Leonard Ravenhill emphasizes the necessity of putting on the whole armor of God to withstand the spiritual battles we face against unseen forces. He reflects on the current state of the church, urging believers to awaken from spiritual lethargy and recognize the reality of the spiritual warfare that surrounds them. Ravenhill calls for a deeper commitment to prayer and reliance on God's power, reminding the congregation that they are not fighting against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers. He encourages believers to be vigilant and equipped, as the enemy is cunning and relentless in his attacks. Ultimately, he reassures that through Christ, who has already triumphed over these forces, believers can find strength and victory.

Again, our Father, as we come into thy courts, we have already offered thee praise and gratitude from our hearts. We thank you for these discordant hearts of ours that you brought into harmony with yourself and with your will. We confess that too long we've been of the earth earthy, and we long that we may be more heavenly. That as we have sung often, but not always realized, the things of earth may grow strangely dim. We thank you for the grace you've given us in another week. We thank you for every temptation that we have overcome. We thank you for every trial that we have endured. We thank you for every experience which has been enriching to us and brought us to realize more of your benevolence, your love, your greatness, your majesty. We think of those who grovel around in the world about us, without God, without hope. There are millions who still sit in the darkness, in the shadow of death. There are millions in that area your word speaks of, the habitations of cruelty, and the places of evil where the light of the glorious gospel is not yet gone. There are areas where this light once shone and the light has become dim and in some place even extinguished. We thank you for everything today that in any way has brought light, illumination to those who sit in darkness, for those who at this very moment perhaps are in prison cells, for those who go down the jungle paths, perhaps discouraged, stammering through a new language they've hardly mastered, their bodies perhaps tortured by food that they're not used to eating, almost crushed by the environment of heathenism and darkness, where the powers of darkness and rebellious spirits hold empire over the souls of men. We don't know how you do it, but we pray that if Jesus tarries it out of this very meeting, somewhere we'll be birthed, that we reach those areas of darkness where too long satan has been lord and master and governor. We're amazed not just at your patience with those in heathen darkness, but we're amazed at your patience with the church so-called, sleepy and careless and indifferent, that two thousand years after Jesus died and rose again from the dead, after he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men, our feet have been like lead, we have not mounted up with wings as eagles, we have not run and not been without becoming weary, we have not walked without fainting, we have spent I guess all of us most more time on ourselves, more money on ourselves, more interest on ourselves than we should. But Lord we ask thee this afternoon, perhaps we don't know what we ask, but we ask Lord Jesus as you walked in the midst of the seven golden candlestick walk in our midst this afternoon, we would say Samuel thy servant when he was disturbed from sleep, speak Lord for thy servant heareth. I think of Wesley's word when he said oh for a trumpet voice on all the world to call, we would like to send a shattering message to every lost soul in the universe this afternoon, that there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins and sinners plunged beneath that flood can lose all their guilty stains, that whether a man is a dying thief or a living thief he can rejoice to see this fountain in this day and there may he though vile as he wash all his sins away. We thank you for giving us this word, we thank you it is a miracle book, it's a miracle it's been preserved to this day by the attacks that have been made on it, by the volumes that have been written against it, by the speeches that men have declared against it and yet we thank you that it shines as clearly as the beautiful sun shines today, we thank you that it's your word and therefore it's indestructible just as your church is your church and it's indestructible, we thank you for something permanent in the world that's constantly changing, we thank you for this truth in the midst of a thousand voices of error, we pray thee open our eyes that we may behold wondrous things out of thy law, open our ears as we sing sometimes that we may hear voices thy voice of truth that thou send us clear, make this word to us what we need this afternoon if we're lethargic stir us by it, if we have open wounds heal us by it, if the path has become dark illuminate us by it, if we have become weak strengthen us by it, above all help us to see as we've already sung in this majestic hymn that very soon the tables are going to be turned and the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever whose right it is to take the throne, we thank you Lord Jesus for shedding your blood for us, we thank you this afternoon for sitting at the right hand of the majesty on high, we thank you that you are the king eternal invisible God only wise, in light inaccessible and hidden from our eyes and yet thou art the unchanging God, we believe we live in the most dark cruel age that the world has ever known and satan strives with all his mastery to bring destruction to our generation but we thank you that we have a risen Christ an exalted Christ, you've told us that all power is his that everything is under his feet and we pray that this may quicken our hearts and send us out with a love that burns and blazes for thee, that in this last day we shall witness that blessed holy promise of your word that you will pour out your spirit on all flesh, that just as the sun is shining this afternoon on the wicked and on the righteous, on the clean and the unclean, on men who are captives and men who are free, so we believe that you're going to give us this great final demonstration as we say so often a Pentecost that will out Pentecost Pentecost, to give us a great last harvest for Jesus who deserves all the praise and all the glory, we thank you then we shall join in the everlasting song and we shall crown him Lord of all, we thank you for hearing us, we thank you for blessing your word to our hearts in Jesus name, we started last week in the epistle of Paul to the Ephesians chapter 6 reading from verse 10, finally brethren be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might put on the whole armor of God that ye may be able to stand able to stand against the wiles of the devil for we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness in high places wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand this is a very simple observation but to me a very challenging observation that this chapter begins in the nursery and ends in the armory we have an awful lot of people who want to stay in the nursery the apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians and said he had to feed them with milk and not with meat because he said you're not able to bear it now there is a very glamorous interpretation of the spirit-filled life which is a novelty you can't find it in history but you'll find it today it's all excitement and goose pimples it's all sugar and spice and all that's nice it's very far removed from this chapter that we have here which is a chapter speaking of strife and speaking of contention there's a double warning here in verse 11 it says put on the whole armor of God in verse 13 it says wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God all our defense is revealed to us in this chapter there's a recognition here again that there's a contention we wrestle not against flesh and blood we do not have an obvious enemy we do not have a visible enemy we have an enemy but nobody knows how old he is nobody knows how strong he is nobody knows what resources he has he's greater than man but he's less than God he's supernatural but he's not supreme he's mighty but he's not almighty i suppose there never has been a warrior like the apostle paul that is in the spiritual realm and as i've said so very often a man with a with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument there's a poem and i i don't know who wrote it and i can't for the moment connect it in my mind but the theme of the poem is this what an embarrassment it will be as a believer to get to heaven without scars we're in a warfare and while again this uniform if you want to call it that this this armor that is described here is usually considered for the defensive and yet men did not go to war without their armor and then when they the enemy began to pursue them run home and put the armor on that's just a bit too late we need this whole armor of