Participants: Ivor and Atonte Myers
Series Code: BOF
Program Code: BOF000029
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00:14 Welcome to Battles of Faith. We're your hosts, Ivor
00:17 and Atonte Myers. Today's program is entitled 00:21 "The Art of Focus". We're going to learn 00:23 how to focus and stay in tune with God. On the last 2 programs 00:29 we learned that stillness and silence are weapons, and today 00:33 we're going to learn how focusing is a weapon as well. 00:37 And I'm excited about this program because the more 00:40 weapons we learn about, the better our fighting is going 00:42 - to be against Satan. - That's right. 00:45 We're learning these arts of warfare. We have previously 00:48 discussed the art of stillness, and we've talked about the art 00:53 of silence, we've seen those 2, how they work together, 00:57 and in this program we're going to be dealing with the art 00:59 of focus. I want to read a verse 01:01 from Proverbs 16:32, and it says here: "He that is slow to anger" 01:07 "is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit" 01:11 "than he that taketh a city. " Very powerful verse there 01:16 that illustrates the fact that God sees as a more powerful 01:20 warrior those who are able to rule themselves than those 01:24 who are able to rule others. We might say "greater is he" 01:29 "that masters himself, than he that masters another". 01:35 So often in our conflicts we are seeking to try to master 01:41 other people, in other words, "Do what I say! " 01:44 Getting the victory over other people when the real battle, 01:47 the real warfare is getting the mastery over ourselves. 01:51 This is a vital part of the Christian art of war. 01:55 So learning how to focus helps us in finding that way, 02:00 - to be able to master self. - That's right. 02:03 Isaiah 26:3 tells us "Thou will keep him in perfect peace" 02:08 "who's mind is stayed on Thee", and this is where we're going 02:12 to pull our principle of focusing. 02:15 I like to call this "the art of locking on". 02:20 We will use those words interchangeably, if I say 02:22 to focus on a target, or focus on something, what you're 02:25 saying is to lock on to that thing. Isaiah 26:3 tells us 02:31 that Christ promises peace to those who focus and stay 02:36 locked onto Him. Why should we be mentally 02:39 locked on to Christ? Because Christ is our target, 02:42 He is our goal, it is He who the Christian wants to be ultimately 02:47 like, and He tells us if we learn how to focus on Him, 02:53 if we learn how to keep our mind stayed on Him, that will 02:58 give us victory, that will give us the peace that we're looking 03:01 - for in the Christian warfare. - And Jesus understood 03:05 and applied this weapon in His life, He was able to stay 03:09 completely focused upon the Father, and when Satan tried 03:14 to bring thoughts of temptations or whatever, He was able 03:17 to overcome them because He was so focused on the Father, 03:21 and this is something that's not easily done, this is why 03:25 training daily for this is so important, because we must 03:29 train our minds to do this, and we've talked about this 03:33 at home, and in other places, but there's something that 03:35 Satan sends - thought bombs, and he sends a thought, 03:40 he's always trying to get our thoughts to be anywhere 03:42 but on God. So that's why we have 03:44 to actually slow our mind down and actually say 03:47 "Hey, I'm thinking about things that I should not be thinking" 03:50 "about, Lord take my mind back where it should be", 03:53 and this will be a ritual every day all throughout 03:55 the day until our mind is more used to focusing on those things 03:58 that God wants us to focus on. 04:00 That's right. In Ephesians 6 the Bible 04:03 talks about taking the shield of faith whereby we may be able 04:06 to quench the fiery darts of the wicked. 04:10 The word there for "darts" is the Greek word "belos", 04:13 which means "missiles", and it's amazing when you consider, 04:16 the Bible here is saying that Satan has missiles, 04:19 and we like to call them "thought bombs", 04:21 "thought missiles", thoughts that he will send to our minds, 04:25 thoughts that he wants to put within our minds to take 04:28 our minds away from Jesus Christ, it's been said that sin 04:34 is defined as "missing the mark". Well, if Christ is our 04:38 mark, if Christ is our target, then any thought that leaves 04:43 our mind and misses its mark, misses its target, which is 04:48 to be Christ because Christ is our goal, becomes a sinful 04:52 thought. Every thought that we have 