Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
Welcome everyone to Fire and Grace School of Ministry this morning. Our students here and watching live this morning, of course some will be watching later, but excited to start the second semester this morning. Of course, the second semester our first block on Tuesdays will be spiritual warfare. So today is spiritual warfare class one. We've entitled this know your enemy first day of semester two of our first year excited about getting into this. Now as we get into this this morning, again I want you to take good notes. I haven't decided on an assignment for this class. Maybe we'll know when we get toward the end. But you know it's important, I'm just going to say this, I can't believe that there are actually churches, seminaries, Bible schools that do not teach on spiritual warfare at all. They don't talk about it, they don't touch it. There's even a demonic belief, I believe just put out there by demons, that if you talk about the devil you're giving glory to the devil. And that's about one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard in my life. God put a lot of stuff in the Bible about Satan and his angels and demon spirits because he wants us to know how they work. Because he wants us to be wise to their ways and their craftiness and everything else. And he wants us to know how to fight them, how to resist them, how to discern them, how to bind them, and all those things. So we're going to cover all that. Plus, of course, we'll get into the deliverance issue in this semester in this class. But anyway, know your enemy. Now before we get into the scriptures on this, this is a very, very famous book going back centuries. I don't even know how old it is, I don't remember. But anyway, it's a famous book. It's read and quoted and used often because of this Chinese general, Sun Tzu. That's how you say it, Sun Tzu. And this is the book, The Art of War. And of course, he just, again, I think President Trump quoted from it in his State of the Union speech the other night. It's a well-known book, well-quoted book. But he has a lot about military strategy in this book and fighting the enemy. One of the things, and this is one of the famous quotes from The Art of War by Sun Tzu. He says this, he says, if you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of 100 battles. He said, if you know yourself but not the enemy for every victory gained, you will also suffer a defeat. Isn't that interesting? If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle. So very important to know yourself,
your strengths, your weaknesses, your place, your position, your gifts, your talents, you know, especially it's to be honest about where you have weak spots. Because you know, if you have a weak spot, that's where the enemy is going to want to attack. So that's why he's talking about know yourself. Be honest. See, there's a lot of people that are not honest with themselves. You got to be honest with yourself. Know and understand your weaknesses and your strengths and your gifts and abilities. But the main point here, I want to point out with Sun Tzu here in this quote, know your enemy. Okay, know your enemy. So if this great Chinese general said, know your enemy, and the Bible says things like this, let's look at this verse. Bible says, Isaiah four, six, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. This is especially true when it comes to dealing with Satan, the dragon, the serpent, the devil, the fallen angels, the demon spirits, the enemies of Jesus Christ and true born again Christians. Ignorance is not bliss. Ignorance will get you hurt. It will get you killed sometimes. It is never good to be ignorant of your enemy. All right, now let's, let's see. Does this verse apply? Well, let's read the whole verse first here. This is, uh, Hosea four, six. Oh, that's not good up there. Looks better up there, but not here. Anyway, says my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge because thou has rejected knowledge. I will also reject thee that thou shalt be no priest to me. Seeing thou has forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. So he's saying here is two ways you can not have knowledge. You can reject knowledge. You can, or just not have it. And then someone can bring it to you and you can reject it. Uh, either way, it's not a good thing for you to do. Um, but let's keep going here. That's Hosea four, six. So my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. And then this one, this passage, and we're not going to get into the, of course, in this passage here in second Corinthians two, he's talking about the church forgiving someone who had really, you know, sin bad and caused a big problem in the church. And he was talking about the issue of forgiveness and the need to forgive. But he made this statement in the midst of that discussion about the need to forgive. And he says here, lest Satan should get an advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his devices. Now that verse is so, so very important to this discussion, this teaching, this understanding of knowing your enemy. Why? Because what is it saying here? Paul's saying
to the Corinthians, look, you're not ignorant to his devices. So he should, he shouldn't get an advantage over you. But what is the flip side of the coin? If you're ignorant to the devil's devices, then he will get an advantage over you. Now, do you want to give the devil any more of an advantage in your life than you need to? No. Right. So ignorance of the devil's devices, not good, never good. Ignorance is never the way. All right. Especially when it comes to spiritual warfare. Very important to understand that. Now let's keep going here. Let's look at this. Here's the definition of Satan. Now, listen, Satan, our enemy, has many names. As we're going to see, we'll look at Revelation 12 and it calls him that old serpent, the devil, Satan. He's accepted the name Lucifer. That really wasn't one of his original names, but he's accepted that as people have called him that. But in the Bible, he's called the deceiver. He's called the tempter. He's called the liar. He's called the father of lies, the murderer. He's got a lot of names. Satan is one of the primary names that he goes by. But let's, so let's look at what Satan means here. The word Satan simply means an adversary. This is the blue letter Bible, the outline of the biblical usage. It says an adversary, one who withstands an adversary in general, superhuman adversary, Satan, the arch enemy of good, adversary, Satan, adversary as in, what is this one? I like the gensinius, hebrew, calvi, lexicon. He says here an adversary as in war, an enemy. So this is an enemy, an adversary. He's the adversary. He's the enemy of God. He's the enemy of humanity, and he's especially the enemy of the people of God. So this is very important to understand as well. Plus here, the way the Hebrew letters, I want you to notice this, and we're going to look at this. But of course, as it says down here, the angel of Jehovah, he also started out as an angel of God, and we're going to talk about that too. But let's look at this because to me, this is very interesting. Now remember, the Hebrew language changed after the Babylonian captivity. Before that, they used the paleo Hebrew letters and language. This right here is the post Babylonian, but just so you know these letters here, this is, and of course,
