Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
Oh [Music] yeah. Living in a dry and thirsty land. [Music] I am dry and thirsty. Lord, send your rain. Send your rain. And Lord, I need your touch again. Send your rain. Let it rain. Let it rain. Let it pour from heaven. Let it rain to revive my soul. I need your rain. I need your streams of regressing. until I thirst no more. Lord, I need your cleansing now. Send your rain. Send your [Music] Please forgive forgive my every sin your Oh Lord send your rain. Let it rain. Let it pull up from heaven. Let it rain. Let it it rain. [Music] to revive my soul. I need your rain. Yes, I do, Lord. I need your sweet refreshing until I thirst no more. [Music] I need your rain. I need your rain. Yes, I do. We're living in a [Music] dry and thirsty land. Send your rain, oh Lord, send your name.
America needs, it needs your touch. One more time. Send your rain, oh Lord. Send your rain. Let it rain all across all across this nation. Let it rain. Let it rain. Let revival rain. Let revival. We need your We need your We need your blessing for every thirsty soul. Let it rain. Come on, sing it. Let it rain. Let it pour from heaven. Let it rain to revive to revive my soul. to revive my I need your I need your refreshing till I thirst no [Music] more till I thirst no What we need is your rain. We need Holy Ghost [Music] revival in our churches and our schools in Washington DC. Let your glory fall. [Music] Bring it on. Bring it, Lord. Bring it, Lord. Bring it, Lord. Bring it, Lord. Bring it, Lord. [Music] It need somebody help me. We need it. If that's your prayer, come on, lift up your heart. We need it. We need it. We need it. We need your rain. We need it. We need it. We need it. We need it. [Music] We need it. We need it. We need it. We need your Lord. Yeah. Come on, give him praise in this place. Thank you, Lord. We need you. We need your reign, Lord. The outpouring of your Holy Spirit on this country again, Lord. We need true revival again,
Lord. Lord, we truly live in a dry and thirsty land. There's so much watered down and empty Christianity. Lord, you said the false prophets and teachers were like clouds without water. We need you to move, Lord. We need you to move. We need you to pour out your spirit. It's been a long time since there was a real revival in America that swept the country from one side to the other. We need we need you to move, Lord. We pray for your mercy. We pray for your help in this time of need. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. You may be seated this morning. Hallelujah. Good to have everybody here today. Y'all uh did y'all have a good week? All right, that's good. Well, it's good to have you. I want everybody to get your Bibles out. We're going to go to a lot of places. I'm I'm going to share some things with you. Um probably in a way that I never have. Um I just have to, you know, I have to be true to what I feel the Holy Spirit laying on me. Uh but I'm just going to tell you the past say three weeks leading up to today I have been so spiritually heavy in my heart just so I mean like I haven't been in a long time and you know you just look up you can just do a word search of the word heaviness in uh the Bible and you get it a few times both in the Old and New Testaments. Um, and I just did that real quick because I thought, you know, um, it's not something that's new or something that's just it's not, you know, the prophets didn't experience this or the people of God. Um, uh, one thing David said in Psalm 69:20, and you can put this up, and he says, "Reproach hath broken my heart." He said, "I am full of heaviness, and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none." And what he was saying was the heaviness was so strong upon upon him really, there was not anybody that could make it go away. Um, Paul talked about this when he thought about his fellow Israelites in Romans 9:2. He said that he had great heaviness and continual sorrow in heart about his brethren after the flesh because of the judgment upon them from
God because of their rejection of Jesus as their Messiah. And Paul talked in Philippians 2:26. He talks about Epaphroditis who uh he said he longed after you all was full of heaviness because you had heard that he had been sick. Um James 4:9 says, "Be afflicted and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness." Why is he saying that? because of the realities of what is going on in the world and what's going to come upon the world. Um, and I could read on. There's many others. And the Bible does say, uh, it says, "Put on the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." And so, uh, if you don't do that from time to time, the heaviness can just overwhelm you. Uh, but we're going to talk about several things because I think there's a multitude of things going on right now in the world. And who knows, maybe it's only going on in my world, but we'll find out soon, won't we? Um, but there are several things I felt. I felt this extreme heaviness this morning. So heavy that it was hard to breathe. This is spiritual heaviness, but just heavy. And of course, my wife doesn't like to see me that way. And she asked me, "So, what's what do you think it is?" And one of the things she made a comment about was, "Do you think something bad's going to happen in the world?" I said, "Well, that could be it." Um, you know, we joke a little bit about uh Star Wars and a disturbance in the force, but the Holy Spirit of God Almighty, the creator, the spirit of Jesus Christ is everywhere. And he knows what's going to happen before it happens. And I think he puts it on our hearts or at least begins to let us feel the weight of it. Um, so that we will get ourselves to prayer and fasting. Um, I don't know if that's it for sure. Maybe it is. Maybe it isn't. Another part of it is I know that last week in particular, I felt the spirit of witchcraft, just just powerful witchcraft coming at me like I hadn't felt in a long time. And you say, "Pastor Dean, how can you tell the difference between just regular heaviness and witchcraft?" Well, just one of those things you have to kind of get used to over time, figuring out. I can't describe it to you. It just it's almost like me trying to describe a color or a flavor to you if or a smell if you've never smelled it. Um but we have to understand that some things are going to come down and we need to have ourselves ready. And how do we get ready? Well, I've learned that when this kind of heaviness comes on me, it means that I need to get myself in the place of uh prayer and
