Puppets On A String

It can be somewhat of a rude awakening, when you find out that your life has been nothing more than a puppet on somebody's string.  Realizing the control over your life that has been orchestrated by something, or somebody can be hard to accept.  This will be the reality of all of us when our eyes come opened to the wiles and the wicked activities, we have allowed the enemy to perform in our lives. 

We have been nothing more, but mere puppets on a string, and this has to stop.  These strings of hell must be cut and severed completely if our lives are to flourish and go on in the Lord.

If we yet have certain string connected to the life of which we let go of, the disconnect is not complete.  And if the disconnect is not complete, the strings are still there, and if the strings are still there, the enemy puppet master yet has control.

Transcript

Pastor Rickey D. Dixon 0:12

We thank God this morning for the word. We thank God this morning for life, health, and strength, and for another opportunity to come to you to bring the word. I pray that the word will be a blessing to all those who will receive it. Because the word of God is life. I'm gonna put it like Jesus said. He said, These words I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. And the word of God show us life because it has given to us a new life. To our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Let me get into the Word of God this morning. I'm not gonna hold you because I want to get on to it because I don't know how much recording time I have. Let me just read something for a foundation this morning as we go straight into the word this morning. In the book of 1 Timothy. One verse foundation. 1 Timothy 4 and 1. This is what it reads. It says, Now the Spirit speaketh expressly. Now it's what it's saying right here, the Holy Ghost talk. Because if you read along with me in your Bible, that word spirit has a capital S. This denotes in the King James Version is talking about the Holy Ghost. And when the Holy Ghost is talking, y'all, we need to take heed to. Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times, some people shall depart from the faith. A lot of people are gonna leave God. And when it says some shall depart from the faith, this is talking about church people. He's talking about saved folks. Once one saved people, they're gonna depart, meaning they're gonna leave it. Now here are some of the reasons why they're gonna leave it. It's what I want to get to in my message this morning. It says, giving heed. It's why they left. Because they start listening to the devil. Giving heed to seducing spirits. Those are demons. Unclean spirits. Giving heed means listening to the evil spirits talk to you. If you listen. But trust me, what they got to say is gonna be against God. It's gonna be against living saved. That's why many departed from the faith. They're gonna talk you out of living saved, talk you out of living holy, talk you out of living righteous for God if you let them. That's why you can't give them no heed. You can't give them, in other words, you can't give them your ear. Giving heed to seducing spirits, seducing you out of the life that you're living with the Lord, to live a life that they want you to live for the devil. Also, it says, giving heed to seduce the spirits and the doctrines of the devil, the teachings of the devil. This is why some in the latter days are gonna depart from the faith. In these last days, a lot of people have already left God. Some people have left God and not realized just how much they already left God. They have left off living a saved and sanctified life. Because they have listened to the devil, his seducing spirits, and his teachings, the doctrines of the devil. The devil, the devil got a doctrine, just like God got a doctrine. God's doctrine is holy and righteous. But the devil's doctrine is unholy and unrighteousness. Now let's get into the word. That was the foundation. Now you know where I'm going. Have you ever had someone or something controlling you or tried to have control over you? Have you ever felt dominated by a weakness or a personal temptation? This is the power that the enemy would like to keep over us by a non-stop spirit of control, seducing us to remain weak instead of strong in the Lord. Okay? Now, this I call the puppet on a strain syndrome. The devil wants us like puppets on a strain. We are not here to be the devil's puppets of puppets to those around us who have the devil in them working against us, being the children of God, shall we allow ourselves to become puppets on the string, dangling in life at the hands of the seducer? Should we continue to give heed to the doctrine in which the devil is trying to whisper in our spiritual ear? The Holy Ghost is speaking to us directly and expressly, and in hearing the Spirit, we cannot afford to depart from the faith that we have in God. We are not here to be the devil's purpose of marionettes, allowing him to dangle or control us on his sinister and sinful strains while we