A Prepared Heart — Teresa Conlon

This message is one of the Times Square Church pulpit series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. You are welcome to make additional cassettes of this message for free distribution to friends.

However, for all other forms of reproduction or electronic transmission, existing copyright laws apply.

Faith for Miracle-Working Power

I believe that and I believe this afternoon he wants to do a miracle for us. He wants to do a miracle for us as individuals and he wants to do a miracle for us as a church. He wants to start moving in miracle working power in his body.

And he's lovingly coming to us and he's saying, I want you to face now where you need the miracle and I want you to believe me because I will be God to you. And I'm going to trust him for that this afternoon.

If you're visiting with us and you've joined us for the first time, we say welcome to the miracle hour. I'm sick of living the survival hour. I want the miracle hour. And I see in his word that he promises that.

I see in his word where he says, if you will believe me, I will do exceedingly above and above anything because I can even work beyond what you can ask. What you think I am capable of is going to blow you away.

And I think God is looking for a people that are going to lay hold of him by faith and say, Jesus, be a miracle working God for me. And he's going to open our eyes. He's going to have our feet walking on water because this generation needs that testimony that there is a God.

Freedom Through Christ’s Blood

He is real. He has a son. His name is Jesus. And we walk as a free people because we've been cleansed by his blood. We've our sin has been covered. And because we're covered now, we have been forgiven.

And because we're forgiven, we're cleansed. And we were cleansed. We walk free and free. People can do things free. People can go places free. People can speak things. And God gets behind those words.

God gets behind these feet. And we begin to see with our eyes things we could never see before because we've got spiritual eyes. We've got a new set of eyes. Our eyes have been opened. Many times we'll go to a place and there is like a hyped up preaching to work up the crowd.

But beloved in our midst today, right now, there is a Holy Spirit moving and wooing and speaking. And he's saying, try me. He's saying not just a big amen in the service, but he says, I want you to hit those streets and walk with me and walk with me because I'm going to take you places.

I'm going to show you things and you're going to call on me. And I'm going to answer. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Oh, thank you, Jesus, for that, for that word of God, that you're going to be a miracle working God.

Father God, you know that we need you in that way today. That's why, Lord, you speaking and singing this word over us. Now, Lord, we pray that, Lord, you would give us that gift of faith, that childlike faith that, Lord, we will just say, help me to believe you fully.

That, Lord, we give to you, Lord, our heart. We give to you, God, our concern. We give our questions. But, Lord, we're not going to be ruled by them. But, Lord, you're going to come and you're going to speak and your word will create the faith.

And, Lord, we're going to glorify you by standing up in it and moving forward in it. Lord, you are so now pleased, oh God, by our response of faith. Lord, you're going to sustain it. You're going to maintain it.

You're going to keep it alive in us, oh God. And we thank you for that. Now, Jesus, be all that you need to be to us today. I ask you, Lord, that you be our healer, our baptizer and fire in the Holy Ghost.

That you would be a miracle working God in our heart and minds and spirits and families. And that, Lord, you would preach this word by the power of the Holy Spirit. Lord, we do not need to hear from men or women.

But, God, we need to hear from the Holy Ghost. For, Lord, then you can do something. Lord, you lift us up into a realm and give us an understanding that we don't have unless the Holy Ghost come and teach it and preach it.

So, Lord, we're believing you to do that today. And we'll thank you for it in Jesus' precious name. Amen and amen. I want to speak today about a prepared heart. A prepared heart. And if you would turn with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 11.

The Prepared Heart and Seeking the Lord

There's, in the Old Testament, there's 1 Kings and 2 Kings. And then there's 1 Chronicles and 2 Chronicles. I'm sorry, yes. Oh, I need us to do 2 Chronicles. 2 Chronicles chapter 11. I have a bit of feedback here.

And when I was doing my devotions recently, I came across a line of scripture. And you don't need to turn there, but actually it's in 2 Chronicles 12. And it was talking about a king. And it said, and he did evil because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord.

And it was like that line stopped me. It was like a hook in my heart. And I felt like God was saying, read that again and read that again. And so I did. And it said, and he did evil because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord.

