Well, what's up, family? Welcome to Thrive. I'm Darius Daniels, and I'm with my co-pilot, Dr. Marcus Desley, and we are so grateful for this opportunity to connect with you. We say in the language of antiquity, as the old folk used to say, well, we kind of, we older. Older.
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We believe the Bible teaches there are three ways you can live your life, sinking, surviving, or thriving. Thriving is what we believe the life is reflective of the life that Jesus purchased for us. In John 10, 10, when he said, the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but I've come that you might have life, have it more abundantly, or have it to the full. Not just abundance in life, that's not necessarily what it's referring to, abundance of life, the quality of your life, eternal in nature, beginning on this side of heaven, consummated in the other side of heaven.
And so we just believe that, man, thriving. But with God's help, we can do the best we can in the season we're in with the resources we have available. And that's what this is all about if you're here for the first time. We're glad to have you. And for those of you to tap in every week, you're part of the Thrive Tribe.
We're grateful to have you as well. So we're in a series here. I want to get right to work in, Doc, on spiritual warfare.
And so we are exploring 16 different passages of scripture that speak to this concept of spiritual warfare and engage in what we would call in academic circles. exegesis that just simply means a drawing out right drawing out of meaning from these particular scriptures and applying it to our life so we're in ephesians chapter six we started it last week didn't finish and not finished today probably won't yeah this is good this is dumb and so this lesson uh is it's called don't drop your weapons part two and um so we're gonna jump right in so pastor i want to jump in um to our time together today by just reading a couple of quotes. One from C.S. Lewis. And I just kind of want to get your thoughts on it.
And we're going to use this as a launching pad to leap into our lesson. All right. So here's what C.S.
Lewis said. And I pulled up this quote because you mentioned you said this in your own way last week. There are two equal and opposite eras into which the human race can fall about devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence.
The other is to believe and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are meaning devils are equally pleased by both errors. What's that to disbelieve in the existence, like to believe he's nothing and to believe he's everything. Right.
Right. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight. Powerful. C.S. Lewis. Yeah, that's powerful.
Powerful book. Powerful. And I think that either extreme is dangerous. And I think that's what the court is saying. And I think one of the things, on one end, is if the devil can deny or make us doubt his existence, it's one something, then he can do much of his work without our knowing.
yeah that's right mm-hmm so if we don't know he exists that's right we don't know how to appropriately address it yeah but on the other end everything is not the devil right like we work everything on the devil and I think to attribute everything on the devil is to is to neglect our own personal responsibilities 100% like to completely ignore something that God's given you free will Right. And then if everything is the devil, it means my life is at the mercy of the devil. Come on.
So now I'm always in effect when God made me to be a cause. Come on. Say that again. Say that again.
God has given us responsibility. God's given us ability to be co-creators of the life that he intends for us to live. And if my welfare, my well-being is at the mercy of what the enemy does for me, then all I am is an effect.
not to come when God's called me to be a cause come on that's yeah the devil's the devil can't be a cause and I just be an effect right come on God's called me to co-create with him right and the life that he intends for me to live and to be to be a cause I don't want my welfare and well being in the hands of the devil no so here's another one and this is one of my favorite one of my favorite charismatic Pentecostal theologians his name is Sam Storms Sam says this Dr. Sam Stokes spiritual warfare is not so much about Demon possession as it is deception. That's what we are on this whole series. It is not fundamentally about extraordinary or overt displays of demonic power, but rather about the subtle hidden activity of Satan to distort and obscure the truth of the gospel. My God.
My God. It is not so much about demon possession, which is what comes to many people's minds when they hear spiritual warfare. This is about deception.
You know, and again, one of the warfare strategies is psychological warfare. And we saw this in the Garden of Eden. Yes. He engaged in psychological warfare. And I think this is what Sam, what this quote is talking about, how the devil engages in psychological warfare to play on our emotions, to play on our thoughts, to make us believe something.
That's right. That's really not. Yeah.
It's that whole fear. Come on. False evidence appearing real. And that's where the enemy plays on our psychological warfare.
I think Sam's quote does two things. And I want you to put this in the chat, right? I'm going to tell you in a second what I want you to put in the chat. Because I need my teaching assistants to help me here. Right?
Because some of us learn verbally, but some of us need help visually. So we learn different ways. And so that's why we actually put certain things in the chat. Because it lands different for some people when they read it.
And so here's what he's, he talks to us about what spiritual warfare is, generally speaking. It's deception. But the way he gives that definition. also tells us where it takes place. Yeah.
