Participants: Atonte Myers, Ivor Myers
Series Code: BOF
Program Code: BOF000025
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00:14 Welcome to BATTLES OF FAITH
00:16 We are your hosts, Ivor and Atonte Myers. 00:18 We are going to continue our discussion today on how 00:22 to fight back spiritually. 00:25 You know a few months ago we lost a friend. 00:28 It was not a desirable circumstances, but we lost him 00:32 and were really moved to fight Satan back spiritually. 00:35 That is to get victory in areas he thinks he has victory 00:39 over us, so we want to spoil his plans. 00:42 Today we are going to learn more on how we can do that. 00:46 That's right Atonte, we have been discussing in our 00:49 previous program this principle that as there are laws 00:53 that govern the physical world, so there laws that 00:56 govern the spiritual world. 00:58 Laws that govern our walk of faith, and in this context 01:02 also, our fight of faith. 01:04 When we abide by these laws, they help us to fight that 01:08 good fight of faith, to stop the enemy's plans for our 01:13 lives and actually have God's plans fulfilled in our lives. 01:17 Today we are going to be talking about spiritual eponyms. 01:20 You hear that word eponym, what in the world is that? 01:23 Well let me explain what that is. 01:26 Were going to put our graphic on the screen. 01:28 This is a definition of an eponym. 01:43 That is what eponym is, and in the science world there 01:47 are scientific eponyms. 01:49 Eponyms such as Pascal's theorem, named after Blaise 01:54 Pascal, or there is Newton's law of motion named 01:59 after John Newton, or Abogados law, or Ohm's Law. 02:03 There's Kepler's law of planetary motion, and you can go 02:06 down the list of these laws that are named 02:11 after various people. 02:12 These are called eponyms. 02:14 Well in this spiritual context there are spiritual 02:18 eponyms that we would like to share with you today. 02:22 We are going to be looking at a couple of people in the 02:25 Bible, who have not so much discovered, but may be 02:31 used to exemplify the laws that help us to fight 02:36 the fight of faith. 02:38 So the first eponym we're going to look at is what we 02:40 call, Jacob's Law, or the law of endurance. 02:45 The law of endurance and this law states this Atonte, 02:49 determined and enduring faith yields Divine blessing. 02:56 Determined and enduring faith yields Divine blessing! 03:01 You can probably begin to determine 03:03 why named this Jacobs law. 03:05 Because he was wrestling? 03:07 That's right he wrestled with God the Bible said in 03:09 Genesis 32:26 and on. 03:13 There Jacob has an encounter with a stranger and they 03:18 begin to wrestle there, and the Bible says, 03:20 "they wrestled until the break of day. " 03:22 Jacob begins to realize that this being he is wrestling 03:26 with is not just some regular man, he is actually 03:33 wrestling with Divinity. 03:35 In fact when Jacob's name was changed, it was changed 03:38 to Israel, meaning one who is wrestled 03:40 with God and overcomes. 03:42 So here Jacob is and he says in Genesis 32:26. 03:48 God here is speaking to Jacob and He says, 04:03 There you have that Divine formula. 04:06 "I will not let thee go unless thou bless me. " 04:11 Jacob was exercising and revealing this principle that 04:15 enduring and determined faith yields Divine blessing. 04:20 He held onto God, and God in this story says to Jacob, 04:25 what is your name? Or rather what is your name? 04:28 Jacob! He said, no longer will you're name be 04:30 called Jacob it will be called Israel because you have 04:33 wrestled with God and have prevailed. 04:36 He prevailed, not that he was stronger than God, but he 04:40 prevailed in that he endured. 04:42 This is the principle that we want to bring out in this 04:46 program, as Christians we must endure. 04:51 We must have determined faith. 04:53 Sometimes we get knocked down and we say this is never 04:56 going to work, I'm never going to be able to get victory 04:59 over this thing, or that thing, things I have been 05:02 learning through this program. 05:03 God says listen, as sure as the law of gravity works 05:09 all the time, is a sure as this law in the spiritual 05:14 realm will work, determined and enduring faith 05:18 yields a Divine blessing. 05:20 These stories of these people who had these type of 05:24 victories are put in the Bible to be an examples and 05:28 encouragement to us. 05:29 They are there to encourage us to know that they 05:32 struggled the way we struggle and they were able to 05:34 overcome by wrestling with God, by submitting themselves 05:38 to God and surrendering all to God. 05:40 In our previous program, we talked about the fact that 05:44 scientific laws must be both observable, repeatable, 05:47 and predictable in order for it to qualify as a law. 05:51 It can't be guesswork, it can't be random, it happens 05:54 sometimes here, but doesn't happen other times there. 