You are invited to stop holding back and fully surrender your life to Jesus as Lord today. Ask Him to reveal any hidden areas of witchcraft or sin that need His freedom. Trust that He will walk you into deeper levels of liberty through the Holy Spirit.
So with that, I have the honor of introducing our pastor, David John Phillips. So, whoop whoop. Alright. And, yes, you can stand and honor our pastor. Yes.
I'm gonna pray for you. I'm gonna pray for him. I just want you guys to know that this man lives out everything that he says on the stage. And I will say that over and over again. He lives it out in his life.
So it is an honor to be led by him. It is an honor to be taught by him. It's an honor to be friends with him. I guess that's the word. All the above.
So father God, just thank you. I thank you for your Holy Spirit being in this place right now, God. I come against any distractions in the name of Jesus. Father, allow David to preach the word and be used by you, God. Father, I pray that as we have an encounter with your word through David, that there is freedom in this room right now in the name of Jesus.
We thank you for who you are, Lord. We honor your name. It's in your name we pray. Amen.
Amen. Alright. Thank you for that. I I want to address something that I feel like maybe some of you guys are feeling. Why would some why would they stand up and clap?
What that that's just kind of weird. Maybe that's a thought in some of your hearts. I want to address it in the kingdom of heaven, God's kingdom. It's a "kingdom of honor". And that which you honor, you can receive from.
And that which you dishonor, you won't hear. Those that you honor, you can receive from. And those that you dishonor, you won't hear. And the Bible says, to outdo Paul wrote, outdo 1 another in showing honor. So in the kingdom of heaven, it's actually weird to not show honor to people.
So, man, I I want I wanna outdo you guys in showing honor to each of you. And this is not just to to puff myself up in any way, but just to teach you scripture. The Bible says that those that bring the word are worthy of Double honor. Why does the Bible teach that those that bring the word are worthy of double honor? Not to put them on a pedestal, but what you honor, you can receive from.
What you doubly honor, you'll doubly receive and you wanna receive the word. But if in your heart, you're like this, you're probably putting up a wall, a metaphorical wall in front of you that will prevent you from experiencing the freedom that God wants to give you through the preaching of the word. Does that make sense? So just just to instruct our church on honoring, especially honoring 1 another and then honoring not just me. I'm not the only 1 that preaches.
Praise the Lord. We got an amazing speakers and I I think a lot of them are better than I am. But not just at this church. Whenever you go to a church and you hear the word being preached, don't go with a critical heart or critical spirit. You're preventing yourself from hearing what God wants to say.
Now, if you're not teaching in line with the word, of course, throw it out. But receive what's in line with the word as from words from God. Amen? So Father, we we wanna be a church that demonstrates honor. First, by honoring you, but then honoring those that are made in your *image* to love in a way that lays our life down for them to experience your goodness and your presence and your glory.
Lord, thank you for the honor of getting to be the pastor here. Thank you for the honor of getting to bring the word. Lord God, and I pray that it washes their feet in such a way that it causes them to know your presence and know your power and know your goodness and to walk in an authentic relationship with you in every area of their lives. That they would realize that this isn't just some game, that this isn't just some Sunday morning thing, that this is what you died for. The opportunity to have a relationship with them, to experience your presence and your power and freedom in every area of their life.
And any jagged areas of our hearts that are hard and brittle, that lack understanding because we've chosen not to obey. I pray those areas are broken today and there's freedom. And everybody said, Amen. I would recommend, I'd highly recommend if you ever get to to preach, use that line, it's fun. You say, everybody said and everybody says, Amen.
It's just fun, know, audience participates. It's good stuff. So that's our prayer, is that you encounter the power and the presence of God in such a real way that you're left in the valley of decision. Because when you encounter the truth of the word, you can't help it. God loves you too much to not reveal himself in such a way that you have to choose whether or not to walk in deeper levels of *surrender* or to stay the same.
And to stay the same is to reject Jesus and Choose yourself. No matter if you've been walking with Jesus for 50 years or 5 days, to say the same is to reject Jesus and to choose yourself. And I want to daily say, yes, Lord. More and more forgetting what's behind and pressing on toward the goal that God's called me forward in Christ Jesus. Amen?
So I'm excited about today's message. I think I'm just gonna start with a testimony that will be an example, and then we'll we'll dive into the topic of today. 2 or 3 weeks ago, as 1 of my friends says, a couple of 3 weeks ago, I was at Bart's house and we were having our our weekly meeting and there was a contractor that was at his house. The contractor was getting ready to leave and and Bart got up to to go maybe open the door for him and talk to him right before he left, and he started asked if he could pray for him and started sharing the gospel with him. The man was really open to to the gospel and sharing the gospel can take 90 seconds, you know.
And the man, I think grew up Catholic, had an understanding of Jesus, but no matter if you grow up Catholic, Presbyterian, non denominational, Pentecostal, whatever, you can have an understanding of Jesus, but never have really surrendered to Jesus as the Lord of your life and been Born again. Right? The Bible talks about belief, not just believing that Jesus died and rose again, that it happened. Even demons believe that Jesus died and rose again. But they don't follow him as Lord.
