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Binding the Strongman
David Wilkerson

David Wilkerson (1931 - 2011). American Pentecostal pastor, evangelist, and author born in Hammond, Indiana. Raised in a family of preachers, he was baptized with the Holy Spirit at eight and began preaching at 14. Ordained in 1952 after studying at Central Bible College, he pastored small churches in Pennsylvania. In 1958, moved by a Life Magazine article about New York gang violence, he started a street ministry, founding Teen Challenge to help addicts and troubled youth. His book "The Cross and the Switchblade," co-authored in 1962, became a bestseller, chronicling his work with gang members like Nicky Cruz. In 1987, he founded Times Square Church in New York City, serving a diverse congregation until his death. Wilkerson wrote over 30 books, including "The Vision," and was known for bold prophecies and a focus on holiness. Married to Gwen since 1953, they had four children. He died in a car accident in Texas. His ministry emphasized compassion for the lost and reliance on God. Wilkerson’s work transformed countless lives globally. His legacy endures through Teen Challenge and Times Square Church.
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Sermon Summary
In this sermon, the preacher focuses on the desire to see Jesus and have a personal encounter with Him. Jesus acknowledges this desire but redirects the attention to His impending crucifixion and the victory that will come through it. The preacher emphasizes that Jesus came out of the grave as a powerful and victorious shepherd, capable of overcoming any battle or temptation in our lives. The sermon also highlights the significance of the cross in delivering believers from the power of darkness and the kingdom of the devil, and emphasizes the importance of remembering this deliverance in our walk with Jesus.
Sermon Transcription
This message is one of the Times Square Church pulpit series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other tapes are available by writing World Challenge, Post Office Box 260, Lindale, Texas, 75771, or by calling 903-963-8626. None of these messages are copyrighted, and you are welcome to make copies for free distribution to friends. We would see Jesus. We want to see Jesus. You're one of His disciples. We want an interview with Him. We want to talk to Him. And Jesus surmised that they were like the rest of the crowd, probably wanted to see a miracle or hear some divine wisdom that would thrill them. And Jesus seems to ignore them. The Bible says, And Jesus answered them, saying, The hours come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Jesus had His eye on the cross. He knew there was a battle coming. He ignores everybody around Him, and He says to these certain Greeks, what He's really saying, I am going to the cross. I'm going to be crucified. And those certain Greeks got more than they bargained for. A voice suddenly thundered from heaven. The voice cried, thundered, I have glorified my name, and I will glorify it again. Jesus had to interpret the message because they didn't understand it. Just a thundering voice. Some said it thundered. Some said an angel spoke. But those men were probably trembling. And that voice simply said, I will glorify my name. I will glorify it again. He glorified it when Jesus was born. God was going to glorify Him now at the cross. They didn't understand it. The voice came. The scripture said, For your sake. Jesus said, That voice you heard was not for me. In other words, God doesn't have to tell me. My Father doesn't have to tell me what I already know. He said it for your sake. This thundering voice was for your sake. Now, folks, listen to it, please, because it's for our sake this voice has come. It has to do with God's power and victory over the devil. And it came from the very throne room of God. And what did Jesus say that His Father was saying? What was the interpretation of Jesus Christ? Here He said, Now, in other words, at the time of my cross, now, looking forward to His cross, now is the judgment of the world. Listen to it now. Now shall the prince of this world be cast out, and I will be lifted up. And if I be lifted up, that means if I be crucified, I will draw all men unto me. At that very hour, Jesus is saying to this group of men, At the very hour that Satan thinks he will have destroyed me and buried me, and it's all over, will be the very hour that he is cast down and defeated. Absolute defeat to all the powers of the enemy. At the very moment he thinks he's conquered. He said, At that moment, when I am resurrected, all power shall be given unto me in heaven and in earth. Now, beloved, those that are in Christ Jesus have been delivered from the power of Satan. We are no longer part of the kingdom of darkness. Now, the moment you got saved and you gave everything to Jesus, you were translated out of the kingdom of darkness over into the kingdom of light. Here's what the scripture says, The Father has delivered us from the power of darkness, and he's translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son, in whom we have been set free through his blood and even the forgiveness of sins. Listen to it very clearly. The writer is saying, The Father, God the Father has delivered us from the power of darkness. When does he deliver us? Are we delivered