I think that the Holy Spirit is beginning to unfold to me. That perhaps before this verse, if you had said what would be the secret to walking a victorious life with the Lord, with Jesus Christ. I would say that you seek Him with all your heart and love Him with all your heart.

God's saying, now I want to open up to you. I want to give you an understanding of something. Because although that's right, that's not the fullest thing. Because you see, people can seek me. People can seek me answers and explanations to things.

And they will get answers and explanations to things in this work. And yet in their seeking of me, they still don't have to believe me. They still don't have to follow me in it. They still don't have to obey me in it.

They can say, Lord, I've been seeking you and you've spoken to me. And that is true. But God says that those that will seek me, it means you're going to follow me. That means you're going to be prepared when you come to seek me.

You're going to be prepared when you seek me for when I speak to you, it's going to, I'm going to ask you to do it. I'm going to say, I'm going to look for a response. I'm going to look into your heart to see if you grasped it.

And if it's found a place in you and me. And that Lord say, yes, Lord, I want to move in that. I want to live in that. I rise up in it. Lord, I see what you're saying. But now, Lord, make it part of me.

Make it part of my walk. Let me lay hold of it and believe it. Let me walk in the authority of it. Let me walk, Lord, that I believe it, that it happens in my life. And the Lord was saying, we can hide so much when we say we seek you.

But this king, it said, did evil because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord. And in 2nd Corinthians, sorry, 2nd Chronicles chapter 11, this king that it was referring to was Rehoboam. And Rehoboam was the son of Solomon.

Rehoboam’s Shrinking Kingdom and Inherited Consequences

Rehoboam was a man who had moved into a kingdom that was now diminishing. He was receiving a smaller inheritance. You see, the sin of his father and his father's folly had not just followed him to the grave, but now was passing on to another generation.

And here was a young man that was given as an example and a lifestyle, someone who at the end of his days only gave lip service to the Lord, but his heart was far from God. And then the scripture says that when he became king as a young man, he did folly, that he didn't listen to godly counsel.

And as a result, his kingdom was shrunk. Instead of ruling 12 tribes, he ruled two. And now we have this young man who's entering a kingdom that is shrinking. And what could have been passed on to him and what should have been passed on to him was not.

And beloved, he reminds me so much of us when we come into the kingdom of God. You and I may have said, Lord, you know, my life would have taken a far different course if I had been taught better, if I had been given the discipline, if somebody had been there for me, if I had received the education or the opportunity, if I had been a different person, if there had been a different beginning.

And now because of my own folly and the mistakes that follow me, things, God, you know, I was so ignorant of and things that I had no control of, God, I was just a product of the way I was raised and the way I was taught and what I saw all around me.

And now I grow up and what's before me is diminished kingdom, reduced options. I've got to bend something. And I see this young man and now he's got his options shrinking. And the scripture tells us that he begins to gather the few that he has around him and he's going to go fight for what he feels is his.

He's going to start a civil war. He's going to take the few that are remaining and he's going to stand on the fact that he is a legitimate and true son of Solomon and he's going to fight and whatever it costs those around him or whatever it costs him is of no concern to him.

He's going after what's his. But beloved, then the scripture says in 2 Chronicles chapter 2, it says, but the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah, the man of God, saying, speak unto Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and all Israel and Judah and Benjamin saying, thus saith the Lord, you shall not go up nor fight against your brethren.

Return every man to his house for this thing is done of me. And the scripture says that they obeyed the words of the Lord and returned from going against Jeroboam and the northern kingdom of Israel. Now, beloved, that is pretty amazing.

That is pretty amazing, considering that that young man, you could just begin to feel in him something's been taken from me. I've experienced a loss here and it's not something that I feel I don't deserve.

I feel that there's something happening in my life that I want to fight for because what is happening to me shouldn't be happening. And yet the scripture tells us when the word of God says, don't go, don't fight.

It's of me. He hears. And beloved, I feel that that is such a picture of what our salvation is like. I feel it's when we come to a point like Rehoboam with reduced options and there's a war in our heart, but because we have reduced options and usually God in his love narrows it down to one of two, we look down and be destroyed.

Or we look up and find hope. And I believe that around him, they could sense if we march with this man, we go to our doom. We're vastly outnumbered. But yet there was something in this young man when the word of the Lord came, it was able to fill him with light and with hope.

