Derek Prince addresses the critical topic of Spiritual Warfare, emphasizing that every Christian is engaged in a battle against spiritual forces, particularly in the realm of thoughts and imaginations. He shares personal experiences and biblical insights, particularly from 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, to illustrate that our weapons are not carnal but mighty through God for pulling down strongholds. Prince stresses the importance of taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ and highlights the need for Christians to recognize and confront the spiritual enemies that seek to undermine their faith. He concludes with practical steps for achieving victory, including submission to God, resisting the devil, and filling oneself with the Spirit and the Word of God.

This is tape number 1326 in the Inspirational Tape Library. Reverend Derrick Prince speaks on the subject, Spiritual Warfare. Much of what I have to say this afternoon is based on my own personal experience, and the lessons that I've learned, and many of them I've learned the hard way. And may God help me not to have to learn them again. I don't mind learning things once, but I don't believe it's God's will that we should keep on having to learn the same lessons. I like to go on and learn a new lesson. So we're going to speak this afternoon about something that probably concerns, in a definite and personal way, at least 90% of the people here. Whether they are ministers, or whether they are new converts, whether they are missionaries, or whether they are church members, I doubt whether more than 10% of the congregation here this afternoon will be able to feel themselves excluded from the message that I'm going to speak to bring you. Let's turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 10, and read verses 3 to 5. 2 Corinthians 10, verse 3 to 5. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God for the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imagination, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. That scripture tells us that all we who are Christians are engaged in a warfare. There is no Christian who is accepted. Some people imagine that only preachers, or only missionaries, or only evangelists, are engaged in spiritual warfare, but that is not true at all. Every Christian is told as a soldier for a spiritual warfare, and no Christian can avoid that warfare, because even if you don't want to make war, the devil does, and he will not leave you in peace if you are a Christian. You have got to be prepared to face him, and to overcome him. And I'd like to say right at the outset, there's nothing between overcoming, or being overcome. The Bible says, be not overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good. But between those two there is nothing. If you are not an overcomer, then you are overcome. There is no neutrality, there is no halfway. This scripture that I've read also tells us, one of the main realms in which this warfare takes place. And the key words are found there, imagination and thought. There is a vast worldwide conflict going on today, to win the thoughts and the imaginations of men. Every missionary who's been associated with Africa, recently would agree with me, I am confident, that one of the centers of that conflict at the moment, is the African continent. And we are battling to win the hearts and minds of great emerging groups of nations and peoples. But there are many forces that are opposing and contending against us. But that is the realm of our warfare. It is in the mind, in the imagination, and in the thoughts. And we've got to use suitable weapons. The apostle Paul says our weapons are not carnal, but thank God they are mighty through God, to the pulling down of the devil's strongholds, and the devil's strongholds are in the thoughts and imaginations of men and women. And Paul tells us also the end that we have to achieve. He says that we have got to take captive in this war. We don't put the people to death, we take captives. And the captives that we've got to take, are the imaginations and the thoughts and the wills and the passions of men. And we've got to make these wills and thoughts and passions captive to Jesus Christ. He says bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. And I would like to define briefly what I understand by having our thoughts brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. That is a fine phrase, but we might not be precise in defining its meaning. But for me its meaning is this. Bringing our thoughts into captivity to the obedience of Christ, means thinking in everything according to the will of God. And when our thoughts in every aspect and detail and subject are in line with what God's word teaches, then our thoughts are in captivity to Christ. When we think about sin as God thinks about it. When we think about sickness as God thinks about it. When we think about our husband and our wife as God thinks about them. When we think about our neighbor and the pastor as God thinks about them. Then and not until then, are our thoughts brought into captivity. The text is the word of God. When God's word reigns and rules supreme in our thoughts, then they're all right. A few months ago I was in St. John's, Newfoundland. Looking out across the harbor about the middle of the month of March, I saw something I'd read about but never seen before, an iceberg. And as I looked out of that iceberg, this thought came afresh to me. We only see just a small portion of the iceberg above the surface of the water. It may look quite small. But I believe the correct figures are that of that iceberg, one-eighth is above the surface and seven-eighths are below the surface. And as I looked at the iceberg I thought that's like a human being. One-eighth above and