Talking about five signs you're under spiritual warfare and how to fight it. Yay, everybody's here. All right, so we find that people are really struggling in this area nowadays, that people don't know what spiritual warfare is, or even when they're in it, or when it's demons, or when it's natural, or when it's something that's just happening to us, you know? So Ephesians 6 verse 12 tells us we wrestle not against flesh and blood. So we are going to wrestle. You're going to wrestle. But we're not wrestling against flesh and blood, but against the four levels of the demonic kingdom, principalities, powers, rulers of darkness of this world, and against spiritual wickedness in high places. Four levels of the demonic kingdom that we wrestle against. And I think when we start wrestling, we start with the principalities, which are your lower ranking demons, goblins, gnomes, sylphs, that type of stuff that you think are just cartoon characters, which are actually very real. You should never have a goblin at the bottom of your garden, by the way. If you have one, smash it. These spirits that are attached to it are real. And then you get higher ranking demons, powers, might look like what you think of orcs or what's that character with the pointed ears, the green one, what's his name? That on the movies, Shrek, you know? No, they're trolls, they're real. And they live under bridges and all kinds of things, you know, they're true. People didn't just suck the stuff out their thumb. And against rulers of darkness of this world are your unclean birds, what your Bible speaks about, your high-ranking demons. Some theologians think that the giants of old that died, the Rephidim, the abominations that died, before the flood are these creatures because they have no souls, they're not in the pits. And they're used by the enemy as leaders, as rulers of darkness. They rule, each higher ranking rules the lower ranks. And against spiritual weakness in high places, and that's Lucifer, ruling generals, usually in cities, They command all the other darknesses. So you have a strongman over Cape Town, over every city, you have a strongman over a table view, lower ranking, you have whole armed military structures of these creatures. And Satan and his generals, we still know a couple of their names, but one of them is Beelzebub. Beelzebub is a general of Satan. He's Lord of the Flies. Beelzebub means Lord of the Flies. Who read Lord of the Flies at school? Flies. Yeah, who read Lord of the Flies? I mean, that was one of our reading books. You know, it's actually means Beelzebub, you know, and so he's the Lord of tiny little demons that look like flies. And that's why you can have 6,000 in you. Now anybody in the deliverance ministry will tell you that in casting out spirits of lust, nicotine, these kind of things, people often cough uncontrollably. And if you're casting out a spirit of nicotine, not every smoking thing is a spirit, but some can just be flesh. But if they do cough, instantly the whole room smells like nicotine. It's the funniest thing, you know? It's not so funny when you're in the room, but, you know? And you will smell that thing come out, and they'll cough, and then you just smell that old smell. Or sulfur, smell instant sulfur in the room, you know, as they come out. So that's why sometimes they cough and cough and cough, and it seems like hundreds are coming out their eye. That's Beelzebub, you know, one of the generals of the devil. So we're in a battle in this world. We may not see it and we might forget it's there. And that's the best thing that you'd like us to do. But the enemy would love nothing more than to fill our minds with discouragement and defeat and destroy us if we allow him. You know, if you're a believer who's living like salt in life, in a dark world, you won't go for long without encountering obstacles and attacks you will hurl in your direction. And they will not look like attacks. It'll look like normal, everyday nonsense. You know, and unless you are spiritually aware, you will not see it like that. You'll think it's a normal thing that's happening in your life here, and it's not normal, and you've been taken out. And though we can't always stop these cruel attacks, we don't have to let him win, okay? Sometimes the Lord does allow the attack to go forth. You know, that you might grow by there, might profit by it, or whatever the situation is, you know? Ephesians 6, 11, God then warns us, what we've been talking about, all these ho-hos, that we put on the whole armor of God. You know, so that you, each one of you sitting here, may be able to stand against the ways of the devil. Because you're not going to do it without God's armor. Tell you that right now. You're not, you're not dealing with flesh and blood. Of your principality levels are fairies. Fairies are always demonic. They're demonic, they serve the devil. Your kids should not have that stuff in their rooms. You know what I mean? So these, you are fighting against many myriad type of forces of demonic spirits. You know what I mean? And you need God's armor. You're not going to make it. If you're a Christian without armor, you're a weak Christian. You're being punched around. You're being pushed around. You're being taken out. You're a joke to them. They laugh at you. They snicker, look at you when they see you. You know, you're no threat to them whatsoever. And many Christians don't have the God with armor on them at all. And it says that you may be able to stand against the ways of the devil. For the devil has myriad ways of attacking us. He's been dealing with the human race for centuries. You underestimate him, we underestimate him, and it's wrong. This is an archangel. Even the warrior angel Michael said to him, the Lord rebuke you. He didn't say, I rebuke you. He said, the Lord rebuke you, Satan. You know, we've underestimated the enemy's power and the force of his power. Now, you know, I can say a lot more about that another time. So the modern day under church has not understood the ways of the devil and we've been utterly destroyed by it. I'll tell you, you're just going to believe, just watch how it's happening around us, you know? The next thing we've got to understand is that all of us will face the demonic forces in our life in some form or another. either in people being used or in situations that are happening in your life that you don't realize that you've just been taken out. And they will hide, they will hide, you will never think it. So Ephesians 6 says, therefore take up to yourselves the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand. Because sometimes the attack is so great and continues that we don't prevail in that battle immediately. But having done all, we lock shields and we stand. We stand our ground. We don't back off, back down, fall down, cry, get our baby bottle out like a baby, kick our feet and carry on. And where is God in my life now? And that you stand, you hold your position, deliverance will come. You know, this is all from the Romans, that Paul was watching the Roman soldiers in Rome, you know, when he wrote this, you know, I mean, he must have seen these soldiers, how they trained, and how they fought, and how they locked shields with each other in battle, and formed testudo, you know, the front row lancers, and the others put the shields on their heads, and they marched forward like this. He watched all of that, and he likened it to the Christian fight against demonic forces. So God reminds us in his word to stay aware of Satan's schemes, to live alert in this world, stay close to him. God gives specific instructions in his word. He gives us all we need to stand strong in this life. Yet all too often we race through busy, full days, ill-equipped, unprepared, or simply not aware of what we're up against or who the real enemy even is. If you're going into your day unprepared, they are waiting for you in your day. Christian, you may be. They're taking you to London town today. They're going to meet you at work. Things are going to go wrong. They're going to meet you in your family. Things are going to go wrong. And you're going to just have a day from hell. And it is from hell. And you didn't know to come home at night. Oh, it's such a terrible day. Well, you didn't ask God in your day. So he left you to your own devices. God's a gentleman. He does. If you ask him, he'll come. If you don't ask him, well, he