Foiling Satan's Strategy

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Episode Transcript

(00:08):
We're bringing a series of message oftwo messages in a series of two on
the theme of spiritual warfare, andthis morning this is the first in that
series, and we've entitled it FoilingSatan's Strategy. I want to read a
couple of passages of scripture. Doesn'tmean just brief verses. You don't have
to turn to them if you don'twant to. The first ones in the

(00:29):
second chapter of Second Corinthians, wherewe hear Paul saying in verse nine in
ten and eleven, the reason Iwrote you was to see if you would
stand the test and be obedient ineverything. If you forgive any one,
I also forgive him, and whatI forgiven, if there was anything to
forgive, I have forgiven in theside of Christ for your sake, in
order that Satan might not out withus, for we are not unaware of

(00:54):
his schemes. And then Paul reiteratesthat over in that familiar passage in the
last chapter of Ephesians and Ephesians chaptersix, in verses ten and the verses
following, he says, finally,be strong in the Lord and in his
mighty power, to put on thefull armor of God, so that you
can take your stand against the devil'sschemes. For our struggle is not against

(01:18):
flesh and blood, but against therulers, against the authorities, against the
powers of this dark world, andagainst the spiritual forces of evil in the
heavenly realms. Therefore, put onthe full armor of God, so that
when the day of evil comes,you may be able to stand your ground,
and after you have done everything tostand So. There are many places
in the scripture that remind us thatwe are engaged in a spiritual warfare.

(01:41):
There is a war taking place betweentwo kingdoms, the Kingdom of God and
the Kingdom of Satan. And oneof the temptations of Jesus, Satan took
him up unto as recorded in Luke. For in one of the other gospels,
Satan took Jesus to the top ofa high mountain and showed him all
the kingdoms of the world in amoment of time. And he said,
see all these their mind, becausethey've been delivered unto me, and I

(02:04):
can give them to anybody I wantto, and they'll all be yours if
you'll only bound down and worship me. And of course Jesus refused. But
the interesting thing was that the Lorddidn't deny Satan's claim. There is a
sense in which we are engaged inthis war between two kingdoms, the Kingdom
of God and the Kingdom of Satan. The Kingdom of Satan involves all of
this world's principalities and powers, thepresent world systems over in first John,

(02:30):
I think it is there's a littlescripture that says where John says, we
know that the whole world lies inthe bosom of the wicked one. Now
he's talking about the present world orderof things. And in a sense,
if you're not in the Kingdom ofGod, there's only one other kingdom to
be in, and that's the Kingdomof Satan. I was interested in what
Earned was commenting a little earlier aboutwhen he was talking about the Word of

(02:53):
God and then Satan's counter communication,And what he said was, if I
recall it accurately, who says thatif you're not speaking for God, then
basically you're being affected by Satan's countercommunication. So we are in a war
between these two kingdoms, and wewant to talk about the strategy of Satan
in that war. Anytime there's awar going on, it's important if you're

(03:15):
going to win that war, youneed to know something about the enemy strategy.
To be ignorant of his strategy isgoing to cost you a lot.
Whereas if you can determine Satan's strategyor determine the enemy strategy, then you
begin to be in a place whereyou're able to conduct your defense or your
offense in light of what you knowabout his strategy and thus to gain the

(03:37):
victory. Now, Satan has astrategy, but we have often, as
Paul to paraphrase Paul, we haveoften let him out with us. Paul
said said, we don't want himto outwit with us, and we're not
unaware of his schemes, but alot of the church is to a large
degree, and in many situations wehave allowed him to outwit us. And
worse than that, we have notbeen privy to his schemes. We have

(03:59):
not understood his strategy. So inthis lesson, I'm want to present some
things which I hope will help usto foil Satan's strategy. To do that,
I would like for us to beable to discredit and cast aside nine
common but unscriptural attitudes. We're goingto be talking about nine different attitudes or
positions that people take Nine common butunscriptural attitudes fostered by Satan but held by

(04:26):
Christians, which keep them from fulfillingthe biblical commission to engage in spiritual warfare,
or more particularly to cast out demons. Now there is the broader aspect
of spiritual warfare, but in thesetwo sessions we're going to be talking about
demonic activity. Even as Charles hasalready introduced the subject. Nine commonly held

(04:48):
but unscriptural attitudes which Christians hold,which have been given us by Satan,
but which keep us from filling fromfulfilling the Biblical commission to cast out demons.
The first one, the number oneattitude, is the unreasonable fear and
anger, sometimes fury, even hysteriathat can crop up when the subject of

(05:13):
Satan and evil spirits is mentioned.I probably wouldn't be too true with too
many of you here, but itis often true in many places in the
Body of Christ, and many timesin my own experience through the years,
I'll run into this strange and unusualthing. It's almost unbelievable how upset people
can get at the very mention ofthe subject. Brother James Robinson, the

(05:36):
evangelist was in here a few weeksago for some meetings, and he met
with some of the pastors, andwe did an interview with him far New
Wine magazine, which is going toappear in I guess in the next issue
or the March issue. And oneof the things he pointed out was that
some places where he goes and teachesnow because he's gotten into the deliverance ministry

(05:58):
and he's begun to take a standagainst Satan because he's testified even to his
own miraculous deliverance from demon power afew years ago, and now he's beginning
to teach and preach these things.But he remarked in the interview, he
said, the unusual thing is thatsome places where I go and teach and
preach on this from the Scripture,he says, I'm accused of preaching obscenities
when all he's doing, basically isjust revealing what's in the Word of God.

