Spiritual Warfare - Perseverance — Phil Beach Jr.

Endurance in Spiritual Warfare and the Fall of Jericho

And if you would like to, you may open your Bibles to the book of Joshua. Open your Bibles to the book of Joshua and we will read a few Scriptures in the book of Joshua. And also I'm going to be reading many Scriptures in the New Testament and also some Scriptures in the Old Testament.

And of course, like I said, this is the last series on spiritual warfare. And this particular series is entitled The Importance of Endurance While in the Midst of Spiritual Warfare. The Importance of Endurance While in the Midst of Spiritual Warfare.

And this entire teaching will deal with three particular aspects. First of all, we will need to understand the importance of patience while enduring in spiritual warfare. Secondly, we will see the importance of obedience to God and obedience to the Word of God while we are enduring in spiritual warfare.

And then thirdly, we will see the importance of increased prayer right before the victory actually takes place. Increased prayer right before the victory actually takes place. Now, as our text that we have used throughout this entire series, Joshua chapter 6, Joshua chapter 6.

We will be reading from the beginning in Joshua chapter 6, verse 1. Now Jericho was tightly shut up because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in. Then the Lord said to Joshua, See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands along with its kings and its fighting men.

Verse 3, March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. Now, I suggest that if you want to understand the entirety of this message, then you give us a paper and on the paper you write out your name and you would like this series on spiritual warfare.

Because I do not have the time tonight to be able to reiterate on what we have already preached and then be able to deal with this subject without taking seven hours. So I want to encourage you that if you feel the Holy Spirit is asking you to become more aware of the spiritual warfare that you are in tonight and if you feel the Lord is asking you to become more responsible in your own life regarding the spiritual warfare, I want to invite you to get the tapes.

They're on an offering basis. We do not charge any money for the tapes. And you can then be able to read part 1 and part 2. That will be the foundation for what we're going to preach tonight. But nevertheless, our main text tonight is march around the city once with all the armed men.

Do this for six days. Now, God commanded Israel to march around the walls of Jericho for six days. Now, six days represents to you and I the necessity of persevering in prayer. It represents the necessity of once we have zeroed in on that Jericho.

Now, remember, Jericho represents that which is the work of the enemy that is in God's house or God's territory that needs to be taken out. Many times there are Jerichos within God's property. You belong to God.

Personal Strongholds as Spiritual Jerichos

You've been bought with a price. The Bible says that you've been redeemed not with silver or gold, but with the precious blood of the Lamb. The Bible also says that your body belongs to God, your spirit belongs to God, and your mind belongs to God.

And there should not be in your mind or in your spirit or in your body, there shouldn't be those things that pertain to Satan. God has purchased you by the blood of Christ. And He wants your mind to be on heavenly things, thinking on the things that are pure and honest and worthy of praise.

And He wants your spirit, that is your inner being, He wants the motives of your heart and the meditations of your heart to be upon Him. And He wants your bodies to be used for His honor and glory. But many times as Christians, we find that as we begin to delve into the wonderful life of God and we begin to serve the Lord, we discover there's Jerichos in our midst.

There's strongholds in our mind. There's strongholds in our spirits. Many times we have to wrestle with habits. We have to wrestle with bad things that are in us and on us. And this is when we need to understand that we have to get into God and in prayer and we have to take authority over those Jerichos, over those things that are in us that don't belong there.

But you cannot do this unless you are clothed with the power of God, unless you have the strength of God, unless you have the Word of God. And as, of course, in our last series, we showed you that spiritual warfare consisted in taking hold of the Word of God together with the power of the Holy Ghost, and then you stand against the work of the devil.

Take hold of together with against. Take hold of the Word of God together with the power of the Holy Ghost that God gives to them that obey Him, and then you and the Holy Ghost and the Word of God, you stand against the work of the devil.

You stand against that bad habit. You stand against that evil thought. You stand against that corruptible habit that you have with your body. Whatever it is, you've got to surround your Jericho, see? To surround your Jericho is to pray and pray and pray until that problem, whatever it is, is so surrounded in prayer, it's so surrounded in God's Word, it's so surrounded in the power of the Holy Ghost that it's got to fall.

That's how you tackle problems. The reason why we see so much defeat in the Christian circle today is because the child of God has not learned that it's not by power and it's not by human might, but it's by my Spirit, saith the Lord.

