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Watch 2022-2023 online sermons » Creflo Dollar » Creflo Dollar - The Good Fight

Creflo Dollar - The Good Fight


TOPICS: Spiritual warfare, Victory

Let's go to the book of Ephesians chapter 2, verse 11 and 12. Again, we've been talking about the covenant of promise. And last week, we talked about getting your fight back, amen, and using the authority that God has put into your life, getting your fight back and understanding what real spiritual warfare is. You know, the Bible says fight the good fight of faith. Amen.

How do you know it's a good fight because you win? You fight the good fight of faith because you win. And so we understand in the book of Ephesians, I believe it's chapter 6 and verse 10, you know, we're strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. But when you fight a good spiritual warfare is all about standing in the victory that Jesus has obtained for you. So your job in spiritual warfare is to maintain the victory that Jesus obtained.

Now, Jesus 2,000 years ago has already obtained every victory you'll ever need in this life. You see, healing has already been made available. Deliverance has already been made available. Prosperity has already been made available. Soundness has already been made available. The answer to the prayer that you find yourself praying all week has already been made available. And so what it is going to require is you fighting the good fight for that. What does it mean? It means for you to recognize the victories that have already been made available and maintain those victories in your stance. Your stance and faith maintains those victories.

So here's what it looks like. The doctor says you're sick but you know about the victory of healing, and so you say, "You know what? Even though you said I'm sick, I declare that I'm healed and so I'm going to stay with the victory". See, I'm not going to, you know, be in defeat and trying to get victory, no. I'm going to stay with the victory. Turn to your neighbor and say, "Stick with the victory". And so we move from victory to victory. We're not trying to get victory. We already have victory in Christ, and we move from the victory we have in Christ to the manifestation of that victory in our life. And how does that happen? It happens as a Christian, we are maintaining our stance in what God has promised. We're maintaining our stance in the victory.

So I am not the sick trying to get healed. I start off the healed maintaining the health that Jesus gave me, and I am maintaining my victory so that sickness can't take from me what I already have. The great deception in the Garden of Eden was all about deceiving Adam and Eve in the place of trying to deceive them into thinking that they have to try to get something that they already had. They were already like God. Remember the deception? "Eat of the tree so you can be like God". They were already like God. Look at what happens when you try to pursue what you already have, when you try to pursue who you already are, and Satan can play with your mind when you go down that journey. But you've got as Christian people recognize, I already am the righteousness of God. I'm not trying to be righteous or I'm not trying to earn righteousness, I have been made righteous. Say out loud, "I'm already righteous".

See, the enemy will come up on you and say, "Well, now you're not righteous because look at what you did two, three nights ago". You know what? You're still the righteousness of God. So he'll tell you, you need to do these five things or those three things in order to become righteous now. No, you say to him, "Now, wait a minute. I'm already righteous, all right? I'm growing in the fruit of my righteousness, but I am already the righteousness of God. I don't doubt that. You're not going to get me off my stance to try to pursue a course of trying to become who I already am".

And one other things you got to realize about your emotions, they're designed to move you in a direction, and negative emotions will be used to try to take you in a direction away from the will of God from your life and what happens is your circumstances, Satan will put circumstances and situations in your life, and through those circumstances and situations, he will try to now give birth to a type of emotion in your mind. So you cannot allow the circumstance to govern your emotions. Just because there's a bad circumstance doesn't mean it has to translate into a bad emotion. You have authority over your emotions. Say that to yourself, "I have authority over my emotions".

And see, what happens is just 'cause it's a bad circumstance doesn't mean you have to have bad emotions. If it's a bad circumstance, you now are governed by the Word of God, and the Word of God tells you to respond this particular way. So something bad happens, you decide, "Well, you know what? I'm going to maintain my peace and I'm going to maintain my joy". And the circumstances will say, "No, but you don't understand. This is bad. You need to get upset, you need to get in your emotions". You say, "No, I'm not doing that. I'm the righteousness of God. I will maintain my peace and maintain my joy regardless".

And so what happens, if you can do that, where your circumstances are concerned, then you won't allow them to get into your emotions and then your emotions, you respond out of your emotions, and then it takes you to places and doing things and making decisions out of your emotions... there are lots of people to do that. Lots of people, they get bad emotions and they think, "Well, it's okay. It's automatic. I mean, if this bad thing happens, I should automatically have bad emotion". That's not true. You have been given authority over your emotions. God gave us all emotions. We all have emotions. We all have emotion, but sometimes we allow those emotions to have us, and you cannot do that. This area of spiritual warfare is all about having done all to do to stand, stand. In other words, don't move, don't move off your victory. Don't move off of it.

"Yeah, but you don't know the doctor says I have an aggressive form". I don't care. Listen, whatever the doctor say was aggressive in you, then you say, "Well, I'm aggressive in my faith. I have violent faith. I'm aggressive in my faith. Bless God I don't care what I'm not moving off this". And sometimes, you may have to grab the doctor by his collar and say, "Now, look, I done told you I'm healed. Don't you understand? I'm healed". Boy, that's powerful. There's no angel around that can ignore a Christian who stands that boldly on what he believes God for. But the problem is we've allowed the devil to turn us into a bunch of sissies and every time something happens, you want to give all of your attention to that situation rather than giving that attention to who you are and the victory that you stand in.