The Word of God Brings Hope to Broken Hearts

Beloved, that is how the gospel comes to broken hearts, to disappointed hearts, to angry hearts. It comes in and it's a greater voice and it floods with light and understanding. And it says that you don't have to live in a circle of regret and you don't have to live in a circle of blame.

You don't have to be always looking backwards, trying to move forward. It's like when God comes and it is him speaking, if our hearts open up, it is unexplainable, but it brings hope. It seems to bring a future.

It seems to bring a steady. It seems to bring some sanity. It brings some peace with it. The scripture doesn't tell us why those young men laid down arms. And I'll tell you, only the voice of God many times can get young men.

To lay those down. But the Bible says that that is exactly what they did. And I believe that in hearing the voice of God, it was like, God, you're with me. But I was going to have to fight this battle alone.

I thought you were moving against what my father stood for. I thought you were moving against what I stood for. And I believe when the word of the Lord comes, it brings so much more than we're able to say, but it does produce a change.

And that young man laid it all down. And I believe that circle of blame and regret began to be neutralized by the living word of God that pierces through to the heart of things, to the soul and marrow of things, where it is able to discern the thoughts and the intents of the heart and they're exposed and they go, look what I am.

And then God says, I love you. I've got a future for you. I've got a plan for you. It's so much better than your own. And so this young man accepts in those around him and that cycle of blame and regret ends and new beginnings flood into this young man's life, new beginnings.

And it's like God now says, now you have it, son. And now I want you to go forward in my might. I want you to go forward in my plan for your life. I want you to go forward because what I have for you far out surpasses anything you can think for yourself.

You thought your options were diminished. You thought you had a shrinking inheritance. You thought you were going to be gypped in this life. You thought that you were going to lag behind. But God was beginning to say, no, when I begin to speak to you, it brings hope in life because I create life in you.

I create what was not there before and move forward with me, move forward with me. I'm going to renew you. I'm going to renew your mind. I'll give you a new heart. You'll rule this kingdom as you were never able to before.

And God did exactly that. And the scripture says that in 2 Chronicles, it says that Rehoboam prospered. He listened to the voice of the Lord and he obeyed it. Although at times it may not have made sense, he responded to that voice that held such hope and promise in life.

And so he moves forward and the scripture says he built cities and he built them strong. And in verse 13, it says priests and Levites and those began to present themselves to him out of all the coasts of Israel.

And the scripture then says that in verse 16, and after them, after the Levites and the priests, after them, out of all the tribes of Israel, such as set their hearts to seek the Lord God of Israel came to Jerusalem to sacrifice unto the Lord God of their fathers.

And verse 17 says, so they strengthened the kingdom of Judah and made Rehoboam the son of Solomon strong three years. And we're seeing this young man who was beginning to move, carried by a power greater than himself moving forward.

And there is like a light when we decide to set our heart to follow him beloved. I don't know how he does it, but he makes those past. What was a tangle? What was a mess? What was incomprehensible to us begin to be made smooth and straight.

And those that would have been his enemies three years before that would have taken up arms against him now are beginning to flock to him are now beginning to gather around him. And because his heart is open, he's attracting likes to the Lord.

He's attracting like spirit. And there begins to be a light and a power and a strength around him because they are set their hearts to seek God. God is blessing. God is strengthening. God is prospering what this young man has set his hand to because his heart was open to God.

He's bringing those that have the same goals and the same mind. And this nation has been strengthened in three short years. What a confirmation and a blessing that God was saying to this young man, I am for you and I am with you that I can do in your life what you never thought possible.

What you what you had set your hand to, you would have ruined yourself and those around you. But I have another plan for you. I am your father. I will be the father to you. You've never had. I will be your wisdom.

I will be your strength. And that kingdom was moving that way. The scripture says in the last line of verse 17. For three years, they walked in the way of David and Solomon. And in verse 23, it says, and he dealt wisely throughout his kingdom.

Rehoboam Forsakes the Law of the Lord

But starting in verse 12, chapter 12, verse one. It says that it came to pass when Rehoboam had established the kingdom and had strengthened himself. He forsook the law of the Lord and all Israel with him.

