【Sermon】Winning Spiritual War: Going Up to the Mountain of the Lord (2022-07-17)
The Current Situation of Churches: Defeated by The Devil
Good morning to those people who live in North America and good evening to people who live in Asia and Europe. Today, we will continue to talk about “know-how”. I am sure that everyone wants to live well and have the blessing in life. The word "blessing" has been used commonly, but the moment we look at the world, we see the whole world is lack blessing. There is a song called "What A Beautiful Name", which sings about the name of Jesus: “Oh, what a powerful name of Jesus! How glory the name of Jesus is!"
Many years ago, I had a dream to build a church. A couple of years later, I saw a different picture. At that time, I saw that the name of Jesus carried no power. Do you agree with me? If you visit a church from one place to the other, do you see the power of the name of Jesus? I was shocked. Over the years, we have gone through many transitions. In the beginning, we tried to attract people to the church because we wanted people to hear the name of Jesus. So, we provided all kinds of foods including beef, chicken, and ham to attract people to the church. Do you know what happened? After they ate the food and wiped their mouths, they still did not know the name of Jesus: "Jesus? Oh, what a beautiful name. Is that so? Can that help me to make a living?" It was a very horrible time as there were a lot of questions which could not be answered.
After that, we have gone through a transition and the church became a prayer church. We started to organize prayer meetings on public holidays. Some Pastors were telling me: "If your church has 20% of people attending the prayer meeting, then your church will have a big revival." I was looking for a "revival", hoping to see all the chairs in the church filled up by people. At that time, we had 100% of people who came to the church to attend the prayer meeting. We tried to set apart all public holidays as fasting and prayer meetings for long hours, and yet there were a lot of problems in the church.
We cast out demons and healed the sick and there were many wonders and signs following us. People with depression and all of those who suffered from different types of pain were set free. Do you know what happened? The church members were divided into groups, and I named the leaders for each group. These were the "visible" groups. But there were also "underground groups" which carried more power. Many of them were ministered to by me and I served them wholeheartedly. But when they gathered together, they started to comment on the church that the church is supposed to be like this or that. They tried to find fault because they were not happy about many things within the church, so they gathered together and started talking about me. If they were eating steamboats, then I would be the dishes to be put into the steamboats. Fortunately, they were just talking about my name. I cried out to the Lord, not because the church was unable to cast out demons, but because the church had a lot of issues including disputes and disagreements. We had 100% of people attending prayer meetings, but the church still had all other problems just like many other churches.
One day, I was so depressed and I cried out to the Lord because there were many relationship problems and disagreements in the church. Although I helped them, they fought against me, I did not know the reason why and I had difficulty understanding as a human being. So, I kneeled down and cried to the Lord for hours. I said to the Lord: "Oh Lord, a church should not be like this." Do you know what happened? God said to me: "You read this book The Final Quest". I said: "Lord, I have read this book many times." I have read a lot of books like The Divine Challenge, etc. Some Pastors from South Korea built churches that had hundreds of thousands of people. So, I was wondering: "Oh my God, what happened?" At that time, God told me to read The Final Quest written by Rick Joyner. I have read this book many times. But never mind. I decided to read it again.
The Mountain of The Lord
When I read it again, the words in this book struck me. The beginning of the book was showing a scene that the hordes of hell were marching and the multitude was beyond my imagination. The first part of the book mentioned that army of the Lord was in a one-sided slaughter. When I was reading this part, I realized it was talking about me and the answer was so obvious: The High Way. Rick Joyner saw the army of the Lord was defeated by the devils. It was discouraging and many people lost hope. The situation in the church was mentioned exactly in The Final Quest: Self-righteousness, Respectability, Selfish Ambition, Unrighteous Judgment, and Jealousy. Accusation, Gossip, Slander and Faultfinding. Rejection, Bitterness, Impatience, Unforgiveness and Lust. All those sorts of things. I said: "Oh my God! This is the answer. We need to go to the High Way."
When I opened the Book of Isaiah, Chapter 2, Verses 1 to 4.