04:55 is to be brought into captivity according to the Bible, 04:58 to the obedience of Christ, so in this art of focus 05:03 what Christ wants to teach us is how to keep our thoughts 05:08 focused and stayed upon Him because in that way every 05:13 thought that we think will be geared towards the glory 05:17 - of Christ. - And again, this is not 05:21 an easy thing, and he is always constantly going to be 05:24 bombarding our minds, we've mentioned this in other 05:26 programs, I just think saying it over and over again, 05:29 I want someone out there to really get it, this is why 05:34 he has the entertainment world so prevalent in our homes, 05:38 and it looks so enticing because once we're always 05:41 watching these things, and seeing these sinful things, 05:44 and our mind is constantly used to be entertained on this thing 05:48 and the other, the art of focus doesn't even come into play, 05:52 so Satan just has a field day sending these thought bombs, 05:56 or missiles, into keep our minds not focusing on God. 06:01 That's right. 2 Corinthians 10:4,5 read 06:04 like this: "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, " 06:09 "but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, " 06:12 "casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exulteth" 06:17 "itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity" 06:20 "every thought to the obedience of Christ. " 06:25 Every thought is to be focused in on Christ. You see those heat 06:29 seeking missiles, wherever the target moves that missile 06:32 is moving, our thoughts are to be like that in reference 06:37 to Christ. Every thought should be locked on to Jesus, 06:42 and ultimately that is our target, that is our mark 06:45 because we want to be like Him. Any thought that misses that 06:50 target becomes a wandering thought. So often we say 06:53 "Man, my mind is just wandering", "when I go down" 06:56 "and pray, my mind wanders, the thoughts just wander, " 06:58 "I can't seem to focus". We've talked about being still, 07:05 that is important in order for us to sense the presence of God, 07:09 we talked about being silent, that is important so that we can 07:11 hear the voice of God, but now we have to look at the art 07:15 of focus, which helps us to be able to hear God's voice, 07:21 to focus on what it is He is saying, to understand it 07:24 and to have it actually become a part of us. 07:26 That's right, and sin starts in the mind, we must think about 07:31 it before we actually do it, and I think about something like 07:35 pornography, this is a huge problem in our country 07:38 and around the world. And many men or women 07:42 would like to have victory over it, well, it would start in 07:45 applying these weapons that we've talked about: 07:49 silence, stillness, and then focusing. If you can get 07:52 those thoughts under control, that's going to help you not go 07:55 to the computer, not watch that thing on TV, 07:58 - or buy those magazines. - That's right, it's like 08:00 they're rebel thoughts, they don't want to be drawn 08:03 to Christ, and that's why the Bible gives this picture 08:05 of capturing these thoughts and bringing them into 08:09 captivity, that's going to be a warfare, how do you capture 08:12 something that is intangible and bring it to Christ? 08:15 He says "in the art of focus" 08:18 "you learned as you are sitting still, as you are learning to" 08:21 "be silent, you will also learn", He says, "I will teach" 08:25 "you how to focus", and you know, ultimately we're giving 08:28 these principles but these principles are ultimately 08:32 learned in the actions themselves. You have to take 08:35 the time to be still, you've got to take the time to set it aside 08:39 and say "Okay, I'm going to learn what it means" 08:42 "to be still". 08:44 You've got to take the time to understand and to learn 08:47 for yourself, practically speaking, the art of silence: 08:49 sitting down, especially in your prayer time, and just 08:52 being silent, listening for God's voice speaking to you 08:55 through His Spirit, through the Word of God, through Scripture, 08:59 and listening to that voice, and then the art of focus, 09:02 it is something that must be experienced, we can explain it, 09:05 but until you actually get down and have the experience 09:08 yourself, you will see, so many people get down and pray 09:11 and they cannot stay focused on Christ. 