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Welcome to God Focus This Moring

The title of today episode is “Picking Up The Gauntlet”

I awoke a couple of weeks ago and I heard God say, “The gauntlet has been thrown down.”

I cannot say I had much idea of what that meant. I thought I knew what a gauntlet was, but I looked it up anyway.  A gauntlet that is thrown down is an armored glove, or a part of the armor that protects the hand.

In Medieval times, a soldier would challenge someone by throwing down his gauntlet. It was meant as a formal challenge to a duel. If the opponent accepted the challenge, they picked up the glove that was thrown down.

At first, I could see several different things this phrase could mean. But I wanted to know what God meant by the phrase. I started to pray into it.  As I researched, I came across the word gauntlet as slang of today. Gauntlet is slang for a situation in which someone is attacked, criticized, questioned by many people. 

I thought, that describes the church of today. The remnant, that are standing for the truth of God and being attacked, criticized and questioned by society. They do not want the truth of God. I pondered how this affected the church as a body of believers.

As I prayed into what God told me, “The gauntlet has been thrown down.” I got an even deeper revelation that I want to share with you today.  The gauntlet is everything the enemy is trying to do in the earth. He has thrown down the challenge. He says he is going to destroy the next generation and take away our rights to pray, read our bible or believe in God. He says he will make us a god that we can all worship in unity. One that won’t upset the agenda of the evil ones.  The question is, are we going to pick up the gauntlet.  Are we going to fight the good fight of faith and stand boldly. I have decided I am going to pick up the gauntlet. How about you?

Are we going to have the boldness of David and tell the enemy that he will not defeat us? Are we going to be cowardly and tremble with fear as the enemy tries to intimidate us? It is time to rise up and stand strong. We were not meant to sit quietly in camp while God goes out and fights our battles.  Yes, he says he will fight our battles, yes he will defeat our enemy.  We cannot rise up in our own strength and try to fight the enemy.

We are fighting a spiritual battle. It cannot be won by natural means. If we try to fight by natural means, we will end up like the seven sons of Sceva. We will end up naked and wounded by the enemy. Never think for one minute that the enemy cannot prevail over your flesh. He is a master manipulator; the enemy has a lot of power. If you do not know the Jesus that Paul preached then you could be headed down a rough road.

But as children of the most high God, blood bought by the work of the cross, filled with the Spirit of God, we have power over the enemy. He should not even try to challenge us. Because we will win this battle, not physically, but by what we do. We have something we need to do.

Jehoshaphat was told to put his worshippers out front. To a natural mind that seemed silly.

I Cor 2:14 -But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

We have to remember that we are not warring in the natural. We will fight on our knees the battle that is set before us. The Holy Ghost that is in us will fight for us. We just have to open our mouths and declare the word of God.

Oh, I feel this so strong in my spirit. Things are shifting, the battle lines are drawn. We are staring at the enemy across the battlefield. He is not hiding all his evil any longer. It used to be the enemy only worked in the darkness, hidden where society as a whole could not see. Maybe that is why the church fell asleep.

But now, they are blatant, open and challenging with their evil. They are doing sorcery and witchcraft on stage at concerts and Christians are buying and sending their teenagers off to see this evil. Christians dress up for Halloween as witches and television characters that they shouldn’t even be watching, let alone emulating. Then they wonder why their children are not acting like they did before but are rebellious. Two hours a week in church cannot counteract the 24/7 bombardment of evil.  This is why it is important to pour into your children the things of God. Also pray and declare God’s word over them. Witchcraft is rebellion, it is rebellion against God.  It is one of the works of the flesh that make God sick.

Gal 5:19-21 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,  20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,  21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Until we stand up and pick up the gauntlet, the enemy will continue to destroy people through the works of the flesh. Sometimes people get in so deep into these things that the only one that can get them out is God. They become bound, the enemy gets a stronghold and builds a wall of resistance against God.

Do you think God is moved by the walls of the enemy?  Jerico was six chariots thick and all it took for God to knock it down was for his people to be obedient. The church is marching around quietly, but it is coming the moment of truth when God says to shout.  Are we going to obey or are we going to be quiet because we don’t want to offend someone?

I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings or purposely set out to offend anyone. But as a child of the one true living God, I have to obey my daddy. We are to speak boldly the word of the Lord. It is time we took a stand against evil.

When we pick up the gauntlet the battle plan must be as follows: worship, pray, declare and watch.

• Worship the Lord—worship brings us into the presence of God. It allows our Spirit to make a better connection to be able to hear our instructions. By worship I don’t mean go to church and listen to a song or two. I mean allow your spirit to connect with God in quiet reflection.
• Pray – pray against the evil of this world. Pray for God’s presence to bring down evil and for him to release his sweet presence in the earth.  No one can come to God except God draws him.
• Declare the word written in the bible, declare what God is going to do in the earth. Making declarations is not a name it, claim it doctrine that went around some of the churches in recent years. But it is about binding and loosening.

Matt 18:18-20 Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 19 Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.20 For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

The weapons of our warfare are not carnal or fleshly. Our weapons are worship, prayer and declaring the word of the Lord and declaring things that agree with the word of God.

A few examples of declarations:

I declare and decree, that God is going to bring down the evil strongholds. Satan’s plans will not prosper against God’s people. We have victory through the blood of Jesus.

I declare and decree, that the enemy will not have my lost family, but all will come to know the Lord. The prodigals will return to the house of God.

I declare and decree, that God will bring down the evil child trafficking rings and they will be punished for harming the children. God will heal the children and give them a good life.

I declare and decree, No weapon that the enemy had devised will prosper against God’s people or the upcoming harvest.  We render their weapons null and void.

I declare and abundance of provision over God’s people that they may take the gospel to all the ends of the earth.

I declare that all the incantations and spells put out into the atmosphere by the enemy will not prosper because God’s people are praying and decreeing that all evil weapons will be destroyed and not have an affect on God’s people.

I declare the words of Psalms 91 over my household and over my family.  The Lord will deliver us from the enemy and his traps. I declare that I have protection under his wings. I declare that I will not fear what is going on in the news, because he is my protector from evil plots, viruses, destruction and storms, both spiritual and physical storms. I declare that his angels watch over me and my family, because we choose to worship his name.

• Watch  – The final thing is to stand back and watch God move, he will send revival and freedom to the people of the world if we pick up the gauntlet and tell satan he will not win.

I read Psalms 91 almost every night over my home and in my life. It is time we got fired up. We have been in basic training too long. It is time we take up the gauntlet and GO TO WAR against our enemy. I listen often to a preacher named Tim Sheets and he calls the devil the Forever Loser. I love that so much, because against God’s people he is the forever loser, if we stand strong and declare the word of the Lord and pray, we cannot be defeated, because God fights for us.

Until next time,

Be Bold, Be Brave and Keep Your God Focus

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