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The contemporary fascination with angels makes it very important for us to understand what

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the Bible actually has to say about them.

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But even more important, spiritual warfare pertains to angelic spirits and therefore

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it's essential that you and I understand something about them.

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A basic comprehension of the truth about angels is essential to grasping a biblical worldview

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and prevailing in spiritual battles.

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Let's review briefly what we said last week, and that is that angels are created personal

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beings not human but real, not physical but spiritual.

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They dwell in a higher order of creation than humans, and yet they may appear in human form.

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There are two classifications of them, the good and holy angels and the evil or demonic

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angels.

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Both sides are highly organized into ranks and responsibilities to fulfill the assignment

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of their leaders.

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The leader of the good and holy angels, of course, is God Himself, and the prince of

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the demons is Satan.

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These two forces battle in the spiritual realm.

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Angels carry out God's purposes and demons carry out Satan's schemes.

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Angels are at war, and you are at risk as a casualty in this angelic war.

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Listen with me to 1 Peter chapter 5, verses 8 through 11, where Peter concludes his book

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with these important words.

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1 Peter 5, beginning in verse 8, be of sober spirit, be on the alert.

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Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.

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Peter is writing to Christians.

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Now there are some people who have the idea that Christians are impervious to demons,

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that we need not worry about Satan, that he's been defeated and he has nothing to do with

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us.

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It makes Peter's words fairly strange, doesn't it, to take that position?

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He says he is our adversary and we're to be sober and on the alert about him.

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He says, but resist him firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering

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are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.

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And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace who calls you to his

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eternal glory in Christ will himself perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

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To him be dominion forever and ever.

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Amen.

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Angels, you are at war and you are at risk as a potential casualty.

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Why is that?

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Because the battle is about who will be the Lord of the earth, Jesus Christ or Satan.

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Satan hates all human beings because we bear the image of God our creator.

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He seeks to destroy the image of God in every person and erect the lives of all so that

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they cannot bring any honor or glory to God.

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That is true whether one be a Christian or a non-Christian.

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He hates all human beings.

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He seeks to control human beings, human institutions, and human history in order to orchestrate

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his own coronation as the Lord of the earth.

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In light of these statements I've made, there are two areas of application that we need

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to explore today.

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Now I'm not going to say a great deal about the holy angels for our relationship to them

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is that of being allies in this warfare.

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Remember that the Bible doesn't ever tell us to seek communication with the angels or

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to trust them for their help.

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We are to trust God.

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The angels serve him, they will do his bidding.

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We may pray for their protection, but we pray to God.

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We focus on him.

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And then he assigns his angels as he wisely chooses to do.

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So today in my application of these comments about angels I want to talk about dark angels.

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The first area of application is discerning dark angels, recognizing their reality and

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their determined opposition.

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How may we recognize their interference in our lives?

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It seems clear that the apostle Paul recognized that.

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He told the Thessalonians that he had intended to come back to them to see them, but Satan

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hindered him.

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First Thessalonians 2, 18.

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In 2 Corinthians 11, verses 13 to 15, he is being hindered by false teachers in Corinth,

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whom he calls the servants of Satan who disguise themselves like he.

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He is able to appear as an angel of light in order to deceive.

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And so his apostles, his false teachers likewise, are able to appear as apostles of righteousness,

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something they are not in fact.

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Paul looked upon them as opposition from Satan.

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Now in saying that Satan does oppose us and that we can recognize it, I do need to emphasize

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that not everything that happens to us can be attributed to the devil.

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We all remember the comic a few years ago that his famous line was, the devil made me

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do it.

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We're going to talk next week about the fact that we have an enemy on a three-fold front,

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the world, the flesh, and the devil.

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But we're focusing right now nonetheless on the devil and it is appropriate to recognize

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at times his interference in our lives.

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It is appropriate for us to spot his strategies, to see him attempting to foil us in our walk

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with God.

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How does he do it?

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Well we could talk about a number of different strategies that Satan uses, but I want to

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focus just briefly on the major one and a number of his other strategies really can

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be traced back to this one.

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From the very beginning Satan has been a deceived creature.

