Thank you, Lord, to hear your word.
It's a lamp unto our path.
It shows us that through your truth we
can be set free from our sins.
And it tells us that even if we've
been set free and we don't abide in
your word, we are going to fall and
be a stumbling block on the way.
And even though we call ourselves virgins of
the gospel, it will be revealed that some
were free and others not.
Work in our midst, inside our hearts, Lord.
Amen.
John 8, verse 30.
As he spoke these things, many came to
believe in him.
Jesus therefore was saying to those Jews who
had believed him, If you abide in my
word, then you are truly disciples of mine.
And you shall know the truth, and the
truth shall make you free.
At the time when the Lord Jesus spoke
these words, there were some that were confused.
They didn't understand what the Lord Jesus was
saying.
What caused that?
At
the
time when the Lord Jesus was here on
this earth, the Jews were extremely politicized.
That was top of mind for them, politics.
And that was a subject that set everyone
talking.
Politics can be a troublesome thing.
Whatever the people said, what they thought, what
they did, everything was with a political motive.
At that time they were ruled by the
Romans, under their heel so to say.
And
they
were only busy with one thing, and that
was how to get free from this yoke
of the Romans.
They were fighting for liberation,
political liberation.
But Jesus was busy speaking about spiritual liberation,
to be set free in spirit.
So at that time, everything they saw in
a political light, all
you people who are looking at him up
there, you won't be able to answer the
questions.
Forget about him, look here.
So all that was on their minds at
that time was politics, how to be set
free from the yoke of the Romans.
When I saw that, When they saw the
wonders, the miracles the Lord did, like when
he broke the loaves and the fishes and
fed the thousands, they wanted to take him
by force, to make him king, and that
he will lead the revolution, that they be
liberated from the Romans.
But because Jesus didn't fit into their agenda,
the motives that they had, they wanted to
kill him eventually because he didn't want to
do what they wanted.
Even the Lord's disciples themselves were busy with
that.
When Jesus had died on the cross and
he rose from the dead, and
he was together with his disciples again, they
said, well Lord, are you now going to
restore the kingdom of Israel?
And Jesus, so to say, gave them a
slap in the face.
He said, that's it.
He said,
that's
it.
Jesus said to them, it's not for you
to, it's not for you, these things are
not for you, times are not for you
to determine.
That's not for you, but the Holy Spirit
will come upon you, the Comforter will come,
and when he comes, he will give you
the power to be my witnesses.
And when they received the Holy Spirit, only
then were their eyes opened as to what
it was really all about.
And that it didn't have to do with
the political kingdom or political agenda.
Many are deceived and confused, they have no
discernment.
But when it comes to politics, when it
comes to politics, when it comes to politics,
there is no doubt, there is no doubt.
With many people, their Christianity only goes as
far as their politics go.
It starts and ends with their politics.
But they don't realize that these kingdoms of
this world, they come and they go.
Only the Lord's kingdom is the eternal kingdom.
If you want something of value that is
lasting, then be involved with the Lord's so
-called politics.
Jesus holds all the kingdoms in his hands.
He gives one kingdom to one, and then
he takes it from him and gives it
to another.
It's all in his hands.
He controls the destinies of the kingdoms of
this world.
Daniel was very much involved in the time
when Babylon ruled the earth.
But even though he was so involved, politics
never ruled his life.
And when Jesus said that you will know
the truth and the truth will set you
free, they said, well, free from what?
We are free, apart from the Romans, but
otherwise we're quite free.
Revolutionaries or terrorists have been around a long
time.
Even Barabas at that time was imprisoned because
of terrorism.
When Pilate gave them the option and said,
who would you like me to set free
for you, Jesus or Barabas, the crowd shouted
Barabas.
Barabas had fought for a political
liberation and freedom.
And Jesus said, if my kingdom is your
kingdom,
I
will give it to you.
And Jesus said, if my kingdom were of
this world, then my subjects would be fighting
for me now to set me free.
But my kingdom is not a political kingdom.
It's a spiritual kingdom.
You will be set free in your spirit
from Satan.
Set free from the power of the devil.
I'd like to combine this message with a
word we find in Ephesians 6, verse 10.
Finally, be strong in the Lord and the
strength of His might.
Put on the full armor of God that
you may be able to stand firm against
the schemes of the devil.
For our struggle is not against flesh and
blood, but against the rulers, against the powers,
against the world forces of this darkness, against
the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly
places.
Therefore, take up the full armor of God
that you
may be able to resist in the evil
day, and having done, to stand firm.
Let's stop there.
It says here, finally.