This is what Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem: In the last day, the mountain of the Lord's temple will be established as the highest of the mountains; it will be exalted above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. Many peoples will come and say. Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths." The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. (Isaiah 2: 1-4)
In the vision of Rick Joyner, he saw the churches were defeated by the devils. There were a lot of problems and internal struggles happening in the church. The answer is: Do not fight against the devils on those planes. Instead, we need to go up to the mountain. I did not know how long it would take me to climb up the mountain because the Lord had never revealed it to me. But now, I understood the mountain consists of layers of biblical truths. We need to go up from one level of truth to another level. The description of climbing up the mountain is not easy. Even at the lower level, the devils can still shoot arrows at the believers. When they climb up to higher levels, they can see the answer: the higher we stand, the harder it is for the arrows to reach us. If we stand high enough, the arrows from the devil cannot reach us anymore. One of the higher layers in the mountain is Galatians 2:20.
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)
Then the mountain seems to be easy to climb up from there onward until we enter the garden to see the Tree of Life and the temple of the God of Jacob.
Keep Climbing Up the Mountain to Be An Overcomer
When I read this, the words enlightened me. I would not bother with all the problems within the church anymore. One of the best parts of this book is: If you shoot the arrow of truth to the enemy, the brothers and sisters in Christ cannot take it and the devil would become more powerful. Whenever I tried to explain the biblical truths to people, it was not going to be effective, and yet devils started to be more powerful. I used to think that the truths set people free, but now I realized that it was not the case. The truth is to set ourselves free. So, I did not want to bother with this kind of problem because the key is to climb up the mountain. People might say: "How do you climb up the mountain?" By understanding the biblical truths. Do you know what was the real effect of what I did in those days? I was trying to address problems of the knowledge of good and evil using the approach of the knowledge of good and evil. I had been using the same approach to address the same problem and that yielded no result at all. That was why all my disappointments came about. Today I am going to share and tell you good news. For whoever is listening to my preaching, the only solution to their problem is to go to a higher level.
If you climb up the mountain, you will be looking from a higher level. Do not look at things from a lower level and you cannot address the issue. You have no power. If you ask me: "Is the name of Jesus beautiful?" Yes! "Does the name of Jesus carry power?" Oh yes! "Is the name of Jesus wonderful?" Yes! "Is serving The Lord the best job?" Oh Yes! I am full of confidence. Do you know what happened? I climb up the mountain. If you listened to my sermon and my Bible study, you would discover that I know a lot of the biblical truth. We are gaining access to the power of Almighty God. We are not going to stay at the lower level. That is why I am encouraging brothers and sisters not to stay at the lower levels. Do not stay at the lower levels as you cannot win over the demons on those levels.
I know you have a heart of an overcomer. I know you want to be blessed and be someone who lives out the image of Jesus Christ. That was a good intention. But a good intention without the know-how would not be effective at all. You could only exchange your great dream with your tears collected in a mineral water bottle. I can remember those days. If I had collected all the tears in the bottle and showed them to you. What I am trying to tell you today is that there is only one solution. Come on Brothers and sisters, there is only one solution: **Climbing up the mountain. **In the initial stage of climbing, the mountain is so slippery, sticky, and very difficult to climb. The road seems to be so challenging. But when you reach a level higher, it will be much more easies. The higher you go, the more powerful you are and you will become more accurate to shoot back at the devil. That is what you are going to do and that is what I have experienced.
One day, I decided not to be bothered and not going to convince someone who was going to leave the church to stay. I was not going to talk to them. If they want to leave, “You leave, you get out, get out quickly, quickly, quickly. If you want to go, then go.” If this is not the place for you, I am not going to waste my time persuading you. I am going to concentrate my time on climbing up the mountain of the Lord and entering the temple of the God of Jacob. That is the game of my life. The game of my life is climbing up the mountain, not negotiating if you want to come to the church or not. “You want to come, you don’t want to come, you want to leave or you don’t want to leave.” I am not going to do that. There is only one solution.
