Listen Here

If you enjoy this episode, please subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, and don’t forget to rate and review on Apple or Spotify. When you rate and review the show, you help Jaime reach more people.

What if you could find unwavering strength and peace amidst life’s toughest battles? On today’s Jaime Luce podcast, we explore how to stand firm in faith, drawing wisdom from Ephesians chapter 6. We’ll unpack the transformative power of putting on the full armor of God, emphasizing the critical role of the word “stand” in facing and overcoming the schemes of the devil and life’s overwhelming challenges. Through relatable political analogies and real-life applications, we highlight the importance of taking clear, faith-aligned stances in our everyday decisions.

Feeding your spirit with God’s word is more than just a daily routine; it’s a lifeline. This episode emphasizes the continual engagement with scripture as a source of new wisdom and comfort. We discuss practical methods to integrate the Bible into daily life and explore how to discern what nourishes the spirit versus the flesh. Additionally, we share a powerful testimony of miraculous intervention, illustrating that God’s strength can lead us out of the darkest pits when we stand equipped with His spiritual armor, ready to face any adversity.

Join us for an episode filled with hope, faith, and practical insights to empower your spiritual journey.

Where to dive in:

(0:00:00) – Standing Firm in the Word

Standing firm in faith with God’s armor, navigating life’s battles, and aligning beliefs with responsibilities.

(0:17:26) – Feeding Your Spirit Through Scripture

Continually engage with God’s word, integrate it into daily life, and be mindful of media consumption.

(0:23:15) – Equipped to Stand Against Evil

Putting on God’s armor protects us from the devil’s schemes and leads us out of darkness, as shown through a powerful testimony.

(0:41:46) – Standing Strong

Jamie Luce’s book emphasizes faith and reliance on God, offering practical advice for decision-making and finding peace through prayer.

(0:55:02) – Spiritual Warfare and Standing Firm

The faith-based sci-fi movie “The Switch” explores themes of spiritual warfare, the power of prayer, and unwavering faith.

(1:00:15) – Standing in Obedience

Elisha’s story shows the rewards of faith, obedience to God’s word, and the importance of acting on it.

(1:10:11) – Empowered by God’s Word

Prayer for strength and guidance, gratitude for God’s word, and hopeful anticipation of salvation and promise fulfillment.

About your host: Jaime Luce’ testimony has daunting personal mountains and treacherous financial valleys. She was trapped in day-to-day stress and couldn’t see a way forward. But how she started is not how she finished! And she wants you to know God has a plan for your life too, no matter how tough it seems. Today, Jaime has been married to the love of her life for almost three decades, owns two companies, and has become an author and podcaster. God’s way is always the blessed way!

Free chapter of Jaime’s new book: You Don’t Need Money, You Just Need God: https://jaimeluce.com/book/

Connect:

– Website: https://jaimeluce.com

– Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jaime.luces.page

– Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jaime_luce/

– LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaime-luce-00395691/

Full Transcript

This transcript is auto-generated and not perfect. We hope it blesses you.

0:00:00 – Jaime Luce
God is so powerful and so true that he can cause us to be able to walk through and navigate through those consequences of bad decisions. He can lead us out of darkness and into his glorious light. He can make a way where there seems to be no way. Welcome to the Jamie Luce podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in. Today I’m going to be talking to you from Ephesians, chapter six, and most people, when they think about this particular chapter, they concentrate on the full armor of God and, though I will briefly talk about that, I really want to focus in on what it is to stand, how to stand, what do we stand on? What do we stand for? You know what are we standing with and what is its purpose, everything having to do with being able to stand. Because I know what it is, folks, I am in this with you. I know what it is to get knocked down, and sometimes we’re fighting against the devil and sometimes we’re just fighting the circumstances of life. And regardless of what it is, you can be knocked down, you can feel overwhelmed, you can feel faithless, you can feel weak and overpowered, you can feel distraught and hopeless and you wonder where God is. Goodness, even King David. How many times he would cry out in his lament of what he was feeling and say how long, oh Lord. And yet he never let it stop there. He would finish by saying I’m talking to my own spirit. He’d say, soul, you know why are you downcast, oh my soul. And he’d say hope in God. And my hope today is that when we finish going through this, that your spirit will receive strength, that you’ll be able to stand back up on your feet. We serve a risen Savior who has defeated death, hell and the grave. And not only that he has given us the ability to be saved. He has rescued us. He’s still a savior. If you need to be saved today, whether in your soul you need to be saved, or whether you need saving from your circumstance, we still have a savior who comes to save us and he’s given us what we need. The scripture tells us that he gives us what we need for life and godliness. Everything we need is right here. He’s either given it to us, given it into our spirits and into our hearts, into our mind and wisdom and knowledge. He’s either given us what we need by our giftings and what he’s given us, or he has given it to us, by instruction in his word, to know how to navigate, how to know what his heart is, to know what his will is and to know how to deal with the circumstances that we’re dealing with, so that we can have the victory.

So I want you to go with me to Ephesians, chapter 6. I’m going to start in verse 10 and read through verse 20. So I’ve got 10 verses for you. I do have a couple other references I’m going to be making that you’ll want to jot down in a little bit, but um, and also some good definitions. So, get yourself something to write with, get your Bibles out and let’s start. Um, like I said, I’m starting with verse 10.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil, for 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 the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and, having done all to stand firm. Stand, therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness and as shoes for your feet, having put on evil one and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the spirit, with all prayer and supplication, and supplication To that end, keep alert, in all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints. I’m actually going to stop right there. He goes on to say that pray for me, give me boldness, which we should be praying for.

