Tribe Church. Byron Bay

In Psalm 23, we read, “You prepare a table before me in the midst of my enemies!” What a stunning word picture, that in the midst of our troubles and even in an intense battle - God says to stop at a table and feast on Him. 

Here’s how it reads in the Passion Translation:  “You become my delicious feast even when my enemies dare to fight. You anoint me with the fragrance of your Holy Spirit; You give me all I can drink of You until my heart overflows. So why would I fear the future? For your goodness and love to pursue me all the days of my life.” 

The presence of God is a continual feast for our souls. Learning to come to the table of rest and restoration is everything. As David said in Psalm 110, we are called “to rule in the midst of our enemies!” God doesn’t wait for things to get better, He trains your hands for battle on the battlefield. He teaches rest as we advance and even when taking spiritual retreats. 

It’s all about rest! 

Our rich heritage as believers includes the contemplative tradition where stillness and quietness are spiritual disciplines. Being still and quiet and taking time to wait on God sets us up for being filled up in our reserve tank. This infilling is not so we can serve more, it’s so we can know Him more! We learn more about God when we stop and let Him fight the battle for us. As we stop, rest, take communion and focus on Him, we are allowing Him to rule over us and ultimately through us. 

In the continuation of the Life of the Warrior series, Phil focuses on the theology of spiritual breakthroughs. This is a contentious topic. Some love it, and some loath it. There are times when God calls His people to engage the enemy by pressing in for a breakthrough through prayer and praise. If we don’t respond to the leading of the Spirit, we will miss the breakthrough that God has for us in that moment. Why do we have to contend for what belongs to us through inheritance? We must fight for what is ours because the devil contends against us to prevent us from obtaining our inheritance. The battle has come to us. Therefore we must fight! Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force!” (Matthew 11:12) Just as the Israelites had to take the Promised Land by force, so do we.

Today’s podcast is from three separate speakers. For our Global Village Sunday, we had Pam and Phil Bailey from Gideons Bible Society share with us the value of this great work of placing Bibles in schools, hotels, and other locations. Their passion was incredible. 

Then we heard an outstanding message from David Myers from Open Doors ministry. Open Doors has been caring for and supporting the persecuted church in the world for many decades. This message from Dave was centred on the promise of persecution, which, Biblically speaking, will grow the Kingdom! 

Jesus said: “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad because great is your reward.” Matthew 5:11-12 TPT 

Further to that, we read that “If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.” I Peter 4:14 NIV 

Lastly, we heard from our dear friends, Ken and Jan Wigley from Iris Ministries. Maria interviewed them about the character of a warrior and some of their experiences in saying yes to Jesus as an older couple who love to go to the frontline.

In John 6:45, Jesus continued, “It has been written by the prophets, ‘They will all be taught by God himself.’ We are warriors being trained by the Holy Spirit in a unique school called the SCHOOL OF THE SPIRIT. 

When the Spirit comes to live in us at our New Birth, we receive all of God. Now there is a teacher (the Holy Spirit) inside you! You have the complete package of His Spirit, but we need to learn to walk in it, be trained in it, and then get top-ups! 

You have signed on to be nurtured, grown, instructed, and built up in your intimacy and faith in Christ through a journey of growth and development. Here are 12 Schools of the Spirit the Lord wants us to take: 

The School of the Lordship Of Christ 

The School of Sonship 

The School of the Father's Voice 

The School of Sensitivity to the Spirit 

The School of Love 

The School of Relational Maturity 

The School of Worship, Prayer, and the Word 

The School of Discernment 

The School of Miracles and the Supernatural 

The School of Bridal Affection 

The School of Royalty 

The School of Normality or Life Skills. 

Father, in what areas have I been resisting being trained and grown in the School of the Spirit? Lord, I choose today to be a disciple of Jesus. I choose to grow and be grown intentionally. I choose to sign on for your growth program and be a Kingdom warrior who fights for breakthroughs on many fronts. I ask you to speak to my heart today so I can partner with you intentionally and with humility and rest. Amen. 

In this message Phil Mason explores the interior battle to lay hold of our new identity as sons and daughters. Satan hates everything about sonship and works overtime to keep us from laying hold of our new creation identity. Our assignment is to aggressively lay hold of our new identity in Christ and to cast off every trace of our old orphan heart. Considerable warfare swirls around your assignment. Are you living from your sonship identity or are you still living as a spiritual orphan? It’s time to step into alignment with your assignment.

Following on from Maria‘s message on exposing the works of darkness we continues the theme of the life of a warrior. In this message, Phil explores the nature of witchcraft, and how extremely common it is for believers to come under witchcraft, as Paul indicated in Galatians 3:1. “Who has bewitched you?” The powers of darkness traffic in witchcraft and the fruit of bewitchment is confusion and disorientation. If witchcraft is so commonplace then it ought to be commonplace to lay hands on one another and break off any witchcraft that comes upon one another. Galatians 6:1,2 indicates that we should be watching out for each other and ministering to one another. “My spiritual brothers and sisters, if one of our faithful has fallen into a trap and is snared by sin, don’t stand idle and watch his demise. Gently restore him, being careful not to step into your own snare.” (TVB) One of Satan’s classic snares is the confusion and paralysis of witchcraft. 

In our new series, we dive into the character and lifestyle of an overcomer. We are called to be warriors in the Spirit as we fight the unseen battle with the powers of darkness. To rise as warriors, we must recognise the enemy's works and how he is constantly plotting our defeat. Ephesians 5 says: “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them”. Satan is the Father of lies, and we are called to expose His works and deeds. He moves in lies in three ways in our lives: lying about God to us, lying about people to us and lying about us to us! He is the accuser and the condemner of our hearts. He has nothing good to say, and we must recognise how he tries to manipulate us through subtle and, at times, not-so-subtle witchcraft that can be like being under a spell (Galatians 3:1). Many have fallen away from their faith or lost their first love, because they did not understand the spirit of witchcraft and how it can masquerade as the Holy Spirit to us, releasing lies, false prophecy and many delusions. We must be equipped to overcome this evil and pernicious spirit to live in discernment and the grace of His presence. God’s answer is for warriors to be kissed by heaven and made ready for battle.

In this message, Phil explores the dynamics around humility and pride. “God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Our assignment is to humble ourselves by taking on the role of a servant and a student. Jesus taught extensively on the virtue of humility as the key to our spiritual formation. Progressive spiritual growth requires a continual posture of humility as we cultivate a heart of teachability, always aware that there is more that we don’t know than what we think we know. Humility is a master key to embracing the heart of a true disciple of Jesus.

In this message Phil explores the theme of doing out of being rather than being out of doing. Am I a human being or a human doing? So often we end up doing good works without adequate grounding in our new creation core identity. In other words, we seek to find our identity in what we do instead of who we are. In the kingdom, identity ought to precede activity. Paul talked about “being rooted and grounded in love.” (Ephesians 3:17) Being in community with God and His people contributes to the formation of our identity as we move from a posture of “I have no need of you” to a posture of being grounded in love in the context of “my people.”