Can you hear all right at the back?
Huh?
Okay, apparently you can. We can lift the speaker up if it's
difficult for you to hear.
We'll give it a try and see what that's like. Thank you, Mark.
First thing I want to do tonight is finish my morning message.
So let me talk to you just a couple of minutes
about this matter of what our authority includes.
We talked this morning about our position in Jesus Christ,
that we are one with Him, that we've been given identity in Christ,
and as a result of that position,
we have authority that God gives us. And we said that that
authority includes all that we need to make disciples.
We are in a supernatural battle
for the souls of men and women. They are
blinded supernaturally, and therefore we need
to be ministering the Word of God in the power of the Holy Spirit,
standing firm in the authority that Jesus Christ has given us
as we proclaim the Gospel. And
the result of that is the enemy of souls has to back away.
As I said this morning, it doesn't guarantee everybody is going to become a
believer that we present the Gospel to, but at least
that supernatural spell upon them
can be broken if we proclaim the Gospel in the authority
of Jesus Christ. And then we leave to the Lord
His work of bringing conviction to their hearts and awakening their
conscience to seek after the Lord.
But when we talk about our authority, we also want to say
that our authority includes all that we need to win battles.
And would you look at Ephesians chapter 6
for a moment, because there is this remarkable paragraph
in which the Apostle Paul talks about spiritual warfare.
Some people have the misconception that spiritual warfare is
talked about in the Gospels where Jesus confronts
demoniacs and delivers them, but in fact the whole
concept of spiritual warfare is written right through the Epistles of the New Testament.
We sometimes don't realize that, but it's very clear
in Ephesians 6 and nearly everyone agrees that that is what Paul is
talking about. The thing I want to point out is that our struggle
in verse 12 is against these spiritual forces
in the heavenly places, that is in the realm of the
spirits. Our struggle refers to our hand-to-hand
combat. He pictures here a very close
guerrilla type activity
actually, as he says that we are right there
face-to-face with these powers and we are struggling
with them. And so he says, by way of
introduction actually in verse 10, finally be strong
in the Lord. You see, in the Lord
their strength.
We cannot combat satanic forces
in our own strength. We don't have it.
But we can be strong,
be empowered, is the word, be empowered
in the Lord because of our oneness with Him.
And he goes on to say, be strong in the Lord and in the
strength of His might.
That's an interesting phrase and we find it first back in chapter 1
at some verses we read this morning
where he says in verse 19, these are in accordance
with the working of the strength of His might.
You see that same phrase? The strength of His might.
Chapter 1 verse 19, chapter 6 verse 10.
So he is telling us that we are to be strong in the Lord
in the strength of His might by which
God brought about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That is the power that is at work
in and through us. It is the power of the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we have
in Jesus Christ all that we need to win
spiritual battles against satanic forces.
You say, well now what kind of battles are you talking about?
Well, there are battles in our own lives with these forces
as they seek to tempt us,
to distract us by whatever means they can
to destroy us. We have whatever it takes
in the Lord to be victors. He always
leads us in triumph.
We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
And then there are battles in the lives
of others. Friends of ours, or people
that we are seeking to disciple,
who are under some influence or control of the evil one,
you and I have what we need in the Lord
to come to their aid, to assist them in the battle
for their own freedom.
Now the wonderful thing is that if that person, that other person is a Christian,
they also can do battle in the Lord.
Some of you are exposed to the writings of Neil Anderson
and may be familiar with what he calls the steps to deliverance,
or steps to freedom, excuse me, in which he
outlines seven areas of our lives where Satan can make
a beachhead, where he can gain an opportunity
over us, gain an advantage over us.
And so Dr. Anderson has systematized, he didn't
create this, this is simply the word of God, but he systematized this
in such a way that you can examine those seven areas of your own life
to see if there be any beachhead that Satan may have
claimed and renounce him and shut the door as it were
on him and remove any ground that he may have
claimed due to some sin in the life.
