EP 8: The Weapon of First Resort

Welcome to the Thirst with Hunger podcast with Pastor Sandy Edwards, where we destroy every obstacle that hinders people from knowing God. Here you'll be challenged, encouraged, and equipped to pursue his presence, walk in truth, and live with bold faith. Let's dive in.

Hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Thirst with Hunger podcast. This is a space for those who refuse to settle for a diluted gospel. And in our last episode, we talked about being like the sons of Issachar and discerning the times and seasons. And today we're gonna dig even deeper into what that looks like in all that is happening in the world around us. Today we're gonna confront a failure. That really needs to be addressed in the body of Christ as a whole. And it's a call to really allow the Lord to examine us and to make sure that we are doing a daily examination, allowing God to really examine our hearts, dig deep into what's really going on so we can be honest with the Lord and we can worship him in spirit and in truth. And so this failure that I want to talk about today is this tendency to treat prayer and unity in the body of Christ as a backup plan. And more and more, what I'm seeing is that prayer is being replaced with outward expressions of prayer or outward expressions of concern on social media. And we're swapping the secret place of intercession for a public square and a public display of our indignation. And honestly, most of what we're calling standing for truth today is really our flesh on display. If you ever want to know who is the master of your life, pay attention To how you respond in moments of opposition, certain news breaks, and everything else alike. Just just really pay attention to how you're responding. And I'm not talking about your outward confession or the neat little confession that you put together to make yourself appear more spiritual in front of other people. But I'm talking about the inward most detailed part of your heart. How are you responding to opposition? News breaks and everything else. Pay attention to how your heart is responding. If you find yourself doing more keyboard work than on your knees, then this reveals a heart issue that you have between you and the Lord. And we want to have all these other things to say. Not realizing there are more pressing issues in the body of Christ right now than your reputation and what you want and your desires and what you feel and what you think is right. There are more pressing issues in the body of Christ right now. As I have said many times before, everything is in the word of God. There's no scenario. There's no moment in history, there's no time in your life or anyone else's life that God himself has not seen or had to step into before, including when other entities have active plans to overthrow the government and institute their own entity. So let's go to scripture. In Acts chapter four, as Peter and John were on their way to prayer, there was a lame man, and the Bible also describes this lame man as someone who was a beggar, and Peter healed him. And because of this man's miracle, and due to the intensity in which Peter and John were preaching, the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them because they were annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection. from the dead. And so then Peter and John are arrested, and they went through all of the interrogation by these people and the council. And in Acts chapter 4, verse 8, the scripture says, then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them— And let's pause right there. And one of the things I, I want everyone to get in the habit of doing when you read scripture It's not just skimming through something to read a story, but pay attention to the way that the words are written in the Bible. Pay attention to every little word. Don't just skim through that. Acts chapter 4, verse 8, it says, then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, The scripture does not say that Peter just decided to say whatever came to his mind about why these people were questioning him. Who are you to question me? I'm one of the apostles. I walk closely with Jesus. Who are you to question? He didn't do any of that. The Bible says in Acts 4:8, then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit— he didn't try to defend his reputation. He didn't try to do any of that. He didn't say whatever was coming to his mind in the moment. He didn't just say, "Who are you to question me? Why are you sitting in here questioning me? You have no right." It says, "Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them." So some time passes, and. They are released by the council with a strict command. They were told not to preach or teach at all in the name of Jesus. This was a legal threat backed by the power of the government of their time. Yet when they returned to their friends and reported what the chief priests And the leader said to them, their friends didn't get together and say, let's defend our reputation. They didn't organize a protest or a public relations campaign. The Bible says in Acts chapter 4, verse 24, and when they heard this report, when they heard about this threat, they lifted their voices together to God. And in Acts 4:29, it says that this is the prayer that they prayed, which was so convicting and so powerful. And it says, and now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness While you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus. So the very first thing that the church did when they got word of this threat, that you can preach and teach, you just cannot do it In the name of Jesus. They got together on one accord. They got together on one accord to pray for God to give them more boldness. And this reveals a deep and often very overlooked truth, because this day and time thinks that boldness is a personality trait, and it's not. It is a byproduct of the Holy Spirit. It is the byproduct of a person having the indwelling and a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It's not a personality trait. It is a spiritual grace that comes only after submitting your