says, OK, well, you carry on. Have a nice day. And the enemy knows that the forces of darkness don't wait for us to be ready for their attack. They're ruthless, determined and cunning. They are utterly ruthless. Hates us with a hatred that you and I can't even imagine. Lucifer hates us. He hates those that serve him even more. There's no they on our side business with devil. He will treat his own kind in the place of torment far worse than anybody else. He hates us. For he can't stand it that God has given us power against him. Us little Mickey Mouse human beings, he sees how weak we are and how terribly easy we are to break. And he can't stand it that God has given us armor and battles that we can fight against him. They hate that, you know? The devil couldn't care less if we feel prepared or prayed up for our day. In fact, he prefers we not. But in a broken, dark world, how can we really know if we're facing the expected difficulties of life as compared to the attacks of the enemy? Because there are normal things in life that also go wrong. You know what I mean? Like if the economy of the world's breaking and then you haven't got a job, that's not the devil taking your job. That's just the economy of the world. You understand, there are attacks of the devil and attacks that are not of the devil. You know? So Jesus himself told us that in this life we would experience troubles, John 16, 33. These things I have spoken to you that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation. So you are going to have tribulation in your workplace. You are going to have tribulation outside of the faith. You're going to have tribulation, it's coming your way. Expect it. But be of good cheer, Jesus said, I've overcome the world. It's all right, you're gonna be okay. Listen to me, you'll be okay. Handle it like I tell you, the Lord tells us. So we know this to be true, and though many times we may not fully know who is, what is behind the struggles, we can be assured that God equips us for battle and instructs us to live alerts, okay? Spiritual warfare is not giving the devil more attention or focusing too much on his evil ways. Biblical warfare is making ourselves more attentive to what God is doing and remembering to stand firm and let him fight our fiercest battles. Often Christians will get arrogant and far too clever for their own selves and will launch attacks against the enemy where God didn't tell them to do it. And they will be broken on that battlefield. You know, I remember reading an account of this preacher. I don't know if this guy saw a vision or whatever it was, but there was one preacher. He was rebuking the devil and doing all this kind of thing or whatever. He was standing on the stage, you know, and we've got an area of authority that we can operate in. That's all. You know, my area of authority would be my church. That's my area of authority. It doesn't extend to the church down the road. I can't tell the church down the road what to do because they have their own pastor and own area of authority. I can tell my family what to do. I can't tell somebody else's family what to do. The family, my area of authority. It's called metron. The Greek word is for metron, our areas of authority. We are all given areas of authority. There's no ways I have the authority to attack the strong man of Cape Town and rebuke him in Jesus name at all. That's if the strong man of Cape Town attacks my church, I have all authority. And so he comes into my area of authority, my children, my family, our people that God has given us to look after. We can fight and we will win. But I can't go into his area. I don't have that area of authority. All the churches in Cape Town, if they're united, have the authority against the darkness. Because you would attack that spirit of darkness where many other churches have actually sold out on their side. You understand what I'm saying? And you're actually now fighting the churches of God that have sold out. So you can't, you have to stay within your areas of authority. You can't just think you're the main O around here. We're not. We work as teams. And if you wanted to see revival in Cape Town, all the churches of God would have to come together and unite in one. And I'll give you an example of this. It's not in my notes. It's never get me started, but anyway. Bogota, I was involved with the G12 churches in those days and Cesar Castellano and them. And they were starting to make an impact in the city, you know, winning souls left, right and center, drug capital of the world, gang capital of the world. And anyway, so the one pastor tried to unite the churches together in a big stadium, they wouldn't come. You know, nobody would come. The churches all got their own gedachtas. Nobody wants to join. And the gang lords heard what this pastor was up about, and they drove past him, gunned him down, killed him, shot him dead in front of his wife, you know? But the church, the rest of the church was so mad about this, and so upset that they united. And they came to the stadium, 65,000 strong, and they prayed, and the revival burst into the city. Only when they got together did they have that authority to take that demonic thing down. You know, we have that authority where we live in my little area, I have authority against us. But our authority does not cross borders into other churches. That's why I don't pray for other people to come from that church because they're under another authority. It's I'm usurping authority as a pastor and other pastors won't do the same. You're serping another pastor's authority by praying for their people, they're coming to you. You know what I mean? You have to submit to church authority. Anyway, okay. All right, so God will expect us to stand firm and let him fight for us. This power through his Spirit is worded in prayer. We can be confident that he's always with us, leading our way and covering us from behind, if we're walking in the will of God. You know what I mean? If you're not in the will of God, how many Christians do we know where Psalm 91 applies to? No plague shall come down near your dwelling. No evil shall befall you. You know what I mean? You put out the arrows, 1,000 fall on your side, 10,000 on your right. Who do we know? Very few Christians. Why? Because we don't keep the first verse, we don't remain under the shadow of the Almighty. We move out the shadow of the Almighty. And now we're getting hammered. Okay, so there are many ways we may be fighting spiritual battles in our lives and world today, but just five examples from scripture that may reveal you're under attack or what are the ways of the devil. Number one, sudden and extreme onslaught of various troubles, losses, and trials comes from nowhere. Reminding your own business, la, la, la, all hell breaks loose. Work, home, They've taken your outer defenses already. They're overrunning you. They've hit you, you know, and Christians don't fight. They don't know how to fight back. And you're taken, you're taken, your outer defenses are taken, your inner defenses are taken, and they're on you now. and you've lost it. Your child's sick. Your one child's going on drugs. This is going, they've got you. They're just tearing your life apart around your job. Your boss's face changes towards you. You know what I mean? Everything's going wrong. That's a warning sign. This is a ruthless attack that Satan often brings against believers. It comes out of nowhere and it's just one thing after another. It's hard even to see straight. You feel suddenly your life is spinning out of control. Where's God now? How is all these things happening to me? Job's life is an example of what this may look like. Job 1.13. And there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in the eldest brother's house. There came a messenger unto Job. This is all in one day. Okay. to Job saying, the oxen replying the asses feeding beside them and the Sabians fell upon them. They took them away. They slain your servants. They killed all your servants at the edge of the sword. And I'm only escaped to tell you. While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, the fire of God has fallen from heaven, has burnt up the sheep. The servants consumed them. And I only am escaped alone to tell you. While he was yet speaking, there came another also and said, the Chaldeans made up three bands, you know, and fell upon the camels and carried them away and