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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s Word on Bibleline, everywhere, every time. Here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage.

We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s concluding message of this teaching will be a blessing to you and your family. There is a battle that goes on, and they have to be rules. God has to do everything right. The Satan wants to do everything that’s wrong. But I do believe he has limitation in his power. Why would I think Satan is limited about some things that he can do and some things he can’t do?

And you’ll read that in the book of Job, chapter 1 and chapter 2 in particular, where where he appears with the sons of God and the Lord says, Hey, where are you man? He says, Oh, just running up and down through the earth, seeking whom I made of our. And the Lord said, Hey, have you ever considered my servant Job? And the devil said, What good would it do? You have him protected. You put a hedge about him and I can’t get at him.

He said, But you take that hedge away and He’ll curse you to your face. The Lord is the one that sic-the devil on Him. On John. The Lord did that. But the Lord wanted to show to the devil that there was somebody who loved Him more than anything else in the world. And He says, not. He doesn’t love you more because you see, you gave them all of these things. Take all those things away from Him and He won’t love you.

we lost 10 kids in one day. Lost his crop. He lost his servants. He lost his wealth. He lost his cattle. How would you like to have all of that hit? And the Bible says, in all of this Job said not, nor charged God foolishly. But he says, the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh the way blessed be in the name of the Lord, the devil lost. It wasn’t long until you get to chapter two, he said, if you consider my servant Job, oh, we’re gonna go through that again.

He says, you let me get at his body. A man will do anything for his life. Let me get at his body. And so the Lord says, okay, you can get at his body, but you can’t take his life. See, the devil has limitations that God puts upon him about what he can’t do. And yet there’s things that he may permit him to do. Did you know that ever once in a while you and I might need to really be tested?

But you see, if he told you when he was going to test you, how he was going to test you would know the reason for the testing. So he doesn’t tell you anything. God doesn’t tell you only that you know what God can do, what the devil can do and you’re to be aware of that and be found faithful. When it appears that God has totally failed you, you keep serving God. Now did Job have anything happen to him?

He struck his body with boils all over his body and he says there in an ash sheet what broken pieces of pottery scraping himself. And his wonderful loving wife who bore him ten kids says, folksy why don’t you just curse God and die? Every man needs a woman standing right behind him and still Joe would not sin against God. He maintained his integrity. Did you know your trust in the Lord is what integrity is about? Your character is revealed by how much confidence do you really have in what God says.

Do you really want to know how strong you are? That’s scary, huh? Sometimes, we can’t let our light shine unless God turned out on all the other light. And when you see His hand moving for the light switch… No, no, no, no, no, no, no, don’t do it. and you’d be surprised like Moses had made to Steven. I don’t want to see how wicked I really am. I want to see how wicked I really am. We are afraid of truly being tested to the hilt because we’re afraid to fall on the part.

We’re afraid of saying and doing something to really ruin our testimony. So we pray that God put a hedge about me and protect me. Don’t let that dirty bird get at me. Protect my wife and my kids. Because we don’t want to find out. We want to be able to go through life totally protected. We want the Obama help care. From the cradle to the grave. Something else that happens, everything’s covered. I think we’re in the heap of trouble.

Now, take your Bible and turn to 2 Corinthians 10, 2 Corinthians and chapter 10. 2 Corinthians chapter 10. And this is what he says in verse 3. For though we walk in the flesh, that means in the body, in this physical body, we do not war after the flesh. Get this. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. They’re not guns and bullets and knives. We’re not fighting that kind of a war. God says his war is a different kind of a war.

It’s a spiritual warfare. It’s to try to capture the minds of an individual and to capture the mind you can’t use force. You must do it with677 If God captures your mind with truth, he’s got you. And see, God wants to take and this is your strong hole up here. This is why you do everything that you do. So we want something that can pull down all of those things that are against Christ out of your mind. So that you are surrendered mentally.

Look what he says in verse 4, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of stronghold. And you are on the line of our mighty through God. You are, if you’re not strong in the Lord, you are not strong. If your prayer life isn’t strong, you are not strong. No man can be greater than his prayer life. If you don’t pray, you will not have the spiritual strength that you’re supposed to have.

