Bonus Episode | Authority Over the Storm: Winning in Spiritual Warfare | Rick Renner

Okay, open your Bibles to Ephesians, chapter six.

And tonight we're going to begin in verse 12.

And Father, we thank you in the name of Jesus for tonight.

We thank you for Pastor Mike and Julie and for their family.

We thank you for the volunteers and the ministers that

are here.

We thank you for every single person and Holy Spirit.

People worked hard to get here, so we don't want to waste anybody's

time.

And we ask that tonight you would give us something that would

make a.

Difference in our life.

And we thank you for this in Jesus name.

And everybody said, amen.

All right, open your Bible to Ephesians, chapter six.

We're going to begin in verse 12.

And I'm reading from the King James Version, just because that

still is the version that most people use around the world.

But we're going to begin in verse 12 where the apostle Paul begins

to write.

By divine revelation, and he is seen into the realm of the Spirit.

And he has seen how Satan's kingdom is aligned militarily.

And when you come to Ephesians 6:12, he says, for we wrestle not

Ephesians 6:12

against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers,

against the rulers of the darkness of this world, and against

spiritual wickedness in high places.

And you'll notice that one word is repeated again and again

and again in verse 12.

It is the word against.

And normally the word against that would be used here would be

the word anti.

But in this particular case, it is not the Greek word anti.

It is the Greek word pros.

And the word pros describes a very intimate contact.

So you could translate the verse like this.

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but face to face

with principalities, ribcage to ribcage against powers, right

next to the rulers of the darkness of this world, and lastly,

against spiritual wickedness in high places.

And now, by divine revelation, Paul begins to describe how Satan's

kingdom is aligned militarily.

And he begins at the very top by describing principalities.

This word, principalities, is the Greek word arcos.

It describes chief demon spirits which have held their places

of power since ancient, ancient times.

Directly under them is a second category called powers.

The word powers is the Greek word exousias.

It describes those that have received license from the principalities

to do whatever they want to do, wherever they wish to do it.

And then you come to this phrase, rulers of the darkness of

this world and spiritual wickedness in high places.

But many, many years ago, when I was studying the Greek language

in the university, and I came to this phrase, rulers of the darkness

of this world.

It completely perplexed me because in Greek, it is the word

cosmocrateros.

The word cosmos describes something that is ordered.

The word kratos describes power.

But when you compound the two words together, it describes power

that has been harnessed, Power that has been disciplined, and power

that then is dispatched.

And it was actually the old Greek word to describe a boot camp

or a military training center.

And so if you just take the word for what it means, it seems

that Paul in this verse is using militaristic language at the

very top of Satan's domain.

He says there are principalities.

These would be like the generals in Satan's army.

Directly under them are exousius, or powers, those that have

received license and authority to do whatever they wish to do, wherever

they want to do it.

And then he comes to this third category, Rulers of the darkness

of this world, which really is the old Greek word for a military

boot camp or a training center.

So I went to the leaders of my church Back when I was studying Greek,

and I said, can you please tell me what does this mean, rulers

of the darkness of this world?

Because the Greek word infers that Satan has a boot camp or he

has a center where he trains demon spirits to do what they do.

But no one could help me with this because no one had ever exegeted

that word the way that I was exegeting it.

So I decided just to put it on the shelf and forget about it until

a later time.

And many, many years passed.

And Denise and I were doing a.

Meeting in western Oklahoma in a small church.

The place was packed, and we had announced that on one particular

night, we were gonna lay hands on the sick and God was going to

touch people.

And as the people came forward, a.

Man and his wife came to the front.

They were standing side by side.

He was a big man, and he.

Had his hands behind his back.

And I said to him, why have.

You come for prayer?

He said, well, I have this issue with my hands.

And he pulled his hands out and.

Put them in front of me.

His hands were so twisted, both of them, that it looked like

the fingers were now growing into the palms of his hands.

And they were beginning to grow out the other side of his hands.

His hands were completely deformed.

And both of his hands were identical.

One to the other.

And I said to this man, who.

Was not a Christian, so he didn't.

Know to use Christian language, I said, tell me what happened

to you?

He said, well, I'm going to tell you exactly what I told the

doctor.

He said, one day I felt something.

Come on my hands.

And he said, over a period of time, my hands begin to ache and

they begin to hurt.