Zechariah 4, 6. And when it comes to wrestling with Jerichos, when it comes to wrestling with strongholds in our life, we cannot wrestle them alone. For the Bible says we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual powers, against principalities, against thrones and dominions in high places.

Therefore, put ye on the whole armor of God. How many can understand and relate tonight to the fact that we're in a spiritual warfare? How many can attest to the fact that at times as we're serving the Lord, we confront from very strong Jerichos?

Strong walled cities. You know, a habit can become a walled city, a bad thought, an evil desire, a lust can become such a strong Jericho in our life. And I submit to you that the only way that you can be able to overcome your Jerichos is if you do it God's way.

And God's way is do it for six days. You've got to persevere. You've got to continue in prayer. Now, here's the things that we learn. While we are praying and standing against our Jerichos, first of all, we learn to obey God and continue in prayer with no outward result.

It is so very important that we as Christians learn to be faithful to God and particularly to spiritual warfare and continue to persevere and continue to stand against the powers of hell in our own life and in the life of those that we love, even though we do not see any visible results.

Faith in God and obedience to God cannot be contingent upon what we see with our natural eyes, but it must be contingent upon the Word of God. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. We read the Apostle Paul in verse number 16 tells us,.

Therefore we do not lose heart, though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen or what is heard, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporal, but what is unseen is eternal. When we learn to obey with no outward result, then we can understand how to learn how not to faint or to lose heart.

So many times we find that in the midst of a spiritual battle, people begin to lose heart and they become faint-hearted, and as a result of their faint-heartedness, they begin to draw back from the spiritual warfare, they begin to draw back from pressing into God, they begin to draw back from pushing into the things of God, and they find themselves in an idle, lukewarm state because they've lost heart.

They've lost heart because they were looking for visible results and didn't see them, and then got discouraged. We've got to learn not to be discouraged and not to lose heart. The only way to do that is to continue to persevere in our Christian walk and in the battle of walking before the Lord on a daily basis without having it contingent upon what we see or what we don't see.

Outward Weariness and Inward Renewal

Secondly, we become aware that outwardly we begin to waste away, we become tired and weary and full of fatigue. 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verses 7 through 12. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.

Listen to this. We are hard-pressed on every side but not crushed, perplexed but not in despair, persecuted but not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.

As we persevere in prayer, we have to become aware of the fact that our outward physical frame and our physical mind and our physical emotions will become fatigued, will become tired, will become weary, will feel as if we're wasting away and we will be tempted as a result of these things to once again get discouraged and stop.

How many have ever experienced that in the spiritual warfare? Secondly, while persevering in spiritual warfare, we learn to recognize inward renewal during the endurance of prayer. We learn to recognize inward renewal.

Now, even though we are wrestling in prayer and we are becoming faint outwardly, yet during this time of six days, remember the walls didn't fall until after six days. It's during the six days that we are persevering in prayer that our inward man is being renewed daily in three ways.

We have a renewal of spiritual vision. We have a renewal of spiritual faith. And we have a renewal of spiritual strength. Our vision, our faith and our strength is daily renewed and that is the inner man being renewed even though outwardly we are fatigued and tired and weary.

So we have to learn to look at what's happening on the inner man rather than what's happening outwardly so that we can be encouraged rather than discouraged. Now, we find in Isaiah chapter 30, Isaiah chapter 30, verses 18 through 22, yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you.

He rises to show you compassion for the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for Him. And then, of course, we find in Isaiah chapter 40. Isaiah chapter 40, beginning with verse 28. Isaiah 40, 28.

Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. Listen, He will not grow tired or weary. Now, see, we have to realize this, that even though outwardly we grow tired and weary and become fatigued, yet God does not grow weary, nor does He become tired.

And it is that God who cannot become tired, that even though we are becoming weary, yet He is strengthening our inner man. He is encouraging our inner man. He's renewing our vision, our faith, and our strength.

But all of this comes about when we learn to persevere, when we learn to weigh on God, as the Scripture says. He will not grow tired or weary, and His understanding no one can fathom. Verse 29, He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.

You see, in order for you to experience God's strength and God's power, you have to become weak and weary, right? Isn't that what it says? Well, what better way than to become weak and weary than to give yourself over to prayer and seeking the Lord?