Verse 5 says, casting down imagination because you can always be imagining something. The devil wants to put thoughts into your mind, the question God. The question one another. The question your husband. The question your wife. All kind of doubts and things. And you’d be surprised. Sometimes you haven’t even thought of things that you’ll get accused of. But it’s going on in the mind. You can imagine things. And Satan can defeat and turn people against one another.

But get what he says, casting down imagination. And every high thing that exalts it’s of against the knowledge of God and bring it into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the Lord could capture all of our thoughts and cause us to be obedient to Christ? But you see it has to be where you willingly and voluntarily surrender your mind to the Lord. If you don’t, the devil will get your mind and he will have a stronghold, a beachhead, a peace of your mind that he can claim as territory and then conquer the rest of you.

This is what the religion of Islam does. They find where they can be accepted in just one little place. And then they keep on until they get the whole thing. And it will happen right here in America too. And it’s coming. But what if the devil could get a beachhead in your mind? He can keep on till he destroys you because he gets you to question God. Now looking verse six. And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience.

How can you revenge all disobedience by obedience? The way you get revenge against anybody who wrongs you in any way is by obedience. You see, they may not do right, but you can. You are responsible for you and your action, but your actions is a byproduct of the way that you think. So success and failure begins in the mind. And that’s why it’s so important for you to guard your mind. Now take your Bible and turn to the book of Ephesians in chapters two.

Ephesians chapter two, look what he says here in verse one. And you, hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sinned. In other words, because of your trespasses, you broke the law, you overstepped the boundary, you have been separated from God. To be quick then means to be made alive. That’s why we say, oh, I got that in the quick. Now that’s what they call that, the quick. See that? Lord told me that, yeah? So in verse two, we’re in, in time past, you walk according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the year.

That’s the devil. That’s the way you were when you were lost. You lived the way the devil wanted you to live. And you thought the way the devil wanted you to do, but you didn’t know that. You walked according to the course of this word, the way the world goes. You think the way the world thinks. And then lo and behold, somebody explained the gospel to you. See what it says as you go down through here? And then all of a sudden, lo and behold in verse four, but God.

But God, who is rich in mercy, have quickened us, made us alive. Now this is what the Lord has done for us, and you have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. Colossians in chapter one. Now look there in your Bible to the book of Ephesians in chapter six. As you go through the book of Ephesians, and it talks about what we have in Christ, about what we have in the heavenlies, And about part of the body of Christ in chapter three is in heaven, and the rest of us are still here on the earth.

And how that he has given to us his word, and he talks about been blessed with abundant grace that every man hath grace to do the work that God wants him to do. And that we be no more tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine that comes along. Then in chapter five talks about how we’re supposed to walk and follow Christ and so forth. and be filled with the Spirit. He talks about the husband, talks about the wife.

Chapter six and verse one, children obey your parents and the Lord for this is right. Talk about the kids. Talk about the servants. In other words, God says, this is what I want you to do. And then he says something else. Now why would he have to throw this in here? Look in verse 10, chapter six. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the flesh. Be strong in yourself. Be strong in your confidence. What you need is to have a good self image.

You need to remake yourself. No, all that stuff is is good if you want to sell books. The power of positive thinking. No, it’s the power of How difficult thinking. You know, if you can think it, you can achieve it. No, you can’t. I think I can fly. Try it. I think I can walk on water. I could go for it. See, there’s a lot of things the world says. It’s just not true. So he says here in verse 10, finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and get this in the power of his might.

Not yours. Don’t trust your wisdom, your talent, your abilities. Trust the Lord. Live every day in dependence upon the Lord. Learn how to walk with the Lord. And then He tells us some things to do. Man, some things not to do. He says, put on the whole armor of God. Why? You’re going to fight. Did you know everything He tells us here is about, there’s a war going on? spiritual war. If it’s going to be a spiritual war, then I’ve got to have a spiritual outfit.

And so God gives me something that can help me fight the war. The war is still raging. It is real. And notice what he says in verse 11, put on the whole armor of God that ye may be able to stand. Well, why doesn’t God just automatically make it where the devil can’t get it mean. That would solve my problem. Why doesn’t God just do that? Because He has a reason and now He hadn’t told me. I don’t need to know the reason why God does what He does, only that God allows certain things.

