Winning at Gethsemane

Matthew 26:36-39

Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, "Sit here while I go and pray over there." ³⁷ And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. ³⁸ Then He said to them, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me." ³⁹ He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will."

As much as we as believers go through battles through and through, we have been promised and have victory. No believer is immune to trials. Sometimes God allows us to go through some discomfort, to get us out of the comfort zone. Some believers, knowing that trials are bound to happen, have come to a point of resisting/ fighting/ escape the battles, thus making them seem so big or gigantic. When you see battles come your way, and stand and resist them with a courageous attitude, you will get a solution to the battle. Fear of battles will magnify them, and cause to pull you down and destroy you.

In order to deal with battles in life, we need to be prepared and deal with them. You have to first know your enemy, know the battle we are fighting. The Bible says that we are in a spiritual warfare, but we are not in a physical or carnal warfare (2 Cor. 10:3-5). You cannot fight a spiritual battle carnally.

In the military, when armies are fighting, they do not start by attacking; they first sit and plan on the table, before they attack. They first win on the table, before they pick their arms and ammunition and go to win physically. If you do not win the battle on the table, you will not win it on the battle field. As believers, knowing we are fighting principalities, powers of darkness, evil forces, mights and dominions (Eph. 6:10), sometimes we tend to confront these in the physical, rather than confront them in the spirit. We are attacked in the physical, and try to sort the issue too physically, using their minds, and magnifying the issue. When you do this, you entertain fear, thus giving a foothold to the devil, as you have already lost, not having prepared to win the battle.

Battles begin in the spirit. It does not matter what is happening in the physical; it first started in the spirit. If your landlord starts harassing you or your own boss, it did not begin in the physical, but in the spirit. If it has come, it does not mean that it is the reality; it means that it started in the spirit. If you do not deal with it in the spirit, you will create what was not there and make it real, thus bringing it to the physical. For example, your boss can one day tell you he/ she will fire you. This is just a word, and it is not real at the moment. If you do not deal with it at that moment, in the spirit and nullify it, it will develop, manifest and become physical, and you will be fired for real. You need to cancel it spiritually, and declare it will not happen. If you do not deal with it in the spirit, it will manifest in the physical.

Sometimes we are afraid of things that are not even real. For example, when Saul was going to persecute the church in Damascus, and God dealt with him on the way, the church still in remained in fear when he got there, transformed. They thought that he was pretending when they heard that he had been converted, and was genuine, and thus feared that which was not even there, that he had come to persecute them.

When you deal with the first battle, the battle in the spirit, we will definitely win and walk in victory over the second battle. Jesus went through two battles: one on the garden of Gethsemane, and the other one on Calvary. The one on the garden was the biggest one. He won this one, and it was automatic that He would win on Calvary. You have to win the issue in the garden of Gethsemane, before you win on Calvary. When you win the one on the garden, the one on Calvary will be a walk-over.

You may get some negative news, for example, that you are going for an operation, after one month. That’s when the battle begins. You start worrying and suffering on the inside, wondering what will happen in and so on. The battle becomes so heavy even before the real battle begins. Other times you may get some negative rumours that something will happen to you, and start suffering from fear of the battle, and even suffering from unnecessary diseases, e.g. ulcers, hypertension, insomnia, headaches etc. The battle has not even started and is not even there, but you have already been defeated. This is the situation with many believers, where they give the enemy opportunities to bring them down, and thus lose battles before they start, lose battles that are not even real. Fear of the battle will cripple you and defeat you before the main battle.

Confront the battle in the spirit like Jesus did at the garden of Gethsemane. Because of overcoming at the garden of Gethsemane after fighting three times, and being comforted by the angel (Luke 22:43). He was so much at peace on the cross, even comforting the thief that was on his side by telling him he’d be with Him in paradise that day. You will get a report that you have an interview or court case, and you say that you meet the interview or court case on the garden of Gethsemane, before the real battle. When you win this, the other one that is coming will be a walk over. The devil will always point out and remind you of the battle that is coming, thus distracting you from the battle that has started in your mind. Be conscious of the battle that has started in the garden of Gethsemane, on your mind; win it, in preparation for the real battle.

In as much as we know we have bigger battles ahead, they are a manifestation of the battles in the spirits. The battles you are seeing in the physical were finished in the spirit, and are just a manifestation/ image of what was in the spirit. Whatever you see in the physical is an image of what happened in the spirit. There is something in the spirit you can square now. The spirit real is much more real and bigger than the physical. If you square the spiritual battle that is before you now, you have won already and triumphed even in the physical realm. When you hear of a physical battle coming, deal with it first in the spiritual realm, deal with it first on the garden of Gethsemane, before you get to Calvary. Your prayer room is your Gethsemane. That is where you sort whatever is coming your way. Deal with the battle and finish it there.

Amen.

-- Pastor Samson Munyoki.

(27/07/14 Sunday Service Sermon, Teaching Transformation Ministry.) 

Pastor Sam is a pastor at Teaching Transformation Ministry. We are located along the Thika-Ruai Flyover Junction (at the Thika Rd./ Bypass intersection), Next to Eastgate Restaurant.