now from the power of darkness? How many believe we have been delivered from the power of darkness? Where were we delivered? At the cross of Jesus Christ. God the Father delivered us from the power of darkness, translated us out of the kingdom of hell and the devil, and translated us in the kingdom of God through Jesus Christ and the forgiveness of sins. That's why David could preach when he thought of the cross. He preserved the souls of his saints. He delivered them out of the hand of the wicked. Who is the wicked? The devil himself delivered out of the hand of the wicked. Now, folks, one of the most promising, glorious verses in all the Bible, I believe, and you don't have to turn there, but it's found in Luke 1, 74 and 75. These two verses, if you've got a pen or pencil, mark that down because these should be two of the verses that are keynotes in your whole Bible. The prophecy of Zacharias, that we being delivered out of the hand of all our enemies. Now, who are our enemies, folks? Are you listening? Who are our enemies? Demon powers, the devil himself, and all the principalities and powers of darkness. That we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life. All the days of our life. Now, I preached about that in the last two, the past few Sundays, but I want you to hear it again. Being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, we can live without fear in righteousness and holiness, how many days of our life? All the days of our life. Now, if you believe the Bible, you've got to claim that. I want to live my life free from fear. I want to believe what Jesus said. In fact, all the prophets from the beginning of time prophesied that a Messiah was going to come and his coming and his death and his resurrection would bring forth a mankind, would bring forth a society of Christians and believers who were totally delivered from the power of darkness and the power of the devil. I read it to you, Luke 170, verse 70 and 71, and it says, all the prophets from the beginning of the world foretold that he would save us from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us. This was the prophecy of all the prophets. He will come and he will deliver you. And they were jealous of this people that they saw in history. The Bible says they long to have foretasted, they long to have seen what you and I have seen. But there's not a prophet in this Bible that ever prophesied who didn't say the same thing, that when Jesus comes, his purpose in coming is to raise a people who could live their lives, all their lives, time free from fear and bondage and delivered from the hand of their enemies. Hallelujah. Your enemy is not your husband, not your wife, not somebody on the job, not homosexuals, not drug addicts, not the robbers out there. Your enemy are the powers of darkness. They manipulate and use these people, but the real enemy is out of hell. Now, these enemies are seven entities the Bible mentions, principalities, powers, dominions, authorities, rulers of darkness, thrones, and wicked spirits, seven entities. And these seven wicked entities hold great power even today in the kingdom of darkness. Now, you know, there are two kingdoms, the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light. And in the kingdom of darkness, he still rules supreme. When you were in his kingdom, you did what he told you. You were a slave to his leadership. He was a ruler. He was your father. And you were subjected to everything he demanded of you. Many of you that are sitting here now, you were not in the kingdom of light. You were in his kingdom of darkness. The Bible said, you and your father, the devil, and you are of your father, the devil, and the lust of your father you will do. That's what Jesus said to the scribes who were still in the kingdom of darkness. He said, you're under the power of your father, the devil, and every lust that he injects in your mind, you'll do it because you're subject to him. Now, folks, when you come to Jesus Christ and you invite him to come in, he marches right in and he lays hold of what he Jesus called the strong man. He lays hold of him and takes him by the neck and cast him out. And he says, this is my house from now on, go and don't come back. Jesus called him a strong man because in his realm, he still has his power. He still has his might. If you don't believe the devil has power today, go out in the street and take a look around. I looked at coming home from restaurant this afternoon. I looked down on 54th street between 7th and 8th avenue and I counted four poor decrepit young people with shorts sleeping on the street and their legs full of bleeding blisters, dying of AIDS, dying of AIDS. And here's the devil who's lying. That's the power of Satan. You see it everywhere on these streets. The devil out there still has his power. He rules and he reigns on these streets, but he does not rule and reign in the kingdom of righteousness. There he has lost all his power and all his authority. And when you're translated into the kingdom of Jesus Christ, Satan loses his power over you. Your body was his house. He lived there. Your spirit, your body was not the temple of the Holy Ghost then. Now because of Jesus Christ and the blood of Christ sprinkled on your soul, you are now the temple of the Holy Ghost. And they accused Jesus when he, the scribes accused Jesus of