In this sermon, the speaker shares a story about a man who was robbed at gunpoint in a New York subway. The man had nothing of value to give, but he learned the importance of carrying at least a dollar to give to potential robbers. The speaker then transitions to another story about a girl who was confronted by a threatening man while she was carrying materials to share the gospel with children. Despite the danger, she maintained eye contact with the man to protect herself. The speaker emphasizes the principle of breaking down overwhelming tasks into achievable pieces and encourages the audience to focus on the present moment rather than being overwhelmed by the magnitude of a task.

One of the things we shared last night, and I would really encourage you that when you go into a motel room, a hotel room, why don't you just pray in that room and ask God to remove all the forces of darkness, you know, and any wickedness that's been committed in that room and all, that it would be removed and there would be no harassment or any oppression or anything like that taking place in that room. And the reason we mentioned the houses last night, because often every house you move into as a missionary has already been prededicated to the enemy. Just turn right around and dedicate the house and everything to the Lord, that it would be a light, you know, in that community and so on. There's a book out that is the only book I know of, and I wanted to mention it to you, written on the subject, it's John Dawson's Taking Our Cities for God. Now if you've never, he's the president of Y-Rammers, isn't it Y-Rammers that he's the president of? He wrote that book, it gets a little bit bogged down, a little bit detailed, but it's an excellent book in how to pray against principalities and powers. It's amazing, he and his wife would walk and stand before houses, they moved into the bad part of the city, that's not the word I want, but he moved into a bad part of the city where it was really not a safe neighborhood, he felt he wanted to be where the people were in L.A. to reach, and they began to evangelistically pray for their neighbors, house by house by house as they would walk, and pray against the forces of darkness, and you read the book, it's awesome, just what this guy did in this neighborhood, and how to take your cities for the Lord and pray against principalities and powers, and just a lot of ideas and how to identify what's in control of our city, what seems to be the predominating thing here. Demonism and How to Win Against the Devil by Chuck Swindoll is a good little pamphlet, it's $1.98, you can get it at Christian bookstores, by Mount Noma Press, it's kind of one of the long ones, and it's just how Chuck Swindoll can take a lot of information and just kind of squeeze it in and make it humorous and interesting, and it's just a dynamic little thing, and a lot of people will read that, because it's probably 28 pages, rather than some of these hefty books, and they go, I'm overwhelmed with a hefty one, but it's interesting here on resisting, and I think we need to look at resisting the devil, and we talked about it, but we kind of skipped away from it, we need to get back to it, how do we effectively resist the devil? Now this is right out of Chuck Swindoll's little book, and he has four steps, now remember we said in resisting we wanted to use Remas, well there's another aspect of Rema, and that is where Logos is referring to the written word, the Rema literally can mean speaking forth the word, it's the spoken word rather than the written word, which is interesting when you look at that, and as I read this I realized that Chuck Swindoll knew what he was doing, there's one page here that I feel that on that page, I do not feel that this statement is accurate, although I didn't write it, but it's just the one before that, which is be a person of spiritual power, and if you read there, you'll see on the page it says, under number two, recognize that Satan attacks you by planting his suggestions in your mind, and the first thing is Satan can read your thoughts, I do not believe that is true, and a number of the men that I talked to, and I'm not afraid to get on a phone and call a theologian and say, hey I'm talking to people and I want to say what's right on and square, and I just have not seen this in scripture at all, now I know that Satan can put thoughts in your mind, we already saw that right, I mean absolutely that's where the battlefield is, but can Satan read your thoughts, and if you read that verse, and this was written by Bill Gothard, but it's excellent, I mean outside of that one little statement I said, Bill I don't agree with you, and his concept was, well Satan knows how to attack us so, like we said, he knows my buttons so specifically, he knows where to wipe me out, but that's just from watching us, I mean some of you know, I know missionaries in Mexico have found that there was dossiers on them, that had more information about them than they remembered about themselves, so if you have governments that have more information about you, and you have on yourself, it's no wonder the enemy has a lot of information on me, and knows those areas, but if you look at Swindoll, all of his four steps is you say it out loud, when you're resisting, you resist how? Out loud, if you resist in your heart, can the enemy hear it? No, now it doesn't mean you have to yell or scream, I mean people are going to think, you're whetcliffs, you're missionaries, you're already weird, and if you're going around and saying this stuff out loud, they're going to know for sure, you know I mean like yelling and all of this, let me give you an instance, one of our gals was going to Manhattan to go to one of these welfare hotels to share Christ with the children that are trapped in those places, five, six hundred children in one of these hotels, sometimes a thousand kids, they did a survey in Manhattan, one block, they surveyed ten thousand children in one block living in these things, ten thousand, all of them in the deepest darkness, as dark as any tribal person anywhere, and as evil and as gross living, and she was in the subway, and she went in and sat down, she sensed evil in the car, and we've talked about that, you know where you just sense, and