Welcome to the Overcoming Series! In this series, David teaches on how to discern and overcome two of the most insidious enemies of the Cross; the political and the religious spirit. He then teaches on the purpose of offense and the crucial role that humility plays in our walk with God and for understanding truth.

If you scroll down, you will see that each audio teaching has a title and a brief description followed by an audio file where you can either listen to the teaching from our website or download the Mp3. Please note that if you choose to listen to the file, it sometimes takes several seconds to start playing the audio after you click on the play button. To download the file to your computer, simply click where it says "download" at the bottom right hand corner of each audio file.

Or you can click here if you would like to view a summary list of the titles in this series.

David Cwir - Discerning the Political Spirit

"Be careful," Jesus warned them. "Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod." (Mark 8:15)

The religious and political spirit have been the two most insidious enemies of the cross since Christ walked the earth. They are both anti-Christ spirits that are used by the enemy to kill the works and purposes of God. You can see in the life of Christ that these two spirits were always at work to kill Jesus and destroy the work that He was sent to accomplish. For example, Herod tried to kill Jesus when he was still an infant (Mt. 2:1-18)—and together with the Pharisees—the Herodians plotted together to kill Jesus early in His ministry (Mark 3:6). Not only did they both oppose Jesus throughout His life, they ultimately worked together to crucify Him. The tricky thing is that the religious and political spirit have a façade of looking like they are from God (Mt. 2:8). They use scripture and religious language to sound righteous, but they are evil at their root. This is why Jesus warns us about them in Mark 8:15, and this is why we need to be aware of these anti-Christ spirits that seek to kill and destroy the church. Check out this week’s audio message to learn more about the political spirit, how it operates, how to discern it, and how to overcome.

David Cwir - Overcoming the Religious Spirit

Ever wonder why it was the conservative, zealous, religious community that immediately became Jesus’ greatest enemy when He walked the earth? No one on earth prayed more, fasted more, read the Bible more, had a greater hope in the coming of the Messiah, or had more zeal for the things of God than the Pharisees; Yet they were the greatest opposers of God and His Messiah when He came. Those who were the most zealous for the Word of God crucified the Word Himself when He became flesh to walk among them. Why did this happen? Because “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble” [James 4:6 & 1 Peter 5:5; Proverbs 3:34]. Satan knows that God will not inhabit any work that is inflated with pride and that God Himself will even resist such a work. Satan’s strategy is to make us proud—even proud of good things, such as how much we read our Bibles, witness, or feed the poor. He knows that if we do the will of God in pride, our work will be counterproductive and could ultimately even work toward our fall. Check out this message if you would like to learn about why it is so crucial to know about the religious spirit, how it operates, and how we can overcome it.

David Cwir - The Mantle of Humility

"Right now, in this day and age...the best discernment that you can ever use is to hang out with those who are followers of Jesus that are humble and broken; because Jesus dealt with people not in terms of right and wrong, but in terms of humble or proud." ~ Jason Upton

Truth is a Person. Our faith is not mental assent to a set of propositions, it is relationship with God. Jesus did not base his relationship off of whether people were right or wrong, rather, He hung out with the humble of heart. Jesus’ disciples did not have perfect theology by any means, but they were humble enough to receive Jesus when He came. The problem with seeking to be "right" is that it results in self-righteousness, and scripture says that “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5, James 4:6). Humility is a posture of heart we all must have. Check out this week’s message if you would like to learn more about the absolute importance of humility, what humility looks like according to Scripture, and how crucial humility is in our walk with God.

David Cwir - Humility: The Key to Understanding Truth

Seeking to be right only leads to self-righteousness. Seeking to be humble results in a knowledge of the truth.  Jesus reveals truth to the humble of heart, and therefore, the only way to be “right” is through humility. For example, Jesus used parables and hid truth in them so that people with prideful (hard) hearts couldn’t receive the truth. Why? Because they would reject the truth and be held even more accountable for it and receive a more severe judgment (Luke 12:47-48). It’s like what Rick Joyner says, that “God judges [people, nations etc.] not according to the amount of evil embraced, but according to the amount of light rejected.” So it’s God’s mercy to use parables so that the prideful would not receive as severe of a judgment for rejecting the truth contained in them. This is why Jesus hid truth in mysteries so that only the humble of heart were able to hear and understand the truth. Check out this week’s message if you would like to learn more about how Humility is a prerequisite for understanding truth.