(06:21):
And yet he says, I'm accusedof preaching obscenities. I'll never forget
a number of years ago when brotherDerek and I were first ministering together,
and we were in a meeting outand out in one of the Midwestern states,
a seminar and the sponsoring committee hadgot together to talk about the teaching
sessions, and I was asked toa minister to teach on deliverance, and

(06:43):
the minister on it. And therewas a minister and his wife in that
sponsoring committee who just suddenly went berserkat the mention of the fact that there
was going to be teaching about demons. And the woman stood up and shriek
said, I'm not even going tostay in the room if you talk about
demons, and she hot footed itout of the room, and her husband
went after. He said I'm notgoing to stay around this fanaticism, and
they just left that kind of unreasonable, almost inexplicable kind of attitude. And

(07:10):
yet it's not as strange, notas strange as some might think. Deep
inside, we all have a certainreluctance, I guess is for one of
a better way out, have tosay, and it's something that I had
to overcome, and everybody I knowwho's engaged in spiritual warfare has to overcome
a certain reluctance to consider this subjector to get involved in it. We'd

(07:31):
like to forget all about it.Part of the problem I think is our
church heritage. We've come up throughyears of experience in the church where everything
has to be, you know,real nicey nice, and everything be done
all decently in order, and sowe have this kind of natural loathing not
to want to get into anything unpleasant, and of course the devil and demons
are unpleasant. When Alice now werefirst married many years ago, we were

(07:56):
the religious training center up in Baltimore, Maryland, shortly after we got married,
and I remember at a conference theyhad there a returned missionary from China.
The older the lady who had beena real faithful warrior in the mission
field, and apparently it got struckdown by demon power. She came home
with a nervous breakdown, and shewas there at the conference and trying to

(08:16):
recover, and in one of theworship services, a devotional services in a
small room one morning, where somebodywas sharing some things about the Lord,
suddenly she began to scream out,I don't want to hear that name Jesus
anymore. I'm just sking tired ofthat name Jesus, she said. And
I don't want to hear it anymore. I'm just tired of it. And
of course we all got upset andshe rushed out of the room and a
huff. And that afternoon another missionary, who identified the problem as being one

(08:41):
of demon torments, suggested that someof us go down to the dormitory where
this woman had taken refuge and wasstaying. And the missionary asked if i'd
come along. There was three orfour of us to go down and pray
for this lady. And I canremember the sense of fear and foreboding and
how nervous I was as we walkedacross this retreat ground campus going to that

(09:03):
dormitory. It was all I coulddo to make myself stay with the others,
you know. And we got downto the dormitory. Then the missionary
got cold feet, and the missionersaid, well, let's just stay down
here in the lobby and pray forher upstairs. And all of us were
really relieved, and we're willing todo that. But you know where that
sort of thing comes from. Itdoesn't come from God. Sometimes when I'm

(09:26):
teaching about this, I get thefeeling a little facetious about it. It's
almost like I can see the Lordstanding before a group of his ministers and
encouraging them to get out in ministry, and he says something like this,
you know, all power is mine, Go therefore and preach the gospel and
save souls. And everybody stands andsays, amen, Lord, we'll go

(09:46):
and preach the gospel and we'll savesouls. And the Lord says, all
power is mine. Go and layhands on the sick and they'll recover.
And the crowd says, amen,Lord, we'll go lay hands on the
sick and they'll recover. And theLord says, all power is mine,
Go and cast out demons, andeverybody says, how's that again? An

(10:11):
unnatural, sometimes almost hysterical, negativeresponse to the whole subject. It's the
first of the attitudes that the devilhimself sponsors. Corey tin Boom, that
blessed lady who went to be withthe Lord just a few months ago,
who was herself in her ministry,engaged in the deliverance ministry casting out demons,
wrote a little book some years agosome of you may be familiar with,

(10:33):
just a little book that called DefeatedEnemies, and in which she made
a very obvious but a very truestatement. She said, the fear of
the demons is from the demons themselves. And I've come to see in my
own years of ministry that basically,anyone who has that inordinate kind of reluctance
or resistance or fear or hysteria aboutthis subject, in all likelihood he or

(10:56):
she needs spiritual health. He orshe needs deliverance themselves. So the first
attitude fostered by Satan but held byChristians, that we encounter in this subtle
strategy of his, is this oneof instilling in people an unreasonable fear or
anger or fury even at the mentionof the subject. Okay, now,

(11:20):
soon then that we've dealt with thatone and cast it aside, let's talk
about the second one, the secondattitude. The devil is very sly and
very sneaky, and he's always hewill shift his strategy according to our particular
stance or our particular position on certainthings. So if we get past that
first fury, then he comes upwith a second one, which is there,
Well, there's really no such thingas a devil or demons. That's

(11:45):
the second one of Satan's deceptions inhis strategy, which an awful lot of
the Church has bought. Now more, we would be more apt to see
that in liberal Christianity and among liberaltheologians and pastors and teachers. Nevertheless,
it's one that a lot of Christianscling to. There is no such thing
as a devil or demons, nosuch thing as a literal devil or demons.

(12:05):
Now, I was a project,a graduate of Bible College and seminary
like a number of you have been, Charles and Bob and Earn and others,
went to Bible College and down inOklahoma, and it was a kind
of a liberal college or school anda seminary training. And this is the
kind of thing that I was taughtconstantly. Although we had good biblical scriptural

(12:26):
teachers, teachers of scripture, menwho loved God and who loved the Word.
But the commonly held belief that wasnot only believed but taught there was
that there is no such thing asa literal devil or as literal demons.
In other words, there's no suchthing as personal evil. There's a general
evil, or there's all other kindsof explanations for it. It's the dark

(12:46):
side of human personality or all ofthese sort of things. And usually the
kind of people that the kind ofmen that hold those positions whom we would
call liberal or sometimes even humanists,or those who deny the authority of scriptures
not only deny that, of course, they deny the virgin birth, they
deny the bodily resurrection, They denythe efficacy of the cross, they deny

(13:07):
the uniqueness of the revelation of thescripture, and put their own intellects above
the word of God. Paul talksabout that over in First Corinthians chapter two,
where at least it's a scripture thatI apply to it. First Corinthians
chapter two, the fourteenth verse,where he says, the man without the

(13:31):
spirit does not accept the things thatcome from the spirit of God, for
they are foolishness to him, andhe cannot understand them because they are spiritually
discerned. Well less a man hasa grasp of actual spiritual revelation, and
what the Bible says does become follyto him. It's I think his earn
this morning was talking about how reasonand philosophy replace divine revelation. And so

