Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
Well, good morning everyone. We want to welcome everyone this morning, our students here to our Fire and Grace School of Ministry. This is our second semester spiritual warfare block. This is spiritual warfare class number five. We're going to get into the issue of binding and loosing, basically the authority of the believer against Satan and demon spirits, evil spirits. So, get your Bible out and get ready to take your notes. Let's just refresh Ephesians 6:12 because I want to break down a little bit about uh what it says here. But, Ephesians 6:12 I ought to be very familiar. In fact, this is going to be on your test in the days ahead. 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. And as you'll see, that can also mean wicked spirits in high places. And that that's really how it could it could be translated either way. Uh that's not wrong, and the other way is not wrong. But, uh remember when you're looking at your verses, we do use the King James Version here. But, let's look at this. Of course, this is the word principality, and I want to uh get into this because I want you to understand what he's talking about because the fallen angels, we have two two different entities we're dealing with. And I'm going I I can't get into all of that this morning, but I am going to say that fallen angels and demon spirits are not the same thing. And we get the hints of that from scripture, and we get a confirmation of that from the Book of Enoch, but we'll look at that later on and we get into the deliverance issue, but I just want to say this morning, primarily we're dealing with the principalities. Now, they are the princes. They are the fallen angels who are in charge over, and there is a a structure that Satan has in his kingdom. Uh there's an order, there's a rank. And he talks about these principalities here is the word arche, which it means, you know, we've looked at this before, chief, order in time, place, or rank. In other words, principality. But notice right here, I want you everybody to see this right here. The principality rule, magistracy, magistrate of angels and demons. Do you see that? Even the your Blue Letter Bible, which compiles again, the Blue Letter Bible is a great resource cuz it compiles not just the Strong's Concordance and Hebrew and Greek Dictionary, uh lexicon, but many different lexicons. So, when you see this outline of Bible usage, it's bringing together Thayer's, it's bringing together Gesenius, it's bringing together a lot of different ones. So, you get the whole picture here. Anyway, this is
those who have the first place. So, the principalities are the fallen angels that are chief rank over the demon spirits and even other fallen angels under them. So, there's order and rank. That's why we have arche, you have the archangel. Um that means a chief or prince angel, principality. All right? Now, we get this here from Daniel chapter 10. Let's read this. I want to read Daniel 10, so you'll see he calls uh these angelic beings, uh Gabriel does, that he has to go fight against, and that Michael fights against, he calls them princes. He also calls Michael your prince. So, a principality has authority and power over uh others other angels or fallen angels and demons uh and over regions. So, let's uh look at this. Daniel chapter 10 verse 11. This is where we'll start. And he says, "But he said it to me, O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto thee and stand upright, for unto thee am I now sent. And when he had spoken this word unto me, I stood trembling." Now, this is Gabriel speaking to Daniel. Then said he unto me, "Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words." And then he says here, so Gabriel says, "I was sent." He says, "But the prince, or you could say principality, the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me." That means fought against me, resisted me. "One and 20 days, but lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, and I remained there with the kings of Persia. Now, I am come to make thee to understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days, for yet the vision is for many days. And when he had spoken such words unto me, I set my face toward the ground, and I became dumb." Now, let's keep reading this. Just so you see. He goes on to talk about it. And he says, "And behold, one like the similitude of the sons of men touched my lips, and then I opened my mouth, and spake, and said unto him that stood before me, 'O my Lord, by the vision, my sorrows are turned upon me, and I have retained no strength. For how can the servant of this my lord talk with this my lord? For as for me, straightway there remaineth no strength in me, neither is there breath left in me.' Then there came again, and touched me one like the appearance of a man, and he strengthened me. And he said, 'O man greatly beloved, fear not, peace be unto thee, be strong, yea, be strong. And when he had spoken unto me, I was strengthened and said, Let my lord speak, for thou hast strengthened me. And then he said, Thou knowest wherefore I am come unto thee. He says right here, And now I will return to fight with the prince of Persia, and when I am going forth, lo, the prince of Grecia will come. And then he says here, he ends it with,
But I will show thee that which is noted in the scripture of truth, there is none that holdeth with me in these things but Michael your prince. So, there are principalities on both sides, good and bad, angelic archangels that have power and authority. Ones carry the power and authority of the Lord God Almighty, the Lord Jesus, and the others carry the power and authority of their master, Satan, the devil, Lucifer, the dragon, that old serpent, as the devil calls him, or as the Lord calls him, uh, in the scriptures, and as the devil calls himself many different things. Um, but anyway, let's keep going here. I just wanted you to see that passage. This right here is where it says the rulers of the darkness of this world. That That phrase here is this word, uh, cosmo, and and I don't even not sure how you pronounce this. See, cosmoc fetor or something like that. It's just weird. It looks nothing like they say it's pronounced. But the rulers of the darkness of this world, notice that the Strong's definition says, A world ruler, an epithet of Satan, a ruler, and then of course Thayer's lexicon says, Lord of the world, prince of this age. Remember, Satan is called in Ephesians 2, the prince and the power of the air. He's also called in 2 Corinthians 3, the god, little g, of this world. But, the world rulers of this darkness. So, he's again referring to Satan. He's referring to Satan's kingdom, the rulers of the darkness of this world. So, there are rulers, there are powers and authority over all the darkness of this world. I find it inter- interesting because one of the root words here is cosmos. Does that sound familiar? A ruler of the cosmos. I think it's interesting that they use this. I thought And lo- notice what it says here, uh the circle of the earth, right? The cosmos means the circle of the earth. Uh what's in that circle? The stars, the sun, the moon. And they use the stars and the sun and the moon as uh objects of worship and idolatry and all kinds of things to manipulate man. Um anyway, the rulers of the cosmos. Ain't that something? Just thought that was an interesting little fact there, but we're going to move on through this. Just so you see where he says there in heavenly places, the spiritual wickedness in high places, the word here is uh epouranios, uh uranios, I guess you'd say. And it's talking about existing in or above heaven, heavenly, existing in the heaven. But, notice it says existing
in heaven, the things that take place in heaven, the heavenly regions, heaven itself, the abode of God and angels, the lower heavens of the stars, the heavens of the clouds. So, what he's saying when we're talking about this, when you talk about spiritual wickedness in high places, not talking about in the third heaven. There are three heavens. The first heaven is the atmosphere of the clouds and the birds and where we live and breathe. The second heaven is actually the solid firmament is called heaven and the third heaven Paul said is where the throne of God sits upon that sea of glass, that firmament. And that's why Paul said he was caught up to the third heaven. Right? In 2 Corinthians chapter 12. So, there's three. So, when he says these are in heavenly or high places, so, you know, a lot of people think, well, oh, they've always taught, you know, cliches, the devil is, you know, in hell. And uh the demons and the fallen angels, they're in hell. Well, yeah, some of them are there. But, most of them are here moving about. Remember what uh Peter said, 1 Peter chapter 5, he said the devil is as a roaring lion walking about seeking whom he may devour. Well, where is he walking about? Here, in our atmosphere, in this second heaven or or first heaven realm, I should say. All right. Let's keep going here. So, you getting it? Of course, this is uh Luke 10:19 and we're talking about Jesus speaking to his disciples. Now, I believe all scripture is given by inspiration of God is profitable. I believe it all applies to us. There's some people that say, well, see, Jesus was just talking to his disciples. Well, let's look at this. Jesus spoke to them and said, "Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you." Luke 10:19. Now, you know, he's not talking about real serpents and real scorpions. That's not the issue here. He's using these as illustrations of demons, different types of demons, and evil spirits. This is uh an article that's on my website, donald.org, that I wrote a number of years ago. Actually, I've got about 14 chapters of a book on spiritual warfare and deliverance. I just need to finish it, but this is one of the chapters. Spiritual warfare 101 binding and loosing, the whole article is on the website in the articles page, but let's read this passage in Luke, not just verse 19, but let's read this. It says, "And the 70 returned again with joy, saying, 'Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.'" And he said unto them, "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Notwithstanding in this, rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you, but rather rejoice that your names are
