5) Fight the good fight.
Matthew 18:34: forgiveness, hurt feelings, tormentors.
And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him.
If you don’t forgive others the tormentors will come. Demonic entities bring torment into people’s lives and that is why forgiveness is so important.
If you have unforgiveness in your heart, you are giving the devils access to come in through that and they will block things for sure.
When I get into conversations with people, eventually things like this come out. As an example, one woman I dealt with was sexually molested as a child and didn’t want to forgive her mother who knew it was happening and didn’t stop it.
She told me, “I don’t want to go there. I don’t want to forgive her.”
I said: You are stopping your freedom. You might as well put a big crevice in front of you and say, I can’t get past that. Since Jesus said to be forgiven you must forgive, this becomes a major problem for you if you don’t want to forgive.
Most people think that when they forgive a person, emotions have to be involved. That they have to go and hug that person or say it is okay. That is the world’s way, from psychiatry. There is no requirement from Heaven to do that, but you must forgive them in your heart. What was done to you was a sin from the pit of hell and you don’t have to cover over it like it didn’t happen, that isn’t what forgiveness according to Heaven is.
I walked her through forgiving her mother, then told her: When you see her tomorrow, you are going to have bad feelings like you usually do, but as you say, ‘Father I am doing your Word, I have forgiven this person in my heart, the Blood of Jesus has covered that whole area’, after awhile you will be able to pray for her and pray a BLESSING OVER HER, this is how you know you have forgiven a person, when you can pray for them.
How do you know if you have forgiven a person?
I had a conversation with another person and they were in torment over some teaching they had received about forgiveness and being unable to do it, he was in condemnation. He thought there was no way to forgive the person who had wronged him, so he was not going to get healed. He seemed to think that forgiveness involved getting to the place where he emotionally loved the person.
I said: How on earth could you get to that place, that person molested you!
It is a heart issue with God. He just wants you to forgive others as He forgives you. You don’t have to hug them and get emotional over them and say what they did was okay.
Heb. 12:15: bitterness, emotional damage, rejection or abandonment.
Hebrews 12:15
Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled.
I do spend time with these issues. A lot of times there are forgiveness or bitterness issues that have to be dealt with. If a person has these issues, devils will hold them back. All these things must be dealt with.
Sometimes in the Faith groups, people don’t like to go there, they say it brings condemnation, (there is a big difference between condemnation and conviction) but you don’t have to stay there. These things must be dealt with in order to get free from oppression. Take care of them and grow up into Christ. God doesn’t want us to NOT take care of these things. He wants us formed into the image of Christ.
The whole New Testament tells us to get these things that hinder us out of our lives. That is our job as believers to get them out of our lives. Getting rid of bitterness is part the basics for a Christian, the ABC’s.
In most churches today this isn’t talked about, neither is fear.
Being on a plane with Christians during turbulence is a good time to find out what kind of Christians they are. For example John Wesley. He came to America as a missionary and on the way back home the boat is going down. He sees these Moravian Christians praising God, and he said, ‘whatever they’ve got I don’t have!’ What was inside of them came out during that life threatening situation.
Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks …..
It’s the same with Christians dealing with bitterness, unforgiveness and some of these issues. If you don’t deal with it, it will come out one day.
I can’t back this up scripturally, but I have been to a lot of nursing homes and it seems that people who haven’t dealt with these issues when they were younger, when they get old, they begin to come out. If you walk around a nursing home for an hour and a half praying for people, even Christians, you will be surprised what comes out. I believe it is because they haven’t dealt with some of these issues.
“Confess your faults to one another” is never talked about in the church today. We hide faults and in some churches no one talks about problems in their lives. Issues not dealt with do not go away.
Heb. 2:15: fear of death.
Hebrews 2:15
Only in this way could he set free all who have lived
their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.
2 Timothy 1:7
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love,
and of a sound mind.
We can pray for people with fear and they will be set free. But until they deal with a spirit of fear themselves, they won’t stay free. Devils know you have a fear issue, and they will come back to see if you have dealt with it, and you have to, at some point, stand up and resist it yourself or you won’t stay free.
This happens a lot of time with healing. People get free through the prayers of others, but if they don’t know how to resist the symptoms when they come back, they will not stay free.
A sound mind = self control.
People say, “I can’t help it”.
I tell them: Yes you can. If you are going into a rage you are making choices. If you are going after some of the rest of this stuff: bitterness, unforgiveness, self pity, pornography, you are making choices.
They will tell me, “Well, the psychiatrist tells me I can’t help it”.
I say: Well, they are just flat wrong. The Bible is very clear that these are bad choices you are making and you have been making bad choices for the last five years and that is why you are in the mess you are in.