(13:54):
I spent years in that kind ofenvironment and Bible college and seminary, where
it was constantly impressed upon me allthe reasons why the Bible couldn't be true.
That seemed to me the professors weremore concerned about explaining why those things
weren't true or couldn't be true,than why they are. Now there's behind
that, there's a kind of copout. You understand, If you can

(14:16):
persuade yourself or other people that thedevil and demons did not exist, that
there isn't a personal evil that hasto be resisted, that we do not,
then we don't have to get engagedin warfare. You know. You
can handle it through counseling, oryou'll handle it through some sort of philosophical
discussion, or you'll try to handlethose things in some of the kind of
ministry. But it's a common kindof teaching that is still excellent in the

(14:41):
church today. I remember the favoritephrase of my professors went something like this.
They said, even Jesus himself reallydidn't believe these things. What they
said was that the Lord accommodated himselfto the superstitions of the simple Galileean peasants,
you know, and that even theLord himself knew better than that.
And more than just what they said, the thing that really used to bug

(15:03):
me was the smugness with which theysaid it, and it's almost like if
you were really dumb or stupid enoughto believe the Bible, and okay,
but anybody with real intellect are ourintelligence or real reason, of course I
would not believe those things. Theywouldn't know better. And they were so
positive, you know, in thatsmugness always reminded me. I think it
was Oscar Wilde who gave the definitionof being positive. He said, to

(15:26):
be positive is to be mistaken atthe top of your voice. And I've
come to is I know most ofyou men have come to the position of
accepting the literal truth of the scriptures. And I learned in this minister and
others from personal experience that that's awhole lot better to accept the truth of

(15:50):
biblical teaching. And it's a lotbetter also to then apply biblical methods in
your ministry. And I found avery pressure and wonderful thing happening. That
is, if you accept the truthof the scriptures, if you will and
then if you will apply, ifyou will apply the methods of Scripture,
a very wonderful thing happens. Youget the results that Scripture promised. And

(16:12):
so once you accept the truth thatthe devil and demons are real, and
once you begin to apply the ministrythat Jesus gave for them, then you
see the results. See people setfree. But that's the second lie of
the nine, that there's no suchthing as the devil or demons. Now
there's a progression to these lies.You'll see as we go along. So

(16:33):
let's cast fast one aside and say, yes, we do take the Lord's
teaching literally. There is a literaldevil, literal demons. There is a
heaven and a hell. There areangels and demons. So the third one
the devil would trip us up onis this. Yeah, the devil is
real, but he's too powerful tomess with you. Just better let him
alone. In fact, I've hadI don't know how many Christians through the

(16:53):
years quote something to me as ifit were scripture. Well, I just
leave the devil alone. He'll leaveme alone. And boy, there's nothing
that could be further from the truth. And that over In First Peter,
fifth chapter, Peter makes a computergives some advice to the people he's writing

(17:14):
to. In verse eight and nine, he says, be self controlled and
alert your enemy. The devil prowlsaround like a roaring lion, looking for
someone to devour, resist him,standing firm in the faith. There's no
place in the scripture where we're toldto be passive in our attitude towards the
devil or toward evil spirits. WhatPeter says is that he not only is

(17:37):
real, he goes around roaring likea line, seeking the people that he's
going to eat up. Now,it doesn't say he is a roaring line.
He says he makes a noise likeone. And there is a difference.
Once we understand what our authority isas Christians, we don't have to
be afraid of the roar. It'sa little like what Charles was talking about
while ago, about the pastor andthe lines and the bears. We have

(18:00):
the authority not only to resist him, but to deal with him, because
he isn't a roaring line. Heonly makes a noise like one. And
the truth is that when we ministerto the needs of our people, we
minister from the vantage point of avictory that's already been one in Jesus Christ.
But although that victory has been imputedto us, it hasn't necessarily been
imparted to us. In other words, the victories won, but we have

(18:22):
to apply it. The devil stilloccupies a lot of territory that he doesn't
have any legal right to, andhe exercised what's called squatters rights until he's
pushed off. And the fact thatthe warfare is finished in the heavenlies the
fact that Jesus could truthfully say onthe Cross it is finished, it's all
been done. Still has to beappropriated. The truth of that has to

(18:44):
be appropriated within our own lives.And all we do is get into a
lot of great pain and injury bytrying to ignore him. I was thinking
yesterday afternoon, some of us werewatching some of the Super Bowl, and
I was watching those linemen Super Bowlgame. I was watching those linemen collide
with each other and wins, justto see the force with which they hit
each other. Those guys get hurt, and yet they're in the game to

(19:07):
play and to win. And there'sa sense in which you can like in
football, I think the spiritual warfare, there is a difference, and that
is that in the football game,you have to get in the only way
you don't get you don't get hurtif you're still sitting on the bench.
But that's not quite true in spiritualwarfare, you get chunks taken out of
you, even if you're sitting onthe bench. So why not go ahead
and get into the battle. Surethere's going to be some pain, and

(19:30):
sometimes their injuries take place, andsometimes there are casualties. But we are
we are told not to be passive. We are told to engage in that
kind of warfare. The devil's abully, he likes the bully people,
and bullies have to be stood upagainst. It was tickled to hear Dick
Leggett, my son in law,tell about an experience with their oldest son,

(19:51):
Christopher, recently at school was beingbullied by a kid that was bigger
and tougher and meaner and teasing Christopherand calling him a sissy and this sort
of thing. And Dick talked toChristop and talked to the teacher and said,
my son's going to stand up tothat. And the next time,
he told Christopher, the next timethat happens, Christopher, you bust that
guy in the nose. He said, we're not violent people, and we
don't believe that sort of thing,but your manhood's being challenged. You hit

(20:11):
him. And so next time thisbig bully came up to Christopher. Christopher
told him to stop. The bullysaid again, Christopher pasted him one right
in the nose, knocked him down. Guy's nose begin he began to cry,
and well, oh, you hitme in the nose. My nose
had been but had put an endto the problem, all right. So

