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Text Sermons : ~Other Speakers S-Z : Dick Sipley : SPIRITUAL WARFARE - Tape 1

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By Rev. Dick Sipley - At Briercrest, SK, 1991 - 7 Pages Transcribed

You notice I laid my watch down on the desk. It reminded me immediately of the man who took his friend to church, and his friend had never been to church and was totally ignorant of everything that was going on. As they were going through the service, he kept saying to the Christian that brought him, "What are they doing now? What does that mean? And what does that mean?" So finally the minister came up to speak and laid his watch on the desk. And the friend said, "What does that mean?" He said, "Nothing at all."

Let's open our Bibles this morning to Mark 1:21-28 (NIV). "They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority [Very important words.], not as the teachers of the law. Just then a man in their synagogue who was [and your NIV has] possessed by an evil spirit [Really to be more true, the Greek text says, a man who was demonized.] cried out, `What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are--the Holy One of God!' `Be quiet!' said Jesus sternly. `Come out of him!' The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek. The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, `What is this? A new teaching--and with authority! He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him.' News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee."

I was preaching in Brazil and had advertised that I was going to speak on the Lord and 3,000 demons, and one of the missionaries said, "Since you've advertised it you are likely to have problems because there's a man that tries to break up our services here. He's violently demon possessed and he comes charging into the building and tries to wreck the place and break up the service. So because you have advertised it we had better be on our guard, because he'll likely show up that night. And sure enough, I was in the middle of a sermon and suddenly a man came in the back door, and as soon as he walked in the door you could tell he was the man. Most people that have demonic problems don't look like that, but this particular man was manifested in a very disheveled way, with his hair, clothes and eyes wild, and with the look of somebody totally out of control. I'll never forget Tom Kyle, who was great big guy and missionary from my church in Akron at that time, and he started to get up, and the Lord just had me put my hand out to him to sit down again. The man started down the middle aisle while I was still preaching. I don't know how you are able to do this, but you can do unusual things. I kept on preaching but I started using some authority. I was saying silently, "In Jesus' name I bind you and command you to come under Christ's control." He got about halfway down the center aisle and all of a sudden he went down on his knees, and with this a Catholic area, crossed himself and then he got up and sat down in the seat and was perfectly quiet during the rest of the service. When I finished preaching and we were giving the invitation he suddenly jumped up and ran out of the building, so we didn't get a chance to minister to him. "Well," you say, "that's in Brazil. Thank God it doesn't happen here." Oh no? You can't be sure of that.

On Father's Day our pastoral staff decided to do something different by having all the men in the church in the first part of the service to get up and make a wall around the inside of the sanctuary, and they would all just stand there, shoulder to shoulder, all the way around the inside of the sanctuary. They did this to demonstrate that they were a wall of protection for the rest of that congregation--for the women, children and young people--and they would stand between them and the world and the powers of darkness, and take their place of authority and responsibility for the congregation. We had it all arranged, and I did know there was a man that was going to be there who had a demonic problem, because some of our men had been working with him the week before by his request, so we knew he was violently afflicted by a demon. I thought he would be in the service, and he was; however, I hadn't seen him. So when I asked for all the men to get up, all the men did, and he was with the men lined up around the wall of the sanctuary. It came to a point where I was going to pray for God's blessing on these men, so I started to pray, and I came to the point where I prayed, "And now, Lord, I pray that Your power will flow through this wall of men." And this man shrieked out with this animal-like noise, shrieking, "No, no, no!" Now I suppose that there were not more than 2 or 3 people, maybe one handful of people, who had ever heard a demonic voice through a man before.