casting out demons by the devil, the power of the devil. And Jesus rebuked them. He says, uh, how can Satan cast out Satan? And then Jesus went on to make a very, uh, important statement. It's one that you and I need to understand. Please understand it in the spirit. Jesus said, if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand. Now Satanist and occultist cannot cast out the devil. They can do no good. They can do no harm to a Christian, to a believer. They can't, you know, they have charms, they have dolls, they have incense, they have all of this paraphernalia that's supposed to have power. And you know, uh, they, they claimed that if you will come in, I know, especially black, uh, black magic and the voodoo cultist and the Santerra group coming in from Haiti and the Caribbean, they have a, there's a satanic revival all over New York city right now. It's everywhere you turn. It's right here, just three blocks from here. There's a whole group of Santerra's right over here, just three blocks from this church and a whole, all many, many that are coming in from Mexico, from Caribbean and others have been practicing this. They're here now and they claim great power. They claim that they can get you a job. They can claim they can get you a sweetheart. They claim that they can, uh, uh, they curse people. They can put sickness and disease on people. And we have got a lot of people, uh, in America today, scared to death of demonic powers. I believe even in Washington DC, we've got government leaders that tremble in their shoes because of occultists who they believe have power. You know, Nancy Reagan believed that the stars could tell her what to do, when to do it. Occultists claim to have this, this, this great power to protect. And folks, it does not work. It does not work. When I held meetings years ago in Argentina, I met many Christians. I met missionary. Uh, I remember a missionary, uh, that had, uh, two or three children and, uh, the wife was frightened because they came in and were taking territory from the enemy. And the leaders of this, uh, black magic and, uh, occultist group had little dolls and they were putting pins. These were supposed to be their daughters and putting pins. And folks, those who believe that lie got sick. And, and, uh, she was always living in that fear, that constant fear. And then when her daughter gets sick, got sick, she attributed that to the power of these people. The more she thought about it, the more the devil moved in on that and took a stronghold. And never forget the fear that was on that lady. God finally delivered her from it. But there's something more being said here by Jesus. He's saying our bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost and the devil can't abide in that house. Otherwise that house would be destroyed. The house divided will not stand. And the scripture says, know you not that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you. And Jesus said, if a man loved me, he will keep my words and my father will love him. And we will come into him and make our abode with him. Folks, I want you to know that Jesus does not come just to stand by me or to be with me or around me. He comes to live in me. He comes to live in you. He's taken up his abode, his living, his house is your body. And not for one moment will Jesus share your body with a demon. He will not share your body with the devil, with the spirit of darkness. They can't abide or the Lord said that house is divided. He can't stand. No, he takes the strong man and he cast him out. Jesus explained how complete his victory was over Satan, an absolute victory of the cross. He said, no man can enter into a strong man's house and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man and then he will spoil his house. Now that word bind means to tie him up and cast him out. In other words, he's found hand and foot in your house and he's literally cast out. It's a wonderful picture that moment when you cried out, Jesus, come into my heart. Jesus, deliver me from the power of the enemy. Jesus, take the slavery of sin out of my life. Jesus came in because you opened the door and he came in a mighty savior. He came in with all power and authority. He bound the devil hand and foot, but listen to me, listen closely. Jesus is very careful in the words he selects. Jesus speaking. Now the interpretation of it is in the Greek and the Greek or Aramaic even, both Greek and Aramaic. The word here spoil is very powerful. And I want you to listen to it. It means to take away all furniture, all implements of war and every apparatus, every tool of the trade. You look it up in Strong's Concordance, you'll find it there. Or look in the Greek and you'll find that interpretation. It means that not only does Jesus come in, but he takes all the furniture of the devil, all of his evil thoughts, all of his tools, all of his devices, and he confiscates them. He takes them away. He doesn't throw them out. He confiscates them. He burns them. He destroys them, casts them into hell. You know why the Bible said there's no weapon of the enemy that will prosper against us because the Lord took his weapons against God's people. He took them. There's no weapon formed against you that shall prosper because the Lord in this said, I spoiled the devil. I spoiled his implements of war. I took the tools of his trade. I cast