09:15 The focusing of the thoughts is so important because in 09:18 the middle of crises our minds, our thoughts are going 09:23 - everywhere but to Christ. - You know, I think God's 09:27 Word plays a huge part in this because if we're in His Word 09:33 there are so many things in there things that will keep us, 09:36 if we meditate on that throughout the day, 09:38 that will help us to focus on Christ because the Word 09:41 is all about God, and if we're taking some of those thoughts, 09:44 those themes, and take it throughout the day then that 09:46 - will help us to focus. - Okay, now we want to actually 09:50 talk about, and share with the audience, 2 important principles 09:54 about the art of focus. The first principle is that 09:58 focus equals strength of thought. 10:05 Now what does that mean? Another word for focus, 10:09 you would say "concentrate", "I want you to concentrate". 10:13 I want to take this "concentrate" for a minute, 10:15 and we're going to jump to something that's totally 10:18 different, but you will get the picture. 10:20 Many of you if you open your freezers you will see in there 10:23 that you have bought something called "apple juice" 10:25 "concentrate", what is apple juice concentrate? 10:29 Apple juice concentrate is apple juice concentrated, 10:34 pure, undiluted, it's the pure thing, very strong. 10:39 Christ, when He asks us to focus, or to concentrate on Him, 10:43 what He's asking us to do is to weed out of our thought 10:48 patterns those things that are not fully Him; those things 10:54 that will guide us, or lead us towards sin, He wants 10:58 us to learn how to concentrate our thoughts on to Him, 11:02 that every thought that leaves our mind is a focused thought 11:06 on Christ, this way we begin to understand that in focusing 11:11 on Him, and in having the Devil have no power to take our 11:17 thoughts off of the mark, to give us a wandering thought, 11:22 we begin to experience this power over self that very few 11:27 - people experience. - That's right, and Satan is 11:30 so clever, he tries to do it in so many different ways, 11:33 through young people, of course, we've said it's 11:36 the entertainment industry, for us older young people 11:38 it could be stress and worry, that takes our mind off of 11:42 Jesus and it puts it on to something else, and that's one 11:46 way for him to break our focus. 11:48 That's right, we need to have that power to remain 11:53 focused on Christ, and the way that we receive that power 11:56 is by being still, and it's by being silent. 12:00 And as we learn these 3 principles: be still, 12:03 be silent, and focus, what begins to happen is as we 12:07 are out there in the middle of a crisis, we begin to understand 12:11 and experience what it means to be still, what it means 12:15 to not react when something comes your way, 12:18 what it means to be silent, to hear God's voice: 12:21 "Lord, how should I react in this crisis? " 12:24 And then to focus enough to be able to keep, or rein 12:29 those thoughts in and bring them into captivity to Christ. 12:34 Now, focus comes from another very interesting word. 12:38 That's right, if you look at the origin of the word "focus", 12:44 it comes from the Latin "focali", which interestingly 12:48 enough, it means "hearth", or "fire place". 12:54 That's a very powerful thought because the word "focus" 12:59 actually comes from the word "to burn", or "fire". 13:04 And you wouldn't think that that word would come 13:06 from a word that means "fire place". 13:09 No, which brings us to our second principle, is that not 13:11 only is focus strength of thought, but focus actually 13:15 produces fire. Now, let's look at 13:18 an illustration here, take a magnifying glass. 13:21 When you hold a magnifying glass up, we used to do this when 13:24 we were younger, we'd hold a magnifying glass up 13:27 to the sun, we would have a piece of paper on the ground, 13:29 and what would happen? That magnifying glass would 13:32 take all the rays of the sun and concentrate them, 13:39 or focus them into 1 beam of light. 13:45 And then that beam of light would hit that piece of paper, 13:47 and what began to happen? The fire was started. 13:53 Interestingly enough, when we think about focus, when Christ 13:57 says "I will keep him in perfect peace who's mind" 13:59 "is stayed on Thee", what He's telling is as we focus on Him 14:05 something incredible will begin to happen within us. 14:09 We will catch that fire that so many people, you know, 14:14 "I'm kind of lukewarm, don't know what's happening" 14:17 "with me", Christ says "If you learn to focus on Me, I promise" 14:20 "you that you will begin to burn with holy fire, you will begin" 14:25 "to burn with the flame of God's love. " 14:28 Now that is exciting, I don't know about you, 14:30 but I'm over here getting excited, and I've heard it 14:33 before, but it's very exciting because it's true. 14:37 As Christians we don't want to be lukewarm Christians, 14:39 we want to be on fire, and these things the Lord is showing 14:42 us so what we can apply them, and that will be the result, 14:47 you'll be on fire, focus on Jesus. 