But it's interesting that there were doctors and nurses in that service, and all kinds of intellectual people, and to this day, anyone who has ever talked to me about it, without me even mentioning it, say "That was a demon." There was no question in anybody's mind. Now the man that was sitting next to him that had brought him simply, very quietly said, "In Jesus' name, be quiet." And that was it--he sat down. I told everybody just to relax and that everything is fine, and we went on with the service. A young man began to play a trumpet solo, and reached a point where the words, which were not even being sung, said, "Father, Son and Holy Ghost." That man came up out of the seat screaming, "No, no, no!" Told the man to go and sit down. As I got into my sermon I had a particular spot in the sermon where I had Saul of Tarsus coming back to Jerusalem and Barnabas was trying to introduce him to the Christians. It was in the middle of the night, they were in a back alley of Jerusalem in the dark, and they came to a door in a wall and knocked on the door. Someone

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from inside says, "Who is it?" and he says, "Christ is risen." And the person on the other side of the door says, "He is risen indeed." And they are suppose to open the door, but it was not the way it worked. Because when I said, "Christ is risen" - again that man came up out of his seat, shrieking "No, no, no!" to the top of his lungs. At that point I said, "In Jesus' name you be quiet" and we never had any more problems the rest of the service. Now what I want to tell you about that young man is that he had received Christ as his Savior about a year before that. He came from Greece and had got in touch with Greek Christians and had been led to Christ. The reason he came with some of our men here was that he was attending another church, and as he would sit in the church service and the gospel would be preached, suddenly a tremendous, overpowering force would come upon him and he would feel like he wanted to scream or get up and run out of the building, so he had approached some of our men and asked them if they would pray with him, and that's what had started this. I want to tell you that that young man now can come into our church, sitting and clothed and in his right mind. He has been delivered. You say, "How can it be?" Surely that young man hadn't received Christ." Yes, surely he had and his heart was very hungry for the things of God. He really wanted to grow in the Lord and be delivered from this power. But there were some areas in his life that were part of the territory of the kingdom of darkness, and those areas had never been taken care of. There were some very strong areas--doctrinal areas that were completely heretical that he had been taught in Greece; others had to do with sexual problems, and so there were various areas in his life that were definitely territory that Satan had gotten control of before he became a Christian, and that territory had never been yielded to God, cleansed, and delivered from that. After going through this workbook carefully, he was brought to face those things and deal with them. It is good that we are singing about the blood of Christ. And as those areas were put under the blood of Jesus Christ and renounced, put away, that young man was cleansed and came to the point where he was fully delivered, and today is living a healthy Christian life and is growing in the things of God.

Now I've jumped right on a controversial subject because there is no sense in going around the barn. I want to talk to you about something very important. Jesus Christ was in a public service and it was interrupted by a man who I suppose was in the habit of attending that synagogue. As Jesus was speaking with authority the particular spirit that was afflicting this man began to respond to the authority and presence of Jesus Christ, and thus there was this outward demonstration. That kind of thing doesn't happen normally in our services. But that very same day a woman who was in church for the third time, who was not a Christian, went home and before the day was out, received Jesus Christ as her personal Savior. She said, "I didn't know there was a God, and I certainly didn't think there was a devil. But after this morning I know there is a devil; so there must be a God." And now she is in church every Sunday and growing in the Lord. I know of a number of Christians who have got right with God who were not right with God. In fact, one of our young housewives who didn't sleep all that night because God was dealing with her, found God suddenly saying to her, "This is real." This is not a game; we are not "playing" Christianity, this is real business, we are at war. She realized that her life was not where it ought to be so if she had to face that kind of thing, she would not be able to deal with it, and so she had spent a night of heart searching and prayer and got her life straightened. I later found out that many of our Christians did the same.

