Eyes Opened For The Fight

Prayer Series By Jeff Lyle Bible Text: Preached on: 2 Kings 6:8-23 Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Transforming Truth & Meadow Baptist 1446 Calvin Davis Circle Lawrenceville, GA 30043 Website: Online Sermons: www.transformingtruth.org www.sermonaudio.com/jefflyle

I am going to read 2 Kings chapter number six beginning in verse eight, read several verses tonight. The Scriptures say: Once when the king of Syria was warring against Israel, he took counsel with his servants, saying, At such and such a place shall be my camp. But the man of God sent word to the king of Israel, Beware that you do not pass this place, for the Syrians are going down there. And the king of Israel sent to the place about which the man of God told him. Thus he used to warn him, so that he saved himself there more than once or twice. And the mind of the king of Syria was greatly troubled because of this thing, and he called his servants and said to them, Will you not show me who of us is for the king of Israel? And one of his servants said, None, my lord, O king; but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom. And he said, Go and see where he is, that I may send and seize him. It was told him, Behold, he is in Dothan. So he sent there horses and chariots and a great army, and they came by night and surrounded the city. When the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was all around the city. And the servant said, Alas, my master! What shall we do? He said, Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them. Then Elisha prayed and said, O LORD, please open his eyes that he may see. So the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around
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Elisha. And when the Syrians came down against him, Elisha prayed to the LORD and said, Please strike this people with blindness. So he struck them with blindness in accordance with the prayer of Elisha. And Elisha said to them, This is not the way, and this is not the city. Follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom you seek. And he led them to Samaria. As soon as they entered Samaria, Elisha said, O LORD, open the eyes of these men, that they may see. So the LORD opened their eyes and they saw, and behold, they were in the midst of Samaria. As soon as the king of Israel saw them, he said to Elisha, My father, shall I strike them down? Shall I strike them down? He answered, You shall not strike them down. Would you strike down those whom you have taken captive with your sword and with your bow? Set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink and go to their master. So he prepared for them a great feast, and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. And the Syrians did not come again on raids into the land of Israel.1 When we look at the passage that is before us, lets start out in verses eight through 14. Let me sum those verses up with this: A vicious enemy made war. Notice, first of all, in verse eight, the reality of the war. The Bible says: Once when the king of Syria was warring against Israel, he took counsel with his servants.2 Now there had been a history of the people of Aram and here called Syria coming in and conducting these raids in Israel. It may not have been a full blown military warfare, but it was pockets of these people coming up into Israels territory and they were coming and doing whatever they wanted to do, marauding bands of thieves pillaging, taking, sometimes killing. And it had been going on long enough to where it was very similar to the modern day skirmish between the Jews and the Arabs in the Middle East. Constantly something was brewing and if it wasnt brewing it was actually occurring. And so now this king, this enemy king against Gods people decided it was time again to start another series of raids. And so I want you to notice two things at the beginning of verse number eight. First of all he was warring against Israel. This was a committed enemy. And I am going to make a parallel her to your enemy as I go on, but he was also a strategic enemy. That same verse says: ...he took counsel with his servants...3
1 2