Hebrews read from right to left. So it looks like a w, that's a shin, right? And this is tet in the middle here, and this is nun. So Satan is shin, tet, nun, which is basically an s, a t, and an n. That's where you get it, Satan from. All right? Now, these letters also have meaning. All right? That's another thing. Just so you know, we go to the paleo Hebrew, and you see that shin or shin, as it can mean, either way, it can be said either way. Here's the ancient, kind of the ancient. Looks like it just looks like our w, very similar, but it's to portray teeth in the sense, or fire, in the sense of consuming. Seeing the 21st letter of the Hebrew alphabet, it's a tooth here, means sharp. But anyway, the pictograph of teeth symbolizes to devour, to consume, to destroy something sharp. Like for instance, the Bible in Hebrews chapter 12 says our God is a consuming fire, right? One of God's names is El Shaddai, right? El, and then you have the Shaddai, the Shin, the Shin, the consuming one, right? All right? This is what you have here. So you see, you have the consuming, or the devouring, where the teeth is the first letter in Satan's name here, because these meanings can have both positive and negative. So let's keep going, just so you see that. See, shin or sheen, either way, to consume, to destroy, sharp, to press the one letter that God used to identify himself, God's signature. So it's also refers to the Lord. But again, it's used in many words, the letter is. So like, you know, letter, first letter of my name, D, well, yeah, I could just say sign D-O, my initials, and you know, most people, if anybody knew me, or if I had a situation, all the people know who that was, but D is used in a lot of words, right? So it's not, it's not a bad thing that it's used both in, with the Lord's, some of his names, and Satan, some of his names, but I wanted you to see that. So you have shin or sheen, first letter, and tet is the middle letter for Satan. And notice what it says, that a twisting, a snake. Isn't that interesting? So here's the, here's the, the present Hebrew letter, the way it looks now,
the post Babylonian Hebrew here on the right side at the bottom, but this with the circle with the like of the X in the middle, that's the ancient paleo, Hebrew, but it's a serpent as surrounding something. All right, here's more of the definition of that. Tet, a twisting or coiling, a snake, the pictograph symbolizes to surround, to twist, a snake. So there you have it. It's interesting. So you have basically the devouring or consuming snake is even what the letters mean. And then the word, it's interesting here. Notice that the X-files symbol. What is that? There's telling you the serpent, the snake files, the Satan file. I'm telling you what it is. See that, but they're using the ancient paleo Hebrew letter and most people don't know, right? And they're letting you know that whole alien thing is just Satan's agenda, right? The last letter noon means a fish as swimming or moving through the water, which is representative of activity or life. As you see, the pictograph of this letter is of a fish darting through water, symbolized action, life, and it'll show you this book's need. It'll show you how it's used in the Bible, but you put this all together and Satan means shin, teeth devouring or destroying, tet, snake that surrounds, noon, very active and fast, like the darting through water representing life. So this is talking about Satan's very name is to consume or devour, to surround as a snake, to choke out life, right? That's what he is. Murderer, the thief it calls him to, he comes to steal and to kill and destroy Jesus. So I wanted you to see that. Now we're going to get into one of the earliest books written in the Bible, all right? I mean, not in the timeframe in the sense, like for instance, that most scholars believe that Job, and we're going to go to Job one and two, but Job was one of the first books written. Now, of course, later on when God has Moses up on the mountain and gives Moses the first five books of the Bible, he takes Moses back further to write Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy and so on. But that was later, he just took Moses back and gave Moses what happened. But the earliest book that was around, which is agreed by most scholars, is the book of Job. So let's go to Job chapter one. Now,
you think about this, if this was the first or one of the first, we can at least say that for sure, without any fear of being wrong that Job was at least one of the first books of the Bible in existence. And boom, Job chapter one and two, who are we introduced to immediately? The devil, Satan. We have the story of Satan going before the throne of God to petition God to attack or test Job's fate. Now, if this was one of the first books of the Bible ever written and the first two chapters, and really the whole story, what's the whole story is Satan saying, let me attack this righteous man that believes in you, that follows you, and he'll curse you to the fates. This right here ought to let us know that this is what the war is over. Satan hates anyone who lives righteously, who wants to obey God, who wants to draw near to God, who loves God, and he wants to be able to test you, to tempt you. He wants to make, he wants to hurt God by getting you to turn against God. That's the whole goal of everything. Satan wants to take people away from God or keep them from God by any means necessary. All right? And this is this, again, you read this story and you go, how in the world do pastors and churches and Bible schools and seminaries, how do they not teach on spiritual warfare that we're in a conflict with Satan and these unseen forces of his called the powers of darkness, principalities, powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world, spiritual wickedness in heavenly places. How is it that they don't teach it? But anyway, let us read it right here. So let's read a little bit of it. Job chapter one, verse one, let's put that up. There was a man in the land of us whose name was Job, and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God and eschewed evil. And there was born unto him seven sons and three daughters, and his substance was also was 7,000 sheep and 3,000 camels and 500 yoke of oxen and 500 sheasses and a very great household so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east. So God blessed Job. Job was a righteous man. He feared God. He loved God. He served God. And it said he feared God and he hated evil. He pushed evil away. Amazing, right? Let's go to verse
four. It says, and his sons went and feasted in their houses every one his day and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them. And it was so when the days of their feasting were gone about that Job sent and sanctified them and rose up earlier the morning and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, it may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually. So Job was not just concerned with himself. He was concerned for his sons and daughters. He wanted them to live for God, to know God, to live righteously. And he had such a fear and respect of God that he thought, you know, even if my sons may have cursed God in their hearts, I'm going to make a blood sacrifice for that. I'm going to make sure I keep things right between my family and the Lord. So he was a serious follower of the Lord. Now verse six, here we have verse six. Boom. We see this Satan mentioned here, right? Now there was a day, and this is very important, when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan came also among them. And the Lord said unto Satan, whence cometh thou? And Satan answered the Lord and said, from going to and fro in the earth and from walking up and down in it. It's pretty amazing. And the Lord said unto Satan, hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and upright man, one that feareth God and sheweth evil. Then Satan answered the Lord and said, doth Job fear God for naught or for nothing? Hast thou not made a hedge about him and about his house and about all that he hath on every side, now hast blessed the work of his hands and his substance is increased in the land. He says, but put forth thine hand now and touch all that he hath and he will curse thee to thy faith. And the Lord said unto Satan, behold, all that he hath is in thy power, only upon himself put not forth thine hand. And so Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord and began his attack on Job. Now I want to pause here because I want us to think about this for a minute. Boom. Here's a righteous man, not sinning, not doing anything, not playing games with the devil, not opening the door to the devil. But isn't it interesting that the devil lets us know? You know, some people got their mind that the devil is some, you know, red guy with horns and a pitchfork who lives in hell. No, he doesn't live in hell. He lives here. He lives here among us all the time. Where have you been, Satan? Walking to and fro through the earth. That's where he's been. He's always walking about here.