written in heaven." I said, "From this passage, it's clear that Jesus gave 70 of his followers, not just the 12. We need to let that sink in." He gave the 70 power and authority over all the power of the enemy, over all the power of Satan. And what he was saying is, "You have such power and authority over the devil that nothing in this spiritual realm can hurt you if you will use that power and authority. Not talking about we won't be persecuted and there won't be Yeah, sometimes the persecution becomes physical. He's not talking about that. He's talking about the spirit A spirit won't be able to hurt you. Again, if you know your power and your authority and you know how to use it. And that's what we're going to be talking about. Now, I wanted to point this out because this is what we have we have churches and Bible schools and Bible you know, college, seminary professors that teach that, you know, this was only for the apostles and after they left that that's no more. But again, I want you to understand Jesus gave 70 of his followers the right to use his name against demons. Notice that this group was not the 12, but the 70. This reveals You see this? This reveals that this power was not just given to the 12 apostles of the lamb, but even to babes as Jesus called them in verse 21. So, if you look at verse 21, he Jesus said, "This is revealed to babes." So, this shows that even a new believer, even an immature believer, even a young believer has been power and authority in Jesus' name against demon spirits, against Satan's power, and the rulers of darkness, and the principalities. Um that's something that I I just don't hear discussed enough when we talk about this. And and you know, this is I I don't know why he says, "Notwithstanding this," he says, "you know, rejoice that your names are written in heaven." Meaning, don't ever let this become override your you know, it's great that they were joyful about this, but don't let this override you know, the fact you've been saved by the blood of Jesus from the kingdom of darkness. That's the most important thing. But, let's look at this Greek word for subject in verse 17. When he said, "The spirits are subject unto you." This is what Jesus said. The word subject here mean is the Greek word hupotasso. And it means to subordinate, to obey, to be under obedience. Uh to be to put under, subdue, to make subject, to put in subjection. So, it's very clear here that what Jesus was telling them that in my name, Jesus said, "In my name, the demons have to submit to you. They have to obey you." Now, let me just go ahead and add this while we're discussing this.
A key to anything working in the kingdom of God is the issue of faith. You have to believe this. You have to believe it in your heart and speak it with your mouth. Meaning, you have to be fully persuaded. Remember it says Abraham was the father of faith and it says he was fully persuaded. Are you fully persuaded? See, I'm fully persuaded because I believe this and I have put this into practice and I witnessed it. The demons are subject to us through the name of Jesus. If we are born again Christian, if we are walking with the Lord, if we have submitted to the Lord, I'm going to show you that in a second, the verses that go with it. But all of that, you know, understood, we must believe they have to obey us. Now, if they don't, if we're in a situation where we're commanding them to leave, to stop some action and they don't, we have to find out why. Because if they don't, there's some kind of legal right they have to be there. There's some kind of either sin or open door or realm of ignorance that has to be dealt with or maybe even just simple unbelief that has to be dealt with that's giving him place. But I've had to explain this to many people. They've said, you know, I I resist the devil and he doesn't flee from me. Um but deep down you can hear in their in their heart and that they just they don't believe that they have been given the power and authority. But remember, Jesus gave this to the 70 that he called babes. Babes. You know, brand new, immature, not full of knowledge and wisdom, hadn't been saved long, hadn't been walking with him long, hadn't you know, hadn't been in the ministry. And they were just they were just like, "Wow, this works." You know? But they believed it. And that's where we got we have to believe it. This right here, this word uh for authority, remember he said, "I give you power." There's two different words in the Greek language for power. Okay? That's that you see in the Bible. One is dunamis and the other is exousia. Dunamis is talking about the miraculous supernatural power uh of the in the spirit realm. It can be this this the supernatural power of God, it can be the supernatural power of the devil. Um but it's power. It's talking about, you know, supernatural power. Exousia is talking about authority. All right? Authority is different. Authority is still power, but it's the right, it's the privilege, it's you basically have been given a position uh where you have it. Uh and I explained it this way and I I love this because I
can't remember, I heard it years ago. And I've shared this before, but uh you know, this will be on your test. But the the example is, like for instance, the Bible talks about that uh basically police officers are in a position of authority. They're the You know, Romans 13 says they're the ministers of God and they bear not the sword in vain. Now, our police officers now, they have a badge and they have a gun. Right? Now, the badge represents the authority that they've been given. Okay? They've been given authority. And usually all they have to do is all you have to do is see the badge and know, "I better respect this authority and I better listen and I better obey." Right? Now, if you don't do that, then what's he got to back it up? The power. The gun. the gun or taking you into custody, grabbing hold of you and putting handcuffs on you. That's the That's the dunamis. That's the power. But he had first has the authority. And that's what we need to understand. Jesus is saying here he's Actually, he's given us both. He's given us the authority because we are Once we're born again, we become the sons and daughters of God. So, we are in a position where we're given the right to use his name and his authority. And then he's also given us the power of his Holy Spirit in us. So, we have both the authority and the power, both the exousia and the dunamis. All right? And that's what this says. This is just the word here so exousia is talking about authority, power, authority to manage domestic affairs, the ability or strength which one is endued, he is either possesses or exercises, the power of authority, influence, the right, the privilege, the power of rule, of government, the power of him whose will and commands must be submitted to by others. So, he's talking about authority. And And this is just something we need to get a hold of that as sons and daughters of God, born again, delivered from the kingdom of darkness, now in the kingdom of light, our sins washed away, we're we're not just, you know, little peasants that God just tolerates. We're his children. And he basically has given us the right and the authority and the power to not be beaten to death by the powers of darkness. But there are many Christians who either through ignorance or rebellion or sin or whatever allow themselves to continually be beaten up and defeated by the powers of darkness. And sadly to say, for a lot of them it's
not their fault. Their pastors, their churches, their Bible schools, or seminaries did not teach them how to fight and stand and resist the devil and get free and make sure the devil doesn't have any legal ground in their lives or foothold, strongholds. All of that we're going to be covering. But anyway, you see that. Now let's look at here as another passage, Matthew 10:1. "And when he had called unto him his 12 disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease." And again, some would say that that was just the 12, but this is the the sister passage to the Luke 10 passage, and he gave this also to the 70. But notice it just says when he called his 12, he gave them power against unclean spirits. That's the first thing he gave them. Pretty important. I mean, I I marvel. I have to say, I just I marvel at churches, at preachers, at pastors, at Sunday school teachers, TV preachers, you know, seminary professors. I just marvel that this is not important to them cuz Jesus, it was obviously important that he he wanted Listen, what what is he conveying here? What is he conveying here? To be a Christian, and especially to be in the ministry, a big part of this is you need to understand you're up against spiritual forces. You're up against demons, devils, principalities, and powers. You're up against these things and I'm going to give you power and authority to fight them yourself, to overcome them, but also to help other people overcome them and get free from them. I mean, this is huge. I remember I remember as a new you know, young believer, fall you know, just reading my Bible and not having a theologian to come along and confuse me and talk me out of it. Just reading this and going, you know, obviously this was a very, very important issue when we're talking about spiritual warfare confronting the forces of darkness. Jesus wants us to have this power and authority. He wants us to understand it. He wants us to use it, put it into practice. So, this is seriously important. And and we should learn how to use this power and authority as effectively and biblically as we can. All right? Here's another one, Mark 16:17. Jesus said, of course this is the passage verse 15 where he says, "Go into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned." And then he said, "And these signs shall follow them that believe." What's the first thing? These signs, supernatural, miraculous, powerful signs that you are a disciple of Jesus Christ. "In my name they shall cast out devils." This should be the first Listen. This is This should be What is it? A sign. These signs shall follow them that believe. What's a sign? He should He could say, "These this supernatural power or this authority will follow them that believe." But why did he call it a sign? He was saying, "My followers you will know them cuz they will have power and authority against demon spirits and the demon spirits will obey them. People will get set free from demons through them." That's why this is important. And again, for those, remember, there's there's Bibles out there with commentaries and stuff that will say that this part of Mark shouldn't be in the Bible, but guess what? In all the ancient manuscripts, this part of Mark, the last nine or 10 verses or whatever they say it's not supposed to be there, in the majority of the ancient manuscripts, this is present. So, for any scholar that says that, they're just already either they're a they're an infiltrator plant from the Jesuits or they are ignorant or they have an agenda because they are biased against the supernatural gifts and power of the Holy Spirit and using the name of Jesus. I remember the one of my pastors that I've mentioned before years ago was Dr. Larry Lee and he he said when he was in seminary at Southwestern Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, probably I think he was there in the early 70s. He said that when it came up to talking about spiritual warfare and demons, that one of his professors, now remember, teaching future ministers of the gospel, one of his professors said that demons were not active in North America. Yeah, that stuff's for Africa maybe, but not here. Now, where on Earth could he get that from the scriptures? I mean, it's it's almost like, "Oh, the American church, we're so saved that we just don't even have to the devil just doesn't even hang out in America anymore. It's such ridiculous things that are taught and I'm thinking about that and and again, just just so you know, that's why the Lord told me years and years ago. I tried when I was a younger man to go off to seminary and Bible school and every time I would try and seek the Lord and even visit schools, the Lord would tell me no no no no no.