concerns, your words, your thoughts to God. So the church at this specific point in their history, in their moment in time, took the heavy weight of this threat that they were told that they could preach and teach, they just could not preach and teach in the name of Jesus. They took the weight of this threat, lifted it off of their own shoulders. They didn't take on the heaviness of it. They didn't try to say, well, we just don't know what we're going to do, or we got to come up with a backup plan to figure out what we going to preach and teach about. No. They took it off of their shoulders and placed it onto the throne of God, and they didn't react to the council because they were too busy praying to God. And this brings me to my next point. Some of us are really good at bonding with one another in our flesh. Flesh bonding. We talk about trauma bonding, but what about flesh bonding? That we do over here in the body of Christ. Meaning we're good at gathering around and having so much to say about things that will encourage us to glorify our flesh or to gossip about other people, but when it comes to the things of the Spirit, we're quiet, or we refuse to learn, and we don't want to hear God, or because it doesn't give us any pleasure, we don't run as quick into those spaces with God. Because nothing is pleasurable to this flesh about being in the spirit. It's not. So some of us are really good at flesh bonding. We bond with one another about fleshly things, fleshly discussions, fleshly conversations. But when it comes to the things of the spirit, our energy, it ain't there. We very lazy. We, we say we gonna pray and we never do, or we don't want to hear what God has to say because we so set on what our preferences are and what we think it should be. But at what point do we grow up and get out of this place of flesh bonding and say, you know what, the spirit and what God is saying and what God prefers matters more Than what my flesh wants. In Acts 4:24, it says that they raised their voices together to God. This means that they prayed with one mind, with one passion. There was no infighting, there was no panic. Nobody was wasting time on debating about strategy. Nobody was over there in the corner doing their own thing or saying something completely different than what God was saying for that appointed time in history. Nobody was over here in a corner doing their own thing or saying something other than what God was saying. Nobody. The pressure that they received from the outside forced Them as the body of Christ to be unified. They understood that their battle was not against the Sanhedrin. Their battle was spiritual. And if the enemy is coming in the realm of the spirit, then that means our response has to be first in the realm of the spirit. We cannot fight a demonic agenda with human arguments and with philosophies. And with words. You must fight it in the spirit. The church has to learn in this hour to start recognizing who's in charge, who is Lord over our life, who is God, and put him back in that place. Because it's too many of us trying to be in charge. Yeah, you may be Pastor So-and-so, Yeah, you may be Minister So-and-so. Yeah, you may be the worship leader. Yeah, you may be this, but over all of us is God, and he is sovereign. So notice how they began their prayer in Acts 4:24. They begin their prayer by addressing God's position, not their position, not their lofty opinions, not the slander, Not their flesh, but God's authority. And they say, Sovereign Lord who made heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them. They understood that while we may have been threatened by this council, this earthly government, these certain groups of people, there is God who has absolute unrestricted ownership and power. And they acknowledged that while the Sanhedrin had political power, God holds absolute power. Now, I want you to imagine if they had this small view of God that a lot of us have been taught to have, where we believe that God is just some little small character instead of being the main character. We think that God is some little small character who's out at a distance, and he's not really that involved in what is affecting his body, and he don't— you know, all the things that we've been taught that has been diluted through the years, that God is small and we are nothing and that we don't matter to God, and all the other stuff that we've been trained to believe about God that is a lie. They didn't have this small view of God. They had a view of God that was absolute master, which made the threat that they received Very insignificant. They placed more emphasis on God. They told God, they said, look upon their threat, look upon it. And yeah, we see it. And in so many words, that's what they were saying. We see this threat, we hear the threat, and your point is, God, give us more boldness to preach your word. Give us more fire. Give us a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit. And so if you're sitting here on the other end of what you see happening in the world and you feel so terrified by the direction that the world is going, as if God has left us and he has nothing else to do, nothing else to say, you've forgotten who owns the heaven and the earth and the sea. And it's time for you to have a perspective about God that is bigger than what your flesh can see on this earthly level. They said, God, Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth. That means because the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, they understood this, that the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, that even the table that the council is sitting at, God owns it. So guess what we not finna do? We not finna be scared. We not finna tuck our tails and run. We not finna be afraid to tell the truth and stand for the truth. We not finna be doing any of that. We just gonna pray, and we're gonna acknowledge God is Lord, and we're gonna pray for more boldness to do even more of what they are trying to stop us from doing. Now, while most modern Christians in this situation, when you receive a threat, you would have been praying for safety, for laws