Destined for Victory

Paul Sheppard: The reason why the devil has picked on you for as long as he has in your life is cause you haven't gotten it yet. You don't know who you are. You are a child of God. You are a joint heir with Jesus, meaning whatever Jesus has, he won that victory for you.

Guest (Male): You may think you know who you are, but do you know who you are in Christ? Hello, and thanks for stopping by for today's Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepherd. Always glad to have you with us. Up next, we'll take you straight to God's word to answer that question and to find out what this new identity means for all those who believe in him. This is a must hear message for anyone who has professed faith in Christ, but who may not quite understand what this new identity is all about. Remember to visit pastorpaul.net to listen to any recent message on demand, including today's.

That's pastorpaul.net. Also, you can subscribe to the podcast at Spotify or wherever you enjoy your podcasts. Now, from our teaching series from Warrior to Warrior, here's Pastor Paul with today's Destined for Victory message taking on our new identity.

Paul Sheppard: Now, in the last two messages, we discussed the importance of taking only what God gives us. God's been doing some real surgery in our lives, cutting away some things, cutting away some comfort zones and some security blankets and cutting away some props and some things that we've been leaning on. God has been saying, I am your sufficiency. I want you to just follow me even when I am removing things in your life. We talked about the fact that in Gideon's case, there were two siftings. The first was voluntary. Tell those who really aren't feeling this, they can go on home.

And we found out that in our lives, that happens too. There are people who just aren't there for you like they once were. And you have to give permission to people when they're not feeling you, let them go on home. There was a book, a secular book written years ago that say he's just not that into me. And you know, sometimes people Now, that was about romantic relationships exclusively, but to tell you the truth, there are people who just for some reason, they're no longer into you in this season of your life or their lives.

And the worst thing you can do is try to hang on to somebody who's trying to get away. You ever experienced that? They're trying to get away and you're trying to hang on to them. God says let them go. First sifting was voluntary. Then we saw in these past couple of messages that the second sifting was mandatory. There's some people that God took away from Gideon. They wanted to be with Gideon. They were the 10,000 who said, we're not afraid. Let's go. But God said, no, you are not to go. If I do it with this many people, they will rob me of my glory and I'll have to judge them.

So, I'm going to bless you by taking things away from you. And some of you don't know, but God is blessing you right now by taking people away, taking props away, taking security away. God is blessing you because if he blessed you with them or through them, you would focus more on them than on him. So, he's just moving things. Now, as I wrap up this series, I want to make five very practical points from the remainder of this story. And I'm entitling this one Taking on our new identity. Remember in this journey, uh when we first meet Gideon, he is a warrior.

He is concerned that the Midianites are going to take his food, so he's trying to thresh wheat standing in a wine press. And that's not where you do it, but it was an indication that he was afraid, that he was being wimpy. But when the angel shows up, he says, the Lord is with you, mighty warrior. And God gave him an identity that he wasn't acting like. So now, as we get to this part of his story, he is finally taking on the identity that God gave him. And to look at that, I want you to go with me to Judges chapter seven and look at verse eight.

Verse eight of Judges seven. It says, so Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites to their tents. This is after the second sifting, but kept the 300 who took over the provisions and trumpets of the others. Now, the camp of Midian lay below him in the valley. Now, as Gideon took on his new identity, there are several things that he had to do and there are things that I want to remind you because you and I have to do them as well. If you're going to take on your new identity in Christ, who you really are, not what you act like, but who God has destined you to be.

There are five things I want to tell you about. The first is remember that the enemy is beneath you. Remember that the enemy is beneath you. Verse eight tells us the camp of Midian lay below him in the valley. And of course, that's figurative in our case, but it is still very real that the enemy is below us. You got to understand who you are in Christ. The Bible says in Ephesians that you and I are seated with Christ in heavenly places. If we're seated with Christ in heavenly places, got a question for you. What's above Christ?

Nothing. No enemy is above Christ. The enemy is under his feet. When Jesus rose from the grave, he proclaimed all power has been given to me in heaven and in earth. There is no enemy that can even stand in the presence of God. And so you must understand that the enemy is beneath us cuz we're seated with Jesus. If he is above all things and we're seated with him, then that places us above all things because of our identity in Christ. I need you to understand who you are. The reason why the devil has picked on you for as long as he has in your life is cause you haven't gotten it yet.

