Mike Bickle emphasizes the authority of believers in Christ, urging them to understand their dominion over darkness and the necessity of repentance as a means to access the kingdom of God. He highlights that believers must actively resist the devil and not merely endure his attacks, as the victory won by Jesus must be enforced by the church. Bickle warns of increasing spiritual battles in the coming years and encourages believers to remain steadfast in their faith and authority. He illustrates the power of prayer and collective agreement in overcoming spiritual challenges, asserting that believers have the authority to bind and loose in Jesus' name.

We ask you for the unveiling of your son and the glory of his victory over darkness. In the name of Jesus, amen. Well this morning I'm going to do part three on a series that I've been teaching on the authority of the believer and this will be the the final message in this series and the reason that I focused on this is that what we believe, what we believe, I'm talking about as believers, what we believe about the nature of the kingdom of God and how it operates is really an issue of life and death. Even as born-again believers on our way to heaven sincere with Jesus, if we are not grounded in what the word of God says about our place of authority, we can end up going through significant amount of troubles that we could stop if we knew who we were in Christ and we understood our place of authority. Now one of the basic principles of the kingdom, John the Baptist said it, Jesus said it, the others said it as well, is repent for the kingdom of God is at hand or the kingdom of God is within your reach to experience if you repent. So repentance is the entry point to experience the kingdom of God. Now when people think of repentance often they only think of repentance of a character issue, but repentance is more than a character issue. It's a thought pattern. It's a way of thinking and when Jesus said repent and you can experience the kingdom, that's the entry point of experiencing the kingdom. It's not only change your behavior but change the way you think and so even as believers that we're in the kingdom, still repentance, changing the way we think is the critical entry point to experiencing more of what the kingdom of God has made available to us. So today we call it the renewing of our mind, changing our thought patterns. It's a form of repenting to enter and to experience the kingdom of God. Now I feel a certain urgency about this subject because as a spiritual community I believe we need to be strengthened in the confidence to operate in our authority. That's why I've spent three messages on it but I'm not going to continue on it. So I want to urge you, don't hear it, agree with it and then let it kind of drift into the background. This needs to be have a central place in our spiritual life, in our family life. I'm talking about our natural families as well as in our friendship circles. We need to keep central the conviction, the reality that we can operate in authority and if we do more good things will happen and if we don't there will be negative things happening to us that could have been stopped. Now one of the reasons I have urgency because I believe we're in the time of history that in the decades to come that it's going the negative is going to increase in intensity. Now the good news is the positive is increasing as well in intensity but the positive and the negative are both going to increase. Now this may sound like bad news but I'm thinking globally between now and when the Lord returns and who knows when that will be nobody knows the day or the hour but in the years ahead this is as easy as it's going to be between now and the coming of the Lord. It's not going to get easier. The battle will become more fierce in the next decade and the one after and the one after etc. It will never be as easy as it is now. So you're thinking oh no, no there's an urgency. There's a battle that's coming to another level of intensity but the good news is that the good is increasing as well. Well let's look at just a moment of review and then we're going to go to some new material, some new verses. We're not going to cover all the verses here on this handout but just a few of them. Genesis chapter 1 by way of review. This remarkable, I mean remarkable declaration that God made over Adam and Eve and therefore over all their offspring, the human race. He said let them have dominion over all the earth. He gives the leadership of the earth to human beings. He gave the leadership of the of the earth to human beings. Now they operate, they receive his blessing as they operate in unity with his, with his leadership but still what takes place on the earth would be dynamically impacted by what humans do on the earth. That's what this decree implies. That's what it says. God says give humans the dominion, the government of the earth. If they choose to live in agreement with my leadership then great good will be released through them. If they choose to live in agreement with Satan's leadership then great darkness will be released through them. Either way, good or evil, it will be released as they agree with either me, the Lord, or with darkness. That's a remarkable decision that God made to govern the earth in this age but even in the age to come in participation with human beings. It's a remarkable decree. Now we covered that in the last two sessions so I won't go back over that material again but we can release the works of God or we can stop the works of the devil as we use our place of authority in Christ Jesus. Now when the Lord gave this realm of authority, this stewardship to Adam and Eve and their children, Adam and Eve they gave it willingly to Satan. Again we covered that already but the idea is that Satan became the god of this world because Adam and Eve abdicated this awesome place of authority. They gave it willingly to Satan but then four thousand years later approximately Jesus, fully God, becomes a man and as a man standing in the same position that Adam stood in, as a man standing before Satan like Adam stood before Satan as a man, he conquered Satan. In the same temptations that Satan gave Adam, he gave the same ones to Jesus and Jesus did not yield at all. So he overcame in his own person, in his own humanity before the temptations. Then he went to the cross and he defeated Satan by paying the price for all the humanity and he won the leadership of the planet back over to the human race to do righteousness. That righteousness could prevail on the planet. In Colossians 2.15 we looked at it in the two previous sessions. Jesus disarmed the principalities and powers. That's the demonic hierarchy. He disarmed them. He triumphed over them and that triumph he has delegated that authority to us. We share in that victory, in that triumph. Now Satan is a defeated foe. He's a defeated enemy. He was defeated by a man. Yes Jesus is fully God but it's in his humanity that Jesus defeated him so that the authority to do righteousness could be given back to human