14:49 Now let me jump in here and we're going to look at something 14:53 that, again, understand that we have an adversary who wants 14:56 to take our minds away from Christ, there's a story 14:59 in the Old Testament where focus played a vital part 15:04 in the saying of lives, and that's the story where 15:08 the children of Israel were going through the wilderness 15:11 and they began to murmur against God, and as they murmured they 15:15 pushed away the presence of God, and in pushing away the presence 15:19 of God the Bible says that these serpents began to rise up 15:22 out of the ground, and began to bite the people. 15:25 God instructs Moses to make a brazen serpent, to put this 15:29 serpent on a pole, and lift it up. The people were commanded 15:34 to look and live, we might say "to focus upon the serpent", 15:40 and in focusing upon that serpent, they were able 15:43 to survive the deadly bites of these serpents. 15:47 Now, the question is, we know that many, many people 15:51 died because they refused to look at the serpent. 15:54 The question is: why in the world would they refuse to look 15:58 at the serpent? As I thought about that 16:01 I thought: "that doesn't make any sense, who wouldn't want" 16:03 "to live? " But the problem comes in 16:06 when you consider that Moses was commanded to lift this serpent 16:10 up, where were the other snakes? 16:13 They were on the ground. Now, if I'm to walk through 16:16 a room full of snakes, where do you think I'm going to be 16:18 - looking? - Down at the ground. 16:21 I'm going to be looking down, I don't think that there will 16:24 be anything that will make me want to look up, 16:26 I'd be looking down at the serpents, down at the problems, 16:29 down at the crisis, down at the situation, but God actually 16:31 told these people: "I want you to look up at the serpent" 16:34 "on the pole", that would have to be an act of utter trust 16:38 and faith. But again, what the Devil wants 16:42 to do in our day is to keep us focused on the serpents 16:47 on the ground. Focus on our problems 16:49 focused on what the world is doing, anything to keep us 16:53 from focusing on Jesus Christ. Why? Because Christ had an "I": 16:57 "If I be lifted up from the earth", just like that serpent 17:00 on the pole, "I will draw", that heat seeking missile, 17:05 "I will draw all men to Me", "I will draw their thoughts" 17:09 "to Me, I will become that target, that goal of theirs, " 17:13 "and I will lock them on, and they will follow Me" 17:17 "whithersoever I go", and this again, is why the Devil 17:21 will use everything: the entertainment industry, 17:23 the music, anything he can, busyness, anything he can, 17:26 our problems, to cause us to look down instead of to look 17:30 - up and to focus on Christ. - I also look at it as 17:34 chasing rabbits. I look at it like Satan sends us 17:37 out, you know, rabbits are these quick little, hoping, 17:40 little cute things, but they're hard to catch, so he has 17:43 us constantly chasing rabbits, different things in our life, 17:46 anything just so we do not spend the time, or have 17:50 the time to focus. So again, these weapons are 17:54 lifestyle changes, if you don't make the time and spend the time 18:00 it'll be very, I would say, impossible to fight Satan, 18:04 because you need the power from God, you have to receive it 18:06 from Him, you must spend time with Him, and in His Word, 18:09 - and in prayer to do this. - Yeah, you know, going back 18:11 to this magnifying glass concept that we just shared about 18:16 focusing all the thoughts into 1 beam of light, there's 18:21 a powerful verse that actually illustrates this, and it's 18:24 found in Matthew 6:22, and listen to what it says here, 18:33 Jesus speaking, He says: "The light of the body is the eye: " 18:44 "if therefore thine eye be single, the whole body shall" 18:48 "be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, the whole body" 18:53 "shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is" 18:56 "in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! " 18:59 "The light of the body is the eye", what do we use 19:02 the eye for? We use the eye to focus, to see, 19:05 and what Jesus is