Like it or not, every one of us is in a spiritual war. God is for us, and the devil is against us. The one we cooperate with is the one who will control us. You can’t be discharged from the service in this war, and ignorance of its extent only aids the enemy. The enemy loves to work covertly, using his only weapon, deception. In this teaching, Andrew exposes this war and the enemy for what he is.
welcome to gospel truth with Andrew
Wommack a teaching ministry that
emphasizes God’s unconditional love and
grace and now here’s Andrew welcome to
our Monday’s broadcast of the gospel
truth this week I’m continuing a series
that I started last week on the
believers Authority and we’re now into
part two in this and I tell you last
week what I basically was doing was just
trying to emphasize that there is a
spiritual war we’re in a battle it’s a
spiritual battle it’s not against flesh
and blood
we’re fighting demonic powers and
principalities and it’s amazing how many
Christians are just unaware of the
warfare they know that there’s a
conflict but they think it’s just human
they think it’s people that we’re
dealing with and I used a lot of
scriptures to try and make that point
let me emphasize that I have a brand new
book out on this entitle the believers
Authority what you didn’t learn in
church and this would really bless you
plus we’ve got this study guide it’s
nearly 400 pages and there is a wealth
of information in here this is made
specifically to help you facilitate a
Bible study or a Sunday School class or
things and I’m really excited about our
study guide because a lot of effort has
gone into preparing that and it’s made
it so simple that it’s just really no
way you can miss it you have some
materials that you read and then it
comes back and it has questions there’s
a teachers part of this thing that
guides you how to do this and how to
facilitate a Bible study and tells you
what to do and you ask these questions
it’s got an answer key and you look up
scriptures it’s got all of the
scriptures that are used in that lesson
printed out and you look them up and
basically the people answer these things
for themself and see what the Word of
God has to say and it’s just a
tremendous way to be in the Word of God
so again last week I established that we
are in a battle the battle is not
directly between God and the devil Jesus
already beat the devil and so he’s a
defeated foe but Jesus turned his power
and authority to use that power over to
us
and now the battle is between Satan and
us we are wrestling against
principalities and powers and rulers of
the darkness of this world and spiritual
wickedness in high places Ephesians 6:12
and so we have to take our authority and
use it so that’s what I’ve already
established now we’re going to begin to
start talking about as we confront the
devil James 4:7 says submit yourselves
therefore under God resist the devil and
he will flee from you as you resist the
devil
you’ve got to evaluate what power do we
have versus what power does our enemy
have you know if you were in a physical
conflict matter of fact Jesus even made
reference to this that no man no general
would go out to war against an enemy
with just ten thousand men if the enemy
had twenty thousand men you have to
evaluate the strength of your enemy and
see if the strength that you have is
equal to our superior and that depends
on how you’re going to confront them and
all kinds of things in the natural we
understand this the same thing is true
in the spiritual realm we’ve got to
understand what kind of power and
authority does the devil have and here
is where I really begin to depart and be
different than the traditional things
that are taught about Satan let me just
say some things real quickly here and
I’m not going to go into a great deal of
effort on this because I think most
people are already familiar with this
but as a whole the body of Christ
believes that Satan was created by God
and empowered by God as this demonic
power and he has a super human
supernatural power and authority that he
uses against us and so most Christians
see Satan as actually their superior as
far as Satan’s power and authority goes
but through Jesus we have been given a
power and authority that as long as
we’re relying on Jesus we can overcome
Satan but it I mean it’s like here is
Man’s
nobility here’s Satan and then God is up
here but they see Satan as being
superior to them I’m going to share some
things with you from Scripture that I
believe that Satan literally is has less
authority in power than mankind even
unsaved mankind now that is a radical
statement and I think that you can see
that from where he got his power from
Satan did not get his power to oppress
this world through God he got it from us
mankind is the one that empowered the
devil and here’s the I’m going to say
some things right here that may really
shock some of you but if you listen I
think you’ll understand what I’m trying
to say
I believe that man-made Satan God made
Lucifer a godly angel and he was in dude
with supernatural powers and ability as
a angelic dean but when he rebelled he
gave up his angelic being he lost all of
