Introduction:

This past week has been exciting. Our church has seen such an influx of people, and watching the brothers and sisters minister and welcome them day and night has filled me and the pastor with excitement and emotion! We had initially gone to attend the Kingdom Culture conference, but we couldn't contain our excitement, so we rushed back home to fellowship with the brothers and sisters. I believe that this Kingdom culture is right here among us. Matthew 18:5 says, And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me. Many interpret this passage in various ways, but I believe that one characteristic of children is that they are a vulnerable group compared to adults, and can also be described as spiritually weak. I believe that these brothers and sisters who have flooded into our church need our welcome and help in various aspects of their lives and faith. I have also seen the enthusiasm of our church's brothers and sisters. The Lord said that whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. Today, we are on earth as it is in heaven, so today in God's temple, we should call ourselves great. Let's give a big round of applause to the church's social media ministry team, the welcoming team, and the leaders responsible for pastoring these newcomers! God will surely remember our dedication today! Amen! Hallelujah!
During our trip to Taipei with the pastor for the Kingdom Culture conference, what impressed me most was that these internationally renowned pastors often preached about the spiritual essence of things. For example, when Pastor Robert Morris talked about the theme of giving, many people might think that the essence of giving is money, but it is not. The spiritual essence of giving is generosity, and giving is not just about money. Luke 6:37-38 says, Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. The Bible also says that whoever loses his life for God will find it. All of these speak of giving, that is, you can only gain what you give away, but you cannot give away in order to gain. Unconditional giving is the essence of giving.

There is a very strange phenomenon in this generation. Often we think we know exactly what we are doing. I used to study an Excel course online. The teacher teaching the course said, many excel instructor now classify training courses according to functions, that is, what excel functions should a novice learn, intermediate students, senior students, hardcore students, god-like students. . . . He believes that teachers like this will certainly not train good students. Because none of these teachers has grasped the essence of Excel. In fact, if you don’t grasp the essence of anything, you will face chaos and failure. So this teacher grasped the essence of Excel. Excel is a data processing software, and its essence is data. It should not be taught according to what functions a person should master, but should be classified and taught according to obtaining data, integrating and arranging data, analyzing data, exporting data, and displaying data. You will find that this teacher's teaching, no matter where he goes, does not deviate from the essence of Excel, and such teaching must be successful. Anyway, after listening to it, I felt that his ideas were very clear, and I was willing to pay for the learning.

This recent week has been an exciting one, with so many brothers and sisters flooding into the church remotely. The pastor and I had no interest in attending any Kingdom Culture events in Taipei. At night, the pastor and I didn't want to sleep, and we were studying the church's future strategy and direction all the time. What is this? It is that we have grasped the essence of the Kingdom culture. What Bill Johnson, Robert Morris, we don't care, let's bring the Kingdom to our own church first, haha, just kidding.

Among these brothers and sisters who flooded in, I happened to meet a junior high school classmate from China. In the process of talking with her, I discovered that she was a person who could grasp the essence of things very well. She majored in design, and I asked her, What do you think is the essence of learning design? She replied that the essence of design is innovation. No matter what level of learning design, you cannot leave innovation. I thought, great! She has grasped the essence of her major, and I think she must be learning quite well. But when I asked her about the essence of prayer, giving, and believing in the Lord, she couldn't answer. I thought she also prayed, gave, and believed in the Lord for many years, but when she answered me, she was obviously not confident, and stuttered. Usually, this is really when she is lost. If you cannot grasp the essence of anything, the risk of failure is very high. Today, I want to share with you about the theme of prayer warfare. Why do I connect prayer and warfare together? Because I believe that the essence of prayer is warfare. The reason why many prayers go unanswered is because we have made prayer more and more formal. When we start to grab those superficial things, we ignore the essence of prayer. Whenever we ignore the essence, the effect of prayer will be weakened. Today, we will still look at Jacob's story. Today, I will bring Jacob's story to an end. Through such a story, let's see how Jacob prayed and fought.

Scripture:

Genesis 32:27-28: “What is your name?” the man asked. “Jacob,” he answered. Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”

Jacob's Story (The Final Chapter)

Since I started preaching, I have been talking about Jacob's story. I want to bring Jacob's story to an end today. Today's final chapter of Jacob's story is really wonderful! Because this is a miracle, Jacob, who was supposed to die, had his brother Esau coming to meet him with 400 men to kill him. Can you understand Jacob's mood? He had just escaped from his uncle's house with his wife and children, and he had been treated harshly there for 20 years. He had just come out thinking that he could live a wealthy and peaceful life, but he did not expect to encounter his brother who was going to kill him. Jacob's mood was terrible now, not only terrible, but also quite fearful. Can you imagine Jacob's troubles? In the past, he faced the problem of making money, but today he faces the problem of life and death. Therefore, Jacob thought, I must find a way to save my life. Jacob thought, what should I do? He divided all his wives, children, servants, and livestock into three groups, each bringing gifts to see Esau. He thought in his heart that every time Esau saw a group of people with gifts, his anger would be reduced a little; when he saw the second group, it would be reduced a little more; when he saw the third group, it would be reduced a little more, and then he would stay until the end to see Esau, so Esau would not be so angry and would not kill Jacob.