God gives a woman a good sense, and if a woman would follow her senses, the women would not have sexual attacks, if they would just follow that initial, I don't know how a woman, why she sensed it in her spirit, but you know what I'm talking about, this is not good, and she sat there and said this isn't good, and she thought if I look around the car, I don't want to look around the subway train, this is the only time it happened to her once, and all the time she's going, but there was an evil presence there, and there was hardly anybody on the subway car, now it doesn't make a difference to a lot of people, I was discipling a Royals baseball player, and he had gone on the subway in New York to the stadium, he took off his World Series ring, he took everything out of his pocket except a dollar for going and a dollar for coming back, so he's back on the subway, full of people, a guy pulls out a gun, sticks it in his stomach, and asks him for something of value, and he had nothing, and you know, have you ever been in a New York subway, you know when it stops, the doors go, and the doors went, and he goes, and the guy got off and full of people, people go like this, so here you're standing with a gun in your stomach and everybody's looking away, and he said, Jim, I always carry at least a dollar to give them now, you know, if I get robbed in the subway, but here's this girl, but no one's in the car, it doesn't really make much difference in New York who's in there, who isn't, and all of a sudden she's sitting with her legs crossed, she's got the materials to take the gospel to these children, and this guy walks over, strange, and just glares down at her, so she looks at him and she realizes that if she doesn't maintain eye contact with this guy, she doesn't know what he'll do to her, but he is out of it, in fact it happened to be the girl that took the course at Moody with us from Fred Dickinson on how to counsel the demonized, so she had an idea here, this guy was getting help, you know, with his derangement, there was enemy forces there in his life, and she's looking up at him, he's glaring down at her, and she cried out to her heart to God to protect her, he kicked her, and just sent her foot flying, and if she hadn't had it crossed in the way she had it, it would have maybe broken her leg, and she just kept looking at him and crying out to the Lord, and he left, and she said, do you think I resisted him, and I said no, but you did cry out to God to intervene in your behalf, and it may not have been wise for her to look at him and say in the name of Jesus, although there's times I've had to when my life has been threatened, and you may find that, that you have to, you know, look at the individual and verbally resist the enemy, as he's trying to attack you through an individual, and that can happen any place, anywhere, in any country, I mean, you know, any place, people can, the enemy can send someone, but if you look at this, vocally, vocally, vocally, vocally, all what Swindoll says, Swindoll's right on the ball, that book is right on in the area of dealing with the enemy, now I'd like to share with you a tremendous story, has, oh I knew I'd forget his name, I knew I would on the way over, and I, someone, one of the missionaries stole my ink pen, so, or maybe I lost it, I'm not sure which was first, but anyway, I didn't have a pen to write it down, the guy that, if you, if you have read the pineapple story, who wrote that, you know, he was a missionary, he's Dutch, Koning, Otto Koning, I knew, Otto Koning has a video out, it's absolutely awesome, but I don't know if they're going to release it, called the snake story, it's just tremendous, but I want to share this with you, because this is resisting in our ministries, Otto Koning, if you've read the pineapple story, was in, is it Erie and Gyra where he was, or where was he, he was somewhere down there with the cannibals anyway, and he struggled with his pineapples, you know, and finally after he got, protected his pineapples, the nationals got so sick of him, they all moved away, so here he was a missionary with all his pineapples, but nobody to minister to, because he ran them all off, and he liked it for a while, but he didn't know what to write in prayer letters, he ran them off all the tribe, oh, it's awesome, that's really funny, but it goes on, and he realized, he was there seven years, there were nine couples that came and left, and he never knew anything about resisting, in his ministry, and resisting the enemy, and here he is, trying to reach a tribe, knowing that the demons are real, because the drums would beat, and nobody would either, you know, there was all this demonic activity, so he knew what was going on, he had a, he said his whole, you know, he believed demons, he had a theology class, and seminary on it, so he knew all, you know, that was his concept of all of this, but seven years and two converts, and he was taking tranquilizers, his wife was on tranquilizers, and you know what she said to him one day, she said, Otto, if this is Christianity, we sure don't have much, he says, there's got to be more to it than this, just trying to survive, emotionally and everything, there's got to be more to this, to Christianity than this, and someone gave him a book, on one of the pilots, pilots give away books, and then get them back, a fellow flew in and gave Otto a book that changed his life, and it was Spirit Controlled Temperament, he read it, and he said, well I could be a Spirit Controlled Missionary, he never thought of that before, and he read the book, and it transformed his life, and he said, you got to trouble when you got a Spirit Controlled Missionary living in a demonic situation, you know, now he had new troubles, became more aware of the enemy, and then the pilot took that book and gave him another book when he flew in to read, he said, Otto, try this one, and this was on how to resist the devil, and he looked at that, and he read it, and it was just a whole new concept, because his particular theological background is you never talk to the devil, you never do that, and so there was a try, and he said, Otto, you know, there was a type on the other side of the swamp that wanted Otto to go to them, but he was, he really didn't like to