TV 1771 | Know Your Enemy Conclusion

life, he can only do that if he can get you to agree with him. Now that may be ignorance, it may be just weakness and he hides behind every kind of facade you can think of, but the reality is if there is a there is a hold in your life, at some point you opened the door and gave him permission. Now here's another illustration that came to my mind. We know something on the human level about criminal gangs. And let's suppose that you're living in a an area ruled by criminal gangs. I mean Mexico comes to mind but it's certainly not limited to them. There's some of them that rule in parts of cities, too. But a criminal gang, obviously they rule by fear and force, don't they? But just suppose under some kind of a circumstance somebody from one of those gangs comes to your property and needs a room. Any time I'm in in this area I need a place and you let them in. Do you think you're gonna, how do you think you're gonna get them out? Not at all, without a lot more force than they got. That's the way it is if the devil ever gets any kind of a place of influence in your heart and your life. You will never ever get that out by your own power. I don't care how many, how many spiritual formulas you come up with, there is only one thing and it's the power that he's talking about here. We're gonna have to have God's mighty power and we're gonna have to come to be honest with the thing. We can't say, "Oh Lord I got this terrible influence in my life. What's going on? Why am I in bondage in this area?" Oh God, break that hold. Well you gave the devil permission to be in there in the first place. Think about the criminal gang. You opened the door. He claims that as his property and he's not going unless he is forced to leave. Not one of us has the power to force him to leave. What God wants us to do in a deeper way is to for him to open up our eyes to see why things are the way they are. To be able even to go back in time and say, "Lord show me how that...where did this get started? Why am I...why is it this way? Lord open my eyes to be honest. If we have opened the door to a devil, don't we need to be able at some point as the Lord enables us and opens our eyes to be able to go back and say, "There's what happened. Maybe I was ignorant. Maybe I was just a kid. Maybe a lot of things. But the reality is I'm the one who opened that door. Lord, cleanse me. Forgive me." I come honestly laying my need before you.

But right now I am yours Lord. I don't belong to that devil. I repudiate everything about him. I'm not serving him. My body, my whole being belongs to you Lord Jesus. I ask you to fill me and because you're here I declare that door shut. There's an eviction notice that needs to be served in a lot of our lives because we have allowed the devil to come in and to gain holds. Is this crazy? Anybody here need this? Yeah. I believe God wants to bring us to a greater level of victory and freedom. And there's so many tactics that he uses. So anyway, this is one of the scriptures. Boy, I thought I was going to be at some other scriptures a lot quicker. But anyway, he talks about the devil's schemes. Now look at another scripture we often refer to in 1 Peter chapter 5. Verse 6 says, well verse 8 is where I'm going, be alert. Now see, this is one right off the bat. He's getting ready to talk about the devil and his effect on us. He's not talking to unbelievers. Why would he talk to Christians if this didn't matter to Christians? I'm saved by the blood of Jesus. Well, yeah, would that it were so simple in a practical everyday sense? Here's what's going on. Be alert and of sober mind. God wants us to see things the way they really are, to have an honesty about us. Your enemy, the devil, and again, he's not talking about Lucifer personally coming to every believer, but I'll tell you, he's an emissary of Lucifer. Even these little old spirits that come around and harass us, they are sent literally to do whatever damage they can to trick us, to introduce us, to get ahold of any weakness that we have, and we got them.

Let's be honest, we're not this wonderful, free people that we say we are. We need a Savior. Thank God we have one, but this is part of the equation. You can do all the other stuff and get all the rest of it right, but we need to find out where we have literally fallen under Satan's power, and there are chains attached to us. The Lord wants to loose those chains. Be alert and of sober mind, your enemy, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour, that's eat. See, it upholds the same thing that we were talking about. The devil considers us food, it's all he's got. But I'll tell you, I'll tell you, I don't, I almost feel sorry, but I don't. For a spirit that's assigned to a Christian who gets all this, man, they've got a tough job. Well, let's make it tougher. Let's ask God to open our eyes so we can understand the kingdom of darkness and how it works. As I say, the devil has been studying you all your life. There isn't a person here who doesn't have something in your personality, something in your experience. You've been through something. You learned, you were influenced by something

that gives them an in, gives them a degree of a hold. And God wants to loose those every one of those things, but we're gonna have to understand it. I can think of so many things and I'm sure you can as well, but Lord, just guide this, I pray. But you think of, I could be any of us, but I'm thinking about young people right now, I guess. And how the devil wants to tempt you to play with sin. There are things you know aren't really right. You can't imagine doing them with Jesus, but it'll be okay. It feels good. We can mess around with it a little bit. We won't go too far. You know, I'll just take a sip or a little bit of a drink and I understand I won't be like those people over there, but I'll just mess with it. You don't toy with sin. What do you think's going on there? You think there's some innocent game going on? There are dark figures that are inspiring that and when it comes to justifying it, well, I'm not going that far. I'm just, this is innocent. I'm just messing around and after all, it's all taken care of. Jesus blood covers my sins and I can always get forgiven if I go too far and, oh God. How many times do we go through the same cycle of falling into a weakness and then saying, oh God, help me?