2 Kings 6:8-23. 2 Kings 6:8. 3 Ibid. Page 2 of 16

Now, brothers and sisters, I dont want to stretch this too much, but I do want to transpose these elements on the battle that you face. Let it be known tonightand I am not going to belabor itbut let it be known that your enemy and lets be specific, Satan, the enemy of God, the enemy of Christ, the enemy of the Church, he is committed. He will never take a day off. He never takes a vacation. If anything he watches the ticking clock and knows that his doom is sure and so the heat will intensify all the way up through the tribulation period when literally all of hell will break forth on earth. And so he is committed. The Bible sums him up in many ways. He is a deceiver. He is an accuser. He is a liar from the beginning. He is a murderer. He is a thief. The Bibles Christ himself said this in John 10. He said: The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.4 But he is not simply out there doing mayhem. He is strategic. He is focused. Paul told us not to be ignorant of the devices of Satan. Peter said that and now we look here in this passage and very similarly, this king had a desire to destroy and he had a strategy. Lets go further. Beyond the reality of the warand I dont have to belabor thatlets just remember tonight that nobody is exempt, nobody. You may not think the devil has a plan for you and I will say if you are buying into that lie, you may already be falling prey to his plan because he is lulling you into spiritual sleep. But notice the resistance of the war. This is where things start to get really good. And, Baptists, please remember. The supernatural is going to occur. Dont be afraid because you cant explain it. This is your Bible. The resistance of the war is seen in verse nine and 10. The Bible says: But the man of God...5 That is Elisha. He is the servant of Elijah, but now he is the man of God as Elijah is home in heaven with the Lord. But the man of God sent word to the king of Israel, Beware that you do not pass this place, for the Syrians are going down there. And the king of Israel sent to the place about which the man of God told him. Thus he used to warn him, so that he saved himself there more than once or twice.6 At least two or three times when the King of Israel listened to the prophet and the prophet discerned from the Lord do not leave this place vulnerable. The Syrians will come up through this geographical location. You need to concentrate military effort there. Now listen. There is no way he could have known that. As a matter of fact, we are going to find out that the testimony of Elisha in the enemy camp was that Elisha was so
4 5

John 10:10. 2 Kings 6:10. 6 2 Kings 6:9-10. Page 3 of 16

intimate with God that Elisha could hear the very words that the king of Syria spoke in his bedroom. Now there is no more intimate place in a home than a bedroom and the phraseology there is this, that, King of Syria, that there is no place you are safe. You very words in the most intimate, private part of your home, this prophet hears. The man of God says, in essence, I am going to tell you, my king, my military leader, how to fight this fight. And it wasnt primarily a physical battle. One of the things I want you to remember with me in your life and mine we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. You are going to deal with people. You are going to deal with personalities. You are going to deal with human conflict, but ultimately the biggest battles in your life and mine are spiritual battles and in ever human battle or physical battle or visible battle there is intertwined spiritual principles, spiritual warfare, spiritual tension in the midst of it. And so Elisha is looking at a physical battle, but he is applying spiritual discernment about how to win that battle. We will look in verse 11 through 14. When we are talking about the vicious enemy making war there was the reality of the war, the resistance to the war and now the redoubling of the war. Verses 11 through 14 focus on the King of Syria here. Let me give you three quick things about the redoubling of the effort by this pagan king coming against Gods people. He was a frustrated enemy. In verse number 11 he finds out what is going on, that Elisha is spilling all the secrets, hearing his very private discussions, busting up his military plans and so he is frustrated. As a matter of fact, the Word of God says there in verse number 11 that he was greatly troubled. He was enraged, frustrated to the core that all of his prowess, all of his previous success, all of his military arsenal, none of it was working because there was a little prophet. By the way... and Elisha was not exactly appreciated in his country, but he was still... had enough of a patriots heart and a theological discernment to say, I am going to fight for Gods people here. And so he gives the king the word and now this frustrated enemy king finds out he could not defeat the King of Israel nor his people. He was a focused enemy, though, in verses 12 and 13. He never gives up. Listen. I am not big into typology, but I want to tell you where it fits. Lets just go ahead and milk it. This king is a very, very good picture here of the devil, your enemy and my enemy. It says here in verses 12 and 13 it is giving the description that he sets his sight on the man of God. He sets his sight on Elisha. Now I want you to think about this. One discerning believer in the will of God, hearing the voice of God has now become such a threat to this enraged enemy that this enemy king now amasses all of his forces, all of his power, no longer fighting the territory of

