’s logic this is called faith..

And how beautiful it is when it is contradictory to the sight.. challenging all the contradicted circumstances and changing them..
Power is not in the stretched spear, neither in the uplifted rod, nor in the broken pitchers, nor in the strong shouts.. power is in the faith that is beyond the stretched spear, and the uplifted rod, and the broken pitchers, and the shouts.

These are symbols and an attitude of the heart by which we say to the Lord:
We have no power in us but our eyes are fixed on you..
Not by might nor by power but by your Spirit Lord..

And the Lord can not stay silent in front of such faith.. He will move, and make all heavens move.. He alone can send His reverence before us, and give us the heads of our enemies, and lead us to our guaranteed victory..

He said to His bride the church:
" Turn your eyes away from me, For they have overcome me… ".
(Song of Solomon 6 : 5).

By the stretched spear.. the uplifted rod.. the broken pitchers.. the shouts coming out of our hearts..
Fixing our eyes on the Lord and what He’ll do with us.. we will prevail.. and make Him change circumstances times and seasons, and subdue them for us.. we make Him fulfill His promises to us and enter us the land of blessings.

Jacob didn’t let God go until He blessed him, he got what he wanted, but he had to fight God and prevail as the Word says:
" Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob’s hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him. And He said: Let Me go, for the day breaks. But he said: I will not let You go unless You bless me! So He said to him: What is your name? He said: Jacob. And He said: Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed ". (Genesis 32 : 24 – 28).

This is faith.. to fix our eyes on the Lord as an honest expression of trusting Him from all our hearts.. holding on to Him.. refusing to let Him go until He blesses us and answer our prayers with fulfilling all the promises, prophesies and dreams..

Two interesting things:
" And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying: Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him. Then Jesus answered and said: O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me. And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour " (Matthew 17 : 14 – 18).

The first thing:
The Lord didn’t rebuke the man and his son.. He didn’t accuse them or blame them for specific sins in their lives.. the Lord rebuked His disciples for their lack of faith.

The second thing:
The man didn’t come to the wrong address, by bringing his sick and possessed son to the Lord’s disciples.. the address is correct.. he came with his son’s problem to the ones appointed by the Lord to solve such problems.. but he was disappointed when he didn’t get what he wanted and said to the Lord:
I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him !!!
The real problem wasn’t in the son nor in his father.. it was in the disciples..
They didn’t have faith..

And this problem still exists till date.. we are the children of God.. to whom the Lord, before ascending to heaven, said:
" Most assuredly, I say to you: he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son " (John 14 : 12 – 13).

These words were not only said to the disciples.. but to all those who believe in the Lord..

The Lord said:
he who believes in me.. will not only do the works I do.. he will do even greater !!!
He who believes in me.. he who trusts me.. he who fixes his eyes on me.. he who stretches his spear, lifts up his rod, breaks his pitcher and shout: he will not only do the works I do.. but even greater !!!
Today.. how many people come to us.. with their problems.. they go crying to the Lord.. we went to your followers.. your disciples.. they couldn’t solve our problems.. our misery.. our suffering.. our diseases……….
For one reason.. we don’t believe in the Lord neither in His promises and anointing on our lives !!!
How long shall the Lord bear with us?

Beloveds: faith is simple.. and because it is so simple.. we don’t believe..
We’ve put a big hollow around it.. we gave it names and titles.. we’ve put many complicated standards to reach to it.. for this reason it seems that it is unreachable now..

We’ve forgotten that it is a gift of God and not of us.. all what we have to do is to receive it with a tenderness of heart from the Lord’s hand, without putting intellectual and logical obstacles.. we should trust that God who gave us His only begotten Son, will give us all things with Him as the Word says.. we should trust His unconditional love for us.. trust that He answers us because He loves us, and these answers are not according to our own worth or capabilities or abilities.. then we would have faith.. and be able to please Him.. we would be able to stretch our spear in the face of our enemies.. to lift up our rod toward heaven.. to break our pitchers and stand fast in the face of our enemies.. fixing our eyes on Him, until we hear Him saying to us:
You prevailed against me.. then we would be able to do miracles.. to enter the promised land.. to take by force the kingdom of heaven.. to heal the sick.. and we won’t let anyone come to us and go back disappointed or depressed saying to the Lord:
they couldn’t do nothing..
So let us in this morning stretch our spears in the face of our enemies.. let us not let down our hands, until we see the Lord defeating our enemies to the ground and fulfilling all his promises to us.