seven-eighths below the surface. That's like you and that's like me. We see what's above the surface. But in looking at each other and seeing what is above the surface, we only see one-eighth of the total personality. The rest is submerged in the realm of the thought. What the psychoanalysts call the subconscious and so on. Many different names but they all mean the one thing. Those things which are below the surface. Now I was arrested and shocked in my Christian experience. Having been a minister, having been a missionary, having been a preacher for some time. I was brought face to face in the providence of God with two statements. Maybe they are familiar to you. One was the testimony of a very high-rating American scientist who was engaged in developing a device to measure the power of thought. He was an unbeliever, a godless man. But he happened to test out his devices on two different kinds of people, a believer and an unbeliever. And he was absolutely startled by the immense difference in the positive and negative power of the thought of these two people. Brought face to face to this fact, it led to his conversion and he became a Christian. And I think he stated that the power of a elderly sick woman praying on his instrument registered fifty-five times more powerfully than a broadcasting station that could send a message right round the earth. And I was brought face to face to this fact that I was in charge of a broadcasting station which was extremely powerful and whether I willed it or not I was continually sending out messages that were having an effect. And I wondered whether I was always sending out the right messages. And then I read another simple sentence in a book where it said men's thoughts sound as loud in heaven as their voices do on earth. And you know that embarrassed me because I thought I'm not happy about some of the things that heaven has been listening to. And I wonder how many of you can feel completely composed when you consider that all that you have thought during the last twenty-four hours has been heard in heaven. But I believe it's true. So I say we've got to face the fact. Now we do not need to depend merely on the testimony of a scientist or any other person. God's word teaches this plainly. And I want to turn now to Psalm 139. Psalm 139. I want to read there the first twelve verses. Here is where the Psalmist David came face to face with this realization that I'm speaking about. The fact that there was nothing in him, in his will, in his thoughts, in his inmost consciousness that was in any way hidden from God. Let's read these wonderful words together. O Lord, Thou hast searched me and known me. Thou knowest my down-sitting and my up-rising. Thou understandest my thoughts afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, Thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid Thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high, I cannot attain unto it. Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? Or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from Thee, but the night shineth of the day. The darkness and the light are both a light to Thee. When we face up to that fact, we have to say, as David said, Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. And if we read on in the psalm, we'll find that David was led by the Spirit of God to say certain things on the basis of this fact, that God knew every thought, every desire, every intention. And then he was led to pray a certain prayer. Reading on in verse 21 and 22, David says to the Lord, Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate Thee? And am not I gleeful with those that rise up against Thee? I hate them with perfect hatred. I count them mine enemies. Now can a Christian say that? I hate them with perfect hatred. I count them mine enemies. Is it right for a Christian to say that? You say no, I say yes. I say, we Christians are not good enough haters, when it comes to hating the right thing. Remember, Paul says, we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. Our enemies are not persons. We have to love our personal enemies. But these are the enemies of the Lord. And they are not flesh and blood. And listen, when David had said that, listen what he said next. Here is the solution. Following immediately on, verse 23 and 24. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thought. And see if there be any wicked way in me. And lead me in the way everlasting. Where did David look for the Lord's enemies? Not in his persecutors, but in himself. And he said, Lord, that's where your enemies need to be dealt with. It's related that in the Spanish Civil War, there was a certain general, I forget which side he was on, besieging a certain town, planning to take it. And another general came to him and said, what is your strategy and what is your plan to take this town? The first general said, well, I have four columns advancing on the town. One from the north, one from the south, one from the east, and one from the west. But he added, it's my fifth column that I'm expecting to take the town. So the second general said, and where is the fifth column? And the general said, inside the town. And my friends, that is the devil's strategy. He will never overcome a Christian from without. If he defeats a Christian, it's by his fifth column that is within. And many, many times that fifth column is in your thoughts, and your imaginations, and your intentions. And not in vain did David say, after he had said, Lord, I'm going to eat your enemies with a herd of capers, search me and see if there's a fifth column in me. Oh Lord, I believe that's what David meant. And I believe that every Christian has probably got to come to the same place where they say, Lord, is there a fifth column? Is there something that the devil, that he