live for the Lord. This morning message: puppets on the string. We got to stop letting the devil control us in doing his bidding, in doing what he wants us to do, in living how he wants us to live. You don't want to give nobody and nothing no control over your life. For if they control your life, they are causing you to do what you do. If they control you, you doing what they want. As children, hallelujah, of the most high God. Are we so easily seduced? Are we so easily drawn away from the things in which we have heard from the word of God? Do the seductions and temptation sound so sweet to the flesh that we allow them to so easily beset us? Are you enjoying what you're doing so much? Is your flesh getting so much out of what you're doing that you just don't care no more? What you do, how you do, or when you do it. Walking around in ignorance, not realizing that the devil got you on his train. And it is his spirit and the spirit of the demons that are controlling your life. You can feel when those spirits come on you. You can feel when that hatefulness comes up on you. When you feel yourself getting getting hot, want to say something ugly, want to do something ugly, feel that rage coming through you. Upon you. If y'all ever read some old testament books, like I do, in second king, and uh the book of Kings was God had chose King Saul to be king. Well, he didn't really choose, but the people chose him. Technically, if you want to get real. But anyway, along King Saul's reign, the devil got in him. Spirit, the spirit just got in him, and there was time that spirit would come over King Saul. And David at that time was a young man in his temple. He wanted David to stay with him, especially after he had killed the liar. But at the same time, there was another spirit in Saul that hated the spirit that was on David. And then when that spirit rose up, the Bible said King Saul was slaying javelins at David, them long spears, those long spears, and he would throw those spears at David. That devil in him just couldn't stand. And the Bible said, one of the things that will calm Saul down, that spirit him down, when David would go to playing on his heart and singing. The music David would play and the song he would sing will calm that beast of that devil in him. But the Bible said a lot of times Saul, with that spirit be on him so strong, he would be sitting on the throne. The Bible said, with a javelin in his hand, he just kept a javelin close to him. Ready to throw it in anybody that made him man. Because at that point, King Saul was a puppet of the devil's strand. And there were times that spirit would control King Saul. They had sinned for David. David get here and sing. Get here and play some music, David. Come King, he's doing jobs at everybody. And some of us, because we have been on the devil's string and been his purpose for so long. Some of us have to be calmed down because we will go off on everybody in the house. Go off on everybody on your job. Just go off on folks. Stay mad, stay angry, stay upset, ready to give somebody peace of our mind. Not realizing you're the one in the most trouble because you are the one that has become the devil's puppet. And he got you dangling on his strands. We cannot continue to live being controlled by the devil or his demons or his elves. Because we are the children of God, and our lives are supposed to be lived through Christ. Our servitude, our commitment and our loyalty should be to our Lord, and not to the one that's trying to control us or seduce us with certain personal lust, with certain personal temptation, and with certain personal weaknesses. Because he knows the devil know our number, he knows our weakness. I keep telling y'all, we live for the devil was our bar friend before we broke up with him and started living to choose before we chose the Lord. We live for the devil. And even though you're with somebody new right now, being Jesus, your ex, still remember how you were, still remember what you like. So the enemy knows our weaknesses. That's why we cannot afford to play into his hands any longer. When you done left the devil, stay away from the devil. When you done broke up with your ex, stay away from your ex. I'm talking spiritually. See, as long as we stand on the devil's, living on the devil's turn and and allow him, be it his marionette, being his husband, allowing him to attach his strength to us, we can't win. We can't win because that's that lifestyle keeps you separated from the faith. And you will forever stay departed from the faith. I'm gonna say it again. Our triumph and victory will only come by us not departing from the faith, but keeping the faith that we have in God. We got to keep our faith in God, y'all. We got to continue to believe. You know what the Bible says? Whatsoever is not of faith is sin. We got to do we gotta keep belief. We gotta keep the faith. We find ourselves somebody need to put your phone on mute, please. We find ourselves deciding from the faith when we stop living by faith. Somebody please put your phone