fasting more than I have been because something is wrong. Um, and I know the devil's attacking people's minds right now. Like probably most of you are nod your head at me if you've been having thoughts and mental attacks like you hadn't had in a long time. Yeah, I see a bunch of heads nodding at me. Yeah. Well, that's um that's because there seems to just be a concentrated attack right now in the spirit against the people of God. And when I say the people of God, I'm talking about the people of God that are standing for the truth of his word and not backing down. Um the devil don't bother uh the lukewarm ones too much. He's got them right where he wants them. He he doesn't want to make them disturbed and might wake up out of their lukewarm state and get out of their sin. Uh so I mean why would the devil bother them a lot? You know that's why their little sermonets for Christianets and how to deal with stress at work sermons help them. They they go home feeling good and they're oblivious to what's going on. Um let's look at this. I want to go I guess we'll go to Acts. I'll show you I give you a little uh illustration of what this trying to describe what this is. But uh let's go to Acts. I think it is 27 I believe. Yeah. Now, this is when Paul had appealed to Caesar and he was uh they were about to put him on the ship to go to Italy to sail to Italy. And let's go down Acts 27. Go down to verse 10. He said unto them, "Sers, I perceive that this voyage will uh be with hurt and much damage, not only of the lady of the ship, but also of our lives." It says, "Nevertheless, the centurion believed the master and owner of the ship more than those things which were spoken by Paul. And because the haven was not commodious to winter in, uh, the more part advised to depart then also, if by means they might attain to Fenis, and there to winter, which is a haven of cit that lith toward the southwest and the northwest. And when the south wind blew softly, supposing that they had obtained their purpose, losing then, they sailed by cit. But not long after, there arose against uh it a temp tempestuous wind called a urocidon,
which is basically another name for a typhoon or a hurricane. Uh when you're in a wooden ship, not a good place to be in the middle of a hurricane, right? And it says, "And when the ship was caught and could not bear up into the wind, we let her drive, and running under a certain island, which is called Claud, we had much work to come by the boat, which when they had taken up, they used helps undergirling the ship, fearing less that we should fall into the quicksands, struck sail, and so were driven. And we, being exceedingly tossed with a tempest, the next day they lightened the ship. And the third day we cast out with our own hands the tackling of the ship. And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay upon us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away. And I love this. But after long abstinence, Paul stood forth in the midst of them and said, "Sers, you should have hearkened unto me and not have loosed from cit and to gain this harm and loss." Now, I'm going to stop there for a minute, but Paul started, this whole journey starts off with Paul trying to tell them that he felt in the spirit. He perceived in the spirit. He didn't know exactly what was going to happen, how it was going to go down, but he just knew, not feeling good about getting on this boat, boys. Not feeling good about this particular trip. Maybe we ought to wait a little bit. And of course, they didn't listen. and they got in a mess. And if it I believe they all would have died if Paul hadn't have been on the boat. Kind of the opposite, you know, situation with uh Jonah. They all died because Jonah was almost died because the Jonah was on the boat, right? They threw him off. Everybody was okay. But Paul of course prayed and and God was with him and God said, "You will stand before Caesar." And so they were going to make it through this. But the the rest of the the the sailors didn't know that, right? Now, let's just look at what what I can say. I I perceive some things going on. Number one, I'm just going to deal with this um this apparent uh peace that we have right now. this apparent um reprieve. You know, we got delivered from the horrible Biden administration, right? We think we did. Um we're still in the midst of all the stuff that they caused, right? And of course, Trump and his gang keeps talking about a golden age. And I know what they mean by that. They they have good intentions for us. And Trump's doing some really good things that the country I never dreamed I'd see.
Um starting to go through and find all of this corruption and waste and uh criminal activity and dealing with it in the government institutions up there. Um I don't think they're going to ever get through with that. I mean that's a cesspool that's deeper than we can even fathom that it is. But there is a stirring right now of course with um the Iran situation and we know that once that blows up in Iran to a fullscale war that it's going to get ugly uh because they will unleash very sophisticated weapons against the nation of Israel. Israel will unleash things on them. it's going to drag us into it and um it will escalate from there. Now, what day that starts, I I we were talking about this the other day traveling to Tuscaloosa. I think that it's not if, it's just a matter of when. Um but when that goes hot, I think we know a lot of people are going to die. Um, I also know that China is absolutely preparing for war with the United States in every possible way. Um, from ship building to uh shipping uh fentanol over here to kill as many people and maim as many people as they can. Um, we're right now in a in a what they call disintegration warfare. It's what the Chinese call it, what they're doing to us. slow disinte disintegration uh through cyber attacks uh flooding our streets with fentanyl and uh also uh you know stirring up and funding uh protest and probably these fires. I mean they caught a guy the other day uh some just regular folks going down the road driving down the highway caught a guy with a battery and starting a fire in California. So a lot of the fires are being started on purpose to cause uh destabilization of our country. Um with all the hidden Chinese components in everything that we use even in military equipment and the power grid and all that stuff. Anyway, a coordinated attack on America uh would be pretty devastating and a lot of people will die and our retaliation on China, a lot of people are going to die. Uh Iran, the Bible even fortell in Jeremiah, the later chapters of Jeremiah about the place of Elam becoming destroyed by fire. Anybody know what Elam is? Elam's a region within Persia in
Iran where their Bucher nuclear reactor is and says that place will be completely annihilated by fire. Now, are those things coming? When they say peace and safety, then sudden destruction will come upon them. And I've shared with you that a few weeks and months ago, how that sudden means unexpected. So it means we'd be looking like we'd be going in a good direction and unexpectedly everything turns to the bad direction. You say, "Well, Pastor Dean, now and how in the world could we have revival if all this bad stuff happens?" Well, let me tell you how. It's usually about the only time that Americans, especially a lot of Christian, lukewarm, [Music] backsliden Christians, will get on their knees and actually repent of their sins and pray to God and for mercy. Um, a lot of times before God moves, he has to allow the sword. He has to allow famine, sword, judgment. And it's not him doing it. All he has to do is step back and take his hands off of things and let mankind do its thing because mankind's all about war and death and stupidity, right? We don't want God. So when God finally goes, "Okay, you