have killed all the servants of the edge of the sword. And I alone escaped to tell you. And while they came another while he was yet speaking. They came and said your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in the eldest brother's house. And there came a great wind from the wilderness, smote the four corners of the house. It fell upon the young men and they all dead. All your children are dead. You've lost all your wealth. It's all gone. You have no servants. You've lost everything in one day. And I alone have escaped to tell you, I want to point out something. You think that this being, this Lucifer, could command the nation, the Sabians, instantly attack Job. They move their horses, they attack straight away. They listen to me instantly. Those that are not in Christ are taken capture by the devil at will. So the Sabians were riding along and the devil just said, move left to take Job. Off they went. They bait the devil instantly. Okay. Satan was able to bring fire from God down from heaven. Able to do that, okay? Burning up the sheep and the servants. Then Satan said to the Chaldean army, listen here, move left. They just instantly obeyed. Take Job. Take them out. And they obeyed him, so their cavalry went straight in. It wasn't good. Who were we listening to? They just obeyed because they're his. These are human beings. And I want to tell you, you've got Chaldeans and that you are working with and Sabians. He can command instantly to say whatever he wants them to say to you. And sometimes do things to you. Steal from you, do things for you instantly, and they obey him instantly. We are not like the early church who understood the power of the enemy. We think, ah, this is just normal stuff that's happening to us. He could command two nations and they instantly obeyed him. Didn't go to a meeting with him and, okay guys, I want to introduce myself to you. He owned them. What did Job do? He arose, rent his mantle, shaved his head, fell on the ground and worshiped and said, naked came out of my mother's womb, naked shall I return. The Lord gave, the Lord taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord. Did he panic? Did he blame God? Did he freak out? Because I know people might lose one child and then they blame God for the rest of their life. And I say that with respect. I'm saying he lost his entire family. You know, and what did he do? The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. He worshipped God, which has been a flag for missionaries throughout the centuries. When Hudson Taylor lost his wife and his children and buried them in China, got on his knees, said, the Lord gave, the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord. And he got on with his work. You see, you see how this world works. In all this, Job said, not nor charge God foolishly. To understand, underestimate the darkness and what they are able to bring into your life is absolute stupidity. absolute stupidity. Martin Luther even knew this. And I don't think people realize that in his hymn, he actually explains it. This is a guy breaking away from the Catholic Church, and that he understood the power of the enemy and we got to understand it to defeat him. So you're not to look at everything that happens in your life as normal. It's not normal. A lot of the time, you've been taken down. He wrote in his great hymn, a mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing, a helper he amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing, deathly ills, okay? For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us ways, talking about Lucifer. His craft and power are great, and armed with cruel hates on earth is not his equal. Now, it's a different story now, isn't it now? This is when Martin Luther was, who the devil used to meet him at home, when he came home. Did we in our own strength confide our striving would be losing? Were not the right man on our side the man of God's own choosing? Thus asked who that may be, Christ Jesus it is he. Lord, sabbath his name from age to age the same, and he must win the battle. And then he writes this verse, and he says, and though this world with devils filled, because it's filled with devils of different ranks, okay, should threaten to undo us, because they do, we will not fear for God hath willed his truth to triumph through us. We're not going to fear them. The prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him. His rage we can endure. For lo, his doom is sure. One little word shall fail him. But he says exactly what the devil is. He tells just the truth. The prince of darkness grim. His rage we can endure. The early Christians had to endure that rage. They were mercilessly killed. absolutely martyred, killed, eaten by animals, and there is rage, they just endured it. Because God said, having done all stand. Be an example of my kingdom. You're gonna be eaten by lions, you're gonna be killed, you're gonna be martyred, you're gonna be burnt to death, you're gonna be crucified. Endure. And that's what they did. If we are called to endure, If we are called to fight, we fight. We are under the Lord's banner. We only do what he tells us to do. The devil went to ask him if he could to mend Job, thinking he would try to lead him away from the Lord through the many struggles he faced. As we know from the book of Job, this righteous man stood strong and helped the Christian church forever. Though it seemed he was losing everything dear to him, he knew that God held him secure through all the loss and hardship around him. Look at the sickness the devil gave him. You think the devil cannot give you sickness? It's a joke. Christians, just wake up, eh? He put boils all over him. Would have done worse if God allowed him. You know, quite easy to do that. In the brotherhoods, in the satanic brotherhoods, they use cancer as a tool of discipline. The demons give you this is cancer when you don't listen to them and you endure all the horrors of chemotherapy and then they just take it away when you buy them. That's that's that's the tool. You know. God will never allow the enemy to have full control. He doesn't have the final say of our lives. We may face battles and attacks in this world, but we can trust in our mighty God to be our shelter through it all. So sudden attacks in our lives, they come from nowhere, on orphans. It feels like all your outer defenses are overrun. Blow the trumpet, the enemy's in the camp. Get other Christians to pray for you, fight back. You can't fight alone. You're dealing with a unit of orcs. The Satanists tell us when you hear those dogs barking through the neighborhood like that, when you hear dogs barking like a train through, it's an army of demonic unit moving through. That's what they're barking at. That's what the Satanists do, do astral projection. It's part of the thing. They say it's an army unit of demons moving through your area. And the dogs who see these creatures, if you've often seen your dog, he's like staring in the corner or barks at something in the corner and out. You must chuck your thing out. You know? And you hear those dogs going, you know that's an enemy unit moving through the area. Okay, that might be meat for somebody, but anyway. Two, attacks of physical danger, illness, life-threatening loss. We know from God's word that the enemy wants nothing more than to steal, kill, and destroy our lives and all we love. John 10, 10, famous verse. Thief comes not, but to steal, kill, and destroy. I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. He has only bad news for his followers and for those who serve him and for us. He's going to steal, kill or destroy you. And kills, he'd be happy to. Kill is make you commit suicide. He will drive you to that. He's a thief, a roaring lion, preys on God's people. He desires to silence our voices and take us out of this world, to shut off the light of God's love and hope for Christ. Exactly how wolves run off an elk or a deer. They run off to the pack and they take that one deer and they cut him off. And then they run him into the forest and then they take him down. Same tactic. The devil tell you, you can't go to church. Those people are looking at you funny. Nobody loves you anymore. Why are you going to that stupid place? You know what I mean? And you're being run off from your strength. You're being played. Oh, yeah, no, it's true. I'm not going to church. You know, duck back now. You're