Ps. Garry - Your true purpose is found in your Godly identity

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If you knew here, I'm Gary.

Welcome to everyone online as well in one of the

pastor is here, Holy Spirit, Just come and.

Be over this message Lord in Jesus name.

Amen, your true purpose is found in your Godly identity.

I love the way Tom's message and Felicity's prophetic word

dovetailed so beautifully together. Tom was talking about the judgment

Seat of Christ and if you if you haven't heard.

It, go and listen.

It was a really strong biblical message. And he was

talking there not about the salvation bit, we're safe in

our salvation. He was talking about the bit that goes

and then go and make disciples. It's that going bit,

the workout your salvation with fear and trembling, the bit

that goes on how you become more like Christ. Fliss

brought something else today, which and that was that you

don't strive in that. And it almost feels like a contradiction.

So go and do this, but you don't strive, and

it is a contradiction except if you're in God. Because

see it's the be still, it's letting go, and it's

the spirit of God that does it through you. Yes,

your co labor, but it's He who does the work.

You know, we can't do it, but in Him all

things are possible.

I want to follow that up because part of that is.

The process of sanctification one Thessalonians four three. I'm reading

it is God's will that you should be sanctified. He's

talking to the church. So it's that ongoing process. So

what does it mean as we walk out our purposes?

God has a purpose for you, for we are his

workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. Remember he's

talking here, Paul, to the church, which God prepared beforehand,

that we should walk in them, that we should walk

in them.

It's not a guarantee.

You will get a couple of Bible versions that actually

because of theological reasons, they change the wording around and

they remove the should bit read the Greek. It is

there should our theology. We should not write the scripture

according to our theology. Our theology should come from the scripture.

Very important, it's that you should walk in them. So

how do you do that? Well, as sons and daughters

of abba Father, we are positioned already for purpose in

the victory of Christ. That's been done for us Galatians

three twenty six. For you are all sons of God

through faith in Jesus Christ. By the way, yeah, I

know you could write daughters. Fine, guess what, I'm the

bride of Christ. I'm not a good looking check. So

that's just biblical talk. It's fine, you get it. One

Corinthians fifteen fifty seven. That's just a scary image for me. So,

but thanks be to God who gives us the victory

through our Lord Jesus Christ.

God has done this for us. He's done it.

We are victoriorious in Christ. That is the gift of grace.

We're not doing this through works. It's through grace, the

grace of God Ephesians two six. And we're raised up

together and made sit together in the heavenly places in

Christ Jesus. It's what jan was just saying, same thing.

We are seated in Christ, Jesus and with him. It's

an act of grace. But we don't stop there because,

as I've said there, it's that from that position of grace,

from that place in the victory of Christ, that we

then go out into all the world. You are not

here to sit on your blessed assurance. We now move

from that point in the.

Power of God the great commission to go and do.

Those good works which God prepared beforehand, that we should

work in them. This is the next part of discipleship.

Note this, the weapons we fight with are not the

weapons of this world. On the contrary, they have divine

power to demolish strongholds. See, we are victorious in Christ,

but we're also commissioned to go and fight against strongholds.

Nope, plural I want you to note that Fiesian six twelve.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but

against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness

of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the

heavenly places.

They're plural, it's plural. We come against demonic spirits. I

know I preached on this last time. I think I

did once last year.

It's not a topic I normally focus on because we

have the victory in Christ. But if we're going to

walk in the fullness of God, and if we are

really going to fulfill the purposes that He has that

we can see communities and cities and nations change, then

we actually have to be full equipped and walking in

his commission. So that's why we're looking at it today.

Following on as I said, from what Felys said, following

on from Tom's work, this is how we keep going

into this.

We wrestle.

I want you to note that, for we do not

wrestle against chip, but against principalities. It's not Jesus. Look

at what Paul says. You don't just sit there your

blessed assurance. Yes, Jesus has given you the victory, absolutely,

But that scripture's plain.

It says for we. That's why Jesus said, go.

Could you imagine if your footage coach says to you,

I want you to do this, this and this and this,

now get out there and you say, actually, because you

know what you want and you do it. Coach, do

you just want to play and do it for me?

Imagine what the football coach youd think. We're told to

go out there in this authority. We've been equipped in

the power of God, but we face this Mark sixteen seventeen,

great commission, and these signs will accompany those who believe

in my name.