saying here, He's not talking about our 19:09 physical eye, He's talking about the eye of our mind, 19:12 when we say "I see what you're talking about", 19:14 the eye is symbolic of the mind, so He says 19:17 "the light of a body is the mind, if the mind then, " 19:20 or the light in that mind, "is focused, if the thoughts" 19:23 "of the mind are focused on Christ, into a single ray, " 19:29 "then the whole body will be full of light. " 19:32 So what does it mean when we have wandering thoughts, 19:36 what it means is that the body is full of darkness because 19:39 we've got maybe 1 thought on Christ, but the other thought 19:42 is pulling us somewhere else. We've got all these thoughts 19:44 pulling us in all these different directions, 19:47 and the Christian warrior who is in this holy war must learn 19:51 how to focus his thoughts and to keep them ultimately 19:55 - on Jesus Christ. - When you think about 19:58 the martial arts and the way they train to go up to each 20:03 level, it compares to this spiritual warfare that we're 20:07 talking about, it takes, on a daily basis, you must train 20:12 for this. Because we were born in a sinful 20:14 state, we all know that, we were all born with sin, 20:19 we don't have a bend towards God, we don't have a bend 20:22 towards being focused on Him, so we must train our minds. 20:26 And that is what God is calling us to do. 20:28 That's right. You think about the parable 20:30 of the 10 virgins, very powerful parable, these 10 virgins 20:35 all had 10 lamps, and a lamp in those times was not 20:41 the kind of lamp we have today with a light bulb, it was fire, 20:46 you needed oil. As you read that parable 20:49 in Matthew 25 I believe it is, where it describes the 10 20:54 virgins, it ultimately says that 5 foolish virgins, their lamps 20:58 went out. In other words, they had 21:01 no more oil, and what was oil used for? 21:03 Oil was the fuel to keep that fire burning. These 10 virgins 21:09 had no fuel. I took the liberty to look up this word "fuel" and 21:13 to see the origin of this word, and guess what, the word "fuel" 21:18 also comes from the Latin, "focali," which means 21:24 "fire place", or "hearth", "a burning". 21:27 So then these 5 foolish virgins had lost their focus, 21:36 they had lost their focus on Christ, they had begun to focus 21:39 on other things, they had no oil, no focus. 21:42 And because they lost this focus they're described 21:46 as foolish virgins, their thoughts were not all placed 21:49 upon Christ, but had strayed, or taken off the mark, 21:55 and thus they were considered as foolish virgins. 21:58 And it wasn't that they went back to the world and left 22:01 Christ all together, that isn't it, it's their mind. 22:03 They're still going through all the outwardly forms of what 22:07 we know today as Christianity, but in their mind, their mind 22:11 wasn't stayed on God, on Jesus. 22:14 That's right. Now, as we take this principle 22:17 that Christ says "if the eye is single, then the whole body" 22:19 "shall be full of light", or full of fire, if the eye is 22:23 single, if the mind, if the thoughts are placed upon Christ, 22:26 then the whole body shall be full of fire. 22:29 When we understand this and we begin to take that 22:31 principle and apply it, as we focus upon Christ 22:36 something is going to happen within us. 22:40 John the Baptist said of his own self, he said 22:43 "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He that" 22:47 "cometh after me is mightier than I, who's shoes I'm not" 22:50 "worthy to bear, He will baptize you with fire and the Holy" 22:54 "Ghost. " As we focus upon Christ 22:57 lifted up on the cross, something begins to happen 23:00 within us, we begin to smoke, and then that smoke will turn 23:06 into fire, because the hotter we get the more that we will 23:11 have that love to serve God and to fight this good 23:14 fight of faith. But we can also take that 23:17 to the Word of God. So often people will read 23:21 this Bible and they don't spend time to focus on the Word. 23:27 To focus on what it is that God is trying to say to us. 23:32 Use your imagination with me, you take your Bible, 23:34 you take a verse, and you begin to focus on that verse. 23:37 You know what will happen if you focus on that verse long 23:40 enough? The page will begin to smoke. 