I'd rather do it that way than to spend my nights out, half the night drinking, getting drunk. You see, God promises us that when we accept the challenge of spiritual warfare and we diligently begin to seek Him and we put His purposes and His interests before our own interests and we delve into spiritual warfare, He promises that even though we become weak and weary and fatigued, He will give us inward strength, He will renew our vision, He will renew our power, and He will renew our faith.

What a promise we have this evening as we enter into spiritual warfare, knowing that God Himself has committed to give us power and strength. Verse 30, even youths grow tired and weary and young men stumble and fall, but those who wait in the Lord or those who hope on the Lord, listen, they will renew their strength.

Oh, that's good. They will soar on wings like eagles. Here we go now. They will run and not grow weary. Does that mean physical weariness? Absolutely not. You will run and be physically weary. Let me tell you something.

If you take God's challenge tonight and you give yourself to prayer and to God's Word and you fight the good fight of faith, you're physically going to become weary. But inwardly you won't become weary and that's what God is more concerned about.

He's concerned about your spiritual endurance more so than your physical endurance. And He'll be there to touch you physically too when you can't go on. But God knows that outwardly we perish, but inwardly He wants us to be renewed daily.

Eternal Purposes in Persevering Prayer

We'll never learn that though. We'll never enter into that relationship with God unless we allow Him to teach us the necessity of endurance. We've got to learn to pray six days, figuratively speaking, meaning we can't go walk up to our Jericho and say, in the name of Jesus I command you to leave.

Sometimes it doesn't work like that as we've all seen. Sometimes you've got to endure. And these are the things that will take place in your life as you endure. Thirdly, we learn to see eternal purposes and invisible absolutes while enduring.

We learn to see eternal purposes and invisible absolutes as we endure. We see the eternal glory being wrought as a result of our endurance. Romans 8 .18, Romans 8 .18, Romans 8 .18. Here's what Paul said.

You see, Paul endured many hardships, didn't he? But look at what Paul learned as he endured hardships. For I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

As you persevere in prayer and as you persevere in the things of God and as you fight the good fight of faith and earnestly contend for the faith that was once and for all delivered unto the saints and you jump in and begin to wrestle in prayer over the spiritual Jerichos in your life and in the life of others, God will begin to reveal to you the glory, the eternal glory that is being wrought for you that you'll share with in Christ.

That's encouragement. Secondly, we will learn to see Jesus rather than our affliction and hardship. Hebrews 10, verse 2. Hebrews 10, verse 2, or Hebrews 12, verse 2. This is a familiar portion of Scripture.

A familiar portion of Scripture. Let us fix our eyes on who? On Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. We learn to fix our eyes upon Jesus rather than the hardship of the affliction. Rather than the hardship of the weariness and the fatigue.

Isn't it easy to stop doing what the Lord wants when our eyes get off of Him and on our weariness and our fatigue and on our anxiety? Sure it is. But see, as you endure and get your eyes off of that and on the Lord, then you learn to live a life with your eyes upon Him rather than on the temporary hardships that you're going through.

Oh, how we need to learn that tonight, don't we? How we need to learn that tonight. Fourthly, we learn that being involved in perseverance and being involved in spiritual warfare and giving ourselves wholly to it, we learn that it inevitably is to benefit the church itself.

And when we realize that when God asks us to spend time in prayer and time in His Word and we realize that our time spent before God on our knees is inevitably going to affect the church in a spiritual way, it encourages us, does it not?

Perseverance for the Benefit of the Church

Now, here's a beautiful Scripture that will reinforce this point. See, 2 Corinthians 12, verse 15. 2 Corinthians 12, verse 15. So I will very gladly spend for you everything I have and expend myself as well.

There's the cry of a man of God who understood that every bit of sacrifice, every bit of hardship, every bit of affliction that he was experiencing, he knew was inevitably for the good of the church. And rather than becoming selfish and arrogant and saying, I'm not going to inconvenience myself anymore.

This is getting ridiculous. He said, praise God, it's for the church. And if it's for the church, it's for Christ. And if it's for Christ, I'll do anything. Amen? 1 Corinthians 4, 12 tells us... 2 Corinthians 4, 12, I'm sorry, excuse me.