They will drive out demons. The first thing that Jesus

said why because it's important that you know it.

He wants you to know what discipleship's going to look like,

what you're going to face. So the bottom line is

that you will face demonic opposition in walking out God's

purpose for you. Wouldn't it be a bit weird if

you didn't what Satan suddenly loves you and doesn't care

a fat chance. You will face opposition. So let's get

into it. There's going to be a bit of teaching here.

So buckle yourselves in. And some of this you're probably

not going to hear in most.

Churches these days. I would think, in fact, I guarantee

you won't.

So we're going to go with it. I just want

to say, first of all, what's a demon? Because I'm

not talking about Satan himself. I'm talking about the demons

that hang out with him, these things, the plurals that Paul.

Was talking about, powers, principalities.

Jesus himself said you will cast out demons, So what

are we talking about? Well, and this, and basically, demons

like to inhabit a body. Sometimes it can be something

like I think Tom's story where it just gets into

your foot and he told that great testimony where they

couldn't fix it was at Flinders. Yeah, medical stuff couldn't

fix it. And yet it was just a case of

Jen Hill's praying up here with me and we just go, yeah,

we can see a.

Demonic claw there, just remove it, done and that was it.

It was healed. It can happen like that, but they

like and sometimes we don't know why that happens.

That's truthful. We don't know it all. We don't have

to understand, we just know how to deal with it.

But then there's another level as well, which we're going

to get to. But they like to inhabit bodies. I'll

be using scripture the whole way through this, so you

know that we're not just going off in a bit

of an interesting chat.

Matthew twelve.

When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, it

goes through dry places seeking rest and finds none. Then

he says, I will return to my house from which

I came. And when he comes, he finds an empty

swept and put in order. See, they like to inhabit

a body. This is for Mark. When Jesus saw that

the people came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit,

saying to it, deaf and dumb spirit, I command you

come out of him and end to him no more.

Then the spirit cried out, convulsed him greatly, and came

out of him. You can see here that demons tend

to like this. Think of the story of the pigs

and the demoniac, and the demon gets cast out, it

wants to get into the pigs.

They tend to just do that. It's sort of stuff.

And one of the things you'll find with these when

that occurs is it. Quite often these demons will manifest

because they tend to manifest actually through the body. Hence

Jesus said deaf and dumb spirit. Why because the spirit

was manifesting itself in the body as deafness and newness.

Now I'm not saying here for one moment that every

person who has these things, yeah, is under the influence

of a demon.

I'm not saying that. But what I'm saying is it

can read the scripture.

When Jesus comes across people with afflictions, there are two

responses he always has. One is be healed in my name,

or he says, get out of it.

Get out.

Seems to have that spiritual discernment to know is this

a health thing, because remember we're still under a broken

world that fall. And then other times he seems to

know the difference with the demon. So what I'm saying

is it can be either. But because of that, we

can't then just go, well, once a.

Bit weird, so we won't talking about that. We'll just

pretend and we've seen it. Heups of times.

A good friend of mine, actually very old now, he

always told me the story of a church here in Adelaide,

and they went to a meeting and they were actually

he was on the board at this.

Church, and they.

Decided to let this person go off the team. They

just felt something was spiritually wrong, and this person was

going to be working with children. They just thought, nah,

we're getting in early. We just felt it was wrong,

and so they thought, we'll do the right thing, give them,

pay out, whatever else. And this person brought along a

support person for this meeting, and he tells the story.

Everything was going all right, and the support person was

this person's wife, and he said, about three quarters through

the meeting, she just let out this guttural male shriek.

Picked up a desk, which he said was one of

those old wooden ones that takes two blokes to bring in.

You remember the drawers in there. Said, she picked it

up and hurled it through the wall. He said, thankfully

she didn't kill any of us. We were on the sides.

But he said it was mangled. He said there was

plaster through. He said, you could see the timbers through.

And at that point she just shrieked and ran out there.

They do like to be in people. It's just what happens.

That's what we're dealing with. So really, quickly because I've

covered some of this on the last part, so I

just want to get there.

When this happens. Stand, you have the authority of Christ.

There is nothing to fear, all right, nothing to fear whatsoever.