So you are trying to get victory when victory has already been got. Oh, I like how that came out of my mouth. You're trying to get victory when Jesus is already gotten the victory and he got the victory. Your job is not to try to get what he's already got, your job is to stand in the victory that has been gotten for you by Jesus, and all hell can come against you and you say, "I shall not be moved. I shall..." Turn to two people and tell them, "I shall not be moved". I don't know where some of y'all standing right now, I don't know where some of y'all standing right now, but if you're not standing in your victory, I advise you to get off of what you standing on and get on the Word of God and stand on the victory that you have been Jesus Christ, and when hell and high water comes against your mind, comes against your emotions, comes against your pocket book, you say, "I shall not be moved. I'm standing in Christ Jesus. I'm standing in his victory. I'm standing in his blood. I'm standing in his promises. I shall not be moved".

Boy, I need to calm down, huh? But I know what I'm talking about here. I know what I'm talking about here. Sometimes when there are no options and it appears to be no answers and it appears be no open door to get out of your situation, you have to go back to what has already been done. You have to go back to what is already been done. And let me say this to you, parents, that includes your parents, you did what the Bible said to do, "Train up a child in the way they should go, and when they are old they will not depart from it". But it didn't say nothing about that in between. But you got to have confidence that God got them when you were training them, he got them in the in between, and he will have them when they'll be called because the Bible says, "Great is the peace of my children, for they are taught of the Lord". Your children are being taught of the Lord.

Now, you might be surprised that God uses some instruments that you might not use. God know how to use the let go. Even the animal kingdoms know about the let go, and it isn't easy. It is hardest thing I ever did for my whole life as well. "Oh, Jesus, I want to give them everything, every day, every hour, all the time, but I don't want to cripple them," and that's exactly what you'd be doing. Now, listen to God because God has mercy and grace, and sometimes God will have you do something. So don't get so tight on your law that the Holy Spirit can't talk to you 'cause Holy Spirit will tell you to do something sometime but you said you won't going to do, but the Holy Spirit said, "Now, I need you to do this because of you'll do this, I've been working over here on this side, so I need them to see a little mercy coming in and do it".

So you cannot become a parent by law and legalism. Your parenting has got to be by the direction of the Holy Spirit. You cannot allow your fear of disrespect to cause you not to want to do what the Holy Spirit wants done in the lives of your children and in the lives of other people. Sometimes you may have other people that you've decided, "I'm not going to do anything for those people anymore because, bless God, they did this, they offended me, they did all of that". Unforgiveness affects you. It doesn't affect anybody but you. You think you doing something by being mad at somebody, and it takes so much more energy to be mad at people than to forgive them and go on and do what needs to be done.

Now, if you're human and stuff hurts, but you have got to rise above your humanity and realize that you are a born again Christian, a born again human, which puts you above being just a human, which means the Holy Spirit will allow you to do what you couldn't do in your own ability. You know, psychologists only deal with the mental and the emotional part of people. They completely ignore the spirit man and the power that's been invested in the spirit, and you have to depend on the power of the Holy Spirit to operate in your life so you can do what needs to be done. I'm talking to somebody in here. I can't even try to hide my message, but it's going to be all right.

Remember, love is the most powerful weapon you can have as a Christian, and it can't be love for your brothers and sisters and not be love for your children as well. Love overcomes a multitude of sin, even the sin of your children. Don't be the type of parent that keeps pushing that your children seeing in front of their face. Don't do that. You got to let it be like water off a duck's back. You're the adult. I said you are the adult. "No, but they don't talk to me like that and going to expect for me to do something". You're the adult, but your adultness needs to be governed by the love of God and the Spirit of God. "Now I'm going to do to them like my mom and dad did to me". That aren't always right. Just because your mom and dad look at you. I mean, look at yourself. That ain't working. Amen.

So stand your ground. So every one of you, you came in here victorious. Now you think you came in here weak, defeated, busted, and disgusted, let's change that narrative. You came in here in victory. Listen, you came in here the winner. The battle has already been fought. The victory is coming up. The victory has already been won. You aren't doing nothing but maintaining the victory that Jesus died to obtain. Demons have been stripped off their authority, principalities, powers, wicked spirits in heaven place. They don't have what they used to have, hallelujah, when you used to be where you used to be. But now that you're in Christ Jesus, they have no power against you, they have no authority against you. What they used could do with you, they can't do no more because you're in Christ. You're not in yourself no more, you're in Jesus Christ.

So everybody in the house got some victory, everybody in the house got to give him praise because he died for you, he got up for you, he was buried for you. He won the victory. He is our champion. Praise God. Jesus is our champion. Ooh, I'm about to preach myself happy. We win. It's not we're going to win, we've already won. Oh glory, you just need to lift your hands and praise him for that. You've already won. You've already won. You're fighting the battle that's already been fought. You've already won. I don't care how bad it was. I don't care how bad it looked. I don't care how deep the ditch was. I don't care how crazy the thing was. I don't care how stupid of a decision it was. Jesus took care of all of that. He fought the battle, he won the victory. You came in here winners, you are triumphant. You need to begin to thank God, and every time you thank God, it remind you of your triumph in Jesus Christ.