And here's this young man who can seem to deal so wisely. Why is that? So wise in the affairs of the earth, so wise in the affairs of the world. And yet what should seem the most obvious of all, where your strength comes from, where the blessing comes from, where the prosperity comes from is hidden from your eyes.

But that's what happened to him. And the Bible says that after three years, he forsook the law of the Lord. After three years of prosperity, I think who knows what he felt. Maybe I think I've got the hang of this ruling thing of ruling my life, guiding my life.

I know what I want. I know where I need to go. I can take it from here. Lord, was it, you know, you've blessed me so much. Now I know that you're with me and it will never change. And no fear of God in there.

Whatever it was, God understood what what fashion this young man's heart. And God is still for him. God is still committed to him. God is still wanting a prosperous rulership for him. But the scripture tells us that in five years, so three years after turning from the law of the Lord, then he went two years.

And I know that the Holy Spirit was wooing him. I know that God was being faithful to turn him. I know that that two years there were still those that had set their heart to seek the Lord in that kingdom.

And they would be praying for him. They would sense the turn. They would know the shift. But he did not turn. And in the fifth year, the Bible says that it sent the king of Egypt against his nation. He sent a king's army to take to come against him.

And the Bible tells us with twelve hundred chariots, he came down starting at verse two and it came to pass that in the fifth year of King of Rehoboam, Shishak, king of Egypt, came up against Jerusalem because they had transgressed against the Lord.

Verse five. Then came Shemiah the prophet to Rehoboam and to the princes of Judah that were gathered together to Jerusalem because of Shishak and said unto them, Thus saith the Lord, Ye have forsaken me, and therefore have I also left you in the hand of Shishak.

Whereupon the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves, and they said, The Lord is righteous. And when the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, the word of the Lord came to Shemiah saying, They have humbled themselves.

Therefore, I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance. And my wrath shall not be poured out upon Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak. Nevertheless, they shall be his servants, that they may know my service.

And here we see God moving his hand because he loved this young man. And he's bringing an army against them. And he's moved in this young man's life. And it's been a real touch of God. And what happened is what God knew would happen.

That when he lifted up his head and saw the enemy come against him, the Bible says he humbled himself. And he said, The Lord is righteous. And then the Bible says that God granted them some deliverance.

And then the Bible said the whole purpose is that when they're going for a season to be under the dominion of the prince of Egypt, and then they're going to compare and they if they're able to, they're going to see what life is like being the servant of the prince of Egypt, as opposed to being my servant, the servant of the living God.

And that was the purpose of the judgment. But beloved, I want to draw your attention to this point where it says God granted some deliverance. You see, when God grants some deliverance at the wake up call, if God is granting some deliverance in your life and in mine, that is God trying to get our full attention.

Because if we know anything about the living God is that he is for all and above total deliverance. He gets no pleasure in seeing saved cripples, spiritually speaking. He gets no pleasure and he gets no honor seeing a people bound by sin and praising God.

He says there is a testimony in the earth and I seek it and I look for it. And it's those that will honor me in the hour of temptation. It will be those that will say, God, I have a partial deliverance, but you're not the God of partial deliverance and Lord, whatever it takes, the path you have to lead me on.

I say, lead me on it because you are a God of a full deliverance. You are a God of a full deliverance. These people, and they are in some deliverance and it's a wake up call. It's designed to drive up the unbelief.

It's designed to drive up what was animating that young man. It was designed so that it would produce a heart cry in him. And it's designed to do the same for us. But beloved, I'll tell you something.

The kingdom of God does not go forward on explanation. The kingdom of God does not go forward when we understand it all, but the kingdom of God goes forward when we can lay hold and say, God, whatever comes my way, I say that your word will produce deliverance and freedom and life in me.

And I hang on to that and I believe that till I see it. God, that you see me and you know the partial deliverance I'm in, but God, I'm believing you for the full one because it honors you because that's your heart for me, that you would prosper me, that all around people could see that the change you bring in a life that trusts you.

Beloved, our testimony is the change in us. The testimony in us, there's a difference. The testimony is what was behind and before is being broken, is being changed, and we are brought into freedom. And if we will settle for partial deliverance, we are on very dangerous ground.

And this man settled for partial deliverance. He settled for some deliverance. And it is so dangerous because it will breed contempt and unbelief. Partial deliverance, if we will not say, God, let it be the wake up call to me to stir my heart so that, Lord, I may have a prepared heart when I seek you.