Remember the Philippian jailer. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,

and you and your household will be saved. Stand on

the promises of God. It's the word of God. You

have authority there. And I don't care how bad your

family looks or whatever else. Stand on the word God

for the promises, because he is faithful. It's in his faithfulness,

not our understanding that matters.

It's his faithfulness.

If you remember, there was a father who brought his

boy who was demonised. The father brought the boy to

Jesus and said, you know, and he actually gets I think,

thrown down front.

Of Jesus and fire. Jesus rebukes the spirit as a

parent over your household. You have authority. It's God given's

in the scripture. Stand for your family in the authority

that God's given you. Stand. You will also face at

times personal demonic attack. I'll talk about this later on

at the end, but that's why you need the full

armor of God.

You have to be mature in your faith. The armor

of God is not something that has put on you

when you become a Christian.

Just like that.

That's why Paul's saying to the Ephesian church, these are

already a church, and he's saying, put it on. The

implication being you actually have to co labor with this.

God gives you the thing, but you have to put

it on. That's because you're going to it says there

the devil's schemes, because you're going to be under attack.

Think of what the disciples. Just think of the early Church.

They were under attack, but they knew about the armor

of God.

Put it on.

That's how you stand. And in ministry there will be time.

So what I'm talking about here you have authority.

We know from the scripture.

You have authority when you are doing a ministry and

someone who is demonized comes against that ministry, Now you

still do it in a loving way. No, this story,

this is the slave girl, the one with the python spirit.

If you read the Greek and she was nagging Paul.

You know this man's weren't here and he's telling us

about the Most High God.

And it went on for days Now, Paul still loved

the girl because he knows she's made the image of God.

That's why he put up with it so long. But

there comes a point where he says, I've had a

gupful because this is now impacting on the ministry.

And so he says, I command you, in the name

of Jesus Christ, to come out of her. Did you

notice he didn't say he didn't talk to the girl.

Note that come out of her. He's not even speaking

to the slave girl. He's speaking to the demon. The

slave girl was still made the image of God. He

was just getting rid of the problem. So what I

want to say here is that the battle for sanctification

is so crucial in fulfilling God's purpose for us, and

therefore it's not surprising that Satan will try and come

against you in that formation as you go through discipleship.

See what is sanctification I've just got down here, is

to be conformed or yea be confer or conformed into

the likeness of Jesus from the inside out.

It's the heart and the mind. It's the leve in

the Hebrew. It's that transformation.

Tom talked about it so beautifully last two weeks ago

when he said about you know, it's that pursuit of holiness.

It's not a striving, it's the let go and be still.

It's entering into that communion when the spirit changes you,

being transformed, sanctified. It's that process. We are saved. I'm

not talking here about anything that threatens your salvation. I'm

not talking about that. If you have committed to Jesus

Christ as your Lord and savior, you are saved.

Right, that's a given. But sanctification continues afterwards.

One of my old priests used to tell me it's

the godly way.

Of knocking off rough edges. And the truth is that

two Corinthians seven to one.

So, then, dear friends, since we have these promises, let

us cleanse ourselves from every impurity of the flesh and spirit,

bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God. We

have these promises. No, that's present tense. But then it says,

let us cleanse ourselves, bringing holy in sucestry. You can

see there's an ongoing future bit there. Note there every

impurity of the flesh and spirit.

Paul's not talking there about the Holy spirit, right, it's

a little less He's talking here.

About demonic spirits. It's that cleansing, getting rid of the

early Church. I'm talking back first century, late first century.

The usual pattern wasn't always, but a lot of the

usual pattern was that they would when someone converted to

Christianity because they'd come out of that pagan world, they

would wait two years before you would be baptized. The

idea was that a person would need that time to

have sanctification and getting rid of demons. That was an

assumption because so many you think about, they've been involved

in these cults.

So this was a normal thing in the early Church.

We don't talk about it much today, but this was

usual back then. I'm not suggesting I have to do

that today. What I'm saying is that this sanctification takes time.

One Peter one.

But just as he who called you is holy, so

be holy in all you do, For it is written,

be holy because I am holy. You have to choose it.

He gives you the grace to do it. But holiness

also takes discipline.

