In this sermon, the preacher shares a powerful story of a man named Bob who was tormented by a demonic spirit for four years. The preacher and Bob took authority over the demons in Jesus' name, causing them to flee. However, Bob later found himself trapped in an invisible circle and asked how he got there. The preacher emphasizes that education, Bible knowledge, and a godly upbringing alone cannot save someone from the power of sin. He encourages listeners to die to their habits and flesh in order to find deliverance. The sermon references the story of the man possessed by demons in Mark 5 as an example of Jesus' power to set people free.

You know, how can anybody describe the terror and the agony of this generation? Some of us as parents and some of us as preachers, we really don't begin to understand the agony and the terror that's going on in our high schools and colleges and the things that our young people are facing. More than that, you who have Christian kids, your children are all saved and they're, you know, you feel they're safe and they've made it. In other words, as far as drugs and alcohol, sex and all these things, you said they're out of that danger zone. But how do you explain the terror of so many parents now whose children are getting in trouble? Mothers and fathers and some of the ministers talk about the shock and disbelief when they discover their kids are deeply involved in the alcohol or drugs. I remember the time a Pentecostal preacher came into my office. Two teenage sons put his hat on the desk. His two sons sat opposite the desk. My office at that time was in at 416 Clinton Avenue. And he said, I never thought, David, I'd be in the office like this. He said, I preached against drugs. I read your book. I've stood in front of judges for young people in my church that got in trouble, never dreaming my children would ever have a problem. He said, but yesterday Sergeant Precinct called me down, rolled up the sleeve of my boys and showed me a track and said, preacher, your boys are junkies. They were caught with possession of heroin. He said, I didn't even suspect it except a few little signs here and there. My wife was washing their jeans one day and found some sweet smelling stuff and we surmised it was marijuana. And she saw blood on the bedsheets. And we didn't think about it, not knowing they were mainlining heroin in the bedroom. Their grades were failing. We should have suspected it. We saw them sit at the table glassy-eyed. But you don't think, because they'd been so tender. They'd been, you know, youth camps. They'd been through the whole thing. They heard me preach. I'm a holiness preacher, Pentecostal preacher. And you know, that man sat there, tears rolling down his cheeks and he said, he turned to the boys, he said, I don't know what I did wrong, where I went wrong. And he said, you're killing your mother. Mother was hysterical. He said, I don't know what I did wrong. And there was a hardness, this silly grin, this mocked grin on their face. You could feel the resentment toward their Father. And how that happened, because there were only teenagers at the time, one probably 15, the other maybe 16 or 17. And I'll never forget that experience. It made such a mark. I can relive it right now. As that father turned and knelt between the two boys. And they said, please, come on to the teen child. I said, brother, they'd give you a bed. You've got to be delivered. And they didn't answer. They just sit there with a smirk on their face. And he said, look, if you've got any love left for me at all in your heart, please come into the center. Let him, you know, Jesus can set you free. I don't know what I did wrong, but please don't break my heart. If you have any love for me or your mother left. And there was a hardness. They just withstood that father with such a hardness. It overwhelmed him. And I remember he just fell right on the floor. He laid right on the floor in front of them and wept and pounding his fist. And he said, I don't know what I did wrong, Lord, forgive me. And I saw those two boys get up and I hadn't even had a chance to talk to them. I saw them get up and walk over him and go to the door and look at him laying there and laugh at him with a smirk. And he got up and he said, I don't know what to do. I said, I'm sorry. They have to want help. Can't help them until they want to help. And I'll never get him just walking out the door, a Pentecostal preacher who can explain the thousands and thousands of parents. Some of you sitting here right now, the terror, knowing your kids locked in some prison house of the devil. How do you explain that terror? You know, when the Jesus was going to the cross and all these mothers following him, he stopped and he turned and said, don't wait for me, wait for your children. Wait for your children. That's what I preach on the streets now. This past year, that was my message. His brother over here was there. I tell them, hey, wait for your children. And God knows what it's like. I've known what it's like to have mothers in the ghetto come up to me and they'll have a little girl, a little child, just a baby sometimes. And they're mostly Catholic and they say, will you take this baby in your hand and bless it? I want God to keep this baby. I've got a girl who's a prostitute. I got a boy in jail or I've got a boy that's been killed. I want one of my kids to make it, one of them. And you feel the love that they have for their children, but they live up in this environment and you can feel the pain of those parents. I want just one to make it. So most like in Ethiopia, you wonder why they have 10, 15 children when there's no food. They're trying to get one or two of them to survive, the healthiest of them to survive, to keep on the family name. And to hear the terror of fathers who say, I heard my beloved daughter who was once tender say, it's true that I'm hooked. Look at it. I prostitute. I sell my body. I have two daughters, two sons, all married in ministry. But I can't imagine what that's like. And yet some of you sitting here do. I'm a junkie. Mother turns pale when she thinks of her daughter out prostituting. And you, you, we usually stay at Ramada Inn on 48th Street, between 49th and 48th on 8th Avenue. And you look down on 8th Avenue between 48th and 50th and you look at those prostitutes, some of them 18 years old, 17, 18 years of age, pretty young girls. And you know that at one time they were so tender. And you know their parents, many of them are weeping because they come from Montana, from Iowa and everywhere and there they are. You see these great big stretch Cadillacs coming up and they're pimps there and your heart goes out because you know they're beaten, you know they're robbed and not a dime they make goes to themselves except that which they eat. Yes, it's a time to weep for our children. It's time to weep for the little girls, not even in their teens, haven't even lived a childhood and yet becoming prostitutes. Kids smoking crack and numbing their minds, going hard and vicious at 15. That, that's what grieves me more than anything, to see them lose their tenderness. A mother the other, last week sent us a picture, I'm sorry a brother sent us a picture of his sister. He knew she was on drugs, but she left home, I think she's 13, 14 years of age and there was a picture, beautiful girl in her, a high school picture from the yearbook. Very beautiful girl and then a picture three years later. He saw her picture in the paper, he said that's got to be