(20:33):
it's the third lie of the devilfor him to say that. He makes
to say, yeah, the devilis real, but he's really too powerful
and you better let him alone.There's no place in the scripture where we're
told to be passing towards Satan.And yet my personal observation would have to
be that a good seventy five percentof the body of Christ seems to be

(20:55):
intimidated by there's something about us thatwe just And I don't want to be
critical overly critical, but I doget upset. I do get concerned.
I think sometimes here we sing thistremendous song. You know this course,
there's a light shining forth. Ican see it on the horizon. It's
the army of God preparing for war, coming, conquering victorious over the armies

(21:15):
of Satan. You know, nothingcan stand before the army of God,
the army of God coming conquering victoriousover the armies of Satan, and yet
seventy five percent the church doesn't wantto get into hand to hand combat with
the infantry. What is the armiesof Satan if it doesn't include the demon
power. It's one thing to singthat song like you're marching in a parade,
and it's great to see soldiers marchingin parades, but that's not what

(21:37):
soldiers are primarily recruited for, tomarching the parades. They're recruited to do
the combat. So the next timewe sing that song, some of you
guys think of it in terms ofthe combat that's supposed to take place,
not just in the marching of theparade. Third, lie of the devil
is real, but he's too powerfulto mess with, Okay, no Number
four. Yeah, well, demonsare real, but the deliverance ministry isn't

(22:00):
for today. That was all rightand New Testament times, but that's not
the way it is today. Nowmost of you realize that that basically comes
from a dispensationalist theology, which Itrust that not many of us or hold,
or if any, and we're familiarwith that heresies. Again, it
was the kind of thing I wastaught in seminary, and they have such
eloquent descriptions of that, you know, you know, I just talk about

(22:22):
the miracles of the New Testament,you know, the healings and the speaking
in tongues, and the prophecy andthe casting out demons. The professor used
to say, all of those charismaticsigns and wonders and gifts there they were
like scaffolding erected around the church whilethe church was being built, and once
the church was established. You don'tneed scaffolding after a building is built,

(22:47):
so the scaffolding is torn away.Doesn't it sound sweet? Doesn't that sound
just so logical? Therefore you don'tneed the scaffolding. We have the church.
Or sometimes they'd say, well,we have the New Testament. They
said, the miracles of the thatyou read about New Testament were only there
for that age. Or they'll saythe age of miracles has passed, the
age of miracles died with the apostlesor the ones they laid their hands on.

(23:10):
Well, that somehow has very subtlyworked its way into the lives of
a lot of Christians. And ofcourse we had to come back that when
we came into the charismatic renewal,and we know it isn't true. And
yet there are Christians. He's someeven charismatic Christians who still take a kind
of inconsistent position that, well,yeah, there was a lot of casting
out and demons in Jesus day,and the deliverance ministry was operat even that

(23:30):
day, but it's not operat evennow. Some even go so far as
to say, well, you know, since we have the Bible, and
since the Cross, and since Jesusdied and Satan's been defeated, there aren't
any of those things anymore. Youknow. It's just like we live in
a new We live in a kindof a new age where there is no

(23:51):
such thing as the deliverance ministry.That familiar scripture in Hebrews thirteen eight says
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever. It's my friend,
dear old friend I had years agonamed Rufus Mosley, who was a great
old saint and the Bible teacher hada tremendous influence on my life, used
to quote that scripture and he say, yeah, Jesus Christ the same yesterday,

(24:11):
today and forever, and that meanswhat he was he is, and
what he said he says, andwhat he did he does, and everything
that happened then still happens today.But that heresy of dispensationalism which has creeped
into our own life and experienced that, Yeah, well, demons are real,
and maybe Satan's real and demons arereal, but the deliverance ministry is
not for today. That was heresynumber four, wrong attitude number four.

(24:38):
Let's go to number five. Methink, me think thou dost protest too
much out there? Somebody. You'llhave to forgive me if I get a
little touchy about this, the negativeattitude, the fifth live Satan. Yeah,

(25:03):
there is a valid deliverance ministry anddemons are ill, but it's not
for Christians because Christians can't have demons. Boy, that is the favorite,
that is really the favorite of Christians, even charismatic Christians. That's a favorite,
most favorite cop out of all.I ran into that flax so much
I finally ended up writing a littleboo about it called can a Christian have
a Demon? And I wish thati'd well, I wish that I'd heard

(25:30):
it said before when somebody else said, well, yeah, Christian can have
anything he wants. To judge andCornwall, I think it was he said,
yeah, sure, Christian can havea demon. He can have anything
he wants. But there is atheology that says Christians can't have evil spirits,
and that is such a comforting thingfor the fellows to hide behind.
This. This is especially true amongtraditional Pentecostal churches. And yet I know

(25:51):
in the early days of Pentecost frommy own reading and research and from personal
friends that I had, were inthe early days of the Pentecostal move in
nineteen ten and nineteen twenty, andthose days they did cast out demons.
It's only after the time they beganto get respectable, but they begin to
develop a theology that says you can'thave one. I used to see or
Roberts casting out demon in his healingline in the Old Tent back in the

(26:11):
nineteen fifties. Boy he was dramaticat it, but he didn't say much
about it anymore. I think there'ssomething a pressure to become respectable, and
I think part of the part ofthe reason for this is that that that
we want to we want to maintainour reputations, and there are a lot

(26:33):
of There are a lot of wellversed arguments that come up against this.
I remember a woman out in Ohioone time. The part of the problem
is they use this term, weuse this term spirit filled, and we
use it in an inaccurate way.Years ago, when I was writing Face
Up with a Miracle, I usedto use the term spirit field and spirit
baptized synonymously, using them meaning thesame thing. But Lord showed me that

(26:57):
it's one thing to be spirit filled, it's something else to be spirit baptized.
I am not spirit filled all thetime. I am spirit baptized,
and I have been baptizing the spirit, and I am baptizing the spirit,
and that's a settled issue. ButI'm not baptized. I'm not full of
the spirit all the time. Now, in the day of Pentecost, they
were baptized and filled with the spirit. But people who use that phrase a

