Shane Idleman emphasizes the importance of understanding demonic oppression in his sermon 'Don't Demonize the Demonized.' He discusses the confusion surrounding the topic, addressing both the tendency to ignore the demonic realm and the overemphasis on it. Idleman explains that while Christians cannot be possessed, they can be influenced or oppressed by demons, particularly through unguarded thoughts and actions. He encourages believers to resist temptation, take thoughts captive, and engage in spiritual warfare through prayer and worship to combat demonic influences. The sermon serves as a call to recognize the reality of spiritual battles and the need for a deeper relationship with God to overcome them.

The topic would probably take many, many hours to get through. And I'm probably going to do a mini-series on it because I don't want to glance through it. I don't want to miss some things. The series, the title of the series is Don't Demonize the Demonized. Don't Demonize the Demonized. And the title tonight is Understanding Demonic Oppression. To understand demonic oppression. And it's a confusing topic to many people because you have one side of it where they kind of ignore the demonic realm. Don't talk about demons. You can't really cast out demons anymore. That was more for the new church, the young church, and that doesn't really happen anymore. We can't really do much with that. And that's how they live. You don't hear sermons on demonology. It's actually a study of theology is demonology. And it's just kind of bypassed. We don't want to talk about it. A lot of times it's because they haven't really experienced it, even though many people are, I believe. Well, I'm going to get into it in a minute. I don't want to jump ahead in the notes. And then you have the other side, right? There's a demon under every rock. And it's demons and demons and demons and demonology and demon studies. And we don't want to have a fixation on that. But we also don't want to ignore the reality of fallen angels. Praise God. I didn't know my two-year-old was going to be the most distracting one of the whole service. It's okay. We're going to bear with it. So let's... You know, you don't have to leave. I was just kidding. Understand... I'm used to it at home. You believe... You know what, parents? You put up with tons of stuff at home. And we've always wanted this to be a kid-friendly church. And well, anyway, now I'm going in a whole different direction. But the title of the message tonight, and then I think next weekend and possibly the following weekend, I'm going to talk about different aspects of this because it is important. We are engaged in a spiritual battle. And if you don't understand what that battle is, you will not be prepared. And so, the title is Understanding Demonic Oppression. Understanding Demonic Oppression. And some people have an issue with that word oppression. I know there's a big ministry out there that really focuses on this area of demonology, and they don't like to use that word. But what I did is I looked up that word in the dictionary, the Bible dictionary, and looked at this word oppressed. It basically means mental pressure or distress, a constant mistreatment of someone. I'm like, I don't know. That's a pretty good definition. And then from this type of topic, you're going to hear the questions come up. Can a Christian be what? Possessed. Can a Christian be possessed? And if you look into it a little bit, you'll find that the word possessed is not even in the Bible. Did you know that? The Bible throughout the New Testament never says that a person is possessed. If you take the Greek word of possessed and translate what the word is, and I think, do all of you have the notes? I don't know if we got them to you in time. It's got some underlying things, and you can follow along. Maybe not. Maybe we'll try to get them out for Sunday. I'm not sure. But it has this word here, dizonemonized, dizonemonized, and that was the Greek word that even when Jesus was conducting his ministry and others, this word was used. And what does it mean? He has a demon, meaning he has come under the influence of a demon, which is a fallen angel. And there's a lot of opinions out there. There's a lot of ways you can do this or do that. All I have is a scripture. All I have is a scripture to go off of, and that's what I'm going to go over hopefully in the next couple weeks. But in this word, coming under the control, the power of a demon. So a person that is demonized is coming under the control of it, not like being possessed and you have to do whatever the demon says. That's what people kind of have this... What was that movie when we were younger? The Exorcist? I never saw it, and I'm not going to see it, but I heard it's not really something you want to see. But there's a possession that takes place, and if you have been involved in types of ministry where a person is being delivered, say, from this type of demonic oppression, you will see things foaming at the mouth and contorting and things that you just are surprised that you normally don't see. And we've had people, I remember in the prayer room, I prayed for a lady, and it was clearly manifesting and slithering like a snake down the wall and praying. And the next time I saw her, she just saw me and just left the building. So this realm is real, and how it manifests itself can be different. We see in the Bible that it would cause a boy to throw himself into the fire or the water, and we know that it's real, but we don't have... The Bible in the New Testament doesn't break it down. Here's 10 points to demonology, and do this, and try... All we have are the scriptures, and that's what I want to cover with you. But one of the key scriptures is we find, I'm going to go over it in a little bit, where it talks about we wrestle not against flesh and blood. So your battle, your battle right there, out there, is not this. It's this. And the more I began to study commentaries and looking at the Greek words and the early church fathers, and I