Why is he doing that? Well, we'll see from 1 Peter 5 it says he walks about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Why? Because he's a devourer. He's the devouring serpent. So he's a hunter. And he says something interesting here about Job. Because Job was a righteous man, because Job feared God, because Job understood blood covenant, what does Satan say about Job? Basically, he's there to say, I can't touch him. You placed a hedge around him. You placed a protective wall, a fence around him. I can't touch him. And on top of it, God, not only do you have a hedge around him, so I can't touch him, but you blessed everything that he does. You blessed his work, you blessed his something, you blessed everything. But let me take his stuff that you blessed him with, and he'll curse you to the face. See, this is what it's about. This is the war. Did Job know this was going on at that moment? No, he did not. He had no idea. And all of us have no idea. Unless God shows us, we have no idea of what Satan is planning, or maybe what he is even in the process of doing in our lives. But I can tell you this much. It pays to fear God, depart from evil, live a righteous, holy, obedient life to the Lord, understand the blood covenant that we have in Jesus through his blood and his resurrection, and to make sure that we're in the Lord as we should be. Now, does that mean we won't be attacked? No. And that's one of the things I think why God put this in here. He allowed this to happen, and he made sure that this was in the Bible, because he wanted us to know, I don't care how obedient you are, how holy you are, how righteous you are, how strong you are, how much you love God, there are going to be seasons where you're going to be spiritually attacked by the devil, and your faith and your relationship with God, your dedication to God, is going to be tested. Those are just facts. And I'm going to tell you, I've had this happen. I had my job experience in 2001. It was, it was tough. All right. But let's keep reading. Let's see what happened here and find out what we're finding out. Remember, again, the purpose of this class, know your enemy, right? So we look, we look at these stories, and what do we learn? We learn things from them. So let's see how Satan was allowed to attack him.
The parameters God put on him said, well, you can attack him, but you can't touch him physically. All right. So let's read it. Verse 13. And there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their elders, eldest brother's house. And there came a messenger and a job and said the oxen were plowing and the asses feeding beside them. And the Sabeans fell upon them and took them away. Yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. And while he was yet speaking, there came also another and said, the fire of God has fallen from heaven and hath burned up the sheep and the servants that consumed them. And I only am escaped alone to tell thee. And while he was yet speaking, there came also another and said, the Chaldeans made out three bands and fell upon the camels and have carried them away. Yea, in the slain, the servants with the edge of the sword and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. And while he was yet speaking, there came also another and said, thy sons and my daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house. And behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness and smote the four corners of the house and it fell upon the young men. And they are dead and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. Then Job arose and rent his mantle. That's his coat, shaved his head, fell down upon the ground and worshiped. And said, naked came I out of my mother's womb, naked shall I return. Thither the Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord. And in all this, Job sinned not nor charged to God foolishly. Boy, I know some people be cussing in Blue Street, right? Losing their minds. I can't even, it's hard to even comprehend this attack. But isn't it interesting how the devil attacked? Think about this. Now remember, God did not do any of this. Satan did all of this. We're talking about knowing our enemy. What did he do? First of all, he used evil people. The Sabians and the Chaldeans came what? They came and stole from him and killed his servants. So the devil will use what? Other people to attack us. He will move through evil people. He'll move through wicked people. Another thing is interesting here. It says fire came down from heaven. And you say, well, ain't that something that God does? Yeah, God's done that. You know, the sacrifice that Elijah put up, remember? And the fire came down from God and consumed it. This fire though was not from God. This fire was the devil. So it shows you that he has this power to bring down fire from heaven. And we see this talked about again in the book of Revelation chapter 13 when it says the false prophet that's coming, there will be a false prophet. I believe
probably the final Pope, but the false prophet, it says one of the demonic satanic signs and wonders he's going to do to deceive the nations will be to call down fire from heaven. Isn't that interesting? So the devil has power to manipulate and use people. He also has the ability to do supernatural things like bring down fire from the sky. How did he also, what did he use? What did Satan use to kill Job's children, grown children, mind you? What did he use? The wind. So Satan knows it has an ability to use the wind, the weather. That's why Jesus, when Jesus was on the water and in the storm and asleep in the boat, it said he rose up and he rebuked the wind and the waves. Well, the rebuke is the same word used when he rebuked demons. You see that storm was trying to harm him and his disciples and Jesus rebuked. Would anything, would Jesus have to rebuke something from the father? No. Would the father or the Holy Spirit be putting Jesus and the disciples in danger on the Sea of Galilee in a storm? No. That's why when Jesus said the things, when he said in John 1412, he said the things that we do, the works I do, you shall do also. That's why we've seen many times we have rebuked storms and tornadoes and they've changed course or died out completely. But in this situation, and as most people believe, the reason Job feared that his sons and daughters, his grown sons and daughters may have cursed God is because he didn't trust that they were really living for God. So that's an issue in this story as well, but that's not the main point here. But with all this going on, Job did not, it says, look what it says, with all this, look at verse 20, 22, and all this Job sin not, nor charge God foolishly. Now let's just keep reading. We don't read chapter two. And again, there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan came also among them. So remember this term, the sons of God, because this is going to come up later, but the sons of God are angels, angelic beings, some good, some bad. Obviously, Satan used to be an angel. He used to be one of these sons of God, and he's presenting himself before the Lord as well. It says again, there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord. And the Lord said unto Satan, from whence cometh thou? And Satan answered the Lord and said, from going to and fro in the earth and from walking up and down in it. And the Lord said unto Satan, has thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and upright man, one that feareth God
to sheweth evil, and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movest me against him to destroy him without cause. Can I tell you, a lot of times people come to me all the time and they say, why is the devil attacking me? And you know, sometimes there is a cause. Sometimes we've opened the door. Sometimes we've sinned. Sometimes we've given place to the devil with our mouth. We've allowed him to do something because we've spoken it and given him permission. But a lot of times it has nothing to do with us. As God just steps back sometimes says, all right, I'm going to let you test them. Remember, what did he say to Peter? Luke, what did I believe? It's Luke 22. Remember, Peter said, you know, Jesus said, all of you are going to forsake me. And Peter said, no, Lord, all these might other, these other ones might do it, but I won't ever do it. No. And he says, you know what, Peter, Satan, and this is what he said. In fact, let's turn there. Let's just turn to Luke 22. We might as well. We're not in a hurry. It is Bible school. We're trying to learn the Bible. Luke 22 verse 31. We'll go down there. Of course, I think Peter opened the door because there had just been an argument who was going to be the greatest among them. They were having some pride issues there. All right. And here's what it says. This is Luke 22 verse 31. And the Lord said unto Simon, Simon Peter, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan had desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not. And when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. And he said unto him, Lord, I am ready to go with thee both into prison and to death. And he said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day before thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me. So here he flat out just tells him, Satan has desire to have you. What happened here is the same thing that happened in the book of Job. Satan saw that Peter was very dedicated to Jesus, that he loved Jesus. He saw that, you know, that Jesus loved him and even favored Peter. I really believe, you know, we just see that there was a special connection there, right? So the devil probably feared, you know what, Jesus is this. This Peter is so bold. There's no doubt that God is going to use him in a powerful way. So let me go before the Lord and ask that I may sift him, that I may tempt him, that I may test him. Now, Satan probably with Peter couldn't go there and go, you know, Peter