And that's wonderful, but I have found that there are some people
who are so bound by the enemy,
who are so downtrodden by the enemy that they need help
at least for a while until they learn themselves how
they can overcome the evil one. And so you and I are equipped
by all that we need in Jesus Christ to do battle on behalf
of others. And then we're equipped to do battle
on behalf of the Church. I really think that's the context of
Ephesians 6. It's not just the personal
battles that we have that he's thinking about. He's thinking primarily about
the struggles that we have together as a body of people against Satanic
spirits. Now what kinds of battles are these?
Well, Satan has all kinds of tactics that he loves to use
in a church. His primary
tactic, by the way, is probably division.
Probably division. He loves to use that and he will divide
whether it be over personalities or if it be issues
or minor doctrines. He loves to create
division. That's probably his greatest tactic. And so what
should churches do who are facing division
or who are in the midst of division? Get on their knees before God
and combat Satan. Because he is
the one who is the fountain of strifes and division. Now it can also
come out of our human flesh. But Satan then takes that
which comes out of our human fleshliness and exaggerates
and intensifies and multiplies it until what has begun
as a little match fire suddenly becomes a roaring forest fire
in a church intended to consume it.
So we have all that we need in Jesus Christ to win
spiritual battles. We have that authority in Christ.
And here he tells us that we have the very strength
of Jesus' resurrection by which to do battle.
And then finally let me say that our authority in Jesus
Christ includes all that we need to pray effectively.
Back in chapter 3 here of Ephesians, verse 12
he says, regarding Christ Jesus our Lord in whom
we have boldness and confident access
through faith in Him. Jesus told us
that we could pray in His name.
That means that He has given us the authority to use His name
in prayer. As you know it is more than
tacking on those words to a prayer. Although that is not bad to do.
Sometimes it is good to get out of the habit of doing that because it becomes
a meaningless repetition. What he is
really saying though is that we have the authority to pray
on His behalf. To ask for those things that He
would pray for. It is like
my giving to you my credit card and saying
go on down here and buy whatever you want. Go get it.
Now we don't have any volunteers for that, I am glad to see.
But the point would be that I had given you the authority
to use my credit card. And Jesus Christ
has given us as it were His name to use
to put down in our praying and to say I am praying this on behalf
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that is serious business when we
are praying in Christ's stead.
Therefore the very best way to pray, it is not the only way
but the very best way I think is to go to the Bible itself and allow it to
prompt our praying so that we are praying God's own
thoughts. And then we can pray
consistent with the Bible. We may not have a verse
that we are basing the prayer on but we know that what we are asking
is consistent with what God would ask.
Now you say well can I pray for good health?
Can I pray for a new job?
Another car? Well of course. Our Heavenly Father
knows that we have need of all of those things even before we ask Him.
But we have the authority to come to Him and pray for those things
as long as of course we have the attitude Lord your will be done.
Because we don't know if it is God's will that we have good health.
We don't know for sure if it is God's will that we get another job
or another car. But we can ask Him for that
and say now Lord you do what you think is best. You provide.
You lead. Your will be done. We have the authority to pray.
It is confidence that He is giving us here. We have the right of entry
into the presence of God. We have freedom of speech
before God. That is what access is. It is freedom of speech
before the Lord. Boldness and confident
access. And so we have wonderful authority
in Jesus Christ. By the way if you
want to find a book that
kind of develops this whole idea. Mark would you open up my briefcase
please. I left the book over there. There is one
by Neil Anderson somewhere in the pile.
There it is. Living Free in Christ. That is it.
Wonderful short chapters in which he talks about our, thank you,
our identity in Jesus Christ, who we are in Christ, and what that
means. Wonderfully easy reading.
Living Free in Christ.
Okay that is
enough of the sermon from this morning. We will go on to some
other things now. Shall we take another offering?
I guess not.
I didn't pass out questions, or slip for
questions, because we have a whole stack from last time. But if you have questions
that you want to present, please
feel free to take a piece of paper if you have one and jot it down. You can give it to me
afterward, because we have one more night.
I think it is next Sunday night that we are devoting to this, and we will try to
cover those questions next week. But I think we have enough here
to last us for this evening.
