Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Father, we thank you that we've not gathered around a series of good ideas today. We've gathered around truth.
[00:00:09] Truth that has withstood the changes of our world.
[00:00:15] Truth that sometimes flies in the face of the wisdom of this world, and truth that is unmovable, unshakable, and on which we can build our lives with security.
[00:00:29] So we ask that as we look at Your word today, that you will cause our hearts and our minds and our spirits to be fully open and alive to Your truth. I pray in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:00:45] Well, we're continuing our series on the church in the book of Acts. Warning, highly flammable church. It was a church that was on fire, a church that didn't just have some novel thoughts to contribute to society. It was a church that was buzzing. It was a church that changed those. It touched, transformed communities, and as we know, has gone on to transform the communities right across the globe. The gospel is advancing. God is on the throne, and God is doing wonderful things. And we're going to look at Acts chapter eight this morning. I'm going to read from verse four to eight.
[00:01:27] We read this last week and I'm going to pick out a few words and ask this morning what these mean. Let's look together. Acts, chapter eight, verses four to eight says so those who were scattered, you remember there was persecution the previous week. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, had been killed for his faith. And Saul was arresting people, going door to door, pulling people out of their homes and imprisoning them. So the church was scattered and they went on their way, not hiding, but preaching the word of God. I pray that if ever you're scattered for your faith, that you will go not with fear and tears, but with the word of God alive in your heart and pouring out of your souls.
[00:02:17] Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah to them. The crowds were all paying attention to what Philip said, and they listened and saw the signs he was performing. This is what I want to concentrate on today. For unclean spirits crying out in a loud voice came out of many who were possessed and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed. So there was great joy in that city.
[00:02:54] I want to draw your attention to that verse seven. For unclean spirits were crying out with a loud voice and they came out of those who were possessed.
[00:03:06] I'm reminded of a quote by the famous author and apologist C. S. Lewis. He said this there are two equal and opposite errors into which we can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence, and the enemy celebrates someone who thinks that. The other is to believe and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.
[00:03:39] As we look at the topic of unclean spirits, of demons, of evil spirits, this morning. I want us to bear in mind C. S. Lewis's warning not to become obsessed.
[00:03:54] We're going to lean in with intrigue, but we're not going to lean in with that unhealthy interest this morning because they are real and we need to acknowledge and understand them. And I'm going to ask some really practical questions. And I'm going to invite your inquisitive minds to lean in because we're going to look at some questions, some of which I can't answer today, not because I'm going to run out of time, but simply because the Bible doesn't give us answers. And then there are other things that I'm going to ask. I'll tell you where I'm going. Can Christians have demons? And if so, how do we get rid of them?
[00:04:33] But let's look before we look at some of the things that we're not sure on. So, for example, the first question we're going to look at is what are demons or unclean spirits or evil spirits? What are they? And another question linked to that where did they come from?
[00:04:55] They're interesting questions, aren't they?
[00:04:58] Well, before we look at those questions, let's look at what we definitely know about them, because there are some things we're about to venture into that we cannot confirm. But what we do know is that they are evil. We know that they are opposed to the purposes of God, and we know that they take their orders from Satan.
[00:05:20] What we're less clear on is where they came from.
[00:05:27] That's an interesting question.
[00:05:30] And on this there are a few different thoughts. Primarily, I'm going to look at two different thoughts today, and I'm not going to tell you which are the right and which are the wrong. I'm going to give you some of the background as to why good people have made conclusions for one of these two to be their belief or their conviction. And I'm going to invite you to just listen and to maybe explore what you think. But we're going to look at something beyond that that's even more interesting. But where they came from.
[00:06:02] There is no doubt that the Bible talks about demons and it talks about them not in a figurative sense. It's not a sense of there's an evil in the world, there's people who do not very nice things. These are literal declarations of real existing powers and forces that we call demons. They manifest as evil in the world. They're referenced literally, and there are two main thoughts to their origins. One of them is that they are fallen angels and the other is that they are and you're going to think, well, what is this all about?
[00:06:43] Because you may have not heard some of these words before, even though they're in the Bible, some believe that they are disembodied spirits of the Nephilim. Nephilim? Who are they? Where do they live? Do they live in Wales somewhere?