And finally he said, I'm going to teach you my way not their way. And I didn't even know fully what that meant until years passed and that's why listen, I was thinking about this driving to class this morning. That's why this this Bible school is really about cutting through all of the just cutting through all of the I don't know, just the theological baloney and unnecessary garbage and getting down to what does it take to live the Christian life? What does it take to help others live the Christian life? That's what's important to me. I want you to be equipped to stand strong yourself in the Lord and to help others. And um and you're only going to do that if you're equipped with the the with the brass tacks, with the truth, with the you know, the bottom line. Here's what's important. And you think about that, if you read the Gospels and you read the book of Acts, what was important? What was what was vitally important? Right? Knowing that you'd repented, Jesus being absolute Lord of your life, you willing to obey him and follow him, being baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit, seeking, desiring, hungering that the gifts of the Holy Spirit would work through you, and having an an your power and authority against the devil and going out and preach to the gospel heal the sick cast out demons demonstrate the power of the blood of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus. That's what we're supposed to do. And if we're not doing that we're we're we're exactly what Paul said would happen in the last days in 2 Timothy 3 when he said that the last days church talking about the last days church or much of it he said would and this is 2 Timothy 3:5 that they would have a form of godliness but they would deny the power thereof. And then he says from such turn away. I mean if you if you go to a church or a Bible school or a seminary and they don't emphasize the need for the power of God in your life and in your ministry for the anointing of the spirit for the gifts of the spirit for casting out demons and healing the sick. He said that's that's that's and that's not me talking. That's a seminary and that's what he's saying these seminaries these churches he's saying they have a form of Christianity. They have a form of godliness. It appears it's Christianity. But they deny reject disavow the power and the word there
is dunamis. They deny they reject they disavow they doubt they cast aside the miraculous supernatural aspects of Christianity which the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit the power and authority to to bind resist and cast out demons and we're going to explain that too as we get into that. I just I've never understood that that that Christianity. I've never understood it cuz you don't you don't get that reading the Gospels or the book of Acts. You just don't get that. Not even reading even if you once you you read into the Epistles and you read into, you know, the book of Revelation. You don't get that the church is supposed to be just academic, just intellectual, just uh you know, uh a teaching of our doctrinal stances and our creeds. Yes, we're supposed to lay the foundation. Yes, we're supposed to preach the foundational doctrines of of Jesus Christ in the church. But we're not supposed to be powerless, empty. And a lot of it has come just just from I I'll tell you what, a lot of it's just come cuz people just want to the the gift of tongues and the baptism of the Holy Spirit is just a stumbling block for so many. It's right there, but they just don't want to yield to that and that cuz that's really kind of the doorway into the supernatural. You know, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I'm not saying I've seen Christians that are not baptized in the Holy Spirit, they still have a power and authority to cast out demons. I've seen them do it. It's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying that it's a nine times out of 10 if they're rejecting that, they're rejecting the whole ball of wax almost, right? Uh but anyway, so these signs shall follow them that believe in my name they shall cast out devils, they shall speak with new tongues. So. And uh that's the verse right there. I just wanted to pull up this is part of the article again. So again, the case can be made that this authority over demons was and is given to all those who believe. Notice that the word of God does not say these signs shall follow some of them that believe. Nor does it say that these signs shall follow just the apostles. All such nonsense is from the devil anyway, but it's amazing how many so-called theologians and preachers have adopted such unscriptural ideas simply because they don't want to appear to be Pentecostal. Others think this way because they don't believe the entire Bible. And yet others are just scared or too proud to admit that they don't know what to do about deliverance and strategic level spiritual warfare. So, that's that's that. Let's look at Acts chapter 19. And we're talking about Jesus said in my name he's to his disciples, his 12 he gave this authority and power to the 70 he
gave this authority and power and we see also now later on he calls the Apostle Paul and Apostle Paul gets saved and baptized in the Holy Spirit and of course yes, the Apostle Paul spoke in tongues cuz he said I speak in tongues more than all of you. So, he wasn't ashamed of it. And he explained why we needed that gift operating our lives. And then he says here, this is Acts chapter 19. Can in just anybody use the name of Jesus or try to take this right or this authority? No, because we have this passage here. Let's read it. God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul. This when Paul was establishing the church of Ephesus. And anyway, he says God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul there in Ephesus so that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons and the diseases departed from them and evil spirits went out of them. Then certain vagabond Jews I don't know today we'd probably call them Hebrew roots people. Certain vagabond Jews exorcists took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits in the name of the Lord Jesus saying, "We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth." And there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jew, 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. To me, this is one of the funniest stories in the Bible. They are They were all stupid up. Huh, Paul does this in the name of Jesus. See, can anybody just take up his name? No. Now, I will give this little caveat, this little exer here. Can an unbeliever, maybe in a desperate situation, they're getting attacked, maybe it is a demo- full-blown demonic attack against them, and they can call out on the name of Jesus and will he deliver them in that moment? Absolutely. Can they then go before, you know, and not get saved and go on and think they can go cast demons out of people? No. The Lord wants anybody to call on his name. But don't think for a second as an unsaved person that you can just use the name of Jesus at will and it's going to always work out good for you. No. God may deliver you in a situation out of just love and mercy, but he wants you to get right. He wants you to become his disciple, a believer, a born-again follower. Um But anyway, I I love this story because it tells you don't play this game. Don't play with the devils and the demons and the fallen angels. Don't play with Satan. Don't even try to use the name of Jesus if you're not in in the in a good place. Because