Also, there was a young man standing at the wall on one side and another man at the other side in the rather large auditorium; he was a Bible college graduate, married a Christian girl and they wanted to go into Christian ministry. He came out of the drug culture and was involved in the occult and satanic rituals and all kinds of things in his past, but he renounced all that, repented and put it all away when he received Christ as Savior and was cleansed, and as far as he was concerned it was all in the past of his life and he wanted to live for the Lord. But a lot of us had noticed that there was a real streak of rebellion in that young man. He had kind of a bad attitude towards authority, organized Christianity, and tended to show up on Sunday morning service especially in the summer in his shorts and tee shirt--we let him do that, but you could see the rebellion that was still there. He was standing over against the wall and the first time that man screamed, and as he came shaking and frightened to tell me at the door, he said a force came all the way across the auditorium and hit him in the chest so hard that he almost fell on the floor. You say, how can that happen to a Christian? It could happen because there was ground in his life, and that ground was the ground of rebellion. Do you know that the Word of God says that "rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft" (I Sam. 15:23). We don't think about those things, do we, and that's why he was open to that kind of an attack because there was an area in his life that God has specified is a very serious area.

I want to make very strong the reality of the spirit-world. We are living in a day where everything, as far as the spirit-world has been renounced, and many who are called Christian counsellors, psychologists and psychiatrists deny the reality of the demonic. They like to explain everything they do by psychology and psychiatric terms, saying they are not really demon possessed or demonized, and there is no such thing as evil spirits. And they'll even try to explain such an incident as we've just read this morning by saying, "Jesus Christ knew better, but he understood the interest of the people and he adapted Himself to the culture of the day, and because they believed in demons, Jesus just simply accommodated Himself to their belief because He wanted to help them, so He pretended there were demons, but He knew perfectly well there were not, and ministered to the psychological needs of those people." Now you don't believe any of that garbage, do you? I

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hope you don't because it's not true. Recently I have been impressed with the fact that many of these dear men who are sincere, and are wanting to help people, are beginning to ask some serious questions. I just finished reading a book, "THE PEOPLE OF THE LIE," which is written by Dr. Peck who is a well known psychiatrist all over the western world and famous for his writings and psychiatric treatment. Dr. Peck finally came in contact with the demonic in a counselling situation and became convinced that the demonic was real, that there must be a devil, and in that process became a Christian. I haven't talked to him and don't know how evangelical his Christianity is, but in his book he has said that in the process of writing that book he became a Christian and had come face to face with the devil. But I don't think so. I think he came face to face with an evil spirit and he had never seen one before or met one. He was so shaken that he thought he had met the devil. It is very interesting that a man out in the secular world, who is widely read and his books are best sellers, and this book is being read all over the western world, would finally come to that kind of conclusion. And he is confident he has met Satan face to face twice in the lives of people he was counselling, but of course he has run into that which was demonic. There is a spirit-world and we are involved in it if we are Christians. If we are going to minister to people in our day we need to face this and we need to be involved in spiritual warfare. Please understand clearly that I am not into demons, but I am into Jesus Christ. I don't preach and talk about demons all the time; we preach Jesus Christ. We want to concentrate on Christ, think and focus on Christ, He is in us and we are in Him, all that He has is ours, and we want to focus on the Person of Christ. But it doesn't mean that we should be ignorant about the forces of darkness, because the Word of God says we are not ignorant about his devices as many Christians are, and in the Word of God evil spirits and the forces of darkness have to be dealt with, and if we are going to serve God faithfully today they have to be dealt with. I believe it because of the declining Christianity in North America, and because of the influx of many people from other kinds of religious backgrounds into North America and especially into Canada where one of our gods is multi-culturalism--one of our false gods. Mr. Bizzy has tried to smash that god and has done a pretty good job, and this is a secular book by a secular sociologist. It wouldn't hurt Christians to read it because that man is really attacking something that is helping to destroy Christianity.

All of this has come into Canada and North America, and because Christianity has declined and all of this kind of thing has come in to fill our country, the activity of the powers of darkness is on the rise and is much stronger today than it was when I started out in the ministry. I could have gone over to the mission field and found it just as strong as it is here and stronger. But today there is a tremendous change in this area. I have been a pastor for over 44 years. So if we are going to serve God effectively today we need to be ready to deal with this particular problem.

I want to deal with three things now, and tomorrow I want to walk you through a typical deliverance session.