We need to co labor, We need to walk with

him and allow God then to work through us in

his grace. It's not a works thing. It's the grace

of God working in us. That's how sanctification works. But

we still have to participate. We also have to cooperate,

if you like, with God in the process. Yes, when

he puts in your heart, sit down, just spend ten minutes,

fifteen minutes with me and just read the scripture. You

still have a choice. You can ignore it or you

can do it. That's what I'm talking about. We need

He gives you the grace to do it. He'll work in.

Your heart, but you still need to make a choice

to do that.

I also want to make really clear as I'm talking too,

that there will be times when we just sin. That

will happen occasionally, and that's just when we repent. We repent,

we are forgiven, washed in the blood of Christ, and

we move on. There is no spirit of condemnation over

us because Jesus Christ has done it all for us.

I always remember that. So how in the heck does

all this work? I want to start with scripture.

On the left as you're looking at it one Thessalonians

five point twenty three. Now, may the God of Peace

himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit, soul,

and body be preserved blameless.

At the coming of our Lord Jesus and Hebrews four twelve.

For the Word of God is living and powerful and

sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the

division of soul and spirit. It's important we remember that

because it's actually if you're reading theological stuff at the moment,

there's a really strong push that there's no such.

Division, that soul and spirit are one. Very interesting and

that has.

Huge implications theologically. If you follow that through, I would

suggest you just trust the word of God.

It's got a pretty good track record.

So this question has come up because you will find

some parts of the church will say that Christians.

If you're a Christian, you cannot be demonized.

I think that's a load of God's wallop, and I'll

show you scripturally why I'm not talking about demon possessed.

That is something totally different, all right. So basically we're

talking about body, soul, and spirit. The body, I think

is pretty easy to work out.

That's the physical bit. The soul in a really short version,

is where you have your mind, your emotions, your will,

that stuff. The spirit is that part where you relate

to God.

You're born again, you are a new creation, right, that's

where this happens. God's Spirit rests in you. You are saved.

That cannot change. There cannot be light and darkness mixing.

You are saved in Christ. His spirit is in you.

That's the spirit bit. You are sealed and permanently in

dwelt by the Holy Spirit. But I want you to

think about this. The Spirit of God cannot tolerate sin.

So how is it a Christian can then sin if

there wasn't this division of soul. They're different parts. Think

about it. Because God cannot tolerate sin. His Holy Spirit

is holy. That's why it's the spirit part. The soul

is where sanctification occurs and we become more like Him

over time.

The spirit leading that.

It also explains when we're a new creation, why we

can still physically die, because remember we are the righteousness

of God. Why because Christ died for us in our place.

This is all part of it. So, yes, we have

these eternal promises. Absolutely, you belong to God. But it's

in the soul where we can as Christians be impacted. Again,

I'm not saying that this is common either, but I'm

talking about sanctification because if we're going to grow. It

does happen.

I'm going to go for the scriptures. So remember again,

I'm just reading one John two one.

If we sin, and I'm talking about sins that just

happened occasionally, whatever else. Scripture, My little children, these things

I write to you so that you may not sin.

And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the

Father Christ, Jesus the Righteous. That happens in my Anglican days,

we had a prayer of repentance every week. That's part

of sanctification. But what's the scriptural evidence for this? The

Corinthian Church to start with, I want you to think

about the church in corinth Paul loved this church.

It was holy spirit filled. Read it. I mean that's

where we get the stuff about prophecy, we get the

speaking of time, all that stuff. Versus what is it?

Chapter twelve to fourteen with the love chapter in the middle.

Paul loved this church, the holy spirit filled. I want

to read it. This is what he says, Consider the

people of Israel. Do not those who eat the sacrifices

participate in the altar?

Do?

I mean then that food sacrifice to an idol is

anything or that an idol is anything. No, but the

sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God.

And I do not want you to be participants with demons.

You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the

cup of demons too. You cannot have a part in

both the Lord's table and the table of demons. Are

we trying to arouse the Lord's jealousy? Nope, that's present tense.

Are we stronger than he? I want you to look

at the earlier part of the letter, read chapter six.

This is a church that he loves, and it is

so pagan despite all that. They have all sorts of

immorality there. There's sexual immorality. There's a guy sleeping I

think with his mother in law. You have legal suits,

you have all sorts of promisecurity. They're a guy we

used to call it the after dinners. The guy's going

off to their mistresses. That's all happening in the church.

