Mr 5:27 When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his
garment.
Php 3:13-14 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus
Both of these scriptures deal with the thought, that in order to get what you desire you have to put forth some effort, you have to be willing to go against the current.
You have to have some old fashioned grit and gumption.
Let me clear something up for you:
Miracles don't Just happen because God is in a good mood
Miracles don't happen just because their needed
Miracles are not an accident nor are they just a supernatural sovereign act of God that just occurs for certain people in certain places at certain times.
No: Miracles come (where they're needed) yes (but only when they are desired and reached for) You have to catch a miracle.
*Jairus caught a miracle for his dead daughter when he threw his pride out and he came to Jesus
*Bartimaeus caught a miracle when he stopped Jesus with his unrestrained cries for mercy
*The Leper caught a miracle when he fell down at Jesus feet seeking his mercy and healing
*The syrophenician woman caught a miracle for her demon possessed daughter when she broke religious protocol and came to Jesus.
Mt 11:12 From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force.
(The ones that win in life are the ones that are willing to fight for what they want.)
When the giant Goliath defied the children of Israel David Spoke up.
1Sa 17:32 And David said to Saul, Let no man’s heart fail because of him; thy servant will go and (fight) with this Philistine.
FIGHT
That word as it is used there is translated:
-fight to war, make war, overcome, prevail , do battle, to engage in battle, wage war
and my favorite definition. ( to eat, use as food).
It reminds me of the words of Joshua and Caleb speaking of the giants in their promised land (They are bread for us).
There are basically speaking two classes of Christians in the church
There are the Pro-active
There are the Re-active
Most Christians live very {re-active lives} they are always on the defensive re-acting to the attacks of the enemy.
Paul could never have been the Great Apostle he was by living a Re-active life.
If you learn anything from reading Paul’s writings it is that he was always the aggressor.
His entire ministry was on the front lines pushing into enemy territory.
He was always wanting to take the light into the darkness he was never content to just be comfortable and satisfied among other believers.
In Eph 6: 10-12 Paul speaks of the warfare of the believer, requiring a full out effort on our part.
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
11 Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Certainly it is not a flesh and blood battle, but there is without question warfare.
(And the believer is to be the aggressor in that battle.)
Five times Paul uses the word (against) in relationship to our warfare against principalities, and powers and the rulers of the darkness of this world, and spiritual wickedness in high places.
Then Paul uses the word (stand) again this is an aggressive word, When you take a stand you are an opposing force.
When you stand against abortion, homosexuality drug abuse, and domestic abuse. Child abuse, or drunk driving you are the aggressor.
(Your stand makes you an enemy of unrighteousness.)
Too many of Gods people live Re-active lives, they don’t stand for anything and they’re not against anything.
They’re always trying to recover from an attack instead of launching the attack.
We could never look at Jesus in a Re-active sense, everywhere Jesus went he was the initiator, he was on the offense he was the aggressor invading enemy territory, pushing back the darkness, overthrowing the devil, undoing the devils works.
Acts 10:38 How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the HolyGhost and with power who went about doing good, healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with him.
When the Prophet Elijah met the false prophets of Baal and wicked King Ahab upon Mt Carmel (He Elijah) was the aggressor.
Elijah was the one who issued the challenge and Elijah was the one who set the terms of the challenge.
When David Met Goliath, David was the aggressor.
He ran to meet Goliath (David pushed the Issue).
The problem with many of Gods people is; we live such lukewarm, prayerless, wordless, passionless lives, that we’re afraid to initiate anything because we’re afraid we can’t back it up.
(One of the greatest secrets of Paul’s life was he lived aggressively.)
One of the greatest secrets to victory, and peace and joy in your life will be to learn to live aggressively.
If we are going to experience the Power of God in our lives, and see the glory of God manifested in our behalves, we have to go on the offense against the works of darkness.
We must learn how to live aggressively.
Even in the natural (we learn in football, and other sports that in order to score you must go on the offensive).
You must put pressure on the opposition.
When you learn to live aggressively you can be waging war all the time.
By living aggressively for God you will be continually pushing back the works of darkness.
When you live in this bold aggressive spirit, you become a threat to hell
Even a smile can destroy hostility, anger, or depression.
Ecc 9:10 whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.
The devil hates aggressive Christians Aggressive Christians prove the word of God is true.
Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.
We should pray aggressively, praise aggressively, sing aggressively, give aggressively, love aggressively, (Put some fire in your actions)
(I define aggressively as (leaning into it) Pressing)
Jesus said: The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.
That means he was on fire about the things of God, he was always leaning into it, pressing it forward.
*Sometimes we come to church, like we got the short straw in some drawing and our punishment was to have to go to church.*
Paul said I "reach forth" unto those things which are before me, and I "press" toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
There is a mentality that has invaded the church that the Christian life is just a big marathon race and basically speaking you are guaranteed to win just by signing up.
This was never the attitude of the scriptures.
The bible tells us clearly that ( the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force.
That we must lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily besets us and run this race before us.
That we are to seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness.
That we are to put off the old man with his deeds, and put on the new man.
Mt 7:14 says: strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
The bible says: God would rather we were hot or cold, but if we’re lukewarm he will spew us out of his mouth.