He's not your savior until he's your Lord. He wants to be your savior, but it requires you to surrender and say, yes, Lord. I'm going to follow you instead of myself. When you do that, what you say instead of how I feel, when you do that in that moment, he forgives you of all of your sin and puts the Holy Spirit inside of you. Well, that's what happened to that man that day.
He surrendered to Jesus as Lord. I was listening for most of the time and I couldn't help myself. I got up off the couch and came over joining in the conversation. The man surrendered to Jesus as Lord and then he just kept talking. He was excited, know.
And he's like, yeah, man, know, I've been wanting to get back into church and all this other stuff and and met my girlfriend, you know. She she really she's really spiritual. She's she's got a Bible. She goes to church and stuff and and she keeps her crystals right beside the Bible. I'm like, since you're my brand new brother in Christ, do you mind if I just talk to you a little bit about those crystals?
And he's like, sure. And I said, well, that's demonic. It's witchcraft. Just by the way, if you tarot cards, If you have them, it's witchcraft. It's an Open door to the demonic in your life.
Psychic readings, those kind of things. It's it's demonic. It's witchcraft. Anything, any spiritual thing that's not surrendered to the Holy *Spirit* Come on. Is an unHoly Spirit.
That's right. Amen. Even good witches, they're actually playing with *demons* disguised as light. Okay? So I was like, amen.
So the Bible actually says that witchcraft is a sin and and playing with crystals, what you're doing is you're trying to control situations outside of surrender to the Holy Spirit. The spirit of witchcraft is the same as the spirit of *rebellion* because you're trying to control outside of surrender to the Holy Spirit. And I said, so in, you know, a lot by the way, sex is a big deal. Outside of marriage, you're partnering and unifying with whatever's in them. Okay?
Hey, this is real church. We're just getting all up in your business.
We love you, man. We love you. We love
you too much just to give you some sugar coated message, and you go away and feel good and not get free. Okay? And so, he had been, you know, intimate with his girlfriend outside of marriage, and and he's just learning all kinds of good stuff. And I'm like, so man, that witchcraft that you're allowing around you is actually affecting you. And he's like, man, I said, do you wanna be broke out?
You want that broken off of your life? He goes, yeah. I said, let's pray right now. And I just grabbed his hands and I said, okay, just just say this, if you really believe it, if you're going to to tell your girlfriend to stop that, right, and put it out of your life. He goes, yeah.
I said, I *repent* for the crystals in my house. And he repented. And say, I renounce our witchcraft over my life. And he renounced it. So you take that step, you gotta be willing to get rid of it.
Okay? So he did that. When he got done praying, I just laid my hand on. I said, in the name of Jesus, I rebuke every entity, unholy spirit, demon that was attached to those crystals and that witchcraft. And I say, leave now in the name of Jesus.
Holy *Spirit*, come. Thank you for your presence. That's it. So it's about that whole interaction took longer to explain than to happen. Took about 90 seconds.
Got done, he goes, I said, how you feel, man? Just real simple, real honest, real real. It's just standing at a door in a house. It doesn't have to be all crazy, it can just be authentic. Dude said, I feel lighter.
I didn't press that. I didn't say, do you feel I I goes, I feel lighter. I said, here's what happened. When I when you renounced it, you you were taking a while and you repented, you were taking that lie that you had unknowingly accepted because the devil is a liar. His kingdom is a kingdom of darkness and lies.
And when you believe the lie, willingly or unwilling unknowingly, you empower the liar in your life. And that is an open door that gives the enemy the ability to ""steal, kill, and destroy"" from you. Okay. So he I said, when when you repented and you renounced, you heard the truth that witchcraft was not okay and you repented of it, that lie was gone. So that the demonic attack on your life had nothing else to hold on to.
So it was really easy when I prayed and commanded it to go. It had to obey because it has to obey those that are walking under submission to Jesus. Amen? If he wouldn't have *repented* and renounced, it would have probably been a little bit more of a struggle. So anyway, he's like, wow.
So you know what he said? That whole encounter 90 seconds, he just starts talking more. He's like, man, that's crazy. He goes, you know, I hadn't been able to sleep. I mean, a lot of times I'll have these demonic dreams, and like sleep paralysis and stuff, and and and I said, really?
When did that start? And he goes, man, I think I was watch like I knew I shouldn't watch that movie. I knew I shouldn't have. And I watched this this movie about like demons and stuff and I just I chose to do it anyway. And after that, man, I started having these demonic dreams and I was like, really?
It's very interesting. I said, dude, do you mind if I talk to you about that a little bit? He goes, sure. I said, so you disobeyed your conscience, which probably even before you had been born again, the Holy Spirit was trying to protect you. And you willfully disobeyed, and that was an open door, that demonic movie, a lot of horror films and other things, now that you know.
Allowed an open door for the demonic spirit to attack your life. And it wants to steal, kill, and destroy from you, so what was it doing? It was taking your sleep. I said, dude, are you willing to to *repent* from watching that movie and not do it again? He goes, yeah.