Now, in Greek, that doesn't necessarily mean that
it's the very last word that will be
spoken.
Or that it's the final conclusion.
But in this context here, it means that
once all has been said and done, but
here is what is important for this moment,
which you must take special note of.
In this book, and even in this chapter,
much is said about what should be done
and what shouldn't be done.
But then it says, after you've done all
that, when all that is said and done,
then take note of this, finally.
Finally, put on the full armor of God
that you will be able to resist the
devil and his wiles.
Jesus overcame the devil.
He put him to open shame on the
cross.
And when the Lord was resurrected, that was
the final blow to the devil.
You need not fear the devil.
He's overcome.
Yet we still have to fight the good
fight of faith.
So let us stand firm in the strength
of the Lord.
Ephesians chapter 1, verse 19.
Excuse me, I don't have my own Bible.
I don't have my own Bible with me.
Someone else just gave me their Bible for
me to write something in it.
So it's not written exactly in the same
place as in my Bible, so I haven't
found the right verse.
And what is the surpassing greatness of His
power toward us who believe?
These are in accordance with the working of
the strength of His might.
And when
you
read the Greek, you find that even Paul
had difficulty finding the right words to describe
the greatness of the power of God.
He even used words that other apostles didn't
use, just trying to describe how great His
power is.
I don't have time to go into it
all, because we're trying to make this service
short.
And here it says how He speaks of
the surpassing greatness of His mighty power, through
which He works and with which He works
in us.
This great and mighty power He uses to
work within us who believe.
That great power.
And then He says it again, He repeats
it in order to try and get the
message across, how great and mighty this power
is with which He works in us.
It's that same power that raised Jesus from
the dead.
When He was dead, that power raised Him
from the dead and out of the grave.
And it's that wonderful power that works within
us that believe.
So even if we're involved in a battle,
we should not fear, for this great power
works within us.
And then in verse 12 we read here
in the 6th chapter again, For our struggle
is not against flesh and blood, but against
the rulers, powers, and the world forces of
this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness
in the heavenly places.
The devil is sometimes referred to as the
god of this world, prince of darkness.
And it refers to His power and His
reign and the rulers of this darkness.
I'd like to just show you something small
concerning this power of darkness.
As you've heard, that Pilate threw himself into
that river, jumped off the bridge, committed suicide.
Remember when Jesus stood before Pilate, His wife
wrote Him a letter, sent a letter, saying
to Him, Lord please, I had no rest
all night concerning this man, he's innocent, do
not be guilty of his blood.
And from the day that the Lord was
crucified, Pilate was depressed.
Suffered from depression.
Could never forget the one who stood before
him.
Eventually he committed suicide.
Jesus speaks to you in so many different
ways.
To Pilate He spoke through His wife.
Here He can speak to you through someone
who stands in front here.
So when the Lord speaks to you, don't
just brush it aside.
The day you do that, you will have
no peace anymore.
You will be troubled, like Pilate.
Pilate was ruling the earth at that time.
He was totally free, so to say.
Yet he was depressed, he had no peace,
he was not free, until he committed suicide.
I'd like to use an illustration here, just
as an example.
A certain person who was 12 years old.
A girl.
She went from home, down to the river,
threw herself into the water.
And then the people around there said that
she did that because of the ancestral spirits.
They told her.
It says we are not involved here fighting
against flesh and blood, but heavenly powers, principalities
in heavenly places.
So these demons drove her down there into
the water.
And she went home.
The people there said it's the ancestral spirits.
And it continued.
Eventually, she ended up joining the Satanists.
And then a greater battle started.
And the spirits worked within her, and even
took her out of her body, and she
could move around in her spirit.
You must be
very wary of joining the Satanists.
They do many things.
Some are even expected to kill family members
before they can really become part of it.
So while she was in this state in
her spirit where she moved around with other
spirits, they went and troubled other people, even
going into their nostrils and sucking their blood.
So you come across people who are ill
and sick.
But it's not a physical sickness which can
be helped medically by doctors, but it's something
to do with the spirit and evil powers.
So I'll just cut it short.
Then she lived off soil, eating the earth,
soil like certain Zangomas.
And often she
was driven by these spirits, these
demons, not her, these people sometimes, to go
to places where many people not just walk,
but the places they use as a toilet,
and she was forced to eat that soil.
Now Lord willing, tomorrow night you will see
something where they will perform a play on
Joseph.
Now he was sent into slavery, but there's
no slavery that can be compared to the
slavery of Satan.
It's better if you become a person slave
than to become the devil's slave.
