Declare War 4 Knowledge To Winning The Battle Against Myself

1.) Scripture
Romans 7:18‭-‬20
I know that good does not live in me — that is, in my human nature. For even though the desire to do good is in me, I am not able to do it. I don't do the good I want to do; instead, I do the evil that I do not want to do. If I do what I don't want to do, this means that I am no longer the one who does it; instead, it is the sin that lives in me.

Romans 6:12‭-‬14
Sin must no longer rule in your mortal bodies, so that you obey the desires of your natural self. Nor must you surrender any part of yourselves to sin to be used for wicked purposes. Instead, give yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life, and surrender your whole being to him to be used for righteous purposes. Sin must not be your master; for you do not live under law but under God's grace.

Lamentations 3:22‭-‬23
The LORD 's unfailing love and mercy still continue,  Fresh as the morning, as sure as the sunrise.

2 Corinthians 10:4‭-‬6
The weapons we use in our fight are not the world's weapons but God's powerful weapons, which we use to destroy strongholds. We destroy false arguments; we pull down every proud obstacle that is raised against the knowledge of God; we take every thought captive and make it obey Christ. And after you have proved your complete loyalty, we will be ready to punish any act of disloyalty.

I DeClare War
In the words of Warren Wiersbe: "The Christian life is not a playground; it is a battleground, and we must be on our guard at all times." Before we even jump into this idea of declaring war, we have to acknowledge this reality: whether we want to admit it or not, we are in a war, and you can’t win a battle you won’t admit you are in.  The Christian life is a war of fighting to live in the spirit and not in the flesh. Paul put it this way in Romans 7:  "For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.”

If that Dr. Seuss tongue twister doesn’t perfectly exemplify the internal struggle bouncing around in all of our minds, I don’t know what does. We are masters of getting in our own way. Yes, the devil hates you. Yes, the world is out to get you, but you’ve got enough going on under the hood to take yourself out of the game.

Your self-sabotaging mechanism might be your negative thoughts, it might be your actions (or lack thereof), your bad behavior or short temper. It might be your harsh speech or the way you mindlessly turn to social media or food to distract yourself from what is really going on. We all have a vice. The problem isn’t that we struggle with these things, the problem comes when we refuse to acknowledge them, when we decide it is easier to go quietly into the night instead of putting up a fight.

I don’t believe that we don’t desire victory in our lives; no one wants to be stagnant - stuck in a rut of the same ol’ roadblocks. It’s just that we don’t want to put in the hard yards or commit to God’s instructions that show us the way we can live as victors. Let me tell you, our world offers lots of distractions to thwart the chaos caused by our unruly actions and thought lives, but these “fixes” at their best are simply that: distractions. Jesus offers something better.

So this is the day. God brought you to this moment to declare war. On your darkness, on your demons, on your self-sabotaging tendencies, on the version of yourself that you don’t want to be, to throw off the gloves, and rise to the fight, to commit to leaning in as we tackle vital components of the inner struggle.

Questions to ask yourself:
1.) What are three things holding me back? (Don’t sanitize this list, that doesn’t help anyone.)

2.) Who can I tell (someone who loves me and loves Jesus) about this list to keep me accountable?

