Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
Okay, good morning, everyone. I'm gonna welcome everyone to Fire and Grace School of Ministry this morning, second semester. Our students out there, anybody who might watch this later on, we welcome you to our second semester. This is the spiritual warfare block. This is class number three. And this one's gonna be entitled The Serpent in Eden. So we're dealing with spiritual warfare. Of course, the first week, we kind of had an overview of the importance of knowing our enemy. Week two, we went kind of back to origins, the fall of Lucifer, Satan, Halal, when he was a fallen angel, and before he was a fallen angel, and back to the pre-edamic angelic kingdoms on the earth. And so we're gonna kind of pick up there. But again, this is The Serpent in Eden class three. We're gonna be looking at Genesis chapter three this morning and all that it entails. Because go ahead, you can go ahead and write this down this morning that Genesis is pretty much the foundation of everything. I've heard it said Genesis one through 11 are pretty much the foundation of the rest of the Bible and history. But I was thinking about that on the way to class this morning. And I just thought, well, not really, because once you get into chapter 12, then you're introduced to Abraham, who's the father of our faith. And then it just goes on to Joseph and why the children of Israel ended up in Egypt. And I mean, so on down the lines, Isaac and Rebecca. And so it's really the kind of the foundation of everything. And so Genesis is very important. I'll never forget. And I've shared this many times, but I just felt the need to share it again this morning because one of the most important aspects of teaching is repetition. So if you hear a thing a few times, you tend to get it. But I remember when I was attending Church on the Rock in Rockwall, Texas back in 1989. And plus, I considered Dr. Larry Lee my pastor for a season there. And so I attended the church there in 1989 for not quite a year. But of course, even when I wasn't there, I was watching on television and listening to his tapes and reading his books. And so I consider him one of my pastors. I had several over the years, but he was a great teacher. But he went to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, one of the main Baptist seminaries in the country. I think there's three. I think there's one in New Orleans. I can't remember the name of it. Then there's Fuller Theological Seminary out in California.
And then there's Southwestern Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. And he went there to get his doctorate degree in theology. And he said that while he was in his graduate studies, there probably, I'm thinking he was either there, probably in the early 70s is what I remember, but don't quote me on that. Somewhere in that time period. He said that his teachers now in a Bible, Baptist Bible Seminary in the 70s were saying that the first 11 chapters of Genesis was a true myth. They said that, well, the theological implications are true, but there probably wasn't ever a man named Adam, probably wasn't ever a man named Noah. And of course, Larry Lee said he raised his hand and said, well, Jesus thought they were real and Paul thought they were real. And the professor said, well, they just don't, they just didn't have the information that we have today. So if you wanna know what's wrong with the American church, pretty much when you talk about your Baptist church, you're talking about one of the largest denominations, if not the largest evangelical denomination in America. I'm not sure which one's the largest, probably is the Baptist though. But when you think about that's what their ministers to be in training were being taught in the 70s. You can see number one, the level of infiltration, the level really of the falling away of the apostasy from truth. But I'm just gonna tell you that the first 11 chapters of Genesis, all the chapters, all 50 chapters of Genesis is the inspired, infallible word of God and is to be taken literally. And that it really happened. There was a real man, first man named Adam. There was a real woman named Eve. There was a real man named Enoch and Noah. These people were real, okay? So I just wanted to get that out of the way. I mean, shouldn't have to be said, but we live in crazy times, right? I mean, we've got, and I'm gonna go over this in a minute, we've got some crazy interpretations of what we're about to read here in Genesis three, from people like Zen Garcia teaching this thing called the Serpent Seed Doctrine. He teaches that the serpent came in the garden and had sexual relations with Eve and out of that came Cain and he's the seed. And so there's the serpent seed in the earth, the descendants of Cain versus the descendants of Adam and Eve. And that's just simply not true. That teaching comes from ancient Gnosticism. It comes from also, you can find it in ancient Masonic myths. I mean, it's demonic, it's a demonic word.
You don't get that from the scripture at all. But anyway, we're gonna go on and we're gonna read this. So Genesis chapter three is where we're starting this morning and we're going to really kind of linger in these passages this morning because again, this is foundational. We find out how Satan tries to deceive and corrupt the mind of human beings and as we'll see too, there's nothing new under the sun, even though the devil does know how to repackage it. All right, so let's read this. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, yay, hath God said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden. And the woman said unto the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but the fruit of the tree, which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, you shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. And the serpent said unto the woman, you shall not surely die. For God doth know that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened and you shall be as God's knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat and gave also unto her husband with her and he did eat. And the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together to and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of the Lord, God walking in the garden in the coop of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord called unto Adam and said unto him, where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden. I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. And he said, who told thee that thou was naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree? Where have I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, the woman whom thou gave us to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the woman, what is this that thou has done? And the woman said, the serpent beguiled me and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the serpent, because thou has done this, thou art cursed above all cattle and above every beast of the field that upon thy belly shalt thou go and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed and it shall bruise thy head and that shall bruise his heel. So from this point on, this is the war of humanity here. Now let's, I'm gonna back up and we're gonna go through this again in a little more detail here. But first of all, there was one thing that really stood out to me this morning. And that was, we think about this tree,
first of all, we're gonna think about this tree of the knowledge of good and evil that there were two trees in the garden. It was the tree of life and there was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And of course, many people will ask the question, okay, why was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden? Now, there's been many people try to answer this question over the years, of course, and some of them I agree with and some of them I don't. But one of them, I guess you would say primary reasons I believe that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil had to be there is because there is no true love and relationship if there's not choice, okay? You think about it, if you have no choice to choose, you know, for instance, if I put up here, I say, okay, you know, there's a $1 bill, you can have it or not have it, right? Well, you know, you want the $1 bill, you want some money, you'll take the $1 bill. But if I put up here a $1 bill and a $20 bill and I say, you choose, all right, now you have a real choice, right? You can decide, huh, what do I want? All right, that's the point. God gave, I believe that it was put there so mankind could choose, choose to obey or not obey. Of course, the Lord, he knew the end from the beginning so he knew that man would choose to not obey and so that's why it talks about before the foundation of the world that it was planned that the Lamb of God, the Word of God would come, take on a human body and pay the price for mankind to show mankind that I love you in spite of the fact that I knew you were gonna blow it, all right? So God knows the end from the beginning but also this is what kind of struck me this morning as I was getting ready for this class was when you understand what we covered last week, what went on before Adam and Eve, what went on with Satan before he fell and that he had a throne here and he had kingdoms and cities and there was an angelic kingdom here and then there was a great rebellion and that's where we have the fall of Satan and like I said last week, it had to happen before the Garden of Eden, right? And really, when you think of it, I believe in six literal days of re-creation here and what's interesting is you'd have to have the fall of Satan in some days right before day six and when did it, was it day one, was it day two? It just doesn't make sense that within that was when was this big rebellion of Satan and a third of the angels and there was war in heaven. So that's what we covered last week and I was just thinking about how that knowledge of that war and of that rebellion and of that sin of Satan and the angels who followed him,
all of that knowledge of evil was hidden from Adam and Eve. They didn't know it because God said, when he made them, he created them, they were new creatures, they were sinless, they didn't know what sin was and they were in a perfect environment, they had a perfect relationship with God, he would come down in the cool of the day and meet with them and talk with them and so what I'm getting at is, God didn't want them to have knowledge of that. There was no need for them to know about it but the knowledge of good and evil did exist because of everything that happened with Satan and the angels who followed him in the rebellion. So what I'm saying is really, the tree, whether it was a tree there to represent and to say that this is something that does exist, it still existed, whether there was a tree there to represent it or not. You get what I'm saying? So it's almost like the Lord had to, he had to allow it to be there because it did exist but he and his wisdom's like, I'm gonna present, here's a choice, this tree of this hidden knowledge of the fallen angels and all of their power and works and then there's the tree of life and who did that represent? The tree of life represents Jesus. He said, I am the way, the truth and the life. So even back then in the Garden of Eden, God was giving us a picture of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil has to do with Satan and the fallen angels and all of the stuff that happened with them and how they work and operate and their power and everything, okay? And so that's gonna make sense as we, more sense to you as we get into this this morning. And remember, Jesus talks about the tree of life in the book of Revelation. He says the tree of life is in the midst of the garden and he said that when we make it to, when this age is over and for those who are born again through faith in Jesus and have repented of their sins and have lived for the Lord, it says we will have access to the tree of life. So we're not only going to be with Jesus but we're gonna have access to this tree as well. So anyway, it's just interesting when you start looking at it. But I do believe these are literal trees with literal fruit that have eternal and spiritual consequences to them. These consequences are benefits depending on the tree you pick, right?
