The righteous are as bold as a lion.  It’s those that don’t know His grace and mercy that flee.  Amen?  So, here we are, called to enter into a rest as His children.  In Hebrews 4, verse 9, it says, “There remains…a rest to the people of God.  For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.  Let us labour, verse 11, let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief that the children of Israel had and died in the wilderness.”  The way to move into that realm of assurance that we are going to finish this race as victors, that we are more than conquerors, that assurance that no weapon formed against us will prosper, can only be realized in the rest of God.  You’ve got to cease from your own labors.  Amen?  Stop trying to do it.  Stop trying to figure it out.  Cease from all of that foolishness of men’s wisdom and rest in the promises of God.  If He’s for us, nobody can be against us.  Hallelujah!  Think about that.  Because of that, our full confidence is in these great promises of God.

Romans 10:17 is clear, “…faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”  Amen?  As we search the Scriptures, as we get quiet before God, He’ll cause that Word to rise up in you.  In our prayer that, as we speak the Word of God, like the prophet of old prophesied, it becomes like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces.  Our warfare in the heavenlies can only be won through prayer, through intercession, through praise to God.  Amen?  For the Lord inhabits, say it, the praises of His people.  In the midst of your trials, praise the Lord.  Amen?  Just praise God in the midst of turmoil and trials, and the enemy then begins to come into a state of confusion, so often even turning on themselves, because of that environment of declaring the victory that’s already been won.  Amen?  The victory that’s already been won, we declare it before it manifests.  Because the war was won in the heavenlies from before the foundation of the world.  I love what he goes on to say here: “Cease from your own labors.  Don’t trust in your own righteousness even as it pertains to prayer.  Don’t trust in anything that’s outward.”

Having traveled the world, we’ve seen many different cultures and some of the cultures are more demonstrative than others.  You go into some of the Latin countries, or you go into some of the African tribes, and you’ll see a lot of fervor and a lot of yelling and a lot of emotion in the praying.  That’s cultural, there’s nothing good or bad about it.  It’s just who they are.  We all have our preferences.  I sure would have no interest in the Episcopalian method of worship.  All of their different liturgies and different things.  I can only take so much of all of this extreme screaming and shouting.  But I can get through it as long as everything is being done decently and in order.  You see, if everybody’s screaming, nobody’s out of order; right?  In fact, we might be out of order by being quiet.  I don’t know, but it’s not our culture, it’s not who we are.  I’ve been in every type of meeting imaginable.  The Bible is very clear.  The Lord has spoken.  We’re not heard for our much speaking and we’re not heard for the volume of our speaking.  His ears are open to the cry of the righteous.  Amen?  His ears are open to that one that is regurgitating the promises of God, in the name of Jesus.