1. THE QUESTION OF DOMINION. It is partly a question of identity, who am I in Christ?

Acts 26:18 (God said to Saul of Tarsus, I am sending you to them to open their eyes, to give them the truth because they are deceived, blinded by the god of this world. They have been told lies by the thousands all their lives, their minds are steeped in darkness because of the lies of the devil they have been taught by people, religion, actions, and everything in their life. They've had their minds filled with lies, and he says I am sending you to open their eyes to turn them from darkness to light, [We need to give people the truth.] and from the powers of Satan to God so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me. That's what the Apostle Paul was sent to do--to turn people from darkness to light because their minds are filled and steeped with the lies of Satan, with doctrines of demons with untruth.

Last night my wife and I listened to "Children At Risk" by Dobson. It was something to listen to him and Bauer as they poured out to us for 2 hours straight, the lies that have been taught to people of North America. And the lies that are being poured into the minds of our young people and our children, those lies are not just being made up by men; those lies are lies of Satan, they come out of the kingdom of darkness, they are lies that have been perpetrated by the father of lies. He is a liar from the beginning, and when he speaks a lie he speaks his own, he cannot speak the truth, and those lies that are being fostered upon the people of our day come from Satan and we are to bring them the light, the truth of the Word of God, and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God. You cannot turn a person from the power of Satan unless you can turn him away from the lies that he believes. If I can get you to believe a few lies I can
control your life. There are even Christians who believe lies and thereby find their lies out of control, and so this is very, very important. People have to be turned from darkness to light in order to be turned from the power of Satan to God.

Another wonderful passage that probably most of you can quote, I Cor. 6:19-20 "Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's." Those who are Christians have come out of the

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kingdom of darkness and they are in the kingdom of light, the kingdom of God, and there is a question of dominion and authority. Look at some Scriptures:

Col. 1:12-14 "Giving thanks to the Father, Who has qualified and made us fit to share the portion which is the inheritance of the saints (God's holy people) in the Light. [The Father] has delivered and drawn us to Himself out of the control and the dominion of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:

Ephesians is a great Book in this study on the whole matter of spiritual warfare. This is truth. First, let me reiterate a little of what we are: I've been born of God, have you? I'm a child of God indwelt by Jesus Christ, I have come out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, into the kingdom of God's dear Son. In Christ I have all things. I have been crucified with Christ, buried, and raised with Christ--I can't do it; it has already been done. It has all been done by Him. The dominion of sin has been broken, I am free from sin, I don't have to serve sin, I can yield my members as members of righteousness unto God. I have the Holy Spirit. I can depend upon Him. Do you believe that? You see, we need to understand where we are.

Eph. 1:15-21 "For this reason, I, since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, have never stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. [As you read this passage he keeps adding one superlative on top of the other; you feel like your expanding and expanding till your going to burst.] That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be give, not only in the present age but also in the one to come." Do you believe that?!

In Eph. 2:1-6 it says, "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. [You can't be Biblical and not deal with this matter of spiritual warfare because the Bible is simply filled with it, in the New Testament, everywhere you turn--there it is. And all people outside of Christ are in the dominion of Satan, and they are living under the power of the Prince of the power of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. They may not like to think that, but he is at work in their lives.] All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. [Let me give you the four D's of the man or woman outside of Christ: they are dead, demonized, depraved, and damned. That's what that passage says; it is no small thing. I don't mean they are demon possessed but they are in some way under the influence of the power of Satan and demon control. But what has happened?] But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus..." We have been raised up and seated in the throne with Christ, far above all principality and power, and every name that is named in this world and in the world to come. Christian, I want you to know that as soon as you come into Jesus Christ by faith, and He comes into you, and you are put into His body by the Spirit of God, by the new birth, you are immediately one who has died with Him, been buried with Him, been raised with Him, and seated with Him in heavenly places, and the meek Christian on earth has authority over the powers of darkness in the name of Jesus. Now you need to believe that, and you don't have to shout to exercise it. All you have to do is quietly say, "In Jesus' name I command you to do this or that." They are under your authority. Don't be afraid. Jesus said in Luke 10:18, "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; nothing shall by any means hurt you." Isn't that wonderful? Nothing shall be able to hurt you. So you have authority in the name of Jesus, and you're seated in that throne above all power, so just with a quiet word, and with faith in Christ and His name, you have the power and authority over the powers of darkness. Our position is absolutely secure in Christ.