on me. Our faith should always be the core of our holy and righteous existence. Did you hear that? We find ourselves departing from the faith when we stop living by faith. Are we living by faith? Do we know we're supposed to live by faith? There's a faith wall, as the old saints used to say. And if we ain't living by faith, y'all, we're living by sin. And what does sin do? It separates us from God and will keep us separated from God until we come back to the faith. Our faith in God should always be the core of our holy and righteous existence. Always. John said this in the book of 1 John is that these things I have written unto you concerning them that seduce you. See, John was sure. These seducing spirits ain't just got started. Even in the biblical time, saints was dealing with seducing spirits, trying to seduce them. And a lot of our disciples and prophets and writers of the Bible will write things concerning people that help them when dealing with these seducing spirits. Because seducing spirits are trying to pull you away from God. And you don't need to, we in a state, y'all, we are in a place right now in time, especially in this generation we're living in, that we shouldn't let nothing, and we can't afford to let nothing pull us away from God. I don't care who they are, I don't care what it is, we can't afford to let nothing and nobody at this point pull us away from God. If anything we need to begin closer to God. Seducing spirits are they are evil controlling spirits. You had anybody that can try to control you. That ain't no fun with somebody trying to control your life. You don't feel free. You have to try to walk on eggshells around them. Watch what you say, because they don't they want to control everything about you. The devil is a lie. Have you ever felt like something has come over you, compelling you to say something ugly or something profane? That's them spirits. They pull it on your string when they do that. Have you ever been tempted to do something in an unsaved manner? Or to do something a saved person shouldn't do. That's them spirits. They pull it on your string when you feel that kind of stuff come over you. These are the spirits that strive against us. They will have us to be their puppets on their evil strings. That's why you gotta resist that. Can truly live this life for God while having strings attached to us of this world, nor by the seducing spirits that are not of God or his kingdom. I'm convinced of that. How you can't live for God being attached to the devil? That ain't gonna work. You can't live for God a saved life being a puppet on a string for the devil. That just ain't possible. You got to be set free. If we allow ourselves to become puppets on the string, it will become a difficult task. And hear me when I tell you this here. You can sit up and let yourself become the devil's puppet you want to, but what's gonna happen is it will become a difficult task for us to free ourselves from the evil of the strains which the enemy has tethered to us to control us for his evil purpose. Because see, some of staying fear too long, and the devil got a good strain on you. See, these strains can become so entangled, hallelujah, in our lives over time that it is impossible for us to free ourselves because we have stayed puppets too long, and the longer we stay puppets, the more entangled we become. See, when you free, you better stay free. It says stand fast, what Paul told the church in Galatia. Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty. Liberty means freedom. In the liberty where Christ has made us free. If you free, you better thank God, you free. And when you free, the word of God tells you, you need to stand fast in there. That means stay in that freedom. Hold on to that freedom and don't let nothing take that freedom away from you. Ain't nothing like being free from bondage. Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty where Christ has made us. Can't nobody free us but Jesus. Have you done been a puppet on the devil's strength so long? The only one can set you free is Jesus. It says, Where Christ has made us free. Now, here it is that he gives you some instructions now with your freedom. This the Pamphlet that comes with your freedom. He the instructions with it. And be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Yoke of bondage, there the strings is. Did you hear what he said? Be not entangled again. Don't go back down now, hanging around the devil no more and get yourself all tangled up again. With the yoke of bondage, because being the devil's puppet, being the devil's puppet on the string is nothing more than you being in bondage. Your life is bondage. You ain't happy with life. Because being on the strings now ain't gonna be no, you he gonna he gonna deceive you in the thinking that you're having a good time. He's gonna deceive you thinking that you do, you doing you what you want to do, and it's feeling good, and you enjoying it. But I'm telling you, it's a deception. He's a deception. While he got you thinking you're