Listen to verse 12. So then death is at work in us, but life is in at work at you. Well, yeah, right. We'll try that again. Let's erase that and we'll try it again here. So then death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

There is the all-consuming glory that takes place in our lives when we learn that our hardship in prayer is for the benefit of the church. We realize that even though death is working in us, yet it is resulting in life working in those that we are being spent for, those that we are sacrificing for, those that we are thinking of, and those that we are praying for, and those that we are spending sleepless nights over, though death is in me, though fatigue is in me, though weariness and tiredness, and sometimes even discouragement and despair is working in me, and I feel just all compassed with death, yet I'm not going to be moved, I'm not going to turn aside, because though death is working in me, life is working in the person that I'm interceding for.

Life is working in the person that I am standing in the gap for, and their life is more important to me than my own life. Didn't Jesus say, a true friend is someone who, what? Lays down his life for a friend.

How can you lay your life down for someone? No, you don't go out and shoot yourself. You pray for the person. Inconvenience yourself. Let death work in you, but realize that as death works in you, life works in them.

Amen? The ministry of death produces the ministry of life. The Lord is calling us to be soldiers tonight. Not only does death work in us and life in those that we pray for, but it also produces grace and thanksgiving in the lives that we are being spent for.

When you give yourself over to prayer and you give yourself over to intercession, and you're standing against a Jericho in someone else's life and even in your own, the inevitable result will be grace and thanksgiving being poured out into their life.

They will experience an abundance of God's grace. This is what God showed Paul. And this is why Paul was able to endure such hardship and such affliction. This is why Paul was able to be thrown in prison and sing at night.

Because he didn't have a self-centered perspective. He saw that what was happening to him was for the good of the church. And that's what enabled him to endure the hardships, the beatings, the stonings, being among false brethrens, fasting, praying, sometimes being lost in the middle of a sea, sometimes having no food and no clothes.

What sustained him? What enabled him to go on? He knew that even though it was the death sentence upon him, it was working life in the church. It was ministering grace and thanksgiving to the church. And I tell you, church, that's the only perspective that you can have if you want to be preserved as you sacrifice to the Lord.

Otherwise, you'll get caught up in the hardship of it and you'll stop. Can you relate? You'll stop. But if you can see the good it's doing, then you'll be encouraged not to faint. That's part one. Learning the patience in spiritual battle.

Obedience and Waiting for God's Timing

Secondly, we must learn the obedience. Now, in Joshua 6, verse 10, we find Joshua gave the command. Joshua 6, verse 10. But Joshua had commanded the people, do not give a war cry, do not raise your voices, do not say a word until the day I tell you to shout.

Then shout. Secondly, we must learn obedience in spiritual warfare. We must learn to wait before we shout the victory until we are released by the Holy Spirit. We must learn to wait before we shout the victory.

And that comes about when we're released by the Holy Spirit. So many times people want to prematurely speak out a particular victory regarding something in someone's life or their own only to find that their war cry didn't bring down the walls.

And this is because they did not wait until it was the right time and the right season to shout the victory. When you're involved in spiritual warfare, you've got to follow the times and seasons of the Lord.

You've got to follow His leading. And you've got to stay in the Word and let the Holy Spirit quicken to you the things and the times and the seasons to shout. Secondly, you've got to wait until you've surrounded the Jericho entirely in prayer.

You've got to wait until you've surrounded it entirely in prayer. And if you prematurely shout the war cry before you have fulfilled the Holy Spirit's requirements in prayer, your war cry is just going to be a noise in the air.

It won't do anything, see? The Holy Spirit will put it upon your heart to pray and you have to pray as long as He wants you to. And when you have required the fulfilled responsibility or you've fulfilled the responsibility of what the Holy Spirit's required, then He'll lead you to shout.

And when you shout by the leading of the Lord, that Jericho will come down in your life and it'll come down in the lives of other people. Revelation 5, verse 8. Prayer is very significant to God. Church, did you know that God's eyes are constantly upon our prayers and they go up to Him like incense and they become pleasant in His nostrils?

Did you know that? Revelation 5. I'll show you in the Bible here. Revelation 5, verse 8. And when He had taken it, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

Where are the prayers of the saints going? Right up to God. And He smells them. See, that's why the language is figurative. What is it saying? It's saying this. God is very acquainted with the prayers of our heart.