If in a partial deliverance, I begin to cry out to you and say, God, show me what it is. He will show, but what will we do? And then we say, now I know we're responsible for what we know. Beloved, we need a prepared heart, a heart that says, God, what you'll show me I'm prepared to do.

We need a prepared heart. That means established. It means believing, God, that you say you have purpose in your heart, total deliverance for me. That, God, you are righteous and that you rule over my life with love and order forever.

His initial response was good. They humbled themselves when that king, that enemy came to oppress them. And he said, the Lord is righteous. Probably felt at that moment, that's the greatest truth he knew.

I did something wrong and God is righteous and in chastising me. But beloved, he needed to take that truth. He needed to take that truth that the Lord is righteous and he needed to stop looking at his world through the size of a straw, trying to take in an incredible sight.

He needed God to take the straw out of his eye and say, if I am righteous and chastising you, I don't do it to destroy you. I chastise you to restore you. I say your son and I chastise you for son. But my heart for you is still that I would restore you in the plan for your life.

Move forward. But beloved, this man now sat there and said, you know, I deserve this. I deserve this. The Lord is righteous. But what happened is that he did not prepare his heart to go the step farther to say, God, now I'm going to seek you and find out why a partial deliverance.

God, I'm now going to open up my heart and whatever you have to say, say, but God, then I'm going to believe you to give me the strength to stir up the faith in me that I'm going to say, God, you're going to take me through it.

Hard to believe that the way out is the way through, that the way out is the way through me through, that you have determined total deliverance in my life. But this young man got stymied and God is righteous in chastising me.

But he stopped there. And I'll tell you what started to come back on him. You're no good. You don't deserve to be rescued one more time. God is righteous in punishing you. And you need to stay just where you are.

Nothing has changed. The old bitterness is the old blame. The old regret wants to come in and take his heart and take faith out of his heart and take the heart of God out of his heart to take what God had revealed to him in the previous lessons through blessing him, through saving him, through restore partial deliverance.

When he stayed there was beginning to eat away. He began to make peace with partial deliverance. He began to say, I can't expect for anything better. I'm going to live like this. I deserve this. God is righteous in doing this.

And that seed of faith and what all the testimony that God had done in his heart was beginning to be encroached upon when he settled for some deliverance. Rehoboam never cried for freedom. He made peace with a plundering enemy.

And then he lived in denial and delusion about his life. It tells us here in verse 9, so Shishak the king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem and took away the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king's house.

He took all. He carried away also all the shields of gold, which Solomon had made. Let me just stop right there. You know that God's intent, he said to Rehoboam in verse 9 is I'm bringing this upon you.

So that this experience will cause you to compare what life in the father's house was like compared to life in the enemy's house. I've done all this to be able to be able to stir up in you a seed of faith to remember who I am.

Remember the call. Repent of your sin. Repent fully. But then let faith arise that I forgive. Let faith arise that says I still love you and I can still use you. Let faith arise and say it's not God's plan.

I go back to blame and regret. It's not God's plan that I go back. God, that's not what you're about. Time of life earlier. But now it says because he's lived in partial. Partial deliverance in some deliverance.

The plan of God, how God wanted to speak through that he just accepts and he accepts the condemnation. He accepts the lies and he lets his faith go. And the scripture says that his enemy comes in because there's a root of unbelief.

That enemy comes in. He's found an open door. And then when he moves in and says, God can't forgive. God does not make new beginnings again. I've crossed a line. I've gone too far. I've blown it. I'm getting what I'm deserving.

The enemy moves in on that and it says it plunders him in. Anything of worth is taken from him. The scripture says the enemy takes it all. If you think that we are playing with a toothless tiger, remember this.

The enemy came and took it all. He took the treasures of the house of God. That means he took his faith. He took his trust. He took the treasures of his kingdom and he took his dignity and he took any right he felt he had to rule.

But beloved, then he didn't have the guts to say what was going on. You think at this point when a man is plundered to that degree, that he would start, reality would set in, that a wake up call would come and say, look at, look at my life.

God can use an honest cry. God's not afraid of an honest cry. But the scripture says in verse 11, and when the king entered into the house of the Lord, the guard came and fetched them and brought them again into the guard chamber.