And the Lord's had to take me back to, you know, where some of this is, and I'm sure there's be more to come, but has had to take me back to where some of this stuff got started. Why am I like this? Why do I struggle in this area as much as I do? Well, there's a reason. I got programmed way back, maybe as a kid. There were ideas, there were desires, it was something that was stirred up. It wasn't right, it wasn't good. And I kept playing with it and then I'd get in a weak place. The devil loves to take advantage of people when they get tired. Of course, he'll make you tired in the first place. But what's his game? Yeah, break us down. Get us to a point where we don't have much resistance and maybe we start to feel a little bit sorry for ourselves. Where does that wisdom come from? Yeah. And then we go eat the proverbial box of chocolates. And we begin to give in a little bit, well, it's okay. And you begin to, of just influence that's coming and you know it's not God. If you stand back and look, you know there's no way this is coming from God. But is it just random thoughts? Or do we recognize that there's a reason the word of God says resist the devil?

There is a real personality involved in these kinds of things. When Jesus was tempted by the devil he just didn't say, oh that's a bad thought, I think I'll quote the word. Now obviously in his case he probably was the devil, it was. But Jesus addressed the spirit, not the sentiment, not the idea, he addressed the spirit. How do we overcome the devil? Blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony, that's when God's word becomes resident. We're listening, we're hearing that voice, that creative power that wants to change us on the inside, we're hearing it and it's changing us. But that becomes not just something we know in our heads but something we confess with our hearts, I am his. You can tell me all about what I'm not but I am his child. I have been given a brand new heart and a new life, I'm a new creation in Jesus Christ. It doesn't, it isn't dependent on who I am and what I am and what I've accomplished. I'm a sinner saved by grace. But devil, that's my stand. I'm standing on what God has said and what God has promised and that's the end of it. You have no authority here. This is what God says, that's where I'm standing. And then you don't hang on to any part of your life even if he kills you because that's all he can do. Give us a quick ticket to heaven. He cannot destroy or separate us

from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus and God has given us everything we need. But I believe with all my heart, God wants to take us to deeper levels. And you think of pornography. It is rampant and super available in our society. Used to be it was the little magazines that had the covers on 'em and boys would get 'em and mess with 'em and snicker and all of that kind of stuff. But it's everywhere now. You think it's all innocent to mess with that? I'm curious about this little thing, I'm curious about that. Where does that wisdom come from? Do you not see that there's a figure, there's a person with a name talking to you? You know, we think of God speaking to us. Well, God is a spirit, you don't see him. But we know that he has the power to speak in our hearts and in our minds, does not the devil or devil's demons do not they have a certain amount of power to inject thoughts and wisdom and words? Well, God's words are spirit and life. They have life-changing power. It's not simply the ideas behind the words. It's the power, it's when he speaks, there's life infused. But what happens if the devil is the one who does the talking? Are we not partaking of something that affects our spirit? Is it not like spiritual poison that begins to blind and begins to attach those chains?

May God help us to talk to him about these things. I didn't have any particular sense of where we wanted to go in terms of the service beyond starting a conversation. I believe the Lord wants to come in greater power. We can go along and uphold our traditions and our ideas and our doctrines and our way of doing things. You can do that and just die eventually. We need the presence and the power of Christ, but we need him to come and in delivering power so that lives can literally be set free, chains can fall, prison doors can be opened. Is that not what Jesus came to do? Yeah, there may be those cases where you've got demon possession. Demons have to be driven from a person's life and they're brought to Christ. You've seen that in the past. But I'll tell you, believers have problems with demons too. And you wonder how in the world, what's going on? I don't understand. I try. You can try all you want. We need to find power. We need God to literally put his finger and give us understanding. I pray that there will be those who get this, many, who will join me in saying, "God, you're gonna have to help us in this area." I'm not looking for a show, I'm not looking for anything other than you to be real.

And to set me and the people free in a deeper way so that we can not only be free ourselves, but we can be in a position to say, I know what it's like to be in bondage. I know what it's like for the power of God to set me free. And I know the one who set me free can set you free. We can be instruments of God to help other people. Are there not people who need Him, who need to be delivered? Hey, God, give us power. May God give us a heart in that direction. I'm talking to myself as much as I'm talking to anybody here. We need the Lord and we need Him to come back in a greater power. I'm not looking to recreate the visitation. That was something God did. But there's a reality of the power of God that was meant to reside in His church. Does He not want to use manifest gifts of the Spirit? That's not something to put on a show in glory. And that's something that just gives God the opportunity to use people to help other people. That's what it's all about. He gives a supernatural power to be a blessing to one another. That's all that's about. May God help us bring us to a place of greater freedom. You believe He wants to do that? Do you believe He will if we ask Him? And in the hard one, are you willing to say, God, take me back if necessary?