23:42 Why? Because you begin to go deeper than the average 23:47 "what a nice verse", and you move on. 23:49 No, you are now learning the art of being still with the Word 23:52 of God, being silent with the Word of God, listening, 23:55 focusing on that verse, on that Word, and as you focus 23:58 on that verse and the Spirit of God begins to speak to you. 24:02 I have experienced it where it seems as though the very verse 24:06 began to smoke, and then it was just like it was on fire. 24:09 Like Jeremiah, we can say "His word was like a fire" 24:14 "in my bones", and this is what focus brings, it brings the fire 24:18 of God into us. Focus, fuel, it brings His fire 24:22 into our minds, into our hearts, and then the worst thing 24:26 for the Devil to face is an on-fire warrior for God. 24:31 That's right, because now you're starting to fight back, 24:33 and he's going to begin to tremble. So no more surface 24:37 - reading. Correct? - That's right. 24:40 You know, there's so much in the Word, we could take 24:43 a text a day, and even a week, there's so much here, 24:47 and just meditate on it, and just exhaust it, and you can't 24:50 because you can't exhaust God, but just go as far as you can 24:53 go with the Lord with that verse, and He will show you 24:55 so many things. I mean, this is true entertainment, 24:59 this is what God wants our minds to be entertained with. 25:03 That's right. You know, when we understand 25:06 and we begin to experience this art of focus, our thoughts 25:09 become...and this is what the Christian needs, 25:12 he needs for his thoughts, her thoughts, to become so strong 25:16 that as the Devil comes and tries to move those thoughts 25:21 off of their target they're immovable. 25:24 "These are they that follow the Lamb whithersoever He goes", 25:27 they follow Him in thought, they follow Him in heart, and nothing 25:31 can draw them away, nothing can separate that thought, 25:35 and I know that that will be one of the most precious experiences 25:39 for Christians to have, is to have the power, through 25:41 the grace of God, not by our own might, we don't just say 25:44 "I'm going to focus in, I'm able to do this by myself", 25:47 it is only through the power, and grace, and might 25:50 of Jesus Christ that we can actually have a thought 25:54 locked onto its target and no matter what the Devil does, 25:58 - be unable to move it. - That's right. 26:00 And to you parents out there, to you husbands, and wives, 26:04 this is how we learn how to do the things that are difficult 26:07 to us; mothers, this is how we learn how to become good 26:10 mothers, and parent our children correctly, and be good wives, 26:14 and husbands. God, if we're focused on Him, 26:17 He will teach us how to do these things, things aren't difficult 26:20 anymore because we're so focused on our Trainer is 26:23 teaching us every step of the way, and He has an answer 26:26 to all of our problems, so then life is not such a big challenge 26:29 anymore, being able to overcome those things that we haven't 26:32 been able to overcome the past is now accessible to us, 26:35 and we start to win the war with Jesus on our side. 26:38 Yeah, the problem is that so many people say 26:41 "I'm loosing the battle, I don't know why" 26:43 and part of the reason is a lack of focus, not concentrating 26:49 on Christ. We might think about Him, 26:51 and we might think about Him often... 26:53 - ...And we claim Him - And we may claim Him 26:55 with our words, but when it gets down to really focusing, 26:59 and ultimately we're to be focusing on Christ throughout 27:01 the day, but how do we begin the process? 27:04 I believe the process starts even in the prayer time, 27:08 in the prayer time is where all these things start, 27:10 and they spill out into the daily activities. 27:14 We've got to learn how to be still in prayer time, 27:16 we've got to learn how to be silent in prayer time, 27:18 and then we've got to learn how to focus. 27:21 When the mind wanders, you go down to pray and you start 27:24 thinking about the bills, bring that thought back to Christ 27:27 and as you do this, now you're walking about in the day 27:29 and the Devil brings a temptation, you're able to bring 27:32 that thought back to Christ. Why? Because you've been 27:35 practicing it in your prayer time, practicing the art 27:37 - of warfare. - You know, you're not going 27:40 to want to miss the next program because as you can see 27:43 we're kind of building a sentence here: 27:45 Be still, be silent, focus. There's more to these arts, 27:48 and you're not going to want to miss the next one, so make 27:51 - sure that you tune in. - That's right, we will be 27:54 continuing our study on how to master yourself. 27:59 That's right. Well, we're all out of time 28:02 until next time, God bless. |
Revised 2014-12-17