(27:18):
spirit feel Christian. Then they say, well, how can a spirit feel
Christian have a demon? Well,sure, if a person was absolutely full
of the spirit, there wouldn't beroom for anything else in there. But
the truth is we're not full ofthe spirit all the time. You're spirit
baptized, but you're not necessarily spiritfeeling. At times in ministry, I
feel like maybe I am for awhile, but I'm not all the time.
Let me tell you how you cantell or whether or not you're really

(27:41):
spirit filled. You really want toknow whether or not your spirit feeled.
Check and see what spills over whenyou're jostled. See what spills over when
you're jostled, your spirit feeled Christian? Buy your new Pontiac, drive it
off the showroom floor. Praise God, hallelujah. God provides wonderfully. Heading

(28:02):
down the street with its some knitwit and old beat up pick up,
runs a stop sign, creams theside of your Pontiac, you know,
two blocks from the showroom and flowingyour spirit feel Christian? Oh, praise
God. Brother, I was justwanting God to send me someone to pray
for, and brother, you're theone. Well now, if you can
do that, you're a spirit feelChristian. But do you crawl out of
that pontact you say you knit wit? Didn't you see that stops? And

(28:22):
look what you've done? What isit? The jostle's over? Well,
if we were really full of thespirit all the time, there wouldn't be
room for anything else, But we'renot lay. This lady in Ohio came
to me and said, I'll bringyou said brother Bashum said, I'll bring
you a glass of water, andI'll fill it full up all the way
to the rim. She says,how can there be anything else in there?
And I said, sister, Iknow what you're talking about. But

(28:44):
suppose I hand you a glass it'sgot three little dirty pebbles in the bottom,
and you fill it all full ofthat nice, pure water, fill
it right up to the brim.What's happened to the dirty pebbles? They're
still there. And I said toher, and I've said many times,
you say you're a spirit fuel Christian. Yes I am. Well, you
have Jesus Christ in you. He'sperfect sinlessness and perfect moral purity, isn't

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And neill say, yes, Well, if you have Jesus Christ in you
and he's perfect sinlessness, how canyou sin? You have Jesus Christ in
you, he's perfect health and perfecthealing, how can you get sick?
See? If we were really fullof the spirit all the time, these
things wouldn't be possible. But Christiansdo sin, and they do get sick,
and it's by the same token.They can be trouble or tormented by
spirits for which God has provided aministry the same as he has forgiveness and

(29:32):
salvation for sin and healing for disease. The deliverance ministry has been provided for
those who are tormented by evil spirits, so that's not a valid argument that
Christians can't have demons. The storywas often told about the Dwight Moody,
that great old evangelist who had awoman come to him one time after a

(29:55):
meeting and said, Brother Moody,why do you testify to having had so
many in feelings of Holy Spirit?He said, it's simple a leak with
all of us. And there aretimes when leaky Christians need need ministry,
they need forgiveness, they need healing, they need deliverance. If that's the
fifth of those attitudes of those livesthat Satan uses in his strategy casting out

(30:23):
on inside, what's the sixth?Well, yeah, okay, but if
you cast out a demon, they'llcome back with seven more. And boy,
they got the scripture right there toquote rout out of Matthew chapter twelve.
The story the parable that Jesus usesif when an unclean spirit has gone
out of a man, Jesus said, he wanders through waterless places seeking rest

(30:44):
and finds none. And then hesays, I will return to the house
when whence I came out, Andhe comes back and finds out house empty,
swept and garnished, and then gorotheand take seven other spirits more wicked
than himself, and they all comeand dwell in that man. And that
man's last estate is worse than thefirst. That's the favorite scripture of the
people, who, again who don'twant to have anything to do with this
ministry, say, well, what'sthe sense in getting into the deliverance ministry

(31:07):
if you're going to end up withmore problems than you started out with.
It is true that evil spirits cancome back, but Jesus, you can
see how stupid it is to takeone thing Jesus said to try to discredit
all the other things he said.And when he's using this, he's using
this. When he gives this storyor this parables, he's talking giving a
very clear teaching about the fact thatit's necessary for us to protect what we

(31:30):
get from God. The key inthat story is the fact that this demon
came back and found the house empty, swept and garnished. The friend sign
was out. You know, theperson made no move to protect what he
had from God, and that canhappen. And we do in our teaching
with the ministry, not only teachhow to cast out demons and to demonstrate

(31:51):
it, but to tell people howto protect what they get from God.
Because because the devil is a thief, Jesus said he was a thief,
liar and a thief. He'll stealyour salvation. He'll steal your peace,
he'll steal your healing, he'll stealyour money, he'll steal your deliverance.
He'll steal anything if you don't protectit. Methodist minister and I were in
a house in Miami one time prayingthat we've been called down there to pray
for a lady who was being tormentedby spirit. She'd been in the hospital

(32:14):
for some kind of serious physical problem, and they'd given her painkillers as she's
in the hospital, and she gotaddicted to them and she got out back,
got over her surgery and the physicalcondition, but she was addicted to
the tranquilizers and painkillers that they weregiving her. And we've been called into
minister to her and I explained toher what we were going to, how
we were going to pray, andwe to minister deliverance to her and found

(32:35):
out she was just kind of anominal Christian, but she was really willing
to make a commitment. She saidto get free. So we began to
pray and minister this woman, anda demon of tranquilizers suddenly manifested itself and
screamed out and shout shouted an absenterto me, and the woman fell on
the floor in a convulsion, verydramatic, and we cast this spirit out.
She looked like she dropped about twentyyears from her from her face.

(32:57):
She's only woman about forty and shelooked closer to seventy and before the ministry
started, but her face was justtransfigured. Marvelous deliverance scared the Methodist preacher
little. Everyone used to that kindof drama, but the change was obvious.
But a few weeks later I sawthe woman in whose home we'd conducted
deliverance ministry, and I asked howthe lady was doing, and she said,
oh, she's gotten hooked on tranquilizersagain and she's mad at you.