is perfectly righteous and has not sinned because right before this, there was an argument who should be the greatest among them. As many people have said, it might appear that Peter won the argument because pride goes before a fall and a haughty spirit before destruction. So Jesus could see that in Peter and Jesus also knew about Satan petitioning. So just remember this, one thing we can know about our enemy is that he has certain parameters that he can work in. He can't just do whatever he wants. He has to get permission, especially when it comes to the children of God. He has to get permission for whatever attack, for whatever temptation. Sometimes it will not be because we've sinned or opened a door or made a mistake. Sometimes it will just be he wants to try to stop us. Remember, he was trying to get Job to turn away because, you know, Job and Job's friends were really like the elders of the land. People would come to them to learn about God and to get judgments on things. So they were the wise men. They were the men who knew God. They were the judges. And Job was a good witness. He was a good example. He was a good testimony to everyone around him. And so the devil wanted to stop that because, you know what, the devil doesn't want righteousness and God's truth spread in the earth. He wants wickedness, sin and evil and lies and deception spread in the earth. So anybody that's trying to spread the truth of God's word and righteousness and holiness and how to have a relationship with God and to fear God and to depart from evil and all those things, the devil hates. And so he will attack. And then, of course, he will certainly attack if we give him place. So we have an adversary. His name is Satan, the devil. Let's look at a few more verses just to show this. Again, let's go to 1 Peter. I quoted it a minute ago, but all these verses are going to be very important throughout this course. But 1 Peter chapter 5, the elders which are among you, I exhort, who am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed, feed the flock of God, which is among you taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind, neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being examples to the flock. When the chief
shepherd shall appear, you shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not of the way. Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder, yea, all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility." Notice he says, be clothed with humility. I wonder where he learned that from. He said, be clothed with humility. This is Peter, remember, much later writing this. Be clothed with humility, for God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you. Be sober, be vigilant, because you're adversary. What does the word Satan mean? In Hebrew, it means adversary. For your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. Now the word seeking there is a present tense Greek verb. So what does that mean? Right. Satan means he is, as a roaring lion, continuously, ongoing, and presently, he's constantly seeking whom he may devour. And it's interesting, if you took that word devour into Hebrew, you're going to, I can tell you right now, you're going to get a shin involved in that, because that word means to devour, to consume the teeth. And that's, again, that's the picture he's given a lion. But how does a lion consume with his teeth? Right. He doesn't say he is a lion. He says he's like one. It's just an example. Let's look at this. Be sober. Look at verse eight again. Be sober, be vigilant. Now, what's the word vigilant mean? Anybody know? Yes, it does. Very good. On guard. It means to be watchful, to be paying attention, close attention. And actually, one of the words is be on guard for danger. Okay. The Lord doesn't ever want us to let our guard down concerning this adversary of ours. Say the devil, because he said he's constantly looking to devour us. And then that's why he says the very next thing. So let's read verse eight and nine now. He says, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour, whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. So he says to resist. Now the word resist means to actively fight against. Nowhere in scripture do we see the Bible teach us to be passive or weak or inactive when it comes to
this spiritual warfare against Satan and the demons and the fallen angels. We are to resist steadfastly in the faith. Now that's what this course is going to be about, learning how to do that. Now a lot of you've already learned, you know, some things about how to do that, but I'm not taking anything for granted. We're going to cover it thoroughly. Today is not about how how to resist and get into that, but it just commands us to. So we're never to, you know, we're never again, we're never to be lazy. We're never to be inactive in our fight. We're to constantly be alert. We're to constantly be aware that there is danger. We're to constantly be keeping our eyes and ears open, our spiritual senses open, and really just always keeping it consciously before us that we have an enemy and he is looking to harm us. He is looking to attack us and deceive us, lie to us, get us to sin, bring harm, bring destruction, whatever he can do. This is a constant battle that's going on. All right. In fact, let's, let's look again. I quoted these verses, but let's go to John, the gospel of John chapter 10. Jesus calls Satan here the thief. John 8, he calls him the murderer. He's called the father of lies there, but he calls him the thief here because he is a thief. He steals. But this verse right here, and I, we're going to go John 10. Let's see. Oh, let's just read from verse seven. Of course, I covered some of these verses Sunday in my message about the hirelings, but John 10 seven and any of these passages that we cover in class will probably be on your test more than likely. And you guys know, I love the fill in the blanks. All right. Let's read this. John 10 verse seven, then said Jesus unto them again, verily, verily, or truly, truly I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door by me. If any man enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture. The thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy. I am come that they might have life. Everybody say might have, not they will have, might have. It's very important to this verse. The thief cometh not but for to
steal or to kill and to destroy, but I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd and the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. So in this passage, Jesus is clearly saying, again, you have an enemy. You have an enemy who wants to steal, kill, and destroy from you. Jesus then says, but I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. Might, maybe it's possible, but it's possible it might not be that way. Pretty important, right? So Jesus has said, you know what, I'm coming. And then he talks about being the good shepherd who gives his life for the sheep. So he immediately alludes to his death on the cross, giving his life, laying down his life, his sinless life, his physical body on the cross to shed his blood. And the reason he brings that up because it is the blood of the lamb, the blood of Jesus Christ that broke the full power of Satan. Now, I may get into this. We may get into this later, but of course, let's just understand. If we go back to the Garden of Eden, this is where Satan got his right to mankind. He had no right whatsoever to touch Adam and Eve, period. He could not touch them. He could not harm them. They gave him right by disobeying God by sinning, by listening to him, believing what he said and sinning. When he got, when Satan got Adam and Eve to sin, that gave Satan the keys of hell and death. That gave Satan the right to afflict mankind, to attack mankind, to tempt and test and manipulate and deceive and bring death and destruction. Why? The wages of sin is death. You see? So what Jesus is saying here, when he starts talking about his death on the cross, being the shepherd that lays down his life for the sheep, he's saying, Satan pretty much has control over everything here. He's the thief that comes to steal, kill and destroy. But I am come that they might have life and they might have it more abundantly. And that is, if you come into Jesus through faith, if you come in through repentance and faith, being born again, washed in the blood of Jesus, your sins washed away, you become a son and a daughter of God and you're given great authority over the devil. We're going to talk about that more as this course develops. But it's all might.