When people start getting some small victories (small victories are very important) then they begin to trust the word. The Bible is very clear and truth is truth. The problem today is that if something isn’t politically correct, we can’t talk about it. That is just a lie from the pit of hell. The politically correct approach is just a way to cover things up so they aren’t exposed and dealt with.
“You can’t help it”, is a BIG LIE.
Yes, YOU CAN HELP IT.
“Well, if my wife would just line up…….”
Listen, you are saying that your wife is the problem, when God is saying that YOU are the problem. Demonic entities are triggering you and you don’t realize that is the problem, not your wife.
Take a small child, when the parents are arguing, they will pick up the tension in the room, and really start acting up. Demonic entities really like to have people screaming at each other. If somebody is triggering you, then you’ve got to get to a point where you can say: “Thank you Jesus, I am going to be strong enough where that person is not going to trigger me, no matter what they say or do. I am not going there.”
Again, difficult to do, but definitely possible.
It’s just a question of training yourself up and saying, “I am not going to let demonic entities around me trigger me, I’m just not going to let it happen. Why would I let someone else control how I am feeling?”
What if they say something bad about you?
So what? Expect that as a Christian. If you don’t expect it, you are not
living in the real world, you are hiding in some kind of oblivion. Those who are a strong Christian ARE going to get persecuted.
Those who live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution 2 Tim 3:12.
You’re not suffering persecution? Then you’re not living a godly life, it’s just that simple!
People say, “I can’t handle that!”
Well, that is the problem. You are being a baby emotionally. Be like a soldier. Get to the place where you are committed, courageous.
When you get to the place where you are committed and courageous as a Christian, you ARE going to get persecuted, but that is what Jesus had to handle, and all of the disciples are going to learn how to handle it.
The Christian life is not riding around in Roll Royce and having people look at you, and saying, “I’m a rich person, God has blessed me!”
I don’t see anyone in the New Testament saying that kind of nonsense. I’m not against prosperity but I’m against people saying that kind of stuff. That is not balanced.
1 Peter 5:8: sober spirit, difficulty with psychoactive substances.
1 Peter 5:8
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.
If you are drinking a half a bottle of scotch, it is hard to resist the devil. You aren’t going to resist the devil, you are going to be right in his path.
This is why the Word says to have a sober mind.
The same applies to psychoactive substances.
Not all depression medicines are psychoactive (mind altering) but most of them are. If you are on a psychoactive medicine, it’s just like drinking alcohol. It is going to affect your spiritual thinking. Spiritually you will be in the same kind of position you would be if you had been drinking alcohol. You will not look or act like you are drunk, but you are under an influence, you are not thinking straight, again, you might think your thinking is clear, but it is definitely not. I get lots of argument here, but if you think and pray about this, the Holy Spirit will guide you in all truth, but only if you really want to be guided in ALL TRUTH.
It is the same with sticking a needle in your arm, taking a shot of heroine and then resisting the devil. Do you think you could fight? It’s a dumb question. Of course you couldn’t fight.
A sober spirit….people on psychoactive substances/medicines takes longer to get set free. Psychoactive substances work on the mind like methamphetamine or heroine. They are not as strong or powerful but they operate on the same principle. I am convinced after years of working with people on these substances, that this is what Jesus talked about in John 10:1 about people entering the spiritual realm illegally. If they take an injection of heroine, after 10 minutes or an hour, they are in another dimension. When they have taken these for nine months or a year, they will look in the mirror and see three faces looking back at them, and two of them are not theirs! That is what happens.
They are in a spiritual dimension and devils are attacking them. People come walking through walls at them. This is what happens, you start to get attacked in the spiritual realm, it does not usually begin until you are on the substances for a while. The effects of mind altering drugs are not as devastating as taking heroine of course, but the sooner you can decrease these medicines the better spiritual shape you will be in, and remember you want to win the spiritual battle, because this is where the real battle is. Talk to your doctor about reducing these meds in a way that will challenge you, your doctor can walk you through reducing medications, so you can get them out of your live also.
John 10:1: entering the spiritual realm by some other means than Jesus
John 10:1
“I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber.
I tell people: Tell me about these experiences you have or are having. If you are hearing voices or hallucinating, we can get you out of this oppression.
How does a psychiatrist explain that. They have no explanation. What they are avoiding is the spiritual realm. Obviously the voices are coming from another dimension.
When a drug addict tells a counselor or psychiatrist that you have having these kind of problems, they will mark you down as mentally insane, that is the reason people don’t talk about it.