How does one know if the temptation or weakness
are self-inflicted or from the powers
of darkness? The point being here, if I
am passing through a temptation, how do I know if that is coming out of myself?
I think the question is, or if it is the devil
who is doing it. I think an appropriate way to view most
situations is to see them as arising
first of all out of our own flesh.
James chapter 1 talks about the process of lust
that produces sin, if we allow it
to, and then death.
So temptation to sin arises out of our own
flesh. Satan then,
generally speaking, loves to
put his finger in that area where we have a weakness or a battle,
or where we are being tempted by our flesh, and he stirs it up. He inflames
it. He seeks to take advantage of us in
that area. So I don't know that we can necessarily say
it is one or the other. I think we can say generally
it begins in the flesh if we don't nip it there, if we don't face
that temptation and deal with it at that point, we run the
risk of satanic, demonic
involvement in seeking to further that sin
or that temptation in our lives.
Now there are times when Satan does tempt us directly.
We see that, for example, in Job
that the whole situation was set up by God's
providence, God's permission, but Satan came then
specifically with the temptation for Job. And sometimes I have said, and I think this is
again a lot of what I am saying are kind of general statements, but
I think that we can say that when
something just hits us out of the blue, there has been nothing through
the eyes or through the ears
that has stimulated our flesh. When it just hits us
out of the blue like a fiery dart, that we can
usually consider that as being directly from Satan.
And as we said last week, it doesn't really make that much difference whether it is the flesh
or Satan because we handle it the same way. We stand against it
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We use the word of God
to do battle against that temptation in the power of the Holy
Spirit. A companion question says, what
are the devil's favorite modes of getting Christians to sin?
Parenthesis, the not so obvious ones.
I suppose there are some obvious ones. I would immediately
think of some not so obvious ones as being prayerlessness.
Sometimes we don't think of that as being a sin,
but it is, isn't it? We have been commanded to pray.
It is appropriate for us to pray because that expresses our
dependence upon God. And Satan's whole desire is to get us independent of God.
So if we don't pray, then we are at least expressing
independence that way from God.
Probably busyness
is another very subtle temptation. When we just get so
busy, we get on a treadmill. Do you ever feel that way?
Well, the two of you do.
I think we all come to those times, and maybe you are on one tonight,
where you just feel like you are running yourself to death.
And you lose perspective on life, you lose priorities.
So I think busyness is another perhaps not so obvious
mode of the devil to get us off track.
He doesn't really care what it is
as long as it gets our focus off the Lord.
It can even be a good thing.
As long as it gets our priorities messed up and our
focus is off Christ. That's all that counts to him.
What role do therapists
slash counselors, parenthesis secular,
play in the recovery
slash healing process for abused individuals?
What role do secular counselors have
in helping those who have been abused?
I suppose it would be
too general a statement to say that
there are no secular counselors who can help.
Because that wouldn't necessarily be true. But I can tell you that
from my perspective as a pastor, I would never recommend someone
to a secular counselor.
Because if a person who is counseling,
who is trying to deal with the mental, emotional
health of a person does not have respect for God,
then how can that person
truly be of any help to an individual, whether Christian or non-Christian?
And my limited experience with
this whole thing suggests to me
notice my careful conditioning of all these statements
suggest to me that
a good number of people who have gotten into this professional field
are there not so much to help others as to find answers
for themselves.
They're hurting broken people who are desperately trying to find
help for themselves. And that's not a
condemning statement necessarily, it's just an observation
regarding some of them.
I do believe that there is a place for
therapy, for counselors who study
man's makeup. Psychology cannot
be appropriately called a science. You can't
put psychological theories and ideas in test tubes
and repeat them and so on and subject it to scientific tests.
Psychology is not a science in the true sense of the word.
It is a social science.
Which is to say it changes about every five years.
And new ideas come up and the old ones are debunked. I mean it's worse
than whether butter or margarine is the best for you, right?
I suppose you heard that account this week.