[00:06:55] Well, let's look at both of these thoughts. Let's just explore them for a few minutes. The first thought is that they are fallen angels. And this really comes from some verses in the Book of Revelation. Revelation, chapter twelve, verses seven to nine says this and war broke out in heaven.
[00:07:15] Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back, but they were defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. The great dragon was thrown down, the ancient serpent who is called the Devil, and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world, he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
[00:07:44] Then if we go back to verse four, just a few verses before we read this, his tail, the dragon, swept the third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. So what we are reading here is that Satan attempted a coup, there was a battle, he was defeated and he was cast down from heaven along with his rebellion, his coup of a third of the angels. We read in Luke, chapter ten, verse 18, jesus said, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. If you in any way in your life think that there's a battle that is equal, I want you to know that there is a battle, but that Jesus has already won.
[00:08:35] He's victorious. There's no doubt about this. This isn't the toss a coin moment. This is not depend on how you feel. This is not what's happening in the world. This is true. This is victory that has already been secured and won because of Jesus'death and resurrection.
[00:08:54] Satan and his rebels are created beings.
[00:09:00] They are not divine, but they are created.
[00:09:04] Satan, although he has power and is powerful, he is nowhere near as powerful as God.
[00:09:15] But Satan is antiGod and absolutely defeated. Colossians two, verse 15. I'm going to read from the amplified version because it unpacks. A little bit further. It says, when he, Jesus had disarmed the rulers and authorities hear that word, disarmed. You know what disarmed is? The removal of their weaponry and their power. When Jesus had disarmed the rulers and authorities, those supernatural forces of evil operating against us, he then made a public example of them, exhibiting them as captives in his triumph, in his triumphal procession, having triumphed over them by the cross.
[00:10:06] So from these verses, people, some will say the demons are the third of the fallen angels, the rebels that were rejected from heaven, those defeated foes that roam the earth today. Then there are others who say that the demons are the disembodied spirits of the Nephilim. Now, this is a little bit more technical, but I don't want to skirt this. I want to help us understand what the Bible is saying. Because the Nephilim are mentioned in the Bible a few times. We first read them in Genesis, chapter six. Let's look at this together. Verses one to five.
[00:10:43] When mankind began to multiply on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of mankind were beautiful and they took yes, this is in the Bible. And they took any they chose as wives for themselves.
[00:11:04] And the Lord said, my spirit will not remain with mankind forever because they are corrupt. Their days will be 120 years. The Nephilim were on the earth both in those days and afterward when the sons of God came to the daughters of mankind who bore children to them. Anybody seen this before?
[00:11:28] They were the powerful men of old. The famous men. When the Lord saw that human wickedness was widespread on the Earth, and that every inclination of the human mind was nothing but evil all the time, the Lord regretted that he had made man on Earth, and he was deeply grieved.
[00:11:51] If you've got a physical Bible open, you might see this is around the narrative of a flood.
[00:11:58] What we're reading here.
[00:12:00] Not the Son of God. The sons of God us. Another description to angels. It appears that there was a crossing over of a divine order.
[00:12:10] There was a crossing over of those things that were made the angelic realm and those things that were made on the earth. And the angels stepped over that boundary and they began to have relations with women on the earth. And then there were children that were born.
[00:12:35] Might sound like fiction, but the Bible includes this for a reason.
[00:12:43] Then when the offspring of this mating between the angelic and the human when these offspring died, they weren't subject to the same judgment as humans or angels because they were another sort of breed. And therefore they roam the earth as disembodied spirits seeking to find people, to find refuge in. This is what those who would believe that demons come from this source are the nephilim. There are all sorts of things. There's not a lot of writing about it, but there are numerous references, and some will talk about the giants in the scripture. The most famous of those being goliath over 9ft tall that there was descendency from the nephilim. I don't know. I wasn't there. I'm not old enough.
[00:13:35] But we're just piecing together little bits of information.
[00:13:39] Some extra biblical writing, particularly some that was found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. See, there are a number of books that have interest in them. Number of scrolls that have been found. For example, the Book of Enoch. But it's not in our 66 books in the Bible because it's been decided that it's not divine, that it might have interesting things, but we can't take it as absolute truth in the same way we can take the Bible. And in some of that extra biblical account, there was a reference or there are references to demons being the descendants or the disembodied spirits of the Nephilim. There Have Been Good And Learned People who have concluded some that they are the third of the fallen angels, others they're the disembodied spirits of the Nephilim. I don't know and I don't really care.