go, he hated the swamps, whenever he would get in the swamps, he would get this feeling, and when he would preach, his, the fellows that were there, they'd say, Otto, go with us in the swamps, he'd say, he'd make excuse for not going, they said, ah, you're afraid the demons will get you in the swamps, no, my God will protect me, they said, prove it, he said, I don't have to prove it, I don't prove everything that's in the Bible, you know, I just believe it, but he was frightened to go, and one day, these chiefs begged him to come with the gospel, they couldn't come because every time they came, the snake was across the path, and they could not cross the snake, that's why it's called the snake story, they couldn't go across the snake, so the only way that these people could get the gospel, and they're asking him to come, is for Otto to go through the swamps to them, and so he and one of the fellows are going through the swamps, and he was sweating, and they were upset with him, they had him walked first, because they said, not only was his feet dumb, you know, he had dumb feet, missionary with the dumb feet, fell over everything, you know, this guy is stumbling behind, and the guy's walking behind him, as he stumbles through, leading the way through this jungle, hacking into the swamps and all, and while he's sweating, and he doesn't even care anymore, he steps over the yellow snake, and the guy says, Tuan, not only are your feet dumb, your head's dumb, you know, can't you see, you stepped over the snake, we never step over the snake, the demons will get you, that's what we've been telling you, no one steps over the snake, they'll get you now, and he said, do you want your pack here, or do you want me to carry it back, and Otto was so upset, he took a stick, and he beat that yellow snake to death, you know, it had its head at one end of the swamp, and its tail in the other, and he just beat and beat that snake, until it stopped wiggling, and he said, now come on, and the guy, it's worse to cross a dead one, and he didn't know how to get there, I mean, the swamp, he didn't know how to find this tribe, and he begged this guy to please come, so he circled around all this stuff, I mean, way, he said the snake couldn't have been that long, way out, and caught up with him, and they're walking through this thick, thick jungle, thorny place, and the guy says, Tuan, I have to go to the bathroom, I've relieved myself, so he went off to relieve himself, and Otto Koenig is walking along, and all of a sudden, out of the thorny wall of the jungle, came screams, like out of a horror movie, here he is all by himself, he said he got a hold of the log, it had a little stick on it, and he was shaking, and this thing began to sink in the mud, and he thought, this is it, it's all over for me, and as he was sinking, he said, you know, you don't want to grab anything in the swamps, because it will either bite you, or a thorn will go in your hand, he said, just let the leeches get you, it's slower, as this guy slowly is sinking in the mud, and all of a sudden, he thought, resist him, and he thought, in what language, right, whatever it was, or whatever he was speaking, Dutch, English, you know, what do you speak to demons, in the jungle, so he did it in the language of the people, and he shouted, to be sure they would hear him, he shouted out, in the name and the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, I command you to leave, and to go where Jesus Christ sent you, stop, the fellow comes out, and sees him, and he said, I met Hoi Hoi in the jungles, and he attacked me, and I resisted him, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, they go to the village of these headhunters, they go in, the chief is there, he has got over twenty skulls in his hut, and they sit down, and all the men are coming in, and he said the floor was creaking, and they're, you know, up above the ground, about four feet, and they were just listening, and he says, guess what, he said, the missionary met Hoi Hoi in the jungles, and he screamed at him, and he resisted him in the name of Jesus, and he left, and they just all, I guess they rub their nose when they think, you know, they're all rubbing their noses, and then the chief said, could he come into my stomach, and they all laughed, they said, oh he's terrible, no, your Jesus wouldn't want him, he's really bad, and he shared the gospel that day, now here the people realized, there's what, something stronger in Hoi Hoi, forty men received the Lord Jesus Christ as savior, seven years, he had never resisted the devil, two converts, he resisted the enemy, and shared Christ, and forty men got saved, he was walking back to the jungles, he's going, what was the difference, and he realized, that was the difference, and then he tells how he was asked to go to another place, since these people got saved, they asked, and he went somewhere else, and they decided that if they got the missionary, maybe he would sell them stuff and all this, so they built a church, and they didn't know how to build a church, and everybody got in this thing, and there wasn't any room for anybody, and he's standing against the wall, and a pig runs in, and this pig is running in and out of this church, and it ran on the lady's side, and they're all screaming, and the men are all laughing, and then they got it out, and it ran, and when the ladies would stand up, the benches would flip, and they'd all slide off, and then it ran in on the men's side, and the lady thought, that was really good, and they were laughing, and this pig was demon possessed, and it just totally tore up the whole service, and it was the next Sunday after forty got saved in another place, nothing happened, and he went, the most discouraged missionary, he said, I'm never going back there, and on the way back, the Lord said, why didn't you resist them, and I never thought of that, I've never been there, but he said, the lady's side in the church is always terrible, they're always talking to the babies, he said, it's unbelievable, it's always chaos and pandemonium on the lady's side, in fact, some of the churches, he told the ladies they couldn't come, and his wife taught him flannel graft somewhere else, you know, he said, it's just awful, well he went back there, and