And at first they thought that I had a severe case of arthritis,

but then my fingers began to contort, and finally I ended up deformed.

And he said, look where they have performed surgery to try to

stop this deforming process.

But he said, nothing they could do.

Could stop this process.

He said, then finally, when my hands were completely destroyed,

I felt that thing.

Lift off of me and leave me.

Well, standing next to him was his wife, and she had her hands in

her pockets.

And I said to her, why have.

You come for prayer?

She said, well, that's the part of the story he didn't tell

you.

When that thing lifted off of him, she said, I felt it come on

me.

And she pulled her hands out of her pockets, and her hands were

identical to her husband's hands.

And in that moment, it was like.

The Holy Spirit reached into my mind and extracted this Greek

word, cosmokrater us here translated rulers of the darkness

of this world.

And I understood for the first time.

Demon spirits do not do what they do accidentally.

They are trained.

They are trained.

Jesus said, the thief comes to kill, to steal, and to destroy.

And that is their motto.

When they are dispatched, kill, steal and destroy.

And Satan is so serious about his victimization of the human race

that he actually trains spirits to do what they do.

And there are some spirits of affliction, for example, that just

do cancer.

That's all they are.

They are spirits of cancer.

When they are finished afflicting one person with cancer

and the person dies, they dislodge.

They move down the hallway and give the same cancer to somebody

else, because.

That is the weapon that was put into their hands.

There are spirits of addiction.

That's all they do.

They don't do anything but addiction.

And when they're finished destroying one life, they move on

to create addiction in another life.

There are spirits of sexual perversion.

And those spirits are trained to take the thinking of young people

and twist their thinking.

And when they have totally twisted the thinking of that young

person and that person's life has become destroyed, then they.

Move on to do it to somebody else.

These are spirits that have been trained.

And this Greek word, cosmokrater us is the Greek word

which really describes a boot camp or a military training center.

And it can only mean that Satan.

Is so serious about his victimization of.

The human race that he trains spirits to do what they do.

And that leads us to the last category, spiritual wickedness.

In what high places?

Well, the word high places in Greek is a word which actually describes

the lower air or the atmosphere where we live, which means

when demon spirits are trained, they're not dispatched out

into the cosmos, but they're dispatched into our environment.

They come down to where people are with the weapons that have been

placed into their hands.

And that is when they begin to.

Victimize the human race and to understand how evil this is.

The bible says spirits of wickedness.

The Greek word poneros.

It describes that which is malevolent, that which is insidious,

that which is absolutely wicked.

And the reason Satan is so intent on attacking the human race

is because we are made in the image of God.

And every time he sees us, he sees the image of God, and therefore

he's out to destroy and to mar.

The image of God.

But when you look at these verses, you find that Satan is not

just.

By happenstance, victimizing the human race.

This describes a very orderly system.

Principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world, spirits

or malevolent spirits of wickedness which have been dispatched

into the lower atmosphere.

Well, one day when I was studying.

This, I said to the Lord, lord, we have the blood of Jesus,

we have the name of Jesus, we have.

The power of God, we have the promises of scripture.

We have everything that we need to always walk in victory.

So why does it seem that the.

Devil has so many victories?

Why does it seem that he has so many victories?

If we have the blood, we have the name, we have the word of God.

We've got the power of God.

We've got everything.

Then why does it seem the devil has so many victories?

And the holy spirit spoke to me and said, because the devil has

something that the church doesn't have.

I said, really?

What is that?

And he said, commitment, organization and discipline.

The devil doesn't have more power than us.

He does not have more authority than us.

But he is committed, he is organized, he is disciplined, While

the average church member can't even decide if they are going

to get out of bed to go to church every Sunday.

It's a lack of commitment.

No one wants to be submitted to authority.

Nobody wants to take directions from anybody else.

The body of Christ is loaded with power, loaded with authority,

loaded with promises, loaded with the blood of Jesus.

But we lack commitment, organization and discipline.

And that is what the devil has.

That's what the devil has.

And if we will match the commitment, the organization and

discipline that the enemy has, my friends, we will put him to flight

every single time because he is no match for us.

The problem is not power.

It's not authority.

It's not the blood of Jesus.

It's not the word of God.

It's just we have a deficit in commitment, organization, and discipline.

God intends for his church to function like an army.