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Israel, but coming to a little city called Dothan and he is coming to fight one believer. What does that tell us? Brothers and sisters, I think that anybody who will discern Gods voice, who will give himself or herself to Gods way, who will speak on behalf of Gods people for the glory of the Lord, but speaking truth into the lives of Gods people, I think that type of person qualifies as a bulls-eye for the enemy. And I want to raise your awareness here tonight. Not everybody has a pulpit. Not everybody has a public ministry, but, brothers and sisters, as a child of God you are one of a, Jesus said, few there would be that would find this way. You are one of few that can bring glory to God, one of few. You can bring glory to God by your life. You can bring glory to God by your testimony. You can bring glory to God by your works. You can bring glory to God in a thousand different ways and only Christians can purposefully, proactively bring glory to God. And I want to tell you. That raises the antenna of the devil. To the degree which you have committee your life to Christ and are living that commitment out, you may very well welcome as a magnet the forces of hell to come against you. Now I know our minds say, Jeff, that is so dramatic. That its really over the top and, after all, I am just me. I just dont buy it. Well, I am going to take you back to the original introductory question that I asked you. You believe in demons? What do they do? What are they doing if they are not opposing and resisting and warring against the name of Jesus Christ and that glory that comes to him through the Church, then what else are they doing? That is all they do. All they want to do is keep the blind blind, the bound bound and ruin the Church so that it does not bring glory to God. And so that is what we are seeing in picture form here. This enemy says, I have got to stop the one who is frustrating my battle plans. And he is a furious enemy, verse number 14 just simply tells us that. Look down at verse number 14. Let me just read it. So he sent there horses and chariots and a great army, and they came by night and surrounded the city.7 Now you military men and women in here, you understand recon. You understand covert operations more so than us civilians, but you understand by reading that that this king did his very best, his utmost to come against this one man. Why? Because he was furious. He hated the fact that his plan was being resisted and so this vicious enemy went from making war against Israel to making war against one believer who was standing in the way of his ultimate victory. Lets take a look at Elijah, because this is where I really wanted to place our focus tonight, because, in essence, in this series that we are doing, we are talking about
7

2 Kings 6:14. Page 5 of 16

different dynamics of prayer and it is very subtle here, but I think it is an aspect of your prayer life that you need to incorporate immediately. And so lets look at it. A visionary prophet uncovered reality. There was only one man in the country that knew what was going on, only one that we see and his name was Elisha. First of all note that he was surrounded by the hostile man. Look in verse number 15. When the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out behold, an army with horses and chariots was all around the city.8 Now let your Bible come to life here. Lets just say you are a young man, young woman and you are the servant to the prophet Elijah. Now the details of what the servant did dont need to be gone into, but he would do basically whatever Elisha needed him to do as Elisha ministered in a very public role in the kingdom. But it was typically the prophets werent like modern day prophets who live high on the hog. They lived by very meager means and so he was afforded a servant to be able to take care of him and often times the servant would be a prophet in training. But in this case, his former servant Gehazi has been found corrupt. He was disobedient. He was judged by God. And so Elisha has this new servant who is not as familiar with the man of God. And so he wakes up and he looks outside of the home that they are in and all around the city is a surrounding army of the Syrians. Now, look. Dont divorce it from its context. The Syrians were killers. They were mighty. They were powerful. They were ruthless. And this young man wakes up and they are all surrounding him. Now he knows that they are there for Elisha the man of God, but I want you to put yourself in that context. I have a friend and, of course, his parents worship here with us, Brian Stocks, Jr in Mali and tonight there is a coup in Mali, Africa, a military coup and Brian has communicated to us that he and [?] are sitting in the house tonight listening to gunshots go off as the army is moving about the city. Now that alone is enough to cause somebody fear. But what about when you know they are coming for you? So there they are surrounding the house and the young servant is the first one to see. And so Elisha was surrounded by this hostile king and all of his army, but Elisha would turn out to be proven as a man of God in what he... how he responded. He was the shepherd of the fearful man. Look at what the young servant said. He said: Alas, my master! What shall we do?9
8