But I want us to really hone in on a couple of things having to do with the word stand. I thought it mentions. In just these few verses that I read to you, the word stand is mentioned at least four times, if I’m counting them all. We’re told to be strong, but we’re told to stand four times. And I want to speak specifically about standing, how to stand, and I thought it would be good to give you the definitions found in scripture for what the word stand means, and they’re really good. So, in order to stand, first I have to understand what does it mean to stand, what exactly? And that word stand means to cause, to be in a place or position set, a set place. So think about that for a moment. It is.

You know, there’s a in the realm of politics right now. People are coming out and just saying that it’s time that you actually have to pick a side, that it has come down and boiled down to a very clear this or that. And that’s really hard for people sometimes because as a Christian, you can know politically I am supposed to love the one who is poor and to take care of the one who is the outcast and the marginalized, and were to take care of those who were the foreigners, and that can cause us to want to support a particular political party that says says that they support those things. Then you have, on the other end of the spectrum, people saying but I have to care about life, all life, giving life and stopping the abortion and the murder of children. I have to stand for freedom, I have to stand for the right to be a citizen of this country and have its laws that were instituted in its constitution, available to me, not because they’re given to me by the government, but because they are my actual right outside of the government, before the government, and there are a whole lot of issues bottled up in that, and it’s really a confusing thing for people to say, okay, I believe those things, and so this group says this, this group says this, and how do I vote? And that’s not what we’re talking about today. But you can see the confusion that can come in when you’re told you have to pick a side, so to speak. And so what we have to understand is okay when it comes to politics, which we’re not going to be talking about today.

In a nutshell, you have to go to the heart of not just what someone says, but what they’ve actually produced and done and how that has affected. If I’m helping one person, I can’t help this person to the hurt of another person. It’s one thing if I choose to self-sacrifice, it’s one thing to um of my own will. If I sacrifice on behalf of another, it’s something else. For someone to come in and say I am taking from you to give to you and you have no say in the matter, so I have chosen between you two. Who is the more worthy, that’s not actually helping. Even if I’m helping someone who has need, I can’t say to the person that I’m taking from that your needs don’t matter. So I have to go further than that and I have to determine what is God asking of me? I need to pray, I need him to show me not just what people say but what they actually do, and I have to be prepared to act on that. So that’s all I’m going to say about politics.

But when it comes to standing this take a position, find a place, that you need to be a set place and put yourself in that place, and it means not to be moved. So the second definition of that is to propose someone for an obligation that you put forward that propose. So it’s saying that to stand in essence, it would be like me saying, god, you said you were going to do this. This is the obligation of your word towards those who are your followers. You said that if I served you, then you would do this, that and the other. Okay. So I am my position. My standing position is saying I have put out my expectation on the one who has an obligation to me, that that is where I’m setting myself. I’m setting myself to propose to someone for an obligation. I have put forward what I expect. Okay, now stay with me. The third definition is to set up and to put into force. Okay. So that means, if I know what position I’m to be in.

If you think, in terms of strategy for, let’s say, the uh, if you look back at world war two and the strategies that we now know were to invade certain countries, to overtake, they would go, take certain positions in order to cause uh and then go in, take force on those places that they’ve gone into in order to overcome. This is what the word stand means that you have put yourself forward and set yourself up in a place for the purpose of taking action and putting into force whatever it is that you are standing for. Okay, so those are three really good definitions to understand what this word stand means. So let’s go back to the scripture First. He says finally, be strong in the Lord. Okay, so before we’re standing, before we take our position, we need to be in a place of strength.

But the strength for someone who is knocked down, beaten up, feels completely depleted, feels like they have no more resource, no more energy, no more ability, no more backup, no more help For that person. You think I don’t have strength, I can’t stand up, I’m dealing with depression, I can’t get out of this bed, I, physically, am depleted, my head is pounding or my thoughts are swirling and I cannot find my strength to get up. Hear me in this. I know this is not an easy thing, because, as a Christian, we are called to not give way to our flesh. We are actually to put our flesh down, to put it under the authority of the spirit, that we are to walk after the spirit and not after the flesh. So that means I have to get my strength from where? Because it’s not coming from my strength. In fact, the scripture tells us that my flesh profits me nothing, nothing. It profits me nothing. That those who put their hope in horses and chariots are the ones who are going to fail miserably. Because that’s not the realm that God moves in. He lives and moves in the realm of the spirit, and so I have to walk according to that realm in order to access that power, that strength.

We’re told to be strong in the Lord and in the strength of what His might, not mine, not my ability, not my power, not my know-how, not my confusionlessness, not my. It doesn’t mean I don’t have to be clear headed, I don’t have to be, um strong in body, I don’t have to be prepared, um in, in. Oh gosh, how do I want to say that I don’t have to have all my ducks in a row, I don’t have to have it all together. I can be in a fleshly condition that is not conducive to victory and I can still attain, I can expect, I can put forward and propose an obligation and put it on the Lord’s strength that I am strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might, not my might, his might, not my ability, his ability, not my resource, his resource. Okay, be strong. It’s a command Be strong in the Lord. Now you may be thinking how do I do that? How do I be strong in the Lord?