here's what this says. This is John 1:12. John 1:12 says this, "But But many as received him," speaking of Jesus, many as received Jesus as Lord and Savior, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. And this is something I really, really need to stress. Because, you know, we were we were having dinner with some folks the other night and um anyway, the conversation turned toward how many people um have been around Christianity, think they're Christians, and they've never been born again. They've never experienced the power and that transformation of truly becoming a son or a daughter of God, being changed. And uh uh well, I think it was uh your grandmother was talking about she taught she met a woman who was a pastor's wife and played the piano in church for like 20 years. And listened to her husband preach every Sunday. And finally realized one day, finally clicked, that she was never born again. Think about that. She thought she was a Christian. She played she played the piano in church every Sunday. Her husband was a great Her husband thought she was a Christian. But, she realized she'd never been born again. And this is where a lot of people are. I'm beginning to really realize I think that uh there are a lot of people out there they're convinced, and let me explain this, they're convinced that they're Christians because in their mind they think I have I acknowledge the death, atoning death of Jesus on the cross, or I acknowledge his resurrection, or I I was born into this family. I've gone to church my entire life. I've been to youth group and then now I'm an adult. I've I've been in the choir. I've served in the church. I've done this. I've done that. And I'm a Christian. I believe it. I'm a Christian. But the problem is is that what you believe in your heart and in your mind is only the first step. Jesus said in John 3, "Unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." And Jesus was speaking this to a man by the name of Nicodemus, who was a Pharisee, who was a righteous man according to the law. He was a good man, a decent man, not a sinless man. All had sinned and come short of the glory of God. But but Nicodemus was realizing he was realizing that something was
missing even though he was trying to keep the law. And Jesus started talking about this supernatural experience of being born again. And this is something that I'm going to stress again and again because, you know, Romans 8, Paul said that the spirit of God will bear witness with our spirit that we are children of God. If you have never If you've never even though you may say I'm a Christian or I've been in church all my life. But if you've never had that moment where you know the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit came upon you, filled your heart, and you felt the peace and the love and the forgiveness and the supernatural power, then you're not born again. It's not just what you believe. You see, listen listen this is this I'm just giving you these verses cuz they're not in the PowerPoint this morning. I knew I was going to you know, there'd be verses I cover that I won't be in PowerPoint. But 2 Corinthians 5:17 says this, "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature." The word there is new creation. A whole different species of being. You are transformed. And even the word repentance, even that word in the word transformed in our Bible is metamorphoo, where we get, you know, the picture of the caterpillar completely transforming into the butterfly, something completely different. And that's what he's saying is that there is there was a time you say, "Well, Pastor Dean, if going to church doesn't do it, if serving in the church doesn't do it, if if just believing in Jesus doesn't do it, what do I have to do?" You need to seek him. If you've never had that confirmation, that witness of the spirit, that absolute knowing that you have that he has come in and you have been born again, then you need to seek him until you get that. You need to ask him. And maybe he's trying to pinpoint areas where you haven't surrendered to his lordship. See, just cuz you go to church doesn't mean you've made Jesus Lord of your life. A person that surrendered to Jesus lordship is a person that says, "Lord, my life's over. Whatever you want
now, I do." And so many people know they want Jesus, they want to believe in Jesus cuz they want fire insurance. Well, I want to sign it. Yeah, I'll sign the paper, Jesus, so that I don't have to I won't face your judgment and wrath and I won't face hell, I won't face the penalty for my sins, which is eternal damnation. I Yeah, that. Who wouldn't? So, I'll sign I'll sign the card, Pastor, anywhere you want me to sign it. But do you love him? Have you surrendered to him? Have you been transformed by him? See, I knew a guy, you know, when I was working in construction years ago when I was young. And I started on this new job at this big company. And I met this guy named Barry. And Barry was on the job, man. He He had a He had a wonderful singing voice. Guy could sing. Like a songbird. And immediately I got to, you know, talking to him and hearing him talk about he sang in the choir every Sunday and he was in the choir and he sang lead and specials in the choir every Sunday. I mean, he was he was a singing machine in church. The Holy Spirit, as I began to pray for him, the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, "Barry's not saved. He's not born again." I didn't know anything about him. So, one day I started talking to him about it and I found out that Barry also on Friday and Saturday night was drunk out of his mind every Friday and Saturday night, but he was in church on Sunday morning. Well, when I, you know, and I and a lot of people say, "Well, okay, well, he was just a lukewarm backslidden Christian. He was just, you know, living in the flesh. No, as I questioned Barry, and I started questioning him. And I started questioning like this, and this is important for everybody out our students. You need to listen to this cuz you need to you need to always consider this as a possibility. But I began to explain to him. I said, "Barry, I said, going to church doesn't save you. Singing in the choir doesn't save you. Singing specials doesn't save you. Knowing all the spiritual songs and hymns, none of that saves you. Have you ever had a moment where you asked Jesus to be your Lord and Savior, to forgive your sins, and you said, 'Lord, I'm surrendering to you. I'm giving you my life. I'm going to leave the alcohol. I'm going to leave the immorality. I'm going to leave the sin, and I'm going to follow you and surrender to you.' And And I said, 'And you had the presence of God come in where you felt your heart supernaturally changed by the peace and the power and the love of Jesus Christ, where you encountered him, and you felt completely changed. Have you ever had that happen to you?' He said, "No, I haven't."
I said, "Then guess what? You're not born again. You're not saved." And he admitted it. Yeah. Do you think cuz I think I've seen this in a couple of different churches. Like the power of the music is something that can confuse people into thinking they have the power of God. I mean, music in itself is such a strong spiritual force in a way. Yeah. Well, and for those, you know, they they can't probably didn't hear what you asked, but the question here in class was, you know, do you think that music in church has, you know, tricked people into thinking that they have had an experience or felt that. Yeah, I believe it can but I can believe it can be anything. It not just music, it could be, you know, just a passionate message from a preacher. Um it could be a story a preacher tells that Again, what what we what many people get confused is they get confused between emotions, which is in the soul, and the Holy Spirit's touch, which is in the spirit, and very different, though. Very different. Um and there's a lot of emotionalism in church. And yeah, music can do that. But now, I'll say this. Music that is a truly anointed by the Holy Spirit, God will use to tr- to you know, to touch people and at least to try to move them in the right direction. I've seen that happen a lot. Um but yeah, it That and then again, that is a lot of the problem. And I've seen this both in Pentecostal and non-Pentecostal churches. You know, I mean, remember the old I mean, the Baptist church, man. And God love them. I mean, I got saved. My first encounter with God was in the Baptist church. I'm I'm not a a hater, all right? I know God uses them and moves in the church services, but you know, after 15 stanzas of Just As I Am, you know, maybe something's going on there, right? Maybe there is some pushing and some manipulation. Um I don't think altar calls are wrong, but I think it's a way in you do altar calls. I think you need to make it I think it's just not been made clear. I think the biggest problem is that salvation, true repentance and salvation and surrender to the lordship of Jesus just is not made clear in a lot of sermons and a lot of altar calls, because you really, really have to make it clear. I tell people all the time, saying a prayer is not necessarily going to save you. Um, I know a lot of people that if they come to the altar, they come up forward in churches and services and cry their eyeballs out and go right back to the drugs, sexual immorality, and you know, go right back to their lifestyle. And the issue is what we've told them. I tell people when I give an altar call, it's not what you do today. It's did you mean it?