So there are all kinds of theories out there, people from A to Z in theories
of counseling. And so if you're looking for a counselor, the first
basic qualification ought to be, is this person
a Christian? Or at least does this person have
a respect for God in the Bible?
And part of the problem here is that people have insurance plans
and they are limited as to which
counselors they can go to. We run into that all the time with people.
And counseling is very expensive.
Even Christian counselors who are on sliding scales can become expensive.
And so people who are limited to group health or to whatever
organization are often up against a wall
when they try to find a counselor who will be able to
help them.
Are angels appearances to people predetermined? I don't know.
Why does this
not happen to people who thirst for it to happen? Not to prove a point
but to increase their faith. I'm not so sure that
angels appearing increase faith.
Faith is the evidence of things not seen. And so if I have
to see an angel, it's not really increasing my faith.
I suppose all of us would like to run into an angel
and maybe ask a question or two.
But the fact is that that's a very rare occurrence. We talk about those stories
because they do happen once in a while. Or they seem to happen.
But this is not something that's normal. And why
God does it here and not all of these other places, I don't know.
That's God's business. As somebody said, I'm in sales, not management.
First John
4.1 says, how do you test the spirits?
Let's look up that verse. First John 4.1.
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see
whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
John's view of these false teachers
is that they are controlled by spirits.
That their message is resulting
from spirits who are using and manipulating them.
Paul warns about the doctrines of demons. He is
telling us that demonic forces create
religious ideas and philosophies
that are false, which lead people away from God. And these teachers
then that are being used go out into the world. And that's what John
is saying. And so he says that we are to not believe every spirit.
Boy, that's good advice, isn't it? There is
a certain gullibility in the part of the church today about things
that take place, or reportedly take place.
Supernatural things especially. We ought not to believe
every spirit, but test the spirits. Now, what does
that mean, to test the spirits? How do you think you test the spirits?
Exactly. The context tells us.
By this you know the Spirit of God.
Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is
from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is
not from God, and this is the spirit of the Antichrist, of which
you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.
And so the testing of the spirits takes place
in the limited context here
by finding out what that teaching says about Jesus Christ.
There are other questions that can be asked as well, but that's the core
of it, isn't it? And so whether it be Mormonism,
or Jehovah's Witness,
or New Age, or it be the
pseudo-scholars who wrote the article in the St. Paul paper
today that attacks the authenticity of Christianity,
you ask the questions
about Jesus Christ to find out whether they're from God. That's how you test
the spirits. Now that term, test the spirits, is also used in the case
of helping people to be delivered from
demonic spirits. There is a way to test for the presence
of spirits and people, but I'm sure that in the context of this question, he's talking
about how we do that, and this is how you do it. The word of God
is the test as to whether a teaching
is of God.
Please explain what you meant by casualties when you said in your
sermon recently that
in spiritual warfare there are casualties. Well, as
in a military war, there can be
those wounded, so in a spiritual war there can be those
who are wounded, those who are hurt. And
we become casualties when we are ignorant of what's taking place around us.
Some of you have been in the military. You're really in trouble if you're
ignorant of what the enemy's doing, aren't you? I mean, you're vulnerable.
You're a victim of them. And so there are those Christians who are ignorant
of the devil. Paul writes to the Corinthians,
and he says, we are not ignorant of his devices,
but some of us are. Too many of us are in the church
today, and the result of that is that we can get trapped.
We fall into temptation and sin,
or we become wounded casualties. And so that's
what I'm referring to.
I was going to say something else there, and it went right out my mind, so I guess I've said enough.
Oh, it's not only by ignorance that we
can fall, it's also by
carelessness.
Friends of mine, probably friends of yours,
who have known better, have fallen.
Not because they were ignorant, but because they were careless.
They were careless in the battle.
We can't play with sin, can we?
We can't play with sin. We can't
excuse it in our lives. How subtly Satan allows us,
causes us rather to begin to excuse sin.
As to why this is okay in this particular circumstance.
And before we know it, we've stepped our foot in that snare,
and the Fowler has caught us.
Well, you have a recommended book list.
