The Bible says in Hebrews 10:36, let’s take a look at it, for you have need of steadfast patience and endurance, so that you may perform and fully accomplish the will of God, and thus receive and carry away and enjoy to the full what is promised. The promises of God are for whosoever will, not for whosoever will have the promise but whosoever will do what God tells them to do so they can have the promise. In Isaiah it says the willing and the obedient shall eat the fat of the land. Well, we’re all willing but are we obedient. First you have to know about the promises and then you have to be obedient about what God is asking you to do. To what you know to do.
Can I tell you something? There is a tremendous responsibility to all of the Word that you hear. If you really don’t want to obey God then you better just stay home and not going to learn anything. Because every time you turn the TV on and you hear somebody preach, preaching the truth, now you have more knowledge then you had before and you become more responsible than you were before. This is not for your entertainment; we’re not putting on a show here today.
These are life-saving, life-changing principles. The Holy Spirit is pleading with you. Do the will of God so that you can have the life that I sent my son to die in order for you to have. the thief comes on and it kills the undestroyed. Do you say, well I came that you might have and enjoy your life and have it in abundance to the full and until it overflows. Not so that we could be tormented by every kind of foolish thing the devil comes up with to torment us.
Our purpose in life should be to obey God. Jesus said, my food, my nourishment is to do the will of God. That’s what keeps me from being hungry. He wasn’t really talking about physical hunger. He was talking about always wanting something, always looking for something, never being satisfied, no matter what’s going on. And he said, my nourishment, the thing that keeps me full and content, is to do the will of my Father. I’m telling you what, there is no better resting place than to lay down at the end of the day and to know that to the best of your ability that you have done what God asked you to do that day.
And Lord knows we make mistakes and thank God for repentance. I’m so glad that we can repent when we do sin and make mistakes. But I sure don’t think that we ought to be doing it purposely. And you know what, and I don’t mean this in any kind of an embarrassing or a wrong way, but when people take vacation and they come and they rent hotels, coming to something like this, and then as many people as I saw lift their hand to say they know they have disobedience in their life, then that tells me one thing, we’re not understanding that God is God. We’re not understanding about the reverential fear and awe of God. We don’t have to be afraid of God but it’s a respectful kind of fear. I don’t – I no longer try to obey God to get something. I don’t give to get something.
I don’t work in the Ministry to get something. I used to give to get. And I would do different things to get because I was hoping that would break open the blessings of God in my life. And if you have to start there, start there. But we get to the point where we just want to obey God because we love Him; we just appreciate what He’s done in our lives.
The New Testament says, for the love of God constrains us. The love of God causes us to operate in self-control and not do anything we need to do and feel like doing. I can’t say everything that I want to say anymore because of love for God. I can’t harbor unforgiveness because I have revelation and I know that it hurts the heart of God and I know that it hurts His plan for my life. It hurts the anointing on my life, it would affect the ministry that He’s given me, it would affect my teaching. I cannot afford that fleshly luxury. I can’t afford the luxury of staying angry. I cannot do it. There’s too great of a sacrifice on the other end. I have to finish the work that God has given me to do.
Jesus said, if you love me, you will obey me. So we can sing all the love songs we want to and worship but the real measure of how much we love God is clearly shown by how much we do what He’s asked us to do. Listen, I remember how hard it used to be for me just to talk to Dave after he made me mad. And I can remember in the early days God just get out there and talk to him, you get out there and talk to him. I’m not going to do that, you can talk to me first. Get out there and talk to him; you go tell him you’re sorry. I’m not going to tell him I’m sorry; it’s his turn, I said it last time. I mean, childish, foolish, silly stuff. But, you know, I couldn’t find the Scripture in the Bible that says apologize if it’s your turn. I haven’t found that one yet.
You know, the most mature Christian always does what’s right first. Don’t sit around and wait for someone else to do what’s right. Don’t think that you can get by with doing what’s wrong because everyone else you know does what’s wrong. You’re not going to answer for everybody else you know. We will all individually stand before God and give an account of our life. Well, everybody else does it. Well, everybody else goes to that movie, everybody else does it. Well, you aren’t everybody else. You’ve asked God for a lot, do you want it or not? Do you?
Ecclesiastes 12:13, okay now this is written by Soloman, a man who asked God for wisdom and had more wisdom than anybody else. For a guy that had such wisdom, he sure ended up stupid, which is kind of interesting. I think part of the problem was his wisdom was operating and it brought tremendous, almost astounding prosperity into his life. You know, the Bible says that wisdom will bring riches and favor and honor. And then he had so much that it drove him to selfish, self-centeredness, and instead of thoroughly serving God with all that he had, he began to try to make himself. He said, I built for myself houses, I built for myself pools of water, I built for myself this. Everything was for myself, for myself, for myself. If you read in Ecclesiastes.
And then he got into seeing how many women he would have. And I mean he had everything that anybody could have and he was still miserable. So I want you to look now at the very end of Ecclesiastes, the last chapter, almost the last verse, and see what he says about his life. All has been heard; the end of the matter is: Fear God [revere and worship Him, knowing that He is] and keep His commandments, for this is the whole of man [the full, original purpose of his creation, the object of God’s providence, the root of character, the foundation of all happiness, the adjustment to all inharmonious circumstances and conditions under the sun] and the whole [duty] for every man.
Now let’s back that up to the beginning again because I want to go over this a little more slowly so you get it. He said, okay I tried everything and here’s the end of it. Fear God, knowing that he is and keep His commandments, for this is the whole of man, because this is the whole purpose for which you were created. We were created to glorify God by doing His will. Not just by singing songs but by doing His will. The Bible says that we must worship Him in spirit and in truth. That God is looking for those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. And for me as I began to search that out many years ago, what does that mean, it meant not just to think that I am worshipping God because I look at an overhead screen and sing words. But we worship God with our entire life, with every decision we make. Everything that we do, out in public, be it in the grocery store; do you really think that you’re worshipping God if you lean your grocery cart against somebody’s new car, not caring if it scratches the paint off of it or not?