don't want me. I'll just step back and let y'all have at each other." We see how that has turned out throughout the millennia, right? So, I feel that that is part of the heaviness that I'm feeling. You know, we were pray that that song a minute ago says Linda was praying back during the Brownsville revival, let your glory fall on Washington DC. I can tell you it hasn't. Even with a president that actually loves our country is trying to fix some things. DC, I live there, y'all. I live there and it is a dark, oppressed, demonically controlled place. And one day, and I've shared this before, I was walking down the mall outside the Smithsonian and I love history and I love my country. But the Holy Spirit spoke to me clearly and he said, "All of this will be gone. Every bit of it. DC will be no more and that means that it'll be hit. And of course in a conflict with Russia, China, Iran, anybody else like that, DC is going to be number one target. uh even if they all, you know, move underground or move out to Colorado or wherever they are headed um to their bunkers, the bottom line is
a symbol just just like the Twin Towers. It wasn't that that was going to destroy us, but that globalist plot of the Bush family and the the UN people and all of those people, that plot was to it was a symbol. And it first of all, it was a symbol of how many they could fool to make it think it was 19 terrorists from Saudi Arabia. And then if they were all from Saudi Arabia, isn't it weird that we didn't attack Saudi Arabia, but we attacked Iraq and Afghanistan. Um, makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? Um, but we know who perpetrated 911 upon this country. And that's when I think a lot of people started waking up that there was a group of evil Republicans. I could just call them the Bush faction. And there's a group of evil Democrats on both sides. And we are pretty well as the American people, we are pretty well screwed if if that's what we're depending on. Now granted, a lot of things happen. A lot of things rise and fall upon leadership, but still we need to understand that the best leaders in the world cannot reverse this course we're on. It's too late. Remember once once this ship launched on its course where the wind was going to take them, they were headed into the storm. And America is headed into a storm that will make 911 look like a picnic. So, I know that's coming and it's probably going to be sooner than later. And we need to brace ourselves. And this is what we have needed to be prepared for. Um because it's when that goes down, it's going to get very interesting in our country. Because here's the thing, our the morality in our country over the more the majority of people, the morality has fallen so low that we get into a time where the power's out or food is short or uh you know, they send out the zombie virus and the next thing you know there's going to be folks acting like crazy people. And that's what they want because they want our country basically to tear itself apart without having to mess up the bread basket of our country, the soil in the middle of the country so they can have our land for food growth. That's why Bill Gates is buying it up. That's why China's trying to buy it up. That's why all these different countries that are anti-America trying to buy our
farmland up because they're going to claim dibs on it when stuff goes down. But the other side of this that can be heaviness is witchcraft. And the level the level of Satanism and witchcraft in this country is at an all-time high like I have never seen before. And this is something I've been looking at for almost 40 years. I've never seen so many people and witchcraft so in your face. Satanism. Hardcore satanic worship. And I don't care what what you call it, what level it's on, whether it's Santaia or voodoo or some form of paganism. I mean, we were at a place yesterday and these younger folks were talking about one of their friends has an altar in their house to Odin and Thor. I mean, we got people that are just, I guess, because of the Marvel comics now. Uh, it's time to worship Odin and Thor, but that's nothing new, right? There's many, the Bible says there's many gods. Mary's one of them. They may they turn Mary into a god or goddess, and she's not. She's a human being who sinned. She's a human being who after she gave birth to Jesus, God Almighty in the flesh by a supernatural move of God, she later had normal relations with her husband and had more children. She is not a perpetual virgin and all that nonsense within the Roman Catholic Church. We have these things going on. I mean, I'm seeing people who were who were raised in a Christian home that now worship the devil, love the devil. I mean, and it's common practice now to talk about making the deal, signing the the contracts in blood to get what you want. And the, you know, the top Satanist in the world back in the day in the late 1800s, early 1900s, Alistister Crowley, they called him the beast, right? He tells you, you know what he tells you? How how he got the most powerful demons into him. Wasn't a ritual. It wasn't a spell. It wasn't something he learned in Egypt. It was when he committed the act of sodomy. He said that's when the most powerful demons came into him. Oh, I hate to get so blunt this morning. Why do you think that that's such a big thing now? It's there there's so much demonic stuff going on. Where did you think it
could have went? It could have gone beyond when homosexuality began to take over this country. Sodomy became accepted. You know, in this country, we used to have laws against sodomy. Every state. Well, why? Because that's how bad it is. But now that's everywhere. So you get powerful demons in all these people. The next thing they know they're some of them trying to be a woman, trying to turn themselves into women, men trying to turn themselves into women, women trying to turn themselves into men. But it's demonic. But I want you to understand what witchcraft is. Witchcraft is simply demonic power also coupled with a human being's words that have power. Did you do you get what I'm saying? This is why witchcraft is different than just a demonic attack. Um, put up Proverbs 18:21. Everybody ought to know this one. What's it say? death and life in the power of the tongue and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof. Right? But death and life is in the power of the tongue. So that means what is death? Death is destructive power. Life is reviving healing power. Right? And he says death and life are in the power of the tongue. Satanists, witches, pagans, they know this. And when they don't like you, they get together and they start speaking against you. And in that speaking with the hatred they have in their heart for the righteous or for you in particular for some reason when they have that hatred in their heart and they're practicing witchcraft and calling on demons or other gods. When they're doing this and then they put their words, their human words behind it, you are getting hit with double power. This is why it's vitally important to understand that there are times when there are covens of witches. I mean, groups that meet together like Opalikica's got their coven. Valley's got their coven. These some of these covens are huge. They'll be have 1,500 people in them or 3,000 people in them. And your mayor will be in it and your police chief or your sheriff or other police officers, lawyers, judges, doctors. You think that ed that just uneducated barbarians are the ones that are these Satanists? No. And all of them will be in some church on Sunday
