a covenant a covenant is a relationship in which two parties make binding promises to each other you can enter a covenant through words vows or promises or you can enter a covenant through actions and deeds and so this means that you can even enter a covenant unintentionally if you don't know what you're saying or what you're [Music] doing after the flood God said this in Genesis 9:8 to1 then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him saying and as for me behold I establish my Covenant with you and with your descendants after you
and with every living creature that is with you the birds the cattle and every beast of the Earth with you of all that go out of the Ark every beast of the earth thus I establish my Covenant with you never again shall All Flesh be cut off By the Waters of the flood never again shall there be a flood to destroy the Earth God made a promise and established a covenant the Bible also goes on to tell us Genesis 2: 24 says therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to
his wife other translations say to be joyed or to be United together with his wife and they shall become one flesh now here a man shall commit the act of leaving his father and mother to go to his wife once with his wife they shall become one through the act of sex this establishes a covenant between this man and this woman so from this we can understand that you can enter a covenant through what you say through vows through Oaths through promises the Bible says in Matthew 5:37 let what you say be simply yes or
no anything more than this comes from evil when I read this I take this as a warning that you shouldn't just promise things you shouldn't just vow to do things or speak an oath without understanding this is because you can enter into a covenant with someone who you should not be in agreement with this is especially dangerous in relationships many people are holding on to someone they dated many years ago or a boyfriend or girlfriend from many years ago ago you're still holding on to them because you entered a covenant even though you weren't married
you vowed to always be with them you promised to always love them and years later you're no longer with them but that person continues to have real estate in your mind and you can't seem to figure out why it's a covenant that needs to be broken in the Bible when Jesus meets the woman at the well remember the exchange that happened in John 4 between verse 16 and 18 Jesus said to her go call your husband and come here the woman answered him I have no husband Jesus said to her you are right in saying
I have no husband for you have had five husbands and the one you now have is not your husband what you have said is true there is something that happens in the spirit realm when you enter a covenant with someone physically you might be fine and there seems to be nothing tangible but in the spirit in this Spirit you could have attached yourself to all kinds of spirits and demonic influences this is why so often you'll find many people saying that this keeps happening to me and I don't know why I keep going this far
and I can't seem to progress any further than a certain point I don't know why the reason is spiritual a story was told of a young man who got involved with a young lady now unbeknown to this young man this young lady was a soothsayer she was under a demonic influence and she was into things like foretelling the future and palm reading and all sorts now to the young man she presented this World of Magic and futuretelling as a game as light-hearted entertainment they would be at dinner and while they were waiting for their food
she would take his hands and jokingly ask if she could read his palms and tell him his future they weren't together long as a couple but after they went their separate ways this young man started to experience strange things and unfortunate things he would be ill and I mean bedridden but the doctors couldn't find out why he was then diagnosed as depressed and in his words he would say I just feel like I'm being pushed down he would strugle to sleep he didn't enjoy anything at at all and it took his mother his worried and
loving mother who called on a genuine man of God her local pastor at a small assembly she asked him please would you come and just pray for my son pray for him and encourage him now this mother told the pastor about the state her son was in and about all the doctor visits and them not finding anything she told him all of that the pastor agreed but he said I need to fast and pray before I see him and I need you to join me too they agreed and for the next 3 days the pastor
and his wife joined this single mother in fasting and praying now finally fin came the day when this man of God went to see this troubled young man now when the pastor told this story he said he felt in his spirit that he ought to ask this man at some point who was close to him who were the people in his inner circle and what did they think when he asked him the question he responded and said a lot of my friends think I'm down because I had a bad breakup the pastor probed a bit