He says there’s a devil and there’s fallen angels and there’s a spiritual battle and He’s going to work on you and He’s going to try to destroy you. And that’s why He made the same. That you may be able to stand. That means if you don’t have his armor, you will not stand. You will not stand. You cannot be strong in the power of his might without his armor.” And then he makes a statement in verse 12, “…for we wrestle not against flesh and blood.

Our battles that we fight is not against one another. It’s against the spiritual wickedness in high places. There is a chain of command in the spiritual realm. And the devil has his angels and the Lord, and he has his angels. Now I believe it’s something like this. I am supposed to pray to my father through his son. And then I let my request be made known unto God, and he is the one who has the Holy Spirit. Now, where’s the Holy Spirit live?

I need to figure this out. Where is the Holy Spirit? Where’s the Holy Spirit live? Inside of me. Now, is this a spiritual war? Yes, it is. I have the Holy Spirit of God living within me, but I believe the Holy Spirit of God that lives inside of me is to do the will of the Father in me. He can’t do anything but the will of God. So if I ask the Father in the name of the Son, then the Father tells the Spirit what He wants done and He is over the spiritual realm.

And I’ve often wondered how much I could have at my fingertips. It’s like being here as the pastor of this church with a thousand things to do, trying to do it all by myself, and yet I have at my disposal all of these wonderful people that can do all of these wonderful things. What if I didn’t use them? What if I don’t use nobody? But what if there is all of these angels that God has just waiting at the Holy Spirit beckoning call to minister to me to do things for me, to protect me and do a thousand things that I don’t know about.

And all I got to do is ask the Father and He’ll do the work behind the scenes. If I don’t believe that any of this is true, then why pray? I believe that prayer can change things. I don’t have to understand how it works. I don’t even care how it works. But I live every day in an attitude of prayer. I pray all the time. I drive my car. I’m praying. I lay down in the bed. I pray. When I’m sometimes watching the television now, I’ll be praying.

I pray all the time. Because I’m always asking God for something. If I don’t get it, it won’t be because I didn’t I’m greedy and I want everything that a man can have. Whatever it is God makes possible, I want it. I want it. I can’t speak for you. But if you get any kind of an idea about this, you must be lead that behind the scenes there is a God that has 12,000 12,000 leagues of angels ready at his disposal.

Now, presently, just waiting. How much can God do for us if we only pray and really believe? We’re going to be really shocked when we get to having to find out what we could have done, what we could have had, the world in which we live, how we could have shook it. But we failed to believe, we failed to pray, we did not do what God wants us to do. And as you go down through this whole list of all these things, about being able to stand and having done all to stand, and then it gets down there in verse 18.

Look what he says in verse 18. What would that be for? Praying, why praying? Is prayer only to condition my mind and put me in the right frame of mind? So I’m in a right attitude, or we can do all of that. But I’m also praying to God for something. And I believe there’s a reason because God can change and alter. Did God alter anything in Job’s life when He turned them over to the devil? Look what happened in His life.

That was a spiritual thing going on. But with Job, it was very physical. He was having to live it. Things going on in his life. And yet after all of that was all over with, the end result was that God gave him everything back and much more and gave him 10 more kids. Doubled all of everything else with doubled. So why didn’t he have to double the kids? Well, he never lost him. They were still there. Heaven, but he never lost him.

So, is there a reason why we should pray? In verse 18, pray in always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit. There’s a spiritual world. And we’re supposed to be asking God who we can’t see through this veil, but our faith is that we believe. And God has all of these angels, ministering spirits. I’ve even got some guardian angels. I don’t know how many. Some of them put in for transfers, but I’ve got some.

And God has them at my disposal. And God forbid that I live my life, never availing myself of of such power that’s on the other side of the curtain. But see, they can affect things here, all because of prayer. Remember when Jesus was going to face that night in the garden? You remember what He told His disciples? He says, can you not pray for me one hour? Why? What did it have made a difference? would be the reason? Can something be accomplished?

Did you realize that God sent the angels to minister to Him at that time? There’s more going on than what we know, but we’re supposed to believe that this book is true and it’s supposed to affect our lives. I hope, I hope But it does. On your way home tonight, be talking to the Lord. You sit in your house, be thinking about things. Talk to the Lord about what you want. Pray all the time. I have no idea how many times that certain sicknesses or things like that or last year at this time, and I was being eaten alive with the shingles out about to die from that stuff.