that and he became the god of this world
and assumed human power and authority
and this is why that the devil has to
have a body to operate through this is
why demons like in the 5th chapter of
the book of Mark cried out and asked
Jesus let us go into these swine rather
than just being cast out into nothing
because a demon has no power to do
anything unless something with a
physical body alive here on this earth
yields to them and even a pig had more
power than all of these demons a snail a
slug a worm anything with a physical
body has more power than the devil
Satan is a spiritual being his demons
are spiritual but they have to have
human cooperation to be able to do
anything and if you understand that what
it does it brings Satan down to a level
to where it is manageable and then you
put the fact with it that we have the
supernatural ability and power
of God and you know what it does it
gives you a superiority attitude over
the devil that a lot of Christians don’t
have a lot of Christians actually are
afraid of the devil now they may be
sitting there using their net the name
of Jesus but I’ve heard a lot of people
speak the name of Jesus out of total
fear and panic you know I can give you
some examples here that I remember one
time I was casting the demon out of a
person and this person tried to hit me
and I mean the power God just stopped
them but there was a demonic
manifestation terrible things going on
and I remember people on the front row
just go in the name of Jesus and they
just started yelling it like a mantra
like a chant but they were speaking it
out of total fear you know I that’s
wrong we need to recognize that Satan is
a defeated foe
Satan’s only power that he has is human
power in authority he doesn’t have this
superhuman power and authority and if
you understood that it would just shrink
him down to a manageable level to where
yes he’s a problem but he’s a manageable
problem especially when you factor into
it the fact that we have the power and
the authority of Jesus he’s not any
person to be feared you don’t go to
sleep and ignore him but at the same
time there’s no reason to fear him you
know here’s an example on my own when I
first started hearing about demons and I
became aware that we were in a spiritual
warfare and I started using my authority
I had this concept that Satan was more
powerful than me
he was bigger than me and it was only
through the power of Jesus that I was
able to best him and just barely and it
took this huge effort but really in a
sense I was giving Satan more power and
authority than what he deserved and an
example of this is that in our house I
grew up in in Arlington Texas
my grandmother she went senile did some
strange things and things and I believe
that there was some demonic activity in
anyway when she died there were some
demons that stayed in that room now this
is subjective some of you are going to
disagree and think well you’re just
making this stuff up but I can even back
when I was a kid
I was about eight years old when my
grandmother died I remember that when
she died I was sharing a room with my
brother and I didn’t want to share a
room with my brother so when she died
and was out of the house I moved into
her old room and I guarantee you there
were some strange things that went on in
that room at night there was a picture
of her up on this dresser and at night
that picture would leave that frame that
it was in and it would float around in a
room there was strange things going on
in that room and I was only 8 years old
I didn’t know what was going on I knew
it wasn’t supposed to be this way I was
afraid to tell anybody that they would
make fun of me and so you know what I
did I stayed there about a week and I
was back in with my brother well my
brother didn’t want to share a room with
me so he moved in there
in a week he was back in he never said
why but he was back in my sister decided
that she would move in there and we
would swap out and rearrange well my
sister moved in there in a week she was
back out and even though we had this
bedroom available nobody would ever stay
in it and when my sister finally got
married and brought her baby home you
know she that was the available room and
so she would walk in there and take her
daughter in there there’s just a few
months old she’d be totally asleep you
walk in that room she’d wake up and cry
walk out she’d go to sleep walk in she’d
cry walk out and so because of it we
never used that room it was always there
but we never used it I used to
after I got turned on to the Lord I had
Bible studies in my home and people
would you know we’d hold meeting in the
living room and then sometimes they’d go
into these other rooms and pray but you
know that room without me saying
anything to anybody people would go into
any room in the house to pray or to do
whatever but they would not go into that
room and so we always kept that room
shut up we never turn the
air-conditioning on we didn’t have the
heat on in that room that room was just
not used and nobody knew exactly why
well after I got turned on and begin to
realize spiritual things and realize
that you know like in Daniels day there