(33:19):
And I said, well, whathappened? Did she do any of the
things that I told her to doto protect her deliverance, to start going
to church, to read her Bible, to pray, and to be in
fellowship with God's people. And thenhe said no, she didn't do any
of those things. She said.For two weeks, the lady was in
a just lived in a spiritual euphoria, just like the Kingdom of God on
earth. Everything was beautiful. Andthen she got in but she didn't start
going to church, she didn't readher Bible, she didn't pray, and

(33:40):
then she got in an argument withher husband and got upset, and she
took tranquilizers again. But she hadn'tdone any of the things that I mentioned.
And her excuse was, well,my husband's not a religious man and
he didn't want me to do thingsto pretend like I was religious, and
so she made no step, tookno step to protect what God had done.
It is true that the demons willcome back if you don't guard it,

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but that's not the proper use ofthis scripture. It's just that we
have to guard what God gives us. And the thing to remember is that
even if a demon does come back, you can cast it out again.
The same authority in power that wasthere before is still there. The fact
that we're once healed doesn't automatically meanwe will never be sick again, but

(34:21):
the healing ministry is always there forus if we do become ill again.
All right, So that was thesixth of the of those lives, that
if you cast out a demon,he'll come back with seven more the seventh.
Yeah, there is a deliverance ministry, but it should be left to

(34:45):
experts. I want to be carefulof what I say here, but I
do want to make a point becauseof all of the fear and all of
the loathing and sometimes the dru Mama, there can be very exciting things happen
when when demons are cast out,that it's very hard to make demons behave.

(35:08):
Even Jesus couldn't make him behave.He would tell him to be quiet,
but only after they yelled. Andit's very hard at times to keep
demon silence, very hard to makehim behave. And that's I think that's
one reason why a lot of themen, a lot of preachers don't want
to get into the ministry is thatyou know, they can't make the demons
behave. It's not the kind ofministry that you would particularly want to be
involved in in church on Sunday morning. That's all right, don't do it

(35:30):
in a Sunday morning. Well,we'll talk about that in a minute.
Getting ahead of myself, all right, deliverance should be left to experts.
I've had demons say to me sometimesthey speak right out through the voice of
the person that they're tormenting. AndI've had demons say to me, you
know bothly, I'm too strong foryou to cast me out. This woman
belongs to me, this man belongsto me. You can't cast me out.

(35:52):
One time, Derek Princeton are ministeringout in a Midwestern state, and
a frail a little lady was inthis meeting where these things began to happen.
And she was only about five threeand couldn't wait more about one hundred
and five pounds. And suddenly ademon manifested it in her while we were
praying for somebody else, and shelunged her feet and began to scream,
and we stepped over and grabbed ahold of her by the wrist to try

(36:13):
to restrain her because she was flailingaround, and for a two or three
minutes she drugged Derek and me aroundthat room. I mean, you know,
we were hanging on to wrists andso forth. But and this demon
was saying, I'm stronger than allof you. You're never getting me out
of here. I'm stronger than allof you. And I was new in
the deliverance minutes of in and Iwas kind of scared, and I was
just hanging on waiting for Derek todo something. And Derek commanded the thing

(36:39):
to name itself, commanded to comeout, and the thing cried out its
name, just were caraming out andsaid wait this, and the gal collapsed
and the demon came out. ButI saw in that a kind of parable,
a kind of spiritual lesson that thedevil he can blust her, and
he can bluff at and he canboast, but really we don't have to

(37:00):
be afraid, and it doesn't haveto be something that's done. Ys where
you know how experts get to beexperts, They get to be experts by
getting involved in whatever it is thatthey're involved in. I don't know anybody
that ever starts out being an expertin anything. Now I recognize and we
all know that there are gifts andministries in the body distinct gifts and ministries,

(37:21):
And I recognize it's some of ushave been more or less uniquely set
in to do some of these things. To others, it's more part of
my calling to be engaged in spiritualwarfare than perhaps Charles or or Bob's or
Earns. Not Derek suddenly, becausecertainly because Derek's deeply involved in it too.
People sometimes ask me, how didyou ever get into the delivery spaner,
I said, with my feet dragon, how else? Nobody wants to

(37:44):
get into it in a hurt.But recognizing that there are unique gifts and
callings doesn't change the fact that Jesusgave the commission to all his disciples to
go to preach the gospel, toheal the sick, and to cast out
demons. And I confess sometimes I'dgrow a little weary at people bringing pastors

(38:08):
and others bringing their people to mefor me to do their dirty work.
Now I agree with what Charles said, while I'm going in things about pastors
that times pastor has to call ina specialist, but a pastor also has
to be knowledgeable and gifted and faithfulin those things that are his responsibility to
do. And so mind is myfeeling is that you ought to call a
specialist then to teach on the thing, and then the people, once they're

(38:30):
taught, ought to begin to doit themselves. And I would to God
that there was more of that goingon around the body of Christ. There
is so much emphasis, proper emphasison all the other things that are taught
in scripture. But but I reallyget blue and disappointed and disturb sometimes that
there is so little emphasis on theministry of spiritual warfare, specifically this kind

(38:52):
of ministry of casting out demons.That there's somehow because of the loathing,
because of the fear, because ofthe nastiness that people associate with devils and
evil demons and evil spirits, folkswill just go a long way out of
the way not to get involved inthis. They will procrastinate, they will
put it off, they will letsomebody else do it, Which reminds me

(39:15):
of a funny story about there's aspirit that has a just about any bad
condition that you got, there's ademon behind that. Now, most of
our problems are our flesh, butcertain things are evil spirits. And I
myself have been delivered my kids havebeen delivered, my wife's been delivered,
Derek Prince has been delivered. Thereeverybody I know that's in the ministry would

(39:36):
testify to being delivered. And Istill get delivered from time to time.
I see it like healing. Butit was with Brother Bruce Longstreath over in
Savannah, Georgia the other day,and we got into the Deliverance ministry towards
the end of the service, wenumber of people have gotten help. I
was asking, well, there's anythinganybody else here wants us to want me
to pray for? Well, it'sit's the renounce and cast out, because
sometimes we miss things somebody who wouldn'thave, maybe asthma or some other kind

