Joshua and Judges: The doctrine of leadership part 99 - Essential qualities of leadership: The filling of the Spirit; Overcoming the power and influence of Satan; Eph 6:10-18.

Title: Joshua and Judges: The doctrine of leadership part 99 - Essential qualities of leadership: The filling of the Spirit; Overcoming the power and influence of Satan; Eph 6:10-18.

 

Announcements / opening prayer:  

 

 

Armor of God review:

 

In review, the armor is the person of Christ in operation through the believer in time as he battles Satan and the kingdom of darkness. Its application is:

 

Eph 6:10 Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might.

 

Eph 6:11 Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.

 

Satan seeks to frustrate the will of God in the believer's soul; (we must be filled with the Spirit).

 

a. By deceit: Eph 4:14.

 

b. By using his minions to frustrate the believer's work: 1Th 2:18.

 

c. By projecting thoughts to produce mental attitude sins such as worry, anxiety, and fear:

 

Cast all your care up on Him for the sound reason that He cares for you. After you have suffered, God will mature and establish you in greater faith and closeness to Him.

 

God's response to our fear:

 

Deliverance from death, deliverance from fear, and  continual perfect help, Heb 2:11-18. Shouldn't such promises remove fear from us and render Satan's fiery missiles ineffective?

 

These promises cannot remain on the page only. They must be emblazoned upon your soul so that you carry them with you everywhere you go and handle them solely in faith. The fiery missiles from Satan may come at any time. We must wear our armor full time and always be alert. We must wear every component of the armor. These promises and others like them, along with the rest of God's word, comprise the atoms of metal and the various components of God's sword, which we are to carry everywhere and always at the alert to wield it with expert precision and accuracy.

 

d. By distracting the believer's focus:

 

Jer 17:5 Thus says the Lord,

"Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind

And makes flesh his strength,

And whose heart turns away from the Lord.

 

Jer 17:6 "For he will be like a bush in the desert

And will not see when prosperity comes,

But will live in stony wastes in the wilderness,

A land of salt without inhabitant.

 

Jer 17:7 "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord

And whose trust is the Lord.

 

Jer 17:8 "For he will be like a tree planted by the water,

That extends its roots by a stream

And will not fear when the heat comes;

But its leaves will be green,

And it will not be anxious in a year of drought

Nor cease to yield fruit.

 

So why should we not trust in mankind?

 

Jer 17:9 "The heart is more deceitful than all else

And is desperately sick;

Who can understand it?

 

Jer 17:10 "I, the Lord, search the heart,

I test the mind,

Even to give to each man according to his ways [mankind or Lord],

According to the results of his deeds [not just empty words].

 

1Ki 19:1 Now Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword.

 

1Ki 19:2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, "So may the gods do to me and even more, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time."

 

1Ki 19:3 And he was afraid and arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.

 

What happened to his focus on God and God's power and faithfulness.

 

Fear completely changed his focus from God to self-preservation.

 

1Ki 19:4 But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree; and he requested for himself that he might die, and said, "It is enough; now, O Lord, take my life, for I am not better than my fathers."

 

1Ki 19:5 And he lay down and slept under a juniper tree; and behold, there was an angel touching him, and he said to him, "Arise, eat."

 

1Ki 19:6 Then he looked and behold, there was at his head a bread cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. So he ate and drank and lay down again.

 

1Ki 19:7 And the angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, "Arise, eat, because the journey is too great for you."

 

1Ki 19:8 So he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb [Sinai], the mountain of God.

 

Elijah traveled in self-pity all the way from Judah to the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula.

 

"too great for you" - turn back and stand your ground. God will provide - evidence: an angel with food and water in the midst of the desert.

 

When the angel said that the journey was too great, I believe it was a call to return to the place from which he ran and trust the Lord, but in his great distraction, not even the presence of an angel with gifts of food and water in the middle of the desert was not enough to convince him that God's providence and power was sufficient for him.

 

1Ki 19:9 Then he came there to a cave, and lodged there; and behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and He said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

 

1Ki 19:10 And he said, "I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Thy covenant, torn down Thine altars and killed Thy prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away."

 

Always strive to maintain your focus on the Lord.

 

Heb 12:1-2

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith,