We have the privilege of having a teacher share from our community this Sunday. Rihanna Arston is sharing. We're just so grateful for Rihanna and Justin and her family. They've been at every day for a couple years and there are some deacons in the house that we're so grateful for what they carry.
And even as Rihanna was sharing in the first service, I just feel like she has such a grace to multiply her story of redemption and restoration. And so as she's sharing, I just want to honor her in front of her whole community that she really carries a strong prophetic gifting, not only for our community, but also for our city. And we're so grateful for what she carries and what she has, but then also what Justin and Rihanna carry as a couple. And they have a podcast I'm always forgetting what it's called.
Occupy Freedom, let's go. And so they have a podcast, but they just really bring the kingdom of heaven to our city through their home. And there's so many people that get welcomed into their home, get set free, brought into wholeness and restoration. We're just so grateful for them as a community.
So which you welcome Rihanna Arston. Whoa, thank you. I feel so loved here. That's where I was telling Josh that I've spoken at a handful of churches.
It's been a couple years since I've preached on a Sunday, so warning. But I just feel so loved and supported and honored for the Christ in me. Sometimes leaders like to pull out your gifts and use them for their benefit and to shape them all the way that they want it to look and then say, okay, now do it this way, because they're trying to benefit from something. And I really feel that our pastoral staff, oh no, this is my Bible.
Trying to take my word. And I just feel so honored as the Christ in me, not just what I can do as a benefit for the leadership team. And I want to also recognize that it's October, Pastor Appreciation Month. And we have the best pastoral staff.
Hands down in Minnesota. So please love on them. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. I know you have to have a lot of trust in your leaders and in the Lord to sit in a room and receive. Amen. Like you don't just sit in a room and receive from somebody unless you trust who's put you there and trust the Lord.
And so thank you for that. It's not wasted on me. And about 10 years ago was the first time I picked up a microphone and I'm an introverted person. Any other introverts in this room, they're like, you know, I'd rather not be in the center of attention behind a microphone.
But the Lord called me up and we were at the end of a service and the pastor opened the mic and he said, okay, if anybody has anything from the Lord, you can come up and share. And I was like, nope, I definitely don't. And God said, you definitely do. And so the wrestling inside, you know, begins and I get up and I gave like a three minute exhortation on something and banged on a drum that I didn't realize that I would bang on for the next 10 plus years now.
And it's this, the time is now. 10 years ago, I said those words and everyone looked at me like, well, in fast forward 10 years now, I'm like, oh, interesting, the time is still now. And the urgency of the body is still here. The world is still at war and that's increasing.
But the body of Christ is still being prepared for a wedding, amen. And so the time is now for us to grow up to mature, to be complete in Christ. And I feel like as we're going through Romans 12, that's really what this is all about. Transformed relationships in the community out of the community in finding our place as sons and daughters in the earth.
Growing up and going out and bringing heaven into the earth, amen. And so what I really feel on this house though is that we have a fear of the Lord here, which means we are fearless pursuers of what that means. So you might sit in this room and feel challenged. Maybe you don't like my personality.
It's not the first. Maybe you don't like the way I speak, what I have to say. Maybe you don't like my gender because it's a Sunday and I have a microphone. That's okay.
I love you. I bless you. But whatever it is that you're challenged with, I believe this house is full of fearless pursuers of what is good and what is God. Amen.
So whatever it is that you're challenged by tonight, you're going to find some challenge in it. I believe we're pressing in because it is time for us to grow up. Amen. Okay, so we are in Romans 12 surprise surprise.
We've been there for a few weeks, couple months. So if you would open your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 12, we're picking up on verse 14. And I'm going to read that for us real quick. It's pretty short.
Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. And you got to love the thoroughness of God as Scott Vanderworth would say. Bless and do not curse.
Why would he have to say that? We're going to find out. To start off, I want to share a short story with you of a man named Richard Wormbrand. Anybody ever heard that name?
He is the head of the voice of the martyrs. The ones who are at the three o'clock are like, yes, I have. But Richard Wormbrand was an evangelical Lutheran pastor from Romania during World War II. And he was arrested and imprisoned by the Russian Communist government for preaching the gospel and for being very vocal in his faith and standing up for the church at a time when the church was really sort of like getting timid and watery at that time.
And so he would go on to spend about 14 years in dark and depraved prisons. Three of those years would be spent in solitary confinement with total light and sound deprivation. Richard would come to endure some of the worst persecution known to mankind, mental and physical. He would be beaten, his bones would be broken, he would be mutilated, he would be locked in ice box freezers for hours and they would hang him by his legs and beat the bottoms of his feet until his flesh would fall off.
Now Richard endured some of the worst and most remarkable persecution, but to me that's not what's most remarkable about Richard's life. What's most remarkable to me is how he loved those enemies that persecuted him. And he writes of a story in his book, Tortured for Christ. It's a great book, I highly recommend it.
He writes of a story that while being in prison, and of course he was forbidden to pray because that's why he's in prison, he would daily get on his knees and pray. And the guard that was in charge of him would walk the hallways here, Richard praying, drag him out of the room, bring him into the next room and begin to beat him mercilessly and beat the bottoms of his feet as I said until they would bleed. This cycle would go on for days and weeks until on the very last day of this cycle, the guard was walking the hallway, he hears Richard praying, this time he throws open the door and he just leans in and says, you fool, what are you doing? Your wife is in prison, your son is in orphan, your life is gone, what could you possibly be praying for?
And to this Richard lifted his eyes and looked at his captor and said, well I was praying for you. The most profound part about this is that this prison guard came to know Jesus, got saved, got renewed through Richard's life his love and his testimony. Isn't that amazing? Now I understand that Richard's example, when we think of persecution, this is what we think of, right?
So when we read, bless those who persecute you, a lot of times we push this off, like yep, if I'm ever persecuted in a third world country, I'll let you know and I'll definitely learn how to bless my enemies. But I realize though we would find some compassion for Richard, we probably can't relate too closely to that situation. So then we have to ask what about us, what about our enemies in the persecution we face? Well maybe you're in this room tonight and your enemies look a little bit like a mother or a father who would neglect or abuse you, maybe an intimate friend who would willfully betray you in some way, shape or form, maybe a family member who would tell you you never would amount to anything, or authorities in your life, spiritual authorities even who would abuse you, mishandle you or recklessly tell you things that would break you in many ways.
But whatever form of persecution you endure and you will, rest assured as the Apostle Paul said, indeed, all who wish to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. So if you are wishing to live a godly life in Christ Jesus, you can expect persecution. I know my message is not really fluffy and happy at this moment, but trust me, this verse sort of ranks down there somewhere with like black licorice flavored ice cream, right, or socks and sandals. This isn't going to be the, yes, my favorite verse in the world, but hang with me, we are a fearless pursuer of what God is asking of us, showing us, inviting us into, amen.
Now I do want to stop, I want to stop and acknowledge the fact that we're all going through different types of persecution, right, this is not a message that's going to answer every question that you're going through. But I do believe, because the spectrum is large, that what we can dive into, God is going to bring healing and breakthrough in restoration, amen. And so let's look at our text again, bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse. The passion says it this way, speak blessing, not cursing over those who reject or persecute you.
The amplified adds those who would be cruel in their attitude toward you. So what we come to understand is that your enemies, when I say bless your enemies, your enemies are those who would persecute you. And persecution in its basic form means to reject somebody, to oppose them, to inflict harm on them, to wish ill will toward them, or have a cruel attitude towards them. Now we know that the true enemy of our soul and of God is Satan and his devils, but we also understand that his opposition comes through man to man.
So when Paul is writing this letter, that's what he's speaking about, he's talking about your enemies being opposition through mankind. So that's what we're talking about today. It's a very small piece of the whole puzzle, but we're going to speak directly to that fact right there, opposition through man to man. Okay?
And like I said, your enemies and your persecution are going to be on a big spectrum. So I expect you to walk out here with a lot of questions. All I'm going to do tonight is honestly just open doors. I'm like the guy on the matrix, except for not with keys, and I'm just opening doors for you.
Okay? And so you might walk out here and go, man, I have a lot more questions. Good. I teach worldview to high schoolers.
I love high schoolers, by the way, they are amazing. But I teach worldview to high schoolers and I tell them, great discipleship is founded upon great questions. So if you've never wrestled with your faith, you've never asked hard questions, you've never had doubt or uncertainty, you've not invested at all in your faith. So to have investment, you have to have questions.
You have to have things that rile you into a place of wrestling and wondering and fighting with it, right? So again, you're challenged. It's okay. Okay.
So we're going to get started here. And I am going to stay on track. Yes, I am. Okay, blessing your enemies is about sonship, overarching theme.
When you say yes to Jesus, you are a son or a daughter of the king. Amen? So blessing your enemies is about being invited into the function of sonship. In order to do this, you have to have grace.
Because anytime God invites you into function as a son, it requires grace. So if you're saying, I don't really know how I'm going to do this, as we talk through it, good. Because that would be the flesh side of you trying to figure out how you're going to figure it out. And this is where grace has to come in, amen?