Now when she had eaten that soil, she
could no longer go to the toilet.
She was taken
to
different Nyangas and witch doctors, they tried all
sorts of potions, even snake skin which they
mixed with other potions, and she had to
swallow that.
Even taking certain fat from a tortoise, and
she had to swallow that.
Listen carefully so that you know what the
end result of all this is.
Maybe some of you have been involved in
rituals where similar things have been done, where
your body has been cut and certain potions
have been smeared into them, and then later
you wonder why you are troubled by sin
and different types of things, where maybe the
lust of the flesh, you cannot control anything
anymore, and you wonder why.
Sometimes people here say, well why can't the
medical doctors continue to practice freely, why can't
our own traditional healers have the same rights?
If you go to a witch doctor, she
will tell you, if
you go to a qualified medical doctor who
has been trained and he gives you medicine,
all the medicine he gives you is properly
accounted for, and all the ingredients to the
finest detail is written on the bottle, you
know exactly what's inside.
But a traditional healer, if you go to
him, he will also give you some type
of medication when you go to him because
you're sick, but he'll give you just something
in a bag, you don't have a clue
what's inside.
So if you go to a traditional healer,
he will give you medicine, He
doesn't disclose to you what is inside, whether
it's dung from a lion or hair from
a corpse or fat of a human being,
you don't know what's inside there, what he's
mixed into it.
When this child grew up, the Satanists told
her, never go to the Christians, don't believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ, the day you
do it, you will die.
So when we were in a certain place,
this person came to the service, heard the
message, confessed her sin and was prayed for,
and said, now I'm going to Sizabantu, they
said don't, if you go there, you'll die.
Her stomach hadn't worked for all this time,
weeks and months, and her stomach didn't work.
And then she came here and she was
prayed for, and thereafter she could go to
the toilet.
But when she went there, a snake came
out.
First one, and then the second one, which
was even bigger.
Remember how she was given that potion with
skin of a snake to eat, to swallow?
She cried out for help that they would
come and catch or kill these snakes.
But they escaped down the toilet.
And thereafter, a tortoise came out, a small
tortoise, alive.
They tried to catch it, but it also
got away.
And after that, a spoon came out and
it was twisted and bent.
Here's a picture, a photo of it.
I didn't bring the spoon along, I thought
I'd just show you the photo.
And so her stomach started working again.
And on another day after that, she brought
up, she vomited.
And this frog came out, alive.
And this animal made noises like a chicken,
like a hen.
And then I said they should take and
throw it to the boiler, and then it
cried even louder.
Now imagine living like this, snakes and frogs
and spoons inside, is there greater bondage than
that?
After that, a big grasshopper came out of
her mouth, alive.
We also threw it into the fire.
And after that, safety pins came out, coming
out of her mouth.
After that, one day when she was prayed
for, they called
us and said she needs to be, could
we come for some more prayer because she
had a pain in her ear.
And as one looked, one could see a
needle coming out, you can see it here.
She was prayed for again.
And I said, well, some people will just
say it's just a fairy tale.
And I asked them to capture it on
camera, that people could see it, and I
even asked a doctor to be present.
And someone even when the needle came out
of her tried to pull it out, and
she couldn't bear the pain, it was so
sore.
And they thought well maybe it's also a
safety pin with the other part still inside.
But then it was just that needle.
And then we prayed again, and then as
we sat and watched, we saw that needle
coming out on its own without anyone touching
it.
And we just sat there, just by the
power of God, that needle came out until
it fell down.
That was from the left ear.
I think Katrine didn't include that other photograph
where another needle came out her right ear.
Now this is not just a dream.
Now this is not a dream or
just a fairy tale, it's something we saw
and experienced ourselves first hand.
But I want to share it with you,
and I'm sharing it that you can see
the devil's power, the power he's got.
But above that, the power of our Lord
Jesus Christ, that great and mighty power that
surpasses everything else, the power of his resurrection,
that works within us.
Satanist said if you become a Christian you
will die.
She didn't die.
She's alive today because someone far greater than
the devil, that great and surpassing power has
worked in her.
She's not the only one, there's another boy
where a needle came out his foot, and
someone else where over 20 needles came out.
How many were there?
23.
And with this other person, about 23 came
out, they counted 23.
And not coming out with a sharp side
first, with a blunt side, the doctor would
come and inspect and say well there seems
to be nothing else coming.
And that same day or the next day,
another one would come out.
And so we could experience this, where you
could just sit there, see the power of
God at work, where that needle would come
out little by little until it fell right
out.