They rise up to Him, Norman, and they're brought right before Him. See, God knows what He's doing. Isn't it encouraging to know when you pray, it's like incense that's rising right up to the Lord? Your prayer isn't some distant voice that God's saying, huh?

Huh? I can't. Boy, I wish I was a little bit closer. No, your prayer is like a fragrance that's... Right there. Right in God's breath, He smells it. He understands it. And He's discerning how to work it out.

Isn't that good? You guys have your incense burning always? I hope you do. Your incense, don't get none of this coal incense stuff where you burn certain incense that brings certain spirits. How many of you ever walk down the streets in New York and you saw these people dressed in robes and they were members of cults?

They always have incense blowing. You know why? Those incense were dedicated to Satan. And demons come when those incense are burned because the incense draw the spirits. The spirits know that those incense represent that those people are open to their communication.

So whenever you see those incense around, don't go up to them and go, Oh, aren't these beautiful? Sometimes they do smell good, but it's devilish. I suggest if you want to burn incense, let the Holy Ghost fire burn in your life.

And when it does, you'll burn up prayers to God. Amen? And then that'll be a sweet aroma to the Lord. And that's what I believe He wants for us. Thirdly, or let me see here. We're not on thirdly. We're on don't shout.

Wait until you are released. Wait until you've surrounded the problem in prayer. And learn to wait and discern the season of the Lord. Now, the Bible says in Ecclesiastes chapter 3, verses 1 through 8, there's a time and season for everything under the sun.

And that is true spiritually. There's a time to pray and there's a time to stop praying. There's a time to weep and there's a time to rejoice. There's a time to command and demand and there's a time to just tolerate and put up with.

So as Christians in spiritual warfare, we have to learn to discern the seasons to pray, the seasons to weep, the season to rejoice, the season to grieve, and the season to shout and proclaim the victory.

When you ought to be praying, you shouldn't be shouting. And if you should be shouting, you should get up off your knees. Do you remember what Moses did when he confronted the Red Sea? He got down on his knees and began to pray.

And what did the Lord say to him? Get up off your knees. This isn't a time to pray. I've already promised you. And that's what happens sometimes. We have to know the seasons. Sometimes we pray because we're filled with unbelief.

We can't believe God for what He's promised. Other times we pray because God tells us to pray. Sometimes we get up and we want to rebuke the devil and God says, you haven't prayed long enough to rebuke that devil.

It'll jump on you. Prayer gives us power with God and gives us power against the devil. We have to learn to be led by the Holy Spirit. We cannot command Satan or any Jericho in our life by our own will and think that our authority is going to impress the devil.

It has to be the Holy Ghost. 1 Corinthians 12, verse 3. This is a very interesting Scripture. I suggest you mark it if you mark your Bibles. Pray over it when you get home or sometime this week. The Lord can help you understand a lot of things.

1 Corinthians 12, verse 3. Well, let's begin with verse 1. Now, about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant. You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other, you were influenced and led astray to dumb, mute idols.

Therefore, I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, Jesus, be cursed. And no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Ghost. Now, when I prayed over that Scripture, the Lord began to give me understanding.

First of all, you cannot speak by the Spirit of God and say Jesus is cursed. In other words, the Holy Spirit will never lead you to sin or profane God in any way. Anything that profanes and sins against God and claims God did it or God led him to do it is a lie.

See, you cannot by the Spirit of God curse God in any way. If anything is cursing God, it's not coming from God. Likewise, it is impossible to say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Ghost. What that means is if anyone does have a true confession, it has to be initiated and inspired by the Holy Spirit.

So therefore, if you are going to command Jericho to leave and you're going to take authority over devils and demons, it's got to be initiated by the Holy Spirit. You cannot take your own initiative and use Jesus' name.

It's got to be done by the Holy Spirit. This is where the faith movement has gone into total error. They teach that it's by your confession that God's Word is brought about and victory is won. That is heresy.

It is not your confession. It is the inspired Holy Spirit moving you to speak. If your confession is void of the leading of God, you're going to end up in the shoes of the seven sons of Sceva who, after watching Paul cast out demons, went to a certain house where there was a man possessed by devils and they said, we command you in Jesus' name whom Paul preaches to come out.

