Creflo Dollar - Victory Over Satan And Demons - Part 1
The issue and the question tonight is, how do you really engage Satan and demons in battle? How do you engage Satan and demons in battle? So I'm gonna be talking about spiritual warfare, but spiritual warfare is not a lot of what we've heard about. There's no reason for you to ever be afraid of the devil or demons, but you do have to understand how to engage Satan and demons in battle. You know, one of the things that we've got to know as Christians is that first of all, Satan is real and if you talk about losing the battle against him, is when you walk around thinking he's not real, he's not real. He is, he's real. Satan is real and he uses three things to try to get us to walk away from God. Three things to try to get us not to follow God. Now that's the ultimate objective of Satan and his demonic forces. I cannot let anybody follow God. He tries to lead us away from following God, that's the whole deal. How can I lead you away from following God? And so there are three things that he uses.
Number one, I found this quite interesting, he uses demonic forces and those would most likely be the fallen angels that fell when he rebelled against God and they lost and God kicked them out of heaven, amen, he uses demonic forces. And so you gotta understand demon forces will try to work with those unrenewed areas of your mind to try to influence you in this series I'll show you how demonic force entered into Peter right in front of Jesus and Jesus said, "Satan, I rebuke you" and it's important that you see what this is about, it's not about, I don't know what you've heard or seen it's not about any movie you've ever seen, it's about God saying, we've got to know that there's a battle that exists, that exists, and that there is a devil that exists, and they're trying to lead you away from following God. So number one, he uses demonic forces.
Now here's the second thing that he uses. He uses our own sinful nature, our own sinful nature. Our sinful nature, when we got born again, we have the new creation living on the inside of us, right? But then it's that, it's that unrenewed portions of our mind. It's the stuff that you always fail to, it's the stuff that he was always able to get you engaged to. So Satan is gonna use that, the sinful nature, that part of you that is still in the process of being renewed, he's gonna use those old files to try to stop you from following God.
And then here's the third thing that Satan's gonna use to try to stop you from following God, the structures of the world, the structures of this world. You know, the norms and values are decided by the group of people that get together and decide, we think this is right or the structures of the world that says, you know, there's a new time that we're living in and you start accepting all the things that are wrong and basically it's the structure that says, you know, what's right is wrong, what's wrong is right and he'll use all of that. He'll use all of that that's in the culture and all that kind of stuff that people have you know, it used to be obviously wrong, but now it's so accepted and you think just 'cause it's accepted that it's right. Satan will use the structure of the world. Satan will use our own sinful nature and Satan will use, and the reason why I wanna be very clear about our sinful nature, we don't have a sinful nature, we have a new creation on the inside of us.
So what I'm talking about, he's gonna use, he's gonna use those, that part of your soul, those things that still need to be deleted that you're working on, he wants to use those areas to try to get you not to follow God. So his objective is, don't follow God. That's, what he's trying to do. So let's look at, I may have six or seven keys that will help us to understand this battle. Key number one, you've got to be aware of the battle. You've got to be aware of the battle. Think about what it's like for you living your life and there's something going on right outside your front door and you're not aware of it, okay. 1 Peter chapter 5 verse 8 through 9, let's start off with that. 1 Peter chapter 5 and 8 through 9 and here's what it says. He said, "Be sober, be vigilant".
Now, when you're vigilant, you're watchful, be sober, be watchful. Why? "Because your adversary the devil," notice, he didn't say because your friend, the devil, he didn't say 'cause of your first cousin the devil, he said, "Your adversary, the devil," you have an adversary. He wants to kill steal and destroy. He's not trying to make things comfortable for you, he wants to make it very difficult for you. You have an adversary, you have an enemy and you have to be watchful. And he says that adversary is gonna show up as a roaring lion, who walketh about seeking whom he may devour. Now, this is interesting, the devil still has to seek whom he may devour which lets me know, he just can't just devour anybody. So there must be some qualifications that have to be pretty clear to let him know that you are a candidate for him to devour. And one of those qualifications is when you're just not watchful. When you're not vigilant enough to be watchful.
So what happens when you're watchful? What happens when you're not a candidate to be devoured? Look at verse 9. He says, now you can resist. "Whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world". So what he is saying is, when you are aware that there's a battle going on, you can resist it. How are you gonna resist something you're not aware of it? And so, you know, I think sometimes Christians are in la-la land. And I am saying that there are a lot of things that happen, because you are watchful and you are aware that a battle is taking place. When you are watchful and aware that a battle is taking place, he says, you can now resist, that word mean that word resist means to withstand, to fight against and it's actively resisting. And that just simply means that, you know, you may find yourself throughout the day actively resisting the devil.
You know, that this battle is going on, you know, there's a potential for him to try to use old things in your life, structures of the world, demonic forces, and so because you are aware of this battle, you can now withstand it, you can now fight against it, you can resist the devil and what the Bible says, if you resist him, I'll show this to you a little later, if you resist him, he'll do what? He will flee from you. The word flee means to run with fear. Get a picture of you resisting the devil and causing him to run away from you with fear, amen. So we've got to be aware of him and we gotta recognize that he will seek to lead us astray. That is the ultimate objective he wants to lead you astray he doesn't want you following God, you know, we'll talk about this, but one of the things that just was really obvious to me, is Satan does not want anybody to be forgiven.
