Some of the distinctives of the New Covenant
over the Old Covenant in these last four
sessions things that Old Covenant saints could never
experience or know in their lives.
And it's only as we know the truth,
the truth shall set us free.
And so it's important that we look carefully
into God's word.
The Bible says that the one who meditates
on God's law day and night will be
like a tree planted by the rivers of
water, and whatever he does will prosper.
I believe that with all my heart.
Very often we read the scriptures, but we
don't meditate on them, we don't look carefully.
I've often said to people, anything I tell
you is not new, it's in your Bible,
it's been there all along.
And how is it you didn't really see
it?
It's because you didn't read carefully, you read
superficially.
God's made even the earth in such a
way that all the valuable things are deep
in the ground, gold and diamonds and oil
and all that's deep down.
What you get on the surface is usually
very cheap.
There's a verse in the book of Proverbs,
chapter 25, verse 1, which says that it's
the glory of God to conceal a matter,
and it's the Proverbs 25, verse 2, sorry,
it's the glory of God to conceal a
thing, and the honor of the King to
search out that matter.
God concealed many things in scripture.
That's His glory.
But that verse says that if we are
kings in Christ, our glory is to search
it out.
God is a rewarder of those who diligently
seek Him.
He does not reward lazy readers of scripture.
So I trust that in all that we
hear, we will also be stirred to study
the scriptures more deeply, because there's a lot
of truth in there.
I started studying the scriptures seriously sometime in
early 1961.
It's nearly 40 years.
And I remember those early years when I
wasn't married and I was working, but this
book was my constant companion all the time.
It was my hobby, my pastime, the game
I played, my food, my drink, my everything.
And through these years, it's changed my life.
It's strengthened me.
It's given me words to bless others with.
And at the end of 40 years of
studying it, I even now find things in
it I had not noticed earlier.
It's a mine.
It's a wealth there which I feel many
of us have missed, lost, things that could
have—our life could have been very different, those
of us who are older, if we had
studied the scriptures more carefully.
So I say to you young people, I've
always urged young people wherever I go, take
time to study the scriptures.
You won't get as much time once you
get married and have children.
Take time in your younger days to really
get into the word, to know it, to
know exactly what scripture says.
So we've looked at repentance, we've looked at
grace.
These are all deep repentance, like John the
Baptist spoke of.
It was not known in the Old Testament.
Grace was not known.
God was not known as a Father.
And as we considered this morning, this ministry
of the Holy Spirit flowing from our innermost
being was not known in the Old Testament.
In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit clothed
people like it says in Judges 6.34.
The Spirit of God clothed Gideon.
It was external.
The Spirit killed a lion on the outside,
but he couldn't kill the lion of lust
inside his heart.
The Holy Spirit couldn't do a work inside
people.
But now the Holy Spirit flows from the
innermost being, and that's the most important thing
about the New Testament.
The work begins inside.
It's the lions of lust that are killed
inside, and from there flows out a ministry
like an overflow.
And that's how our ministry should be.
A lot of ministry I find is not
an overflow.
It's like you take a glass or a
cup, fill it up, pour it out.
Fill it up, pour it out.
That's Old Testament ministry.
Moses went into the presence of God, received
something, came and poured it out.
At least if people went into the presence
of God, they would have something to give.
But a lot of today's ministry, they don't
even go into the presence of God.
They just sit in there, study, and study
some books, and I'd say vomit out what
they've taken in, and people eat it.
It's sad.
That's the condition of ministry today.
But New Covenant ministry is not this, filling
up, pouring out, filling up, pouring out.
Jesus said, I'll put a spring of water
inside you, where we have a permanent connection
to the river of God.
It flows from our innermost being.
It flows from the throne of God, through
our innermost being, and it's overflowing all the
time.
And that depends on our walking with God
all the time, being in touch with Him,
keeping a clear conscience, walking in humility, and
being sensitive to everything that the Spirit says
to us.
And this afternoon I want to speak about
another distinctive of the New Covenant, and that
is overcoming Satan.
Now if you read the Old Testament carefully,
they were never overcoming Satan there.
They were overcoming the Philistines, and the Hittites,
and the Amorites, and the Midianites, and many
other ites, but not Satan.
They never confronted Satan.
Their enemies were all human.
And in the New Testament, as soon as
you open the pages of the New Testament,
you find Jesus confronting Satan.
As soon as he's anointed with the Holy
Spirit, the next thing is confrontation with Satan.
And unlike Eve, who was defeated when she
confronted Satan, Jesus overcame.
And all of us are following either Adam
or Jesus.
We either are defeated by Satan, or we
overcome Satan.
There's no alternative.
There's no need for us to be defeated
by Satan, now that Jesus has overcome.
That's the message of the New Covenant.
But there's one very important requirement for that.
And before I come to this verse I
have in mind, I want to show you
that, this other verse in Ephesians 6 and
verse 12, where it says, we wrestle not
against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against
powers, against the rulers of the darkness of
this world, against spiritual wickedness, in high places
or in heavenly places.
So there are two things here.
One, the ones we do not wrestle with,
and the ones we do wrestle with.
Now in the Old Testament, we couldn't say
this verse.
Every man who lived in the Old Covenant,
every Israelite who was a soldier said, we
do wrestle with flesh and blood.
And we never wrestle with principalities and powers.
Nobody ever did that in the Old Covenant.
Even Daniel, when he was praying in Daniel
chapter 10, he wasn't wrestling with principalities and
powers.
Michael was doing that.
There's not a single case in the Old
Testament where anyone was wrestling with principalities and
powers in the heavenly places.
They were always wrestling with people in earthly
places.
And sometimes they overcame, and sometimes they lost.
Then Jesus came.
And his attitude was, I wrestle not with
flesh and blood.
Towards the end of his life, when he
stood before Pilate, he said, my kingdom is
not of this world.
If it were of this world, my servants
would be fighting.
Years later, in 1 Timothy chapter 6, Paul
reminded Timothy, and saying, I charge you in
the presence of God, and of Jesus Christ,
who made that good confession before Pontius Pilate,
that you keep the word which I am
giving you now.
What was that good confession?
Paul was speaking there in 1 Timothy 6
about the love of money, and telling him
to flee from the love of money.
And in that connection, he said to him
in 1 Timothy 6, I charge you in
the presence of Jesus Christ, who made the
good confession before Pontius Pilate, what was that
good confession?
My kingdom is not of this world.
If my kingdom were of this world, my
servants would fight.
When you fight with human beings, do you
know what you are testifying thereby?
That your kingdom is of this world.
When you fight for earthly things with people,
you are testifying, my kingdom is of this
world.
When you fight for earthly position, and that
earthly position may even be to be an
elder in a church.
That is an earthly position.
You are fighting, you are proving that your
kingdom is of this world.
If you really want to get into this
new covenant battle, you have to make one
decision first, that you will never fight for
earthly things.
That you will not wrestle with flesh and
blood, concerning anything.
I used to think that in my younger
days, that all I needed to get a
person to Christ, or to understand victory, was
to argue with him from scripture and win
the argument, and prove to him from scripture
that I was right.
But very often what happened was, I'd win
an argument and lose a friend.
So I decided that wasn't the way, and
they never got Christ, and they never got
victory.
And I realized that people's problems are not
intellectual.
Problems are in the heart.
And when I argue with a person, if
I win the argument, I haven't proved who's
right.
I've just proved who's cleverer.
If he wins the argument, he's cleverer than
me.
If I win the argument, I'm cleverer than
him.
That's how it is between husband and wife.
Whoever wins the argument is clever.
He may not necessarily be right, he may
be totally wrong, but he's clever, or she's
clever, that's all.
So I decided that even in this realm,
I am not going to wrestle with flesh
and blood.
I'm not going to argue.
I want to lead people to see their
need in their heart.
And if they see their need in their
heart, then I can point them to the
Savior, to the one who can lead them
to an overcoming life.
So there are many, many areas where we
have to decide that we will not wrestle
with flesh and blood.
We're not going to get into conflict with
people.
We're not going to get into arguments over
doctrine.
I want to keep that friendship and help
him to come to a place of need
in his life, and then he may turn
and understand the truth which has gripped me.