just being played. And they're going to take you down very soon. So, you know, we've got to wake up to that. All right, so many of us have been experienced near-death experience, sudden terrible illnesses, or holding loved ones who are at the brink of heaven. And yet God always intervened where necessary and kept some of us here longer. Man is immortal until his work is done in God's will. It's an old Christian saying, it's the absolute truth. You want to be the safest place on this earth, be doing God's work. Because you immortal until the day you die. No thing can take your life. No one can take your life. You're doing God's work now. The guy comes and put a gun up against your head and says, I'm going to kill you. You say, no, you're not really now. I'm going to go now. Can I pray for you before I go? I'm going to kill you. Click, click, click, click, click. How many times have we heard those stories? The gun doesn't go off. We are the Lords. And if it does go off, well, I'm going to be singing glory, hallelujah, two seconds from now anyway. You know what I mean? So, you know, what do we care? All right. So, so you see these kind of things, near death experience, sudden and terrible illness, bad dreams at night, running in your dreams. You wake up exhausted, more exhausted the next morning than when you went to sleep. You've been taken, they're running with you now. And you've got a gap open in your head and you need to close it. I woke up this week feeling very ill, out of the blue, out of the blue. No, it wasn't, it didn't even grow on me. I just got as sick as a dog. I didn't know what was going on. And during the day, I got worse and worse. And I haven't been ill for a very long time. You know, and I called Jess to come pray for me. And he prayed for me like we do, James 5 verse 14. He came out late at night as well. And I didn't feel better immediately. I went to bed, slept for 10 hours. God, I was completely ill. So who was messing with me? It wasn't normal. And we used God's word to defeat it. And it was defeated. If I hadn't done it, I would have been as ill as a dog. I wouldn't have been here today. There are many stories in the Bible of God's people under great physical attack and danger, and so many miracles that God performed to bring them safely through, even when it didn't make sense. Daniel failed to face lions in the lion's den. His attackers thought he'd be gone by morning, but God intervened and shut the mouth of every lion. God is very willing and able to come to your help. But you also, you cannot be living in fear. If you're living in fear, God cannot help you. For you're motivated by the force of the enemy and not by faith. Hebrews 11, six says without faith, it's impossible to please God. You've got to have faith. You've got to believe God. Sometimes all you can do is just read his word because you can't, you've got no ability to, you just keep reading his word saying, Lord, I'm trusting you under this situation, I'm trusting you, just read his word to get through it. My subcontractor, Jimmy, from Namibia, used to tell me that every evening in the noon, people were coming to try his door. And his window, they'd see the handle on the window trying, and the door turning. Every night, he said, he don't know what's going on. So I said to him, what you got in your house? So he told me what is in his house. And he said, I've got this couch. And he says, well, I don't like the couch because everybody who's slept there has died. I said, there's a witchcraft in that thing. And he laughed. He thought it was the funniest thing I'm telling him. I said, Jimmy, there's witchcraft in that thing. He said, no, but a couple of days later, he must have thought about it. And he said, I turned it upside down and pulled the cover off. And there was the witchcraft inside a little hair and blood thing sitting in the middle of it. He took it out and he tried to burn. He said he didn't want to burn for a while. And then he went whoosh in a blue flag. Never did anybody come and knock at his door again or try his handle again. You know, we are not wrestling against flesh and blood. You know, and you got to wake up to these things, you know, and fight back with the Lord's weapons. All right, so there's no reason to fear. Stand strong through prayer in his word and fight back. And number three, increased temptation and luring towards sin or wrong choices comes from nowhere. You've overcome a sin for years now. Suddenly you're feeling those old feelings. You're being had now. They're trying you. They've come back to the house that was swept to see if they can enter again. You know, they've left you for a long time now, and now suddenly they present that temptation to you. And suddenly you're thinking, wow, man, you know, I haven't thought about that for years. You know, be careful. You've been tried now, you know, and they're looking for that weakness in you, and they're looking for you to just go and take a little look, or a little bit of smoke that wheat, or go and take those pills, you know, just to feel it's got you. The shadow's got you. And you've got to be very careful about that. So when I used to do weights, it was a very long time ago, as you can see. They say, you know how you're over-training when you're training too much? They say the way you know that you're doing too much weights is that you don't feel like going to gym anymore. That's a warning. Your body's telling you, you must back off. Rest now, you're in trouble. You know, because you're going to carry on now, you're going to hurt yourself, you know. So in your Christian walk, if you don't feel like going to church anymore, you don't feel like reading about you backsliding, you don't feel like reading your Bible, godly things of a kind, you don't feel like being in the meetings anymore, you're not comfortable. When you are being taken out, you're being led like that, like that, that deer off into the forest, you're backsliding. And that's how you know you're backsliding. When the things of God don't excite you anymore, when reading the Bible is hard now, you know, you've got to be careful. They're throwing a cloak over you, you know, and they're blinding you. And if you go down that road, you're going to land up right outside the Christian wall. So how do you get out of that repentance? Talk to God about it. Get somebody to pray for you. Though we live with daily struggles and temptations all around us, many times there are spiritual attack on our lives that put us at greatest risk to go astray. It is a battle that we're living on. I often say to people, if you don't know that you're in a war, well, observing you notice you are. God didn't give you armor for cooling off in the lounge. You understand? And swords and shields. He gave it because you're going to have to fight. You're going to have to fight back. And it's a ruthless fight. There's no surrender, no retreat to the enemy. He's not going to listen to your plaintive little cries of weakness, and he will laugh at you or think it's your joke. You know, if you're defeated, he dies, he desires not only to bring us down. And this is where people must be very careful. When he can't go for you, go for your children 100% times. 