her and it was her. You couldn't believe it was the same girl, the hardness and three years etched in every line of her face. The terrible hardness, the prison that she was locked in. You know in New York City now, in Spanish, in Black Harlem there are more crack dens than there are churches or bar rooks, where for $50 a kid can go in there and smoke pop for 8 hours, or smoke crack for 8 hours. At $5 a crack, you weep for teenage boys who were once tender and obedient and loving to their parents, who now jump out behind a building in New York City and other cities at traffic lights where cars are stopped for a red light and hold a gun to the window. So run it down and hold up everybody in that car for their money. You look at a kid holding that gun without a tremor, you look at that kid with that hardness and say I'll kill you if you don't give it to me and he means it. And you say, how in the world can he get like that? He's only 16 years old, what happens? You weep for the college kids and the athletes, some of them who claim to be Christians, dying of drugs. You know if you go to 42nd Street now, it's happened twice to me, you walk down 42nd Street between Broadway and 8th Avenue you know how they're selling crack now? You know what the commercial is? Hey, I've got the stuff that killed Len Bias. They're selling death. And that's the commercial. I've got the stuff that killed Len Bias. I've got death in my hands, do you want some? And then you weep because this is just the beginning, the new drugs that are coming. Now I'll make this other stuff look like child's play, the new one. Phenytyl, 6,000 times more powerful than crack. 6,000 times more powerful than crack. Just one fix, phenytyl, and they're hooked for life. 1138 doctors hooked on it. New designer drugs, new drugs like black tar, china white, new names, all kinds of designer drugs. You know what's happening? Some of these physicists and some of these brilliant minds that have concocted these designer drugs, they've experimented with their own drugs and gotten hooked and some of them wound up on the street and have taken their formulas with them and now they have made their own formulas. One doctor, I was reading an article, one doctor has taken his formula and he's made a form of it to stretch it from a 15 minute high to a 3 hour high. Stretching it out. This last year, I went to New York City and Don had set up street rallies and I was hurt and shocked because, and I, before God I don't believe I'm exaggerating, nearly a half of all those I prayed for were backslidden Christians, many of them Pentecostals and a number of them backslidden preachers, some of them Pentecostal preachers who are now on drugs and alcohol and out serving the devil locked in prison houses full of bitterness because the city just ate them up and spit them out. That sense of hopelessness, Isaiah the prophet said, Who among you will give ear? Look at Isaiah 42, look at verse 23. You have it open there? Look at verse 23. Who among you will give ear to this? Who will give heed and listen hereafter? In the original it says who will hearken and hear for the time to come? Isaiah is talking about our day. He said in the last day there's something coming so awesome, so terrifying. Who's going to give an ear to it? Who's going to start listening? And look at verse 22, verse 22, same chapter. Isaiah 42, 22. This is a people plundered, despoiled, all of them trapped in caves, who are hidden away in prisons. They have become a prey with none to deliver them and a spoil with none to say give them back. Hey look at me. This program that our government has against drugs now is a panic move. They do not have the answer. They're going to spend millions and probably even a billion or two dollars or more. Some believe it could go to ten billion dollars before they're finished trying to stop this thing. But it's a sin problem. They'll not stop it with their money. There's no one to deliver them and say give them back. That can only be done through an outpouring of the Holy Ghost. I hear people, I hear preachers. One preacher had a television program and he had a man dressed up like Uncle Sam and they were playing the Star Spangled Banner. And he said, I give America back to God. As if that solved all the problems. We have released America back to God. That's like a preacher I heard, he said to the audience, I want everybody that's got a problem, everybody that's got a sin, everybody that's got a habit, I want you to take it up and make it like a piece of paper. Roll it all up. Come on, everybody roll it up. Got it? In front of me. Now let's raise our hands and thank God for deliverance. Now I'll tell you the walls are down around this nation and God's already sent judgment. This nation's under divine judgment. I'm a faithful American and I love this country. But whether you know it or not, we're citizens of another country. And we'd better wake up to that. There's people robbed and spoiled, they're hidden in caves, in prisons, and there's no one to say give them back. Now, I want you to go to judges. I want to talk about Samson tonight. Because nobody more clearly depicts what happens to a man that is in a prison house than Samson. Samson's life, it just makes me broken. I can't read Samson's life without breaking up. What a tragic life. I want to show you how this young man starts out, how he ends up, and the lessons that we're to learn from it. Judges 13th chapter. Judges 13. Alright, let's start with verse 23. Verse 24 rather. Then the woman gave birth. This is Samson's mother. A godly woman. Then the woman gave birth to a son and named him Samson. And the child grew up and the Lord blessed him. And the spirit of the Lord began to stir him. At Mahanadin, between Zohar, Esthel. Would you notice that this young man was blessed of the Lord? That the spirit of the Lord God was on him? That he came from a godly home? And God shows us the beginning of this man. Now let me show you, I want to take you to, I want to show you the beginning. Now I want to show you the end of the man and then I'm going to show you his story, his life story. Go to Judges 16. The next chapter. Two chapters over, three chapters. Chapter 16. Judges 16. Look at verse 21. This is the end of Samson. Then the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes. And they brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze chains. He was a grinder, where? In a prison. That's my message. This man of God wound up a grinder in the prison. Imprisoned by the devil. No discernment, his eyes taken from his head. Samson's downfall into bondage and into a prison is our example. In fact, in 1 Corinthians 10, 15 it says, Now all these things happened unto them for examples. And they're written for our instructions upon whom the ends of the world are come. Now, here's what the Bible is saying. You can read the life of Samson and that's your example. You learn your lessons from him. You're the ones upon whom the ends of the earth have come. You and I are to learn from the life of Samson. It's been said, the only thing we don't, we just don't seem to learn these lessons. I want to learn this lesson. This has to do tonight for everybody that's been struggling with a habit. Everybody that's here saying, I can't get through to victory. I want you to listen closely because this man was a prophet. This man was called by God anointed to the Holy Ghost. I want to give you three or four lessons from his life. Lesson number one. No amount of education, no amount