The battleground of spiritual warfare is the mind. Did y'all hear what I just said? The battleground of spiritual warfare is in the mind. So if I win in my mind, then I can win in the other areas.
Come on. so somebody put in the chat it's in the mind it's in the mind it's in the mind it's in the mind and i think these two quotes are really powerful i wanted to start with them because these quotes really in a real sense are seen in what paul is saying in ephesians 6 like if i were to summarize uh some of the the essence of ephesians 6 i will start with this statement paul is basically saying to new believers in ephesus i love this he's in essence saying any attempt at spiritual advancement will always be met with satanic opposition come on Shoot! He like he says hey you're trying to grow spiritually which is the part of your life that affects every other part of your life right?
Okay so it's the most important part of your life because it affects every other part of your life that's important. And he says Paul's trying to get them to see hey you will not have any sort of spiritual advancement without dealing with satanic opposition and my ability to properly manage and overcome the opposition determines the degree to which I spiritually advance. It is literally that it is literally I think that is a sentence that kind of summarizes the essence of what Paul is talking about here in Ephesians chapter six. Now here is what I think Sam Storm's quote speaks to and what C.S. Lewis quote speaks to and that is um Satan's tactic of making the opposition something that's not obvious.
So any attempt at spiritual advancement will be met with satanic opposition. But Satan's strategy is to make the opposition something that's not obvious. So that's why he shows up in the Garden of Eden in the form of a snake.
Because snakes don't look out of place in a garden. If you've ever had a garden, you wouldn't see a snake and feel like a snake is out of place. Because Satan shows up looking like he belongs.
So that's why I think we miss most of the warfare we under Because you're looking for the dragon and he's showing up like the snake Does that make sense? It's almost like it has to be extreme for us to call it an attack When what wears us down is very often not the big attack but the accumulation of the little attacks that we don't even know are attacks so you're not treating them like attacks and it's almost like everything I'm saying here even if I'm I'm not quoting chapter and verse, right? I'm pulling it from a framework in Scripture. This is what happened with Samson and Delilah. Would we not say that's spiritual warfare?
Of course. What did the enemy's tactics show up looking like? An attractive woman. An attractive woman. Right?
And what did she do? She wore him down until she got the secret to his strength. And when his strength was gone, that's when the real attack came.
Because it wasn't Delilah, it was the Philistines. The Philistines were using Delilah. And so that's what the enemy would do. The enemy representing the Philistines, he'll use these things that don't look like they're a weapon.
Right? It might look like a friend. Might look like a boss.
Might look like a job when it's a weapon. That's what Delilah represents, not a woman. It represents what the enemy uses to wear you down, to sap your strength, so that now when your strength is gone, you don't have the strength to fight the knockout blow that's coming, and that's the Philistines.
And you know what, Pastor? It's amazing. Samson's response to Delilah was, hey, I'm tired of you asking me these questions.
Let me go ahead and answer. He got tired of her asking. That's it.
And when he was fatigued, and I think we see that in Galatians 6 and 9 when it says, we're not doing well. Yeah. I think that speaks to the warfare of attrition.
Yes. When the enemy just keep on attacking. Wearing you, wearing us down.
Just keep on attacking us to make us give up. Yes. Even Jesus dealt with that.
Yes, sir. In the wilderness. In the wilderness.
Yes. Because this is what the Bible said. The Bible said that after he was tested, the devil left looking for a more opportune.
More opportune time. Yes sir. So he left when he was coming back. Yes, yes, yes. So I think we think spiritual warfare is the takedown.
When most of the spiritual warfare has occurred in the wear down. Woo! Bars. Yeah, the takedown is just a consummation of the wear down. We should be fighting in the wear down.
Come on. Not in the takedown. Yeah. By the time the takedown comes, we've sapped it. We're like Samson.
We've lost our strength. My God. This is why Ephesians 6 is so important and this is why this subject is so important for the believer.
I don't think spiritual advancement will always be met with satanic opposition. I don't think the enemy is going to allow you to do anything that causes you to grow spiritually without an attack. time. That's why prayer is hard. That's why you can stay focused on a Netflix show.
You can stay focused when you're bowling. You can stay focused playing pickleball. You can stay focused scrolling. But then when it comes to prayer, we can't stay focused.
And then the enemy will say, oh, that's just, you just don't have discipline. You got discipline. You got discipline to watch something you want to watch. You got discipline to listen to. It's warfare.
He's going to make it hard. He's going to make reading the Bible hard. He's going to try to offend you.
