War III - Enemy Strategies vs. The Name of Jesus - War: Satan, Demons & the Fourth Dimension

Heavenly Father, thank you so much.

It's exciting to hear that you still work miracles.

That you can take a young life that is so incredibly broken, that is so resistive.

And yet, Lord, who can resist?

Who can resist the unfathomable love of Jesus Christ?

Lord, I pray that you will help me tonight to communicate your word in a way that is simple, that is easy to understand, and yet empowered by your spirit in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, as you know, Pastor Steve, I for those of you who don't know, my name is George.

I guess I should start there.

Pastor Steve has been preaching and is in a series on spiritual warfare, and so my message tonight is gonna tie into that.

Let me start with Ephesians 6, 10 through 12.

Finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the enemy.

The simplest definition of spiritual warfare is learning how to stand.

You know, there's lots of teaching, and I've taught on spiritual warfare for weeks and weeks on end.

But the simplest definition is just learning how do we stand in the power of God's word and the power of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

How do we do that?

And we're being admonished to do that.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against authorities, against cosmic powers over this present darkness, against spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places, and that is absolutely the truth.

Your enemy is not the person sitting next to you.

Your enemy is not your employer, your enemy is not five judges that made a really bad ruling.

You know, your enemy is not flesh and blood.

But that spiritual enemy has a way of getting a hold of flesh.

He has a way of stirring people, and those people can do incredible things that are terribly, terribly painful for us all.

So, what I want to talk to you about tonight are the basic things.

You know, spiritual warfare isn't just casting out demons.

When the disciples were given that authority and they came back and they were all excited, and Jesus said, you know, gentlemen, you need to just kind of cool your jets and you need to rejoice that your name is written down in heaven.

I mean, I've had some demonic encounters.

I was had one.

Um my story is very similar to Marcus's.

Um I didn't grow up hating my parents.

I just didn't grow up being loved by them.

And by the time I got into high school, I was abusing drugs and alcohol and people and just living a really, really bad life.

And I remember one day, the closest I ever came to really seeing the devil face to face, and this is a true story.

I was in my bedroom at my mom's house.

It's in the basement.

Turn the lights off, you can't see your hand in front of your face.

And I've got a blue flashing light and a red flashing light, and in the corner is a glowing human skull made out of plastic.

But it glowed in the dark.

And I'm sitting, and this is how old I am.

I actually have headphones on listening to a real to real.

Do you know what a real to real take?

Okay, the older people here, the seasoned saints, they understand real to real.

That was before cassette tapes.

And I've got my headphones on listening to some really bad, bad music.

And I'm sitting in my chair, there's the skull glowing in the dark, and the red and blue lights flashing on, and I tell you, a demonic presence walked into that room that petrified me.

And I wasn't a Christian, I was unchurched, but I had people that were praying for me.

I had people that were witnessing to me, trying to get me to accept the Lord, and if you couldn't avoid them, you just made fun of them.

But they just kept on coming, thank the Lord.

And so I'm sitting in my chair, and everything in me wants to get up, open the windows, turn off the music, throw the skull away, and I am frozen in my chair.

I am so scared, I can't move.

And as a non-Christian, I called on the name of Jesus Christ.

And that spirit left that room so fast.

I mean, I'm not even saved.

I'm not even close to being saved.

But there's something about the name of Jesus Christ, and every tongue does confess, and every knee does bow, not just when he returns, but in this life as well.

So, what are the common things, the common things of darkness that every person in this room deals with?

Well, the first one's temptation.

And that may seem awfully obvious, but the truth is the only people who don't struggle with temptation are dead.

So if you're on this side of the grass, guess what?

You are involved in spiritual warfare.

You are involved in spiritual warfare.

Temptation is a strong urge or desire to have or do something that is bad, wrong, or unwise.

If there's anyone here that's not experienced that, would you just raise your hand, please?

Oh, you were close.

Okay, all right.

I was gonna say, would you pray for us?