him out and I destroyed his furniture. Oh, hallelujah. You know, the truth and the truth will set you free. Do you believe what you're hearing? You see, he took his weapons and that left devil with nothing but his nature, which is a lying spirit. The devil, the Bible said, Jesus said it very clear. He was a murderer from the beginning, speaking of the devil, and he abode not in truth because there's no truth in him. And when he speak of the lie, he speaketh of his own for he's a liar and the father of all lies. Now, listen to me. Here's what happens. The devil is cast out all of his furniture, all of his lies, all of his devices, everything he's been taken and cast out. I mean, his apparatus, his devices against you and in every way he tried to get to you and they were confiscated, the Bible says. Now, listen closely, please. Did not change his nature. He's still a liar. And what he does, he still, the devil himself will send to you a spirit, a lying spirit. The Bible is very clear about lying spirits. Jesus cast out many lying spirits and they will park themselves right outside this church. They'll park themselves near you, anywhere you go, on the job, everywhere, and they will begin whispering lies to you. And this is the only way he has now to get to God's people. He has to whisper or inject a lie, whispered into your spirit, into your mind. Now, listen very closely. I've had that happen. I walk right out the door of this church many times and there's a man that we've had to inject from this church that hates us. And how many times I've walked out that door, gone to a restaurant and he's right there and he starts yelling, your wife is dying of cancer. Your mother's dying of cancer. Your daughters are dying of cancer. They're all going to be dead. And then another lie says, watch your back. Brother Dave, calls me brother Dave. He said, watch your back. You never know when a knife's going to come flying. I went over to the restaurant a couple of weeks ago and there he was, knocking on the window while I'm sitting there. And he's going, watch your back. Who is it talking? It's the devil himself. Because the devil want to make me afraid and our pastor's afraid to walk these streets. I got up from my place, the spirit of God came on me and I went out and I said, not you or anybody gonna make me afraid on these streets. These streets are mine. These streets belong to us folks, to the power of the blood of Jesus Christ. My angel must've chuckled. The devil will come to you after you've been delivered and he began to spread lies. He'll start injecting lies. You're not clean. You're not saved. You're going to fall. You're no good. You're dirty. You're filthy. You're still an adulterer. You're still a prostitute. The first time you see a bag of junk, you're going to go snort it again. You're going to last as long as you're with Christians, but when you're on, you're going to fall on your face. And folks, these lies keep coming at you from all sides. The devil, that's the lying spirit out of hell. The strong man's been cast out. His weapon will not prosper against you. And the only impact he has, the only way he can get at you is to try to get you to believe his lies so that you'll be depressed and blue and down. And then you will get mad at God because you are accepting the lies of hell. And you have got to slap the devil at the gate of your ear. Where is the strong man? He's cast out. How many believe the strong man's been cast out of your life? He's been cast out of this body. The strong man's gone. Hallelujah. What else is gone? His furniture. He can't sit and pop up his feet here anymore. He doesn't belong here. Now, I read that and I believe every word of it. No man can enter a strong man's house and spoil his goods, except he first bind that strong man, then he'll spoil his goods. He said, I'm not only going to drive the devil out of you, I'm going to spoil, I'm going to take from him every weapon that was formed against you, and I'll destroy those weapons. Hallelujah. Folks, if you believe that, you'd say amen right now from the inside of your soul. Hallelujah. Jesus says don't believe him. He's a liar. And he's the father. He's the one who gives birth to every lie that you hear. It comes right out of hell. Now, folks, God wants us to be absolutely fearless against all satanic powers. Here in New York City, you can't go out, walk in the street anymore, anywhere without running into some demon-possessed person foaming at the mouth and growling and trying to at you, see them drooling. And that's exactly what the devil would like to do. He'd like to fill these streets with demon-possessed people trying to make you afraid to walk the streets, afraid to go to church. You'll see demon-possessed people on all sides. It's just flooding into this city. You know, I've talked to people who have been delivered, literally delivered from cults, delivered from Santerra, delivered from families that Satan has a stronghold in, and they still have that residual fear. There's that fear yet. Well, maybe their curses will work. Maybe there is something in that, and they're afraid that there'll be sickness. We pray for many people said, oh, pray for me because my mother, my uncle, I've got families in Haiti, I've got families in the Caribbean, I've got family in South America and Brazil, Argentina, and they are putting