Well, everybody else leaves theirs out there. You’re not everybody else. You are a child of God, a child of the King, join near with Jesus Christ. You are not everybody else. And we are supposed to be in the world showing people the way to live, not living like them but showing them by example the way to live. Amen?
I went to the store and bought 2 pairs of shoes and I’d been looking at 2 purses that matched the shoes and I decided I was only going to get 1 purse. And when I got home, the guy had not charged me for it but accidently put both purses and both pairs of shoes. Well, is God trying to bless you with a free purse, like some silly Christians would think? Ah well look at that, a blessing from God; He knew I wanted that extra purse and He just gave it to me, thank you Jesus, woo-hoo-hoo. Ooh I got goosebumps, hallelujah.
No, you silly thing, you get yourself back in that car, you spend your gas money, you take it back because you’re a worshiper who worships Him with everything that you do. Amen. But that was their mistake, why should I pay money to take it back? Now I’ve got to take my time and my money to go back out there. Well I remember taking that purse back and I found that guy and I said, you know what I had talked about getting both of these and both of these pairs of shoes but I actually only got the 1 purse and I paid for the 1 purse so I brought this 1 back. He said, that is really amazing. He said, there is hardly anybody that would have done that; I really appreciate that.
Well now maybe if I got a fish on my bumper sticker and a cross around my neck, it might mean something to somebody. Come on, I’m preaching better than you’re acting. You know, I like this message because I believe it’s going to provoke some of you to get on the narrow path that leads away from life and get off of that broad path that leads to destruction. You see, on the broad path there’s a lot of room for all of our baggage but on the narrow path there’s only room for you. Oh but your peace is going to increase, your joy is going to increase. You’re going to have more favor, I see breakthroughs in your life. And when the Devil comes around, you’re going to have the confidence to say, get thee behind me Satan, I resist you in Jesus’ name. And you won’t even have to scream. Do you really think that screaming scares the devil?
If you look at Ecclesiastes 12:13, the second part of that Scripture, it says that obedience is the root of all character. You know how we develop Godly character? By doing what’s right when we don’t feel like it. We don’t have to feel like it to do it. Matter of fact, when you do what’s right and you’re hurting, that means you’re growing. That means you’re growing. If it feels good then you’ve already grown in that area. You’re already there; not a problem for you, you’re already good with that. But when you want something and God wants another, there’s denying the self that has to come in. So there’s a little bit of pain and discomfort that comes along with it. So, when you feel that, you can just say, I’m growing. Thank God, I’m growing. I’m growing, I’m growing. Hallelujah, I’m growing.
And then I love when He says that obedience to God is the adjustment to everything in your life that’s out of order, that’s out of harmony, that’s out of balance. The one thing that will bring it into balance, whether it’s your finances, whatever it might be, the one thing that will bring it into balance is obedience to God. Let’s just say maybe you’ve got marriage problems and part of what’s got you all bothered is because, let’s just say you’re a woman, and the man that you’re married to never gives you any compliments. And you’re just fed up with never getting any complements. He’s not mentioning your emotions and you’re getting more and more unhappy with him with him, and so you go pray and God says to compliment him. No, God, you got it wrong, I want the compliments.
I ain’t going to do that, why should I do that, he never compliments me. Well, because you reap what you sow. And if you’re the Christian in the house, then guess what that means that you get to go first. Come on, I said, if you’re the Christian in the house, then guess what that means that you get to go first. Maybe for a long time you’re going to get to go first. But if you do it under people you’re going to get tired of doing it. If you do it under God then God always sees what you do in secret under Him, and He rewards you in the open.
Be faithful in little things. You know where I’d like you to start? I’d like you to start with your thoughts. I’d just like you to start with your thoughts. You know why? Because 2 Corinthian 10:4-5 say the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but they’re mighty through God pulling down the strongholds. Casting down reasonings, imaginations, theories, and every high and lofty thing that exalts itself against the true knowledge of God. Verse 5 says bring every thought into captivity under the obedience of Jesus Christ.
I’ve had to take several thoughts captive before I ever got here this morning. Just things that were goofy. You know, just stop it. Out. You’re never going to have a victorious life if you have a messed up mind.
If someone is addicted to pornography, they’re not going to think all kinds of pornographic things and then stand in a prayer line and pray to be set free. You can pray, and should pray, but then the first thing you’ve got to do is start taking thoughts captive under the obedience of Jesus Christ. You’re never going to get over being angry if all you do is sit around and think about what the person did to you all the time. You’ll never get over being in self-pity if all you do is think about what you don’t have, what you don’t have, what people aren’t doing for you. You’ve got to get your mind on what you do have. How good God is to you. How blessed you are. On and on.
Apologize for being rude. Take time to call a sick friend if there’s a prompting there. God leads us by the promptings of the Holy Spirit. And stop saying you’re too busy. Too busy is getting to be a tiresome excuse for me. I’m so tired of hearing people say, well you know I wanted to but I was too busy. No, you didn’t want to. You know why, because we do what we want to do.
Well I want to spend time with God every morning but I’m just too busy. Well, guess what, then you need to change your schedule because if you’re too busy for God then nothing else going to work in your life. Woo, hallelujah.
Don’t complain. Don’t gossip. Don’t be discontented. Be sure that you give every time God puts an opportunity in front of you. I’m going to tell you a story. This happened this week in our family. My mother, we just had to move her from her assisted-living apartment into the health care facility at the place where she lives. And we were moving her this past week from her apartment to the health care center and I wanted her to have some nice new things. Gifts are really her love language so I thought it would make the mood easier for her; that’s not an easy thing to do. She got some pretty new stuff. So, we bought her a new chest, and a new nightstand, a new TV, some new nightgowns, and just got her all fixed up so she felt like she was the Queen of the ball.