Would you pray for us?

In 1 Corinthians 10, 13, no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.

God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation, he will also provide a way of escape so that you may be able to endure it.

So here's the sad truth.

When we are tempted, not if, when we are tempted, and when we decide to cross the line, we are doing it with premeditation, with a very definite understanding that this is simply wrong.

Is that true?

Aren't you glad you came tonight?

It's demonic.

It is the enemy of your soul that is fishing.

Now, I enjoy fishing.

I'm not very good at it.

I haven't figured out the right length of the fuse yet, but I'm still experimenting.

Okay, some of you got that.

And the devil is fishing.

And if one particular bait doesn't work, you know, he'll pull that line in, he'll put on a different bait, and he'll throw it back out there.

And he just knows that sooner or later he's gonna have the right bait at the right time, and you're gonna bite.

Spiritual warfare.

It starts with temptation.

Jesus himself was tempted.

The scripture says that he was tempted in every way that we are tempted.

I don't know about you, that kind of blows my mind.

For those of you who are tempted by lust, you know Jesus was tempted with lust.

Those of you that are tempted to exaggerate and cheat on your income tax forms, Jesus was tempted.

Those of you that are tempted to take things that don't belong to you, whatever the temptation is to overeat, to starve your body, whatever your temptation is, the scripture says Jesus was tempted in every way, yet without sin.

Jesus experienced spiritual warfare.

In the book of Matthew, 4 verses 1 through 3, it talks about Jesus being led by the Spirit of God into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

Matthew 4:1–3

I'm not really happy about that verse.

It just seemed strange to me that the Holy Spirit would lead him to a place where he was deliberately going to be tempted and tested, but it had to happen.

Because Jesus really did need to understand the frailty of human flesh.

He needed to experience it.

When he went into the wilderness, he did not go into the wilderness as the God man.

He was in the wilderness with every weakness that is here in this room tonight.

He went in as a man.

And when he was tempted severely, do you remember?

How did he overcome?

That's right.

What did he do with the word of God?

Did he take the devil and beat him over the head with a 15-pound Torah?

He spoke it, didn't he?

He spoke it.

And we learn from the example of our Lord Jesus Christ that when we are tempted, we have the same right, the same authority to take the word of God, which is our sword, and we can say, this is what the word of God says.

And if you were like me and you were unchurched, all you have to say is, no.

I don't know what the Bible says.

I'm just gonna say, no, I'm not gonna do this.

In Hebrews 4, 15, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Man, that is hopeful to me.

It's hopeful to know that God understands my heart.

He understands my weakness, he understands.

The other thing that the enemy will do is he will accuse you.

He accuses you.

How many of you that have come to faith in Christ have had to deal with accusations from the past?

Can I just see your hand?

Boy, it has a lot of hands.

It's a lot of hands.

You know it's spiritual warfare, it's demonic.

The word accuser in the Greek literally means prosecutor.

Can you see the vision of a courtroom?

I hope not too many of you have had to experience a courtroom.

But there you are in the court, and you came into the court, but you came in redeemed.

You came in because Jesus Christ Himself paid your debt.

And you're in the courtroom, and the devil is saying, you know, John, you know John, right?

John is the guy that cheated on his wife.

John is the guy that cheats on his taxes.

John is the guy that, you know, he comes to church kind of like Marcus, you know.

He'll come, he'll go to a youth group, try to sell drugs to the other kids.

You know, you know John, right?

Marcus, you ever been accused since you've been saved?

Oh yeah.

And here's the thing: the devil wants you to believe the lie.

He wants to speak into your heart with such force that you begin to actually believe that maybe you are too bad.

Maybe you didn't really get saved.

I mean, you had that kind of a supernatural experience and you felt something kind of funny, and and people were shouting saying, Praise God, he's saved, he's saved, but boy, you know.

I mean, really.

You know, I got angry at my wife.

I called her a terrible name.

Maybe the devil's right.