to change, or for the removal of corrupt rulers— and they didn't pray for that. They didn't pray for their safety. In Acts 4:29, it says that they prayed and said, and now, Lord, look upon their threats And grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness. And in that prayer, they also acknowledge things that were told to them through testimonies of things people said in the Old Testament about stuff that would come to pass in their time in history. So while most modern Christians would pray for safety, change laws, Or the removal of corrupt rulers, the early church prayed that God would look upon the threats. Don't take the threat away, but instead give us more boldness to speak your word. That word boldness means freedom in speech, unreservedness. It is the courage to speak publicly without fear because you have a clear conscience and you know where your allegiance lies and you have a certainty of the truth. So if you scared and you wavering back and forth, you're not really sure about what God is saying, you don't know how to pray, you're not doing anything, this is why. Because You don't have a clear conscience. And sometimes the reason why we can't tell the truth is because some of us still living in sin. Sin will make you hide instead of telling the truth. This is why you got to get out of it. You got to repent, come out of agreement with whatever you in, and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. And then you got to develop a certainty of the truth. You have to know like you know like you know that Jesus is Lord. That he is returning, and that you ain't got nothing to lose because life in him doesn't end; it's eternal. So they didn't ask God to stop the persecution. They didn't ask for God to stop it. They asked for the ability to remain faithful and to endure in it. They prioritized the mission of proclaiming Jesus Christ over their own. Personal comfort. And some of us can't pray in agreement with God's will because we want to be comfortable. We want what we want, when we want it, how we want it. And it's not about you. So if your prayers are always about your safety and never about the advancement of the kingdom, you are praying in the flesh because it's not supposed to be your will. But God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We often assume that we have all the boldness we need the moment we are saved. But let's look at how this was played out in the early church in Acts. These were people who had already received the Holy Spirit. At Pentecost in Acts chapter 2. Yet in the face of all of these new threats, they needed a fresh filling. And in Acts 4:31, it says, and when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God.

With boldness.

So the presence of the church is supposed to be in the world in this specific time in our history. And yes, the threat is very real, right? And other world entities and religions and things are commanding us to be silent and to roll over, to not push back, and that they gonna take over and do all the things and stuff like that that they're doing. But when we gonna do something other than complaining about the entity that is trying to take over and instead pray? Because do you think for one moment that any entity, any specific entity that is trying to take over this here United States of America, is sitting around waiting on you to do something about it? Do you think that they're sitting around watching what you're doing? No, they are gathering together trying to figure out any entry point that they can get in to do what it is that they came to accomplish to do. When is the body of Christ going to take on that same mindset? When are you going to give everything you got to God and go after every area of influence, everything that he's putting your hands to do? When are you going to go fully after it? Them people don't care about you sleeping and doing all the things. They are gathering together to figure out what they can do. They don't care. They don't. So when is the body of Christ gonna have that much drive to drive out the enemy? And it doesn't mean that trouble and hardship will disappear. It doesn't mean that that is going to go away, that the pushback and the persecution and things won't continue. What it means is that when are we going to stop caring so much about the persecution and care more about Jesus Christ and the mission of the church and the message of Jesus Christ being advanced in the earth? When are we going to care more about that? So the goal of the church after we receive a threat should be unity and acknowledging the sovereignty of God. Nobody right now who is in the body of Christ at this point in history should be anywhere doing your own thing apart from God. We should all be operating with one mind. One spirit, and one truth. God doesn't have multiple opinions about the same thing. He has one mind, one spirit, one truth. And anybody who is leading you to do something other than what God is at work to accomplish in the earth today is lying to you. It is a lying spirit. Who is convincing you to go over here and be just be doing your own thing? Go after your own thing. Go after your own vision. Go after no, it's not yours. If God gave it to you, it's his. Anybody who is compelling and urging you from any social media platform, from any pulpit in a church, telling you to go live your best life. Is lying to you. This is not the time to be trying to go live your best life. It's your time to be found in Jesus Christ and only be where he is and where he's leading you. And then they prayed for a feeling. So the Holy Spirit responded to them because of their total dependence on God after they prayed. After they prayed, the Holy Spirit came. It wasn't enough for them to get filled 15 million years ago like some of us do. We living off of yesterday's filling. You need a fresh filling every day. And then the byproduct of the threat that pushed them into unity, that caused them to pray, that also resulted in them being filled, a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit, that fruit was boldness. And then they continued to speak the word without fear. And so another thing