was a prince of persia’ assigned to a
location not just the people but to an
area and I believe that some of those
demonic things that were in my grandma
in her last days when she lost her mind
I believe some of those demonic things
were in that room well one day I was
walking in the house and praying and I
thought I’ve got authority over this and
I’m not going to allow this in his house
and so I remember I just opened up that
door I walked in there and I got to
binding the devil and rebuking it and I
guarantee you all a hair on the back of
my neck stood up
I just felt like that I had this image
of me walking in between these huge
demonic powers that were overshadowing
me with fangs and claws and this dishes
you know these vicious creatures in the
spirit realm I couldn’t see them but I
was just imagine that this is what they
look like and I was walking through them
and saying in the name of Jesus and I
was thinking only by the grace of God
the name of Jesus is holding these huge
demonic powers at bay and I was walking
through there and thinking like this and
I guarantee I was scared and I was
dealing with this and you know what the
Lord spoke to me he said Andrew he says
if you could see into the spiritual room
you wouldn’t see these huge demonic
powers with fangs and claws what you’d
see is little tiny sniffs you know I was
going to say anyway I can’t pronounce it
if you’d see these little creatures that
are just repulsive and little but they
got this huge mouth they really aren’t
big they aren’t powerful but they got
this huge mouth and all they do is just
intimidate instead of them being this
superior power you would see that you
are the one with the authority and the
power they’re afraid of you they’re
cringing in the quarter but they’re just
screaming and yelling trying to
intimidate you and I don’t know if that
helps you but this made a huge
difference all of a sudden I realized
what am i afraid of the devil is one
that’s afraid of me I’m the one with the
superior power and authority and I mean
all of a sudden it was like The
Incredible Hulk or something I mean I
just felt this surge of faith and and
power come upon me and I guarantee you I
got that chunk out of that house I
didn’t tell anybody about it I was there
by myself
and when we held a Bible study that
night I didn’t tell anybody what I had
done and did you know that when people
went off afterwards and they were
praying with each other and praying for
healing or whatever did you know that
they went into that room first time and
maybe a year or two I’d been holding
Bible studies
nobody would ever go in that room but
that night after I’d cast those things
out people went into there there’s no
problem
my sister would bring her daughter home
and stay there no problem
did you know it just totally changed
everything about that changed we didn’t
know exactly what it was but there was
something demonic in there and I can
tell you it made a huge difference when
I quit picturing the devil as having a
superior power and authority to me and I
realized that he is a defeated foe that
he really has no power no authority to
do anything it’s only a usurped power
it’s only through deception that he can
a lie that he can get anything done you
know I’ve already used this verse but
look over in ephesians chapter 6 i’ve
already quoted this but in verse 12 or
let me back up to verse 11
it says put on the whole armour of God
that you might be able to stand against
the wiles of the devil for we wrestle
not against flesh and blood but against
principalities against powers against
the rulers of the darkness of this world
against spiritual wickedness in high
places in verse 11 it says you have to
put on the whole armor of God that you
may be able to stand against the wiles
of the devil the word wiles here it just
means the cunningness the craftiness the
lies the deception and let me make a
point here that the only power Satan
really has is deceit
it’s intimidation he’s like a bully did
you know most bullies really are not
that tough but they’ve learned that they
can Bluff their way that they can
intimidate people that most people are
timid most people are easily intimidated
and so bullies will sit there and
promise and threaten all of these things
and very seldom deliver on anything it’s
through intimidation that they do stuff
and I learned when I was in junior high
that there
this guy who just I mean he would beat
up on people he beat up on some people
that I knew and he would come up me hit
him and and do things to them and he was
he was a bully and he would throw his
weight around and I mean people gave him
special favors because people were
intimidated by this guy well I never was
a fighter
I never was real strong like that I that
just wasn’t me but one day he got the
picking on this guy who was a friend of
mine and I mean hitting him and
insulting him and calling him names and
this guy wouldn’t fight back he wouldn’t
say anything he was afraid to do
anything and this guy was just running
over him and even though I wasn’t a
fighter you know what I stood up to it
and I just said no you are going to do
this and this guy’s a friend of mine and