realized just how powerful our thought life is. The fiery darts of the enemy have to be... It's not physical darts. I haven't seen anything coming lately, but there can be... He can have somebody come against you. You know, kind of what happened in Paul, in Peter, and this demoniac, and people come against you, the thought life, anybody ever let their thoughts get a little carried away? And you're kind of upset, but boy, you can get really upset if those fiery darts keep coming. And the enemy somehow has access to our mind. I don't believe he can necessarily know we're thinking he's not God, he's not equal to God, but there is a planting of thoughts, which is called temptation. So our body will naturally tempt us, I'm hungry, right, hungry, hungry for... But also, there can be a temptation, and we see that in the life of Jesus, that when the devil tempted Jesus, told him certain things, oh, if you are the son of God, do this, aren't you hungry? Turn these stones... So there's a temptation element to the demonic realm. And the Bible also says that the weapons of our warfare, how we fight, are not carnal. They're through God for the pulling down of strongholds, and casting down arguments, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. Bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. So we can actually, I believe, take our thoughts captive, rather than allowing our thoughts to take us captive. And I even thought about this a lot more this week. You can take those thoughts of bitterness, or jealousy, or anger, or... You can keep fueling those, and the enemy is throwing those fiery darts, and you're not taking your thoughts captive, they're actually taking you captive. And I believe, primarily, that's the way the enemy works, is in our mind, our thought life. But he can also stir up people to come against us. Many times, that is how he also works. He stirs up them to come against you. And I believe this might have been the case, I don't know if I'll get to this until next week, that my mind was going to explode, because I want to share everything that's in my notes, but that's about 12 pages. So I've got to break it up, because there's a lot of scriptures, there's a lot of situations. But it's interesting, in Paul's life, this is going to be more of a teaching, and not necessarily preaching, tonight and tomorrow. But in Paul's life, the Bible is clear that a messenger from Satan was given to Paul. Paul said, I pray three times for this to be released, a messenger of Satan to buffet my flesh. Now, that's all we have. Is there an illness? Can a demon cause illness? Look at Job. He affected the weather, he affected Job's health. God said, do whatever you want, but just don't kill him. And we see these things. And so, in Paul's case, he could have had an enemy, a type of persecution that came after him time and time again. Or it could have been a demonic harassment in his thought life. We just don't know. But we do know that a messenger of Satan, that's usually a demon, I don't know what else it would be, no matter how you break that up, that something was sent, and it actually talks about that it was given to him, and people say to keep him humble. But I believe the context shows that people were starting to exalt Paul. Paul was already humble. He was already broke. He was shipwrecked. He was beaten. He's as humble as you can get, in my opinion. And but these people were starting to exalt Paul. And he said, I was given a messenger of Satan to keep me. So was it something people could see? Maybe an infirmity and sickness? We don't know. There's a lot of questions and not too many answers. But this might help you a little bit. Demons are roommates in the home of an unbeliever. And believers, they can be intruders. And that's where people get a little confused. And there's been, in Christianity, solid teachers on both sides of this argument, on both sides of this theological debate. One side would say that a Christian can have a demon. Another side would say a Christian can't have a demon. And to me, it's all in how you explain the word. What do you mean? Because of course, a Christian can't be possessed and controlled, and he's got the Holy Spirit. But at the same time, there's a lot of scriptures, I'll be going over them in the next few weeks, that a Christian can open a door to the demonic realm and literally be demonized if they're choosing to open those doors. For example, if a Christian begins to drink a lot and maybe get into the occult and witchcraft, a little dabble, watch these things. But I'm going to church, but I'm kind of dabbling, and I've opened this door from my past. I really shouldn't, but they're going to open this door to the demonic realm. And now they're going to have this intruder come in and be able to harass them and oppress them. So it's all in defining the words, if that makes sense. And I know even on this topic, I'll get emails, Shane, if you have the Holy Spirit, if you have the Holy Spirit, you can't have that. Well, the Holy Spirit, what happens when you quench and grieve the Holy Spirit and you give the enemy a foothold into your life? Now you're being harassed, you're being oppressed. Now there's a stronghold built. Now you've got to fight the enemy within because you're quenching and grieving the Spirit. So I'm going to try to just put the scriptures together because I personally don't have any opinions other than what the Bible says. And we see, did you know, I don't remember if I wrote down exactly how many times, but I was amazed to find out how many times in Jesus's ministry he cast out demons. It's throughout his whole ministry. He's over in this town casting out demons. I'm over in this town casting out demons. I'm going to heal this lady, but I'm going to cast out a demon. I'm going to turn the bread and the fish and the loaves and I'm going to cast out these demons. It's everywhere he went, he cast out demons. He took authority in the spiritual realm. And here's what really clicked for me. Many of you know the verse, but this might, maybe