100%. He's going to turn his eyes on your children. Look at them, every weakness in them. How can I get them? You know, my wife used to pray about my daughter, about everything. If she goes there, then she prays. If she's coming back, she prays. And one day I said to Chris, is she going to go to the bathroom? We're going to pray there and back now. I said, I know you're doing a good thing, but it just maybe you're going a bit over the top now. And then a couple of weeks later, you know, when I saw how this girl was protected, It was actually quite shocking and I said to her, you know, you're the one who's actually being protected. You pray for her day and night, you watch over her like a mother bear. She comes back from work, she's praying her from there to home, you know, and she's always been safe. She went to the riots here, in the middle of the riots in UCT. They riot police. She should drop her off at the front. And my daughter's brave. She'll go in and care to its little blonde head bobbing down there amongst all the policemen and the riots are burning. She's bobbing off to school where she's not good. My wife prays in praise. I praise her out. I'm telling you, I'm telling you, she guarded those children. And you better guard yours, too. You know what I mean? Because the enemy waits in all the Sabians and the Chaldeans at school are waiting for your children. And we need to be wake up, fight back. So when suddenly tempted with old sins, sound the alarm. Go see an older Christian, tell him something's come back in your life. Don't say something. Tell them what it is so you can address it. And I tell you, when you prayed for, you'll feel instantly better. Instantly. The devil loves to see stories splashed across headlines of believers who have fallen and made terrible choices of sin. He loves disunity amongst Christians who want nothing more than to break up families. Every relationship he holds here, he hits marriages often. Loves that. How does he do it? We Christians, we serve in God. We have an angel assigned to us that watches over us. Each Christian does. Okay, so how are they getting to us? They use arrows. We told in Ephesians 6, Psalm 91. Spiritual arrows. They stand outside the camp like that, lift the arrows and shoot into a house. The wife's sitting there cleaning the dishes nicely. Oh, it's a nice time. And suddenly a thought enters her mind of what I did to her three years ago. Kid you not. Bright as day. Wow. He never said sorry about that. And then it turns into a huge bonnie. You know, I thought about what you did to me last three years ago, whatever. I'm like flabbergasted. You know, we have a huge fight, many dead. Send in the cavalry, three days. Well, we destroy everything around us, you know? Bodies lying everywhere. And after three days, we like look at each other and say, what was that about? We can't remember. It's taken out. They use a thought, they can shoot a thought into your head with an arrow. It's quite common. or in your heart, you've taken off your breastplate of righteousness now because you're watching something unclean on the TV. So you took your breastplate off now and you're sitting there cooling off and the enemies outside and they lift the arrows like and they shoot a wave of arrows in and you're sitting there with no breastplate on and then suddenly depression, anxiety, oh I'm so scared of the future hits you and you're in trouble. You just got taken off. They use arrows. They do it in church too. Don't think I don't. All of you know what I'm talking about. You're sitting in church minding your own business. Suddenly the worst thought hits your head. You're weird. I wasn't even thinking about that. Error. And the old Christians say you must just ignore the error. It's quite funny. You must try this. When you have that evil thought, it's the most terrible thought ever that you can even imagine. You're just minding your own business, came from nowhere. You just sit there and you just carry on listening to the pastor. And you leave the thought there, don't do anything about it, just leave it, ignore it. It actually gets pulled out of your head by force. You can't stand being ignored the devil. Pulls it out like that, it goes out. It's quite funny, try it. Okay, so that's how he handles us. So we must stay strong and stay away. So the next time we're in the house, and suddenly you remember something your wife did, or something she did, or whatever, or some evil thought about some other believer did to you six months ago, you're getting handled now. You're getting tempted into that. Think on this, think on this. Remember what if that person said to you at church, you know, that's about six months ago. Do you remember that? And now you start getting really angry in your mind, you know, you've just lost the blessing. You lost the presence of the Lord. And now you open gap. So we got it. We got to wake up. All right, so often when we find ourselves weary, already weakened, we're on the radar of the enemy. Jesus himself is our great example of this. When he faced the devil's temptation in the wilderness, Matthew 4, 1 to 11, he was fasting, he was hungry, he was physically weakened, tired, and then the enemy came to him at his weakest. It's same with us. And tried to tempt him. One slip up is all he's looking for with us and with Jesus. He was looking for one thing. He tried to put Jesus up on the top of the temple because people have a fear of heights. Any fear is demonic. All fear is demonic. All that crippling fear you feel comes from the flesh and is demonic. It's worldly. It's not of God. So he put Jesus on the highest place, looking if he's got that fear of heights. Just one fear. Something of my kingdom and the whole of the devil's kingdom works by fear. Just looking and there was nothing. He couldn't find anything in Christ. No weakness. So, you know, he does exactly the same today. So don't be taken unaware. When you're starting sensing strong pullaways from God's truth and ways, you can know who's at the bottom of it and fight back. And you know, sometimes I'll be on the road and I'm in the building industry and stress and industry go together. And you know, when I got two, three sites, only multiple things can go wrong on sites at the same time. Devils again. You know, and I'm not even anywhere near there. Can't help. I sometimes just pull over, phone my wife. I just said, listen, you got to pray with me. Enemy's in. And she prays and he takes authority over the thing. We pray about it. I feel instantly better. I go to the sites and we're able to sort everything out. You know, so they'll hit where they can. Four, feelings of overwhelming despair, darkness and fear. How much time have I got left? Am I pushing the envelope? Feelings of overwhelming despair, darkness and fear. Always from the enemy. God, God never uses the feeling of fear to command and control us. Ever. God tells us not to do something. So you're walking down the road and there's this dark alley there, and now you feel terrified about going down there. That's not God telling you not to go down there. That's your flesh, and the devil's telling you not to. And if you obey him, if you don't listen, you obeyed him. God will say to you, don't go down that road. You'll just feel that in your heart straight away. You'll feel God say to you, do not go down that road. Okay, I'm not going down the road and you'll walk somewhere else. Don't ever listen to fear. Under any condition, that's not the Lord. And you know, if I ask you, how many times have all the things you feared in your life come to pass? Most Christians say none. All those things you feared all over the years, did they ever come to pass? No, it didn't, because it's a lie. You know, it's shadows of the enemy, you know, that he's putting on our lives. And be very careful to let your life Follow that kind of fear. God's kingdom rules by love. All right, when we're told to fear the Lord, we are told in Proverbs that the fear of the Lord is to hate evil. Proverbs 8, 13. That's what fear of the Lord means. When you start hating things that are evil, you actually got the fear of the Lord. Fear of the Lord's not that clawing, frightening feeling that you're crawling around on the floor, scared of demons, scared of darkness, scared of things at all. So don't believe it, trust God's word and only trust the Lord. All right, so many may struggle with an anxiety and fear in this life, and it's a reality. These emotions are reality because this is the devil's kingdom. You look at all the gangs of the devil, mafia, all of them, what do you see? Fear. How do they work? If you don't do what we tell you, we'll kill you, your wife and your children. All run by fear. Not God. So many may struggle with anxiety and fear in this life. Many may be facing depression, mood disorders or mental illness. But often the attacks of spiritual forces against our lives raises the intensity to a greater degree than normal day-to-day struggles. It's ruthless, unrelenting, we feel alone, completely overwhelmed, stuck in deep fear and despair. Whose kingdom does that sound like? God's kingdom. Is God bringing that in your life? Light, joy, peace, overcoming, that's God's kingdom. You've got to recognize this darkness with what it is and stay strong. I've seen more Christians diagnosed with depression and that, and I know I'm putting my foot on it today, but I'm going to say it anyway, than ever in my life. You know, they've given fancy names to depression and oppression and all this kind of stuff, you know? And, you know, I've watched my friends become strong. I had this friend, he was