This message was shared by Apostle Kathryn Krick Lead Pastor/ Apostle of 5F Church in Los Angeles, CA on March 2, 2025. Below is a word for word transcription of the message as if Apostle Kathryn is writing this to you. To watch the full video scroll to the bottom of this post. We pray this teaching blesses you and equips you to walk as a powerful vessel of God.  

Unstoppable Warriors of God. That is who YOU ARE and that is the title of the message today. 

1 Samuel 18:6 

When the victorious Israelite army was returning home after David had killed the Philistine, women from all the towns of Israel came out to meet King Saul. They sang and danced for joy with tambourines and cymbals. This was their song: “Saul has killed his thousands, and David his ten thousands!” This made Saul very angry. “What’s this?” he said. “They credit David with ten thousands and me with only thousands. Next they’ll be making him their king!” So from that time on Saul kept a jealous eye on David. The very next day a tormenting spirit from God overwhelmed Saul, and he began to rave in his house like a madman. David was playing the harp, as he did each day. But Saul had a spear in his hand, and he suddenly hurled it at David, intending to pin him to the wall. But David escaped him twice. 

We see in this story that David, before this scripture here, David was someone who Saul loved. Saul could see what a blessing David was to him, helping him in the army, killing Goliath, and playing a harp and his anointing moving through him and delivering Saul from an evil spirit. He could see the blessing. He could see the great blessing that David was to him. But then there was a shift. In this scripture we see a shift where the anointing of God increased upon David and God lifted David higher, for God’s glory, for God’s purposes. When David was lifted higher than Saul, this is where Saul had a problem, a MAJOR problem. Unfortunately, he allowed the voice of jealousy, the demonic voice of jealousy in his mind to linger rather than reject it. And when you let any voice of the devil, any lie of the devil linger in your mind and you do not reject it, you are opening up the door for the devil to come in and bring oppression, for the devil to come in and use you. That’s what you’re doing. That’s what happens when jealousy moves through a person. It’s that they have not rejected that voice. They have the choice to reject that voice, but they have chosen to keep that voice and now a demon, the devil has entered them and they are being used by the devil. 

We see Saul was a man of God. He was anointed by God. He remained to be an anointed man of God. David considered him still “you are an anointed one of God and so even though you are trying to kill me” we find that David WILL NOT kill him when he has the choice. Touch not my anointed. David even had this respect for him even though he was trying to kill him and he was allowing the devil to use him. This shows us that indeed, people of God, people of God meaning that they believe Jesus is Lord, they confess that Jesus is Lord, maybe they preach that Jesus is Lord, they indeed can be used by the devil in the area of jealousy and hatred toward another. We see this with Saul and we see this all over the Bible. This theme repeats itself over and over again. 

Genesis 37:4-7 

When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him. Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it. 

This was not Joseph’s father being a bad father, it was just his heart was being touched extra by Joseph because Joseph had a precious heart, a more precious heart, pure heart for God, than His brothers. When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him. They HATED Joseph simply because he was touching their father’s heart. They hated him and could not speak even a kind word to him. Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. Because in this dream, it was from God and it was a dream of Joseph being lifted. 

Genesis 37: 8-11  

His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said. Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?” His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind. 

And this is what led his brothers to put him in a pit to die and then to sell him to slavery, to be a slave, was the JEALOUSY. We see this theme repeat in the Bible again, this theme of when another person is lifted for God’s glory, for God’s purposes, lifted above that person, that person, now that they see you above, they cannot handle it. They cannot stand it. Whatever they can’t do, whatever people can’t do and I say people loosely, like people who allow this jealousy spirit in them, whatever these people cannot do, they will attack. They can’t race ahead. They can’t go ahead. They see one soaring up higher and they know they can’t do anything about it except for fight it, attack it, try to pull it down. This is what Saul did. This is what Joseph’s brothers did. 