living a good life, what he's doing behind the scenes is tangling you up deeper and deeper in a string that you can't untangle. That's why it's got to be Jesus. That's why you got to call on Jesus. Because when Jesus makes us free, we listen. As the scripture says, we are free indeed. But our job is you can't be playing around getting yourself back tangled up again. Be not, that means don't do it. That be not mean don't do it. Be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. And some of us all be tired of our lives being bound in bondage. Some of us have never even truly, in the lifespan of our lives, even now, have not fully realized what it really feels like to be totally spiritually free. Because we've always had a string or two attached to us somewhere. Have we ever totally ask yourself, have you ever totally been free of every strain, every yoke of bondage that the devil unfolded at you in your lifetime? But I'm here to tell you, no matter how many strains you had on your life from being the devil's puppet, Jesus can make you free. And when you receive that liberty, stand fast in it and make it your business not to ever be tangled again in the yoke of bondage. Make it your business to not ever become controlled by the devil or be his puppet ever again. John also says, if the son, I'm sorry, this in the book of John, but this Jesus talking, excuse me. Let me let me clarify that. This is the book of John, but this is Jesus talking. John just wrote down what Jesus said. Jesus says this about himself. If the son therefore shall make you free. In other words, if I make you free, hallelujah. He says, Ye shall be free indeed. That means truly free. Hallelujah. Come on now. Listen what Jesus is saying. He's saying there's a place in me. See, free indeed means you will forever be free. You, in other words, you done got so deep in Jesus that ain't nail strain the devil got can attach itself to you ever again. Now we all want to get to that place. Why can't you attach to me again? Because the Son, which is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has made you free. See, when Jesus makes you free, you can never be bound again. You can never be controlled by the devil again. Because no matter what the devil throws at you from that point on, it cannot overpower. The power of Jesus is freedom that He has placed over your life. That's why Jesus put it on the end, put that little phrase on the end, ye shall be free indeed. I want to be free indeed. See, that's better than just being free. That's being free, and you're gonna and you know without a doubt, you can stay free through him who has made you free. But see, I got to I got to explain. Let me ask let me explain this too. The first word that Jesus says in that particular verse is the word if. See, that's predicated on something. Do you not know the power of Jesus is the most is the most powerful thing in the world? But even when it comes to the power of Jesus, you got to want him to do in your life what he can do in your life. He ain't gonna force it on you if you don't want it. You got to want him to do in your life what he's capable of doing in your life. In other words, you got to want to be free. Why I say like that? Because a lot of people, y'all maybe think I'm crazy, but think I'm crazy all you want to. There are some that don't want to be free. There are some that don't want to stop doing what they do. There are some that don't feel like they done got enough of it yet. Because the devil that made it so sweet to the flesh, so sweet to their spirit. They'll I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna come in, but I ain't ready right now. I've heard people say that they ain't ready. I know what you're telling me, right? But I ain't ready yet. Okay. That means you ain't ready for Jesus, the freedom of Jesus. You ain't ready for him to make you free from being a puppet on the devil's strength. You ain't ready for Jesus to free you from the control that the devil got on your mind. See now, Jesus can make us free, but we must want to stay free and not be entangled again under the bondage of those puppet strings. You got to get them got ties. Who about who in their right mind wants somebody controlling them? Who in their right mind wants something controlling them? Some of us are controlled by our own flesh. I said, and I meant it. Some of us are controlled by our own flesh, by our own mind, by our own ways, and we're so dumbfounded that we don't realize that it's the devil behind us having those feelings like that. Let me give you some wisdom here. Let me give you a little wisdom. You need to notice. This one thing. That the seducing spirits which attempt to come on us for their control will always be stronger than us and our flesh. Grab that. I want you to grab that and understand where I'm coming from. Listen to what how I said it. Well, listen to what I said and how I said it. Those seducing spirits that's trying to make us follow us on the strain. When they attempt to come over us to do what they want to