05:58 We want to look and see, is this law, Jacobs law, is it 06:02 we see it is observable, but is it repeatable? 06:05 We can look at the story of Abraham. 06:09 Right, and we have an account here in Hebrew 6:13-15. 06:33 You see there it is again laid out right before us. 06:36 He patiently endured, patiently endured. 06:38 Patience and enduring faith yields Divine blessing. 06:45 Abraham waited for a child, and he waited, and he waited. 06:49 he waited, he didn't give up, he never gave up. 06:51 He was well into his old years when this blessing was 06:58 finally given to him. 07:00 Again, we have here in an experiment form as it were, 07:07 this principle being revealed to us as 07:09 not only is it observable, but it is also repeatable. 07:13 If we wait on the Lord, He will bless us. 07:17 If we endure, no matter how many times we get knocked 07:21 down, if we get back up and say I will receive the 07:25 victory over this thing. 07:27 We will receive the victory, God will bless us. 07:29 Right, we have Job as an example as well in James 5:11. 07:45 Job's experience was a horrible experience, and yet 07:49 throughout the whole experience he never turned his back 07:53 on God, he endured, he held on and said I will not let 07:57 Thee go except Thou bless me. 07:59 These are men who are walking in the footsteps of Jacobs 08:03 law, the law of enduring, determined faith. 08:06 That's right and we also have another example of Elijah 08:12 praying seven times in James 5:17. 08:30 He's determined faith, his determined prayer, and that is 08:33 something else we need to address is that we have to have 08:37 a determined prayer life. 08:39 We are going to talk about that in an upcoming program. 08:42 We have to have this enduring faith, this determined 08:45 faith that says Lord, I will not let You go 08:50 unless You bless me. 08:52 We see this law is both observable, it is repeatable 08:56 and it is predictable. 08:58 Jeremiah 29:13, Jeremiah says there, "you shall seek me 09:02 and find me when you search for me with 09:06 all of your heart. " 09:08 He is saying there that yes we press on, even though it 09:13 may seem Lord I haven't found You yet, 09:15 but I'm searching for You. 09:16 If we endure, if we continue to seek the Lord, 09:19 the Bible tells us, the spiritual law tells us, that we 09:24 will find God, we will receive that Divine blessing. 09:28 This is where the determination of Christ has to be 09:32 put within us, that we can have that determination and 09:36 say, Lord no matter what, I will not let You go 09:38 unless You bless me. 09:39 And speaking of Christ we have an example of that in 09:41 Mark 14:35-39. 10:15 And you see there an example on the opposite side that 10:19 Peter is here and having this faith that is not enduring. 10:22 He is falling asleep, and so many times Atonte, people 10:26 fall asleep spiritually. 10:29 They fall asleep to the principles of the world. 10:32 They fall asleep to the cunning devices of the enemy of 10:38 souls and we don't want to fall under that. 10:40 We want to be subject to Jacob's law, so that we say that 10:46 whatever happens Lord, I will not let you go. 10:51 This law is observable, it is repeatable, it is 10:55 predictable, but I want to look at another law Atonte. 10:59 There is another law we want to talk about and it is 11:02 called, what we call Daniel's Law of Magnetism. 11:07 Daniel's Law of Magnetism, I want to go ahead and read 11:11 just a little something here about magnetism. 11:15 What is magnetism? 11:16 "The word magnetism comes from the ancient Greek name 11:21 for certain natural occurring iron oxides, stones 11:25 called Lodestone. These stones have the properties 11:29 exerting force on each other and on bits of iron or 11:34 steel. They also have the power of imparting their own 11:38 distinctive properties to pieces of steel brought near 11:42 them. A piece of steel for example, a steel needle, 11:46 that has thus acquired the properties of the Lodestone 11:50 is said to be magnetized". It is called a magnet. 11:56 Daniel's Law of Magnetism, Daniel's Law which we also call 12:02 the law of magnetism has something to do 12:05 with magnetic properties. 12:08 Another thing about magnets is that, regardless of the 12:13 environment or surroundings, a magnet will always point 12:17 where? North, north it always points north. 12:21 It is because it has been magnetized. 12:24 Interestingly enough, one of the ways to demagnetize 12:27 a magnet is by the use of heat. 12:29 We are going to talk about that in a moment. 