Video summary
Just before God uses you for a breakthrough or promotion into your divine destiny, the enemy often launches final attacks to hinder your progress. These assaults typically occur when you are vulnerable, alone, or stepping from a place of victory into a valley, aiming to shake the foundation of your calling. The speaker emphasizes that if you are currently facing hardship, frustration, or a lack of progress, it may actually be the last step before God uses your experiences to expand His kingdom. Understanding this context is crucial because it reframes current struggles not as signs of abandonment, but as preparatory stages for greater glory and purpose.
The first major attack described targets your identity by sowing doubt about whether you are truly a child of God or if you have His favor. The enemy seeks to make you question your belonging and love from the Father, thereby weakening the confidence required to operate in your calling. This tactic mirrors the devil's attempt to tempt Jesus by challenging His sonship, reminding believers that insecurity about who they are in Christ leads to walking in fear rather than faith. To resist this, one must rely on the Holy Spirit, who confirms our adoption and assures us of our relationship with God, preventing the enemy from convincing us that we do not belong to Him.
The second attack focuses on fleshly needs and sinful cravings, urging believers to compromise their integrity for immediate comfort or gratification. The speaker warns that private sins today can destroy public ministry tomorrow, as unchecked desires like gluttony, lust, or the need for validation grow alongside spiritual fruitfulness if not addressed. This temptation often disguises itself as a reasonable solution to a problem, such as using social media for distraction or seeking comfort through materialism, which eventually leads to emptiness. The enemy tries to prioritize these fleshly desires over one's calling, but resisting this pressure is essential because allowing such cravings to grow ensures that success will be short-lived and ultimately lead to spiritual failure.
The final attacks involve the pressure to perform for human validation and the promise of power without sacrifice, which can lead to trading intimacy with God for worldly gain. The speaker illustrates how the devil tempts believers to manufacture spiritual experiences or manipulate outcomes to appear impressive, rather than waiting on God's timing. This compromise often results in a life where influence exists without intimacy, and promotion occurs without prayer, ultimately trapping the individual in self-centeredness. Victory comes when one refuses these shortcuts, strengthens their resistance against the need for approval, and remains faithful despite criticism, knowing that true promotion follows a life of purity and surrender to God's will.
Read the full video transcript
Just before God uses you,
the enemy will try [music] these attacks
on you. Could it be
the attack you're experiencing now
is the final step before you step into a
breakthrough, a promotion,
into the divine destiny [music] that God
has for you.
I want to talk to you about your
calling.
You may be facing hardship right now.
>> [music]
>> Maybe you're frustrated with the lack of
progress.
Maybe you're disheartened because of all
of the things going wrong [music] around
you.
But could it be
that you're right on the verge of being
used by God for his glory? Could it be
that God is going to take everything
you're experiencing now
and cause it to be used to expand his
kingdom?
Yes, the enemy waits until we're
vulnerable,
alone.
He'll wait until you come down from the
mountain and you step into the valley.
He'll wait until after some great
victory. He'll wait until after an
encounter with God. He'll wait until
after God has clearly spoken [music] to
you.
He attacks
in silence. He attacks in the
wilderness.
Matthew 4, please go there with me. I
want to show you something here. Then
Jesus was led by the spirit into the
wilderness to be tempted there by the
devil.
For 40 days and 40 nights he fasted and
became very hungry.
During that time, the devil came and
said to him, "If you are the son of God,
tell these stones to become loaves of
bread."
But Jesus told him, "No, the scriptures
say people do not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the
mouth of God."
Then the devil took him to the holy city
Jerusalem, to the highest point of the
temple, and said, "If you are the son of
God, jump off.
For the scriptures say he will order his
angels to protect you,
and they will hold you up with their
hands so you won't even hurt your foot
on a stone." Jesus responded,
"The scriptures also say,
you must not test the Lord your God.'
Next, the devil took him to the peak of
a very high mountain and showed him all
the kingdoms of the world and their
glory.
'I will give it all to you,' he said,
'if you will kneel down and worship me.'
"Get out of here, Satan," Jesus told
him, "for the scriptures say, 'You must
worship the Lord your God and serve him
only.'"
Then the devil went away, and angels
came and took care of Jesus. Let's glean
some wisdom from this portion of
scripture.
And let's apply it to your life.
Because again, you may be being attacked
right now,
and it could look like this. Notice here
that attack number one
was an attack on his identity.
"If you are the son of God."
Now, think about this.
Even though Jesus had just been declared
the son of God by the very voice of the
Father from a heavenly realm.