What about the position of those in the world? We've already read, they are under the power of the prince of darkness. I Jn. 5:19 "We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one." We are the children of God, but the whole world is under the control of the evil one. You know that there are many people who are outside of Christ that you love, that you are praying for, and many of them are not going to be set free and come to Christ until you face the fact that the big problem in their life is something demonic--not only sin, but the powers of darkness. What we are finding is that if you get out there and win souls, you better be ready for this. Many people are constantly coming to Christ in our church, many are young adults (30 to 40 year-olds), and they've been into everything. There are

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all kinds of areas in their lives where there is not only sin but demonic powers. And they may repent of their sins, but those things have to be dealt with, because the whole world lies in the wicked one and he controls them.

2. THE QUESTION OF BONDAGE.

How do people get into bondage to the powers of darkness? There are many different ways, and we will see a little more of that tomorrow as we walk through a deliverance session, giving you steps to take. There are two basic things that deal with bondage:
a. One is the question of truth and lies (we've talked about that). And the other is--
b. Giving ground for demonic invasion and control. Eph. 4:27 says, "Do not give the devil a foothold." Do not give grounds to the devil.

James 3:14-16 (NAS) "But if you have bitter jealousy [This is interesting--it is written to Christians] and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. [Here we have this matter of lies and truth again. People get into bondage to demonic forces through lies, to believing lies, or perpetrating lies, instead of the truth.] This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. [This is not some idea I dreamed up. Did you realize that in the church sometimes where there is bitterness, jealousy, envy and strife, that there are also demonic forces at work? He says, this is demonic.] For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing."

Let me give you Scriptures about evil spirits getting control in the lives of Christians, or at least should have had the truth:

John 13:2 (NIV) "...the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus." Now don't say, "The devil made me do it." He prompted you to do it.

Luke 22:3 "Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the twelve." He entered him--now this leaves questions:

In John 6:70 "Then Jesus replied, `Have I not chosen you, the twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!'" That's an interesting statement and I'm going to try to explain that one. Here is one for you to think about:

Mt. 16:23 "Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Out of my sight, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." I am not sure whether Satan bothers most of us or not; he probably sends one of his spirits to work on us, but because Jesus was involved here, Satan himself was involved with Peter.

Luke 22:31,32a "Simon, Simon, Satan has asked [literally "demanded"] to sift you all as wheat. But I have prayed for you."
John 8:44 Jesus was speaking, and they were questioning who He was, and he was saying, if I tell the truth why don't you believe me? And the reason you don't believe Me is because you are not of God. If you were of God, you would believe Me, because I came from God, etc..--He's talking about the truth. And then He says, "You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him." [Do you know where the whole idea of abortion that has prevailed in North America came from? This is doctrine of demons, this is teaching of demons. Why are people so blind? You talk to people, and wonder why they can't understand it--they are killing babies! They can't understand it because they are blinded. The god of this world has blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the glorious light of the gospel should shine unto them. Satan is a murderer. That's what Jesus said that the enemy comes not but for to steal, to kill, and to destroy. That's a terrible picture. But I have come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. Satan does not hold to the truth.] "When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies." Jesus said, "I know the Father, and if I said I did not know Him, I would be a liar like you." Whew!

I Sam. 15:23, the prophet says that rebellion is like the sin of witchcraft and arrogance like the evil of idolatry, and idolatry, of course, is praying to devils.