I expected to be fully pummeled to be
beat up but I just stood up for this guy
and I said you know what you’re going to
have to take both office you aren’t
going to do this by yourself and I stood
up to him and of course this guy got mad
at me and he insulted me and said a lot
of things but you know he backed down
and after that time did you know that
this guy who is a bully and intimidated
people he became a friend with me and he
actually became one of my friends and I
believe he respected me because I stood
up to him and I came to realize that
this guy was all blow and no go he was
just a bully and you know that’s exactly
the way that the devil is he has he
projects this image and sad to say the
number one place that magnifies and
exalts the devil is the church not
necessarily the non spirit-filled part
of the church because they don’t even
know that he exists they basically
believe that Satan and all of the demons
are over in some third-world country
with the witch doctors so basically the
non spirit-filled Church doesn’t even
give Satan much place at all they don’t
they don’t acknowledge him
but among spirit-filled people who do
believe that there is a spiritual
warfare which I agree with and they are
aware that demons operate and that we
get sucked into obeying them and thereby
empower them and then a lot of our
problems sickness and poverty and
relationships are demonic
the problems that is taking place in
those areas I agree with that but in the
process most of the spirit-filled
community has portrayed Satan as this
huge demonic power that really has
supernatural power and authority and
even though there are a few individuals
who will begin to rebuke him and resist
him they do it feeling inferior and just
believing that by the name of Jesus they
are just barely his match maybe they
could overcome him if they do it just
right and you know what that fear and
intimidation actually allows the devil
to do a lot of things in this section of
this teaching on the believers Authority
what I want to do this week is go back
and show you where Satan got his
authority from and I think it’s going to
surprise you to realize that God didn’t
give Satan his power and authority he
got his power and authority from men
from just men in general people with
physical human bodies and even a lost
man has more power and authority than
the devil the devil doesn’t make anybody
do anything he has to have our consent
and cooperation and once you understand
this I guarantee you it’s going to put
Satan in his place it will give you a
brand new attitude when you go to
fighting the devil it’ll give you a
boldness and authority that you’ve never
had and I believe that you’ll get
superior results to what you’ve had you
know real quickly I’ve only got a few
minutes here but let me give you this
testimony that will kind of illustrate
what I’ve been talking about too because
again when I first got really turned on
to the Lord realized we were in a
spiritual war I began to start casting
out Devils you know I didn’t know what I
was doing I just realized that not
everything that happened was physical
and there was this one woman we had led
to the Lord she had been a lesbian and I
mean she got born again and just
radically changed but she still had some
problems I believe that they were
demonic problems from her life before
she got born again and anyway one day
she was at work and she just flipped out
she didn’t know who she was she didn’t
know what her name
she didn’t know where she lived it’s
just like she didn’t know anything and
she was just kind of standing there in a
daze and a person walked by and said
baby I’ll meet you
you know this door after working and
we’ll go home and she so she figured out
her name was Debbie through that she
meant this lady this lady took her home
she got out she looked through her purse
and found some keys and so she went in
and she was sitting in her apartment
figuring that must be her apartment but
she didn’t know who she was when she
didn’t show up for church that night we
called her people went by found out that
she was just totally out of it and you
know in the natural what most people
would do is take her to a doctor
take her to a psychiatrist and try and
find some physical reason why is she all
of a sudden lost her memory and all this
stuff happened we knew there was
demining
and so what we did we didn’t know how to
do this we just knew his demonic so we
locked her in a room and for seven days
we sang songs about the blood praise God
and just literally beat the devil out of
her I mean we didn’t pound her or
anything but it’s spiritually speaking
we just put so much faith out there that
she got delivered of all of these demons
and became normal again and got over the
situation well the word of this began to
spread and we had people start coming
from everywhere and we started seeing
people who were on drugs instantly set
free and come off and they they’d be
high and they’d come
sober and they wouldn’t have to go
through withdrawals it was demonic and
we would cast these things out and we
saw people set free and so the I rep you
tation spread people begin to come from