a curse on me and my family. Pray that God will keep their curse away from them. Folks, I want you to know those curses cannot work against you under any condition. I want you to stand up so you will not be lazy and hear just the next point, and then I'll let you sit down. I want you to stand up and respect what you're going to hear. God told me that he's going to chase the fear of the devil out of this church. Now, just hold still for just a minute because, you know, in the Old Testament, the devil worked through idolatry. He worked through idolatry. Folks, I know he does that in the Kingdom of God. I was in Haiti, and I was invited by a missionary to go to talk to a voodoo priest, and first he said, well, you got to go through my holy of holies, and I saw a statue right there of a chicken and another statue, and listen to me, folks. Listen to me. Those statues, a stone, moved. And God said, in the Kingdom of Darkness, he has this power. He said, now, you don't belong here, David. Get out. Get out of here now. You don't belong here. This is not your kingdom. What's happening here has nothing to do with you. Get out. I got out and ran to the car. I wasn't afraid of him, but God said, you have no business being here. You shouldn't have come in the first place. Folks, if you're going to get curious about the devil, you're going to get hooked. Get away from them. Don't go to any meeting where there's curiosity. I don't know where he had his wires. I don't know how he concocted that thing so it would move, but I can just imagine all the superstitious people falling on their face when that little thing moved its head and wiggled its hands. I'd have loved to have been back there and see how he did it. All right, listen to what Jeremiah said. Do not be terrified by the signs of the heavens, although the nations are terrified by them. It's like a scarecrow in a cucumber field, are they? They can't speak. They can't walk. So do not fear them for they can do you no harm, nor can they do you any good. They can't harm you. They can't do you any good. And Isaiah said the same thing. Isaiah 41, 12 to 14, you will seek those who quarrel with you. These are the demonic powers who fight against you. You will not find them. And those who make war with you, are you in a spiritual warfare? Those who make war with you will be as nothing and all non-existent for I am the Lord your God who upholds you and who says to you, do not fear. I will help you. Do not fear. You heard Denny Duran talk about, you can sit down. Hey, I discovered a new way to keep my weight down. Denny Duran mentioned demon possessed young man came in and threw himself on the floor and was in contortions. And, and a young man went up and says, I rebuke you and scared to death. Folks, if you're under the blood of Jesus, you're walking in his righteousness. You don't have to call a preacher. You don't have to call anybody else. You stand up there and say, your battles, not with me devil, it's with Jesus. I turn you over to Jesus. And I'll tell you why folks, I'll tell you when demons know when you're weak, when you get loud, when you tried overpower, when you come and try to grab him and wrestle him down, you stand in spiritual authority. No, you have to do is point a finger and say your battles with Jesus. Now there's a time delay hands. There's a time, but we don't shout at demons. They know that you're trying to build up courage. You're trying to say, I'm not scared folks. I've been preaching on these streets for over 30 years, casting out demons everywhere. And it's been almost with a whispered voice. Nobody else needs to hear it because the devil can hear it. Every demon in hell can hear it. You go in Jesus name. You don't have any battle with me. It's with Jesus. And I commit you to him right now. You go in Jesus name. No fear, no fear. Hallelujah. You know, you know what the devil, you know what the devil, you know what Jeremiah called those demon powers, a scarecrow in a cucumber field, a scarecrow. Now, let me give you some more evidence that Satan was stripped of his power at the cross. Listen to this, Colossians 2 15, and having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly triumphing over them in it. Do you remember when Paul stood before Festus? You know what he said? Noble Festus, none of these things are hidden for this thing was not done in a corner. He said, God didn't let him be crucified in some dark corner where nobody saw it. He said, King Festus, you know, he was crucified on a hill and all Jerusalem saw it. Every devil in hell saw it. The angels of heaven saw it. Spoiled principalities and powers of the cross. He made a show of them openly triumphing over them. And the word triumph here is a very powerful word. You know what it means? A loud victorious procession, a jubilant victory march. Hallelujah. You know what the cross was? It was the beginning of a procession, a victory procession over all the powers of the enemy. You know, when the soldiers came home from the Iran conflict, we didn't even win that war because, you know, Saddam is still in power. And Schwarzkopf comes to New York and they give him a ticker tape parade. And the whole city went wild over this big rotund general. And that wasn't even a victory. This was a triumphant, loud, it says loud, victorious procession. You think we're loud here at Times Square