Well, her other furniture in her apartment, which wouldn’t have been suitable for the room she was moving to, was still nice furniture and so I told my daughter that she could have it. Her and her husband like to sometimes sell things on eBay or put them in the paper, and her husband especially likes to deal with all of that. I said, you can just have all of this furniture and you can sell it for whatever you can get out of it. Well in the meantime there was a nurse, a little nurse’s aide or something that worked there at the health care center that had gotten acquainted with my mother, and she knew my mother was moving. She asked my mother if any of her furniture was going to be for sale. My daughter got the girl’s number and called her. So in the process she was saying oh yeah I really want to get the bedroom set and I’d really like to have that corner entertainment cabinet.
So, my daughter told her what they wanted for it. She said, it’s probably going to take me a few weeks to get the money together, and if I can give you a little bit down this week so you know I’m sincere and I can give you a little bit more next week, can you hold it for me for a while? And my daughter said, well yeah I can do that but she said you know we can only keep it there so long. And she said, well I’m going to do the best I can, I really want it. So when my daughter called me to tell me about this, I mean, it didn’t take a genius to figure out what we ought to do.
I mean, I think that she already knew too. I just said, well you know the bottom line is we can just give it to her.
You know? It’s not like, we were not in a position where we had to have that little bit of money that was going to come from it. But I said to my daughter, I gave it to you and I really think it should be your decision to make. I didn’t feel like I could take it away from her and decide what to do with it. Well so she knew too; she called her husband and they said yeah we’ll just give it to her. She called the girl back and she said, well we’re just going to give it to you.
Well, it just made the girl’s month, year, day. I mean, people are not used to having people just give them things. Well here’s the thing. I know she knew who I was, she would go in my mother’s apartment and the pictures of me looked like wallpaper in there. And I mean she’s cutting everything she can from the magazines on the refrigerator and everywhere. You know, all of this stuff. It was just like an extra oomph to see us living what we preach.
Now, here’s the thing. You know, we had joy. I said, oh that’s so good. And I want to read you the text message. My daughter went later to visit my mother and that girl happened to be there visiting my mother too. Happened to be, just happened to be. Isn’t it amazing how God is? And here is what she told my daughter. My daughter sent me this text message: The family we are giving the furniture to recently moved here to Arizona to live with her parents because their 5 bedroom house burnt to the ground. I’m guessing they have no insurance because she said they’re having to start over from scratch. And then my daughter put, wow, 3 exclamation marks. And I thought, we could have missed that opportunity.
We could have so easily missed that opportunity. And yeah we could have sold it, we could have had a few more bucks. But, you know what, God has His ways of giving so much more to us than we can give to ourselves, if we would just do what He’s asking us to do. And then you get the joy and the peace and the clear conscience. And all the stuff that goes along with it.
I’m just beseeching you to be more aware of the little things. Because I don’t think with God there’s little things and big things;
I think there’s just things. And I think that obeying God to give that furniture to that girl, and you know it really wasn’t even like a command, it was just an opportunity. Just an opportunity. And the Bible says in Galatians 6:10, as occasion and opportunity come to you, be mindful to be a blessing, especially to the household of faith. Well, that was just an opportunity. How many times do we have an opportunity that we just let pass us by?
But you know what else we pass by? More joy, more peace, more power over Satan, more authority, come on. Because the more obedient, the more promptly and quickly and thoroughly we are, the less trouble we are going to have with the enemy. Oh he is going to come against you. I would never tell you that Satan will not come against you. He will come against you, but I can tell you that he will not be successful in the long run. Because God will give His angels charge over you to defend and protect you in all of your ways of obedience and service. Amen? And Amen. Amen.
Well, the easiest way to resist the devil, that’s what I want to talk to you about today. One things’s for sure we do have an enemy and he comes after us relentlessly and nonstop. How many of you say the devil has given you just more than a little trouble in your life?
Well, I went for years and years and years not knowing that I have any authority over the devil. I went to Church all those years but no one ever told me that I have authority of any kind. I thought I just had to put up with whatever came along.
Well then I started learning about spiritual warfare. This was back in the 70s and early 80s, when people lived in camp meetings and meetings like this, and they were all 3 and 4 hours long. Things have changed a little bit since then but it wasn’t uncommon to have a week-long camp meeting, go twice a day, and each meeting be at least 3 hours. And there was just a big word explosion. People were just hungry, hungry, hungry for the word of God. And people all over the globe were being filled with the spirit of the Holy Spirit. There was a resurgence of the spirit.
And, you know, God does unique things at different times in history. There are different types of revival or reviving something that should have been there all along. What was it? Well, one of the teachings that we began to hear and learn was teachings on spiritual warfare, how we had authority over Satan. And that was such good news. And then I began to yell at the devil all of the time. Why are you in the name of Jesus, I don’t have to put up with this, you are under my feet, under my feet. The only problem was, was not much changed in my circumstances except I was doing a lot of yelling.
I finally got around to saying to God, okay I believe I have authority over the enemy, I believe that. I have been convinced in my heard from what I saw on the word that we should be the head and not the tail, above and not beneath. That we should have a victory. That we were more than conquerors. I wanted to do something about it besides sing songs and quote the Scriptures. I wanted to be a reality in my life.
So God began to teach me, personally 1 on 1, how to do spiritual warfare. And He said all you have to do is look at how Jesus lived His life. He didn’t have much trouble with the devil, did He? I mean, the devil chased Him, lied to Him, and tried to defeat Him at every turn. Turned people against Him, had Him be rejected. Some of His closest associates betrayed Him. He was abandoned by Peter in His greatest hour of trial.
He went through many of the same things we go through although, interestingly enough, He wasn’t devastated by any of them. Matter of fact, He wasn’t even really moved by them. So, I began to study about things I began to notice. Things like Jesus always walked in peace. In Ephesians 6, the Bible talks to us about wearing our armor. And it talks about things like putting on the shoes of peace. When you stay in peace, the devil doesn’t know what to do with you. It talks about wearing your helmet of salvation. That means to think right. If Satan can defeat you I your thoughts, then he can defeat you everywhere else.
