SPEAKER_01: Hey, I'm Pastor Steve Hole.
SPEAKER_01: I want to empower you today to walk in your true identity as a worshiper and warrior.
SPEAKER_01: Today, embrace the power of God's Word and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Born for War podcast.
SPEAKER_01: Can a Christian be demon possessed?
SPEAKER_01: And I told you that the answer is yes and no.
SPEAKER_01: And what I meant by that is going back to the original meaning of the word.
SPEAKER_01: So King James Version Bible uses demon possession 13 times.
SPEAKER_01: The New King James Version, which came later, uses demon possession 13 times.
SPEAKER_01: And in each case, they're translating the Greek word daimonosomai.
SPEAKER_01: So daimonosomai was a word that they chose when they were translating the King James Bible from the Greek and from the Hebrew into English, and they chose the word possession.
SPEAKER_01: Now the reason I say yes and no in relation to demon possession is because that word possession means today in our vernacular ownership.
SPEAKER_01: Like, what are what kind of what are your possessions?
SPEAKER_01: What are the possessions that you have?
SPEAKER_01: You possess your house, you possess your car, or you don't make your payments and somebody else possesses your car.
SPEAKER_01: But it has the idea of ownership, right?
SPEAKER_01: So I don't believe that any Christian can be owned by the devil.
SPEAKER_01: So that's the reason I say no, no demon can possess a true born-again Christian.
SPEAKER_01: But if we look at Daimonosomai for what it originally meant in the Greek, it has the meaning of influenced by, not possessed by, not owned by, but influenced by.
SPEAKER_01: And I think we see the veracity of that definition because all through the New Testament we see in the epistles the admonition by Paul and Peter and James to advance a holiness and sanctification in our life that seems to have a pushback from the demonic world because they talk about, they talk about spiritual warfare, they talk about Satan and demons.
SPEAKER_01: And so if Christians can't be demonized, if Christians can't be demon influenced, then why is every epistle talking about it when the epistles were written to Christians?
SPEAKER_01: And so, yes, you can be demonized, and that's the word I choose to use, demon influence or demonized rather than demon possession.
SPEAKER_01: Meaning that there can be areas of our life that we have either wittingly or unwittingly given ground to the enemy where he starts to build a foothold, which can become a stronghold if it's not dealt with in our life.
SPEAKER_01: And I think one of the best passages is Ephesians chapter four.
SPEAKER_01: So if you turn in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter four, and before, when I when I graduated from college, I went on staff with a group that's now called Crew, which back then was called Campus Crusade for Christ, and I spent a couple years, about a year and a half, two years, at the University of Maryland, and then I went overseas to Japan.
SPEAKER_01: So for about 10 years, I was in Japan, I was in Tokyo, I was in Okinawa, I was in Manila, Philippines, I was in Seoul Korea, I was in different places working with university students.
SPEAKER_01: Well, my journey in spiritual warfare began about the second year that I was in Japan.
SPEAKER_01: And so I can honestly tell you that over a period of about nine years, as I worked with college students, many of whom I had led to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: So I had, they had come to know Christ.
SPEAKER_01: They were in a Bible study with me, they were studying the Word, they were coming to our meetings, they were fired up for the Lord, but in many cases, I still had to cast out their demons.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so it's kind of crazy.
SPEAKER_01: I know you're like, what are you talking about, man?
SPEAKER_01: I'm telling you that your soul is still very strong, even though you have the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: So there's this battle that goes on.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the whole book of Ephesians is really about that battle that we have.
SPEAKER_01: So Ephesians 4 is, I've written in my Bible steps to demonization.
SPEAKER_01: Steps to demonization, starting at verse 17.
SPEAKER_01: So I bracketed that in my Bible from 17 down to 19, and I wrote in the margins of my Bible steps to demonization or demon influence.
SPEAKER_01: This I say, therefore, and I testify in the Lord that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind.
SPEAKER_01: Now, the hardest thing to get anyone to do is think.
SPEAKER_01: For people to begin to realize that you are what you think.
SPEAKER_01: Do you guys remember growing up you heard you are what you eat?