he resisted the devil, and when he walked in the church, they were, the whole village was sitting in the church, there wasn't a sound, and he got up, and he preached, and many came to Christ, and as you know his story, they came to Christ all over that area, as he began to resist the forces of darkness, you've got to get a hold of this, you've got to get a hold that there's one who is opposing you, and we need to oppose him, right? We need to resist him, and if you can get the snake story, if Bill Gotham will let you have it, it is just the most thrilling thing to see, and you know the guy is really unique, he is so funny to hear him talk, he's quite a guy, and I didn't tell you the whole story, but there's more to the story than that, but just exciting, as this guy just got a hold of a simple truth, that he, as a missionary, could stand against the forces of darkness, and all how God honored that, it was a tremendous thing. We want to talk about, let's see what we've got left here, we want to start talking about the enemy, and how he attacks us, and then how to help someone who is not resisting, and is finding themselves on the losing end of this, and they're saying, I need help, I know that I'm on the winning team, but I'm a loser, could you help me? How can we help them? Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 10, this is a tremendous warfare passage, in fact, I think out of Ephesians 6, I like this one, or maybe this is my favorite one, and Ephesians 6 is my second favorite, but this puts it right there, it says, this is what's going on, for though we walk, verse 3, for though we walk around in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh, isn't that exactly what the message was in Ephesians? Same message, that you and I cannot, in the flesh, stand against the enemy, eventually it's all over for us, because we're fighting a spiritual battle, and we need to be spiritual people, with God's spiritual protection, and following God's direction, and how to stand against them, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, you know the word weapons there is the same Greek word translated in Ephesians 6 as armor, interesting, you could say the armor of our warfare is not carnal, exactly what he's saying, but mighty, what's the word mighty? The ability to perform anything, mighty power, that's what God has given us, mighty power, the ability to perform anything, through God, to the pulling down of strongholds, the enemy, we're going to look at, wants ground in your life, you know what he's going to do with the ground? He wants to build a stronghold, what are strongholds? Write this down and look at it, it's an excellent definition, I wish I would have thought it up, mental patterns of thought, a stronghold is a mental pattern of thought, burned into your mind, over a period of time, or by a traumatic experience, I want you to write it down, because people don't know what is these strongholds, God tells me to cast down, they are mental patterns of thought, burned into your mind, so it's thought patterns, it's like the farm roads in the spring, ruts, you got some thinking ruts up here, I had a thinking rut, you know what my thinking rut was? I could never do anything right, I was sitting in CEF's office, in my office, executive of that mission, and one day, you know I told you I taught in a couple of bible colleges, one day I'm sitting there, you know the thought came to me, you know what the thought was? That was like 3 or 4 years ago, Logan you're not dumb, I never challenged that thought, I believed all of my life I was what? Dumb, you know why I believed that? Because my family told me I was dumb, especially my father, and I never challenged that thought, it became so much a rut in my life, I just believed it, and one day I said I may not be the smartest guy in the world, but two colleges wouldn't hire somebody super dumb, maybe one, but not two, so obviously I'm not dumb, and I got really excited, God it's neat I'm not dumb, but you know we've got those ruts, don't we? And let me tell you the enemy will use them, he'll attack them, and the Lord said deal with those things because they'll hinder your effectiveness, you won't be willing, if you'd asked me to come here 12 years ago, I wouldn't have come here for love nor money, stand in front of a bunch of critical missionaries and talk to them? No way, they might say something they don't like, but I'd be a mess, I was already half a mess, you know you want to learn about warfare, you know how to study warfare? Read the Old Testament, see you and I are to stand against God's enemies, the children of Israel stood against who? God's enemies, you know we can learn a lot about the spiritual battle by reading through the Old Testament and seeing how God's people stood and fought against God's enemies, and how then sometimes they didn't stand, I don't know if you saw this in the scriptures, but remember Moses sent out the spies and they came back and said no way, just no way, it's impossible, walled cities, those are strongholds, giants, there's no way, Joshua sent out the spies, they came back and said hey let's go, do you know what the difference was? Do you know that Moses violated scripture and Joshua didn't? God told Moses very distinctly that they would take the land how? Little by little, you check it out, and they spied out the whole land, Joshua sent the spies in and guess what they spied out? Jericho, one place, and they came back and they said well we could take one city, do you know there's a real principle there, sometimes the wholeness of the task will overwhelm us, and we need to break it down into achievable pieces, right? This morning I got here early, I wanted a cup of coffee because my tank's half empty, and I went over there to peek in to see if I could see anything, I haven't had a chance to go in your buildings over here and I'm leaving tomorrow, but I peeked in the windows and I just saw a little office with chairs, that was exciting, and didn't see much, so I decided to walk over to the other building and I walked over there and I saw a tombstone and I thought, oh this is interesting, CEF, the founder is buried on the property, and I thought how wonderful, the man's heart needs to be where his work is, and I pushed the