You know, I was in a hurry to get to work and and I swerved, cut a guy off, he almost wrecked his car with his wife and kids.

You know, maybe the devil's right.

You know, maybe I am still a bum.

Maybe I'm still worthless.

In the Greek, the word accuser is literally translated Satan.

Satan is the accuser, he is the accuser.

Revelation 12, 10.

And I heard a voice, a loud voice in heaven, saying, Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of Christ has come down from the accuser of our brothers, and he has been thrown down, he who accuses them day and night before God.

You know, the devil's not in heaven anymore, but he's still accusing and he's still going before the throne of God.

I don't know who here tonight is struggling with temptation or is struggling with accusation, but you need to discern the truth.

Let me tell you something.

If you've taken the time to bow your knee, if you've taken the time to say, Jesus, I recognize that without you I am lost, and I want you in my life.

I really do want to be a Christian.

And if the devil is whispering into your ear, you need to recognize God doesn't accuse you.

As a Christian, as a Christian who struggles with temptation and everybody here has crossed the line, if we say we have no sin, the scripture says we're liars and we just simply don't understand the truth, everyone here has crossed the line.

Everyone here has failed.

But you know what's really cool?

As a blood-bought child of God, when you cross the line and you yield to temptation, God isn't wagging his finger in your face and accusing you, you dirty, no good so-and-so.

God is in your face with his arms open like this, saying, Will you please come home?

Will you please accept my love?

Will you please allow me to wash you white as snow one more time?

When you feel accusation, you've got to understand it is not by the Spirit of God, it is by the Spirit of the enemy.

He is the accuser, God is not the accuser.

It's spiritual warfare in the simplest of terms.

Deception.

Deception.

The act or statement intended to make people believe something that simply isn't true.

Now, when you're traumatized, whatever that may be, you've gone through a divorce, you've lost a job, you've lost your health, perhaps you've lost a child.

When you experience trauma, this is what you must understand about spiritual warfare.

The devil is there in the moment to take advantage of your pain.

And he is going to try to deceive you.

He's going to try to speak a lie into your life.

You broke up with Bobby, you guys were engaged, you know.

I mean, you're thinking we're gonna get married, it's gonna be happy.

You discover that he doesn't love you, he's actually messing with somebody else and kicks you to the curb, and the lie comes, you know, you really don't deserve to be happy.

You don't deserve to have a good man.

You don't deserve, you don't, you don't, you don't.

The devil is a deceiver, he's a liar.

Revelation 12 and verse 9.

And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world.

Does the name Eve ring a bell?

You know, human beings haven't changed in thousands of years.

We have not changed.

God creates heaven and earth, and it is pristine, it is absolutely perfect, and he puts man in the garden, and he has control over everything.

And he looks down and he says, you know, it's not good that the guy should be alone, so he puts him to sleep, does some surgery, creates another human being, brings Eve to him, and the two of them are in the garden together, and it's still perfect.

But there's somebody else in the garden.

There's a deceiver in the garden.

And the deceiver starts speaking to Eve.

You know, God, did God really did God really say that you can't touch the tree?

Did God really say you can't do that?

I mean, you know, because if if I mean really you can't trust God because he knows that if you eat, then you're gonna become just like him.

He's trying to hold you down, he's trying to hold you back.

And she yields to the temptation, she believes the deceiver, she takes of the fruit, she gives it to Adam.

There's not even any resistance with Adam.

I'd like to have a talk with that guy.

Man, oh man, talk about being AWOL.

And so God comes and he says, Adam, Eve, where are you?

See, here's what happens when we yield to temptation, when we listen to the deceiver.

We do it today.

The first thing that we do is we run away and we hide.

The second thing that we do is we try to cover it up.

And the third thing that we do, it really isn't our fault.

We blame somebody else.

God's talking to Adam, and Adam is saying, God, I mean, really, it's the woman.

I mean, it's the woman that you gave me.