He's going to try to orchestrate church hurt in the place. place you need to be planted in because he wants to use injury and offense to get you to uproot your roots out of the kind of soil that God knows you need to be in or he's going to deceive you into saying staying into soil he's going to use toxic loyalty something we talk about in something I'm getting ready to drop not too long from now but we did an episode on a toxic use toxic loyalty in the religious space to keep your roots planted in a soil that's actually or to keep you ingesting a spiritual diet from a church that's actually causing you to have spiritual food poisoning so now you got so it's some people that leave that should stay and it's some people that stay that should leave it's warfare and so this is why what paul is talking about in ephesians 6 pastor is so important yes and i love the way the king James says this, right? That we wrestle now with flesh and blood against principalities, powers, rule of darkness, spiritual wickedness in high places. Therefore, put on the whole arm of God so you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. That word wiles means methods or strategies.
Methods or strategies. And. Next week we'll be able to get to the weapons because the weapons Paul says you need to have that you have That you need to know how to use our weapons you need for the wise These are weapons you use to fight against the wiles the tactics of the devil You don't win spiritual warfare with strength you win it with strategy We have to use weapons, right?
You can't use human strength against spiritual opposition. It doesn't work that way. Yeah, it doesn't work.
Yeah, so this is why I think what Paul talks about man is so important when he said, okay hey we need to know what Satan is using against us so that so that we are also so that we so that we know what weapons to use against that and and last week we kind of explored in Ephesians 6 12 Ways in which the enemy like accomplishes gender. He accomplishes his wiles through principalities, powers, rulers of darkness, spiritual wickedness, and heavenly places. And so what we taught last week and we can't reteach it so you go back look at don't drop your weapons part one and we explain what some of this means because last week we talked about this idea of principalities right which was first and we said it's derived from a Greek word that means first or beginning it refers to evil spiritual entities that hold a high rank or have authority in a hierarchical structure yeah so we unpacked what all that meant we exegete is some scripture from Daniel chapter number 10 showing you what a real principality looks like in the Old Testament and how it was an evil entity that has such unique power that an ordinary angel and could not overpower him and the ordinary angel had to call for an archangel Michael to assist him to help overthrow that principality and we said like practically what this means for us is when we're dealing with principalities that we're referring to powerful demonic influence that has authority over certain regions or domains people groups or family bloodlines.
So you can see dysfunctional trends in a region, like it could be a nation or region, like a domain, a geographical place, right? A people group, you see like different people groups, or here's the one I think that's super overlooked, family bloodlines. Principalities that are plague bloodlines when you see similar dysfunctional, self-destructive behavior in families.
It's a principality and you have you got to be aware you got to be you got to be watch this you have to be aware without becoming arrogant and judgmental of what those principalities are. That's good. You have to be aware yeah because if you don't know what they are you don't know where you got to fight differently. Work out your own soul salvation with fear and triplet. We all have to work it out, but there's different things we have to work through.
And so if you don't know what principalities uniquely plague your bloodline, you don't know where you can't play around. See, for some people, they may take something like, let's just take, and I'm not arguing with y'all about this, but I'm just making an example, okay? I'm not arguing with y'all about this, but I refuse to.
But let's just say somebody, let's say it could be something like secular music or something along those lines, right? Some people may be like, hey. I can listen to that, that doesn't do anything to me. But other people may have, like, there may be some of your bloodline where it's like, it's real easy for that to take you to a place. Well, for some people like that, that means you got to fight that differently.
Because you know that's something that kind of self-sabotage. If you know alcoholism runs in their bloodline, it might be something like, yo, you don't play with that at all. Play with it. Play with it.
I don't even want to know what you think. No, I'm just saying, there's certain things you can't play with. There's certain places you can't revisit.
You know how sometimes people be like, hey, I can go. No, you can't go. No, you can't. You can't go.
No, you can't. Don't go. Don't go. Don't drive by. Don't, you know, it doesn't take you back.
we want to stop this see see that's true though yeah i 100 because it's like the enemy will use self-deception to keep us from being to keep us in dysfunctional behavior right like it's like when you like let him who stands take he Paul said unless he falls so some people you like you got to be honest enough about you say can you go ahead no I can't even go you mean you can't nope nope I can't ride not Oh, man. Nope. Nope.
I'm staying in my deliverance. Yeah. No, but that's good. No, but that. Yeah.
We we have to know that. Right. Because why?