beings to release across the earth. And Satan can now be legally stopped because he was legally defeated at the cross. But when Satan was defeated 2,000 years ago on the cross and at the resurrection, Satan did not concede and say you know what I'm going to be a good sport about this. I lost fair and square. You know just as a statement of integrity I'm going to back out of the war because really I lost. I'll just concede. That's not what happened. The Bible says that Satan is a murderer, a thief and a liar. And he said I lost but you know what I am not going to live in the boundaries of my defeat if the people of God do not enforce that victory and stop me from attacking them. Because though Jesus won the victory, the victory must be enforced issue by issue, day by day by the people of God on the earth who use the authority of Jesus's name to stop the works of the enemy. Now the church must be taught this place of authority. Many in the church they love Jesus. They're sincere but they don't know their place of authority. So when the enemy attacks them they cry and they moan over it and they oh they complain about it but they don't actually stop the attack. Jesus he's the head of the body. He's in heaven. His body is on earth and he has the victory. He won the victory but as the head says in Ephesians 1 he's in heaven. All authority is his but just like you when your head makes a decision the members of your body are necessary to walk out the decision the head makes. Well the head of the body Jesus has all the authority. He's made all the good decisions for for righteousness and peace and joy to fill the earth but he is dependent upon his body to walk out the decisions and the victory that he won. And he set it up this way. It's his own decree that it operates this way because he wants relationship with his people and he wants to govern the earth with his people and through his people. It's his authority. It's his leadership but it's walked out through people who consciously come into unity with him. He did it for love's sake meaning he loves his people and he wants to rule with them and through them. He didn't do it because he felt overworked. He says you know I'm going to rule heaven. You rule the earth. You know I need a break. It wasn't like that but he said I can do it without you but because of love I will do it through you. And Jesus actually honors those boundary lines of redemption. He said I won't do it without you. I want you. I insist on you agreeing with me in order for the victory to be manifest between now and the second coming. So the victory that we walk in it's linked to our faith. It's dynamically linked to our belief system and us and us acting out that belief system. Now the here in paragraph b I have this sentence that faith is confidence with urgency to act. You can use the the the word faith interchangeably with the word confidence. When it says that they had faith you can put the word confidence but sometimes people they water down what real confidence is and they kind of reduce it to like intellectual agreement with a good idea like hey that sounds right but if that confidence does not incorporate in it an urgency to act on it it's really not faith. Many people believe the things that I'm saying and they have a positive feeling about. They go I agree with that. It's wonderful but they don't actually act it out. Therefore they have intellectual agreement they don't yet have faith in that area. The enemy is attacking their family. They sit back and watch and they go oh what a tough day this is and the Lord's saying do more than that. Do more than acknowledge the attack. Complain about it. Get a few friends to to love on you. Actually use the authority that I've given you to stop it. So we don't really have faith if it isn't confidence that has urgency to act it out. It's more than just knowing but it's acting. There are many things that we can stop in terms of the enemy's attack against us in our family. There's so much happening that from the Lord's point of view when we stand before him he will say I believe to many people that did not need to happen. That really could have been stopped. I did my part. You had to do your part but you did not. You neglected the place of authority and you allowed the enemy to devour you and it it grieved my heart and even people cry out to God oh God stop the enemy. The enemy and the Lord would say I gave the authority to you. Now you do it. I'm the head. I'm in heaven. It's my authority. You're my body on the earth. We are joined together. Now you stop the enemy. Look at paragraph C. Again this is still a point of review from the first two sessions. There's notice the three phrases in James 4 verse 7. Number one submit to God. Number two resist the devil and number three the promise he will flee. Now we have to do step one and step two. We must submit to God and we must resist the devil. Now a lot of people they submit to God. They submit to Jesus. They're very sincere but they don't actually resist the devil. They don't do it. They submit to God and then they're confused why the devil doesn't flee. I love you Jesus. I trust your leadership. How come the devil is attacking my life and they don't do step two. Some people, not many, they resist the devil but they don't submit to God. They live in presumption. They've learned a little bit of these bible truths in there so they want to use their authority without being connected in an agreement with the head of the church which is Jesus. That's not where most are. Most sincere believers do step one but they don't do step two. They submit to God and then they ride out the storm. When the devil's attacking them and they don't need to ride the storm out. They need to resist the storm. I'm talking about the onslaught of the evil one. Now this word resist the devil, this phrase, it's talking about a continual resisting. It is not a one-time resisting. It's a continual resisting. In Ephesians 6 verse 12 Paul called it a wrestling match. It's continual and if we stay with it we won't back down. We stay with it. The devil will flee. Now understand this. Luke 4 13 it says the devil returns again at an opportune time. The fact that he flees in one battlefront, one issue does not mean he won't come back and attack again. He will come back and attack again. Matthew 12 verse 44 Jesus said he'll come back with seven demons stronger and see if there's an entry point. See if there's a reprieve and if we take our stand and we maintain our stand even though he comes back with seven demons stronger he cannot, he cannot gain a victory in our life. But I want you to know that when he flees it is not a permanent fleeing. It is a war between, while we're in this age it is a war that is continual. But this idea of resisting the devil, most believers just skip the step. They submit to God and endure the storm which is, which is tragic because so much difficulty could have been avoided. Others they submit to God they resist the devil once or twice. It's not a continual resisting. It's a, it's a, it's an experimental