I Cor. 10:19-20 Paul says, "Do I mean then that a sacrifice offered to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons..." But you say, now they had that problem back there. When I've

(NOTE: The beginning of SIDE 2 of this cassette tape is on page 5, indicated above by the bold words, People get into
bondage to demonic forces through lies...)

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been preaching on the mission fields, one of the interesting things to me is to watch them burn their fetishes. They get
saved, and then every Sunday morning they have services where people bring forth their fetishes and set them down in front of the church, have prayer together, and then after the service they have a big bon fire and burn their fetishes, because those things connect them with the demonic world. I want you to know there are a lot of things in North America that Christians are playing around with that are just as deadly because they are involved with the kingdom of darkness and with the demonic world. In fact, it is horrifying to me that almost all of the children's programs on television deal with witches, goblins, wizards, the masters in the universe, all kinds of seances and supernatural powers, evil spirits, good spirits and bad spirits, white and black magic, and on and on so that its not good. Your theaters and novels are just reeking with it. One of the best sellers right now is a book that the whole thing is on the demonic, and the whole atmosphere is filled with it. And there are Christians that are compromising with these things on every side. Some of them read the horoscope, etc.. Be careful who you even get for medical help because there are all kinds of things on the fringes that are questionable. And sometimes even if the practice is not questionable, the person who is doing it is questionable. Most of the people who are involved in fringe things that are not part of the main stream medical practice are also involved in the occult. So watch it. I believe that many of God's dear children are in trouble because of those kind of things, either in the past or in the present. All contacts with cults and the occult, and that which has to do with spiritism needs to be put away. Now days there are people who talk about "Spirit Guides" in the New Age movement--those Spirit Guides are demons. The spirits of the dead are not spirits of the dead--they are demons. We have a couple in our church where a young lady has gone through deliverance. They came to Christ through just what's happening all the time. There's a young couple, whose neighbors live next to them, works in the same office, begins to witness, and then invite him over to the house; they bring him to church, talk at home, and then the couple comes to Christ. Not long after she comes to Christ she becomes heavily depressed, never had this problem before, but the depression gets so bad she's completely out of control. She has to go to the psyche ward, see a psychiatrist, they begin to load her up with medicine, etc., and then finally we sit down to talk and we find out that in her past life, before she became a Christian when her mother died, she heard a noise down in the living room. She got went to see what was going on, and her mother was sitting in a rocking chair in the living room, rocking. That wasn't her mother. She was so shocked, she shrieked and screamed and the thing vanished. They were sleeping in bed one night, suddenly she woke up and there was a white apparition standing by the end of the bed. I'm talking about a young couple that are in the upper echelon of the business world, money, culture and education. I'm not talking about ignorant, superstitious people. There stood this white thing and she woke up her husband and he saw it too; he got up, chased it as it ran down the hall and went right out through the wall until it disappeared. That all happened before they became Christians. That young lady needed help, and, thank God, she got it and she's fine. I was there for the final deliverance session and then they both prayed to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and told them to ask God to fill all the empty places. They prayed and he looked up and said, "Whew, that's wonderful!"

Acts 5:3 in the early church, Ananias and Sapphira--I'm not going to argue with you about whether they were Christians--I don't know, but God knows. They were in the church. People were selling land and giving money and giving it, and so they wanted to get in on the act, they sold some land and brought part of the money, which was alright, but they said it was ALL the money. "Then Peter said, Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land?" Here is this whole business of untruth. I want to say something very important right here because if I don't say it I may forget to say it later. Christians who are living lives of deceit, and there are many Christians who are, lives of cover up, are living a lie, and when you are living a lie you expose yourself to the attack to the powers of darkness. You better believe it. It is dangerous business. He said you have lied to the Holy Spirit. You haven't lied to men but you have lied to God.

James 4:7-8a "Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God, and he will come near to you..."

I Peter 5:8-9 "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith..." You say the devil can't affect Christians. Then why does Peter tell us to be careful? Why does he warn us that he prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour? "Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings."