of Bible knowledge, not even a godly heritage, not a godly upbringing can save you from the power of sin alone. That in itself cannot keep you from the power of sin. You can be born and raised in the most godly home and still be bound by the devil. You can be educated in the things of God. You can be anointed to the Holy Ghost at the beginning and slip away and be bound by the devil and wind up in the devil's prison house. Samson was raised as a Nazarite in a very godly home. Mother and father had been visited by angels. Those who had talked to God. They'd been given divine instructions on how to raise their child. And this boy was raised on divine instructions right out of the throne room of Almighty God. Dad, Mom, how would you like God to give you lessons? How would you like God to spell out how you were to raise your children? God spelled out. This boy took a Nazarite vow. That means he was taught never to touch alcohol. Never to touch alcohol. Nazarite could not touch alcohol. He could not touch a dead person. A Nazarite couldn't even go to the funeral of one of his relatives lest he dare touch the corpse. He couldn't touch anything having to do with death. Especially he was raised that he would not associate with a wicked crowd. He was raised to know that Philistines were an enemy. There is no one in this book who had more of the fear of God put into his heart. At least taught it. There was no one who was more clearly educated the things of God. There couldn't have been a more godly home in the Old Testament. No young man in all this Bible is better instructed on what is right and what is wrong, what is clean and what is profane. There is not a person here, I doubt there is a person here raised with any more holy fear of God in parents than these parents had. Now I know where they got that fear. They got it from having seen the angel of God. They have been visited divinely. It wasn't an apparition, they knew God had visited their home. This boy had been told that he was separated, that God had called him. He knew he had a call of God in his heart. The Spirit of God had moved on him and instructed him to walk in his ways. Not only did he get it from his parents, but the Spirit of God moved on him, stirred his heart. God blessed him. That's what Bob's been preaching, that's what Don was preaching. That you can have at one time the blessing of God, you can have the anointing when you begin, and you can end up bitter and hard. Now, you sit and talk to them, all you hear is bitterness. The Spirit of living God is gone. All the knowledge you can have, all the Word. But if it's not mixed with faith, if there's a spirit of boredom mixed in with it all. And that's what happened to Samson, this spirit of boredom. And I'll tell you what boredom is, it's the seed of rebellion. Rebellion is the seed of witchcraft. It's the devil trying to put a demonic spell upon you. It's Satan crying, relax, you've worked hard, you deserve to relax. I hate that. I hate that message. That comes unpreached, as Bob talked about it, or one of the preachers, or Don, I think, on Monday. First of all, they say 95% of all the preachers want to resign on Monday. I don't know. I hope that's not true. And then they, of course, regret it on Tuesday. You see this thing, relax. Is it any wonder that the enemy comes back and he brings back his old spells on you when you open up your heart and allow this thing to come on you? How many remember what Ezekiel 37 says? Remember what Ezekiel 37 says? That's about the valley of what? Of dry what? Wouldn't you suppose they're pretty dead then? Do you ever stop to think how they got in that condition? I'll tell you, let me show you where Ezekiel 37 came from. Let me show you where Ezekiel dry bones, that valley of dry bones come. Turn to Ezekiel 6 and I'll show you how they got that way. I'm not off on chasing rabbits now, I'm still on my word. Ezekiel 6, verse 1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them. And say, Mountains of Israel, listen to the word of the Lord God. Just as the Lord God to the mountains and the hills, the ravines, the valleys. Behold, I myself am going to bring a sword on you. See it says valleys? And I will destroy your high places. So your altars will become desolate, your incense altars will be smashed. And I shall make your slain fall in front of your idols. I shall also lay the dead bodies of the sons of Israel in front of their idols. And I shall scatter your bones around your altars. Where have they died? In front of their altars. Right in front of CBS and NBC and ABC. Right in front of their idolatry. Bob was saying something, he was preaching in Toronto. And he asked the crowd a question. When you watch television, does that... What were your words, Bob? Does it change you? When you're watching television, does that change you? And he was first going to say no, and the Holy Ghost stopped him. And he cried out, yes it does! It does change you. We're being changed by our idols. And God says, I'm going to slay you right in front of your idols. And I'm going to lay your dead bones right in front of your idols. And if you look far enough, if you just look hard enough in the valley of dry bones, you'll find a valley of idols. He said, I'll slay you right in front of your idols. Now go back to judges. Look at me for just a moment. Think about Samson now. Here's a man of God, called by God. His nation in such dire trouble. Darkness all around, and how God needed him. How God needed him. And this is the thing that breaks my heart. And I think it breaks the heart of all these that share this pulpit. The thing that... If it sounds like some of the preachers lately, sound hard. You start to hear coming forth such a pounding, hard message. That somebody's been shut in with God. It's somebody that's felt the jealousy of God that Bob's talking about. It's somebody that's seen this valley of dry bones and the idols that caused it. And I'll tell you why it's going forth. Because there's such a need for holy vessels now. Where's God going to find men and women who'll rise up in holiness and righteousness and crowd against the sins of the land? And this is the reason for this meeting. This is the reason God brought you. Not just so that a preacher could get up and thunder against you. Not that some preacher could glory in your flesh and get you to confess something. I don't want to glory in anybody's flesh. That's why if anybody smashes their idol, I say, don't tell me, I can't glory in the flesh. But you see, God has to do something in these meetings. He's got to get a hold of us so that we don't sit here saying, oh God, send a revival to California or to America. But you just say, Lord, I'm one person. If that's all it takes, I want to be one. I want to be one. If I can't see it in my state, if I can't see it in my country, I want to see it in my heart. That's why God told me, don't worry about America. Don't worry about all that. I didn't tell you first, make sure that your heart is broken before me. And I feel this holy thunder roll through my very being. God needed Samson. There had to be a message of deliverance. There had to be a man holy and Nazarite set apart. Nazarite means separated. This generation doesn't even know what the word means, separation. What gets into this man? What kind of boredom is there in him? What kind of a mixture? What happens to him? Look at chapter 16, verse 1. How could this be? You read that and suddenly it strikes right out at you. Here's a man who's walked with