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Now he wasn't created that way, but somewhere back then he deceived himself into thinking

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that he could be like God.

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And still today though he knows exactly what the Word of God says about his ultimate doom,

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he is deceived into thinking that somehow he is going to pull off a victory over God

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and he's going to reign on the earth instead of Jesus Christ.

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He is thoroughly self-deceived.

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And that brings me to his chief strategy.

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It is that of lying.

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Deceiving, tricking.

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His chief strategy is to lie and in doing that to foster fears and temptations in our

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lives.

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For example he will whisper the lie in our mind, and by the way remember that's where

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the battle is.

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It's in the area of our thoughts.

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Did you know that you aren't the author of all the thoughts in your mind?

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Have you ever had the experience of saying, wow, where did that thought come from?

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Well I'm here to tell you that it may well have come from Satan.

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That's the area of battle.

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He whispers into our minds.

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He lies.

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He lies.

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You're going crazy.

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Or often it will be put this way, I'm going crazy.

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No one cares about me.

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My life is going nowhere.

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I'm so stupid.

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I think I'm just going to end it all.

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I'm going to kill myself.

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Those are the kinds of lying thoughts that Satan commonly uses in the minds of people.

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And I would dare say that if I haven't struck upon the thought that you've had, you could

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probably give me some thoughts that you recognize have come to you from the enemy.

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We all have them every day.

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He seeks to whisper lies into our minds.

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And he seeks to foster fear in that.

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I'm afraid I'm going crazy.

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I'm afraid I'm going to take my life.

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I'm afraid no one will accept me.

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I'm afraid I'm going to be rejected.

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He loves to use fear.

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He loves to use fear.

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And he generates fears by lies that he tells us.

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He also uses lies to further temptation.

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To further temptation.

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Now we have temptations, of course, that arise out of our own lusts.

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Out of our own fleshly appetites.

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Out of our own pride.

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But Satan seeks to enhance those temptations, to excite those temptations for his own purposes.

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For example, somebody does you wrong and you get mad at them.

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And within every human being there is that desire to get revenge, but Satan hitchhikes

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on that desire.

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And he begins to lie to you and say, if you don't get your two sins in now, you're never

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going to get it in.

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You'd better strike back at them.

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You'd better get even.

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And so he begins to agitate by his lies.

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Now what is the truth that counteracts that?

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God says, take no vengeance for yourselves, vengeance is what?

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He says, vengeance is mine.

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I will repay, says the Lord.

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That's the truth that counteracts the lie.

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But we'll get to that in a moment.

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He tempts us to wrong priorities.

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You need that.

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Oh, look at that beautiful home.

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Look at that wonderful opportunity.

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You need to work harder.

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Look at what those neighbors have and look what you've got.

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You're not being treated fairly by your employer.

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He begins to lie to us and attempt us to get our priorities all messed up.

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He lies to us about immediate gratification, thinking, oh, we've got to have it and we've

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got to have it now.

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He lies to further temptation.

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It's okay to take that.

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It's not really stealing.

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Lots of people do that.

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After all, you've been cheated lots of times.

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It's about time that you get some yourself.

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So he sews the lies to further temptation.

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He attempts in any way that he can to influence the way that we think.

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And remember, when he does that, he's always deceiving.

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He is always lying.

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Yet if he's able to find a foothold where we listen to him and we respond to him, he'll

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begin working even more to increase his control over our thoughts.

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And after he's got more control over our thoughts, it gets into our attitudes.

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And then our attitudes affect our decisions and our decisions affect behavior and our

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behavior affects our habits.

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And then our habits affect our character.

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So you see, that's how he begins, just by influencing a thought, influencing the way

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that we think.

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And then he begins, once he's got that beachhead, he begins to work it for more and more and

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more control in our lives.

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So in spiritual warfare, it's important to begin discerning the dark angels who are lying

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to you.

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Now, maybe it's obvious, but I should probably say this.

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Satan can only be in one place at one time.

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He is a created being.

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He is not God.

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He is not like God.

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He can never be like God.

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And so all of us have never messed with Satan personally, most likely.

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But he's got these minions of demons who serve him and who are just like him in character.

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They're all liars.