So the first thing, the first, I'm going to give us three kind of pieces to the puzzle tonight. I'm not going to be able to speak to everything, but we're just going to get to those three things. So the first key piece to the puzzle that I want to talk about is that blessing your enemies is a new weapon of warfare. You are in a spiritual war.
And so when you come into the kingdom, you are no longer in the flesh. You are now in the spirit. And there are new weapons of warfare. You would be surprised at how much turmoil we walk in as spirit beings fighting with the same old fleshy weapons.
And this was a revelation God had to give me in my prayer time when I was going through deliverance, like listen, you are fighting with the wrong weapons. And so let's look at Romans 1214 is a reference to the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5. So let's roll over to Matthew 5 if you would turn with me in your Bibles. Matthew 5 and Matthew 5 is really all about revealing kingdom's citizenship.
So I'm going to start reading from verse 43. Jesus said, you have heard it was said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. That you may be children of your father.
There's that sonship verbiage there. He causes his son to rise on the evil and the good and sends the rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward would you get? Are even the tax collectors doing that?
And of course this is language for sinners or people of the world. Verse 47, and if you breach only your own people, those who look like you sound like you have the same preferences as you go to the same churches you believe like you do. If you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? And I insert in here, have you ever been to a crossfit gym?
Anybody crossfitters in here? I've been to a crossfit gym. It was pretty cool. Put my back out.
That's another story. But I will tell you, these people are amazing. I'm rallying around something they believe in and greeting their own and being for something. So listen, the world can do this.
But Jesus said, be perfect, verse 48. Be perfect therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. That word perfect in the Greek means to grow up. It means to find your finality in Christ.
Be complete in Him. Mature. Okay? And so how did we get to the Bless your enemies?
He gives us this beautiful picture of what it means to bless your enemies. But how did we get there? If you look at Matthew chapter 5, I'm going to draw some app real quick. He starts off the chapter with the Beatitudes.
This is something that most of us are familiar with in here. The Beatitudes define character and fruit of a kingdom citizen. So he uses language like blessed are those who character, for they shall fruit, character and fruit. The next thing he asserts is the value of a kingdom citizen in this earth.
He said, you are the salt of the earth. You're the light in the world. And do you know who the only other person to be referred to as the light of the world is? Jesus, sonship, image, representation, right?
He's asserting all this language to us. And then for the rest of the time in the chapter, he starts raising the standard of living. He fulfills the law by reinterpreting it with grace. Remember I said grace is required to fulfill sonship.
He says things like, I know you've heard it said, not to murder. But I say don't even be angry with your brother. Don't even covet or don't even lust. Not even telling you not to cheat on your spouse, but don't even lust.
Why does he do this? Why does he take the basic law and then raise the standard by fulfilling it and reinterpreting it? Well, we have to understand establishing sonship means that a new covenant has to take place, right? It's helpful for us to understand that the Jews, when the law came to be, the Jews were in captivity for 400 years.
Generation after generation after generation of being treated like animals and property. So at the point of their deliverance, they no longer knew what it meant to be human anymore. And so in God's great mercy, one of the many reasons why the law comes to be is to teach them how to be humans again. Love your neighbor, hate your enemy.
That makes you human. And now Jesus comes on the scene and grace comes into established sonship. And their eyes are probably this big. Okay, so you don't want me to be angry with my brother now?
Please explain how this is going to be possible. And so he starts to lay out new weapons of warfare. This is where we get to blessing your enemies, right? He says, okay, I've established what your kingdom citizenship looks like, the value of what that is and what kind of standard grace is going to bring into the game.
And now I'm going to give you weapons of warfare to do it. So the transitional piece to this is bless your enemies. And he lays out others like purify your motives, generous giving, prayer, fasting, seek the Lord. But he's saying instead of the old weapon of cursing, let's define that really quick.
Cursing in the Hebrew means to punish somebody. It means to leave them to die. Don't want anything to do with you anymore. You're dead to me.
You're unsavable in my eyes, whatever term you want to use for it. And practically speaking, it looks like this to refuse to love somebody, to speak ill of them, to withhold the Lord's favor and blessing from somebody. Cursing is performance driven. You do this.
I'm done with you. Okay, amen? Blessing now is the new weapon of warfare. This is your spiritual weapon to win the actual war.
And blessing in the Hebrew means to align with the will of God for somebody's life. That's the very simplest form of what that means. And practically speaking, this is how it plays out. To speak of somebody with favor, both publicly and privately, to wish them well, to release prosperity and favor over them, to honor their identity.
Blessing is not performance-based. It's identity driven. So if you love your neighbor and hate your enemy, well that makes you human. But if you love your enemy and bless those who oppose you, well now that makes you a son.
Okay? If you love your neighbor and hate your enemy, well that makes you human. But if you love the one who opposes you and you bless them and you call out their identity, and you align yourself with the will of God for their life in spite of, well that makes you a son. That is sonship function.
And we're going to find out why this is important because the second key piece to this puzzle that I want to give to Quan is why it's important. Well blessing your enemies is how we bring heaven into the earth. It's a weapon of warfare bringing heaven into the earth. Matthew 6, 10, this is the same sermon.
Jesus teaches his disciples how to pray on earth as it is in heaven. Why does he do this? Well, in the beginning, I'm definitely not preaching Genesis to Revelation I promise. But in the beginning, heaven and earth were one, God and man are one.
Turn the page. Adam and Eve eat the fruit of disobedience and compromise. And because they are the governing agents of the earth, they internalize evil and they unleash hell into the earth. Heaven and earth are separated, God and man are separated.
The entire plan of redemption is reversing this issue. Insert Jesus. Jesus becomes the overlapping factor of heaven on the earth. We access heaven through Christ while being on the earth.
So when you come to know the Lord, you get saved, you are now justified, meaning you're one with God, problem solved. One in spirit with him, holy spirit comes in, everybody put your hand out. And then Jesus said, the kingdom of heaven is a hand. So now this means the spirit in you is bringing the kingdom wherever you go.
Because the second part of this story is, you can put your hands down. You're such a nice group. But the second part of the story is heaven and earth coming together. And sometimes we think this is just going to happen far off sometime when we all die and then it happens.
But actually this is part of redemption, the redemption plan that you're a part of. This is sonship function. I mean, this is why Jesus didn't go, okay, I purchased it all, see I have fun and worship, go home and do whatever you want to do, don't worry about a thing. He could have done that.
But what he's inviting us into is a partnership to bring heaven and earth back together. So when you are in any space, you are bringing heaven into the earth. And because death came through the mouth, reconciliation comes through the mouth. Proverbs 18, 21 says, the power of life and death are in the tongue.
And those who love it will lead its fruit. So when you open your mouth and bless, speak heavenly things, speak blessing. Align yourself with the will of God, you are releasing heaven into the earth. And there's a reason why this is important and we're going to get to that.
But when you open your mouth and curse, you backbite, you slander, use profanity or harsh language, speaking anything other than heavenly language, you are unleashing hell into the space that you're at. Because this is the power that is in the tongue. This is the soul and spirit at war, right? So when you open your mouth, James 3.6 says, when you curse, your tongue is literally lit on fire by hell.
And so be careful, folks. Be careful, friends. Because sometimes we think we're doing away with a person, we don't want anything to do with them anymore. We curse them on the way out the door, we speak our minds about them behind their back.
But there is power. If you are a son and daughter, there is power in what you say, what you align with. No one of the greatest benefits of overlapping heaven and earth, why does this matter? Because there's freedom in heaven coming to the earth.
It was for freedom that Christ set you free, where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So wherever you are asserting heaven into the earth, you're bringing freedom. That's why this is important. Because Christ in you is the hope of glory, Colossians 2.
And without him, none of us are free, but with him, anyone can be free. So when you bring him into a space and you choose to unleash heaven into a space, Christ gets to work. Twofold. Number one for you.
So if you visualize it this way, if I have an opponent, someone who is opposing me, and I can bless them, align myself with the will of God for their life, honor their identity, see who God sees, and bless them with prosperity and favor, I move them out of harm's way, and now I can see my real enemy. It's the spirit of oppression. It's the spirit of rejection. It's the spirit of addiction.
It's those spirits that are after you. And listen, folks, being in deliverance ministry, I will tell you the devil has no new tricks. He loves to cover things up and make you guess and wonder and distract. But when you can really get at your enemy, stop cutting off branches and get to the root of the thing, that's true freedom.
When you can uproot rejection instead of constantly spitting on a family member that has wronged you, well now you're getting it. Because I will tell you one thing, especially when it comes to deliverance, if you shut one person out of your life, rejection will spring up in another. Because it's not the person. It is the opposition of the enemy that's after you.
And he's after everybody. So when you can move a person out of harm's way, you can target and hit the target every time. Some of us in this room are cycling around things, cycling around things, cycling around things. The reason is because you're fighting the wrong war.
You're fighting the wrong things. Secondarily, when you bless your enemy, Paul told Timothy in his second letter, when you're kind to those who oppose you and who are really nasty to you, you're actually creating space for them, he said, to be released by the grip of the enemy that's at work in them. So you are doing the work of ministry just simply by aligning yourself with the will of God for somebody's life and saying, if I move you out of the way, I'm free and you have the opportunity to be free too, because I'm not going to hold you in bondage. This is powerful stuff.