[00:14:30] And I've just spent twelve minutes telling you something about something that I don't know and I don't really care. And the reason for it is wherever they come from, God is on the throne and he is all powerful.
[00:14:50] But in a world that is obsessed with if I can't touch it, feel it, then it can't be real. I wanted just to unpack some of the explanations that some have given for the presence of these in the world. And I'm seeking to make this a very biblical foundation today because I could have talked about experiences, because I've been involved in many occasions where I've been having the privilege and the joy of evicting demons from people's lives and seeing people walk in freedom afterwards. I could have shared those stories. But I want us not to talk about my stories. I want to talk about the Bible. And the Bible says that Jesus is all powerful.
[00:15:36] Let's look on a little bit further. Let's ask some other questions. How do demons impact people? Well, in the Bible we read several ways that demons impacted the people when they were in their presence. For example, we read that Satan himself even is a tempter. He tempted. Even jesus. And by the way, temptation is not a sin. Temptation is something that comes to our life and it's how we deal with it. It's our response to it that decides whether it becomes sin or not. But the devil is called a tempter. Now, I want you to know as well, the Bible teaches that not all temptation comes from Satan. Sometimes we blame Satan for stuff that's not his issue. He's taken credit for stuff that he's had nothing to do with. Because the Bible says in James, chapter one, verse 14, it says that we can be tempted by our own evil desire.
[00:16:35] Demon and Satan may have been nowhere near us, but there's a corruptness in our own life that's come from the fall. And that corruptness sometimes can be where the engine of our temptation can come from. But certainly one of the impacts of the demonic is they tempt people.
[00:16:54] Secondly, we read that demons can affect people with sickness. Physical, mental, spiritual sickness can result from the presence of demons. Now, not all sickness or mental disorders or spiritual issues are demonic, but we read of numerous occasions in the Bible when Jesus was confronted by someone who was sick or someone who was mentally challenged in some way in their life. And we read that Jesus cast out a demon and then they were healed and they were free. But please note that people were also healed of physical sickness in the Bible and no demon was ever mentioned.
[00:17:35] So someone came a few years ago and they made a declaration that all certain sicknesses are demonic? No, they're not. I don't believe that. I believe they have their origins in the work of Satan in the earth.
[00:17:52] But there's sickness within the world, in this corrupt world. And so to assume that a sickness is demonic is assumptive, problematic, deeply unpassoral, and I would say unwise.
[00:18:13] But to not acknowledge that some sickness is demonic is equally unwise.
[00:18:21] Also, we notice that demonic activity in people's lives as well as sickness it creates or can create destructive patterns, addictions and behaviors. We see Jesus set him free, the demoniac in the Gospels who lived this savage life that no one could come close to him. And Jesus set him free. And it said that the community could not recognize. They were amazed at the difference in this man. And he hadn't been on a self help program. He hadn't been through any therapy. He hadn't done CBT. Nothing wrong with all of those things. But he had been released from demonic oppression in his life and it transformed him. So let me ask a question. How do demons get into lives?
[00:19:08] Well, demons enter through doorways the same way as you came in here this morning. If you came in through a window, well done.
[00:19:17] You came in through a doorway. And demons enter our lives through doorways. So it's important that we understand what doorways that they enter through.
[00:19:28] Demons will not warn people before that doorway is opened. They won't tell them about the consequences. They won't show them the terms and conditions of their arrival. They'll just sneaky. Sneaky come into our lives through deception. And they will begin, when in lives to begin to move the furniture around, to be as antigard as they possibly can. They will try to destroy, take away life, take away joy.
[00:19:56] Now, the doorways, there are many that I could list. I'm going to give you some examples.
[00:20:02] For example, one of the most obvious would be involvement in the occult.
[00:20:08] Now, that's not just Ouija boards or becoming a witch or having some deep fascination with black magic in your life. Those are things like astrology.
[00:20:19] If you read your star signs, then I encourage you to stop.
[00:20:25] Don't, don't open that doorway because it's the Lord who knows your future.
[00:20:31] If I had more time, I could teach about stars in the heavens and how those things, they declare the glory of God, they don't declare the individual consumeristic dangerous. Doorways that can open ourselves up to the demonic spiritism.