You don't know who you are. You are a child of God. You are an heir of God. You are a joint heir with Jesus, meaning whatever Jesus has, he won that victory for you. You and I are heirs and co-heirs. And so the enemy is below us. So, you are victorious long before you start acting like you are. Soon as you got saved, you became victorious. Now, you've lived defeated at different times in your life, but God is saying it is time for you to take on your new identity and stop acting like a wimp and start living like a warrior.

This is the time. This is the season, says the Lord, for you to begin to move out into your new identity. You've taken the other steps that we've discussed and now it is time for you to lay hold on that identity because that is what the enemy recognizes. He doesn't recognize you in your flesh. He recognizes you in the spirit. In the spirit, you and I are somebody. The devil knows who we are because we have the stamp of God on our lives. And you got to understand this is not about you personally. This is not about you in your flesh.

In our flesh, we're no match for our spiritual enemy. But in Christ, we are more than conquerors. And so it is time for us to remember that the enemy is beneath you. Now, he won't act like he is beneath you until you put him in his place. He's going to pretend like he has power over you. But as soon as you come to understand who you are, the enemy is toast. Years ago, our friend Bunny Wilson told a story about a friend of hers, true story about a friend of hers who had one of those little dogs that was just so chippy, just so, you know, barking and and assertive and all that, just little tiny dog, but real real chippy, real assertive, you know, because you know, dogs they are pack animals.

And so they quickly identify pecking order. And so they know who's above them, you know, often the parent or whatever, sometime children if they really assert themselves, the dog will know that they have to submit. But even in the case of children, if they don't they can be in the family, but if the kids aren't assertive enough, the dog will say, I'm third right behind mom and dad. Do you know that's true? You ever had dogs? I grew up with dogs most of my life. I don't have one right now, but but love dogs. And they do.

They picked the pecking order. I'll never forget our last dog, Jet. He was a Jet Black Lab, so we called him Jet. Jet thought he was third in our family. You know, our kids were young at the time. And sometimes their mother and I would be out and we come in and they say, you'd be shocked how Jet acts when you all aren't here. He acts like he's in charge of us. And he does stuff he knows he has no business doing cuz he's trying to show us, I don't have to listen to y'all. They said it so much that one day I put it to the test.

I said, I'm going to pretend like I left the house and I'm going to hide. I want to see the dog act up. And so I did. I did some part of my routine that he got used to hearing and associating with me leaving. And so I did all that and then I went and found a good hiding place. And sure enough, within minutes, he started running around. He jumped up on the sofa. I could not believe my eyes. I'm sitting there holding my mouth trying not to laugh out loud. He just showing off, just trying to show them, y'all can't tell me what to do.

And finally, I jumped out and said, Jet. He looked up at me. Oh, that was a panic brother. I fell out laughing. I also took care of him. But it's true, dogs love that pecking order. And so Bunny said her friend they had this little dog, but the dog really felt, you know, very much part of that family. So, they decided at one point they wanted a second dog and they got a very different breed. One of I don't remember the breed offhand, but it was one that would grow large. And so even as a puppy, it was a little larger than this little dog and it was destined to grow uh much larger than this dog.

Soon as they brought the puppy home, the little dogs said, uh-uh. You are fourth. I'm third.

Guest (Male): Now is a great time to take a quick timeout, but don't go away. The second half of today message with Pastor Paul Shepherd is coming right up. All of us at Destined for Victory want you to know how much we love and appreciate you, our listening friends and partners, not only for your generosity, but for the profound eternal impact your prayers and donations are having in the lives of people all over the world. If you would like to make a generous gift today, please visit pastorpaul.net or give us a call at 855 339 5500. It's because of you that we can share these messages the whole year through.

Do you want to be a person of destiny, a man or woman who lives in victory? If so, stay with us now for the rest of today's Destined for Victory message taking on our new identity.

Paul Sheppard: They said the little dog would go after that puppy every chance, just asserting himself, just just terrorizing. And the puppy was scared of the little dog. Now, the puppy is a breed that is destined to be large, destined to be big, powerful. But its identity in the family quickly became I'm behind all three of these folk, the two humans and this little this little dog. Took on that identity. So, even after the little dog got used to it being around, it would still every now and then just pick on it just to make sure the puppy knew.