god you remember that when the children of israel were warned of the enemy of death that was coming over them that they had to take a lamb and they had to spill the blood it wasn't enough to kill the lamb that was partly obedient partial obedience it wasn't enough to take the blood and put it there in a vessel and keep it in the house and give a signal to the angel going past we've done as we were the blood must be put over the lintel and over the doorpost now if we had a condition like that in our discipleship if you were told that it was dangerous to go through that door tomorrow morning without putting the blood over the lintel and the doorpost we would do that you see so very often we rush out into a hostile world a terrifying world i've said before that i've been asked very often like every preacher do you think we're living in the last days and i say definitely not we're not living in the last days we're living in the last moments we may be living in the last seconds as god counts time or if he counted in our time i had a man came to see me yesterday he stayed about seven hours and he's a very well informed man on international affairs he's investigated government documents and he's photographed all kinds of things and he almost left me with a with a big cloud hanging over my head except that he did confirm what i have felt so very long brother herb said to me the other day how long do you think we have before the kind of the curtain falls and i said well i i think maybe five years at the very most 10 years this man said to me you know i think that uh two and a half years from now we'll have ended all our liberties no no we're not going to be invaded by communism that's not the thing we we have a a warfare that began in the heavenlies and it still is there in the heavenlies and it's been manifest in so many other countries but it's been manifest more and more secretly here in our country this man suggested that within two years we'll have a health program which means that everybody will carry a plastic card now now that's the very way that russia overtook the and stole the the privacy of people in that nation many years ago i said to you before and he confirmed this i guess in five years we'll have a cashless society you can't spend money nobody will accept it you'll have to have a card with a number on it and if you if you submit that if you don't submit that card and you say well look i happen to have convictions as a christian this is an anti-christ system and uh but but remember i have a wife and four children at home and they're going to starve if you don't feed me and he says listen i have a wife and four children and i'll starve if i do feed you so i have the choice of letting you starve with your children or i starve because i help you now that that may sound unreasonable i'm quite sure it's in the offering as a matter of fact i i i have a secret suspicion that in europe before very long they'll not only devalue currency they'll abolish it italy is on the brink of financial disaster we keep giving her an injection she's not going to make it the papers they said last year that if the if the communists got a heavy vault this year that they would begin designing a cathedral in jerusalem uh it would be a duplicate of notre dame cathedral you see the jews have a seat on the united nations because they're established as a nation no no no the pope says they're not a nation they don't own jerusalem it's the holy city i'm the holy father that's my city i don't recognize the jews and there's an antagonism there it's another interesting thing to me and i'm not not nationalistic in this we're going to give the jews another billion dollars but we're going to sell taiwan down the river apparently there are three million jews in israel there are 13 million people in taiwan and a very aggressive healthy spiritual church there but we can do without 13 million people in order to establish some with china and as much as we don't like cuba we'd like to make a deal with her even though she has some soldiers in angola now now this is all a mix-up isn't it sure it is but it shows you the affairs of men you see there are two kingdoms the kingdoms of our kingdom of jesus christ and the kingdoms of this world now we're not fighting a visible enemy if the devil was a visible enemy i'd sell my car and my house and give a donation towards making that and bomb to blow him off the face of the earth but unfortunately he's not a visible enemy and you remember that jesus is talking in the in the 14th chapter of luke he says this what king going to war or making war against another king sitteth not first down to consult whether he be able with 10 000 to meet him that cometh against him with 20 000 now now what you have to do with your enemy obviously in fighting a battle you have to know who he is where he is what strength he has find his strategy out maneuver him and either go headlong into battle with him or back off and say well no chance it's too much for us now we're lining up the church of jesus christ against the powers of darkness you know it's interesting that satan does not appear in the first two chapters of genesis and he doesn't appear in the last two chapters of revelation the first time we hear of him is in the third chapter of genesis the 15th verse where the promise is there that thou shalt bruise he shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel and then you have a continuous pattern of his activity right through the word of god now now paul has already said you remember writing to the corinthians the weapons of carmel you see unless we're careful they'll be hypocritical enough to say because we have in god we trust that's all we need don't believe it for a minute do you remember when the armies of israel were lined up on a on a hillside it's a story we tell to children but it's too big for us and the king was there and uh his wonderful son the prince was there and all the chosen men were there from their west point of that day and a man came striding down the valley there he was a monstrous man maybe 10 feet high and he had a voice like a thunderstorm and and when he when he when he tried he shook the earth and day after day he defied the armies of the living god that was why he was there he opposed the god of israel he was a champion the superman of the philistines and you may remember even stepping into the story of samson where they said look we don't need to bother too much you know the god of israel the supernatural the majestic the holy god he doesn't divide the sea anymore he doesn't lead his people by a pillar of fire or a pillar of cloud he's gone out of business we can soon get hold of this man samson and reduce his power now there is the antagonism you see however much satan fights against the church it is not the church he's against he's against the person of the lord jesus christ all right nobody can go out and fight this goliath a little boy goes up and says uh what are you waiting for uh run home and look after those few sheep his brother says you didn't come to bring our lunch you came to see the battle i would have said where is it they've been there a long while there'd be no battle and he slipped up one day and he says you know you know what i feel embarrassed that the god of israel has to stand here and you're his representative and you've no power you've no authority why in god's name don't you do something why do you take his name on your lips you have no power isn't that what the world says right now about the church of jesus where is your power where is your authority you want to shibboleth i'm quite convinced in my own spirit otherwise i want to die now i believe that before long organized religion will be bypassed and god is going to find his prophets where jesus found his by the side of the sea signing a document an income tax form as he was jesus didn't knock on the door of the sanhedrin he didn't say can i sit on my platform and give me some prestige just to give me a start as an evangelist because it's pretty rough why don't you go talk to that man you wait till you see him you wait till you hear him barking out and david says i want to tell you something i've done my homework what do you mean you did your homework well you see god says if you're if you're if you're faithful in the secret where nobody sees you you see we like to show our ministry display our power or come where your credentials well one night i was there playing my harp and singing the 23rd psalm and having a great time and i heard the roar of a lion i said hey put my sheep down and i went after him and i killed him another night a bear came along and i punched him on the nose said come back i'll kill you too now look i swore a bear give me a chance to go to goliath do you remember how goliath came to him goliath 10 feet high needed a man with a shield in front of him you notice what david didn't ever bothered with a man with a shield we're so busy running around after demons we don't hit the devil devil doesn't care how many demons we destroy in fact you