Because I discovered that many, many truths that
I've shared, even in these sessions, came to
me not just through, not through arguments.
There was study, there was meditation, but I
finally responded when I had a sense of
need.
I mean, I knew from childhood, in Sunday
school that I used to go to, that
Jesus Christ died for my sins.
But I surrendered my life to him only
when I was 19, when I came to
a place of need.
It's need that drives us.
If any man thirsts, it's not argument.
It's not a question of being convinced.
And so we're not to wrestle with flesh
and blood intellectually, or for money, or property,
or position, position in the church, or anything.
Now, those of us who are willing to
break free from all these battles on earth,
you're ready to fight with Satan, and fight
the real battle in the heavenly.
And I want to tell you that this
is the battle that's ultimately going to determine
what's going to happen here in our local
church situation.
You remember that Old Testament incident in Exodus
chapter 17, where Joshua and the army of
Israel went to fight the Amalekites.
And that was immediately after the rock was
smitten, in the earlier part of Exodus 17.
The rock was smitten, the waters began to
flow, that's Calvary.
The flowing water is the picture of Pentecost.
And what's the very next thing after that
in Exodus 17?
It's fighting with the Amalekites.
It's likewise with Jesus.
He was anointed with the Holy Spirit in
the river Jordan.
He came out, and what is the very
next thing?
Fighting the devil.
But how was that battle against the Amalekites
won?
In Exodus 17, Joshua was there with the
army, fighting the Amalekites with all his strength.
But the victory did not depend on him.
No.
The victory depended on three people standing up
on the mountain, Moses, Aaron, and Hur.
And every time Moses lifted up his hands,
it said, Joshua won.
But when Moses got tired of lifting up
his hands and put his hands down, Joshua
got defeated.
And then Moses would lift up his hands
again, and Joshua would win again.
And when he got tired, and he put
his hand down, Joshua got defeated.
And they were watching this from the mountain.
And they realized it had nothing to do
with the battle strategy of Joshua.
It had to do with Moses lifting up
his hands in prayer.
And that's what we need to understand today.
We've got our strategies to build a church,
and our plans, and our schemes, and for
outreach, and missionary work, and so many things,
mission strategies, and all types of things.
I tell you, these apostles did a lot
more without all these strategies, because they knew
the power of prayer.
You know, the apostles said when they were
being asked to serve the widows who were
complaining about food.
Now, isn't that a very humble thing to
do, go and serve the widows?
Yes, it is.
But the apostle Peter said, well, listen, I
know it will increase our reputation for humility
if we go around serving the widows, but
we can't do that, because we have committed
ourselves to give ourselves to prayer and to
the ministry of the word so that the
church can be built.
Now, we need spiritual people to do that,
but we'll get somebody else to do that.
They recognize the need to really get into
the heavenlies and battle and defeat Satan if
something was to be established on earth.
Now, I think there are very, very few
Christians who have understood that.
Many of the problems your parents have with
your children, you're not going to win by
arguments with your children, exhorting them, dragging them
to church, getting them to speak to this
preacher, that preacher, the other thing.
It's going to happen when husband and wife
kneel down before God and bind the evil
spirits and the satanic forces that are influencing
your children.
And for that, husband and wife have got
to be united.
Otherwise, it won't work.
So God sometimes brings needs in our families
so that husband and wife can come together.
God brings need in our churches so that
fighting elders can come together.
Otherwise, it won't work.
All that the devil needs to do to
destroy a family or destroy a church is
separate husband and wife.
This thing which God has joined together, separate
them.
Then he can walk right through and destroy
their children or destroy their church.
That's why he always attacks the leadership, husband
and wife, elders.
Then he can get through to the whole
thing.
Now, this is one of the things we've
realized in our own work in India for
25 years.
The work started in Bangalore with two brothers,
myself and another.
And I want to tell you my testimony
before God.
In 25 years, this brother and I are
totally different in our personality, in our gift,
culture, race.
God brought us together.
And in 25 years, we have never had
one day where we had a quarrel or
a fight or where we wouldn't talk to
each other.
When we didn't see eye to eye with
each other on something, we still loved one
another.
I don't say we have to agree.
The Lord never said, all men will know
you are my disciples when you agree with
each other.
No.
That's a perversion of scripture.
All men will know you are my disciples
when you love one another, even when you
don't agree with each other.
And so I'm not saying we've always agreed,
but we've always been united.
And if one of us has disagreed on
something, we'll say, okay, we'll wait till we're
both agreed before we move on.
And the other one can be patient.
Sometimes it's him, and sometimes it's me.
But there's never been disunity.
And that protected our church from the attacks
of Satan for 25 years.
And as our children have grown up, we
have four boys, and they're all between the
ages of 20 and 30 now.
And as they've grown up, there have been
all kinds of difficulties in school and sickness
and so many things that have come.
There are two elders at home, my wife
and I.
We do the same thing.
We kneel down and say, Lord, you said
in Matthew 18, 19, if two of you,
it has to be two, by the way.
One is not enough.
If two of you agree, that's the important
thing.
Agree.
It's so difficult.
The Greek word is symphonio, from which we
get the musical word symphony.
If two people are a symphony concerning anything,
they ask.
It will be granted by my Father in
Heaven.
I cannot think the number of times when
my wife and I have knelt down and
claimed that promise, because it says, that's not
the whole verse.
Let me read you the whole passage, Matthew
18, 18 to 20.
Perhaps we should look at that, because we
are not, some of us are not familiar
with it.
Matthew 18, verse 18 to 20.
Speaking about overcoming Satan, by the way, Matthew
18, verse 18 to 20, one of the
most misunderstood, misquoted passages of Scripture is verse
20.
For the two or three have gathered together
in my name, there am I in the
midst of them.
It doesn't stop there.
It starts there, but it ends up in
verse 18, because it says four in verse
20, which takes us back to verse 19.
Verse 19 begins again, which takes us back
to verse 18.
So, verse 20 is like the foundation, on
which we have verse 19 and verse 18.
The ultimate purpose is verse 18, that we
bind something on earth, which will be bound
in Heaven.
Which Heaven is that?
That's not the presence of God.
We're not going to bind anything up there
in God's presence.
Everything is free over there, but if there's
other heavenlies below God's presence, as spoken of
in Ephesians 6, 12, that heavenlies, we've got
to bind something, and that can happen, and
we've got to lose something on earth.
Something that's been bound by those satanic powers,
maybe some brother in the church, your child
maybe, and we've got to lose that child
and bind those satanic powers up there.
How are we going to do it?
We're going to do it right here on
earth.
Bind those satanic forces and lose this person,
who's bound.
How is it going to be done?
Minimum two people.
Now, casting out a demon, one person can
do.
In Jesus' name, get out of him, get
out of her, the demon goes.
But where Satan has got a hold of
a situation or a person in another way,
and got them entrenched in something, it may
not be demon possession, but Satan gets into
some situations and entrenches himself there, and to
get Satan out of that situation in the
family or in the church, two people must
agree.
It's God's word.
Two of you agree on earth concerning anything.
Let the problem be anything.
It doesn't matter how deeply Satan is entrenched
in that situation.
It doesn't matter how many years Satan has
been entrenched in that situation.
Anything.
Isn't that absolute?
For 20 centuries, anything, anywhere.
It shall be done.
There's no might, maybe, perhaps.
No maybe, might or perhaps.
It shall be done by my father in
heaven because, now here's the most misquoted version
among Christians, because where two or three are
gathered together, and I believe it means in
this way, that means united, symphonio, symphony, in
agreement, without discord, without contention.
There I am in the midst.
Jesus is there, and Satan is overcome.
So it's very important that we understand these
principles before we move into taking a little
time to study this matter of overcoming Satan.
I believe it's very, very important because, like
I said, a lot of believers live as
old covenant believers.
Take all the areas we mentioned so far.
Repentance, they have not repented deeply enough.
Grace, they have not understood grace.
They haven't understood grace is sufficient for their
needs.
They haven't understood grace to help them to
overcome sin.
The fatherhood of God, they live with anxiety
and tension and unrest because they don't know
God is the father.
Holy Spirit, they don't even know the Holy
Spirit coming upon them.
Leave alone flowing out from their innermost being
as rivers of living water.