button and I listened to speaking to Biola, I wonder if I was sitting there when he said that at Biola, but what was his cry? What did he say exactly Lane, how many tries did he say on that? Two thousand, you have to go, and he's pleading isn't he, you hear the pleading in his voice, two thousand, and some people say two thousand, how do you reach two thousand tries? I went to New York City and I looked at all those children there in New York City and I got overwhelmed, I'm the kind that could sit down in the gutter and say woe is me, and I said to Tom, how do you reach all these teen prostitutes, you spend your whole life just reaching the kids that aren't even teenagers yet in full time prostitution, how in the world, and then the drug addict said, how in the world do you do it, I mean how do you reach all these kids, he said it's easy, one at a time, see I get overwhelmed with the bigness of the thing, so I need someone to break it down in chewable pieces, then I can go, that's what Joshua did, and they went into the land and they looked at that city, and you know what walled cities were like, I mean they lived in the wall, we're not talking about these things that fold around, you know the city of Jerusalem, you can drive a car on the wall, there are stones in the wall that weigh tons, one stone, and it'll go, shove it down, it could be a little bit overwhelming, and I'm creative, why don't we just leave the stronghold and take the land around it, it'd work for a while, but what would be the problem by leaving the stronghold there, the gates would open, the enemy would come out, attack me, go back in the gates, and I'm fighting, constantly fighting, within myself, we're not talking about the flesh here, we're talking about the enemy, and so you read Jericho, and they walk around the city, and it's amazing, and the amazing thing is that nobody could talk, obviously I wasn't there, but I could see some woman saying, honey do you think this is working, I don't even see a crack in the thing, do you see any cracks in it, no, man are you sure Moses got it right, and they're walking around, and walking around, and walking around, and walking around, then the whole thing falls down, and they say, praise God, now we know how to destroy strongholds, let's go up to AI and walk around it, isn't it amazing how each stronghold was different, did you notice that, have you noticed that, and I think it's so we don't get this method, now I got a method, Peter wrote a neat book, did you ever read his book, how to walk on water 10 steps, but I mean that's the tendency, how to cast a stronghold, I've got it, you walk around 7 days and don't say anything, I figured out how to do it, isn't it unique, each stronghold was a different strategy, one time they went out and praised, and the battle was won, but beloved, you've got to deal with the strongholds, and I don't care if you're, we had a lady, 84 years of age, brought to me, an evangelist wife, by her daughter, at the University of Indiana, we had 10,000 people come out, we had a tremendous meeting in sharing warfare, in fact there's some people here that were at that meeting at the university, and I prayed with this lady, and I was commanding the forces of darkness to leave her life, and she said, stop, don't tell my friends to go, because they talked to her, they're not going to go, and the daughter's crying, this lady needs to deal with strongholds, they're destroying her, literally destroying her, she talks to these spirits, almost all day long, and obviously they're talking to her, you can't hear what they're saying to her, but she's talking to them, the pulling down of strongholds, the casting down of imaginations, this is the war, beloved, this is the battle, we're talking here about the battle, the battle is fought between your ears, when you see someone committing sin, you know they first lost the battle where? Here, this is where the battle was lost, every sin is first registered consciously in my mind, and if it's lost here, eventually it's going to come out in how? Actions in my life, and we've got to fight the battle, and the battle will go on up here, casting down imaginations, do a study on imaginations, a word study in Old and New Testament imaginations, and you will not find that word ever used positively, God looked down from heaven and what? The imagination of man's heart was what? Evil continually, now a creative mind and imaginations are two different things, you have a lot of creative minds in jars, you know how to destroy a creative mind? Give them an education beyond high school, and the more degrees the man gets, the less creative he will be, there are organizations that do not want men that have anything beyond a BA in their research and development department, you know why? Because they've learned that it can't be done in their education, and they need men that can look beyond what can't be done, and get out of their little narrow realm of whatever, and reach out, we know right now there's one of the most unique inventions by someone that got out of their little realm, they went into three different areas of schools of thinking, and they developed a transformer that you use with electric neon lights that uses, oh I forget, I think it's 3 force less electricity, will send a neon light, I forget how far, and doesn't get warm at all, and it's been approved by the UA, and it was unbelievable, the only way they did it was to get out of the electricity and get into some other areas, and they designed this thing, and it's going to hit the market, and everybody wants it, these people are instant millionaires, instant millionaires, and this oil crisis helped a lot to sell this thing, because the states are going to pass laws that every single transformer that they're using, and this thing is small, you can hold it in your hand, that this transformer will now transform all electric lights, not all electric lights, and then they've got another thing that will go into the neon tubes, that will make them last, I forget how much longer, it's unbelievable, and cheaper than what they already have, when these guys thought beyond their little restrictions, so imaginations is not creativity, and I need to cast down imaginations, a lot of our struggles is subjective thinking, do