You don’t win the war just by joining the army, There’s some training, some discipline, some fighting, and very often many casualties before a war is won.
Don’t expect Heaven without a little hell, I mean it’s going to cost you something.
There’s a devil who hates you and wants to destroy your destiny, and destroy your life.
You might as well recognize the fight is on:
If you are really going to make a difference in this world you have to get Mad.
(Anger is energy.)
We must become angry at what the devil is doing if we are ever going to change it.
We will never become aggressive for God until we are angered by the works of the devil.
(As a child of God:)
Poverty should make you angry, Sickness and disease should make you angry.
Oppression, and abuse, prejudice, injustice, should make you angry.
It should make you angry when you are told that you are weird because you believe that the true biblical standard of marriage is between one man and one woman.
It should make you angry when they talk about sucking the brains out of a baby so they can find a cure for some disease.
I don’t know what stirs you up, but something has to make you angry.
(When anger is properly focused, it becomes and energy and a power for change.)
There was a T.V series several years back, Called the INCREDIBLE HULK starring Bill Bixby as David Banner and Lou Ferrigno was The Incredible Hulk.
The series began like this:
This fine young happily married man and his wife are out for a ride, when they have a blow out. He loses control of the car, it rolls over and he gets out but his wife is trapped inside the car. The car explodes and she dies in the explosion.
This causes David Banner to be so angry at himself for not being able to help her that he goes on a personal crusade to find the secret of strength.
He interviews other individuals who experienced similar situations as his own, except that in some rare cases at the critical moment they experienced superhuman strength that enabled them to save their loved one or ones.
His testing ultimately leads him to study gamma rays because there seemed to be a connection between these rare cases of superhuman strength and sun spot activity or solar flares.
In his experiments he accidentally overdoses himself on Gamma rays.
This alters his chemical makeup so that whenever he gets angry he changes into the HULK a massive force of superhuman strength.
The problem with a lot of Christians is they haven’t got a big enough dose of Holy Ghost Gamma Rays.
When you get full of the Holy Ghost it does something to your makeup, It alters your attitude, You can’t just sit Idly by while the devil destroys lives.
There’s something about a Holy Ghost anointing that puts steel in your back bone and fire in your veins and you can’t just sit still.
You have to take action, you have to gather up your spiritual artillery and go into battle.
When you get full of Holy ghost gamma rays sin will make you angry, when you see people’s lives destroyed by the devil it will stir you up.
It will make you angry when millions of babies are aborted every year, and most of them are killed in the name of research and convenience.
It will make you angry when you see homosexuals standing behind Gods holy place spreading their lies in the church.
It will make you angry to see people dying of aids, and other sexually transmitted diseases.
There’s something wrong, when sin no longer angers us.
There’s something wrong when we can see the affects of sin and it no longer angers us.
There’s something wrong when we can see someone hooked on drugs, bound by lust and pornography and it doesn’t even affect us.
When you know that sin is damning souls to an eternal hell and it doesn’t make us aggressive to stand up and tell them the truth (there is something wrong) with our salvation.
Even with his supernatural strength, Samson was no threat to the enemy until he got angry..
When Samson got angry, something was getting ready to happen. Anger motivated Samson to action.
2 Sam 23:11-12 Tells about a man named shammah who had a piece of ground full of lentils, (a pea patch)
As was their custom, the philistines came to destroy his harvest, when Shammahs friends saw the philistines coming they ran for their lives.
They expected Shammah to run, He had always run before.
But he was not running, something had changed, something snapped inside of Shammah and he made up his mind that he was not leaving.
(This is my land, my harvest and I’m not leaving this time).
He finally got angry. He was angry at the philistines he was angry at himself.
He was so mad that he decided: I might die today, but if I die, I’ll die fighting for what belongs to me.
Shammah Decided, It’s worth it.
Is there anyone who believes your children are worth fighting for? Your health is worth fighting for? Your ministry, your dreams, your vision?
Your husband, your wife?
Is there anybody like shammah who would say: (The last time was the last time).
I’m not running this time, I’m not going to hide out in a cave, and watch the enemy destroy everything I’ve worked for, everything I’ve prayed over, sweated over, cried over.
Tell your neighbor: I ain’t taking it anymore. I’m getting in the press.
I’m through living defensively
I’m through living re-actively
From now on I’m the Initiator, From now on I’m the aggressor.
Lu 10: 19 Behold I give you power, to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
I'm closing with one last scripture:
Isa 28:5-6 In that day shall the Lord of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people, and for a spirit of judgement to him that sitteteth in judgement and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate.
God promises to be a crown of glory and a diadem of beauty and a spirit of judgement, and strength to them that turn the battle to the gate.
Not to them that run and hide, not to them that just show up to watch, not to them that pretend there isn't any battle, but to those who put on the whole armor of God, take the shield of faith and the sword of the spirit and turn the battle to the gate.
Many times in our lives battles are lost, not because the enemy is more powerful or has the advantage, but many times it is simply because we do not fight, we do not get in the press.
Great victories are the product of great battles
Great testimonies are the product of great tests.
All the resources of heaven come to your aide when you decide that you will get in the press.