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He is the father of liars.

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And like their father, they lie to us, these demon spirits.

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Now, what are some of the symptoms of demonic oppression in a person's life?

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We're talking now beyond just the thoughts that all of us are confronted by.

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But what happens when there is that beachhead that has made way and Satan has gained some

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control in the life where the person is really oppressed demonically?

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Well, some of the things that will give that away include powers of the mind like ESP,

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precognitive abilities to know things ahead of time, occultic dreams, inner perception

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of a separate personality from one's own, a friend or a voice who serves as sort of

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a guide, a sense of being different or special.

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This is often in connection with reincarnation.

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Fearful or bizarre dreams during the night and very often around 3 o'clock in the morning

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for a specific reason that I'm not going to go into right now.

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Confusion, cloudiness of thought.

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You say, well, I feel that way about every day.

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Well, we're not talking about just the ordinary confusion that all of us have.

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We're talking about confusion and cloudiness of thought, especially with spiritual things.

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A person just cannot concentrate on scripture, has difficulty in participating in prayer,

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uncontrolled fantasies and images, especially sexual fantasies, obscenities, violent thoughts

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that are totally out of character for the person.

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Uncontrollable compulsive behaviors, most commonly sexual sin, anger, hatred, fear.

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Pornography is a huge open area for Satan to infect the person's life.

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A friend of mine told me recently about his own experience with this.

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He is an older man and struggled with pornography for years, hid it from his wife, from his

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family, had it at his cabin up in the woods and finally got convicted about that and knew

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it was wrong.

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So he went to his cabin, took all of the pornographic videos and magazines that he had out to a

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place and he lit them on fire.

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And as those things were burning, there were screams and whimpers coming out of the fire.

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You say, what's happening there?

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Well, he's not going crazy.

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What's happening is demonic spirits were identified with those things and that stronghold in his

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life.

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Uncontrollable compulsive behaviors, uncontrolled surges of rebellion against authority, intense

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urges of violence, inability to submit to the lordship of Jesus Christ.

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I have seen people so under control of Satan they could not speak the name of Jesus.

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I mean, they would try to get it out of their lips, but they cannot say the name Jesus.

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Not first.

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And then when they're able to speak that name, that's why I said what I did this morning

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about the power and the name of the lord.

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You just cannot believe the power of that name in the realm of the spiritual.

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Severe depression apart from any identifiable cause.

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I mean, severe, we all get depressed from time to time, okay?

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But we're talking now about severe depression apart from any identifiable cause, uncontrollable

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sudden fears, intense guilt, accusations against oneself, a feeling of worthlessness, hate

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and anger and bitterness.

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Well, I could go on.

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Those are some of the symptoms of demonic oppression in the lives of people and even

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believers.

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You say, well, I think I might identify with one in there.

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Well, some of these things are general enough that all of us can identify with all of these

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things.

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We're talking about intense things, uncontrollable things where we are dominated, urges that

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come upon us, attitudes, behaviors that are totally inconsistent with who we are.

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These are symptoms of potential demonic oppression.

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Discerning dark angels.

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You say, my goodness, what do you do?

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What do you do if you've got some of these symptoms?

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Well, my friend, you learn how to break the hold of the enemy.

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And it's not hard.

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It's not hard.

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Jesus has won the victory.

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You have to apply the principles of spiritual warfare.

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And that's what we intend by God's grace to be talking about in these weeks.

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Let's go ahead and talk about a second area, and that is defeating dark angels.

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Can believers defeat them?

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Do we have authority or power to deal with them?

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My question is, if we don't, then why are we told to stand firm against them?

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Why are we told to resist them if we have no power to do that?

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Indeed, we are in Jesus Christ, as we saw last week in Colossians chapter 2.

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It says that he is the fullness of the Godhead, and we are made full in him.

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We are identified with him and have everything that we need in this world to live victoriously.

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It says he is the head over all rulers and authorities, talking about all the spiritual

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realm, including the dark side.

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He's above it all.

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He's above it all, and you are seated with him.

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And he has delegated to you the authority to carry out the responsibility that he's

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given you to make disciples and to become a disciple.