do and to control us, they will the devil will always send spirits, those evil spirits, which are stronger than us in our flesh. That's why we fall weak to certain things. We can't we tell us, I can't stop doing it. I don't know why. I get weak behind, I'm just so weak behind him, I'm so weak behind her, so I'm so weak behind this thing, I just can't seem to stop. Because the seducing spirits are always going to be stronger than our flesh. This is what I say, the flesh now. But they will not be stronger than the spiritual man in us, if our spiritual man stay connected to Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, here what I this is how I said that. In our flesh form, we ain't no match. We'll be weak every time. But if the spirit man, that new man in us, through Christ Jesus, as long as we connected to him, they will, those spirits will never be stronger than the Jesus that's in you. If you trusting in the Jesus in you, if you trust in the Holy Ghost that's in you, if you trust in the Lord of God that's upon you, no matter what seducing spirit come, trying to attempt to come on you, they will not be stronger than your spirit. But if you're trying to fight them through the flesh, they're always gonna be stronger than our flesh. Because they're trying to fight spirits with our flesh, we just we rooty poops in the flesh. We weaklings in the flesh, trying to fight seducing spirits. You gotta fight spiritual with spiritual. That's why you can't, we can't rely on us and our strength getting the job done. You got to rely on the strength that comes through you through the liberty of Christ Jesus and through his anointing power in your life. Hallelujah. If you ever read in the book of 2 Kings, if you if you ever read about the kings, there always a king would reign and he died, then his son would take over, and he reigned for a while, then he died, and then his son take over. Anyway, you know about King Ahab. He was the one that was married to Jezebel. He wasn't no good, but I ain't gonna talk about him. What I want to talk about is he talk about here that after he died, the son, his son that took over and became king after him, that boy named was Manasseh. I truly believe after reading about all the kings in the Bible, Manasseh, I think, was the worst one, the most evilest king out of them all. Manasseh was so evil, he would put idols, the temples, the temples that the good kings had built in the name of the Lord, he would set up idols in those temples. The Bible even said he was more wickeder than even the pagan nations that God destroyed during those times when Israel was fighting against those pagan nations. The Bible said Manasseh. They say he dealed with familiar spirits and sorcery. That familiar spirit, that's witchcraft. Just in case you don't know. He was offering the witchcraft, seances, the black arts, sorcery. The Bible even said Manasseh even sacrificed one of his sons to those idols. That is God that required you to throw your children in the fire. He threw one of his sons in the fire as a sacrifice to those idol of God. And if I'm not mistaken, that that was also the God of the Moabites, was that that idol God was named Kamosh, who required people to throw their children in the fire. Manesseh was a wicked king. He threw one of these boys in the fire. But here's one of the most dangerous things, or really destructive things he did. Let me read a little bit out. You have to read that. Read 2 Kings chapter 21 and keep reading. When you're in your study time. Let me read a couple of scriptures out of it. It says, Manasseh, this when his father, King Ahab, died, was 12 years old. His daddy died when he was 12 years old, and he took over a barge running thing, and that got full of the devil. Was 12 years old when he began to reign. And reigned 55 years in Jerusalem. It means he was a wicked king for a long time. And his mother's name was Hefzeebah. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord. After the abomination, he didn't just see Manasseh did abominations. I'm going to get to my point. Stay with me. After the abominations of the heathens whom the Lord cast out before the children of Israel. He did worse than the mother nations that weren't even the children of God. I'm going to skip to verse 9. You have to read this. Read chapter 21, but this is what I want. Read that in your study time. He said, Now this, you got to read the rest of the script before the because he was king, he had influence on the people he ruled over, which was the children of Israel. And instead of them speaking with God, the Bible said, they hearken not. That means to the ways of God in verse 9. You have to attach the rest of the script to this. They hearken not to the ways of God. And Manasseh, this is what Manesseh did. And Manasseh seduced them. There it is. See, Manasseh had the spirit of the puppet master in him. It's why he was able to control the children of Israel like puppets on a string, because he had the spirit of the puppet master in him. And Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than