Well, before I talk about these breakdowns of that word standing, you have to. If your spirit needs strength, if you need to access the strength of the spirit, you need to be giving any efforts that you have toward and and planting your seed, so to speak, into the soil of the spirit, which means you need to be reading your word. Even if you are sitting there reading your word and your mind is so bombarded um that it is hard for you to remember what you read, I can promise you that any effort that you make to put God’s word in your spirit to allow the strength of God to come in is never wasted. To allow the strength of God to come in is never wasted. God never allows his word to not accomplish what it was set out to accomplish. His word never loses its power. It is never dulled, it is never diminished, it never loses its power and strength. This word that we have is from everlasting to everlasting. It never fades, it never changes, it is always enduring. So we have the power in this word, first of all to get into us.

I read just today the actor Tim Allen had posted a tweet on X. We still call it a tweet, but it’s not Twitter anymore. Anyway, he posted on X that he had never actually read the Bible before and that he had decided he was going to read it. And he said he’s gotten through the Torah part, the five books of the Torah, and he has gotten through I believe he through the Psalms and some of the prophets, if I’m remembering what he said correctly. I could be wrong, you can check that for yourself, but he said he is astonished at what he has read and it is not at all what he expected.

I want to say that that’s what it is like reading God’s word. You can read it and I have read through this Bible. I don’t know how many times. So many times read through this Bible from start to finish. Whenever I finish, I go right back and I start all over again and I just read it again and I have never, ever been able to read it and think, oh, I already read all that, I already got everything, I already know it all, remembered it all. It was like.

Every God produces new understanding. We get wisdom and revelation. We can pray for the spirit of wisdom and revelation that, when we read his word, we understand. There are things that he shows us that we just didn’t see before, things that we need to know, things that are just helpful, things that are comforting, things that are instructional. You need the word of God. So, even if you’re on your bed, even if you can’t read, then play it on your phone, play the scripture and listen to it. We really have no excuse. Have somebody read it to us. We have the word available and we need to make use of what God has given us. It is our tool, it’s one of the pieces of armor which we’ll get to, but you need to be reading. That’s how you access strength.

Pray, even if your prayer is simply finding a prayer that’s in the Bible and praying that prayer. Read. If you can’t, if you’re so bombarded in your mind and you cannot think of what to say, or you’re so broken, no words come. I’ve been there. You just have nothing. Your resource in yourself is nothing and you you maybe have gone through it for so long that you don’t even feel like your spirit has any strength in it. Not just your flesh, but your spirit. You’re just depleted.

Then you find a scripture. Go to Matthew and read the Lord’s prayer. Just read it, say it out loud. Do you know that when the scribes wrote scripture, when they were to copy scripture, one of the ways that they had this was one of the laws and rules of being a scribe and writing the scripture they had to say out loud every letter of what they were saying. Every, every word had to be spoken out loud as they read it. Think of the power of that.

If you’re ever struggling when you’re reading let’s say you’re reading just a book and your mind is kind of bouncing all over the place and you’re really trying to concentrate and read and you’re struggling the best way to be able to understand what you’re reading and retain it and to quiet your mind is to actually read it out loud. Actually, read it out loud so that your ears are forced, your brain is forced in a in a way, to speak, not just to read. So it’s it’s using more than one sense, and then you add a third sense by your own ears are hearing it. It’s very powerful. It’s a very powerful tool to not only be able to break the noise in your mind, but to remember and retain what you’re reading. So just those two make sure that the voices you listen to, that you allow to speak to you our voices, if you have control of that, our voices that speak truth to you. And if you have no control of that and you are forced to listen to things that are contrary to the spirit of God, even more so you need to be in prayer to know what is truth and not truth, so that you can stand against that in your mind and in your heart, that you can remain on guard. This really is part of standing, but it’s. You can’t gain strength without standing in the proper position. That’s why these two are so closely tied together and related together.

Okay, so let’s move on from there. Well, let me add, before I move on from that be careful what you watch and listen to. Okay, you need to pray, you need to read your word. You need to be careful who you allow to speak into your life, but you need to really be careful what you put before your eye gate and what you allow in your ear gate. That’s your music and what you watch. I’m not telling you what to watch and what to listen to. Each person has a conscience before God. But I would sit before you to ask yourself the question is this feeding my spirit or is this feeding my flesh? And many times, if it’s feeding my flesh, is it feeding the passions of my flesh in a way that is not going to be good for my spirit? Or is it simply feeding my flesh? If it’s a happy song that has nothing to do with God, but it’s a joyful song, there’s no reason why you can’t listen to that. But I’m simply saying we have to be on guard. We have to be on guard. Don’t let yourself fall into the trap of feeding insatiably the appetite of the flesh and to completely neglecting the feeding of your spirit, because it will make a difference. It will manifest in your life. It’s like if you eat too much sugar it’s going to manifest in your life. It’s going to produce every kind of disease, from brain diseases to pancreatic diseases and cancers. You have to understand what you’re feeding yourself matters, and it will produce an outcome in your life. If you’re wanting a different outcome, we have to take the means necessary and make the changes necessary to see that outcome come to pass. Okay, now we’re ready to move on.

Verse 11, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand. That wording and phrasing is important because what he’s saying is that there is a way that enables you to stand, and if you don’t do this, you won’t be able that you may be able. So if I don’t do this, the implication is, if I do not do what this says, I will not be able to. And what will I not be able to do? Stand against the schemes of the devil. That means I’m giving him free reign to knock me down every which way possible, every which way, but loose, like the old movie says. We have to be careful. We have to understand. The word is not um lazy in its explanation to us and in its instruction to us. It is very purposeful and it is very instructional and it is very precise. It is not lacking in anything. So when he’s telling us to put on the whole armor, he’s going to tell us what the armor is, but he’s telling you the reason you put this armor on is so that you will be able to stand.