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Our need is to recognize the war and to understand the truth about our victory so that we can

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press that victory over the powers of darkness.

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How do believers claim their victory over evil angels?

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A key verse on that, there are a number we could turn to, but a key succinct verse is

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James chapter 4.

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Just turn back there with me.

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James chapter 4 and verse 7.

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It says, submit therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will what?

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He will flee from you.

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If you have no other verse to memorize, memorize this one.

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If you have a hard time memorizing, get these three short thoughts into your mind.

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Submit yourself to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

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These are key thoughts.

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Submit to God.

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What does that mean?

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It means to place yourself under him, in rank, to recognize that he is the supreme commander.

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He is our Lord and our King, and to live then, submitted to his Lordship.

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Submit yourself to God, live with a cleansed heart.

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Trustingly obey God in the energy of the Holy Spirit.

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Put the armor of God in place in your life.

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Submit yourself to God.

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Number two, resist the devil.

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Now when the devil is mentioned, it means the devil and all of his minions.

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Resist the devil.

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Stand against him.

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How do we do that?

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Let me just give you at least one secret very quickly, and that is discover what the lie

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is that he's using.

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Find a true statement from the word of God to counteract it, and you will resist him.

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Discover the lie by which he has deceived you.

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Find a statement of God's truth, which is actually a rama, a sword of the Spirit, and

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use that then to resist the devil.

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And coupled with that, learn to pray offensively.

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It's wonderful to pray for protection, but let's get beyond protection.

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Hey, let's get in there and fight.

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Let's learn how to pray offensively.

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You say, how do you do that?

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The best way I know to do it, the way I've learned to do it is to go to the Psalms.

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Find the imprecatory Psalms.

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What in the world are those?

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Well, look it up.

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Imprecatory Psalms.

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The ones in which the psalmist is praying the judgment of God upon his enemies.

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Read those Psalms, and you will find secrets as to how to pray offensively in resisting

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the devil.

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And the result is he will flee from you.

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Malcolm Collins, a missionary from Africa, was recently talking to some children, and

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he shared a helpful lesson with them.

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He told them what to do if they ever met or encountered a hungry lion.

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The first thing to remember, he said, is that you should never try to flee.

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That would mean certain death.

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The lion can run much faster than we can.

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Next he said, you should try to look very brave and stare right into the lion's eyes.

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You know, spiritually speaking, if I can just take a moment here, there's nothing that so

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unsettles Satan as when a believer looks right in his eyes and will not budge, and will be

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steadfast in the faith.

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It shatters him.

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Well, he goes on to say, if you're successful, he will back down and run away.

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However, if that does not work, you should be prepared for the lion to attack you.

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Okay?

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So he says, have your spear ready so that when he leaps upon you, he will land on the

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spear and be killed.

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Do you get the point?

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What's our spear?

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The word of God, the truth.

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You just put that into place, let him jump.

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Come on, jump.

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And when he jumps, give it to him.

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And that's it.

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Okay?

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Believers can claim victory over the enemy to avoid becoming a casualty of spiritual

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warfare.

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Let me suggest four things very quickly.

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Number one, understand the nature of the war.

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Don't be ignorant of Satan's devices.

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Study the scriptures about spiritual warfare.

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Buy some fine books about it.

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Now I want to tell you, there's lots of junk out there about spiritual warfare too that

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I do not agree with that goes way beyond the teaching of scripture.

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For that reason, we are ordering in a lot of books into our bookstore.

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If you're interested in buying them, you may want to wait another week and we'll have

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the books here and you can select some that you can trust.

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Understand the nature of the war.

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Secondly, arm yourself with the panoply of God, his armor.

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Along with the weapons that God has provided us for the pulling down of strongholds, for

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the defeat of Satan.

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The word of God and prayer.

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Three, recognize your identity in Christ and use your authority in Christ to pray and wage

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your warfare.

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I've just got to tell you this story before I go any further.

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I heard it from someone who was directly involved in it, so this is not one of those.

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All that happened is so and so's friend's cousin whose aunt had an experience.

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This came as close to the source as I know how to get.

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A young lady by the name of Doreen in Southern California was saved out of a satanic coven.