SPEAKER_01: That actually came from a French chef who coined that.
SPEAKER_01: Um coming up in my blog on Thursday.
SPEAKER_01: But you are what you think more than you are what you eat.
SPEAKER_01: Now, you are what you eat is pretty important, but you are what you think.
SPEAKER_01: And so we have a house in Black Forest.
SPEAKER_01: It was built in 1962.
SPEAKER_01: And we moved there in 1998.
SPEAKER_01: So that house was already over 30 years old and it had some issues.
SPEAKER_01: Over the years, we've done three remodels.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, now we didn't use brick, we used wood and we used metal and things like that.
SPEAKER_01: But for the sake of understanding how houses are built brick by brick, go with me on this, um, because two by fours doesn't work.
SPEAKER_01: Um so a house is built brick by brick.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're remodeling a house, then what you have to do is you have to sometimes go in and do some what we call demo.
SPEAKER_01: So you demolition out old, but you don't take old and use old to build new.
SPEAKER_01: You use new to build old.
SPEAKER_01: So what happens, men and women, is that we have the futility of our mind, which is the old nature.
SPEAKER_01: What happens is we we know Christ, we have salvation in Christ, but we haven't learned to renew our thinking, so we're still building our life on the futility of our old mind.
SPEAKER_01: Having, verse 18, their understanding darkened.
SPEAKER_01: Now, man, that is such an allusion to the demonic here by Paul.
SPEAKER_01: He really, he really shares with us what's on his heart that when we have a futility of our mind, it's gonna lead to a darkened mind being alienated from the life of God.
SPEAKER_01: So when we start following darkness in our thinking, when we start self-condemning, when we start going after guilt, when we start going after gossip, if we're going after impure thoughts, you're alienating yourself from the life of God.
SPEAKER_01: Because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart, who being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
SPEAKER_01: Now he's using examples here that would be different for all of us, but do you see the progression?
SPEAKER_01: That the progression, or we can't even say the regression of demonization begins up here.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think it's even what you're consciously thinking half the time.
SPEAKER_01: I think it's actually unconscious because of our childhood, because of things in our background or things that have been said to you that you've chosen to believe.
SPEAKER_01: And so there's these belief systems that are built up in your mind about who you are that are lies from the enemy.
SPEAKER_01: And so that that leads into actions that can be dangerous.
SPEAKER_01: So now jump down to verse 25.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, putting away lying, let each one of you speak with truth to his neighbor.
SPEAKER_01: Now he says, lying.
SPEAKER_01: Why did he say that?
SPEAKER_01: I think because that's really the crux of the matter with the enemy and his tactics.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna look at Genesis 3 in just a second, is he's always lying.
SPEAKER_01: He is the father of lies.
SPEAKER_01: So let us each speak truth to his neighbor, for we're members of one another.
SPEAKER_01: Be angry, do not sin, do not let the sun go down on your wrath.
SPEAKER_01: Now look at verse 27, underline it, check it, whatever you like to do, highlight it, nor give place to the devil.
SPEAKER_01: And so that is the new King James Version that I'm reading from, but I think the NIV gets it better and it says a foothold, giving a foothold to the enemy.
SPEAKER_01: So, as I said before, let me just say it again, rehearse it so we can go back to where we're going today, but if my fingers represent fleshly sins, those sins that we all battle with, everybody in this room, battles with fleshly sins from time to time in your soulish area.
SPEAKER_01: And if you are battling something and you confess it to God and you confess it to one another, which means you're agreeing with God that this area is not good, then it's done for.
SPEAKER_01: You're forgiven.
SPEAKER_01: It's, it doesn't have power over you anymore.
SPEAKER_01: But there can come a point where you just continue to dabble in a particular area.
SPEAKER_01: There's a corresponding demonic spirit in the fifth or sixth dimension.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know which dimension it is.
SPEAKER_01: You say fourth dimension, but I've changed that.
SPEAKER_01: It's more like fifth or sixth dimension, comes down and can lock in.
SPEAKER_01: There is a spirit of lust that comes in and builds a foothold in your life.