And I say this, I emphasize this because it's not assured. You can become a believer. You can become a born again believer in Jesus. And yes, your sins have been forgiven, but that doesn't mean you're going to overcome the rest of the temptations and the attacks and the warfare that's going to come against you if you stay ignorant. God knows you're going to, you know, when you're first born again, you're a babe in Christ and you got a lot to learn, but you're going to have to learn it. You're going to have to learn how to break the curses, bind the demons, resist the devil, fight the devil. You're going to have to learn his devices, how he works, how he tries to get in. But I want to show you just what I'm saying. Let's go to first John first. We're going to be all over the Bible this morning. So first John chapter three, everybody with me? I want to just show you this first on three, and we're going to go to verse seven. We'll read verse seven and eight here, maybe a little more. But he says here, little children, let no man deceive you. He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. He that committed sin is of the devil for the devil sinneth from the beginning. Look at this. For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. So the Son of God was manifested, right? God came into the world. God took on flesh and became the Son of God so that he could destroy the works of the devil. Now, what are the works of the devil? We'll come back to this. Let's go to Acts 10.38. We know that the works of the devil, he just said here, are sin. So that's one thing. But Acts 10, Acts 10.38 says this, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about doing good, healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with him. So Jesus came to defeat the works of the devil. So he talks about healing here. So let's understand something that our enemy, he works with. Number one, sin,
sickness, oppression, which that is depression of the soul, the mind, will, and emotion. Sickness is to afflict the body. Also, oppression is to afflict the spirit of man. So to discourage or to put in fear and anxiety. But here it talks about how God anointed Jesus with the Holy Ghost and power, who went about doing good, healing all who were oppressed of the devil, testing out demons as well. Right. So Jesus came doing that. Then Jesus dies on the cross and through his blood, he defeats the very, the very root. Remember a tree. A tree has many roots, right? But it always has what's called the tap root. Is that it? The long center main root that goes down. Jesus came, when he came, when he died on the cross for our sins, when the blood of God was shed, when he paid the penalty for Adam and Eve sin, he literally took back the rights of hell and death that was given to Satan. He cut, not just, he didn't just cut the tree down and leave the stump. He cut the tap root of the tree, the original sin, the connection of all mankind to Satan from the beginning when Adam and Eve gave it to him. And Jesus cut that tap root. Now, for us right now, because he hasn't returned his second coming yet to set up his kingdom, it looks like that tree is still alive and well. Right? And that's why right now it's whosoever will believe. Remember, you can't see the tap root of the tree. Kevin, do you ever see the tap root of the tree unless you rip it out of the ground? No, you never see it. But for those of us that believe without seeing, see, that's what faith is. Faith is believing without seeing. So for us to believe that Jesus cut that tap root of Satan's power over sin and death and sickness, it's through faith. We get to experience some freedom now. But again, we have to exercise faith. We have to fight. We have to stand. Now, let's look at more of what I'm talking about. Let's go to Revelation chapter one. Somebody is good preaching, good teaching. You know, it's the Bible. It's not me. I'm telling you,
the Bible speaks for itself. Told somebody yesterday. So, you know, the main job of preachers is not to tell you anything new. It's just to go, Hey, did you know this was in there? That's pretty much my job. Hey, you know, this is in there. So revelation chapter one. Oh, let's see. Where shall we go? There's so much good here. Where do I want to start reading? Oh goodness. Why don't we just start reading at verse four, revelation one, verse four. He says here, John to the seven churches, which are in Asia, grace be unto you at peace from him, which is and which was and which is to come. And from the seven spirits, which are before his throne and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness and the first begotten of the dead, the Prince of the Kings of the earth unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and hath made us Kings and priests unto God and his father to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, he cometh with clouds and every eye shall see him. And they also which pierced him and all kindreds of the earth shall well because of him. Even so, Amen. I am alpha and omega, the beginning and the ending saith the Lord, which is and which was and which is to come the almighty. And Jesus says he's the almighty. I love it. And John, all who also am your brother and companion in tribulation and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ was in the aisle that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. And I was in the spirit on the Lord's day and heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet saying, I am alpha and omega, the first and the last. And what thou see us right in a book and send it into the seven churches which are in Asia unto Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamos and to Thy Tyre and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea. I turned to see the voice that spake with me and being turned I saw seven golden candlesticks and in the midst of the seven candlesticks one likened to the son of man clothed with a garment down to the foot and gird about the paps with a golden girdle. His hair, his head rather in his hair were white like wool as white as snow and his eyes were as a flame of fire and his feet like a defined brass as if they burned in a furnace and his voice is the sound of many waters and he had in his right hand seven stars and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength and when I saw him I fell at his feet is dead. You know there are people complaining now
about people being slain in the spirit we just that's when you're in the glory of God and you can't stand anymore and you fall down that's what happens. It's a real thing he said I fell at his feet he's dead and he laid his right hand upon me saying unto me fear not I am the first and the last I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I'm alive forevermore amen and have the keys of hell and death the keys. Where did he get those keys? The Bible says when Jesus after Jesus died on the cross for the sins of mankind he told the thief next to him who believed in him and asked for mercy he said today you will be with me in paradise as I've said many times before Jesus didn't go to heaven at that moment he descended into the lower parts of the earth Ephesians 4 makes that clear Jesus descended into the lower parts of the earth now there are teachings out there in the charismatic Pentecostal realms that says Jesus went into the side of hell and suffered in hell no he did not he went into paradise just like he said but I believe he called Satan forth and said give me those keys sucker the mind now and he took them and so he has the keys of hell and death therefore if we are in him if we are in Jesus through faith through being born again through confessing our sins and having our sins forgiven and we're walking with him guess what we we're with the one who has the keys of hell and death he is the resurrection and the life now let's look at where he says about his blood too just so we we make sure again I think we covered this in redemption class but go just flip on over to revelation 12 because this also is a very important passage depicting this war the spiritual war revelation 12 and this is a vision we're going to start in verse one there's a vision you know and these things that have to be interpreted of course but revelation 12 one and there appeared a great wonder in heaven a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet and upon her head a crown of 12 stars as she being with child cried prevailing in birth and pain to be delivered and there appeared another wondered in heaven and behold a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns upon his heads and his tail drew a third part of the stars of heaven and did cast them to the earth and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered for to devour her child as soon as it was born and she brought forth a man child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron and her child was caught up to god and to his