I said, okay. So we'll just *repent* and you and we'll renounce that spirit of fear. I'll pray for you and it'll go and you'll sleep well. It'll be great. I said, but you better not go back and watch those movies again.
So he he we did the same same simple thing. Just, hey, you because we'd already done it twice, know, he gave his life to Jesus, repented of the crystals, he grabbed my hands and repented for watching the movie, was great, it was beautiful. And I had him renounce the spirit of fear that was over his life, and then I just simply laid my hands on him, So in the name of Jesus, I command the spirit, the Spirit of fear and everything attached to that movie and his disobedience leave now in Jesus name. That simple. And then I said, Holy Spirit, come.
Just fill that area of his life as he as he learns to walk in obedience. God done it. I said, hey, man. How you feel? Because, dude, I got tingles all over my arms.
He says, it's crazy. So yeah. I said, you know what happened? He goes, yeah. And another demon that was attached.
I said, now for the rest of your life, the Lord Jesus, your Lord is going to lead you into "deeper levels of freedom". 1 step at a time. Your role is to say, yes, Lord. Yep. Guess what?
This is normal. *Matthew-16*. Who's it normal for? *Matthew-16:15*, and Jesus said to them, the disciples, go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.
Right? That's the type of belief that steps out in obedience. *Baptism* is a physical step of obedience. If you believe and you say Jesus is your Lord, but you're not willing to be baptized, Jesus said be baptized. Take the step of obedience.
Amen? Or is he not really your Lord? Because always, always, when Jesus is the Lord of your life, you will grow in your physical obedience. Right? Okay.
Be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. That's talking about hell. **Hell is real**. Hell was not created for you, it was created for Satan and his demons, which are real. But those that follow the liar will spend eternity with him.
Those that *surrender* to *Jesus* will spend eternity with him. And these signs will accompany those who believe. Everybody say believe. In my name, they will cast out demons. So it doesn't say, these signs will accompany those that are promoted to a platform, and have a microphone in their hands, or on their cheek.
Doesn't say these signs will follow those evangelists that travel around the world and have TV ministries, and you question if those signs are really real or not. It says, these signs will follow those who believe. This is called **normal Christianity**. And we're just raising the level of normal back to what's normal, by equipping you in your daily life, and raising your level of belief. Look, this isn't a rare occurrence.
This happens all the time. Even in America. And as you grow in walking in the Holy Spirit and ministering to people, when it's needed, you will be ready to follow the Lord. They will cast out demons. They will speak in new tongues.
It's biblical. Might You might feel weird about it, it's just an overflow of the Holy Spirit that's in you coming out. They will pick up serpents with their hands. I've never done that. It's not a snake handling church like you see on YouTube.
You ever watch those YouTube videos? Those are freaky. But I will say in the book of Acts, when Paul was on an island with some islanders, and he was making a fire, and a serpent jumped out and bit his arm. Paul grabbed it and threw it off, and he didn't die by the viper, and it caused the islanders eyes to be open to the gospel. Okay?
So this is just real stuff. You see crazy things when you live on mission. They will drink any deadly poison and it will not hurt them. You drink crazy things when you live on mission. You should have heard some of the stories we heard about what they wanted to offer us in Peru.
I'd I and I also I I drank a monster energy drink this morning and I'm not dead. Anyway, and they will lay hands on the sick and they will recover. You see that all the time at real church, just keep coming. Not not just in the service, but just hanging out with people. These these are normal things for a Christian's life.
But today, I want to talk to you about demons and about deliverance. Why? Because the Bible says, my people perish for lack of knowledge. The world says, what you don't know won't hurt you. The Bible says, what you don't know will kill you.
The devil doesn't want you to know. But we want to be wise. I don't want you to be ignorant to the wiles or the schemes, the plans of Satan and his kingdom. At the same time, I don't want to magnify it either. America is so schizophrenic when it comes to biblical things.
We talk about scripture, we talk about demons, don't talk about demons in church, you know, or or or let's let's you know, lower that and there's not really spiritual impact, but yet, at the same time, you see them all in the artwork, you see them all in Hollywood films, and everybody's enamored by it. I'm not enamored by the demonic, but I want to know and not be ignorant about it. And I only want to talk about it enough to expose it so we can shoot it. Then keep our focus on truth in Jesus. By the way, deliverance is a sign of health, not of unhealth.
Right? When someone is getting delivered, they're being set free. Amen? So as you grow in your relationship with Jesus, and he exposes different areas of your life that need more freedom, it's a sign that you're growing in health. It's a good thing, not a bad thing.
Amen? Let me give you another testimony, or I'll say a couple of personal testimonies. Just just to take away the spookiness. I gave my life to Jesus at 4 years old. I'm 39.
That means I've been following Jesus for 35 years. Okay? And growing in my relationship with Jesus, I remember hearing the the voice of the Lord when for the first time when I was 11 years old. As a Christian, as a born again Christian, you can grow and hear the voice of the Lord. That should be normal.
Learning how to do that. If you're like, man, I've never heard God's voice. I'm not talking about audibly. I'm talking about in my spirit. But at the same time, when you're born again, you're a spiritual infant.