Jesus walked in the presence of God. He did nothing independently of His own accord but He always sought God and did what God wanted Him to do. There’s many, many aspects to spiritual warfare but I can only teach you one today and do it justice. And in James 4:7, the Scripture that we hear quoted quite often but honestly, very often only half of it is quoted. Usually we hear, resist the devil and he will flee. Resist the devil and he will flee. However, that’s not really what it says.
It says, if we can put it up on the screen: Submit yourself to God and the devil will flee. So one of the things I learned in those days when I was screaming at demons and getting no results was that I could yell at the devil all day long but if I had known areas of disobedience in my life then I couldn’t yell at him to get out while I was simultaneously opening doors for him to come in.
I’ll just throw out one example. Do you have any idea how many angry Christians there are in the Church? Oh My Gosh. I could go any city I wanted to, to any Church I wanted to, teach on strife, bitterness, unforgiveness. And at the end if I wanted to pray for people then I would say everybody that has unforgiveness in your heart, everybody who’s angry, everybody who’s bitter, come forward and I’m going to pray for you. I can promise you, and I’ve been doing this for 32 years so I know what I’m talking about, I can promise you no less than 80% of the entire Church would come up.
Well, it’s no wonder we see very little victory. We have to obey God, no matter what we feel, no matter what we think, if we really want to walk in power. Now, how many of you really want to walk in power? You want to live powerfully? I mean, do you really want to be the head and not the tail, above and not beneath? And you don’t just want to quote the promises of God but you want them to be a reality in your life. You want everything you lay your hand to, to prosper and succeed. You want to see your prayers answered.
Well, I can tell you that every one of us has areas of disobedience in their life, including me. But I can also tell you, and I mean this sincerely, and I’m sure many of you can say the same thing, and if you can’t I can get you to the point where you can, I can honestly say today that I cannot have any areas of known disobedience in my life. If I know that God’s convicting me to do or not to do something, then I do it. Why? Because I’ve had enough experience with God that I have a reverential fear and awe of God. And that’s something that we’re lacking in the Church today. Yes, God is our friend and He’s our buddy but He’s also God. He means what He says and we need to pay attention to what He says and do what He says.
The Bible teaches us in 2 Corinthians that we are transformed in the image of God to glory to glory to glory to glory. That means that we’re constantly changing, we’re constantly growing. So there are I’m sure things in my life that I might be doing wrong that I don’t really realize yet that I’m doing, right? How many of you agree that our behavior’s constantly being reframed? How many just this year? God has shown you some things that needed to change in your life that at the same time last year you didn’t even realize were a problem? Okay. Well. So we’re not held accountable for what we don’t know. But we are held accountable for what we do know.
Paul said, I haven’t reached the point of perfection yet. But one thing I do, my one aspiration, forgetting the things I was behind I press toward that mark of perfection. I hope that by the time we finish here today that you will understand that prompt and complete obedience to God is the wisest; the most intelligent thing that you can do. And it is absolutely the easiest way to resist the devil.
I can tell you that the more obedient we are, the less trouble we will have with the devil. He won’t come against us but I can tell you he is not going to be successful when you’re walking in obedience with God. Now I know I’m expecting it to be quiet in here just like I did last night; I didn’t bring dessert this weekend. I’m sorry. I know we all like dessert. But I didn’t bring dessert; I brought meat and big chunks of it. And vegetables that we don’t like. And these are not the kind of messages that we shout out about while we preach, but you will shout out later when things in your life have changed and you’re not spending all your time fighting something all the time. Is anybody in this place tired of fighting something all the time, all the time, all the time?
So, you take just that one issue of people who are mad at somebody, won’t pray for their enemies, like the Bible tells us to do, tell everyone you can every mean thing about them when the Bible says to bless your enemies don’t curse them. And to bless means to speak well of. To curse means to speak evil of. It’s very simple; God gives us the plan for victory in His word. In every situation we’re in, He gives us the plan for victory. He says when someone abuses you, misuses you, hurts you, treats you unjustly, unkind, you forgive them, you pray for them, you don’t speak evil about them, and I will bring vengeance in your life.
I will bring the recompense, I will bring the reward, and I will pay you back for the wrongs that have been done to you. So we can either do it God’s way or we can keep doing it our way, which basically is no way at all because it doesn’t work. And we stay in the same spot and go over the same mountains over and over. Why? Stubbornness. One man’s clapping; I’m going to talk to you only.
We find it so hard to just submit to God. Just do it God’s way. Now, one of the things I want to try to impart to you today and this will make it so easier to obey God, even when it’s hard. And it’s not always easy on our flesh to obey God. Many times we don’t understand, it doesn’t make any sense what God’s asking us to do. Why should I forgive that person? Why should I pray for them after the way they’ve treated me? Well, you don’t have to know anything other than God said to. I don’t have to understand. If God said it then that’s what we’re going to do because God is smarter than we are and if that’s what He says to do then that must be what’s going to work. Come on.
My ways are higher than your ways, my thoughts are higher than your thoughts. Commit your way under the Lord, and He will bring it to pass. We’ve all got a way but at the end of it there’s death. Jesus said, I am the way. Every problem you have, you look and see what His way is for getting out of that mess and you’ll have victory every single time. Every single time you will eventually have victory because God is not a man that he should like. Everything that God asks you to do or not to do, everything that God asks you to do or not to do will ultimately work out for your good. It may not feel good, it may not be easy, but in the long run it will work out for your good.
So, we have a tradeoff. We can either do something carnal to relieve the momentary discomfort we feel from obeying God when He’s asking us to do something we would rather not do and then when we sow that seed of obedience eventually we will have a great harvest of joy and righteousness and victory in our life. Or we can keep doing what we want to do and we can keep that low level pain in our life all of our life.
The scariest thing in the world to me is would be to stay the way I am. God, please don’t leave me alone. Please keep convicting me, keep showing me what needs to change in my life and when I have my stubborn days God box me in. Put yourself in front of me and behind me on the right and the left and don’t let me go. Don’t give up on me God until I do things your way because I know you only have my best interests in mind. It’s not going to do us any good to yell at the devil while we’re angry and upset and don’t have any peace in our life. Not walking in integrity, doing things that we know are a little dishonest no matter how many excuses we make for it. And I’m going to talk to you a lot today about little things.