Even though the Holy Spirit was seen
descending upon Jesus at his baptism.
Even though there were witnesses to
confirm that this indeed was the son of
God,
the enemy still attacked him.
You see, the enemy will assault your
identity because that's the foundation
of your calling.
The enemy will get you to question, "Am
I a child of God?
Do I belong to him? Have I been
accepted? Am I loved by him?
Does he truly look at me with favor?
Does he truly look at me with kindness
and mercy and compassion? Well,
the enemy wants you to see God through a
different lens.
Because once you begin to question your
connection with God,
once you begin to question his love for
you, that begins to shake the
foundations of who you think you are.
And once your identity has been
weakened, or I should say once your
sense of identity has been weakened,
then this becomes the basis which you
carry out your calling.
So, the enemy's first move is going to
be to sow doubt.
If you are the son of God, if God
actually loves you, if you actually have
his favor, if God actually called you,
if God actually said that, if God
actually favor you, if God is actually
going to supply.
Well,
that's where the battle begins.
This is why we need to be thankful for
the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit
is the one who within us confirms our
adoption.
The Holy Spirit causes us to cry out,
"Abba Father." In other words, the Holy
Spirit persuades us of our sonship.
The Holy Spirit convinces us that we
indeed belong to God. The devil will try
to confuse your calling
by attacking your confidence in who God
says you are. And this becomes the basis
of how you operate.
If you begin in the calling of God with
insecurity,
if you begin with questions about who
you are in him and who he is in you,
if you begin with that kind of doubt,
then you walk in insecurity.
Once the enemy has got you to question
your identity, again, he has shaken the
foundation of your calling. So, tell me
in the comment section, what are some of
the ways that the enemy tries to get you
to question your identity? Well, think
about it because if you can identify
this,
then that becomes all the more easy for
you to resist those attacks of the
enemy. Once you know those trigger
points, once you know how the enemy
strategizes against you, once you know
that familiar attack that he uses on you
again and again, it becomes easier to
overcome that attack. So, think about it
right now. How does the devil convince
you that you don't belong to God?
The second attack we see.
Turn these stones into bread.
This is the attack on fleshly needs.
Now, hear me, please, clearly.
You need to overcome the cravings of the
flesh now.
Today's private sin
destroys tomorrow's public ministry
expression.
Today's private sin
eats away at tomorrow's effectiveness.
You're planting seeds right now.
You sow seeds in secret.
And what you do in secret is affecting
who you're becoming in life.
And so, the enemy will get you, or try
to get you, and ultimately, it's you who
make the choice. The enemy will try to
get you to give in to those sinful
cravings, and he makes it seem
reasonable, logical.
He downplays it, explains it away,
causes you to excuse it. Why? Because
think about how he tempted Jesus.
"If you are the son of God, tell these
stones to become loaves of bread." He He
was
attacking a vulnerability there.
He knew Jesus was hungry.
He knew Jesus was weary and tired. And
doesn't it seem reasonable that if
you're hungry, and you're the son of
God, of course you should turn those
stones into bread, so that you can
satisfy your hunger?
And in getting us to downplay the
severity of our sin, in getting us to
justify our wrongdoing, he causes us to
compromise,
all the while excusing that compromise
in our lives. You may be saying to
yourself, "It's just
a little bit of scrolling on social
media.
It's just a little look at that photo or
that video.
It's just a little drink of this or
that.
It's just a little taste of what I
desire. After all, it's not necessarily
a big problem yet. I got this under
control. I can handle this. I'm not
going to let this become too big of a
problem. Or eventually, I'll deal with
this.
And then one off in the future
on that day of idealism, that day that
I've made up in my mind, everything's
just going to work out.
There's no urgency to take care of these
things, and so that problem grows.
And here's the problem.
If you don't take care of this,
if you don't keep this area in your life
weak, then that craving grows with the
success of your ministry.
That craving grows with the fruitfulness
of your effectiveness in the kingdom of
God. The wheat and the tares grow
together.
And so as you begin to see fruitfulness,
as God begins to use you,
as you begin to make progress in your
walk with the Lord, if you don't take
care of what you think is a need, it's
actually a sinful craving,
then that problem will grow.
Now, when I talk about progress, of
course, I'm not talking about reading
the word, praying. Those things weaken
the flesh.
I'm just talking about what we do for
God.
What you do for God can succeed even
while you're struggling, and that's a
dangerous thing.
And that's not what you want. You want
your character to grow with your
calling.
Just a little bit of anger-driven
comments.
Maybe gluttony brought on by
discomfort.