That's why he's the accuser of the brethren. He don't want you to be forgiven. He wasn't forgiven in the garden, how are you getting forgiven? He don't want you forgiven and he doesn't want anybody receiving grace, and so what he'll do, is he's the king of shame, he's the king of condemnation, he will accuse you of your sins every day. You ain't even did nothing, you just woke up and he's ready to accuse you of what you did yesterday or last week or last month. He's always trying to accuse you of your sins, why? 'Cause he don't want you to just live in the comfort of what Jesus has already made happen for you, amen, praise God. So he wants to lead you astray. So only if we are aware of him, will we be able to resist him. You can't resist what you're not aware of, all right? We must live with an awareness of the victory won in Christ, but we also got to live with the reality that these battles are being fought, these battles are being fought. You never get to the place where you're like, well, you know, I'm really saved and I had a great prayer time, that didn't matter, you're still going to meet a battle, okay. And so instead of us ignoring it and acting like it's not there, we're gonna recognize it so we can resist, amen.
So the first key here, is to be aware of the battle. Simply be aware of the battle, which puts you in the position to do what? Resist. All right, here's key number two. And this is found in James 4:7 through 8. This is so interesting here. We've got, here's key number two. We gotta learn how to rebel against Satan. Now you're not a stranger to rebellion you've done it to God a whole lot. You're not a stranger to rebellion, you've rebelled against parents, you've rebelled against a lot of things, okay. But now we've got to learn how to rebel against Satan. In other words, we've gotta learn how to push away, and run to God. We gotta do those two things. James chapter 4 and verse 7, verse 7 and 8, let's go ahead and read it. In verse 8, verse 7, excuse me, he says, "Submit yourself therefore to God," and then notice, "Resist the devil".
Well, the first thing I'm gonna do, I'm submitted to God. I'm going to get on his side, I'm gonna get on his lane, I wanna do what he tells me to do. I'm gonna submit myself to God, and then he says, resist the devil, so I can actively fight the devil, but I don't wanna try to do this on my own. In other words, I don't wanna go and try to resist the devil and I'm not submitted to God, I wanna make sure I got God's back or backing. That he has my back, but I want his backing, amen. He says, now, if you'll submit yourself, therefore to God, submit to what his Word says, he said, you can withstand and resist the devil and he will flee from you. He will flee from you. The news is he will flee from you.
I don't wanna raise up a bunch of Christians in our church that have this idea, that to have great faith means to have no challenges. I don't want you to have this deception that, to have great faith means no fights, nothing ever happens to you, I want you to be confident that you can see the victory in every fight that you have, not that you don't have one. 'Cause we're in trouble if you think that great faith is not to ever have trouble. 'Cause that means when the trouble comes, you fail 'cause you don't even recognize there's gonna be a fight and you're walking around like, you know, this is the way we go to church, you gotta understand, there's a fight, the devil is trying to kill you. Okay? If he can't stop you from following God, the next best thing is to just get you out of the way, and we're gonna meet this thing, you know, head on. And so we wanna be aware of him. Like I said, but we also wanna put ourselves in a position where we rebel against him just like we've rebelled against a lot of things in our life. I want you to become consciously aware that I am gonna rebel against the devil.
Now think about that. I'm gonna, I'm gonna rebel against him. We need to push ourselves away from the influences and push ourselves away from the work of Satan. We need to rebel against Satanic influence. We need to rebel against the work of Satan and the best way to do that, is to run to God. The best way to rebel against Satan is to run to God. The best way to push away from the influences of Satan is to go to God. I mean, when you notice an influence or anything come, I'm going to God. I'm not gonna sit here and you know, just play around with this thing, you know, it's so important that you understand, I want us to learn how to live a lifestyle that is in rebellion to Satan, glory to God. A lifestyle that is in rebellion to Satan. You know, all this thing, you don't wanna find yourself kind of hanging on and clinging on and dabbling with things like anger and unforgiveness, you don't wanna do that.
We need to continue preaching and getting the gospel, and I'm talking about preaching the gospel to ourselves. So many Christians hang on to unforgiveness, they hang on to fear and anger and you don't know that's where Satan can operate. If he can get that, if he can get you to hang on to that, in a sense you're hanging on to him, and so you gotta rebel against unforgiveness, rebel against fear, rebel against anger and you've got to preach the gospel to yourself. Y'all hear what I'm saying? You got to preach the gospel to yourself, you gotta go around and say, you know, you know, God, you know, God's, God's Word doesn't want me to walk in unforgiveness, God forgave me and certainly I can forgive. God's Word doesn't want me to walk in anger, I'm not gonna, you gotta preach it. You know, we always wanna preach to somebody else, preach to yourself. Okay? Preach to yourself.