Paul in his letter to the Ephesians writes
about the surpassing greatness of the power of
God, the power of his resurrection that works
within us.
Now it says be strong in his power.
You see now to you, if you're an
unbeliever, you see what risk you're at, these
spirits can, demons can come and trouble you
at night, suck your blood.
Satanists on the increase.
Yet Mapumula at the registration office for motor
vehicle registrations, the number 666 came up and
they said well they don't want that one,
that stands for the Antichrist.
And someone else came along and said does
it stand for the Antichrist, well that's the
one that I want.
The Antichrist.
666, that's human number 6.
Three times standing for the Trinity, standing for
a person who makes himself out to be
God.
But there are those who want that, who
choose the devil, and there are those who
say that they will make themselves God.
But other people say they want the majority
to rule, they don't say that God should
rule.
In Zulu it's very nice, it's the will
of the majority.
So it can be your own will, or
it can be the will of the people,
of the majority.
But where are those who seek the will
of God?
If you look, as it says here, we
don't fight with flesh and blood.
But against heavenly powers, principalities in the air.
And so we have to do with many
different spirits.
If you look, if you can walk down
the street, anywhere you can buy pornography, where
pictures are of naked people.
And immorality and pictures, total perversion.
And so we have to do with many
different spirits.
In America they did a survey of people
that were in prison for murder.
And when they asked them what was the
root cause of it, where did things start
going wrong in your life?
And it came out that most of them
said it started when they looked at pornography.
And some people, they also get it because
they get involved in occultic things.
Others use it to play cards, and on
these cards are pornographic images.
Do you see where the seed is sown
and where they get it?
No wonder AIDS is rife in this time.
And I spoke to someone these days and
they say even many of our leading people,
even in parliament, are HIV positive.
You can stop praying in schools, you can
say, and then you say all religions are
equal.
You see the power of darkness.
Jesus said, I am the way, there is
no other.
But today every religion, whatever it is, leads
you to heaven.
The power of darkness that rules on this
earth, but Jesus says, you will know the
truth and the truth will set you free.
The
truth
will set you free.
Just recently there was an appeal case in
court where they said that it is constitutional,
legal, that gays get married to each other.
But it's sad that even some churches say
now that it's not wrong that you have
a gay relationship.
It goes against the law.
It's even totally unnatural, two men, so to
say, get married.
They can't have any children, they adopt a
girl, this girl grows up with these two
men.
It's not natural.
How will that girl grow up?
Imagine two boys, the one boy goes and
has a relationship with another one.
He takes his friend home and says, well,
I'd like to introduce you to my bride
-to-be.
It doesn't make sense.
The world is mad.
And lives a lie, but Jesus said you
will know the truth, the truth will set
you free from this bondage.
The truth will
set
you
free
from this bondage.
There are boys that go to doctors for
a sex change.
Imagine when those people stand before God.
How will they stand before him?
In 1980, 1990, in Galilee.
In about the 80s, when the doctors first
announced that they can do a sex change
on a boy, they said, well, in five
years later, he'll be able to bring a
child into this world.
Well, it's nearly 20 years, they still haven't
got it right.
The power of darkness.
Darkness.
We need to preach the gospel.
We need
to
preach the gospel in this time, where the
world is standing on its head, where people
are just living for political kingdoms.
I'm saying come to Jesus and get involved
in that eternal kingdom.
And maybe you're just a bystander.
You're just a spectator.
You're saying, oh no, I don't want to
get involved yet.
I'm still young.
Maybe when I'm older, but I say woe
to you, because the devil will suck your
blood while you're alive.
There is no other way, other than
the Lord Jesus Christ.
If you haven't chosen him yet, choose him
today.
Otherwise, your future will be pitch black.
Come to Jesus.
He will set you free.
May it dawn on you and your eyes
be opened like it happened to the apostles
when the Holy Spirit came upon them.
When a person gets converted, becomes a Christian,
and those demons are driven out, they go
around and look for other people that they
can enter.
If you're not a believer, strong in the
Lord, those demons will enter you.
And you won't lord over these demons.
They'll lord over you.
They'll ride you.
Let us bow our heads and pray.
Lord, we've heard of the tricks, the wiles
of the devil.
We've heard that we're not fighting flesh and
blood.
But our battle is with principalities, rulers in
the universe.
The rulers of this darkness.
But we thank you, Lord, because while we're
fighting the devil, we know he's a defeated
foe.
He was overcome and conquered when you died
on the cross and rose from the dead.
Now we can fight the good fight of
faith with that power, that surpassing, overwhelming power
that rose Jesus from the dead and raised
him from the dead.