morning. They all go to church. And that's why they know in that church they will find out who is the prayer warrior, who's the serious Christians, or is this church like this little church, is it a troublemaker for us and for our agenda? And then if it is, they all get together and they have a little prayer meeting. Except it's the opposite of ours. They pray to the devil and to demons. And then they speak words of death and destruction upon us. They have all kinds of spells. All a spell is is a specific word curse spoken over you. That's all it is. And some of it is to get in your head and to seow division between you and your spouse. to sew division between you and your church family, to sew division between you and your pastor. I mean, I we've had where people have admitted I've done nothing to them, nothing. And the devil's sewn some thing in their head where they think and and caused this problem between or like I can be using and talking about something in a sermon and somebody will think it's about them and it's not. And if you come to me and it was about you, I will say yes, it was. So if you ever want to know, don't let the devil plant a lie in there. Come and ask because I can tell you privately. Don't want to always don't want to always say it all publicly. Be glad I don't say everything publicly, right? Or everybody' be gone. My wife had a dream the other night. She said, "Everybody left the church. I said, "Well, that could be good or bad. I guess maybe we were all moving moving to the to the new one." You know, hopefully we can build at some point. But, uh, I think she said everybody left but Sheree. So, Sheree, that was her dream. Um, but that's why some dreams are because we ate too much before we went to bed or and some are from the Lord. I don't know. Um, but what I'm saying is the devil's good. He's good at putting into our head. He can actually do that while we sleep and put dreams in our head to make us think or try to think they're from the Lord or get us thinking in a certain direction. This is why it is absolutely vital to control your thought life. And just go to second Corinthians chapter 10 real quick. I'm going to stay on this issue for a second of witchcraft. I did say 2 Corinthians 10, right? 3 through six, I believe it is. Anyway, he
says here, "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought." You ought to underline those two words. Every thought. Somebody say, "Every thought." Every thought. every thought. Now, I've been doing this a long time, casting down imaginations and controlling my thoughts. But even the devil with me, as as much as I am familiar with his tactics against me for many years now, and he'll use all kinds, he still sometimes is so subtle that he sneaks some in. and I don't recognize it at first. And if he sneaks something in there and you start thinking about it and meditating on it, guess what happens if you any thought that you start thinking about over and over and over again is going to become what? A feeling. Now listen to me. This is a process. It starts out as a feeling. Yeah. It's just kind of like how you can think of maybe you think of an old old boyfriend or girlfriend and and you remember how she used to punch you in the face or you you know or how he used to cheat and you get that start getting mad. What? That's been 40 years ago. Why you getting mad? Because that thought stirs up a feeling. All right. Now, here's where it goes to the next thing. If you allow that to continue, then the feeling sometimes can lead to you finally speaking something out of your mouth about it. Oh, like I really hate that. Bleep bleep bleep. Oh, now we've stepped into doing our own witchcraft, right? But then if that stays there, then what does it turn into? Yes, it turns into a stronghold. of unforgiveness because of the sin of hatred and the sin of your lips and then you are controlled by it. Then you are manipulated by it. The same goes for lust. If you let it linger, it becomes a feeling. If you let that linger, then it becomes something you start talking about or you start searching out for. And the next thing you know what? You're acting upon it. If you don't get this right here about casting down imaginations and every thought, this
also goes with depression. The devil loves to bring heaviness that brings depression and despair and even suicidal thoughts. Now, I know there's people that have never attempted suicide, and you'll say, "I never have attempted suicide. I never would attempt suicide." But I guarantee you've had some crazy thoughts at some point or another. And you even sat there and go, "Where is this coming from? I don't even want this thought here." And let me just tell you, when the devil knows that God's about to do something in your life, and the devil sometimes can see the activity of the angels and the anointing of God and the glory of God moving when he's about to do something, that's when the devil attacks hard with that. He'll try to make you upset with the Lord. word. He'll try to you'll start remembering every prayer that didn't get answered when you wanted and every time God didn't do what you needed and every bit of suffering you've went through and why God did this happen to me. And before you know it, the devil is turning you on the Lord right before the Lord's about to bless you. right before the Lord's about to give you the thing that he's meant for you to have and to be blessed with and to enjoy. How many people have missed their blessing, missed their calling, missed their miracle because right before God moved, they let the devil's thoughts that he put in their head turn them into a bad place. Look, every major sin, the sin of adultery, someone doesn't, you know, like premeditated murder, they call it that for a reason, right? It's because you thought it out. You planned it out. Like I've said about adultery, you got to plan that stuff out, right? And where does where do you think those thoughts originate from? The devil loves to go, "Hey, hey, hey." He'll make you feel heavy and depressed and then he'll go, "Hey, hey, hey, you need you need to go find a honey on the side." Or, "Hey, hey, hey, you need to go have a drink. Go just go sit in the bar for a little while. The devil's church." That's that's what a bar is. Singing and the music and the fellowship and the spirits. Yeah. But see, I know because the devil