Or maybe you're feeling a little lonely,
so you do a little bit of shopping.
Sex, food, affirmation, distraction.
Comfort gained without surrender brings
only emptiness.
And we just give in to those cravings so
that we can feel comfortable, so that we
can feel soothed and satisfied.
And all the while we're training
ourselves to need that thing that we
should be rid of.
The devil will tempt you to prioritize
comfort over calling, to feed your flesh
at the cost of your spirit. I really
need you to hear this. Please, there's
someone listening who who who who needs
to hear this because
this will you later.
Tho- those things don't go away.
And if you don't deal with that now,
it's only going to become a bigger
problem later. That's a guarantee. No
one is strong enough to overcome that.
Listen,
if this message is blessing you and you
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Number three, throw yourself down. He's
trying to get Jesus to perform.
This is the attack through pressure to
perform. It's the bait of spiritual
manipulation
dressed as faith. Please understand
this. This is something
that not necessarily everyone will deal
with in every season, but you have to be
aware of it.
For example, over posting on social
media for validation.
You're doing something for God
and it has to be shown to the world for
that validation. Listen, I'm not just
talking to preachers.
I'm not just talking to teachers and
social media influencers who are
gospel-centered. I'm talking to every
Christian.
Because every Christian should be doing
something for God and therefore all of
us can face the temptation of doing
something for God, but also for the
validation of people.
And that's a dangerous place to be.
Or
manipulating spiritual outcomes. I've
seen this time and again.
Perhaps somebody is considered very
prophetic
and God speaks to them and they share a
word and the people are amazed and the
people are helped and the people are
challenged.
But then maybe God doesn't give you a
word the next time you gather
or even the next dozen times that you
gather.
And so instead of waiting on God to
actually speak to you,
you conjure something in your own
imagination.
Or worse,
you look into people's information,
manipulating, gathering intel so that
you can look impressive,
and then wanting to make something
happen for the validation of man,
you share what are actually your own
thoughts, what actually came from your
own online research, and then you pass
it off as prophecy so that people can
say, "Well, look how anointed and
gifted."
Same is true of any ministry, of any
expression. That's just one example, but
that kind of manipulation comes about as
a result sometimes from the pressure to
perform. Throw yourself down.
Demonstrate who you are. Let's see your
power. Let's see if you are who you say
you are.
Well, if you're not confident in your
identity, you'll fall for this one
easily.
The fear of being unseen, unvalidated,
or unfruitful can drive us to
manufacture moments instead of waiting
for God's timing. We begin to think,
"Maybe if I can make something dramatic
happen, people or God will notice me."
The devil will pressure you
to perform for approval,
trying to make you prove what God has
already promised.
Now, when you can finally let this go,
that's when spiritual momentum begins to
come because
often the Lord will wait until he raises
someone. He'll be patient with them.
He'll wait until he begins to use
someone until they can see this area in
their life weakened. Now,
the pressure to perform, I'll just be
honest with you, to some degree will
always be a temptation.
That temptation's always going to be
there. It's in human nature to seek out
the validation that we think we need
from other humans. So, that temptation
will never go away, but you can
strengthen your resistance against that
temptation by defeating it, by resisting
it, by responding with the word. And
when you do finally yield in this area
and you say, "Okay, Lord, I recognize
this is in me.
I want this to be weakened. I want this
to go." Then, as that pressure to
perform is weakened, promotion begins to
come.
See, that's one of the keys this
generation is missing. And I don't say
that critically, I say that because I
love you and I want to challenge you.
That's a key that's missing. We we we
feel so entitled to success. We We feel
so entitled to validation. We want
people to
believe us to be special simply because
we intend on doing something great one
day, but that's not how this works.
You have to come to the place where you
can allow that pressure to perform, that
need for validation to be weakened. And
once you begin to allow that to be
weakened, then God starts opening doors.
Why? Because now you can step into a
calling and the pressure thereof won't
destroy you.
But, if all you're ever doing it for is
the praise of people, to be seen as
spiritual, to be looked to as wise, to
be looked to as strong, to be perceived
as anointed or gifted or charismatic or
important, then when we begin to take
criticism, and it always comes, when we
begin to take criticism for pursuing the
will of God, then that pressure will
kill us.
There's an old saying that goes, "If you
live for their praises, you'll die
by their criticisms." Number four.
Attack
with the promise of power.
"I will give it all to you." is what the
devil said.
Now, this is compromise for gain. This
is This, by the way, is what Judas did.
There was an observation I made about
Judas a couple years back as I was
reading the scripture.