I want to say about boldness, because it's not a personality trait— you're not bold because you just like how it feels to be abrasive and dominating over people. That's, that's not boldness, that's pride. So if you got that in your life where you just like to tell the truth because you want to be unnecessarily offensive with people and you like The dopamine that you get off of dominating over people, that's pride. Go ahead and repent for that. Boldness from the Spirit is a fruit of a life surrendered and dependent on God, not social justice warriors or for your own reputation, but to preach the word, to win souls, to preach the gospel. That's what the boldness is for. It's not for your own reputation. Right now we're also seeing this tiring pattern where someone speaks rashly, backlash follows, then comes the public apology or the long post explaining what I really meant. And then we start using nobody is perfect as a crutch for a lack of spiritual discipline. And let me just go ahead and say, we would not have to spend so much of our time retracting statements if we simply did what the early church did, the example that they set, and we aired our concerns to God before we opened up our mouths to speak publicly, before we move and start doing anything. As I've said again, everything is in the Bible. James 1:19-20. Know this, my beloved brothers, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for the anger of men does not produce the righteousness of God. The Holy Spirit provides a supernatural counterforce to your emotions. The Holy Spirit, he is the one that will stop you in the heat of a moment and has complete power to stop you in the heat of a moment and will cause you to say things like, I will pray about this first. This is one of the reasons why we are commanded to pray without ceasing. This isn't about keeping up some ritual. It's about keeping that open line of communication with God. When you're talking to people and you're in heated moments of discussion, you really need to start practicing praying in the realm of the spirit as a person is talking. And it is possible to do. You can listen and pray in the spirit at the same time. At least that's what I hope you're doing when you're praying to God. I've told this testimony before, but I'm going to share it again about prayer and why it's important that you pray without ceasing. In summer of 2021, I needed to go to Walmart for something for one of my kids one day, and We were on the way there, and I heard the Lord say, as I approached the left turn to go to Walmart, to turn around and go to Target instead. And Target was right across the street on the right side of the street from Walmart. I debated a little bit because, you know, Target can be a little bit more expensive than Walmart for what I needed at the time, but I obeyed God anyway. And as soon as I get in the parking lot, my husband calls and says, You guys aren't at Walmart, are you? I said, no, we just got to Target. He says, okay, good, because a man had followed someone else in a car to Walmart because of road rage and shot up the car by the front doors, the front entrance of Walmart. And I was like, wow. And then we talked a little bit and hung up the phone. Now, I imagine had I been in constant Communication with myself about what I wanted to do, because I wanted to save a few dollars, instead of being in constant communication with God at the moment and all the things. I imagine what would have happened to me and my children that could have played out had I not listened. And it was in that moment that I learned why I should not cease in communication with God just because I prayed this morning at 5 AM or 3 AM or whatever time I got up to pray, then I should just stop talking to God. I learned in that moment how even when we're moving throughout the day, God will give us directions about things and places and choosing the right place to go, and how you may be having it in your mind to go to one place to save money, and God will be like, you'll find it even cheaper. And guess What happened, y'all? Because I listened to the Lord in that moment, I went in Target and found it for even less than the cost that it was in Walmart. So when you are in constant communion, the Holy Spirit is a gatekeeper over your mouth, over your mind, over your actions. You have to freely allow the Holy Spirit to be present in your life. He is the most overlooked part Of the Godhead, because people have been taught that it's an it, that he is an it, when he's who will lead you into all truth, who will lead you into all the places you ought to go, who will give you direction, who will tell you to stop talking to this person, to leave this person alone, who will help you identify what a spirit is so you can pray and fast and get deliverance for yourself between you and God. He will even help you identify hidden places in your life that you didn't want to address. All these things, the Holy Spirit does that work. He will comfort you when you're broken. He will lead you into all truth. And truth in God can mean anything hidden. It can mean favor, conversations that you will have with people for God to give you favor. You over here asking God for this, asking God for that, not even realizing that the Holy Spirit is waiting to give. You in answer and waiting to lead you. We have to mature to the place of understanding that the stakes of our speech are very high. I know just believes that you can say whatever you want to say, do whatever you want to do, and nothing's going to happen to you. But in Proverbs 18:21, it says death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit. James 3:8 says the tongue is a restless evil. Full of deadly poison when it is not governed by the Holy Spirit. When you fail and constantly just yield to yourself and your flesh, not realizing that your flesh is what's wounding other people, your flesh is what's causing your witness to be ruined, your flesh is the reason why Certain opportunities that God meant for you to have, they're not here because your flesh is too much in control. And people see it on you, they hear it in your voice, they see it on you, they