[00:20:50] It wasn't your dead relative that spoke in that spirited meeting. It was the deceiver.
[00:20:58] It was a doorway that was open to a spiritual realm that pretends to be comfort but is actually danger.
[00:21:09] You see, he's sneaky. They're sneaky other doors that open is yield into temptation mentioned that they whisper temptation. Or maybe the temptation comes from within ourselves. But when we yield to it and we begin to live out that which we're tempted by, it opens a door. Lingering and entering into the subject of temptation is sin. Sin is antiGod. It takes us further away from him and it takes us closer to the enemy within our lives.
[00:21:44] Then other doorways. Now this. Maybe you're sitting here and think, I've never been involved in the occult, I've never read my stars, I've not done these sort of things. I'm pretty strong against temptation. But what about this?
[00:21:57] Speak in curses over yourself.
[00:22:00] Oh, I'm no good, I'm not as good as other people. Well, I'm sorry, but when we say things like that, we're actually calling God a liar.
[00:22:11] We're saying, when God says, I'm fearfully and wonderfully made, we're saying, no, we're not.
[00:22:18] And that opens a doorway in our lives, not just the confession of our mouth, but even the thought of agreeing with such statements and curses over our lives. It opens the door potentially to the demonic. And then I'm going to look at this a little bit more in a few minutes time. But past generations opening the doorway and it being passed down the family line, that's a bit of a complex one. We're going to look at that now.
[00:22:51] Can unclean spirits really be passed down generations?
[00:22:57] There's a number of verses I could pick on. I think the one I've got for the screen is Exodus 34, verses six to seven.
[00:23:04] Yes.
[00:23:06] Says this the Lord passed in front of him, that being Moses, and proclaimed the Lord. The Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth, maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations forgiving iniquity rebellion and sin, but he will not leave the guilty unpunished, bringing the consequences of the father's iniquity on the children and grandchildren to the third and the fourth generation.
[00:23:41] Some will jump on that and say, see, there can be evil passed down the generations.
[00:23:47] But let's look at some of the context of how these would have been understood when God spoke these things to Moses. Often multi generations lived in the same I was going to say house might have been tent in the same living quarters.
[00:24:05] So if the grandfather or the great grandfather was caught stealing and then was subject to law and arrested or lost his hands as part of the punishment of that community for his error, for his sin, for his rebellion, that then meant that he was no longer able to work and contribute to the family. And therefore all four generations experienced the consequences of that great grandfather's sin.
[00:24:44] So that's part of the context. They would have had no issue in understanding that there are multigenerations linked together and consequences experienced by one generation are passed on naturally to others.
[00:24:58] But if we add to this the propensity that family can also have poor habits, they pass on ways of living, practices that we have thought patterns that we develop.
[00:25:11] I sometimes see that poverty, the thinking of poverty, can be passed on generationally because you grew up around someone, that's how they saw the world. And we begin to interpret the world in a similar way because these things can be passed on in the natural I wonder whether things can be passed on in the spirit. It's quite obvious that future generations can face consequences of past generations way of living. But can this be true of evil spirits being passed down the family line? Are you still with me this morning?
[00:25:48] This is more of a teach than a preach and I hope the subject is intriguing enough without all the illustrations I'd normally give to try to cause your heart to want to lean in.
[00:26:02] I've been in numerous prayer times with others when I've sensed the Holy Spirit reveal something about past generations in someone's life.
[00:26:16] There are times when I've sensed I've had a word of knowledge, that there has been some witchcraft that has been opened up in past generations or maybe family members have been involved in things like freemasonry. And there's a word, nothing's come out in conversation. There's a sense of a discernment, a prompt of the spirit, and when you speak it out, I've seen numerous times there's a reaction there's, something happens.
[00:26:44] And so even though there are other ways of interpreting these verses, I would say for me that, yes, I do believe that things can be passed down the family line. Evil spirits can be passed down the family line.
[00:27:02] And I've seen moments where that reaction to that word has been weeping or it's been a crying out or it has been a resonance in their spirit. Just, yeah, I know that's right. I don't know the story about my granddad, but that just resonates with me. And we pray and we see freedom come.
[00:27:24] So yes, I believe that things can be passed down the family line.