everywhere and before you knew it people
were considering us an expert on casting
out demons and I didn’t have a clue what
we were doing we just stumbled into this
so we read books I won’t even tell you
the name of this book let somebody go
get it but it was terrible it was just
bad bad bad advice and yet we didn’t
know what to do so we started following
the things in there and anyway rather
than give you all of the stories about
things that happen here’s my point I
became so demon conscious I spent so
much time
dealing with demons and casting demons
out that you know there’s a ditch on
both sides of the road to go down the
road you got to go down the middle you
there’s a ditch on both sides well I had
been in a ditch believing that nothing
was demonic then I hit the ditch on the
other side believing everything was
demonic and I got to looking for a demon
on every doorknob and I became so demon
conscious that I had a number of demonic
manifestations were Satan physically
fought me and things happen I’m about
out of time today I’ll have to finish
this on our program you know as we
continue to talk about this but let me
just say that basically I became too
demon conscious it gave Satan authority
in my life I finally realized this turn
from it and you know begin to start
striking a balance in this area and it
made a huge difference I started seeing
great results and anyway I had got time
to share all that today but we will be
talking about this as we continue on
through this series let me just mention
that these materials that I have on the
believers Authority this is a brand new
book it’s a brand new study guide that
we have out on it we also have DVDs and
CDs and I tell you you need this
material I would like to see you avoid
some of the mistakes that I made and
that’s the reason I’m sharing all these
testimonies with you is to help you it
would be a blessing so please listen
please call and right after you hear our
announcer share about how you can get
these materials
the believers Authority is available for
the very first time in book form you can
receive your copy for seven pounds
request book T 327 when you write or
call or when you go to our website a
Spanish version is also available
request book T 735 the believers
Authority companion study guide is
available for 17 pounds 50 request study
guide T 427 when you contact the
ministry Andrews complete teaching
titled the believers Authority was
recorded live at a recent gospel truth
seminar it’s available on DVD for 19
pounds request DVD album t 3205 d when
you contact us you can also get andrew’s
teaching as seen on TV it’s available on
either CD or DVD when you send 19 pounds
request CD album t 1045 c or DVD album t
1045 d when you contact us the second
teaching in the audio CD album titled
who made Satan is also available for
three pounds but if you’re simply unable
to afford it Andrew and his partners
will provide this second teaching free
of charge request teaching t l 19 when
you write or call and will be pleased to
send it to you let me remind you once
again that we have this brand-new book
and study guide out this study guide is
nearly 400 pages I tell you this is a
great deal we’ve put a lot of work into
this and I’m excited about people
getting this truth but also I can
promise you that every person you know
needs to know these truths and how do
you share it well one of the ways that
you can share it is to get the materials
and read it and live it yourself but you
know we made this study guide
specifically to help you teach Sunday
School classes Bible studies or just
one-on-one discipleship with the person
there’s a cd-rom on the inside front
cover that you can actually reproduce
this and it will have the questions and
the answer key and all of the script
that are used and is just step by step
how to take this truth and share it with
another person so check it out please
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number is zero one nine two two four
seven three three hundred this is Andrew
Wommack and I’d like to invite you to
join me on May the 21st through the 23rd
in Amsterdam I’m going to be speaking at
the Euro spirit 2009 and we’re going to
have a number of different speakers I’ll
be ministering to each day the 21st
through the 23rd of May we’re going to
be holding this at the Victory Outreach
in Amsterdam it’s going to be a great
time and so all of you watching over God
TV I’d encourage you to come and be a
part of this May the 21st through the
23rd victory outreach in Amsterdam
we’d like to point out Andrews upcoming
speaking schedule he’ll be an Amsterdam
for the Euro spirit conference May 21st
through the 23rd Colorado Springs
Colorado for the annual summer family
Bible conference June 29th through July
3rd and in South Africa for a gospel
truth seminar July 21st through the 23rd
for more details on Andrews next meeting
in your area call our helpline or visit
our website at aw mmm
I really dislike religion so much so
that God has placed me in the country
where it is so prevalent it just chokes
people you know it just chokes the
breath out of them and they’re just
lying there wondering if God loves them