I'll read verse 10 instead of which King Rehoboam made shields of brass and committed them to the hands of the chief of the guard that kept the entrance of the king's house. And when the king entered into the house of the Lord, the guard came and fetched them and brought them again into the guard chamber.

And now here is King Rehoboam with a kingdom that's been plundered, a life that's been plundered. He's been robbed. And the scripture says that instead of gold, he's now showing brass. Instead of the real, he's got an imitation, trying to make a big show that he's still going back to worship God with fake gold, with something that is not real.

And he's going into the house of God. But the scripture says when he leaves, all the guards take the shield and hide it with him back in his house. Beloved, not only has he been plundered. He's now a hypocrite.

And now he's trying to prop up his own kingdom. He's all on to him to guard what's left. It's all on him, he feels, to keep the little faith that he has that has been so plundered he can't even bring himself to admit the truth.

Come into the house of God or a woman and raise their hands and say, I worship you, God. I love you, God. But outside the sanctuary, you begin to speak to them and you begin to press them. You begin to ask them and pray with them and you begin to see what's in there.

And when you squeeze them, what comes out, it is God, is it to you to heal my marriage and just like that thing against me? Because what is it to you that I just prosper a little? What is it to you that you just take my kids out of that neighborhood and take them from that the way the lifestyle that they're living and restore them completely to you?

What is it to you? What is it to you to give me a job in an apartment? Beloved, you squeeze them and they're found in the house of God. But what's deep down inside them is they've been plundered of any faith and any trust and inside in its place is accusations.

Inside is, oh, God, I'm yours. I gave you my life. But look what is happening to me. That would be real. When he went into the house of God with those fake gold shields. Did he look at them and say, I praise you, God, you've supplied every need?

No, beloved, because when he made peace with a partial deliverance, he did not realize how he was on the enemy ground. That God had placed him in a place of that that ground. That we must cry out that we must say, God, there in my life, in this area, I don't know that full freedom, but God stir me up.

God planted me the faith to believe you for total deliverance because, God, I'm understanding now what that ground is. If I'm content to make peace with partial deliverance. That is the ground where we can lose it all, beloved, where we can lose it all.

But when we say, Lord, I'm going to seek you. I'm going to seek you in my partial deliverance. I'm going to seek you where I don't have that freedom yet. God, I'm not going to be dismayed that it's a long time coming because I'm not looking back because I'm letting faith arise in my soul that you're a miracle working God and that your heart is full deliverance.

That it doesn't matter how long, because I say you're a God outside of time. God is not my timing because you're going to get even more glory because now in the fire, in this time of partial deliverance, I'm going to sing your praise.

Beloved, the minute we begin to sing his praise when we've not yet had it, we move from that ground of partial deliverance into a realm of faith. We begin to move into a realm of faith of a people that don't have to see to believe.

We become the kind of people that God can say, when you seek me, I can lead you actually not just into a defensive position, but into an offensive, right into enemy ground. We begin to pray for our children.

We begin to pray for our families. We begin to pray for our own hearts and the bondage that's there. But we begin to pray in faith. We begin to say, I know that my redeemer liveth and he hears me. I know that he is committed to me riding and living prosperously with him ruling and reigning seated with Christ.

I know because I have Christ in my life and I'm clothed with the righteousness of Christ that I have full communion with you and Lord, then I am on the victory side. And we stay in that position till he brings the victory.

Till we know the full and complete victory in that area of our lives. Will it be a fight? Yes. Do you know some people? They think because God, I've been seeking you that I should be exempt from some of the battles because God, look, I pray to you.

I open my Bible. I'm seeking you. So God, I should be exempt. But beloved, I want you to know that we begin seeking him. We begin to set our heart on him. We get a big target painted on us by the enemy and it should come as no surprise.

When we feel a pressure, when we feel an opposition, when we feel a flesh that just does not want to, when we have a mind and spirit that doesn't want to go there. But beloved, when all that rises up, that is the time when it's for our faith's finest hour.

Because we say, Lord Jesus, you know that I am not willing, make me willing. And he does. Because it's as simple as that. The battle is not ours. It's the Lord. This battle that we fight to walk is not ours.