2.) Scripture
Judges 6:1‭-‬40
Once again the people of Israel sinned against the LORD , so he let the people of Midian rule them for seven years. The Midianites were stronger than Israel, and the people of Israel hid from them in caves and other safe places in the hills. Whenever the Israelites sowed any seed, the Midianites would come with the Amalekites and the desert tribes and attack them. They would camp on the land and destroy the crops as far south as the area round Gaza. They would take all the sheep, cattle, and donkeys, and leave nothing for the Israelites to live on. They would come with their livestock and tents, as thick as locusts. They and their camels were too many to count. They came and devastated the land, and Israel was helpless against them.  Then the people of Israel cried out to the LORD for help against the Midianites, and he sent them a prophet who brought them this message from the LORD , the God of Israel: “I brought you out of slavery in Egypt. I rescued you from the Egyptians and from the people who fought against you here in this land. I drove them out as you advanced, and I gave you their land. I told you that I am the LORD your God and that you should not worship the gods of the Amorites, whose land you are now living in. But you did not listen to me.”  Then the LORD 's angel came to the village of Ophrah and sat under the oak tree that belonged to Joash, a man of the clan of Abiezer. His son Gideon was threshing some wheat secretly in a winepress, so that the Midianites would not see him. The LORD 's angel appeared to him there and said, “The LORD is with you, brave and mighty man!”  Gideon said to him, “If I may ask, sir, why has all this happened to us if the LORD is with us? What about all the wonderful things that our fathers told us the LORD used to do — how he brought them out of Egypt? The LORD has abandoned us and left us to the mercy of the Midianites.”  Then the LORD ordered him, “Go with all your great strength and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I myself am sending you.”  Gideon replied, “But LORD , how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least important member of my family.”  The LORD answered, “You can do it because I will help you. You will crush the Midianites as easily as if they were only one man.”  Gideon replied, “If you are pleased with me, give me some proof that you are really the LORD . Please do not leave until I bring you an offering of food.” He said, “I will stay until you come back.”  So Gideon went into his house and cooked a young goat and used ten kilogrammes of flour to make bread without any yeast. He put the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot, brought them to the LORD 's angel under the oak tree, and gave them to him. The angel ordered him, “Put the meat and the bread on this rock, and pour the broth over them.” Gideon did so. Then the LORD 's angel reached out and touched the meat and the bread with the end of the stick he was holding. Fire came out of the rock and burnt up the meat and the bread. Then the angel disappeared.  Gideon then realized that it was the LORD 's angel he had seen, and he said in terror, “Sovereign LORD ! I have seen your angel face to face!”  But the LORD said to him, “Peace. Don't be afraid. You will not die.” Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and named it “The LORD is Peace”. (It is still standing at Ophrah, which belongs to the clan of Abiezer.)  That night the LORD told Gideon, “Take your father's bull and another bull seven years old, tear down your father's altar to Baal, and cut down the symbol of the goddess Asherah, which is beside it. Build a well-constructed altar to the LORD your God on top of this mound. Then take the second bull and burn it whole as an offering, using for firewood the symbol of Asherah you have cut down.” So Gideon took ten of his servants and did what the LORD had told him. He was too afraid of his family and the people of the town to do it by day, so he did it at night.  When the people of the town got up early the next morning, they found that the altar to Baal and the symbol of Asherah had been cut down, and that the second bull had been burnt on the altar that had been built there. They asked each other, “Who did this?” They investigated and found out that Gideon son of Joash had done it. Then they said to Joash, “Bring your son out here, so that we can kill him! He tore down the altar to Baal and cut down the symbol of Asherah beside it.”  But Joash said to all those who confronted him, “Are you standing up for Baal? Are you defending him? Anyone who stands up for him will be killed before morning. If Baal is a god, let him defend himself. It is his altar that was torn down.” From then on Gideon was known as Jerubbaal, because Joash said, “Let Baal defend himself; it is his altar that was torn down.”  Then all the Midianites, the Amalekites, and the desert tribes assembled, crossed the River Jordan, and camped in the Valley of Jezreel. The Spirit of the LORD took control of Gideon, and he blew a trumpet to call the men of the clan of Abiezer to follow him. He sent messengers throughout the territory of both parts of Manasseh to call them to follow him. He sent messengers to the tribes of Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they also came to join him.  Then Gideon said to God, “You say that you have decided to use me to rescue Israel. Well, I am putting some wool on the ground where we thresh the wheat. If in the morning there is dew only on the wool but not on the ground, then I will know that you are going to use me to rescue Israel.” That is exactly what happened. When Gideon got up early the next morning, he squeezed the wool and wrung enough dew out of it to fill a bowl with water. Then Gideon said to God, “Don't be angry with me; let me speak just once more. Please let me make one more test with the wool. This time let the wool be dry, and the ground be wet.” That night God did that very thing. The next morning the wool was dry, but the ground was wet with dew.

Psalms 139:14
I praise you because you are to be feared; all you do is strange and wonderful. I know it with all my heart.

The Secret to a Miserable Life
Growing up, I was never allowed to go trick-or-treating on Halloween. I wasn’t even allowed to go to those church-y trunk-or-treat hallelujah parties. My parents told me that Halloween was a night where pets were being sacrificed to the devil. So while you were out enjoying your pillowcase full of Butterfingers, I was at home praying that your chihuahua would make it to see the light of day. Regardless of how you choose to spend the 31st day of October each year, I have a theory about Halloween, one I think we might all agree on. My theory is that although Halloween is the only day we wear a mask on the outside, we actually wear masks on the inside all year long.