1. Because of quantum physics, science is starting to recognize there are other dimensions out there, but the Bible has told us that all along. When you look in the mirror and there are 3 faces looking back at you, that is a different dimension folks! These things can be overcome when you know what is going on. These things are easy to get rid of when you have Jesus, but without Jesus they will not respond to you. The only thing that spiritual forces respond to is the Name of Jesus. Remember you have been given power over these spiritual forces and heaven expects us to use this power. Luke 10:19
Pro 4:20-24 —My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.
Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart.
For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.
Thy heart, hold all the issues of Life
First Pet. 5:8 says that the devil is ‘like’ a roaring lion, prowling about seeking who he can devour.
When I work with people and get them built up a little bit, I tell them: You are going to have to face that roaring lion that you are afraid of. When you face him, it is surprising how small he becomes. He is just putting thoughts in your head. If devils could really kill you they would have done it already. They haven’t got that much power. They are a defeated foe. If they came in a red cloak it would be easy to recognize them, but they are more subtle than that. As long as you are a human being, they attack you through your thoughts. When you see that the devil is just a little mouse and all you have to do is squash him with your foot, you will realize ‘greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world’ I John 4:4
The lion has no teeth, he is just a big bag of wind, like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. The wizard who seemed so frightening, was just a old man behind a curtain. If you have courage and persist, you will be free. That is an absolute guarantee from the N.T.
The only reason people don’t get free is because they get offended, get their feelings hurt or something happens and they give in rather than standing their ground. The demons are always hounding people to quit to give up the fight, because they know that if you persist you freedom is guaranteed, and they know this.
The truth is Jesus Christ has won this victory for every single Christian (and every single human being, they just have to accept it), and there is no way that any Christian should be in any kind of bondage.
He has come to set the captives free. He has done it for us.
He has guaranteed us ABSOLUTE FREEDOM.
You just have to stand your ground and you WILL experience it.
Since the work of Christ is finished, God expects you to stand on what has been done, use your faith, use the Name of Jesus Christ and FIGHT, based upon truth from the Word of God and the authority He has given all of us.
1 Tim. 6:12: Fight the fight and get up when you are knocked down.
1 Tim. 6:12
Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you are also called, and have professed a good profession before many witnesses.
People will call me and say, “I feel like I can’t go on.”
I hear this all the time.
I tell them: This is not what the New Testament declares. You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you Phil 4:13. You just told me that last week. Now I am holding you accountable to the words that you have spoken. What you are telling me is that you don’t believe Jesus has given you the strength to get over this, and that is not true. That is another lie from devils and there is no ‘can’t’! If the Word of God says you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you, then you have to go with the Word of God. No compromise. If God said that, then that’s true. You have to get up.
The enemy punches all of us sometimes and we just feel like crawling into bed and quitting. Devils have dealt with human beings for such a long time now, they know it is usually not a question of faith but courage and perseverance. If they keep knocking us down, they know we will quit and give up and that is where a person has to have courage. The only way a person can NOT get the victory (if they understand the New Testament, and line up to Heaven with the Finished Work), is if they QUIT! Otherwise, they WILL GET TOTALLY FREE!
After people have dealt with their issues and are overcoming them, they will say to me: “That wasn’t that difficult to handle.”
Whatever mountain the enemy comes to you with, it seems like a roaring lion, but when you begin to deal with it, the lion shrinks! These demonic entities can’t do much, the only damage they can do is in our thought life. They can’t come at you in the flesh….with horns and a red cape. If they did, you could just shoot them, but it is more subtle than that!
But after a fierce attack (and they will come during the battle) we must get back on our feet and RESIST, even when we fell like staying in bed all day, even when we fell like we are living in a room in hell, these strategies are planned against you, because they know if you keep going you will come out. This is difficult and challenging, when you are under heavy attack, but, if you fight with the word and proclaim the truth in opposition to the lies in your head, you are RESISTING and you will have success, if you keep going, persistence and courage is what it takes. Matt 13:19 You hear the Word of freedom, the enemy will come to steal it away, you will have a battle when you resist devils
Eph. 4:26:27 Neither give place to the devil, this will lead to higher levels of bondage and turmoil.
In your anger do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.
Luke 10:19 tells us we have total power over the enemy but we have to make sure there are not things in our lives, for example anger and rage, that do give place to devils.
People who are oppressed usually have some of these issues.
I tell them: If you have been dancing with devils four or five years, there are going to be things in your life that you are doing that are not of God. If you have a rage or lust problem you need to confess these issues, also pornography or other sexual bondage’s. We need to isolate them and get rid of them.
I do this because ‘confessing your faults one to another here is important’.