If it's a principality, you're going to be dealing with a unique intensity of temptation in that area. That's the whole point. That's why I mean, it's like it's the hierarchy that entity holds in Satan's structure.
yields with it a degree in a dimension of like influence that is not as easy to get free from if it ever get you in his grips case in point Daniel 10 Daniel I mean the angel having to call for an archangel because that principality withheld withstood him for 21 days that's how long he held him up Which means when principalities get a hold of you, they hold you longer. Yeah. They hold you longer. Somebody just put a head-blowing emoji in the chat right now.
Yeah. See, everybody, but if you don't know where that thing is in your bloodline, you don't know where you need to place a unique boundary. You know what?
And I think what Daniel teaches us, too, is like there'll be point in times in our spiritual warfare that we need to go get help. And I think sometimes. Yes, sir.
We try to fight. Yes, sir. Stuff on our own.
Yes, sir. You know what I'm saying? But I think Daniel proves like, hey, yeah, there are going to be some things you face. Yes, sir.
Well, you have to know. Yes, sir. That you need help.
Yes, sir. And you got to know the type of help you need. is sinful yeah somebody sometimes you gotta know who to send for that's right because he just been called for help he's got to call michael you're in the natural you know who to call for in the natural right yeah yeah when you're facing someone dealing with something in the natural you know i don't call yeah yeah i hurt right that's right but if i won't be in this i gotta call i know who to call yes sir so you gotta know who to call and i think that's one of the tactics and discredits of the enemy is this divide and conquer to isolate us yeah to make us think like hate we're the only one dealing with this, right?
And this is what I always found too, man. And it's so good to be able to talk to people because one of the things the enemy wants to make us do is to think that we're the only one dealing with certain things. Yeah.
Have you feeling like there's something wrong with you, but when other people are dealing with it, but he cut off the communication. So it's like that divide and conquer, isolation, to make you deal with this, your issue, or whatever it is on your own. And to call it not to seek.
That's something that we got. We're about to get to this text, but that's something that the other part. That's something else that points exactly to what C.S.
Lewis, Sam Storms and the Apostle Paul are talking about right here, because people won't see the enemy using little things to create isolation as spiritual warfare. Yeah. Right. So he uses these little these.
In one of my messages on Sunday, I told the story of how one of my aunts was murdered by her husband. And what that did for me at an early age in terms of my, it opened me up way too early of an age about the potential evil that people could commit. Someone that young shouldn't be exposed to something like that. Because you're not even mature enough. at that particular age to be exposed to that level of evil to see what people can do and what it what it could have done had God not intervened and kind of did some hard work with me what that could have done is it could have created a life where I live with such suspicion that I live really lived isolated and cut myself off from community yeah so I would have been hurting myself Trying to stop myself from being hurt.
Yes. Warfare. We don't see the warfare in that. Warfare.
Like some of our wounds, we just think they're random. It's strategic. The enemy wanted to do that to her. The enemy wanted to do that to her kids. The enemy wanted to use that one incident, not just to take her life, but to impact every other life.
that was connected to her life, it was warfare. I know, yeah. So we got to be aware of that, principalities.
But here's what else Paul says in the text. He says, not only against principalities, but powers, right? So principalities, powers. Now, this word powers here is a word, excursion.
And it refers to those who have the authority to act or enforce rules. It's actually a word that is used. So I think we'll talk about this at some point.
It's actually a word. So when the Bible talks about in the Gospels, when the Gospels refer, there are a couple of instances where the Gospels show Jesus giving the. disciples power. And so you see that in the gospels, then Paul kind of gives some commentary about that on his epistles and his epistles. And when the Bible talks about, we've been given power over all the power of the enemy.
So there are different, there are different words there. Like, so one word is like dunamis, which, from which we get dynamite. It's like, I got explosive ability. Like, but then another word is exclusia.
And so that's what you use to perform exorcisms. That's what you use to bind. Satanic activity that that is it's a thought it's like the equivalent of a badge So I can stand in front of a freeway and hopefully people will stop but they not obligated But the same me who's the same size can stand there with a uniform on the bed and pull up a badge And what wouldn't stop has to stop? Because of the baggage come on and so when I use the name of Jesus, that's my baby.
The name Hey is a bad cobalt. So when I tell an evil entity to get up and go. In the name of Jesus.
In the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus. I just pulled out the badge.
What we need to see is the enemy has one too. Yes. I want rid of that one. I want rid of that one. I already know it's the same word.
It's the same word. It's the same word here. Now, our authority is just greater than his.
Right? But there is in this lifetime authorization to inflict harm or to interfere with the life of the believer. Come on.
Now, there's coming a day where. evil will be quarantined. Yes.
And there's a place according to Matthew 25 41 that God created for the quarantining of evil. Yeah. It's called hell. The Bible says that was created for the devil and his angels. Yes.