Let's look at this because it's gonna make more sense as we delve into it. Now, of course, Eve knew the command of God and it's funny, we talk about, we've been talking about the Torah observance and their deception that they think that they can go back to the 613 laws of the Mosaic covenant and they're gonna be able to keep them enough to stay right with God. It's funny, in the Garden of Eden, they had one commandment, just one, and couldn't keep that one, right? Pretty bad. Mankind's not real good on keeping commandments. We fail and fall short even when we're trying. So anyway, we learned some things here, but this is what I want you to really focus in on here too. We're gonna talk about this a good bit. The thing the serpent said, now there's several things. Of course he said, yay hath God said. Well, I guess we need to start there. When Satan is going to operate, when he is going to deceive, okay? The first thing that he has to get you to question, to doubt, or that he's got to try to twist and manipulate is what has God really said? He always goes after the word of God. Now why is that? Because the word of God is truth. And so if he's gonna get you away from the truth, he's gotta get you doubting, questioning, reasoning somehow that the word, did God really mean what he said here? You know, is this literal? Is this metaphorical? Is this optional? You know, that's what the devil, his main priority in everybody's life, and especially the life of Christians is, can he cast doubt? Can he cast, can he somehow get you to, for a moment start questioning, what is God really saying? For instance, God says thou shall not commit adultery. That's pretty straightforward, right? But the devils can come along and say, well, is it really adultery? If you really love the person, God really means that if you don't really love them. And this is the kind of thing I'm talking about. He just starts this weird justification process, this weird twisting. It's always that way, right? That's always how he works. But of course, what is God saying? And then when he says that, and then of course he said, yea he hath God said, and then he said, ye shall not eat of every tree in the garden. This is vitally important to understand. The way Satan deceives people a lot of times, and even now with even people into the Illuminati, that you think, well, how did people end up, how did people end up in the occult?
How did they end up in Freemasonry or witchcraft or Wicca or Satanism, or how did they end up there? They didn't start out going, yeah, I wanna be a child, molesting, sacrificing, black magic, demon-possessed freak. That's usually not how they start out. They start out with believing the lie. First of all, that God's word is not true or not exactly right. And then he says, shall you not eat of every tree? The devil will try to come in and convince you that God is keeping you from things that you could be enjoying. He wants you to feel like God is being mean to you, right? Why can't I have this? Why can't I do this? Oh, come on now, you all know what I'm talking about. Christianity is boring, that's right. Why can't, you know, the devil has all the cool music. Have you heard that one before? That's because he's a master musician. He's got built-in instruments. Yeah, he's good at music, you're right. But he always wants to make you feel like, wait a minute, you mean to tell me. This is what the devil's saying to her. God has, he didn't tell you you can eat from every single tree. You mean he's holding one out on you? He told you you can't have a what? How many, you guys know what I'm talking about? You know, we've all heard that voice, especially when we were younger. Oh man, the adults tell me not to do this, but man, why, I'm gonna do it. We always, why is it we always want that which is forbidden from us? You know, I've told the story many times about the sheep. You know, we read, in our leadership class, we're gonna be reading, Shepherd looks at the 23rd Psalm. And he, I remember in that book, he was talking about how he could, he would prepare the perfect green pasture for his sheep to graze in. And he would find some of their neck caught in the fence, stretching through the fence on the other side to eat the weeds, on the other side of the, he said, it's just unreal. They just never could be satisfied. That's what he provided. They always wanted what was outside the fence. But anyway, that's one of the things and the woman said, no, no, no, we can eat of all the trees except for one, just one.