2 Kings 6:15. Page 6 of 16

If you would like to and you feel comfortable writing in the margin of your Bible, write the word panic. He saw the enemy. He instantly did the math. He looked at his own weakness, saw the apparent strength of those coming against them. He knew that there was no escape. Remember, it says they surrounded the city, surrounded the area. And they were everywhere with their chariots, with their horses, with their weaponry. And so he cries out as many do when the enemy comes against them and circumstances come against them and pain is coming against them and fear is coming against them, they panic and they say, What are we going to do? How often we have been in places like that in our lives. And Elisha is now not only surrounded by the enemy on the outside, but he has got a young servant quaking in his boots on the inside of the house. So there is not exactly a whole lot of fuel for your faith if you are Elisha in this moment. But what is most important in all of this is that Elisha was seeing through the spiritual man. Now some of this terminology, I know, Baptist are uncomfortable with and I am not trying to stretch anything here. I am over the nomenclature. Lets just say this. We are talking about seeing through the spiritual man we are talking about not looking at everything through physical, measurable, quantifiable, logical, reasonable eyes. It means that there is a different dimension to our existence here that very often, brothers and sisters, let me tell you. Baptists, my experience has been among Baptists. And Baptists, we want to be objective. We want to be literal. We want to be in consecutive. We want to take things contextual is the word I was looking for. We want things nice, neat and tidy. And a lot of times that is very beneficial to us. But there are times where you cant explain it. You cant define things. You cant control things. That you must approach things with a great degree of humility that says, I cant predict it. I cant explain it. I cant manage it. I cant control it. I cant measure it. And what that does is it makes us aware that there is another whole dimension to this early pilgrimage. I am going to ask you. Are you in tune with that? If we are not careful, we will become functional Atheists. What does that mean? We will sing about God. We will preach about God. We will talk about God. We will debate about God. We just wont really believe him enough to follow him with our day to day living. We will dismiss the things that we cant explain or control. Well, in this particular situation Elisha says this in verse 16. He say to the panicky servant: Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.10

10

Ibid. 2 Kings 6:16. Page 7 of 16

Now get this. Lets just go rationale here. That statement is not rationale. Because as that servant is sitting there panicking there isn't anybody visible for them. It is all against them. He could count heads. He could count chariots. He could look out the window if there was a window and he could see clearly everybody against him. And I dont know. I have got a strange imagination. I will, for some reason when I read this passage, I always picture Elisha at some ancient sink washing dishes and saying, Oh, dont worry about it. There is more for us than against us, just very casual, just very laid back. And I can sympathize with the servant, because I have been in the presence of people who when I am panicky they wont get in there with me. Sometimes when you are panicky and you are fretful and you are fearful, you just want somebody else panicky and fearful and fretful so they can confirm why you really ought to be afraid. And occasionally you will meet somebody with greater faith and they just wont play that. They will, ok, you say, you dont need to worry about this. God had got this. And you say, Yeah, I know my theology tells me that, but right now I am listening to my theology. I am listening to my emotions. Elisha the man of God says, Don't be afraid. Let me just ask you this right now. Let me switch gears a little bit. How willing are you to believe that God is for you as his child even when you cannot discern the evidence of that in the moment? Right? Because that is where we live from time to time. It is almost at times... By the way, I believe the enemy does seize opportunities like that. He seizes them. Because he will take your own faith and mock you with it. Oh, God is for you is he? Oh, is he? Well, where is your God? And if your God is for you, why this? Why this? Why this? And I dont know how the devil influences our thought life. There is no logistical plan that is given, but I do believe the effects and influences are thoughts. He is the accuser. He accuses God to us, us to God, us to us. And so when you get in this place and literally the forces of the enemy are coming against you and the circumstances look impossible and all of the sudden the Bible or the preacher or the souse or the parent or somebody says, Dont be afraid. And you say to yourself, Yeah, but I am. I thank God that he loves us enough occasionally to put somebody with bigger faith in our lives than us. You have got a choice in those moments. You can either try to bring them down to your fearful state of mind or you can give some credence to what they are saying and you can pray for their confidence to become yours. How does that happen? It comes through experience and learning and growth and maturing and humbling. And I want to tell you. There is no way to comfortably stretch
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your faith. We dont want our faith stretched. We want stretched faith. Do you know what I mean? We want the result, but not the process. So, God, make me a Titan of the faith. Lord, make me a giant in the spiritual realm, but please do it while I am asleep tonight and let me just wake up with it in the morning, right? Lets see what happens here. I am having a hard time leaving verse 16. I am not getting it out tonight, but he saw something that nobody else saw. The psalmist knew about this. I am just going to read you. I have got a couple of psalms marked here. Let me find them real quick. The psalmist said in Psalm threejust write these verses downverse three of chapter three the third Psalm verses six, seven and eight. I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around. Arise, O LORD! Save me, O my God! For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked. Salvation belongs to the LORD; your blessing be on your people!11 Can you pray that? I am not saying can you recite the words. Can you incorporate that in there? Can you appropriate the faith that says I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around? Let me read you Psalm 27 verse two. When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall. Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, yet I will be confident.12 And, brothers and sisters, this is where your pastor is these days. I am preaching to me. I am not in a season of fear right now, but the reason why I am not is because the Word of God ushered me out of a season of fear that gripped me. Fear of the enemy, fear of my flesh, fear of people and I spent a long season in there and I said, This is not who God