controls inside my city, that maybe will cause my downfall and destruction unless you deal with it. Now I'm going to give you just the names of two or three of our enemies. Remember they're not flesh and blood. They are spiritual. They are spiritual powers and forces. By and large, they are demons. Do you believe in demons? I do. I thank God for the message by Brother Sun the other night, when he spoke about every person having a demon God. I believe that. I can tell you something about the demon God that I used to have. Maybe I'll tell you a little tomorrow afternoon. And I thank God for the day when I escaped. Yes my friends, and many demons operate in the realm of the mind. Do you know sometimes when a person, a missionary, a minister, is going to step out and do something new for God. I think the devil sets an absolute artillery barrage, to focus and train on that person's mind. And I can remember days when I just used to say, Lord all I can do is hold on. And hold on. Because there was an absolute rain of spiritual shells, descending on the part of ground that I decided to occupy for God. Spiritual. In the invisible realm, but the absolutely real realm, the mind and the thought. Now I'm going to tell you a name to describe two or three of these enemies. And I know them well. I've had close encounters with each one of them. The first one you'll find in Isaiah 61 and verse 3. That's the wonderful thing about the Bible. It lays bare these unseen forces that we wrestle with. This is a familiar chapter. It begins, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me and so on. And in verse 3 says, To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the Spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified. There is the name of the first enemy, the Spirit of heaviness. In modern English, depression. Now that is a real spirit. It's a personal agent of the devil. And I can tell you, my friends, I know him well. For years and years he troubled me. He tripped me up. He tripped me up. He turned me back. And I didn't know what I was fighting. Paul said, I fight not of uncertainty, not as one that beats the air. But I was beating the air. I wasn't landing my blows on my adversary, because I didn't know who it was. Then I will testify, I took a time of prayer and fasting. Not that this is absolutely essential, but I don't believe it ever does any harm. And in the course of that, I came to see in this verse, what was troubling me, the Spirit of heaviness. That awful sense of depression. That awful kind of weight, that would settle down upon me and positively cause me to bend my neck and bow my shoulders, even physically. And I saw who it was. And you know, when I saw my enemy, I was 80% of the way to victory, straight away. Then I realized another thing. I realized that this was the enemy of my family. Looking back into my family history, I realized that the same demon had dogged the steps of my father. And I realized that at times in our home, we'd had suffering and unhappiness, because this demon had rested on my father and for days it had bound him. And I honor my father, but I say that our home was like a little hell. Because the enemy God is put in. And I saw the same demon had been following me up. And even after salvation, although I was soundly saved and baptized in the Holy Spirit and called to preach, I hadn't shaken him right off my footsteps. But praise God, the same verse that shows the enemy, shows the remedy. The garment of praise in place of the spirit of heaven. And I want to say that is God's remedy. A garment of praise. Hallelujah. And when you are surrounded and shrouded and covered in with this garment of praise, the enemy cannot touch you. Hallelujah. You are undefeatable by that particular foe. In place of the spirit of heaviness, the garment of praise. There are some lovely garments spoken of in this chapter. It says later, He hath clothed me with the garment of salvation. He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness. As a Christian, you need the garment of salvation. You need the robe of righteousness, a really righteous life answering to your testimony. And you need the garment of praise. And when you have those three on, the devil of depression has no means of access to you. Let me tell you a true story. I never fail to think of it. When we were working in London, we were in contact with two Russian duetses who had been wonderfully saved in Russia. They had come to Palestine, met us there, been filled with the Holy Spirit and are today out working for God. One day they were visiting us in our home and a Pentecostal woman happened to come along bringing with her her husband who had recently come out of prison, was in a bad way and was demon possessed. And she knew that he was demon possessed. And she came with her husband and said, will you pray for him? And so we started to pray. My wife and I and these two Russian Jewish women and the wife of the man. And while we were praying, these two Russian Jewish women, they didn't care about the neighbors, they didn't care about anything else. They got going and they were making no end of noise praising the Lord. And the man who was present took me aside and he said, I'm going out. I can't stand this. There's too much noise. And I said, wait a minute. The person who doesn't like the noise is the devil. And he doesn't like the noise because we're praising Jesus. And he can't bear to listen to that. And I said, no, you've got two alternatives. I said, if you go now, the devil will go with you. But if you stay now, the devil will go without you. My advice to you is to stay. And stay he did. And true enough, the demon left him. He said he felt it leave his throat. But what a lesson. My friends, if you don't want the devil in your company, you praise Jesus. Night and