12:31 A magnet will always points north, no matter what 12:34 the circumstances, no matter what the environment. 12:37 Interestingly enough Atonte, in Proverbs 27:17 the 12:41 Bible says, as iron sharpens iron, so a man 12:43 sharpens his friends. 12:44 The Bible likens people to iron in this verse. 12:49 Another one in Jeremiah 1:18, where God is speaking to 12:53 Jeremiah and says, "I have made you an iron pillar. " 12:57 So there are a couple places in the Bible where we 13:01 are likened unto iron. 13:03 When I see this I say, if we are likened unto iron, 13:07 then we should, in all actuality, be as magnets. 13:11 Christ being the Lodestone. 13:14 I want to read a quote here from Counsels on Health, 13:17 page 290, and it says. 13:19 "God calls for men whose hearts are as true as steel 13:23 and who will stand steadfast in integrity undaunted 13:28 by circumstances. " 13:30 Now remember, we have been discussing in previous 13:32 programs, that the enemy of souls is attempting to 13:36 manipulate the environment so that we will adapt 13:40 to that environment. 13:41 What we are reading here, is that God is looking for 13:46 people who will be as true as steel, 13:49 as iron pillars who cannot be moved or manipulated 13:54 by their circumstances. 13:56 What better person can we think of to exemplify this 14:01 principal of magnetism then Daniel himself. 14:05 Daniel is a man in the midst of compromise, in the 14:11 midst of unfavorable circumstances, because he had 14:17 been rubbed up against the Lodestone, Jesus Christ who is 14:23 our magnet, who draws us with His love. 14:28 Because Daniel was so closely connected with Him, 14:30 no matter what circumstances Daniel was put in, 14:34 in the book of Daniel, he always pointed north. 14:38 Daniel's Law simply says this, 14:40 a piece of steel or iron, as long as it is magnetized 14:44 will always points north. 14:48 The enemy of souls is always trying to put us in those 14:51 situations, those hot situations so that we can 14:54 demagnetize, or he can try to demagnetize us, if that's 14:57 really the word, I'm not sure. 14:59 So that we will not point north, especially young people. 15:02 He is always trying to put you in a position to see if 15:06 you will compromise, to see if you will yield, or bend, 15:10 but God is saying no, if you are really with Me and My 15:15 Spirit is in you, you will always point north no matter 15:19 what the circumstances is, even if they are threatening 15:22 to put you in a fiery furnace. 15:24 There we have a perfect illustration. 15:27 Here you have these three magnets standing there on the 15:30 plain of Dura and the devil sees this and says, hey 15:34 angels, we have two to demagnetize them. 15:38 What does he do? He moves Nebuchadnezzar to light, 15:41 or heat this furnace and command that if they will not 15:45 bow down, they will be demagnetized. 15:49 They will be thrown into this fiery furnace, and 15:51 what do they do? They say no, we are not going to bow 15:55 down no matter what the environment around us is 15:59 suggesting we do, no matter what the circumstances, 16:02 we are going to point north regardless. 16:06 They take these three men, throw them bound into the 16:11 fiery furnace with the intention of demagnetizing them. 16:15 Getting them hopefully, before they were thrown in, 16:19 getting them to say okay, we will bow South. 16:22 We are not going to point north anymore, but no that 16:25 did not work, even in the fire Christ comes in and they 16:28 are so connected with Him, and He is so connected with 16:32 them, that even in the fire they are still standing. 16:36 They are pointing north, nothing could deter them 16:40 from following God. 16:42 Many of our young people out there have friends, have 16:44 acquaintances who are saying, come on, bow. 16:48 Just listen one more time. 16:49 Just do what we do, and God is calling be a magnet. 16:53 Point north, don't allow the enemy of souls to come in 16:58 and to draw you southward, to draw you downward. 17:03 When you become a Christian and you submit yourself to 17:07 the laws of the spiritual world, these laws are as 17:12 certain as the laws of gravity. 17:14 I will not bow down, I will not point any other way 17:19 except north because this is Daniel's Law of magnetism, 17:24 and this is a law that is applicable, that is very real 17:29 in this spiritual context. 17:31 And We do not want to be presumptuous either, meaning 17:35 you are saying, I want to be like Daniel here. 17:38 Then don't put yourselves in situations where you know 17:42 it is going to be hard, sometimes we can't avoid that. 17:45 Don't put yourself in a place, if you know a place you 17:48 are going are bad, then you want to cut that out and not 17:51 be presumptuous and say I can go there and be 17:53 a magnet and just point north. 