God. Here's a man called to be a deliverer. Look at this. Now Samson went to Gaza and saw a harlot there and went into her. Now look at this. In one act of rebellion, all of his education, all of his spiritual upbringing, all of the burden of the Lord is blown away. Everything is suddenly... It's gone. One fully sad... What's happened to this man? You know, this is what amazes me, that our government is going to start a drug education program and we're going to spend hundreds and hundreds of millions, thousands of millions of dollars to educate our kids. But I'll tell you something. Most kids already know it. You can go to a drug education class and you can explain it, that you take crack and there's a substance in your brain called dopamine and when you take even one fix of crack, one doctor said it's just like your skull opening up and the dopamine escapes. Now even on heroin, you don't deplete your dopamine and the dopamine is what gives you a sense of well-being. It's that which keeps you from getting depressed. And when you have the dopamine escaping from your mind, your brain, permanent depression sets in. Paranoia sets in. You can stand in front of a high school class and they'll nod their head and they'll know it. They've watched their friends die. This amazing thing. I've buried kids over the years that died of an overdose and their friends who were there when they died are right there watching it and they go right out and do the same thing. There's no impact. It doesn't mean anything. These kids know they can explain the escape of dopamine and that's why this permanent paranoia has come. Now these kids that are on crack can be watching television and they'll see a comedian crack jokes and they take it personally and they'll kick their foot through the TV set. Mothers who write to me say, my boy has become so vicious he's turned into another personality I don't even know. He'll get up in the morning and scream and yell at me and then he'll go in the bathroom and five minutes later he comes out smiling and he hugs me and he says I'm sorry and he's changed his personality. She doesn't even know until later that he was getting his fix and he's high. And now that he's high his personality's been changed. Up in Toronto we had a very dignified woman come. She said I'm bringing my son tomorrow night and he sat right in the front row. This kid was a genius. About 19 years of age in college. This mother said I fear for my life. He's threatened to kill me time and time again and he schemes, he tells me he's scheming a way to kill me so that nobody can know and he won't get caught. He's been so messed up with crack and he said all through my preaching and after I poured my heart out, holy ghost conviction, he comes up after the service and he says I want to come tomorrow night and I want to sing for you, I want to be a part of the meeting, I want to help you. Not a word got to his mind. Nothing I could say would register the mind. He was gone. A godly mother. Well educated. Raised under a godly mother. And yet this curiosity, this boredom that sets in, this need to experiment, this need to be with the crowd. The Bible said they become proud and boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to their parents. And although they know, they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but they also give approval to those who practice them. Listen, who would know more about the dangers of drugs than a doctor? And why are so many hundreds of doctors getting hooked in spite of all that education? Doesn't that say something to us, that that in itself is not enough? And I fear for what's coming to this generation. I could stand here and prophesy for the next half hour, but I don't think some of you could handle it. But you see, once the mind is set on experimenting, knowing the dangers itself won't stop, the Bible said the sluggard or the lazy mind is wiser in its own conceit than seven men that could offer a reason. In other words, the Bible said, when you're set, your mind is set, nothing going to change you even though seven righteous men stood in front of you and gave you a good reason. You wouldn't listen. Now that's the first lesson I want you to know. That you can't lean on any past knowledge. You can't lean on any past experience. You can't lean on your godly upbringing. Now listen, where there's a godly upbringing, and the young man or the young woman mixes it with faith, bathes himself in the Word of God and keeps your heart open, that's the most beautiful combination there can possibly be. And that's why some of us are preaching the gospel today. And that's why some of you have kids serving God. And I'm not putting them all down. But this man Samson goes out, there's something in him that wants to taste it. What kind of transformation had to come that he could cross over into the land of the Philistines, he could go right in the midst of a hundred people for the whole of his lifetime, he's been told not even to touch them, let alone mingle with them, I mean to lay with one. This is death. Everything that he's been taught against him, everything the Holy Ghost has told him not to do, yet he does it. A man of God goes out, finds a prostitute. Now the second lesson I want you to learn with me tonight is that the most dangerous thing is your first encounter. The first time you do it, and I'll tell you why it's dangerous, because it usually works. Look me right in the eye. By the way, before I go any further, I want to know how many there are in the building, twenty-one and under. Will you stand please? I've got to know somebody before I go any further in the message. Everybody, twenty-one and under, stand. Everybody in the building, twenty-one and under, stand. Alright, thank you. You may be seated. That's not so I can look you in the eye. I'm not preaching at you. In fact, I'll look the other way, so you won't believe I'm preaching right at you. You see, the kids have learned now that all these scare stories about drugs, they're just what they are, scare stories. Now, Len Bias, they say, now this is not a judgement, this was in the newspapers, it was not just one time. He didn't just take cocaine and die. Elvis Presley didn't just take an overdose of pills one time and die. He was moving in that direction. He developed that lifestyle. But you see, you can breeze right through your first experience without any hangover, without anything going wrong. Now, some do die the first time. But usually, the devil so arranges it that your first experience is a pleasant one. And this is what happens with Samson. And Samson laid until midnight. This is verse 3. Samson laid until midnight, and he arose at midnight and took the doors of the gate of the city and the two posts and went away with them, barred all, and put them on his shoulders and carried them up to the top of the hill. Now, Samson wakes up, and he looks out the window. I don't know what time it was, probably twilight. And he sees the Philistines surrounding him. And the first thing is, uh-oh, God's caught me. I'm caught. I'm going to be exposed. My parents are going to find out. All of Israel are going to find out. I'll not be judging Israel anymore. God, I'm so sorry. God, if you get me out of this, I'll never do it again. Have you ever looked out the window and seen the warnings? Come on. I don't know what happened, but they fell asleep. And at midnight, Samson sees them sleeping, and he prays, God, just one more time, give me your Spirit. Lord, this is a one-time