resisting. They say okay I read the Bible verse. I hear the teaching. But here's the deal God. I'm going to resist the devil but it's somewhat on my terms. Meaning I want a dramatic breakthrough and I want an instant. That's not what the verse says. Doesn't say resist the devil in an experimental way for a week and if you don't get a dramatic and an instantaneous victory then quit. No. It's a continual resisting all the days of our life. Well the options are really bad if we don't do that. We can lay our weapons down and just be devoured. That's the only other option to staying in the battle and resisting. Now we base our faith on what the Word says. The Word says if we submit to God, resist the devil, he will flee. Though the fleeing may not be immediate and the fleeing is not permanent. Sometimes the fleeing is immediate. Sometimes the fleeing is partial and then eventually it's, it's complete. But either way it goes the attack he will come back again at an opportune time. So people look at their circumstances and they go hey it's not working. No. We base our confidence on what the Word says. The Word says he will flee. And if we don't get the dramatic instant results we can't back away from this promise. It is written he will flee. And that is our confidence. It has nothing to do with our feelings. We may feel like we're, we may be tired and in a bad mood. But good news when we're tired that doesn't mean the Holy Spirit's tired. Like I've seen people in meetings say well I'm really tired tonight. Tonight will probably be just a tough night. No. The Holy Spirit's not tired when we are. And the authority of Jesus isn't kind of worn out because we're worn out. We use it. Doesn't matter how we feel. Doesn't matter well our prayer life has been really bad the last week or month and we haven't done well. It's not based on your track record. It's based on the historical facts of what a Jewish man did 2,000 years ago. He died. He was raised from the dead. He ascended to the right hand of the Father. He was enthroned at the right hand with all power and authority and then God gave him to us as a gift and we're joined to him and we have his authority. It's a finished fact. It's not based on your mood, your energy level or how good your prayer life has been or your spiritual life has been the last couple weeks. Let's go to paragraph D. Now this is good news. This is part of the good news we cannot neglect. Luke chapter 10 verse 19. Jesus said, I give you the authority to trample serpents and scorpions. Now we have the authority to trample over them. This is clear a clear biblical description of demonic powers. You can read Psalm 91 verse 13. It describes the demonic powers in this context of the scorpions and the serpents. Satan was the serpent in the garden of Eden. This is clearly what Jesus is talking about. I give you authority to trample on serpents, serpents and scorpions and I give you power over all, over all the power of the enemy. That's an amazing reality. We have authority over all the power of the enemy and his attack against us. Nothing shall by any means hurt you in terms of the enemy's attack and it's talking about in the long term permanent sense. We cannot be destroyed by the devil if we will use our authority. We can drive the devil out of the sphere of influence or sphere of responsibility the Lord gave us. Now again it's not necessarily instant. Usually it's not. It's a wrestling match. We stay with it. We don't give up and give in when it doesn't look like it's going well. You know people ask the question, they've resisted the enemy and they're fighting for someone's life and the person dies. Then what? I say we don't need to have complete and full answers. We like to have them but we don't need to have them and a lot of people they attribute this to God and that to the devil and there's so many theories about who should have done what and and I don't even want to go there. All I know is this, as long as we have breath on the earth, we are going to resist the enemy and if a person goes home in death in the midst of a battle, we don't need to have an opinion as to why or why not. What we need to do is be continually resolved to resist the enemy all the days of our life. As long as there's breath in our body or breath in the person that we're standing with, we will resist. We will resist. We will resist and then on the other side the Lord can sort out the times where it didn't work in the way that we thought but we don't want to be overly conceptual and theoretical about it now. We want to stay steady on resisting because I've seen people when the a battle was lost and they become very introspective and conceptual about it and they actually get out of the war and not only did did a person's life was lost in in a warfare context but they we now lost a soldier who's so discouraged and confused they get out of the battle and that's what the enemy's after as well. So I know this, between now and when we meet the Lord, we must continually resist and never ever do we yield regardless what happens in the natural. He says I will give you authority to trample on serpents and scorpions. Now as a rule just I'm gonna take a 90 second kind of qualifier. In the New Testament when a spirit is attacking a person, we address the spirit. When a spirit, a principality and a power is over a region, we address God. Meaning there's no place in the New Testament where a demon unrelated to attacking an individual is addressed. All the prayers in the New Testament for the breakthrough of God in a region is addressed to the Father. Where a disembodied principality is being, is, is the resisting force. We talk to the Father, release your glory, release your power. But when we're dealing with a person and a spirit is directly attacking that person, it's an embodied spirit sometimes, a spirit sometimes dwelling in the person and other times they're connected to the person, then we address the spirit directly. So summarize that. When a person individually is being attacked, we address the demon. When it's a region or a city or a nation, we address God. And the reason, that's the rule of the New Testament. There are exceptions to that, but that's the general rule. The reason I say that is some people take the teaching of addressing a demon that's related to an individual's torment and then they use the same and they begin to address the demon over a geographic area. And again there is no biblical precedent for doing that. It's kind of a, a logic by deduction. They say, well if we address it with an individual, it's an embodied spirit. It's a spirit that's directly related to an individual. It's a different situation than taking on all the powers and principalities that are the hierarchy in the spirit realm over cities and regions. So that's just a, just a point. So that's why we pray the apostolic prayers, the prayers of the apostles. Those are the biblical model for addressing the powers of darkness in a city or region. And again, there are exceptions to that, but that's the general rule of the New Testament. Now