A spirit a physical infant doesn't know what daddy's saying. They have to grow in maturity and spend time with daddy, and after 6 months, a year, they start to understand and repeat, dad, dad, mama. Amen? So you can grow in understanding the voice of God step by step, and as you obey his leading, he reveals more to you. So anyway, growing up, and I remember I remember specifically in high school getting home on the bus.
Nobody's home yet. The first 1 home. It's 03:15. My parents were teachers at the time. My dad teacher and pastor.
No. He was full time pastor, but just doing church work. And I remember going in to living room, first thing I'd do is I'd cut on MTV. I knew my parents didn't want me watching it. But I was enamored, and I I willingly watched the MTV music videos, and really was focused on the girls butts and boobs.
Can I just be real with you? So that willful disobedience was an open door in my life. And secret sin, because I was hiding it from the authorities in my life, my parents, it only got more dirty. Secret sin only gets more dirty, which led to a porn addiction. And you know how I know it was demonic?
I'm not saying everything that you every sin you do is because of demons behind the corner. You have a flesh. There is the lust of the flesh, the Bible talks about. The lust of the or the desires of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and another 1, pride of life. Okay?
So those are normal things, but I will say *demons* play on the lust of the flesh, The are the desires of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, pride of life, in order to find an open door in your life. And 1 of those opens door open doors is willful disobedience and hiddenness. So you know how I know that that was a demonic stronghold in my life? In college, I tried to stop pornography over and over and over. I would repent.
Lord, I don't ever wanna do it again. 2 weeks later, I'd be watching porn again. And just a cycle for like 7 years of my life till about the fifth year of marriage. We got married at 20. There she is.
Courtney and I got married at 20. 25 years old. It was coming to a head. Why was it coming to a head in my life? Because I was growing in the Lord.
And when you grow in the Lord, unholy activity has to go. You either choose to continue in that or to continue in the Lord, not both. Makes sense? You *surrender* to 1 or the other. And so, about about 25 years old, I remember, I'm dealing with it.
The Holy Spirit's bringing that area of darkness to the surface in my heart and my life. And I'm like, oh, so I call a prayer hotline. And talking to the prayer hotline, say, hey, pray for me, I'm struggling with pornography. And it was a lady on the other end of the on the the prayer. She didn't know me from Adam, I didn't I didn't mind telling her.
And I said, should I tell my wife? And she said, no. And the Holy Spirit said, she's wrong. I knew in my heart, I hung up the phone. *James-5:16 says, confess your faults* 1 to another and pray for each other so that you will be healed.
1 of the ways of being free is coming out of the darkness and stepping into the light. And I was trying to over and over by myself with the Lord, and that wasn't helping. Why? Because he wanted the body of Christ to help me, specifically my wife. And I was scared of what would happen.
I know she'd leave me, what? But I went home that night and I chose obedience over hiddenness. And in my obedience, of course, she was hurt. But she prayed for me and I was instantaneously healed of the addiction. Now, was a process of walking in obedience to renew my mind, to live in in purity and that grew more and more pure, more and more the Holy Spirit would say, hey, that show?
Nah, let's not watch that. I mean, I've been watching that all my life. This is 2 years after that. He's like, yeah, but but you focus on those things too much. I'm I'm 6 episodes in Lord.
But learning to say, yes, Lord, and that that's what's best. *Obedience is what's best, cause me to walk in greater and greater levels of freedom* to the point where now I'm able to help multiple other men and marriages walk in purity and freedom because what he's transformed, he can use to help transform others. So for me, that level of freedom took obedience and stepping into the light. There's another 1. I was 20 20 probably 22, 23 years old.
Courtney and I have been married. We're looking for movies to watch, Sitting in our Mary Lee apartment, little 1 bedroom apartment, first apartment. I remember. We found this movie, it was a serial killer movie. And in my spirit, my conscience, I knew, Holy Spirit leading my conscience, I knew I shouldn't watch this movie.
But I willfully disobeyed. I said, let's just see and watch the whole thing. In that willful disobedience, it was an open door and an invitation for the enemy. Let me show you. Let me show you a couple things real quick before I finish that that testimony.
We'll get back to it. Don't worry. *Matthew-13*. These are the parables. *Jesus* is talking about the parable of the sower.
Great crowds gathered about him, verse 2, so he got in the boat and sat down, and a whole crowd stood at the beach. And he told them many things in parable, saying, a sower went out to sow, verse 4. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. What are the birds? Well, explained it in verse 19.
When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil 1 comes and snatches it away or snatches away what has been sown in his heart. It's talking about demons. Now, demons are real. They're unholy spirits. *John-8*, as I've already told you, Satan is the father of lies, and his kingdom is a kingdom of lies, and the unholy spirits are liars in his kingdom that want to bind you.
They want you to believe a lie, so that you're entrenched in that lie, and they want to steal, kill, and destroy from that area of your life. Okay. Where did demons come from? They were angels at 1 time. Well, Revelation-12:7, now war rose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back, but they were defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.