throne and the woman fled into the wilderness where she hath a place prepared of god that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and three score days now there's so much within this i'm only going to point this part out here is that this is kind of a picture and of course this did recently happen in the constellations but that's not all that this is about this right here is telling the story of how you know the the woman with the crown of 12 stars that's that's israel that's the the hebrew nation the jewish nation the the descendants of abraham isack and jacob that have the 12 tribes and that's what the 12 stars the crown with the 12 stars represent and the woman represents israel and she she has that crown of 12 stars and she israel the jewish people were the ones to give birth to bring forth the messiah god in the flesh as a man emmanuel the lord jesus christ she was the one chosen the nation chosen to bring forth foretold in prophecy that he would be of the tribe of juda one of those 12 tribes and that god again would become a man be born of a virgin and that satan would be there the dragon satan would be there to try to devour and destroy him immediately and we see that fulfilled in scripture how that satan moved harrod to try to kill all the babies in bethlehem and so the devil was immediately trying to destroy him and devour him when he was a child but of course god protected him and he talks about the man child who's to rule all nations so this is just a vision this is a picture kind of history all right and then when you get to verse six he begins to talk about the end time so i believe you kind of have uh the picture revelation 12 one through six is kind of an overview vision picture of history and then he talks about there's this war going on let's look at it because it gives you a time period look when it says here and she brought forth a man child who was to rule all nations with the rod of iron and her child was caught up to god and to his throne so so you know again overview right remember jesus comes he's born of the virgin mary god takes on a human body born of the virgin mary does his ministry dies on of the cross for our sins he physically bodily rose from the dead he appears 40 days to his disciples and to hundreds of people and then what happens 10 days before the day of pentecost remember he's crucified on Passover 40 days there's 50 days till the day of pentecost 40 days he's showing himself alive he's letting them touch the the nail prints in his hands and the where the spear pierced him
in the side and then what he ascends back to him he's caught back up into heaven in front of hundreds and hundreds of people all right that's what this is talking about he was caught up now from the time he was caught up listen to this now this is important you get a hold of this jesus is caught up what did he do right before he was caught up into heaven in acts chapter one he tells his disciples the church the people there that believe in him that are following him go to jerusalem wait for the promise of the father you're going to be baptized in the holy spirit not many days hence then you're going to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature he said these signs shall follow them that believe in my name you will cast out demons so when so this is when he's doing this right this is when you get mark 16 15 through 20 when you get matthew 28 in those last few verses 18 19 is that's right before he ascends so jesus ascends right the church prays for the next 10 days the baptism the holy spirit's poured out they're speaking in tongues they're prophesying the gifts of the holy spirit start moving peter stands up in the midst of that preaches three thousand people out of the church is born all right the new testament new covenant church is born there on the day of pentecost souls begin to get saved it is from this point remember when the child is caught up to god the man child that's going to rule the nations he's caught up back to the throne that's when he says there was war in heaven michael and his angels fought against the dragon and the dragon fought and his angels now what is what is the book of revelation taking us to what's the story it's taking the place it's taking us is to what the second coming of jesus so between that time of when the the lord jesus was caught up to heaven and his second coming he's telling us there is a war going on michael and his angels are fighting against the dragon and his angels and then he tells us something disturbing there was a war that went on in the heavens and the dragon and his angels did not defeat michael and his angels and they were thrown somewhere else out of the heavens they were thrown where here and then he tells us the inhabitants of the earth you better pay attention because the devil's angry because he knows it's over he knows his time is short you say well
well what do you mean i mean that was 2000 years ago oh yeah he knew to him you gotta understand something there's no telling how many thousands of years he's been around say i believe he's been around even before adam and eve so i believe he's been around thousands upon thousands of years maybe 10,000 maybe 20,000 years we don't know the devil's been around a long time all right well once jesus defeated him once jesus came rose from the dead and he figured out everything that happened and he got those keys snatched away from me it's like oh the devil had his old crap moment oh he rose from the dead yeah well he no jesus did he appeared he appeared to us 40 days you know appeared to his disciples for 40 days then he ascended to heaven then we had the 10 days they had pinnacles and what i'm saying is from that point is when it says there was war in heaven now this is not the lord is he ascended back to the throne the war in the heaven is under i believe under the firmament was going on it was michael and the good angels fighting against the dragon and his aim i think there who knows you know i mean honestly this is the first time i've thought about this but i wonder if there was a war as jesus ascended up as that they decided to attack as jesus was ascending and the lord says michael do you think i don't know that's very possible but i know the time frame i mean if we look at the sequence of this passage it's pretty interesting right because he says and there was war in heaven now there's many i know many people have many different interpretations to this but again i think the primary purpose of this passage is show us there is a spiritual war going on and it's intense but let's keep reading and there was war in heaven michael and his angels fought against the dragon and the dragon fought and his angels and prevailed not neither was their place found anymore in heaven and the great dragon was cast out that old serpent called the devil and satan which deceived the whole world he was cast into the earth and his angels were cast out with him and i heard a loud voice saying in heaven now has come salvation and strength and the kingdom of our god and the power of his christ for the accuser of our brethren is cast down which accused them before god day and night and they overcame him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony and they love not their lives unto the death now again think this this is showing too that i believe in the end time there's a point where the devil gets no more access to the heavens he gets no more ability because notice it says he calls him the accuser here he gets no more ability to go up there and go you know i would like to go and see what i can do with josea or daniela or