such a strong Christian, you know? Fall under this shadow and he took so many pills that he he shakes like us when I talked to me He's not incredible. He's got to take upper to get up and then he gets too high up So he's got to take it down. I promise you it's in his pulse He's got to take it down it to come down to balance him out and then he goes down too far He's got to take another pill to level him out When you talk to him, it's like us. He used to be a musician a worship leader and He was a worship leader. He's not anymore. They're gonna, they're gonna have to fight. People say, well, I have a medical condition and my hormones, you know, are up and down. It's not my fault, you know. In the Eastern religions, healer practitioners use auras to diagnose diseases and then manipulate your aura to make you well or sick. They actually look at you and they can see in these Indian practitioners, they can see in your aura the colors of your aura. You know, I think I saw it being advertised, what's the color of your aura? And then they can tell from the colors in your aura what sickness you got and where the cancer sits or whatever. Then they can manipulate that in that aura. They manipulate your sickness so that you well. You think demons can't do that? Demons taught them to do that. You know, we've just swallowed this thing hook, line, and sinker. You know what I mean? That the enemy has given us, you know what I mean? We think that, you know, that if it's physical, demons can't do it. Of course they can. This is where Satan will lead some to even contemplate taking their own lives or making choices they would never have thought they'd make. I watch it all the time. They push you, push you, push you till you kill yourself. And you're in the pits. That's where you go. It's a cruel trap, but there's hope because of Christ. He's the one who can lift us straight out of that darkness. He's the one who can calm our fears, give us strength. We didn't even know it was possible. You know, it's so easy for them to throw a cloak of depression on you. It's one of the easiest tricks in the demonic book. Actually feels like a cloak. Next time you feel it, feel it. It feels like a cloak. It is. So I've never seen so many Christians bound by depression, anxiety, and we can't help them because the Christians are not allowed to say anymore that it's spiritual, that you actually go to jail now. If you tell another Christian, listen, you have a spiritual problem, you can go to jail now because the doctor said, you know, and who are you? Are you a doctor? It's like, it's got, it's got so bad that we are unable to help a lot of these people completely. And we're just watching them bound by these things. We have not understood that the devil uses three major assaults against the human race. Depression, suppression, oppression. The three mighty attacks against the human race. Always demonic, always the devil, always uses those three assaults. All right, so we are now diagnosed by doctors as having certain disorders when the early church dealt with these issues as demonic. I never even heard of these things when I was growing up. You know what I mean? Never even heard of these things. You know, you just got on with your life and get over it, you know? And now it's swept through our churches like a plague, destroying our people. And it's often the most talented people I notice that are being taken out. musicians, people that move in the gifts, this kind of thing. They are the ones being knocked out. And we are blind. All right, so we are commanded 365 times in the Bible not to fear, to trust God and to fight back. 365 times. I think God is trying to tell us something. James 4, verse 7, submit yourselves to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Resist, fight back. What I've noticed, a modern day Christian doesn't want to do any fighting. It's much easier just to go to the medicine gym, take a pill, than to get God's word out, read it, pray, go for prayer, fight, no, say no to the thing, get out, go. So much easier than fighting back. And we've lost a lot of our great Christians like that, you know? Submit yourselves to God, resist the devil, and he will flee. Flee means run away as if in terror from you. I think people don't have the heart to fight back anymore. We are overwhelmed by life. Don't buy into the enemy's pursuit and attacks. He has no lasting power over you, and God will hold you strong for the road he's led. Something I want to add there that the Satanists tell us, you need to stand your ground. The devils are not long-term, are unable to hold their attacks on the long-term situation. They're just not, they haven't stamina. You've got to sit it out. You will break them always, break attack always. I think it was 20 days or something that they can keep it up, I can't remember, at the most, and they break off. And it's true. Don't give up. Number five, I'm finally getting to number five. Deep confusion, feelings of condemnation and guilt, dulled spiritual awareness. The last one is difficult to see through at times because this attack can be so subtle and can happen slowly after time. But when we stop and look closely, we call it out for what it is. So sometimes another Christian has to tell you, listen, you're actually backsliding. You know, listen, I think you need to look at your life, you know, I don't see you can actually see the light in the Christians faces. And when you don't, they may be in trouble. They're falling back slowly but surely into the mix. Tell them, pray for them. A slow, constant pulling away from God's truth will leave us feeling confused, irritated, conflicted, and facing generalized feeling of guilt and condemnation that we can't just seem to shake off. So a sign that you're not in a good place when you start getting ratty again, the old man jacks back. You know, you've been at peace now. It's living slow motion in the cornfields as a Christian. Suddenly you find yourself starting to get ratty with people. They're getting on your nerves. You know, the dog gets on you, kick the cat, you know what I mean? And, you know, you start reverting back to your old person. You've been taken down. You've been led like a devil. It's taking you out of God's presence. And what they will do with you there is a whole new story, you know? So we've lost our desire to praise and pray. We're too busy. We've got too much to do. I want to tell you something to stop you getting spiritual. The devil will give you 10 tons of work to attack your spiritual. He'll give you even money. He'll give you a job with money and make you so busy that you just got your your bought and sold. And you didn't realize it. You know, and you'll go that far. or you'll make you so busy with your work that you've got no time for God. All these things are demonic, and we've got to be on a watch out for this. Are we out of fellowship with believers somehow believing the lie? We can do this thing all on our own. Have I watched how many Christian leaders leave churches in the last years? It's like, guys, I respect that. Got hurt in the church, and now I'm not going to church anymore. You just take it out. Great leaders, they're sitting there in a little room with their family, great warriors, out to battle. Totally useless, inconsequential now. They can play church there, devil don't care. No good to anybody. And we can't just walk away. We've got to stay our course in God's church. Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. All right, so we feel a dark cloud of confusion and guilt that follows us around, won't go away. Bitterness can set in. Have I seen this in Christians lately? Oh my goodness. It's like, I want to say to some Christians, are you reading the Bible? Bitterness. You know, somebody hurt you. You just cannot give it up. You can actually see it in their face. Their lips are thin. You know, you can actually, it's all over their face. It's terrible. It'll kill you. You're going to go to the pit like that. You're not going to heaven like that. You know, so we need to fix it. Conflict and broken relationships that we weren't scared about causes such bitterness in people. And you know how you know when somebody is in bitterness or when you're in bitterness, when somebody's name is not safe in your mouth. When you can't say their name without showing emotion, you've got bitterness against. It's dangerous, so dangerous. You know, it's unforgiveness. It's what it is. And we know with your unforgiveness, you're not going to heaven. You're going to heaven with unforgiveness. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive others their trespasses. You're not going to heaven with unforgiveness. You're going to the pits. So we've got to fix these things, OK? All right, so get out of this trap, wake up, steer yourself to action, know that God's power is greater to break through that trap of condemnation and confusion. God reminds us in his word that he's not the author of confusion, but of peace. So anything that's of confusion is always demonic. 1 Corinthians 14 33, God is not the author of confusion, but of peace as in all the churches of the saints. It tells us there's no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus, Romans 8.1. There's therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. If you are trying hard with God and you keep failing, there's no condemnation from God in this. You are to confess your sin to God and carry on, but God will not hold it against. His word promises us. His spirit will bring conviction of sin to his children. He draws to himself and show us what we need to make right. So we need to not listen to that ruthless condemning voice that comes into about our past lives and things like that. You know, and that's happened to me too. I know exactly how easy it is. All right. So we've got to step away from that. All right, so I don't even know how long have I got. What time does it usually end? When we started at seven, we're at eight. Are you good with me now? I'm gonna go a little bit quicker. God arms us with a sword, the word of God, to stand against the enemy's lies. He equips us with strength, wisdom, and discernment through his own spirit to stay strong in the battle. I'm gonna just touch on some weapons that we can use to fight back. Because the scripture says 2 Corinthians 10, for the weapons of our warfare are not worldly, but mighty through God to the pulling down of swords. Some Christians only have one weapon. You know, one tiny little weapon, you know what I mean? Or little weapons. But God's given us an array of battle weapons that we can use against the enemy. So sometimes what we find and what I found is that what one weapon doesn't work with this demon and then I'll try something else and that works. It's the weirdest thing. You know what I mean? So I suppose it's like in the army, you've got to use mortars, machine guns, heavy artillery. Depends. You've got to use different weapons in an army. For depression, okay, I want to tell you I had the worst depression. I was in prison for, I had a sentence of 30 years, okay? 15 concurrent to 15, that's life. And there was no way I was coming out, as I thought, you know? And you can get depressed, I can promise you that. Black depression, that you can't shake it, you can hardly get out of your bed. You know that depression is so dark. You can't talk. I know what that depression looks like. And then I listened to what I've been teaching you from other older Christians about depression. I read it, that God has given us a weapon, a specific weapon against depression. And I was very happy to find this, because this was a thing in my life that I had to deal with. Isaiah 61 verse 3, to appoint them that morning Zion to give them beautiful ashes, the oil of joyful morning and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Okay. The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. And this book, this teacher told me that you need to praise God when you are in the depression to lift that spirit of heaviness. So I couldn't wait to try it, you know, I'm like, hey, I'm going to try that. Only thing I didn't know, any Christian songs. Anyway, so I forgot about it after a couple of days. And one morning I got up with the blackness was on me and I just couldn't. And I remembered Garment of Praise. I can hardly talk, I'm so down, you know. So the only song I could remember was Jesus Loves Me from my Sunday school days. And I try to sing, Jesus loves me, it can't even come out, you know, and it's not doing anything for me. But it's all I can remember is this one song, you know, so I keep on just singing it, singing it. And I physically felt something move on me. I thought, no way, what was that? That is crazy. Then I really started singing. And then I sang as hard as I could, and this thing broke off me. And I could feel the glory of God coming. I've used that weapon for 38 years. Garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. It breaks the demonic forces like you cannot be... Ask Josaphat. was one example. I'm going to a lot of biblical examples. When they were marching towards any, the Lord said, sing, they sang their enemy fought amongst themselves. They defeated the entire army. David, when Saul had a spirit of troubling him, you know, asperities was an evil spirit was troubling him. Then he called for David to come along and David played a harp and he sang a song, broke that thing and got off it. There is, it's a most incredible weapon. I use it all the time. In fact, I don't even get depressed. I think they've given up. I get discouraged, but I don't get depressed anymore. I play music like all day. I can't even get it and forget about that. But the interesting thing that I just want to point out that it's the garment of praise, not worship songs. There's a difference between worship songs and praise songs. You'll find many albums which says praise songs, and you'll find other albums that say worship, stick with the praise songs. They work. And that is one of the greatest weapons against depression that I've ever seen in my entire life. Works every time, anywhere I am, any darkness I am in anywhere, always works. All right, when we try prayer and we overwhelm, number two, fasting. But you can't just, you've got to do the fast God's way. Else your fast is just a waste of time and you're getting hungry. And if you're not fasting for the right things, as God told us to, you're just wasting your time and you're getting hungry. Isaiah 58 verse 6, is not this the fast that I've chosen, says the Lord. He rebuked them for fasting for nothing. Before this, you can go read it up. Why are you fasting? The Lord says, you know, you say this and that, but he's not even listening to them. Is not this the fast that I've chosen, the Lord says, to loose the bands of wickedness. When the enemy has surrounded you, you feel totally cut off, this is the fast God's chosen for you. To undo heavy burdens. You can't shake that heaviness that you got about what you're worrying about or something like that. You've tried everything, it's not working. You use the name of Jesus, you've tried everything else, The fasting undo those heavy burdens. Three, to let the oppressed go free. God said, is this not the fast that I've chosen? That you let the oppressed go free. You can pray for another person that's under demonic attack and set them free. That's God's will for you. You can do it, OK? And that you break every yoke. Every yoke that the enemy has put on you. Every mental failure that you have, that you can't do this, and you can't do that, and you can't overcome this. The Lord said, if you do the fast His way, you can fast to break the yoke of the enemy on your life. Can't make money, can't do this, break it. Why am I reading the next part? Because there's more added to this that people don't ever read further than this. Because God tells us how to do this fast, and if we don't do it God's way, it's not gonna work. Okay, Isaiah 58 verse seven. Is it not to deal your bread to the hungry while you're having a fast? Instead of having their meal, they give you a meal to the hungry, okay? And that you bring the poor that are cast out to this house. And that you see the naked, you cover him, that you hide not yourself from your own flesh. You don't act like you're fasting, But you do works, do good works with it. Go feed the poor. You're not eating, take your lunch that you're gonna give it to somebody else. And then the Lord said in verse eight, if you do that, then your light shall break forth as the morning. God said if you're gonna go and fast like that, your light will break through in your face. And your health, listen to your health, your sickness that you've been going through, shall spring forth speedily. You'll get healed very quickly and your righteousness shall go before you