17:55 That is a little presumptuous. 17:57 You have to make good decisions about the things you are 18:00 watching, what you are listening to, where you are going, 18:03 the people you're hanging around with, because you are 18:05 trying to get stronger and stronger and when you get 18:08 into those positions you will be able to point 18:11 north unto Jesus Christ. 18:12 I have a couple verses here Atonte, and maybe we can 18:16 read some of these back and forth, but very quickly, 18:18 powerful verses about the Law of Magnetism. 18:21 In Testimonies volume 3, page 45, it says here, 18:27 "As the mysterious magnet points to the north, so do the 18:30 claims of religion point to the glory of God. " 18:36 So just as the compass points to the north, we as 18:40 Christians, are to always be pointing northward. 18:45 There is another one Atonte, Testimonies to Ministers 18:49 page 235, it says. 18:51 "The obedient are called the just, they are drawn to the 18:58 Holy Magnet, Jesus Christ. " 19:01 The holy attracts the holy. 19:05 You see we here find that as Christ is the main magnet, 19:10 we are, as it were, little magnets. 19:13 We are drawn to that main magnet, Jesus Christ. 19:17 He is the Lodestone that when we rub up against Him, 19:20 His characteristics are placed within us, 19:25 and like attracts like. 19:27 So God calls us again, I want you to be a magnet. 19:31 I want you to point north always. 19:34 Now we are going to go ahead and look at 19:36 one final eponym. 19:39 This is what I call Paul's Law, or the Spiritual 19:46 Laws of Thermodynamics. 19:49 Thermo meaning heat, the Spiritual Law of Thermodynamics. 19:54 The first law of thermodynamics says, rather explains 19:58 the change of energy from one form to another. 20:02 It's called the conservation of energy, energy is simply 20:05 changed from one form to another, and 20:08 Atonte, we find that this principle rest true in the 20:12 spiritual realm. 20:15 You look at the life of Paul, here was a man who was 20:17 dedicated to persecuting the people of God, 20:21 but once he was converted, that same energy with which he 20:27 had persecuted the people of God, was simply changed into 20:34 his zeal for God. 20:36 To save souls. - Exactly. 20:38 The same energy with which we are out in the world, 20:41 pursuing the world, before we knew Christ. 20:44 That energy, under this law, simply says that same 20:47 amount of energy and greater, is used up when 20:53 we become Christians. 20:55 We should never have, when we have zeal in the world, 20:57 we shouldn't come into the church, and just sit in a pew. 21:01 Just sit in the pew and ho-hum, no, that means we are 21:04 operating under the laws of the spiritual kingdom. 21:07 We need to be operating under these laws, and this law 21:11 states that the same energy with which we put out when 21:15 we were against Christ, that energy is simply transformed 21:19 and increased when we become Christ's servants. 21:23 Wow, that is awesome. 21:25 I think of your own testimony on how you were out in the 21:29 world doing Hip-Hop Rap music and putting all your 21:32 energy and everything into that. 21:33 When you became a Christian, you said Lord if you take 21:36 this microphone away from me, please put me before 21:39 another one, and you did know that meant to be a 21:42 minister or a preacher in the way that you are doing now. 21:45 But you are putting forth that energy you are using to 21:48 draw people into the black hole and now you are using 21:52 that energy to draw people into the heavenly kingdom. 21:54 That is powerful Atonte, I would never have thought when 21:57 I was out there, appearing on these various television 22:00 shows, that was going to be my television life. 22:04 I was going to be appearing in rap videos and those 22:07 things, and then the Lord drew me out. 22:10 I was totally unaware of this law, this first law of 22:14 conversion, Paul's Law of spiritual thermodynamics. 22:20 The heat that was put out, and zeal that was put out 22:24 in pursuing worldly things, was now simply converted 22:29 and now used for God's glory. 22:31 If someone had told me 10 years ago that you would be 22:35 hosting a program called "Battles of Faith", talking 22:39 about spiritual things with a ball head and no dreadlocks. 22:42 In a suit, nope, wrong person. - It's not going to happen, 22:46 it's not going to happen, but this is the law of 22:49 conversion, energy transformed or changed from 22:53 one form into another. 