It's what are you What are you going to be doing tomorrow and next week and next month? Where are you? Have you truly made the decision that Jesus Christ is Lord, master of your life? And if not, you haven't truly surrendered. And see, that's really where most people It's just not clear. We've said, "Oh, believe in Jesus." Right? But remember, even the scripture we use, Romans 10:9, that if you will confess with your mouth, if you will you know, believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead and you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, believe in your heart that God's raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. But think about this, if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, say you're saying, "Jesus, you're my Lord." But you have no intention on obeying him and walking with him and living the way he wants you to live, then you're a liar. Because he's not your lord. You're still lord. Or Satan's still lord of your life. Or the darkness or the flesh is still lord. But there's the There has to be this total surrender to Jesus as Lord it to be born again. And that's what's missing. Remember, Jesus said it himself. He said, "If you don't take up your cross daily and follow me, you cannot have me." I mean, that's That's pretty strong, isn't it? If you will not deny yourself, take up your cross, follow me daily, he said. I say that's one you say you can look at like the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. You can look at that and you can say and here's a guy who thought he was righteous and holy in the law, thought he was perfect, thought he was blameless, thought he was doing God's work. He was persecuting and trying to stop this cult, this new cult, this Nazarene sect following this false Messiah called Jesus. I mean, he thought, "I've got to eradicate this because this is against God. This is against This is a deception." And Saul of Tarsus was a zealous young man going out, "I'm going to persecute this church. I'm going to I don't care if I got to put them in prison. If I got to kill someone, I'm going to stop this deception, this cult." And boom. Jesus appears to him on the road to Damascus there. He appears to him and says, "You know, Paul, it's hard to kick against the pricks. Why are you fighting? Why are you fighting me? Who are you, Lord? I'm Jesus whom you persecute." And but what did Paul say? The moment he realized
You want to know when somebody's changed? Because Paul said, "Lord, what will you have me to do?" See, "I give up today. Everything I planned, everything I worked for, everything I was doing, everything I was going to do, it's over. Lord, what do you want me to do?" He surrendered. And that only way he had that revelation, of Holy Spirit revealed that to him. That true salvation, once he knew, no, Jesus is the Messiah. He is the Lord. He is God. What do you what will you have me to do? That was salvation. All right? But that that that's And that's very important. Because so many I think are being whipped and beaten up by the devil because honestly they're not really born again. They have no power and authority, no right to even use Jesus' name. And um we've always got to keep that in our mind when trying to help somebody. Just cuz they say they're Christian and maybe they're sincerely mean it. Doesn't mean that they are truly born again or truly surrendered to his lordship or ever truly repented and had the supernatural experience of being born again. So, how we look at this, how does Jesus cast out spirits? Well, Matthew 8:16, when even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils, and he cast out spirits with his word. He said something. He spoke something. He commanded them to leave. And and they had to leave. And he healed all that were sick. Now let's look at this. And again, here's here's the thing, just remember, your words are important, but this is really what I was explaining to you right here. James 4:7, before we get into fully into resisting the devil, what does it say here? Everybody quotes this, resist the devil and he will flee from you, right? You hear that in Christianity all the time, but that's not the whole verse. Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Submit. What does submit mean? Obey. Be willing to obey. Be willing to repent. Be willing to confess when you're wrong, your sin. Submit. Are you submitted to God? They said, "Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil." That means to oppose, to fight against, to do something. It's an action. It's not passivity. It's not sitting there and letting the devil beat on your head. It's not sitting there letting the devil
fill your mind with thoughts and images and pictures and ideas that are not of God. You fight. You resist the devil. And he will flee from you. So, there's two conditions before the devil flees. Are you submitted to God, and are you fighting him? Right? Have you punched him in the face? Are you letting him punch you in the face? Right? Let's keep going here. Proverbs 18:21. Death and life are in the power of the tongue. And they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof. Meaning, you're you're going to eat the fruit. You're going to produce a harvest of what comes out of your mouth. Death and life. I didn't write this. This is not a word of faith false doctrine, cuz it's Bible. You hear me? Your words, especially as a born-again believer in Jesus Christ, your words have great power and you can speak things that bring life and you can speak things that bring death. And you need to understand it that words have power. I'm going to back up again. I want you to see this verse here. How did Jesus cast out spirits? He cast out spirits with his word, what came out of his mouth. So very important. Please get this down in you. Everything, listen, the kingdom of God operates by faith. Everything we do without faith is impossible to please God, right? Hebrews 11:6. What is faith then? Hebrews 11:1, faith is substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. How's faith put into practice? Faith without works is dead being alone. So what works do I add with my faith? What I believe, what actions do I put with it to make it real? Well, how did we get saved? We got saved by grace through faith, right? So how did we get saved? We believed the word of God, the truth, the gospel that we were sinners, that Jesus died for us and rose from the dead, that we had to believe that. But we believed it in our heart and what does it say in Romans 10? We confessed it with our mouth. And there he called it the word of faith. Saying, you speak. Well, how do you cast out spirits? You speak to them. You open your mouth and you say things to them. Now we see Jesus doing this when he was being tempted by the devil, Mark 4, Luke
4. We see Jesus speaking. We see him speaking the scriptures when when devil was trying to give him something contrary to what God wanted, the will of God, Jesus would speak the scripture that countered that temptation. But then he also rebuked it. He was like, "Get behind me." Satan, that's a rebuke. That's a get away from me. Um that's speaking. All right? Important lessons here. Now, death and life is in the power of the tongue. They that love it shall eat the fruit thereof. And people that are that that are constantly saying, "I can't. I can't do it. The devil's punching me in the face." Guess what? You're going to get what you what you say. You're going to get He's going to keep doing it. Right? You got to start fighting back. Now here, let's look at this. Now, we're going to get into the the binding and loosing because again, remember, it's saying using your words. I love it when parents tell their kids, "Use your words." Let's read Matthew 16:13-19. Now, I bring this up because again, Bible schools, my brother, two of my converts that I two of my best friends I led to the Lord went to Southeastern Bible College down in Florida, which is the Assembly one of the Assembly of God Bible schools. And they were taught in their Bible school classes, their Assembly of God Pentecostal Bible school classes, mind you, that binding demons was not biblical. That it had to do with just It was talking about forgiveness and unforgiveness. Okay, well, only partially true. Matthew 18 talks about binding and loosing, and it talks about it in the context of forgiving a brother who sinned against you, offended you, a brother or sister, or not forgiving them and binding them up. That is true. But to say that it's not biblical to bind demons or that the binding and loosing teaching of Jesus is not in the context of spiritual warfare as well is a lie. It is an omission. Because the context of Matthew 16, what Jesus is talking about here is spiritual warfare. So, let's read it. Verse 13, Matthew 16:13-19. So, when Jesus came into the coast of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples saying, "Who do men say that I, the son of man, am?" And they said, "Some say that thou art John the Baptist, some Elias or Elijah or others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But whom say ye that I am?" And Simon Peter answered and said, "Thou art the Christ, the son of the
living God." And Jesus answered and said, "And blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church. And what is he talking about? Building his church. And then he says, "And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." So, what is he talking about? Building the church, the gates of hell not prevailing against it, and then he adds verse 19. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." I'm going to tell you right now the heaven he's talking about is right here. The first heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. What are keys? What are keys? I have a key to this church. What does that mean? I have the right, the authority to have access. It gives me access. It doesn't keep me locked out. Right? And it gives So, it gives me the full power and authority to enter this building and to use this building as I see fit. Right? Not everyone has a key to this building. But I've given keys to guess who? People I trust. Right? People who are faithful. But keys represent power. They give us power to what? Open a lock, open a door, crank up a car. You need keys. So, again, why anyone who calls himself a Christian, especially a pastor, or teacher, or professor, why they would ignore this, I don't know. Is it spiritual blindness? Is it purposeful? I guess it's all of the above sometimes. But here he says, Jesus says, "I give unto thee keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." Now, I remember reading this for the first time and going, "You know what? I need to find out what he's talking about." Now, how do we find out when Jesus teaches something or says something or something in the Bible that's like, "Okay, what does this mean, folks?" Well, we go to the other passages that are talking about this. So, let's go to another passage. This is Matthew 12 verses 22 through 28, and then we'll also go to verse 29 in just a second. But let's read this. Then was brought unto him, that is brought unto Jesus, one possessed with a devil, demonized individual struggling.
