Understanding And Winning Spiritual Warfare Part 3 — Prophet Cherub Obadare

Thank you Father. In Jesus name we pray. Let me celebrate the choir. Please celebrate them. Hallelujah. Please have your seats. Praise God. Praise God. I'm excited this morning. and I welcome everyone of you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. I pray that the year 2020 will be an amazing year for you. Uh it doesn't matter the challenges the issues, the problem here and there, you will have testimony. If you are the one I'm praying for, let your Amen be the loudest. Now, um I think this is the third or fourth series of understanding and winning spiritual warfare. And in our previous teaching, we've been able to see that um a believer like sit or not is in his spiritual warfare, right? Either you like it or not, either you acknowledge it or not, that you accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior as position you for spiritual attacks. The Bible says we rest not against flesh, nor blood, is say, but principalities and powers. And so, many of us live our lives, anyhow, as if nobody is pursuing you. You live your life so casual, so careless, not watching, not praying, not fasting, thinking everything is just fine. And you see many believers asking God, why me? Why? You don't take care of your life, you are not aware that you are a target in the kingdom of darkness. You are a great target. Especially those of you who have decided to enter into God's assignment, you are number one on the list. I read a book many years ago, over 20 years now, Scriptural Demonology. The book was authored by a man who was once a grandmaster of the occultic kingdom. Uh he was um so deep in it that at a point he had um intimacy with the devil himself. The devil reappeared to him and he communicates with him. And he said he got to a point that um the assignment given to them in the kingdom of darkness was to bring certain men of God down. And he said one day they decided they were going to attack Dr. Odukoya. And so, they say usually what they do is to call the name of the person and say that the person will appear. Say, but when they called the name of Odukoya, Odukoya rather, Dr. Odukoya of MFM, say what they saw was fire. They could not withstand. They were expecting a person, but it was fire that came. Maybe, surely, you will know. It's either at that hour, he's either calling fire, or he has called fire prior that time. One of the things his ministry has done is to show us warfare. So, I You see, if you look at all the ministries in the world, not one of them can balance the body of Christ. God brought all of them. If there is no ministry like Christ Embassy, we will not lead to not much of the grace and the liberty that we have in Christ. If there is no ministry like MFM, we will not know much about warfare. And so, it looks like that is all they understand. Because it is what was given to them for the body. See a next for a church given to spiritual warfare. Lord help me. You know, I told myself, I said when I'm ministering, I'll not be mentioning again. Just want to preach. But this we are called in here. This is our vision. And some of us you just wake up in the morning and you just enter a day like that without arresting it from the night. And you're wondering you came back home at night, things didn't work. You didn't arrest a day. The Bible say, Jesus woke up before the day breaks, he broke the day in prayer. So, you just wake up, you eat, you don't have a day for fasting, you don't have retreats, no private retreats, you just live your life anyhow. And you want to be a winner. So, he says everything is well in Christ if you are born again. That's not what the Bible says. Jesus warned them in Mark chapter 14. He say watch and pray, so that you will not fall. Number one falling is falling into temptation. When you fall into temptation, the falling is in chain, it has a chain reaction. Watch and pray, that you will not fall into temptation. And last week we began to see a few things, let me, because those were not here, we began to see a few things in spiritual warfare. One of the reasons believers are vulnerable to attack, and we mentioned number one, ignorant. You can speak in tongues, you prophesy, if you don't know, not knowing is the reason the devil will get you. The first place of winning is the battle of knowledge. Sons of Isaachar, I know Paul. Because Paul know Christ and I know Christ, who are you? The contest was first, the test of their identity. If they know, but they didn't. Ignorance is listen, listen, you can't afford to live your life without knowing this word. And if you are the son of God born this born to bread, Jesus did not contest that. He already knew he was the son, so there was no contention. The contention is a man shall not he quoted it from the scriptures. They all get ever way lo fi. It's not in the Bible. The devil even knows that more than you. What to what the battle was what for what? When the devil saw that he knew the scriptures, he to brought one scripture. He said, "Fall from here, for it was written" and it's true. It means you should know more than him because he know some things. He knows what is written, but not he doesn't know what was revealed. That's why you stay until something be opened. You read Genesis to Exodus. You say I