can't destroy demons jesus never destroyed demons he shifted them out of one place to another i'm glad for those who can cast out demons sure enough but isn't it something when you have a helmet of gold and a and a wonderful uniform and a sword with diamonds maybe in the like some of the daggers we have over in old england there and you can't do anything with it well in god's name i ask you what do we do with all the millions of people in pews and all the money we have and all the societies we have the church is shrinking devil is expanding we're nervous and afraid i was thinking this week of one of the hymns of charles westley's i like charles westley's hymns very much and he's facing the powers of darkness and the invasion from hell and he said should all the hosts of death and powers of hell unknown put their most dreadful forms of rage and managed malice on i shall be saved for christ displays superior power and bounteous grace does it matter how big the enemy is if you're 10 times stronger than he is so you want to go fight him yes i want to go fight him can you see his brothers looking around the tent and say what will you say to dad when we go home we'll have to say a lion slew him or somebody destroyed him that goliath will take our little brother and break him over his knee and throw him to the birds in fact the big shot said he'd do that after all there's a little boy hasn't got a shield of course he has a shield doesn't say so in the book it does if you read carefully it doesn't in my version well it does in mine you better get mine you know i because it says god said to abraham i am thy shield isn't that better than a shield of stainless steel about three feet thick you hold up against the enemy yet faint holding it anyhow he has an eternal god between him and the one who is going to destroy him and you can't get through god the psalmist says the lord is a son and a shield they're watching little david go down the hill and he's skipping along as happy you know praising the lord and singing the 23rd psalm or some other he stoops down to say what did he get i don't know something somebody lost i guess he slipped five stones in his pocket you know why because goliath had four brothers and he was hoping they'd come they'd wipe the lot out he got five stones i say this is going to be ridiculous isn't it yes yes yes that's what paul said after he struggled with intellectuals you remember the 17th of acts the intellectual capital of the world he started struggling with epicureans and poets and and all the other intellectual group and then he comes to corinth from the intellectual capital world to the first fool of the world the capital of immorality and he says i'm coming to you do you know what with not with the wise words of the poets and philosophers and stoics and epicureans and all the learned people i tried that it didn't work i'm coming to you with a gospel which is the power of god unto salvation and he established in the festival the hell on earth he established the church of jesus christ in corinth the very gates of hell couldn't prevail against him little davy goes and throws the stone well the big man was like everybody else he was protected everywhere except in his head that's where the devil gets most people anyhow got a breastplate arm plates leg plates name plates and uh and yet his forehead little davy goes i guess he sat back and say wait for this wait for he sees the stone going up you know such a thing i never entered his head before and uh that's all it needed one stone isn't it ridiculous when you've got men trained in warfare oh come on where is the church of jesus christ got with scholarship that isn't anointed give me scholarship on fire and i'll get excited but you just start dividing the word of god as though you're up in some old laboratory and you start you know discussing or dividing or dissecting dead doctrine and through forget it give me a mouthful of sand this is refreshing the ridiculous things the weapons of our warfare are not carnal i think david would have said that if he'd known it in his day he didn't know it but paul said it later on you remember all right we're fighting against what well paul says here we're fighting against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness in high places now that's that's a pretty terrifying record isn't it they remind you of something chapter 1 verse 18 listen to what he says the eyes of your understanding now are your eyes open this is what he says if the eyes of your understanding are open then he says that you're enlightened and you know what is the hope of his calling and what are the exceeding riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints and what is the exceeding greatness of his power unto us lord who believe according to his mighty workings according to his mighty power which he wrought in christ when he raised him from the dead and has set him in his own right hand in heavenly places now now we're fighting against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world look in this verse anyhow in this verse 21 he says that jesus is far above those principalities and he has principalities above principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named now what's the opposition to the christian all right sum it up in scripture the world the flesh the devil the rulers of the darkness of this world when satan was cast down he brought down the third part of the heavenly host so there's your opposition oh of course your own lust and sinful nature the world the flesh the devil principalities powers the rulers of world systems my fleshly desires the lust of the eye and all those dazzling bewitching things that they're all militating against my spirituality that's a pretty mighty host to fight against isn't it but i said if you if you knew tomorrow morning that as soon as your children went through that door there were all kinds of monsters wanting to devour them the school system will pollute them if you've nothing else the hellishness the filth the sewers that run through schools hobo's reminded me last night he'd been reading something of wesley's you know i turned that over in my mind i'll tell you one thing he didn't fight he didn't fight a lousy school system like we do he didn't have the devil piped in on tv in every hall it was the golden age for the church of jesus christ to shake the in my judgment you know why because most people couldn't even read in his day and if the theater came to town they couldn't afford to pay to go sure they came in their thousands sure the anointing of god but the principalities and powers and rulers of darkness hadn't invaded the world as they invaded and i'm not saying he wouldn't triumph today or luther or something i'm saying the odds against the church of jesus christ are a thousand times stronger today than they were in wesley's day or luther's day the thing that used to be done in a corner is shouted from the house stops there are multiplied billions of dollars invested in filthy in pornography in in the film industry in the drink industry in the gambling industry the devil's got the whole thing sewn up so against us there are principalities and powers the rulers of the darkness of this world the satan and a third part of the heavenly host the world the flesh and the devil that's an army that's legions and you say well here i am all by myself just quoting acts 1 8 you should receive power i don't feel too strong against that multitude anyhow wait a minute wait a minute let me tell you something when jesus rose he put all things under his feet not some things all things against me the world the flesh the devil principalities and powers the rulers of the darkness of this world appetites which i have perverted unless god cleanses them but who's for me well look who's for me the father the son the holy ghost you know they're a pretty strong combination and since only a third part of the heavenly host fell then two-thirds of the heavenly host are on my side and i have the church of jesus christ i have the prayers of the saints i have all the wealth of god couched in this book the greatest book of wisdom the reason the devil drives us from it he wants us to read other books about the book rather than read the book you see because the word of god is quick and it's powerful it's like the delayed bombs people drop bombs over those awful germans drop them in england and the kind english people drop them over in germany and uh and you know what they didn't always go off when they were dropped and they learned to detect they said there's a bomb there it won't go off for 24 hours there's one day won't you know the word of god is like that sometimes you read it and sometimes you're on a plane or somewhere else and suddenly it explodes the word is quick and it's powerful you know if we ever rediscover the greatness the majesty of jesus christ in his risen glory will shake the world we've gone to sleep on it now satan as i say he's not he's greater than man but he's less than god now there's a very beautiful description