Let me tell you something. If you sit at work and you sit on the Internet while your boss is not working, you’re stealing. I have to talk to you like this because we just kind of flow in what everyone else does, and we’re not supposed to do that. You can’t do that and not feel convicted. If you were the boss would you want someone doing that? No, you’d want 8 hours work for 8 hours paid.
You’d want people to give their own time, to give you a good day’s work. You wouldn’t want them making all of those personal phone calls on work time. You wouldn’t want them sitting and looking up stuff on the Internet that was for their personal use. So the Bible says you do unto others as you would have them do unto you. If you act different when the boss comes in the room than you do when he’s not in the room… One of the best pieces advice that I can give today is learn to live before God, not man, and know that God is always watching. And that He always rewards right behavior. I think that is one of the most important things that I learned in my life was to bring God into my everyday ordinary life. To take Him to the grocery store with me. To take Him to the marketplace with me. To take Him to work with me.
He was there anyway but I wasn’t really letting Him have any effect. I only went to Church on Sunday and the rest of the week I did what I believed. I would go out to Church on Sunday and then go out with my friends and gossip about the Preacher. It was what we did all of the time for lunch; we’d have Preacher for lunch. And then go scream at demons.
I rebuke you Satan, you have no authority over me. Come on, how many of you know what I’m talking about? And I wish to God that somebody would have told me the other side of this. And not just taught me about the promises and healing and prosperity and authority over the devil, and not told me the other side of it. And so, whether it feels good right now or not, I am doing you a huge favor. A huge favor by saying submit yourself to God and in that submission to God that gives you the power then to easily resist the devil and he will flee. Amen.
There are thousands upon thousands of little areas in our life that we ignore. And I don’t want to talk to you today about fulfilling the will of God and going to Africa and being a missionary. I don’t want to talk to you today about hearing the voice of God and giving away everything you have to the poor. No, I want to talk to you today about an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay. I want to talk to you today about not breaking the speed limit and not parking in a handicapped space when you’re not handicapped. I want to talk to you about putting your grocery cart back at the little grocery place marked off for grocery carts.
Instead of leaning it up against somebody’s car and not caring whether it scratches their car or not. I want to talk to you about not putting the extra bag of apples that you bought over with the household cleaning supplies when you get over there and figure out you spent too much money. Yeah, I got you, didn’t I? And then we complain because prices are so high, and they might not be as high as they are if we didn’t make everybody else clean up our messes. Oh, I am going to have fun today; whether you like it or not, I am going to have fun.
Every person, every individual living before God and God alone, letting the peace of God become the umpire in your life. Now I’m not a big sports fanatic but I know enough to know that when the umpire says it’s in, it’s in, and if the umpire says it’s out, it’s out. And Colossians 3:15 says that peace should rule in our lives as an umpire, deciding with finality every matter that brings up a question. So, if there’s peace, it’s okay to press forward. If there’s no peace, then I need to stop. I don’t even need to know necessarily why. I just need to stop.
God wants to lead us and guide us much more than we’ll let Him. And one of the main ways that He leads us is by peace. It’s amazing how God would work for us and work on our behalf and protect us even from things like disappointment, if we would just listen to Him and do what He wants us to do. Be led by peace. Be led by wisdom and common sense. Don’t do stupid stuff. Stupid action reaps stupid results. Amen? We need to know more wisdom in our lives. Submit yourself to God, resist the devil and he will flee. Psalm 91:11, He loves to declare some 91 over our lives. And He will give His angels charge over me. And they will protect me. Well, we’ve got to see what it really says. There we go. So He will give His angels especial charge over you to accompany, defend and preserve you in what? In all your ways of what? Of obedience and service. Not in all of our ways of disobedience and laziness.
So, we cannot knowingly disobey God. And, you know, I think it’s hard for us to even think that we would do that. But if I were to ask right now how many people in here, and certainly from the hopefully millions that are watching by television around the world, if I were to say: How many of you have an area of known disobedience in your life? Go ahead, you can put your hand up. Alright, now you see that, that’s – and I mean you guys are the holy group who came out to Church today. I mean, get this, you took vacation to be here today to hear the word of God. I mean, if we can’t get you to do it then where’s the hope?
How many of you understand what I’m talking about? Known areas of disobedience, and I get it. I’ve been there, done that. And I think the only way we’re going to get to the point where we don’t do it is to realize, number 1, anything that God asks us to do He asks us to do for our benefit. God is not trying to take anything away from us. He is just trying to help us. Can you understand that? Even when God tells you to forgive your enemies, you’re not doing them a favor. Half the time they couldn’t care less if you’re mad or not; they’re out having a good time and don’t even care that you’re upset. They don’t want your forgiveness, nor do they think they need it. When God says forgive, you’re doing yourself a favor when you forgive. Now you don’t have to be tormented and aggravated by the misery of hating somebody and being in strife all of the time. You can be free.
Everything that God asks us to do is so we can be free. Amen. Even the whole giving thing. God says bring your tithes and the offerings into the storefront house and I will rebuke the devourer for your sake. So we keep our money and then we watch the devil devour it. And then we murmur and complain and then we rebuke the devil. And all we had to do was give what God told us to give to start with and then we wouldn’t have lost it on a washing machine repair, a car repair, a flat tire.
If you keep what God tells you to give, the devil is going to take it away from you. Did you hear me? Let me tell you again. If you keep what God tells you to give, the devil is going to take it away from you. And one more time to the TV audience: If you keep what God tells you to give, the devil is going to take it away from you. Giving is not a ‘oh my God, give my money and it’s so hard.’ It’s a protection over our lives. I will rebuke the devourer for your sake. Open, I will open the windows of heaven, and pour out a blessing. And then He even goes so far as to say, try me, just see if I won’t be faithful in this area. But yet of all the Christians there is a very small percentage that even tithe. And I know you’re hoping I’ll rush right on. I can tell you the truth; for me this is not about getting your money. I mean, God has proven to us year after year after year that he’s going to take care of us. What God orders He pays for. I hope you’ll be involved but if you’re not we’ll make it anyway. My point is that if you don’t do what God is asking you to do, you’re going to miss out.