When you are surrendered to God, God wants to lift you for His glory. He wants to to lift you by putting His power upon you. He wants you to be like a star and shine bright. He wants you to stand out among others, that people would look at you and go wow, because they see Jesus in you because you’re reflecting Jesus. This is how God lifts His people. He makes them brighter. He puts more anointing in them so that people are attracted to find Jesus in them, so that they can have power and influence to touch people, to bring them to Jesus, to release His power to bring healing and freedom. It is God’s ways that He lifts His servants, that He lifts those who are surrendered to Him with pure hearts. This is God's way. And God wants to lift everybody in the body of Christ but He will only lift those who are surrendered, humble, obedient, pure in heart. 

Now, every single part in the body of Christ is so important. Just like a physical body, every body part is so important. God anoints some to be five-fold ministers, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. And God calls many people to be anointed, to walk in power, His power. He’s calling many but few are chosen. It will not be everyone who is lifted higher for His glory. There will be some that are lifted even higher for His glory because of the specific plan upon their lives, like to be a leader in the body of Christ, to be a leader in the five-fold ministry. He needs their influence to be much more just because of their specific calling.

We have the whole body of Christ, like a physical body, and what you have many times is you have one of the toes on the foot looking at the eye and seeing the eye as higher on the body and as more important, doing a more important job. Even when a person talks, you generally look at their eyes. The toe many times can get jealous of the attention that the eye is getting. The toe wants to be the eye but the toe was anointed to be the toe. The fact of the matter is, is that okay maybe the eye is having more eyes on the eye, more attention and it could be considered a more important function on the body I guess. But, at the end of the day, are you grateful for every part of your body? Would you be upset if you had to lose a toe? Yes! Every part of your body is so important and is so needed. It has all these different roles but they’re all very important. This is how the body of Christ is and it’s really important that you, that people see how important their place is on the body and not try to compete with something you weren’t called to compete with. And not try to be something that you’re not called to be. Sometimes people are so angry at somebody, just being who they were called to be. They want to tear down this person and replace them but they can never do that. They were never anointed to do that. That can never happen. They cannot fulfill their purpose that way. 

It’s so important that you be content with where God has you, number one, and see that you are so important. This is how you overcome that temptation of the devil to accept jealousy. And number two, may you be inspired instead of jealous because God does want to lift everyone higher than they currently are for His glory and for His purposes. He does want to use every single person in the body of Christ in the anointing. He does want every single person in the body of Christ to shine so brightly. You should be inspired instead of jealous. You can too be lifted for God’s glory. You can too shine for God’s glory. 

What we find in the body of Christ is that when you are truly doing the work of God, you will find the Bible come alive. If you are anointed like David, if you truly are a man or woman after God's own heart, and He has chosen you for a specific calling, to be used by Him in power to bless many people, you will see the exact same things happening as what happened to David. The devil exists. We live in a world where the devil exists. The devil, just as he was so angry at David, at how God was using David, just as he was so angry at Joseph, at God's plans for Joseph's life, that he had to find somebody he could use, somebody that would accept this lie of jealousy, this spirit of jealousy to try to stop the work of God, to try to at least slow down this vessel of God. You will find that happening in your life today. We will find that happening in our lives today. This is how it is because we are in a spiritual war, because there is a devil that we are called to destroy his works through Christ. That’s a battle isn’t it? That’s a battle. We are in a battle. It’s important we remember that. It’s important we don’t forget that so we don’t get caught off guard and get all frazzled. We’re in a battle. When you remember that, you won’t be shaken. You know, yeah I’m a warrior, not a bystander, not a civilian. I’m a warrior in the army. My job is to fight. Fight the good fight of faith. There’s a scripture in the Bible that literally says FIGHT the good fight of faith. 

Paul says to Timothy, be a good soldier in Christ, not be a good civilian, a good bystander, and a good church goer, a good Christian. Yes we’re Christians but we have to remember that more than that we are disciples and warriors. The reason I say “more than that” is because most Christian’s today don’t identify as a disciple or warrior of God. Most Christians think that being a Christian simply means going to church on Sunday’s, maybe a midweek service, a Bible study, and reading your Bible daily, and praying and that’s it. That’s why I say “more than that”. We are Christian’s yes, which means we are followers of Jesus BUT that really means being disciples and warriors of God. We’re called to put on the armor of God. Some of you might need to actually get an armor and put it in your closet to remind yourself, “I’m a warrior and I’ve got to put on my armor!” 