you haven't really thought about it. Jesus said, and I'm going to get into all these. Don't worry. I'm just trying to give you a long introduction. If you believe on me, in me, these signs will follow you. You will cast out demons. Well, do we take some scissors and cut that out? No, that doesn't apply to us. You will lay hands on the sick and they will recover. You will speak in other tongues. He said these things, but a lot of times we have problem. We have a problem with the things that are messy and it's difficult. I'll just be honest with you. Transparency here. Please call the office if you need help. I'm not saying that whatsoever, but there's a lot. I have a lot more peace when somebody says, Hey Shane, just have a few questions. You know, can you have some time? Absolutely. Versus there's a demon in my family and it is going. I need you to come over and just pray and we need to take authority over it. That's going to be, that's going to be intense. That's going to be, you know, especially if a child is about 12 year old and they're just, and when I use the word manifesting, it's like these, the kids can open themselves up and really just turn into something that is difficult and it can be draining and it's dirty. It's not pretty because you're spiritual warfare taking place. And that's why many people, not only number one, they don't understand it, but number two, it is difficult. It's time consuming. It's not clean and, and you've got to sit down and, and sometimes people, sometimes they think they might curse and they might just hate. I've had people say, I hate you and, and just, and just this, you can tell this demonic element is inside of them. It's not fun. It's, it's, it's a little stressful. And so that's why I think either people don't understand it or it takes a lot of work or he would cast out demons primarily from unbelievers. Jesus would, or he would cast them out of sons and daughters of Abraham. Or do you remember the lady who has bent over? He went and prayed for her and he said, woman, thou art loosed from your affirmities. Why should this daughter of Abraham, who Satan has bound, not be free, not be loosed from her affirmities. And people have used this, and this is where I would disagree and saying, see Shane, she, she was a Christian. I said, well, nobody in the new Testament was a Christian the way we think of now until after Jesus died, ascended to heaven and sent the Holy Spirit to indwell the believer. Jesus said, I must go because if I don't go, I won't send the comforter, the helper to help you and to fill you with the spirit. So even though these old Testament saints had faith in God and they were part of Abraham and I believe they were saved because they believed in God and God counted it righteousness to them. That's different than a new Testament believer who is now empowered and filled with the spirit. There's a difference there. So I can't quite make that, that, that, that leap to where people say, well, see Shane, their sons and daughters of Abraham, they had demons. But I believe the same type of oppression can take place, the same type of, of harassment and being demonized. But here's a big question that I came across in what we deal with today. How many, how many that are suffering, let's say a genuine demand, and maybe I see it a lot in other people or those, those of you involved in ministry, you see it quite often that you can tell there's some demonic activity going on. You know, you go to somebody's house, hey, you might want to remove, you know, those things that all that dark and demonic music. And by the way, those horror films, just, I'm just saying you might want to get rid of those and, and the Harry Potter and the twilight and, but Shane, it's just good witches. Oh, there's no such thing as good witches. And so if we're inviting all these things, and now I'm not saying if you watch Harry Potter one night, you're going to have demons. I'm not saying that, but there's something about the atmosphere. There's something about the atmosphere of a place. And I can go in, I went into a place, Phil, you remember, we've talked about this. I went into a place, I don't know if it was a gym or something, and, and the atmosphere, you can tell. I come into this atmosphere, praising God. I went to another atmosphere, I don't know if it was a place or a business, playing something called Ronnie James Dio, The Last in Line, and he's singing, I don't know if it's heaven or divine. And he's, and I remember those songs, oh, he's going back now in the 80s. And that was, oh, there's something, there's something demonic about this, and I didn't like the place. I didn't like it. I felt, see, there's something about the atmosphere. And what about the atmosphere of our homes and changing those things in your mind? You have to change your mindset because that's the stronghold. I'll date myself again, but I still, it's hard getting like Metallica out of my mind. They would sing lyrics like darkness, imprisoning me, absolute whore. And it's still, it's still there from 17, 18 years old and renewing that mind. And there's strongholds there that the enemy latches on. But thank God for the power of Christ, because he that is in you is greater than he that's in the world. And I surprised somebody. I think I surprised Pastor Abrams. I used to listen to Eminem too. Slim Shady. I remember those days. Hey, it's 1990s. I think he's still around. I don't know. But my, I don't know what the point was, but it was, oh yeah, if you, but if you're, if you're allowing these things to come in into your heart, into your mind, I've talked to it. I want to be, there's kids here. So I might not go into a lot of detail. And that's why I was kind of sensitive to this, but I've talked to Christian couples who have pornography in their home. You don't think that's opening a door. Now I don't label, no, the demon of perversion, the demon is just, I don't know what they're all. I just know that they can work in your heart and in your life if you open those doors. Because what