11 12

Psalm 3:6-8. Psalm 27:2-3. Page 9 of 16

has made me to be. Why do I live in fear? It only happens when I am looking at what I can see and forgetting about what I cant see. And so Elisha had matured where he is saying, Dont be afraid. We outnumber them. I love verse number 17, because here comes the prayer. Elisha was secure in the eternal man, if you will allow me to apply that title to Christ, the eternal man, the Son of man. Then Elisha prayed and said, O LORD, please open his eyes that he may see.13 Preachers are notorious for long everything, long sermons, long prayer. When I read the Scriptures I am amazed at how short the sermons are and how short the prayers are. Maybe they didnt have to use as many words because they were more filled with the Spirit than we are, but this is his prayer. He wantedand I want all of you that are in any role of leadership, whether it is parent, grandparent, teacher, preacher, any role of influence in the kingdom, listen to the prayer that he prayed. He didnt blast the servant for not having spiritual discernment. He didnt mock him. He didnt say, Dont you know anything by now? I have I been... not been teaching you these things? He just... I know it is kind of stupid, but I still just picture him drying a dish, Oh Lord, will you open his eyes that he may see, just very casual and calm. No panic, no fear, no terror, no worry. He took this, what could have been a very dramatic and intimidating occasion and he turned it into a spiritual lesson for this servant who had never discerned like this before. And I love what the Bible says. The Lord opened the eyes of the young man. And he saw. Verse 17. ...and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.14 The enemy surrounded Elishas home, but Gods army surrounded the enemy. And Elisha saw that. And one of the things that we need to remember here. This is very important. Elisha didnt open the servants eyes. God did. Elisha prayed. Elisha called upon the eye opener. Why is that important? Because, brothers and sisters, you are going to live out a lot of frustrated days trying to get people to see what you want them to see and your motivation is going to be right, you are going to want their spiritual enlightenment. You know it will help them. You know that in some cases they will be born again. They will be saved if only they will see the truth of the gospel. And so we do so much in order to get people to see things the right way and they cant until the sovereign God of heaven opens their spiritual eyes. And so what am I saying? And so, Jeff, what do we do? Well, I am going to tell you what we do. We keep talking to them. We keep giving them the truth. We keep shepherding