you know that, just subjective thinking is what we imagine to be true, or what we what, feel is true, and God said, is it true, set your mind, think on these things, remember in Philippians, you want to do a word study, that's an interesting study, do a Greek word study, on the words where he says, set your mind on these things, it's not, well it would be a good idea to think on these things, he said, your thoughts are to be in this area, on these things, think on, and what is the very first thing, whatsoever is what, true, well what do you think would be the opposite of true, I mean just in English, true and, but you know that's not true, it isn't, you look at it in the Greek, it says, whatsoever things are true, the word true carries strongly in the Greek the meaning, conforming to reality, so it's not just false thinking, it could be what, a lot of imaginations, it's not necessarily false, but it's not true, it doesn't conform to reality, a lot of fantasy, do you know that a lot of people use fantasy to escape reality, don't they, do you suppose a missionary could do that, just kind of travel off in their mind, flip off in their mind, the battle is, don't do that, don't do that, casting out imagination and every high thing that exalts itself against what, the knowledge of this book, and you must learn to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Jesus Christ, you know I shared with you walking up 42nd street in New York City, right, remember with the guys, well let me share a real tremendous illustration here, the enemy will try to wipe you out any way he can, one of the ways is to put thoughts faster in your head than you can cast them down, and so you're constantly casting down thoughts, I mean have you ever tried to sit at a computer and compute, with all these thoughts going in your mind and you're thinking of scriptures to cast, you know what I'm saying, and all of a sudden you're sitting there and you're getting wore out mentally, casting all this stuff down, let me give you an illustration, when we walked up 42nd street, which is the wicked street in New York City, Christianity Today had an article, that the only people that walk up that street are the brave and the addicted, and Jim Logan, I didn't fit in either category, I'm not brave and I'm not addicted, we're stepping on these little, it looks like diamonds on the sidewalk, and you walk up and you're crunching, and I reached down and I picked up one that had a little, and I'm real dumb, had a little green thing on the end of it, and I said, what is this, and they said, well Logan it's crack vials, hundreds of them, I mean thousands of them, all over the street, and we're walking up, and as we're walking up the street, it's where all the pornography, prostitution, this is where it is in New York City, and we're walking up a street and the first thing a guy comes up to me and he pulls up his shirt, and he's a jeweler, and he's selling watches, you know he sells them in one corner and his partner collects them on the other corner, and then there's ladies standing there and they're saying, you know, do you want to party, it ain't my birthday, you know, and guys are saying, smoke, smoke, smoke, smoke, smoke, smoke, I said to the missionary, you know I'm real sharp, I said, what does he mean, smoke, smoke, smoke, smoke, all these guys are walking around with smoke, and they only picked me out of the whole bunch, do I look like that kind, you know, all the girls are winking at me and they're not winking at anybody else, and I'm going, what is wrong here, this is terrible, hey some of us are selling drugs, you know we watch people buy drugs in the sidewalk, then there's the girly shows, with the movies of the live girls, come on in, come on in guys, come on in, come and see, wicked, wicked, wicked, you know I could have gone up to a girl and said, does your mother know you're doing this, you're probably breaking her heart, let me tell you about the Lord Jesus and I'm going to give you a track, you know, hey you shouldn't be selling stolen watches, God is not pleased with that, give him a track, you know, and going up that street, dealing with all the voices, you know what would have happened, I never would have got to the hotel where God called me to minister, I would have been distracted by the voices, right, and the enemy is going to call out at you, it's what he does, and you can spend your whole life, as Neil Anderson says in his book, bopping corks, here's a guy sinking in the ocean trying to push these corks down, and they keep bopping up, I like what Dr. Dickinson said, he said this in the class, it just meant so much to me, he said, when the enemy speaks and you hear his voice, as it comes in a temptation, all you need to say is I give no consent to that, and go on, I didn't feel dirty because a prostitute winked at me, I didn't feel I must be some horrible person because some guy wanted to sell me drugs, or somebody wanted me to come and see a Pono movie, and I didn't fall on my knees and cry out to God for this poor wretched man that I am, that I, you know, that someone said go see a rotten movie, I gave no consent to it, and went on. The only time you need to resist the enemy is when he steps out in front of you and impedes your process, do you see what I'm saying, you can get so caught up in resisting, you're not going to do anything but play mental games and get wore out, and Satan can put the thoughts faster than you can cast them down, but if you say I give no consent to that, I don't have to confess it because I didn't what, receive it, it's not my thought, it didn't even come from me, I don't need to confess it, but if I receive a thought and I hang on to the thought, and I think about a thought, then I need to do 2 Corinthians 10, do you see what I'm telling you, it can save you lots of heartaches, right, and it can be so hard, but it must be awful, I said wait a minute, look, let's take David, remember we said, it said that Satan spoke to David, and David listened to what Satan said, and David began to do what Satan told him to do, do you remember that, when he numbered, I just mentioned it in passing, well let me explain that to you, because it may be a real help to you here, because we've got to learn when to resist and