is, what is he talking about when he says casting down arguments, pulling down strongholds, something that has a stronghold on you, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of Christ, a high thing is like the philosophical reasoning of today. It's a, it's, it's these things that go against God and all go, just go to academia, go to the colleges and you'll hear these high and lawfully things. And God says, you have to pull down those things and cast down those things, bring them into the obedience of Christ. Everything is through the filter of Christ. If it doesn't measure and line up with God's word, you have to cast it away that Christ in Christ alone, he is the all consuming passion. He is the all consuming fire and you drive out the demonic realm. There is something to the atmosphere. Look at the atmosphere in the temple where the priest couldn't even walk into the Holy of Holies except once a year. And the manifest presence of God was there when God shook Mount Sinai and the people were below it just crying out that there's, there's something about the atmosphere. And I've been talking to you and others for 10 years now on the revival atmosphere. And that's really what, when God brings a revival, a spiritual awakening, you can sense it in the atmosphere. But the question I was getting to is how many of these people suffering are true believers? I've noticed, and I've seen people that have been delivered and set free and all these terms we use a lot of times they weren't truly believers and they never really repented and embraced the gospel. No wonder they're having some difficulties. So that's the place to start. And of course we have the world against us, the pull of the world, the flesh against us and the devil. You've heard that phrase before, the world, the flesh, the devil. Really the world is, do not love the world nor the things that are in the world for whoever loves the world does not have the love of the father in him. That word world is not like loving things, cars. It's the world's mindset, the way the world thinks. So do not love the way the world thinks for you do not have the love of the father in you. So we have that pulling against us. And then guess what? You have good old flesh. This is just hell bent on disobeying God until you are dead until the flesh has no strength. It will be fighting, fighting you for the things of the flesh. It wants more, basically says, feed me so I can destroy you. That's what the flesh does. Feed me so I can destroy you. The Bible goes as far as to say that the carnal mind is at enmity with God. It's at war with God. So now you throw the enemy onto that, planting the fiery darts, causing a little bit of havoc and confusion. Have you ever had those days where the washing machine breaks? You got the flat tire. You can't, this has happened. Now you've got a bill from the IRS. Now you're getting audited and all hell just breaks loose. And sometimes I believe, I mean, if he can, if he can change the weather in Job's case and bring enemies against him and, and have all these things happen, I think it can happen as well. But one thing we do know is the more filled you are with the spirit, the less influenced and manipulated you can become by the demons. Did you catch that? The more filled you are with God's spirit, the more you'll push out the darkness. And so I believe the real battle is there. People are lukewarm, carnal, not really fully surrendered to God and they are quenching and grieving the spirit. Therefore their demonic fights are much more intense. Sometimes I hear what people are telling me and I'm like, Oh my goodness. I mean, that is like, I'm glad I'm not going through that because that's a lot, but you wonder how much are you filling with this? Are you being filled with the spirit to push a lot of this out? So as I said earlier, all we have are the scriptures. So let's look at a few of those. I think we have them up on the screen. First Peter, well actually first Peter five, nine, Ephesians six talks about it. James four, resist, resist the devil and be firm in your faith. So we see then there is going to be a resisting that takes place. Resist the devil. He will flee from you. So I have this picture of the devil, you know, whether it's thoughts, whatever it is, there's the, there's the spiritual attack. You have to resist it. But what happens when we don't resist it? We cave into it. That's called caving into temptation and giving in. And did you know that temptation, it peaks and then it, it drops. It's at that high peak that many people give in. And the Bible says, resist, resist, and he will flee from you. And sometimes in the church, we've been guilty of this here before. Sometimes I have where you kind of, you, you minimize things like resisting, fighting, carrying that temptation. You don't, you don't remind people that it is a struggle. It is a fight. It's almost like, well, just, you know, God's grace will see you through. Don't worry about it. You know, just, just, just that Jesus paid that price on the cross. Just, just go with it. But we forget that we have to resist and fight and, and contend and, and, and say no to temptation. No, no temptation has overtaken you except what is common to all men, that God will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able to bear, but with the temptation makes a way of escape. So we see there's a fleeing, there's a resisting, there's, there, there's a fighting. And then Ephesians four, do not give place to the devil. Huh? Isn't that interesting? Do not give place, or you could say a foothold to the devil. So that tells me I can give place to the devil. And if you read that whole passage, and again, I don't edit these down because there's so much to talk about. There's some context in there about anger. Don't let the sun go down upon your wrath. Don't give place to the devil. So anytime we allow anger to control us, anger, angry outburst, anger to fester where, where? Come on, nobody's being honest here tonight. If you never get angry, I'd love to talk to