13 14

2 Kings 6:17. Ibid. Page 10 of 16

people and helping people and investing in people, but we never do it without praying, Lord, open their eyes. Every time, any time I am ever up in a public setting teaching I promise you before I ever open my Bible and open my mouth I pray, God, open their eyes. Any time I sit down to study, maybe not every time verbally, but almost every time verbally and always in my heart I say to myself, Open my understanding. Open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of your law, as the psalmist wrote. And, brother and sisters, this is what is so incredible. He will do it. He will open your eyes. He will open the eyes of other. You will begin to see things and so will those that you re praying for, those that are born again and have the capacity to see things. You will see things like you have never seen them. Your thinking will change. Your outlook will change. Your attitude will change. Your life will change. Your ministry will change. Your influence will change when we see what God sees. I want to suggest to you out there that we miss things that God wants us to see regularly because we are not looking for them. Do you know what we are looking for? We are looking for what worked yesterday. More of the same. We are the 21st century church of more of the same. And I believe in our generation, I pray for this. God, do something that will remind the people who have forgotten your glory that you are still glorious. And that will not be an average occurrence. There must be a fresh revived work of God in our generation. But it cannot come if we are looking at everything through physical human eyes. Well, when the servant had his eyes opened he learned what the psalmist wrote in Psalm 34:7 that: The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them.15 And there is something very interesting about this and I will try to finish as much of this as I can. Here is something that only occurred to me for the first time today and I told you. I have read this passage when I got saved 18 years ago for the first time. God provided that angelic army impressive, revealed, amazing, blazing, fiery, that army was there. He made it visible to Elisha and to the servant, but he never used it. He never used the army. Think about this with me. The whole dispatched host of heaven that was there that day, however many angels were there, were only sent there to reassure a person struggling in the faith that God has the victory. Even though the victory was going to be brought about by a different means, the very awareness and the eye opening experience was Gods way of saying, I have got this. Dont be afraid.

15

Psalm 34:7. Page 11 of 16

And, brothers and sisters, listen. Is it beyond the pale to think that God is just trying? I mean, something as clear and obvious as what is happening here, a message about this going to ears and all God wants to say to you tonight is, I have got your problem. I am superintending it. I am sovereign over it. The things that you are fearing are less than me. They are beneath me. I own them. I use them. I am here. And yet if we are not careful, we will just base everything on what we see. And if we are not seeing what he is trying to show us, we are not going to be thinking right. Lets get to the rest of the text. It is not as germane to my point as this, but he is going to pray again and we are going to see him praying again. Listen. James talks about Elijah having the fervent, effectual prayer. Elisha wasnt lacking anything either. God opened his eyes. The fellows eyes are open. Lets see what happens with the enemy. A victorious God received glory, the last few verses. Verse 18. If we are going not win, I want to suggest that here are some great things to incorporate into your plan. We turn to God first. All right. An enemy is against you. Circumstances are swallowing you up. Impossibility is mocking you. The devil is accusing you. Your own flesh is failing you. You are experiencing fear. You are experiencing anxiety. You are experiencing despair and hopelessness. And those are common the human experience. I want to tell you. Turn to God first. Look at verse 18. The Syrians came down against him. Note this. The presence of God did not eliminate the activity of the enemy. The fact that God was surrounding with his angels that place did not make the battle go away. The battle still had to be dealt with, but it would now be dealt with on Gods terms. And so as they came down against Elisha look at what Elisha did. He didnt draw a sword. He prayed to the Lord. Prayerlessness is a guarantee of defeat always. Prayerlessness guarantees your eventual defeat. We have a lot of things that will postpone defeat and dodge defeat, but I want to tell you something. Prayerlessness in the life of a believer will ultimately secure your defeat, because prayerlessness cuts you off from the source of victory. Elisha knew better. And so he prayed to the Lord. Lets look at what he prayed. When we turn to God first we must trust that God will intervene. He prayed to the Lord, verse 18 and said: Please strike this people with blindness. So he struck them with blindness in accordance with the prayer of Elisha.16
16