At the root of the matter, the reason we wear masks is that we feel insecure and we buy into the lie that we aren’t good enough. So, instead of dealing with the lie, we wear a mask as a defense mechanism to cover up the insecurity. But let me tell you this: Living out of your insecurity is the secret to a miserable life.
Look at the life of Gideon and his journey from miserable insecurity to vulnerability and, finally, power. Gideon was haunted by a low opinion of himself and it made him uncomfortable with who God called him to be.

The story of Gideon comes in the book of Judges at a time when a people called the Midianites had taken control over the Israelites, God's people. They were super stressed out, as you can imagine, and they did something they hadn’t done even in their days of prosperity: they cried out to God. In response, God raises up what the Bible calls a "judge."  Gideon, 90 pounds soaking wet, was the deliverer God chose for his people. And what was he doing when he got called? He was threshing wheat in a winepress.
Perhaps you don’t live on a farm, so let me explain. Threshing wheat is an activity where you take a pitchfork, get a scoop of harvested wheat, and throw it up in the air. You’d always do it in a windy place so the wind could come through and separate the chaff from the wheat. The chaff would be carried away and discarded. Because the kernel of the wheat is heavier, it would fall to the ground and you could collect it and have it to eat. The problem is that Gideon was doing all of this indoors in a winepress. Do you see any problems with this plan? Why didn't he go out to a hill where they would normally do it outdoors? The text was clear: the reason was fear. It is in this cowardly moment that the angel of the Lord (Bible code word for Jesus) shows up and greets Gideon as a Mighty Warrior...the opposite of how he looked and felt. You would think that would be enough to convince him that he was the one for the job, but it is at this point that Gideon’s insecurities pop up hardcore. 

To make a long story short, Gideon accepts the challenge and raises up an army. God planned on stacking the deck against Gideon in such a way that it would be unmistakable as to who the credit should go to when he was victorious.
There is a valuable lesson to be learned in Gideon’s story. One that took place in the threshing floor: Before the battle of the fist comes the battle of the mind. The cure for insecurity is understanding your true identity. That is to say that when you know who you are, it doesn't matter who you are not. That’s why God told Gideon he was a mighty warrior. Don’t focus on what you aren’t, focus on what you are! You are loved by God. You are loved by God. You are loved by God. Hello! And the good news for us insecure mask-wearing phonies is that if we were the ones who put the mask on, we can just as easily take it off and begin to walk in the power and the purpose set out before us.

 Questions to ask yourself:
1.) What insecurities do I see in my life that I would be willing to address so I can begin to tackle them?
2.) What “mask” do I wear to cover my insecurities?
3.) What are three statements I can tell myself when I need to flip the script in my mind and remind myself of who God says I am?

3.) Scripture
Matthew 15:10
Then Jesus called the crowd to him and said to them, “Listen and understand!

Matthew 8:5‭-‬13
When Jesus entered Capernaum, a Roman officer met him and begged for help: “Sir, my servant is sick in bed at home, unable to move and suffering terribly.”   “I will go and make him well,” Jesus said.  “Oh no, sir,” answered the officer. “I do not deserve to have you come into my house. Just give the order, and my servant will get well. I, too, am a man under the authority of superior officers, and I have soldiers under me. I order this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes; and I order that one, ‘Come!’ and he comes; and I order my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.”  When Jesus heard this, he was surprised and said to the people following him, “I tell you, I have never found anyone in Israel with faith like this.  I assure you that many will come from the east and the west and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the feast in the Kingdom of heaven.  But those who should be in the Kingdom will be thrown out into the darkness, where they will cry and grind their teeth.”  Then Jesus said to the officer, “Go home, and what you believe will be done for you.” And the officer's servant was healed that very moment.

James 3:8‭-‬10
But no one has ever been able to tame the tongue. It is evil and uncontrollable, full of deadly poison. We use it to give thanks to our Lord and Father and also to curse other people, who are created in the likeness of God. Words of thanksgiving and cursing pour out from the same mouth. My brothers and sisters, this should not happen!

Proverbs 16:24
Kind words are like honey — sweet to the taste and good for your health.