comes to that stuff with me. What are you doing? Don't you know things would be much easier if you just did this or did that? Or how about this? Just don't do what the Lord told you to do. Nobody would know, right? Lord tells you to do something. You in your prayer time, you know the Lord's told you to do it, but it's going to be hard. It's going to be difficult. So, here come the thoughts of the devil. You know what's going to happen to you? You know, you might get fired from your job. You know, your husband, your wife, your friends are going to turn against you. All this stuff. You can't follow Jesus like that. Just go to the mega church and just just blend in. and nobody even know you're there. You can go there and then you can walk out and leave and nobody knows. Unless they got some serious bean counters up there somewhere, right? I know a lot of people like that just said, "I'm not I'm just going to find me a back chair or a back pew in some church somewhere and that's where I'm going to sit. That's what I'm going to do. I'm not going to move." And I'm not talking about y'all back there. At this church, you don't have a choice. We got few seats. You got to take what you can get. I understand. It's just symbolic. All right. I saw them all squirming for a second. I was like, "Oh, no. Now I come to church next week and the whole back row be empty and everybody be crammed in up here. Witchcraft is for real. You know, a lot of you in this church and those that went to our ministry school and know I I've recommended Dr. Rebecca Brown's books. He came to set the captives free, prepare for war, becoming a vessel of honor. U and I met Dr. Brown. She helped me through my deliverance in ' 89. Then when I was pastoring in Montgomery in 98, me and another pastor had her and her husband Daniel come and do a whole week of meetings and I got to hang out with her and the anointing was so on that lady and her books helped me tremendously over the years. I learned a lot from her and from her experiences dealing with Satanists and witches and witchcraft. one of the chapters because just to give for those of you who don't know who she is, she's a lady who was a uh cancer doctor and one of the most powerful witches in the country came into uh the hospital with cancer and over a little period of time uh Dr. Brown ended up praying for her and leading her to the Lord and then discipling her and casting the demons out of her and uh powerful testimony. And through
that many people that were in Satanism and the new age and occultism came out and and Dr. Rebecca Brown helped them greatly. And uh I was one of those people that she helped back in I think her first book came out in '86 and I got it in '87 because I had just I had just helped someone out of Satanism and had experienced the same things. So I knew it was true then. Uh but I got to uh again I got to know her and her husband a lot better later on. But one chapter in that book is about the infiltration of churches and and and or basically how the Satanists have an eight-point plan to destroy a church, how they infiltrate it, and it's a pattern they use and they've tried to use it here. Uh we'll catch them. I'll say, "Oh, they're in this phase now, right? They're in this phase." Um, but one of them she talks about is direct attacks of witchcraft on key members of the church. Direct attacks like we're going to focus in on this one or this couple or this person. This is why our battle, like our battle over the years, you wouldn't believe some of the people that Nancy and I were the closest to that we thought were our absolute not just brothers and sisters in Christ, but like true friends, people we would actually let faith stay with. And that's that's a hard one. We don't let our faith stay in many places. All right. We've watched over her like like hawks. People that if you would have told me, say two or three years before, this couple's going to turn on you and leave, or this one's going to turn on you and leave, I would have said, no way that's going to happen. Not them. Oh, yeah. And I'm not talking about people sent here as enemies, as Judases. I'm talking about people who were legit born again, spiritfilled Christians. You say, "How in the world could that happen?" Thoughts, thoughts, and also places they didn't want to go. See, truth hurts. Truth hurts sometimes. It stings. It's uncomfortable. And that's why a lot of pastors don't tell their flocks because they know that they going to lose some people sometimes just because of what they tell
them. I mean, goodness, I told the Tuscaloosa Republican Party so much they'll probably never have me back again the other night. I just had one truth bomb after another after another. It just it just flowed out like a river. Some of them did. Some of them did. Some of them, the guy that got up, the guy that was running the meeting, he got said, "Well, we've never had a candidate quite like that before." I was like I sat down and I thought, "Lord, did I dump too much on him at one time?" Uh, but it's it's tough to be somebody who stands for the truth and speaks the truth and tells the truth all the time because the devil the devil if if people are being helped by the truth of God, right? Or truth just in general. Jesus said that you will know the truth and truth will make you free. So if the devil wants to keep you in bondage and he's got to keep you away from truth. So if somebody's speaking the truth, that's the very person the devil's going to try to turn you against in some way to get you away from them. We've had people here on the brink. I'm talking about on the brink of going through deliverance and getting free from the demons they have and the devil turned them on me or Nancy or both of us and poof, out the door they go right before I'm talking about deliverance papers have been done. We've gone through them. We'd set a date here. We're going to do them on this day. Explosion. Some nonsense. One time my wife preached on the family order and said wives must submit to their husbands. And that one lady lost her mind. She said, "I can't submit to this idiot." Basically, she got but she got so mad about a biblical truth. All my wife did was read what the Bible said and got so mad about that biblical truth that I mean explosion. Mad at us didn't come for a few weeks. I'm like, "Oh, they're they're gone." And sure enough, out the door. They're like, man, well, you know, I think about it. That was very early on. Had they uh had they stayed on longer, it would have probably been something else because uh you know, they probably couldn't have taken biblical cosmology at all, you know. But it's Roman Catholic demons in them that they didn't get rid of and they needed freedom from those things. Um, you know, what is it? I think it's check me if I'm wrong. I think it's Proverbs 23:7. As a man thinkketh in his heart, so is he. Think about that. As a person thinks in his heart,