of him in the 28th chapter at least the consensus of opinion is that this is about satan in the 28th of ezekiel let me read it to you verse 12 says son of man take up a lamentation upon the king of tyrus and say unto him thus saith the lord god thou sealest up the sun full of wisdom and perfect in beauty listen thou hast been in eden the garden of god every precious stone was thy covering the sardis the topaz the diamond the beryl the onyx the jasper the sapphire the emerald the carbonyl and the gold will you notice that nine of those twelve stones were in the breastplate of the high priest thy workmanship and thy tablets of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou was created thou art the anointed cherub that covereth i have set thee so thou hast upon the holy mount of god thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire thou was perfect in thy beauty thou was perfect in thy ways from the day that thou was created till iniquity was found in thee by the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence and thou hast sinned therefore will i cast thee as profane out of the mount of god and i will destroy thee all covering cherub from the midst of the stones of fire thy heart was lifted up because of thy beauty thou has corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness i will cast thee to the ground i will lay thee before kings that they may behold thee thou hast defiled by sanctuaries and the multitude of thy iniquities by the iniquity of thy traffic and then in the 14th chapter of the book of isaiah in verse 12 it says how art thou fallen from heaven oh lucifer son of the morning how art thou cut down to the ground which thou didst weaken the nations for thou has said in thine heart i will ascend into the heaven i will exalt my throne above the stars of god i will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north i will ascend above the heights of the clouds i will be like the most high yet thou should be brought down to hell to the sides of the pit now i can't conceive that that description in ezekiel is about anyone else but satan he was in the garden of eden he was the anointed cherub out of a father son and holy spirit he was the greatest being maybe that god ever it was fascinating i believe that when the woman eve saw him she she was dazzled by every precious stone was his covering he had authority he had power he had majesty he had dignity and then somehow nobody knows how he desired to be as god you see the offer to every man who falls is the offer that came in the garden of eden you should be as god in other words you shall have power satan came to jesus and said kneel before me and i'll give you power of all the kingdoms of the earth that have been offered alexander the great was offered the world he almost made it cyrus the king of persia right down to adolf hitler often power offered authority man craves for power now here's a scripture that just floors me every time i read it you can tell me about the devilish destruction you can try and estimate all the millions of people destroyed by death and wars and plagues and every diabolical thing that satan and then i'm staggered by a statement of jesus when he said to his disciples i give you power over all the power of the enemy isn't that something i'm delegating authority i'm delegating power you know if we spend as much time training people to pray as we've we've trained them to sing in choirs and people get angry if people come to me say sometime you know i feel i have a ministry of song i say well sing sing i don't care but i'll tell you what there is no gift of the spirit as a ministry of song the church is so sick today you can get somebody to come to your city and and rent an auditorium seating 5 000 people to give five dollars to sit for four hours or five hours in an all-night sing and if you paid them five dollars they wouldn't come to an all-night of prayer if we had spent the time you see prayer as we know it usually as i said prayer is preoccupation with our needs praise is preoccupation with our blessings worship is preoccupation with god jesus says when satan tempts him on the level of the flesh on the level of his personality on the level of world dominion he says listen it is written what is written thou shalt worship the lord thy god we have not taught people to worship we have not really taught people to pray i had a letter the other day asking me go to a certain school will you come and teach us for three or four days about prayer i don't know too much about it but i'll sure go no church is greater than its prayer meeting not stronger than its prayer meeting i don't care what church it is whether it's this or i preach in the church with three thousand people not too long ago three thousand people jamming the church sunday morning two thousand people a thousand midweek service that's a miracle these days but you know what holds that church together they've got lots of teenagers and 20-year-olders who are meeting all over that city in prayer and intercession and they're pouring out their hearts for revival in that city that's what the king's ransom mr carter keeps telling us the determination round he said in six months he'd lower the lower the what uh the the unemployment in in by two million in six months and somehow the lord raised it two million in the first month he was in it's a bit embarrassing the determination round well i'll tell you when i believe him when i see him swim up niagara falls it's a total impossibility paul says that we don't wrestle against flesh and blood now maybe we should say we don't wrestle at all and be honest about it you know i i i got so mad this week about the powers of darkness i'll tell you i just felt like saying a herb look i'm through with a whole bunch of you and i'm throwing myself and i'm going to shut myself on a farm i'm going to do nothing but pray seek god wrestle in prayer we're living in bankruptcy as the church of jesus christ compared with where we ought to live i'm convinced of that i'm embarrassed to be part of a church as an embarrassment to jesus he wrote that we might have principalities and powers in subjection to us the rulers of the darkness of this world mr president queen of england they have no idea that they're tools of the darkness of this world and there's nobody has eyes to see except the two believer whose eyes have been anointed you notice this that paul says you're to put on the whole armor of god it's not something automatic you've got to put it on you're not i think i'll say this you can throw me out if you but if you're a good parent you need you need 30 minutes on your knees as soon as your children leave the house every morning to cover them with the blood and protect them against the powers of the world in which we live now i mean that i'm sharing it with you you may as well throw your child in a sewer or send them to the to the to most schools they get to know more about sex impurity drugs all the devilry that's going on it's a it's a university of iniquity these days the average school and it wouldn't be so bad if it would be over in a month or you could put somebody out of office but brother i got news for it's going to get worse than it is it's not getting better and the only way to stem the tide is the church of jesus christ a militant church isn't this what it's saying doesn't say put on the armor of god it says put on the whole armor of god and it repeats it put on the whole armor of god that you may stand and withstand when you don't understand withstand the fiery darts of the devil with a shield of faith with the helmet of salvation our feet shot with the preparation of the gospel of peace again this this person we're dealing with is is no man do not jesus called him the son of god called satan a prince he called him the prince of the power of the air that's his dominion in the in the 10th chapter of what luke jesus says he witnessed satan pitched out of heaven he was thrown overboard get out of here before you contaminate any more uh angels or archangels get and god threw him in the i know godly men who will not fly a plane do you know why because you're going to the territory of satan i admire the convictions i may not share it all i'd certainly think twice before i went in that uh supersonic plane that's coming to dallas i see and uh and fly twice as high fly what eight miles high it's going to fly but satan was cast out into the air the book of the revelation says he's soon going to be cast down on the earth before he's cast down into the pit but you know we're not not to be scared because again here here is our defense we have the prayers of the saints we have one living at the right hand of the majesty on high we've already stolen his plans the apostle paul says we don't have to be ignorant of his devices if you're ignorant of the devil you're ignorant because you want to be not because you have to be we know he'll attack us on every level you may not know the moment but we know his methods jesus stole all his secrets the wires of the devil the tricks