Being obedient to God is the doorway to the best possible life that you can have. It’s the wisest thing that you can do and it’s the easiest way to have authority over the devil. The Bible says, submit yourself to God, resist the devil and he will flee. So, we can’t resist if we’re not going to submit to God.
I want you to know more about this subject. I want you to know that you do have power and authority over Satan, the enemy of your soul. I’m offering you 4 hours of teaching on 4 CD audio series What the devil doesn’t want you to know. Now I don’t know about you but I want to find out everything I can find out. And if I find out there’s important information, someone’s trying to keep it from me, that just makes me want to find it out all the more. So there are things the devil doesn’t want you to know but I’m offering you some information that is going to open you up to a brand new world of knowledge that is going to help you see that maybe you’ve been putting up with a lot of things that you don’t have to put up with. You are a person with authority and you need to learn how to exercise it. So get these teachings and let them begin to work in your life right away.
The Bible says in Hebrews 10:36, let’s take a look at it. For you have need of steadfast patience and endurance, so that you may perform and fully accomplish the will of God, and thus receive and carry away and enjoy to the full what is promised. The promises of God are for whosoever will, not just whosoever will have the promise but whosoever will do what God tells them to do so they can have the promise. In Isaiah, it says the willing and the obedient shall eat the fat of a lamb. Well, we’re all willing but are we obedient. First you have to know about the promises, and then you have to be obedient to what God is asking you to do, to what you know to do.
Can I tell you something? There is a tremendous responsibility to all the word that you hear. If you really don’t want to obey God then you ought to just stay home and never go learn anything.
Because every time you turn the TV on and you hear somebody preach that’s preaching the truth, now you’ve got more knowledge than you had before, you become more responsible than you were before. This is not for your entertainment. We’re not putting on a show here today. These are lifesaving, life changing principles. The Holy Spirit is pleading with you. Do the will of God so you can have that I sent my son to die in order for you to have.
The thief comes on and he only kills the undestroyed. Jesus said I came that you might enjoy your life and have it in abundance to the full until it overflows. Not so we could be tormented by every kind of foolish thing the devil comes up with to torment us. Our purpose in life should be to obey God. Jesus said, my food my nourishment is to do the will of God. That’s what keeps me from being hungry. And He wasn’t really talking about physical hunger. He was talking about always wanting something, always looking for something, never being satisfied no matter what’s going on in our life. And He said, my nourishment, the thing that keeps me fed and content is to do the will of my Father. I tell you what, there is no better resting place than to lay down at the end of the day and to know, to the best of your ability, that you have done what you believe God asked you to do that day.
And Lord knows we make mistakes and thank God for repentance. I am so glad we can repent when we do sin and make mistakes. But I sure don’t think that we ought to be doing it purposefully. And you know what I don’t mean this in any kind of an embarrassing or wrong way but when people take vacation and they come and they rent hotels just to come to something as this and then as many people as I saw lift their hand to say they knew that they had disobedience in their life then that tells me one thing. We’re not understanding that God is God. We’re not understanding about the reverential fear and awe of God. We don’t have to be in fear of God but it’s a respectful kind of fear. I no longer try to obey God to get something. I don’t give to get something. I don’t work in the Ministry to get something.
Now, I used to give to get. And I would do different things to get because I was hoping that would break open the blessings of God in my life. And if you have to start there, start there. But we get to the point where we just want to obey God because we love Him. We just appreciate what He’s done in our lives. The New Testament says for the love of God constrains us, the love of God causes us to operate in self-control and not do everything we want to say and like doing. I can’t say everything that I want to say anymore because of love for God. I can’t harbor unforgiveness because I have revelation and I know that it hurts the heart of God and I know that it hurts His plan for my life. It hurts the anointing on my life, it would hurt the Ministry that He’s given me, it would affect my teaching. I cannot afford that fleshly luxury.
I can’t afford the luxury of staying angry. I cannot do it. There’s too great of a sacrifice on the other end. I have to finish the work that God has given me to do. Jesus said, if you love me you will obey me. So we can sing all the love songs we want to in worship but the real measure of how much we love God is clearly shown by how much we do what He’s asked us to do. Listen, I remember how hard it used to be for me just to talk to Dave after he made me mad. And I can remember in the early days God just get out there and talk to him, you get out there and talk to him. I’m not going to do that, you can talk to me first. Get out there and talk to him; you go tell him you’re sorry. I’m not going to tell him I’m sorry; it’s his turn, I said it last time. I mean, childish, foolish, silly stuff. But, you know, I couldn’t find the Scripture in the Bible that says apologize if it’s your turn. I haven’t found that one yet.
You know, the most mature Christian always does what’s right first. Don’t sit around and wait for someone else to do what’s right. Don’t think that you can get by with doing what’s wrong because everyone else you know does what’s wrong. You’re not going to answer for everybody else you know. We will all individually stand before God and give an account of our life. Well, everybody else does it. Well, everybody else goes to that movie, everybody else does it? Well, you aren’t everybody else. You’ve asked God for a lot, do you want it or not? Do you?
Ecclesiastes 12:13, okay now this is written by Solomon, a man who asked God for wisdom and had more wisdom than anybody else. For a guy that had such wisdom, he sure ended up stupid, which is kind of interesting. I think part of the problem was his wisdom was operating and it brought tremendous, almost astounding prosperity into his life. You know, the Bible says that wisdom will bring riches and favor and honor. And then he had so much that it drove him to selfish, self-centeredness, and instead of thoroughly serving God with all that he had, he began to try to make himself. He said, I built for myself houses, I built for myself pools of water, I built for myself this. Everything was for myself, for myself, for myself. If you read in Ecclesiastes.