hear it in you. But when you ask the Holy Spirit to help you to be quick to pray and listen. You align your words with the will of God. You speak truth that tears down what is not of God and refreshes the souls of those who are listening. Submission is what I'm talking about here. I'm not talking about being flawless. Submission is the prerequisite to this. You know how when they do Fire drills in school, they teach you to stop, drop, and roll, right? And for some of us, depending on how you were raised, how you were taught to speak, the way you grew up, the kind of people you hung around, we need to practice this. We do. Because the kind of people we hung around, grew up around, or maybe even the way we were raised and taught by other people and the family dynamic and all that stuff, we were taught you just say whatever. Let them know they don't walk all over top of you. But over here in the kingdom, we got another way that we move and we speak. Okay, so some of us, just like we learned in fire drills, need to stop, drop, and roll in the spirit. That means you need to stop whatever you are doing or think about doing and saying, drop to your knees and resist the devil so he can flee. Stop, drop, and roll. That means stop whatever you are doing Thinking about doing, drop to your knees and resist the devil, and he shall flee. Stop, drop, and roll. There's this common temptation to justify a lack of self-control by pointing to. Biblical examples that honestly lead us to act out more things in our flesh. We say things like Jesus flipped tables, or John the Baptist called them vipers. We find these passages of scripture to justify our out-of-control outbursts. And, and this is dangerous because when Jesus went up in the temple And was flipping tables, this was not a temper tantrum. He was responding to the desecration of the holiness of God. True biblical boldness is always submissive to the leading of the Holy Spirit. It's not out of control. It's power under control. It's power under control. In submission to God. This undertone that is also being communicated a lot these days within the body of Christ is this undertone that says that we cannot walk in consistent victory in this area. We excuse our stumbling by saying, well, I'm only human. And it is true that we are human. But we have to learn to start partnering with God to crucify this, because humanity is not the standard for the child of God. Life in the spirit is. And I'm gonna say it again: humanity is not the standard for the believer, for the child of God. Humanity is not your standard. Life in the spirit is a sacrificed. Life is in spirit and in truth is. It doesn't mean we don't acknowledge that we are human. It doesn't mean that we are not honest about the things that affect, affect our flesh. But humanity is not the standard. Life in the spirit is. Paul, though he was very educated and he's one of the most quoted people in the New Testament, Among the body of Christ. First Corinthians two and four, and you got to understand that Paul was very educated and brilliant, but he didn't rely on his human intellect. And he said, "My speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power." Peter, who also denied Jesus three times. Walked in such deep communion that his shadow passing by brought life. So to say that we cannot walk in this level of empowerment while also being human is to deny the testimony of scripture that says in Romans 8:11, it says, if the Spirit of him Who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. God is not waiting for you to die. And go to heaven to empower you with his Spirit. He wants to give life to your mortal body right now. And we gotta stop settling for this version of Christianity that looks just like the world. And we're called to a life where the supernatural power of God is our normal. This should be normal to us to live life in the Spirit. It should be normal to us to have deep encounters with the Lord. This should be normal. And there's this confession that we often say of, I just can't help it. And you're right, you can't help it. You can't help that you are attracted to this thing. You can't help that you love doing that. You can't help that you always speak that way. You can't help it. You're right, because you're not supposed to. God gave you free will, and that means that you have the ability to choose how you're going to respond and what you're going to say. You can choose not to help yourself and lean into the help that comes only from the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is the only one Who is referred to as the Helper in scripture. The Holy Spirit, he is the only one who is referred to as the Helper in scripture. You don't have to lean into saying and, and just doing any and everything with your life. You don't have to lean into just being a part of certain conversations that are about any and everything. You can choose. You are not a prisoner to any situation, circumstance, or reaction to a heated moment. You can choose to engage and pull on and lean on God the Holy Spirit every single time. And it's not about being flawless. It's about being led by the Spirit. It's not About being flawless. It's about being led by the Spirit. We gotta mature. We gotta grow up. Let us pray. Father, we confess that we have been quick to speak and slow to pray and slow to listen to your voice. We repent, Lord, for not being doers of your word in this area. We have defended ourselves, defended everything else without acknowledging who you are instead of seeking your face. Teach us to fear you again, God. Fill us again with your Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Govern our mouths, Holy Spirit. Anchor our hearts, Holy Spirit. Grant us boldness that flows from obedience and not emotion. We surrender our words, our reactions, and our reputations to you. In Jesus' name, amen.

Thank you for listening to the Thirst with Hunger podcast. We truly appreciate you joining us on this journey. Your support makes it all possible. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to our channel, hit the like button, and leave a comment below with your thoughts.