That's how we are supposed to function.

But when you come to this text, in verse 12, it says, for we

wrestle not against what flesh and blood.

And here we find is how the enemy creates a diversion.

A diversion.

He strikes us with affliction, and we begin to fight our flesh.

Well, if you have a medical problem, it's all right to go to

the doctor.

In fact, I would advise you to go to the doctor.

That if all you do is go to the doctor and you don't deal with

the invisible realm that is attacked, your medication might temporarily

help you.

But if you don't deal with the spirit realm, it will come back again

and again and again and again.

You may have a problem in your marriage if you're married.

I don't know if many people here are married, but one day you

will be.

And if you have a problem in your marriage, go for marriage counseling.

Read all the books that you can read.

But in addition to going to counseling, listening to man's advice

and reading books, you've got to go into the realm of the spirit

and deal with the real source of the problem.

But the devil wants to create a diversion so that rather than deal

with the spirit realm, you just fight with your spouse.

You just fight with your spouse.

But sometimes there's something working behind your spouse.

And I'm going to tell you the way that we learned this.

Many, many years ago, Denise and I were getting ready to publish

a new book.

And we knew that book was going.

To have tremendous results.

Tremendous results.

Up until that time, we had no financial problems in our ministry.

Everything was sailing smoothly.

We were doing about 450 meetings a year.

Can you believe that, Pastor Mike?

450 meetings a year.

Well, there's only 365 days in the year, so you can figure out how

we were living.

We were going from meeting to meeting to meeting to meeting.

God was blessing us.

And then we were ready to produce and publish this new book,

which was called Living in the Combat Zone.

And just about the time that we were going to publish that book,

our finances dried up.

And they dried up so fast that there was no logical explanation

for it.

In fact, our ministry was supported by partners it kind of

seemed that all of our partners had a secret meeting somewhere,

and they all decided at the same time they would stop supporting

because the ministry just dried up.

And whereas before we were doing 450 meetings a year, now the

meetings were canceling, one after the next, after the next, after

the next.

And all of this, just as we were getting ready to publish this

book, which I knew was going to really.

Impact a lot of lives.

And I said to Denise, I don't understand this.

We really have a money problem.

And every day I begin praying about money, money, money.

I would pull out the calculator because this is back in

the days when we still used calculators and it had a roll of

tape.

And I'd get out all the bills and I'd begin to punch in all the

numbers to see.

Somehow I could jiggle and juggle all these bills.

And somehow we're going to make this.

I'm going to be able to work this out.

And I was wrestling with the calculator, wrestling with those

numbers day after day after day.

And it didn' matter how I put the numbers in, the tape always came

out red.

We were in a deficit.

And I found in my prayer life, I was just praying about one thing,

money.

You know, there is something worse than being rich.

That's being poor.

People say, oh, the rich, they just think about their money.

The poor think about money more than the rich.

The rich wonder where to invest it.

The poor are constantly looking for more.

They don't know how they're going to live day by day.

And when you have a lack of.

Finances, you become a slave to the lack of finances.

And I became a slave to a lack of finances.

And every day I would raise my.

Hands and I would pray and I.

Would say, money, money.

In fact, you would have thought that was the name of God,

because when I raised my hands, I said, money, money.

And one day the Spirit of God.

Spoke to me and said, you do not have a money problem.

I said, really?

Sure.

Seems to me that I've got a money problem.

If I don't have a money problem, what kind of problem do

I have?

And the Holy Spirit said, you do not have a money problem.

And I said again, almost sarcastically, then please tell me,

if I don't have a money problem, what kind of problem do

I have?

And the Holy Spirit said, open your Bible to Mark chapter four and

I'll show you what you're dealing with.

So turn in your Bibles to Mark chapter four.

And I want you to see this and when you come to Mark chapter four,

we find that Jesus and his disciples have gotten into a boat

and they're headed to the other side.

And on the other side of the Sea of Galilee was the country of

the Gadarenes.

And in the country of the Gadarenes, there was a demonized

man who had.

A legion of demons.

A legion is 6826, which means this man was literally infested with

6826 demons.

Now, of course, that makes you wonder, how could one man have the

capacity to hold almost 7,000 demons?

But he did.

The good news is, if he had the capacity to hold 7,000 demons,

then how big is your capacity to hold the spirit of God?