So he starts talking to Eve, and Eve says, No, no, no, no, no.

I it was that serpent.

He deceived me.

He deceived me.

I've been deceived, and in my deception, I have believed things that were so incredibly untrue.

As a Christian, as a follower of Jesus Christ, there have been some lies that I've bought into.

And those lies have hurt my family.

But God has a way of shining truth where there's deception, oppression.

For those of you that may not know, I work in the counseling department at Focus on the Family, and we I take about 220, 230 calls, 230 calls a month.

Took a call last week from a woman in her mid-50s.

From the beginning of our call, she's weeping.

She can hardly talk, I can hardly understand her.

She is so distraught.

And she tries to tell me this story of how that she was a Christian.

She was a Bible teacher in her church.

She was respected.

She was a woman of God.

And there was a tragedy in her family.

And then there was a second tragedy in her family.

And the enemy took advantage of her pain, sowed lies into her heart.

She walked away from God and went back into a sinful lifestyle, drinking, partying, carousing around.

She did that for years.

And then she came back to the Lord and rededicated her life, and now she's talking to me, and she's saying, I've committed the unpardonable sin.

I've committed the unpardonable sin.

God cannot forgive me.

She says, I want you to read Hebrews chapter 6.

Hebrews 6 · chapter mention

You know, for those that have come to know the Lord and they've tasted of good things and they've walked away and they've crucified the Lord afresh, there's no more repentance for that person.

She says, I'm that person.

I'm that person.

And I'm listening to her and I'm trying to understand her through all the tears and just the emotional upheaval.

And I said, ma'am, why do you believe this?

Well, the devil told me.

I mean, that's what she said.

The devil told me I committed the unpardonable sin and there's no more forgiveness.

And I'm thinking, what voice are you listening to?

This woman was so oppressed, so spiritually oppressed as a Christian.

She was in torment because the deceiver lied to her.

The deceiver took her to Hebrews chapter six and said, This is you.

And she believed that.

And I'm laboring on the phone trying to share.

The truth with her, and I finally came to the place, and I I don't know if I should say this publicly or not, I don't know what focus would think, but I just got angry, and I said, Satan, I command you in the name of Jesus to be quiet right here and right now.

And boy, she just stopped talking, she just stopped talking.

Said, I rebuke that lying spirit, and I said, I want you in a voice that you can hear, I want you to open your mouth and I want you to follow me in prayer right now.

And she went right back to the same old dialect, and I said, Stop! Stop right now.

Follow me in prayer.

And I led her in a prayer of acceptance of the forgiveness that God had given her.

I led her in a prayer of rejection of that lie.

And dare I say it, Lord, fill her with your Holy Spirit.

And man, she started speaking in tongues.

Woo! I mean, a fire came on that little lady.

It was pretty cool.

I've not seen a lot of demon possession.

I've had some experience with it, not to the degree that Steve has.

But the temptation, the deceit, the lies, the oppression every single day.

And that is what we deal with.

That is what we deal with personally in our families, in our society.

Acts 10.38.

God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and he went about doing good and healing all of those who were oppressed by the devil.

You have to go to the Greek, because sometimes the translators just take one word to apply for everything: oppressed, depressed, possessed, oppressed.

But in this particular scripture, he's not talking about demonic possession.

He is talking about demonic oppression.

Oppression.

The picture that comes to my mind is you're in a swimming pool, and you probably did this as kids, hopefully, not as adults anymore.

And you're swimming with your buddies, and somebody comes up behind you and they push you under the water, and they think it's cute and it's funny, and you're in a panic.

The devil is trying to put our heads under the water.

He's trying to oppress us to the degree that we can't even function as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And it's absolutely real and it's incredibly common.

James 2, 6.

But you have dishonored the poor man, do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the court.

That word oppress is only used two times in the New Testament.

It's only used twice.

Acts 10.38, James 2.6.

Have you ever been oppressed financially?

Let me give you a clear understanding of that.