All right, here's the third key here. Get dressed in the armor of God. Every day, just like it just would be a pretty uncomfortable thing to see you come out of your house without any clothes on, you make sure you're clothed with something, praise the Lord, if not, somebody thinks you're loony... but this is important. Ephesians chapter 6 and 10. Let's start at verse 10 and I'm gonna read a little bit there because it's big stuff, man. It's big stuff. Look what he says here. He says, "Finally, my brethren be strong," where? "In the Lord". And to be strong in the Lord, is to be strong in his Word. But he said, "Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might". So we're not talking about your ability. We're not talking about you gathering your strength from yourself, we're not talking out being strong in your own might or your ability, he is saying, be strong in the Lord and be strong in the power of his might. And he's gonna show us here, you can't do that without the Word, you can't do that without the Word.
Verse 11 says this, "Put on the whole armor of God," and you're gonna find out just in a few moments that putting on the whole armor of God is just basically, you know, understanding the Word and wearing, and living by the Word of God and putting the Word of God on. "Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles," or the tricks or the strategies of the devil. So Satan has strategies that will be designed against each of you and they're not gonna be like common strategies, there will be individual strategies that they have spent enough time knowing you, to come up with a strategy of how to bring you down.
And the Bible says, if you get clothed in my Word, and put on my armor, you're gonna be able to stand against any strategy of the devil. And please hear me, Satan has a strategy for your life. He has a strategy for all of our lives to try to get us not to receive the finished works of Jesus, not to follow God, to start doubting and all that. He has a strategy to do that and you can't just like, well, you know, I feel good so I'm gonna be like a Christian today. There are gonna be days you wake up and you feel rotten, and on those days you open your mouth and say, "The joy of the Lord is my strength". On those days where you feel rotten, on those days, that's the time you say I'm still gonna close myself into work, 'cause Satan is trying to kill you. And he don't, you know, God's not really getting into the giggling and gaggling about, you know, the word, just put it on, clothe yourself in the Word of God, because there's a strategy that's designed to try to bring you down. Bless God, you gotta make your mind up, come hell or high water, I'm gonna be fully dressed and fully clothed in the Word of God.
Verse 12. He says, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood". You're wrestling match is not against people, it's not on the internet, come on. That's not where you wrestle, that's not where you get, he says, but what you're wrestling, you're wrestling against principalities, that's a level of demonic spirits. You're wrestling against powers, rulers of darkness of this world and against spiritual wickedness and high places. These are the four levels of demonic forces. You've got spiritual wickedness in high places, rulers of darkness of this world, powers, and then against principalities, and that's where it's coming from. So all of that crazy stuff, that's happening to you, the very base of it all, is one of these demonic forces influencing those people to do those things. Had a lady at a company one time, she says, "I don't know why my boss treats me the way he treats me". And I said, "Well, he's being influenced by demonic forces, and let's pray, and let's take authority over those demons that's providing that influence for him to treat you that way".
And went into work that next day and boss showed up and he was a totally different guy. And, you know, see you're fighting him and you need to recognize there's a demonic force behind. You know, your children, your marriage, you need to have enough to say, you know what? This is not my wife, this is not my husband, there's something else going on, and in the name of Jesus, Satan, I bind you right now. I command you to cease in your maneuvers to influence whoever that person is, and you expect to see a difference because now, a lot of people, they're fighting the root, I mean, the fruits, instead of getting down to the root of the matter. And if you read your Bible carefully in the New Testament, every time there's sickness, there's always association of a devil there. You see Jesus sitting there and the Bible says he healed the sick and he cast out many devils, because they really are associated with trying to do that when they're trying to wipe you out, look at verse 13. "Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day".
Notice, darkness can't comprehend light. There's no psychological or psychology that you can use against the devil, he's trying to use the psychology against you to stop following God, okay? He says, "That ye may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand," notice, he says in the next verse, "Having done all to stand," do what? "Stand therefore". Or what you're standing there for? You're standing there, for until you get what you're standing there for. In other words, the devil should not take you off your stance. If you decided I am standing in my healing, and you feel like you get sicker and sicker, it doesn't matter, you're standing in that healing and you're gonna keep standing in that healing, and you're not gonna fall because you're standing on something that's already done. He's the one trying to get something to try to be done, but you're stand on the finished works of Jesus Christ and having done all you can do to stand, he said stand. Well, what do you do after you stand? You stood. And after, what do you do after you stood? You standeth. You just, you just stay there, you just stay there, until you get what you're standing there for. Praise God, hallelujah.
Some of you are standing praise God, but don't stop standing because what you're standing there for will absolutely show up. Why? Because this is a finished work. Listen, you're fighting a loser, a snaggle tooth, trying to be like a lion. He just, he's like, you remember The Wizard of Oz when Toto went in the back and pulled that curtain back and The Wizard of Oz or whatever he was, was just a little baldheaded man sitting down there. And it's like, is this it? You know, the Bible says, when we see Satan, we're gonna say, is this the one? You're the one that, you were the one that I didn't sleep 'cause of you? I ran around and beat myself up because of you? I want you to make your mind up right now, greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world, praise God. "Having your loins girt about you with truth, having on the breastplate of righteousness," which is the Word of God. "Put your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the Wicked".