If I Say So
The year was 1997. I'd just finished my homework and downed a peanut butter sandwich made with Eggo waffles, and the burning desire for milk kicked in. I hopped over the back of my sofa at the commercial break of Saved by the Bell, flung open the fridge and began gulping down cold milk straight out of the carton. I was satisfied for about 0.3 seconds until I realized...this milk had turned, this milk was not my friend. It wasn’t a day or two old, it was over a week old. Needless to say, I puked so hard I dislodged gum that had been in my small intestine since the second grade, and I learned on that day what Matthew speaks of in Matthew 15:10. (How’s that for a segway? TMI?) The gospel of Matthew tells us that there is something more dangerous than taking in something bad, and that is speaking out something that is bad. 

When God hears you speak about your meeting as terrible, your car as crappy, your kids as ungrateful, your husband as lazy, your town as small, your house as cramped...His response is: If you say so. You will feel how you speak and find what you seek. 
Likewise, there is power in speaking out something that is good. 

At creation, God spoke the world to life. At the incarnation, God spoke Jesus into our world. That tells you something about the weight of words.  And it should humble you to know that God has given you the same power of speech. That is part of the terrible privilege of being made in His image. You have great power in your speech that can unleash a forceful fury that can create, tear down, build, heal, or hurt. 
One of my favorite stories in Scripture shows what I am trying to communicate. It is from Matthew 8, when a centurion came to Jesus for help because his servant was seriously ill. In response to this man’s plea, Jesus immediately agrees to come to the man’s home and treat the boy. This is where it gets really interesting. The centurion protests that there is no need for Jesus to enter his home. For one, it would be inconvenient for Jesus to have to travel, and secondly, if He entered the house of a Gentile He would be ceremonially defiled and have to go through a cleansing ritual before His daily life could continue. Translation: He would get Gentile cooties. He didn’t want Jesus to be put out while doing him a favor. When Jesus heard this He marveled, because the centurion’s faith was noteworthy. Jesus then turned and spoke 3 incredible words of wisdom that were original to Him long before they were sung by Paul McCartney and John Lennon: Let it be. Matthew 8:13 “as you have believed, so let it be done for you.” This is actually where we get our word AMEN. Amen translated directly into our language means “let it be.” When we say amen we are saying, “may what I have prayed come to pass.” But in light of the response of what happened in this interaction between the centurion and Jesus, our goal should be to pray such a gutsy prayer that with raised eyebrows God would say to you: Amen, let it be. 
It is up to you whether the self-fulfilling prophecies you articulate become a delight or a dungeon. God’s response to the way you speak is: If you say so. 

Questions to ask yourself:
1.) How do I speak to myself and others? In what way is my speech positive? In what ways do I have a hard time controlling my tongue?

2.) Think of an area of your life you tend to complain about or speak negatively of. Challenge yourself this week, every time you are tempted to complain, to find a way to thank God instead. 

4.) Scripture
1 Peter 1:13
So then, have your minds ready for action. Keep alert and set your hope completely on the blessing which will be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.

Exodus 4:1‭-‬9
Then Moses answered the LORD , “But suppose the Israelites do not believe me and will not listen to what I say. What shall I do if they say that you did not appear to me?”  So the LORD asked him, “What are you holding?” “A stick,” he answered.  The LORD said, “Throw it on the ground.” When Moses threw it down, it turned into a snake, and he ran away from it. Then the LORD said to Moses, “Bend down and pick it up by the tail.” So Moses bent down and caught it, and it became a stick again. The LORD said, “Do this to prove to the Israelites that the LORD , the God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, has appeared to you.”  The LORD spoke to Moses again, “Put your hand inside your robe.” Moses obeyed; and when he took his hand out, it was diseased, covered with white spots, like snow. Then the LORD said, “Put your hand inside your robe again.” He did so, and when he took it out this time, it was healthy, just like the rest of his body. The LORD said, “If they will not believe you or be convinced by the first miracle, then this one will convince them. If in spite of these two miracles they still will not believe you, and if they refuse to listen to what you say, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the ground. The water will turn into blood.”