day you praise him. Because the devil cannot bear to listen to that. And I'll tell you one particular thing to say. I always do it. I say it whether I'm feeling like it or not. After all, praise is a sacrifice. And sometimes we bring a sacrifice, even though it costs us something. And I say, I thank God that Jesus Christ is exalted. Far above all principality and power. And that he has been given a name that is above every name. That is named both in this world and in that which is to come. And the devil cannot bear to listen to that. That Jesus Christ has been exalted far above everything that is evil and satanic. You go on saying that. You go on in your heart, praising the Lord and quoting the scripture. The garment of praise will enshroud you. And the devil will not be able to get his fingers on you. That's enemy number one, the spirit of heaviness. And if I were to ask you to put up your hands, those of you that have ever encountered the spirit of heaviness, there'd be a lot of hands up here this afternoon, if you were honest with me and with God. But I'm not asking you to do it. Then there's another spirit that's spoken of in the New Testament, 2nd Timothy chapter 1, verses 7 and 8. 2nd Timothy 1, 7 and 8. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. There is another spirit that is named the spirit of fear. And the Bible says that God has not given us the spirit of fear. If there is a spirit of fear in your heart or in your mind or in your life, be very sure that God has not given it to you. So it must have come from the other source. It's from the enemy. Now wait a minute. There is a kind of fear that is very good and very necessary. The Bible says the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. I knew a Christian who got into awful trouble, because he said there's no more fear in Christianity. And he tried to get rid of even the fear of the Lord. And he was a lesson to me. Don't try and get out of the fear of God. It was upon Jesus, even himself. The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him. The spirit of the fear of the Lord, Isaiah 11. You say, how will I know the difference? I'll tell you this. The fear that comes from the devil has tormenting. It's a tormenting fear. It's unsexual. It takes away your peace. It spoils your testimony. The fear of the Lord is clean. It's pure. It's wholesome. It's sanctifying. It does you good. They're absolutely different. You must learn to distinguish between them. Now in Proverbs 29 and verse 25 it says, The fear of man bringeth a snare. And you'll observe here, that Paul says to Timothy, God hasn't given us the spirit of fear, so don't be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. But the fear that the devil brings, makes a Christian, man or woman, boy or girl, ashamed of testifying. It steals their letters. It takes away their testimony. It stops the soul from making boasts in the Lord. You know David said, My soul shall make boasts in the Lord. I will be very confident. The Bible says, God's children shall have strong confidence. The Bible says, Cast not away your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. But the spirit of fear will take away that strong confidence, that bold testimony. It will bind us. It is a snare. This was illustrated for me so vividly, while we were in Kenya, because the people there, the Marigold people of Woonjoshka is one. They catch quails. And they snare quails. And this is the way they do it. They catch one quail and put it in a little, wicker basket or net or, net, up on a high pole. And they hang it there. And it makes its noise and attracts the other quails. And they come and they settle around the foot of the pole. And in the grass, the Africans are clever enough to discern little sort of runways. They're scarcely visible unless you know what to look for. And they take some special hair from the tail of a cow, and they tie them into a noose, and they put the noose across these little runways in the grass. And so along come the quails. They hear the quail there, and they want to have sort of fellowship with it. They settle down. They run around in the grass. And it isn't long before they've run their heads into the snare. The snare tightens around their necks, and they are caught. And I used to say to the students, that if you are afraid of testifying to Jesus, if you're afraid to be seen praying in your dormitory, if you read your Bible when nobody else is looking, I said, you know what's happened to you? You've been snared by the fear of man. It's tightened around your neck. It's binding your testimony. That's the spirit of fear, but it does not come from God. Nevertheless, the testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ, and our activity for God, is greatly hindered by this spirit of fear. Then there's one other thing, which really perhaps is a combination of these two. I'll introduce it by telling you a little imaginary incident. Let me emphasize this incident is imaginary. But it is related, I heard someone say once, that the devil decided to hold an auction. And he was, you know what I mean by an auction? I think you probably say auction. Well anyhow, you know what I mean. And he was auctioning off his tools. Mind you, I don't believe he was going out of business. I think he was going to buy a new set. But, people were there, they were bidding. There was a hammer, there was a saw, there was a chisel, and so on and so forth. They all went. There was one rather queer little object left. Rather wedge-shaped, narrow at one end and getting wider. And people didn't know what it was. And eventually somebody said, well what's that there? Well as a matter of fact the devil said, that's the instrument with which I do the greatest harm. It's my favorite instrument. And so the person said, well what's it