Not really a list, but we do have a number of books that we've ordered. They're up in the
bookstore, and if they are beginning to be
bought, we will...
depleted, depleted, there's the word. Depleted, we will
replenish them. Got a cross in my mind there.
Is rebuking
Satan the same as fleeing?
When you flee from Satan using God's word, will he stay away?
For how long?
Let me just back up and say, I would not understand rebuking the same as
fleeing. In fact, I don't know of a place where it says that we're to flee
Satan. We are to flee temptation. We are to flee youthful lusts.
But we are to stand against Satan. Ephesians
chapter 6. We are to resist the devil. We're not to
flee from him. We don't have to flee from him.
He must flee from us. Submit yourselves
to God, resist the devil, and what? He will flee
from you. So we never have to flee from the devil.
We simply have to stand in faith and resist him
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I would
equate that with rebuking Satan. Although there may be some
who have a particular definition of rebuking, but I would say
that simply resisting Satan is rebuking
him. And when he flees from us,
how long will he stay away? I don't know.
It is interesting that when Jesus defeated Satan in the temptation,
it says, and the devil left him for a little while.
See, the devil can get beat up too.
And he got badly beaten up by Jesus.
And he went away for a little while, suggesting that he did come back.
That when that temptation was passed
in the wilderness, there were other temptations that Jesus faced
in his life. And he comes back to us.
But we have the weapons
we need to confront him and to resist
him whenever he comes, however often he comes.
Are we always under attack? It asks here.
We are always
in the potential of attack.
But I wouldn't say we are always under attack. Because there are times
when we are being attacked by Satan.
And there are times when he backs off for a period of time.
But we are always, vulnerable is not the right word,
but it is always possible for us to be attacked at any time.
There is never a point when we can say, well I am done with that.
The devil can't get to me now.
There are those who have the idea that because of the cross work of the Lord Jesus
Christ that we are invincible. That we don't even need to
worry about the devil anymore. I have such a hard time understanding how sincere Christians
can believe that. Because the New Testament just flies
right in the face of that idea. He is defeated, he is
broken. We have the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ, but we must
be on guard. We have to be vigilant and sober
because our adversary, the devil, walks about as a
roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.
He does. And so we have to be on guard against
that adversary.
Is the angel of death mentioned in Exodus an angel of
good from heaven or an angel of evil from Satan?
I think I have probably even myself used this term the angel
of death. And yet when I went to my concordance to look it up I couldn't find it
in Exodus. Maybe it is used somewhere else. I didn't research this thoroughly.
But it talks rather in Exodus about
the Lord striking the firstborn. And I think that that is the reference here
to the Passover time. That it is the
Lord who struck the firstborn in all the land of Egypt is what it
says. So if there was angelic involvement in that
then we would conclude that it was an angel from God
that was involved. Is it possible
that spirits we may encounter could be good
and from heaven? Highly unlikely.
There are these stories as I said before about angelic spirits
that may appear or say something
but those are extremely rare.
And I think that when that does happen we probably would have a sense within our
hearts that this is alright.
If you see something in your bedroom, some dark shape
and that's what this question was focusing on, some comments I made
I would not assume that to be from God.
And I wouldn't mess around
with the spirit one way or the other. Can animals
sense spirits? Can animals be controlled by spirits?
Of course they can be controlled by spirits.
You remember that the legion said
we'll leave here but put us where?
Put us in those pigs. And they controlled the pigs and the pigs went off
the cliff into the Sea of Galilee.
And I think of Balaam as he was on his way to
try to curse Israel riding his donkey
and the angel of the Lord appeared and the donkey saw the angel
in the road and the donkey went off the road and Balaam whipped his
donkey, got back in the road. On further down the road the
angel appeared again. Balaam didn't see it. The donkey saw the angel
and smashed Balaam's foot against the wall.
And he beat the donkey. He said get moving.
And a little bit further down the road in a very narrow place
the angel appeared again. And Balaam didn't see it
but the donkey did and the donkey this time was laid down the road.