2 Kings 6:18. Page 12 of 16

It is an astounding statement if you will think on this. The creator of all the universe, the architect of the ages omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient God who owes no man anything but he does condescend to men of low estate, heard the voice of a very simple man who prayed a very unornate simple prayer and the Bible says God acted in accordance with what Elisha asked. One of the things that I think all believers have to come to terms with at some point and I have heard this on more than one occasion and I understand what they mean, but they are wrong. Jeff, when I have a need I am going to come to you, because you have got a direct line to God. And I get it. By the way, I am not flattered not by it, because it is just wrong. Not that I dont have a direct line to God, because I do. His name is Jesus. One mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus. There is a direct line, but all Christians have it. And I will be glad to pray for you, but not with the thought in your mind that you have got to go through me to get to Jesus to get to God or anybody else for that matter. Look, I had a praying mother-in-law. I have got a praying wife. There is people in here when I have a prayer need I will call you, but not because I think that you have something that I dont have, but I want you to know this. You have got to make up your mind that your relationship with God by virtue of Jesus Christ has positioned you in Christ to the extent that there is nothing keeping you from God. And God listens to you. He is not your servant in the sense of you telling him what to do, but, brothers and sisters, we have got to make up our mind. He is either a father that delights in blessing his children with the best that he has to offer or he is some frowning scowling scrooge in heaven who is frustrated with all of our little petty petitions. I dont serve that second aspect of God. And I am going to tell you just for the glory of Jesus. There have been times that I have asked and I know he heard me and he answered like that. If I didnt believe that God would answer and affirm my prayers I would never pray. It is not superstition. It is communication. And so when Elisha prayed, I mean, he had prayed, Open their eyes, open my servants eyes. God did it. Now he prays, Close their eyes. God did it. Verses 19 through 22 are very important also. Let me fill in the blanks here. Well, look down in verse 19. When we are talking about refraining from acting impulsively. I am talking about when the battle is coming against you. Remember, the message is titled, Eyes open for the fight. You cannot act rashly, you cannot panic, you cannot act impulsively and you need to slow down and discern what is going on in the battle, because it is more than just oh, no, I am in trouble. There is a lot more that is going on. There may be a little servant looking to you trying to figure out what do I do if I am ever in this thing. There may be a host of people. Please remember, what is happening