Right? Yes. Now the devil and angels won't be the only ones there. But that's what was created for him.
Yeah. Am I making sense? Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.
So the Bible never says the enemy doesn't have power. Right. It says we have power over all the power of the enemy. That's good.
So if he using, if they using their authority to mess with you. You got to use your. Don't mess with me, Doc.
Use our. We got to use ours to push back. Yes. But the enemy doesn't want you to know you got a badge. My God!
Somebody put it in the comments. I got a badge. I got a badge.
I got authority. Yeah. Yeah. It's in his name though.
Yeah. I would say in the name of Jesus. Yes, sir.
Every knee shall be in every tongue shall be in every tongue. shall confess at the name of Jesus. Yes. Come on. Yeah.
So when you talk about powers here, in context, it refers to these demonic forces, excusia, that influence and control things like laws, policy. are social norms. So you're dealing with principalities.
They're dealing with geographical domains. They're dealing with people groups. And they're dealing with family bloodlines. When you're dealing with powers, they're dealing with laws.
They're trying to influence law, influence policy, and influence social norms. Right. So they enforce their evil.
through these means. So let's say like, so here's some practical examples. Yeah. When corrupt leaders, whether spiritual leaders or civil leaders, right?
Governmental leaders or regimes enact unjust laws or policies that oppress certain groups, promote inequality or deny basic rights that everyone should have as an image bearer of God, then these influences can be seen as powers that are working to maintain injustice and evil. So we see it with corrupt leadership or regimes. And here's the deception. The enemy will have you thinking wrong is right.
Because particularly in the southern part of America, all of the things that I just mentioned, all the things that I just mentioned, like, so whether it's slavery or Jim Crow. Mm-hmm, yep. Many spiritual leaders in the South worked to maintain it.
Yeah. You have like and I'm not. And so since like this commission, they've repented of it.
They put it in a resolution so that we believe in redemption and repentance and forgiveness that we can change. That's what it means to be a Christian. But the Southern Baptist Convention, actually, I think it was in the mid 1990s, like issued a formal apology for their support.
Come on now, let's not tense up, let's come on, if it's true, just come on. So we've got to see that as more than just a social norm. We've got to see that as spiritual warfare. So we see it in political influence, we see it in media manipulation.
When outlets spread false narratives, fear, division, shaping public opinion to align with harmful agendas, this could reflect powers. see it with cultural norms when cultural norms promote harmful behaviors such as materialism consumerism lasciviousness exploitation these norms it's almost like we we normal it's like when stuff that's killing us is normalized it's normalized yeah there's dysfunction you know like so but here it is the enemy shows up like a snake not looking like a snake she shows up looking like something that's not harmful So a cultural norm like right now is grind culture. Completely ignoring the principle of the Sabbath. It's normal. But it's a snake.
But it doesn't look like it's killing us. You see what I'm saying? Yes.
Grind culture. I'm going to sleep when I'm dead. Yeah.
It is completely antithetical to the way God wired him. Like God rested on the seventh day to show you you could. If he can create the world and rest, you and I can definitely manage our life and rest.
It's good. Yeah. Powers.
Principalities. Powers. I pass. Here's another one. Rulers of darkness.
Now, now this is interesting. This phrase points to demonic forces that rule over the present age of darkness and maintain moral and spiritual corruption in the world. They're seen as people who spread and sustain sin. spiritual darkness, presenting people from seeing the truth of God.
Now, when people think of spiritual darkness, let's go here. I'm going to go here and I'm going to go here and I'm going to go here. I'm going to stay here.
here too i'm not just gonna go here i'm gonna stay here when people think of spiritual darkness they often relegate in spiritual darkness pastor to other like um to other spiritual ideologies that are outside of christianity i'm not saying that's incorrect but that's incomplete so they think of soothsayers or right they think of these um um fortune voodoo and fortune tellers. They think of all of these things. Psych.
They think of these things. I'm not saying that's incorrect. That's not incorrect. But if you stop there, that's incomplete because that's not, I think, Satan's dominant tactic when it comes to spiritual darkness.
He is not, what's impacting us is not the spiritual corruption outside our faith. My God, it's inside of it. The snake is in the garden. Not outside. He inside.
He not outside the garden. The snake is in the garden. So yeah, you've got false ideologies or philosophies that deny the existence of God or promote...
Destructive lifestyles, radical secularism, and occult practices. I'm not ignoring that, but what about these, what Paul called doctrines of devils? What about these doctrines and these ideologies and these philosophies that have been perpetuated by spiritual leaders inside of the body that are causing spiritual confusion for people that are in the body?