SPEAKER_01: Or it could be gossip, or it could be jealousy, or it could be envy, or self-harm.
SPEAKER_01: Self-harm's huge here.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you in this room have tried to commit suicide.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you this week have thought about committing suicide.
SPEAKER_01: That's demonic.
SPEAKER_01: That is not from God.
SPEAKER_01: You say, well, that comes from me.
SPEAKER_01: No, you don't understand the stronghold that's in you.
SPEAKER_01: If you're starting to dabble in that kind of stuff, we gotta help you get set free.
SPEAKER_01: And hopefully that's why you're here, because that's what we do at the road.
SPEAKER_01: We set people free.
SPEAKER_01: We don't just talk about it.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, most of this stuff is the kind of stuff that I came around in my Campus Crusade conservative evangelical background.
SPEAKER_01: You don't talk about this stuff.
SPEAKER_01: You read about it.
SPEAKER_01: You uh you read books about it even.
SPEAKER_01: It's always the missionaries, right, when they come to town.
SPEAKER_01: They do that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_01: But we don't have those problems in America.
SPEAKER_01: So what we do as Christians is we read about it, we even hear sermons on it and we study it, we just don't do it.
SPEAKER_01: We don't do what Jesus did.
SPEAKER_01: We read about what Jesus did, and that was Jesus, and that's not us, so we can't do it.
SPEAKER_01: I want to challenge you, you can do everything in this book.
SPEAKER_01: That greater is he that's in you, the power of the Holy Spirit working through you.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, the works you saw me doing, you also shall do, and greater works than these shall you do, because I go to the Father.
SPEAKER_01: So you have the capacity to set people free, and you have the capacity to set yourself free.
SPEAKER_01: So now turn in your Bible to Genesis 3, because the tactics are the same for millennia.
SPEAKER_01: So in Genesis 3, this is our first introduction to the devil, we see his tactics.
SPEAKER_01: Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made, and he said to the woman, Has God indeed said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
SPEAKER_01: First tactic.
SPEAKER_01: The way the enemy works, and you're not gonna meet Satan.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think anybody here is ever gonna meet Satan.
SPEAKER_01: Satan's a created being, he's in one place at one time, but he has hordes, he has an army of demons.
SPEAKER_01: So this is the way it would come to you, is a demonic spirit speaking to you that, you know, you'll be happier if you do this.
SPEAKER_01: You'll be happier if you do that.
SPEAKER_01: Because the the tactic is always an attack on the goodness of God.
SPEAKER_01: So Satan says to Eve, you can't eat from, wow, man, God's holding out on you, man.
SPEAKER_01: You can't eat from any tree in this beautiful garden.
SPEAKER_01: Is that what he said?
SPEAKER_01: Well, Eve gets it right the first time.
SPEAKER_01: She says, verse 2, the woman said to the serpent, We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden.
SPEAKER_01: So she's speaking truth back to the enemy.
SPEAKER_01: But the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it lest you die.
SPEAKER_01: Which, by the way, is the main strategy in being, in walking in the freedom of the Lord, is speaking truth back to the enemy.
SPEAKER_01: That's next week.
SPEAKER_01: So next week I'm gonna talk about cosmic encounters.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna talk about truth encounters and power encounters.
SPEAKER_01: Then the serpent said to the woman, verse 4, you will not surely die.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so this is the second tactic.
SPEAKER_01: It's constant, is the enemy always lies.
SPEAKER_01: He's always lying to you.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why it's so exciting when I hear of all these noteworthy people out there, they're starting to read the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Because you're not gonna read the Bible, encounter truth, and not be changed at least a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: And so God's on the move in so many powerful ways on the earth today.
SPEAKER_01: So he lies to us.
SPEAKER_01: For God knows that in the days you eat of it, your eyes will be open, you'll be like God, knowing good and evil.
SPEAKER_01: So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took its fruit and she ate.
SPEAKER_01: So, tactic number three, the enemy always uses your five senses.
SPEAKER_01: He always uses your eyes, he always uses your feelings.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you said, I don't feel like I want to go to church?