more and the boy revealed that this young lady began to make him feel extremely uncomfortable she became obsessed with the magic stuff did you ever get involved in it the pastor asked no not really at first we only did light-hearted stuff you know like she would pretend to read my future and those sorts of things and the pastor immediately said Son the moment you gave her your hands and allowed her to think she could see into your future you entered a covenant with her because by virtue of opening yourself up in being receptive of her
influence you were in agreement with her and whatever spirit that was upon her that Pastor his wife and the mother prayed for this young man they spoke the blood of Jesus Christ over him and broke that Covenant and almost the very next day there was an undeniable change on this young man's face the moral of the story is be careful be careful of entering dangerous Unholy and evil covenants when you have sex outside of marriage you're entering a covenant when you make promises and vows and Oaths and I'm not talking about Civic duties or anything
like that I'm talking about vows and Oaths where there is no legal requirement and where you have no business saying certain things as a child of God be careful because you could be entering a covenant be careful of your actions or deeds don't agree to have someone say they can read your future don't agree to have someone invite you to participate in Unholy things in the name of entertainment you're entering a covenant if you are not careful saints of God pray for wisdom the devil will never Force his way into your life he will never
forcefully oppress you he will trick you to open a door and consent to being oppressed Adam and Eve were tricked by the serpent into losing the blessing they had in the Garden of Eden where they could freely fellowship with God don't believe the serpent now the type of Covenant we should be making much like the one found in Matthew 26 26-28 where the Bible says now as they were eating Jesus Took the bread and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples and said take eat this is my body and he took
a cup and when he had given thanks he gave it to them saying drink of it all of you for this is my blood of the Covenant which is poured out for many for the Forgiveness of sins now as children of God when we partake in the act of the Holy Communion we are partaking in in this Covenant when we speak when we plead the blood of Jesus Christ we are partaking in a blessed covenant and so I want to pray with you I want us to believe that the Lord will break every ungodly unrighteous
and unclean Covenant in our lives over the years the power that a distinctive atmosphere can have on people has become more and more apparent and this is meant that institutions businesses the entertainment sector all use the psychological effects of an atmosphere to their advantage for some to make more money take a look at certain sport venues they're designed in a way that allows the best Acoustics you can hear the crowd cheering and even on occasions where the home team is losing an atmosphere can lift any team you go to watch a movie and what do
they do turn off the lights turn up the speakers some even offer a sensory experience where your seat shakes and you feel the effects of the movie it's all to create an atmosphere look at a bar or nightclub loud music dimmed lights a closed off environment alcohol it's an atmosphere and we do it too as Christians we go to church and most people on their way to church listen to gospel music once you get to church the praise and worship teams nearly always come before the speaker it's all to create an atmosphere an atmosphere is
distinctive it's a force you can feel it and in a spiritual sense an atmosphere is a spiritual doorway have you ever noticed that you can walk into a room full of people and feel an atmosphere you can feel whether you're welcome or not you can even walk into a church and feel either comfortable or uneasy in fact you can walk into a room with only your spouse there and you can sense you can feel the type of atmosphere or mood in that room without saying one word scripture teaches that there are spiritual battles all around
us we live in two atmospheres one is physical where our senses are engaged we can see smell hear touch and taste the other is spiritual we can't see it with the natural eye or EXP experience it with the rest of our natural senses but it's very real whether you believe it or not we don't wrestle against flesh and blood why because our enemy is not in the physical atmosphere and when we open these certain doors when we open these spiritual doors we're inviting a presence into the place we are now let me tell you this
the devil does not fight fair Revelation 12:12 says he is filled with fury because he knows that his time is short meaning that he will not give up until you're wounded and destroyed and yes he will attack Us by virtue of us being children of God but he will also attack us if we leave certain doors open in our lives if we allow him access through spiritual doors before I go any further I do want you to understand that regardless of how much Fury the devil is filled with we are not to be afraid we
are to Be watchful to be sober and Vigilant but we are not to be fearful because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world God has given his angels charge over you the Lord has promised to protect you the Bible says this I declare about the Lord he alone is my refuge my place of safety he is my God and I trust him but we should not be ignorant we should as children of God be alert that one of the most dangerous things a Christian can do is open up