when to ignore, and we're in trouble if we don't, because Satan causes us to go what, we're going to be resisting all the time, or we don't resist at all, rather than staying in the middle and be balanced, David, someone could have walked up to him and said, David, you're the general here, David, how many young men do we have out there that are military age that we could draft in case we needed them, and David said, well, I'm king and general, and I don't know, do you think that's really wise, now is it really wise, we're in battle, we're fighting all these people, and you don't even know how many guys you could muster up, you had to be 20 years of age, they didn't give these kids guns, what happened to these kids that got guns in Vietnam, they were shooting kids too, and families and everything else, you had to be 20 years old in order to get in the army in Israel, and he said, I don't know, and so I could just see the enemy coming along and saying, David, that is really stupid, I mean, obviously, how can you be a wise leader of your country if you don't even know how many guys out there can be in the army, now does that sound wicked, and evil, but David should have whiffed brimstone, he didn't whiff, because what, it appealed to seem like it was so normal, and he went out and he numbered, and God brought a terrible judgment, now why did God do that, because this is what God, he didn't say it, but I know that when you get to heaven, God is going to tell you I'm right, on this one, he's going to say Logan was right, this is what God said, David, you missed it, victory for you and Israel has nothing to do with the size of the army, it has to do with the size of your God, and you got your eyes off God, and on the army, and be careful in the battle, friends, that you get your eyes off of, you take your eyes away from the author and the finisher of our faith, and get them on anything less, demonic spirits or whatever, now I know we focus it on this week, because that's what we were supposed to do, but you don't live with that focus, that's not my focus, and I trust it won't be your focus, I will have failed this week, if I leave here and your focus is demons, I don't want your focus there, I want your focus on the Lord Jesus Christ, his empowering, and that if the enemy steps in front of you, you have everything you need to resist them and go on and do what God has called you to do, hear me, and I see people go off, and these people bother me, everything is the enemy, everything, it's just terrible, and so I am to, the more I know the word, the more I can know if my thinking is not proper, a wonderful statement was made, I love it, and that was by Zig Ziglar, and he says some priceless things, and he said, you know what your trouble is, stinking thinking, I don't want stinking thinking, and when I have to deal with it, deal with it, ignore it, and go on, the voices will call, just go on, hear the voice of the Lord, get involved, now, we have some points on an overhead, and we don't want to use the overhead, and I wanted to give you some overhead here, but just write these points down, because it's moving into tonight, as we get into, we got to figure out how a person really loses, and how we can help them to get back on victory ground, the battle ground between God and Satan is a human mind, you can just put that down, that is where the battle is, I've said it, but write it down, so you can just get a rough outline here, and put 2 Corinthians 10, 4 and 5, now what is the chief weapon of the enemy, that's the next point, what is Satan's chief weapon, it's deception, deception, and there are three sources of deception in the word of God, first of all, we can deceive ourselves, haven't we told, be not deceived, don't deceive yourself, listen, the worst deception that you can pull off is self-deception, isn't it, boy, if you're deceiving yourself, you're in trouble, don't deceive yourself, I'm not telling you to go out and deceive others, but if you have to be in deception, you're healthier deceiving others, than you are deceiving yourself, you're in trouble, Galatians 6, 3, 1 John 1, 8, those are interesting, look them up, if we say we have no sin, we what, we deceive ourselves, Galatians 6, 3, I can live any way I want to, and nothing's going to happen, is that right, you know what McGee said, oh McGee, he was my pastor for a number of years, he's a wonderful guy, Dr. McGee said, if you have sold wild oats, pray for crop failure, as you reap what you sow, and don't be deceived, teenagers are deceived, they think they can do this, and this, and this, and reap, godliness, and everlasting, and blessing, and everything, and they're reaping what, corruption, and they don't believe it, they don't believe that God's word is true, and James 1, 26, a man who doesn't, who reads scripture and doesn't practice it is what, a deceiver, a self-deceiver, and that's just a few, remember I told you, I got a computer from a medical doctor that we were able to help him with his demonic problems, and he got me a bible program, and I just put deception and pushed a button with an asterisk, and I got pages of every verse in the New Testament that has deceiver, deception, or whatever, remember Revelation, I mentioned this in the beginning, has the word evil once, and deception is on every page, we've got to see that God says, be careful, we are so susceptible to being deceived, and then the second one is we can be deceived by others, Ephesians 5, 6, just look these up and do some study yourself, John 7, 11, and no, it's John 7, pardon me, and then 2 John 7, missed that one, pardon me, 2 John 7, in my version there's only one chapter, and then 2 Timothy 3.13, there's some scripture that says others can deceive us, and I need to be wise, and then the last is we can be deceived by Satan, 1 Timothy 2.14, I wish we could look these up, but we've only got a few minutes, and I'd like to get through this, 2 Corinthians 11.14, and Revelation 12.9, now why is the enemy deceiving us? Ephesians 4.27 tells us why, that he may gain ground in our lives, so Satan's goal in deceiving you is that he might get ground in your life, and Paul warned, be careful, don't give the enemy ground in your life, and why does he want ground? To build a stronghold, and if I try