In Exodus 1, verses 13 and 14, so the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigor, and they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, in brick, and in every manner of service in the field.

Exodus 1:13

All their service in which they made them serve was with rigor.

Now, when the scripture talks about Israel, talks about the Hebrew people in bondage to Egypt, it's a parallel to the saints of God that are in bondage to Satan.

And the word rigor is a very, very rare word in the Hebrew.

It's a very rare word and it's used very few times.

But here's what that word rigor means.

It's derived from a root word to break into pieces and to crush.

To break into pieces and to crush.

That's demonic oppression.

The woman I spoke to on the phone, she was broken into pieces.

She was crushed.

She was oppressed big time.

And she was a believer in Jesus Christ.

She was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she was fighting for her life.

Let me tell you something.

This is real stuff.

And there may very well be people in this room tonight that are struggling with that very same thing.

Roman, excuse me, Luke 13, verses 11 and 12.

Luke 13:11

And behold, there was a woman who had a disabling spirit for 18 years.

She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself.

And Jesus saw her and he called over and he said to her, Woman, you are freed from your disability.

And she stood straight.

Her oppression was manifested in a physical sense.

She was just bent over and bowed down.

And Jesus recognized this is an arthritis.

We don't need back surgery.

This is a demonic spirit, an oppressing spirit that is just holding her down, and he freed her just like that.

I need to say something here.

Years ago, there was a teaching that swept through Christianity and where Christians were looking for demons behind every single bush.

Okay?

I mean, demonic warfare is real, but please understand, you know what?

Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.

The spirit of God that is in you is stronger than any spirit that will ever, ever come against you.

And we don't want to go out on witch hunts, and we don't want to see somebody that has a para that's paralyzed and try to cast a demon out of them or somebody who's blind or deaf.

We have to use some wisdom and some discernment, least we hurt people like we have done in the past.

Because we have been guilty of witch hunts, and we have wounded the body of Christ with our zeal and our lack of discernment.

So there's a balance here.

It's real, but we have to be careful.

James 4, 7.

So what do we do?

How do we handle these things?

Submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will flee.

You know, that's an incredibly simple scripture.

But if it's the only thing that you hear tonight, it was worth the trip.

What does it mean to be in submission to God?

You know, there's a lot of Christians that try to resist demonic influence, but they're living crazy lives.

What does it mean?

What are some practical applications of submission?

Well, let me let me share those with you.

Just staying in the word, PBJ.

I love PBJ.

I do it almost every day.

My goal is seven days a week.

Sometimes it's only six, so I got to do two in one day because I'm determined I'm not going to get one chapter behind at all.

And I do PBJ a little bit different.

I do it a little bit different.

I'm reading, and I am reading with anticipation.

I believe that God wants to tell me something personal for my life as I read the scripture.

So I'm reading, expecting God to speak to me.

And when He draws my attention to a particular verse, I stop, I write it down in my journal, word for word.

And then I pray, God, what do you want me to hear about this verse?

And I listen.

And when I listen, God speaks to me.

And I write down word for word what he is saying to me.

And I go back and I read the scripture and I read what God said, and then I write out a responsive prayer.

I would encourage you to add that to your journal.

What do you want to say to God about what he just said to you?

I mean, doesn't it make sense that you should close the communication loop and respond?

Because when you do, you're putting that word deep into your heart.

So that's one of the ways that I submit myself to God.

Worship, we are going to have some awesome worship tonight.

And as we enter into that worship, we are literally submitting ourselves to God the Father.

Fellowship.

We have C groups, we have D groups, we got a great D group, we've got a great D group.

I look forward to Friday morning at 6 o'clock every single week, man.

We are not, you know, we're like the mailman.

It doesn't make any difference what the weather is.

We're gonna meet.

Prayer.

Confession, James chapter 5.

James 5 · chapter mention

Confess your sins one to another.

Pray for one another so that you may be healed.