SPEAKER_01: Or I don't feel like I love you anymore, or I don't feel like, I don't feel like, I don't feel like, well, that's okay.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I I believe in emotions and they're from God, and emotions are good, but sometimes you can't trust your feelings.
SPEAKER_01: So sometimes facts don't line up with feelings.
SPEAKER_01: I feel like if I jump off this building, that the angels will come and just elevate me and drop me down on the street on my feet, it'll be a miracle.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I feel like I should be taking these drugs, or I feel like I need pot, or I feel like whatever it is, you know, be careful with feelings.
SPEAKER_01: Feelings will deceive you.
SPEAKER_01: And I think what happened with Eve is she saw the tree became desirable because she focused on it.
SPEAKER_01: And as she focused on it, it came into her mind, it came into her heart, and it influenced her emotions.
SPEAKER_01: So that's how the enemy works in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: She also gave to her husband with her.
SPEAKER_01: She gave to her husband.
SPEAKER_01: I remember as a 16-year-old in high school, some of my some of my friends were getting into pot smoking and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember thinking, this is pretty good for a non-Christian kid.
SPEAKER_01: But I said, You guys can't even smoke pot alone.
SPEAKER_01: They said, What?
SPEAKER_01: I said, you guys all have to smoke pot together.
SPEAKER_01: And they went, Yeah, Steve's right.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, let's go get some, you know.
SPEAKER_01: And they left me in the dust.
SPEAKER_01: But but isn't that kind of how it works?
SPEAKER_01: You know, it's like sin needs some friends.
SPEAKER_01: You need almost like some sinful bloodstained allies to kind of go and do your stuff together.
SPEAKER_01: So Eve needed Adam.
SPEAKER_01: And so that's how the enemy works.
SPEAKER_01: He gets you in a new crowd, he gets you in a new group of friends, he gets you with some folks, and they go, it's not that bad.
SPEAKER_01: You're not an alcoholic.
SPEAKER_01: You just binge, you know, once a week.
SPEAKER_01: You don't drink for five days, but you know, let's just let's get a get a little bit of a buzz here, guys.
SPEAKER_01: So, you see what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_01: How the enemy works?
SPEAKER_01: He takes you out of your desirable crowd that you know is right, and he starts moving you into those that want to join you.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 7, then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.
SPEAKER_01: So it always leads to shame.
SPEAKER_01: Always leads to shame.
SPEAKER_01: And we are we're ashamed.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you in this room right now, you're ashamed of stuff that nobody knows about in your life.
SPEAKER_01: Well, welcome to the party.
SPEAKER_01: We all do that from time to time.
SPEAKER_01: So you're not weird, you're not strange, you're you're actually pretty normal.
SPEAKER_01: So everybody's got secrets.
SPEAKER_01: But you know what?
SPEAKER_01: Those secrets will get found out.
SPEAKER_01: And that scares the daylights out of me.
SPEAKER_01: I hope it does you.
SPEAKER_01: To realize that if we can become more and more vulnerable with God, more and more vulnerable with people, and trust the process, especially at this church.
SPEAKER_01: You can trust the process at this church.
SPEAKER_01: And I can't speak for other churches.
SPEAKER_01: I see so much condemnation on people when they come out with things that they're struggling with, and I think that's such a disservice to what God can do in their lives.
SPEAKER_01: We've got to be willing to be open about our struggles and our battles, or we're gonna just keep playing the hypocrisy game.
SPEAKER_01: And I hate hypocrisy.
SPEAKER_01: I hate it in me, right?
SPEAKER_01: So the only way I know to do that is to say, we give you freedom to confess your sins to one another, because we're all in need of freedom and repentance and forgiveness in our lives, right?
SPEAKER_01: So that's what happens here.
SPEAKER_01: This is the way the enemy works, and when he does that, there's a process involved.
SPEAKER_01: So I want to give you what I think.
SPEAKER_01: This is from a practitioner, more than a theological perspective, but six degrees of demonization.
SPEAKER_01: So six degrees of demonization that I've observed in casting out demons and working with people who are demonized.