And the dragon was thrown down, the ancient serpent who was called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world, he was thrown down to the earth and his angels were thrown down with him. Now, lot of times Revelation is talking about both past and future outside of time. Okay? But this is talking about Satan, who was once the angel of most beautiful of angels, but then rebelled and was cast down, and a third of the angels came with him. Those are *demons* that are the ones that are trying to bind you up and prevent you from experiencing the purposes God has for you.
Prevent you from walking in the light as Christ is in the light. From prevent you from salvation, but if you're saved, if Jesus is the Lord, then steal, kill, and destroy so that you don't live out your purpose. And how do they do that? Well, when you believe a lie, it creates a *stronghold* in your life. If you've been around the church, you've heard the word stronghold.
Where does that come from? It comes from 2 Corinthians-4. Is it 2 Corinthians-4? No. It's not 2 Corinthians-4.
What verse am I thinking about? Come on somebody help me out. 2 Corinthians-10 maybe? Give me a second. 10 5.
There we go. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion, raising against the knowledge of God and take captive every thought to obey Christ. To every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take captive to obey Christ, is that destroy arguments? No. 10 4.
Sorry. Right before that. There we go. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but of the divine power to destroy Good. What is a stronghold?
It's a argument and lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God. *Jesus is truth*. God is truth. So it's a lie that you believe that creates a stronghold in your life. Let me explain what that is.
In medieval times, some of you have heard this before, in medieval times, when an army would want to take over a nation, they would come and they would sometimes take it over region by region. And in the region, they would take 1 knight's castle, and that would be their stronghold. When they have that stronghold, that's not the only area that they want to take over, but that's an area now that becomes a place of hiding for their warriors, and a place of stockpiling for all of their weapons, and from that stronghold, they want to steal, kill, and destroy other areas of the nation. Does that make sense? Okay.
So that's a stronghold. In your life, whether that's in your sex life, in your money, relationships, in your money, in your job, in your family, in church, whatever. He wants to create lies that you partner with and believe, and set up strongholds to take from you so that you don't experience the joy and the peace and the purposes that God has for you in every area of your life. He wants to steal, kill, and destroy. And then he wants to set up shop in that area of your relation, that 1 relationship whereas a stronghold and a fence that you held on to, make you bitter, and then he wants to attack other relationships from that 1 to take over all of your relationships, and make you a closed in hard person.
And then from the area relationships, you don't even want to go to church now. Now it starts to affect your job, now it starts to affect this and the other. So he's stealing and killing destroying from that 1 area, and if you take if you get rid of the roots and that 1 stronghold, all the other stuff will start to get better. Make sense? Sometimes people have multiple strongholds in their life that God wants to take out, so that you can experience full *freedom* in every area of your life.
What does that look like? Well, for me, watching that movie, I opened the door by that willful disobedience to fear. And for multiple nights, for the next like 6, 7 years, every creak in the house that I would hear at 1 and 2AM, I would wake up, I would feel fear, and I would have to get up and go and make sure the doors were locked. When we lived in the country, and this old like built in the twenties house, sometimes I'd take my gun. You know, and check on the porch.
What's going on? I wasn't being a man, I was being scared. Why was I being scared? It rooted back to 7 years before, 6 years before, when I'd opened the door to fear my life by willful disobedience, and there was a demonic stronghold. How did I get rid of that 1?
Well, it In this whole time, by the way, God is using me. I'm a I'm a 1 of the pastors at a church, leading youth, and leading teams, and adults, and impacting my dad's church in in powerful ways. I'm leading people to Jesus. In his grace and mercy, he's using me in power. I'm traveling the world and helping my dad with pastors conferences, but yet there's still a stronghold in my life.
Remember, deliverance is a sign of? Health. Meaning, you're growing to look more like Jesus, being sanctified. Can he take care of everything all at once when you're born again? Yes.
And Hebrews says, you have been made perfect. Those who are being made holy. So yes, spiritually I'm seated with him in heavenly places, and that's being worked out step by step as I walk in faith. Amen? So what happened in my personal quiet time with the Lord, I was done with that fear.
Because I knew there's no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. 1 who fears has not been made perfect in love. Fear has to do with punishment. 1 John-4 something. So I'm like, man, there's a lack of love because there's an overabundance of fear.
Lord Jesus, help me to be secure and trust in your love. And in my daily encounter with God, which means daily I'm spending time in his word, in prayer because I want to look more like him, not because I'm a pastor, but because I'm a Christian. I want to spend time with my father so I can learn to hear his voice just like an infant learns to hear their daddy's voice and speak. I'm reading through Psalms, and I'm you know, maybe 1 day I read Psalms-1, second day I read Psalms-2, the third day I read Psalms-3. Well, I'm on Psalms-4 and the Holy Spirit speaks.
*Psalms-4* verse 8. It says, in peace, I will both lie down and sleep. For you alone, Lord, "make me dwell in safety". And he said, that's it. See, *John-8* shows me that if you're my disciples, you will abide or remain in me, and remain in my truth.
And then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. So it's not just reading and having a mental scent of truth, it's remaining in it in the midst of the trial, in the midst of the struggle, such that your life knows it as reality more than what you sense and you feel. And then you experience freedom. Make sense? So that's what happened for me in that area of being delivered of that spirit of fear.