This person was blind and dumb. And he healed him in so much that the blind and dumb both spake and saw. So, obviously, Jesus cast this demon out of this person and they were healed. And all people were amazed and said, "Is not this the son of David? Is not this the Messiah promised in the scriptures? He's doing things we've never seen done before." And Jesus knew their thoughts and said unto them, "Oh, wait. Verse 24, I skipped to it. But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, 'This fellow does not cast out devils but by Beelzebub, the prince of the devils.'" Oh. Oh, I've had people saying, "Oh, he's at casting out devils and speaking in tongues and praying for healing. That's of the devil." Better be careful. Careful, careful. You're starting to tread in dangerous territory. It says Jesus knew their thoughts and said unto them, "Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand. And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself. How shall then his kingdom stand? And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore, they shall be your judges." And what he was saying here is if I'm casting out demons because I am the chief devil, how are your children, the 70, and the 12 doing it? Cuz there's only one chief devil. How they doing it? But then he tells them how he's doing it. He says, "But if I cast out devils by the spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you." Casting out demons is by the power and authority given to born-again believers by the Holy Spirit who indwells the believer. And that's what Jesus was telling them. No, I have power and authority over the demons, Jesus was saying to the Pharisees. Because the Holy Spirit is in me. I have his power and authority, and I am demonstrating the power of the kingdom of God by casting demons out of people. Oh, I could just preach on this for a while right here. All right. Because this is so important to the kingdom of God. Is getting people saved and delivered from these demons that possess and control and manipulate and ruin their lives and use them as tools. Satan uses people as tools to preach his message and to influence others. So, every person that's unsaved or demonized in some way, Satan's using them. And so, what Jesus is saying here is when I cast demons out of somebody and get them free, then guess what? They're no longer serving They're no longer a tool for the kingdom of dark. And that's that's why this is so
important. Not just in And then, of course, without saying, I mean, it's important for that person to not go through, you know, the torment of having demonic forces control and manipulate their lives. But, verse 29, Jesus said, "If I cast out spirits by the, you know, demons by the spirit of God, the kingdom of God has come unto you." And then he says this, another reference to this binding thing. What is this? Jesus said, "Or else, how can one enter into a strong man's house and spoil his goods except he first bind the strong man, and then he will spoil his house." So, Jesus was telling them, "How do you think I can cast demons out? There has to be some There has to be someone come stronger than the strong man and that can bind the strong man." Now, we have two references. Both in the context of spiritual warfare and casting out demons, deliverance. And he's talking about this binding thing. And notice he said here "Except he first bind the strong man." Do you know that Jesus only used the term first twice in the New Testament that I can find. He said, "Matthew 6:33, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you." And here he said "First bind the strong man, then you can spoil his house." Binding demons is simply done by saying it, speaking it in Jesus' name. It's not hard. It's not a difficult thing to do. I'll read this friend right here and uh I remember reading this years and years ago and going "This can only apply in the in the spiritual context now." But, let's let's look at it. Psalm 149 and we'll talk more about the binding. This uh Psalm 149, I'm just going to read verses 4 through 9. But, you can read the whole Psalm. It's only nine verses, but says here, "For the Lord taketh pleasure in his people. He will beautify the meek with salvation." So, I like this, salvation first, being born again first. Right? "Let the saints be joyful in glory. Let them sing aloud upon their beds." So, praise and worship, the joy of the Lord is our strength. We should worship the Lord and worship and pra- true praise and worship in time of the Lord just a powerful weapon against the devil. And then he confirms that. He says, the high praises of God be in their mouth and a two-edged sword in their hand." What's the two-edged sword we carry now? The word of God, right? The sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. So, let the high praises of God be in our mouth and a two-edged sword in our hand. Let us have the the scriptures and be ready, be sharp.
Why? To execute vengeance upon the heathen and punishments upon the people. Now, listen to this. To bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron, to execute upon them the judgment written. This honor have all his saints. Praise you the Lord. Wait a minute now. Hold on. This honor have all his saints. Does all mean all? I think it means all. So, how would it How does this apply? You put it into a new And we're Listen, everything in the Old Testament must be put into a New Testament context. All right. But, what do we learn from this? We put this into a New Testament context. What are the nobles? What are the kings? The principalities, the powers. It's the spiritual forces. He's not talking about we go out and with a real sword and execute vengeance upon people like the Muslims. No, that's not what we do. It is a spiritual battle. That's why he said, "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against their rulers, their kings, their princes in the spirit realm. We are warriors. We are soldiers to set people free from these forces. And he says, "To bind them." Do you see that? With chains. Now, this is This is probably one of the most important things that you need to learn. If Jesus said to do something first, then it's important. All right? So, whenever I'm dealing with let's just say I'm getting attacked. Everybody gets attacked by demons. We get attacked sometimes physically, we get attacked mentally, emotionally. Let's say we're getting attacked. We're getting attacked. We're We're supposed to be joyful in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice, right? You've heard the song. That's a verse in Philippians 4. Rejoice, right? So, we're not supposed to be depressed and beat down and heavy and you know, the sun shining outside and we think it's a cloudy day. And it's just not supposed to be We're not supposed to live that way. Now, we're going to have ups and downs. I'm not saying that, but we're not supposed to live that way. But let's just say we're being attacked by what the Bible calls the spirit of heaviness. And we've been attacked and David talked about being oppressed by the enemy. All right? So, we're being heavily oppressed. We just feel I don't know if anybody ever had days like this where you just feel like death warmed over. You feel like, you know, it'd be a relief if you would just die, right? And it's just And it it's weird cuz it's nothing going wrong. It's just like a cloud of darkness settles in on it, right? The first time I remember the first time I learned this, I was having one of those days. And I mean I'm talking about I felt like a weight like I felt like a dark cloud
was around my head. I felt like weights were all over me. I felt so depressed, so discouraged, so down, so despairing and there was absolutely no reason for it whatsoever. I wasn't living in sin. I wasn't rebelling against God. I was in fact I was spending more time in prayer and fasting in the word than ever at that time in my life. And I mean I mean just darkness, you know, just Anybody know what I'm talking about? Y'all know what I'm talking about? I know sometimes you wake up and it's there to greet you in the morning. But I remember this kind of lingered for a few days. And remember, I'm still fairly new. I'm 19 years old. I'm still learning these things. And I think I read a I had a little thin book series that I read. It was from Kenneth E. Hagin. And it was just he had like a these little thin books. They were, you know, normal size, but they were really thin. Basically, his sermon, you know, like a sermon in a that they transcribed into a book. But it was a series of four of them just on demons. I remember I sat down and I read those cuz you could read them all, four of them, in like, you know, an hour. So. And I really sit down and read that and I'm, you know, while I'm having this attack. And then and he was talking about bind those demons and command them to stop their maneuvers in Jesus' name and command them to leave you. I was like, "Why haven't I done this?" And I said, "In the name of Jesus, I bind you demon spirits of heaviness and depression and despair and darkness. I bind you in Jesus' name. I break your power off of me in Jesus' I command you to stop your maneuvers against and go from me in Jesus' name." Guess what? Every bit of it lifted off of me. It was like somebody taking, you know, a 100-lb backpack off my back. And it's like all that cloud of heaviness and depression and despair left. And man, I was like, "Wow, the sun is shining. Wow." I felt spiritually like this massive load lifted off. And it was like the Lord was like showing me, "Don't let them do this to you." Because think about it, if the devil can control how we feel, our mind and emotions, and especially with despair and depression, and doubt, and fear, and anxiety, and things like that, we allow that, guess what? The things we allow that how we feel and how we think and we meditate on thing is how we will act. So, the devil knows if I can get them into certain frame of mind and emotions, then I can get them to act the way I want them to act. This is how he leads people to commit suicide. It's a process. It's this process of