And Balaam began to beat his donkey. Where are these animal
rights people when you need them? He began to beat
this donkey. And what happened?
The donkey turned around and talked to him.
The donkey turned around and talked to him and said here I have born you all these
years and you're treating me like this. If you think that's strange Balaam talked
back to the donkey.
They had a little conversation there. And then the
Lord opened Balaam's eyes so he could see the angel of the Lord.
And so he finally saw this spiritual being.
So animals can be controlled
by spirits. I think that they can sometimes
at least sense spirits. I told you the story that I
believe to be factual of my missionary friend who
returned to his home quickly in Japan. They were under
attack and their family. And as he got back to his house the dogs
of the neighborhood were all around his house barking at it.
And he went in and his wife was terrified
of whatever this was in the house. His children were again
in the bedroom crying with pain in their legs as they had been now for some number
of days off and on.
So they just knelt down together right there and asked God to cleanse their
house of whatever this was that was attacking them. And it stopped.
The pain stopped. The cloud of fear left.
And the dogs stopped barking all at the same moment.
And they discovered then that the maid
that they had hired had brought in as a gift to them a little idol.
And put it on the wall of the children's bedroom and that was the
entrance of the spirit into that Christian home.
And of course they got rid of that idol. And they had no
problems after that. But you can see there that the dogs somehow sensed that
there was something happening in that house.
Are there church officials
who still perform needed exorcisms of
Satanic persons as well as sanctuaries and homes?
Yes, and you can see Pastor Rick about that. No, I'm just kidding.
Let me say a word about
exorcisms.
The word exorcism refers to the use of magical
words and rituals
to dispel demonic spirits.
And that is a totally unbiblical concept.
You've probably heard of the film that was out some number of years
ago now called The Exorcist which
was rather fanciful in the way that it dealt with this whole
theme. A Catholic priest was The Exorcist.
But what he apparently was involved in, and I've never seen the film, I do not
watch those kinds of films. I don't think it's healthy.
What he apparently was involved in was
using some sort of ritual to get rid of the spirit that was
in this girl. The Bible talks
rather about the power of the word of God. The power of the truth.
The power of faith
to resist spirits. And so I believe that a better
term than exorcism would be deliverance.
There are those who
have largely devoted their ministries to deliverance.
I have some friends who have done this. There's a wonderful
counseling center down in Sioux City, Iowa.
And it's name I'll give to you here
eventually.
Anyway, I don't know when eventually will be.
But anyway,
it's a wonderful counseling ministry.
It's ICBC are the initials, but I can't get the
way it starts. But International
Center for Biblical Counseling. That's it. The International
Center for Biblical Counseling. Dr. Mark
Bubeck is the founder and president of it. He has written a number of books,
including The Adversary, which is one of the finest
books on explaining Satan and how he is
our adversary, and some others. And there are others
there, and their full-time ministry is to help people who have encountered
spiritual problems. And they are busy.
Weeks ahead of time, their schedules are booked solid
from all over the world. One of the men
who's a very humorous and
gifted speaker, as well as a marvelous counselor,
whose name again I'll give you eventually,
made the comment
in one of his presentations that he gets into his office
at five o'clock in the morning, every day of the week.
He begins calling to Europe
with questions that have either been mailed, faxed, or telephoned in.
He calls people long distance in Europe until
eight o'clock. He starts his day of counseling until
whatever time in the afternoon he's done, and then in the evening he goes back and he calls
the Far East with the same
kinds of issues. We're talking about heavy duty stuff.
And some of it dealing with missionaries and what they're encountering,
or their families, or churches,
not only in the Far East in Europe, but here in the United States.
So there are some people who have dedicated
their lives to this kind of ministry. And we
have a ministry here in the northern suburban area,
here in the Twin Cities, called the Lighthouse, some of you are familiar with.
It originated in the Christian Missionary Alliance
Church in Shoreview, and although it's not officially connected with
the CMA, they do their counseling several nights
a week out of the CMA office here in Roseville. And their whole
ministry is to help people
be delivered from demonic oppression, and to
experience the freedom of Christ.