in terms of our personal lives, we have authority over all the power of the enemy. Now one of the, a common tactic of the enemy, a point of attack of the enemy is what I call terror in the night. This is something that attacks children, and more than children, but it's a common tactic of the enemy. It's, it's a horrifying nightmare that's caused actually by a demonic spirit, or it's not a nightmare. It's, it's somebody lying in bed and an evil presence comes in the room, a very dramatic evil presence. It's more than just kind of a fearful thinking. There's a presence that's all, that seemingly is tangible. I mean, you can't really put your hand on it, but there's a presence in the room and it's right. There is a demon that is manifesting just the, the terror that's associated with them. And so children struggle with this, but so do adults. And when that happens, we don't just take more medication. That's, that's not the answer. We address the demon and the little, the little, the child is fearful. We go in there. We explain the authority of the believer. We teach them to use it. We give them confidence. They can take authority over the spirit, say spiritually here. And we can take authority over it, commanded to leave. I'm talking about the children that would be old enough to understand that concept. Or as adults, most adults in the room, most of us have had experiences over our life where there's a evil demonic presence, whether it's a terrifying nightmare, but even more dramatic you're wide awake and there's an evil presence in the room. Most believers I've talked to have had that kind of attack come against them. I've had maybe eight or 10 of those. I don't know the exact number in the last 30 years where I'm wide awake and there's an evil presence. It is actually a demon in my room harassing me, attacking me, but I understand what's going on. So I don't have to retreat in fear. I don't have to flee the battle. He has to flee the battle, not me. I'm not the one drawing back from the battle. I'm not fleeing. He's fleeing. And if we understand that, we can boldly and fearlessly address the spirit and command it to leave. And just stay with it. It will leave. Say in the name of Jesus, I command you to leave. Now I've done that eight or ten times over the years. I mean a real dramatic evil presence. Okay, I did turn the lights on, but not for my sake. You know it was really for their sake. I remember the first night that I moved from St. Louis. We were in St. Louis seven years church planning. We moved to Kansas City. The very first night that we're here, we are attacked this way by demonic spirits. It's right in the middle of the night, this screeching noise comes into our duplex we're living in. It's just, it's terrifying. And Diana and I, we both are suddenly awake and there's an evil presence in our room. I mean it's, it's, you know, somebody might say it was thick. And what I meant is it was really powerful. And I just took authority over it. I said, this is really, it's a backwards, it's a backdoor compliment. It really is because the enemy is troubled by what you're about. And so we don't retreat and go, oh no, this must be wrong. It's opposite. We must be in the right place. Not we must be in the wrong place. The attack of the devil isn't the sign you're in the wrong place. Often it's the sign you're in the right place because the, the, the, the enemy is threatened. Now I didn't realize what I was stepping into and what the Lord was doing with a youth movement, the future and all that. But I knew something was happening and we took authority over it. And matter of fact, in those early days, one time when I was being attacked by a spirit like this, I actually, with my eyes wide open, saw two demons. It's the only time I've ever seen demons awake. And I looked at the end of my bed and I went, what? I didn't really say what, but you know, I, my eyes, I go, oh my goodness, there's two beings in my room. And I looked again. It's the only time I've ever seen them with my eyes and I rebuked them and I commanded them to leave. I don't want to talk to them. I don't care what they have to say. We don't need to be afraid of them. We have authority over them. They know we have authority over them, but they're counting on us not knowing it. And they will continue to assault and to torment. As long as we allow them, we command them to leave in the name of Jesus. And they will leave. They will leave every time. Now I remember, so it's my first night in Kansas city, this demonic attack happens. And now it's 17 years later, the very first night when I understood back in 1999, that IHOP was to start soon. The very first night when it's clear to me, I have the same attack like my first night in Kansas city. A demonic presence comes in the room. I'm wide awake. The room is filled with evil, but I am aware of what's happening. I'm completely aware of what's happening. And I take authority over it. Now, some of you know the significance of, of John Wimber in my life. A man that's with the Lord now, a man with a very powerful international ministry that the Lord connected me with. My first time I went to visit him, I had a very intense demonic attack in January, 1988, exactly the same thing. It was in the day I went to see him on the first day, uh, November 88, about 10 months later, my first trip with him over to England, the same thing happened. And I begin to understand whenever I'm touching something important, many times a demonic spirit will come and attack in a, in a dramatic way. And instead of concluding that I'm wrong, I conclude that I'm in the right place and that I am, that I'm stirring up something that I don't fully grasp what's going on, but that's not the real point to grasp that. The real point is that we don't conclude something's wrong, but rather we conclude something's right. Because he wants to trick it. He, he wants to spin this thing on us so that we retreat instead of stand with boldness. Now there's a well-known story about Martin Luther who lived in the 1500s, the leader of the Protestant Reformation in Germany, that Martin Luther had a number of death threats against his life physically. People said they're going to kill him. And one night he heard noise in, in his room. And it was very overt and it's troubling. And he lit the candle. They didn't turn the switch, the light switch on back in those days. So he lit the candle and he looks and there's a demonic being staring at him. And he looks at it. It's not a person who broke in to kill him. It's a demonic being. And the, and the way that, that, that, that he told the story is he looked at it and he said, oh, it's only you. And he rebuked in the name of Jesus, blew the candle out, went back to bed. In other words, he was so confident. And his authority over that being, he said, oh, it's just you. In the name of Jesus, go. Blew the candle out, went back to sleep and all was well. We need to have that kind of confidence. Now there's many different ways that the enemy attacks us. Now the last week, just last Monday, we had our all