One day, they took the the little dog to the groomer. And the groomer got too happy with the clippers. And when the groomer got through, the little dog really wasn't recognizable to the bigger dog. So, they brought the little dog back home where he thinks he's third. The big dog doesn't recognize him and the bigger dog has grown now. So, it had the mentality of being fourth until this day. And he tried to act the same old way, but the big dog wasn't having it. They said they had to pull that big dog off of that little dog.

He was going after him for everything he was or was going to kill him if they hadn't stopped. Why? Cause all along he had the power, but he just needed something to remind him of who he really was. I came to tell somebody you had it ever since you got saved. So, it's time for you to start living like who you really are. Devil been picking on you for a long time, but you got to leave this message saying that's it. I'm not taking it anymore. I am who God says I am. So, remember that the enemy is beneath you.

Number two, pay attention to God's timing. Look at verse nine of Judges seven. During that night, the Lord said to Gideon, get up, go down against the camp because I am going to give it into your hands. Now, pause right there. The Lord says to him, get up, go down to the camp. I am going to give it into your hands. When does the Lord say that to him? That night. That night. God said, get up now. That night. They were somewhere according to the text which talks about uh it being in that particular watch.

They were somewhere between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. Not the time you would normally expect to go to battle. Typically, you don't want to go to battle at night. But the Lord says that night, get up, go to the camp. Going to give it into your hands. Pay attention to God's timing. There's often a timing aspect to what God does in our lives. So, if you're going to be a person of destiny, if you're going to be a person uh who really fulfills your calling, you're going to have to understand that God will lead you not only in terms of the what and the how, but he leads us in terms of the win.

There are some things that are destined for you, but you've got to find God's timing for them. God's timing because if you do the right thing at the wrong time, you get the wrong results. And we've got to understand that there's this timing element in all that God does. Let me give you a biblical example. You remember when Ruth and Naomi were headed from Moab back to Bethlehem. Now, Naomi is a woman of Israel. And so Bethlehem used to be home until she and her family had moved years ago to Moab during a famine. And you know the story.

Naomi's husband died and her two grown sons died while they were in Moab where one of the sons was married to Ruth. And so suddenly all three women now don't have a husband. And eventually, when the Lord comes to the aid of his people in Bethlehem, uh Naomi says, I'm going back home. Tells the two girls they can stay, but eventually you know the story. Ruth said, no, no, I'm going with you. Your God's going to be my God. Your people are going to be my people. I'm going with you. I feel somehow even though I'm not a woman of Israel, I feel that my destiny is connected to you.

And so there she goes headed back to Bethlehem, a place she's never been, a place she is not from, but she's just going to see what God is going to do here. Well, you know that what happened was one day she said, we got to have something to eat, so let me go out, find a field and let me glean behind the harvesters, try to pick up some of the leftovers behind the harvesters. And I'll just pray that God gives me favor so that they don't mistreat me because this was a foreigner and she certainly could have been mistreated with impunity.

So, she goes out in faith, just trusting she's going to be able to to pick up some wheat and be able to feed herself and her mother-in-law uh Naomi. And you know the story. As it turns out, she found herself gleaning in the field of Boaz. She didn't know Boaz. All she knew is we need to eat and I'm going out trusting God. And so she ended up God directed her path and she ended up at the right place. But more importantly, she ended up at the right place at the right time cuz while she's gleaning one day, Boaz, the owner of the whole field, all those harvesters out there work for him.

He's the CEO. He pulls up in his Mercedes. Gets out the car. And looks over his land and sees the harvesters doing their job. And then he notices this woman over in the corner of the field gleaning behind them. He calls someone over and says, who is that woman over there? And they said, oh, that's Ruth. She came back with Naomi. She's from Moab. But uh boy, she takes care of Naomi and she's a wonderful woman and and nobody has anything bad to say about her. And they gave a good report. And Boaz said, all right, he called all the men in from the field.