And what are we standing against?

What am I taking a position for?

What am I finding a set place for? What am I putting forward? An expectation that I am to receive some obligation? How am I to do that? How am I to, even in the midst of living in a carnal, dark world, in the dark, present darkness that we live in, that the scripture mentions we live in present darkness? How am I to be able to lay hold of the obligations, of the promises of God in my life? How do I stand to receive those? How do I stand against the enemy’s forces in my life, whether that be through the physical realm, in my physical body, in sickness and disease, whether that be in relationships, in your marriages with your children, uh, with unsaved loved ones, with, um, uh, your bosses or coworkers or or teachers, um, and friends, or or whether it is your finances and all of the things that we have to stand depending on what you could be battling addictions, you have relationships that are stunting your ability to know truth, to stand in a position of strength in the spirit. Folks, there’s a myriad of things that the enemy can use and he might be using all of them. You might feel all of them or you may be feeling simply the effects of poor decisions, detrimental decisions that have they have lasting effects, and now you have to navigate that consequences that we are facing, that we have to navigate through now. Hear me, hear me in this. We can be saved and we can be dealing with old stuff, but God is so powerful and so true that he can cause us to be able to walk through and navigate through those consequences of bad decisions. He can lead us out of darkness and into his glorious light. He can make a way where there seems to be no way.

I once attended a church. Our family did, my husband and I and our children attended a church and there was a gentleman who was in prison and got saved and they were praying earnestly to have him released and it would take too long to tell you the whole story, but a miraculous thing happened and he received. He should not have received this. He there was no reason for him to receive this. He all of a sudden receives a notice that he’s being released right away. And it ended up that there was a weird momentary loophole, literally like a momentary loophole, momentary, like this little thing that happened. And it was just like this little, tiny bit of time. And God used that tiny little bit of time to cause him to be released from prison.

Folks, and that man gave his life, came and served the church. He had had a true conversion and even though his life was living out the consequence of the decisions he made, god made a way. He is a save your. He will still save you from your troubles. It doesn’t mean we don’t have to go through, but he will take us through. We do not have to remain in the place of despair and under destruction. He has saved us from our destructions. He is so faithful.

But we have to be able to put into practice what he. It’s like if you are drowning out in the ocean and here comes the coast guard and they throw you a life preserver. It’s up to you to grab hold of that life preserver so that they can pull you in Now, if you are completely incapacitated, of course they’re going to come down and they’re going to get you and God finds a way. If you’re incapacitated, god finds a way. So just know that. But there are most of us, the majority of us. These are decisions and choices that we have to make ourselves every day.

We’re not incapacitated and he is giving us instruction. Not only are we to be strong, and not in our own strength, in God’s strength, but we have to understand that we have to stand. And the only way to stand, the only way, the way to be made able to stand against the schemes of the devil, is to put on the armor of God. I have to have strength and I have to put on the armor. What is the armor and why do we need to do this? For 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 the heavenly places. We are not fighting folks, no matter what people are doing in your life, no matter in on our, on the world scale, whatever the politicians are doing, whatever those who are in rulership are doing, those in authority. Okay, there are powers at stake, using their power, supernatural power, to orchestrate all kinds of things and use people for their purposes.

If you’re not agreeing to be with God, on God’s side and submit yourself under his lordship and say I will follow your commands, then I am standing against that and I’m saying I am not with you, lord. Therefore, by default, if you are not serving Jesus Christ, then your father is the devil. I know that sounds harsh, but it’s the truth. There are only two forces at work right now. You have God, who’s creator, and you have a fallen angel, lucifer, satan, who goes around trying to cause problems for everybody and trying to get you not to serve and bring honor to your father, not to have relationship with your father, your creator, god. So you are either in line with what your father wants or you’re in rebellion to him. There is no other choice. So it’s either god or it’s your free fall. You are, as satan did, fell from heaven. You’re in free fall. And whether? Because you know.

There are those who outright know who the devil is and serve him, but the mass majority of people are lost in their sin and have no idea that they’re actually serving this lesser being. They have no idea what they’re doing, and so you have. That’s why they’re lost. That’s why we needed the good shepherd to come and find the lost sheep. This is why we were saved. He saved us. And so this whole dynamic you have to understand.

What you’re really fighting is something that you can’t see with your physical eyes. You can see the outcomes with your physical eyes, but you can’t see the actual forces that you’re fighting, so you have to use supernatural means to fight them. I can’t fight something I can’t see with something I have in my hand. I can’t. I’m not beating the air, I’m not. It’s not. I’m not boxing the air. I have to understand that if I’m fighting spiritual things, I have to use spiritual means to do it. Okay, so verse 13, therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand. So this is another form of standing to withstand. So what are we withstanding? What is it to withstand? We withstand. What is it to withstand? I have to be able to stand with these things happening. I have to be able to stand with the dynamics that are surrounding me In order for me to be able to stand and not be taken out, not be moved by. To withstand, I have to put on the armor of God. I have to do it God’s way that you may be able to withstand.

When he tells us there’s a time when it’s necessary to withstand, to be able to stand in the midst of that is in the evil day. I don’t know about you, but to me this is an evil day. That we’re living in. This is by far one of the evilest days I’ve ever lived in In my lifetime. We are living in the most evil day of my lifetime. Now, I know generations past have lived through horrible evil times. I’m just saying in my lifetime this is an evil day. This word is for me. It wasn’t just for these people back then, it’s for me too. They had to withstand. I have to withstand. When do we withstand In the evil day? So in my life, in my circumstance, in my, in my um government, in my circumstance, in my government, in my workplace, in my relationships, I have to withstand.

And then he says the process is that first you stand, you take your place, you find your position, you make your expectations on the obligations that are for you, you put on your armor and then you do this so that you can withstand. And then, having done that, having taken up your position, gained your strength, did put on your armor. And you’re doing it. You’re standing, you’re holding. He says what do I do then? Stand firm. He has to reiterate this because the temptation is that I have been standing here and I have been taking a beating standing here, and this is really hard to keep standing here and it would be easier for me to join another side, to take a different position, to not rely on the Lord’s strength to be moved, to let go of the obligation. Folks, the temptation will be to not remain in the standing position. That will be your temptation. That will be what you’re standing and withstanding against being moved. He is saying it over and over again. Then he says having done all to stand. Then he says stand there for stay there, do not be moved.

Having fastened on what, what do you need? What is this armor that I need to stay in the standing position? The belt of truth. The only way you know the truth is, by this word, the only way. This is the only way to know truth. You, you cannot pick the world’s, the culture’s ideas, your best friend’s ideas, what your parents taught you Nothing, no idea, no famous person, no influencer. It doesn’t matter what they think, it matters what this says. This is truth. This is your only standing position, right here on this word. This is it you stand, having fastened on the belt of truth. That means where I gird myself, where I, you know. You’ve seen, you’ve seen the pictures where people you know they ratchet that belt really tight. They just ratchet it really tight, really strong. Hold those pants up. It’s, it’s a, it’s a sign of strength to do that and to and to cinch it up, to make it tight.

Folks, your belt, the thing that holds you up, holds your armor on, the thing that causes your armor not to be moved, is your belt in its truth. Truth, knowing truth, will help you remain with your armor on, in a position of strength, unmovable. It takes strength to do that, but that is by truth God’s truth, not mine, not the world’s gods and having put on the breastplate of righteousness. This is important because you can put on the. What is the breastplate? The breastplate guards your vital organs, guards your heart, guards your lungs Okay, your chest, your stomach, your spleen, your, all the things in here is it’s your breastplate, is guarding all of that, and we know we have to guard our hearts. We know that the life is in the blood and we have to guard our hearts. And in order to do that, you have to stand in the guarded position. And what guards you, what causes that protection layer, is righteousness. Standing in righteousness, standing for what’s right. If you believe what’s right, no matter what you hear, you are not conformed to the world. You are conformed to the word. Whatever is coming at you, whatever you were standing against, whatever forces you may be dealing with with, if you stand girded with truth and stand for excuse me, stand for righteousness, then you know that you have put the guard over your vital places. What keeps you going? What keeps you places? What keeps you going? What keeps you safe? What keeps you strong? What keeps the blood pumping? Righteousness, righteousness, standing for righteousness. It’s like if I say it’s what keeps your blood pumping, it’s like saying it’s what keeps the fire burning when you stand for righteousness, when you know what’s right and you are determined to stand for what’s right.

I watched a podcast this morning Um, uh, it was, uh, tucker Carlson, and he was interviewing a doctor and her brother and they are, um, coming out against the truth about the lack of true knowledge of what causes health in our body and how we have, as a society, over the last 50 years, turned our attention to hoping for the magic bullet in pharmaceuticals, and that we have become so sick because we don’t actually eat healthy food anymore. And and they are, they are. They are standing against things that are so much bigger than them, organizations and governments standing against them, but they have such fire to declare their message because they know the truth and they know it’s right. When you know the truth and you know what’s right, it produces strength. It just fires you up, it keeps you going and you have to remain in that place. That’s why he says having done all to stand, stand, therefore, with this armor, okay, let’s go on to the next one armor Okay, let’s go on to the next one. And as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace, we know that God’s desire for us is that we walk in unity and be at peace with one another, that his gospel is peace. That’s what the word says. His gospel is peace, that he came to bring peace. Only he can give peace. The world is chaos. The enemy brings destruction, but only God. Only moving forward under the unction of the Holy Spirit will lead you in peace and keep you in peace. I am not in peace unless I know I’ve heard from the Lord.

Hi, my name is Jamie Luce. I wanted to share with you some information about a brand new book entitled you Don’t Need Money, you Just Need God. It’s a playbook for miraculous provision and I want to share it with you because it solves the problem we are all facing right now. The economy is going crazy, gas prices are soaring, there’s wars and rumors of wars. We’ve got everything hitting us all at once, with interest rates rising. You need to know what to do, and so many times we think we need the money. But you don’t need money. I’m telling you, the answer is you need God, and that’s exactly what we want to teach you through this book. We’ll give you practical ways to know what to do and how to do it, so that you get answers now. You can find my book on Amazon. You can also go to jamielucecom. You can also find this book at youdontneedmoneyyoujustneedgodcom. This book is available today.