So the devil goes, huh, I didn't work out too good. She's made a good point. We're pretty much free. It's the only one we can eat from. That's not too bad of a deal. So the devil goes, hmm. Got to try something else with this one. All right, so what does he say? He says here to the woman, first of all, you shall not surely die. Now this is what he always does. Basically what the devil always tries to do is take away the consequences for disobedience to God. Take away the judgment, the penalty, the pain. Now this is a direct lie. God said, you eat of it, you're going to die. The devil says, no, you can disobey God here in this one commandment and you're not going to die. All right, now this lie, and I've said this many times before, I've taught this, it's in my book, Grace Abuse, the whole chapter on this. This is the oldest lie in the book. This is where we get the satanic demonic doctrine of once you're saved, you're always saved, no matter how you live. That there is no, if you are in, Jesus Christ, if you are, you know, if you're born again, then there's nothing you can do that will ever bring you to the point of spiritual death, damnation, separation from God, or going to hell. You know, and as I've preached and taught many times, the Bible doesn't teach that at all. You can decide to go back and live in rebellion and sin as a homosexual, an adulterer, a drunkard, an idolater. The things that the New Testament lists out, and if you live in those sins habitually, the consequences are you will be separated from God forever, you will experience the second death, which is eternal separation from him in hell, and that's the consequence. But the devil comes along, like with, you know, Noel Hadley and some of these others, and they'll say, they'll teach these things, no, there's no hell, there's no consequences, there's no punishment, there's no death. And remember, again, death does not mean ceasing to exist. We learned this last semester in our redemption class, and I say that because some people just joined us in the second semester, so they didn't, they weren't here. But death, the true biblical definition of death is separation from God who is life, it's a severing. You don't cease to exist. You will live forever either with God or you will live forever with God in heaven and the earthly kingdom and paradise, or you will be separated from him who is the source of all life in a place
that he created for the devil and his angels called hell. And it is a place where you will have full consciousness. You will know who you are, you will know why you're there. You will know everything. And it is not a place of happiness. I think to me, the worst aspect of hell will be the regret and the knowing, the hopelessness. Now think about it, even now, we can screw up royally. We can fall down, we can mess up, we can blow it. And yet there is hope because God is merciful and we can turn to him and ask for forgiveness and we can repent. And so within us, there's always this understanding, if I do mess up, there is still hope for me. To me, the worst part of hell is gonna be, that's it. There's no crying, there's no repenting, there's no prayer, there's nothing gonna change. It's the final it, that's it. So you think about, let's just say there were no flames, there was no punishment, there was no aspect of suffering to hell, just separation from God forever. No hope of that changing forever. That's hell enough, you know what I'm saying? But it exists, there's consequences. The devil is the one, and that's why I say there's nothing new under the sun. The devil is the one that always tries to remove the consequences for sin, disobedience, rebellion, giving in to the lust and the pleasures of this life and just indulging oneself, what people call hedonism, just complete worldliness, just complete giving themselves over. The Bible says it this way several times, giving yourself over to like fornication, just becoming a complete sexually immoral person that just indulges everything. Or whether it be with alcohol or with drugs or with just pursuing pleasures of this life. The pleasures of the flesh, we really should say, right? That the evil flesh wants to do. But again, it's the devil who takes away. So what I'm saying is, see how, I want you to see, and I want all of you students to get there, that just this story in Genesis telling us about the beginning and how the fall into sin of Adam and Eve happened and how Satan worked to bring it about is really foundational to everything. There is nothing new under the sun. He uses the same tactics, strategies, techniques,
or as George W. would say, strategically, right? There's nothing new. And Calvinism, once saved, always saved, no matter how you live, unconditional, eternal security. That's this part right here. The serpent said to the woman, you shall not surely die, right? Now, obviously, I think she probably, if you think about it, did not fully understand what the word die means. Has she seen anything die? Had she seen anybody die? Did she know what that? Probably didn't understand the full ramifications of that. But think about it. In the garden, she probably didn't understand the full ramifications of physical death unless God had just given her understanding. But think about us now. We don't fully understand the ramifications of the second death that I just described of being separated from God and being put in outer darkness, in hell, separated. We don't fully grasp that, why? Because we haven't experienced it. We just have to understand that that's what God said. That's what the Bible says. That's what the truth says. And we accept it by faith like we do other things. But we haven't been to hell. You haven't been to hell? He hadn't been to hell, right? So what I'm saying is it's just similar. Again, I'm just pointing out the similarities of we don't fully grasp it. We just need to trust God when you believe God. She just should have trusted God. Die is bad, right? You don't have to fully understand it, but it's bad. And I think she understood that much. Hey, okay, whatever this is about dying is bad, right? Now, now we go to this. So first of all, the devil removes the consequences. God is not going to punish you with spiritual death or physical death. He's not going to punish you for disobeying. So that's the first line. Then he says, then he repeals again to her flesh. He takes away the fear of punishment. So what's the devil always trying to do first? Remove the fear of the Lord. Why do you think the book of Proverbs, the book of wisdom from the Holy Spirit given to Solomon, the first thing it says is that the fear of the Lord is what? The beginning of wisdom. To remove the fear of the Lord, you're headed down to the beginning of Satan's wisdom. Bible says there's two wisdoms in the world. One that's from above and one that's from beneath, okay? You can have wisdom. Jesus said the children of this world have wisdom. Do they have his wisdom? No, they have Satan's wisdom, okay?
And that's what he's saying here. The serpent said, for God does know that the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be open and you shall be as God's knowing good and evil. Now, what's interesting is he uses the same word, here, God's, is Elohim. It's the same word used in Genesis 1. One, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. You will be as or like God. He didn't say you would be God because he knew that wasn't gonna work because they knew that God was different from him. They knew that already. But you will be just like him. You can attain the same level that he has. Well, wait a minute now. What did we learn about the fall of Satan? What did he want? I will be like the most high. I will exalt my throne. I will be like the most high. So what he does is he knows, okay, that was the sin. That was what got me in trouble. But it worked with me and it originated in his own mind. It worked with me. It'll work with her. Yep, and it did. Because he said, in the day you eat thereof, your eyes will be open. You will be like God. So you're gonna be God-like. You're gonna have this exalted spiritual place. You're going to be illuminated. You're gonna have illumination, revelation. You're gonna realize that you're equal with God. You're part of this God consciousness that's everywhere. Oh, they have ways. But notice he says, knowing good and evil. See, again, there's this pursuit. What is, I would say, the Bible calls the occult arts. In Acts chapter 19, it calls the occult arts. And it's interesting how the King James translates this. It's called the curious arts. What does curious mean? Curious means that you realize, man, there's something here that I don't know and I really wanna find out. All curiosity is not good. Right, kills the cat. Remember how I've said you don't have to, I've used this analogy many times, that you don't have to lift the sewer cap and climb in to find out what's in there, right? It's the same principle here. Do you really have to disobey God and go find out?