[00:27:29] Which leads me to probably one of the most critical questions can Christians have demons?
[00:27:36] That's an interesting question. And again, in Christendom there would be a range of views on this and a lot of the range of views really are based around a word that gets used culturally often for people who have demonic activity in their life. And it's the word possession, because the Bible says that I am no longer my own. I've been bought with a price, that I am Christ's possession.
[00:28:06] And there is no way in my life that Christ who owns me, who have given my life to Him. That's what happens when we come to Christ. We give our lives to Him, we exchange our sinfulness and he gives us his righteousness. We are his children. Children of God. We belong to him. And there's no way in my understanding that we can be the possession of Christ and the possession of demons because I don't believe that they could ever find a flat share agreement in our lives.
[00:28:42] But that's about possession, what about influence? Because you may own your house, but there might be others who have influence. Good friend comes in and says, you know what? I think that wall would look great green.
[00:28:54] I never thought about that. That's good. And they got influence over your life. They don't own it. They don't possess it, but they influence it.
[00:29:01] Can demons?
[00:29:03] I don't believe they can possess Christians. But can they influence Christians? Can they oppress?
[00:29:10] Can they create cycles that are negative in people's lives?
[00:29:17] We read of one moment in the book of Acts when it seemed that the disciples of the apostles implied that a Christian had a demon.
[00:29:27] In Acts five verses one to five. We read of this first moment of corruption, really in the early church when people were giving generously, they were selling their fields and they give in possessions. And then we read of Ananias and Sapphira, that they were bringing a big offering to the feet of the apostles, but there was deception in their heart.
[00:29:48] And when Anais was confronted by Peter, peter states that Satan or an evil spirit had filled Ananias'heart.
[00:30:00] Is it possible that Satan had an internal foothold in Ananias'life? I believe so. Also, you look at some of Paul's warnings when he says, do not give the devil a foothold in our life. Don't give him an opportunity.
[00:30:18] The word opportunity, when Paul writes that is a Greek word topos and it talks about it indicates a sense of place.
[00:30:27] Many translations clarify this by translating the phrase don't give the devil an opportunity to the word foothold because it is about a place.
[00:30:37] So what is Paul warning the believers about? He is warning us about giving a place to the demonic, to unclean spirits in our lives, that we can grant the devil a place in our lives.
[00:30:53] So if that's the case, how do we get free from demons?
[00:30:59] And in these next few moments, I'm just going to give you what I believe is the biblical mandate for you and I to live free from the demonic in our lives.
[00:31:10] First of all, pray and ask God for discernment.
[00:31:17] Are there patterns of thought in your life that are unhealthy? Are there behaviors that are unhealthy, that are destructive that you keep repeating time and time again? Are there patterns of thought or behavior that seem antiGod in your life? Well, one Corinthians twelve, verse ten, it lists some of the gifts of the spirit. And let me read it. It says, to another the performative miracles, to another prophecy to another distinguishing between spirits.
[00:31:50] Distinguishing between spirits that there's a discernment that's needed. I believe discernment is a massive need in the body of Christ today.
[00:32:00] Now, there are two ways of this discernment being applied in our life. One of them is a discernment as to whether a prophecy or a prophet is from God or not. That's a really important discernment, particularly in a church that wants to encourage the prophetic to rise I'm really content to allow the prophetic to rise and for there to be errors, but we must have discernment.
[00:32:27] Secondly, it's discernment regarding evil spirits.
[00:32:32] I think this discernment is given for both of these things.
[00:32:36] The Holy Spirit is with us to help us to bring gifts, in order to help us to discern.
[00:32:44] Now, let's talk about these unhealthy patterns for the next few moments. Because it may not be demonic, the unhealthy pattern in your life may be health related.
[00:32:57] Don't cast out a demon of being overweight.
[00:33:03] If you're living on a diet of McDonald's, that's a health issue, not a demon.
[00:33:13] There may be a need in your discernment. The Holy Spirit is as equally likely to say, you need to go and see your GP as he is. You need to go and get prayer ministry.
[00:33:25] You don't want to go and see someone for prayer ministry. If the issue is health to go to your GP, don't hold back, just go and book in.
[00:33:37] It could also be emotional trauma.