Yet these guys are the church. But this is the

process of sanctification Paul's addressing. See, you only reprimand people

for something that's possible, and that's what he's doing here.

He's reprimanding them.

See if you're married, you shouldn't be committing adultery as

an example, But it doesn't mean you can't do it right.

But there's huge spiritual implications. That's what Paul's saying here.

See why would the Lord even be jealous because it's happening.

This is what's happening here in this church. Look at

what Paul writes to the Galatians, You foolish Galatians. Who

has bewitched you? Who has bewitched you? Baskar enol. That's

the Greek word he uses. Its interesting is to cast

an evil eye to someone and falsely represent It comes

from a demonic origin. Aristotle used the term, and it's

used here quoting bewitching.

Through the use of.

An evil power, you put someone under the control of

a spell so that they could no longer think or

behave according to reason. So this is the background of

the word Paul's using. Didorus Seculus, Greek historian from the

first century. He used this word ask enol to describe

the taking control of others through the wicked arts. Paul

knew this word when he wrote it, right, This is

not just a word he's pick rand. He knew the culture,

he knew the language, he chose this. Paul did not

muck around when you're talking about demons and evil spirits.

This was what Paul faced all the time, the slave girl.

Paul knew all about the demonic realm. He is not

going to be flippant about what he says here. Why

did he use it.

Here because these many of these new.

Converts had taken on board a religious spirit, a legalistic

spirit that said, we want all of Judaism. You keep

all of that, and then you put Jesus on top,

and you need the lot. And that they hadn't understood.

They hadn't understood the grace of God, the one new man.

That was the problem he's addressing. And he uses this

word specifically, I want to go to the Lord's prayer.

Something you've probably said, probably tens of thousands of times.

I'm getting lead us not into temptation.

This is Jesus talking, remember to his disciples, not just

any non believing whatever, but the disciples lead us not

into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Poniru,

you use us here. No means an unholy. It can

mean an unholy quality or action, or a wicked one,

evil one.

It's a title of Satan. I want you to look

at the word but.

See if you think about Jesus is about to be crucified.

So that's the world they're living in, this huge persecution.

You would think that he would say, lead us not

into temptation, full stop, and Lord, deliver us from the

plans of the evil one to destroy us in the

church and come against the spreading of your kingdom.

He doesn't. What does Jesus say. He says, lead us

not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one,

the threat of the evil one.

Paul's not Jesus is not saying, here, save you from persecution.

In fact, we've promised persecution.

He's not saying that. He's saying, it's the temptation. It's

what happens in your soul that you need to be

protected the temptation.

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the

evil one, because the evil one is in the temptation.

The evil one is wanting to get in you and

destroy you. That's where Jesus is praying for the disciples.

The threat was never the evil one coming in the

sense of Rome and destroying the church. And that have

a look around the world today. There is so much

of our church is persecuted. That's part of being a Christian. Unfortunately,

we are just very blessed here. We are very blessed

that walk for life. Yesterday, we are so blessed people

could walk around there. You think about it. We have

amazing freedom. I'm not saying the world's perfect here, but

compared to a lot of places in the world, we

are so blessed. We are so blessed two Thessalonians three.

But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you

and protect you from the evil one. We have confidence

in the Lord that you are doing and will continue

to do the things we command. May the Lord direct

your hearts into God's love and Christ's perseverance. Do you

not this again, it's that prayer for protection of their heart.

Paul's not praying.

The Thessalonian Church, by the way, was hugely persecuted. That's

why Paul had to deal with that.

False idea they had that maybe even the day of

the Lord had already come, because they just thought it

can't get worse than this. Surely this is it. And

yet again, it's nothing here about the persecution. It's about

the heart. He'll protect you from the evil one. What's

the protection so that you can continue in God's love

and Christ's perseverance. One of the things we'll notice, I'm

just I'll watch time. One of the things you'll notice

in scripture is that we interpret the scripture through the

Holy Spirit, and God uses experience to be confirmed in

the scripture.

So often these days we think that just our.

Human reasoning at an institution followed by reading a word

means we understand.

It absolute codswell, just have a look at where we've

got to. You need the Holy Spirit to interpret scripture,

and sometimes it's only the Spirit that will show it

through experience that you can then.

Go, I get the scripture now because it matches. I

want you to think of Pentecost two Acts two.