you afterwards. I'm going to be in the prayer room. But what do we do with that anger? Do we take it captive? Do we apologize, repent, work on things, communicate, get it out in the open? Or do we let it fester and build? And that gives the enemy what? A foothold. What is a foothold? Do you ever, do you ever have the kids closing the door on you and you? Don't close this door, mister. And you put your foot there, you're holding that door open. And so that can happen with the enemy as well. Also in the context was lying and laziness. If you read all of Ephesians 4, in the context there, lying and being deceptive and lazy and you're giving the enemy ground. It's almost like the door's closed. You can't come in, you can't do anything with me, but then we begin to open it a little bit. Who's there? Who's there? Oh, you want me to play pat-a-cake? And you keep walking out that door and you open the door more, open the door more. And that's why the more you, the more you open, the more freedom he has to rule and reign and, and manipulate your life. I couldn't find any scriptures really that would make me think that the devil makes you do it. What was that guy's name? Flip Wilson. The devil made me do it. Wouldn't that be good if we could get away with that one? Sorry, Morgan, the devil made me do it. I was just walking along and he did it. He made me do it. And we have to be careful because the devil doesn't make us do anything. He's a defeated foe. He's just an influencer. He just, I love that story. I don't know if you've ever seen that little, um, I think it's a, um, not a cartoon, but of, uh, the Pilgrim's Progress. It's a, it's a, uh, animated. That's what I'm looking for. And Christian's walking down and he sees the lions like, Oh man, there's no way, but he doesn't see that they're chained up. They can only go right there and he can just still keep walking right through them. Same thing with the enemy. He can't really do anything to you. He's under God's sovereignty. And so he has to submit to God's sovereignty and he can only influence and disrupt and disorganize and cause things to maybe come into your mind that normally wouldn't be there. And then you take that thought captive. Mark 16, 17 through 18, what I said earlier, and these signs might follow those who believe. If I choose to give you these gifts and these signs could follow you and these signs will follow those who believe. So I would love to know where your scripture references are. If you think that the church should not be involved in praying over people who could be demonized. What is your proof text? Because Jesus told me, if I believe in him, I can lay hands on the sick and they will recover. You actually have a harder job proving to me that we can't do that than I do to you that we can't. And there's a very popular Bible teacher in Southern California. I know he doesn't agree with a lot of what I'm saying. And I remember him telling a story and he was kind of not joking about it, but he said there was this one lady. I remember early in my ministry and I went and we went and cast out this demon and nothing happened. She really just ran us out of the house. And so that's, that's his reasoning for you can't do that anymore. Just because you didn't, you probably went in there with some unbelief and some doubt. And then you become the weaker of the two. That's how the enemy gets the, the, the, the, the, on top of this issue. And that's how the enemy gets ahead of you is if you come in with doubt and unbelief, that's your powerless. Now you can struggle with doubt. I sometimes do like the man who said, Lord, I believe, but help my unbelief. Why? Because the doubt could be the fiery darts of the enemy coming in, planting doubt. So I take those thoughts captive and saying, Lord, I'm starting to doubt. I know to you to be true. I know that he that's greater in me that is, is, is greater than he that's out there. Your Holy Spirit, your word says this, Lord, I'm, I'm, I'm praying over this person. We're praying for healing or deliverance in Jesus name. Lord, I feel the doubt coming in, but I'm going to rest in your authority. I'm going to, by faith, I'm exercising this gift to pray for the person. And where we, where we get confused. Well, where we get confused sometimes is it doesn't always happen the way we thought. Healing, right? That's another controversial topic. And it, I guess for me, it hasn't been, I don't really have a difficulty with it because I understand that God is sovereign and I don't know what he's doing. And if I were to put everyone to be healed that I pray for, then I would be Jesus. And that would not be good. Maybe God is using the sickness to wake this person up or to get the spouse to the Lord. May we don't, we don't know what he's doing. So I've never really had a problem with why doesn't God always heal everyone? Why is he, I'm just called to be faithful. And responsible in what he has called us to do. And that's why I believe when the Bible talks about gifts of healing, it's not that you can just go walk into a hospital. It's that God will supernaturally prompt you and give you the faith to pray over that person who needs to be healed. And you have that gifting. God is calling you, anointing you for that gifting in that area so more people you might pray for might get healed. Not because you're Superman or superwoman, but God has given you that gift of healing. And so that's why I say, well, if that gift really exists, they could just go into the hospital and pray for people. How do you know everyone in the hospital is supposed to be healed according to God's will? You don't know that. You are led by the spirit. Jesus did whatever the father told him to do. And then the gift of faith, isn't that incredible? I think my wife has that a little bit. I need it sometimes. She tells me, I mean, you should have seen me for seven months. Oh, the county is going to come and give us a fine. The county is going to come up there. I'm going to have to go down to the county. She said, no, I'm praying against