(Ep7) Warfighting Tools, Our Arsenal Part 2: Worship, Fasting, and Blessing Others

This episode continues our talk about the other weapons we have as Christians.  Worship, fasting, and blessing others are powerful tools that help us execute a part of God's battle plan in the world around us.  They have given to use for His glory and purpose, so we need to know why and how.

Transcript

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Hello and welcome back. Get comfortable and settle in as we continue episode seven of Joining the Fight. Part two of the weapons that we have in our arsenal. Another look at the war fighting tools that God gives us. I'm Kyle Clark from Standing Word Ministries, a Christ-centered ministry dedicated to equipping believers with solid biblical truth and practical training. We create scripture-based resources like our workbook joining the fight so we can strengthen discipleship, deepen biblical understanding for believers everywhere, and help others live with real purpose to stand firm in the truth and carry Christ's message forward. If you want to explore more teachings or grab this workbook, head over to standingword.com. We've already talked about the armor God issues us and our two additional weapons of scripture and prayer. Today we open up the rest of our arsenal, the rhythms and practices that keep us aligned with Him and push back darkness His way. We're going to look at three powerful tools worship, which is our battle rhythm, fasting, which is our battle focus, and blessing others, which is our battle spirit. Think of it like this. They help us exalt, align with God, and advance. While we're doing these things, God is forming our hearts even as He fights our battles for us, and He calls on all of us to use these weapons in the fight. Let's jump in. We start with that rhythm that God puts right at the center, which is worship. Listen to these words from Psalms ninety five. Come, let us sing with joy for the Lord. Let us shout aloud to the rock of our salvation. And further into the same Psalm. Come let us bow down and worship. Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. Psalms ninety five, one through six. Worship is not just background music for our quiet time. It's an invitation for God Himself to take the throne in the middle of whatever we're facing. Psalms twenty two three tells us that God is enthroned. He actually inhabits the praise of his people. When we lift our voices and our hearts in worship, we are declaring that God is in charge. Not our fear, not our circumstances, not the enemy's noise and distraction. Remember the story in 2 Chronicles 20. King Jehosaphat was facing a massive army. What did he do? He put the singers and the worshipers out in front of his troops. As they began to praise, the Lord set ambushes against the enemy, and the battle was won before the army even had to fight. Worship shifts our eyes from the size of the problem to the greatness of our God. It becomes a weapon because it declares who God is before we ever see what he's going to do. And it does something deeper inside of us too. Romans 12 1 calls us to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice holy and pleasing to God. That's a part of worship. It reshapes our motives, it builds our resilience when we feel like giving up, and trains us to live in His strength instead of our own. Picture it like this. Worship is the steady drumbeat that keeps the whole unit marching in a tight formation. It's the cadence that lifts our spirits, tunes our hearts to the commander's cadence, and reminds us who we are and what we fight for. So we don't fall out of step when things get loud. And here's how we make this real throughout the week. Start tomorrow morning with one song of praise and one simple kneeling prayer. Just like Psalms 95, use it as your guide. In fact, use all the psalms for this. Pick one at random and do this with each psalm every day. Many of the psalms that we read in the Bible have actually been created into songs. And so that would also be a great way to do this if you have a problem being inspired with something else. Now, also throughout this week, when a problem or decision comes up, try worshiping first. Sing or declare God's goodness before you start any kind of problem solving. Watch what shifts within you and within the problem that you face. Our cadence sets our pace. It creates that battle rhythm that stays in step with God. Now, when we look at fasting, we can see that fasting is a part of our battle focus. Jesus said in Matthew 6, when you fast. Notice that he didn't say if, he said when. So he is assuming that we will. Fasting is one of the most powerful ways we return to God with all of our heart. Joel 2, 12 and 13 invites us to do this as it says, that even now, declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart, rend your heart and not your garments. What Joel is pointing to is that fasting refocuses us. It allows us to draw closer to God. It humbles us. It turns us towards God's mercy. It invites him to shatter those strongholds and disrupt those enemy schemes in our lives. When we fast, we let go of some kind of worldly comfort, worldly need to refocus our eyes on God. Look at the way Jesus fasted in the wilderness in Matthew 4. He fasted for 40 days, and then he faced the temptation head on. Every time the enemy came at him, Jesus answered with the word of God. We are strong through God in our weaknesses. And oftentimes worldly things grab a hold of us and we don't even realize it. Our phones, social media, our creature comforts, when we fast from those things, it realigns our hearts with God. We see the same pattern in the early church. In Acts 13, while they were worshiping and fasting, the Holy Spirit spoke and sent Paul and Barnabas out on their mission. Esther called for a three-day fast before she approached the king to save her people. Fasting sharpens our discernment and turns up the volume of our prayers when the battle feels heavy. Picture it like this. On the battlefield, we use scopes in our modern day weapons. We look down a scope to align it with the target and we engage. Fasting is like stopping to clean the lens of that scope on your weapon, to clean the lens of our hearts, so there's less junk in the way of our vision, less noise from the world, and a clear signal from the commander. We hear his orders better and we rely on his strength more deeply. We use the tools God has given us properly. So to put this into practice this week, choose one simple fast, maybe one meal, a window of social media or entertainment, something that you tend to gravitate towards throughout the day. Use the time instead to read passages like Joel II. Pair your fast with one specific thing you're asking God for: a breakthrough, a decision, a person around you who needs rescuing. Pray that petition every day during your fast. Hold your hands out to God. Hold your hands open to Him. Allow Him to put His strength in them. Allow Him to give you what He wants to give you by removing the distractions in your life. And with that, with knowing our rhythm, with having our focus, we look to our battle spirit, as we say in the military, our esprit de corps is blessing others. Here's a command that still stretches every one of us when we read it. That's difficult when we read it. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. Romans twelve fourteen. Jesus says this as well over and over in his gospels. This one will always hit close to home because it goes against how the world around us behaves. When someone hurts us, speaks against us, or stands against what we believe. Our first instinct is usually to fight back or pull away. It's that instinct that we have in us, that fight or flight. But God calls us to something radically different. He wants us to bless others no matter who it is. Here's the key truth we need to hold on to. So when we talk about blessings, God is the only one who can bless. God is the source of blessings. When we bless our enemies, we're not manufacturing some fake niceness of our own. We're not hearts and prayers and all of these things that you hear over and over again in society. We are deliberately asking God, the God of all blessings, to turn his face and his favor toward that person. We are asking God to focus on that person. We are laser designating that person for God. It's like calling in close air support in combat down on the enemy. We're not there to drop bombs of revenge, but so God Himself can be present in their lives and bring His goodness, His conviction, His mercy, and even rescue right where the enemy has tried to plant hate and division. Because again, that person who has hurt us, who has persecuted us, they are in bondage. They are the territory, they are the captive, they are not the enemy. We bless others because we want God to focus on their lives. Think about it with us in military terms. In combat, when we paint a target with a laser, when we ask for an airstrike and we give it the description of where we want them to hit, we're not the ones delivering the strike. The aircraft overhead does the work with precision and power that we could never do ourselves. Blessing works the same way spiritually. We point our hearts and our words towards that difficult person and say, Lord, bless them. Pour out your goodness on them, let them encounter you. And then we watch God move with authority. We could never generate on our own. This single act breaks the enemy's hold. Satan wants to lock us in a cycle of cursing, bitterness, and payback. When we bless instead, we disrupt his entire strategy. We refuse to repay evil for evil. Instead, we multiply God's presence in the very place he tried to sow destruction. First Peter 3 9 says the same thing. It says, Don't repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing. Blessing also builds unity inside the body of Christ. Galatians 6 10 tells us, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially those who belong to the family of believers. When we speak life and do quiet acts of kindness, or bless our church family around us, we strengthen the line instead of letting division drain our strength. Most importantly, blessing reflects the heart of Jesus. In Matthew 5 44, he says, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Active blessing aligns us with His example, His courage and compassion, walking together inside of us. It shows the world a different kind of power, the power of the kingdom. Picture it like this. Blessing is a counter strike of grace. It's not aimed at winning the argument, it's aimed at freeing hearts and inviting the only one who can truly bless to do what only He can do. And so think about this simple challenge about blessing others this week. Speak one intentional blessing over someone who's been difficult, someone who has hurt you. Pray Matthew 5 forty four first, then let the words come from your heart. Something like Lord, I ask you to bless them, turn your face towards them, give them favor at work, give them favor amongst their family, then do one quiet act of kingdom good for someone in your church family. A note, a meal, a prayer, a helping hand when you see them in need. It makes all the difference in the world. We are called to bless. Now let's close in prayer. Father, thank you for giving us more than armor and a sword. Tune our lives to your worship and throne yourself in our praise and shift our eyes from fear to faith. Focus us through fasting, humble our hearts, clear the noise out, and let your word steady us when everything else feels shaky. And form our battle spirit within us. Teach us to bless and not curse, to love our enemies, and to build the unity of your people. Help us remember that when we bless, we simply laser the target so that you can bring your powerful goodness right where it's needed most. In every conflict, rule in our midst, break strongholds, shatter the enemy's schemes, and make Jesus visible through our words and our ways. We march to your rhythm under your command for your glory, and it's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. So as we close, here's our simple rhythm moving forward when we look at these war fighting tools. Keep the song of worship on your lips, the fast on your calendar when you need clarity, and the blessings in your mouth even when it's hard. Worship sets your cadence, fasting sharpens your focus, and blessing keeps our spirit aligned with Christ, trusting that only God can truly bless. In an earlier lesson, we talked about our battle strategy being one of position, strength, and stance. These three practices, these three weapons, help us put that strategy into a real world context, helps us apply that strategy in practice. Next time, we'll look at the things each of us are called to do on the battlefield with these tools, our individual warrior tasks of belonging to God's army. We're going to walk through what it looks like when we actively take part in the fight. But before we go, take one quiet moment with us for this week's reflection. When it comes to worship, what's the first song you're going to sing and the kneeling prayer you're offering this week? When it comes to fasting, what simple fast will you try? And what specific thing will you ask God for? And when it comes to blessing, who is the person you'll choose to bless instead of curse? And how will you direct God's focus on them so that His goodness is present in their life this week? Thanks for sitting with us today, friends. Keep pressing forward, keep that arsenal ready, and remember, we're in this fight together. See you next time on joining the fight.