The truth is, you've been spirit touched.

You've never been spirit filled, because your capacity is

enormous.

It is enormous.

But this man had almost 7,000 demons, and the man had terrorized

the entire.

Country of the Gadarenes.

Now Jesus gets in his ship and.

He'S headed to the other side, when.

Suddenly, in the middle of the lake, in the middle of the night,

out.

Of nowhere, a storm arose when Jesus.

Was en route to a great breakthrough.

And that's normally when attacks take place.

The devil is very strategic.

He waits until you're right on the edge of a great breakthrough

or something significant, and he strikes you with a surprise attack.

And that's when in Mark, chapter four.

So look, if you would, at verse 35.

And the same day, when the evening was come, he said to his

disciples, let us pass over to the other side.

And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even

as he was in the ship.

And there were also with him other little ships.

Look at verse 37.

And there arose.

Everybody say, there arose a great storm of wind.

And the waves beat into the ship so that it was now fool.

The two words there arose is the Greek word genomai.

It describes something that takes you off guard or by surprise.

Something that takes you off guard or by surprise.

We see an example of this word genomi in Acts, chapter 10, when

Acts 10 · chapter mention

the Bible says that Peter went up on the rooftop to pray while he

was waiting on lunch.

And the Bible says while he was praying, genomi, the same word

that is used here, he slipped into a trance, which means Peter

did not go upstairs to have a trance or to have a vision, but ginomai,

suddenly, in some way that he could have never anticipated, he

could never replicate, it took him completely off guard.

And by surprise, Peter found himself in a different dimension.

So when you see this Word genomi, it always carries an element

of surprise.

Now we find that Jesus boat is headed to the other side.

And you have to remember the majority of Jesus disciples formerly

were fishermen.

They had lived on that lake, they had worked that lake, they knew

the weather of that lake.

And if there was a storm brewing on the lake that night, they

would have never said, let's take the ship.

To the other side.

And when they began sailing that night, the skies were clear.

It was the perfect night for sailing.

And the Bible says there arose the Greek word genomi.

You could translate it suddenly, out of nowhere.

It was the last thing we would have anticipated.

It took us completely off guard.

And by surprise, there arose a great storm of wind.

Well, the word storm and the word wind by itself is sufficient

to tell us this was significant.

But here the Holy Spirit adds the word great as a modifier and

an intensifier to let us know this was not just any old storm,

this was a great storm.

And in fact, the Greek word for great is mega, the same word

we use to say, I have mega bills, I'm mega tired.

Mega this, mega that.

This was a mega storm and ghetto my.

It was completely unanticipated.

It took them off guard.

And by surprise, it naturally looked like it was a great night

for sailing when suddenly, out of nowhere, there was.

A great storm of wind.

And notice, it doesn't say rain, it says wind.

And the word wind here describes turbulence, turbulence

in the atmosphere.

Well, you can feel the effects of.

Wind, but you can't see wind.

You can't see it.

Wind is almost like an invisible enemy.

You can feel the effects of the wind, you can feel the effects

of the turbulence, but you can't point your finger at wind.

But when we go further in this verse, we find out the issue really

was not wind.

There really was an invisible force.

There was an invisible force that had created these circumstances

to capsize the boat in the middle of the lake, in the middle

of the night, when they were on the way to the other side.

Because the devil knew if Jesus reached the other side, that

man was going to be set free.

And when that demoniac was set free, the whole region would be set

free.

And so when Jesus was in his.

Boat in the ship in the middle.

Of the night, headed to the other side, gonna lie.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, it took them completely off guard.

And by surprise, there arose a great mega storm of turbulence and

wind which was assailing them.

And the reason we know this really was an invisible force is

because the verse goes on to Say, and the waves beat into the

ship.

The two words beat into in Greek is the word EPI ballo.

The word epiballo never describes an act of nature.

Never.

The word EPI means over.

The word babo means to throw.

When you put the two words together, it is the very word you

would use to describe somebody that is throwing a ball to somebody

else.

It's not what nature does, it's what a person does or what an

entity does.

And now an invisible force was picking.

Up the waves of the sea and.

Was hurling them over against Jesus ship.

And it was one wave after another wave after another wave.

We know that because the Bible says the waves.

And in Greek it is plural.

It describes one succession of waves after another, after another,

after another.