Confusing people. So I'm not denying the existence of this and how it shows up in occult practices, in secularism, but what I'm seeing now, the way the snake is showing up in the garden, is there's something called syncretism. So it is not a disavowing of Christianity, but it is almost as if some are being deceived into assuming the Christianity that is revealed in the Bible is not enough.
So now I have to include practices that may be inconsistent. with the practices that are endorsed in scripture and now I'm I'm syncretizing now I'm praying to Jesus and and and SS yeah yeah yes yeah yep can we be inspired by ancestors of course I could look at I'm inspired by Dr. King. Yeah. I'm motivated by Dr. King. I'm blessed by the words of Dr. King.
Right. But I'm not praying to you. I am blessed by God's creation. A tree.
But I don't worship a creation. I don't worship. Yeah.
When I look at the beauty of the creation, it points me back to God. I am grateful for the universe. But I'm not worshipping an impersonal force that has no personal investment and concern for me as an individual. I'm not worshipping what was made. I'm worshipping who made it.
My God. Because the one who made it says the very hairs on my head are numbered. They're not counted, they're numbered. He doesn't just know, you don't have to do a lot of counting with my head, but he does, he does. But when I had them, they were numbers.
You sit this one out, Doc. Yeah, I don't need you to agree. Don't you agree?
Don't say amen right here. I don't want you to say amen. You just.
He got your number. It's easy, Doc. He got you.
He doesn't need algebra or calculus or trigonometry. He doesn't even need multiplication to count mine, Doc. He can do arithmetic. One hand.
Hey, that's... But the hairs on my head are not just counted, they're numbered. So, and Romans talks about, like, Paul, this isn't a new thing.
The snake always has been in the garden, like this. Paul talks about this in Romans 1, when he's like, people are worshiping what was created rather than the created. So it's syncretism. It's including things into a Christianity that you don't feel like is working right for you because you aren't working it right.
It'll work right if you work it. And it's amazing because people very often will defect from, some will defect from the faith, Pastor, and exercise more discipline in some of these other practices than they did when they were in the faith and wonder why the faith wasn't working. Does that make sense?
It's like they're waking up, they're meditating every morning, but they weren't praying every morning. It works if we work it. And I want us to see the warfare in that. The enemy is not the people that are doing that.
We're not making an enemy out of the people that are doing that. The enemy is the enemy. And that's blinding people and that you know and when you say this it's on the inside this is like how the enemy infiltrates Mm-hmm, and this is gross on the inside. Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm, you know So I think one of the tactics is infiltration get on the inside corrupted from the inside out hundred percent and and I I think that's where that confusion is coming from. Yeah. And it's almost like I used to have trepidation and a lot of apprehension about like addressing this because I didn't want it to see, I didn't want to, I never wanted to feel like one, when God gives you certain gifts and expose you to certain things, you got to make sure you use that to expose, I mean, to serve people and that you don't, you never weaponize it.
Does that make sense? So it's like some people that they may say certain stuff to me and I'm like, if I really wanted to like. respond I could probably make you feel really small right now but you got to resist the temptation to use whatever God's giving you to you can't you shouldn't weaponize it yeah you got to make sure you restrict restrain that and you know what I mean it's like so I used to be I just have trepidation about that but but I want us to be so clear on this like the syncretism thing and how what you said how the enemy so it's not just syncretism right but it is also extremism when it comes to taking biblical concepts to an umbilical biblical string that's that's the work of rulers of darkness here why let's take something like honor some spiritual leaders now when i say some i'm not talking about anybody specifically i'm talking about a trend in the body yeah okay all right okay this is not judgment but here's what i've witnessed An interpretation of honor that slides into toxic loyalty.
Yeah. So people who are acquiring honor that are honorable. Yeah. People who are teaching a concept of honor that only flow one way. Yeah.
Yeah. So does the Bible say honor up? Yep.
If a spiritual leader leads you well, he's worthy of double honor. Your mother and father are worthy of honor. Civil leaders, 1 Peter 2, honor the king, are worthy of honor.
But then the first same scripture says honor the king, says honor everybody. Yep. So it's not just honor up.
It's honor down. It's honor all around. You honor everybody as an image bearer of God. But some of the stuff that it has kind of, you know what I mean? Yes.
And I can't even, like, I don't even want to, but like, some. of the stuff can almost become like spiritual pyramid schemes almost it's like you give up to me and then god's gonna give down to everybody else and again the enemy's not the people the enemy's the enemy yeah but we have to expose That so that we can address that and how we're going to address it the weapons address when we get into the weapons it addresses the sword of the spirit addresses error. So with the enemy is using error. It is the sword of the spirit that you use for that with that weapon. Right.