And fifth, what we're talking about now, they
don't know anything about overcoming Satan.
They just know how to read the Bible,
pray, go to meetings and come back.
They don't know how to tackle Satan.
And when Satan causes a problem, they need
to go to somebody else.
Why?
We're not in the old covenant.
You can do that yourself.
He doesn't say if two apostles come together.
Anyone, if two of you, it doesn't matter
who you are, it can be two teenagers
who love the Lord, who are united, who
are determined to pray and bind Satanic forces
and activities of Satan, they can do something.
If your parents are not spiritual enough, well,
two teenagers in that family can do it.
Sure.
No respect of persons with God.
No respect of age, no respect of color,
no respect of culture, nationality, language, nothing.
It just requires two people who love the
Lord, who are agreed and who do not
wrestle with flesh and blood, who don't have
the habit of fighting with human beings, who
are not fighting for earthly things, whose kingdom
is not of this world, and they come
together and they are qualified.
They may not know much of the Bible.
It doesn't make a difference.
Those early Christians didn't know much of the
Bible because they didn't have a Bible to
start with.
But they knew God.
It's more important to know God than know
the Bible.
Do you know that Bible knowledge doesn't help
us to overcome Satan?
Doesn't make us holy?
Do you know that in the history of
Christianity in two thousand years, there's never been
as much Bible knowledge as today?
Oh boy, the number of translations, the number
of versions of Scripture and the concordances, and
we've got it on disc, and we've got
it in pocket electronic Bibles, and we've got
it everywhere.
But the devil is more rampant than ever
in Christian churches, in spite of all this.
And people are not holy.
Which proves what?
You cannot overcome Satan with Bible knowledge.
You cannot become holy by Bible knowledge.
You've got to know God.
Through the Bible, we've got to get to
know God.
That's the important thing.
And so we see here, let's turn to
Revelation chapter 12.
Revelation chapter 12 is speaking about a future
day when Satan will be cast down to
the earth from the heavenly.
Satan is not in hell.
He's in the heavenly.
He's going to be cast down to the
earth.
But there's a principle mentioned here, which applies
to us even today.
Here Satan is called in verse 10, the
accuser of the brethren.
In verse 10, the last part, the accuser
of our brethren is cast down.
He's also called in verse 9, the middle,
the one which deceiveth the whole world.
Notice these two titles of Satan.
He's got many other titles there, old serpent,
great dragon, devil, Satan.
But I want you to think of these
two titles.
Deceiver of the whole world, accuser of the
brethren.
Whenever a salesman who deceives his customers with
some product he's selling, is in fellowship with
whom?
Satan.
Right?
You agree or not?
Anyone who is deceiving the world, somebody in
the world, is in fellowship with Satan.
Okay.
When you sit, now that's one title, let's
go to the second title now.
When you sit and accuse another brother, who
are you in fellowship with?
A little more difficult to answer?
The answer is the same.
It may be a little more personal, but
the answer is the same.
We're in fellowship with Satan.
Accuser, deceiver of the world, accuser of the
brethren.
The one who accuses the brethren is no
better than that salesman who goes around selling
a cheap counterfeit product and deceives his customers.
Absolutely no difference.
You can be horrified with that salesman who
does such a thing.
Oh, I'm in a holiness church, I would
never do that.
And you can do exactly the same thing
when you accuse a brother or a sister.
Do you gossip?
Do you speak evil of others behind their
back?
Do you run down someone without a purpose?
I think the only person to whom you
can go and speak about somebody else is
to an elder brother in a church, where
you can get him to help that person.
Then it's not backbiting.
Then it's right.
You go to an elder in a church
and say, brother, there's a problem with so
-and-so, I'm not able to help him,
perhaps you can, and don't tell anyone else.
But if you go around speaking about it
all over, you are in fellowship with the
accuser of the brethren.
You're not helping him, you're just tearing him
down.
That's just in passing.
But he, this accuser of the brethren, he,
it says here, the accuser of the brethren
is cast down, which accused them before God
day and night.
You know that Satan works 24 hours in
this business of deceiving?
He's a full-time worker, 24 hours accusing
the brethren.
And it says here about certain people who
are the overcomers.
Who are these overcomers?
The Bible speaks about the new revelation, particularly
the book of Revelation speaks about overcomers.
In all the seven churches, the Lord speaks
to the overcomer.
And in the end of Revelation, it says,
he who overcomes shall inherit all things, Revelation
21, 7 and 8.
He shall overcome all things, he shall inherit,
he who overcomes shall inherit all things.
I'll be his God and he'll be my
son.
And here it says, the overcomers, they overcame
Satan.
Now this is what they're thinking of now.
Thing which they couldn't do in the Old
Testament.
They fought with Philistines, Midianites, otherites, like a
lot of believers do today, fight with flesh
and blood, but never fight with Satan.
Maybe they overcome flesh and blood, they take
people to court, they sue them, they win
perhaps, but they're defeated by Satan.
Maybe they do succeed with all their manipulation
and all that to become elders in some
church.
But Satan has overcome them because they were
fighting flesh and blood.
And it says here about this group of
overcomers, they're very few, they overcame Satan by
the blood of the Lamb, by the word
of their testimony, and they loved not their
lives unto the death.
You cannot overcome Satan if we don't begin
with the blood of Jesus Christ.
And a lot of people don't like to
talk about that these days.
They have a bloodless Christianity.
There is no bloodless Christianity.
The blood of Jesus Christ is the first
thing we need when we overcome Satan, because
when, Satan is called here the accuser of
the brethren.
When he comes to accuse me, how can
I overcome him?
Everything he says is right.
I did do those things 25 years ago.
I did do that 20 years ago.
I did that last year.
I did that other thing he mentioned last
month.
How do I overcome him?
I can't tell him he's a liar.
He is a liar, but when he tells
these things to me, he's right.
I overcome him by the blood of the
Lamb.
I tell him, Satan, when you finish making
the list, let me tell you the blood
of Jesus cleansed me from all my sins.
And I'm redeemed.
I've been purchased.
I've been cleansed.
I've been justified.
And as far as God's concerned, that list
doesn't exist.
It's only in your mind.
It's not in God's mind, and it's not
in mine.
It's in yours.
You can keep it if you like, but
you're not going to harass me with that.
The blood of Jesus cleansed me from all
sin.
Don't ever try any other method with Satan.
Don't say I confessed it 10 times.
That's not the way to overcome it.
The blood of Jesus Christ.
We'll need it till our dying day, because
we can slip up anytime.
So that's where we begin.
The blood of the Lamb.
And I want to say this.
Don't ever join Satan in accusing yourself when
he tries to condemn you.
And don't ever join him in accusing others.
That's Satan's business, and we should have nothing
to do with it.
The second thing is the word of our
testimony.
What is the word of our testimony?
It's not testimony to men.
Remember, we're talking here about Satan.
We're not talking about getting up in the
meeting and giving a testimony how Jesus saved
me.
No, that's not the point here.
Some people have misunderstood that verse.
We're dealing with Satan now.
What?
Satan is attacking me, and I'm overcoming him?
How?
I may not even be in a meeting.
I may be just in my room, and
he's accusing me.
I overcome him by the blood of Jesus,
or he's trying to discourage me or depress
me.
That often happens, trying to do that.
And I overcome him by the word of
my testimony.
And who am I giving my testimony to?
To Satan.
And what am I saying to him?
Testimony here does not mean when I was
converted and all the sins I did, because
he already knows all that.
And I don't want to glorify Satan by
making a big list of all the things
I did in my life.
Some people give their testimony like that.
I've heard people give a testimony, and 75
% of the time they're glorifying the devil
by giving a big list of all the
wrong things they did in their life, perhaps
to show how humble they are, but they're
not really being humble.
They're just glorifying the devil.
And I say, I don't want to glorify
the devil.
Yeah, I was a sinner.
I did a lot of rotten things, but
Jesus saved me.
I want to talk more about Jesus than
about what the devil made me do.
And so the word of our testimony to
Satan has got nothing to do with all
that.
It's got to do with what God has
said.
You know, when Satan came to Jesus, Jesus
gave his testimony to Satan.
What was that?
Not I was born in Nazareth.
No.
Born in Bethlehem, I lived in Nazareth.
Not that.