Jacob felt much more at ease when he thought about it. This is where today's passage took place, at the ford of Jabbok, where he arranged for all the teams he had arranged to cross the ford of Jabbok, and he stayed at the end. At this moment, someone came to wrestle with Jacob, and this person touched Jacob's thigh socket, and Jacob's leg was twisted. Then Jacob, with a limp, hugged the person's thigh and insisted on getting a blessing from this person. Then this person told Jacob to change his name to Israel, and said that Jacob had wrestled with people and with God and had overcome!

Fighting Fear

Many people are full of confusion about such a biblical record. Jacob wrestled with a man, and his life was saved? Let's look at Jacob's mood at the time. You need to know that Jacob had just escaped from his uncle Laban, impoverished for 20 years, and finally had a certain amount of assets. Jacob was thinking in his heart that he could finally return to his father's place, and not in disgrace, but with his family and good assets. But before these happy days had passed for long, he was now facing the situation of his brother Esau wanting to kill him. Can you understand the mood of a poor boy who has just made some money and is about to face death before enjoying his gains? At this time, Jacob's inner world was a bit collapsed, and he really didn't know how to face his brother and his 400 subordinates with knives. Jacob was extremely afraid, and before wrestling with the person who came to him, he did not dare to cross the Jabbok River.

In this fear, Jacob completely lost his ability to think and fight. Many people will guess whether the person who wrestled with Jacob was a man, an angel, or God Himself, or even Jacob himself, but I don't think these are important. What is important is that through such a wrestling match, Jacob removed the fear in his heart. In this wrestling match, Jacob did not choose to retreat. Instead, when that person touched Jacob's hip bone, causing him to limp, he still chose to grab the person's thigh firmly. Think about it, this is actually quite challenging. Jacob was not afraid that the person would touch his arm, wrist, or even his neck. If he touched his neck and broke it, then it would be all over. In fact, at this time, Jacob overcame his fear of death. Originally, he was going to stay in the last row of the team, but later he rushed to the front row of the team.

Fear is a powerful poison that hinders people from praying and also makes our prayers lose their power. In this era in which we live, there are many dark forces that release fear to us. We are afraid even of things that are not life-threatening. During the Kingdom Culture Conference in Taipei, the pastor and I discovered that all of these spiritual leaders, whether Robert Morris or Bill Johnson, are people who have overcome fear. At that time, the host asked them what the biggest challenge they faced in building the church was. Pastor Robert Morris said that the biggest challenge he faced was that his best friend, who occupied a very high position in his church, wanted to control him. The biggest challenges are always the problems he feels are the most difficult to deal with. He is afraid of handling such problems, but he knows that if he doesn't handle such problems, the church will not be able to continue. When he overcomes the fear of dealing with interpersonal relationship problems, he overcomes, and the church continues to move forward.

Do Not Rely on Human Actions for Warfare

Secondly, I want to say that in the process of prayer warfare, human actions must be removed. Earlier, we talked about fear. Do you know that human actions will make us more and more fearful? Before Jacob wrestled with this person, Jacob made precise plans for his encounter with Esau. He divided all his wives, children, and servants into three groups, each carrying the gifts he had allocated. Jacob calculated that Esau's anger would diminish upon seeing the gifts, lessening each time a group was presented, so that by the time he reached Esau, his brother would not be so angry. However, even after doing so much, he still dared not cross the Jabbok ford. I suspect that although Jacob had made so many arrangements, he was still full of doubts about his plans. What if his brother did not accept the gifts? Or even if the arrangements did appease his brother's anger, what if his brother killed the first few groups? Jacob, despite his plans, was still filled with anxiety about the future.

Fear and human actions are often intertwined. Have you noticed that when you are worried and fearful about something, you often do not think of praying but instead rely on human ability to deal with it? After the person wrestled with Jacob, he gave Jacob an evaluation, saying that Jacob had prevailed in his struggles with God and with man. In fact, the person Jacob truly overcame was not someone else but himself. In such a spiritual environment, Jacob overcame fear and also abandoned the methods he had imagined in his own mind.