But so you got extremism. Right. Then you've got so you got syncretism.
You've got extremism. Got me? Then you have this unhealthy concoction that creates legalism, which is also the devil's work. My God. Come on.
Yep. Not just extremism. Legalism is the devil's work.
Because legalism. is the fruit of the spirit of the Pharisee. And it's people feeling like you got to protect grace from being abused. Say that again.
Yeah. Was it Schaefer that talks about, he talks about the scandalion? He's like, grace is just scandalous. It's like. Ugh, it's weird.
It's like, wait a minute, like the woman in Samaria, five, like five, and that's the one Jesus used? Scandals. It doesn't make sense. And so this legal people, so here's the thing.
You can take biblical stances with an unbiblical posture and the posture you take is reflective of the spirit you're actually undone. Where'd you get that from? The Bible. When Jesus and the disciples were dealing with some opposition from Samaritan, Samaritans right?
And they said you want us to call down fire from heaven? No. Jesus said, number one, you can't do it. Two, he says, you know not what manner of spirit you're of.
You're saying something that sounds godly, but the spirit that's influencing you is not a godly spirit. Ah, my God. So I'm not listening a lot of times to just what people say. I'm listening to the Spirit. Are you making a biblical statement with an ungodly spirit?
Is the fruit of the Spirit actually seen and demonstrated in the stance that you're taking? If not, it's the spirit of the Pharisee. And what you're producing is not freedom.
You're producing bondage. And a lot of times people call it doctrine, but it's actually dogma. Right?
So doctrine is every Christian has to die to self. Right? We would say that's a doctrinal truth.
Dogma becomes when you try. Listen to this doctrine. Every Christian has to die to self. Dogma is when you determine what death for every Christian looks like. When you assume what you have to die to is what everybody else has to die to.
And sometimes what you're dying to is not a reflection of your appetite for God. It's a reflection of your appetite for sin. It is you got to do that because of what's tugging on you.
And that's fine because you have to work out your own soul salvation with fear and trembling. But all of us aren't waking up being tugged on by that. So what death looks like for us can be completely different.
But when you think your degree of like the way you died to a specific thing is reflective of a commitment to God that others of us don't have, it's just not even theologically inaccurate. It's just logically inaccurate because very often your degree of death is not a reflection on your appetite for God. It's a reflection of your appetite for sin and what you have to do to keep from falling back into that.
So do all of us have to die to something? Yes. Does death for all of us look the same?
No. That's legalism. And the enemy uses that. That's a snake in the garden. We done.
We done, Ted. Finally, spiritual wickedness in high places. This deals with spiritual beings operating in higher unseen realms. Malicious spirits influence and not just the physical world, but the spiritual environment affecting human life. So now we're talking about personal spiritual attacks where people experience intense, unexplainable feelings of despair, doubt, temptation.
especially when they're growing spiritually or starting to engage in significant ministry. This is one of the reasons that like I ask, like I ask our church to pray for us. Like there's a group of people within, there's a team called Air Force. Those who have, they feel a call to the ministry of intercession. And within that team, there are a group of handpicked people that pray, that are assigned to pray just for myself and my family.
And I used to feel like that was selfish till I read Paul on numerous occasions saying, pray for me, pray for me. Pray for me. He never told him lie.
He said pray and it's because it is personal spiritual attacks not just when you're because you don't get attacked just when you're trying to grow spiritually you get attacked when you're engaging in significant spiritual ministry when you're doing something that actually advances the kingdom of God. So you got personal spiritual attacks, and then this is something you used to deal with, even more so than me, I think because of the nature of your calling, right? And that's something we got to deal with too. It's like sometimes what you are called to deal with or address in the spirit opens you up to unique attacks from the spirit. So some people are called to do unique work in the spirit realm and because of that they deal with unique attacks from the spirit realm.
And this is also kind of what this word refers to negative spiritual environments like where you can feel spiritual oppression, where you sense even evil presence. I remember one time I called you. When you was living in New Orleans. This man left his own house one night. I called this man one night.
I said, where you at? He said, man, I'm just riding around. I said, okay, what?
Because he used to pass in New Orleans. I said, man, why are you riding around? It's like a Sunday night or something.
Why are you riding around? He said, no. I heard something running on top of my house. And listen, I forget. I said, man, it might have been a bird.