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She had been delivered, had come to Christ and was starting to grow in her church, but

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she got discouraged at a particular point.

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When she got discouraged, the enemy began to flood her mind with all kinds of thoughts

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and so she decided that she would go to the bank, get out all of her money and go buy

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some cocaine and try to end her life.

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By the way, thoughts of suicide almost inevitably are demonic.

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Most inevitably, suicidal thoughts come from dark angels and that was her thought.

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So she got in her car and she drove down to the bank and as she was getting out of the

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car, her door hit a truck parked right next to her.

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She looked up and there was an older man sitting in the truck and he said to her, well that's

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okay, it's God's truck.

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And then he said, don't do it.

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She shut her door, started her car, got out of there as quick as she could go and decided

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that she was going to take the money she had in her pockets, about ten bucks, and go to

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a liquor store and buy some tequila and at least get drunk.

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So she drove immediately across town, ten miles near her home, to a liquor store.

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She got into the store, picked up the bottle that she wanted, was waiting in line.

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As she looked up, there was that same man standing in the store watching her.

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So unnerved her, she put the bottle down, got some chips, went through the line and

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went out into the parking lot to go to her car and the man was in the parking lot.

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And he walked up to her and said, total stranger, Doreen, why don't you just go home?

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And that's exactly what she did.

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And she got home, she called the person that told us the story.

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Now this individual was so excited about what God had done that she immediately called Sue,

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who was a part of the network helping Doreen.

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Sue began to weep as she heard the story and the lady said, well Sue, why are you weeping?

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She said, well I was so burdened this morning for Doreen that I just put the kids all in

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the basement, went to my bedroom and I prayed for hours for Doreen at that exact time.

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Now what had happened?

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Well she had recognized her identity in Christ and the authority that God had given her in

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her prayers and she began to wage warfare.

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And the result was that God intervened in a supernatural way and sent an angel to stop

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Doreen from doing what she had intended to do in her discouragement.

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Number four, keep yourself in balance.

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What I'm saying here is that don't become so focused on the enemy that you lose sight

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of the Lord Jesus Christ.

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There's something about the dark side, about the occult that is very magnetic.

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It can allure the unsuspecting into it out of curiosity.

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So don't focus on the dark side.

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Focus on the Lord, focus on his word.

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Spend time in worship with Jesus Christ and he will teach you how to fight victoriously.

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Now you say, well I've resisted, but the devil doesn't flee.

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You know it may be that there is some moral ground in your life that you've not given

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up to God yet.

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It says that you first have to submit to God, then resist the devil.

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You see if Satan thinks he has a claim on your life, he will not flee, though you resist

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him.

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First, there has to be a thorough yielding up of all ground to God.

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But I want you to know we need not fear.

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For God has will that we triumph through Jesus Christ.

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And so let him teach you what it means to battle, to discern and to defeat the dark

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angels and to walk in victory in the Lord Jesus Christ in your life.

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Let's pray.

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Just before we go, I wonder as the Spirit of God is searching your heart if there is

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some ground in your life.

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That God right now is putting his finger on you know exactly what it is and it's an area

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where you're defeated, it's where Satan has gotten a beachhead in your life.

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And the result is that instead of being victorious, you're defeated.

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And he will not flee until you yield up that ground to God.

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Will you do that now in principle?

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And will you seek help from someone who can lead you through important steps so that you

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can experience your freedom in Jesus Christ?

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My friend, that is the freedom that Christ has died to give you.

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Don't take it lightly.

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Take advantage of it.

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Enter into it.

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Live in the light of it.

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You begin by submitting yourself to God.

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Now Father, I pray that the Holy Spirit will press home to every heart here the importance

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of what we're talking about.

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And I pray that every area of our lives may be yielded to the Lordship of Jesus Christ

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so that we may not become prey to the roaring lion who walks about, but rather may we resist,

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steadfast in the faith, and see the enemy flee.

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Teach us to war.

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In Jesus' name I pray, amen.

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Well God bless you.

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We're going to not sing this morning, although I'd like to.

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Our hour is late.

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But God bless you and unite us together in battling as a congregation in spiritual warfare.

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You're dismissed.