I had, oh my goodness, I should tell this story. I'm going to tell this story. This is being recorded right? I'm going to use vague terms.
I was in a relationship many, many, many years ago, and it was a relationship attached to our family when our kids were really little. And this person was very harmful, very toxic, very abusive, and we lived in torment. It was awful. We drew every boundary we could draw that would keep us safe, financially, proximity, communication, you name it.
But for various reasons, this person had access to our life, and there wasn't anything we could do about that. And we were newly saved and newly married. It's just a lovely combination. And we're fighting enemies already.
Listen, if you want a ministry, better get in the ring and serve, fight in some enemies. This the way it goes. But I went to our pastor at the time for counseling, because I was like, I am in so much torment. I had this heavy weight on you.
I couldn't barely get out of bed in the morning. You know that feeling where it's like, you just don't know what a person's going to do next. And so I went in for counseling, and the pastor looked at me, and they said, just pretend like they're dead. Pretend like you went to their funeral, they're dead, and they don't even exist anymore.
Don't ever speak their name again. I was like, wow, is this what we do? As I'm a new Christian, right? I didn't grow up in the church.
I was like, okay. So I took the advice, and it only got worse. It only got worse. Internally.
It was just like this. I couldn't even barely pray anymore, because there's such a heavy cloud on me. And I was in worship some time after this, and I was full on, just worshiping the Lord. And the Lord spoke to me, and He said, I want you to open your mouth, and I want you to speak that person's name in faith.
And now I want you to start blessing Him. And I don't mean, please, the Lord change this person so my life can get better. We've all prayed those prayers, right? Lord, I'm sorry Sally's on her deathbed, but please use this to just teach your lesson, would you?
Whatever churchy prayers would like to pray, right? He said, bless them. I want you to pray that my blessing would come up and over in their cup. I want you to see who I see.
I want you to favor them. And I just began to weep. I just began to weep for two reasons. Number one, when God speaks to you, you know He's right.
And I knew freedom was there. I knew it. I thought, if God is telling me to do this, I'm free. That's it.
Right now, here's my freedom. The second reason why I was weeping though is because, man, it's hard. The last thing I wanted to do was to bless somebody that was hurting in such a deep way. Because fears rise up.
What if they get off the hook? What if they never know what they're doing and they just continue to do it? You just want me to bless them? What if I never get vindication?
Listen, God is a great defender and we're going to hear that message in a few verses down. But God is a great defender. He's a great vindicator. He makes all things work together for good, but you've got to step out in the faith and trust that you don't need to fight that battle anymore.
And so as soon as I did it, freedom just came like that. Not because that person just magically changed and propented and everything was lovely, but I had so much joy and freedom and they had no hold on me anymore. And we talk about moving him out of the way. He would call me down the road, looking for counsel, about Jesus, because He knew my faith was so strong.
And He would say, I know your faith is really important to you and I have this thing, can you help me? And again, you're like, help you? But this is the power of releasing people from your grip, right? So I know that this is a tough pill to swallow.
Like I said, we're fearless in this room. And I see a lot of like, Lord, because when you hear a message, you know Jesus said that the fire will come to prove the word. And that's okay. We're in this together, right?
We're a family and we fear the Lord, which means we're fearless in pursuing Him because He always wants something great for you. If He's asking you to do something hard, it's because He hasn't exchanged for you. Read Isaiah 1661. It's good stuff.
It's good stuff. But sometimes we realize that the reason why we can't quite get there and be in action, maybe you've been ignoring and avoiding your enemies, because that's how you're dealing with it. But listen, love pursues goodness. So Jesus gives explicit directions on how to move forward, not how to avoid and ignore and just pretend like maybe that person will go away.
But sometimes we have a hard time being active with this weapon because we're not positioned correctly. Mind will and emotions. So as a son, there's a positioning we have to have when it comes to our enemies. And I'm going to invite you to do three things with me.
Because I believe positioning is what we will draw on when we come up against opposition and listen family. It's going to come. It's going to come hard and it's going to come more. I'm not trying to be a doomsday person, but listen, I've been banging on this drum for 10 years.
It's coming. It's here already. It's going to continue to increase. If it's not the person at the grocery store just giving you a bad attitude, you're about to see some stuff that's really going to oppose the church.
You personally, and even as we as everyday move into this new building, people are going to come through those doors who have been beaten and wounded on that battlefield. And they do not know where to go. And if their mess is triggering you, how will we help? Jesus said the devil is coming, but he has no ground in me.