so is he. So if the devil can get you thinking in a certain way, you become that. And I'm not dealing with the second part of this, but for as he thinkketh in his heart, so is he. What is it? Isaiah 55 verse three. Is it says, "Thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon thee because he trustth in thee." Do you have perfect peace? If not, who's disturbing your [Music] peace? Most of the fights that you married couples have is because the devil says one thing in one head and another thing in another head. most of it. How many times have you had a fight with your spouse and you go, "Why did I say that? Where did that even come from? Why did I even think that?" And see, men, listen, men, people talk about men saying stupid stuff, but women, y'all don't know. Sometimes that spaghetti brain process that you have And most of us just go, "What? Because a man, we only focus one thing at a time. One thing at a time. This problem, then we get next problem." Right. And then you're by the time we're dealing with one, y'all have spaghetti brain on to something else that we're like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Time out. There ought to be timeouts." I saw somebody do a bit about that about referees. There ought to be referees in marriage. Time out, ref. I need I need help. You got to flag her on that right there. Yeah. Yeah, we need instant replay. And that's another thing. Let me tell you what. Let me tell you why we need instant replay is because I'm telling you, the devil also interferes with what we hear come out of somebody else's mouth. And I'm I you like what did you say? Sometimes when she says that to me, what did you guys just I walk off [Music] like like you heard me right there. But think about it. It's all about that. Now let's let's go to Isaiah 54 real quick. Hey, it's not even 12, y'all. We're doing good. Isaiah 54:17. Just put it up. Here we go. Now, everybody quotes
this verse. I mean, so many Christians quote this verse, but they only quote the first sentence, the first part of this sentence. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper. They stop right there. Did it stop there? No, it's a semi cold in there, right? He says, "And every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment, thou shalt condemn." Now, why do you think he says no weapon, we just found out the tongue is a weapon, right? So, why does he say no weapon will prosper? Then he instructs you that a tongue that rises against you, you have to do something with it. Right. Let me tell you how often I do this because I got people that hate me with a passion. I'm a Republican and I got Republicans that hate me with a passion. I mean, you can see it. I'm hated because of biblical cosmology, aka flat earth, biblical earth. I'm hated for it. Had a guy in the front row in Tuscaloosa. One of the first things he asked So, guess what? They got a sermonet. I'm I'm done this time. I was nice about it last time. This time, and I'm not holding back a thing. They want to turn it to theology. That's where we'll go. Right? I told some of them last time, I said, "I thought we were talking about Alabama politics, but since y'all want to have a theological debate, let's go. Let's do it." Right? They always want to it's not the preacher trying to bring the religion into the conversation, right? But he says that that every tongue that rises against you in judgment. Now, what this means is the tongue that rises against you to accuse you, to attack you. You must condemn it. How do you condemn it? What does condemn mean? Means you judge it back. You stop it. Let me tell you how I do this all the time. When people speak, I know people I know when people are really talking about me, like an article comes out and this flood of words come at me. And if you start getting yourself sensitive to the spiritual realm, you will feel it. You you get close to the Lord, you'll feel these things. And I'll have to say, we do it all the time, don't we, babe? Break the curses coming from all these people in Jesus name. I break the curses and spells and incantations of death and destruction and accidents and hatred. These curses, these words spoken against me, I break them off of me in Jesus' name. This is me condemning their words. And then I bind the demons they
sent with their words because demons and words travel together or the Holy Spirit and words travel together. Always remember that. Always remember that. And see, this is what he's saying because the power of people's mouths is something else. Let's go to go to um Psalm 55 real. David knew this very well. Psalm 55. And I I'm going to read from verse one. David's praying to the Lord here. But he's got a problem. He says, "Give ear to my prayer, oh God, and hide not thyself from my supplication. Attend unto me and hear me. I mourn or I'm in heaviness in my complaint and make a noise. Why? Because of the voice or the words of the enemy because of the oppression of the wicked. So he's telling you it's the voice is bringing the oppression. All right. He says, "For they cast iniquity upon me and in wrath they hate me." Now, a lot of Christians walk around go, "Well, I'm covered by the blood of Jesus. Nothing can touch me." Then why you always fighting with your wife? Arrogant, know it all. Right. Hardheads. He says because of this oppression, the voice of the enemy, the oppression of the wicked, because they are casting their the word iniquity means injustice. They are casting their judgment, their words on me. That's why they even call spells casting. He says, "My heart is sore pained within me, and the terrors of death are fallen upon me. Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me and horror hath overwhelmed me. He says, oh, he said, and I said, oh that I had wings like a dove, for then I would fly away and be at rest. He says, lo, then I would wander far off and remain in the wilderness. I would hasten my escape from this windy storm and tempest. Then he says, "Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues, for I have seen violence and strife in the city." Now, let's just stop right there. This whole thing, this whole spiritual attack that David is under that's bringing heaviness and fear and dread upon him. Anybody ever fear that feel these kind of things come upon you for no apparent reason? Or am I the only one? Tell the
truth this morning. Some of us would call this kind of thing a panic attack. Think about it. He's talking about fear, dread, horror to the point of it being overwhelming. Now, I've never had a panic attack. I've probably been close to it. Who's ever had a panic attack? Let me see a hand. Quite a few people in here. Who's ever been thinking I was I I gotta admit I probably was on the brink of a full-blown p panic attack, but I have felt this unnatural horror and dread of like I was something was about to die, scare me to death or kill me or something horrible is going to happen. Anybody Anybody had that? I can tell you, especially if you're in in the middle of something where you know somebody is coming against you or they're upset with you or they're angry at you or they're trying to get you or stop you in some way. These words are powerful. And then he says this, we're going to skip down a little bit. I'm going skip down to verse 21. He says, "The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart. His words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords." Do you see that? And then, of course, he talks about in this particular psalm that it wasn't even an enemy that was doing this to him. It was a familiar friend. Oh, anybody ever had that problem? This guy right here. Witchcraft comes in many forms. It can it can come from a friend. It really is just somebody's mouth speaking against you. This is why the Bible tells us to be very careful about what we say about another brother or sister, about the pastor, about your in your own family, your own spouse. There's something about my wife. I got to say this. You'll never none of you. And if you say you have, you have never have. So you ought to know you're lying when instant replay. My wife, you've never heard my wife say anything bad about me in public or to anyone in this church. She will not do it. Will not happen. And that doesn't mean that I'm perfect because I am not. But she's like, "Why do I want to destroy you or