to live my life and not take back the ground, and not deal with the strongholds that are in my life that have been burned in my life for a period of time, you know I never gave you the rest of that definition did I? The second part of the definition is strongholds are revealed in un-Christlike temperaments and behavior patterns. These strongholds are revealed in un-Christlike temperaments and behavior patterns. I followed a pastor one time that stood before the church and said, I want you to know I have a temper, and you're going to have to learn to live with it, and they did for five years before they asked him to leave. He had a stronghold, and the rest of that is often unrecognized by self, these strongholds, and if recognized, seldom understood as choices. It's just the way I am, right? I'm Irish, whatever that means. I'm Norwegian. Worst of all, I'm Swiss. He woke up. Okay, well strongholds are mental patterns of thought burned into our mind over a period of time or by a traumatic experience. Strongholds are revealed in un-Christlike temperaments and behavior patterns, often unrecognized by self, or if recognized, seldom understood as choices. It's just kind of, well, that's the way I am. I'm from the South. Did you have trouble moving here to the South? Well, I'll tell you. And being down here. You know, you go to church, and someone says, yeah, I'll come over sometime, and I show up. And we have to realize these are choices, and these are choices I've made, and they've become so much a part of me. But even after we break the demonic bondage in someone's life, we have to help them with what? The ruts and the strongholds that allowed the enemy to get that beachhead. And get rid of the enemy and help them. You've got to deal with this. And get your life back on solid ground. Now let me just give you four simple steps, and then we'll get complicated steps tonight, alright? These are four simple steps. Point number four, ground must be retaken before Satan's power can be broken. And we have found this, you know, when we try to break the enemy's power, when the person is holding onto the ground, it doesn't work. I'll share this now, and I'll share it tonight, because we have different people tonight sometimes in the morning. A man is deceived when his mind and emotions believe a lie. It's not just a thought, it's feelings. And we strongly, in our culture, believe it must be true if I what? If I feel it. Now if you'd ask me right now, what state are you in? I think I'm in North Carolina. You'd say, well, how do you feel? I'd say, well, are we in North Carolina or South Carolina? We're somewhere. Okay, we're in North Carolina. We're somewhere and nowhere, remember? North Carolina, how does it feel to be in North Carolina? I don't know, but maybe I'm not here. You know, I don't have any feelings, so maybe I'm not in North Carolina, right? Because maybe I don't feel like you're supposed to feel to be here. You know, people ask me, you know, if I'm saved, I don't know if I, you know, do I feel saved? I don't know. How are you supposed to feel? I just am, right? I am. Someone asked me, are you happy? I said, I don't know, that's not one of my goals. It isn't. That's not one of my goals. My goal is to minister to others. It's not to be happy. You know, I'm not running my life on, I've got to have these feelings. Because they can wipe you out. Okay, number one, under this last point. Ground must be retaken before satanic powers can be broken in a person's life. Number one, the first point. Revoke past consent. Revoke past consent. 1 John 1.9. If we confess our sins, what will God do? Do you know that He put His character at stake in forgiving us? If you confess something more than once, you know what you're saying? You're saying God is not faithful and God is not just. That's what you're saying, right? He says, my faithfulness and justice is at stake, I will what? I will feel, but I don't feel anything. That's too bad. God didn't say that I had to feel anything, does He? Do I see feelings in there anywhere? I'm supposed to feel something? No. I am to what? Believe something. That's what faith is, God said it, I believe it, I trust it. Is your God worthy of your trust? Is He? He says He's trustworthy. The second point, reprove the works of darkness. Ephesians 5.11. Sometimes it's very difficult for us to call our sin, sin. To call that evil, because we justify it. We water it down. You know, people are having affairs today. They don't commit adultery anymore. Right? You know, I'm in a gay lifestyle. I looked all through the scripture, couldn't find that. You know what I'm saying? I'm sick, I have an alcoholic problem. God calls them drunkards. We don't call sin, sin. We're not reproving the works of darkness. And you want to be free, you've got to reprove the works of darkness, that you're through with this. And you see it as it is, and you agree with God what it is. And you are going to step away from the darkness into the light. The third area is to remove all provision for the flesh. Romans 13.14. You want victory in this area of your life? Then you must destroy everything associated with that area that's defeating you. Now, if it's materialism, don't burn the house down. But you know what I'm saying? If you are using objects, you are using things in order to commit your sin. You must destroy those things, or you will not have victory. And you've got to do a thorough cleansing, not just leave a few for old time's sakes. Because if you leave one or two, they'll get you. You've got to do a cleansing. Get rid of this stuff. And then comes number four. Resist the devil, and he will what? He will flee from you. James 4.7. Father, thank you for this time today. Father, may we realize that all of us are so susceptible to deception. And we have the deceiver that deceives. Oh, Father, may we have spiritual antenna out. May the Holy Spirit minister to us. And may we recognize when we are deceived and absolutely, totally rejected. Refuse to receive that deception. And stand in the truth. And walk in the light. Father, we pray that our spirits would become sensitive to your spirit. And you would guide us in the light and in truth. And that we would be men and women of integrity. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.