The Game Before the Game
While cleaning out a closet in our house recently, my wife and I stumbled upon a collection of my old sermon notes from when I first began preaching. In the earliest of days I would actually pace around and record the message into a little hand-held tape recorder and play it back so I could hear how it was going to sound, and then sometimes if I didn’t like it, the process would start all over again. Looking at those old materials, I was instantly transported back sixteen years in time to the days where I would get physically sick before taking the stage. I relate to Eminem who is puking in the bathroom of the club before his first hip-hop battle in 8 Mile. It wasn’t my mother’s spaghetti (I could never preach with something that heavy and rich in my stomach) but I would almost always end up dry-heaving before speaking, and it went on like that for a year or so. I would feel shaky, light-headed, and absolutely terrified that I would go blank as I tried to remember the key points of my message.  I usually felt better after throwing up and I always felt instantly fine the moment I took the stage. All the jitters would dissipate and I would be a duck in water doing what I was born to do, it was just agony to get there. Here’s the deal. The bridge between all that practice and the performance is the pre-game routine. The same is true in nearly every endeavor. You have to win the war inside before you can win the war outside. 
Now, I will never speak without going through an important ritual. It involves being on my knees in prayer and admitting my weaknesses so that I can enter into Christ’s strength. Some things I have integrated into my preparation have come from athletics. 

The best athletes know how to quiet themselves as they get ready to compete. The Brazilian Pele is considered the greatest soccer player of all time. In his book “Mental Gym” Gary Mack interviewed Pele about his game before the game ritual. He would go into the locker room and grab, not a soccer ball, but a couple of pillows. He would go lie down somewhere all by himself. He would put a pillow under his head and a pillow on his face. This is so weird, but it gets better. He said he would go back to his childhood in his mind and imagine himself playing soccer on the beach, because that's where he first started to love the game. He wasn't playing for money, he was just playing because he loved the sport. Then he would flash forward and start to remember the highlight reel of his career. He would picture the best moments when he had performed exactly like he had wanted to. After watching all of these great moments in his career, he would flash forward now to what he had come to do, the reason he was in the stadium he was in. And he would then begin to think about the way he wanted to play and he would actually feel himself watching himself in the movie theater of his mind doing what he had come to do. Then he would get up, join his team, do some stretching, and he was ready to enter the stadium as an unstoppable force. He would be cool and calm—he'd already watched himself win, now all that was left was to do it.  
When I read this, I immediately thought of something Peter said. He wrote, “So prepare your minds for action and exercise self-control.”

I see this in Moses. Moses knew what he was supposed to do. Make a nation out of slaves, unite the clans, bring God’s people into the promised land. But he wasn’t winging it. He was given the steps: stick to snake, hand to leprosy, water to blood, and he did this twice before he got to Pharoah’s court on game day. He prepared his mind for action and made sure it was locked in. 
When it comes to unpacking what God has put inside of you, we can’t overlook preparation. What if instead of referring to your time with Jesus in the morning as “quiet time” we just referred to it as getting your game face on. Take a pause, take a breath, hear from God, spend time in His word, let His truth wash over you.
No matter what is in front of you today, be it a stadium full of people you will be performing in front of, a rocket launch to Mars, a classroom of students you will be speaking to, or a toddler you will be parenting, this much is true: You’re not ready to face the game until you’re ready to put on your game face. 

Questions to ask Myself:
1.) What things should I remove from morning routine to start my day strong? What things should I add?
2.) What is something God has put inside of me that I might be hindering from coming out by not preparing my mind for action?

5. Scripture
Matthew 3:11
I baptize you with water to show that you have repented, but the one who will come after me will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. He is much greater than I am; and I am not good enough even to carry his sandals.

1 John 4:13
We are sure that we live in union with God and that he lives in union with us, because he has given us his Spirit.

Isaiah 54:17
But no weapon will be able to hurt you; you will have an answer for all who accuse you. I will defend my servants and give them victory.” The LORD has spoken.

Psalms 91:5
You need not fear any dangers at night or sudden attacks during the day

John 20:22
Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 6:10‭-‬18
Finally, build up your strength in union with the Lord and by means of his mighty power. Put on all the armour that God gives you, so that you will be able to stand up against the Devil's evil tricks. For we are not fighting against human beings but against the wicked spiritual forces in the heavenly world, the rulers, authorities, and cosmic powers of this dark age. So put on God's armour now! Then when the evil day comes, you will be able to resist the enemy's attacks; and after fighting to the end, you will still hold your ground.   So stand ready, with truth as a belt tight round your waist, with righteousness as your breastplate, and as your shoes the readiness to announce the Good News of peace. At all times carry faith as a shield; for with it you will be able to put out all the burning arrows shot by the Evil One. And accept salvation as a helmet, and the word of God as the sword which the Spirit gives you. Do all this in prayer, asking for God's help. Pray on every occasion, as the Spirit leads. For this reason keep alert and never give up; pray always for all God's people.