It is written.
That's all.
One sentence.
Man shall not live by that alone, but
by every word that proceeds from the mouth
of God.
Second time, Satan came another time with another
temptation.
He gave his testimony again.
What God's word said.
That's the thing that's absolutely certain.
We can be absolutely sure of.
And that's what we have to confess to
Satan.
And you know, if you do this, confess
what the blood of Jesus did for you.
That you've been justified.
Confess that God is on the throne.
There are times when I am attacked by
temptations to be discouraged and depressed.
It can come sometimes, you don't know why.
How shall we overcome?
Sometimes you kneel down to pray and you
don't feel like you're getting through to God.
Even after five or ten minutes, your mind
is wandering here, there, everywhere.
I'm sure you've had this experience.
Because I've had it.
And your flesh is the same as mine.
So you must have had it.
I kneel down to pray and it's a
struggle.
And you go on and on and on
and on.
And you know you're not getting anywhere.
But I'll tell you what I do now.
I get up.
And I raise my hands.
And I say, well, Lord, I don't know
why I'm not able to get through here,
but my sins are all forgiven.
That's for sure.
The blood of Jesus cleansed me from all
my sins.
God is still on the throne.
And he rules the universe.
And it says in 1 Corinthians 10, 13,
that God will never allow me to be
tested or tempted beyond my ability.
That's a good confession to make.
God will never allow me to be tested
beyond my ability.
God will never allow me to be tempted
beyond my ability.
Have you heard believers say, oh, this is
getting too much for me.
That's a lie.
That means God didn't keep his word.
What does it say in 1 Corinthians 10,
13?
God is faithful who will never allow you
to be tested beyond your ability, but will
with the temptation make a way of escape
that you may be able to endure it
or bear it, which means I will never
face a trial or a temptation in my
whole life, which is too much for me.
God has got his hand on the knob
to make sure that the pressure doesn't get
too much.
He releases it so that it never crosses
into the red.
He always keeps on this side.
He allows it to get pretty close to
the red sometimes, to the red line, but
he always makes sure it's on this side.
It's true.
It's always true.
And God's got his hand on the knob.
Don't think it's those people who are troubling
you.
They say when troubles come, they seem to
all come together, but that doesn't matter.
God's got his hand on the knob still,
and he'll make sure it never becomes too
much.
I confess that.
I confess what it says in Romans 8,
20, that we know that all things work
together for good.
And in some translations it says God causes
all things to work together for good to
those who love God and are called according
to his purpose.
I confess that.
It is written that I am justified by
the blood of Jesus.
It is written that I shall not be
tempted beyond my ability at any time.
It is written that all things work together
for good for me.
It is written that all authority in heaven
and earth is still in the hands of
the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is, that's Matthew 28, 18.
It is written in Hebrews 2, 14 that
Jesus destroyed him who had the power of
death.
That means even though Satan is not eliminated,
his power over me is gone.
And many wonderful things like that.
And once I start confessing a few things
like that to Satan, I find my depression
is gone pretty quickly.
There are certain things that never change no
matter how you feel.
Do you think God sitting on the throne
depends on whether you feeling happy or you're
feeling depressed?
No.
Do you think the cleansing of your sin,
your justification depends on how you feel?
No.
Do you think God fulfilling Romans 8, 28
depends on how you feel?
No.
So let me confess all those things which
are eternally true.
Satan was defeated 2,000 years ago.
It doesn't depend on how you feel about
it today.
It makes absolutely no difference.
You may be on top of the world
or down in the dumps, but Satan was
still defeated 2,000 years ago.
That doesn't alter that fact.
So when we feel under pressure, this is
what we need to get up and confess.
The word of my testimony.
It is written.
Then what will happen?
See what it says in James 4, 7.
Resist the devil and he will flee from
you when you're in financial need.
And the devil says, boy, dark days are
coming.
The depression is coming again.
Haven't you heard all the preachers speak about
it, the great depression that's coming?
Like the one that came 70 years ago.
And you say, I heard about it.
What are you going to do?
Word of my testimony.
Seek ye first the kingdom of God and
his righteousness and all these things shall be
added unto you.
You don't have to worry about what you're
going to eat or what you're going to
drink.
It's true.
If I seek God's kingdom first and his
righteousness, I will never have to worry about
what I eat or drink or what I'm
going to be clothed with because I look
at the air and I look at the
flowers of the field.
And I will tell you, I have proved
that in numerous situations with poor believers in
a poor country like India, where there's no
social security, no food stamps, no medical insurance,
no nothing.
And if it works there in the 20th
century, it can work anywhere.
That those who seek God's kingdom first and
his righteousness, they don't become millionaires.
Thank God they don't become millionaires.
They'd probably go astray.
But all that they need is added to
them.
All that they need is added to them.
Food, clothing, shelter.
And we are content.
So we confess.
And then we resist the devil and he
flees from us.
It says he will flee from you.
And supposing I'm being harassed by someone or
I'm facing a sickness like a thorn in
the flesh that I don't seem to have
prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed.
God hasn't been pleased to heal me or
someone in my family of that sickness.
What do I do then?
And God and Satan comes and troubles me
then and says, see what happened.
God doesn't have any time.
He doesn't care for you.
Something's wrong with your life.
And you, there must be some secrets in
your life.
Remember that thing you did 25 years ago.
That's why you're being punished now and all
that.
That's a lot of rubbish.
What do I say to him then?
His grace is sufficient for me.
He will make his grace abound towards me.
And if it pleases him not to remove
the thorn from my flesh, hallelujah, his grace
is still sufficient for me and I shall
overcome.
Don't let the devil come and tell you
that because of what you did 10-15
years ago, now you're being punished.
Is that true?
Supposing I take my boy, supposing I have
a 10-year-old son and one day
I take my belt and whack him.
And he says, dad, what did I do
wrong?
And he says, you remember what you did
5 years ago on 6th of July, 1995?
6th of July, 1995 and you're whacking me
now for that?
Would you do that to your son?
Tell me, is God at least as good
a father as you are?
He's better.
Don't you believe this lie of the devil
that what you did on the 6th of
all is 1995, God's punishing you today.
It's a lot of trash.
You say, but don't we reap what we
sow?
Yeah, there's a sense in which we reap
what we sow, but you can get oversensitive
on that to the point where you allow
the devil to condemn you.
And this other trash that your children are
going to suffer because your grandfather worshipped idols
or did some rotten thing is absolute nonsense.
There are people who are living under that
bondage and I don't care what the charismatic
great Bible teachers say, I don't believe it.
I'll tell you that.
Because I believe what God's word says.
Now I want you to turn in the
book of Ezekiel and it says here, let
me find that chapter.
The Lord says, what is this proverb you
have among the fathers eat
sour grapes and the children's teeth are set
on edge.
I just want to find that a minute.
18.
Yeah, that's right.
Chapter 18 and verse 2.
The Lord says, what meaning that he used
this proverb concerning the land of Israel saying
the fathers have eaten sour grapes and the
children's teeth are set on edge.
In other words, the father did something wrong
and the children are being punished for it.
As I live, said the God, you know,
when the Lord speaks like that, he's saying,
do you at least believe that I'm alive?
And if I'm alive, as long as I'm
alive, that's not going to be true.
That's the meaning of that verse.
As long as I'm alive, you shall have
no occasion to use that proverb.
All souls of mine, the soul that sins,
it shall die.
If the father has sinned, he's going to
be punished.
If the son has sinned, he's going to
be punished.
But since Jesus has taken our punishment on
the cross, if I have repented, that punishment
has been taken on the cross.
And I don't have to live under the
condemnation that the Lord's punishing me today.
I believe that.
And I want to tell you that's liberated
me, quoting scripture to the devil.
And I would encourage you to quote scripture
to Satan.
Don't believe that some curse that came on
your grandfather or your father descends down and
you now have to renounce it.
I say, when Jesus died, he became a
curse and took every wretched curse away from
me.
And even though I was planted, I was
part of that tree of Adam through my
father and grandfather and ancestor.
One day, Jesus cut me off from that
and grafted me into himself.
And there's no curse here.
So how in the world am I connected
to my father and grandfather and ancestor now?
I don't understand that.
It's totally wrong.