The Bible says, God does not give you a spirit of fear, but of love of power and a sound mind. Do you believe these are fairy tales or do you actually believe the word is the word? Because if it's if if this is just a book of, you know, have some better leadership principles, why are you here? Unless you're seeking truth and you really want to know. Well then, believe it enough to repent and start to put it into practice in your life, and you'll experience the fruit of the kingdom of heaven, like the Bible says.
Amen? Okay. So what did I do in that scenario? In peace, I will both lie down and sleep. I began to meditate, and not Eastern meditation.
That's demonic too. Eastern meditation is emptying your mind. Man, if you empty your mind, crazy stuff will fill it. You're opening yourself up to all kinds of crazy. Biblical meditation, according to Joshua-1:8, is meditating on his word day and night.
So what did I do? Psalm chapter 4 verse 8. I'm laying I'm laying in bed after reading that that that day, and I feel fear. And the Holy Spirit, because he's kind, reminded me of this verse from that morning. So I open up my bible and I read it.
In peace, I will both lie down and sleep. That's a choice. David, who's writing this, is writing a I'm gonna choose to lie down and sleep in peace. Why? For you alone, oh Lord, make me dwell in safety.
That means, my getting up and checking the doors doesn't make me dwell in safety. Walk in wisdom, lock your doors at night. Okay? But not out of fear. Mine was out of fear, following the spirit.
So what did I do? I felt that fear. I locked my doors earlier before I went to bed to protect my family. I'm good. I'm not getting up.
Those creaks and stuff I hear? No. You alone make you are my safety, not me. So I'm meditating on the word as I'm feeling the fear. No.
You're my safety. I'm gonna trust you and I'm gonna obey what your word says instead of what I'm feeling because fear is a lie from the pit of hell. I can trust you. And I go to sleep. Next night, text me again.
Meditate on the word. Few few nights left. Completely free. Why? *John-8*.
Those who are my disciples will remain in my truth, then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. What did I do? I remained in the truth. I told my feelings to shut up. I told the voice of the the enemy, the stranger, the bible says, Jesus was telling a parable, a stranger, they will not listen to.
My voice, my sheep know. But the strangers, they will not listen to. Which means sometimes the stranger speaks. Are you gonna listen to the voice of the Lord over the voice of the stranger? Make sense?
So I stood and 29, 30 years old, delivered of the spirit of fear and freed to the point where I can share the testimony and help others to experience it. So what's happening in all of this? That's what I want to show you. Once again, John-4. *Jesus* says, to the woman at the well, you're thirsty, you would have come to me to drink, and it will become a well springing up to eternal life.
A well is a picture of water, the Holy Spirit there is pictured as water springing up to eternal life. Well, we know Jesus prayed that eternal life means knowing God, having a relationship with Him both for now and eternity, John-17:3. So when you're born again, as we talked about earlier, when you surrender to Jesus as the Lord of your life, I'm gonna follow you instead of what I feel, in that moment, he places not a little bit, but all the infinite Holy Spirit inside of you, which is a well welling up to eternal life so you can know him. Amen? Okay.
Now, that grows and in John-7, let's look at this 1. *John-7*, Jesus is the last day of the feast. Verse 37, Jesus stood up and cried out, if anyone thirsts let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me as scripture has said, out of his heart, some versions say, out of his belly will flow rivers of living water. What's he talking about?
What says it, the next verse. Now this he said about the capital s, Spirit, that's the Holy Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive for as of yet the spirit, the Holy Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified. So when Jesus was glorified, *Acts-2* happened. Jesus was glorified to the right hand of the Father and he poured out the spirit, so we could be baptized in the Holy Spirit. When you're born again, you have the Holy Spirit welling up to eternal life.
What does baptism in the Holy Spirit look like? Let me explain. This is important. It goes with what we're talking about. The Titanic, massive ship.
Did it sink because of the water that was on on the outside of it? No. It sank when the water got on the inside, to a point that it overcame, and then it was immersed in the water around it. Make sense? When you give your life to Jesus, you're born again, God comes to live on the inside.
*Baptism*, baptizo, means to be immersed, submerged. So that river of living water flowing is filling every area of your life and overflowing out to impact others. That's what it's talking about. So the baptism of the Holy Spirit is from the Holy Spirit that is within, filling every area of your life till your life looks submerged like the ship going under the water. So you experience the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit everywhere, and that is a product of surrender.
*Surrender*. Can the Holy Spirit baptize you? Can you be baptized in Holy Spirit right when you're born again, and is submersed and emerged submerged? Yes. We see that in the book of Acts.
And a lot of times, people experience that increase, rapid increase in the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, in their mind, will, and emotions, and in their body, later, after *surrender* and seeking him. Amen? So I was a submarine officer for 4 years. On a submarine, we were submerged, but there were still dry and open spaces where things could live. Make sense?
Let me explain. *Luke-11*. Follow me here. *Luke-11:24*. This is talking about demons, which are real, which really impact people.