What happens.

You've got a whole lot of people there who are

experienced speaking in other languages.

Hence the visitors can hear the message. Think about.

Speaking in strange tongues, which weren't that strange to the

people in you the language?

And what does Peter say, Oh.

This is fulfillment of Joel too. Because we'll have dreams

and visions. Huh, they're not having dreams and visions. They're

speaking now the languages, what are you talking about? But

actually the heart of what Joel was saying was that

God will come in dreams and visions. And those people

did get them later. But actually, I'm going to reveal

myself to you. I'm going to reveal myself to you

in your dreams, in your visions. You are going to

see something that you could never see any other way.

And that's exactly what he did at Pentecost. He came

in the Holy Spirit and revealed himself to those people

from all those different countries, and they knew this.

Has to be God. There's his Holy Spirit. See, that's

that's how it works.

I look at people who've had huge influences on me,

So if this turns many of your bad luck.

Derek Prince weren't great teachers on this.

I was new to it. But the early stuff from

John Wimber. Wimber used to talk about in his early.

Days of having a prayer time down here, the sort

of thing and the number the Christians would be the

ones coming and would start to manifest demons, and he

said he knew that they loved God because many of

them had a whole testimony of people that they brought

to Christ in their evangelism, but somewhere along the line,

somewhere they hadn't dealt with a hurt or something. They'd

been offended and held on to it.

They'd grown in love with a tradition so much that

the tradition became their God.

Whatever it was, and that would be cast out.

This was just part of what happened, Derek Prince as

it will give you the same I've wished. This is

my personal testimony in the last year, not identifying anybody,

but the last year, we have had people here at

different times. I'm talking people who are walked in the

faith for many years, some of them thirty years more,

who work in ministry.

I'm not talking about even second.

I'm talking they actually are paid ministers, and they have

sat there and screamed demons.

Out in deliverance. That was in the last year.

We sometimes get sent people because they need prayer, because

there's an issue, and their own church says, we know

there's an issue, but theologically we can't address it. So

can you come over here and then go back and

we do that.

That's fine. We do that. We love people, we want

to see the captives set free. This is part of it, okay.

And that's not just one person I was talking about that,

I'm talking about several. We've had several people who fit

that model I was just telling about who are definitely

Christians have a host of people have brought to faith.

But it's just somehow something in the past gets you.

Sometimes you don't even know what it is, and it

can happen, and I just praise God that.

They get delivered. Their spirit was always safe in Christ.

It was always safe. They loved Jesus. But somehow they

got hurt somewhere along the line. You know, it's the

old doctrine of original sin. We sin and we get

sinned against. It's a bit of a combat nation somewhere,

and it hadn't been dealt with, and it festers and

so resentment builds. They are gateways for demonic spirits.

See, this is the point.

It seems so simple, But whenever something happens to you,

you have a choice.

How you respond.

Do you say from the cross as you're looking down

like Jesus, do you say, Father, forgive them? Note that

Jesus didn't ask for an apology from them.

Really interesting he said, Father, forgive.

Them, or do you hang on to it, justifying it,

talking it through your own head, understanding why you are

right they're wrong, and in the meantime grabbing some poison,

drinking it yourself and watching, waiting for them to die.

Because that's what unforgiveness is like.

It is a gateway for the demonic, and it doesn't

take long, and then you end up just being cynical

about things, sarcastic about godly things, and it's nobles.

But the great thing is there is hope. There really

is hope. One story, again, not identifying him. I remember

someone coming to us.

Same thing, working in ministry and suddenly for some unknown

reason with another person at the time, and this female

was erupted in a male voice, was in a cart,

tried to attack the driver, speaking in this guttural male voice,

screaming to get out, to kill themselves. And it was

with someone that they us.

And all that. It wasn't like an abusing Yeah.

That happens, same thing, that person, Christian worker. This can happen.

We just don't like talking about it in churches, and

then we hide at times behind them. You know, Well,

if God's light darkness can't be in the light.

It's true. That's the spirit, that's the spirit, but.

The soul is a different thing because the soul is

where you have That's why we still sin. This is

the heart, that's the soul, that's where you get your addictions.

That's where the spirit of pornography lives.

Right.

People don't understand at times to go, oh, well, if

you get caught up in pornography, you can't love God.