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here is not only affecting Elisha and the servant, but it is also affecting the King of Israel and affecting all the population of Israel. And so all of this has a big picture aspect, but we lose that if we act impulsively. Verse number 19. Elisha speaks to the enemy. He said to them. Follow me. Now, remember, God in some fashion has darkened their eyes, either complete physical blindness or obscured their awareness of what was going on. They are there to capture Elisha. Elisha goes out and he is taking a lot of heat from theologians that are too smart for their own good, because he lied to them. He said, This is not the city. Let me take you the man you are looking for. And, of course, theologians have missed the point of the passage and focused on, well, we dont know if this is blessable by God. Well, let me just tell you. God blessed it. He blessed the overall strategy that Elisha did. And Elisha says, Let me lead you out of this city and I will take you right to the man that you are looking for. And, of course, ultimately, technically he did do that. He took them to him in a different place. But he spoke to the enemy. He also spoke to the Lord. They get inside the city of Samaria, the capital city. He leads this entire band of renegades, the enemy of God, he leads them into the capital city of Samaria and then he prays again. Lord, open the eyes of these men that they may see. So now that he is has got them in a very vulnerable place, in a strategic location right there surrounded by Israels own army now, now he says, Lord, now lift the blindness. Let me just ask you something. How do we get to that place of holy, godly, righteous confidence in faith to where we dont even hesitate to pray bold prayers like that? I mean, I dont hear any hint of doubt. No hesitation. No fear. It is the amazing experience of being so completely in the will of God where your prayers are actually his will and therefore there is no doubt. So Elisha has prayed for eyes to be opened, eyes to be closed and eyes to be opened, two open eyes and one set of closed eyes and he is receiving the fruit of his labor. Real quick pause. Who are you talking about concerning... who are you talking to concerning your battle? I like to talk to you about it. It helps to get comfort and compassion. But when you want answers, when you want... can I dare use this word results in the midst of the battle, when you want victory, talk to God a lot until the victory is secured. In verses 21 and 22 Elijah spoke to his peers, the king, the zealot, probably Jehoram in this instance, not a godly king. He sees this enemy army now locked inside the city walls of Samaria and he says, This is what I have been waiting for. These are the guys that
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have been coming up and messing with our country. They have been coming stealing our junk and burning our cities and razing our fields and stealing our crops. He says, Now we got it. But he acquiesces. He says to Elisha, My father, can I kill them? Can I kill them? He asked it twice. And in the Hebrew language when something is repeated back to back like that, it is an intensifier. It is like our exclamation point. Please let me kill them. And look at what Elisha does. This is incredible, brothers and sisters. He is already won. He has already won the battle and so he tells the king, No, you are not going to kill these men. Let me tell you what you are going to do. You are going to further defeat them, but you are not going to kill them. He said, Throw they a meal. They are tired. They are thirsty. They are hungry. Set them up a banquet. Fill their bellies. Refresh them. Let them rest and send them back to their king. Write in the side of your Bible, mercy. When God gives you the victory may it breed mercy, grace and compassion in your heart and never arrogance. Never vengeance. There should be nothing within us that gloats over Gods destruction of our enemy, because it is only the grace of God that we arent the enemy getting destroyed. And so he feeds them and sends them back. By the way, that would be rather humiliating. They are going back and their king obviously was not with them based on the language there. He is sending them back to their king. And they go back to their city and the king says, Did you all take care of Elisha? Well, not exactly. Did you find him? We did. Well, what did you do? We had supper with him. They had to go back and they had to report to their king that Elisha the man of God did not need to be messed with and that they would likely do very well to leave Israel alone. And I love the last verse that we read. Syria made no more raids down in Israel. They were over matched. It is an amazing thing when victory is experienced Gods way. Some of you have enemies with names. They are people that have chosen to make your lives miserable. They have hurt you. They have opposed you. You just wish they would see things, but
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you cant open their eyes. And someone encouraged you to keep praying. But I am going to encourage you to do something that maybe you are uncomfortable with. Get very bold in your prayers. Stop mamby pambying around at the throne. Stop wishing in the name of Jesus and start praying and start studying the Scriptures so you know where you can have confidence. And start fighting your battles with the understand that, God, when you give the victory, this is going to glorify you and I am going to give you the glory. And, God, if you give me this victory, I will purpose that the glory will be yours. I am going to tell you something. When God gets the glory, God is going to get the victory. The last thought and I am going to close. I am done. I am out of time. Prayer was the chief weapon in this battle between two armies. We are going to set up time next week for you to put your battle gear on. And I am going to encourage some of you that have been wrestling. I know some of your stories. I can look out right here tonight and I know there is wrestling matches in your life and for you life, right here in this room. Why dont you come as many nights as you can next week and say, God, I am going to join with my brothers and sisters, and we are going to focus on praying for victory in this area? Because we are going to break up in small groups in some of these nights. There will be some open mic prayer. There will be some laying on of hands for those that are sick among us. But, friends, we are not here to dilly dally and mamby pamby and play a game. I believe that Satan is coming after you. I believe he is coming after me. I have no doubt that he has been coming after this church for a long time. And it is time that we fought and won the battle Gods way. Now you can keep doing it the way you have been doing it and I predict in 12 months you will still be sitting here saying, When are things going to get better? Or you can fight. And if we fight according to the dictates of Gods warriors, if we fight with the wisdom and the discernment and the humility and the power of the Holy Ghost and we fight in faith and not arrogance, not transgressing, making God some glorified bell hop who does our bidding, but reverently saying, God, you are our father and if you dont fight for us we perish. When we start fighting like that, brothers and sisters, we will see great victory.

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