staff meeting where the, the thousand staff members were all came here in the auditorium. A number of you were, were there. And we had this terrible announcement that was made. And this announcement that was made is that there's somebody for the last two, three, four months, I don't have the exact timeframe, has been stealing from us. We have 10 different properties here on the IHOP missions base, and they've been going in different ones and, uh, like stealing the really expensive equipment, like the pianos and the, I mean, the keyboards and sound equipment. And they stole over a hundred thousand dollars. And they've been doing it for, I'm guessing three or four months, something like that. And it was somebody that was a contract laborer who knew how to get in and what the rhythms were. It wasn't a staff member. And they came at just the right times at night and they were doing this and they were avoiding the different alarms. And they knew how to do that because they got familiar with it. And it's been going on for some months, a hundred thousand, well over a hundred thousand dollars. So the announcement was made last Monday. And I thought, man, this is, uh, this is not good. And it was like sad. So the next night, Tuesday, we had a worship team meeting with about 15 or 20 of the worship leaders. And at the end of that meeting, I said, let's do this. Let's take authority over this situation. And it only takes a few minutes. I said, let's take authority. Let's bind the spirit because, you know, Satan is the ultimate thief. We understand that John 10, 10, he comes to kill, he comes to steal. And when Satan steals, literally steals, he steals in a number of ways, but some of it is literal. He steals our property, not just steals, you know, spiritual things from us. He actually steals physical things as well. And he uses the agency of other people. And so I didn't want to deal with the person stealing. I want to deal with the spirit that was inspiring and operating in that person. So I took authority over the spirit. I commanded it to leave. And I asked God to expose him. And so there was maybe 15 of us in the room. And it only took three, four minutes. We prayed. And then at the end of it, I said, I believe God's going to expose this guy. I didn't know when, but I figured in the next few weeks, six hours later, he was caught. And they found the equipment in his house. Six hours later, he's been doing it for months. There is a direct correlation. Now the reason that I wanted to stop and pray, because wherever two or three gather in his name in agreement, more happens. And I, I was inspired by, it was 30 years ago, when I was just a young pastor, still in St. Louis. Somebody broke into our church, a group of guys, two or three. And the policeman came to us. And he said, these guys are good. They have been doing this for about a year or longer. They have broke into 20 different places. And we know it's the same group, because they have the same patterns. But we can't find them. They're really good. And so I was teaching on the authority of the, of the believer. And I, so I got four or five people. And I said, okay. I got together. Just five minute prayer. I said, let's pray. Let's bind the spirit. And let's ask God to expose them. Within a day they got caught. Within a day. That was so exciting. Now that was the last time in ministry anybody ever stole from us. So I've been waiting for the next opportunity to see if it'd work again. I mean, I wasn't hoping we'd get stolen from. But I said, hey. One time it happened. The guys went, you know, nobody could catch it for a year. Within a day. I thought, I wonder if it works again. And I, I believed it would. So this happens. We gather and pray, just a few of us. Six hours later, they're caught. So I look back on thieves. And I look back. I say, Lord, you're two for two in my experience. But you know what? It's not just about pastors and churches and church buildings. This is about anybody stealing in any realm of your life. It's the same principle. I gave the analogy or the illustration on the first message, the first session of this three-part series. Again, we're finishing with this third part here. About the lady that had so much trouble. And we bound the spirit and the trouble went away. And I gave the details of that. And then I gave the experience just recently when I was with my son Luke. And in a real hostile situation. I mean a really hostile situation. And me and him gathered together. And we prayed. And we bound the spirit and met the guy. And he was radically different. My son Luke said, I just, it was remarkable the difference. And I said, let's deal with the spirit that's moving on this guy. I mean, this guy had murderous threats. And I mean, he was a tough dude. And he was, he was really demonic. But we addressed the spirit. And then the man had a, he was of far more of a sound mind thinking, you know, it was, he was reasonable. And the problem left then. That doesn't mean it won't come back again. Because the enemy will come back at an opportune time. It says in Luke 4 verse 13. Well, it's not just thieves. It's not just terror in the night. There's other times the enemy comes. I, I use the word heightened, heightened temptation. I don't mean regular temptation. I mean, when it goes to a fever pitch to a whole nother level, and maybe it's only there for five minutes or five months, I mean, five minutes or five hours. It just a short time. It's this heightened temptation. Or it's a heightened fear, which is different than a temptation. Or it's an anxiety that's not normal. There's human anxiety and there's anxiety caused by a spirit. Or maybe it's depression and it's beyond just a natural physical dynamics. There's actually a spirit involved. It has this kind of obsessive dimension for a few moments or a few hours. It escalates to an unusual level. Beloved, when that's happening, there's a spirit involved. Don't ride the storm out. Submit to God, resist that demon, and continually resist him, and he will flee. Now, when I talk about continually resisting a demon, coming against us, I really have learned the value over the years of 90-second prayers. 