I’m in trouble and I feel the turmoil in my spirit, the anxiousness in my heart, if I go to take major steps and make decisions that I have not heard from the Lord on, because hearing from him is what brings peace. So when I’ve heard from him, I have total peace. And that peace, when you have the peace of God to move forward, it’s not just a passive peace. And that peace, when you have the peace of God to move forward, it’s not just a passive peace. That peace produces readiness, it produces an expectation, it produces a boldness to be able to do the very thing that he’s called you to do. It’s imperative to walk in peace. So if you’re having to make decisions today, I implore you that you pray first and don’t move until you have heard from the Lord and when you have the confidence that comes. This is what God has said, and if God has said it, this is the right way. This is righteousness, that’s what guards me, and his word is truth. So I can walk in confidence and in boldness and in expectation. I’m setting myself up to receive the obligation that is due me because I have walked in obedience. I have walked out that from the peace of God. Okay, let’s go on to the next one.

In all circumstances, in all circumstances, think about your life right now. Everything you’re dealing with, in all circumstance, doesn’t matter if it’s from the devil, doesn’t matter if it’s from life, doesn’t matter if it’s just because you’re raising toddlers and the kids are going crazy today and you’re losing your mind. In all circumstances Doesn’t matter if you did this and it’s your fault. You’re in this position right now, in all circumstances. Take up the shield of faith. Take up the shield of faith. What is faith? This faith is also. It goes hand in hand with the gaining strength that he told us be strong in the Lord. It goes hand in hand with being strong in the Lord, because my faith is Lord. I’m doing what you said. I not only believe you are able, but I believe that the expectation and the obligation that is yours, that you cannot lie, you cannot change and you will do exactly what you have promised you will do that’s faith. It says I will remain immovable.

I remember a time, um and I’ve mentioned this before, but the it was so real and so emotional that I remember it comes to mind first. I have many, many stories, but this one always comes to mind first, and it’s when my oldest son was kind of living in rebellion and and um, very obstinate, had a lot of anger, a lot of things going on in his own spirit, in his own heart, and he had not yet made the Lord. He, he went to church, if you were to ask him. He loved the Lord, he invited his friends to church, but he had not surrendered truly his life to the Lord. Um, and and this is, it’s hard when you’re raising your kids and they’re in the the years of this such an influence from the world on them in an environment all day long, that is contrary to what you’re teaching your kids. It’s why I totally support homeschooling. But anyway, but he was, he was struggling, he was really struggling and in that struggle, um, it was really difficult for me and he was being kind of belligerent and and just mouthy.

And one particular day I was walking down the hall and he said something. That was it. Just I felt it was like the devil himself hurling a fireball at me, just just an attack at me. And it wasn’t an attack at me, like it wasn’t going to make me not serve God. It was to knock me down and make me think God’s never going to do what he promised he was going to do for my child, promised he was going to do for my child. It was to get me to turn loose a faith.

And in that moment, in the spirit, I just, it just was like the light of God shown in the darkness. At that moment in my mind, it was in a split second, in a split, like the twinkling of an eye, in a split second. What came into my spirit was I know better, I know what the truth is. You’re not knocking me off of my what I believe in God, for you don’t. You don’t have the authority to change what God has said. You don’t have the ability to overpower what God has said. And as long as I don’t move from this, I’m going to see what God has promised me. And so what I did instead is I’m walking down the hall, I I basically ignored what had just taken place and I lifted my hand like this, and I said into the air, because Satan is the prince of the power of the air. And I said Satan, it doesn’t matter what you say, it doesn’t matter what you do, god’s going to do what he promised me. And I can tell you today, my son serves the Lord with all of his heart, with all of his strength, with all of his mind and is raising a family to do the same, and God was faithful.

Now, that took time. That took years of standing on the promise of God. What am I? What is the foundation of what I’m standing on? Oh, let me finish. I’m going to finish the armor and then I’m going to go to what we stand on. Let me finish the armor. We take up the shield of faith, with which this is why you take it up with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one. That’s exactly what I did that day. I held up my shield of faith and that fireball would have felt like coming from the enemy just was bounced right off of my shield. It had no effect on me that day. No effect on me that day Because I, literally in that moment, had raised up the shield of faith. I believed the truth, I knew what was right Folks, I knew I was walking out the way that I knew God was telling me to believe. And do I? God gave me peace that day. In the midst of that chaos. You can see all the other armor pieces evident when you hold up the shield of faith.

Okay, extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one and take the helmet of salvation, so you know you’re saved. And if I’m saved, that’s your standing position, that is my salvation tells me that I am standing in the position of proposing to God the obligation that he now has to me, because I am saved, I am, I am now his child and everything that his word affords to me. What do we know? Psalms tells us that we do not forget his. Bless the Lord, oh my soul. I believe it’s Psalm 103. Bless the Lord, oh my soul. I believe it’s Psalm 103. Bless the Lord, oh my soul. He says. Forget not his, all of his benefits. This is the benefit of salvation. I have afforded to me the benefit of salvation, and so I put on the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit.

The weapon that I use, that is spiritual. You know. I said you can’t fight the air with your physical hands. How do I fight the spiritual things that I cannot see with the sword of the spirit? What is the weapon? What do I stand on? I stand on the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God Right here, this book. This is the sword of the spirit. I wield this weapon. This is the foundation of my faith. I wield this word, folks, when you, if you need a word from God and you don’t have a word from God, you get into the word, you read the word and, before you read, you pray and you say, father, illuminate to me while I’m reading, what you have to say to me. What should I know today? What promise are you saying to me that belongs to me, that’s mine, that I am going to stand on this? This is what I, this is the, the promised obligation that you are giving to me, that I can stand on this and I will not move from this. It is the word of God. And what do we do with that?

