Empowered to Bless: Embracing Our Enemies in Christ

1) "So what about our enemies? What are we speaking to today? Well, maybe you're in this room, and you're like me and you've had a parent that would abuse or neglect you. Maybe you had a good friend that willfully betrayed you. Maybe you've been under authorities, spiritual authorities even, that have accused you or reproached your reputation. Maybe you've been physically, sexually, financially, relationally abused in some way. Whatever the form of persecution that we are facing or have faced, rest assured, as the Apostle Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 3, all who wish to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." [08:48] (60 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2) "If you have said yes to Jesus, you have entered a new war. Your war is now spiritual. It is not carnal. If you have said yes to Jesus, you are in a new war. Therefore, you need new weapons of warfare. Old weapons of warfare don't work in new wars. So Romans chapter 12 is actually a reference to a portion of the Sermon on the Mount. So if you have your Bibles, flip to Matthew chapter 5 with me. Are we putting scriptures on the screens? If you don't have it, there we go. All right. Now we're in business." [11:32] (41 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3) "So your new weapon now is to defeat the enemy of your soul through blessing. And that means to align yourself with the will of God for that person's life. It means to speak of them with favor, both publicly and privately. Or if you can't say something nice, don't say, okay, so we all know that. Our grandmas have taught us well. It means to release favor, or here's the best part, to honor the identity of the person. So now we're understanding identity. We are made in the likeness of God. We are sons and daughters of God." [16:57] (38 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4) "When you bless your enemies, you're creating opportunity for freedom for them and for yourself. When you're blessing them, you're saying, God, I align my, I don't approve their behavior. Maybe you even have to create boundaries around things, but I am aligning myself with your will for their life to be saved and reconciled unto you. I'm going to honor their identity that they were created in your likeness, God, and I'm going to let you deal with it because he's a great defender." [21:12] (28 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5) "So when somebody is opposing you and rejecting you and abusing you, accusing you, maligning you, gossiping, backbiting, whatever it is, instead of going to resentment and bitterness and anger and hatred and all these things, when you align yourself with the will of God for their life, and honor their identity, you're letting them, you're creating space for them, for God to deal with them and give them a chance to repent and be set free from the enemy's grips. This is how powerful it is to be a son or a daughter of the king." [22:23] (36 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6) "Knowledge is not power. Knowledge applied is very powerful. And so that's why James tells us to be doers of the Word. We have to train. This is called training. This is called kingdom training. You have new weapons, a new identity, you're in a new war, and you got to train now. And the only way to train is on a battlefield. It's through adversity. Letting adversity prove to you what is in you. The proverb says that if you fall to a pieces in a crisis, there wasn't much to you in it in the first place." [24:02] (60 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7) "Take inventory of your own heart. Ask the Lord, search me, oh God. Find any way within me that is not right. Create in me a clean heart. You have to ask yourself when you're dealing with people, are they my enemy or am I their enemy? Remember, biblically speaking, an enemy is one who opposes you, who speaks ill will about you, who rejects you, who refuses to pray for you, who refuses the will of God in your life. But sometimes we get so bound up with hate and bitterness and resentment and anger and revenge that we now become the enemy." [25:57] (39 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8) "Resolve to be a minister of reconciliation. Paul told the Corinthians in his second letter, he said, God has reconciled us, so we need to become ministers of reconciliation. That is our mission. And we do that by understanding that the blood still speaks. Somebody say the blood still speaks. Yes, it does. In Hebrews, it says the blood speaks a better word. And so if the blood still speaks, then our enemies are not permanently positioned. They are temporary, always temporary." [32:10] (34 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)