tear you down? Because that's only going to tear me down." You see, we got to be very careful. It's not that we don't discuss problems and we we we're going to have disagreements and all. It's not that. is that we don't let it turn into division, offense, bitterness, and that's what the devil's after. Because if a root of bitterness gets in there, then what happens? Then it says many are defiled. So folks, we got two things coming at us and and for some reason, maybe it's because I've stepped back into the political realm again. Um, you know, we forget sometimes I think you know we everybody remember the story first kings 19 the story of Elijah after he had obeyed God then they had killed all these prophets of Jezebel, the false prophets uh actually obeying what the law said of those false prophets were to be slain for what they had done and Elijah had led the Hey, and then old Jezebel, Queen Jezebel says, "What the Lord do so to me if by tomorrow I haven't killed you." Now, she was a powerful witch, practiced human sacrifice, put on the voodoo, war paint. She was a wild one. But she also not only had she had three things behind her. Not only did she have demons and witchcraft from her spells and curses, but she had her words, but her words were also from a place of political authority because wicked Ahab the Israelite had disobeyed God's commands and married this wicked pagan Jezebel. So he gave her political authority. And think about this. As powerful, anointed as Elijah was as a prophet before God, the power behind Jezebel's words, the spirits behind her, and that political authority behind her made him run in fear to the point he didn't even want to live anymore. How does a believer, a prophet of God with that kind of anointing, seeing those kind of miracles that he was, how does he end up running from one witch? Because she overwhelmed him. She threw it at him. She cast it at him. These
people that walk around and act like, "Oh, witchcraft can have no effect on me." They are just ignorant of how powerful it is. This is why you cannot, if you know somebody's a witch or Satanist, unless God has sent you to be a witness to them, you don't need to be hanging out with them because you will fall under their influence. And that's what witchcraft is about. It is about manipulation. It is about influencing, pushing, getting their way. And their way is usually what? Not God's way. Psalm 55. You got it. That's right. I heard that. At least it's Bible, right? So, I want to ask everybody this week, just pray about it, but pray about doing some fasting with me this week. Doing a little more praying for each other for Fire and Grace Church. even for our extended Fire and Grace Church family out there. I know there's some of you that's still on the list for deliverance and we need to get some things scheduled for some of you so we can do those things and help you along your journey, your battle with these things. But I'm going to tell you right now, whether you've gone through deliverance or not, you have to get your thought life under control. And the Lord had me do this long before he took me through a thorough deliverance. He had me learn how to fight and get my mind under control. You can't be letting your mind run wild. Because if you go through, if you have no discipline in this area, you're going to go through deliverance and then you're going to have a very undisiplined mind and your mind's going to allow those thoughts to turn into feelings and turn into actions and then you're going to open the doors back up and you end up seven times worse than you were before. So, this is why I delay sometimes on some of these deliverances because people need to learn how to fight and stand on their own two feet, them and the Lord, before we deal with the deliverance issue because you're going to have to have the tools and the ability to stay free afterwards. That's more important than rushing a deliverance. Okay? This is why I make everybody go back and listen to the deliverance series in the spiritual warfare um section of our website. go back and listen to those things and get that the the principles of spiritual warfare. Binding demons, rebuking demons, resisting demons, casting down imaginations, breaking word curses off of you, making sure there's no area of compromise in your life. There's no idols. There's no false religion. I mean, we just faith and
faith was so so disgusted. My daughter, she's she's not here to she's down with the puppy. We we had one week I got to secure the fence so the puppy has to be with us every minute. So she's down with the puppy. But we were watching the end of Duke, Alabama last night. My daughter is into March Madness right now. And um we're watching the end of that and the announcers start talking about how the reason Duke's doing so well this season is because they've hired a guru and teaching them how to meditate and given the team a mantra. So we find out that the reason they're doing so well is demonic help. So, y'all better get the Who's playing Duke? Y'all will end up playing Are y'all playing Duke today or No, we'll play y'all. I I can't remember. Whoever's going to play Duke needs to start binding the demons in that team. Not saying they're not good basketball players, but they're having because they're a mantra. Now, you guys know this. I've taught on Hindu Hinduism and and Chetra knows she's from India. She'll tell you what is a mantra. It's a it's a god. It's a Hindu god. So they're literally calling upon a Hindu god and using visualization and satanic meditation techniques. They're opening the third eye and helping themselves so they can it it's it's no different than the martial artists who open the door for demons so that they can do supernatural things. And I knew when I was in martial arts, there were people that were into the Buddhist side of it where they could do supernatural stuff. And then there were people like me said, "I'm not going down that road. I'll learn how to punch you in the face, but I'm not bowing down to Buddha, right? To the little fat thing. I'm not doing it." Right? And I saw, look, there was a guy, there was a 10th degree, I think it was fifth degree tongsudo master who could look at a gallon, like a gallon milk jug of bo of water and he could stare at it. In about five minutes, he'd have it boiling and it would be boiling hot. He could he could have you put a piece of uh metal in your hand and he would stare at it and it would become so hot you couldn't hold it in your hand and you had to throw it down. That's not normal. That's demonic. Right. What's funny is that anybody that knows that and gets in a fight with these guys, if they're equal in their skills and they bind the demons in the other guy, and that kind of happened, you know, what was his name? Uh Tyson Fury versus Deontay Wilder in boxing.