What is fighting the good fight of faith look like? It means standing strong no matter what, to do what God has called you to do. The biggest thing it means is that the devil is the father of lies, he’s the accuser of the brethren. That’s who the devil is. His weapons, the only ammunition he has are his lies, are to accuse, falsely accuse. That’s all he has. That’s the war we are facing. How do we win? How do we fight that? We stay awake and aware in the spiritual realm to know that the devil’s a LIAR, so that we don’t get tricked or fooled by his foolish, stupid lies. And when these lies come, whether in our minds, whether in a dream, whether through a person, whether through a video, we RECOGNIZE this is a lie! I know the truth. I know who I am in Christ. I know what God has revealed to me. I know what I am a part of as a warrior in God’s revival army. I know what God has sent me to do. And this word here, is contradicting the truth that I know, that God has revealed to me. I am going to reject these lies. I am going to do what the Bible says and resist the devil because then he must flee. I’m going to do what the Bible says, take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ. TAKE IT CAPTIVE! You see how that’s warrior talk. No weapon formed against you shall prosper, you lift your shield of faith. You take up your sword, which is the word of God. You resist! You don’t sit there with your shield down and your sword down and you let the weapon hit you. You step up as a warrior! Take action! Hallelujah! FIGHT the good FIGHT of faith! 

No weapon formed against you shall prosper. That means that no matter how many weapons the devil is sending, no matter how big and scary they look, your shield of faith is more powerful. Those weapons cannot get past that shield of faith. And no matter how nasty and evil these lies of the devil coming at you are, how they appear like a snake, your sword of spirit, the word of God is more powerful than those disgusting, evilish lies. You can pierce those lies, every single one of them and they will fail. They will fall down to the ground. And the truth, the word of God, and what God has called you to do, you will stand. You will keep moving forward. That’s fighting the good fight of faith. 

We’re going to look at a story in Nehemiah. 

In this story in the Bible, Nehemiah was an Israelite, he was scattered to another land. There were a lot of Israelites scattered to different lands. There were some Israelites that were living in Jerusalem but at that time, he was looking to see how his people were in Jerusalem, in Judah. 

Nehemiah 1:3   

They said to me, “Things are not going well for those who returned to the province of Judah. They are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem has been torn down, and the gates have been destroyed by fire. 

Nehemiah asks the king if he can go do the work of God that God has called him to do, which is to rebuild this wall so that the people of God could be protected and no longer be in this great trouble that they were currently in. The king allows him. God sends him to do this great work of God. He is doing what God called him to do, he begins this work of rebuilding the wall, he has an army of God with him who are helping him rebuild the wall. Then it says in Nehemiah 4:1, it talks about somebody named Sanballat. He is a governor of Samaria and it also talks about a guy named Tobiah. He is an ammonite official. These two people that we’re going to read about in this story, I’m going to read quite a bit because many of you, I don’t know if you know this story. 

Sanballat and Tobiah that we’re going to read about in a moment, they were people of influence. They were leaders, Ammonite official, governor of Samaria. 

Nehemiah 4:1-3 

When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became angry and was greatly incensed. Why was he angry? Because there was a great work being done that he was jealous of. That’s why. He ridiculed the Jews and in the presence of his associates and the army of Samaria, he said, “What are those feeble Jews doing? Will they restore their wall? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble—burned as they are?” Tobiah the Ammonite, who was at his side, said, “What they are building—even a fox climbing up on it would break down their wall of stones! 

Verse 7-9: 

But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the people of Ashdod heard that the repairs to Jerusalem’s walls had gone ahead and that the gaps were being closed, they were very angry. They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it. But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat. 

They fought the good fight of faith. They defended the work of God that was being done. They didn’t just weep and stand by and say oh no, why are they coming against us. They did something about it! They fought the good fight of faith. They prayed to God and they posted a guard day and night to meet this threat. They defended this work of God. 

Verse 11: 

Also our enemies said, “Before they know it or see us, we will be right there among them and will kill them and put an end to the work. 

You see this kind of EVIL that comes with jealousy, that they want to KILL. They want to stop the work and they actually want to kill these people, the people of God doing the work. 

