What happens when a battle-trained believer realizes that the battle does not have to be fought in his own strength? In Psalm 144, David moves from the battle-focused language towards a deeper place of surrender and trust.
\nThe message explores spiritual maturity, Spirit-led prayer, worship, spiritual warfare, and the importance of praying for the next generation.
\nThe Battle Belongs to the Lord<\/p>\n
Praise the Lord. for today’s a short meditation. Let’s open our Bibles to Psalms 144 9 to 15. Somebody can read it in English please. Are you reading Psalms 144? Praise the Lord. Praise God. Hallelujah. So we are very familiar with these Psalms. Now Martin Luther called Psalms 118 his most beloved psalm. And I call this my most beloved psalm. When I was a new Christian, got baptized, received the anointing of the spirit, you know, in that initial rush. One morning, I woke up. Those who know me know the story. Hallelujah. Hearing somebody pronouncing this verse in Malayala, the verse one, blessed be the Lord who trains my hands for battle. Praise the Lord. And since then I’ve always meditated this and heard many messages over this. But you know the word has a way of growing over us. As we grow in the Lord every day we go forward new thoughts, new meanings come over us. Very experiential. Say for example yesterday pastor Anel gave a a very blessed message and two things he said really kind of touched me. The first one was when Elijah brings makes this altar [music] he picks up 12 stones. You know there is a national issue here. Israel and Judah are always they always have this bad blood. Israelites compl has so much complaint against the Judah for all the hard labor Judah put them through that is the reason they separated. So when a prophet of God comes and put 12 stones or 12 rocks together to make the altar according to this two other tribes who is Judah Judah and Benjamin there is an issue here people don’t like it but in spite of it he does that and I never thought about that how a man of God standing against all the barriers against a nation against the kings and bringing glory for God by announcing a message of unity. Praise God. The second thing was even more troubling for me when uh he was speaking over um what was the second one like uh when uh okay I lost it for a moment. So the thing is like I couldn’t agree or I thought possible. The thing is God speaking to Elijah. God did not speak to Elijah for 3 years. That is what I was I couldn’t I had to think about it. I never challenge any pastor who says anything because that is against the word of God. But I always think about it. I go home. I check it and to my surprise, yes, he was right. Praise the Lord. For three years, 6 months, God spoke to him. Go from Saraph, go to Saraphat, you know, go from K and all that. For 3 years, the Lord did not speak. And that is exactly what the Lord says. The word says. So as we grow in the Lord, the Lord will reveal more and more to us.
\nComparing Psalm 18 and Psalm 144
\nSo that is why I said that is this psalm is like that. I was meditating on this song because I knew this is what the Holy Spirit put in my heart. Today morning uh my child, a little child came to me and said, “Dad, you always say the Holy Spirit gave you the words, but you are, you know, you are copying from this B.” I was copying from my old notes to my new notes and uh then you also uh refer all the things on the computer. I said, “Yeah, you’re right. The Holy Spirit gives me a verse. The Holy Spirit gives me a thought and it is my responsibility to present it on the stage, give it a foundation, give it a background. I can just say come and say this is what the Holy Spirit told me and I can go back and sit down. So I work with the Holy Spirit to prepare this message. Praise the Lord. I just
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\nuh said that there is Psalms 18. Many things in Psalms 144 is exactly written the same way in Psalms 18. See, for example, let me read verse one 1441. My rock, my fortress, stronghold, deliverer, shield. Psalms 18:2 says the same thing. My rock, my fortress, my stronghold, my deliverer, my shield. Verse one again, the Lord trains my hand for war. Psalms 18:34 same thing it is written then the visible manifestation of God theophony that is in verse 5 in Psalms 144 bow the heavens oh Lord and come down Psalms 18 verse 9 you bow down the heavens and came down it’s verse 6 in 144 before flash forth lightning scatter the enemies let your arrows route the enemies Psalms 18 verse14 same thing it is written there verse two he subdued my people before me or under mess 18 verse 47 he subdued people under see here brother John and Lucas and I and some of others we write songs once in a while and we have the courage both of us have the courage to publish it on the on the uh WhatsApp group Facebook so say for a few years nothing hit is coming no hit song is coming and what do we do can we go back to one of our old hit songs and take out all the words from there rearrange and present it before you. You will say uh pastor this is that also praise. Why does David write this at this time? Psalms 18 was written