[00:33:40] If so, it may not be prayer ministry you need. It might be a counselor, a therapist that you need. Go and see them, go and book in. You wouldn't go around with a broken arm for the rest of your life thinking, oh, I've got a broken arm, I've got a broken arm. You'd go to the hospital, you'd get it reconnected, you'd get it plastered up, you'd get it sorted. Don't go around saying, It's just the way I am, it's just the way I am. This emotional trauma, go and see a therapist, go and see a counselor, talk it through, find help.
[00:34:13] It's robbing you of the fullness of life that God may have for you.
[00:34:20] Maybe it's just poor patterns of living.
[00:34:23] If so, you might need to see a trusted friend or a life group leader or a pastor, not necessarily to pray with you, although there's nothing wrong with that, but maybe because you need to have some. As Proverbs says, true and faithful are the wounds of a friend, someone who knows us well enough to say, do you know what? You're living with some silly decisions right now. Come on, sort this out. Come on, make a decision that's going to help.
[00:34:52] And then also discernment allows us to ask, is it demonic? And I believe the Holy Spirit can reveal this to you. Secondly, repent of sin, repent of the doorway, repent of the entranceways in your life.
[00:35:09] I love this verse, one John one nine. If we will confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Amen.
[00:35:24] First of all, you need to acknowledge how you opened the doorway in your life to the unrighteousness, and you need to repent of it.
[00:35:31] These can be actions and decisions that you've made, cycles of patterns of thought. As we talked about a few moments ago, it may not even. Be things you did it might be things you haven't done that you should have done omissions of righteousness in your life.
[00:35:46] How does this work with the generational spirits?
[00:35:51] I thought we were all responsible for our own sin how can I if the entranceway into my family was through a great grandparents how can I say sorry to God for their sin?
[00:36:05] That's a really good question if you were asking it.
[00:36:10] Well, I believe each person is responsible for their own sins before God. But let's say your granddad robbed a bank and he never got caught, no one ever found out, and he has lived off the millions of pounds that he extracted from that bank robbery.
[00:36:31] And then he dies, and his daughter inherits all of his estate.
[00:36:37] And she lives really well. She's upgraded her home and she's got the fastest car, and no one can quite work out where the income comes from, but she's living really well off the proceeds of her father. And then she has a child, and then she dies, and that child inherits the mum's estate. Now, the grandchild is not responsible for robbing the bank, but the grandchild is responsible for living with the proceeds of that.
[00:37:09] And I believe that we are called. While we can't say, God forgive my granddad, we can pray. God, I'm sorry for my attachment to the things that my grandparent brought into our lives through the family generational line. And I renounce it in the name of Jesus and renounce evil and partner with the truth.
[00:37:33] This is a choice to distance yourself from unrighteous ways and live righteously. The enemy has put a claim on an aspect of your life a foothold and he wants to turn that foothold into a stronghold and you are now called to renounce this claim and apply the blood of Jesus.
[00:37:56] See the spirit world.
[00:37:58] It operates quite legally.
[00:38:03] It can't break into our lives. It needs doorways, it needs openings. And then when in if it's served with a legitimate eviction order, it has to leave. And the legitimate eviction order is the blood of Jesus, the power of Jesus.
[00:38:19] And when the person repents of the doorway and says, I'm sorry, God, that I opened, that I renounce his impact in my life and in the name of Jesus, I now renounce and cast this out in the name of Jesus.
[00:38:33] Has to flee.
[00:38:35] Has to flee.
[00:38:37] What about when Jesus said that this sort only comes up by prayer and fasting? Does that mean we have to earn deliverance? No. Jesus was saying, oh, you of little know. I know that I often feel closer to God when I'm fasting, when I'm spending time intensively in prayer and my faith grows. It's not that I earn more of God. It's that I have a greater revelation of who he is.
[00:38:59] And there are times in our life when the enemy says, you can't get rid of me and think, can't I? Or maybe I can't.
[00:39:06] And at that time we need to fill our lives with faith. Not because we earn the deliverance, because everything has been done for the deliverance to take place, but because we are learning to partner with the revelation of who God is. Choose to fill your life with God's truth. But in conclusion, as we come towards the end of this, let me just read you a warning of Jesus words. In Matthew twelve, verses 43 to 45 says this when an unclean spirit comes out of a person, it roams through waterless places looking for rest, but doesn't find any. Then it says, I'll go back to my house that I came from returning. It finds the house vacant, swept and put in order. Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and they settle down there. As a result, that person's last condition is worse than the first. That's how it will also be with this evil generation.