Psalms 18:34‭-‬45
He trains me for battle, so that I can use the strongest bow.  O LORD , you protect me and save me; your care has made me great, and your power has kept me safe.  You have kept me from being captured, and I have never fallen.  I pursue my enemies and catch them; I do not stop until I destroy them.  I strike them down, and they cannot rise; they lie defeated before me.  You give me strength for the battle and victory over my enemies.  You make my enemies run from me; I destroy those who hate me.  They cry for help, but no one saves them; they call to the LORD , but he does not answer.  I crush them, so that they become like dust which the wind blows away. I trample on them like mud in the streets.  You saved me from a rebellious people and made me ruler over the nations; people I did not know have now become my subjects.  Foreigners bow before me; when they hear me, they obey.  They lose their courage and come trembling from their fortresses.

Never Bring a Horse to a Tank Fight
There is something about 2 am. I don’t think the devil takes much time off in the day but I know for sure he pulls double shifts at night. I can’t go back far enough to recall a day where I didn’t struggle with the terror by night that causes my stomach to flutter, my skin to glisten with sweat as I think about all the different ways I could die at my own hands. I lurch from my sleep with a sickening quickness like an unbuckled test dummy in a simulated collision. My mind races and my eyes burn. The voice in my head telling me I am going to kill myself sounds like me but it is not on my side. Variations of this 2 am ritual have played out as far back as I can remember.

This is war. These kinds of nights remind me that this battle isn’t one that can be won alone. I don’t know if you can relate to me on all my issues. Maybe you have never had to towel down like you just finished an Orange Theory workout in your sleep, but I have a feeling that the things you’ve been declaring war on can trap you in this same dark, helpless cage. The cage that says “This is all a nice idea but you’ll never change. You’ll never get through a day without yelling at your kids, you’ll never kick the negative self-talk, you’ll never beat the depression, the anxiety, or the vicious argumentative cycle with your wife. You can’t beat this. This is too much for you.” In and of yourself, in your own strength and in your own power, those statements might ring true. Positive thinking is important, so is watching how you speak and minding your habits, but if the practical tools we’ve discussed are all you walk away with, then these 5 days have simply been self-help. There is something much better than self-help—there’s God’s help. 

You have enormous backup and firepower at your disposal. Don’t try to fight these battles in your own strength, or by relying on your own lung power. When your breath is taken away you need to rely on God for a second wind. The first wind is the natural air that was given to you at creation when God breathed into the dust He formed us out of. The second wind is the power of the Holy Spirit that was given to us after Jesus rose from the dead. 

The Bible says no weapon formed against you can prosper. You are more powerful than you think...but not on your own. Listen, you are no match for the war you are facing. But that war is no match for God.

Discover what David said is possible when you are willing to call in God’s help as you declare war on all that holds you back. “He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You give me your shield of victory, and your right hand sustains me; you stoop down to make me great. You broaden the path beneath me so that my ankles do not turn. I pursued my enemies and overtook them; I did not turn back till they were destroyed. I crushed them so that they could not rise; they fell beneath my feet. You armed me with strength for battle; you made my adversaries bow at my feet. You made my enemies turn their backs in flight, and I destroyed my foes. They cried for help, but there was no one to save them— to the Lord, but he did not answer. I beat them as fine as dust borne on the wind; I poured them out like mud in the streets. You have delivered me from the attacks of the people; you have made me the head of nations; people I did not know are subject to me. As soon as they hear me, they obey me; foreigners cringe before me. They all lose heart; they come trembling from their strongholds.” (Psalm 18:34–45)

He’s got the power, you just need to ask for it. He is a good father. He won’t give you a tarantula if you ask for a fruit-roll-up. But He will give you the Holy Spirit if you ask Him to.  

Remember: 
You can’t do God’s work without God’s power.