SPEAKER_01: The first degree is occasional temptation, harassment, which every Christian experiences.
SPEAKER_01: We all have that.
SPEAKER_01: You almost have it daily.
SPEAKER_01: You may have had it on the way to church because you were in the car with your spouse and you had an argument, the American way.
SPEAKER_01: The American Christian way is argue on the way to church and then pretend like you did when you get there.
SPEAKER_01: Um but anyway, occasional temptation, like that's a first degree.
SPEAKER_01: We all have that battle, okay, in our lives with temptation, and you resist it.
SPEAKER_01: You resist it, you say no to it, you turn from it.
SPEAKER_01: Uh pretty easy.
SPEAKER_01: Um, second degree is demons around a person.
SPEAKER_01: One can feel their presence.
SPEAKER_01: And this kind of victory comes, you've got to rebuke that thing.
SPEAKER_01: I remember you guys remember the story I told you about how lust was becoming a part of my life as a missionary.
SPEAKER_01: Um, and I would go and I would see porn on the streets there, and they were all open in Japan.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if it's still that way in Tokyo and everything, but but I remember I was going to, I was gonna go look at it.
SPEAKER_01: I just cast out like four demons out of a guy, and then I'm going to the porn.
SPEAKER_01: That's a that was a really powerful missionary, right?
SPEAKER_01: But anyway, the spirit spoke to me, Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, You cast out demons, but you have one.
SPEAKER_01: And um, and I I just stopped in my tracks, I cast that demon out, told it to leave, spirit of lust, leave in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I literally felt something lift off my back.
SPEAKER_01: I felt something lift off my back.
SPEAKER_01: So that's, I believe, a demon around a person.
SPEAKER_01: Um, in a couple weeks, we're gonna talk about haunted houses and UFOs.
SPEAKER_01: And um, I've been in a lot of haunted houses.
SPEAKER_01: Um, so I think spirits can be in an area where they've been given permission to be there.
SPEAKER_01: And so I've been in some places that are pretty spooky.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, third degree.
SPEAKER_01: Third degree would be afflicted, oppressed, sick.
SPEAKER_01: This is more like demons are on a person.
SPEAKER_01: So I would reference Luke 13, 10 through 13.
SPEAKER_01: Um, I mean, sickness can be caused by demons.
SPEAKER_01: There's nothing wrong with you trying to cover your basis if you're struggling with a sickness.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the thing about sickness.
SPEAKER_01: You need to get sick.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, sick's good.
SPEAKER_01: Sick, getting sick is generally speaking, it's good for you because it builds up your immune system.
SPEAKER_01: What's bad is when you just jump right to drugs or you jump right to go see the doctor about something.
SPEAKER_01: When you you just need to weather the storm, man.
SPEAKER_01: Hang in there.
SPEAKER_01: And uh and don't be taking so many antibiotics all the time, because you that builds up another problem.
SPEAKER_01: So, so so let me say this.
SPEAKER_01: So, sickness is not always bad, so let me just say that.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, but some sickness is caused by demons.
SPEAKER_01: It is.
SPEAKER_01: I know that for a fact, and you probably have experienced it, and that's where you gotta have discernment, and you can rebuke that spirit, and it's on you, and it will leave.
SPEAKER_01: And so I think it it's it's the right thing to do to always keep that door open when you're praying for someone who's sick.
SPEAKER_01: Fourth degree is this is where I would call fourth degree being uh demonic foothold, like we just looked at in Ephesians 4.
SPEAKER_01: Demonic foothold, infested, disabling in a particular area.
SPEAKER_01: So this is where I'm Talking about where spirits are coming in and locking in, and this would be um Mark 7, 26 through 30, and victory comes through either a power encounter or a truth encounter, which we'll cover next week.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm not gonna go into the details of that, but um, this is those situations like the first time I ever dealt with the demonic was with a young man who came to me and had been letting me know through communication that he had considered committing suicide on several occasions, to the point where his roommate took all of the knives and all sharp objects out of the house because he would come home and want to thrust a knife into his heart.