it. We're not going to get a letter. I just feel it. But I didn't believe it, did I? I said, you can pray, but we're getting in trouble. And never even once. Only church I know of ever that nothing ever, you know, except we're at the stadium. We're at the stadium last summer. They said, you can't sing. I said, it's not going to happen. This is getting ridiculous. I got to get off this rabbit show because I'm getting mad. It's the most insane thing I've ever seen. It is the most insane thing I've ever seen. Cowardly churches backing down to a tyrannical government who allows everything else to happen. I just thought of this today as I was cleaning my Dyson vacuum. I'm like, even during COVID, the vacuum guy was open. I had to wait in a long line. He said, it's the busiest he's ever been made. The most money he's ever made yet. We can't open the church, but we can clean vacuums. Lord, help me. Well, you know, you felt it. That's why you're here. I think if you didn't believe that you probably wouldn't be here. You'd be somewhere else. And these signs, it was a, it was a tough, it was a tough decision. Not a tough decision, but it was, it was tough going against the grain of things and upsetting our mayor and things like that. It was hard. I'd unfollow some people on Facebook so they couldn't watch our live feeds. And these signs will follow those who believe. In my name, they will. They will cast out demons. And I've had this, I've seen this even mainly a lot, it's been a while, but with the homeless population, or you're praying for someone outside of a restaurant or somewhere, and you can, and you can, you know, pray that they be delivered of this. You can have an addiction of demonic, and you can pray. I believe you can pray over those people and God will deliver them. Now they have to be careful because they can open that door again and invite that back in. And I believe when Jesus talks about the man who, there was a demon who left the man and came back and found the house, the body swept and clean and brought back seven more demons. And the Bible says the last state of that man is worse than the first. But the context actually is that he says, and so is the case with this wicked generation. So I don't, I don't use that verse in context with the Christian. But however, the principle is true. I have seen people that have maybe an issue, a demonic stronghold in their life. If they give into that demonic stronghold, it gets worse as the years go on. And they get into this bondage. It's harder to get out from this bondage that they allowed into their life. And the last part of that, the last state of that person is often worse than the first state because they keep allowing that demonic work in their heart. But the context of that verse, I believe was dealing with unrepentant centers. He said, they will speak in new tongues. They will take up serpents. In other words, nothing is going to hurt them if they're in God's will. That's why these guys that actually pick up rattlesnakes in Louisiana, Texas, not a good idea. That's, you know, there's been stories. Pastor dies, rattlesnake bites him because you're, oh, look at this. Here's this verse. No, it doesn't say that. Do not do that. That's mocking. That's saying that it's saying if you're like Paul, he was gathering some sticks. Here's a fire, a serpent bit him and he let it go. Nothing happened to him. And they're all amazed that he didn't die because he, God keeps you protected in those areas of where you're doing his will. You could drink something that's deadly and you will not die. It will know me. It will by no means hurt you and you will lay hands on the sick and they will recover. So a couple of different thoughts here. You can either, you either have to just cut this out of your Bible or you have to say that applies to me as a believer today. But if I'm not seeing this, what is happening? I would probably say that the Holy Spirit is being quenched and grieved in your heart. I would say the full surrender is not taking place. There's doubt. There's unbelief. You're allowing theologians with PhDs to tell you what the Bible says instead of what the Bible actually says and to walk in that power and anointing of the Holy Spirit. You've got to be close to God. I've not mastered this. I'm a work in progress. Don't say, oh, Shane, how do you do it? I don't, I'm just looking at how Jesus did it and helping point all of us that direction. So I feel so many times I feel so inadequate when I pray for people. I wish I could see more healing. I wish I could see more deliverance taking place and we'll keep pressing into those things. Luke 11, 20 to 22. Jesus said, if I cast out demons and the word really means if I remove their authority, if I remove their authority, and that's why the devil freaked out when Jesus came onto the earth because he had just free reign of everyone. Now he has no power, no authority over the spiritual realm. The demons would actually say, Jesus, please don't torment us before our time. They could never, they didn't, they didn't debate with him or argue with him or fight against him. It was go cast out. If I remove their authority with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. So the kingdom of God, this would take a little while too, but is inside of us. Jesus spoke about it's coming again, the kingdom of God, but also the kingdom of God is within you. He told the Pharisees that. And so because of that, because of the spiritual authority, the Holy spirit, I believe, according to scripture, that a person can cast out demonic types of authorities in the lives of other people. But sometimes it's a battle. Sometimes it takes time. We don't know the perfect will of God. Like Jesus did. So I've got good news and bad news. The good news is we can do this. The bad news is all of you are in deliverance ministry. According to scripture, if you believe, if you believe you can do this now, hopefully I'm hoping to talk next week more about this, but, um, well, let me just, okay. This word cast out. It's, it's