My brothers and sisters in your real life it is the same things. The only solution for your life problems is to bring yourself to a higher level. You might be asking “If that works, it surely works.” Trust me, do not climb the tower of the devil or the Babel tower as they are going to preach their own name. What we are preaching is not our own name, our own name is not important. I don’t want to make my name known but I want to make the Lord Jesus’s name known, the doctrine of Ming Ding, the doctrine of destiny, and this is the doctrine of the Lord. The doctrine of Apostle Paul which carry power and showed people the glory of the name of Jesus Christ.
Today I am going to share with you that if you want to find a good job, the only solution is to go to a higher level to improve yourself and keep on climbing up. You have to equip yourself with the kind of knowledge, skills, and experiences as well as accumulate some of your achievements. It will be even better if you could improve yourself and go to a higher level. You will see a totally different picture at a different level. Currently, you are talking in this way because you are at your own level. If you are on a different level, you will talk differently and see a different picture. For example, if you are the CEO of a big corporate and you will see a different picture than a clerical officer who is at a lower level. Are you with me?
Why? All because you are at a higher level. If you are on the ground, you will never understand what the higher level is looking for and your solution is to go higher up. For example, If I am a ground staff making $2,000 monthly and every year my increment is about 2 to 5 percent. After 20 years, my salary increased to $3,000 a month, the ranking is still the same and the maximum salary for this ranking is $3,000 monthly.
I do not want to be stagnant at this level, I want to become the manager, the director, or the senior management team. I want to be at a higher level. When you are at a higher level, you see things differently. Change your mind, renew your mind, renew your sight, renew your view, renew your knowledge, and keep on renewing yourself. That was what I know and I climbed up the corporate ladder. Every year, I was making ten times more than the lower-level people in the company and ten years of their income. Do you know I can retire earlier than you?
You have to renew your mind. Do you pay the price? Yes, of course. If you remain at the lower level, you pay a higher price. When I developed and founded this Doctrine of Destiny or Doctrine of Ming Ding it is to renew our minds and improve ourselves to a different level. Climbing up the mountain, keep on going until the day we enter the temple of God and are qualified to eat the fruit of the tree of life. You will realize how wonderful it is.
I was clear about climbing the mountain when God started to speak to me. God spoke to me to read the book of Prophet Rick Joyner The Final Quest, I could not recall how long it took me to read it but it was an amazing book. The book mentioned a mountain and that mountain is a spiritual mountain as I did not know and never bothered. After many years, I just kept going.
At that time, I read a book written by one of the Pastors talking about how to build a church. I was wondering when would our church reach the level at that time? I did not bother about it and did you know what happened? Less than a year, I picked up the book The Divine Challenge and read it again. I came to the realization that I had passed through all the things mentioned in the book. My heart was renewed and that kind of feeling was beyond my expression. I was feeling so bright and so comfortable. It was so nice and it was so good.
Oh my God, it worked. I thanked God for giving me the revelation so I know how as well as pointing my path to being an overcomer. Yes, I was so blessed. But the blessing was no longer that I was aiming for to meet the Lord. I can only tell you the good feeling. I know some of you may be having sleeping problems or have many worries about this and that. The problem with worries is that you are seeing things at a low level. Too low, do not sit at a low level. Whether you are on the corporate ladder or on the corporate ladder of the spiritual world serving the Lord, they are exactly the same, keep on climbing up and do not stay at too low a level. It really works.
A couple of months later, I was struck by the feeling. Thank you, God, I have reached the level called Galatian 2:20. It is no longer I live but Christ lives in me. Wonderful! From that day, I started and distributed the printout against the soft copies of the Final Quest to all the leaders. Many of them become my coworkers today, they follow the path and climb up the mountain of the Lord. Do you know what happened? We are really in one, we are united as one. We love one another and it is so nice building a glorious church together.
Are you attracted by that? If you are attracted by that, I encourage you not to stay at a lower level and you cannot fight against the devil on one side. You are not going to win the devil if you stay at the lower level. You are not going to win the devil. You are not going to overcome and not going to be an overcomer. You will be overcome, the overcomer but never mind what I said become my invention. So wonderful!