Verse 14:  

After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, “Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your families, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes. 

FIGHT the good fight of faith! Don’t be afraid. Don’t be discouraged! Be unmovable and unstoppable and fight! 

Verse 19-20:  

Then I said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, “The work is extensive and spread out, and we are widely separated from each other along the wall. Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, join us there. Our God will fight for us! 

Nehemiah 6:1-2  

When word came to Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall and not a gap was left in it—though up to that time I had not set the doors in the gates— Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message: “Come, let us meet together in one of the villages on the plain of Ono.” But they were scheming to harm me 

Basically, Nehemiah discerned prophetically that these people coming against him, Sanballat and Geshem sent him a message, come meet with us- they were scheming to harm me. 

Verses 3-4  

so I sent messengers to them with this reply: “I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you? (With your foolishness) Four times they sent me the same message, and each time I gave them the same answer 

He would not be stopped. He would no be distracted by their foolishness. He would not be intimidated. 

Verses 6-8 

in which was written: “It is reported among the nations—and Geshem says it is true—that you and the Jews are plotting to revolt, and therefore you are building the wall. Moreover, according to these reports you are about to become their king and have even appointed prophets to make this proclamation about you in Jerusalem: ‘There is a king in Judah!’ Now this report will get back to the king; so come, let us meet together.” I sent him this reply: “Nothing like what you are saying is happening; you are just making it up out of your head 

These people with their evil jealousy, they literally made up this complete lie, trying to portray that Nehemiah was having these bad, sneaky, evil intentions. 

Verse 9-15 

They were all trying to frighten us, thinking, “Their hands will get too weak for the work, and it will not be completed.” But I prayed, “Now strengthen my hands.” One day I went to the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, who was shut in at his home. He said, “Let us meet in the house of God, inside the temple, and let us close the temple doors, because men are coming to kill you—by night they are coming to kill you.” But I said, “Should a man like me run away? Or should someone like me go into the temple to save his life? I will not go!” I realized that God had not sent him, but that he had prophesied against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. He had been hired to intimidate me so that I would commit a sin by doing this, and then they would give me a bad name to discredit me. Remember Tobiah and Sanballat, my God, because of what they have done; remember also the prophet Noadiah and how she and the rest of the prophets have been trying to intimidate me. So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days. 

The wall was completed despite all of that opposition! 

It’s saying here in this scripture, these people of influence, these people Tobiah and Sanballat, they hired prophets. Now these aren’t anointed by God prophets. These are people coming in the name, saying I am a prophet. And they are saying, “thus says the Lord” but God did not send them to say that and those were not God’s words. But people literally were seen as prophets and were prophesying false things against them. I share this story so you can see what has happened in the past. What has happened in the past when servants of God and an army of God are sent out to do work for God, the kind of evil opposition that they have faced in the past in the Bible. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He anoints and appoints servants just like he anointed and appointed David, Joseph, Nehemiah to do a work for Him. It’s not their work, it’s His work. It’s not for their benefit that they’re doing this work, it’s all for the people’s benefit, the people of God. Today it’s the body of Christ.

God loves His people so much that He is continually doing works, works against the devil and works to advance the kingdom so more people can hear the good news and be healed and be delivered and encounter His power and love. It’s not a different devil around today. It’s the same devil that was working through Saul to try to stop the work of God that David was doing. Same devil around today that was moving through Joseph’s brothers to try to kill him, to try to stop the prophecy over his life from coming to pass. Same devil today that was working through Tobiah, Sanballat, these false prophets, these people making up lies, falsely prophesying to try to stop the work of God that Nehemiah was sent to do. Same devil today folks. Aren’t you grateful for the word of God so we can be prepared, so we can be equipped, so we can know the devils battle plan. So we can know how to fight and win! Fight the good fight of faith! 