Did you know there could be something else going on to get me down or to get me discouraged? Did you know what you just want to quit? I mean, God, you don’t have to, yeah, but God may have a reason. Can you accept it? Can you accept the purpose? See, that’s why you pray like everything depends on the Lord and then you work like everything depends on you. And between your prayer and your work, you’d be surprised how much you’ll get done.

Some people pray and never do a cotton-piggin thing. I’m just trusting the Lord. God works through you. If you sit still and never do anything, nothing will ever get done. I ain’t figured it all out. Probably won’t in my lifetime. Don’t know if anybody ever will. But do you believe the Scriptures tell us to pray? You ought to figure out why. Why? You couldn’t change anything. You’re supposed to believe it will. Be it unto you according to your faith.

Be it unto you according to your faith. Some people believe more and they’ll get more. Some people never do believe what God’s word says. Look up here. This hand represent you and me and this wallet represent everything we do that’s wrong. Call sin. We all have sin on us. But God loves us. He hates our lives. our sin, but He sure loves us. And He says that the wages of sin is death. And that’s why we all die, because we’re all guilty.

But God loves us and wants us to go to heaven. And go to heaven, we have to be perfect, as righteous as God, and nobody’s perfect. We’ve all sinned, we’ve all come short of God’s perfection. So nobody can save themselves. Your good life Life is not good enough. This hand represents Jesus Christ, He’s the Lord God in the flesh, came into the world because He loves us, hates our sin because the separates us from Him. So Jesus Christ took all the sin of all the world, paid for it.

What they means is we don’t have to go to hell and pay for our sins if we will believe He did it for us. God says, the only thing you have to do is the only thing you can do is it will you believe he did it for you? When you believe he did it for you, he forgives you of all of your sins because of the payment that he made. And you get to go to heaven because he took away all of your sins.

They’re not put to your account. You’re forgiven. That’s the best news in the world. And he says, when you believe he did it for you, he gives you as a free gift ever lasting life. He’ll never cast you out and never lose you. Let’s pray, shall we? With heads bow nice clothes and no one looking around. Or if you’re listening by the internet tonight, I pray that you will trust the Lord. If you’ve never done so, remember the devil wants to keep you blinded.

He doesn’t want you to trust the Lord. He will try to convince you you’re good enough. You’re not that bad. I mean, you go to church. You’re sincere, but God said there’s none righteous, no not one. No man can earn eternal life. Will you trust the Lord? Will you believe that when Christ died, He died for you? If you’ll trust Him right now as your Savior God said He would save you right now and give you eternal life. If you’re making that decision, I’d like to know it.

So I’m going to ask you if you’ll raise your hand in just a moment. Raising your hand is just to let me know that what you heard and you believe it and I’d like to have a prayer for you in closing. Is there anyone at all before we close? So yes, that made sense to me, and I’ll trust Christ as my Savior tonight, and preach I want you to pray for me. Would you just flip me in it very quickly?

Anyone at all. If you have trusted Christ as your Savior, your God’s child, therefore put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wild, the tricks, the snares of the devil. Father, we thank you for this time together. Bless those that are working in a wana. We thank you so much for them. We pray for the meetings coming up, and we just pray, Lord, you will to be done as we try to get so many things accomplished.

We depend upon you, because there’s things we can’t make happen. But Lord, we just want your will, and whatever it may be, and help us, Lord, to look to you and to trust you. There’s people that are hurting, people need jobs, and I pray, Lord, that even they would be asking you for whatever they want, making their requests known in Christ and we pray. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida with Dr.

Ralph Arnold. We pray that you are blessed by today’s message. If you have enjoyed our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, you can reach Bibleline and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing toll-free 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. To listen to today’s message again or to obtain a free download of any of our Bibleline programs, just go to our homepage at BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the Radio Broadcast link. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us.

The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Our Sunday morning services begin at 10-30 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by clicking on the Calvary Community Church link at BibleLineMinistries.org. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline, and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound, and we will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon, and just keep looking up.