of the devil the cunning of the devil the craft of the devil principalities powers the rulers of the darkness of this world and they're all engineered they're all controlled by his majesty satan that jesus again called the prince of the power of the air do you remember what peter called him it's not a nice term he called him a roaring lion do you know what paul called him one who goes about as an angel of light i'm not in any way diminishing what finn did or wesley but i'll tell you what they want bucking a thousand cults like we are today they want two thousand gurus in this country as a matter of fact there's nobody around much but indians at that time we've two thousand gurus in this country that may be that have nested mainly with the intellectuals and many of them with young intellectual jews too missionary societies are craving for money mr sun moon has got millions of dollars and he's buying up property all over the place we've got mormonism and jehovah's witnesses we've got all the lesser cults you see the apostle he he intensifies this as he goes on in his in his writing listen listen to what he says to timothy you know i'm going to remind you of it he says this now in the last days that perilous times shall come now doesn't this sound like san antonio light tomorrow morning sign two it's our environment it's the world we swim in it's the air we breathe in dealing with somebody listen you can no more beat the devil and you can lift yourself when you choose that he's six thousand years of studying human nature and human governments and human religious systems and he knows every weakness he knows every way to pull house down he knows how destroy empires we're not wrestling flesh and blood if he did i'd take a sword i'd put on a uniform and go out and fight war is one of the delights of saint nicholas he wipes out people by the thousands they're spending millions of dollars right now to find new ways to destroy people how intelligent we are you can drop a bomb on a city that took two thousand years to build like some in germany or england and drop a bomb and you can liquidate two thousand years of history call it intelligence now this is what the apostle says we've come down to this day it's our day you'll be staggered if you realize how many key pledges have been made since the last first world war staggering i tell people sometimes they say well you're getting old i'm not old i'm antique i can remember the beginning of world war one i can remember the slogans all over england it was a war to end wars and twenty years after boys were all falling over their fathers graves in slanderous fields well that was going to be the war to end war the rocky fellers and their association all that junk at breton woods and elsewhere they engineered the united nations it's a cover-up for iniquity that's it the devilish system inspired by a bunch of jews in the beginning anyhow i'm not racial in that i'm dealing with facts we're up against world systems right now and you know what's combining together well uh communism for one materialism for another what's our doubt well we've won a few gods usually either money or course you see everything is so decayed we've never seen a healthy fact i would dare make a guess i i may be out here but i'll tell you what i think none of us may be here i haven't been in a revival we've been in a time of blessing i mean a revival is an invasion of god revival is the of the spirit of god in the church evangelism is the work of the church but i mean an invasion of god that keeps the lights on for for two or three four months at a time they never go out the sanctuary never ended it's children groaning weeping men and women who are longing for an outpouring of the spirit in some other area their death and darkness way now this man satan this person satan has a lot of names satan's one of them the prince of the power of the air is another a strange man in the book of the revelation is a badan an old lady read that he certainly is a badan really but that's one of his names in the book of the revelation a badan he's called lucifer he's even called a day star he's called satan he's called a serpent they're all different interpretations of his subtlety and his cruel and his power his deceptive power now i can remember years ago some of you can't when people pooh-poohed the idea that there's anybody like satan that's a hangover from medieval day and you know the artists of medieval times did us a great injury they typified lucifer with a red face and a pointed beard and horn now jesus said he's a teleopathy he comes like an angel of light he's so cunning and he's the chairman of the board in most churches they don't even know he's the head of the big boys at headquarters they don't even know they're government governed by his subtlety his divinity no the woman would never have fallen for some brute with a long tail and horn she'd have run screaming to Adam rescue me but she saw him she was calmed by him she was fascinated and you see you know what one gets me sometimes how conceited people are you know they get rid of lust and they now you'll listen this week i'll meet some christian and you talk to me and you know radio say something like this you know you know the devil said this to me this morning have you ever realized the apostle paul ever said that have you ever realized in the horror scan of the word of god all the new testaments the voice of satan's only heard three times he's heard in the garden do you remember jesus said he's a liar and a father of lies so if you lie you know who your father is he's a liar and he's a father of life the first thing satan did when he spoke to the woman was what he misrepresented god to man half god said oh come on you don't think god's as bad as that you don't think he'll you don't think you'll die if you oh come on god isn't like that the first thing he did was let's misrepresent god to man the next thing he did was misrepresent man to god just job served god for naught no he doesn't neither does anybody else god doesn't pay all his wages now but in the world to chance he's going to reward men and women with rewards that will astound us you know some of the greatest men that will get diadems that will make your eyes blister if you didn't have holy eyes some of the men never put their feet behind a desk and they never sat on a committee and they never organized the mission they stayed on their faces before god wrestling i've told you about an old friend of mine in england i almost tried to get a letter and i said hey there's a letter from paris oh or another one he happens to be 96 years young he happens to have been the right hand man of one of the greatest young men that lived in modern times a man by the name of evan roberts who was the key pen of revival in the welsh revival he stayed hours and nights he fed after supper at six o'clock every night when there wasn't a meeting we went and prayed from six to twelve also we need free coffee break to do that wouldn't he said in a letter not long ago brother rainier when you pray you smite the nation isn't that a nice thing to answer when you've got friends like this you don't need headaches you smite the nation when you pray you know if some of you are honest you say i don't know what you're talking about why don't you talk greek you can't remember you're late the time you laid on a belly and you didn't really say praise you pray you talked about praying in the holy ghost not praying what i want praying what god wants not praying that i may be blessed or things go easier i make a bit more money but wrestling somehow god says look there's a barrier needs to be shifted in russia or china you pray against that you don't have to anybody's applause and god comes on you with his friends and you pray maybe not with a language somebody said not recently well you know romans 8 where it says praying with groanings that cannot be uttered is praying in tongues no it's not you may pray in tongues better if you do but that's not praying in tongues it's beyond tongues as much as tongues may be on it's praying a language that has no language the point says what am i an infant crying in the night an infant crying for a light with no language but a cry that little baby cries the mother knows it needs feeding it cries half an hour after and father says well what's he doing this uh need feeding you never fill it up no dear it doesn't it's uncomfortable it needs changing it cries again oh does it eat feeding again no changing not it's frightened i'll put the light off the baby's doctor the mother has an intuition she knows when the baby it has no language but a cry and the greatest prayers in the holy ghost have no language it's a cry it's something born in the heart of god that comes into my heart i can't explain i'm wrong i'd do it if the king of england was there on this of the president of the united states of billy graham i wouldn't worry me a hell of beans just i'm a fool i'm a fanatic i don't know what i'm talking about all right wait till he opens the register in eternity