Why did he say that? Because the only way to defeat the enemy is if he has no territory and ground in you. So do not let him keep you in this place. We have got to grow up and mature and be equipers of the body and healers.
There's a quote by an anonymous Navy Seal that I really love. I don't know why it's anonymous. I wish they'd give me his name. But anyway, he said, under pressure, you will not rise to the occasion.
You will always sink to your level of training. And in kingdom language, I like to think of it this way. When you come up against opposition, because like Paul said, you will. You will not rise to the occasion and think, okay, when I get there, I'll just, I got my scriptures.
I love the word. Powerful, necessary, absolutely vital. But you will always sink to your level of positioning. We have to position ourselves, mind, will, and emotions as sons.
Think like sons. Act like sons. Understand where we're seated. So I'm going to invite you to do three things tonight to get positioned, if you feel like you're really struggling in this.
The first thing is take inventory. Are they your enemy? Or are you their enemy? You see, biblically speaking, your enemy is one who opposes you, who dislikes you, who wishes you harm.
Not one whom you oppose, whom you dislike, whom you have been speaking about, or whom you have written off. Sometimes we're in tough situations and we like to put it on another person. But we're the ones in the flesh. Maybe they are too, but that doesn't matter.
What matters is we're accountable for ourselves, right? And so we're in the flesh. In Romans 8, 7 says, a mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God. So friends, please be careful that you do not let an issue get you in the flesh and become an enemy of man, therefore becoming an enemy of God.
That's not what we're built for. We're sons and daughters. The second thing I want to invite you to do is get double vision. Paul says it this way.
In 2 Corinthians, no man after the flesh. And by implication, what that means is, know them by the spirit. Double vision. There's a quote by John Ortberg from the book Love Beyond Reason.
This is so beautiful. It says, God sees with utter clarity who we are. He is undeceived to our warts and wickedness. But when God looks at us, that is not all he sees.
He also sees who were intended to be and who we will one day become. We sometimes say love is blind, but this is not so. Love alone truly sees and sees with double vision. And in the act of seeing, God begins, this is my favorite part, to call to the surface the goodness and beauty that is in us that is now maybe only visible to him so that one day it can become visible to all.
Double vision. I grew up in a very, very dysfunctional environment. My life was greatly impacted by divorce, suicide, addiction, witchcraft, instability, abuse, you name it. And the trauma that I carried around as a very young girl, I did not realize until I was a young adult that it hindered me from developing healthy coping skills, communication skills.
I had a very low emotional IQ. My emotions were essentially master over me. And because of this, nobody wanted anything to do with me. I was kicked out of kindergarten when I was 5 years old.
I know how to do that. I don't know. I did it. And I was put into a Catholic school and that didn't work.
I was kicked out of youth groups. People would invite me to youth group because I was clearly the child in the trailer park that needed to be saved. But they would kick me back out again. I would get kicked out of every high school class that I ever took, put on ADD medication.
Every friend that I had, their parents would say, you are not hanging out with her anymore. She's a terrible influence. And I do not blame them. I was a liar, a thief, an abuser, a manipulator.
I wielded every weapon of the world because I had to protect myself and survive because that's the kind of stuff I carried around. I didn't know any better. It just was what it was until Jesus showed me something. And part of that was, you know, maybe you're all thinking, okay, with all that said, how in the world does a sane, stable, and steady man like my husband marry me?
I would not recommend this to my son. Is okay? I just wouldn't. But thank God he knew better.
We got married in 2003. Two months later, we got saved together. Praise the Lord. And a couple of years into our healing journey, I looked at him and I said, what were you thinking?
I look at these fruits of the spirit and I'm going, I had none of those. I mean, some people come in with like, oh, I got a little bit of gentleness. I got that going for me. Nothing.
But Justin looked at me and he said, you know what? I did not marry you because of who you were. I married you because I saw who you would one day become. Yeah, that man.
Now, I say this because he was not ignorant to my warts and wickedness. Not at all. Neither of us were. But I was fighting for my life.
And because he saw in me what God could only see at that time, I'm standing up here and my son of that might be visible to all of you now. Amen? Amen? I'm just kidding.
I'm just kidding. Okay, listen. I do want to be clear though because I know it's whirling in the room. I see it.
God does not excuse evil behavior and attitudes. He holds us accountable to our behavior and also knows who we are and calls that out. And that's as ministers of reconciliation. That's what we do.
We can hold people accountable for their behavior. We draw boundaries, healthy boundaries with people for safety in relationships. And we honor their identity. We see who God sees in them.
And we are not afraid because our security doesn't come in what somebody has done to us. Our security is in Christ, thereby creating space for our freedom and theirs. The third and final thing I want to invite you to, to position yourselves while in handling opposition enemies, is this? The blood still speaks.