And then he got into seeing how many women he would have. And I mean he had everything that anybody could have and he was still miserable. So I want you to look now at the very end of Ecclesiastes, the last chapter, almost the last verse, and see what he says about his life. All has been heard; the end of the matter is: Fear God [revere and worship Him, knowing that He is] and keep His commandments, for this is the whole of man [the full, original purpose of his creation, the object of God’s providence, the root of character, the foundation of all happiness, the adjustment to all inharmonious circumstances and conditions under the sun] and the whole [duty] for every man.
Now let’s back that up to the beginning again because I want to go over this a little more slowly so you get it. He said, okay I tried everything and here’s the end of it. Fear God, knowing that he is and keep His commandments, for this is the whole of man, because this is the whole purpose for which you were created. We were created to glorify God by doing His will. Not just by singing songs but by doing His will. The Bible says that we must worship Him in spirit and in truth. That God is looking for those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. And for me as I began to search that out many years ago, what does that mean, it meant not just to think that I am worshipping God because I look at an overhead screen and sing words. But we worship God with our entire life, with every decision we make. Everything that we do, out in public, be it in the grocery store; do you really think that you’re worshipping God if you lean your grocery cart against somebody’s new car, not caring if it scratches the paint off of it or not?
Well, everybody else leaves theirs out there. You’re not everybody else. You are a child of God, a child of the King, join near with Jesus Christ. You are not everybody else. And we are supposed to be in the world showing people the way to live, not living like them but showing them by example the way to live. Amen?
I went to the store and bought 2 pairs of shoes and I’d been looking at 2 purses that matched the shoes and I decided I was only going to get 1 purse. And when I got home, the guy had not charged me for it but accidently put both purses and both pairs of shoes. Well, is God trying to bless you with a free purse, like some silly Christians would think? Ah well look at that, a blessing from God; He knew I wanted that extra purse and He just gave it to me, thank you Jesus, woo-hoo-hoo. Ooh I got goosebumps, hallelujah.
No, you silly thing, you get yourself back in that car, you spend your gas money, you take it back because you’re a worshiper who worships Him with everything that you do. Amen. But that was their mistake, why should I pay money to take it back? Now I’ve got to take my time and my money to go back out there. Well I remember taking that purse back and I found that guy and I said, you know what I had talked about getting both of these and both of these pairs of shoes but I actually only got the 1 purse and I paid for the 1 purse so I brought this 1 back. He said, that is really amazing. He said, there is hardly anybody that would have done that; I really appreciate that.
Well now maybe if I got a fish on my bumper sticker and a cross around my neck, it might mean something to somebody. Come on, I’m preaching better than you’re acting. You know, I like this message because I believe it’s going to provoke some of you to get on the narrow path that leads away from life and get off of that broad path that leads to destruction. You see, on the broad path there’s a lot of room for all of our baggage but on the narrow path there’s only room for you. Oh but your peace is going to increase, your joy is going to increase. You’re going to have more favor, I see breakthroughs in your life. And when the Devil comes around, you’re going to have the confidence to say, get thee behind me Satan, I resist you in Jesus’ name. And you won’t even have to scream. Do you really think that screaming scares the devil?
If you look at Ecclesiastes 12:13, the second part of that Scripture, it says that obedience is the root of all character. You know how we develop Godly character? By doing what’s right when we don’t feel like it. We don’t have to feel like it to do it. Matter of fact, when you do what’s right and you’re hurting, that means you’re growing. That means you’re growing. If it feels good then you’ve already grown in that area. You’re already there; not a problem for you, you’re already good with that. But when you want something and God wants another, there’s denying the self that has to come in. So there’s a little bit of pain and discomfort that comes along with it. So, when you feel that, you can just say, I’m growing. Thank God, I’m growing. I’m growing, I’m growing. Hallelujah, I’m growing.
And then I love when He says that obedience to God is the adjustment to everything in your life that’s out of order, that’s out of harmony, that’s out of balance. The one thing that will bring it into balance, whether it’s your finances, whatever it might be, and the one thing that will bring it into balance is obedience to God. Let’s just say maybe you’ve got marriage problems and part of what’s got you all bothered is because, let’s just say you’re a woman, and the man that you’re married to never gives you any compliments. And you’re just fed up with never getting any complements. He’s not mentioning your emotions and you’re getting more and more unhappy with him with him, and so you go pray and God says to compliment him. No, God, you got it wrong, I want the compliments.
I ain’t going to do that, why should I do that, he never compliments me. Well, because you reap what you sow. And if you’re the Christian in the house, then guess what that means that you get to go first. Come on, I said, if you’re the Christian in the hosue, then guess what that means that you get to go first. Maybe for a long time you’re going to get to go first. But if you do it under people you’re going to get tired of doing it. If you do it under God then God always sees what you do in secret under Him, and He rewards you in the open.
Be faithful in little things. You know where I’d like you to start? I’d like you to start with your thoughts. I’d just like you to start with your thoughts. You know why? Because 2 Corinthian 10:4-5 say the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but they’re mighty through God pulling down the strongholds. Casting down reasonings, imaginations, theories, and every high and lofty thing that exalts itself against the true knowledge of God. Verse 5 says bring every thought into captivity under the obedience of Jesus Christ.
I’ve had to take several thoughts captive before I ever got here this morning. Just things that were goofy. You know, just stop it. Out. You’re never going to have a victorious life if you have a messed up mind.
If someone is addicted to pornography, they’re not going to think all kinds of pornographic things and then stand in a prayer line and pray to be set free. You can pray, and should pray, but then the first thing you’ve got to do is start taking thoughts captive under the obedience of Jesus Christ. You’re never going to get over being angry if all you do is sit around and think about what the person did to you all the time. You’ll never get over being in self-pity if all you do is think about what you don’t have, what you don’t have, what people aren’t doing for you. You’ve got to get your mind on what you do have. How good God is to you. How blessed you are. On and on.
Apologize for being rude. Take time to call a sick friend if there’s a prompting there. God leads us by the promptings of the Holy Spirit. And stop saying you’re too busy. Too busy is getting to be a tiresome excuse for me. I’m so tired of hearing people say, well you know I wanted to but I was too busy. No, you didn’t want to. You know why, because we do what we want to do.