the door to the enemy and how do you do that how do you open yourself up to the enemy well the enemy is deceptive in how he operates he will never openly try and walk into your life he will hide behind the things you watch he will hide behind what you listen to he will hide behind the places you go and I don't mean the grocery store or to your job I mean when people make the decision for fun to visit those haunted experiences or haunted scary rooms at amusement parks and you know why these
are all doors when you watch something when you listen to certain types of music when you visit certain places you're exposing yourself to an atmosphere a pervading tone or mood consider this when we worship God when we sing praises to Him you can be in your car in church or in your home the atmosphere shifts because you're inviting him in you're calling out to him you're reaching out and the same is true when you switch off the lights to watch a horror movie what are you doing you're creating an atmosphere you may think it's entertainment
but it's actually an atmosphere you're inviting an ungodly presence and those are the spiritual doors that the devil enter through that's why it's so important to be mindful of the atmosphere around us in our homes and at the places we are we need to discern whose presence we're allowing to be highlighted our enemy will keep trying to do what he does to steal kill and destroy and he does it best with your consent the atmosphere of Praise Worship prayer love and unity attract the Holy Spirit just as an atmosphere of lust drunkenness anger and hatred
attracts demonic spirits you impact your own Spirit by the atmosphere you choose the choices you make with the places you go can impact the way you get tempted to sin be careful with the places you enter the atmosphere there might get you to sin use wisdom be alert we have to be guarded even in a season of pain because sometimes that's when we're most vulnerable everyone has and will suffer hurt in life we all have to endure some kind of wound suffer some type of disappointment suffer wounds and scars that should have could have and
probably still can destroy destroy your faith kill your hope destroy the trust in a marriage steal the future of a young man or taint the eyes of a young young lady the enemy does come to steal kill and destroy if you're not guarded he doesn't need an invitation to come in and attack but the mistakes that we think is that when the devil attacks a Believer it should be fire in Brimstone something think of a Grim Reaper look Alik but no it's problem after problem it's issue after issue one thing after another with an intention
to wear you down get you to a state of being sick and tired why do you think the Bible tells that they who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength it's so you won't get tired of this enemy come unto me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest or Hebrews 12 therefore since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us in other words
don't grow tired don't let the devil wear you down but here's how to be guarded always always be sensitive be alert be mindful of the kind of atmosphere you're exposing yourself to a Christian man was on his death bed as he lay there his family by his side the room was silent ENT the only sound was the heart rate monitor machine beeping slowly in the background he summoned the strength to give his loved ones some parting words he said the Bible warned me that time is short and I didn't listen the Bible warned me that
it profits nothing for a man to gain the whole world but lose his soul for over half my life I worked and worked I accumulated possessions but no amount of money I've made could buy me another 24 hours on this Earth the Bible warned me to forgive but I carried so much anger against so many people who had done me wrong it is only in my final days that I have been able to forgive don't be like me listen to God's warnings early enough to take action don't wait until it's too late it was almost
too late for me now when I heard this story it made me think how many of us underestimate biblical warnings how many of us take biblical warnings seriously now the Apostle Paul is a fascinating character in The Bible before he was Paul the Apostle he was known as Saul from Tarsus he was originally a Pharisee and a persecutor of early Christians Saul was a zealous Pharisee who was determined to stamp out what he saw as a dangerous heresy that that was spreading in the Jewish Community this Saul would go door too and beat Christians and
it's believed that he also killed them in the book of Acts the first person to die for following Jesus was a man named Steven Steven gave a speech about Jesus and called everyone to repent and trust in Jesus at the end of the speech Steven is stoned to death it says of Saul in Acts 8:1 and Saul approved of his execution at the least Saul approved and was happy with the execution at the most he set up the execution Saul killed followers of Jesus but despite all of this Saul had a dramatic conversion experience on