22:55 That can be you, I know there are young people out there 22:58 watching that think that could never me. 23:01 I'm doing what I'm doing now, this is my life and I'm 23:03 not changing, but as the Holy Spirit moves upon your 23:07 heart, and as He is leading you to follow Him, there is 23:10 a future ahead of you that you cannot even imagine, that 23:14 only God knows, and He is going to use it for His honor 23:17 and His glory to lead other people to Him if you accept 23:21 His calling upon your life. 23:22 In the old world we are burned, in the old man we are 23:27 under the heat of sin and wickedness, but when God 23:30 baptizes us with the Spirit of God, Matthew 3:11. 23:34 He will baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire, 23:36 the heat has changed towards the glory of God. 23:39 Now a second law of thermodynamics simply is a 23:42 law of entropy, the law of entropy, Atonte, states that 23:46 it is a law disorder. 23:50 It is the process by which things break down and cease 23:56 to operate correctly. 23:58 If you look at bedroom, the bedroom is nice and neat when 24:01 you go in, that a couple of days later you go in and the 24:04 bedroom is in chaos, or disorder, that would be an 24:07 example of a law of entropy. 24:11 Under this law, in reality or the spiritual context, 24:17 it is the law of sin and death. 24:20 We are always moving towards entropy, 24:23 in a spiritual sense, 24:24 but when we become converted, this law of entropy is 24:28 reversed as it were. 24:31 In other words, we stop this downward process, into the 24:36 abyss of chaos, and we start an upward process of 24:40 order in our lives. 24:42 The Bible says, God is not a God of confusion, but 24:44 of order you see. 24:46 So under the second principle, the necessitation of 24:50 entropy we cease this process of going into more and 24:54 more chaos, of living how we want to live. 24:57 The law is reversed, and we begin to live lives ordered 25:03 after the order of heaven. 25:05 Amen, God is so good, this is His desire for our lives. 25:08 We seem like we are always talking to young people, 25:11 but we are speaking to all ages to make this decision. 25:14 We are especially concerned about the young people, 25:18 because we really want you to catch the excitement and 25:22 receive the Holy Spirit and move forward and 25:24 do the work of the Lord. 25:25 Are right now are going to look at the third law of 25:27 spiritual thermodynamics which states this, 25:29 "There is a continual emission of heat from a higher 25:33 to lower temperatures until the entire object is 25:37 evenly heated. A system operating in a cycle cannot 25:42 produce a positive heat flow from a colder body 25:46 to a hotter body. " 25:47 In other words, heat must come from something warmer. 25:51 A cold body cannot give off heat. 25:55 A hot body, heat travels from higher to lower, and what 25:59 we are seeing in this spiritual realm Atonte, is that God 26:03 calls us to be on fire so that we can give heat to 26:08 others that are cold around us. 26:10 This is the third law of spiritual thermodynamics. 26:15 He calls us, if we are in a cold church... 26:17 I was just thinking the same thing, everyone is always 26:19 complaining our church is cold and no one is on fire. 26:22 Well, you need to be on fire and spread the heat. 26:24 That's right, you get on fire, you spread the heat. 26:27 Let the words of God become like a fire in your bones. 26:31 As this word becomes a fire in your bones, you will 26:34 touch someone and they get on fire. 26:37 That is how you begin to even out, not even in your own 26:41 self, but in others around you, the church begins to even 26:45 out under this third law of spiritual thermodynamics. 26:50 It takes each and every person, God says I have given you 26:54 a place to warm in this church. 26:57 He wants us not to be cold, not to be lukewarm, but He 27:01 wants us to be hot, He wants us to be hot! and 27:04 these are just a few of the spiritual Eponyms, again if we 27:08 open the word of God and begin to study it to see the 27:12 applications, I tell you God has so much for us that 27:15 our minds can barely contain it. 27:17 Again if you are wondering, where do they get some of 27:19 these things on Battles of Faith? 27:22 A couple programs ago we talked about how to study the Bible. 27:25 We saw that if you just to surface reading you will just 27:28 have a surface experience as you are studying. 27:31 But if you go deeper you will get the deep things of the 27:34 word of God that He wants you to have. 27:36 We want to learn how to submit ourselves to the word of 27:39 God, to the laws not found in Satan's kingdom, 27:43 but to the laws that are found in God's kingdom. 27:47 We want to be subject to those scientific laws, this is 27:51 the science of war, the science of spiritual war. 27:54 God calls us to abide in His principles and so doing we 27:58 will learn how to fight. 28:00 Well we thank you for joining us and we are all out of 28:03 time, until next time, God bless. |
Revised 2014-12-17