called? The devil said, it's discouragement. Discouragement. And I believe there's a truth in that. Discouragement. And it's wedge-shaped. Just begins in a small way. You begin to doubt God in a little way. You're troubled and worried about little things. But as you open up for the wedge, in it goes deeper and deeper and deeper, until you're right down. Discouraged. A spiritual force directed against your mind to bring you deceit. Now let's turn to the positive side. Don't let's spend too long on our enemies. The devil is a conceited fellow. He'd like to occupy the entire course of my message. But we'll displace him now. We'll dethrone him. We'll turn to what God can do. God has provided us with armor that enables us to be victorious. It is a battle, but we have the armor. The very next psalm after 139, Psalm 140, contains a wonderful testimony. Also from David. Verse 7, he says, O God the Lord, the strength of my salvation, thou hast covered my head in the day of battle. There is a day of battle, but God can cover your head with his protective armor so that you are not touched. Amen. Now where do we find the armor of the Christian? Which epistle, or which chapter? Ephesians 6, doesn't it? Let's look for a moment. Ephesians 6, we look into this armor. Ephesians 6, verse 14 to 17. Here is the armor of the Christian enumerated. Borrowed from the armor of the Roman soldier who was so familiar in the days of Paul. Ephesians 6, 14 to 17. Stand therefore, having your loins get about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod, or shooed, with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Now there is the complete armor. There's a breastplate, there's a girdle for the loins, there's shoes for the feet, there's a sword, and so on. Now of all those pieces of armor, one is especially designed to protect the head. Which is that? The helmet, isn't it? And so in desperate need, personal need, of protection for my head, I turned to the Bible, and I searched and I looked for the armor. And then I found it. Take the helmet of salvation. But you know I thought to myself, well what is the helmet of salvation? What does that mean? How do I do it? And I had great confidence in one thing, that if I have a problem, a spiritual problem, the answer is in the Bible. So I checked to look through the Bible. And I observed that in my marginal references, there was a cross reference to 1 Thessalonians 5 and 8. 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 8. Where it says, But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. And as we say in English, the penny drop. I said there is my helmet. The hope of salvation. And you know they came flooding into my mind, scripture after scripture after scripture, on one particular topic. The topic was hope. And I realized that in all the years I've been a Christian, I've never heard a sermon preached on hope. But God said to me, that is your helmet. And I realized how true it was. We talk about faith, but there is a mental condition, and that's hope. And hope is the helmet and shield of the mind. And now I want to speak to you for a few moments, about hope. And I suppose there are many of you here, the same condition as I was, you've never heard a sermon devoted to hope. Well let me show you how important it is. Romans 8 and 24. You don't need to turn to it, but it says, For we are saved by hope. And what an astonishment, that it's saved by hope, Lord I thought it was by faith. And the Lord said, yes by faith, and by hope too. And if the hope isn't there, your salvation is far from complete. Saved by hope. And then I went on to 1 Corinthians 13 and verse 13. And now by this faith, hope, charity. These three, the greatest of these is charity. Now in this gospel dispensation, there are three abiding spiritual realities, faith, hope and love. And I thought Lord, many times have I heard and preached about faith, and about love. But what about hope, has it dropped out? God said no, it's still there together with the other two, faith, hope and love. And then looking on in Ephesians 2, you'll find the description, of the unsaved man or woman, the unsaved world. Ephesians 2 and verse 11. That at that time, he were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenant of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. And I saw that an unsaved person is without three things, without Christ, without God, and without hope. And I saw that the condition of being without hope, is a mark of the lost. It's a mark of those that are in the grip of the devil. So important is this truth. And I looked on in Colossians 1 and 27. And I found there the other side of the coin. Colossians 1 and 27. To whom God would make known, what is the richest of the glory of this mystery, among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. And God said there you are, without Christ, without hope. But if Christ is in you, then there is in you the hope of glory. And so you see hope is intimately, bound up without salvation. If you are without hope, your salvation is not real. You are without Christ as well, you are without God. And there's one particular hope, the hope of glory. What does that mean? It means the hope that when our earthly life is ended, we shall leave this world of sin and sorrow and sadness and sickness and pain and frustration and fear, and we shall go to be forever with the Lord, in a wonderful beautiful place where there's no pain and no sickness and no sorrow and no tears and no sighing. And if you have that hope, you've got your helmet on. But you know what I've observed? And I think most ministers would agree with me. The more God blesses His people with material property and wealth, the dimmer in them is the hope of eternal glory. The more they become involved in the things of time, in their washing machines