Climbing Up Is Our Only Choice
I understand along the way, that it is not easy and we have to defeat our feeling. We have to keep on defeating our feeling of fear, feeling of loneliness, feeling of helplessness, feeling of hopelessness, and feelings of all kinds. I am going to keep on climbing the mountain and this is why today I am preaching this kind of message. I really hope many Pastors who have faced these issues will turn back, climb up the mountain and fight against the devil at a higher level.
You know, nowadays there is a different kind of strategy in the business world: Don't fight against the competitors who are at the equal level with you. Instead, fight against the competitors at a lower level. If you stand at the higher level and fight against the competitors at the lower level, your competitors will have no chance to win at all. That's how it works. Are you with me? In the last lesson, we are talking about being an overcomer. But today I'm telling you how to become an overcomer: You need to climb up the mountain of the Lord!
So somehow we got to break ourselves so that we can go up to higher levels. Don't allow our old mindset to become our own bondage. Do not become our own limitation. Do not stop us from overcoming ourselves. We got to go higher and higher!
In the end, I suddenly realized that actually there is no limit to this process. There is no such thing as the so-called "the highest level". You got to keep on going. Keep on going! Yes, it is tough to go up, but staying at the lower level is even tougher! Which one do you choose? Going up, going to the higher level, or staying where you are?
If you are young, probably a kid in secondary school or primary school, the only solution for you is going up. Yes, it's tiresome. Are you tired? Yes, we are. We are tired. But now let me tell you: if you stay at a higher level, you will have a better feeling and better comprehension of the issues. You will become a winner of the battle!
If you become a loser of the battle. Well, what kind of sorrow it is going to be! When China was so weak, she was defeated by those stronger countries. Europe, America, Russia, and Japan... All those powerful countries invaded China. China was defeated by all these countries. Once defeated, China got to pay the War Reparations to those invaders! You got to pay! All because you are a loser, you need to pay to the winner! Do you want that? The War Reparations is a kind of unfair treaty. They just because defeated.
Now you got no choice but to be a winner. You got no choice but to be an overcomer. You got no choice but to conquer the enemy. You got no choice but to put the devil under your feet! But what is the solution? I got to tell you the know-how which God revealed to me: Climbing up the mountain of the truth and go through layers of the truth. Do not be satisfied at the lower level of salvation, prayer, faith... basically all those lower levels described in the book "Final Quest" by Rick Joyner. It's so clearly stated. I encourage all of you to read the book, especially part one. Then you will understand how it works. It really works in our life!
And sometimes I met people with that kind of thinking and mind that they are easily contented with what they are. But over the years passed, how much did we improve? At the age of 20 or when you are the youngest staff in the company, everybody will forgive you if you made a mistake. But what happened when you go to the age of 30? Nobody is that forgiving anymore. When you come to the age of 35 and you are managed by someone else at the age of 30, you feel a little bit old, right? Now when you come to the age of 40, you're managed by someone at the age of 28. Both your boss and you won't feel comfortable at all! In the end, everyone else doesn't feel comfortable as well. Why? Because you're not climbing up. You're not trying your best.
Climbing up the Mountain of The Lord Gives You Access to God's Almighty Power
I'm just giving you an illustration. If you climb up in the spiritual world and climb the mountain of the Lord, you will definitely become someone. When you shoot the arrow, it can shoot the enemy's general who is far behind the enemy. You are holding a strategic weapon. You are holding the power of the name of Jesus Christ. You are going to see the glory of the Lord! That is what I'm going to share with you. As you're getting more and more accurate, your weapon will no longer be the same weapon at the lower level. Your weapon is going to change into a nuclear bomb. If you launch it, you will destroy the huge army or the devil! Do you want to stay at the lower level anymore?
Sometimes I talked to some Christian brothers and sisters in other churches. They would ask me questions and I had to answer in that way. Do you know what happened? What is the problem? We are at different levels. You got to know that I'm at a higher level. We have a lot of disagreement because what you see is different from what I see, and what you think is different from what I think. In the end, what you get is what you see; what I get is what I see. What is the difference? It's a huge difference!