And these were not even normal waves.

Normally waves would all be moving in one direction.

But now Jesus ship has become the target of the waves and the waves

are hitting the ship from every direction as an invisible force

is picking up the waves of the sea and hurling them against the

ship in an attempt to capsize the ship so that Jesus.

Would never make it to the other side.

Now if you would look at verse.

38 and he, that's Jesus was in.

The hinder part of the ship asleep on a pillow.

The word pillow is even important because it describes a

little corner pillow which fit right in the stern or in.

The bow of the ship.

It was a very small pillow.

And for Jesus to be sleeping on that pillow meant he nearly had

to be laying there in a fetal position.

He was all curled up, sleeping.

Now the waves are shaking the ship.

The disciples are bailing water, binding waves.

Bailing water, binding waves, Fighting waves, Fighting waves, fighting

waves.

And Jesus is sleeping.

I always say that Jesus was so peaceful, he always knew he would

make it to the other side.

He probably was saying, that's nice, devil, just rock the boat a

little bit more.

And it became like the big rocking chair in the middle of the

sea.

Jesus is sleeping deeply on a pillow.

And what are the disciples doing?

They're fighting waves, monster waves.

These are the biggest waves they've ever seen.

And it's so strange.

The waves are coming from every direction, directly at them,

as if they are a target.

They are bailing water, binding waves.

Bailing water, binding waves, Fighting waves, Fighting waves, fighting

waves.

And finally somebody said, maybe we need to get Jesus.

So verse 30 it says they awake him.

Now that's what the King James version says.

But the word awake in Greek is the same Greek word for resurrection,

which means they didn't lean over and say.

Excuse me, Jesus, Lord, we're sorry, we're waking you up.

They resurrected him off of that couch.

They jerked every bone in his body as they pulled him off of that

couch, simultaneously yelling, yelling, master, carest thou not

that we perish?

And the Greek actually says, is there no care in you toward us

that we are perishing?

It's the most pitiful way that you.

Could pray a prayer.

And when you study the synoptic Gospels, which are Matthew,

Mark and Luke, they all tell the same story, but they add a different

piece of the puzzle.

And this is very interesting.

For example, in one of the synoptics, they say, lord, Lord,

carest thou not that we perish?

The word Lord is the Greek word kurios.

It means, O sovereign one who is in control.

But then when you come to the next synoptic gospel, they change

it.

And rather than call him Lord, they call him Teacher.

Teacher, carest thou not that we perish?

And finally you come to this gospel where they call him Master.

The Greek word epistata, which means, just get on the spot, take

action, and do it right now.

But when you look at these three phases, it's usually the same

three phases most of us go through when we're under attack.

When our finances were a mess, these.

Were the same three phases that I went through.

I began by saying, denise, don't fret.

Don't worry.

Jesus is, Lord, everything's going to be fine.

Everything's going to work out.

And then when everything was not fine and everything was not working

out, I moved into phase number two.

I called him Teacher.

He must be trying to teach us something through this thing that

we're going through.

He must be trying to teach us.

And finally, when you got all the teaching you can handle and you

don't want anymore, you finally say, I don't care what you're

trying to teach me.

Get me out of this mess.

And these are the same three things that these disciples went

through.

Finally they said, master Epistada, get on the spot, take action

and do it right now.

And look at verse 39.

And he arose.

And what did he do?

He rebuked what the wind, and said.

Unto the sea, peace, be still.

And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.

But notice the verse says, he arose.

So finally, they've gotten his attention.

They've jerked him off of his pillow.

Now Jesus is standing there.

They've been bailing water, binding waves.

Bailing water, binding waves.

Fighting waves.

Fighting waves, Fighting waves, waves, monster waves.

But when Jesus stands Up.

He lifts his voice to the sky and ignores the waves.

And Jesus begins to address the invisible realm.

Jesus was able to discern this was not a natural storm.

There was something working behind the scenes.

And Jesus took authority over the invisible realm.

He rebuked the wind.

Now, you know, Peter was kind of a loudmouth.

So I can almost imagine Peter saying, great, here these waves are

killing us, and he is talking to the air.

But Jesus understood this was not a wave problem.

This was not a wave problem.

This was a problem with the invisible realm.

He rebuked the wind.

And then what?

Said to the sea.