And you don't have any New Testament support
for it.
It's like this health wealth gospel, which has
got no New Testament support.
There are a lot of Christians being deceived
by this old covenant teaching.
That's all before Jesus became a curse on
the cross.
That's all before Jesus died and took our
sins.
That's all before his blood was shed.
And don't go back to all those things.
His blood has been shed.
If you go back to all those, you
better bring a lamb and a goat as
well and sacrifice it to the Lord today.
Sure.
How do you selectively take something from the
old covenant?
It's all over.
The curse is over.
There's no more curse for me.
It's blessing upon blessing upon blessing.
It says in John 1, grace upon grace.
That's what I'm getting.
And that's what you can have if you
believe it.
But the devil can harass you sometimes even
through Bible teachers.
Oh, there's a curse upon you.
Perhaps your grandfather worshiped an idol.
Perhaps he brought something in from Africa when
he came from there.
Some little object or something.
That's why this and people are trying to
search their home.
What is there over here that's preventing me?
That's causing.
You think God is a torturer?
You think if my little son came to
me and said, Dad, tell me, what did
I do wrong?
And I say, I'm not going to tell
you.
Find out.
And he struggled for six months.
Dad, I can't find out.
I'm not going to tell you.
Can you believe that at least God is
as good as you?
I tell you, so many people have such
a wrong concept of God.
That's why they live under this harassment of
Satan.
Don't listen to him anymore.
Give him the word of your testimony and
resist him in Jesus name.
He will flee.
And like I've often said before, the Bible
even tells us at what speed the devil
will flee from us.
186,000 miles per second.
You read that verse, Luke chapter 10.
It says what speed the devil will flee
from us.
Luke chapter 10, Jesus said in verse 18,
I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.
If you've studied science, you know the speed
of lightning.
186,000 miles a second, seven times around
the world in one second.
Resist the devil and he will flee from
you at 186,000 miles per second.
That's what I believe.
I don't believe that I'm running for my
life from the devil and he's chasing me
and ta-da, I escaped.
Thank God.
Oh no.
Can you imagine Jesus like that?
Running for his life and the devil chasing
him?
Not at all.
Have you ever read this verse?
1 John chapter 4, verse 17, as Jesus
is, so are we in this world.
Do you believe that?
It's, if it were not written in the
Bible, I wouldn't believe it.
It's so unbelievable, but it's true because it's
written in scripture and I haven't scratched it
out of my Bible yet and I don't
think you have.
If you don't believe it, I do.
As Jesus is, so am I in this
world.
How did Jesus live in this world?
I don't see him running away from the
devil.
I see the devil was scared whenever he
heard Jesus was coming into town.
Do you believe that?
I hope you believe that.
The devil was scared every time he heard
Jesus coming to some town.
Do you believe that if you walk with
God with a clear conscience and humility and
brokenness before God, the devil can be scared
when he hears you're coming into some town?
Say, oh no, it can't be true about
me.
Okay.
According to your faith, be it unto you,
it won't be true in your case.
But I hear somebody else say, yes, I
believe that.
Praise the Lord, it's according to your faith,
be it unto you, it will be true
in your case.
It's according to our faith.
Our faith based on what?
Not what I want to do, not what
I feel like.
I don't care for my feelings.
Years ago, God taught me to stop relying
on feelings.
It's according to God's word.
Many, many years ago, I read a little
tract about fact, faith and feelings.
Maybe you've read it.
It's an ancient tract, but it really helped
me and I can share with you what
I read in that tract because it's helped
me through many, many years.
See, the Christian life is a very narrow
way, the Bible says.
It's like a narrow path with a deep
cliff on each side.
And here on this narrow path, right in
front walks fact.
Fact means the things written in scripture.
It is written.
The devil was defeated, God is on the
throne, he will never allow me to be
tempted beyond my ability.
All things work together for good to those
who love God.
His grace is sufficient for me.
If I seek his kingdom first, all things
will be added to me and many, many
other promises.
He loves me as he loved Jesus, John
17, 23.
As Jesus is, so are we in this
world.
All these facts.
The devil was defeated on the cross 2000
years ago.
Those are facts.
And fact walks on this narrow wall without
any problem.
And faith follows fact, looking at fact.
And he walks without any problem.
And behind faith comes feeling, following along, slowly
but surely.
But after a while, faith begins to look
around to see if feeling is following.
I don't feel anything.
Let me just look around and see.
And he tumbles over the wall and falls.
And feeling also tumbles over the wall and
falls because he's following faith, you see.
But fact, God keeps walking.
And I was so helped by that little
tract I read, that illustration, that I must
never turn around to see how I feel.
It makes no difference to fact.
It's not a question of whether I feel
the devil was defeated.
He has been defeated.
It's a fact.
It's written.
Never mind if I don't feel it.
Doesn't make any difference.
He was still defeated.
He's got nothing to do with feeling.
If somebody's put a million dollars into your
bank account, you got a statement from your
bank.
Well, whether I feel good or not, whether
I got a headache or not, it's still
there.
Makes absolutely no difference.
God's word is more reliable than any bank
statement.
I hope you believe that.
The devil was defeated.
His blood has cleansed me from all sin.
He'll never in my whole life allow me
to be tested beyond my ability.
No trial, no temptation in a million years.
Even if I live that long, will ever
be too much for me to bear.
Impossible.
Let the world be full of people who
try to harass me.
God's got his hand on the knob.
They'll never get too much from me.
We must have that faith based on what?
Not feelings.
Facts.
And faith follows facts.
Don't try to claim things which are not
true.
Things which are not written in the scriptures
that you're going to get a Cadillac car.
Where's that?
Revelation chapter 23.
Turn to Revelation chapter 23, you'll find it
there.
Found it?
There are many verses in Revelation 23, which
you haven't discovered yet.
One is you'll get a Cadillac car.
Another is I'll get hair on my head
before Jesus comes again.
Many things like that.
And people are believing it.
All these fancy promises, which are not mentioned
in scripture.
Fact is based on what's written in scripture
up to Revelation 22.
Not after that.
So don't believe what all these preachers say.
I heard a word from the Lord and
I had a vision and this that and
the other.
A lot of trance.
Fact is what God has written.
It's there.
I believe it.
It's always true.
And I keep my eyes on that.
And feeling will follow.
They take a little time.
It's a bit slow sometimes.
Doesn't walk too fast.
But it will follow.
That's for sure.
Definitely.
Feeling will follow over a period of time.
And sometimes the feeling goes to sleep along
the way and I don't feel it.
Doesn't make a difference.
Fact is still the same.
I just continue walking.
And he'll get up after a while and
start following.
Those are the times when I feel a
little down.
Feeling is asleep.
But I keep my mind still on fact.
Please remember this simple illustration.
It will save you from a lot of
problems.
Particularly when you're discouraged.
When you don't feel like praying.
Just get up.
Shout hallelujah.
The devil's a liar.
Tell him that to his face.
That's another thing I tell people.
Tell the devil to his face he's a
liar.
Tell him you don't belong to him.
Tell him that Jesus defeated him.
He doesn't like to hear that.
There was a demon-possessed girl who once
came to our house.
Another sister from the church brought her.
I never knew she was demon possessed.
She just looked all right.
But when I asked her to pray the
sinner's prayer.
And I said now tell the devil you're
being defeated on the cross.
She turned around with another voice and said
I've not been defeated on the cross.
I said yes you were.
Now I was not talking to the girl.
I was talking to the demon.
You were defeated on the cross.
Sure you were.
Get out of her in Jesus name.
And once the demon was cast out.
I told the girl now say Satan you
were defeated on the cross.
She said it.
And I learned something that day.
The devil does not like to be told
to his face.
That you were defeated on the cross by
Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago.
And I don't belong to you anymore.
Tell your children to say that to the
devil.
Tell anybody who's being harassed by the devil
to tell the devil straight to his face.
The devil can hear you.
I'll tell you that.
He can hear very very well.
I was once in a bible school where
I was speaking.
And at the end of the meeting we
were going to close in prayer.
And that's the time the devil usually begins
to act.
When you're coming to prayer and people are
going to make a decision.
And sure enough as soon as we bowed
our heads to prayer with all these bible
school students sitting in the back.
Way back as far back as this hall
maybe 30 feet.