Heavyweight boxing. Tyson was a Christian. Deontay Wilder was into worshiping demons of his ancestors. And they actually had a little confrontation in an interview one time about whose god was going to win. And guess what? Fury beat him three times. And Deontay is from Alabama. He's a Tuscaloosa boy. But I have to say I was for Fury and not uh Wilder because it was clear these things have happened before. Holyfield was a Christian. Mike Tyson, Islam demon. Guess what happened? Mike was losing that battle. Had to bite his ear off. But you know which one was following the Lord and which one was demonic, right? But this stuff does manifest itself in the real world. I know police officers who are not Christian and go into a situation where demons are manifesting through somebody and and if you know we read in Mark 5 demons have supernatural make people have supernatural strike they can break chains and stuff right and I know the police officer he's retired now but he's a friend of mine he's a pastor and he when he was a police officer he said here in Opaikica they went into somewhere trying to arrest this person and this guy was throwing these guys around. I mean, this one guy was whipping four of them, just slinging them up against the wall. Just they could not stop this guy. And he walked in and he was a born again, holy spiritfilled Christian. He said, "I bind the demons in Jesus name. Command you to stop now in Jesus' name." The guy fell on the floor, stopped. He walked over and cuffed him without even wrestling. And they all were like, "How did you do that?" He you're fighting demons with human strength. You fight them with the weapons of our warfare that Jesus has given us. And to every What's beautiful about this is every single believer, I don't care if you were just born again yesterday, you you can be a brand new Christian. Jesus has given you power and authority over demon spirits and over Satan. You can bind them and resist them in Jesus' name and they will cease their operations. Now, sometimes you have to get in the fight and do it multiple times. Jesus, when he was being tempted, had to resist the devil three times. And finally, what does it say? Satan left him for a season. You want some seasons where you're not fighting every single moment? Fight him. Fight them in Jesus name. Cast down imaginations, get control of your thought life, break their word curses off, break their spells, and you're going to see change in your life. And let and let me just tell you, I was so heavy in my
spirit coming to church, it was hard to even talk. And I and I had the attitude I didn't even want to talk. Anybody ever felt like that? Like I wish everybody just shut up and leave me alone. See, I'm getting oppressed by demons. I just I kind of just like I I don't like people. She's like, "Just be quiet." But I know it's demonic, right? But I was like, my wife's like, "Do you know what you're preaching on?" Nope. Have no idea. I said, "I know less about this week than I knew about last week." And I didn't know last week until I stood up here. But I was just honest with you, right? This is what's going on and went with it. As I've been talking to you about these things, I kept feeling it lifting off of me because it's getting exposed. Right? There was one time I came under such a heavy oppression. I mean heavy. Like I felt like death was upon me and I couldn't shake it. I'd bind the demons. I broke curses I knew to break and I couldn't shake it off. And this is some this is just a little last little thing I'm going to tell you. My students ought to know this because I've talked about this before. But I said finally after about 3 days of just oppression and this weird dread and darkness like just a lot of people be like going to the doctor to get some pills. Right? I said, "Lord, what is this? You got to show me what this is because I don't know what to do." And this is what the Holy Spirit said to me. He said, "200 witches have agreed to pray against you every day." He said, "Break the curses of those 200 witches." And I said, 'In the name of Jesus, I break the curses and spells and words of those 200 witches that have agreed to pray against me. I break them off of me in Jesus name and I command them to go. And you know what it broke like a like the clouds parting and the sun come it was gone. So you must do this and our church must do this. So we don't get divided from one another. We don't w walk in here one day and all of you are gone. Huh? Except for Sheree. And Sheree and Patrick have been here the longest. So they've heard me talk about this the longest. So maybe they got it. All right, let's stand. Thank you, Lord. I want to do that song, History
Maker, before we go. We're going to leave on a good note. See, death and life's in the power of the tongue. And I do believe after the judgment of God hits, after he steps back and the things do go down in the world and in our country that he is going to pour out his spirit, show his mercy in the midst of judgment. That's what Habach 3 1 and 2 says there that in the midst of wrath, he said it says there in wrath remember mercy. And that's what the Lord when we cry out to him, even in the midst of his wrath or the midst of judgment, we cry out for mercy and say, "Lord, forgive me. I repent. I don't deserve anything, but please, please help us." That's when he helps. Amen. So, let's do this. Oh, also, uh there's an announcement right after this song. So, don't leave yet. Even if you're not staying today to eat with us downstairs, don't leave. And also don't forget the marriage conference May 3rd here for uh married couples or those about to be married or right here. May 3rd Battle Ready Marriage Boot Camp register right now. Um we're getting closer. I guess we're just a little over a month away. So don't forget that. But don't leave just yet. All right. We do the song. Got an announcement to make. All right. All right. Thank you Lord. [Music] Is it true that when people pray, we'll see cloudless skies break, kings and queens will shake. Yes, it's true and I believe it. I'm living for [Music] you. Is the truth today that when people pray, we'll see dead men rise and the blind set free. Yes, it's true. And I believe it. I'm living it for you. Yes, I am. I'm going to
be a history maker in this land. I will be a speaker of truth to all mankind. I'm going to stand. I'm going to run into your arms into your arms. Yes, it's true today that when people stand with the fire of God and the truth in hand. We'll see [Music] miracles. We'll see angels sing. Oh, we'll see broken hearts stand up and make history. Oh yes, it's true. And I believe it. Come on, let me hear you sing it to me. Come on. [Music] I'm going to be a history maker in this. I'm going to be I'm going to be a speaker of truth to all [Music] mankind. I'm going to stand. I'm going to run into your arms. [Music] I'm going to be singing. I'm going to be a maker. I'm going to be a speaker of truth to all [Music] mankind. I'm going to stand. I'm going to run into your arms. Into your arms. Yes, I am going into your ar. Come on, lift up your voice. Sing it. Into your arms, Jesus. Yes, Lord. Into your arms. We're running into your arms. Let's see everyone. Into your arms. Oh yes. Into your arms. Yeah. Yeah. Come on. We rejoice in you, Lord. We praise your name. We thank you, Lord. Praise your name. That's what I want to be. History
maker. Amen. All right. The the two that have an announcement to make, y'all come on down. Do y'all care? All right. We're not. Come on. Hey, that's for them, too. Okay. All right. Announce it. All right. There's going to be another member added to this church. [Applause] What do we say? We're We're not leaving. Enjoy. adding. They're adding Jord Jordan or Ashley Jr. That's That's what they're saying. There's a There's a little one coming. Yeah. Hallelujah. We love that. The blessing of God right there. Amen. Hallelujah. All right. Well, that was the announcement. All right. Unless anybody else, Huh? Now you're hungry. Yep. I bet. All right. Well, y'all know the rule around here. Hug some Nicks before you leave. And God bless everybody out there. Amen. Let us see you May 3rd. May 3rd. Make plans. All right. Hug some Nicks. [Music]