Praying at all times, in the spirit, with all prayer and supplication to that end, keep alert, with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints. Pray, pray, often, pray all the time, persevere in prayer. Don’t stop praying. Don’t just pray for you, pray for others. Pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray. You have to just continue to pray, persevere in it. Keep alert in your prayers. Don’t allow days to go by that you’re not bringing it before the Lord. Don’t allow, stay alert If you see things happening that are coming against the thing you’re believing for if you’re, this happens all the time with me and I’ve learned this is a tactic of the enemy with me and he probably does it to you too.

So maybe you can use this today. But I can have this powerful prayer time, personal powerful prayer time, and I’m just recharged, I’m full of faith. It just causes me to soar in the spirit. I can feel such strength come from having a powerful prayer time, feels such strength come from having a powerful prayer time and the thing I’m praying for, the thing I’m believing for, that same day I can get bad news about that thing. I can have something that just is the most contrary opposite to what I’m believing God for happened that day. I have come to expect it, not expect it in a way that I welcome it, but I just know that’s how the devil does. So I have taught myself to say now, you know what the devil does and if he happens to do this today, I will not be moved. This is just him saying don’t have faith.

You know I watched there’s a um. You know you can stream all these different um I don’t even know what the stream apps, I guess is what you’d call them Um and you can watch movies and whatnot, and there’s a particular app called angel studios and they put out faith based programming, um, and I just watched a movie a couple nights ago called the switch, and it’s a Christian um, um, ideas based, but it’s a sci-fi kind of a show, sci-fi movie. So the whole thing it’s not like it’s. It’s not trying to be the Bible, but it uses things that are very spiritual, um, and, and there are scriptures given and truths that are um made evident throughout the movie, are made evident throughout the movie.

But in this movie, this particular character plays the part of the devil, without actually coming out and saying he’s the devil, but he says you know who I am, and in this character he is badgering this man who has lost everything. He is in this man who has lost everything, he is in in desperate situation and doesn’t understand what’s happening and is in dealing with confusion on every side and can’t figure out what’s happening. And the devil literally is I mean he was taunting and tormenting this man, saying why are you praying? He doesn’t listen to you. If he listened to you, you wouldn’t be going through this. If God was with you. He leaves you. The only one who doesn’t leave you is me. I’m the one who has your back, I’m the one who’s always here for you, who’s here right now, who’s telling you that I can help you right now, meaning if you do it my way, then it’ll go well for you.

And it was all to trick this man into going a direction that was self-serving, selfish, self-ambition, self-serving in every way, and to not do what is right. And it took every bit of strength that he could muster to be able to continue to stand in that position of what was right under the constant barrage of the fiery darts of the enemy against him. And it is. We have to understand that this is how the enemy operates. So you just have to know it wouldn’t be necessary for me to have armor if there wasn’t going to be a battle.

If there wasn’t going to be a battle, we have several times in scripture, paul in fact calls being a Christian. He likens it unto being a good soldier. You have to be a good soldier. There’s a warfare that we have to wage and there is a battle that’s taking place Now. We are promised victory, but you have to be able to maneuver and take your position, not be moved from your position, and to be able to fight well, so you are not hurt in the meantime.

You, I want ultimate victory, but I want it not at the cost that I have almost died. I want to have victory from a place and a position of total power, from authority, from from being able to have things bounce off me, not wound me, to be protected with my armor. I hope you’re getting this. So, so, you, you definitely need the armor of God, but, folks, the armor is so that you understand there is a standing position, you are not to be moved from and you are to be believing God for the promises of his word. And when you pray, you are praying constantly the way to know. You are praying righteousness, praying what God wants, the will of God, praying what is good, praying what will happen for sure. That’s the will of God. You have to pray the word, you pray the word and you pray. Praying the word is praying the obligation that is due you. And I’m going to end with this fantastic example in scripture of how this works in the kingdom of God, because this person was specific and God’s answer was an above and beyond specific answer, because he answers us, he goes above and beyond what we could ask or think or imagine.

So I want you to turn with me to second Kings, 2 Kings, and we’re going to go to chapter 8, and I want to read you this story. Earlier in the earlier chapter sorry of the same book, we hear the story of the Shunammite woman and that Elijah had come and raised her son from the dead. So this is in reference to that woman. In my Bible. The title of this chapter is the Shunammites land restored. So I want you to hear this.

Now, elisha I said Elijah sorry, it was Elisha gave you the wrong prophet. Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life. So we’re getting told what Elisha gave instructions to this woman, the woman he had prayed for her son and a miracle had happened and God restored and brought that boy back to life. Now he’s giving her an instruction Okay, and this is what this is, this is what we’re going to hear Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life arise and depart with, with your household, and sojourn wherever you can, for the Lord has called for a famine and it will come upon the land for seven years. I love this little piece of information because he’s giving her this instruction to save her life.

He saved her son and now he’s saying if you want to save your lives cause you’ll die in this famine you need to go and just get out of here and find someplace. Wherever you can, wherever there is food, wherever there is ability and substance, go and go to that place. And you’re going to have to be there and sojourn in that foreign place for seven years. This is going to be a long. You’re going to deal with this for a while. You have to leave everything you know, everything you own and you’ve worked for. Everything that is valuable, everything that you’ve built your life around you have to leave it, that every everything that you’ve built your life around you have to leave it and most likely, everything will be gone and destroyed because for seven years you’re losing everything. I’m telling you to go, survive for seven years because everything’s going to get lost. Can you imagine if you heard that and most people, I hope maybe me too? I hope I wouldn’t do this, but here’s the temptation. Here is the temptation.