affair. I didn't mean it. It was a moment of weakness. Oh, God, get me out of this. I'll never, never... Oh, God, I've grieved you. I hope that's what he said. He must have, because the Spirit of God was gracious to him. And look what he does. He waits till midnight, and he rises at midnight, and the gates are locked. They think they've got him locked in. And he just suddenly, the Spirit of God comes on, and he picks up that great door and its side post, and he puts him on his shoulder, and he marches up on top of the mountain. Nobody sees him. It's all theatrics. And that's exactly what happens when you lose the anointing. It becomes theatrics. And you see a lot of theatrics in the pulpit today. You see a lot of theater. It's good theater. Do you know what I'm talking about? Aren't there supposed to be regrets the next day? Isn't there supposed to be some kind of hangover? Evidently not for Samson because the word spreads that the man has escaped. There's no judgment. There's no lightning from heaven. God doesn't come down and strike him dead. He doesn't have a heart attack. Then something very tragic happens. The mind is being programmed by the devil. It's being fully set. Confirmed. And that's when the devil comes and says, one more time. Just one more time. Because you see, you don't have any memories of judgment. All you have is the memory of the ecstasy of the moment. And it usually happens after you've fulfilled the obligations of God. He probably spends the next few months judging Israel, doing what is right. But then that same boredom, that same spirit comes upon him. His mind is being set. David said, transgression speaks to the ungodly within his heart. There's no fear of God before his eyes. For it flatters him in his own eyes concerning the discovery of his own iniquity and the hatred of it. The words of his mouth become wickedness and deceit. He ceases to be wise. He ceases to do good. And he plans wickedness upon his bed at night. He sets himself on a path that's not good. And he no longer despises the evil. He got away with it. He doesn't hate it. There's no hatred of this sin in his heart. He flatters himself that he was not discovered. And he plans to do it once again. Oh, beloved, hear me. The worst thing you can do is to replace some old past sin, to flirt with it in your mind, to try to draw some kind of pleasure, get your vicarious kick out of something that God delivered you from. Take dominion over every thought and bring it into captivity, obedience to the Lord Jesus. Don't replay it in your mind! But you see, something happens to this prophet of God, he loses all sense of danger. And I've seen ministers in the gospel, I've seen ministers in the ministry lose their sense of danger. You know young people, they have no sense of danger. So what if Elvis Presley died? So what if Len Bias died? So what if thousands of young people are dropping dead? So what if kids are prostituting and being thrown in jail? And all these things out here. And there's a sense that I'm different. Or if I get caught, the circumstances won't be that bad. And there's something the devil implants even in the heart of Christians when they flirt with sin. And there's a persuasion, almost as if... And you can reach a point if you continue in your habit of your sin. A point is reached. The worst thing that could happen to me is that I'd be exposed. But, here's what the devil says. If you're exposed, you're out of the closet and you're free to pursue it. Have you ever heard the homosexual community come out of the closet? And finally, the homosexual mindset is I want to be exposed. I don't have the courage to come out and do it. But, if I'm exposed, I'm free to go and follow it. And the time will come, I've seen ministers who have affairs. They've got this secret thing going. And they finally are so hooked by it, they say the worst thing that can happen to me is that I'd be exposed. But if I'd be exposed, all right then, I have to go that way. And it's almost a freeing thing. I will follow my heart. My wife won't want me. My church won't want me. I will... You know, it's not just thinking that way, but it's there. It's not some premeditated thing, but it's there. Then this planning, this scheming, this thinking, I'm special. I had a man tell me, he said, Brother, I don't understand. I had an affair going on with a woman in my church. And it lasted five years. He said, I never had a greater anointing in all my lifetime. At least he thought he did. He said, I guess it's because I cried so many tears. He said, I finally got to a place I wanted to be exposed. I really wanted. There was something inside desiring to be exposed. One side says, if you're exposed, that will give you courage to walk away from it. Another side said, if you're exposed, you can go all the way with it. And that struggle went on in his heart. And oh, thank God, God delivered him before that came to a point, God put it in his heart to hate his sin and to forsake it. But see, those who set themselves to do evil, they're soon possessed by a driving demonic spirit. Listen to me now. I believe that there are driving demonic spirits in the land now that are waiting, watching, standing by. And they see this thing in you. They see this thing in Samson. See, Satan's goal was to tear down his strength so he could have a peaceful entrance to his heart, to rob him of all spiritual, physical resistance, to enslave him and make him a prisoner. And that's exactly what happens to Samson. He goes out one more time. And this time, the devil introduces him to Delilah. Do you know what her name means in Hebrew? Loosen up. Yes. Get your concordant. Look at it. There's five descriptions in your concordant. Slacken up. Loosen up. Release yourself from bondage. And then also, it means empty, dry, emaciated. That's all in her name. The Hebrew name described the character. The devil introduced him to this doctrine, Relax! You've worked hard. You've been profiting a long time. You know, profiting. Now it's time to loosen up. Oh, I'm so glad I got rid of that Babylonian idiot box out of my house. Because even the commercials were always saying, you deserve it. Loosen up. Come on, free yourself up. Now you're hearing it from the pulpits. It can't be that hard. Heard so much false love coming from the pulpit lately. But see, Delilah embodies a demonic driving lust. A driving lust now. Something that drives you. This is the occult, drugs, pornography, alcohol, adultery, homosexuality, masturbation, you name it all. And the Philistines come to her and say, Entice Samson and see where his strength lies and how we may overpower him that we may bind him to afflict him. Oh, if we could only understand that that's been the whole purpose of everything the devil throws at you to bind you and afflict you. But I find it amazing. I find it incredible, almost incredulous to read this story because you look at Judges 16th chapter here. Look at verse 6. Let me show you three Scriptures here before I go any further. Look at verse 6. 