Let me go find out what all this sin and knowledge of good and evil is about. Let me go find out. Do you really have to do that? Well, most human beings, yes, gotta go find out for themselves. The sad thing about it is some go and make it back and some go and never make it back. Never make it back out of it. They die there. So these are very important things because you're gonna see these things are carried out. I mean, we're talking about this is 6,000 years ago and it's the same lies now deceiving the world. All right, and many Christians even. So let's keep reading this, verse six again. All right, and when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, so first of all, it was appealing to her eyes and it appeared something that would benefit her flesh, right, appealing to the eye, beneficial to the flesh. It was very important. You remember those things. And then she says it was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree to be desired to make one wise. And this is where the world has run. We're gonna go to the dark side to find our wisdom. And remember, we're gonna find out later when we get into the fallen angels and the human women and the Nephilim and all that, how they taught these women all these different arts and they taught mankind all these different things that really, like one angel taught mankind how to make instruments of war, weapons, right? Did God want that for mankind? No, but where did this wisdom, this knowledge come from? The fallen ones. Well, where does that wisdom and knowledge of the fallen ones, where was all that hidden? Well, see, it was in the past and it was in that tree of knowledge of good and evil represented it, but it was still hidden. Do you know that the word occult is the word hidden? Well, it's hidden for a reason because it's not good for you, all right? So when she says it's to make one wise, not wise in knowing God, not wise in knowing the God of creation. And I mean, what more, listen, if she wanted wisdom,
remember the book of James says this, chapter one, James chapter one. It says, if any man lack wisdom, let him ask, ask God. Now God would come down and meet with Adam and Eve in the garden in the cool of the day. Why couldn't she just wait? When God showed up and we're having a chat, Lord, you know, I really would like more wisdom. I would like to understand you more. I'd like to understand creation more. I'd like to understand, see, there's nothing wrong with that side of it, but her deception, the deception came when I want the wisdom of the world. I want the hidden knowledge. I want to understand the hidden powers of the fallen ones, their side of things. And she should have known immediately. I mean, one thing she should have perceived, I don't know if she did or not. Maybe she did, maybe she didn't. But she already knew God. And then this serpent comes in here telling her opposite things of what God said and opposite things to do. She should have recognized and hope, maybe she did, maybe she didn't, that this was an enemy of God. Maybe she didn't. When she says he beguiled me and deceived me, I don't know. I don't know what was in her mind, but I'm saying this much, at least, she should have recognized this guy, this whatever this is talking through this serpent is talking opposite of my God who made me and put me in this beautiful place. He's an enemy. He's an enemy of the one who made me. Probably not a good idea to listen to anything he has to say or get any of his with, right? But that's not what she did. Her curiosity, the devil appeal to this, there's things you don't know and you can find out, right? And these are things that God knows about and he just doesn't want you to know about. You see that? He plays us, the devil plays us like children. You know how easy it is to fool a kid? I mean, I can have kids thinking I'm pulling candy out of their ears and all kinds of stuff and I don't even know any magic tricks, but it's just easy to fool a kid. That's what the devil does here, right? So she says to make one wise. So she took the fruit and gave it her husband with her and he did eat. Now here's the thing, the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made them aprons. Now this is another thing here that I thought about, their eyes were open. Now the devil, and this is something you need to write down
because this is how he works and you'll see this as we get into the rest of this today. The devil always mixes in truth, some truth with his lies, okay? Now, most of us, now even this world believes, let's put it this way, like there's on the Lucius Trust website, okay? The Lucius Trust website, which is, they're an NGO, non-governmental organization in the United Nations, founded by Alice Bailey, the disciple of Helen Blavatsky, their Satanist, the ossophist, probably, it looks like Blavatsky was probably also into Freemasonry as well. She was kind of into all things satanic and occultic. I mean, her original magazine was called Lucifer and then it was handed over to Bailey and her husband and they changed it to Lucius Trust. But on that website, they have a section called the Esoteric or the Occult meaning of Lucifer, who Lucifer is. And they admit that Lucifer is the rebel angel, the fallen angel, the one who rebelled against the creator. But what they say is, is that the creator is bad and this is an ancient Gnostic teaching, that the creator of the Bible, the God of the Bible, that he's the bad guy and that he had out of beneath trapped and it was Lucifer who brought them light, the Lucifer, the light bearer, the angel of light, that Lucifer's the one that brought them light and enlightenment and illumination, he brought them the knowledge to free them from the prison that God, the creator, Yahweh had them in. And they flipped this thing and Lucifer is the savior. He's the one that liberates you. But remember what Lucifer does is, and what Aleister Crowley, the beast, the great Satanist said was what? Do as thou wilt, that's the whole of all, meaning you do whatever you want to. See, there is a liberty that's called licentiousness. It means do whatever you want, whenever you want, however you want. You are your own God. You're your own ruler. You're your own everything. You don't have to answer to anybody. These are all the ancient pieces, the ancient lies, the ancient teaching, right? But I can go and show you over and over again the Satanist, the Luciferians, the United Nations hierarchy, all of these, the New Age movement, they all look at Lucifer as the one who's really come to give mankind
knowledge, wisdom, and liberation from this oppressive, mean God of the Bible. That's the whole story that they put out there. And that's why they gain followers. Because they convince people that this God of the Bible, this Jesus Christ is keeping you from enjoying life. It's keeping you from this wonderful tree where you can have wisdom and knowledge and pleasure. It's keeping you from it. But we're here, the Luciferians, the Illuminati, the Satanists, the witches, we're here to tell you to be set free. Remember some of those symbols I showed, some of those satanic symbols I showed Sunday morning, all of it was about what? Showing that we are liberating ourselves from this oppressive Christianity, right? It's all about the rebellion. It's all about that. But the wisdom, the wisdom of this world, think about it, the first Apple computer, or somebody calls it Apple, right? What was it about? They knew where this knowledge and this explosion, the prophet Daniel said that knowledge would increase in the last days and the ability to travel for people to run to and fro. Well, have we seen those two things happen? I mean, think about that. He wrote that around 600 BC. And he said in the last of the last days when the second coming of Jesus is growing near, the beast kingdom's gonna come and all that, he said knowledge would increase and many would be able to run to and fro. And boy, just in the last, you know, since the 20th century began, it has skyrocketed. But the Apple computer, the first Apple computer, I mean, and people have seen the ads. You go back to the, what was it? The 80s or whatever it was. And it says had the Apple and had a bite out of it, take a bite out of the Apple and it had the BYTE bite. And the first Apple computer was the price tag on it in the ad of $666 and change. Now, do you think that all that's just a coincidence? No, no, it's what it's all about. Listen, there is a world out there. There's a world, there's a realm. You can call it the spirit realm, this dimension inside of the spirit realm that you can access if you choose to go that way.
Of course, on God's side, there's the spirit realm, spiritual reality can be accessed as well, but it's controlled by him, not by us, not by techniques, not by things done. That's what I'm gonna show you here in a minute. But anyway, they ate. And of course, we know the rest of the story. That was the sin, that opened the door to give the devil right, legal right, into all of mankind and to the earth itself because Adam and Eve blew it. We're gonna cover more about that later when we talk about the authority of the believer. But let's look at that again. The eyes of them were opened. Now, here's the word I, ein. I like the outline of biblical usage here says, it's the physical eye, it can mean that. It can mean showing mental qualities as well, but it is also of mental and spiritual faculty. So there's the physical aspects of an eye, physical vision, but then there's the spiritual vision, okay? And so your eyes can be opened either by God, Almighty, the Lord Jesus, his Holy Spirit, and he can show you something in the spirit realm, in the spirit world, or you can go to the other side and sin against God and rebel against God and disobey God and use Satan's methods and then you can have your eye open too. It's called the third eye. And you can start seeing things in the spirit realm too, but the thing about seeing things in the spirit realm on the dark side is that they can show you true things or they can deceive you. God won't deceive you, but that side will do whatever is necessary to get you to do what they want you to do. And it's interesting that the, for instance, the occult realm of the Jewish side, the Kabbalah, actually talks about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They'll call it the tree of life, but it's really the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that they're partaking of. Now, here's just to show you, these are just some modern, present websites out there. This is chakrasinfo.info here, how to open your third eye. Now they're saying this is through becoming a born again believer in Jesus Christ and being filled with the Holy Spirit and then allowing God to work the gifts of the spirit through you as he wills. Is that what they're teaching? No, they're teaching. We have some techniques. We have a way for you to partake of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that will open your eyes.