90-second prayers really do matter. They really, really do. But when, when you're under a real intense attack, I mean, the enemy is attacking you or a family member in a really intense way, if you would pray four or five minutes, I mean four or five minutes, four or five times a day. I'm talking about an unusual intense attack. I'm not talking about just the routine troubles in life. If you did that, and you just stayed with that for several days, maybe several weeks, I want to assure you, you will see a difference. Things will be different. And here's my point. To resist the devil, which means to continually resist him, not just a one-time resisting, it doesn't take a five-hour prayer time. It really will change in four or five minutes, three, four, five times a day. I mean, I'm not saying you put it on the clock that way, but I'm saying you address it. You stay with it. Doesn't mean five or ten-hour prayer meeting, although I'm all for those. If you have grace for that, go for it. I'm certainly not discouraging that. But what I'm saying is, don't wait until you have a five-hour slot, and then, you know, you think, man, that's a hard thing to stay with. See the value. Four or five minutes, four or five times a day. Get one or two people to agree with you some of those times. Some of the times, you just do a private. Other times, maybe you get one or two people. They agree with you. Bind the spirit that's stirring up that person or that situation. Command it to go. Release the blessing of God. And I tell you, it really matters. When the policeman wants to stop the traffic, the analogy I used in the first two sessions, it's the policeman can do it. The minute that policeman is commissioned, it gets to his badge. I mean, within 60 seconds, he can use that badge and stop the traffic. He doesn't have to grow up and be a mature policeman and, you know, wait for five years to prove that he's a real one. The minute he has that badge, he can stop the traffic. He can stop the bad guys, not by his power. It's the power of the government behind him. It's his authority. He exerts the power. The moment we're born again, we can use this. But when we use this authority, we actually command the demon. The policeman commands the traffic to stop. It's not like the policeman standing there on the road in a crisis situation. The cars are driving by, and he goes, hey, please, please, would you stop? His car zoom. Okay, well, he didn't get, maybe the next one. Hey, please, come on, please stop, please. It would be so helpful. There's trouble down the road. It'd be so cooperative. If you'd cooperate, it would really be helpful. The car goes by. A policeman doesn't do that. They don't beg and plead with the cars to stop. They simply put their hand out, knowing they got the entire government power of the government behind them. That's how it operates. So when there's this heightened attack, this obsessive compulsion of a fear and anxiety and depression, a temptation, beloved, there's a spirit operating behind that. Yes, there might be natural fear and natural depression and anxieties, but there's a heightened escalated dimension. Sometimes there'll be a family member, maybe even a believer, believer or unbeliever, doesn't matter, and they're making wrong choices, and they're under this real heavy cloud where nothing makes sense to them in terms of righteousness. I can assure you there is a demon operating in there. I'm talking about an, an exact, not exaggerated, heightened escalated sense. They're just absolutely fixated in something, and it's wrong. And you can get, as family members, you get two or three people, they, they don't want any part of it, but you could take authority over the spirit that's driving them, whether believer or unbeliever, and this cloud lifts, and they, you know, they, now they have a far better chance to choose righteousness. They're like, wow, that was a weird mindset I was under. I've seen people in this, when they get into this obsessive, I've seen people do this, leave their family following some, some steamy affair. It's a demon that's, that's, that's exaggerating this. They leave everything. They lose everything. They go follow this person. Few months later, the power of it's over, and they go like, what was that? Why did I do this? It was a demon. We could take authority over that demon. We really can't. They're not going to do it, more times than not, but we can do it as family members. We can do it in our neighborhood. You know, we can read the newspaper and hear about the, the, the, uh, human trafficking, or, or the, the guy that's kidnapping the children, or the guy breaking into the stores, and we could take authority in our city, in our sphere of, of, uh, of influence in our neighborhoods. We can stop bad people from having the support, that's a weird word, of demonic powers, helping them, and inspiring them. We can, we can do this. We can use our authority in that way. I remember the dramatic time when we first had the day of prayer and fasting for the human trafficking, and never was there a bust of human trafficking in the Kansas City area. We had a 12-hour, whatever the amount of hours were, focused on it the next day. There was a bust. They had it in the newspaper. They thought, wow, amazing. We've never had a bust in Kansas City. Well, they never had a 12-hour group of people binding the enemy and calling on the name of the Lord for that to happen. My point is, there really is a correlation. Things really do matter if we use our authority. It's an issue of life and death. Okay, let's look at just a couple more verses. Most of the, uh, the, uh, the, the notes there are just going to be for your own personal review at another time. Let's look at Matthew, uh, Mark chapter 16. Mark chapter 16. These signs will follow those who believe. In my name they will cast out demons. This is for all who believe, not just the famous prophet, not a select few. For the brand new believer, it's the policeman, he gets his badge, and within the minute, he can stop the traffic. The minute you get your badge, and we don't get a physical badge, obviously, we get the, we get the, uh, uh, use of the name of Jesus. And that's how we stop the enemy, by simply declaring the words. If we don't declare the words, he won't stop. If we do declare the words, and we stay with it, he will stop. It's the simple act of invoking the power of the government we represent. The policeman does it to a natural government. We do it to the government of heaven, the kingdom of God. In my name they will cast out demons. When the enemy comes to us, we can say, it is written. Mark 16, verse 17. In your name, Jesus, we can cast out demons. We command the demon to leave. Now that's casting a demon out of a person. That's the primary meaning of this. But it has a secondary meaning. That's casting the devil out of attacking our life. Again, we could quote this verse. I have about 10 or 15 verses, and these three handouts in these three sessions. And you only need to use a few of them. You don't need to use every one of them. Pick the ones that kind of really grab ahold of your heart. They all, in essence, say the same truth. Jesus has won the victory, and we enforce that victory by using the name of Jesus. But quote to the enemy, it is written. And pick out of these 10 or 15 verses, or whatever the amount is in these three handouts I've given in this series. Pick a few of them, and the ones that really get ahold of you, and say, speak right to the enemy. Speak the word of God, and command him to leave. It is written. We will cast out demons in the name of Jesus. Go, demon. It's as simple as that. You don't need to engage the force of your personality. I mean, you can whisper it. You can shout it. It doesn't matter what your, the mode you're in, because the authority is in the name. It's in the historical fact of what Jesus did. Now, we don't need an all-or-none approach. Some people have an all-or-none approach, meaning