Creflo Dollar - How to Defeat the Devil In Your Mind - Part 1
If you have your Bibles, go with me to the book of Saint John chapter 10. In verse 10, we're going to start a series today entitled "How To Defeat The Devil In Your Mind". We talked about spiritual warfare in there. I was convinced by the Holy Spirit that this is the perfect time to expose the devil, and today, we're going to pull his profile out, and we're going to examine his method of operation against you. And some of you are gonna be so surprised to see that he'd been playing with your head. But once you see this, that's it. It's like, "Oh, I see you now. It ain't happening no more".
And a lot of you gonna have to go back and kind of deal with some stuff over again because you had no idea that was him involved, and that's why this is so important. There's so much demonic influence and deception in the world today that even Christians hardly even recognize that it's the devil, amen. Saint John chapter 10, in verse 10, he says, I'm going to read this in the King James and NLT. He says, "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: Jesus says, 'I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.'"
Now notice Satan is the thief. Certainly not talking about Jesus. Satan is the thief, and he comes to kill, steal, and destroy. Now, look at this in the NLT, same verse of scripture here. He says, "The thief's purpose is to steal kill and to destroy". That's his purpose: to kill, to steal, and to destroy. He says, "Jesus says, 'But my purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.'" So the enemy wants to go against whatever Jesus wants to do. His job is to make sure your life is not satisfying, not to the full, that it doesn't overflow, and his objective is to kill, to steal, and to destroy.
Now, let's look at Ephesians chapter 6:10 through 12. And let's look at this in the King James and the Amplified, Ephesians chapter 6:10 through 12. See that's what the enemy wants. He wants us to stop talking about him so he can just ease on through your life, killing, stealing, and destroying. Verse 10: "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of the Lord's might," his might, "Put on the whole arm of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles," or the strategies, "of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places".
Now, let's look at this in the Amplified here. Opening up the profile of your enemy. He says, "In conclusion, be strong in the Lord, [be empowered through your union with him]; draw your strength from Him [that strength which His boundless might provides]. Put on God's whole armor [the armor of a heavy-armed soldier which God supplies], that you may be able successfully to stand up against [all] the strategies and the deceits of the devil". So Satan has strategies designed against us. Think of that. There's a strategy. He's not just, just, just, just going crazy. There's a strategy, something about your life that he can use to say, "This is how I'm going to treat this one. This is how I'm going to treat this one".
There's a strategy, and there's some deception there. In verse 12, "For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents]". So your real enemy is not Shaquita in the next stall at work, and apologies if your name is Shaquita. No, no, nothing. "[Contending only with physical opponents], but against the despotisms, against the powers, against [the master spirits who are] the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) sphere".
If you are a believer, you are battling spiritual forces assigned against you. You're fighting something you can't see, but there are unseen forces that have developed a strategy to bring you down, to keep you out of the abundant life, to keep you out of what God promised you, and to keep you out of a relationship with Jesus. However, Luke 10, verse 19 through 20 in the NLT, Luke 10. I wanna carefully go over these scriptures because there's a devil loose, and Christian people acting like it's not so. We're gonna talk about everything today: crystals, sages, all that stuff. You need to know. And NLT says, "Look, I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy".
Now, Paul is right there, and you need to thank God. You have been given authority. Authority is the right to command. You have been given authority over all the power of the enemy. So the devil ain't got nothing that you don't have authority over, and you can walk among snakes and scorpions and crush them. Nothing will injure you. "But don't", I love this part, "But don't rejoice because evil spirits obey you," all right, stop right there. You heard me, right? Evil spirits obey you. Maybe sometime today I may have an opportunity to cast some evil spirits out. I don't have to act like they don't hear me. They obey me. They obey you. Every devil in the realm of the spirit needs to know who you are.
"But don't rejoice because evil spirits obey you," so he says, "Don't rejoice because they obey you". He said, "Rejoice because your names are registered in heaven," rejoice because you have made reservations to Holy Ghost Hotel. Rejoice because you know when you die to be absent from the bodies, to be present with the Lord. Rejoice because you know you are heaven-bound. Don't rejoice, you know, don't rejoice because the devils have to obey you. That's just like spending all your time praying for a car. When, if you in this thing, the car is gonna come. I asked you what you believe in God for? A car? Is that it? Are you serious?
Jesus said, he said, "I gave you my son. Is there anything else I won't give you"? You're spending time wasting good old prayer time for a car. 1 John chapter 5 and 4, flip over there, and then we're going to go look at the weapons he uses. 1 John 5:4. And he says, "For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith". You're more familiar with the King James version. Let's look at it there, 1 John 5 and 4. He says, "For whatsoever is born of God", somebody say, "That's me", "overcometh the world: and this is the victory that will overcome the world, even our faith," our faith in Jesus Christ, our faith in Jesus Christ.
And let me look at one more, one more scripture. 2 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 3 through 5 in the NLT, 2 Corinthians chapter 10, versus 3 through 5 in the New Living Translation, all right, "We are human, but we don't wage war as humans do". Oh my God. You ain't cussing nobody. I cut nobody, and punching nobody. We don't wage war like humans do. You're not fighting humans, you're fighting spirits, and sometimes those spirits can operate through humans, but you gotta recognize you're fighting spirits.