don't understand and you close your Bible. You are not supposed to understand. You are supposed to read from Genesis to Revelation and open again the understanding will start. Ignorance is dangerous. One of the things that affected us, some of our fathers, they were anointed, they were gifted, heavily anointed men, but knowledge was not there. And in the area of knowledge, listen to me. My people perish, not because they don't speak in tongues. They perish that they must you must understand that there are keys, not one key, to spiritual warfare, there are keys, not one. In spiritual warfare, there is no one key that open the door. You must understand all the approaches and be fortified. Because evil days will come. And number two, we saw unforgiveness. Believers, listen to me. If you are here, you are not forgiving, you have been attacked already. You might not have seen the manifestation, but you have been attacked. It is one of the easiest way the devil get into people's life when you don't forgive. And because of our time, number three, we looked at unbelief. You are a doubter, you doubt all the time. And number four, fellowship with your fruitless work of darkness. You don't you know this is sin, you deliberately go into it. It is it makes you vulnerable for attack. This is wrong. You know. So, let me just have I will pray for forgiveness. Listen, you will be forgiven, but you have been attacked. I will do it and I will pray. God will forgive me. But what about the the the the the the channel you have left open? The Bible said, "No. Make no provision for the flesh." If you give him a foot hold, he will turn it into a stronghold. Don't give him. Let me just do it. Nobody is seeing me. He is seeing you. And he has been waiting for you to do it because that's the channel he has. To attack you. Praise God. You will win all the time. If you are the one I'm praying for, let your amen be the loudest. And so, we could not continue last week because of our time. So, today we'll be looking at um the flesh as one of the greatest enemy of man, the flesh. Number one enemy of man is Satan. Number two is flesh. You your body's flesh. And listen, if you don't tame this flesh, if you don't tame this this thing called flesh, that was why Paul was saying, "We are of the circumcision that have no confidence in the flesh. This flesh can disappoint you. Nothing will happen, nothing will happen. Listen, not the flesh. Not the flesh. I like us to look at, give me Romans chapter 7 and from verse 23. I don't know if I can have it up here. If I can't, let me read from here. Romans 7 and verse 23. Let me talk to you and say, "Tame the flesh." Yeah. Mean have control over self. Have control over the flesh. If you have not won the battle of the flesh, you may not be able to win the battle that comes from the enemy. You must be able to win because the truth is this, there is contest every day. And when he fold him in Mark chapter 4 and verse 14, and from verse um 38, he said, "Watch and pray, let's say fall into temptation, for the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." If you read all scripture to scripture, you will see that the flesh and the spirit all in you are always fighting themselves. There will never be a time in your life as a believer that your flesh will agree with your spirit except you tame the flesh. Is it not a nice thing after a sunday service? You have heard a nice sermon about fasting and prayer. And you're like, "Tomorrow I'm starting something." Right in that service, you wrote it down. And first thing in the morning, there is this strange hunger like you have not eaten for three days. How many of you, and do I have witness here? You know this is this kind of hunger is an attack. Like God, God, help me. God, help me. Say, "I will do it next week." Your next week, six months now, you are still struggling with. Listen to me. It's a contest. You are in a contention, you don't know. One of the greatest enemy of man is his belly. He's if you can't listen, if you can't control your appetite, you can't win. The Bible says, after seeing that Jesus has fasted for 40 days and 40 night, knowing he will be hungry, He say, "Command the stone to bread." Food. So, let's be careful. of some of these things. It says, he says the the the the the the the spirit war against the flesh, the flesh war against the spirit. Most of the major victories I have had in life and encounter was because I didn't listen to the flesh. Where you decided, I'm going to go 40 days at stretch white pastor. I was telling my wife, they are still, I've not been fasting again. My second name before was fasting. I had this believe that go though it's religious to believe that if you don't fast, it means fasting is replacing faith. That was my belief before. So, if everything I must fast, if I didn't fast, I will believe I won't receive. So, you decide you are going to pass 40 days white fasting. On the second day, it's as if you're already in 15th day. Or when you try dry fasting, second day is as if you are not, you can't you be like God, do you really lead me to do this? It's a contention. One day when when we're in Lagos, I and my wife, I was fasting, and I had all of a sudden this malaria grip me, headache everything. I didn't have malaria before. My wife said, "Break." I said, "I won't