We Have An Enemy

I am planning tonight to minister to those who did not have a good week. Sure we are blessed, but we have an enemy and he hates us. Here at GBM Hq we have also been facing much attack.

And the first thing we do when we are under attack is we go into spiritual warfare.

Ephesians 6:12 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]. [KJV]

Those who have been trained as prophets especially tend to go into spiritual warfare. Often in intercession you are coming against demons at high levels. Now, Paul says we are not struggling with flesh and blood but with spiritual powers.

But this does not give us entirely the correct picture. Our wrestling actually is not just with demons. Jesus conquered Satan and every demon of hell on the cross of Calvary.

This is a truth that we do not always grasp. Jesus told us the truth would set us free.

John 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. [KJV]

If Jesus conquered Satan, then every believer has been delivered from the power of demons. In that passage, Paul lists four levels of demons, starting from the lowest to the highest.

I have seen and dealt with all of these levels of demons in the Spirit. I see them illustrated in the spirit as creatures. Ranging from little monkeys up to chimpanzees, baboons, gorillas, and something like the Yeti.

And I have not yet met a demon who would not bow to the name of Jesus. Even when I met Lucifer himself, he had to bow to the name of Jesus. His high council or counterfeit Trinity all have to bow to the name of Jesus.

The Enemy Has Helpers

So why does he often have his way? Why do we still struggle so much in our lives against the powers of darkness? Because he is not alone. He has some agents to help him. There are three main enemies of all believers - The World, The Flesh, and the Devil.

But who carries the greatest authority on earth? Satan has no power that he can use directly against anyone unless he is given a license. He cannot do anything apart from mankind.

1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation [peirazo] has ever taken hold of you that was unique to mankind: and you can trust God to not allow you to be tested [peirazo] beyond what you are capable of; but He will, along with the test [peirazo], also make a way to escape, so that you are able to endure it. [GBMV]

If there were no other human beings on earth, Satan could do no more to us than he did to Adam and Eve. He used Eve to get to Adam, and he did it by lying to her.

Adam then succumbed because of his wife. If Satan did not succeed with Eve, he would have failed with Adam. It was only when they gave him license on this earth that he could attack the rest of mankind - their descendants.

Demons Are Powerless Without Man

Demons are disembodied spirits and have no power in this physical realm. They have to use the power that God put into man. To kill Abel, he had to use Cain.

If they had the power to harm us physically, we would all be dead by now. Demons only get power when a human being gives it to them. You can do that yourself by believing the lies and submitting to them, or they will use another human against you.

The only creature with full authority on this earth is a spirit living in a body made from the earth. So, the highest authority is found in mankind. God put His authority on us.

All occult phenomena require the use of a human agent. They enter the human body to access the power of the human spirit, which has the nature of God—it has creative abilities. I have tried to explain all of this in my book Tapping Your Inner Resources.

However, the power of a human is still limited. God did not give us His full power, just a small piece to enable us to control and run this world. And whatever happens in this world is determined by humans

God Himself does not even interfere unless a human invites Him and licenses him to do so. But since the Fall, men and women listen more to demons than to God, because their spirits became dead towards God.

The Power In Humanity

But their spirits still have the original power God gave them. So, even unbelievers have a power that Satan can use. Adam lost control of his spirit by handing it over to Satan. So God came down as a man to recover us from that

When we are born again, our spirit is renewed. Therefore, a believer has far greater power on the earth than an unbeliever. And because we do not willingly give demons license to use that power, Satan is limited in what he can do with believers.

We can add to that native power of the spirit the additional power received by the anointing of the Holy Spirit. So the spirit-filled believer has the greatest power on the earth of all.

Does that mean Satan can only use the power in unbelievers? No, he can take that power at will, but he can still use the power in believers if they give him license. In the end, the most dangerous influence in this world is not any demon at any level. It is a human being influenced by demons.

You can use your authority in the Name of Jesus to overcome every level of demon right up to the prince himself. But you have no authority over the spirit of another person.

If a person decides to hate and oppose you, you cannot take authority over them and bind that power. So, how can we overcome the influence of demons in this world? And how can you do true spiritual warfare against the works of the enemy in our lives?

You can only do that by somehow influencing people that the enemy is using, and persuading them to change their attitude. You cannot use Satan’s own weapons against him.

The Weapons Of Satan

What are his weapons? He uses anger, hatred, and jealousy, and with you personally, he only has the power of suggestion. But if he can get someone else to hate you enough, he can get them to kill you.