He said, I'm going to tell all of y'all, no one mess with that woman. If anybody bothers her, you got a problem with me. God's protection over her life. And then he called her and she came in from the field and he told her, I've instructed the men not to mess with you. You can glean all you want. In fact, they're going to be leaving some handfuls behind on purpose. God ever left you any handfuls on purpose? And he says you can glean all you want to. Won't be a problem. And the Lord bless you.

God had her at the right place. She didn't know it, but she was meeting her husband that day. You got to be at the right place, but also at the right time. So, you have to learn to pay attention to God s timing. You just walk in the spirit and let God put you in the right place. But pay attention to the timing because there are divine appointments, a time when your life is to intersect with somebody else's. And the timing makes all the difference. Back in 1989, I heard Oral Roberts telling the story of how he came to buy the 400 acres that he originally purchased to build his university on.

And he said that um he knew the Lord had spoken to him about building a university. He said the Lord was very specific. I don't want you to build a college. I want you to build a university. He said, I want you to build it on my authority. I want you to build it on the power of the Holy Spirit. And so Oral said, I'm a preacher. I'm a tent preacher, healing revival preacher. I know nothing about academia. I know nothing about universities. I know nothing about building a faculty. I know nothing at all. I'm a old Indian preacher.

But the Lord told him back in whatever decade, 60s or or whatever, build me a university on uh my authority and on the power of the Holy Spirit. He said, so there was a piece of land that I said this will be ideal for what God is the vision he's given me. And he said, I would get out, drive up in that area and get out of my car sometimes and just stretch my hand out and say, Lord, hold it for me. Lord, hold it for me. He said, and then the time came when we began to inquire.

I pulled my attorney and a few trusted people in and we began to inquire, find out who owns that land and tell them we're interested in building a university on it. Let's begin to talk with him. He said I didn't have any money, but we inquired. Said they found the family were very wealthy. He said it was an oil-rich family. And um they said, no, we have no interest at all in selling the land. And so he said, well, well, let's just keep trying to raise a little money and so we can eventually have some sort of down payment, that sort of thing.

And he kept doing that. He said, we eventually had a little a small amount of money, not a whole lot. It would be considered a very small down payment on the purchase of 400 acres. He said, so then we went back to the family and said, you know, we really want to seriously talk about buying this property. And the family said, we told you before we are not interested. The owners were not interested at all. And he said repeatedly as they would approach them, they said, no, no, no, no, no. So much so that the average person would just say, okay, we need to just go elsewhere.

This is not a possibility. He said, but the Lord told me to build it in Oklahoma. He said, I was offered free land in Denver, Colorado to build a university on, offered free land. He said, I was offered free land in the Irvine area of Southern California. Normally, you would think, oh man, that's got to be people offering free money. He said, but in my spirit I knew this is not where God said to build him a university. So, so I turned down the free land in Colorado, turned down the free land in California. Said we're going to build it in Oklahoma.

Guest (Male): If you want to walk in victory, if you want to fulfill your destiny in Christ, remember you are not who you think you are. You are who God says you are. Thanks so much for being here with us for today's Destined for Victory and Pastor Paul Shepherd's message taking on our new identity. If you haven't already downloaded our free mobile app, now is a great time to do it. Search Destined for Victory in the App Store and listen to these messages wherever you go. That's the Destined for Victory mobile app. Download it today, absolutely free.

Have you ever felt called to do something you didn't yet feel ready for? If so, we've got a great new resource to help you navigate your way through what can often be a confusing time. It's our latest booklet called Before Qualified. Inside these pages, you'll get an up-close and personal look at Gideon, a man called by God to be a mighty warrior long before he was brave enough to go into battle. It's a great reminder for us that although God may not always call the qualified, he will absolutely qualify the called. That's called Before Qualified.

Our thank you gift this month for your generous donation to the Destined for Victory media ministry. Give by phone by calling 855 339 5500 855 339 5500 or visit pastorpaul.net to make a safe and secure donation online. You can also mail your gift to Destined for Victory, Post Office Box 1767 Fremont, California 94538.

Paul Sheppard: And what God tells you to do is always scary. Have you noticed that? If you haven't, pay attention. God never tells you something to do that's nice and easy and simple and everybody's going to love you while you do it.

Guest (Male): And that's tomorrow in our continuing message taking on our new identity. I hope you'll join us. Until then, remember he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory.