Sunday 7.19.20

Psalms 42

As the deer [b]pants for the water brooks,

So pants my soul for You, O God.

2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

When shall I come and [c]appear before God?

3 My tears have been my food day and night,

While they continually say to me,

“Where is your God?”

4 When I remember these things,

I pour out my soul within me.

For I used to go with the multitude;

I went with them to the house of God,

With the voice of joy and praise,

With a multitude that kept a pilgrim feast.

5 Why are you [d]cast down, O my soul?

And why are you disquieted within me?

Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him

[e]For the help of His countenance.

6 [f]O my God, my soul is cast down within me;

Therefore, I will remember You from the land of the Jordan,

And from the heights of Hermon,

From [g]the Hill Mizar.

7 Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls;

All Your waves and billows have gone over me.

8 The Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime,

And in the night His song shall be with me—

A prayer to the God of my life.

9 I will say to God my Rock,

“Why have You forgotten me?

Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”

10 As with a [h]breaking of my bones,

My enemies [i]reproach me,

While they say to me all day long,

“Where is your God?”

11 Why are you cast down, O my soul?

And why are you disquieted within me?

Hope in God;

For I shall yet praise Him,

The [j]help of my countenance and my God.

Psalms 43

Vindicate me, O God,

And plead my cause against an ungodly nation;

Oh, deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man!

2 For You are the God of my strength;

Why do You cast me off?

Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

3 Oh, send out Your light and Your truth!

Let them lead me;

Let them bring me to Your holy hill

And to Your [a]tabernacle.

4 Then I will go to the altar of God,

To God my exceeding joy;

And on the harp I will praise You,

O God, my God.

5 Why are you cast down, O my soul?

And why are you disquieted within me?

Hope in God;

For I shall yet praise Him,

The [b]help of my countenance and my God.

A deer will usually only enter into a “pant” when a deer is being chased.

A deer will use up to 80% of the body water reserves. If the chase last long enough, the deer could potentially die.

The deer will look for water as soon as the chase is over.

The deer looks for water to replenish the needs of the body and a deer looks for water as a way of escape – to hide its scent so that whatever is chasing the deer will no longer be able to track it.

We are superior to the demonic realm. The demonic realm can only gain the upper hand through deception and through driving us to make wrong, harmful decisions.

The enemy not only attacks us because of the hatred that the demonic realm has for us, but the enemy also attacks because of the potential threat that we are.

We are empowered to do spiritual warfare. Spiritual warfare is not done with flesh and blood – with people – spiritual warfare is done against demonic opposition and demonic strongholds.

Things that the demonic realm uses in an attempt to make us ineffective:

deceive us of who we are in Christ Jesus
deceive us of the power and authority that Jesus died to equip us with
convince us that God is causing or allowing the attack on our life
disguises themselves so that we are unaware and do not detect the attacks on are of the enemy
causes us to focus on other people being the problem so that we fight flesh and blood instead of the demonic realm
works very hard to get us into condemnation
continually accuses us until we actually believe and accept the accusations
drives us to take on a spirit of offense, where we get our eyes off of the enemy and onto circumstances or people
the enemy will attempt to fabricate information and circumstances that will support the lies of the demonic realm
the enemy attempts to wear you down by the relentless onslaught of accusations and information that are targeted at your emotions. God will bless your life God bless your life and any ministry that you are called to be blessed be blessed in the name of Jesus
attempts to get us fixated on circumstances so that we become overwhelmed and eventually cause us to focus on ourselves instead of our relationship with God
deceive us of who we are in Christ Jesus as sons and daughters of Father, deceive us of what we have access to in order to undo the works of the enemy
drive us into complaining and even accusing God
drive us into self-pity

Things to do to stay spiritually strong against the attacks of the enemy:

don’t allow the enemy to dictate the terms of the battle. Don’t allow the enemy to deceive you to focus on him, focus on who you are in Christ Jesus and what you have access to.
Follow the example of David by not being intimidated by the giant that you are facing, knowing that you are empowered by the Spirit of God to overcome anything that is attacking you.
Don’t listen to the lies of the enemy. Don’t fight thoughts with thoughts, fight thoughts with the word of God.
Continually strengthen the realm of your soul by training your soul based on the strength and spiritual wisdom of your spirit, your spirit which is empowered by Holy Spirit.
Speak to your soul. Don’t think according to how you feel, determine how you want to feel and then speak the word of God to change how you are feeling to how you want to feel.
Don’t allow the enemy to get you to fixate on the issues and drive you to a place where you exalt circumstances by the words that you speak.
Demand your freedom in the name of Jesus.
Speak the desired end result that you are seeking, not your current circumstances.
Don’t stay silent, continually speak the truth of God’s word over your life.
Don’t listen to your soul, make spiritual declarations over your life and demand that your soul embraces your declarations.
Do not allow situations and circumstances to be exalted in your mind and do not allow them to stir your emotions.