(39:59):
of fear or something, and we'dget them to name it, we'd have
the people pray against it, andwe'd cast it out. And one lady
out in the group says procrastination,and you know that thing jumped in me
and almost I just had to buymy turn to keep them saying we won't
cast that out now, we'll castthat out later. I had enough,

(40:30):
I had enough presence of mine notto say that, but I had to
pray for myself after it by myself, and I realized that a lot of
the things that are weaknesses in ourflesh, the problems that we have not
only our weakness of the flesh,but a demon will come in and reside
in that weakness, and it becomesmore of a problem for us. But

(40:50):
we ought to realize that it's nota ministry to be left up to the
experts. Not many years after Iwas into it, when we were living
in Florida, are times when wewere winding their way away from the house.
One evening, we came home nightnight and found out our kids ad
minister deliverance to one another. Whata couple i'n't gotten upset about some things
and they ended up praying for oneanother. Well, that's the way it
ought to be. It doesn't takean expert. Jesus said, go preach

(41:16):
the gospel, heal the sick,cast out demons. He didn't say,
go preach the gospel, he'll thesick and cast bringing the experts to cast
out the demon. So if youcan witness or testify to your faith,
or you can pray for the sick, then you have the authority when the
occasion arises to cast out demons.None but that I don't mean you ought
to go looking for problems or huntingfor these sort of things, but just

(41:39):
as a normal part of your pastoralresponsibilities, when that kind of thing occurs,
you need to be able to dealwith it. And tomorrow morning we're
going to be dealing specifically with thepastor's role in the deliverance ministry. But
it doesn't take an expert. Everyonebegins as a beginner, and it's out
of our experience that we become competentin the things that God has called us

(42:00):
to do. Aren't that was numberseven? Wasn't it all right? Number
eighth? Well, okay, ifit doesn't take an expert, and deliverance
from demons is real, but itnever should be done in public. Ought
to be done only in private,or only in the closet, because you

(42:23):
know, it's very unpleasant, veryunsavory kind of subject ministry to be.
In turn with me to Mark chapterone. Charles has been teaching in our
Sunday meetings out of the Gospel ofMark. It's interesting to note in miss
first chapter in Mark that Jesus beginshis public ministry, or maybe I should

(42:49):
say he begins his public ministry ofdeliverance in a specific way and at a
specific time, And we read aboutit in Mark chapter one. It says
they went to Pernium, and whenthe Sabbath came, Jesus went into the
synagogue and began to teach. Andthe people were amazed at his teaching,
because he taught him as one whohad authority, and not as the teachers
of the law. And just thena man in the synagogue, who was

(43:12):
possessed by an evil spirit, criedout, what do you want with us,
Jesus of Nazareth, Have you cometo destroy us? I know who
you are, the Holy One ofGod. Be quiet, Jesus said sternly,
and come out of him. Andthe evil spirit shook the man violently
and came out of him with ashriek. And the people were all so
amazed that they ask each other,what is this a new teaching? And

(43:32):
with authority he even gives orders toevil spirits, and they obey him,
and news about him spread quickly overthe whole region of Gallilee. You better
believe it did. The news Imean spread quickly, and the reason was
because of this dramatic ministry of deliverance. But notice when and where it took
place. It took place in thesynagogue on the Sabbath day during a worship

(43:54):
service. Now, I'm not suggestingthat that ought to be the pattern,
you understand, because there's a sensein which of decency and decorum that we
like to maintain an order in ourservices. But if you don't do it
in Sunday morning in the worship service, you ought not to be afraid to
do it in a Sunday evening service, or a midweek service, or in
the church basement on Sunday night.There is never any indication anywhere in the

(44:20):
scriptures that Jesus ever did it privately. His ministry was always conducted in public,
in full view of people. Nowthat again, I want to reiterate
that I know, with pastoral responsibilitiesfor counseling and dealing with personal problems,
there is certainly a legitimate place inyour ministry and your counsel with your parishioners.
Out of counseling and out of prayer, and out of working with people

(44:43):
for whom you're responsible, there'll bemany occasions when, or should be at
least many occasions when you privately withminister to deliverance to a family or to
an individual. But that doesn't changethe fact that basically, scripturally it was
a ministry that was conducted in theopen, conducted publicly where everyone could see
and then rejoice when it was takingplace. It bothers me a lot that

(45:10):
so often we seem to be wiserthan God and want to set up conditions
that the Lord himself didn't set up. Basically the reason for this kind of
reluctance. In fact, for allof the things that we've been talking about
through there is a basic reason forit, and that is that we have
problems with pride, and the devilplays on that. It's pride that so

(45:35):
often wants us to avoid any ofthese sort of things. It is pride
that makes us get upset to thinkthat we might have a trouble with a
demon. I don't understand why it'sthat way, but it's but it is.
Somehow, It's all right to havea nasty temper as long as you
don't call it a demon. Youknow, you say, well, I'm
I have a quick temper, andyou say it almost like a virtue.

(45:58):
But for somebody to say, brother, you've got a demon of anger,
then they find out you should doyou know, because of the way knew.
I like what Brother Derek Prince says, like this is just call it
in yourself what you would call itin somebody else. We tend to give
soft names through our own problems.You know. Well, I could give

(46:23):
examples of that, but I reallydon't need to that. The point is
that the reason we feel the waywe do about the ministry not being done
in public is because of pride.But Jesus never did it privately. He
began his ministry publicly, always conductedit publicly. And one of the reasons
why we want to do it privatelyis because we're often more concerned about reputation

(46:45):
than we're concerned about redemption. We'drather have things nice and polite than to
have our people set free. Iremember one time preaching teaching, being invited
to it. The church were totalk on the deliverance ministry, and it
was a covenant group back in theearly years of our people getting related,

(47:08):
and this particular brother I knew alreadyhad the kind of a fear of this
ministry. But I came down andtaught his people on the ministry of deliverance.
And one Sunday morning was fairly smallgroup. I was doing it to
him as a favor, and Isat out, and he stood up then
and thanked me for the ministry,and then took the next ten minutes to
explain why now that we're in covenant, we didn't have to cast out demons
anymore. That you know, we'rein relationship and we can deal with these