SPEAKER_01: So it was really bad.
SPEAKER_01: And um, and so I had never cast out a demon before.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't know what I was doing, but I invited him over to our house, Liz and I uh made a dinner for him, and we began to, or I began to rebuke the spirit, and all hell broke loose.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, he was a fourth degree black belt in karate, so that was not a good thing.
SPEAKER_01: And he breaks our end table, lamp falls over.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know how he didn't burn down the whole apartment complex.
SPEAKER_01: Um, and then one thing after another happened, I won't go into the details, but it took me three hours to figure out that the name of Jesus is really powerful.
SPEAKER_01: So I'll give you a heads up.
SPEAKER_01: Give you a heads up.
SPEAKER_01: Use always use the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't know anything, I didn't know what I was doing.
SPEAKER_01: And I thought, well, I think Jesus used his name and the name of somebody, that's a good idea.
SPEAKER_01: I'll try that, you know.
SPEAKER_01: And then he started to get set free.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm not the sharpest pencil in the drawer, I'm not the smartest guy around, but I'll wear you out if I got something I'm focused on.
SPEAKER_01: So I wore out these demons, okay?
SPEAKER_01: They just got, these guys are not gonna quit, you know?
SPEAKER_01: Let's get out of here.
SPEAKER_01: So we cast out three demons out of that guy.
SPEAKER_01: But that's it, he had a foothold in his life, um, and probably pretty close to fifth degree.
SPEAKER_01: Fifth degree is a stronghold.
SPEAKER_01: So now it's a stronghold.
SPEAKER_01: So this is dominating and controlling a person in a particular area.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't control everything, it just controls a particular area.
SPEAKER_01: Luke 8, 26, and 27.
SPEAKER_01: So victory's only gonna come, again, back to what we're gonna talk about more next week, about a power encounter or a truth encounter.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, truth encounter is more important than a power encounter, but we'll talk about that next week.
SPEAKER_01: And then sixth degree is true demonic possession, owned by Satan and demons.
SPEAKER_01: This would be Judas in scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Through a pack or an agreement with the enemy, no desire to be set free, no true believer in Christ could come to this point.
SPEAKER_01: Modern examples would be Hitler, Mao, Stalin, Manson, Edie, I mean, I bet you our some of our mental hospitals are full.
SPEAKER_01: Some of our prisons are full of men and women that are demon-possessed.
SPEAKER_01: But closest I've ever come to someone like this was a naval officer.
SPEAKER_01: He was a very high-ranking naval officer.
SPEAKER_01: And I was called in by a friend of mine to come pray for him because he had tried to commit suicide three months before.
SPEAKER_01: And the the the way it was described to me, and then he described it when I went to his house, was that he heard a voice telling him to steer his car into the oncoming traffic.
SPEAKER_01: And so he did, and he killed two people.
SPEAKER_01: So he killed two people and nearly killed himself, and now he's ridden with guilt and wants to commit suicide even more, and yet he calls himself a believer.
SPEAKER_01: He says he's a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: So I started asking him questions.
SPEAKER_01: I interviewed him, I wanted to understand his background.
SPEAKER_01: How many here in this room have heard of automatic writing?
SPEAKER_01: Anybody heard of automatic writing?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, a number of you.
SPEAKER_01: So automatic writing is where someone, usually in people who are into white magic and new age stuff, and this guy was into both, um, they blindfold themselves and then they set themselves in front of a keyboard and they invite the spirits to come.
SPEAKER_01: They start channeling spirits, and then the spirits type out a message using their hands through the channeling, and they get a message and they think it's super cool, and they're communicating with white, it's white spirits, okay?
SPEAKER_01: So they see it as good.
SPEAKER_01: Well, this guy not only was doing that, but he was also a photographer.
SPEAKER_01: He wanted to become a great photographer, so he invited the spirit of Ansel Adams to come into his life.
SPEAKER_01: How many familiar with Ansel Adams, a great black and white photographer?
SPEAKER_01: Um so he said, he he told me in the room, I have Ansel Adams living in me.