meeting them every day with this heaviness and despair and hopelessness and all these feelings that are not It's not And And for some people, it's not even, you know, everybody has good days and bad days and good things and bad things and aggravating things that happen in their life. But when people get this, you know, to the point that like, I don't want to live. I'm just miserable. And they don't even know why. And of course, now what they do is they run to the doctor, they run to a psychologist or psychiatrist, and they give them these pills and make it even worse. Right? Now they Now they stepped over into sorcery trying to help them, and sorcery doesn't help you. And so, instead, they don't understand they're in a spiritual battle. And in Jesus' name And I'm talking to Christians. There are Christians on psychotropic antidepressants out there like you wouldn't believe. Pastors and pastors' wives Pastors now are committing suicide like crazy across across the world. It's It's unbelievable. And you usually find out what? Pastors get attacked. So, just you wouldn't believe it. If you If you're at all a true born-again pastor, you get bombarded by evil forces, Satan's forces, demons. If you don't know how to fight and you don't resist, you will not stand. But running to the world to psychologists and psychiatrists and especially to any kind of antidepressant psychotropic drug that's going to mess with your your brain chemistry is is really just complete stupidity. It really is. And I mean I'll just give this quote. I did this a while back but Dr. Dr. Peter Breggin who's not even a Christian, he's a Harvard graduate psychiatrist. He's been in practice since the '60s. He is an expert witness in court cases. He is an expert on psychotropic medication and all the side effects that they hide from you and tests and trials that they hide from you. But this man said and I quote, he said no one for any reason at any time should take any type of antidepressant psychotropic drug. And his thing was if you if psychiatrists and psychologists got just got back to having compassion for people and love for people instead of wanting to just quickly write a prescription and move to the next person so they can keep getting more money. He said if you just sit down and spend time with the person and show true compassion and concern and talk with them about their problem, he said there's a greater and this is just in the secular world. He said there's a greater success rate in helping people with their emotional problems by just talking with them versus writing a prescription for these pills. And he says all of these pills, all of these medications do brain damage and
shrink brain tissue. And some of them are going to cause permanent not just not just brain damage but emotional. He said some of them even cause what he calls a chemical lobotomy, which will change a person's personality completely, physically change it over time. So, what I'm getting at is we need to understand, and this is why we need to we need to be equipped with this cuz we've got to teach people at least teach Christians they should Christians should know the truth of how to bind these demons, especially depression, heaviness, despair, hopelessness. Even thoughts of suicide are demonic. It's demonic manipulation. Anyone talking about suicide is under demonic oppression, maybe even possession. And it's serious. All right? And they need to learn how to fight in Jesus' name because it is that's the battle. But this battle comes to us, and I'm talking about as Christians, can come as fear, anxiety, torment, confusion. There can be attacks of lust, um temptation in that area. Um that's a big one. And you you these spirits are going to come and attack your mind. They will even attack you Listen, spirits of lust won't just attack your mind, but they'll attack your physical body and make you want to feel you'll feel like, you know, the temptation. You'll feel it. You've got to fight those things off. And I mean especially men. That's just you know, women have their their issues, and I'm not saying women still deal with lust, men deal with lust, but it's stronger with men than with women. Um but you have to bind the spirits. The Bible talks about the spirit of whoredoms, the spirit of perversion, a perverse spirit. And then, you know, people say, "Well, Pastor Dean, how do I know what to call these spirits?" Listen, just call it for what it's doing. Remember Jesus, they brought Jesus a deaf and dumb a boy that was deaf and dumb. And what did he say? You deaf and dumb spirit come out of him. It's not confusing. Woman with a spirit of infirmity. Bent over with a with a disease, some kind of arthritic type disease. What did he say? You spirit of infirmity loose her, go from her in Jesus' name. You see what I'm saying? It's It's not complicated. You getting attacked by a spirit of lust. Let's say it's a married man and he's being tempted he's feeling this this, you know, desire to, you know, or or feeling tempted with a woman at work or something that's not his wife. All he needs to do is in Jesus' name, I'm binding these demon spirits of adultery. I'm binding these spirits of lust. I'm binding these spirits of whoredoms. I'm binding them in Jesus' name. I rebuke them in Jesus' name. I command them to go from me. So, well, Pastor Dean, what if it doesn't go the first time I resist? Then do it again. And do it again and do it again. You
say, I don't care. Do it Do it until you win. You know, you get in a boxing ring. You say, well, Pastor Dean, what if I don't knock him out the first time I hit him? Then keep hitting him. You understand? YOU KEEP FIGHTING until you win. You don't give up. You don't go, I punched one time. I hit one jab and it didn't knock him out. You're not much of a fighter then. You got to fight. This is a fight Listen, this is a fight to the death. Cuz you see what Satan wants to do is he wants to get you back in sin. He wants to get you back in the things that will destroy you. Separate you from God, destroy you. That's his goal. That's his goal for every person to keep the unsaved separated from God and in destructive behaviors that will influence others and then destroy them and put them in hell. And then he wants the believers to be deceived, fall back into sin, the practice become to become a slave to sin and in bondage to it again until even when they die. And yes, I don't believe in eternal security no matter how you live. It's not Bible. You can be a believer and you can fall away. You can listen to the devil and you can fall away back into sin and live in habitual sin and rebellion and end up in hell. That is a fact. Uh we've covered that last semester thoroughly. But you have to bind these spirits. You have to fight them in Jesus' name. Binding I saw I saw a little meme. Of course, this is someone trying to mock, but I saw a little meme of where somebody said, "Well, if you bind the devil, how who keeps loosening him?" Okay, understand something here. Unless Binding demons, binding Satan and his power. These are temporary stoppages or however you want to put it. These are temporary things. For instance, you you you don't It's not like you bind the demon and that's it forever. Because what happens is is over time this is just a temporary suspension of whatever the devil's doing against you or against someone you're praying for at that moment. That's why you have to do it frequently and from time to time because it wears off. I remember and I'll share this story. I remember years ago listening to a tape series and this was in the late 80s, right? Tape series by this preacher name, I think his name was Howard Pittman. And I'm not saying I don't even know what all the guy believes. I don't know anything about him beyond this. I just listened to this little series he had on spiritual warfare and he had the the Lord gave him this vision and I believe this is true.
And the Lord gave him this vision and he saw this huge like conference table and he saw the devil, he knew it was the devil sitting at the head and these principalities and powers, these evil princes around this table and he said they were of course discussing strategies and their plans against different Christians and different churches and in different regions and they were discussing all this stuff and he said but what the Lord began to focus in on him was began to show him was it's it's like he moved him closer to where Satan was sitting and he saw Satan sitting there with all these gold chains wrapped around. Now he's still taking care of business, he's still doing his business. But he said all of a sudden he'd see a gold chain appear, a new one, fresh he like it was like glowing with light and he said in this chain would appear and wrap around him. He said but then he'd see other chains that were on him disappear, fall off. And so he said Lord, what is that? What is the chain wrapping around him? He said that's a Christian exercising their authority against him. Binding him in Jesus name. And he said Lord, what what's the chains falling off? He said that's Christians that's lost their faith in it and don't do it anymore. And he said he saw these chains on these different ones. Now here's an interesting story. This was again my pastor in Texas when I was out there in Rockwall, Texas. He started a church, Church on the Rock in Rockwall, Texas. He started that church in um January of 1980 and I think the initial group of people is about 70 people he said started in meeting in a house." And you know, God blessed them and they began to grow and everything. So, they moved They finally moved in and they started meeting, I think, in a in a high school gym and then Uh anyway, he said, "I don't know how big the church was, maybe a thousand people by that time." Which is That's a big That's a good size church. And you know, Pastor Larry, he preached the word. I mean, I I give him credit. He preached the word. He had a deliverance ministry in the church. Uh Uh he had an anointing on him, but he said that he was in a time of prayer and intercession in the church sanctuary that they had built, I think, this the first church they built. And he's in the sanctuary and he's praying. And he was a man of prayer. And he was praying. He's walking back and forth, he said, in the in the altar area, in front of the pulpit, back and forth. And he said that he would He started learning this principle of binding the principalities and powers. So, he said, "I was binding the principality and power over Rockwall, Texas, and that region in Jesus' name." And he said, "As I was walking back and forth doing that with all my might." And he was a loud Texan.