First of all, I want to share one thing that you must know. The will of God is not always fun. There’s a lot of times where the will of God is so fun but there are times it is not fun at all. It is not comfortable. But, God still asks us to do it and we do it. Why do we do it? For one reason, because we love Jesus and we’ve made the commitment to serve Him, to obey Him. When we say I surrender to you Jesus, we are saying I will pick up my cross which guess what, isn’t fun sometimes. It’s uncomfortable. That’s what it means when you surrender your life to Jesus. When we do the work of God, the real work of God, like the real work of God that David was doing, Joseph was doing, Nehemiah was doing. When we do that real work of God, we are going to see the Bible come alive. We are going to find GREAT OPPOSITION. But greater is He who is in us then he who is coming against us, he who is in the world. All of these stories in the Bible, when God was truly with somebody and they were faithful to God, He always fights their battles for them and brings them victory. He always defeats the devil. He always defeats the devils schemes. Look at how many times there were these lies, there were these false accusations coming towards Nehemiah, but every time it didn’t win, this scheme, this plan to bring these lies. In the scripture it says they were bringing these lies to discredit them, to try to paint a picture that they had bad motives, that they were evil, that they weren’t who you thought he was, Nehemiah. Every time that plan failed. Every time! Should we fear even this kind of opposition comes towards us? When lies are spoken about us? No! We should never fear because God is not sleeping, He is with us and He is fighting every battle for us. No lie can ever stand and I want you to rest. I’ve learned this. I found the most uncomfortable thing I think that I’ve gone through is lies spoken about me. Just knowing that people misunderstood me, that people thought I was someone I was not, that people thought I was doing evil. Just knowing that is probably the most uncomfortable and most unfun part of the will of God that I faced because that comes with being hated. When people are saying that you are a witch, that you are using demonic powers, that you are having all these evil intentions, that all you care about is money, all these things- when people are saying something that is completely untrue about you, that comes also with hate. You see how this hatred is so intense that these people are like, I’m going to stop them! In the Bible, I’m going to kill them. They are fired up with this evil in their hearts, with this jealousy and hatred in their hearts. That’s not comfortable to know there are people who are so passionate about stopping what God has called, what God has placed you on this earth to do, and even maybe kill you. That’s not comfortable. That’s not fun. But, we have victory in Christ and it’s worth it. 

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 

Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 

Paul says I delight in insults. I delight in hardships. I delight in persecutions. I delight in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 

Why is Paul saying that he delights in these things that sound horrible? In these things that are the unfun parts of God’s will. Why is he saying he delights in them? Well he’s saying this because he says that Christ's power rests on him in these times. Christ's power is always resting in us, as anointed servants of God but in times of weakness, in times of hardship, in times of persecution, we need more of His power. We get to experience more of His power. One of the joys that I’ve found, there’s multiple joys I’ve found in persecutions and in insults thrown towards me and in people thinking so evil about me; there’s many joys I’ve found but one of the joys is that Christ's power rests on me to empower me to do something so supernatural which is to love my enemies. And forgive my enemies, pray for my enemies, and bless them and be an example for others of humility, of how we are supposed to be like Christ. Christlike, loving our enemies, peaceful, gentle, not speaking against them, holding your tongue, and letting God fight the battle for you, defend you. When I’ve experienced that, I find joy because I’ve found, thank you Jesus, right now a greater power is rested upon me to show you in a greater way that people haven’t seen. People need this example.  

Paul says imitate me as I imitate Christ. People need an example of this. How will they see that example unless I’m having enemies coming at me? How will you know, how will you have the example? How will you be able to imitate a Paul of today that God's calling you to imitate if your leader doesn’t have enemies to love and for you to see? That’s one of the joys I find because this is me fulfilling my purpose. Enduring persecution is me fulfilling my purpose. A chance to love my enemies, a chance to be Christlike in a different way that you don’t have to do every day, but in this day you do! That’s me being a light. That’s me teaching people in the body of Christ and that brings me joy. That brings me delight because that’s bringing change to the world. That’s helping people. That’s me fulfilling my purpose. That’s helping the body of Christ love better, which that’s everything! That’s everything, is love! That’s what we’re called to do, everything comes from love. We cast our demons and heal the sick and preach because of our love for people that Jesus has given us. 

To have an opportunity to love my enemies is just as important as me casting out a demon, as me preaching the gospel, that is preaching the gospel! 