and the glory of the Lord shall be a reward. You will be filled with the presence of the glory of the Lord. Then listen to this promise. If we do it God's way, then you shall call and the Lord shall answer. God said, if you do the fast the right way and you call me, I'm going to answer because he hasn't been answering you before this. Is it so? Okay? You shall call and the Lord shall answer. You shall cry and he, the Lord, shall say, here I am. He'll hear your prayers. If you take away from the midst of you the yoke, carrying on with each other is very displeasing to God. Behaving badly to one another, it's a sin before the Lord. You know, and you can be fasting till you're blue in the face, but if you're not going to take that yoke amongst you and taking on one another like that, your prayers are wasted and your fasting is wasted. And the putting forth of the finger, pointing at other Christians and at other people. If you take away from the midst of the yoke, the putting forth of the finger and speaking vanity, rubbish, then your breakthrough will come. and your fasting will be effective. So there's a whole behavior that's attached to this as well, you know what I mean, that God's looking for. You know what I mean? So it's the whole thing together that works. And it does work. But I love that about your health, you can actually be healed sometimes. All right, three. Okay, so fasting was the second one, armor of God. Your armor, and I'm going quickly through this stuff, is directly tied to your behavior. You know, people say, I put the armor of God on every day. You should never take it off. You have to put it on. But OK, look, I'm being respectful to them. OK, that's what they believe. But your arm is directly attached to how you behave personally. Find him, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For you wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, powers, rulers of darkness, spiritual weakness in high places. Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God, you may be able to stand in the evil day, having done all stand. Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, the belt of truth. If you're a liar, you have no armor. You're easy pickings for the devil. You tell a lie, your belt of truth falls off. When your belt of truth falls, your breastplate starts to flap around and things don't work properly now. The enemy can easily shoot you now. Lying is a bad news thing in the kingdom. So having your loins girt about with truth, your truth is your belt. Having on the breastplate of righteousness that you're right standing with God and man. that you're not doing some secret sins in that and you ain't got no breastplate whatsoever. You know, because those errors are coming. And so, righteously, you're not living a Christian life and you're not behaving, you're watching stuff you shouldn't be and doing things that you shouldn't be doing and that you haven't got a breastplate. And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. You need to be able to share the gospel at any time, anywhere, anyhow. above all taking the shield of faith, where you'll be able to quench all the fiery darts or the arrows of the wicked. Okay, so Paul was looking at those Romans shields, they were huge, big like us, you know? But it's a shield of faith. And if you only have a little faith, you only have a small little shield, like this big, little, holding little shield of, you know? And you're not going to quench the fiery darts of the wicked with that, I promise you. They're going to come through and take the helmet of salvation that we know that we say we trust God's word in it and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. So if you're not reading much of the word of God, you don't have much of a sword. You've got a little butter knife this small and you've got a little round shield this small that is walking around into the enemy camp and they're just looking at you say, who's this coming into our camp here? Because you have no faith. And faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. You have to read vast amounts of the word of God to get faith. Get it in you. Eat it night and day. And your shield builds. And then you need to know the word of God to be able to swing that sword against the devil. Because nothing else is going to defeat the legionnaires. You know what I mean? You've got to have God's word. All right. So that's, I'm going to stop there. Four, pray. And then I think there's one more. There are more, but we just don't have the time for them. Pray. We have, I don't know if we're so busy today nowadays as Christians, because we are, that we've forgotten to pray. Me too, you know? You know, I found my prayer, when my dog was alive, at least I've had an hour's walk with him and prayer time. You know, now the dog died. You know, I'm getting a bit slick, you know? And I was working with Frankie at the back, and this hectic old Christian guy came there. I didn't know him, and he knew me for some matter. But he said to me, I could just see this is a man of God. I don't even stand in this shadow. I said, greeted him and spoke to him. And he just looked at me, and God had been telling me the whole week to pray more. He said to me, brother, you just need to pray more. I know the Lord's been telling me, thank you for that. I'm so sorry about that. Can you pray for me? I asked him. We've got to pray. And 1 Thessalonians 5, 17, pray without ceasing. Prayer must intermingle your life at work. The lady washing the dishes at the sink. The Holy Spirit's very interested in what you're doing in your life. Everything God's interested in. You're working at work, painting, doing whatever. God's interested. He's sharing. God's never bored. He will share your work with you. And if you allow him, you can talk to him about his work. And you'll say the most incredible things to the Lord while you work. You know, so pray without ceasing. We've got to bring that back into the faith. May the God help us, you know. And then finally God's word. He arms us with the sword of the spirit, the word of God, to stand against the enemy's lies. Whenever Jesus said something to the devil in Matthew 4, he said, it is written. But you have to notice that the devil too said it is written. And the devil is a master theologian and he's a devil's son. A master theologian. Because not many Christians pick up on one of those things that he said there. He didn't quote the whole scripture. He left some of it out. And unless you knew the word of God, you wouldn't know that. You know, and so we need to be able to swing the word of God against the enemy when our lives are falling apart. God's word says, you know, that I must stand, having done all stand. You quote God's word in your situations like that, and that's the sword that you fight the enemy back with. So it's a powerful weapon against the forces of evil. It is truth going out into enemy territory. It reminds us that God knows our ways, understands what we face today. It builds our faith and our trust in him. It guards our heart and focuses our mind back on him. Hebrews 4.12, for the word of God is living and active. It's alive. Often when you become a Christian, you read the word of God is dead. It feels dead. You need to ask the Lord to open your understanding like he did with the disciples on the road to Emmaus. He opened their understanding, then they could understand. You know, you need to do that. It has to be the living word of God. If the Bible is dead, when you're reading, you need to have a prayer time with the Lord and talk about it and be honest with them. Because I had to be, I struggled to read in the beginning. But I'd read it in faith until I broke through. So the word of God is living and active to believers. Sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. It's very powerful, God's word. It should soak our minds and our, people say, well, how much should I read a day? Well, in Joshua 1.8, it says meditate in my word day and night. That's how much. That's about right. Day and night. You know, but I read two verses a day. Well, then your shield's only very tiny. You know, we got to read lots. Let it wash over you. Let it be your absolute anchor. All right, so I've just mentioned a couple of weapons. There are lots more weapons, and that's a whole nother story. But these are some of the basic weapons that we can fight back with the enemy with. Amen.