when he was 40 years old when his 40s in [music] his 40s and uh 144 is written when he was in his 50s or 60s. A very matured David. A spiritually grown person is writing in the Holy Spirit using the same age imagery he used when he was 40 years old and he is bringing out a new song. Now let me tell you why this song is different. I read Psalms 144 many times. I couldn’t find one thing there. Why can you start with with his training? But I do not see David fighting anywhere in Psalms 144. Why? Because it is old. 60 years old. I can you cannot you know is that the reason? Oh, last day I was in my garage walking through for something and I and I see all this weight set you know somebody sent me as a gift during co time and I forgot about it. It was gathered so much dust it was there. So while walking I thought oh maybe I’ll take this upstairs and all the other know all the sets sets I gathered some of it washed it and took half of it upstairs so that I can work out. By the time I was winded out so I decided another day I will do this. But I tell you one thing for the next three days I couldn’t move because my body was hurting from I didn’t work out. Only thing is I gathered these weights and took it upstairs. Is this the reason David is saying about fighting about training and not fighting? No. That is not the reason. That is not the reason. Let us for your understanding let us read from a few verses. You don’t have to read. I will kind of explain it fast. Psalms 18. This is the psalm he wrote when he was 40 years old. Verse 29 says like this. For I shall charge against enemies. Verse 30. I will leap over walls. Verse 34, I shall bend a bronze bow. Is it a wooden bow? You need incredible strength to bend to shoot with a bronze bow. Verse 37, I pursued my enemies and destroyed them. verse 42 I beat. You cannot He’s not a man walking in the flesh. He’s a man walking in the spirit. I am empowered by my God and I’m going to fight the enemies. This is the David in Psalm 80. He looks like an action hero here. fighting with the Lord.
\nThe Shift from Fighting to Trusting God
\nBut in Psalms 144, that’s preaching is a vulnerable incessant. He’s a vulnerable incessant. He’s praying before the Lord. He’s no more the barrier. No more the one who wants to crush his enemies. He is not fighting but instead he is doing something. He’s battle trained don’t get me wrong. Same training he received when he was young. The same training he has now. It’s ongoing training. Now this battle trained David’s before God and he is not doing any battle. He’s not doing any war. Instead he is saying Lord you do the battle because the battle belongs to the Lord. Praise the Lord. [music] Hallelujah. Hallelujah. The battle belongs to the Lord. Verse two, he says like this, “The Lord subdued my people before me.” Before David was pursuing his enemies, catching them, thrashing them, pounding them to find test. Now he is saying, “I am battle trained. I am still training but you subdue the peoples before. Verse three says like this. What is man is just a breath and shadow. What is a shadow? A shadow is something that forms small or big and then it becomes small and then it goes this way and then it fades away. What is breath? It’s gone. And in verses 6 to8 he prayed to the Lord to act. You know the reason is oaths are being the battle and it is not a hopeless prayer. Let me tell you verse 9. He says like this, I praise you. I praise you with a harp of 10 strings. Our kids are doing a wonderful job here. Praise the Lord. They are practicing. You know, they are singing. David used a harp called kinode. No, that is why when malam we read kin. But here he’s saying not just kenor use nebel nebel is a bass song it’s a bigger one you know it has a bass voice and he’s speak singing shout shout with a loud voice sing with a loud voice you know not the just the normal song but an exuberant song for the lord when do you do exuberant songs in the book of Isaiah chapter 42 9 and And we read, “Oh, sing a loud song to the Lord because the Lord is going to do something new.” When the Lord is coming to you with a new blessing, you shout out to the Lord. Hallelujah. See, you you you come out before the Lord. You praise him with a loud noise. You praise him with a nor. You add big music to the regular music. You do a big worship, a bigger worship. Hallelujah. Because when do you do this? When you have victory. Psalms 18 is in the past. Psalms 18 was written when God delivered David from the hand of Saul and all his enemies. It is in the past. So everything is written in the past. As for Psalms 44 is different. Hallelujah. things are happening now. It’s an older mature David and he is praising God in the hope that the Lord is going to bring this for me. When we pray, how do we It is not my skill. It is not my weapon. It is beyond my strength. 60-year-old David or 40 year old David maybe he can. He’s very strong. But you know it’s beyond my skill. Whatever happens, praise the Lord and he is praising God. Now the question why this sudden shift in prayer for God to work from the action hero he was not old age as I said is the shift from past to the future.