There at the back one young man got
up and started dancing down the aisle.
And I knew that was the devil.
And I knew that if I openly rebuked
him everybody sitting here would lift up their
heads and turn around.
That's exactly what the devil wanted.
To distract the attention of people away from
what they had heard for the last half
an hour.
So I put my head down in a
whisper which the person sitting behind me on
the platform didn't hear.
I said in Jesus name sit down.
And he went and sat down immediately.
You see that's the day I heard discovered
that the devil's got very good hearing.
He hears immediately.
And six months later I got a letter
from that young man.
I didn't know who he was.
I didn't even meet him after the meeting.
He said Brother Zach I've never met you.
You don't know who I am.
But I am the young man whom you
commanded to sit down in the meeting.
Six months ago.
How did he hear it?
Nobody heard it.
The man sitting on the platform didn't hear
it.
Then I was convinced.
God did that to convince me the devil's
got good hearing.
You don't have to shout at him and
yell at him.
There's a dignity the way Jesus cast out
demons.
It was just a quiet word and that
was it.
You remember the time of the Syrophoenician woman
who came and said my daughter is possessed
with a demon.
Will you please cast her out?
Jesus said I can't give the children's bread
to the dogs.
And he said and she said Lord give
me a crumb.
That's enough for me for the dogs can
eat the crumbs.
And it says for this saying the demon's
gone out of your daughter.
That was long distance.
There's a one case of long distance casting
out demons.
That daughter was probably two or three miles
away.
But the devil heard it.
Over there.
What Jesus said in the room here.
And the demon went out there.
I tell you there's such authority in Jesus
Christ.
As Jesus is.
So are we in this world.
If you believe that and you live a
clean life.
You walk in humility before God.
I tell you the devil will be scared
of you.
He'll be scared every time you come to
town.
Sure.
And he'll do everything to harass you and
trouble you and attack your family.
But you'll overcome.
You'll get a few bullets.
Sure.
When we are in the battlefront we do
get hit now and then.
I don't mean sin.
No God won't allow us to sin.
But we'll get attacked in other ways.
You get a few names called by a
few bad names.
Like Beelzebub and things like that.
Which they call Jesus.
He said that the head of the household
has been called Beelzebub.
How much more the members of his household.
He won't be able to touch your spirit.
But he'll attack you in other ways.
But God will make all of that work
together for good.
That's why we're not scared.
You know what was the word with Jesus.
Some of the most frequent words that Jesus
said are I believe the words which we
need to remember frequently.
One of the words he said frequently was
follow me.
Follow me.
Most Christians don't take that seriously.
Did he ever say believe in me once
or twice perhaps.
But most of the time follow me.
Follow me.
Another thing Jesus said very frequently was fear
not.
Fear not.
And I've seen through the years how important
it is in our battle with Satan that
we don't allow him to put fear in
our hearts.
Sometimes fear may come.
I've seen occasions where I'm suddenly confronted with
someone who's deemed possessed and it's scary.
And to assure myself I asked myself this
question.
Was this a demon defeated on Calvary or
was this one one of those that somehow
managed to escape?
No.
Every demon was defeated on Calvary.
I said fine then I have no problem
with this one.
However scary he looks he can't touch me.
He was defeated on Calvary.
He's like a king cobra.
He's got its poison taken out and it's
stunned alive but unconscious.
It can't harm me.
I can put my foot on top of
his head without a problem.
You got to look at the devil like
that.
He's not dead but he has absolutely no
power over you.
Remember this my brothers and sisters.
He was defeated on Calvary's cross once and
for all.
The Christian church knows that Christ died for
our sins.
That he took the punishment for all our
sins when he hung up on the cross.
But unfortunately there are millions of believers who
do not know that when he hung on
the cross he defeated Satan as well.
Colossians 2.14 says he took away from
Satan that armor which he had.
Satan doesn't have an armor now.
And I've got Jesus and the Holy Spirit
with me and I'm confronting a Satan whose
armor was taken away from him on the
cross.
And that's why Satan always tries to get
a foothold in my life to weaken me.
Tries to get a foothold in your life
to weaken you.
That's why he gets you to wrestle with
flesh and blood so that you won't be
able to wrestle with him.
Go wrestling with your wife and you won't
be able to wrestle with Satan.
Go into an argument with your husband and
you won't be able to fight Satan anymore.
Get into an argument with a brother.
Go accusing your brother and that's all.
That's the end of your battle with Satan.
You got under his side.
And that's why the devil gets so many
believers who are so careful about their dress,
so careful about modesty and not careful about
the way they use their tongue.
Gossiping, backbiting, telling tales about other people.
But oh they say we are modest.
Absolute rubbish.
What's the use of that modesty if the
devil's got right onto your tongue and controls
your tongue to speak evil about others behind
their back.
To criticize, to speak evil, to backbite, to
gossip, to slander and you glory in the
things which you can't overcome Satan with a
long dress.
I'll tell you that.
It's good.
I appreciate it.
Modesty is important in a child of God.
But that is not a gentle and a
quiet spirit which is of great value in
God's eyes.
That's only the outward expression of it.
An outward expression is not enough if the
inside is hollow.
Yeah.
You can have a huge garage and keep
a little motorcycle inside it.
What's that?
People think that three cars inside is only
a little motorcycle.
That's how it can be.
An appearance of modesty and there's no gentle
and quiet spirit inside.
And Satan isn't fooled.
He's not.
Control your tongue if you want to overcome
Satan.
Your attitudes, if you got bitterness against someone.
How in the world are you going to
overcome the devil if you've got bitterness against
someone?
Impossible.
When people are sick and they ask me
to pray for them, I ask them one
question.
I say, have you got a bitterness against
someone?
Have you forgiven everybody?
Do you know there are new...
I'm not saying this is the cure for
all sicknesses.
There are lots of sicknesses which have got
other causes within the body.
So I don't want anyone to feel condemned
here.
But before you go to the doctor and
before you take those thousands of pills and
injections, it's good to check up something else
for which you don't have to pay anything.
Ask yourself if you've got a bitterness against
someone.
There are people I've heard of who get
arthritis, asthma, skin rashes because of wrong attitudes,
ulcers because of wrong attitudes, because of tension.
Things which don't have a cause in the
body, the cause is in their spirit.
And if they get rid of those wrong
attitudes, they get healed and they don't have
to pay anybody anything for it.
It's true.
So you can't overcome satan if you got
all these wrong attitudes towards someone.
You can't overcome satan if you're accusing the
brothers or sisters.
You can't overcome satan if you're wrestling with
flesh and blood.
Your kingdom is of this world if you're
fighting for earthly things.
You can't overcome satan if you are just
coveting position in the church.
You can't overcome satan if you're jealous of
somebody else whom God is blessing and particularly
if that somebody else is younger than you.
You do that?
That is the first sin committed outside the
garden of Eden.
The first question that God asked the man
outside the garden of Eden was this.
Why are you angry?
Why is your face fallen?
I always have a question about somebody who
cannot look me straight in the eyes.
Be careful about the people who can't look
you straight in the face.
Something is wrong.
It's the first question God asked man.
Why is your face fallen?
You see people like that?
Something is wrong.
I don't know.
Maybe I don't know what's wrong, but something
is wrong.
And if you're like that, there's something there.
You saw another brother younger than you being
blessed, used by God.
The fire of God fell on his sacrifice
and Cain saw that on Abel.
I think if Abel was older than him,
he could have borne it, but this fellow
was younger than him.
He just couldn't stand it.
This young brother who came to the church
20 years after me and he's got an
anointed word.
I'm the senior elder around here.
You got the spirit of Cain.
You can't bear to see God blessing that
person.
How can you overcome satan?
You can't.
He's got you.
And that's the first place in the Bible
where God speaks about victory over sin.
You remember what God told satan?
Sin is crouching at your door, waiting to
enter, but you must master it.
Where did this message of victory over sin
come?
It's not in Romans 6.
It's in Genesis 4.
You must master sin.
That was God's message to man right from
the time he went out of Eden.
You must master sin.
It's crouching at your door, but you will
never be able to master it if you've
got a wrong attitude towards your brother.
Rejoice that God has blessed him.
Rejoice that the fire of God fell on
him.