He didn't yell at the sea.

He didn't even raise his voice to the sea.

He simply spoke to the sea.

Once he dealt with the invisible realm and he dealt with

all those forces which were coming against him.

It didn't take much to deal with the natural problem.

Once the invisible realm had been dealt with, Jesus simply said

to the sea.

And he said, according to the King James Version, peace, be still.

But the Greek word that is used here really is not even translatable.

A better translation would be, and Jesus.

Said to the sea.

And the wind ceased.

And there was a great calm.

Very often in prayer, we release a.

Lot of energy against the wrong thing.

The wrong thing.

I'll give you an example.

Years ago, I was called in the.

Middle of the night to pray for.

A woman who was dying of cancer.

They said, come and come quickly.

I came to her home.

She had just been released from the hospital.

The doctors had not completely sewed her up because she was so filled

with infection, they were having to open her up every other

day and clean her out.

So she was just barely stitched together, and she was sitting

in her recliner.

When I came into that home.

And at 12 o'clock midnight, when I arrived in the living room,

there were five other pastors that they had already called.

And when I walked into the room.

I said, lord, why did you bring me here?

Why did you bring me here?

These other pastors know how to pray the prayer of faith.

They're gonna pray the same prayer that I would pray.

And the Holy Spirit said, if you will obey me, I will heal this

woman tonight.

Well, I kind of got in the flesh and I thought, okay, these

other pastors, they're praying with no results.

They're gonna see who really has power, because I'm gonna pray

and this woman's gonna be healed.

That's what the Lord has said.

If I will obey him.

So I said, lord, what do you want me to do.

And the Holy Spirit said, I want.

You to walk over to her chair.

She was emaciated because the cancer was eating her body.

I want you to lower your upper.

Torso across her body and begin to pray in tongues.

Well, I didn't want to do that.

First of all, she was tiny.

I was afraid that I would crush her.

Secondly, she was barely stitched up and all that infection

was oozing out.

I could just imagine all that infection getting on my clothes.

And if I laid across her and prayed in tongues, my bottom would

be sticking in the face of those preachers.

And I just did not want to do it.

So I kept trying to buy time.

Maybe if I ignore what the Spirit is telling me, he'll go away.

He'll quit asking me to do this.

And the Holy Spirit kept saying, earth, are you going to obey

me?

Are you going to obey me?

So finally, I walked over to her.

Turned to all those other pastors, and I said, I'd like every

head to.

Be bowed and every eye to be closed.

Nobody looking.

Their heads were bowed and their eyes were closed.

I leaned across her body.

You know, sometimes when the Holy Spirit tells you to do things

you don't understand.

Jesus did things that made no sense.

He spit in mud and put in a man's eyes.

But it worked.

And so I laid across her body and I began to pray in tongues, Loudly.

Not because loud is more powerful, But I was trying to drown

out what my mind was telling me.

I was so embarrassed that my bottom was sticking in the face of

all these pastors.

And I was hoping that their eyes were closed and their heads

were bowed.

And then all of a sudden, the woman that I was praying for let

out a scream.

She said, oh.

I jumped up.

I said, did I hurt you?

And she screamed again.

And this woman began to cry out about things that happened to

her when.

She was a child.

And when she was a child, her father died.

And as a young child, she perceived her father had rejected

her.

Then her brother and sister got sick.

Both of them died.

She perceived that at a young age, her brother and her sister had

rejected her.

Her mother got remarried.

The new daddy died of sickness again.

She perceived it as another rejection.

And a spirit of rejection, a spirit of rejection had entered into

her.

Now, I had known this woman all of my life, one of the most wonderful,

happiest, fun people.

But she struggled with rejection her entire life.

And there was no reason for her.

To feel that she was rejected, that.

That spirit of rejection had settled into her flesh.

And now her flesh was rejecting her in the form of cancer.

All of those other pastors were praying against cancer, cancer,

cancer, cancer, cancer.

She did not have a cancer problem.

It was a spirit of rejection.

It was not cancer.

Now, I could have prayed all night.

I could have prayed fervently.

I could have prayed passionately and not hit the target.

If I had prayed against cancer, cancer, cancer, cancer.

It was not a cancer problem.

It was a spiritual problem.

And that night, that spirit of rejection left her.

And when it left her, the cancer left her.