pastor dean or kevin it's like nope you're done you're out door shut we're through here all right so he's also giving us the picture here that the war i believe is we get closer and to the end of the age in the second coming jesus he's showing us that the war is going to get more and more intense which is why it says woe unto you inhabitants of the earth and see look at that let's go back to verse 11 that's important he says and they overcame him that is satan the dragon the devil that old serpent they overcame him by the blood of the lamb the blood of jesus christ by the word of their testimony and they love not their lives unto the death therefore rejoice ye heavens and you that dwell in them but woe into the inhabitants of the earth and the sea for the devil has come down into you having great wrath because he knoweth that he hath but a short time so there is a war there was a war we're in the middle of we're in the middle of of that war all right and that's just the fact and so let's go to um ephiegians chapter six we're in a war very real you better know yourself know your enemy see here we're told that there is a war going on around us specifically against us and that there are forces in the heavens yes in the sky that we are at war with not god's throne not the third heaven but in where we live but i wanted to read particularly verse 10 through 12 here where paul instructs the the church at ephesus christians he says finally my brethren be strong in the lord and in the power of his might put on the whole armor of god that she may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil the wiles the schemes the trickery the deceit the tactics or as george w bush would say the strategically of the devil that's not a word it's a strategy that man couldn't talk but he says finally my brother and he says put on the whole armor of god finally my brother and be strong in the lord brother and the power of his might put on the whole armor of god that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil for we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world and against spiritual wickedness in high places now this
could also be translated wicked spirits in high places not just spiritual wickedness but he's telling you it's spiritual and i love it a lot of people you know they don't know they just become the mouthpieces of the devil sometimes you start teaching christians christians have demons still in them on them all over talking to them and then of course the devil immediately somebody starts teaching on spiritual warfare deliverance and these things and oh you'll hear it all the time well now now there's not a devil behind every bush i hear that all the time there's not you think there's a devil behind every bush no i don't sister jean they're in you they're on your shoulder they're in your head no you're wrestling the the wrestling let's come here josea josea is a getting to be a strong young man here about you're gonna be taller than all of us i think before it's over with all right but let me ask something all right make sure we get him on camera here so we got him on camera so josea is here now now josea if i'm standing over here and you're standing over there do this shadow by now is that wrestling yeah wait a minute back up a little bit more all right right wait a minute are we is this called wrestling no what's called wrestling this right here right here right that's that's called wrestling yeah is when you fight right you're up close all right you can sit up when you're all you're all up on each other i never seen wrestlers that were standing you know on opposite ends of the ring right i never saw two wrestlers with one hiding behind a bush all right he says we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against these principalities these powers these rulers of the darkness of this world these wicked spirits in high places we are wrestling with them wrestling wrestling that means you wallowing around struggling with them now does that sound more like everybody's reality in life are we not wrestling with these evil spirits in our minds in our bodies in our relationships in our homes with our kids even in church are we not constantly wrestling we're wrestling with spirits of fear spirits of doubt and unbelief we're wrestling with spirits of hoardums and lust we're constantly wrestling with evil spirits of antichrist seducing spirits and doctrines of demons it is a constant wrestling match and the primary battlefield where the devil wants to can where he conducts the battle
number one battlefield not the only battlefield but the number one battlefield is in your mind that's it that's why let's go to this verse let's go to second corinthians chapter 10 oh people have been taught wrong for so long oh man that rhyme didn't people have been taught wrong for so long i need to make a t-shirt out of that oh let's read this second corinthians chapter 10 and we'll start reading it verse 3 as paul's basically repeat what did you say in in ephesians 6 he said we don't wrestle against flesh and blood so it's not it's not the we're not going to see these things we're fighting with most of the time every now and then god allow you to see an evil spirit or give you the discerning of spirits and let you see what's operating but for the most part we are fighting these unseen forces but they're very real they're very real they speak they lie they deceive they plant thoughts in our heads feelings in our bodies they attack us physically with sickness the illness disease try to kill us with death even they're playing for real but here's what he said second corinthians 10 starting in verse 3 he says this the holy spirit through the apostle paul says for though we walk in the flesh we do not war after the flesh for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal or fleshly 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 to the obedience of christ he's letting you know right here that we're not fighting again flesh and blood you're not going to see this enemy 99.999 percent of the time you're never going to see this enemy and the weapons that you use you don't see they're invisible as well they're spiritual as well that's why words of the weapons the word of god the sword of the spirit i'm speaking words right now you hear them but you don't see them they say that this battle is not going to be the weapons of our warfare are not carnal they're not fleshly but mighty through god and then he says the weapons god's given us is so that we will have the ability to cast down imaginations imagination now where are imaginations
formed in your head right but who helps you form those imaginations in your head a lot of times it is not you forming them demon spirits he's telling you satan demons they are at war with you and they will form imaginations in your head and they will try to build up now listen what they do is they try to build strongholds in your mind by listen every thought just look at every thought that you have as a brick let's say let's say the devil he's he's bringing these different thoughts to your head you know he'll he'll shoot things in there like you you mean you really believe the bible you you really believe jesus dying for you you really you believe that crazy preacher in alabama you really oh oh another one here's another one you mean you trust the bible wasn't it just written by men isn't that very so but what he does is all these thoughts and ideas that are exalting them so what are they doing they're exalting themselves against the knowledge or the truth of god god says his words true right the devil tries to get you to doubt it what is that that is a thought or an imagination that is exalting itself above the knowledge of god and these are bricks and what the devil's doing is if he can get you to receive enough bricks in your head he is gradually building a stronghold in your in your mind and what you meditate on what you think on constantly what you allow to go on in your mind will eventually sink its foundation down into your heart and once it does that it's a stronghold now the good news is this because of what jesus has done for us he says we have weapons that can tear down these strongholds oh that's good preaching right there what are the weapons that tears down the stronghold number one weapon the bible the word of god the words of god are powerful they're alive that's why in matthew 4 and in luke 4 when satan came to tempt jesus he spoke the word of god out of his mouth every temptation
satan was trying to build a stronghold trying to put bricks in jesus's mind his bricks and every time jesus would use a weapon to destroy that brick man this is just the beginning of this we're not going to be able to we're not getting into all the weapons today just trying to give you the understanding that this is always this this battle is always going to be before us it is a mental battle primarily now again the devil will attack us physically sickness disease pain problems yes he wants to bring death and accidents and destruction to our physical body but he would rather before he does that use us for his purposes so if the devil knows if he can get control of someone's mind what they think what they believe then he can use them to spread his message that's what he does he turns people into his evangelist it could be about anything all right but this is what he does let's see let's go to uh go to first timothy chapter four first timothy four you know this is a you're gonna hear me i guess until jesus comes i'll be going to this verse again and again and again and again but there's so much here he says now look at verse four i mean chapter four verse one now the spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter time some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils speaking lies in hypocrisy having their conscience seared with a hot iron now let's just stop right there go back to verse one there he says the spirit speaketh expressly so paul said the holy spirit just came all over me and said this is something specific you need to say that in the latter time some will depart from the faith giving heed if you look up the phrase in the greek dictionary giving heed what you're going to find is it means possessing the mind in fact i'm going to look it up right here and read it exactly for you since of course we're not in a hurry we're still doing good on time first timothy four one there