\nPraying for Future Generations
\nVerse 12. 14412. Can somebody 11 and [music] 12? Somebody read that book. See first he starts with a prayer deliver me from [music] these enemies. And then the reason why should you deliver me Lord? So that our sons will be like olive trees in their youth and our daughters will be like the pillars of a palace. on the pillars of a palace that has been carved out. Praise the Lord. He is thinking about the future generation. He’s no more thinking about him himself or his descendants. See the reason Lord has to do this fight my battle is treaties are being broken after my time. The Lord has to fight for our inner generation. They look good. They are like they are not thriving plants in the field. They are like card pillars or the corner pillars of palaces. They don’t look good. They look awesome. They look handsome and they look so beautiful. That is wonderful. But beyond that, they have an incredible responsibility to uphold the palace. Which means who lives in the palace? The king’s family. The king and his family. The church lives in the palace. Whose responsibility is it to uphold the palace? It is our daughter’s responsibility. Look good, look beautiful. I’m all for that. But there is a bigger responsibility. Look alive, you know, look good, thrive well. But boys, you have an incredible responsibility that is to bear fruit. If there is no oil in the land, if there are no olives in the land, however good you look, it doesn’t matter. If you look so beautiful and you are unable to uphold the palace, it’s no good. So who can do that? Only God can do that. So look at our young children as I am preaching the word, parents and everybody. Hallelujah. If they are sitting beside you, put your hands on them and pray. Pray this in the name of Lord Jesus Christ. Pray this Lord. Let our daughters be like the carved pillars of a palace and let our sons be like olive trees thriving in their youth so that they will bear the weight of the palace and they bear the responsibility of making oil for the land. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Now my question is prayer work we all pray a lot right will our prayer does our prayer have any answers from the lord huh in David’s situation there is an answer when Solomon comes to power there is a beautiful verse in the bible the lord gave him peace is all over. Praise the Lord. There was no war for Solomon. Was there any war for Solomon? The country experienced the best riches, the most prosperous times in the time of Solomon. How did this happen, Solomon? Was it your wisdom? No, it was the prayer of your [screaming] father, a matured man who stood before the Lord, who knelt before the Lord, who fell down before the Lord and cried out to the Lord. It is not me doing the war, Lord. It is your duty, Lord. Do this war for us, Lord. Bring out our children or let them outshine the generations. Let them outshine my generation. David’s reign was marked with the bloodshed. Oh Lord, God gave him victory everywhere, but it was marked by bloodshed. That is why the Lord stopped uh David from building the temple. But Solomon’s time was golden. See, when we shift in our [music] spiritual maturity and understanding, the Lord is going to work for us. When we step out in war with the sword, my sword, my bow, praise the Lord. Hallelujah. It is a [music] different victory. Do you want your generations to be blessed? Fall before the [music] Lord. Let the Lord fight for us. Praise the Lord.
\nLeadership as Parenting in God’s Family
\nSee, the next point I want to bring out is David shifts from personal to God’s household. See in Psalms 18 verse 50, somebody read that. Psalms 18 verse 50. [music] See David that is meu and my descendants. But when he comes to 144, he says you rescue the king and you rescue David and the kings. Kings he is praying speaking about his descendants I think. And now he says so that our children will be blessed. Our children our children. No, when I was in another place, I was a Sunday school headmaster there. One day a person [music] calls me. You you you ignored my child. You you you you always ignored my child. That is his complaint. And he is [music] very angry. You know, you ignored my child. You did not I don’t I forget what it was. It was something simple. and he accused me of showing partiality [music] to something. The word the way he phrased it, it was funny. So I not I don’t not even sure I was married at that time. So I told him, “Brother, listen, I don’t have any children in this church. It is everybody’s children, right? It is your children, family’s children, not my children. I don’t have to show partiality against your child. Your child, every child I consider as mine. Praise the Lord.” You know, every child in this church, that is true. Sometimes I get a little irritated. I get a little angry. But that happens all the time. But I love them like anything. These are all my children. These are all our children. David is saying our sons, our daughters. You know when we come to the end of that psalm even goes to the extent read the last part of that happy are the people with such blessings. Happy are the people whose God is Lord. Happy are the people. This is God’s family who is a shepherd. Hallelujah. We are all called as shepherds. Praise God. From personal to God’s household, our sons and our daughters. Let me tell you one more thing. What is leadership? Leadership is parent. I know we have Sunday school teachers. I know we have Sunday school. I know we have elders here. I know we have a pastor. What we are [music] doing here is parenting. It’s parenting. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. It’s God’s family. Not just in relationship to our service, but in relationship to the church. Now in my personal experience, the person who wounded me most is the person who led me to the Lord. That is an irony. So I still have the memory, the seating memory. And when my heart jumps out and wants to follow some direction, praise the Lord, I always think about myself as a child, as a kid. How that wounded and I always remind myself, I stand in the place of the Lord, anointed by the Lord, appointed by the Lord. Hallelujah. to parent to nurture and to bring up a generation when we all go. Last time we were discussing about the church, pastor Daniel made a comment. This is only for 15 years. And I was confused. What happens after 15 years? After 15 years, all of us are going to die. And you don’t know our children want to come up or something. You all laughed at that praise after our time this generation. Hallelujah. Praise because of warfare.