And guess what? It'll happen. It'll be open. Just don't want it open too much here, do we? And this one, this is the same article that goes on to say four proven strategies for awakening the third eye. And of course, the number one there is cultivate silence. Foster the silence of the mind, whether it's through meditation, just sitting calmly in nature or being absorbed in your favorite art sport of practice. This is why, because the third eye perception elevates your senses to more subtle levels. Some call it the space in between psychic abilities, the realm of the invisible. To be able to listen to the messages and information that comes through your third eye, you should be ready to perceive the whisper of its wisdom. You hear that? If your mind is busy or noisy, you might miss its main message. And of course, there's satanic meditation and there's biblical godly meditation. Satanic meditation is passive, silent, blanking the mind. A lot of times using repetition, chance, we'll talk about that in a minute. Biblical meditation is actually keeping your mind active and busy. Notice they say, oh, no, no, no, busy, meditating on the scriptures, thinking about things of God. Keep your mind on the things that think on these things. Never does the Bible indicate your mind should be blanked or passive or open to any wisdom or voice that's out there, okay? Just want you to get that. Once you see they use the same language, there's wisdom out there. Now here's Gaea, which Gaea is the goddess, one of the new age goddesses, the goddess of really known as the name of Mother Earth, right? There's a television network thing called Gaea and so on and so forth. It's big in the occult world because they worship, you know, one of the deities they worship is this Gaea goddess and Mother Earth goddess. But anyway, they have this website, how to awaken your third eye. And I found this interesting because here's how they tell you how to open your third eye summary, avoid fluoride, supplement your diet, use essential oils. We've been warning people about that and we got Christians fighting us on this. I'm just telling them, sun gaze. Look at that, right here, meditate and chant. It's repetitious phrases, sounds, breaths, whatever. Usually they use a mantra. They don't tell you it's usually a name of a Hindu God, but that's usually how they get you started. And then collaborate with crystals. I guess you talk to a crystal, right?
I don't meditate on it. Of course, they use visualization as well where you create images in your mind on your own. And then here they tell you, what is the third eye? So let's see how they're defining it. And of course, I've heard Christians talking about you do this, okay? Just because somebody says they're a Christian does not mean that they are. But here's what this article goes on to say. What is the third eye? The pineal gland is a pea-sized gland shaped like a pine cone located in the vertebrate brain near the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland, also known as the third eye. It is a revered tool of seers and mystics and considered to be the organ of supreme universal connection. Its significance appears in every ancient culture throughout the world. For example, the Ayurvedic philosophy, the third eye is represented by the Anjuk chakra in the ancient Egypt. It is the symbol of the eye of Horus, mirrors the placement of the pineal gland in the profile of the human head. The third eye is connected to clarity, concentration, imagination, and intuition. It goes on to say here, why should you awaken your third eye? Well, it says here, a blocked third eye or Anjuk chakra is said to lead to confusion, uncertainty, cynicism, jealousy, and pessimism. Well, let me tell you, I don't have that third eye open and I'm good, right? Where are they getting that from? Well, I'll tell you where they're getting from. They're appealing to unsaved lost people in the world who are miserable, who are depressed, or Satan oppresses them and then gets them to search for answers and leads them down these more destructive paths. But anyway, it says a blocked third eye is said to lead to confusion, uncertainty, cynicism, jealousy, pessimism through an open and vibrant third eye, the highest source of ethereal spiritual energy may enter. It's what the word ethereal means, spiritual energy. While the physical eyes perceive the physical world, the third eye sees the true world, a unified whole with an unyielding connection to spirit. A list of the benefits and abilities the third eye brings include clarity, concentration, perspicuity, bliss, intuition, decisiveness, and insight. The third eye has been linked to lucid dreaming, astral projection, right? Your spirit leaving your body and traveling other places or remote viewing as it's called by the CIA, quality of sleep, enhanced imagination, aura viewing. All of these are simply occult psychic abilities given by Satan, the fallen angels and the demon spirits.
But they're telling you how to access this. Can I just say this? If you wanna know what the tree of the knowledge of the good and evil is before us now, it is the delving into the occult. And the delving into the occult starts with things like meditation, chanting, repetition. And that's why Jesus said in Matthew six, and we may go there in a minute, but Matthew six nine, he said, when you pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do, right? He was telling you the pagans, the heathens, the ones following Satan, the devil that are deceived, that are in darkness, their wisdom, their enlightenment, their illumination, their abilities, it all comes from the other side. It all comes from Satan. It all comes from the demons, the fallen angels. That's the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, right? Tree of life is Jesus. You cannot eat from both trees. You hear me? You cannot do it. If you try, even if you are a born again believer, and you're following Jesus, and you know you're filled with the Holy Spirit, if you start toying with this other tree, it will take you down. You are giving place to the devil. You are giving power and authority to the devil. And that's why, listen, that's why this mindfulness meditation, yoga, transcendental meditation, that's why all these things are being pushed so hard in the public schools here in America, and even in daycare centers and stuff. I mean, they are pushing this like nobody's, this is the agenda of the Satanists, the witches, the Luciferian elite. This is the spirituality. They are pushing the tree of the knowledge of good and evil on the world, and they're pushing it hard and heavy. I mean, I addressed this somewhat in some messages a few months back about, especially specifically transcendental meditation, but they have all kinds of names for it. The new name now that they've changed it to, so they can try to deceive people that it's not part of Buddhism and Hinduism and this ancient, these ancient occult arts as they call it mindfulness meditation. You'll hear that one, mindfulness. So they even try to flip the term. Now, if your mind's full of something, it's active, not passive, right? So anyway, this is what they're doing. Now, I bring this up and I show you, I wanna show you this right here. I want you to see that little blue flame right there? How to open your third eye, wake in your extra sensory perception.