I leap for joy when I see a
young brother getting up and sharing a powerful
word.
I say, praise the Lord.
Wonderful.
You get two, three brothers like that in
that church and I can move out.
Go and build a church somewhere else now.
Because God's raised up two, three brothers who
can do the work which I was doing
all this time.
Praise the Lord.
Get excited about it.
That's how it must be.
That's God's.
You see the church is stunted, not able
to grow because a whole lot of jealous
older brothers are holding the fort, not allowing
younger people to come up.
And I've seen another thing in Christendom these
days.
People in the ministry, promoting their own children
to take over when they retire.
I've seen it in Christian organizations around the
world.
I've seen it in organizations all over India.
I groom my son like Saul groomed Jonathan.
Jonathan, you're the one.
You're the one.
And I make sure that he gets no
competition.
Evil.
I'll throw a dagger, a javelin at somebody
else like David, who's anointed, who may be
a threat to my son.
You think this doesn't happen in Christendom?
It's happening everywhere.
I've seen it.
I'm not grooming my children to take over
my ministry.
I'll never do it.
I've learned what happened to Saul.
The anointing of God does not come through
heredity.
It comes through God's sovereign choice.
I've learned that years ago.
Elisha was not Elijah's son.
Joshua was not Moses' son.
Moses had his own children, by the way.
I hope you know that.
They were circumcised.
They were good boys.
But Moses, God said to Moses, not your
son, Moses, Joshua.
And he had years to hear what a
lot of Christian leaders today don't have years
to hear.
You can't overcome Satan if you've got all
these earthly concepts of leadership and position and
honor and title.
So many things.
My brothers and sisters, beware of these things.
Humble yourself.
Recognize the anointing of God where it is
on someone.
Maybe not the one you expected.
But God has ways of surprising us.
And we praise God.
If the fire rests upon someone whom I
didn't think it would rest upon, well, I
must rejoice.
I've got to overcome Satan.
And I'm going to make sure that there's
no wrong attitude in me when I fight
against him.
I want to show you something else here.
In Luke's Gospel, chapter 4, we know that
when the devil came to Eve, he came
to her through some desire within her body,
desire for food.
And it says that tree, in Genesis 3,
was good for food.
And when the devil came to Jesus, he
also came through a desire in the body,
the desire for food.
The devil said to Jesus here in Luke
4.3, If you're the son of God,
command the stone to be made bread and
eat it.
And Jesus replied saying, Man shall not live
by bread alone, but by every word that
proceeds from the mouth of God.
He had fasted for 40 days, and he
overcame Satan.
We have desires in our body, and Satan
comes through those desires.
We read that Jesus gave his disciples authority
to cast out demons.
But once when a man brought his little
boy to the disciples, he said, Can you
please cast out this demon?
They couldn't do it.
They tried, tried, tried.
Maybe they shouted and yelled, and the demon
still stood there, lived there.
And then Jesus came down from the Mount
of Transfiguration and the boy, and the man
came to Jesus and said, I brought my
son to your disciples.
They could do nothing.
Can you please help us?
He said, Bring him here.
And he cast out the demon.
The demon threw the boy on the ground,
and he was delivered.
And then the disciples came to Jesus and
said, You gave us authority to cast out
demons.
Why couldn't we cast this one out?
And Jesus said, Because you don't have faith.
And you don't have faith because you love
food too much.
I'm just paraphrasing his words.
He said, This kind will not go out
without prayer and fasting.
You love food too much.
That's why.
You got the authority, all right, I gave
it to you.
But you're too attached to something on earth.
The devil came to Jesus to eat through
food.
He came to Jesus through food.
The Bible speaks in Philippians 3 about the
enemies of the cross.
Who are the enemies of the cross?
Are they the heathen?
No.
He says, For many walk, Philippians 3, 18
and 19.
And I tell you, weeping, they are the
enemies of the cross of Christ, whose God
is their stomach.
Have you read that verse?
Whose mind is on earthly things.
Okay.
From Philippians 3, verse 18 and 19, you
can even ask a little child, Tell me
who are the enemies of the cross?
Just from these two verses.
That little child can answer.
What we clever people cannot answer.
The enemies of the cross are those whose
God is their belly, and whose mind is
on earthly things.
Can you be a Christian, and your God
be your belly, and your mind be on
earthly things?
I have met numerous Christians like that.
I've seen how I myself was like that.
Mind on earthly things, how I can make
more money, how I can advance my business
is not on the kingdom of God, except
occasionally.
And my God, my belly.
How do you know whether your God is
your belly?
You get upset with your wife anytime when
the food is not ready on time, or
when the food is not as tasty as
you expected it?
Clear proof, your God is your belly.
I don't care how much you shout and
sing in the meeting, your God is your
belly.
You waste money on unnecessarily luxurious food.
You love it.
Now I'm not trying to be an ascetic.
I'm not trying to get people to be
converted to be hermits.
I know that I follow a Jesus who
made a third cup of wine in Cana
of Galilee, after they had already drunk one
or two cups.
So I'm not a fanatic on this.
I believe that Jesus demolished that religion of
food and drink in Cana.
I'm not following John the Baptist who ate
wild locusts and honey.
No, I'm following Jesus who was called a
wine beaver and a gluttonous man.
But I'm also following Jesus who knew how
to fast for 40 days.
He wasn't a slave to food.
But if somebody gave him a good meal,
he enjoyed it.
So I'm not saying you can't enjoy a
good meal, but are you a slave to
it?
That's something which we cannot judge another person
in.
But we can judge ourselves a lot.
There are a lot more feasting Christians today
than there are fasting ones.
There's no doubt about it.
And that's why the Church is so powerless.
There are a lot more people today who
waste money on so many useless things to
feed their bellies.
Unnecessary.
Which could have been used for the glory
of God.
Whose God is their belly, whose mind is
set on earthly things.
These are the enemies of the cross.
Strong word Paul uses here.
Have I ever thought that my making my
belly a God could make me an enemy
of the cross of Jesus Christ?
It weakens me in my battle against Satan.
It's true.
You don't have to go and commit sin.
Of course that'll weaken you in your battle
against Satan too.
But if my mind is set on earthly
things, it's just as much.
This is the picture the Lord gave me
many many years ago.
Don't we have to mind earthly things when
we are working on this earth, trying to
earn our living?
How can I set my mind on heavenly
things when I'm running a machine in a
factory?
No, I'm not asking you to set your
mind on heavenly things while you're running a
machine that could harm you or somebody else
in a factory.
What is the meaning of setting our mind
on things above?
If you be risen with Christ, set your
mind on things above in the heavenlies.
You cannot overcome Satan if your mind is
set on things.
God cursed the serpent saying, your food is
going to be dust from now on.
My body is made of dust.
Gold is made of dust, and that's the
food of the devil.
And if I get taken up with the
dust which is the serpent's food, whether gold
dust or any other type of dust, I'm
not going to be able to overcome Satan.
That's the devil's food.
God cursed the serpent saying dust was going
to be his food.
And if my mind is set on these
things, I cannot overcome Satan.
Money is a good thing.
A very good servant, but a terrible master.
And if you want to serve God and
overcome Satan, you've got to make sure that
money doesn't have a hold on you, that
money is under your feet.
Have you read in Revelation chapter 21 and
22 what the streets of the New Jerusalem
are made of?
What's it made of?
Gold.
So where do they have gold in heaven?
Under their feet.
Not on their head.
Here on earth, people put it on their
head.
But in heaven, it's under their feet.
And heaven's made for people who've learned to
put gold under their feet now.
Have you learned it?
I'm not saying don't use it.
Keep it under your feet.
It's like fire.
Fire is a wonderful servant.
We use it in our home all the
day.
A terrible master.
You know what happens when the whole house
is on fire.
But when you keep it controlled in the
gas stove, it's okay.
But when it gets out of control, it
destroys your house.
Money is like that.
Do you know how to keep it under
control?
You know how that wee bit of gas
comes through?
That's all that's lit.
And when it gets out of control, it
burns up the house.
Money is like that.
A wonderful servant, but a terrible master.
And there are very few believers who know
how to keep it under their feet.
It's on their head.
This is the trouble.
It's the trouble with Christian work in India.