Judas was able to hand Jesus over
because Judas knew where Jesus would be.
He knew where Jesus was praying.
Judas knew the secret place.
This is a prophetic word for someone. I
know it.
Judas knew the secret place.
And he traded the secret place for gain.
Hear this warning now, please.
There are people
who will develop a prayer life.
They will come
to know Jesus, draw close to him.
And then when that power begins to
intensify upon their life, they leave
the secret place, but the power remains.
And they trade what was sacred for what
is material.
They trade what was pure
for gain.
They trade that intimacy they had with
the Holy Spirit,
and they turn it into a product.
Now, of course,
if you're going to be used by God in any
capacity, you'll understand that there
are resources that are needed for what
you do. That's biblical. Nothing wrong
with that.
It's one thing to have resources.
It's another thing for those resources
to have you.
And it doesn't just apply to money, by
the way. It applies to fame.
It applies to popularity.
It It applies to status.
Where we now trade and leverage
using what we had with God for the sake
of gaining what we can have in this
world.
And what was once pure and holy and
simple
becomes
self-centered and complicated.
And that becomes a weight on your
shoulder.
This is the trap of success
without sacrifice, influence
without intimacy, promotion
without prayer.
The enemy always offers us a calling
without a cross.
Now, Jesus today, of course, we know
he reigns in heaven, on earth, and below
the earth. He He is Lord over all.
Everything is under his jurisdiction
now.
The enemy offered that to him in terms
of the world itself.
He offered him that glory, so-called.
But, he offered it in a way that didn't
require the cross.
Sometimes we try to skip the process
because we think
we so badly want what's on the other end
that it's worth skipping the process.
Nothing will slow you down quite like
what you think is a shortcut.
Because it just prolongs the inevitable.
You will always need to develop. You
will always need
to strengthen the areas of purity in
your life. Yet,
often people trade
what they have with the Lord for power,
for status, for wealth. You won't win
spiritual battles
by yelling at the devil.
You win by refusing to be what he says,
refusing to want what he offers, and
refusing to do what he suggests.
Victory
in your calling starts when you know who
you are, what you need, who you serve,
and what really matters. Lord,
strengthen them in this hour against the
attacks [music] of the enemy, I pray.
Give them discernment
to define deception.
Give them discernment
to fend off demonic voices in the name
of Jesus, even demonic voices [music]
speaking through people around them.
Cause their eyes to be open, I pray.
Lord, strengthen us. Give us the grace
that we need to overcome these attacks
that we might remain faithful to you.
That we might [music] step into our
calling.
Thank you, Lord, that promotion is
coming.
Thank you, Lord, that you are causing us
to step into a new season for your
glory.
Help us to do well in this season.
In the mighty name of Jesus, we pray.
Type it in the comments because you
believe [music] it. Type a big amen.
Well, Jesus said,
"Where your treasure is, there will your
heart be, also."
That means your money and how you use it
indicates greatly
what your heart is in.
And so, I want to ask [music] you this.
When's the last time you supported a
gospel-centered ministry?
Maybe you used to be involved in giving
because you understood it was biblical.
And maybe for one reason or another, you
allowed your heart to get hard. Maybe
for one reason or another, you've become
afraid of the future because of all the
propaganda concerning the economy.
Maybe for one reason or another, you've
become cynical because you've heard of
all the fakes and the frauds and the
fallen and it's just caused you to say,
"I don't know if I want any part of that
anymore."
Well, can I just challenge you
to step out in faith
and join hands [music] with this
ministry?
Where your treasure is, there will your
heart be, also. I know your heart is in
souls.
And so, I need your help.
My brothers, my sisters, [music]
if you believe in what we're doing, if
you've been helped by this ministry,
then put your heart into this ministry
today.
Get behind the vision. Get involved in
the mission.
We're out to spread the gospel of Jesus
Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit
all around the world through events,
media, and church planting. I'm asking
many of you [music] to please today
right now sign up to become a monthly
supporter. Those monthly gifts help us
to predict the income
>> [music]
>> and therefore plan more effectively. You
can also give a single gift by going to
davidhernandezministries.com/donate.
Whoever you are, whatever your
situation, whether you're someone who
God has blessed financially in this
season
or whether you're someone who's saying,
"Lord, I need a miracle." All of us have
a responsibility to support in [music]
proportion to where we are. If you have
much, give in proportion to that much.
If you have little,
give in proportion to that little by
faith.
And you watch what [music] God will do
in your life. Now, I taught a lesson I
think you'll like.
It's on welcoming the Holy Spirit. Make
sure you check that teaching out right
now.