they say, if God will give me an obvious victory that I can measure, instantaneous, real dramatic, I'm going to do this all my days. But if I don't see something instant and dramatic, I'll try it. I'll experiment with this for a week or two, then I'll back off of it. No. We stay with it. We don't measure how much victory we can see. We just stay with it, and we relieve the results to the Lord. It says here in paragraph F, 1st John 4, he who is in you is greater than he that's in the world. The one that's in you, he's greater than the one attacking you. Now, the one attacking you, the one that's in the world, Satan, he knows the one that's in you is greater than him. The question is, do we know it? Now, we know it in theory. Of course, we know it. But do we know it enough to act on it continually? The one that's in us. Now, one of the reasons why John designates the one that's in you, it's not a far away authority. The authority is in you. I mean, he's in you. He's near you. It's not like you send your application, hey, would you intervene government, and they get back to you a few months later. No, he's in you. He's near you. I mean, it can't be closer than in you. You carry the authority wherever you go. You don't need your legal papers. You don't need to apply to a far away government. He's in you. That's what this verse is saying. And he's greater than the one attacking you. And you could quote that verse to the enemy. 1 John 3, 8. For this purpose, the Son of God was manifest, that he might destroy the works of the devil. One of the reasons why Jesus was manifest, he came to the earth, is what that means. One of the reasons he became man and came to the earth, one of the reasons, there's a number of reasons, was that he wanted to destroy Satan's ability to destroy humans. He wanted to give humans the authority to destroy Satan, to turn the tables on him. Satan has been destroying humans for many years. Jesus became a human, defeated him as a man, gave us the authority, so that humans under his authority, Jesus says, could destroy the devil, instead of the devil destroying us. Now one of the reasons that this passage is, is so straightforward, is that John wants us to know it's in Jesus's nature to destroy the devil. Meaning we don't have to convince Jesus. He's trying to convince us. Some people, their approach is they, oh Jesus, would you help? Would you please help? The devil is so bad. He's so evil. And Jesus would say, no, no, I'm convincing you. You don't need to convince me. I'm fully God from eternity. I became human. And one of the reasons I became human, was to destroy the devil and to give humans the ability to destroy the works of the devil, using my name. Don't convince me. I'm convincing you. Let's turn to the page. Page two, just look at paragraph E. Let's look at 2 Corinthians 5, verse 18. And I won't read it all, but just the word ambassador, verse 20. We are his ambassadors. Beloved, we are the ambassadors of the government of heaven. Now if a, the U.S. ambassador goes to a foreign nation, they have the government of the U.S. behind them. If they don't have the government behind them, when they go to another nation, they're a tourist. They have, they can't appeal to any power. Beloved, we're not tourists down on the earth, just kind of hanging around on the earth, seeing what happens. We are ambassadors. And the very definition of an ambassador is, they represent a governing power. And they have authority to invoke the name and to release the power of that government. We have authority. That's what the nature of an ambassador is. We're not tourists. And we're not victims. We are ambassadors. We have a government behind us. Let's go to paragraph F, the final verse. Matthew 16, verse 19. Jesus gave the keys of the kingdom to his people. Now many of his people, they don't use the keys, but they have them. They take the keys, they go put them in a back room somewhere. And they talk about the keys, but they never use them. How many of you know that if somebody gave you the keys to a, a mansion, and you never used it, you would never ever enjoy what's happening in that mansion, or that car, or whatever analogy you want to use. You have to use the keys to open the door. He gave them to us. And he means that we use them. Many believers do not use the keys. Here's what the keys will do. Look what it says, paragraph F, our final verse here. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. That's a pretty big statement. Now the implication being, whatever in the will of God. Because that's the context of Scripture. Whatever you bind that's in the will of God. It's not a blank check for people to operate in the flesh, but it's a authorization to enforce the victory of Jesus where the enemy attacks. Whatever you bind on earth, binding means stopping the works of the enemy. To bind means to stop the works of the enemy. But he goes on, he says it doesn't stop there. Whatever you loose, in other words, whatever you release, and that's the blessing of God, the power of God. You have the keys to stop, to bind the works of the devil, and to release or loose the power of God, the blessings of God. Now most commentators agree that instead of the verb saying, whatever you bind will be bound, that's how it reads in the New King James. But most agree that the verb is better translated, whatever you bind shall have been already bound in heaven. Meaning the government of heaven, Jesus, determines what is bound, and he determines what is released. And when we agree on earth with what he has bound and loosed in heaven, then we can release it into the earthly realm. So whatever Jesus has bound, whatever he is forbidden to go forward because of his victory, he says now enforce it. Now you enforce that binding decree that I have won the victory to enact. But I'm going to only enact it through you on the earth. Stop the enemy now. And I am going to release things by my, I mean he already has released it by his death and resurrection. Now I'm going to allow you to invoke that governing power from heaven and release that blessing on the earth. But you have to do it. And we do it by saying words, by agreeing, and by staying with it. Not for experimental, not for a few days or a week or two and think, well it didn't really work. No, we stay with it till the end. There is no escape hatch. There is no plan B. We're binding and loosing till the end. And when it doesn't line up right, we don't try to pretend to have all the answers. We know we're going to resist the devil. We're going to bind and loose until we meet the Lord. That's the end of the discussion. And when we have that kind of resolve, we will see many, many victories. We won't always understand why some things didn't happen, but many other things good will happen. Again the enemy's tactic is to get us so confused by what didn't happen that we quit doing the things and releasing the things that are going to happen. And we're not going to yield to that. Amen. Let's stand. We want to use the keys right now. This is not mysterious. We're going to