SPEAKER_01: And then I was like, hello.
SPEAKER_01: I need, and I got better things to do than be here.
SPEAKER_01: But the bottom line was I started to confront this and deal with this in this individual's life.
SPEAKER_01: I had two pastors with me, and they started manifesting demons.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it was like so I was so out of my depth, you guys.
SPEAKER_01: It was ridiculous.
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm got a hand on him, and I've got a I've got half of my hand on one guy and half of my hand on the other guy, and I got demons just like all over the place.
SPEAKER_01: And after about two hours, we went, This is dumb.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not doing this.
SPEAKER_01: I am not capable spiritually or experienced enough practitionally to know what to do.
SPEAKER_01: And so I I stopped it and um gave him some instructions and I left.
SPEAKER_01: And then I had to deal with these other two guys that were my friends, and we had to set them free later.
SPEAKER_01: But um got communication about six months later from this guy, he remembered everything I said.
SPEAKER_01: He had like a photographic memory.
SPEAKER_01: He remembered everything I said, and he began to start going to church.
SPEAKER_01: He moved to New Orleans and uh still in the Navy, started going to church and self-delivered himself.
SPEAKER_01: So one day he was in a room and he just told the spirits to leave.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want the spirit of Ansel Adams, I don't want that, I don't want um automatic typing, any any spirits involved with that.
SPEAKER_01: And then God began to give him the names of the spirits.
SPEAKER_01: He cast them out, he was picked up, levitated off the floor, and slammed up against a wall and set free.
SPEAKER_01: So you don't want to go there.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just say that's not a good idea, okay?
SPEAKER_01: But that's more in that six-degree range.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's getting pretty bad.
SPEAKER_01: But he was set free, he later got married, and is as far as I know, doing really well today.
SPEAKER_01: But but that's an example of really pretty close to possession, all right?
SPEAKER_01: So, how do we resist the devil and how do we fight?
SPEAKER_01: How do we get set free?
SPEAKER_01: So I think the best passage in Scripture is 2 Corinthians 10, 3 through 5.
SPEAKER_01: You don't need to turn there.
SPEAKER_01: I'll just read it.
SPEAKER_01: 2 Corinthians 10, 3 through 5.
SPEAKER_01: For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.
SPEAKER_01: So that's really important right there.
SPEAKER_01: This is not a fleshly issue.
SPEAKER_01: This is way deeper than the flesh.
SPEAKER_01: The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds.
SPEAKER_01: That's my first point.
SPEAKER_01: You've got to pull down the strongholds.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna talk more about how to do that next week.
SPEAKER_01: Pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exhausts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: So, number one, pulling down strongholds.
SPEAKER_01: Now, some of you don't want your strongholds pulled down.
SPEAKER_01: That's why I make it number one.
SPEAKER_01: Because if your will's not engaged, which that individual, that guy, the naval officer, his will was not engaged.
SPEAKER_01: He did not want to be set free.
SPEAKER_01: I was wasting my time.
SPEAKER_01: And if you've got someone in your family who's messing around with stuff and you'd like to pray for them and minister, if their will's not engaged, you are literally wasting your time.
SPEAKER_01: So the will of the person to surrender to God in that area has to be engaged.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: And anybody can engage their will.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, anybody can.
SPEAKER_01: So, Christian or non-Christian, you can have a will to be set free.
SPEAKER_01: And so don't mess around with people who don't want to be changed.
SPEAKER_01: It's a waste of time.
SPEAKER_01: And so the first thing he says, you got to pull down strongholds, and the way you pull down strongholds, you've got to engage your will.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Then number two, renew your mind.
SPEAKER_01: He says, bringing every thought captive to obedience to God, renewing your mind.
SPEAKER_01: It's the bricks, you guys.
SPEAKER_01: It's the brick by brick by brick we build the house.
SPEAKER_01: Thought by thought we build our life.
SPEAKER_01: It's important.
SPEAKER_01: Brick by brick you build a house.
SPEAKER_01: Thought by thought, you build a life.
SPEAKER_01: So this is really hard.