So, let me ask you a simple question. How many people have you upset in your life who are angry with you and may even hate you? How many people are jealous of what you have done?

Each of these is a potential weapon that Satan can use against you. This is why Jesus told us to sort things out with anyone with whom we have conflict. He says that not only should you make right with someone you did wrong, but even those who are against you when you did no wrong.

Matthew 5:25 Make peace speedily with someone who is against you, while you are interacting with them; so that your opponent does not hand you over to the judge, and the judge does not hand you over to the law enforcement officer, and you are thrown into prison. [GBMV]

This statement refers to far more than a physical prison. When you do not resolve conflicts with others, they can also put you into a spiritual prison. This is where curses come from.

Our main enemies in this life are actually not the demons, but they are the people that demons control and use. And many of these are spirit-filled believers who use the power of their spirit to cause you harm.

Our Main Spiritual Weapon

What is the main weapon that we can use against Satan's tactics of using other people against us? You could try rebuke. That might work sometimes, but there is only one weapon Satan cannot stand against.

Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

There are three terms used in Scripture that all work together, and these are love, life, and light. Love is like light

1 John 2:10 He that loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no occasion of stumbling in him. [GBMV]

1 John 3:14 We know that we have moved out of death and into life, because we love the brothers. He that does not love [his] brother remains in death. [GBMV]

Love, life, and light are all the same thing. How much light does it take to overcome darkness? Satan operates in the realm of darkness

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 This same [Word] existed in the beginning with God.
3 Everything came into existence through him; and apart from Him, nothing that was created came into existence.
4 In him was [zoe] life; and the [zoe] life was the light of mankind. [GBMV]

It takes just a little match that is lit to dispel the darkness in a room. It takes just a little life to dispel death. If there is even just a tiny bit of life left, then death has not arrived.

Now how much love does it take to dispel the works of darkness? There is a power in love that no demon even understands. And even a demon working through someone cannot overcome it.

Overcoming Hatred In Others

Jesus showed us how to overcome the hatred in others.

Matthew 5:39 But I say to you, That you do not resist evil: but whoever should strike you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also. [GBMV]

How stupid - after he already hurt me, I should invite him to do it again? We do not understand what Jesus was really saying. He was showing us that if we have that kind of love, there is no danger of even the first cheek being hit.

This is the love Jesus showed on the cross. So, what can you do when the other person refuses to reconcile? You bombard them with the weapons they cannot fight. Unconditional love.

The world encourages us to demand our rights; you see this in every area of life. Two kids fight over their rights in the home. at work, at church. Everywhere, we think we have rights, and we try to demand our rights.

One of the best suggestions I ever heard was this. Try making a list of all your rights. Then take that list and hand it over to Jesus and ask Him to police your rights. They are now no longer your rights, they belong to Him.

Taking Up Your Cross

Some say we need to take up our cross daily in order to do this, but what does that mean?

Luke 9:23 And he said to all of them, If anyone wants to follow after me, they must forget about themselves, lift up their cross daily, and follow after me. [GBMV]

When Jesus said this, there was no mention of Him dying on the cross yet. The term ‘lift up your cross’ spoke about commitment or sacrifice. It has nothing to do with spiritual death

I know that I have been guilty through the years of emphasizing the death process. But in reality only one death was needed, and Jesus already did that.

You cannot crucify yourself, and picking up the cross daily does not mean putting yourself on the cross each day to deal with the flesh. I explain this in some detail in my first short book, Taking Back Control of Your Life.

If you read it, you will see my explanation. We never need to crucify the flesh - only Jesus can do that. Trying to crucify the flesh is like trying to take the darkness out of the room.

It cannot be done, but you can only do it by shining the light. His life dispels death. Here is how you pick up your cross daily and allow the Lord to shine His light through you. It is so simple that most people miss it.

They try to make a big effort to do what is right and try to make their light shine. But in the end, there is only one thing that you can produce by yourself, and that is sin. Only Jesus can cause the life, light, and love to flow.

How To Use Love

To make that happen, and to begin walking in love, you must daily or even more frequently do the following:

Let’s suppose you are in conflict with someone. You know the Lord said you must love them, and you are trying your best. But how can you love someone like that?

The truth is - you cannot; only Jesus can. You can try to act like Jesus, using the saying, “What would Jesus do, ”But you will soon fail. The victory never comes from trying to crucify the flesh.