[00:40:05] When we evict the enemy through the rights and the power and the blood of Jesus and we close the doorway, it's important that we then make sure that doorway is closed because in this situation the doorway wasn't closed. In fact, on that basis I will often refuse to pray for someone for deliverance unless they are actually following Jesus, because I don't want to see people set free from something that in a week's time they're going to have more of these demons. They have to close the door. And Jesus is the one who gives wisdom for us to enact those things. In fact, if someone feels and senses they've got some demonic issues going on in their life, I want to talk to them first.
[00:40:52] Good friend of mine, and we're going to try and get him to come and speak at some point. But he would often refuse to pray with people for deliverance until he's talked through the doorways of their life. They've repented of a sin and they've closed the door and at that point then they're ready.
[00:41:10] It's not just some manifestation in a meeting and there's a few characters online right now, and I'm not speaking anything against brothers and sisters, but I find it highly disturbing when I see people with mobile phones casting demons out because I think it brings glory to the enemy.
[00:41:33] Manifestations sometimes bring glory to the enemy and I think also I regard the dignity of people and sometimes the enemy tries to kick up a bit of a fuss when he's on his way out. And I think we should do our utmost to protect the dignity of people.
[00:41:51] That's not as important as them being free, but I think it should be a consideration.
[00:41:57] Close the door and be filled with righteousness.
[00:42:01] A Story to Close it's a story of an alcoholic who couldn't walk past a pub without the smell drawing him in and causing him to absolutely lose the plot.
[00:42:18] And one day, on his way to a pub, he walked past a cafe and this cafe had an interesting sign. It said one pound, drink as much milk as you want.
[00:42:31] And he loved milk. So he went to this cafe, he paid his pound and he drank and drank and drank glass of milk after glass of milk after glass of milk.
[00:42:47] He drank until he could take no more.
[00:42:50] And then he left the cafe when it was closing and went to go towards the pub. But he had no room for any alcohol.
[00:43:02] I love reinhardt. Bonker used to say that flies can't live on hot stoves.
[00:43:11] Do not be drunk on wine. Instead, be filled with the spirit.
[00:43:19] When we see people set free from the demonic, it's really important that we don't just leave an empty house, but be filled now with the Spirit of God.
[00:43:31] Close the doors. The foothold has been removed by the authority and the power of Jesus.
[00:43:38] But now walk in that freedom.
[00:43:42] Don't be like it says in Proverbs, like a dog that returns to its vomit.
[00:43:48] Don't go back to that doorway. And my observation is that so often the enemy will come and he ring the doorbell of our life and he'll say, Remember me?
[00:43:58] He said, oh, yeah, sort of remember you.
[00:44:03] And he wants to come back in. The enemy will try. And we have to stand there and say, no, I belong to Jesus.
[00:44:14] Go away.
[00:44:16] Resist the devil. And he will.
[00:44:21] That's not a folklore, that is truth.
[00:44:28] Let's pray together.
[00:44:40] Holy Spirit, I thank you that you're our Savior, lover of our souls and I pray for any sense of stirring there have been in people's lives and it could be about medical issues and they need to see their doctor, could be about trauma issues, they need to see a counselor. It could be habits, they need to see a friend, but it could be demonic and they need to be set free.
[00:45:10] Holy Spirit, I pray that you will help us to discern.
[00:45:15] And I pray in those words of C. S. Lewis that we would neither deny you or become obsessed with you, but our obsession would be Jesus.
[00:45:30] So fill us, Holy Spirit, fill us with discernment.
[00:45:38] And I pray that no one in this church will live captive to any corruptible things of the enemy, that all will live in the full freedom of all you have for us.
[00:45:55] In the name of Jesus, we pray.
[00:45:58] Amen.
[00:46:00] Amen.
[00:46:02] The Lord bless you. There may be some follow up needs. There may be some people you would appreciate speaking to, praying with you. Please do arrange to see one of us as the pastoral team and we would be delighted to help talk those things through with you and pray them through. But the Lord bless you. Go now of victorious sons and daughters of God, his possession for his glory in Jesus name amen.