The blood still speaks today. This is so important to realize because that means that your enemies are a temporary issue. They are not permanent positions. And sometimes we ascribe permanent damnation and cursing to somebody who's wronged us because we forget the blood still speaks.
The Apostle Paul was one of the church's greatest enemies and became her greatest defender, writing much of the New Testament. Romans 5 and 10 says, if while we were enemies of God, he reconciled us back to himself through the death of his son, how much more than shall we live by his life? We were enemies of God and thank God he did not see us as permanent enemies. How about serial killers who get saved in prison?
Terrorists who bomb buildings ended up becoming pastors and leading revivals? Traffickers who get out of the business and start saving children. Abortion clinic directors who would kill thousands of babies have a revelation of Jesus and start advocating life. The blood still speaks.
And when we can understand that people are not our problem, we can move them out of a permanent position and begin to see God actually redeeming them. And until the blood stops speaking, that will always be the case. And you never know. By the grace of God someone who opposes you today, just might be one who protects you tomorrow.
So as we wrap up here, I want us to stand in just a minute. So I'm going to invite the worship, not the team or whoever would like to come here. But I just want to reiterate those three points for us and then we're going to stand and do some prayer time together. That blessing your enemies is an invitation of the function of your sonship.
And it is a new weapon of war. It is a new weapon of war to live an abundant life and to win the real war that you are in, which is spiritual. And because the world is at war and we are preparing for a wedding, you got to lean in and start understanding how to use this to forward the kingdom. When you bless your enemies, you are a part of the redemption plan and you are bringing heaven into the earth, thereby creating freedom for you and for those around you, and those who will come and ask you for help.
So we have to position ourselves in our mind, our will and emotions to handle opposition and equip the body to handle opposition because we're winning this thing, folks. Heaven and earth are coming together and Peter said, as we lean in, we're hastening the day. As we are releasing heaven into the earth, Peter said, we are hastening the day when we lean in to the Lord. So we got to lean in.
This is all going to pass away. Your enemies here on earth are going to pass away. The opposition you're facing will pass away. And I'm not diminishing it.
I'm just reminding you that this is all temporary. Whatever finances you have are temporary. Relationships here on earth will be glorified. So I want us to stand, if you will, I invite you to.
I'm not making you. Sometimes people tell me I'm bossy, but I know that as I've been speaking, I know that names have been swirling around in your spirits. The names of people maybe you haven't thought about for years and you thought, I thought I was done with that one. Maybe they're new.
Maybe it's a repeat offense because that's real. How do I keep doing this over and over and over again? But I want us to close our eyes all over this place tonight. And we're going to release names by faith.
Because maybe you haven't spoken their name for a really long time because it just gives you so much anxiety and anger and bitterness. But God is inviting us into a space to release what's his, not yours. So we're going to release names. So even as a whisper, I want you to start whispering names that are coming to your spirit.
Just begin to whisper the names by faith. You're releasing this by faith. All over this room just names, names, names. Father, we thank you that these names keep whispering names as they're coming to your heart and just release them by faith.
Lord, we thank you that the names are names of ones you love. There is not one person on this earth that you did not create and have a destiny for. Ephesians 1 says that we were created with a purpose before the foundations of the earth. So names of those who have opposed you.
Names of your enemies that you would say they've wronged me, they've harmed me, they've abused me, they betrayed me. I trusted them. Maybe it was apparent, maybe it was a friend. Names of those who have physically done something, spiritually done something to you.
Leaders who have recklessly spoken things to you in a process of your life that broke you. And maybe your gifts, your spiritual gifts are locked up because they broke you. But I believe even those in this room, if you have names that you're releasing, God is healing and restoring. All that the enemy has stolen, all that you've lost by your own choice, whatever it's been.
God is offensively gracious. He's offensively merciful. And all he asked is that we obey. We step in it.
So Father, we thank you for the names. God, and even those who might be struggling tonight to release, we just pray for courage in this room. Even during worship, I just felt there is some spiritual warfare happening. And we thank you for it because that means things are breaking.
So when you feel that rising up and you don't fight that place of tension and tightness, it's God putting his finger on something that's breaking off of you in the name of Jesus. And so we break off spirits of fear in the name of Jesus. We break off spirits of despondency and depression in this room that are coming through a holding on. Release it in Jesus' name.
We break off the spirit of offense. The spirit of bitterness. The root of rejection spawns from unforgiveness. That's your real enemy.
Somebody needs to hear that. Your real enemy is not the fact that you cannot forgive. It's the root of rejection. And God wants you to know you're accepted.