and their refrigerators and their motor cars and all these things and keeping up with the Joneses. Mind you, I am not speaking against these things. I believe that prosperity comes from God. I thank God for the prosperity of God's people. But listen, the Bible says, the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. Be careful how you use your prosperity, because what was intended to be a blessing may be twisted by the devil to become a means to your destruction. And if you become absorbed in the things of time, the things of eternity are going to fade away and become very, very dim. And you're going to lose your hope. And instead of thanking and praising God with every bless for that wonderful washing machine and that beautiful deep freezer and all these other things, you're more weary, more frustrated, more impatient, more anxious than you ever were before you owned any of it. Isn't it true? It's true. What has seeped away is that precious hope of glory. And then you go to a place like Korea or Africa where the people have got no shoes, they don't sleep on beds, they've got no sheets, they don't know what it is to have a change of menu or diet. And you find their faces tiny with a hope of glory. Because nothing has come in their lives to dim that blessed hope. Hallelujah, we need to lay hold on this hope of glory. It's our helmet. I was so heartily in agreement with what Brother Homer said. Every Christian should be an optimist. Now I've learned that by experience. Because once again, just to use my personal testimony, I was born a pessimist. I think most people are born one or the other, aren't they? Some are born one way and some are born the other. Now I can trace this back to my mother. My wife sits here in the front, she knows my mother well, she would agree with me. If ever my mother can find a cause for being discouraged, she'll find it. No matter how well things may be going, she could always see the trouble lurking around the corner. Now my mother, I'm sorry to say, is not up to the present thing. She doesn't know the way out. But we who are sane, we have got no right whatever to be in that condition. Every Christian should be an optimist. We know that all things work together for good. How can we be anything but optimistic? We know that we are bound for eternal sin. The way they deal with George Miller said there are only two possible reasons for not being an optimist. One is if you've never been saved and your sins are not forgiven and you're on the way to hell. And the other is if you have been slaved and you're backsliding and you're turning away from the Lord. But he said if you're not in either of those conditions, there is no possible reason whatever for being anything but an optimist. And that is perfect logic. You can't get round it. So every Christian should wear the helmet of hope. Every Christian should be an optimist. Now let me take a very simple familiar example. Some of you are familiar with it already. But suppose I poured water into this glass, I don't happen to have any otherwise I could do it, till it came up to where my fingers are. Imagine the glass, no water there, but water from there down to there. Now in walk two people and look at the glass. The pessimist and the optimist, many of you know this, but I tell it because it's so true. The pessimist says, well, the glass is half empty. And the optimist says the glass is half full. They're both absolutely correct. There's nothing in it except a point of view, but you know a point of view can decide your destiny. Can decide your experience. And I thank God, I give Him all the glory, that He has delivered me from the spirit of depression and He has converted me from being a pessimist into being an optimist. And that is a wonderful work of faith. And I stand and give that testimony in front of my wife. And she knew me when I wasn't converted that way. And if it wasn't true, I couldn't say it in front of her. God has done it for me. And I give Him humbly all the glory. And He can do it for you. Let's look at one other scripture on hope. And then we're coming to the practical application. Hebrew 6. I think this is one of the most beautiful scriptures in the whole Bible. Hebrews chapter 6. And we read verse 17 to 20. Hebrews 6, 17 to 20. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation who hath fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us. Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil, whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Speaking about this hope, the hope of glory, the writer of Hebrews makes three statements, uses three figures to compare it. Let's just look at them briefly. First of all he calls it a city of refuge. We flee for refuge into this hope. Now in the Old Testament you know the law that if a man accidentally had killed another, the nearest relative was called the avenger of blood and his natural impulse would be to kill the man who killed his relative. But God appointed in Israel six cities all situated in strategic places and the law was that if the man who had accidentally shed blood could run past enough and get inside a city of refuge then the avenger of blood could not follow him inside but he was safe. And the Bible says that the hope we have is a city of refuge. If we can get inside the enemy, the avenger of blood cannot follow us inside. He has to stay outside. And then it compares it also to the forms of the altar. Shall we just be a moment? Is our sister safe? Shall we pray for her? I'll pray up here that we just put our prayers behind her and pray for a complete work of restoration in her body. Father we thank you that we can bring our precious sister to thee. We thank the Lord that already thou hast moved in and undertaken in answer to prayer. We give thee the glory for that Lord. And now