16.6 So Delilah said to Samson, Please tell me where your great strength is and how you may be bound to afflict you. Do you understand what she's saying? Tell me where your strength is so I can kill you. I'm going to get you one way or another so please tell me now. Let's not drag this thing out. Tell me where it's at. Here's the man of God. And the devil doesn't even hide his tricks. The devil not even... You see, this is what happens when this driving demonic thing comes. When you go back to say one more time, one more time, that's when this driving force comes. That's when the devil doesn't even have to try to hide his motive. He's right up front with you now, sir. Look at verse 10. Again. Then Delilah said to Samson, Behold, you have deceived me and told me lies. Now please tell me how you may be bound. Tell me how I can get to you. Tell me how I can wipe you out. You'd think that's enough. You'd think he'd wake up and say, Oh God, I've got a driving spirit here overpowering me. Look at verse 13. Then Delilah said to Samson, Up to now you have deceived me and told me lies. Tell me how you may be bound. And he said to her, If you weave the seven locks of my hair with the web and fasten with the pin, then I shall become weak and be like any other man. Look at her. Three times she keeps coming back. Samson, tell me how I may afflict you. Look at me, folks. Why can a prophet of God keep going back? You see, he's lost control now. He's not in control. Any man in control, the first time the devil said that, he would run with a holy fear. But now he's being driven by the devil. The Bible said the wicked is driven away by his wickedness. Jeremiah prophesied, In my house I found wickedness, saith the Lord. Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery ways into the darkness. They shall be driven on by their sin and fall. They shall be driven by their sin and fall. Israel has scattered sheep. The lion has driven him away. Who is the lion? The roaring lion. He's driving him now. Satan's in the driver's seat. But you see, before the devil can finally possess you, he'll drive you and drive you, but before he can possess you, there comes a moment of truth. And the Bible calls it the vexing hour. Remember what it said of Lot? He vexed his soul by the things he saw and heard. There comes a vexing hour. A moment of truth comes. Where you have to give your heart one way or another. You have to give your heart to something. And the devil can't possess you until you give him your heart. And he'll drive you and drive you, but there comes a time, a moment of truth. And that moment of truth has to come tonight. Now, people, I can't tell you why God has me preach this message to a predominantly Christian thing, especially to have preachers in preach like this. But I've got a feeling I'm not preaching just to sinners. See, there's one barrier between this man losing his soul, losing his unction, his anointing once and for all. Satan has to win his heart. Satan has to get his heart. Up to now, Satan has his flesh, but he doesn't have his heart. And look at chapter 16, verse 15. Then she said to him, How can you say I love you when your heart is not with me? Now, who's talking to her? Who's talking to her? It's the devil. He said, How can you say I love you and you won't give me your heart? You've deceived me these three times and you've not told me where your strength is. And it came about when she pressed him dainty with her words and urged him that his soul was annoyed. And King James says it right, vexed to death. So he told her all that was in his heart. Look at that. This man of God gives his heart to his sin. He gives his heart to sin. And he gives it to the Father, the devil. He told her all that was in his heart and said, A razor's never come to my head if I've been a Nazarite to God. From my mother's womb he said, The secret of my power has been separation from things like you. I was separated. I was a holy man separated under God and that's why I got my power. I was anointed when I was separated. When I walked holy before God under my Nazarite vow, I had an unction. Nobody could stand before me. I could take the jawbone of an ass and kill a thousand of your kind. No demon in hell could stand against me but now look at him flirting with the devil giving his very heart. Doesn't that break your heart? This great man of God who'd been a Nazarite to God from his mother's womb. He said, If I'm saved then my strength will lead me and I shall become weak and be like any other man. Samson now gives his whole heart. He's now in her power. You know what Samson could have done? He still has a chance even though he's been driven by a sin. He's still not hopeless. He could have stood up and said, Now I know that's the devil. He could have run and said, Oh God! I've gone so deep in this thing. I've gone over and over into this. I've gone back time and time again but now God, let your fear grip my heart. I'm not going to sell my soul. I'm not going to give the secret of my strength away. I'm not going to lose my separation from this spirit of the world. I've got to keep my separation from the world. You know what the Bible says, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and all thy mind, with all thy heart. That's what this whole thing is about. That's what these meetings are about. You'll hear Bob say it over and over again. God, this is a matter of the heart. And I just have to say it like I feel God telling me that even though some of you have sat through all this preaching and I said it with tenderness and love, all that He could give me. Some of you are at the point of being driven by your sin. You're driven. You can't lay it down. You keep going back to it. That spirit somehow, that relaxing comes upon you and you are driven by it. And even though you know it, there's nothing hidden about it. It's all up front. The Holy Spirit's exposed it. The devil has even made it clear to you. You know in your heart the devil's going to destroy you with it if you don't get to victory. And yet you've come to this meeting and now it's a matter of the heart. Which way does the heart go? You're going to let the Holy Spirit go down deep into your heart or are you going to run? You're going to say, Lord Jesus, I hear it. I hear it loud and clear and I want to be delivered. Or do you give it away? Do you say, well, it just can't be. Look what they do to this man. Look at verse 21. And she said, The Philistines upon you, Samson. Verse 20. He awoke from his sleep and said, I will go out as at other times and set myself free. But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him. Well, look at me, folks. Can you think of anything worse? Come on, think about it. Is there anything worse than to wake up one day and God has had to back away because you've given your soul and you've given your heart to your sin and God backs away and you wake up one day and you don't even know God is gone. Trying to do God's work without His anointing. The only thing that I have tonight going for me if I have anything is His unction and His anointing. If I lose that, I'm nothing. Christian, you don't have to be a preacher. That unction you have because of that Nazarite stance you have, that separation from the world that sets you apart. Being peculiar unto God, a peculiar people separated from this world. Being not a part of its idolatry, having nothing to do with the spirit of this age. And I'll tell you what, the darker this age gets, the brighter your face should shine with His glory. The more holy we should be coming in His sight. What did they do? Look at verse 21, Then a Philistine seized him. And what did they do? The first thing they did to him. What did they do? They gouged out his eyes. What does that mean? The devil takes away his discernment. He can't even see himself. He doesn't even know what's happening. He can't even see. There's no mirror anywhere that he can look at and see a reflection of himself. You know, we had a drug addict come