The Practice Of Spiritual Strength by Pastor Lawrence Oyor: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Why strength matters

Strength is how we do life. We should detest weakness. It is possible to be weak, but don't stay weak, find a way out.

Benefits of strength

• It preserves your health. Some attacks, especially sickness powered by hell, cannot touch a strong spirit
• It helps overcome temptation, through mounting pressure in prayer and waiting on the Lord
• Gates open to the strong
• You receive your portion by strength, not because your name was written on it (Isaiah 53:12)

Nothing is really "yours" until you are strong enough to hold it. Everything you want, someone else wants too; scarcity is what gives value. It is the strong who end up receiving, whether it's a place in class or a spouse: there is no "one woman" written for you, only the one you are strong enough to keep.

Prophecy is not enough on its own

Prophecy gives direction and compass, but strength is what gives birth to it. A prophetic word can even become a distraction, or trigger warfare, when it meets a person without strength: a couple prophesied over in Lagos died in an accident the following week. Herod's slaughter of children in Bethlehem came only after the wise men's announcement drew attention to a threat that wasn't yet strong enough to defend itself. Receive prophecy, but don't let it replace the work of becoming strong; some idolize what was said over them and grow proud before it has even come to pass.

Know your strength

Know what you can contend with and what you should leave alone. Don't be a proud person. Before the cross, Jesus said he could ask the Father for twelve legions of angels, more than enough to overwhelm every human being on earth, yet he chose the cross. It took strength to lay down his life. It was a display of strength, not weakness.

Signs of weakness

Loss of hunger

The first sign that strength is leaving is that hunger begins to wane. Hunger is strong desire: it is what animates every Christian activity and produces intentionality. Without hunger, even reading and prayer produce no growth, because it's hunger that draws out the value.

Matthew 5:6

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst, for they shall be filled.

Loss of hunger is a sign of spiritual attack

The enemy's goal in an attack is not the attack itself, it's your strength. If an attack doesn't touch your hunger, the enemy has gained nothing. Once you start asking, "Is God really answering prayer? Is this really working?", that is the enemy coming for your hunger, not for your theology.

Hunger is the first thing to come and the first thing to go

Once hunger returns, strength is restored, and results follow. It's possible to keep drawing on results from a season when hunger was strong, even after hunger has quietly gone, the way a fan keeps turning after the light has been switched off. That is why a person must cry out at the point of losing hunger, not at the point of losing results, because by then it's already late.

Practical marks of lost hunger

• You don't feel like praying, reading the word, evangelizing, or being in church, something has happened to your hunger
• Your favorite worship songs no longer move you the way they used to
• You're eating "junk" in the spirit, confused, conflicting content that leaves you unsure what you even believe

Hunger loss can be restored. Ask for it again; it is the beginning of strength.