\nSpiritual Warfare and the Power of Spirit-Led Prayer
\nThis is my last point. David prays because of warfare. The warfare is not physical. Warfare is not physically. It is spiritual. It is political. It is not somebody coming against David. I’m going to cut you to pieces. I’m going to kill you. I’m going to shoot you. No. People are working behind the scenes. They are breaking treaties of peace. They are shifting in their uh obligations. They’re shifting in their promises. It is a spiritual level. Hallelujah. And David knows the weapons are not effective here. They are so ineffective. There is only one thing that is going to be effective. That is the Lord coming out and doing this warfare. Hallelujah. David prays Lord take over. And his prayer becomes [music] a prophecy. Hallelujah. Prayer is very important. Um how we respond to the spirit’s nudge in our prayer. Everything we pray will not work. But when we pray according to the nudge of the holy spirit it works. In Mark chapter 5, three groups come and beg with the lord. Mark chapter 5 is where Jesus Christ casts out the demon, the legion from uh this uh person. First the spirits begged with Jesus. This 5,000 spirits that were those who are residing in this man they are pleading with Jesus please do not send away from this land please let us go into those pigs. And Jesus listened to that. Okay he permits that and there these evil spirits go into this pigs and all these pigs drown violently. Then the people come. These people are the second group that comes and begs with Jesus. The people come and begs with Jesus. Please leave this land. Thank you for all you did. You know we cannot suffer these loss again. Please leave us. And Jesus listen to this their prayer. Yeshua knew and Jesus listened to them. The third begging is from this man who was in bondage. And he comes and pleads with Jesus, begs him, please let me come. And Jesus said, you know, Jesus tells him, “Go to these 10 cities and tell them, witness to them what the Lord did for you.” And he just did that when we come to Mark chapter 7. Hallelujah. 7:31 to chapter 88. Jesus is revisiting this. The land of these 10 cities Jesus is he is doing incredible miracles there. 4,000 men come to see him. He is feeding 4,000 men which means around 12 to 16,000 people all together. Jesus is feeding. How did all this crowd come? This is the same crowd that told him get out of this place. They are calling him back. They are coming to him. They are bringing all their sick, the lame and all the problems, people with all illnesses. They all come to Jesus and Jesus heals them all. And the final thing, Jesus is giving them a lots of food. 4,000 men are being fed. 2,000 pigs died. It was a big loss to that place. But instead of that, if the food Jesus is giving them portion, when we listen to the nudging of the Holy Spirit, the Lord will bless us. Prayer works. Prayer in the nudging of the spirit works. Prayer in a spiritually mature environment works. Hallelujah. Let us shift into this spiritual battle so that our generations will step into their rest.
\nCall to Stand and Prophesy over the Next Generation
\nI am battle trained. I’m battle trained. I am not going to be afraid when I see battle. Hallelujah. I am battle trained and I will stand my ground. But the battle is done by my Lord for us. Hallelujah. Are you in training? Keep training in the Lord. Battle training. Hallelujah. trained are you praying? Pray in the spirit. Hallelujah. Pray with a spiritual maturity. Are you singing? Hallelujah. Sing with a loud noise. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Are you prophesying about our next generation? Let us start prophesying. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Let us all be on our feet. We are going into the uh table. Hallelujah. Right now. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. But let us meditate for a few minutes what we listen today. A warrior like David is surrendering before God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. [music] Lord, you fight our battles today. Everyone who is listening to this message, let us pray to the Lord. Lord, you you fight this battle. I know how to fight in a battle. I can charge against an army. Yes, I can do that. I can leap over walls. Yes, I can do that. Hallelujah. I can shoot with a a metal bow. Yes, I can do that. I can do a lot of stuff. But Lord, I am surrendering myself because I am battle. I’m not scared of the battle, but I want you to take over this battle. Let us put our hands together and worship the Lord. for Lord we submit Lord we surrender Lord we look unto you and you alone you alone our Lord thank you for listening to our prayers in your name we prophesy our children our daughters will be like the corner pillars of a palace and Our boys, hallelujah, they will be like olive trees thriving in their youth and they are going to take up responsibilities and they are going to hallelujah outshine this generation and in your in their generation they are going to feel your peace. Hallelujah. Enjoy your peace. Hallelujah. We bless them. We bless each other. I bless this congregation in Jesus most precious name. Amen. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"