we go giving heed all right and i've put this up before but here i'll let everybody here let's make sure my volume is up here we go here's how you pronounce it 43 37 prosecco prosecco what he said and the outline of biblical usage it says to give attention to take heed to to be given or addicted to to devote thought and effort to the strong's definition here says to hold the mind remember to hold the mind towards to pay attention to all right to hold the mind um so let's go let's go back and read this verse he says in the latter time some shall depart from the faith paying attention to right allowing seducing spirits to hold the mind hold sounds familiar yeah that's right stronghold do you let the devil hold your mind your thought life do you allow his ideas his bad seeds of doubt unbelief fear anxiety lust anger covetousness greed you see he's always going to be planting evil don't let him you resist in the name of jesus all right but i wanted you to see that to hold the mind the work like for instance let me let me see uh daniela let me see your notebook there you got a nice pretty flowery notebook here see i got i'm i'm holding daniela's notebook right right i'm holding it but you could also say what does she possess the notebook now or do i possess the notebook now i possess the i'm holding it now right that's what it means you let the devil build a stronghold in your mind he now possesses control he begins to possess control of your mind and this is how he manipulates the world and this war is real and satan and his demons and his fallen angels are not behind bushes they have no reason to hide behind bushes people they are looking to get strongholds in people's minds in their heart their spirit so that he can make them a tool for his kingdom and that's what this war is all about control influence power and this war is going on every
single day see remember let's let's turn to this go to second corinthians chapter 11 and we're going to be talking more about again the garden of eden and what happened even before the garden of eden what do you mean pastor jim you can talk about what happened before the garden of eden yep because the bible's like a puzzle there's pieces everywhere let's read this second corinthians chapter 11 verse one where paul says here would to god you could bear with me a little in my folly and indeed bear with me for i'm jealous over you with a godly jealousy speaking to the christians the church of corinth for i have espoused you to one husband that i present you as a chaste of virgin to christ but i fear lest by any means as the serpent beguiled eve through his subtlety so your minds you see that so your minds so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity everything just satan the serpent the dragon the devil the fallen angels that went with him the demon spirits and we'll deal with the difference between the two but again the war is to corrupt your minds to build strongholds in your mind to get them rooted down in your heart so that you become a tool of the satanic kingdom know your enemy knowing your enemy is again we you know like i said we could go for another hour on this just this issue but today what i want you to know and there'll probably be next week just be knowing your enemy part two but i just want you to know he's your adversary he's real he's powerful we're gonna find out he's powerful he's got a lot of power remember he used the wind he used he called down fire he has supernatural power not as powerful as god but he is powerful he's also very wise the bible says this about him that he was perfect in wisdom he's very wise he knows how to tempt you he knows how to test you he knows how to talk to you he's watched you since you were being formed in your mother's womb
and he started a war against you then you know he tried to blind me as a little child it's funny y'all want to hear something funny as we end today pastor dean was born in a roman catholic hospital nuns carried me around for the first days of my life they only knew huh yep i had to break some curses from that right but i had a reaction i remember when i was born and they said i look back and i know the devil saw the glory of god of my life because remember he says before when even when god called me to the ministry he used jeremiah one and said before you were formed in the belly i knew you and i ordained you and sanctified you to be a prophet to the nation so for the moment i know i was in my mother's womb the glory of god was on me the hand of god was only the devil seized that and he began his war immediately and they put some kind of stupid drops in my eyes that they don't even use anymore i don't know why they did it i think they just experiment on babies and you know vaccines and all kind of other stuff but yeah they were worried i was going to be blind because i had a severe reaction to whatever they put in my eyes and uh didn't work still here so just know that the war is real satan is real spirits are real they're wrestling they're planting thoughts they're not hiding behind trees they're hanging out in your room they're trying to hang out in your room they try to hang out in your house they try to hang out with you in the car they love it when you're alone that's when they really like to hang out with all right get you thinking on things and it could be anything again it could lust fear anger doubt so what's the number one battlefield your uh assignment all i'm going to assign you to do today for spiritual warfare class one knowing your enemy because i want you to have a discussion with each other what y'all to have a discussion about again knowing yourself and your enemy what you would say is your weakness in your mind where the devil attacks you with where you have the the biggest struggle with thoughts ideas strongholds you know the the bricks the devil tries to to put in your mind because remember what did what did sanzu say sanzu the art of war
know yourself know your enemy if you know yourself you're honest and true to yourself you know your strengths you know your weaknesses and you know your enemy he said you you need not fear the outcome of 100 battles meaning don't mean you're going to win every battle but you'll win the war right so the question uh is just have a discussion among yourselves about where you feel your weakness is particularly mentally in the attacks of the devil and there's a reason for that and let me let me tell you why too i want to focus on you could say we could especially why don't you focus on our strengths because there's power when you talk about and admit where you're weak and you talk about it with other people there's power in that there's strength that comes from confessing those faults and weaknesses or whatever there's strength that comes from that in james chapter five confess your faults one to another and pray one for them there's nothing wrong with it because listen we all have weaknesses every one of them and we know that the devil knows you know especially we know we're aware of them so if we're aware of them right we know satan and his cohorts are aware of them right so just discuss you know where your biggest battle is how you fight it um maybe how you could do better you know but just have a class discussion so that's your assignment yeah it'll be posted on can all right well let's pray and we'll be dismissed this morning so we full hour and 45 minutes i guess not even well we started a little late so not quite an hour and 45 minutes but let's pray father in heaven we thank you lord for your word for the truth lord for the power and authority that jesus came and took those keys because he lived that sinless life and laid down his life for our sins on the cross and lord we just thank you for the power of the blood of jesus we thank you for power and authority that we have weapons now of warfare that we can resist our adversary the devil satan the dragon we can resist him we can resist his strongholds and his thoughts that he tries to bring into our minds or we can overcome through the blood of jesus through the name of jesus through that power and authority the lord make us aware help us to know ourselves and to know our enemy
and i pray this in jesus name amen all right class dismissed