This lone wolf, a wolf, ooh, and we know some wolves, don't we? That picture right there, even though it's an animation, that's what happens. I was talking to Sal a few days ago, before Sal came to know Jesus as his Lord and Savior, he was both into drugs and then he got into meditation, transcendental meditation, he started doing it. And he told me, and we had to pray over this in the deliverance session and break this stronghold and cast this spirit out that he opened the door to, but he started doing meditation, this satanic meditation. And he said that he saw it, he had his eyes closed, but he could see it. And there's this little blue flame that started right here in his forehead, right between his eyes, and he said it opened up and he could see his brain open up and then all of a sudden he could see the spirit realm, he could see spirits, he could see lights, he could see things around people. He said it was almost instantaneous for him when he started. And he said, he would always see the little blue flame first, right here. And then it was like he could see into the spirit realm. And then he said he began to see demons everywhere. And he said to the point, he said it got so bad that he said the demons would jump on him and torn, I mean, he just would see, Sal will tell you this, he's gonna share his testimony before long here. But he said that he became, after doing this and opening himself up to this, that seeing all this stuff in the spirit realm and all these spirits and all these lights and all this stuff, he said, he hardly could sleep. And he said that they began to torment him so bad that he felt like they were gonna kill him. He said, and they start trying to convince him that everything in the world that he saw physically was just an illusion, a hologram, a projection that it wasn't real. He said these things almost convinced him, say go throw yourself off the bridge over there, this high, high bridge, because you're gonna find out it's not real. He said, they were trying to get me to kill myself by tricking me into throwing myself off a bridge. I think the devil was really after him because the devil knew that God wanted him too and that God had a call on his hand on him for a reason. But he really went after Sal. But Sal talked about when he came to Jesus, how he saw many of these demons, just dozens and dozens of them when Jesus came in, fleeing from him. And recently he said, even after coming to the Lord, he still had that blue flame would appear. And so what we had to do is go in and in Jesus' name and with Jesus' power and authority
and break the link that he created. There was a spiritual link demon that causes when you open, when you eat of this tree, when you delve into their techniques and practices, you open a door, a demon comes in and a demon forges a link between your soul and your spirit man. And that enables you to see into the spirit world as they want you to see. Again, you're not always seeing reality all the time. You're seeing some reality and some of what they want you to see. But he, we had to sever that. So we did deliberate session with him. We severed that cord there, that demonic link between soul and spirit forged by this opening, the third eye. Because God doesn't want that eye, your third eye, your spiritual vision or ability to see in the spirit world, he doesn't want that to be forged by a demon, by satanic power. He wants that to be by the Holy Spirit and only when he chooses to show you something, okay? That's the way it works in our, we don't get to choose. I don't get to choose when I see a vision or I see into the spirit realm and discern an angel working or a demon working or the God shows me something, you know, a vision or a dream or something. That's his choosing, not mine. I don't turn it on and off. I don't get to do that. We don't control. It's according to his will, not our will. Once you get into this part of it, you can pretty much, you can try to use their techniques and the devil will let you think you're controlling this. But who's really in control? Human beings think they're in control when they're toying with the devil, but he's in control, okay? Now, I wanted you to get that because again, what is the purpose of this? People say, okay, the opening of the third eye, a lot of them will call this opening of the third eye God-consciousness or that you're connecting to the universe, to this unseen God aspect that's everywhere, and you're connecting to the universe and you're beginning to spiritually evolve into a God. You're becoming like God. Now, here's, remember we covered this a few weeks back in the first semester in apologetics when we addressed Mormonism, but I just want you to show, here's Mormonism. We know a false cult created by Joseph Smith. He claims a so-called angel appeared to him named Moroni and gave him these golden tablets and he created his own religion where he could have 30 wives, basically commit adultery, you can get away with it, right? And created this religion that said Jesus was not God, he was brothers with Lucifer, just a demonic religion.
I can't believe anybody actually, but there are people out there that actually believe that Mormonism is just another Christian denomination, but this is straight from their page. Do you see this? LDS.org, you see that up there at the top? LDS.org, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This is from their website, manuals, chapter five, the Grand Destiny of the Faithful. This is chapter five, the Grand Destiny of the Faithful, teachings of the presidents of the church. Their presidents of the church are very much like the pope, that if they get this revelation or they get some doctrine or whatever, if they teach it or bring it forth, then it's truth, no matter what type thing. But anyway, he goes on to say, it is a wonderful pleasure to speak upon the great things that God proposes to bestow upon his sons and daughters that shall attain to if we are faithful, if you're a faithful Mormon, is what he's referring to. But he says here in the spring of 1840, Lorenzo Snow was in Nauvoo, Illinois, preparing to leave for a mission in England. He visited the home of his friend Henry G. Sherwood, and he asked Brother Sherwood to explain a passage of scripture while attentively listening to his explanation. President Snow later recalled, the Spirit of the Lord rested mightily upon me. The eyes of my understanding were opened. Now he's talking about it's the Lord, but it wasn't. This is the devil. The Mormons are on the devil side, the satanic, the deception. The angel Moroni was a deceiver, okay, was a fallen angel. But he goes on to say, his eyes were opened, and I saw as clear as the sun at noon day with wonder and astonishment, the pathway of God and man. I formed the following couplet which expresses the revelation as it was shown to me. So his eyes open, and here's the revelation he gets, right here. As man now is, God once was. So God was once just the man like us. As God now is, man may be. Now where do you think this came from? Is this a new revelation? Is this a revelation from Jesus Christ, from the God of creation, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jesus, the God of the Bible, nay, his eyes were opened all right. And what was this spirit telling him? It wasn't the Holy Spirit, but it was the spirit all right. We will become light. So he's given the Mormons if you're faithful, remember? Here's the things the sons and daughters of God, if you're a faithful Mormon, here's what you're gonna begin to attain to. You're gonna be as God.