SPEAKER_01: It's the hardest thing for me to do for myself is think.
SPEAKER_01: And like yesterday, I know I was under demonic attack.
SPEAKER_01: I was probably first degree or second degree demonic activity over the last few days in my life, and I woke up at 3 a.m.
SPEAKER_01: and I said the Lord's Prayer.
SPEAKER_01: I said Psalm 23.
SPEAKER_01: I said the Beatitudes of Matthew 5, 3 through 11.
SPEAKER_01: And I said those things out and it went away.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm telling you, if we don't renew our mind, you're a sitting duck.
SPEAKER_01: I'm a hunter.
SPEAKER_01: You know what a sitting duck is?
SPEAKER_01: And that's like a duck that's just sitting on the pond, you just go boom, right?
SPEAKER_01: Well, the way you fly away is renewing your mind.
SPEAKER_01: Renewing your mind.
SPEAKER_01: And then number three, put on the armor of God.
SPEAKER_01: Number three, put on the armor of God.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna do that in just a second.
SPEAKER_01: And we did that the last time I spoke on this.
SPEAKER_01: And then number four, don't go to the wrong places.
SPEAKER_01: Don't go to the wrong places.
SPEAKER_01: If you struggle with alcohol and you're trying to get set free because you've got alcoholic tendencies, don't go to the bar.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not real smart.
SPEAKER_01: You can figure that one out, okay?
SPEAKER_01: But don't go to the bar.
SPEAKER_01: If you struggle with porn, don't be alone on your computer.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: You say, well, yeah, but I've got a job to do.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: Then you're gonna need to put some accountability.
SPEAKER_01: There's all kinds of stuff you can do, shields and things like that.
SPEAKER_01: But you gotta want it.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta want it.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody can hold your hand.
SPEAKER_01: You have to be a big boy.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta put on your big boy pants and decide freedom's more important than bondage.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: So here's the here's the struggle for men.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Men, you struggle with lust more than women do.
SPEAKER_01: Now, women struggle.
SPEAKER_01: Every time I say this, I always have a woman email me, text me, or something.
SPEAKER_01: We struggle with lust too.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, I know.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm stereotyping a little bit here that men struggle with lust, I think most of the time more than women.
SPEAKER_01: But women, you guys talk too much.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: You do.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you're there we go.
SPEAKER_01: I like that, Chris.
SPEAKER_01: Do that again, man.
SPEAKER_01: Women, you talk too much.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Alright.
SPEAKER_01: So men, you lust too much, women, you talk too much.
SPEAKER_01: So what happens is women gossip.
SPEAKER_01: I hear stuff from Liz about women's things and stuff like that, and I go, man, we never have that struggle with guys.
SPEAKER_01: Guys don't sit around and go, Did you hear what so-and-so said about so-and-so?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so I'm just saying that to just say this.
SPEAKER_01: That be honest.
SPEAKER_01: Be honest.
SPEAKER_01: We've all got our weaknesses.
SPEAKER_01: We all have our errors where we struggle and stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And um, and like I told you, the last few days I've had mine where I just felt like this presence was over me.
SPEAKER_01: So we have to put on the armor and then don't go there.
SPEAKER_01: So some of you need to change your friends in 2024.
SPEAKER_01: If they're little gossips and they're always talking about people and everything, just cut it off, man.
SPEAKER_01: Or just tell them, hey, I go to the road, and so do you.
SPEAKER_01: Remember that sermon that Pastor Steve said?
SPEAKER_01: We gotta quit doing that, you know?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: So all of us have those issues.
SPEAKER_01: So join the team and let's let's work in 2024 toward freedom.
SPEAKER_01: And it's gonna be two steps forward and one step back.
SPEAKER_01: It's not gonna be perfect.
SPEAKER_01: It's it's muddled, it's hard, but we need each other.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to the Corn for War podcast.
SPEAKER_00: We hope today's message has empowered you to make a difference in your world.
SPEAKER_00: To connect with Pastor Steve's sermons, books, and blog, visit Steve Holtonline.org.
SPEAKER_00: God bless you.