(47:30):
things on another basis. I tellyou, brothers, I find it pretty
hard to relate to a demon.I mean, they don't they don't honor
covenant too well. And and myreal suspicion is that in many cases where
it doesn't work, where we've gotin relationship or got people, you know,
become responsible for people, and itdoesn't take and they break off and

(47:51):
the relationship never really grows. Andso what part of the problem is that
some of those problems weren't dealt withthings ought to have been dealt with.
You know, much of the Bodyof Christ's a lot of the strength of
the Holy Spirit that's been given themto live on top of problems that God
wants them delivered from. And wesometimes take seventy five percent of our spiritual
energy riding on top of things thatGod wants us set free from then,

(48:12):
so we can turn and devote ourselvesto ministering to others. So the eighth
one is that lie that the devilhas is a demon should never be cast
out in public, all right.The final one is, and notice how
the devil gives ground grudgingly each way. The final one is he still has
one last way that he's going torob God of his glory, and that

(48:35):
is that well, yeah, ifyou are delivered, that's fine, but
don't mention it in your testimony.You'll glorify Satan, you know, call
it something else. When he finallyleaves, as he has to, as
the demons have to come out.And yet oftentimes the devil will put this
on people of the demons where it'slike they're afraid to testify, are somehow

(48:55):
just reluctant to tell the truth.Are some years ago he menaced in the
house prayer meeting about seven or eightypeople, as young man got a tremendous,
marvelous deliverance going really well. TactI remember it specifically for an unusual
thing that happened, because he's gottenrid of several things, and demons often
come out through the mouth and asyou men that are involved in it and
know they can be screams and criesand sighs and so forth. And this

(49:16):
guy was getting deliverance, and Iwas the one that was doing I was
commanding those things to come out.And the young fellow was he opened his
mouth and getting delivered, and allat once he dislocated his jaw. His
lower jaw dropped out, yeah,and he couldn't close his mouth. And
he was trying to tell me thathe's going. And I was saying,
that's another demon. You come outof there, you demon. And here
the guy's going. Boy, Ithought I had a real booker of a

(49:39):
one with that, and I wasgoing after God. God's wonderful away,
he provides. Because there was aspirit baptized dentist sitting there on the front
row, friend of mine. Hetook pity on me in the situation,
and he stepped up and is thatdon said? The brothers dislocated his jaw,

(50:02):
says, let me handle it.So he steps up and puts his
inserts his thumbs in the brother's mouthand presses down, snaps the jaw back
in place. The kind of thingDennist have to do from time to time,
and I thank God for that,Dennis. If he hadn't been there,
I'd still be trying to cast outthat dislocated jar tonight. But the

(50:22):
man, young man, did geta marvelous deliverance. The thing that upsetting
me was next week he was back. We were back there, and the
man who ran the meeting's home,he meeting, asked him to testify because
of the marvelous thing happened to youngman stood to his feet and stumbled all
over the words. He said,I am I really got a wonderful blessing
last week. I really had someproblems, and the Lord really helped me.

(50:43):
And he choked on trying to saythe fact that he'd been delivered from
a demon. And so God failedto get the glory. You know that
I think was due his name thatthis is one of jesus major ministers.
That Jesus came to set the captivesfree. The woman out in Ohio got
a marvelous deliverance. Similarly, onetime wrote be a beautiful letter afterwards about
what had happened in the life.She was a kind of a society matron

(51:06):
and community leader and so forth.But God did a marvelous thing for her.
Set her free from some things thathad bound her for years. She
couldn't read her Bible and remember anything, even though she was a teacher in
a Baptist Sunday school, and sheresisted the love of her husband. She
became unreasonably angry with her children.Her life was just transformed by the deliverance.

(51:27):
One of the demons was the spiritof Auiji board. Her father,
when she'd been a small girl,had bought her a Wuiji board and she
played with it. And that's oneof the major ways people become demon tormented
is getting involved in psychic occult practice. But this woman got a marvelous deliverance.
She wrote me this marvelous letter afterwards, testifying her deliverance, said I
want you to feel free to usemy name and to use this letter.
But a few weeks later I gotanother letter from her saying I don't want

(51:50):
you to use my name. Shesaid, I don't want to. Please
don't use my name when you talkabout that. She said, I'll always
be glad, I'm great full.Let the Lord set me free, but
I don't want my name us AndI thought to myself, suppose she'd been
healed of cancer or polio or something. She'd be willing to go on television.
She'd stump the country, be willingto testify to the glorious healing that

(52:15):
she got in Lord. But becauseof the prejudice that there's been in our
minds and people like that through theyears, here she succumbed to this last
final a trick that Satan pulls.That is, even after people have received
a marvelous deliverance from God, don'ttestify to it. They say, you
don't glorify Satan, so just callit something else. Not too long ago,

(52:37):
I was in a midweek's service inthe church and people got delivered,
some very marvelously delivered. And thenext day and another service, the pastor
gave the congregation opportunity for people totestify of what God had not not a
one came for her. But inthe meetings, some dramatic, wonderful things
have happened because people fall all prayto that last live Satan will. Yeah,

(53:01):
the deliverance ministry is real and youcan be set free from demons,
but when you testify, don't glorifySatan. Well, scriptural studies show that
a fourth some people say as muchas a third of Jesus's own personal public
ministry was given over to either teachingabout deliverance or casting demons out. But

(53:22):
because of the prejudice that we've had, and because of that we've bought all
of the satanic strategy of all ofthese lives, I would say that in
today's church less than one or twopercent of ministry is involved with this.
What consumed a fourth or a thirdof Jesus time and ministry, we give
maybe one percent or two percent.Two Well, Jesus said, God,

(53:45):
preach the gospel, heal the sick, and cast out demons. It's my
prayer that God will hasten the daywhen we will not only rejoice when a
soul is saved, or not onlygive glad testimony when somebody is healed or
baptized in the Holy Spirit, butwe'll also rejoice that the demons are subject
to us in the name of Jesus. And then all of us together we'll

(54:07):
get on with the glorious ministry ofsetting the captives free.