Ekbalo, Ekbalo in the Greek. It means to throw out or banish. It means to be deprived of the power and influence. So Jesus said, you can cast out this demonic type of, of element in a person. So here we go into a little bit more of the teaching thing, the enemy temps, which already talked about, and the devil doesn't make you do it. They are more of influencers, not controllers. And I think that's important for people to know that the demons cannot control you. They only can influence you. However, if you open yourself up, it might seem like control because, uh, for example, did you know that, uh, the word pharmacy in the Greek means drugs and sorcery and things that pharmacheia, pharmacheia, I believe it is. It means drugs and sorcery. Why do they call alcohol spirits? I mean, there's some things though, that you can, if you, if you open those doors, if you open those doors, they will begin to, it'll seem like they're controlling you. And as I said, I already said some of these points, doubt and unbelief will strengthen the enemy. And I can tell you right now that the critical heart rarely sees God move. The critical heart rarely sees God move. Those who are critical about this topic, they actually demonize the demonized or they poke fun or say, Oh, this, this doesn't happen anymore. The critical heart will rarely see God move. You will not see them experience delivery, maybe in their own lives or the lives of others. You will not see him move powerfully in the gifts of the Holy Spirit or have any type of boldness and spiritual authority. They have a critical heart. And so one of the keys for us is, is, is this throughout scripture, we see believe, discern and then respond, don't react, respond. So in this area, we are to believe that God can still do this. And then we also are to discern, okay, what is going on here? You don't have to blame. Does anyone blame everything on the devil? Be careful. Can't blame everything on the devil. Give him too much credits. But we also don't want to minimize what he's doing. It takes some discernment, talking to people, if doors been open and, and, and praying. And when I pray, Lord, give me some discernment. You can tell something is often from the pit of hell or just from a situation going in the wrong direction. And then second Corinthians 10, which I mentioned earlier, four through six for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God. I think we have it up there. Look at these underlines, which means here's what we, this is very important. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God, which means actually his weapons, his way, his weapons, his way. You have to have both those. Pulling down strongholds. You're mighty in God for the pulling down of strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. That last last sentence is many commentary. Many commentators were divided on what exactly that means. But the bottom line is when obedience takes place, when you're obeying God's word, you can punish the disobedience that the enemy is trying to do in our homes and in our lives. So again, stronghold. I think I memorized my notes. I'm just repeating what I already told you in the introduction because I just read over this so much this week. A stronghold has a hold on you. Is there a habitual pattern or thought in your life? Does something have a stronghold on you? That's why we're opening up the prayer room right after the service during closing worship. We want to pray with you. We want to take authority over what the demonic realm, what a demon or demons might be doing in your life, a harassment, whatever it is. We want to pray for that. Again, I'm just following scripture. If you got a problem with that, take it up with Jesus. He said it. And we should be able to pray for people in this area. Casting down arguments and hyping, this is philosophy and exalted opinions based on pride. And next week is important. I'm going to ask about 25 questions on this area of taking thoughts captive. And many people think, no, I'm good. I don't have any really open doors or areas. If you start to go over biblically, like have you, the bitterness, let out bitterness and wrath and anger. And you will go through these questions. You can see there might be some open doors here where I'm holding because when you hold in bitterness, anybody ever have that struggle with that? Don't leave me hanging because I have. And what happens is a root of bitterness. And that root is ugly and it loves to be watered and it grows. And that bitterness makes us bitter. We don't want to go to church because so-and-so will be there. We don't want to do this because I'm bitter. I'm angry. I'm critical. The enemy loves it. He starts, then now he starts planting thoughts into your mind about the person or other people or this. Yeah, you don't deserve this. And this root of bitterness keeps growing. And that could be a huge open door because our emotions, our emotions are something the enemy can manipulate. And again, the spiritual atmosphere matters. He inhabits the praises of his people. That actually comes from the King James rendering of Psalm 22.3. But let me tell you what other translations say. But thou art holy, O God. O that thou, you are the God that inhabits the praises of Israel. In other words, again, the atmosphere matters. That's why worship is so important. That's why armies in the Old Testament would go forward with just the worship team. When you worship, you pull down heaven. I'd rather have, I'd rather have a worship on in my house than Netflix. There's something about the atmosphere that changes. The angels want to rejoice with you. Demons want to flee. When you begin to worship God and you lift up his holy name and you pronounce the blood of Jesus Christ over your children, over your house, and you walk through and say, I'm praying over my house. I don't care. I don't care if this looks silly. I don't care if I've got some anointing oil anointing my kids. I don't care if I look silly because I want to call down heaven on the demonic realm. I