You are loved. You have value. And it has nothing to do with what that person did to you. All who wish to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
And so Jesus, even in Matthew chapter 5 and verse 10, he said, Be ecstatic when you're persecuted. When you bear the wounds of persecution, get excited. Why? Because it means that you're living a godly life in Christ.
And the enemy has got your number. But what you know is the one who is greater lives in you. And so Lord, we just thank you for courage. God, we bless these names.
And I'm just praying this to kind of show you how this practically plays out. We bless the names of those that are being released in Jesus' name. We thank you, God, that your love would overtake, afflict, and pursue those people. We pray that abundant blessings would overflow in their life.
We thank you, God, that you would bring every good and faithful thing to their life. And I pray that in the name of Jesus they would be so over full of your love and your mercy. And their transformation would begin to take place. Transformation in their hearts and in their minds and in their families.
But they would be so full of your goodness, God. They couldn't help but give you praise and thanks. And just like Richard's chapter, his prison guard, may that love change the course of their history. Turn those stony hearts to flesh, oh, God, that we would be a people who truly worship and bring heaven into the earth.
Thank you, Lord. As Rihanna is sharing, I want to highlight something that oftentimes what happens when we've had an enemy is that we've been in a position of victim. And the Lord actually has a strategy for us to leave that seat of victims and to step into a powerful place of freedom and choice. What that looks like is when we forgive someone, we don't just use the words I forgive this person.
You can't. But what brings you out of victim mindset into, I'm a powerful person that Jesus has set free into sonship is you use the language I choose to forgive. Because you're restoring your strength and God is restoring your free choice because a lot of times what happens is there's something that people have done to us, things that people do to us that actually we have no choice or decision in that process. And the enemy tries to accuse us saying, well, you did this and this and that's why.
And we take responsibility for what we need to take responsibility for, what's our soul. But we get to actually make choices to say instead of I forgive you or forgive this person, I say I choose to forgive this person. And now I choose to bless them. And when it does it restores your voice because you don't just do it silently.
You actually open up your mouth and you go, I'm choosing to take the seat of authority and power as a son or daughter of God. And I want to encourage us to actually just practice it right now. And so if you need to get a little room, you need to spread out. We're just going to do this for two minutes and you're just going to choose one name that you want to bring before the Lord and you want to actually articulate.
I choose to forgive this person. You can turn up the piano actually. I choose to forgive this person. And then after you feel like, yeah, maybe some of you are going, but I've already forgiven them in the past like three years ago.
And now I still feel like it's coming up and I want you to know that that's normal. Because what happens is when we're sinned against, then over time, the consequences of their actions actually is far reaching. Right? And then all of a sudden we feel the same emotions that we did a couple months ago and we're going, I thought I forgive this person.
Why am I still feeling this way? It's because there's actually the consequences of their sin are still impacting us. And so we have to forgive again. Right?
I got hit with this and because they did this now, I'm struggling in this way. Lord, I forgive them again. I choose to forgive them for this moment and how it's impacting me now. Okay?
So that's normal. A lot of times I can be confusing. Okay? So we're going to go into a time just like two minutes of choosing to forgive and I want you to say those words out loud.
I choose to forgive this person. You can just whisper it loud enough for you to hear. And then I want you to begin to start just like Rihanna showed us how you're going to begin to choose to bless them. And I want you to just pray blessing over them the way that you would want somebody to pray blessing over you.
Okay? Ready, set, go. All just going to do it at the same time. Thank you, Lord.
Thank you, Lord. Father, we forgive them. We choose to forgive them. They know not what they do.
Lord, we thank you for giving them paradise. Lord, we want them to know you and to be known by you. To love you and be loved. Lord, we want them to experience the grace and mercy that we've received.
We want them to experience that. We love you, Lord. We thank you that you showed us the way. We love following you, your leadership.
In Jesus name, Amen. Amen. We want to encourage you as we're in this process, this room might not feel safe to go really, really deep in that moment. And that's okay.
Because there's vulnerable places where it's like, man, there's so many people in the room and I want you to know that that's really normal to feel that way. And that's good because you want to be in a setting where you can actually go there. And so that's completely normal. If many of you are feeling that way, that's totally normal.
So I'm going to commission us out. And I think there's an announcement after that. So Lord, you just want to put your hands out in front of you. Lord, I thank you that these sons and daughters, you love them.
You've commissioned them. You've called them to actually multiply their story of restoration. And so Lord, we just push them out of the church building and into the harvest field. Holy Spirit, you are the leader, the helper that we need.
And we thank you. I commission out all of these messengers of the good news of Jesus. And everybody said, Amen. Amen, Amen.