the road to Damascus where he saw a vision of Jesus and after this experience the one persecutor of Christians became a Christian himself now let me ask you was Paul so bad that God couldn't use him of course not Paul was transformed when he encountered Christ and when Paul did encounter Christ he wrote many books in the New Testament and there's one passage of scripture where he gives us six cautionary warnings regarding how we live our lives these six warnings are don't participate in the darkness of wild parties don't be involved in drunkenness have nothing
to do with sexual promiscuity do not live immorally do not be found quarreling and the last point is not to be jealous now these six points can be found in Romans 13:13 where the Bible says because we belong to the day we must live decent lives for all to see don't participate in the darkness of wild parties and drunkenness or in sexual promiscuity and moral living or in quarreling and jealousy when Paul says don't participate in the darkness of wild parties and drunkenness the imagery here is powerful imagine a person stumbling around in the dark
unable to see clearly in the same way engaging in wild parties and drunkenness clouds our judgment and leads us into spiritual Darkness just as a lighthouse warns ships of dangerous rocks the Bible cautions us about the Perils of indulging in activities that dull our spiritual senses the next couple of points are to do with guarding against sexual promiscuity and immoral living continuing in Romans 13: 13B Paul urges us not to participate in sexual promiscuity and immoral living the combination of sexual promiscuity and immoral living are like a thick fog that obscures our vision of God's
plan for our lives such Behavior breed an ungodly attitude ungodly habits and eventually it becomes a lifestyle this is why it's incredibly important to be rooted in God's word much like a compass points True North the Bible provides a moral compass that when followed guides us away from the fog of immorality in Romans 13:14 Paul provides us with a solution as he writes rather clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh clothing ourselves with Christ is like putting on a suit of armor it
protects us from the arrows of Temptation and shields us from the Allure of worldly desires just as a soldier prepares for battle by putting on Armor we prepare for the spiritual battles of Life by clothing ourselves with the character and teachings of Christ as we navigate the challenges of our time let us Heed These Warnings guarding against the pitfalls that lead to spiritual Darkness now I would like for us to further explore warnings from Paul the Apostle and one of his most serious warnings to Christians is related to unbelief Hebrews 3 verse 12 says see
to it brothers and sisters that none of you has a sin F unbelieving heart that turns away from the Living God this is a serious warning because Paul is telling us that we need to see to it that none of us have a wicked and unbelieving heart a heart which refuses to trust and rely on the Lord a heart that turns away from the Living God and let me show you just why unbelief is so crippling to a Christian in Matthew 13 when Jesus was coming to his hometown he began teaching the people in the
synagogue and verse 58 says now he did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief think about that Jesus didn't do any Miracles because of unbelief Jesus didn't perform any Mighty works because of unbelief and so my friends you see why Paul warns us against having an unbelieving heart when you have a heart filled with unbelief you deny God's power you deny God's glory you deny the Lord of all that he is so be warned people of God see to it that none of you has a sinful unbelieving heart that turns away from
the Living God now for this next warning I have to give you a little bit of context before I go on any further the children of Israel were LED out of captivity and slavery they saw incredible miracles from God they saw the Red Sea was part of the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light they were fed by Mana from heaven but despite seeing God's strong hand the children of Israel rebelled murmured and complained against God
and so Paul in the New Testament warns us in Hebrews 3:1 15-1 17 as has just been said today if you hear his voice do not Harden your hearts as you did in the Rebellion who were they who heard and rebelled were they not all those Moses LED out of Egypt and with whom was he angry for 40 years was it not with those who sinned whose bodies perished in the wilderness the warning here is that we should not Harden our hearts don't be cold and insensitive to the voice of God in the midst of
all the chaos and confusion of this world the voice of God is still calling out to us the spirit of the Lord is knocking on our hearts a hardened heart means that someone is blind it means insensitivity towards God's Beauty And Glory it means chasing after our own desires instead of the things of God but thankfully in his mercy God is offered to change our hearts God can change our hearts the third warning I believe we should be aware of can be found in Hebrews 2:1 therefore we must give the more Earnest heed to the
things we have heard lest we drift away now I believe that the Amplified translation explains this verse further as it says for this reason that is because of God's final Revelation in his son Jesus and because of Jesus's superiority to the angels we must pay much closer attention than ever to the things that we have heard so that we do not in a way drift away from truth in essence what the Bible is telling us here is that we should be careful not to drift away from the truth that is Jesus Christ we should be
careful not to slip away from the truth of the gospel because in this world you will encounter people who give you their own watered down version of The Gospel people who will preach a gospel that will require no repentance no commitment no denying of self but instead a gospel that tickles the ears it sounds good makes you feel good but has no power to transform you or challenge you this is what we should be careful about let's not drift away from the truth of the Gospel the real Gospel of Jesus Christ will Challenge and convict
you it will lead to a change in your sinful habits and cause you to repent and we should do just that Saints we should repent and turn away from sin spiritual discernment have you ever heard anyone say something something along the lines of I sense the presence of God in here or something about him is just off something about her being here made me feel uncomfortable maybe even the phrase something about it just doesn't sit well with me perhaps you're familiar with these phrases or phrases similar to them they all speak to some kind of
ability to discern things that are unseen things that are unspoken and generally hid hidden there are numerous stories about people who felt led to go to such and such a place at such and such a time and they met somebody that needed help or a kind word they would later recognize that to be a Divine appointment if we follow the promoting of the Holy Spirit we will find ourselves LED and drawn in all kinds of directions there was a British evangelist who lived and preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the late 1800s and early
1900s and in a book written by George Stormont called Wigglesworth a man who walked with God there are some amazing stories of how God worked wonders through this man I'd like to read a short excerpt from this book and I pray that it will minister to your hearts one day God spoke to Wigglesworth telling him to go to a certain spot by the side of a street in Bradford and wait for a man he would send after waiting an hour and a half he was on the point of leaving when he saw approaching him a
man driving a horse and carriage this is the man prompted the Holy Spirit Wigglesworth jumped up and sat on the seat by the side of the driver he was ordered off but stayed put lovingly earnestly patiently God's servant Smith Wigglesworth spoke to the driver about his need of Jesus before they arrived at his destination the man yielded to the savior's claim very shortly after that news came that the man had suddenly been taken ill and died and with the news came a message that he had died trusting in the Lord now in this short story
some people would highlight the fact that Smith Wigglesworth was really a man who was mightily used by God others would pick up on the importance of obeying God when he speaks to you because you never know whose life you could end up impacting however I believe that the bigger picture in this is isn't God so good is he not so wonderful and loving and I say this because God LED Smith Wigglesworth to minister to this man shortly before he passed away God in his love offered this man one more opportunity to hear about the go
goel of Jesus Christ God in his Mercy afforded this man another opportunity to make a decision concerning his eternal destination so for me this story wasn't all about being obedient to God's voice or how God could use any one of us to touch the lives of someone else but instead for me this story is about God's love for a person who was lost and heading for Eternal damnation the dictionary definition of discernment is simply the ability to judge well a secondary definition relates to spirituality and it says perception in the absence of judgment with a
view to obtaining spiritual guidance and understanding in other words spiritual discernment is the ability to see hear and understand spiritual things that are not readily seen heard or understood now it's important for us to establish what discernment is not discernment is not intuition it's not your gut feeling it's not a superpower it's a spiritual gift given to Believers for Spiritual purposes spiritual discernment is something provided by the spirit of God to lead and guide you to his will it's an intentional process by God to bring us into cooperation with his plan for our lives Paul
in the Bible in 1 Corinthians 2:13 speaks concerning spiritual discernment and the Bible reads these things we also speak not in Words which man's Wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches comparing spiritual things with spiritual but the natural man does not receive the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness to him nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned one important distinction in this verse is that spiritual discernment is intricately tied to the Holy Spirit discernment comes from the spirit of God it's not something that comes from being a
good judge of character it's not something that comes from oneself it comes from God it's a spiritual gift just as the word of God also says in 1 Corinthians Ians 12:10 that to another the working of Miracles to another prophecy to another Discerning of spirits to another different kinds of tongues to another the interpretation of tongues God gives us the ability through the Holy Spirit to discern between various spirits and forces in this world at the heart of spiritual discernment is spiritual warfare because we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against the rulers
against the authorities against the cosmic Powers over this present Darkness against the spiritual forces of evil in Heavenly places whether you believe it or not there are spiritual forces at work behind the scenes that we cannot see there are forces of light and darkness that are out there seeking to influence the human heart for or against God the gift of spiritual discernment then allows the believer to discern when there are spiritual forces at work in the course of daily life I need you to get that the gift of spiritual discernment allows you to discern to
identify when when there are spiritual forces at work good or bad so this means you don't walk around Discerning that the cashier is possessed because they gave you the wrong change you don't walk around saying that you feel the presence of God simply because a gospel song comes on you are not holier than thou if you have the gift of discernment but my point is that discernment is a wonderful gift and having a spirit of discernment gives us a weapon to use against evil forces because we're not easily deceived we pick up on things like
a preacher saying God but never the name of Jesus with the eyes of discernment we look at the gospel artist releasing a record and see if how they live their life matches the content of their song are they singing Hallelujah keep my heart pure but are they living in sin with the gift of discernment we know that if we call on God in times of Temptation and trial the devil will have to flee according to James 4:7 if we are a able to open our eyes and see that our Temptations Are Spiritual in nature our
trials tribulations and struggles Are Spiritual in nature and the battle for our minds and Hearts Are Spiritual in nature then through the power of the Holy Spirit we will be able to resist those spiritual forces I believe another term for discernment is spiritual Insight you are in sight off the spiritual you are considering what type of atmosphere is being created by this movie by this show or by this game is it one that creates a feeling of excitement through fear you consider the implication of certain objects you bring in your home what is the meaning
of that souvenir or gift from a friend and I'm not talking about some innocent things like mugs or scarves I'm talking about specific objects that are unique to a specific region spiritual Insight will have you asking the question like where did that thing come from what does it mean is it a ritualistic object and so forth however discernment isn't only for the supernatural or the gifted every believer should have a measure of the Holy Spirit to help them discern decisions and choices in everyday life when we are think thinking and acting according to the spirit
we are lining ourselves up with God's will for our lives this can obviously have implications for major life decisions like who to marry what house to buy or what career to choose but it can also have an impact on mundane daily decisions like what to wear today or where to go to lunch for people that are in tune with the spirit's leadings they may find themselves led to Divine appointments and what I mean by that is you just so happen to be in the right place at the right time you miss that bus Which just
so happened to crash that day you were off sick on the day that something serious happens at your workplace or you take a wrong turn and walk straight into people who God wanted you to meet so you can provide them with a word of encouragement or they can bless you in some way now why is spiritual discernment so important would any of us be worse off if no one had it the holy spirit gives it as a gift to Believers for a reason but what is that reason one reason is that there are forces and
powers in the world that are beyond our line of natural sight spiritual discernment brings us in tune with those forces and helps us to navigate them if we are not in tune with God's spirit how do we expect to be in with God's will it is discernment through the holy spirit that allows us to follow God in a way that we should the holy spirit opens our eyes to the truth of the spiritual realities in every decision in our lives God is not out there disconnected and unconcerned about our lives if we are willing to
listen and open ourselves up to the Holy Spirit then we will discover that God has in interest in the ordinary and mundane of Our Lives we will be able to discern God's will in every aspect of Our Lives spiritual discernment is an important part of the believer's experience it's important to help us to discern the spiritual forces around us in this world to discern God's will for our lives and to help us follow that will each and every one of us should pray for the gift of the discern so that we are in line with
the will of God several times in scripture men and women of God are led to do something or to go somewhere because of their discernment of the will of God God is not stop speaking today God is still speaking leading calling us to go and to do for him it is our task to ask the holy spirit for the ability to hear and to follow