3. THE QUESTION OF FREEDOM AND SAFETY.

Luke 10:17-20 "The seventy-two returned with joy and said, 'Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.' He replied, 'I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions, and
to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but
SPIRITUAL WARFARE, Tape 1, Cont. - 7

rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven.'" I am speaking on this, but please don't get this out of balance. Some people run out and come home with a large stack of books, and I say, don't do that. Don't start talking and preaching about it all the time, but instead because it needs to be dealt with. You don't go around saying "Praise God, the demons submit to me." No. Praise God that I'm saved and that my name's written in heaven, and Christ is my Savior. That's what you want to testify to.

I John 3:8 (NAS) The one who lives a life of sin is of the devil, "because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil." Is that what the Bible says? Yes. Then that must be important. The whole mess in the world is the work of the devil, isn't it? There was the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve without sin, and Satan came into that garden--that's where it all started. And it started with his lies about God, about what He said in His Word--that's where it started, and they believed a lie. And so here the whole world is. Why did Christ come? To counteract that, to destroy all of the works of the devil, and to establish His kingdom.

Eph. 6:10-18 "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes." [I thank God He showed me that years ago. Don't fight with people. Fight with the real enemy. But you say, "I have this cantankerous person; if you had him you'd fight with him." No I wouldn't. I would recognize that back behind him
are the powers of darkness. But you say, "What? You don't think he is a Christian?" He may be a Christian, but there may be some things wrong with his life that have given ground for the working of Satan, and Satan is using him to attack me or to try to mess up the church. And I don't fight with him at all. I go right past him and attack the enemy.

"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of TRUTH buckled around your waist, [That's where it starts--TRUTH against the devil's lies] with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the gospel of peace as a firm footing. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints." This is the wonderful armor of God that we need to put on.

Here is a simple approach to this problem: WORDS OF TRUTH and with REPENTANCE, and the CLEANSING BLOOD OF JESUS, REMOVE ALL GROUND where Satan can work. There are two kingdoms:
1. Kingdom of lies, sin, sickness, hate, death, greed, filth, immorality, corruption, etc. and all that is in that kingdom.

2. Kingdom of love, grace, joy, peace, blessing, power, rejoicing, holiness, and all that Christ is--the Fruit of the Spirit. It's mine. And if I don't want the powers in this kingdom to have any place in my life, I just simply have to live here in this kingdom. If there is anything of the evil kingdom still in my life, I need to deal with it, and get it out of my life. And then give my life fully to what's in this good kingdom. Through Christ and His promises and His Word, let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. Have your life changed by the renewing of your mind, your thought life. We need to surrender all our ground to Christ and take His authority.

One of the most severe cases of demon possession that I dealt with came from a man who was a Christian who had allowed his mind to be totally preoccupied with sexual extremes. And that's one of the great areas. Just to give you an idea, one of the most common ways that evil spirits enter another life where they have not had any place, is the sexual intercourse with someone who is demonized. There are a lot of things that we need to face up to because we have all kinds of Christians playing around, lots of young people in our churches playing around with sin. Their into all kinds of things & they got to get out in faith. They are playing around with the occult, with Ouija Boards, seances, movies & things that are harmful to their minds, reading literature, watching things and thinking about playing Dungeons and Dragons.

There was a very strong evangelical Bible college and seminary down in the United States where the young man was in one of the men's dormitories, and there were two floors in the dorm where they began to see apparitions, tables started moving, things falling off the walls, heard noises at night, and they were all terrified. Upon investigation they found that those two whole floors were involved in playing Dungeons and Dragons. You can't play with it. We just want to make light of all this, and say, "O come on, come on." Listen, I deal with this all the time, and find it's a regular practice in our church to deal with this because we have to now, not because we like to. All this is important and we need to get out of that kingdom of darkness and get all the way into the Kingdom of God. And we need to do that if we are going to see revival.





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