Oh, I've seen plenty of it.
Lots of, 90% of people in Christian
work in India are not serving God.
They're serving money.
I've seen it crystal clear.
And they are supported by sincere, faithful believers
in western countries who are sincere and faithful,
but unwise and foolish.
I've seen that.
I've seen that for years.
And it's not built the church in Jesus
Christ.
It's just lined the pockets of clever preachers.
Money is a terrible master, but a wonderful
servant.
Jesus knew how to keep it in its
proper place.
Earthly things.
His mind is set on earthly things.
The picture the Lord gave me was this.
It's like a rubber band.
You've all seen a rubber band.
You can stretch it, and when you release
it, it comes back.
Or a spring.
You pull it, and when you release it,
it comes back.
There was a time in my life, in
our lives, when we were unconverted.
When the rubber band or the spring was
fixed here on earthly things, we stretched it
occasionally on Sunday mornings to think about God.
When it got released, came back to earthly
things.
What should have happened when you got converted
is that this rubber band should now be
fixed up there on heavenly things, where we
stretch it down for eight hours for our
work here on earth, and when our work
is over, when you're finished working with that
machine in the factory, or whatever you do,
it's released, it goes back to heavenly things.
Is it like that?
Lots and lots of believers, and perhaps if
you examine yourself, you may feel you're in
that category too.
Their mind is set on earthly things, but
they stretch it on Sunday morning, during family
devotion for half an hour perhaps, or less,
on heavenly things, and then it gets released
back.
And it's on earthly things most of the
time.
It's not the way it's supposed to be.
Then there are other believers whose mind is
set on things above.
It's the kingdom of God that's uppermost in
their life.
God's word they meditate on, but they've got
to do an earthly job to earn their
living, so they stretch it down for eight
hours, or whatever they work on earth.
A mother's got sometimes longer than eight hours
to stretch to so many things they've got
to do with their children.
But then when their mind is free from
their earthly occupations, it immediately goes back to
the heavenly things.
What I want to ask you is, where
is the rubber band fixed in your life?
Or has it lost its elasticity, that when
it's stretched down to earthly things, it just
gets stuck there?
That happens sometimes with rubber bands.
It just loses its elasticity, and it's stuck
here.
People who once had elasticity in their life,
once upon a time, you had just enough
of your mindset on earthly things to earn
your living, but it's become more and more
now.
You've lost that elasticity.
God has prospered you, and your prosperity has
destroyed you.
John Wesley used to say to all those
early Methodists, he says, if you want to
have a right attitude in money, first of
all, earn all that you can.
Now that sounds like unspiritual advice, but it
isn't.
What he meant was no laziness.
Without destroying your soul, and without hindering your
seeking God's kingdom first, use all your abilities
God's given you to earn all that you
can.
No laziness.
Once you follow that first rule, he said,
there are only three rules.
The second one, he said, was save all
that you can.
In other words, no wasting.
Don't waste your money on unnecessary things, unnecessary
luxuries which are not needed.
Save all that you can.
Learn to live simply.
And then third, give all that you can.
He didn't say how much to give, he
just said, give all that you can, and
that may be different for different people, because
the needs are different.
And he said, if you only save all
that you can, and only earn all that
you can, and stop there, you'll destroy yourself.
And he said, that's how a lot of
Christians have destroyed themselves.
Because they saved all that, they couldn't earn
all that, they couldn't give a pittance to
God.
But he said, if you save all that
you can, if you earn all that you
can, and save all that you can, and
give all that you can, you'll really be
a disciple.
And John Wesley said, he said, I preach
what I practice, God is my witness.
How is it with us, brothers and sisters?
You want to fight a heavenly battle with
our mindset on earthly things?
Impossible.
We want to overcome Satan when we love
money?
Impossible.
We want our kingdom to be of this
world, we want position, honor, or perhaps the
approval of men.
Think of these sad words in John's Gospel,
chapter 12.
This is also an earthly thing.
It says here, that some of the top
religious leaders, John 12, 42 and 43, some
of the top religious leaders heard Jesus, and
they were convinced, this is the truth.
And they believed in Him.
But because some of the older, old time
leaders were sitting around them, it says, they
did not confess Jesus, lest they be put
out of the synagogue.
Oh, and that synagogue was their God.
And for some Christians, their denomination is their
God.
Even Jesus Christ cannot get them out of
that idol they worship.
Do you know that your denomination can be
your idol?
I've seen numerous Christians, whose denomination, whose local
church is their idol, and they will not
confess what they know in their heart is
true, because of what the elders will say.
And then it says, because, verse 43, they
love the praise of men more than the
praise of God.
They love the approval of men more than
the approval of God.
They wanted their elders to speak well of
them.
They couldn't care less whether God spoke well
of them or not.
Oh, what regret they'll have in the day
of judgment, when they discover what God wanted
to do through their life, which was hindered,
because they wanted the approval of some elder,
in some system, that did not believe what
they were convinced in their mind was true.
You remember what happened to the blind man,
when his eyes were opened?
It says, they put him out of the
synagogue.
John, chapter 9, they cast him out, verse
34.
And that's what can happen when your eyes
are opened, to see some truth, which somebody
in your church has not seen, which your
elders haven't seen.
But the next verse says, Jesus heard that
they cast him out and came to him.
And that's also what happens, that when we
are cast out, Jesus, and Jesus came to
him and gave him a further revelation, and
opened his spiritual eyes.
When I took baptism, I was cast out
of a church that had baptized me as
an infant.
Well, that wasn't baptism.
They just poured some water on my head,
and cleaned my head a little, and called
it baptism.
It wasn't baptism, actually.
I really got baptized only after I was
born again.
But that church said, no, that's renouncing our
baptism, okay.
They cast me out, and like it says,
Jesus heard about it, and came to me,
and gave me a further revelation.
It's exact fulfillment of scripture.
And it says, this blind man worshipped him,
verse 38, and I worshipped Jesus, and I
was free.
And I decided that day, that I would
never be a prisoner of any system.
If God's word showed me something, I was
going to be free, because I wanted to
battle Satan.
And you cannot battle Satan.
If your mind is set on earthly things,
the approval of men, money, property, your kingdom
is in this world, earthly position, earthly approval,
your belly, forget it.
Don't try fighting Satan.
Just be a good brother, sister coming to
the church, singing the songs, and saying, hallelujah,
I'm going home.
Your life will never accomplish anything in spiritual
warfare.
But if you're serious about spiritual warfare, we
can overcome Satan.
We can live on this earth, as Jesus
lived, where the devil's scared when you come
into town.
And if you want to live like that,
that's the most worthwhile way you can ever
live on this earth.
And anybody sitting here can live like that,
if you're totally committed to the Lord, and
said, Lord, I want to live for you.
He was years to hear, let him hear,
let's pray.
While the head's about in prayer, God's spoken
something to your heart.
Maybe he requires a commitment, maybe he requires
some area where you need to repent.
Maybe he's speaking to you about some area
where you need to be a little more
disciplined in your bodily passions.
Maybe there's somebody you need to stop accusing.
Maybe there's somebody you need to stop fighting
with.
Somebody you need to apologize to.
Maybe somebody whose throat you're catching, you need
to release, forgive.
Maybe some earthly thing that you're attached to,
that you need to give up your grip
on, so that you can engage in spiritual
warfare.
So that your life can count for God
and His kingdom.
Make that decision.
You will never regret it at the judgment
seat of Christ.
Never mind if you get thrown out of
somewhere.
Never mind if your elders get offended, because
you're obeying God's word.
You will not regret it at the judgment
seat of Christ.
Dare to be different.
Dare to follow Jesus.
Heavenly Father, help us, we pray.
Help us, families, churches, our personal lives, to
be available to you, to have our minds
set on heavenly things first, to seek the
kingdom of God first.
Help us, Lord, we pray, that our life
can count for your kingdom, we pray.
I believe there are many people here who
have come to the fork in the road
this afternoon, where they have to take a
decision.
Shall I seek the approval of men or
the approval of God?
Henceforth, shall I set my mind on earthly
things or heavenly things?
Shall I feed the passions of my body,
or shall my life count for God?
Lord, help them to take the right decision,
to take the right fork in the road
this afternoon.
We pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.