This is where you have revelation, what the enemy intended for my harm, God intended for my good. You have to have the right perspective! You should never be thinking, if you ever find yourself in situations like this or even now, prophetically in this season right now where the enemy is SO ANGRY at this year of acceptance and the doors that God has opened up, the way the devil is so angry, even now, your perspective should never be “where is God?” Your perspective should be, “the devil is intending this for harm, this is evil BUT God is intending this for my good, for the body of Christ's good”. God is going to use this for a lifting. You know, this is how it is in the spiritual realm, to be lifted in the spiritual realm, you’ve got to go through battles. To be a general, you have to have fought in battles and won them. You can’t just show up and be appointed a general. You can’t just say “I’ll be a good general, look at my muscles. I’ll show you what I can bench press. I’m tough in the mind. I’ll give you my references, they can tell you”. No! You have actually fight and you prove that you’re a true warrior who can win battles. And then you’re lifted and you get higher ranks. 

In the spiritual realm, how it looks like is, whenever God anoints someone, you know David, he beat Goliath, he killed Goliath, he won that battle and than later he was promoted as king. This was an important step for him. And even the battle against Saul, that was another battle he had to go through. God had to allow these to happen for him to increase in the ranks to become king. It’s not God's way to anoint David as a child and then you just chill with the sheep until you’re age 30 and you go to the palace. It’s not just chilling, you’re fighting off the lions and the bears but you have to go to higher battles than the lions and bears. 

I’ve learned to expect opposition. When God lifts, you have to know that the devil is not going to sleep and stand by. We see it all over the Bible don’t we? These are just a few of the examples I gave you. We see Samson, powerful anointing! There were people that were trying everything in their might to find out the secret of his power and to take the power away from him. It’s all over the Bible. These are just a few examples. I’ve learned to expect it. It’s like you know I have a spy that tells me that my enemies they’re setting up camp and they’re going to come against me so we know what to do. We’ve got to prepare ourselves spiritually. We’ve got to put on our armor of God. We better not be sleeping in the tents. We’ve got to put on our armor of God. God’s opening up more doors, this means we’ve got to equip ourselves for battle. We’re not going to float through the doors, we’re going to fight our way through the doors. Fight the good fight of faith. 

I’ve learned this, years of following God, years of serving God. It’s the same thing every time. It’s the same story every time. It’s God’s divine timing to open a door, to lift you for His glory, to pour His anointing, to reach more people, here comes the devil with the same exact schemes of lies, false accusations that came towards Jesus, that came towards David, that came towards Joseph, that came towards Nehemiah, everybody is the Bible. Right? The lies FAIL, you stay STRONG, you fight the good fight of faith and Jesus gives you victory and He takes you higher through that. He rewards you. He lifts your ranks. The devil would be smarter to not even try because this is the way of lifting. What the devil intended for harm, God intends for GOOD. 

Another joy I’ve found in persecution is, I experience a different kind of intimacy with God because I know what I’m doing, it’s not fun, and it’s pure obedience. I mean the choice to love your enemies, the choice to be strong. The choice to not let the devil get to you in your mind with his lies. The choice to keep doing the work of God. The choice to guard your heart and keep your joy. All of that during persecution is not easy and it’s not fun. And so, I know that God sees that. I know that God sees, this is difficult but I’m doing it because I’m obeying Him and so I know God is proud. And He’s proud always whenever we obey Him but I know that it’s like a parent. When your child is the lead in the musical for example, does something extraordinary, you give them an extra tighter hug possibly. Or you're so full of joy and you want to reward them when they do something extraordinary, right? That’s how it is with God. We have a chance in these moments to touch His heart even more because a lot of people, most people won’t obey Him in these areas and that’s why it touches Him so much. And to be able to be used mightily by God so that God can do what He wants to do, you have to obey Him in these areas. 

And so, by you obeying Him in these difficult times, it translates to His work being able to be accomplished now that He’s been wanting to do, like new works, higher works, more people being reached. And so that’s why He has this joy, He has so much pride, so much excitement. 