Yes you can.

You can because you're actually afflicted by demonic spirit at

the time, you still love God. Now, if it's a

one off thing, you just repent the normal way, that's fine,

and you still will repent. I'm not saying that won't happen,

of course you do. But when it be something like

that becomes constant and you see it controlling part of

your life, and then it can actually become like works

because you're trying to do it yourself. You're ashamed, you

want to live in the you don't anyone to knowse

you can't do it, and so you try and live

in the dark, just covering so no one knows, and

you try and do it by works, trying to stand

against it whatever else and guess what you'll find you

get very tired, and you'll probably feel very unsuccessful if

you give it a couple of years, because the same

buttons are being pushed. Right, Scripture tells us the same

things as what our experience is with this, all right,

If we want to become sanctified, if we want to

be able to go out into all the world and

do those good works that were prepared for us to

do before that we should walk in them. Then we

actually have to be in good spiritual shape. That's the reality.

Because if we're not our ministries and I'm not talking

about just me, I'm talking about everybody has a ministry here,

everyone's the same.

You become powerless because you won't see the power of God.

When Paul talks in Romans fifteen and he says, you know,

from a Lyaricum to Jerusalem, in signs and wonders, I

have preached the full Gospel. So much of our Christian

world today shudders at that signs and wonders.

And I don't have that us shut it down. Let's

just I take the Bible seriously. I just think, Lord

have mercy, Christ have mercy. Lord have mercy. As we

used to say, in the prayer book. We should take

the Bible seriously, indeed, but you do it by being

open to God, letting the Holy Spirit work.

So just to finish this is really quick. Now, these

are just some things that I think. It's not an

exhaustive list, but just being ready as Christians, this is

like just making sure the old car has its regular services.

You're up to date, deep communing with God, prayer, fasting,

soaking in God's word, not just ticking it off.

Hey wow, I've got a streak of forty two days.

I've read the word, no soaking it.

It's a living word. It's a living word.

It has power, communion, worship and praise God as a

central part of your life. You know, the Lord inhabits

the praises of his people. That's you individually as well.

It can be a bit embarrassing, but it's actually really funded.

Seeing praise songs down in the backyard makes you give real,

real thanks to those that actually help us. On Sunday,

if you've got tone like me, walk in faith that

you have the authority in Christ to bind any demonic spirit.

Jesus gave you this authority, believe and act upon it.

What did he say in Mark sixteen, the first thing,

go and you will cast out demons. Now I'm not

saying you're going to go down a street, undest man,

that I'm just saying, expect that this.

Will be part of what you do. Expect it. Why

would Jesus say it if he didn't mean it, So

just be ready for that.

Actively acknowledging faith. The armor of God is over you

in Christ. And I'm not talking about a Sunday dressing

up in a Roman outfit. And by the way, fully

supportive of that for Sunday school. I think it's actually

a wonderful image for kids. I actually totally support it.

But what I'm saying is, unfortunately, there comes a time

when you just got a you just got You're a

bit older now, unfortunately, and maybe not the outfit, but

the principles are same. Put on the app so the

helmet of salvation. Do you really believe that you're saved?

So when Satan starts to tell you and tries to condemn.

You, what do you do? Oh, yeah, devil, I think

you're right.

So miserable, so miserable, telling him to get stuffed in

the name of Jesus.

All right, you're saved. Don't belittle what Jesus did on

the cross. Don't belittle it. It's that something, the breastplate

of righteousness.

Do you really believe that he that you know sin

became sin so you would become the righteousness?

Do you believe it? If you believe it, you wear it.

So when you get those arrows and those condemning things, no, sorry,

it's teflon, go on, thanks for trying.

Yeah, stand and I say, pray for the gift of discernment.

It's really helpful in any such encounters.

It really is. I was actually talking to a past

friend the other day. I'm talking about prayer and I come.

Back even for healing. I come back to the old

the two things we pray for healing. Jesus did that.

And then there can be actually demonic influence. And by

the way, I'm not saying someone's demonies. It can actually

be demonic spirits that have actually been put over people

that you.

Just need to stand against.

That's another thing too, which I'm not talking about today.

But you stand the gift of the It's really important,

especially when you're praying for someone who may be suffering something.