Church? We got some, I got a note from some lady. She said, the singing is too much. It's too loud. And then somebody else hands me another note and says, we don't sing enough in this church. The preaching is too long. It'll drive you crazy if you listen to it. This thing was not done in a corner. It was a victory march. It's a procession that's still going on. Can you imagine when Jesus came out of the grave and marched into paradise? What a victory march it was. Hallelujah. You know what the walk of Jesus is supposed to be? You know what your walk with Jesus is supposed to be? A loud, victorious procession. I was over at a chapel at Hannah House. I think it was Friday for an hour. I never heard such loudness in all my life. I mean, those girls were loud, praising the Lord and dancing. They're having a Jericho march. And tomorrow I think they march seven times around the block to pull down those lying spirits that come against not only them, but against all the body of Jesus Christ. Because why? Because it's victory. It's a victory march. It's a loud, victorious procession, a jubilant victory march. Hallelujah. God wanted every devil in hell to see it. And he did. Now, the scripture says that Jesus came forth out of the grave as a great shepherd. And I'll read it to you. Now, this is Hebrews 13, 20. Now, the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant. And the word used here in the Greek, great shepherd, is incredible. It means big, strong, and overpowering. You know, people talk about gentle Jesus. And he is gentle to those who love him. But according to the Hebrew writer, when he came out of the grave, he came forth big, strong, and overpowering. Is Jesus big enough for every battle in your life? Is he strong enough to overcome every temptation? He's a great shepherd, big, strong, overpowering shepherd. And every devil knows it. Hallelujah. I'm going to close shortly. I have a book in my library entitled Biblical Demonology. It was written in 1677. Now, of course, it's been reprinted. I have a reprinted copy. It's 471 pages long, and it talks about the subtlety and the devices and the warfare of the devil. And I thought, well, I'm going to study the devil's ways, and I'm going to look at all his devices so that I can stand up and equip the saints of God. So I'll be equipped, and the saints of God will be equipped. But what I found out was 458 pages of how tricky the devil is, and 13 pages on how to get the victory over him. And for about three days, I delved deeper and deeper into it until I got so depressed. I was down. I said, Lord, what's wrong? He said, you've got it all wrong, David. Close the book and put it away. Don't even look at it anymore, because it's not the way I want you to do it. That's not the way to victory. You don't have to study the devil, because I know all about him. You don't have to study the devil. You're no match for him. Lord said, you study my greatness. You study my greatness. Get that in your mind. You won't be depressed. And I'll tell you why I was studying the book. There was a period this past year that I went through a very difficult, severe testing time. I was afflicted with colitis, the worst pain I'd ever had in years, and I was bleeding. And the enemy came in when I was physically down, and he whispered all kinds of lies into my mind, trying to depress my spirit. He attempted to get me down, putting guilt on me for not winning enough lost people to Jesus, even though the altars were filled, and condemnation for what the devil told me was a lack of anointing. I would preach and go sit down, and a voice would whisper, you lost the fire. You're not the way you were when you were a young man on fire for God. It's oozing out of you. Poor David, you've lost the anointing. He said, your preaching is not as powerful. It's just going over their heads. And then that fear began to set in for a little while, and the fears of not... I thought, well, Lord, where are we going to get the money? I see hard times come. How are we going to keep the church afloat? Have you ever had those kind of lies come to you about money? What are you going to do? How are you going to make it? Oh, yeah. The whole choir. And fears that I was not doing enough for the poor, or that I had not counseled people, all kinds of stuff. Brother Bob went through it, and I believe Don had it told one night about how he was being harassed by the lies of the enemy. And there was a fear that the devil had planted gossipers, and those gossipers would spread poison through the church. And man, it came from everywhere. You never had that, did you? You're so perfect. You just go through life happy and no lies. Come on. Get honest with it now. You know what I'm talking about. One day, the Holy Spirit, I thought, well, that's the devil. I know those are lies, so I'll study his ways, and I'll get the victory over coming around the backside of him, and I'll catch him unawares. I'll tell you something. The victory came to me. I've had it for months. I don't question the anointing anymore because it was a lie. I never lost my anointing. Never lost it for a minute. I didn't lose anything. I was gaining, and the devil said I was losing. I was learning, and he said I wasn't learning. I was changing. He said I wasn't changing. God has every dollar I ever need, and the devil said there won't be enough. It was a