To that traumatic thing that happened to me that I've never gotten over. That something that happened where I, in weakness or in ignorance and whatever, I opened the door and I gave Satan a room. And there He is and I can't get Him out. And I don't know why. Why can't I just make Him go? Well, we're gonna have to have some repentance. We're gonna have to have some honesty that says, Lord, I get why that happened. I agreed with Him. I invited Him in and He's not gonna leave willingly. There is no devil in this world that's gonna leave willingly. There is only power that's gonna make them go. And we're gonna have to be 100% on the Lord's side to have that kind of power, but it's there. It's there, the cross that we've sung about this morning, it's real. The kingdom of God is real, the kingdom of Satan is real. But the kingdom of God is above all. And when He brought us out and raised us from the dead with Christ, He seated us with Him in heavenly places. Like we've said, the devil knows that. We're the ones who don't know it. We don't live like that. We live by what we see and what we feel. God get me out of that. And when I'm having a battle, help me to realize it's not just my feelings and wrestling

with all that kind of stuff. It's, there's a devil talking to me. I have every right to point him to the cross. I have every right to remind him of where I stand and the fact that I'm not here because I'm anything. He has no authority over me because Jesus Christ has paid the penalty at the cross. I stand in His power and in His name, devil you get out of here. Resist the devil and he will flee from you and does not Paul in Ephesians chapter four, when he's giving the instructions, practical instructions about what it means to live out the new life, the new creation life. One of the things he says, don't give place to the devil or don't give the devil any room. Doesn't that tell you where this, where our problems come from? We give him that room. He can't just come in and take over. He has got to get our agreement in some area. That's why I need the Lord to change my thinking, to give me that sense of serving him and being more alert and aware. How can I be alert if I don't even know what's going on? How can I discern what's going on? If God doesn't give me His wisdom, I need to see things through God's eyes, including me and my needs. And I'll tell you, the more God gives us that freedom,

the more we're going to be at vessels that He can use in this crazy hour in this broken world. God has a people. He's got a people right here that we need Him. But he's there, he's willing, the price has been paid. The king sits on a throne and he longs for us to come to him. But we're going to have to understand some of this side of it too. Demon's a real, you don't have to sit there and be a scared of spooks. You know, we've had demons come and try to scare people, scare children. They had several testimonies of that. Well, we need to realize that those devils have no power. That's the only power they can do is try to make us scared. They have no real power unless we give it to them. So let's stop giving it to them. Let's ask God to give us the spirit to speak the truth and demand that they leave in the name of Jesus. Take their, take their whatever hands off of us and off of our children. And I'll tell you where there are things that have been handed down through families. There are conditions, there are, what's the word, anyway, there are ways that people live and think that they're literally handed down in families. Well, don't we have the right to say, let that end with this generation? It doesn't have to go on. Let this be the end of that. You've afflicted my forebears. All those have gone before me, but it stops here because God has shined the light on your activity. You have no right. And I demand that you take your paws off of my life because my life belongs to him. I'll tell you, we have somebody that we can turn to that is, well, you could go on and

on. There's so many aspects to this, but I just pray that God will give us a deeper understanding and a soberness of mind, doesn't He say, be alert and a sober mind? It's not a game. May God give us a sensitivity when we're playing with sin, we're playing with areas where the devil has got to hold on us because we've been weak and we think, oh, that's okay, it's no big deal. Well, that's exactly what the devil wants us to think, but all he's doing is digging in a little bit deeper and a little bit deeper. And I'll tell you, if he gets to a certain point, he's going to say, hey, there's another area of weakness. Hey, devil, come on, help me out here and you're going to have more and more. The devil never wants less. He always wants more and if he can afflict God's people and put us in bondage, then we're not much used to the kingdom of God, are we? We're more in need than be able to help somebody else in need, but God has set us free. May God give us the grace to lay hold of this, to realize that both kingdoms are real. We're serving the one that is on top of everything. We need to recognize how the other one operates and start taking away, start taking back the ground that we've given him and we have every right to do that because of the blood of Jesus and the cross. Thank God. So praise God. I'll just leave that with you and let's just pray and ask God to work and just show us. This has been the Midnight Cry Broadcast. If you would like a DVD or CD of today's message in its entirety, please request it by program number. While it is not required, a donation of $10 for DVDs and $5 for CDs is suggested to help with expenses.

Also for those who request it, we will send you our quarterly publication, the Midnight Cry Messenger, free and postage paid. Send your requests to Midnight Cry Ministries, post office box, 685, Southern Pines, North Carolina, 28388. We invite you to join us again next week at the same time and may God richly bless you until then.