Well I want to spend time with God every morning but I’m just too busy. Well, guess what, then you need to change your schedule because if you’re too busy for God then nothing else going to work in your life. Woo, hallelujah.
Don’t complain. Don’t gossip. Don’t be discontented. Be sure that you give every time God puts an opportunity in front of you. I’m going to tell you a story. This happened this week in our family. My mother, we just had to move her from her assisted-living apartment into the health care facility at the place where she lives. And we were moving her this past week from her apartment to the health care center and I wanted her to have some nice new things. Gifts are really her love language so I thought it would make the mood easier for her; that’s not an easy thing to do. She got some pretty new stuff. So, we bought her a new chest, and a new nightstand, a new TV, some new nightgowns, and just got her all fixed up so she felt like she was the Queen of the ball.
Well, her other furniture in her apartment, which wouldn’t have been suitable for the room she was moving to, was still nice furniture and so I told my daughter that she could have it. Her and her husband like to sometimes sell things on eBay or put them in the paper, and her husband especially likes to deal with all of that. I said, you can just have all of this furniture and you can sell it for whatever you can get out of it. Well in the meantime there was a nurse, a little nurse’s aide or something that worked there at the health care center that had gotten acquainted with my mother, and she knew my mother was moving. She asked my mother if any of her furniture was going to be for sale. My daughter got the girl’s number and called her. So in the process she was saying oh yeah I really want to get the bedroom set and I’d really like to have that corner entertainment cabinet.
So, my daughter told her what they wanted for it. She said, it’s probably going to take me a few weeks to get the money together, and if I can give you a little bit down this week so you know I’m sincere and I can give you a little bit more next week, can you hold it for me for a while? And my daughter said, well yeah I can do that but she said you know we can only keep it there so long. And she said, well I’m going to do the best I can, I really want it. So when my daughter called me to tell me about this, I mean, it didn’t take a genius to figure out what we ought to do.
I mean, I think that she already knew too. I just said, well you know the bottom line is we can just give it to her. You know? It’s not like, we were not in a position where we had to have that little bit of money that was going to come from it. But I said to my daughter, I gave it to you and I really think it should be your decision to make. I didn’t feel like I could take it away from her and decide what to do with it. Well so she knew too; she called her husband and they said yeah we’ll just give it to her. She called the girl back and she said, well we’re just going to give it to you.
Well, it just made the girl’s month, year, day. I mean, people are not used to having people just give them things. Well here’s the thing. I know she knew who I was, she would go in my mother’s apartment and the pictures of me looked like wallpaper in there. And I mean she’s cutting everything she can from the magazines on the refrigerator and everywhere. You know, all of this stuff. It was just like an extra oomph to see us living what we preach.
Now, here’s the thing. You know, we had joy. I said, oh that’s so good. And I want to read you the text message. My daughter went later to visit my mother and that girl happened to be there visiting my mother too. Happened to be, just happened to be. Isn’t it amazing how God is? And here is what she told my daughter. My daughter sent me this text message: The family we are giving the furniture to recently moved here to Arizona to live with her parents because their 5 bedroom house burnt to the ground. I’m guessing they have no insurance because she said they’re having to start over from scratch. And then my daughter put, wow, 3 exclamation marks. And I thought, we could have missed that opportunity. We could have so easily missed that opportunity.
And yeah we could have sold it, we could have had a few more bucks. But, you know what, God has His ways of giving so much more to us than we can give to ourselves, if we would just do what He’s asking us to do. And then you get the joy and the peace and the clear conscience. And all the stuff that goes along with it.
I’m just beseeching you to be more aware of the little things. Because, you know what, I don’t think with God there’s little things and big things; I think there’s just things. And I think that obeying God to give that furniture to that girl, and you know it really wasn’t even like a command, it was just an opportunity. Just an opportunity. And the Bible says in Galatians 6:10, as occasion and opportunity come to you, be mindful to be a blessing, especially to the household of faith. Well, that was just an opportunity. How many times do we have an opportunity that we just let pass us by?
But you know what else we pass by? More joy, more peace, more power over Satan, more authority, come on. Because the more obedient, the more promptly and quickly and thoroughly obedient we are, the less trouble we are going to have with the enemy. Oh he is going to come against you. I would never tell you that Satan will not come against you. He’ll come against you, but I can tell you that he will not be successful in the long run. Because God will give His angels charge over you to defend and protect you in all of your ways of obedience and service. Amen? And Amen. Amen.
Being obedient to God is the doorway to the best possible life that you can have. It’s the wisest thing that you can do and it’s the easiest way to have authority over the devil. The Bible says, submit yourself to God, resist the devil and he will flee. So, we can’t resist if we’re not going to submit to God.
I want you to know more about this subject. I want you to know that you do have power and authority over Satan, the enemy of your soul. I’m offering you 4 hours of teaching on 4 CD audio series What the devil doesn’t want you to know. Now I don’t know about you but I want to find out everything I can find out. And if I find out there’s important information, someone’s trying to keep it from me, that just makes me want to find it out all the more. So there are things the devil doesn’t want you to know but I’m offering you some information that is going to open you up to a brand new world of knowledge that is going to help you see that maybe you’ve been putting up with a lot of things that you don’t have to put up with. You are a person with authority and you need to learn how to exercise it. So get these teachings and let them begin to work in your life right away.
Male: Nancy is 2 years old but when she was about 3 months old something fell on her head and the injury basically stunted all of her development and her growth from that point forward. So she hasn’t been able to develop like a normal child since that time.
But, because of our medical clinics here, she has come back the last 2 days and they have been able to get her the medicines that she needs, they’ve been able to teach the family how to work with Nancy on physical therapy and how to teach her and train her so that there’s a very, very good chance that with these medicines and with, you know, the physical therapy that she’ll walk some day and that she’ll be able to overcome this injury.
Nancy’s parents have brought her 2 days in a row because they love her so much and they want her to get the help that she needs. On their behalf, as a parent, we just thank you that we can come and help beautiful children like Nancy.