It wasn't a bird. It wasn't a bird. You know, I had messed around and watched that movie Constantine, too. Yes. Yes.
And so you kind of get into how to open you up for stuff. But it was some unique warfare where you felt like you saw stuff. Yeah. You felt stuff moving in the room. And New Orleans is a spiritual city anyway.
Yeah. And, uh, yeah, y'all got some stories to tell about this one. But yeah, so I did, I did, I know you thought I was crazy, but I did hear something on the road. And it wasn't a bird. Being in New Orleans, it may have been a burglar, but it wasn't a bird.
This man. I called for some help, though. This man was riding around. So, I mean, it's going to be there when you get back.
Like, what do you, what do you think? This is a grown man. You just got in the car and you just decided to ride. I was gone, bro.
I was gone. I couldn't sleep. Did you sleep with the light on when you were back? Man, listen, I...
Nah, listen. You didn't answer the question. Did you sleep with the light on? I just, uh, listened based on the warfare experience.
Maybe about 10 years ago I just kept comfortable sleeping in a dark room. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. So I had the light on. Yeah.
I think I wanted to do that. I wanted to normalize that, right? This is a... We went to the same college together. This is a man who his Master's of Divinity is from Duke Divinity School.
His doctorate in ministry is from United Theological Seminary. So I'm saying that to say this is... Like these experiences are real. This is not just spiritual kookiness. Some people do experience things like that, you know.
Others, and it doesn't mean that they're more spiritual, it just means their assignment is different. And they're exposed more to things that are in that round. Yeah.
I think particularly people who would like have the gift of intercession will probably experience things like that. People who have the gift of discerning of spirits, which is often a gift mix with the gift of intercession or healing ministry. So if God's given a person a healing ministry, then that person may have the spiritual gift of discerning of spirits. So you can discern, is this sickness a result of life?
Or is this... a result of satanic attack you need discernment because in the bible like there are times where jesus healed a person and it was satanic oppression and then there are times where the side was like who sinned this man or his parents that is born rise he's like nobody this is life so um these are the entities that in the enemy uses he uses principalities he uses powers he uses rulers of darkness And he uses spiritual wickedness in high or heavenly places. These are what he.
And so we need to be aware that the weapons that we're getting ready to talk about next week are weapons that work against principalities, powers, rulers of darkness, spiritual wickedness in high places. If you're in a place where you realize there's something going on in my family bloodline, we're going to we're going to talk next week about the weapons that Paul says we need to. the armor we need to put on and the weapons that we actually need to use to overcome that principality the powers the rulers of darkness and spiritual wickedness in heavenly like places and um one of the things that he talks about is praying all kinds of prayers yes and uh so we're going to end with with that and each week we have some prayer requests that come in karen you Martin, Kizzy Williams, Naomi Robinson, Rhonda Pointer, Susan Myers.
We call them in there. We want you to know we got your request and we're going to be praying for you, believing for God to answer this prayer and honor this petition in Jesus name. We're going to close out with praying over these requests and your requests. As we do that, we worship the Lord. At the end of this time of teaching each week by Creatives with Space, for us to sow back into the field that we're harvesting from, to value the thing that's adding value to us, to bless the ministry that God is using to bless us.
We don't believe you give to a church or to a ministry, you give through a church or through a ministry to God. Philippians 4 is where we get that from, where Paul talks about Their generosity was actually a sweet smelling, like a sacrifice, well-pleased, well-received by God. And so that's where we get that thought and that statement from.
So Lord, there's on the screen in terms of ways that you can give and sow back into the work here. And so we want to just, man, in our time together in prayer. So Father, we just thank you.
Thank you, God. For the weapon of prayer. Yes, Lord.
That you have given us. Prayer that resists the enemy, prayer that reverses trends, prayer that restores our soul, prayer that resurrects dead things. And so we just lift up to you, one, every single request that has come across the screen tonight, the requests that have come in to our prayer request inbox.
We just lift up to you now every single request and we pray for tangible evidence that you heard and answered. We pray for fruit that demonstrates you intervened in the affairs of your people. Meet every need and heal what's broken.
Resurrect what needs life. Give direction and correction and counsel. Do it in the name of Jesus.
We thank you for this, Gilbert. And we pray blessing on your people. It's in your name we pray. Amen. Amen.
We love you, family. We'll see you next week. Ephesians 6 Spiritual Warfare. Care.
Well, listen, thank you for watching Thrive. I want you to make sure you subscribe to the channel so that you don't miss any of our teachings. And remember, you can watch me live at Thrive every Wednesday at 7 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.
Take care. I'll see you soon.