When I confess my sin to one of my brothers in that D group, I'm actually submitting myself not just to these men, I'm submitting myself to God.

Because this thing that I'm dealing with, I want to resist that.

Not in my own power, not in my own strength.

I want to resist it in the power and the strength of the Holy Spirit with my brothers praying with me and helping me along the way.

Does that make sense?

Authentic accountability, biblical counseling.

These are practical ways that we genuinely submit ourselves.

Genuinely submit ourselves to God.

The power of sin is bound up in secrecy.

The power of sin is bound up in secrecy.

You want to break the power of sin in your life?

Break the secret.

Break the secret.

Because if you're holding a secret, guess what?

You're not submitting yourself to God.

You're still a deceiver.

You're still giving place to the enemy.

What do you think?

Yes or no?

Okay.

Lastly, and I'll wrap it up with this, I wanted to say possession for the last, because that's really the least thing we're gonna deal with.

I know it's common, more common than we might want to admit, but the truth is it'll be a rare day that you encounter it.

So we've covered the things that you will encounter and that your family will encounter and that your friends will encounter on a pretty regular basis.

Demonic possession is this, generally defined as the control of someone's mind and actions by an evil spirit.

The key word control.

Control is greater than oppress.

Control is greater than oppress.

Matthew 8, 16, when evening had come, they brought to him many who were demon-possessed, and he cast the spirits out with a word, and he healed the sick.

Here's some of the manifestations of demonic possession.

The demoniac in Luke 8, who lived among the tombs, naked, cutting himself, they'd try to bind him with chains, he'd break the chains, unusual strength, superhuman strength.

In Mark 1, 22 through 27, there was a man actually in church.

Yep.

A demon-possessed person can even attend church.

And when Jesus came in, the man with a loud voice, with a loud voice, he cried out, Jesus, what do you have to do with us?

He manifested.

Before Jesus walked in, I don't think anybody had a clue.

Jesus comes in, it's kind of like hitting the light switch.

You turn the light on and the darkness just vanishes.

In Matthew 9, 32 and 33, there was a man who was possessed by a demon and he couldn't speak.

It was mute.

Not every mute person is demon-possessed.

But this man was.

Luke 10, 17, and the 72 returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name.

Not in the name of Pastor Steve, not in the name of George, not in the name of Mary, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ only.

It's at his name knees bow.

It's at his names that tongues confessed.

It's at his names that oppression is lift.

It's at his name that possession, those that are bound, are set free.

Acts 16, 16, and I'll close with this if the worship team would come up, please.

As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune telling.

She followed Paul and us, crying out.

Now, this is really interesting.

This is a demon-possessed person who's following the apostles, and she's crying out and saying, These men are the servants of the Most High God who proclaim to you the way of salvation.

Now that's an interesting thing for someone possessed to say.

And verse 18, and this kept up during many days, and Paul became greatly annoyed, and he turned and he said to the Spirit, not to the woman, he said to the Spirit, I command you, in the name of Jesus Christ, come out of her, and it came out that very hour.

Here's the truth, saints.

We're going to be partaking of communion tonight.

We're going to have a go through our worship set, and then we're going to go ahead and have communion.

And as we have communion, I want you to take communion with this in mind.

You're not a second-class citizen.

You're not a second-class citizen.

God loves you.

God looks down from heaven and he sees every single one of you.

And it's so important that you know what he sees versus what the devil may be telling you.

He sees men and women of incredible worth and value.

He sees people that he loves.

If that doesn't make you of worth and value, I'm dumber than a stump.

When you partake of communion tonight, take the bread, take the cup with thanksgiving and proclaim the truth.

Proclaim the truth.

If you're struggling with some deception, with some lie, if the enemy is, you feel like he's holding your head under water and you want to be free.

I tell you, communion is a great way to get freedom.

It's a great way to get freedom.

So we're going to go ahead and worship the Lord.

I want to invite you to stand to your feet and let's rock this house.

Amen?

Let's rock the house.