speak the word of the Lord. I want to, the issue that I want to pray about, just in the chairs here, even before, while you're sitting in the chairs, before bringing, calling anybody up, worship team go ahead and come on up. It's the issue of finances. Malachi 3 verse 11, Satan is a devourer of finances. He devours finances. And in Malachi 3, the Lord rebukes the devourer, but in the new covenant he does it through the agency of his people. So we're going to rebuke the devourer. Now I'm not talking about finances because of laziness or finances because of bad decisions. I'm talking about there are oftentimes, there is a supernatural demonic activity that is devouring finances. And so I'm going to invite anyone in the room to raise your hand in just a moment. You're saying, I believe that's happening in my life. It's not, no one's made all perfect decisions, but it's not mostly about bad decision making. It's not mostly about living outside of your means, you know, living on credit. It's mostly about a demonic influence. And you're saying, yeah, yeah, this is happening and we need to take authority over the devourer in that arena, as well as in our emotions and our families and every area. And if that's you and you would like prayer, because we're going to join with you in prayer, I want you to raise your hand. If you're saying, I believe there's a supernatural dimension, it's an escalated thing. It's more than just bad decision making. Okay, now I would like the rest of the folks in the room, if you would turn around, now keep your hand up, turn around and see who has their, their hand up. I want to get three or four people around each one of these people. Because wait, if you'll get two or three to agree, together more happens. Okay, whoever has their hand up, I'm gonna wait till every single, if you're stuck in the middle, I mean, if you're in the middle of an aisle, come on out. I mean, if you're in the middle of a row, come on out to the aisle, so we could get somebody to, no one's laying hands on you. I want everybody with two or three people around them. Okay, I got some hands up back there. Okay, I'm gonna wait until somebody come, gets what around them. I want everybody with somebody standing with them. And here's what the scripture says, we're gonna apply it. It says, submit to God and then resist the devil. Continually resist him. So now, person receiving prayer, I'm asking you, just close your eyes for a moment. Just take 15 seconds and say, Holy Spirit, show me anywhere in my financial life, I'm not submitting to you. I'm not agreeing with your leadership. I mean, Bible 101 is tithing. Say, okay, yes, I give the 10 percent. That's introductory new, new believer stuff. Number two, the Lord says, do you give above and beyond to my kingdom when I tell you to, when I inspire you? Well, I think so. Best as I know. That's an imperfect science sometimes to know that. Yeah, I think. Number three, do you lie and manipulate with your money? With the government or other ways? Say, well, not technically, sort of, kind of. Well, that, yeah, just repent of that one. Say, yeah, I am. I'm not submitting to you on that. Okay, you can't resist the devil if you're submitting to the devil. You have to submit to God. Is there anyone that you've, you've given your word to about money? And because it wasn't written down and, and they can't win a lawsuit, you just, you just ignored it. It's called lack of integrity. Yeah, I guess five years ago, that's, yeah, yeah, I technically, I guess I do owe that guy that money. But, I mean, he can't prove it in a law of court. Forget the law of court. Before heaven. So, are you submitting to God in the realm of your finances? Because if you're not submitting to God, you can't rebuke the devil. It doesn't work that way. So, just take 15 seconds and say, okay, Lord, I'm going to make this right. I'm going to make that, you know, you're right. You're right. Huh. Okay. And he will receive you right now. Say, I'll make that right. So, now you're submitted to the Lord. Now, I want you, as the person receiving prayer, to vocalize. You can whisper it. I want you to speak to the demon harassing you. Say, in the name of Jesus, leave me. Okay, you don't have to say it loud. You don't have to say it in any sort of verbatim or anything. Just, just say it. Go. You have to do it. Not just others for you. You have to do it. Go. Leave me now. I take authority over this spirit that's devouring my finance. He won't go if you don't tell him to go. He won't go just because you're having a hard time. He likes you having a hard time. Now, I'm going to ask the others, two or three of them, to agree with you. And again, just one or two of you, you can just pray out and you can just, again, just you can do it soft if you want to. Just say, in the name of Jesus, I take authority over this devouring, the spirit that's devouring his finance, her finance, in Jesus' name, right now. I cancel your assignment. I can't, demon, I cancel your assignment right now. Now, not everybody's financial problems are demons, but sometimes there's that escalated dimension. I take authority over this attack and I command the power of this to be broken right now. We stand in agreement with our brother or sister right here. We say, in the name of Jesus, release blessing. Release your blessing, Father. Satan, we command you to leave. We command you to stop. Stop your attack and leave right now, in Jesus' name. Amen. You don't have to feel a thing. If you feel something, it doesn't mean the demon left. The demon leaves because of the authority of Jesus. Now, I want to open up the, the rest of time here to these lines up here. If you want prayer for anything, physically, spiritual, financial, anything, go ahead and come on up to these lines. And so we're just going to end with that. Anyone that wants prayer, come on and take the front lines first, if you would. So the folks behind you have room. Just get plenty of room so you can have people come and pray around you. Go ahead and stand on the lines, on the, on the carpet Today, get with somebody for three or four minutes and take authority over them. Do it a bunch of times. Now, the rest of you in the room, you know I need about 50 of you to come down for just four or five minutes. Pray for one or two people. I need a 50 of you. Anyone in the room that loves Jesus, come on down, whether you're visiting or you're a local. Give me four or five minutes to pray for two or three people. I want everybody to be able to receive prayer today. We lift your name up. We lift your name up. God, we loose blessing. We loose blessing right now. Oh, the enemy has been defeated And death couldn't hold you down We're gonna lift our voice in victory We're gonna make your praises loud We resist the enemy In the name of Jesus In the name of Jesus We resist the enemy In the name of Jesus In the name of Jesus We resist the enemy In the name of Jesus In the name of Jesus In the name of Jesus We resist the enemy In the name of Jesus In the name of Jesus We resist the enemy in the name of Jesus.