lie. Everything he said was a lie. I won't let the devil tell me I'm not doing anything for the poor. I know I've done the best I know how, and if God tells me more, I'll do it. As for the gossipers, God's going to take care of the gossiping tongues. I don't have to do that, and I'm not going to stand here. I'm not going to stand in this pulpit and try to cut off gossiping tongues and rail against people. Gossip, gossip, gossip. I'm going to let the Holy Ghost take care of you. I'm going to let some saints around you that love us take care of you. Most of them are going to pray God convict you and clean you up and bring you back and set you on fire and make you a firebrand in this church. Hallelujah. We don't want to lose anybody. I'll tell you what happened. It didn't come through fasting. It didn't come through praying. It didn't come through crying a river of tears. It didn't come with counseling. It didn't come with learning how to fight the devil. It came by revelation of the greatness of God, the absolute greatness of God. I started filling my heart with these scriptures. Great is our Lord and of great power. His understanding is infinite. I started going through the Psalms. Who is so great a God as our God? A God who does wonders, who declares that He has strength among His people. Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, Thou art very great. Thou art clothed with honor and majesty. David said, Great is our Lord and of great power. I began to see the power of God that He has promised in this book and this very message. God said, David, I bound the strong man in your life. He is gone. He has no power except these lies. Now, if you'll stop believing these lies and look to my power, and then He gave me one verse that did it. And the joy flooded my soul, and it's a verse that's going to drive the strong man out of any house here tonight and every lying spirit. Hallelujah. I'm going to have you quote it with me in just a moment. First John 4.4, greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world. I want you to stand and say it with me right now. Listen, folks, I'm not trying to hype you up, but it's time you got a hold of the sword of the Word of God. The devil can't stand this sword. Hallelujah. I was standing in my apartment looking out the window, and I was walking up and down, and the Lord said, Believe it. Claim it, and you have the victory. Hallelujah. All the depression, all the fear, everything will go, because they're all lies. They're all just phantoms of your mind. Drive them out by the Word of the living God. And suddenly, this verse came, and I started quoting it, and I said, That's right. God's great, and I'm the apple of His eye, and He loves me. He delights in me. Sure, I still have weaknesses. I'm still working on problems, but I'm His child. He loves me. He died for me. Jesus died for me, and He said that He lives in me. You say, Do I qualify for Jesus living in me? The Bible said, Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwells in him, and he in God. God lives in you. Holy Ghost has taken up a household in you. You belong to the Holy Ghost. The devil knows it. Why don't you learn it? Why don't you accept it? And then He said, I come to live here, and when He comes, He comes with all His power, all His majesty, and all of His might. And I began. See, you don't have to try to figure out God's greatness. All you have to do is say, God, I believe what you said, and rest in that. I want you to say it with me now. Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world. That's the devil. Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world. 1 John 4.4. Say it. 1 John 4.4. We want this church, God, we want this church to be established in faith and hope and not be afraid of demon powers, not be afraid of the devil, not afraid of his lies anymore. Now, we're going to take authority, the authority of this precious Word and the Lord Jesus Christ. Everybody standing in this place, going to believe Jesus right now. How many have had the devil lie? How many of you had that lying spirit at your ear recently? Come on, raise your hand. I've had lying spirits try to deceive me, try to lie to me. Glory to God. How many of you can say you were cleansed by the blood of Jesus? Raise your hand. All right. Then you, you are the temple of the Holy Ghost. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. God promised me tonight that if I'd stand here by faith as one of the pastors of this church and believe this Word with you, that he would set a multitude free, that you'd never again fear and that you would quote this day by day and hour by hour, greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world. The devil cannot bring me down. I don't have to believe these lies. I stand and the Lord promised me they would set you free and that there'd come a spirit of jubilation, this loud jubilation march of the Holy Ghost that brings joy and victory. Folks, put your mind to it, put your spirit to it, put your body, put everything you have with me now and believe God that as I pray right now, he chooses shepherds of his flock. He puts anointing on them. He brings them to a Word like this and he delivers it to you. He's delivered it to me. Folks, I'm living in that freedom. I'm walking in the joy that has come as a result of it. I'm not going back to those lies. You