So my brothers and sisters, what I preach in this lesson is about climbing up the mountain of the Lord. After you climb up, you will be totally different. Do not stay at lower levels. If you are standing at higher levels, sometimes you don't even need to use your nuclear bomb, you can actually melt the other party by just sharing the message across! Do you know what I'm saying? This is the war. It's going to be very silly to stay at lower levels to fight against someone at higher levels. Say, for example, a country does not have any nuclear bombs. Then it has no such power to fight against another country that has nuclear bombs. How are you going to fight with someone at a higher level? It's going to be a one-sided war. That's why the country holding nuclear power would try to avoid a fight with another country that also holds nuclear power as well. Why? Because once they start fighting, it's going to be the end of the game. I can destroy you and you can destroy me. That's it. Finish! That's why nuclear bombs can keep the world from fighting against each other.
My brothers and sisters, you got to understand. I'm talking about world politics. That's why you don't see two countries both holding nuclear bombs trying to fight against each other. There is a joke: One day, a president of one country talks to the president of another country: "Do you know that I have a nuclear bomb which can destroy the earth 10 times?" The other president replied: "Oh, I don't have a nuclear bomb that can destroy the earth 10 times. I only have a nuclear bomb that can destroy the earth one time." When coming to destroying the earth, whether 10 times or only one time, it's the same thing! One time is enough. The earth is totally going to finish. Oh my God!
If you enter the temple of God of Jacob, if you eat the fruit of the Tree of Life, if you are holding the key of heaven, you can go into the storeroom of the arsenal and you can gain access to all kinds of advanced power given by God. Then you would declare: "Oh! How great is the name of Jesus! How wonderful is the name of Jesus! How powerful is the name of Jesus!" Do not stay at lower levels. You will never see that. Even if every day you sing the song in the church: "What a beautiful name! What a beautiful name!" But in real life, it is not beautiful at all! Why? Because you are at the lower level! Are you with me?
I really thank God: During my desperate days (In those days I was so desperate that I nearly lost hope. My hope was only like a candle in the wind and was going to be put off), God gave me a path and that is the solution. So today I share this path with all of you. I really hope all of you start to think about that.
Galatians 2:20: Jesus Christ Lives in Me
Change! Make a change! Do not stay at lower levels. Your view is too low. Your thinking is too low. Your mind needs to be renewed. Your eyesight needs to be renewed. Your knowledge needs to be renewed. Then I encourage you and I assure you that there would be a place that is so wonderful! When the day I entered the layer of "Galatians 2:20", I became totally different. Until today you still can see a different me. In the past, I had a lot of struggles in my heart, but today I got to tell you: I have very few struggles, only trust in the Lord! Only faith, hope, and love!
Are you getting the message? Do you understand what I'm saying? If you're getting the message, I encourage you to move forward with faith, hope, and love. Finally one day you will say: "Yes! Thank you, Pastor! Thank you, Lord! Oh, the name of Jesus is so good, so beautiful and so powerful!"
Move forward! And somewhere along the path, I tell you, the Holy Spirit will become your power. The Holy Spirit is going to hold you. You got to move. Don't stop! In the story by Rick Joyner, sometimes people want to stop and stay at the level they reached. That is not a clever decision at all. So wisdom encouraged them to keep on going forward until we meet the Lord we serve.
It's beyond my expression. I can only encourage you not to stay at lower levels. The worst is to fight against the devil on the plane and at the lower levels. On the plane and at the lower levels, fighting against the devil is going to be a one-sided defeat.
Please read Galatians 2:20:
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)
May the Lord bless you! We see you next week. Thank you very much for listening to me.
Tags Biblical truths name of Jesus the High Way mountain of the Lord overcomer defeat our feelings key to becoming an overcomer leveling up know God more and more Galatians 2:20 Jesus Christ live in me faith hope and love spiritual warfare fighting against the devil climbing up the mountain of the Lord