break." This will not kill me. As soon as I made that decision, it's as if the demon just left, said, "This one let's leave him alone." It's a contention. It's a contention. Don't joke with your life. Romans 7:23, but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, stopping about the spirit, bringing me into captivity to the law of sin. You see the flesh keep dragging you. Paul saying, "The good things I want to do, there's something in me warring against the spirit in me." My spirit want to pray. But something is saying, "Just sleep." You wake up at night, you have decided I'm going to start night prayers. It is you that we wake up, that have not been praying night prayers. You are awake. The day you decided, "I will start praying at night," is the day. Just all of a sudden, you wake up and it's like something is pulling you back to the bed. "Say just sleep, you will pray, you will pray." Before you know it, It is alarm that will wake you up. Contention. Listen to me, a man of God, decided he was going to be praying every night, and this dangerous sleep came. One of the enemy you should fight is sleep. Sleep is your enemy. It's a good thing to sleep, but when sleep begins to affect your relationship and your growth in Christ, it is no more a normal sleep. For some people, it is when you start praying, even in the daytime, this deep sleep just comes. As if Adam was caused to sleep. Daytime, this is not night. You slept all through the night. Okay, since I didn't pray in the night, as soon as you start praying, this sleep you just come. You just sleep, you just come. All wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The flesh content with your the look at what give me 1 Corinthians chapter 9 and from verse 26, I don't know if I can have it up here. If I can't, let me read from here. Romans 7 and verse 23. Let me touch your your get for soul, not as uncertainly. So fight I. This man knew he was in a fight. So fat I, not as one that beats the air. I know who I'm fighting. That's what he's saying. I know my target. I know who is my enemy. Give me verse 27. But I keep my body, listen, this is the first strategy. He mentioned fight. He now say, "Number one in this fight, I keep my body. I bring it unto subjection. Ten minute the flesh." Don't allow the flesh to instruct you. You instruct the flesh. As a way the flesh make you pity eat. This is the third day of your fast. You just hear something talking to you now, the flesh is not just this body. There is a spirit of the flesh. You can hear him speaking to you. Is the spirit that drags men into unusual kind of pleasure. Everything, listen to me, when pleasure get to a point and it's derailing your spiritual growth and it's making you lost relationship with God, it's not a normal pleasure again. It's not normal. Let's fast for, you know I have cancer. Fasting can't cure it. Doesn't doesn't make sense. You need spiritual understanding to know that some some ailment in you is supposed to restrain you. Certain things that you call ailment, you know that my cancer is to restrain you. And you have accepted it. I don't know why I'm talking about it. It's like we are going to go in some 14 days fast. I don't know why the Lord kept telling me. It's like the Lord is preparing us. Hallelujah. Some of you may not like it, but it's like we are going to do it. Amen. Amen. Not the one that you break 9:00 a.m. But I keep my body under, bringing it to subjection. Let by by by enemies when I have preached to others, I myself should be a cast away. I control. The reason you see all over the internet, men of God, this man, this man of God sleep with church member, this man of God, they could not subject this thing called flesh. This thing fought them when they were in seminary. Now they have become pastor. One of the first step to winning any spiritual warfare is discipline. No undisciplined person can win in the battle of life. Even naturally, you can't win. You must be a disciplined person to fast. So, what is he talking about? He's talking about discipline the tell the body, not the body talking to you. Many of us are led by the flesh, led by what the flesh is telling you, not by the spirit. Contention. You must recognize this. You are in contention with the flesh and tame the flesh. Praise God. Did you learn something? Number two way to win is number is prayer. I wanted to talk about prayer last week, but I couldn't talk so much about it. There's this story about John Knox. I've spoken about John Knox several times. John Knox was a prayer warrior in Scotland. And the queen of Scotland, I don't know if she's a witch, or a wizard, she said, "I fear the prayer of John Knox than the entire army of Europe." Five minutes prayer of John. Listen to me, you must come to a point in your life when when you come to a place, you just say, "Let's sleep." You have not started praying. Devils just call themselves and say, "Let's live with this." Because you have a profile with them. That this guy, they have showed up. Listen. Many years ago, when I was still in Cano, my mom was sick. She's there. And she called me, she kept complaining, sent money for drugs, she kept complaining. So, I decided I was going to come. So, I took a I took leave from my office and I came down. The night I came, I woke up at night. La. As I was praying, I was in a…