and see that's why if i wake at two or three in the morning which i do most mornings anyhow i want to know why if god burdens me i'm out of bed i go in my office don't applaud it's all right i don't want anybody's opinion don't care if it'll be god tempted i do it the normal thing is go to bed and sleep if i wake up but if you've had too much supper that's your fault but if you wake up for some other reason there's no physical reason why you should wait ask god why you woke up what are you trying to say you see one of the hard things the hard thing for a believer is not is not to stand the criticism of the sinners you can do that or as the psalm one says the contradiction of sinners it's the criticism of saints that gets you down here's a little woman she's barren and she goes day after day and she prays and she weeps and she groans and the big shot priest says you know what i think that woman's going off a rocket she's drunk i'm gonna have to say something to hammer about this he didn't care what he said or what he thought she prayed you know she did one day she came in and said hey uh i want to show you something this is the baby i prayed for now what do you say you'll be amazed how many children you could have birthed into the kingdom of god if you've traveled and i'd traveled as we should have done at the right time again this isn't sugar and spice you don't preach this kind of sermon you know when you go to a banquet five dollars for a breakfast or five dollars for a supper they kick you out i know because i've had the experience that's why i don't go anymore i'm tired of playing in playpen let them play pens and blow bubbles that's their business time for action it's time for warriors we need saints but we need soldier saints to put on the whole armor of god hannah prays hannah groans read the chapter she wept she had a sore spirit a troubled spirit she prayed and she wept in a brain and she traveled in a brain and she groaned in a brain and she had a troubled spirit sure but i'll tell you what like the good book says it all turned around when the baby was born you know there's never been a revival in history that hasn't had father paul in writing and i must tell you paul writing here you know again says these are perilous times but not if he's writing to a young man like some of you fine young guys i pray for you fellows every day i pray for tlc too 50 cents to pray for the dead but uh you know timothy paul is doing is writing to a young fellow and you know when he looks at him he says oh my god if i could lift my heart out and put it into the body of that young man if i could give him my vision my passion if i could explain to him all that god revealed to me three and a half years in the wilderness god i'd do it gladly i'm old and i'm beaten and i've been stoned and shipwrecked and the night and the day in the deep in weirdness in fastings in painfulness all hell broke loose on me but i made it now lord if you put what's in me and that young man so he says to him listen timothy you're a soldier next time you say i led somebody to jesus will you do a right job don't say you've got a kingdom coming don't say you've got a mansion on main street and a five-decker tram and a free ticket to the marriage supper of the lamb and you're going to rule over five cities tell them that it won't all be true but will you whisper in the other ear and say listen you're the soldier of jesus christ in this moment you lost all rights to yourself you have no time of your own you have no money of your own you have no interest of your own this very moment you became a soldier of jesus christ now put on the armor and go out and fight a good fight of faith that's what he says to timothy hold fast fight a good fight of faith put on the whole armor of god and he says that no man but war has entangled himself with the affairs of this life i don't know why but god brought this to my mind i preached in a certain town a while ago a big husky young man came typical football you know about as big as goliath he looked enormous fellow he says i'm cutting classes every morning i'm getting so much i'm i'm going to get this all down and boy i believe god's going to work i don't know by about the third morning you're sorry he came he said i want to talk with you he says i went home last night and started praying and the lord says well sure i'll answer your prayer right away quit playing football well i'm getting a test to be a professor you told me you're a soldier quit playing football how many hours do you spend preparing for football how many hours do you spend in prayer you want to fight flesh and blood on the battlefield the fight prince of palestine now come on separate you know that big giant the tears ran down his face he said my career is gone my career is gone i can't be a pro it's not allowed to be the biggest pro you ever dreamed of once god gets over here knocks you into shape and gets on a battlefield and you start knocking devil's gun instead of men that weigh two pounds more than you do or something what's wrong with being an athlete nothing unless it keeps you of your prayer life is you see the gate lights too short this young man paul covets for him the very best that he can have and so he says don't get entangled with the affairs of this like oh it may not necessarily be a ball game it might be a girlfriend that's going to get all of you too soon but a boyfriend you see that that word discipline is almost as filthy as the word repentance no no evangelist preaches repentance it's a dirty word they kick you out well by the same word discipline it comes from the word disciple it's from the same root but we're not disciplined we're not disciples we're followers we're following so far behind the preacher can't see him and i guess the lord can hardly see him without far behind him what he's telling us to do but oh the disciplined man tell me one man that's moved his generation for god that hasn't been a disciplined man because i don't know him so mr wesley is wonderful mr wesley was never in bed after four o'clock in the morning john fletcher was never in bed after four o'clock in the morning hudson taylor said the sun never rose on china but what it found me on my feet now when that good hymn says take time to behold his feet off with our lord you see there are no leaps i was reading yesterday a chapter that we love everybody loves it so much no we don't we love part of it one century isn't it beautiful so lovely it's all about love well make you feel so nice so loving so lovely but you know we don't dwell too much on the tail end of that chapter do you know what it says paul says knowledge will cease tongues will cease nobody'll have a miracle ministry in heaven won't there be miserable and there's so many things that won't be but i'll tell you what hit me hard it was when we were up at aspirin but the herb was there wasn't his fault but this hit me hard and i meditated over it a few times right in the middle of all that excellence paul says when i became a man i put away childish things and people say you see he wasn't bothering with gifts and miracles no no no don't you don't don't say that everything that god makes is precious but i'll tell you what i believe there was a moment when paul consciously entered into manhood spiritually like a boy that has a bar mitzvah in the in the jewish faith he becomes eligible for mamas when he when he's passed that thing all right in the case of the apostle paul in the case of john john says what i write you little children i write you young men i write you fathers i don't think he's talking about them in the physical area i believe he's talking about them in the spiritual area there comes an area where a man where a boy changes to manhood i could take it to the track in the floor of a factory when i was working as about five minutes to five in 1930 and i heard the voice of the lord as clearly as was mended by the galilean sea i took my tape measure off my neck i was cutting a suit in the taylor's factory there were 8 000 people in it there were jews i worked opposite the natives the other man was a communist the other man had been something i don't know what he was a drunkard and a liar and a dirty rascal and i put my hands together there and i said lord i heard your voice and i make you a promise i won't look back i won't turn back i don't know what it means but i'm going right ahead i applied to go to a bible school you can't work your way through bible schools in england i had money and a dollar and a half and uh i wrote to the school and i hope they'd say no i just told them everything that i didn't think they should like about me you know and they said come ahead come ahead that's about the worst news i ever got it's about the only time i got really accepted fully they said come ahead brother you're the kind of fellows we're after that's all right god will make a way i got right to the end of my money i went up on the second corridor one day i'd left a broom or something there and the big fella came down he says hi lan how are you oh