I'm not making everything that you go through a demon, but I don't want you to be ignorant either. You can't disciple a demon, and you can't cast out the flesh. So what do you do? You cast out the demon and you disciple the person to deny the flesh. Yep.
That's good. Amen? Okay. *Luke-11:24, when the unclean spirit* had gone out of a person, or has gone out of a person, this is Jesus speaking, it passes through waterless places "seeking rest". Everybody say waterless places.
Waterless places. Seeking rest and finding none, it says, will return to my house from which I came, and when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order, then it goes and brings 7 other spirits, more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. Meaning, when you're delivered, you want to be submitted and surrendered to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Because like the man that was at Bart's, if he wasn't willing to walk in obedience, and he went back and willfully disobeyed again, watching those demonic movies, he would have had worse than just sleep paralysis. You understand?
Alright. So let's unpack this. When the unclean *spirit* has gone out of a person passing through waterless places. Wait a second. When you're born again, you're filled with the Holy Spirit, which represents a well springing up to eternal life.
You're baptized in the spirit, and you just like taking a drink, and the Holy Spirit being "rivers of living water" flowing out. The the demon looks for waterless places. It looks for places that are not full of the Holy Spirit. And when it finds a waterless place, it's seeking a place where it can rest. How do you walk in more and more of the Holy Spirit?
More and more surrender to his leading. Where is a place that an unclean spirit can rest? Surrender to its leading. Follow me? So what happens in a believer's life is they're born again, the Holy Spirit puts on on the inside and we're working out our salvation what God's put in.
And the Holy *Spirit* is knocking on every door of your life, 1 at a time, that's been closed to his leading, as you're ready. He'll highlight this door, knock on it, and you might say, nah. Here's what's happening. Once again, Matthew-13. Watch this.
Then the disciples, verse 10. This is after Jesus told the parable of the sower that we talked about just a little bit. The disciples came to him and said, why do you speak to them in parables? And he answered them, to you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. You know why?
Because to them, to you, *Jesus said, follow me. And they dropped everything, and they followed. They took steps of obedience*. Faithful with a little, and God gave them more, and more revelation of his goodness. But to them, they were just here to get a good feeling.
They were just here to to see what this Jesus guy is all about. They hadn't surrendered. They can't see the secrets of the kingdom of heaven until they're following him. What does it say? For to the 1 who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance.
But from the 1 who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing, they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. Let me explain. Remember in *Matthew-13* verse 19, when we talked about it, the 1 who hears the word and of the kingdom and does not understand it, it's the the bird that seed that falls on the path, and the bird comes and takes it away. And Jesus explains it, the 1 who hears the word of the kingdom does not understand it, the evil 1 comes and snatches away what has been sown.
That word for understand is not the English word for a mental ascent. Oh, I get it. Understanding in the bible is always paired with turning, repentance. Taking steps of obedience in the opposite direction. Direction.
Because if you didn't turn and repent, and take a step of obedience, you obviously didn't understand. Unless they would have understood and turned, and I would heal them, is what verse 15 says. So let's read that verse 13 again, and watch what he's quoting. I'm almost done. This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.
What is he talking about? It's Ezekiel-12:2. He's quoting Ezekiel-12:2. It's this. It's what we talked about in worship, guys.
The word of the Lord came to me, son of man, you dwell in the midst of a **rebellious house** who have "eyes to see but see not". Ears to hear but hear not, for they are a rebellious house. You know what that is? It's I see, but I don't wanna see that. I hear, but I don't really like what you're saying even though I know it's truth.
So choosing not to biblically understand in turn, instead only doing what you feel or what you think, being your own God. That *rebellion* allows the enemy to snatch away the truth and insert lies so that you grow more and more deceived. So what do we need to do? Well, God wants you to be conformed into his image, so he sent the Holy *Spirit* to cleanse you of unholiness 1 step at a time. First, it starts on the outside with an invitation to Jesus as Lord, And he's always revealing Jesus more and more hoping that you would surrender to Christ as Lord and he can go from the outside to the inside.
And then once he lives on the inside, he's going to every area of your life that hasn't been surrendered. That's a dry and airy place because you're not walking and being led by the Holy Spirit, the water of the Holy Spirit. And he's knocking on those doors that are closed off to him, waiting for you to surrender. And as you do, his presence will fill every 1 of those areas of your life, so you can experience more and more of the light of Christ, and more of your life will be overflowing with the Holy Spirit until you're so sunk in him that other people experience his presence through you. So here's what I wanna do.
I want to I wanna invite the altar team to come forward. You guys stay seated. But I want the altar team just to come forward. But just know, altar team, you're gonna participate in this as well. So if if the Holy Spirit moves in freedom in you, as this is happening, let him do it.
**Deliverance is a sign** of health, not of unhealth. Amen?
Amen.
Alright. Please, "no moving around" during this time. There's a lot of demons in in hell that would want you to go to bathroom right now. Just FYI. God is good and he loves you.
I want you to I want you to just close your eyes. And I want you to to picture in your imagination, you standing holding hand in hand with Jesus. Jesus is the light of the world. And you're standing at the mouth of a cave, a great cave. And Jesus looks to you and he says, can I take charge of that?