How do we fight? Don’t do what the oppressors want you to do.
Regarding rage…when people get into self pity, the next stage is usually anger, then rage. They get into some real anger situations and that can be treacherous. It opens doors to devils and if you go down that path, the devils will have you pointing your finger at God and saying, ‘it’s Your fault’. That’s what they want. They want a Christian especially to look at God and say, ‘it’s Your fault’.
When you think about saying that to God, think about how horrible that is. God who loves us so much that He sent His Son to die on the Cross for us, would be causing our problems? But with this self-pity and rage, that is where devils are going, to get you to accuse God. You have probably had some pity parties already where you were blaming God.
Most people will say they have been there.
I tell them: Well, stop it! That is from hell, Get on your knees and repent! Remember, you have power over all the power of the oppressors.
People will say: “Well, if I have, how come I’m not making much progress?”
Because you are giving up too quickly.
Go back to the commitment you made: Psa. 89:34
You say: “In the Name of Jesus I’m going after this thing.”
It might take awhile and there might be some defeats along the way. You may have to get up off the ground a few times, but I will honor the finished work of Jesus, He paid the price for my victory, and I will have it. The just shall live by faith, and I will honor my Father by trusting in the words of Jesus and know that through the finished work, I will have victory over this oppression from hell. The gates of hell shall not prevail, I will have what has already been paid for.
People I’ve dealt with that had serious suicidal problems, have had to get up off the ground. One person told me, “I can’t get up”. I said: Yes you CAN!
People around me thought I was getting really hard on this person, but you can’t get too emotionally involved. You can’t deal with these devils emotionally. You will lose!
I knew where this person was, I knew the truth that was in her so I could say to her: Yes, you CAN!
Up she comes and she said, “Yes, I CAN!”
That was the day she had a major break through.
You get up and start staring down that lion, and that is when they begin to back off …………..
Devils will say that God is blocking the healing, deliverance, etc. God isn’t blocking anything. It is His will that everyone be saved, healed and delivered.
1 Tim. 2:4: it is God’s will that all men be saved (Greek work=Sozo=made whole,saved,healed,delivered), so put that thought away, God isn’t blocking anything!
God desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
James 4:7 Submit to God by submitting to the Word.
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Do what the Word says and don’t do what the oppressor says…it’s that simple!
How do you resist the devil?
We want a three page explanation and God has given us a one-liner.
DON’T DO WHAT THE DEVIL WANTS YOU TO DO…..it’s that simple!
This is not complicated.
The Gospel is simple. Jesus didn’t go to the Jerusalem university to pick his disciples, he picked the simple: “not many wise are called”. It’s a simple Gospel. Let’s keep it simple.
You are submitting to God. Now you have to resist the devil. When the anger comes, if you are fighting that on a daily basis, after awhile you will get some victories and you’ll say, WOW!
I call that, ‘the sweet taste of victory’.
Even then you may have some setbacks. Jesus never said it would be easy. He never promised that, but He did promise total victory and if you keep at it, you’ll get there.
All of a sudden, victory comes more and more often. And then what happens? Just like the scripture says, the enemy is now fleeing from your life. They get to a point where they just stop tormenting you. They just flee. They say, ‘This person is over the top, there is no point in tempting them any further. We can’t do anything with them there anymore’.
The woman I worked with who was suicidal, twitched her legs all the time out of anxiety. People wanted me to pray for that but I told them if they wanted to, go ahead and do it. I had a bigger issue in mind. I was after that spiritual entity, that suicidal spirit and also getting rid of the cutting she was doing on herself.
After a couple months she had some real victories, and after she came out of the suicide and cutting issues, the leg twitching just stopped.
She said: “What happened? How can you explain this?”
I had her read James 4:7.
She said: “Did they flee?”
I said: Yes, when they flee they take all his stuff down from the shelves and all his baggage and away they go!
People say to me: “That can’t be the way it is!”
Well, if God said when you resist the devil, he will flee, then they WILL FLEE!
The promises of God are YES and AMEM in JESUS 2 Cor 1:20
We just don’t trust Him enough. If God said, ‘submit to God, resist the devil and he will flee’, that is exactly what will happen. The problem is we want it all done in a few hours on a Saturday night and be free by Monday. In most cases it doesn’t happen that way. Sometimes it does happen instantly but that is a miracle. If you’ve been dealing with depression for twenty years, you are not going to get over it in a weekend!, it is possible but usually it takes longer than that. All the lies and demonic thoughts that have been built up as strongholds, will have to be dismantled, and this can take some time, but we, just like Jesus, were manifested to destroy the works of the devil, and just like Joshua and Caleb, we are well able ……….