She never had a cancer problem.

She never had a cancer problem.

It was a spirit of rejection.

And that really taught me a lesson that we need to listen to

the Holy Spirit when we pray.

Don't always pray just for what you see with your eyes.

You've got to be listening to the spirit of God because he sees

what you cannot see.

He knows what you do not know.

He knows what is the root of every problem standing in front of

you.

And if you'll listen to him, he will tell you how to pray.

Well, on this particular night, the disciples.

Were wrestling with flesh and blood.

They saw waves, so they thought they had a wave problem.

They were fighting wave after wave after wave.

They were binding waves, bailing water, bailing water, binding

waves, waves, monster waves.

But finally, when Jesus stood up.

He.

Lift his face, looked to the sky and took authority over the invisible

realm.

And once the invisible realm had been dealt with, he looked at

the monster waves and simply said, sh, sh.

And the wind ceased.

And there was a great calm.

I love the fact that it says there was a great calm because previously

it had been a great storm.

Which tells me whatever the devil does, Jesus at least will match

it.

If it's a great storm, he's going to match it with a great calm.

If it's a great sickness, he's going to match it with a great healing.

If it's a great addiction, he's going to match it with a great

deliverance.

Whatever the devil does, Jesus at least will match it.

And the disciples feared among one another and said, what manner

of man is this?

Look at your verse.

That the wind and the sea notice the order.

The wind and the sea obey him.

And the word obey is a form of the Greek word hupotassa, which is

a military term, which means to fall in line.

Which means when Jesus spoke the invisible realm and the natural

realm heard the voice of authority and friends.

I want to tell you that when you deal with the devil, you've got

to speak.

It's not enough to think you can't think against the devil.

Your voice is where your authority is released.

Authority is not released when you think about something.

Authority is released when you open your mouth and you speak.

And when you begin to speak, the devil knows the voice of authority.

And this really means the wind and.

The sea fall in line.

They fall in line.

Well, when I saw this, I came to Denise here.

I'd been working my calculator for weeks.

Maybe even a month, punching in those.

Numbers, wrangling with that calculator, trying to juggle our

bills somehow.

We're going to survive this.

We're going to get through this.

And I saw we really did not have.

It wasn't a money problem.

And I said to Denise, sweetheart, we.

Do not have a money problem.

And she said, then what kind of problem do we have?

And I said, denise, it's wind.

We have a wind problem.

And I took her to these scriptures.

Well, we're told in Ephesians 6:12, we wrestle not against flesh

Ephesians 6:12

and blood.

What was I fighting with?

Flesh and blood.

That's what I was fighting with.

And again, you need to do everything in the natural that you

can do.

God gave you a brain, whether it's in regard to your finances or

your marriage or your health.

You need to use your mind that if you've done everything naturally

that can be done and the result is not forthcoming, you may

have more than a natural problem.

And that is a moment when you have to do like Jesus.

Denise and I pushed the bills away from the table.

We lifted our voice and we began to speak to the spirit realm.

I didn't yell to the spirit realm.

The spirit realm recognizes the voice of authority.

And I began to speak to that realm.

I told it to cease and to.

Desist, that it would stop this robbing of our finances.

I saw that just like Jesus was en route to a miracle when he was

crossing the sea, we were on the way to a great breakthrough.

Something was about to happen when suddenly, Ginomai, out of nowhere,

taking us completely off guard and by surprise, there arose a great

storm trying to catapult us.

On the way to a great breakthrough.

So Denise and I spoke to the invisible realm, and then we literally

extended our hand toward those finances, those stacks of bills which

had been screaming at me.

And we said, sh.

Now, friends, that may sound foolish to.

You, but sometimes faith does foolish things with great results.

And within a matter of days, it.

Was like the spigot was turned back on.

The finances began to flow.

All of a sudden, the finances began to flow.

The meetings were rescheduled.

We had all the finances we need to do what was required for

the next assignment.

We never had a money problem.

It was a spiritual attack.

And I could have wrangled with my calculator from then until now,

and I would not have been able to fix.

It because it was not a flesh and blood problem.

It was an invisible problem working behind the scenes.

You know, early on in our ministry.

When Denise and I were traveling in our little car with

our little boys, we begin to recognize then when we would get

into strife, our boys would get sick.

Finally, we understood.