And you realize that that great cave is your life. And you look and there's darkness in it. Now, for those of you that haven't given your life to Jesus, that's you. The light of the world wants to enter into your life. He wants you to trust him and surrender your life.
He wants to take charge of your life. So in this moment, you have a choice. You can keep your life as it is or you can invite Jesus to take charge of that area of your life. Many of you have already done that. And remember what happened when you *surrendered* that to your life.
So just see yourself saying, yes, Lord. And inviting him into that cave. As Jesus walks into the main area of the cave, see this and picture this in the in your imagination, in your mind. Jesus walks into the main area of the cave. He's the light of the world.
What happens to the cave? It gets bright. And just like when you gave your life to Jesus, you experienced peace and joy and rest in his righteousness, and you were so full of excitement because of what Jesus did. And that's how you felt when you gave your life, you surrendered. And that exuberance lasted for some a day, a week, couple of weeks, a couple of months.
And then all of a sudden, the light of the world through the Holy *Spirit* points at a door. And you never noticed this door before. But then you look up and you see the door. And it has a name on it that you're very familiar with. Whether that's relationships, whatever it is, something in your life.
And you look under the door and it's darkness behind the door, and you feel ashamed and you're like, I don't know if and he says, will you give me charge of that room? And you have to wrestle because you know what's behind that door. And you don't want anybody to see what you did in that area of your life or what you do in that area of your life. You enjoy sneaking in there from time to time but you have to wrestle. Do you entrust that part of your heart, your life to Jesus?
You choose? Yes. *Jesus*, you can have that area of my heart. And Jesus goes on your permission and opens the door and light floods the room. And he begins to take all the little trinkets that were in that room and clear them out.
Can we "throw this away"? Yes, Lord. Can we throw this away? Yes, Lord. Can we throw this away?
And with every trinket he throws out, you feel lighter and full of joy and full of peace because his presence is flooding more of your life and you were created to live with him as a part of you in that way. Then he walks out back to the open and you're like, Jesus, that was awesome. It's wonderful. He smiles and there's joy and exuberance and then after a period of time, when he feels that you're ready, he points another door you didn't even know was there. And You start to get uncomfortable again.
You know the darkness that's behind that 1. 0 my. What do you do? And over and over for the rest of your life, *Jesus is leading you into deeper levels of freedom*. With every door that he opens is an invitation for obedience, for the Holy Spirit, the power and the goodness of the Holy Spirit to flood that by you stepping in levels of obedience in his light.
That's freedom in Jesus. That's him walking in greater levels of freedom. So I want you to ask right now in your heart, say, Jesus, what door do you wanna show me today? Is there any area of my life that needs greater freedom that I have left unsurrendered to you. You'll know it's an area of your life that's like that if you're nervous about inviting Jesus, his presence into it.
[Speaker 1] [01:00:45] Not saying it has to be in every single 1 of you. I'm just saying, and don't go on a sin hunt. I'm not asking you
[Speaker 2] [01:00:50] to go looking. I'm asking you to ask *Jesus* and let him bring it to the surface. How many would say, just be bold. *Deliverance* is a sign of
[Speaker 1] [01:01:16] health and say, see that door and I
[Speaker 2] [01:01:18] know it. The Lord's highlighted that to me. Just raise it high. I'm not gonna ask you to stand up or anything. Praise the Lord.
How many of would raise your hand and say, wanted to raise my hand but I was scared too. Amen? Okay. All I want you to do is repent from your heart and invite Jesus to have be the Lord of that area of your life. Invite his presence.
Give him that area of your life. He's a good God. He'll walk you into greater levels of freedom by the Holy Spirit. You can trust him. Now, here's what we're gonna do.
We're gonna play some music in the back And I'm gonna dismiss you. But God wants to do a whole lot more. If you gotta go, got what you needed from the message, Lord's not leading you to stick around, go. And if there's business that
[Speaker 1] [01:02:40] you need to do with the
[Speaker 2] [01:02:41] Lord, do it. But also, we got this altar team that's here. They're ready to lay hands on you. Not in a scary Hollywood movie type of way. Okay?
Simple and authentic. And when you do business with the God or with God or you need help doing business, they're gonna lay hands on you, pray for you, and you're gonna speak, experience freedom. Doesn't have to be a demon, could just
[Speaker 1] [01:03:08] be a struggle with the flesh too. You need some discipleship on
[Speaker 2] [01:03:11] how to deny yourself and some prayer, some Holy Spirit empowering. Amen? But God's gonna move in deeper levels of freedom, and it's gonna take your participation, which means you sticking and doing work with the Lord, or coming forward in repentance, and stop walking in rebellion in those areas of your life. Because the the the danger is Here's the danger. I'm gonna warn you.
You hear this message, and the Holy Spirit highlights it, and you saw, and you hear, but you pretend you didn't see in her hear. What's gonna happen is your heart's gonna get hard, and it's gonna be harder for you to walk in freedom next time. *Matthew-13* said, become "dull of heart". You don't want that. This is your invitation to freedom.