sir fine fine how are you enjoying this school i said uh fine are you coming back semester's nearly through turn will you say i said uh well well he said are you coming back yes or no isn't it i said well it's no and yes it's no because i have no money it's yes because god will provide a way oh is it money yeah he says i'll pay all your bills to leave school i said thank you sir in case he changed his mind i just carried down that corridor and i boy you're talking about leaping for joy hallelujah hallelujah i never traded on his generosity i never bought any new clothes i never ran a bill up he just paid for my tuition in that school right to the very last day i was there i say that because again he can do the same thing for you if that's if that's god's way for you all right i'm going to deal with putting on a helmet of salvation next week god willing but i'm going to ask you this while i think of it i'm going to ask you to pray i'm going to dave wilkerson school for three days first week in march tuesday wednesday thursday over the hedge to the used to be a gappy force now it's put in communication to teach there then up near oklahoma between not far from all roberts not far from the uh well it's the largest nazarene college in the world i think so i'm hoping to set both places on fire oral roberts's place in the nazarene uh but anyhow and we're going to have some preachers come there so i'm asking you now to pray that's all that matters that you pray i have an invitation to talk to a thousand to fifteen hundred presbyterian preachers in august which will be a great challenge now doesn't make me a hero i'm asking for your prayers because i don't have anything in myself to do it but god has if he wanted someone else he would have ordered them to go but he lets me go then up to uh another place just to the side of the southwestern what is it southwestern seminary at fort worth uh in august god has given me a tremendous burden for preachers and students particularly i feel this is a great year in america i think it's going to be a fatal year we'll be in a vastly different situation a year from now let me wind this up with this i'm saying that right now i believe that you could lift up your hands if you could plug into the world and say it in a thousand religions you could lift your hands up and cry in the words of the scripture wall to the inhabitants of the earth for the devil has come down i'm quite sure he's intensifying every power that he has to destroy the church of jesus christ in this hour in which we're living i'm sure that before long if we if if if the world carries 10 years most of us will be in concentration camps in this country i can tell you where there's a million acres reserved for this very reason and you won't be put there because you're mentally insane you'll be put there because you won't bow to the government because you won't trade with a plastic card because you won't bear a sign that can be photographed now with a laser beam on your on your forehead and you can't see it that all money will have been destroyed and credit cards only will be accepted i'm going to tell you something else i want it's a secret but it's a terrifying thing i said that it's can i take five more minutes okay i said a few years ago nobody accepted the devil as a person they ridiculed him and i remember reading a poem years ago that said something like this men don't believe in a devil now as their fathers used to do they forced the door of the broadest creed to let his majesty through there isn't a print of his clothes and who for a dark from his fiery bow to be found in the earth or air today for the world has voted it so who is it's mixing the fatal draft of drought drop the fate of who is it mixing the fatal draft uh the poises let me say who is it mixing the fatal drought that pulses heart and brain who fills the beer you know you carry a dead corpse on the beer who fills the beard of this passing year with ten thousand thousand slain who blights the bloom of the youth today with a fiery breath of hell if the devil isn't and never was won't somebody rise and tell who does the steps of a toiling saint who digs a pit for his feet who shows the tears in the fields of time wherever god shows his wheat for the devil is voted not to be and so the thing is true but who is doing the kind of work the devil alone should do we're told he doesn't go about like a roaring lion now then who shall we hold responsible for the everlasting row to be found in home and church and state to earth's remotest bounds if the devil by unanimous vote is nowhere to be found won't someone step to the front forthwith and make his bow and show how the crimes and frauds of a single day spring up we want to know for the devil is voted not to be so of course the devil's gone we simple folk would like to know who carries his business on yes he did things secretly yes we know there was an occult system i met an old man in the alliance who had been on the roof of the world in 1914 just before 1914 he was in tibet he was known for casting out demons he had a tremendous ministry in it he went to cast out demons he climbed one of those icy mountains and he went to cast out demons on a girl and as he cast out the demons in her said listen leave us alone we're only little demons that man whose name i forget we have a book on him somewhere do you remember christy christy of the alliance remember oh christy i heard him once i'd have crossed the atlantic i heard that man pray for 10 minutes i would cross the atlantic to hear him pray he's dead now you talk about praying i'll tell you where it was it was in the opera house in chicago we're having a big mass meeting there that old saint he was blind he he felt for the thing like this you know and you know he opened heaven the glory of god came down i thought i don't wonder you've powered all the demons and you know the demons in that girl said we're only little demons and christie said where are the big ones you know they said audibly the big ones have gone over the mountains to europe to help in the war principalities and powers the rulers of the darkness of this world testifying unconsciously that they were agents of the devil helping to engineer war helping to confuse minds helping to stir up enmity and hatred now we've got the high priest of devilry in the country this little woman vasilia slink do we sell a book persecution i haven't seen it till yesterday it was printed she wrote it in 1973 it was printed in english in england in 1974 printed in this country the same time i got it yesterday but right on time you see there's a priest a great high priest they call him a black pope anton levy oliver lovey he started the satan movement this is what he said he substantiates his thesis by referring to those of walt hult that's the guy that started the uh illuminati and all the rest of that junk all right he calls himself a practicing satanist lovey drives a car with the license plate satan nine he has a black house in san francisco with a ritual chamber for satan he has written the satanic bible and on the next page it says in michigan at a bookstore near a college they sell 100 copies of the satanic bible for every one that they sell of our bible that's the influence that he had the satanic cults i'll pay my lovey himself said that the satanic age began in 1966 when the theologians said that god is dead and when sexual freedom league came into prominence and the hippies formed their free sex culture from that point on satan satanic cults have expanded in every major city in the united states there were 450 priests ordained to the satanic movement in 1971 in the same year 4 000 people gathered to worship the devil in michigan all right here's the other thing they have a takeoff of the lord's supper the consecrated waivers are passed round and you're invited to become part of the body of the devil during the cultic rituals incense was mixed with hashish and whiskey and other alcoholic drinks were served instead of wine and the most infernal music provided the background for these vile scenes now for centuries satan's policy has to be to spread the belief that he doesn't exist but now today he's come out into the open anthony levay i call him the apostle of iniquity has established this this church which he says is a satan church it's a counter to the churches we know it and it is registered as a religious body in america which means again it's tax-free now what does this man say about his goals he says this in his opinion satanism will lead to totalitarian world government in this police state the leaders would practice black magic the weak members of society would be eliminated and satanism made the state religion it is no surprise to hear that levay has the appropriate flag in his chamber do you know what it is the flag of the us sr united states of soviet russia hanging it hangs in his lower chamber furthermore books about satanism are published by a cult by a communist press and sold in large bookstores on the west coast of america operated by the communist