It’s a time of secret place and intimacy with God where only He really understands the hardship you’re going through for the sake of Him. And that’s beautiful. And so, that’s why I delight in persecution and insults. I also delight in persecutions and insults because every time this happens, my eyes open up more to the sacrifice that Jesus made for us. Because it’s one thing to believe and know that Jesus went through the worst kind of persecution and suffering to save us, brutally whipped, scourged, actually where pieces of His blood and flesh were ripped out. That was happening to Him, in the name of false accusations towards Him. That was done because of jealousy in others, moving to hatred. He endured that for us. He turned the other cheek. He didn’t bash His accusers, His enemies, but He put them in the hands of the Righteous Judge, His Father. It’s says in the word, He went on the cross, died the most painful death, for you, for me, to save us. That really happened. It’s not a fairytale and I think many times it can feel like a fairytale because we don’t have understanding. I found that it is a gift to just have my eyes opened up a little more, a little more to understand what Jesus did for me, the sacrifice He made for me, why He is WORTHY OF IT ALL. 

It’s the greatest gift in the world to have more revelation of God’s love, isn’t it!  

This is the way we have more revelation of God’s love is to endure suffering, persecution, because of Him, for His sake. 

Something so powerful about Nehemiah is that he was relentless to keep doing the work of God. He was unmovable, unshakable, UNSTOPPABLE. He understood the great importance of this work. He knew obeying God mattered above everything else. He only cared what his Father thought about him. He didn’t get down when lies were being spoken about him. He kept focused on the work, kept doing the work. He didn’t allow the devil's lies to bring fear, to bring doubt, to bring sadness. He stayed focused on the work. That’s all that matters is serving Jesus, doing what He’s called you to do. It’s very simple, NOTHING ELSE MATTERS. Words of people don’t matter. People's opinions of me, don’t matter! People's opinions of you, don’t matter! Who cares what people think about you. Who cares that people think all these horrible things about you, who cares?! We are not called to care about that. That is not our job. It is a waste of time. It is draining you. It is pulling you away from what God has called you to do and that’s the devil's aim, for you to care what people think. 

Galatians 1:10  

Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ. 

If you want to truly be a servant of Christ you can’t care what people think about you. You can’t. It’s time we accept. We accept if we are a part of the true work of God on this earth, we’re going to see the Bible come alive. We have to accept it, pick up our cross. Sometimes the will of God isn’t fun. That’s alright! That’s okay! I’ll gladly pick up my cross for you Jesus. The work of God is not fun sometimes but I still delight in it. I delight in it because I delight being in your will above everything. I delight touching your heart and pleasing you above all else! 

I’m encouraged by the story of Nehemiah. All sorts of evil opposition from people of influence and everything. People hired, literally hired to make up things about him, to prophesy falsely about him but he didn’t let any of that get to him. He didn’t let any of that slow him down. He said I will not be pulled from the work of God to deal with your nonsense. No! I know what you’re doing and I REFUSE to be manipulated. I REFUSE to care about what you think. I am focused on the work of God! 

We, army of God, need to be ready for this. We need to be ready for the Bible to come alive. We need to be ready. You know, if you are seeing Jesus do extraordinary things in your life by His power, like if you are planted here at Five-Fold Church for example, or if you’re watching, you’re not planted at Five-Fold Church but your planted at a different church where God's power is moving, if you are experiencing extraordinary anointing in your life, you’re experiencing things you’ve never experienced anywhere else, healing, deliverance, the fire of the Holy Spirit, impartation, if you are experiencing that, you need to expect that the devil is going to be very angry about your testimony and about how God is now using you. You are not called to just be here, like here at Five-Fold Church or wherever church you’re planted at, you’re not called to be here and just receive. You are called to be here and be a worker of the wall, to be a worker of this work of God. That attack was not just against Nehemiah, that attack was on the whole army that was building that wall. The reason why Nehemiah was being attacked so hard was because he was the leader of the work of building the wall. They did not want the wall to be built, that’s what it was about. And what it’s about now, here today, is that the devil does not want people being saved. He does not want people being set free. He does not want people to be healed. He does not want people to encounter God's love. He does not want people to grow from being baby Christian’s like most of the body of Christ are. He does not want people to move from lukewarm to now surrendered. He does not want another church to have a pastor, a leader, who carries anointing! That’s what this is about.