don't want to give the enemy any ground because God, I'm praying and I'm trusting you and I'm believing. I'm taking authority, God, because your word says it. We must get back to prayer. Life-changing, God-centered prayer. And for you, for those of you who are new, I shared this in a sermon last year when it was just me in this room and this camera. And I'm going to remind you of it. Some of you have heard this. Prayer is a great sin killer. Prayer is a fear quencher. Prayer is a power bringer. It's a victory giver. It's a holiness promoter. It's a lust eliminator. It's an obstacle remover. It's a time changer. It's a life sustainer. It's a demon slayer. It's a wisdom giver. It's a peace promoter. It's a depression lifter. It's an anxiety demolisher. It's an anger suppressor. It's a weakness remover. It's a strength booster. I'm getting tired, so I'll get the last one. And it's a revival stimulator. You see, prayer moves the hand of God. Prayer changes the atmosphere. Prayer pulls down heaven and puts it here. Prayer opens the ears of God to hear us. And as we repent and turn to him, he says, that's my children. My eye is not blind and my hand is not heavy that I cannot see. I cannot grab. I cannot hear. But your sins, your sins have blocked my face from you. Just come and repent and pray and cry out to God. The environment of the tabernacle, the environment of churches and praise. Think about that, the environment of the church. When I'm done here and the worship team is up here, think about that environment versus a nightclub. So you tell me environment doesn't matter. How many of us need to change the environments of our homes? What media choices are saturating your atmosphere? What music is filling the airways? What attitudes are dominating your life? In Matthew 17, 21. But this kind is not driven out except by prayer and fasting. I've talked about, it's kind of a disputed text. Some manuscripts have fasting, some don't. But we know the principle is true. And he said, this kind does not go out except by prayer. There are some types of demonic types of working in your life that they don't go out, they don't leave easily. It tells me that there is sometimes some work that's involved. There's some travail that's pulling down heaven. There's some seeking God and staying up later, getting up earlier and praying. There has to be some pressure applied to the spiritual realm. If prayer is pressure, sometimes it takes more and more pressure on the spiritual realm. Finally, something has to break. There's a song, a new song, something has to break. I just hit rewind on that thing. Rewind on that thing, rewind. Something has to break, God, something has to break. I'm praying and calling down heaven and I'm going to do it until the day I die. I'm not going to get weary. I'm not going to give up. God, I'm calling down heaven. Something's got to break. And like Daniel who fasted and prayed for 21 days, the angel said something amazing. He said, Daniel, I heard you on day one. I heard you on day one. But the prince of Persia, the principality held me back. And Michael, the archangel had to come and deliver me from his grip. So Daniel, don't give up. Keep praying, keep pressing in. And I hear, I will hear those prayers. I just remember I have to do this twice tomorrow. I'm excited about it. It's just exhausting. And here's the verse I talked about earlier. I'm going to close with Matthew 12, 43 through 45. When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places seeking rest and finds none. Then he says, I will return to my house from which I came. And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself. And they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation. And in a nutshell, I don't know who's listening. I don't know who's here, but it only gets worse when you reject Christ. It only gets worse when you reject Christ. I heard Adrian Rogers say this last week. Do you ever listen to him on the radio? One of my favorite preachers, I think. He said, you're not saved by the plan of salvation. You're saved by the man of salvation. I think it's important to remember that word. The plan of salvation doesn't save us. The man of salvation saves us. You can know, so many people quote, look at Ray Comfort on the streets of the beach in Venice. Oh yeah, I know Jesus died for me. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I know that I have to, see, they know. They don't know. They know the plan, but not the man. And I want to encourage you if you're listening to this now or later, it's going to get worse. It's going to get worse if you continue to reject Jesus Christ. And there comes a time when that time is over. The opportunity is over. It's ran its course. And I know many people have religion, but not a relationship. And what we're going to do with communion up front and in the balconies while you have communion up there is this is the time where we remember what Jesus did for us. There's an incredible verse in the Bible. And they overcame him by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony. They overcame him. What? The devil. There's some truth in there with fighting the demonic realm. They overcame him by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony. In other words, Jesus died for me. Satan, you have no authority over me. You take your thoughts captive. The word of your testimony, the Lord has set me free. Satan, you should have killed me years ago when you had your chance. When I rolled my vehicles and when I was walking away from you and I was in your hands, I was in your clutches. You should have killed me then, but oh, not now. Now you've made me as mad as heck. And I want to fight against you and destroy that with the blood of the lamb and the word of his testimony. We want to preach Christ and Christ alone. We want to tell people about the shed blood of Jesus Christ that'll set them free. And let me tell you about my own personal testimony of coming to grips with the reality of hell and turning to him and having him save me and set me free.