So if you encounter a human that has a spirit and that spirit is fighting you through them, all you gotta do is say, "I take authority over that spirit that's operating through such-and-so and such-and-so, and I command you to cease, and you know your maneuvers against me," and tomorrow morning, they'll say, "Good morning. How you doing"? You're like, "Whoa, what happened"? "We use God's mighty weapons, not worldly weapons. We use God's mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning," so the first thing we see is where the battle is, a strongholds exist in the mind, "to knock down the strongholds," strongholds are constructed with faults, "of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God". Everything designed to keep people from knowing God, we capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ. Wow.
Now, let's look at some things. Weapons that Satan uses against us. What are the weapons that he uses against us. Please get the movie "The Exorcist" out of your head right now. Weapons that the enemy uses against us. I'm gonna give you four of 'em, and I'll save the greatest one for last. Here's the first weapon: deception. Satan uses deception against us. Whenever God tells us the truth, Satan wants to contradict him. Deception. God tells you the truth. Satan wants to contradict it, and imagine if you don't even know the truth. You could be living by a contradiction of the truth and not even know it.
For example, in Genesis chapter 3, God said very specifically, "If you eat the fruit of this tree, you shall surely die". Satan shows up, has the mitigated gall to say, "You will not die". That is a deception. The deception is clearly going to be the opposite of what God said, the opposite of what God promised. Now listen to this. Let's just say you're just not a student of the Word because you've been deceiving and thinking, "I can be a Christian without the Word".
Then you make it easier for him because now you don't even know when you're being deceived, because you don't know what God has said. You don't know your identity, and that's one of the first places he's gonna deceive you is your identity. The first place he attacked Jesus in the wilderness was, "If thou be the Son of God". He didn't say he wasn't the Son of God. He was just, "If thou be the Son of God, I need to deceive you". So what are all the things that God has made plain? What are the promises of God? And how will he deceive you by taking the direct opposite of God's promises? That's why it's so important to stop by this filling station once a week, at least, so you can be exposed to the truth, so you can know when you've been deceived. Are you listening to me?
The second weapon of the devil: distraction. Distraction. God wants us to keep our eyes on Jesus. Satan wants us to look everywhere else except Jesus. This is important. Deception. Say this out loud with me, "Lord, help me not to deceive myself," because there is one deception that's the worst deception around is self-deception. This is an area where... you remember when Jesus was walking on the water, and Peter saw him and thought that it was a ghost walking on the water. And Peter said, "If it be thou, Lord, permit me to come to you walking on the water". And what was Jesus supposed to say? "It be not me"?
I mean this is a human. A human ain't got no business walking on water in this round. But the Bible says he got out the boat, began to walk on the water, keeping his eyes on Jesus. When you keep your eyes on Jesus, even though you're in the physical world, you move into another dimension of operation when you keep your eyes on Jesus, and the devil knows that you move into another dimension of operation when you keep your eyes on Jesus. That's why he wants your eyes everywhere else except on Jesus so he can deal with you in this dimension and not you tap into that other dimension that you have a right to tap into, but the only way you can tap into it is by keeping your eyes on Jesus.
And so he's looking at Jesus doing something that a man is not supposed to be doing, defying gravity. And Satan says, "Get your eyes off Jesus. Get your eyes. Hey, hey, look at the wind, blowing the waves," and he got his eyes off Jesus. And what happens? He left that dimension, began to sink, and now, he's a normal mortal man. Satan wants you to get your eyes off Jesus and to get your eyes everywhere else except Jesus. Where's your focus been lately? Where's your focus been lately? Satan wants to get your eyes. It's distraction, distraction.
Notice Satan operates in the realm of the mind. Distraction is an intrusion of your mind trying to bring about confusion by getting your focus off Jesus and getting your focus anywhere else. Now, for Christian people, that's important because if you want to be successful, knowing that there are enemies that you can't see that are trying to attack you, you got to recognize distraction is a weapon he uses. And so it's obvious that in this world, he's gonna use a distraction about Jesus.
"Well, why Jesus"? Well, ain't there any other way except Jesus? Just to get your eyes off Jesus, he's working overtime to try to make sure you don't go to no church that preaches Jesus. Fill up a coliseum just as long as they don't preach Jesus. Satan said, "I don't mind you going, but start talking Jesus, start focusing on Jesus, start seeing Jesus as everything," and Jesus is your everything. Jesus is more than enough. Jesus is enough. You don't need, it ain't Jesus plus anything. It's Jesus all by himself is enough. Get your eyes on Jesus. But Satan says, "The weapon I'm gonna use is get your eyes everywhere else, but don't get it on Jesus".
What is this? Number three? Discouragement. Satan tries to get us to lose hope in God, and here's what he does. It's discouragement. Here's the real discouragement for a believer: I don't, I don't quite know if what God promised works. I just don't know if it works. Now I'm discouraged. You're telling me to pray about this. I don't know if prayer works. You're telling me to do this. I don't know if that works. That is how Satan discourages you as a believer. I'm not quite sure that I'm protected. I just don't know about this.
He's trying to get you to lose hope, specifically and precisely, to get you to lose hope in the promises, to get you to lose hope in God. Discouragement. But now, deception, distraction, discouragement. But there is one that is the major weapon he uses against everybody. Even if you were to go on a deserted island all by yourself, he can still use this weapon against you every day, every hour, and in some cases, every 10, 15 minutes. And this weapon is the weapon of suggestion.