They're wonderful people, and I love them in the Lord.
They do some things just a little differently than I would if I were working for them,
but that doesn't mean anything other than we're a little different.
Here at our church, yes, we have
helped people to be delivered from spirits. And that's been
something that has taken place only in the last couple of years, as we've understood this better
and been equipped to do it.
It is not, however, a ministry that I
want to be known for, or want our church to be known for necessarily.
I see it in the context of making disciples,
in helping people to come to faith in Jesus Christ, and then to
enjoy their freedom in Christ, which is their right, their inheritance.
And if there is satanic bondage
in their lives that is keeping them from enjoying that, then I as a
pastor want to be involved in helping them to understand who they are in
Christ and how they can be free in Christ. And so,
while this is not a big part of what we do here, it is a piece of what we do at the
church. But I do want to say that you don't have to be a pastor
to be involved in this. Anybody
who is a disciple of Jesus Christ
has the authority, the delegated authority from Christ,
to be involved in this kind of ministry to people.
It is not something that should be entered into lightly
without some preparation so that you know what you're getting into.
It moves you from wherever you are in the battle right to the front line
pretty quickly. And so, it is
not to be entered into casually, but any believer,
any believer, it is not a spiritual gift. There are those
who have the understanding that this kind of ministry is a
spiritual gift, or that it was a
special gift given to the apostles. I firmly disagree with that.
It has nothing to do with spiritual giftedness. It has to do with making disciples
and using the authority that Jesus Christ has given us
to help people become obedient disciples
of our Lord. In terms of
the sanctuary or our homes,
any parent can cleanse a home.
All you have to do is go from room to room in your home
and say, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I dedicate
this space to Him. And I command that if there is anything here
that is of God, that it leave. And you know what?
If you do that in faith and the authority
of Jesus Christ, that fast is gone.
It has to flee. Now if there is a case
such as my missionary friend where there is an artifact
or whatever by which the Spirit has gained entrance to the house, you may
need to deal with that artifact. Now that doesn't mean that you go home
and throw out all your missionary artifacts. I'm not saying to do that.
Because that's not what I'm saying. Don't take that to the extreme. But sometimes
there have been spirits identified with missionary
artifacts. The missionaries didn't know this, but
little objects or whatever were used in
animistic worship, and spirits have attached themselves to those, and
they gain entrance into a home that way. And in those cases, whatever
that is, should be gotten rid of.
If you can figure out what it is. And I think God would
show you that if that were the case. In terms of
our sanctuary, I'm assuming that means the church sanctuary,
I would say this to you, that we have
prayer about this every Sunday morning. That's why
we have prayer meeting at 730 and at 845. 730 in
room 7 and 845 here in room 1.
A little advertisement. It is for our elders,
but it's for anybody in the church who wants to come. And we have prayer. And we ask
God's protection on the ministry of the day, and ask that He assign
angels around our property, and that He cleanse this building,
and that this space is dedicated to the Lord Jesus Christ.
We pray that way. And I just have to tell you
that since we've begun praying that way, this has been a number of months ago, there has been
a new sense of freedom in this ministry.
God has been doing something a little different, a little deeper,
as we have been meeting for prayer in this regard.
So, I guess I do
want to dispel the idea that there are those who
are exorcists. I don't believe that at all. I don't even like
exorcism, the idea of exorcism. It's pagan.
That's its origin. It's a pagan idea to use magic words
and rituals to get rid of spirits. How do we do it? By
the word of God, by resisting Satan,
and demanding that in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, He leave.
And at some point on the Sunday
evening, I want to talk a little bit more about that.
And we will intend to do that, by God's grace, before we get
done with this series, to talk a little bit more about what that means
to help someone else to gain
freedom in Christ. But our time is gone for tonight. If you have a question
that's come to mind, feel free to jot it down and just leave it here on the table
and I'll gather them afterward. I do want us to sing.
Mark, can we employ your services in the piano?
Is that 335 there, Mark, in that hymnal that I've opened up?
335 is what I'd like for us to sing.