we put the name of Jesus upon her by faith Lord. We plead the precious blood upon her and round about her. We rebuke every kind of sickness and infirmity that would trouble her Lord. We thank the Lord that the Bible says by the stripes of Jesus we are healed. And she is thy child Lord. We claim that faith. Through the precious blood of Calvary and in the name of Jesus Lord. We put her right in thy hands just now Lord. Thou art a great physician. In Jesus name. Amen. Hallelujah. We praise thee Lord. Amen. Now just continuing about hope. It won't take me a few moments now. Not merely is it a city of refuge into which we can flee. But it is compared to the homes of the altar upon which we can lay hold. Now the home in the Old Testament was a site of strength and the altar was a place of sacrifice. And the man who had done something wrong or had an enemy if he could get to the altar and lay hold upon his home once again he was safe. His adversary, his avenger couldn't pull him away. And so hope is the strength of the altar of Calvary. And when we lay hold upon this hope no matter how wild may be the fierceness and wrath of our adversary we are safe. Hallelujah. Do you believe that? Do you really believe that? Time for you to begin to witness and testify. Time that I stop speaking and you begin to do some personal confessing of your faith. Finally, and I think this is the sweetest picture of all hope is called an anchor of the soul which enters into that within the veil. Now isn't that a lovely picture? I'm no sailor. I'm not a nautical man. But what do we need an anchor for? We need an anchor for a ship. Why? Because the ship sails on the sea and the sea is unstable. It's always moving. It's tossed to and fro. Every wind and every current can move the water about. And a ship that's on the water is at the mercy of the winds and the currents that buzz it and carry it to and fro. But give a ship an anchor and it can hold fast even in the winds and the currents that buzz it. But what does the anchor do? Normally speaking, I realize there may be exceptions, but normally speaking you don't cast an anchor in water. You pass that anchor chain out through the water and into another element, a rock. And you can't lay hold on the water. There's nothing to lay hold on. But when you get out of the element of water and into the rock your anchor grips and holds on that other element. And now hope is an anchor that enters into that within the veil, the eternal presence of God. And we've got to pass the chains of the angel of our souls right out of time and into eternity. And we've got to be anchored there in the very presence of God. The world in which we live is like that sea in which the ship sails. This is not merely Bible teaching. The Greek philosophers whom I used to study, they all came to the same conclusion. There is nothing stable. There is nothing enduring. There is nothing that is absolutely solid and will abide. It's all subject to motion, subject to change. You can't put your trust and confidence in any part of it. That's the whole visible natural world in which we live. Our homes, our money, our banks, our weapons of war, they're all like that unstable water. If you put your trust in them, you'll be like a ship without an anchor or an anchor that is only dangling in the water. You've got to reach right out of time, reach right into eternity and cast your anchor in the rock of ages. Hallelujah. And then you're unmovable. Oh, the storms will come. The currents will blow and strike against the ship. But you'll be unmovable because you've got the anchor of hope. Hallelujah. Now we come to the application. I've preached about your enemy. I've preached about your armor. And now I'm going to tell you, if anything I have said has concerned you, if you've recognized yourself and your need in any part of what I've been preaching, I'm going to try to tell you now, shortly and simply and practically, how to obtain deliverance and victory. Deliverance and victory. And I'm going to give you just certain facts and steps. First of all, you must acknowledge and believe that it is God's will for you to have victory. The Bible says, Thanks be unto God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Nay, in all these things we are more inculturous through him that loveth us. Thanks be unto God which always causes us to triumph in Christ. There is not a note of deceit anywhere in the scripture. It is not God's will for you to be deceitful. It is God's will for you to be victorious. Jesus said, If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. But remember that he said also, You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. Christ can make you free when you know the truth. But the truth is the means by which he makes you free. If you do not know the truth, though you may be a Christian, you will not enter into the freedom which is your right. Secondly, you have got to exercise your will. Jesus came to a man who'd been sick thirty-eight years, lying by the pool of Bethesda, claiming that he wanted healing. The first thing that Jesus said to him was, Will thou be made whole? Wasn't it a strange question? He might have said, Well what do you think I'm here for? Why do I get carried to this pool every day? And why do I lie here if it isn't because I want to get into the pool and get healed? But you know there are many people that go through the outward motions and processes of seeking healing, but there is something deficient in their will, and they don't get it. And no evangelist and no person, and not even God, can deliver you if you haven't set your will to be delivered. And when we come into the realm of the force, and the temptations and the problems and the fears that obtain us there, sometimes your will has been battered and broken down, and it's just