in, skin and bone. I don't think he weighed 95 pounds when he came in and about three months later he gained maybe 10 pounds or so on his first trip home. His mother, who had been praying for him, she sees him at the door and she started crying. She welcomed him home and she fixed meals for him. But every time she looked at him she'd turn away, she'd cry. And he couldn't understand that. But he got up the next day and he was in the bathroom. He said, Brother Wilkinson, I looked in the mirror and for the first time, I think he said it was three or four years, I saw myself. Because when you're on drugs you don't see yourself. You don't see what's happening to you. He said, I didn't know. I looked at my sunken eyes. I looked at my cheeks. He said, I'm a skeleton. He said, Suddenly looking there, I saw what drugs had done to me and I realized why my mother cried every time she looked at me. I was seeing myself for the first time. His discernment had gone. He hadn't been able to see anything about what sin had done to his body, let alone his spirit. And all that grieved him. He apologized to his mother. He said, Mom, I know why you cry. Look at me, I'm a skeleton. He became aware of what sin had done to his body. He gouged out his eyes. The discernment's gone. He doesn't see what's happened to himself now. And you know what the devil does after he blinds you? He starts poking fun at you. Look at verse 23. Now the lords of the Philistines assembled together a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to rejoice for they said, Our god has given Samson our enemy into our hands. When the people saw him, they praised their god for they said, Our god has given our enemy into our hands. Even the destroyer of our country who has slain many of us. It so happened when they were in high spirits that they said, Call for Samson that he may amuse us. So they called for Samson from the prison. And he entertained them. He entertained them. Does that pretty well explain some of the entertainment that's going on in the pulpit in the church? Those who have lost their anointing, blinded, having lost their discernment, having been given over our hearts to sin. Call for Samson that he may amuse us. Now look at me. This is the thing that really is frightening about this story of Samson. I'm going to close pretty soon, but I want to... Do you see Samson in front of these people? I don't know what he was doing. Was Samson bending iron bars for them? There are Christian entertainers going around doing that, you know. Entertain us! How the devil laughs at that! Amuse us! Isn't that a shame? This great man of God is called to be a prophet. He's been separated. Now he's totally blind. He stands before the devil and the devil laughs at him, mocks him. Just making fun. This is what angers me. That's why I'm so anxious to get to New York City and establish a foothold, a stronghold for Jesus up there right in Times Square. We want to set a flag up at the very gates of hell. And we're going to say, devil, you can't blind God's people any longer. There's a remnant, there's a holy remnant in that city and we're anxious to get there and say, devil, you've laughed long enough. You've mocked the house of God. You've mocked these who entertain. You've mocked those who have amused you. We haven't come to amuse you, devil. We've come to pull down your strongholds. And by the way, for all you kids that say, hey, fun and thrills, look at that blind man. Does it look very funny to you? Not much thrills there now is a blind man standing in front of this crowd entertaining. He's locked in the devil's prison house. Then Samson called to the Lord and said, oh Lord God, please remember me and please strengthen me just one time more, oh God. Now I want you to see the end of this man, Samson. Now I'll tell you, this is what happens when you give your heart to sin. We've been saying it in this meeting and I want to nail it down right now. There is not the zeal for God's holiness. There is not a zeal for his honor. Even in his dying day, his last prayer, he's not saying, oh God, give me strength one more time. I've failed you and I want to honor your name. I want to bring honor and glory to you. Listen to what he says, oh God, give me strength one more time that I may be avenged of the Philistine from my two eyes. He's still mad. He said, I lost my eyesight. He's not saying, oh God, I've sinned against you. He's not jealous for the jealousy of God. He wants revenge for his two eyes. I hear people say, oh, he had the greatest victory when he died. What kind of victory is this? Even though he killed more than his death to die a blind man with the Philistines laughing in his face. What kind of victory is this when a man dies with revenge on his lips? He has to go right into eternity and stand before the throne of Almighty God. Do you know, there's only one way out of this predicament that Samson's in? And that's death. The only way out of this prison house is to die. You know what the Bible says? For some will say, how are the dead raised? What kind of body do they come? He said, how foolish. Don't you know that which you sow does not come to life until it dies? And brother, sister, if you've got a habit, you've got something the devil's put on you and driving you, the only way out now is to die. You have to die before the Lord. You have to die to your habit, to your flesh. I'm going to give you one last scripture, one last scene, and then I'm going to close. Go to Mark, the 5th chapter. Just one last scene in the New Testament, and then I'm going to close and we're going to pray for deliverance tonight. We're going to have prayer for deliverance. I hear these little alarms on clocks. Did some of you set that to stop me or what? Then I hear those beepers going. Mark, 5th chapter. And they came to the other side of the sea into the country of the Gerasenes, and when He had come out of the boat, that's Jesus, immediately a man from the tomb. By the way, do you know what that tomb means in Greek? A place of remembrance. A place of remembrance. This man is going to have to have his mind healed. And an unclean spirit met him. And he had his dwelling among the tombs. And no one was able to bind him anymore, even with chains. He was a wild man, because he'd often been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him, and the shackles broken in pieces, and no one was strong enough to subdue him. And constantly, night and day, among the tombs, and in the mountains, he was crying out, gashing himself with stones. And Jesus, and seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up and bowed down before Him, and crying out with a loud voice, he said, What do I have to do with you, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore you, by God, do not torment me. And you know the story. This man was delivered and set in his right mind. Listen, this is what God has to do. And I want Him to do it tonight for those who say, Brother Wilkins, I need this. There has to be healing of the mind. Every drug addict can tell you. Everyone who's had a problem of something that holds on to a driving sin, that attaches itself to the mind, the mind has to be free. The tomb, that's the remembrance. The remembrance, the memory. He was among the tombs. He was bound by this mind habit of the devil driving him. There has to be a deliverance from this thing that's in your mind. And God wants to do that tonight. Set you free. You don't have to walk among the tombs and be in prison anymore. When we were