This woman believed the word of the prophet, that he was a prophet of God and that it was the word of God. She believed that and that’s why she went to him and that’s why her son’s life was restored. This woman had great faith, okay, and so she now gets a word that there is bad news coming and you’re going to go through something that’s very difficult and in order to save your life, so that you don’t go through as bad as it could be, this, in essence, if you follow my commands, you will be spared from this worse fate. So it’s a good word. It’s a good, it’s a saving word. But you have to understand she is leaving all behind. It’s not like. This is just easy. It’s easy for her to obey because she believes God. It’s easy for her to follow this command because she knows the truth and she knows that if God says, do this, that’s where my salvation lies, what does God say? That’s what I’ll do. And so she obeys, at the cost of everything. At the cost of everything. Let’s pick up reading.

So the woman arose and did according to the word of the man of God. This is your word. This is your word. What is God telling you to do? This is your word. What is God telling you to do? What is he telling you to do? You have to have your feet in the position of ready. That’s what the position of peace on your feet is that they’re ready. Ready to do whatever God tells you to do, ready, ready to act, ready to take action. So the woman arose and did according to the word of the man of God. She went with her household and sojourned in the land of the Philistines. This was an enemy territory folks. She went and survived in enemy territory for seven years Verse three and at the end of the seven years, when the woman returned from the land of the Philistines so she was still obeying the word she waited the seven years and then she came back. Okay, she followed the command. She didn’t just go and then stay gone. There was a seven year instruction. Do this for seven years, then you can come back. You only have to go for seven years. So the second half of that was then return.

At the end of the seven years, when the woman returned from the land of the Philistines, she went to appeal to the king for her house and her land. Okay, she had left it. I’m the king. Obviously took over her land, took over everything that she left. It was just land. Now there’s nobody living there, nobody’s tilling the soil. But what was she doing? She was coming back to the king, she was taking a standing position and she was putting the propose, proposing to the king the obligation she was expecting to receive. So listen to this. She appealed to the king for her house and her land.

Now the king was talking with the Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, saying tell me all the great things that Elisha has done. So when this woman came, the king had been already having this conversation with Elisha’s servant, gehazi. And in the conversation he says tell me about all the wonderful things that Elisha has done. And while he was telling the king how Elisha had restored the dead to life, behold, remember, I told you that moment in time that the man that we attended church, with that moment in time, that loophole in time, the word came through and a release happened. That wasn’t supposed to happen.

Something happened in that God-ordained moment, it says, and in while he was telling the king Elisha had restored the dead to life, behold, in that moment, in that time, the woman whose son he had restored to life appealed to the king for her house and her land, house and her land. And Gehazi said my Lord O king, here is the woman, and here is her son, whom Elisha restored to life. And when the king asked the woman, she told him the king appointed an official for her, saying restore all that was hers, together with all the produce of the fields from the day she left until the from until. From the day she left the land until now. Don’t just give her back the land that she left the land until now. Don’t just give her back the land that she left. Don’t just give her back her house that she left. Give her back everything that the land produced and has given to us from the time she left until now. Not only she came asking and believing just to get her house and her land back.

God said I’m going to do more than that. You stood in obedience and in faith in my strength. You believed me, you followed my commands. You did it in faith. You did what I told you to do and you have put forward in your standing position an obligation that I owe you, forward in your standing position, an obligation that I owe you. And God did it. And not only did he give her her land and not only did he give her her home, but he gave her all the produce from the last seven years, that belongs to her, that belongs to her. It’s rightfully hers that she lost nothing. She lost nothing. Her family was saved, her income was saved, her inheritance and what belonged to her, all of her belongings, were saved. Everything was saved.

If you need God today to do a miracle for you, you need to stand. Stand in his strength, stand in his armor, stand in the truth and pray. Stand in his word, wield the sword of the spirit and folks don’t just believe for you. Back at the last verse we read in Ephesians but it’s for. We do this for all the saints. We pray for all the saints. Stand with one another, link your faith. Shields together, love one another, comfort one another. Love one another, comfort one another, embrace one another, strengthen one another. Let’s encourage each other into faith and we’ll see what God will do.

Thank you so much for taking the time to be with me today. I pray that this was an encouragement for you. Let me pray for you as we close today. Father, I just thank you for your word. I thank you that you have provided every instruction we need, every tool we need, every instrument of war, every protection of armor that we need, every instruction and command that we need. You have not left anything out and if we will do what you have asked us to do, we have the confidence in knowing you will do what you have promised For everyone today who needs strength.

I pray that they are filled with your strength today, that faith arises in their soul, that they feel your presence right now. That the truth of your word permeates like a light in the darkness today, that they can see clearly if they have not been able to know and if they have been in confusion. That they can think clearly today, let your word be the lamp to their feet and a light to their path. Oh God, give them strength today, encourage their spirit, let them have a word from you to stand on. And, father, we pray together with them that they will see the salvation of the Lord and the promise that you made to them will come to pass, and we give you thanks for it in Jesus’ name. Amen, amen, thanks again. We’ll see you next time. Bye-bye.