don't ever have to believe those lies again, ever. You can walk without fear all your days. Now, if that's not true, this Bible's a lie and God said he cannot lie. I stand on in the name of Jesus. I want you right now, raise both hands, everyone in this church, everywhere. If you're unsaved, Jesus can save you and drive away those evil lying spirits right now. He can drive them away and take away the blindness from your eye. And if you're not right with Jesus while we're praying, get out of your seat and come down here right now and say, Jesus, I need you. I want to be right. I want to get right with Jesus right now. I'm not going to be living for the devil anymore. I've been living for the devil long enough. Up in the balcony, here in the main floor. Okay, all right, stand right there. Anyone else? Come on, I'm not saying you have to come here, acknowledge you're a demon possessed or anything else, but you're saying, I don't want to live for the devil. I don't want to be bound by sin. I want to be free from this harassment. Hallelujah. Glory be to Jesus. Folks, there's a freedom. There's a victory in Christ. I'm going to ask that you not make a sound while I pray. And then as soon as I'm done praying, I want you to say it. In fact, I'll tell you what to say. And I felt led of the Lord to do this, but let me pray first. And then we're all going to believe Jesus for a great miracle here tonight. I'm going to believe a miracle. I'm going to believe him for it right now. Hallelujah. Raise your hands. Father, in Jesus name, I come against every lying spirit, every principality and power of darkness. Lord, you got the victory at the cross. The victory was yours. It's not ours. It's your victory. And we enter into your victory. Lord, there have been lies of the enemy implanted in the mind, implanted by Satan, implanted by lying spirits. And Lord, I ask you right now to drive these away from the body of Jesus Christ, these harassing lying spirits. Lord, I thank you for the victory that is ours through the blood of Jesus. The victory of the cross is our victory. We stand on what you said. You spoiled principalities and powers and you put them to open shame that they may never have power and victory over us again in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Now, I take your authority, Jesus, over every demon spirit, every lying spirit, every principality, every dominion, every throne, every wicked spirit in the name of Jesus Christ. I thank you, Lord, for the victory that is ours. For greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world. I want you to say this. I want you to pray this with me right now. Jesus, you won the victory through your shed blood. You drove out the strong man. You destroyed his weapons. He cannot destroy me. I refuse the lies and I acknowledge here and now that God lives in me and greater is he in me than all the powers of hell. I am free in Jesus name. Now, just thank him. Just thank him. We thank you, Jesus. We thank you, Jesus. We give you glory. We give you power and praise, honor, gratitude. We worship. We praise you, Jesus. We praise you. We honor you. We glorify your name. We glorify. We honor and we praise you. We worship you, Jesus. We worship you, Lord. We glorify your freedom in Christ. We are free in Jesus. We are free in Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. We are free. Lord, we are free. We are free in Christ. We are free in Jesus. We are free. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of Jesus who has all power and authority. All power and authority is invested in Christ. The power is yours and not the enemy's. So we glorify your name. We magnify your name. We glorify and we magnify the name of Jesus. Hallelujah. Blessed be the name of the Lord. I love you, Lord, and I lift my voice to worship you, O my soul. Rejoice. Rejoice. Take joy, my king, in what you hear. Let it be a sweet, sweet sound in your ears. We love you, Lord, and we lift our voice to worship you, O my soul. Rejoice. Rejoice. Take joy, my king, in what you hear. Let it be a sweet, sweet sound in your ears. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. This is the conclusion of the tape.
Binding the Strongman
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David Wilkerson (1931 - 2011). American Pentecostal pastor, evangelist, and author born in Hammond, Indiana. Raised in a family of preachers, he was baptized with the Holy Spirit at eight and began preaching at 14. Ordained in 1952 after studying at Central Bible College, he pastored small churches in Pennsylvania. In 1958, moved by a Life Magazine article about New York gang violence, he started a street ministry, founding Teen Challenge to help addicts and troubled youth. His book "The Cross and the Switchblade," co-authored in 1962, became a bestseller, chronicling his work with gang members like Nicky Cruz. In 1987, he founded Times Square Church in New York City, serving a diverse congregation until his death. Wilkerson wrote over 30 books, including "The Vision," and was known for bold prophecies and a focus on holiness. Married to Gwen since 1953, they had four children. He died in a car accident in Texas. His ministry emphasized compassion for the lost and reliance on God. Wilkerson’s work transformed countless lives globally. His legacy endures through Teen Challenge and Times Square Church.