in New York City, was it two years ago, Bob, in 42nd Street, at that park, Bryant Park, I believe it was. I was preaching and I heard somebody blowing a whistle and trying to interrupt my preaching. It was the demonic that we learned later. He had a Pentecostal background, didn't he? Filled with the Holy Ghost. But he had exposed himself to the devil by giving himself over to sin in his lust. Became demon-possessed. Gave his heart to a sin, just as Samson did. I mean, people were running from him in the park. They knew. Even sinners knew. Sinners know. And he came up after my preaching. I remember coming off the stage in this park, right on 42nd Street, Bryant Park. And he came up and Bob was standing there and he says, pray for me, I'm demon-possessed. I said, who told you? How do you know? And I went to shake hands with him and he backed away and his face changed, contorted, and he... the froth was running out of his mouth and the devil exposed himself. Very, very evident. He said, I want to be free. Was it four years? Three or four years he'd been tormented? Four years, tormented by this spirit. Crying out, just like this man in the tombs, crying out. Gashing his conscience. He was standing over against some hedges. Bob standing one side and I'm the other. We started taking dominion over that. Demonic. Legion of demons. And I remember Bob raising his hands and I was raising my hands in Jesus' name. Every demon power flee. And he raised his hands in front of that crowd and people were running in fear. And he said, You can't have this body! It's mine! In a guttural voice. And then he leaped over the hedges and was gone. And Bob began to pray, Lord, build a wall of angels around him that he can't escape and bring him back. Deliver him. I went on to minister some drug addicts but about 20 minutes later I looked around and there was Bob standing over there and he was there back again in the park and he was trapped. He would walk this way like he hit a wall. An invisible wall. He'd back up, walk this way, hit a visible wall, back up. The wall of angels had been placed. And you know, God instructed Bob to go up to him and approach him. And he looked at Bob and said, how did you get in this circle? How did you get in? The authority of Christ just as in this story of the demonic. That power exposed itself. That legion of demons began to expose itself. In Jesus' name, go, flee! He fell. Like many demonics described in the Bible, growling like an animal into the bushes and in the dust. Growling. Brother Bob and one or two of the other saints just stood there saying, thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus, and claiming victory. And all of a sudden, I wasn't there, but I heard about it. They said, you heard it coming so sweetly from those bushes. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. And out of those bushes crawled a young man, a drug addict set free. Went over and hugged Bob. Hugged me. Hugged so many. Set all free. So long I've carried this burden and I'm free. That's what this message is about. God wants to break that prison house and set you free. Shatter the doors and let you walk out. I don't think we're being honest about it and realizing that we've allowed the devil to take such power and authority. I think we're willing to admit that some of the activity in our life is demonic. And God wants that broken tonight. If you really want the Lord with all your heart and you're being withstood, what else is it but the power of Satan? What else is it? The Holy Ghost is not going to withstand you. He's going to help you. He's there as your helper and companion. He wants to bring you through. Now, this young preacher son here, I don't know anything about you son, but I know God wants... I'm not saying anything about demon activity, but I'm saying you've got friends that love you here tonight, the body of Christ. And I know God wants to give you anointing and get you freedom. And I believe God wants to do that for others that are here. The worst thing that could happen that anyone who would get in the flesh now and go around just, you know, saying you're guilty of this, you're guilty of that. No. I want the Holy Ghost to do this because the flesh can't accomplish it. This is repentance gathering. This is repentance gathering. Brother, sister, Christian, pastor, wherever you may be. God help us not to let the devil get a foothold because Samson... Samson wasn't a drug addict. He was a prophet. He was a man of God. I want God tonight to break the chains. I know God wants to set some people free. I believe those that are here tonight, you've heard the Word. It's come to you and come to you. It's gone so far, but it's not yet accomplished the work. And I believe you need deliverance. I believe that we can take authority in Jesus' name tonight and the devil has to flee. That he can't hold you another moment. That every chain can fall, that you don't have to be bound again by anything that's attached itself to your life. If you've got a Delilah situation in your life, the Lord wants to deliver you from her and that spirit of Delilah, there's going to be victory here tonight. And I put all hell on notice right now. I put all hell on notice. Every prince pod in power of darkness, I want you to know that we've got the power of the Holy Ghost here tonight. And to be aware that Jesus Christ by His Spirit is going to deliver His people. God's going to deliver His people. God's going to do it and there's going to be people here that sit through the teaching tomorrow with a spirit of rejoicing. That spirit of heaven is going to be exchanged. He's going to give you beauty for those ashes. He's going to remind you that He's anointed you and He's not going to take the Holy Ghost anointing away from you. He's going to take away the power of Satan. He's going to take away the deception. He's going to give you a fresh anointing. Hallelujah. Let's stand, body of Christ. Let's stand in His presence. How many believe the Holy Ghost can do that tonight? Go and take some honesty. Let's pray. Holy Spirit, I say it again. I say it to You in Your presence. I say it before the presence of a holy God. The flesh cannot accomplish the purposes of God. The flesh cannot bring about repentance. The flesh cannot bring deliverance. It only ministers death. So we yield to the Holy Ghost. Holy Spirit, we yield this meeting to You. We ask You, Holy Spirit, to come now and convict of sin, righteousness and judgment. Holy Spirit, I ask You to come right now and remind some that they're in the spirit and the trap of Samson. That You have to deliver some from the spirit of Samson. This spirit of lying. This driving spirit of the enemy. This seduction. This driving force. Lord, that spirit, that thing has to be broken tonight. Some, Lord, who've been living in the tombs, gnashing and gashing their conscience. Oh Lord Jesus, break every binding chain. Give us people here tonight that have the faith and confidence. And Lord, let us not judge anybody. Let us do it in great love. Lord, we love Your people tonight. We love every minister here. But oh God, bring a spirit of honesty. Bring a spirit of burning. Bring a spirit of conviction. Lord Jesus, we dare not play with this. We dare not flirt with this. We dare not, Lord, walk out on this conviction tonight. Holy Spirit, don't let there be a Samson among us who becomes blinded. Don't let there be one, oh Lord, who loses the anointing here tonight. God, restore and heal. God, restore and heal by Your power.