Isn't that amazing? An old promise and temptation of the devil right here in modern times. And a whole denomination of so-called Christians, and they claim to be Christians, they're not, but they believe this. And then he goes on to say, feeling that he had received a sacred communication. He did all right. Didn't test it against the Bible. If you test the spirits, you find out. Oh no, that's the devil talking, right? He said, feeling that he had received a sacred communication, that he should guard carefully. Lorenzo Snow did not teach the doctrine publicly until he knew that the prophet Joseph Smith taught it, and once he knew the doctrine was public knowledge, he testified of it frequently. So he says here, Joseph Smith taught it, and this guy's been teaching it since the 1840s, that's what's been taught, right? Just went on and be taught in Mormonism. Crazy, right? All right, let's move on. Now, I just Googled this morning just for fun. In Google, how to become a God. I want you to notice right here. 1,240,000,000 results. Not 1,000,000,000. 1,240,000,000 results came up on this. I could have gone to page after page after page. Look at this guy. How to become a God. No BS guide to become who you truly are, I guess. How to become a living God. How to become a God. That's just what popped up first. There are really people believe that you, they believe the lie that if you keep partaking of this occult tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and their techniques and practices and the teachings of the fallen ones, that you will become a God. Now, guess what? You will have psychic abilities, extra sensory perception, ESP. You'll be spiritual. That's the big thing now. You can be spiritual without being a follower of Jesus or a Christian, but you can be a spiritual person. Well, there it is. That's what it is, right? Now, let's just look at a couple of these since I quoted some of these scriptures and we'll look at some of them before we get out of here today. All right, so Paul goes to Ephesus, and of course he finds 12 disciples of Jesus. He asked them if they'd been baptized in the Holy Spirit. They said they didn't know what he was talking about,
so he laid hands on them. The Holy Spirit came on them. They spoke in tongues and prophesied they were baptized in the Holy Spirit. Paul stays there for another two years. Paul, after he found these 12 disciples and they were baptized in the Holy Spirit, the evidence of speaking in tongues and the gift of prophecy. Verse eight says that he went into the synagogue and spoke boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading of the things concerning the kingdom of God. And when divers were hardened and believed not, but spake evil of that way before the multitude, he departed from them and separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Tyranias. And this continued by the space of two years so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks. And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul so that from his body were brought into the sick handkerchiefs or aprons and diseases departed from them and evil spirits went out of them. And then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits, the name of the Lord Jesus saying, we adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches. And there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jew and chief of the priests which did so. And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus, I know and Paul, I know, but who are you? And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them and overcame them and prevailed against them so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus and fear fell on them all. And the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. And many that believed came and confessed and showed their deeds, many of them also which used curious arts, there it is, brought their books together and burned them before all men and they counted the price of them and found it 50,000 pieces of silver, so mildly grew the word of God and prevailed. So here you see that the world of Ephesus, the city of Ephesus was a worshiper of the goddess Diana. So they were steep, they were deep into occultism, pagan religion, goddess worship, idolatry. They actually was a place where, Ephesus was a place where they manufactured idols to Diana, which is really the ancient goddesses like Ishtar and Artemis and Aphrodite and of course going way back, what's the one of the groves, why can I remember? Astrid, that's it, Astrid mentioned in the Bible. But these people realize people were, when Paul came there preaching the gospel, they realized that these curious arts, now what are curious arts, what's an art? We say art is what, an ability, right, to do something,
like to produce something, an artist, someone's good at drawing or painting or whatever, we call them an artist, right, they have an ability, they have a gift maybe we would say. But it's also something you can learn, you can learn how to paint, you can learn how to draw if you practice. That's the same way, if you learn these arts, if you learn how to practice these techniques, whether it be, some of these were just simply calling on, having an idol in their possession and Paul said if you have an idol, and you call upon that idol, pray to it, speak to it, bow to it, worship it, that it's not the idol itself that's anything, it could be just a piece of wood or metal or rock or crystal or whatever, but he said it's the demon on it. If you're into idolatry, he says, you're having fellowship with demons. So these people began to realize, we've got all these people here in Ephesus that are having demon problems and they finally, through Paul's preaching and teaching, I believe understood that the reason they're having demon problems with Satan's demons is because we're opening the door, we're giving them place with these curious arts. So when people started repenting and not wanting Satan's operation and strongholds in their lives, they finally, they brought these curious arts, the books and the stuff that train them to do this, they brought this in burning. And I'm sure, I'm sure the ones that are doing this are the ones who are becoming Christians and listening to Paul and following the gospel that Paul was preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. So I just wanted you to see that. Also, let's look, let's go over to the book of James. I want you to see about the wisdom, there's a wisdom from above and from beneath. Verse 13, who is a wise man and a dude with knowledge among you? Let him show out of good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descended not from above but is earthly, sensual and devilish. So see that there is a wisdom that is earthly, sensual of the flesh, that means fleshly, of the earth and devilish. But notice he says there is a wisdom. Satan has wisdom. Remember we read this last week in Ezekiel 28 when it said that Satan before he fell, when he was the anointed cherub,
it said there that he, what? Was full of wisdom, perfect in beauty, right? He's full of it all right. But his wisdom now is completely against the Bible, the word of God, God of creation, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Lord Jesus Christ. His wisdom is anti-Christ, all right? And I want you to say it, let's read that again. Verse 15, this wisdom descended not from above but is earthly, sensual, devilish. And the word sensual can also mean not just fleshly but it can mean natural, natural, of nature, of observation. Again, there's wisdom that's devilish. And then he goes on to say, for where envying and strife is, there is confusion in every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above, from God, he's talking about, is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits without partiality, without hypocrisy. So I want you to see that he's very, very clear that there is a wisdom that's devilish and there is a wisdom that is from God. Nothing wrong with seeking God and asking God in Jesus name for wisdom. That your eyes would be open. This is a prayer I pray all the time that the Lord would open the eyes of my understanding. Let's go to Ephesians chapter one. This is a good prayer to pray for yourself right here. I pray it for myself and I pray it for others often. In verse 15, Paul writes by the Holy Spirit here, wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers and that making mention is a present tense Greek verb, which means what? Ongoing continuously, presently. So Paul said, I always pray this prayer for you that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. See the difference? The spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. That's gonna be the knowledge of his word. True, the true God, the true Savior, the true Redeemer, the true Messiah, Jesus Christ, the true scriptures, not the ascension of Isaiah or the gospel of Thomas and Philip