It comes by submission to the life, light, and love that resides in you. It is part of those inner resources inside you. It is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Here is How You Handle People

If you do this and allow the love of Jesus to shine out of you, then people will stop treating you badly. They will stop cursing you and using the power inside them against you. Because the Lord will be shining out of you

I have shared this often in my teachings, but I will repeat it here before we end. You start by praying an honest prayer:

“Lord, you told me that I should love (person’s name), but I find it impossible to love them. They have done me so much harm, and I really do not even like them, let alone love them.

I admit it freely, Lord, and I will not pretend I can love them. But I know that you love them unconditionally. So I am giving you permission and full license now, to love them through me.

I submit myself as a living sacrifice to you and ask you to love them through me. I take my spirit, soul, and body and yield them all up to you now, Lord. I will no longer try to do this myself. But I give you full liberty to do it through me.

You will be amazed at the power of this prayer, especially if you mean it from your heart. And the most amazing thing will begin to happen. Suddenly, without you even being aware of it, your feelings toward that person begin to change, and you can do something different.

You will be able to obey this Scripture:

Philippians 2:3 [Let] nothing [be done] through strife or empty boasting; but in lowliness of mind let each consider others better than themselves. [GBMV]

What is Paul saying here? He shows us that we do two things in our relationships with others. We get into strife with them and try to pull them down; try to make them look bad or less. Then, we begin to boast about ourselves, and we lift ourselves up into the place they had.

Another passage shows that we need to do two things to change. Praying this prayer will be easy.

Ephesians 4:32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you. [GBMV]

1. You take a right attitude to what they did to offend you

It is really not such a big deal, so you can let it go. Being kind means taking the right attitude toward the offense. Being tenderhearted means you now change your attitude to the person. And you feel sorry for them because they had to act that way.

You realize that they also had problems in life, and this is just their way of showing it. When you apply this, the third essential part comes naturally - forgiveness.

The Fruit Of The Spirit

Scripture teaches us to walk in the Spirit, and when we do, the fruit of the Spirit is manifest in us. The main one is love. I covered the fruit of the Spirit in some detail in my book Building The Dove. So, if you want to understand the fruit of the Spirit better, read that book.

But the key to walking in love is developing a close relationship with Jesus as the Comforter. I have shared my story in many places on this. But if you want a really good description of love and how it works, you will find some teaching in our short book, Forces of the Recreated Spirit

In there, I share in detail my personal experience with meeting Jesus the Comforter and developing a close, loving relationship with Him.

Personal Testimony

I will close our study today by way of testimony. Everything I shared today is based on what the Lord has been speaking to me for the past while. We have faced much opposition and many different things going wrong or against us.

We did our best to get into high-level warfare but to no avail. Then the Lord said to me, “Your problem is not the demons that are arrayed against you. It is the many people that you offended along the way”

Many still monitor us and are even on our mailing list. Correcting or reconciling with most of these would be impossible, and in some cases, it would not be wise. But the Lord told me to get back to walking in love.

What I shared tonight was the first thing He reminded me of. Then, as I prepared our second Short Book, my whole story came back to me. I realized that I had walked about from my loving relationship with Jesus as the Comforter.

In my quest to move up into a higher anointing, I had put Him aside. I sought instead to get to know Jesus as the Risen Christ, who holds all the power. But I unwittingly left the loving Savior behind.

I contacted the Father for higher-level ministry, but my loving Jesus was ignored. So I got back to that place once again, and he showed me that He is only one. The three are different manifestations of the one God.

I realized that I personally need Him more as a loving friend, one who is always by my side. When I wake up in the morning, He is there to greet me. All day, wherever I go, He remains by my side. Always ready to listen and respond to me.

When there is a need, He is quick to respond. When I need to minister to someone, He is there by my side, doing His part as I do my part. So you will hear a lot more from me from now on about the unconditional love of Jesus.

What We Offer In Our Books

And I would really encourage you to read The Forces Of The Recreated Spirit. It covers faith, hope, and love - the three most powerful forces in the universe. It will remind you of what you forgot, and stir you up to move forward and upward in him.

Also, remember that in our books on GBM Books, we now include both video and audio files from which these teachings were taken. For those of you who do not have access, here is the link to the section on love, including the video on YouTube and the audio file.

https://gbmbooks.gbmi.co.za/read-chapters/?Title=YouTube%20Videos&Chapter=91