Some demon-possessed person thinks that they have the victory over you. They lying and cheating and conniving and trying to... no, no, no, no, they are not going to win. They are not going to win. That's already been decided. For those of you who are in Christ Jesus, that has already been decided. He is just waiting for you to stand. Now I could say amen, send you all home, but I'll send you home in your victory. "Yeah, but Pastor I'm still smoking weed and snorting coke". And I'm telling you, Jesus has already fought the battle of your deliverance. "Well, so what do I do"? Stand in that. 'Cause you know it's like, you're smoking weed and you're doing coke, and whole time demons are ministering to you. "You stuck, look at you. You this, you that". And then you come to church - somebody might be a little high now. We welcome you. On Sundays, we're a hospital. We welcome anybody and any kind of whatever want to come in here. You're welcome. You're welcome. High, drunk. As long as you can keep them demons under control while we exercise them, you're welcome.

Now are you kidding? We didn't open up this morning so that flawless people could come to church. We opened up this morning so that people who are in the middle of a fight, people who are in middle of a ditch, in the middle of sin, in the middle of confusion, in the middle of depression, in the middle of hurt, don't know who you are, what you are, can't figure out why you keep doing what you need - this is why we opened the church this morning so that you can come in and the Holy Spirit can begin to deal with you. We didn't open his church so we can judge you and talk to you about how bad you are. We open it up to let you know what Jesus has done and give you an option and an alternative to what you're doing right now, and you don't have to be defeated by the devil, not for one split second.

I apologize. I'm going to preach in a minute, but I'm just a little happy because I realized I'm not trying to be a winner, I'm already winner. I'm not trying to get victory, I'm already victorious, and I'm just happy about that this morning that Jesus loves me so much. He loves me so much that he went ahead 2,000 years ago and gave me the victory before I was even born. So excuse me when I shout about it just a little bit. The walls of Jericho are down, hallelujah, and so are your walls. Praise God. Bless his holy name. Bless his holy name. Bless his holy name. Bless his holy name. Bless his holy name. Turn to two people and tell them, "All is well with me and my house. All is well with me and my house. All is well with me and my house. I'm in victory. I'm in victory. I'm in victory. I'm in victory. I'm in victory. I'm in victory. I might be high this morning, but I'm in victory. I might just got out of a bed that I wasn't supposed to be in last night, but I'm in victory. I might be depressed, a little anxious, I'm in victory. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I might be hooked on these pills, but I'm in victory right now".

And if you'll start right there, he will take you to the manifestation of your victory. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Amen. Somebody says, well, we're emotional this morning. This is the good kind of emotion. This is a Godly emotion, and these Godly emotions can take you to that direction. You have emotions. The worst thing a Christian can do is try to be emotionless. Yeah. We celebrate Labor Day, but the victory that I speak of doesn't require your labor. The only labor that this victory requires is you laboring to enter into the rest of the finished work of Jesus Christ. Mh-hmm, that's how you respond to the devil. "Mh-hmm, I know what you're trying to do. Uh-huh, I know what you're trying to do. I know you're trying to make me feel bad and guilty and shame. Mh-hmm.

And I know I'm not demonstrating perfect fruit right now. Mh-hmm. But there's more than one season. So this batch didn't come out so good, but there's another season coming, praise God". I believe in you. God believes in you. Now, you got to believe in yourself. You got two choices: you continue to make a bunch of excuses about where you are or you can lay hold on the Word and get in the way that the Word has already made for you. What are you going to do? After you come out of every trial, you should come out knowing more after the trouble than when you was in the trouble. Don't come out the same kind of stupid. You've been through this trial for all this time and came up with the same kind of stupid. If you're going to come out, come out better and not bitter.

Someone says, "Preacher, what are you doing? Why don't you go to the Scripture"? No, no, no, me and the Lord had a talk. He said, "There's some things I need to take care of, and don't you exalt the completion of your sermon above the Rhema word that I'm trying to give to my people". He said, "You love people". He said, "I run this thing. You work for me". This may be all you're getting. He might tell me to be quiet in a minute and go home and have some spaghetti, but a Rhema word will hit your spirit and cause breakthroughs to come. See, I can teach you the Word of God, but when you get a word from God - and the word from God this morning is you woke up a winner.

You need to stop trying to declare your victory status based on your behavior status. Your victory status was based on Jesus, amen, and that will take you where you need to be. Man, I tell you what? I'm so excited. I mean, I look like it, but you know, 'cause I ain't doing no cartwheels or nothing like that. You know, God just healed my back and my hips. I'm not trying to mess them up. I'm trying to look like these guys. Y'all look so good. I mean, I'm preaching and I'm looking at them like, "Hmm, it's the battle of sexy launching". Rock, God bless you, brother.
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