At no stage in any of this. Am I saying,

by the way, that God doesn't also work through medical

services and all of that stuff psychology.

So I'm not saying that at all God does work

through those things. They're wonderful gifts. But I'm saying there's

another side. There's another side that we have to deal with.

And sometimes I've been called a couple of times to

one particular hospital here where someone on the medical staff.

Has called because the patient there could not They were

traumatized in a way that was just out there. The

staff didn't know what to do, so they actually just

rang me to go down there, really interesting and to

pray because they just knew that it was something else.

I don't know if those people have faith, I don't know,

but apparently it made a huge difference turning up it

was what I proclaimed he was Jesus.

It makes a difference.

And finally, really quickly that deliverance seeing and this is

a two minute bit here.

Address a demon.

If you know it's someone and the person, you can't

just walk down the street. And as I said, there's

authority you have over you, your family, your household, and of

course if someone's coming against you. In a ministry, situation

like the slave girl. You can you don't just you

don't have the authority just walk down the street just

picking out demons for fun down High Street or something.

It's not that, all right, that's leoning tune stuff.

No, But when someone comes to you and you and

you were talking with them and they say no, it's

like a doctor when a patient.

Comes and says, hey, I have this issue. There's a

permission in that.

When you have that permission, you can do that, but

you need discernment, discernment and you address it. You just

address it. And it's not like the Exorcist films and

all that stuff that it's the power is in God.

The power is in God and in his name. It

doesn't matter. I've seen some carry on and seriously, they

scream their heads off on some Hello, do you think

the demon's death.

Does Jesus name? Is it only powerful? You know? Sixty

out of one hundred or more the powers in the name.

Of Jesus Christ. It's not in the volume. But you

need authority. So sometimes people will yell in authority. That's fine.

But what I'm saying is you might not be like that,

and that's fine. I taught school for thirty years. I

can't even remember except for like a warning type thing, Hey,

we've got to move out of this way because of

this alarm or something. I don't think I've ever raised

my voice in thirty odd years teaching ever, because it's

just not the way I operate.

Others did.

That's fine, it's just how we operate. But don't get

caught up in that. It's the authority of the name

of Jesus. Speak the word of God over your life,

your possessions, your family, and your situation, and tell the

demon that it has no place any more in your

life because you have that authority. If that's you, you

can break off these things.

You've been given the authority to do it, so you

can actually step into that.

Why because the risen Jesus has won the victory and

be determined, no wavering. But I say trust in God's word,

not manifestations. Same thing again, some people just carry on

with demonic.

Spirits as if somehow unless somebody's rolling around on the

ground slithering like a snake, which by the way, does

happen sometimes, that's fine. But then if if that doesn't happen,

the demon hasn't gone. We'll use flash. You stand on

God's word, not on a manifestation. Right. Really important, you

know that, because as I said, some demons they just

leave it a breath. You literally just hear a breath

that's gone. You know.

Others I've said there will throw someone onto the ground,

especially Python spirit may do that and you just deal

with it. We've had that at South Lane Tire remember

many of you remember back in Robin Dev's day. We've

occasionally had a couple here that will manifest that way.

Sometimes sometimes these demons will because you speak to the demon,

you don't speak to the person. Speak to the demon.

They'll talk back to you, but usually in a different voice,

and you'll know because it's just not the person's voice.

Keep in mind, as you're praying in that authority, that

you're speaking to the deanon and not the person. We love,

the person Jesus died on the cross for that person,

for each one of us. And then there will be

sometimes and sometimes we're uncomfortable with this, but I think

there are sometimes when we won't see anything immediately, but

when that person goes home, they notice it's gone known

and sometimes you can't test if it's gone or not

I'll give you an example. I know we've got multiple

people here actually who have had lactose intolerance, and there's

been something there and someone has sprayed over a demon

broken it off. Now, unless you're going to be drinking

milk right here, it'd be pretty hard to test that, right,

But those people are gone home, and I know something

in this congregation now how still totally no worries with milk.

They just drink normal milk. Now, that was a really

simple thing.

Again, though, you need discernment because that could have just

been a health thing be healed, so hence that spirit.

Thank you for joining us today for his story, our story.

We hope you've enjoyed this episode and have been encouraged

and uplifted. If you would like to learn more about

Walking with God or Southland Church in Pasadena, Adelaide, please

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