This is a brief excerpt of the sermon given by Pastor Alexander Thomas during the Watch Night service on Thursday, December 31st, 2009 at the International Church Atlanta, Georgia.

This New Years message was taken from 2 Kings 13: 14-19

When Jehoash was told to strike the ground with the arrows, the king did it only halfheartedly. As a result, Elisha told the king that his victory over Syria would not be complete. Receiving the full benefits of God's plan for our lives requires us to receive and obey God's commands fully. If we don't follow God's complete instructions, we should not be surprised that his full benefits and blessings are not present. Satan is an oppressor. Deliverance is available to you and yet the Lord won’t do it apart from your partnering with Him. God will place His hands upon ours but we must grab the arrow, open the window, and get into action. After the first arrow was launched, Elisha told king Joash to take the rest of the arrows out of the quiver and beat them on the ground. So Joash took the rest of the arrows out of the quiver and beat them three times and then he stopped. “Why have you stopped after three times?” Elisha asked. “You should have smitten the arrows five or six times. But because you only hit them three times, you’ll only have a partial victory over Syria.” What do those arrows speaks? They speak of the arsenal we have been given by the Lord to bring about the deliverance and victory He intends for us to experience in our daily life.

The Arrow of the Word of God
The Word of God is a powerful weapon in your arsenal, an arrow that will bring about deliverance and victory. But how do we handle that arrow? When Jesus was doing battle against Satan in Matthew 4, every time Satan came at Him, Jesus had victory over the tempter by quoting Scripture.

The Arrow of our Prayer Life
Elijah was a man like us, and yet he was a man of power because he was a man of prayer. As he prayed for rain to come, he placed his head between his knees and prayed not once, twice, or three times, but seven times in this intensive posture of prayer (1 Kings 18). That is the kind of prayer we need if we are to prevail against the kingdom of Satan.

The Arrow of Faith in God and to His Word
Another arrow in our arsonal is the word of faith. Matthew 17:20 (NKJV) So Jesus said to them, "Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. The phrase was a Jewish idiom or proverb meaning "to remove difficulties" The greatest difficulties in human life can be removed by faith. Prayer and faith can do anything for God. They can remove all kinds of mountains: fear, disappointment, depression, sickness, temptation, guilt, loneliness. Such mountains as a barrier before man's path. Such mountains can really defeat life. How can they be overcome? By praying and believing in God.

The Arrow of Praise and Worship
There is power in praise. 2 Chronicles 20:22 (NKJV) Now when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated.
How do we let God fight for us? By realizing the battle is not ours, but God's; by recognizing human limitations and allowing God's strength to work through our fears and weaknesse, by making sure we are pursuing God's interests and not just ours, and by asking God for help in our daily battles.

The Arrow of Communion and Fellowship
There is much more power in the Lord’s Table than we can even imagine. Come to the Lord’s Table expecting a fresh measure of His grace and forgiveness. He’ll meet you in that place, and your deliverance will be full 1 Corintians 11: 23-32.