Actions of Victorious Warfare

Many people cannot understand why the person touched Jacob's hip and made him lame. Here is my own interpretation. I believe this was a milestone touch. This was the first time that the people of Jehovah knelt in prayer, and I think this is why we still kneel in prayer today. Otherwise, why kneel and not prostrate, lie down, or stand on our heads? Our God is a very interesting God; He has invented many actions. In Exodus 17:11-18, when Moses raised his hands, the Israelites prevailed, but when Moses lowered his hands, the Israelites were defeated. It turns out that when God created man, He also created man to be active. Since God created man to be active, then different actions have different meanings in the spiritual world. In Jacob's story, although his leg was lame, I think Jacob would often like to kneel in prayer because kneeling in prayer was very convenient for Jacob. You can imagine it (at this point, you can do some movements that make it easier to kneel when lame).

Just kidding, but kneeling in prayer is God's way of hoping that Jacob can humble himself. Do not act according to your own will, but humble yourself before God and rely on our God to prevail. When the pastor and I went to Taipei to attend the Kingdom Culture Conference, we met a pastor and his wife from the Hamburg Ling Liang Church in Germany. The pastor had uneven shoulders and stiffness in his back. The pastor and I asked him to raise his hands like this to pray (you can demonstrate the action of raising hands), and his shoulders loosened up in no time. The pastor often says that he sees lizards crawling on people's backs when their shoulders and spines are stiff, and when they do this action, the lizards fall off. I think this action itself has a spiritual meaning. When we raise our hands in prayer, it is an action of victory, and in spiritual warfare, we are declaring victory with our actions! This is also why Moses prevailed when he raised his staff and failed when he lowered it. It turns out that the actions we make when we pray have meaning in the process of spiritual warfare.

I encourage brothers and sisters who have physical ailments to start learning to pray warfare while moving the parts of your body that are uncomfortable. Because that kind of activity has a special spiritual meaning, God set such a spiritual meaning in our people when He created us.

Warfare at Any Cost

I wonder if you have noticed that in this wrestling match between Jacob and that person, they wrestled all night long. The Bible describes it as lasting until dawn. This is a situation we often encounter in prayer warfare. Warfare at any cost is a very challenging choice. At that time, Jacob's mood was extremely depressed. Can you imagine how much mental and physical pressure Jacob needed to wrestle with that person for an entire night?

On the same day that the pastor and I went to Taipei, the evil spirit in Sister WS manifested itself, and some brothers and sisters in our church prayed for her all night, and then the evil spirit was completely driven out. At that time, the pastor and I were at the airport and saw that it was already 2:00 AM. I really want to give our church's brothers and sisters a thumbs up. What made that evil spirit leave? I think it was the brothers and sisters' determination and faith to drive out the evil spirit at any cost.

Declare Victory in Warfare

In Genesis 32:30, after Jacob wrestled with that person, Jacob named the place Peniel, meaning, I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been preserved. Everyone must know that Jacob had not yet seen Esau at this time, but Jacob believed that his life would be preserved. This is a declaration of victory in warfare.

I encourage brothers and sisters to make more declarations of victory in the process of healing and deliverance prayer. If you have a cold and your nose is stuffy, pray and declare that my nose will become more and more clear, and the symptoms of the cold will disappear more and more. If you have a headache, declare that my headache symptoms are getting less and less. Such declarations may often be inconsistent with our condition, because many times you will think that my symptoms are still the same, and there is no reduction at all! That is why there is warfare, a warfare of faith and actual conditions, physical cognition, but it is clear that God's will is for us to declare victory in warfare by faith!

Conclusion: Engage in Warfare Through Prayer

During this Kingdom Culture Conference, one sentence deeply touched me. It was what Pastor Bill Johnson said: The responsibility of Christians, or the purpose of Christians living, is not to die and go to heaven. The responsibility of Christians is to bring heaven to earth, not only to live out a life on earth as it is in heaven, but also to be able to bring heaven down to earth. Those who can bring heaven down will also influence those around them, so that those around them can follow them and feel like they are living in heaven with them. There will be no disputes in heaven, no oppression in heaven, no sickness in heaven, no poverty in heaven, no judgment in heaven, and no harm or unforgiveness. If we can become that group of people who bring heaven down, a group of elite soldiers building a glorious church, we will surely enjoy the endless beauty of God's presence. I think bringing the culture of heaven into the devil's kingdom and letting heaven come down cannot be done without warfare. In such warfare, we need God's guidance. We need to keep our knees on the ground and raise our arms to bring the kingdom of heaven to earth. Never forget that God is the commander of our warfare, and never forget that the essence of prayer is continuous warfare, acknowledging that our head is our Lord Jesus Christ, bringing down the kingdom of heaven among us.