He said, "This big, huge demon spirit appeared, this principality." He said he was standing on one side of the altar sanctuary holding He said, "And he's holding a big chain in his hand." He said that big principality, I believe, a fallen angel standing there holding that chain in his hand. And and Larry's binding him and commanding Also commanding him to loose the people that need to be saved in that area. He said that spirit spoke to him and said, "Do you mean that?" About commanding him to let go of the people in that region, binding him and rebuking him. And uh Larry said, "At first I was startled and fear tried to come on me." And then he said, "Then the Holy Spirit rose up in me." He said, in his Texas draw, "You mighty right, I'm in it." He said, "And I ran after him." He said, "I chased him right out of the church in Jesus' name." He said, "I saw him drop the chain though as he left." He said, "At that altar, right there, where that little battle took place, in 1 year from that moment, they had 3,400 people come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior." In 1 year. And he'll tell you right now, it's because of that battle he won in the spirit, in prayer, in spiritual warfare, understanding binding and loosing. He was binding the principality that was controlling people and commanding those principalities and powers of Satan to loose and let go of the people. Remember, and let's go go to put up uh if you would 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Here, let me turn there. 2 Corinthians chapter 4, it ought to be a familiar verse to you, verse 3. He says, "But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." Let me tell you this story and I'm going to quit for the day. The power of binding. When people People are blinded, Satan has people in chains. He has people bound. He has people blinded. All right? And that's why they don't see the gospel. You think well, you know, did you did you believe the gospel? Did you get saved the first time you heard it? For most people, no. Why? Because there's this demonic
blindness. There's this demonic resistance and block to your mind your heart's blinded by Satan, by demonic power. So, that's why we have to pray for people. The reason we have to pray for people, people have a free will. They choose to follow Jesus or not. But, most of them are blinded and bound and held back from even seeing or understanding or actually hearing and understanding the gospel of Jesus Christ. So, when we pray for them, we're praying that God will shine his light in their hearts. But, we also understand that Satan's involved, so we need to bind Satan, rebuke him, and and command him to loose people, and go from people, and then and to release their eyes and their heart so they can see, right? So, this happened with my own mother. Um and I've told this story many times, but it's powerful because my brother and I it hadn't been long since we had read uh you know, your assignment, he came to set the captives free, and prepare for war, you know, the two books by Dr. Rebecca Brown about spiritual warfare, about deliverance. So, anyway, we're We We had read those books, and we're watching One night I was visiting. I was already moved I was grown, and I already moved out of my mom's house, and so, but I was visiting. And my brother and I it was a Friday or Saturday It was a Saturday night. That's right. My brother and I were watching some Christian TV, some preacher on TV. I don't even remember now who it was. And my mom and my stepdad had gone out drinking that night and came in and you know alcohol makes you more crazy than you are. That's why you don't need it. And they came in cussing and fussing us out cuz I get you know just the Holy Spirit just the conviction. We're watching someone preaching speaking God's word and they're living in sin and drunk and So they just I mean you want to talk about yelling, screaming, cussing, fussing I mean it got heated in there. We started telling them about Jesus and we started telling them this and that. And it just escalated to the point that my step dad went and got a gun out of the closet and came and pointed it at That's where it got to. All right. And that wasn't the first time he did that. Uh but anyway, long story short we finally he was so drunk that he finally just went back in his room and passed out in the bed. All right. And um My mom was in the kitchen. I I had gone down the hallway and I was coming back and my mom was in the kitchen and I could hear her just going off on my brother. I mean just letting him have it. All right. Cussing, fussing And I felt sorry for him cuz he still had to live there. All right. I was I was I was out of the house. He was uh 16 or 17 years old. And he had read this book. So he knew
and he said it just dawned on him that that wasn't his mother. That that was a demon that was blinding her and controlling her. And he just let it rip man. He said while she's screaming at him, "I bind those demons in you in Jesus' name." And I come in and shut them out. He said she looked like somebody slapped her across the face. Just stunned. So then all of a sudden she got quiet. And she sat down at the table, and I walked in, and I heard that, and I saw her completely calm down. And we talked to her peacefully for the next hour or so about how God had changed our lives and shared the gospel with her. And so, but she didn't accept the Lord that that moment, that evening. But I felt as I prayed for I stayed up most of the night praying for her. And I told my my stepdad got up and went to work. I told my brother and sister to go on and go to church that I was going to stay home and talk to Mom. And so, when everybody left I sat down with Mom, and I talked to her for another couple of hours, and she prayed with me that day, and she was born again that day. Because I even later asked her, "Mom, when were you born again?" I even checked with her before she passed away. And she said "That day you prayed with me was when I felt the Lord come into my heart and change my life, and and she died ready to go to heaven. And what I'm getting at is is that I think it was a tremendous key to her getting free was binding the demons and rebuking them and commanding them to to release her and to loose her mind and so she could see and hear really hear what we're saying. See, she she grew up with some she grew up with some uh hypocrisy, and she grew up with some I think too strict uh Pentecostalism that's out there, you know. And so, in her mind, she just had an some negativity about what the what the gospel meant, what Jesus meant. And um but I can tell you this, that believe I don't believe she would have ever listened to us had we not dealt with the spiritual forces of Satan blinding her mind and keeping her from seeing the gospel. So, this is so vitally important. It's so vitally important uh even even if you're not going to be a pastor or uh five-fold ministry prophet, apostle, evangelist, pastor, teacher, even if you're not called to those things, but you're still called to be a witness, you're still called to set the captives free. So, understand Jesus said first bind the
strong man, and you do that by saying it in Jesus' name. And just name the devil. Whatever he's doing, you know, if somebody's coming at you with a knife, you can bind them and rebuke them in the name of Jesus, the spirit of murder, death, violence. I've had people coming at me with knives. All right, guns. I've been shot at. So, I know there's power. We have great power and authority. There's testimonies of people being attacked and speaking the name of Jesus and rebuking Satan in the face of of even violence and making it through it because of that. So, um anyway, let's let's stop here and let's pray this morning. And your assignment's going to be to finish He Came to Set the Captives Free by Rebecca Brown and start uh the sequel Prepare for War. Very important that you get through these books and you will be tested on some stuff in these books. So, be sure you read them. Don't just say you're reading them. It will become evident if you do. All right, let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for today. We thank you, Lord, for uh all of our students. Lord, those here, those uh online, those watching and listening live, those who will watch and listen later. We ask you to bless them. We ask you, Lord, to give them your wisdom and revelation and understanding. And Lord, let these scriptures and this truth truly, God, become part of their lives, part of their everyday Christian life. And Lord, we pray and we ask that and we bless them in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. Class dismissed.