And the demon says, well, we know Paul. He speaks by the authority of Christ. When he commands us to come out, it's the Holy Ghost in him commanding us. And we know Jesus. Boy, we know Jesus. He's the Son of God.

But who are you? Catch the drift? Who are you? Who do you think you are to take Satan on by your own choice and by your own power? You're no match for him. He'll wipe you out. He'll make you mud. But as you walk close to God and you follow the leading of the Holy Spirit and God inspires you to rebuke the devil, then it's not you rebuking him, but it's the Holy Ghost and he'll flee.

You've got power in Christ against all the powers of hell and all scorpions. But in yourself, you don't have no power. Always remember that. Never get haughty. Amen? Never get arrogant in your faith. Always remember you're dependent upon the Lord.

And if you were broken off of the vine, your little branch would not be able to bear fruit. Remember that? Sometimes we bear such nice fruit and we boast. But we forget that we're bearing fruit because we're attached to the vine.

And if our little branch was broken off, where would our fruit go? It would wither up and die. We're so dependent on the Lord. Jesus knew what he was talking about when he said, ye can do nothing without me.

Always remember that. When you begin to get strong, never think that it's because you're something special. Just be thankful that you're tapped into the vine. My last point tonight, darkest before dawn.

Increased Prayer Before the Victory

You have to be prepared not only to endure and be patient, not only to be obedient, but you must also prepare to increase prayer right before the victory is about to be manifested. Our scriptural text is Joshua 6, verse 15.

Someone read Joshua 6, verse 15 loudly when you find it. Now, how many times did they march around the city previous to that day, Norman? Once each day. Then on the seventh day, how many times did they go around?

What's that saying? Right before the walls fell, they had to go around more. That represents that while you are in prayer and while you are in spiritual warfare, right before the victory is about to take place, the Holy Spirit most likely will lead you to increase in your spiritual prayer, increase in your intercession.

Right before the end, because it was right after that that they shouted and the walls came down. You want me to give you a good Scripture to prove that truth? Sure you do. Exodus chapter 5. How many remembers the story when God spoke to Moses and said, Moses, I'm giving you authority over Pharaoh and I'm giving you authority over all the powers in Egypt and I want you to go to Pharaoh and I want you to command him to let the people go.

Remember that story? Well, there's one head going now. Israel was in Egypt bound by sin. God raised up Moses and told Moses that it was time to go to Egypt and to deliver Israel out of the Egyptian power.

Now listen, you've got to remember this. Moses had a heavenly... I think I probably would have screamed. Then he put it back in and it was healed. Then he got the rod and he threw it down on the ground and it turned into a snake.

So not only was Moses called by God, he was equipped by God and he was sent by God. And what did he do? He went down right to Pharaoh and he said exactly to Pharaoh what God told him to. He said, Pharaoh, I am that I am sent me.

That's the God of Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And he's done told me that you're to let Israel go and I come to you in the authority of God. I didn't send myself. I didn't ask for this.

God did it. Now set the people free. What did Pharaoh do? He made it worse for the children of Israel after Moses interceded and asked him to let go. And as a result, Moses had to go back to prayer and pray and pray and pray.

And Moses had to increase his prayer as he got closer to the victory because the closer he got to the victory, the harder the enemy fall. And this will be true when you get into spiritual warfare. Right before the dawn of the day, it gets darkest.

And that's when our prayers will increase and God will lead us to spend more time in prayer. But that follows a great and glorious victory because it's during that time that the Lord suddenly comes to us and suddenly tells us, okay, it's time.

It's time. The walls are about to fall. Shout the victory. Let's hear the war cry. And it's during that time when you know you have obeyed the Lord, you've been patient, you've been obedient, and you've been faithful in prayer when God asked you to pray.

That's when you can boldly be able to stand up and say, in the name of the Lord, this wall shall fall and it's going to crumble. You only have that right if you have been faithful in perseverance, obedience, and prayer.

So you see why it's important to have a daily prayer life? I don't ever want to stand in front of a devil and have that devil say to me, you have no right to cast me out. You don't even spend time in prayer.

And then have to go do all my praying the next four days. I want to be prayed up. So I've got hours of prayer behind me so I can look at any devil when God tells me to and says, devil, come out. You're a liar.