like a little flickering flame. But whatever you have of will, must be united with the will of God for your deliverance, and no one else can do that for you. I tell you I've prayed and I've shouted over people, I've put every ounce of will and energy and faith I thought I had into prayer, and there's been no result. And meditating on it afterwards I thought the person himself didn't cooperate. He merely trusted in somebody else to do it for him. You cannot do that. Even Jesus couldn't do it. Before he brought healing to that man, he enlisted the cooperation of that man's will. Will thou be made whole. And you have got the will to be free. You've got the will to be victorious. Sadly you've got to do a very simple thing. Joel 2.32 says, Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord, shall be delivered. The apostle Peter quoted that in the last Pentecost and he said, Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord, shall be saved. Saved is the glorious all-inclusive word that includes spiritual deliverance, mental deliverance, and physical deliverance. They're all included in salvation. But sometimes it's good for us just to look at the original in gold and tie it down to deliverance. If you are bound, if you are oppressed, if you have an accusing, tormenting demon right in your life, if you will call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be delivered. Side by side with that I want to read Matthew 18. Because this is what we're going to do in a minute. I cannot do it all. I can do my part. You can do your part. And then God will do His. Hallelujah. Matthew 18, 18 to 20. Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven. Whatsoever ye shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. This afternoon we are more than two or three and we are gathered together in the name of Jesus and He is in our midst. And Jesus speaking to us as a company of believers gathered together in His name says, Whatsoever you will loose on heaven, on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Whatsoever you shall bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven. If you are mentally bound this afternoon and you want to be loosed, we are going to unite in praying together for you that you may be loosed. And if there is a tormenting demon that keeps coming into your life, we are going to bind that demon. Hallelujah. Not only can we loose you, but we can bind the demon that troubles you. But you've got to believe and exercise faith together with us. Now two more steps. James 4, 7 Submit yourselves therefore unto God and resist the devil. Notice that. Submit to God, resist the devil. I say without fear of being contradicted that there are Christians that are exactly reversing that process. They are resisting God and submitting to the devil. It's true. God speaks to them and asks them to do something, offer something, go somewhere, testify to somewhere. They resist Him. The devil comes into their lives and says, You're a failure, you're defeated, you're no good. They make them worse. They prefer what God told us to do. But I want to tell you, if you want to resist the devil, you've got to submit to God first. Because as long as you're resisting God, you can't resist the devil. The only one that will give you strength to resist the devil is God when you submit to Him. Submit to God this afternoon, put your life, your will, your plans, your future, your personality utterly at the disposal of God and then you'll be surprised how you'll be able to resist the devil. But remember that is your responsibility. After we have prayed, if any kind of trouble or fear seeks to come upon you again, you have got the responsibility, not the preacher and not anybody else, but you have got the responsibility to resist the devil and say, Devil, don't trust this on God's property. I belong to God, spirit, soul, mind and body. You have no rights over me. And you can say, if you will, I plead the blood. By faith I strike the blood upon the lintel and the doorpost of my mind. You troubling demons that torment me waking or sleeping, stay outside the blood from today onward and they'll have to obey. Hallelujah. Finally, don't leave the house empty. Jesus said that when the demon has gone out of a person, he walks through dry places, seeking rest and finding none, and when he comes back to the house that he left, and Jesus said he finds it empty, swept and garnished, and he moves in again with seven other demons worse than himself. Now it's good to have your house swept, it's good to have it garnished, but don't leave it empty. You've got to be filled with the right thing in place of the wrong thing. And that means be filled with the spirit. That's the command of the word of God. And it says let the word of God dwell in you richly in all wisdom. When you are filled in your mind and your thoughts with the word and the spirit of God, there will be no room and there will be no means by which the devil can get back again. Let me just summarize that. First of all, it is God's will for each one of us to have complete victory. Secondly, we must will with God. We must unite our will with the will of God. Thirdly, we must call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and say whosoever shall call shall be delivered. Fourthly, we must submit ourselves to God and resist the devil. And fifthly, we must get filled up after deliverance with the right thing. Now I am going no further in preaching. Jesus says happy are you if you know these things, if you do them. The ultimate end of preaching is action. And now we come to the time for action. I'm going to ask all of you to be kind enough to stand now on your feet. Let us all stand up everywhere. And now I am going to pray for everyone that is tormented and afflicted mentally by the kind of things...