and these Gnostic nonsense that Zen Garcia and some of these others put forth, but the scriptures that we know proven. Genesis to Malachi, Matthew to Revelation. Let's read again from verse 17. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. That the eyes of your understanding should be enlightened. Why? That you may know the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. Do you see, how many times it says his, him? If it's not wisdom that's revealing truth, the nature, the character, the blessings, both the blessings of God and the judgment of God, the mercy of God and the wrath of God, if it's not showing the truth of the God of the Bible, then it's not, your eyes are not being enlightened. See, just like, again, I'm putting this out there because these are foundational things to spiritual warfare that you've got to understand. There are people out there right now, there are Christians that are convinced that they're having spiritual visions and dreams and revelations and communications from the spirit. And they're not from the Holy Spirit, they're from a spirit. And because they will not or don't know how to test them, to test the spirits from the scripture to make sure that the eyes of their enlightenment, the spirit of wisdom and revelation is all about him, it's all about God, the true God and his word. You cannot separate God from his word. He said, he's magnified his word above all of his name. All right, that's pretty important in Psalm 138. He's magnified his word above his name. We covered that last semester, that scripture was on a test. Virtually no one got it right, almost everybody got it wrong. I don't know why, but he magnified, the Lord's magnified his word above his name. I mean, think about that. I got somebody, I got some guy that's pestered me to death now about the Mandela effect, that the word of God is changing. No, it's not. God's word, he said in Psalm 12 that he would preserve his word forever. What the heck do you think that means? Jesus said, heaven and earth will pass away, but my word will not pass away. God said, I've magnified my word above all my name. It's forever settled in heaven, forever. He promised us we would have it upon the earth too,
as a witness, as a testimony to the end. So the Mandela effect is a hoax. It's a hoax to get people to doubt the word of God. Again, the Mandela effect is the devil in the garden again saying, what did God really say? We don't have what he really said, so you can't be sure, cast him down on God's word. Oh God. I told him too, I sent him an email if I, look, it's a hoax. It's not true. And he's still pestering me with it. It's unbelievable at the level of deception. But right here, let's read this again. He says that the eyes of your understanding be enlightened that you may know what is the hope of his calling, God Almighty, the creator, the God of the Bible, the Lord Jesus Christ. And what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints? And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us who believe according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but that which is to come and hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is the body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all. So here he goes on to say that the revelation, the understanding, your eyes being enlightened, all is all about the hope of his calling. It's all about his wisdom of God and his will. And it's all about understanding the power in Jesus Christ that we have, the power of his resurrection, get this, that that's over all principalities and power and might and dominion, right? See, what we need to be growing in and learning in and developing in is understanding how to increase our power and authority in him. And that just comes by understanding. That comes by spending time with him. That becomes by him increasing your wisdom and knowledge and understanding and the anointing and power of the Holy Spirit on you so that you can defeat Satan's principalities and powers and the rules of the darkness and the wicked spirits in high places. That's what this is all about. And Ephesians what goes on to say, you know, he's talking about it here in Ephesians one, because in Ephesians six, what does he say? Ephesians chapter six, he says right here tells you verse 12, 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 or wicked spirits in heavenly places. We are at war with these satanic fallen angels
and the demon spirits that are called principalities, powers of darkness, wicked spirits in heavenly places, in the heavenly spiritual realms, as well as in the realm in which we live. He's known as the prince and the power of the air. Satan's called the God of this world, the little G. We can call him little G. He has power, but what God wants us to be getting, and that's what Ephesians one, get a revelation, get understanding, get your eyes open to the fact that in Jesus Christ, you have power, authority, dominion. You have great power against the principalities, powers of darkness, wicked spirits in high places. That's what you should be learning. That's what you should be developing in. Anything that takes you away from that into some occult practice, so you can find some kind of new age, loosey goosey peace feeling. That's not what you need to be doing. You don't need to be learning how to, all the 12 different bows to the sun God in yoga. Put on Jesus Christ. Learn, what did Jesus say? I'm gonna go to one for it. Let's go to Matthew 11. I just wanna focus on three words he said right here. Verse 29, where he said, take my yoke upon you, Jesus said, and learn of me, learn of me, and you shall find rest to your souls. Did he say learn yoga, learn meditation, learn repetitive prayer and chanting, learn how to get your third eye open, learn how to get your pineal gland working, learn how to be still and empty your mind, learn how to bow to the sun God and face east and do the 12 positions of bowing to the sun God and yoga? No, these are all evil satanic practices to get you in bondage, just like it was to get even bondage and Adam in bondage. It was deception. Jesus says, learn of me, learn of me. Jesus is the one, back up again, Matthew six. Look at it, Matthew six, verse nine. Actually, I'm sorry, verse, I said verse nine, I meant verse seven, Matthew six, seven. Jesus specifically addressed this.
What did he say? But when you pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them. How many times does he have to say, don't be like them. They do yoga. They do meditation. They try to open the third eye. They try to, they use visualizations. They have all these curious occult arts. Jesus says, learn of me, don't be like them. Goodness, how Christians are doing these things. John, Chris, the comedian, the Christian comedian, everybody thought he's hilarious, he's funny, but other day he's talking about how he's doing yoga and meditation. I think he's on drugs, actually, to tell you the truth. He looks like he's on drugs when I sleep. It's gonna come out soon enough, watch. He'll be in rehab for a long. But if you, listen, just like I said, what are you pushing? What's the end result of what are you pushing? Tree of life in the garden represents Jesus. Tree of the knowledge of good and evil represents all this other crap of the devil, all right? I guess we need to quit today. I got fired up though, took a little while. I got fired up finally. Oh, I didn't even get into the serpent seed nonsense. I was gonna talk about that some. Let's pray, but I know they're gonna have an assignment. They gotta go read my serpent seed article and prepare for a quiz. I got some quizzes to make today, but let's pray. Father in heaven, I ask you, Lord, to take, Lord, this truth, this your word. Lord, we're fighting a tremendous battle now against all of these deceptions, new age, Hindu, Buddhist, just pagan philosophies, occult philosophies and arts and practices and techniques to help people partake of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and open their third eye and learn to become like gods or there's nothing new under the sun. All of these things have been around for thousands of years, centuries and Lord, people are delving into these curious arts, these practices of Satan, the demon spirits. They're delving into the knowledge of the fallen ones and Lord, we pray in the name of Jesus that truly eyes would be opened,
the eyes of understanding, wisdom and revelation in the Holy Spirit, in the name of Jesus Christ, in the word of God written in the scriptures would be truly where our eyes are opened and where we would learn of you, Jesus and where we would understand that there's a difference between the two trees and that you are the way, the truth and the life, Jesus and that we're to learn of you and follow you and to the point where understanding the power of your resurrection and the power we have and the authority we have in your name, Jesus, as true born again believers to resist the demons, to resist the devil, make him flee, to cast out demons, to bind and take authority and hinder the works of darkness in people's lives and to destroy the works of darkness and Satan in people's lives in the mighty name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth and that is the great war. We are at war with these principalities and powers of Satan and their occult wisdom and the people that are yielding to and given in to those occult practices and becoming tools of Satan against the gospel and against us Christians and against the truth. Lord, we just pray, bring revelation or bring people out of this, bring people to deliverance. If they've opened the door to demons through essential oils or meditation or visualization or contemplative prayer or any type of Hindu Buddhist meditation, chanting, anything that they've opened up through Mormonism or going into different false religions and practices, Lord, reveal it, bring deliverance, bring freedom. We pray that, Lord, I know we're going to cover deliverance in this course and this class thoroughly and Lord, let us all get free from any past entanglements and strongholds where we gave Satan place in our lives and Lord, we ask you to bless these students and make all these students, Lord, people that go forth and bring people out of these dark things and drive demons out of them in Jesus' name. So Lord, we pray this today and we thank you for it. Jesus' name we pray, amen. God bless you guys, class dismissed.