did the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the children of Israel. Even the nation that God destroyed for the children of Israel to give them their land. They didn't do this bad. What my point is that we got to be watchful and sober-minded. Because those whom have allowed themselves to become puppies on the string can also become seducers of others because of the seducer spirit that is now in them. Did you get that? What I'm trying to tell you. You people sit up and let the devil control their lives, they will become controllers of somebody's life. Through the spirit of the same devil that controls them. This is what King Manasseh was able to do to the children of Israel. He had a strong seducing spirit in him, which enabled him to have strong mind control over the kingdom of Israel and his people. And some of us are being controlled by somebody else who is being controlled by the devil because they got that spirit of the seducer in them. And they become puppet masters in service to the devil. Solomon said this in the book of Proverbs, my son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. Don't do what they say do. If somebody full of the devil trying to entice you to do something, I don't care how sweet they may sound, I don't say, I don't care how convincing they may become, don't you do it and don't you listen? If sinners entice thee, consent thou not. Means don't agree with it. Don't agree with it. So what do we do in times of being seduced? What is it that we can do? What must we do to not become ungodly puppets, pawns of the enemy? Our only hope, and this is our only hope, is to follow our Lord Jesus' example against the enemy. Follow his example with the authority of, this is what Jesus would tell the devil, get thee behind me, Satan. And that's what we got to do. Tell the devil, get thee behind me. You got to resist him. Paul told the church in Ephesus, neither give place to the devil. We can't give the devil no place. Don't get him no seat. Not if you come behind, hey, sit down, have a seat. Don't give the devil no place. Let him know he not welcome him. You cannot give him a place. The old thing you say like this, don't let the devil ride. But you let him ride, he's gonna want to drive. You can't give the devil, don't play with the devil. You can't give him no place. You give place what you invite him in, he's gonna attach a string to you. When he comes back again, he's gonna attach another string to you. Then you're gonna find yourself feeling those, having those moments where it feels like something controlling you. James told the church, like Paul, this is our hope. Can't give him no place. Paul said, Don't give, need a good place for the devil. But James said, now that you're not giving him no place, he says, This is, and this is a one, this is really very vital. This step right here. Submit yourself, therefore, to God. Now, this is one of the most important things for us not becoming controlled by the devil and to walk in the freedom that Jesus gives us. You got to make it up in your mind to totally submit yourself to God. I mean this, y'all. We got to totally submit ourselves to God. James said, submit yourself therefore to God. Resist the devil. Resist him, and he will flee from you. See, some of us we don't know how to resist because it feels so easy just to give in. It feels so easy to let the devil have his way. We don't want to put up no fight, we don't want to put up no struggle, we don't want to put up no resistance. And we know we feel those spirits coming on us at the wrong time. When we should have sweet spirits. But that ain't the way. You gotta submit yourself to God. Get in the company of God and stay in the company of God. Well, you can resist the devil. Because without God, you can't resist him. Without Jesus, you can't resist him. And without God or Jesus, your life, he ain't finna flee from you. Because Paul I know, and Jesus I know, but who are you? You ain't got no power behind your resistance. You got to have the power of God, the power of Jesus Christ behind your resistance. That's why James first said, you first need to submit yourself to God. Get some power. Then you can resist him. And when he sees the power of God in your life, he will flee from you. One last script I want to share with you before I let you go. And Jesus answered and said unto him, it's Luke. He says, Get thee behind me, Satan. Tell the devil to get behind you. Jesus goes on to tell him, for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve. When you commit yourself to this lifestyle, and accept the fact that God is the only one that you should be serving, that God is the only one that you should be worshiping. You will make the decision of that, He's the only one that I should be serving. He's the only one that I should be living for. He did not put me here to be the devil's puppet on the strand. If I'm gonna be a puppet, I'm gonna be a puppet for the Lord. And only allow him to attach his strength to my life. God bless you.