party now this is what is the effect of satanism communism in its various forms has already shown itself true with the grotesque wholesale slaughtering of 120 million lives but now satanism is unmasking itself beneath the mask now we see what murder carnage and sadism now listen to this in los angeles a young lady schoolteacher was murdered when they found the corpse her heart was missing her lungs were missing other parts of her body wasn't were missing and they had been used by a documented statement here they had been used in a sacramental ceremony in a ceremonial sacrifice to the devil in another case a 21 year old murderer told a criminal investigator satan is my master so he took off the victims and leg legs and arms and then he ate the heart of the man he killed he ate he pulled it out living in blood and he ate the heart do you think how diabolical a person can become cut off his fingers cut off the members of his body ate his heart out of his flesh a week later when he was arrested in salinas in california he was in possession of a satanic bible and he had the skeleton fingers of a man that he destroyed in 1971 in new jersey a young boy persuaded two other boys to kill him murder him and destroy him because he said i shall arise from the dead and i shall come back as a leader of a legion of demons a young female satanist who wears who swears she once saw the devil himself during a black ceremony was convicted of manslaughter for stabbing a 60 year old man and she said i enjoyed doing it and she said this while she was giving elaborate ritual in a prison cell in miami the manson family declared that they practiced black magic and all that it is you know made sex headlines all right here's the last thing the rise of the church of satan is an unmistakable sign of the times we're living in the day has come when communism and satanism are achieving their common goals these are the goals revolution chaos persecution of christians the takeover of world power the formation of a world state a world ministry system and a world government and right now mr carter says i want to normalize relations with china which liquidated 42 million christians i want to get a little closer to russia with all its diabolical destruction of the church of jesus christ in that country not totally destroyed but you see the enemy has come in like a flood and you know what god says and here's our hope against this flood of iniquity this avalanche of devilry thank god for wesley finney i get a lot of thrills out of them they never faced public pornography wasn't it this week they voted in miami whether to allow topless bathing there go down some streets and you're blessed if you go down some streets there in in in san antonio these other cities where they have vile nude parlors and all the other devilry we've such a flood of pornographic literature and filthy films and everything else the devil's having a whale of a time and yet god has said this and this is my hope i'll tell you what i have no hope in organized religion as such 25 years the big shot evangelists have had millions of money and they haven't moved this nation to god not one of them so god's gonna do a new thing as sure as my name is leonard ramsey's gonna do it you know how i know because number one he said when the enemy comes in like a flood and he has never come in like a flood like he asked today but when the enemy comes in like a flood the spirit of the living god not something we organize not something we woke up but something that god sends down something supernatural to counter that which is supernatural but instead of just the supernatural it's the super person himself the lord jesus christ in all his supremacy who already has everything under his feet we have to explore the possibilities of grace and then finally a word that cheered me up as i read it today oh they went through hell to get there sure they did what do you think god's going to do give us all a rolls-royce and a mansion some of us may find the greatest times of prayer in jail we may have the most exciting times we're in the concentration camp up north but they've already got with a million acres but not only have we the promise that when the enemy has come in like a flood not only have we the promise that he is above all principalities and powers we have another promise they overcame him how by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony you know that rung a bell in me i like choruses i like hymns but i'll tell you what all the new choruses are about love and sweetness and blessing and hallelujah there's a shocking diminishing of appreciation of the blood of jesus christ most of the modern chorus and you don't defeat the devil by singing or by organizing there's one thing that terrifies the devil and that is the blood of jesus christ god's son because by jesus destroyed principalities and he destroyed powers now he says i've made all the provision what are you going to do are you going to put on the whole armor of god are you ready to start sweating you've been singing long enough you're going to start sweating do some fasting drawing some lines and saying to satan you're not going to pass that line you see satan's got an awful lot of power i sometimes wish i could have edged up to some of those men that prayed in the old testament i'd like to have prayed with daniel wouldn't you man that must have been something you know he prayed he didn't get an answer for three weeks and he didn't panic he said it's all right god's got it all worked out one day a beautiful person came to him says hi you know the very first day you prayed god heard you and i was coming back to you how things were going and i got a block in heaven i met the prince of persia he withstood me what you expect me to prevail where the prince of persia held up one of god's holy beings he held me up for three weeks but i got through to you and i want to tell you what god said you know i kind of think if uh the prayers of daniel could be held up for three weeks mine could be held up for three years the way i pray i don't sweat and toil too much i do sometimes i cry i weep i call on god but you think of this there are barriers in the heaven you know maybe one day when you're praying god will tell you what the what the high priest of devilry is what the demon is that hangs over san antonio or the god of lust that hangs over hollywood or the god of courageousness that hangs over las vegas or the god of confusion that has his headquarters right over the white house and all those other boys up there that was the secret of revival in in in the in argentina the boy the man that our dear paul has worked with for 10 years miller god showed him he says there's a there's a demon over this area and and you know the scripture says you don't grab a crusade and then pray you first bind the strong man that's why i say you pray for me six months ahead of now because if we get him tied up here it'll be easy there if you leave me to sweat and toil and boil while i'm preaching man i it's had enough waking people never mind shitting the devil so you better get underweight and put some weight behind it and pray and believe god and say lord i'm believing you for victory in every one of those meetings where brother raymond has a chance to pray to preach to preachers this is our confidence our weapons are not carnal you can't have a marvelous sword you can't have a shield with diamonds you can't make a helmet but i'll tell you what we've got the blood of the lamb the lion of the tribe of judah hath prevailed no man was found worthy to open the books oh that's his picture i told the students the other week there at asbury i said this is the most scaring scripture i think in the in the awesomeness of eternity that no man was found worthy and he said do you know what he said there was nobody in heaven on the earth under the earth or in the sea now that's pretty good going if you can find any place after that go i don't want to go with you nobody in heaven nobody on the earth no there was nobody found and i wept and you know that word weeping is the same word that jesus wept over jerusalem it isn't somebody because they've got a broken finger it's a man with a broken heart nobody can take the books out of the hand of him on the phone the title deeds of the universe are there and suddenly a voice said weep not i wonder he doesn't say that john jumped 3 000 miles in the air weep not the lion of the tribe of judah has prevailed and he takes the book out of the hand of him that sat upon the throne and he's worthy he's worthy let's see that we put on the whole armor you pray you've never prayed before for those children you pray you've never prayed god showed me coming to the prayer meeting wednesday night i was coming down the road i thought there won't be a crowd there and the lord said you know what i did i put a star in the sky people came thousands of miles because of the star i'll put a star over your fellowship and people will come i believe he'll do it if we obey him let's sing a hymn that we love so much