In these Psalms, the writer continually reminds himself on the way things should be, not on the way things currently are.

Just like a deer being desperate for water, become desperate for the presence of God.

God isn’t hiding from you, but situations and circumstances have attacked your soul until your emotions feel like you are alone and defeated.

You have to quiet your soul by speaking the word of God over your soul.

Psalms 131 Lord, my heart is not [a]haughty,

Nor my eyes [b]lofty.

Neither do I [c]concern myself with great matters,

Nor with things too [d]profound for me.

2 Surely, I have calmed and quieted my soul,

Like a weaned child with his mother;

Like a weaned child is my soul within me.

3 O Israel, hope in the Lord

From this time forth and forever.

The realm of your soul will often throw a fit. Your spirit must rule over your soul.

The enemy wants your soul to be in charge – that’s how the enemy gets access.

When you are under attack, your spirit must be firmly in charge and guide and direct your soul.

Your soul must be trained to look past situations and circumstances, to be able to grasp the revelation of the blessings of the word of God.

Your mind must be renewed by the word of God and transformation takes place when the realm of your soul exalts the word of God and the confidence in your relationship with God and the infilling of Holy Spirit to overcome anything that the enemy is throwing at you.

Go to God like a deer searches out water.

Psalms 42:5 – “hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance.”

Psalms 42:11 – “for I shall yet praise Him, the help of my continence and my God”

Psalms 43:5 – “for I shall yet praise Him, the help of my continence and my God.”

When you seek the Lord and stay in His presence, it empowers you.

Your soul will attempt to throw a fit because your emotions are responding to your circumstances and situations.

The realm of your soul – your emotions – must be quieted by the revelation of who you are in Christ Jesus, by what you have access to, by Who you have access to.

You are not left alone. But it is your job to press in. The enemy will do everything possible to separate you from your relationship with God and the dependency you have on the infilling of Holy Spirit.

“If I cast out a demon by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.”

The enemy does whatever he can to try to make us weak. The first line of attack is not against our spirit, it’s against the realm of our soul. The enemy wars against our soul in an attempt to exalt what we are in, as opposed to what we have access to.

Worship in time of hardship and stress edifies the soul because you are drawing from spiritual strength and going against the natural impulses of the realm of the soul.

Don’t allow the realm of the soul to call the shots. If you are feeling distant from God, you allow the realm of your soul to pull you away from the revelation of His goodness.

We live from a divine perspective. As I live in this world, I allow my inner world to define and determine my outer world.

It’s time to stop exalting situations and circumstances of this world that we are exposed to. Conditions of this world are merely facts, the provisions of the kingdom of God which we have access to needs to always be our truth.

I cannot allow my thoughts to be controlled by what I see and the way I feel.

Did you ever see a child or small person attempt to walk a couple of large dogs? That person doesn’t control the dogs, the dogs control them. In the same manner, so many people are being controlled and held hostage to their thoughts.

We have to take control over the way we think, because the way we think is going to determine the way we behave.

Jesus overcame this world for us. Jesus died that we could be filled with Holy Spirit, which is the kingdom of God.

We need to align our thoughts with the revelation that the kingdom of God is within us. We have to seek first the kingdom of God. In other words, we must always formulate our thoughts based on a kingdom perspective, based on what we have access to.

Information from the world must be subject to the revelation of who I am in Christ Jesus and what I have access to in the process of the formation and the acceptance of a thought.

No thought has the right to violate my design, of who I am in Christ Jesus.

The enemy is constantly challenging who I am and what I have access to.

Unfortunately, what changes the minds of most people is their circumstances, not the word of God and not the influence of Holy Spirit.

The blog version of this teaching