When you get into strife, it opens the door for unseen spirits

to begin to work.

Our boys would get sick.

Oh, one night, Denise and I were driving.

I had just stopped at a convenience store to get me a big

piping hot cup of coffee and put it on the table in the chair

between me and Denise.

In the little cup holder, Denise was.

Holding Philip, who was just a baby, a young child at the time.

And Philip, when we were in a.

Moment of strife, reached over and put his hand into that cup of

coffee.

He began screaming, but we didn't understand how bad he had

been wounded.

When we finally turned on the light.

Inside the car, the coffee was so.

Hot, it had melted the skin off of his hand, and the skin from.

His hand was laying on his arm.

And that was the day we made.

A decision to have a no strife policy in our home.

Because we understood strife opens a door.

And James, chapter three, says, for every evil work, strife

is a door opener for every evil work.

So we decided that night, we're done with strife.

We're done with it.

And if Denise and I were in.

The car and we had a moment, rather than fight with each other,

Denise, you remember what we did.

We would roll the window down, we'd.

Say, get out of this car.

Strife is not permitted to be in this car.

And do you know what?

The strife would leave.

I wasn't having a problem with Denise.

I loved her.

She loved me.

It was strife which was trying to.

Get into our car.

Think how many people fight with each other when the problem

is really not each other.

They love each other.

But a spirit of strife is at work.

It's an invisible force, and you have.

To take authority over it.

You have to take authority over it.

And when you deal with the unseen realm, it's just like Jesus.

It's easy to deal with the natural realm.

The natural realm falls in line once.

You have dealt with the invisible realm.

So now we come Back to Ephesians 6:12.

Ephesians 6:12

Look at it with me.

And this is where we're going to close for we wrestle not.

Huh.

The Greek states it a little different.

The Greek says the wrestle is to us.

And the Greek pulls us into the text, which means at some point

in our life, every one of us are going to be drawn into a conflict.

With unseen spirits that have been marshaled against us.

Like it or not, every one of us, we're going to be pulled into

this conflict at some time.

And Paul is never in the business.

Of scaring us, but he is in.

The business of preparing us.

And that's why he wrote this verse.

For our wrestle is not against flesh and blood.

It's not against this.

It's not against your relatives, it's not against your

finances.

It's not against your medical condition.

Again, do everything you can in the natural to fix everything.

But in addition to that, you've got.

To deal with the invisible realm.

And I'm just thinking about how many people get sick and they

run right to the medical cabinet and never do one thing to

even pray.

They just run right to medicine.

We're going to fix this with an aspirin.

We're going to fix this with Alka Seltzer.

They just run right to the medical cabinet, and that's why they

get a temporary relief do.

Go to the medical cabinet.

Take everything you can do, do everything naturally you can do.

But you've got to match it by speaking to the spirit realm.

You've got to deal with the invisible realm if you want that

thing to permanently go away.

And so here's what we're going to do tonight.

I want you to stand up on your feet.

I want you to close your eyes.

And I want you to visually see whatever it is that's been coming

against you.

Maybe it's your finances, maybe it's strife, lack of peace

in your mind.

Whatever it is.

I want you to see it now.

I want you to see beyond it.

And I want you to say to the spirit realm, you're finished.

Say it out loud.

You're finished.

I rebuke you in the name of Jesus.

I take authority over you in the.

Name of Jesus, and I expect you.

To fall in love.

Line.

Now, with your eyes closed, I want.

You to literally extend your hand toward.

That thing that's been coming against you.

And I want you to say, shh.

Oh, my goodness.

When you move into that dimension, you've moved into a realm

of divine authority where the enemy falls in line and the wind

ceases.

And whatever it is, you're dealing with becomes a great calm.

A great calm.

And, Father, I thank you in the name of Jesus that Denise and

I.

Could be here tonight in Manhattan with.

Hungry, hungry, wonderful people.

I thank you for Pastor Mike and Julie, for the apostolic call

on their life and for the churches that they're.

Giving birth to around the nation.

And, Father, I pray that when every person leaves this room tonight,

they will leave with the discernment to know they've got to

deal with more than what's.

Standing in front of them.

They've got to go beyond, like you.

Did, to deal with the invisible realm.

And Holy Spirit.

You're a wonderful reminder.

So we ask you to remind us of this in the precious name of Jesus.