Creflo Dollar - Resisting the Devil
If you have your Bibles, go with me to the book of James, the book of James chapter 4, and tonight I'm going to show you how to submit to God's authority. Remember, it is his power, but we have been given the authorization and the right to make use of his power. James chapter 4, verse 7, a very familiar Scripture here. He says, "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you". "Submit yourself therefore to God. Resist the devil". Now, you can't pray for God to get the devil off your back. He said, "You resist him". You see, if you don't resist the devil, then the devil ain't gonna go. Resist the devil, withstand, fight against, rebel against him, and he will flee from you.
Now, you have to use your body. Now, this is something I want you to get a hold of now. You have to use your body to quit yielding to the devil. A lot of times you yield to the devil with your physical body and you gotta stop using your body to yield to the devil. That's important. I wanna make sure you heard what I said. Say this after me: "Stop using your body to yield to the devil". See, you gotta make sure that you know how to cooperate with God. Don't cooperate with the enemy. Now, get this in your thinking. I'm not cooperating with you. Your mind and emotions are under attack and all he's trying to do is get you to cooperate with him by opening your mouth up to say something. That's lining up with those negative thoughts, and you gotta think, "I'm not cooperating with you".
You see, what I just said is another way of talking about how we empower the enemy with our God-given authority and then we cooperate with him. I'm not gonna cooperate with you. If something happen and the temptation to get mad, I'm not gonna cooperate with you. That's how you gotta start saying it. Something happens and, you know, you wanna respond in the flesh, you think if I do that I would be cooperating with him, therefore I would be empowering him and I'm not gonna empower him. I'm not going to cooperate with him. Do the very thing that you don't feel like doing. The very thing you don't feel like doing to rebel against the thing that he's trying to tempt you to do. Resist the devil and fight against him with your physical actions. Resist the devil and fight against him with your physical actions.
I left here and went to Shreveport, Louisiana, on Sunday, Sunday night after we finished here, and I began to preach on spiritual authority. I don't try to preach something new when I go places. I preach what I'm full of. I don't preach based on the theme of what they got going on. They shouldn't have invited me if they wanted me to preach on the theme. You know what I'm saying? And so after I finished preaching, I asked four people, I said, "Now, there are four people out here. I need four people something wrong with you. I don't care what it is. Come here. And you, you, you". And there was one lady who was blind in one eye, one lady who was in a wheelchair, kind of had spaghetti legs and, you know, told her she wasn't gonna walk no more.
There was another lady, I forgot what was going on with her, and somebody else. And I knew they had to submit their authority to God in order for him to intervene. And I told 'em to come down and, "Well, are you gonna pray for us"? No, I'm not gonna pray for you. And there was shock to 'em. I said, "I didn't call you down here to pray for you. I'm not gonna pray for you". Then they kind of feel, "Well, what am I down here for"? So I looked at one lady and I said, "Ma'am, do you believe that your healing has already been done"? She said, "Yes, sir". I said, "Well, I command healing in you. I minister healing to you now". And there's this commercial where he's a basketball player and he's got this commercial where he releases the shot, and then he turns around real quick, and they say, "Wait on it, wait on it, wait on it," shoom. And I said, That's exactly how the manifestations of the finished works of Jesus work. As soon as you release it, just like Jesus spoke to the fig tree, they didn't see it right now, but imagine, wait on it, wait on it, wait on it, 24 hours later, bam, they saw it, you know? And so I was dealing with her.
Now, when I was dealing with this one lady, the one in the wheelchair got to moving her legs, doing whatever she could do. She just started, I can see her body rebelling against being sat in this wheelchair. And then she propped herself up, I can see her struggling trying to stand up off the wheelchair. I said, "This lady rebelling". So I went over there and I said, "Ma'am, you believe it's already done"? She said, "Yeah;" I'm like, "I'mma help her rebel," and I just grabbed her and I'm walking backwards, "C'mon, walk". She's falling and I'm, "C'mon, walk," and then turn around, "C'mon, walk," Now, I'm sure the congregation thought, "Well, you're being cruel; can't you see the lady ain't walking"? I'm thinking, "This is not God's will. God's will is not for her to be bound to that chair. So I said, "Well, I'mma just hold you with one hand. If you fall, you fall, and I'll pick you up again".
I went one hand, and then all of a sudden I'm looking at my hands and her hand disappeared. I looked down, that lady had start running around the church. She was running around the church. She came around at the end. She stopped, breathed a little bit and I said, "You tired, ain't you"? She took off running again. And I'm thinking, "Dear God, we got to pray for another heart or something if she". And finally, I realized, "Well, what would you do? You finally been loosed from that chair by the power of God. What would you do"? She ran about four laps. Well now, about time she running, I mean, everybody got all excited about that. They must have knew the situation.
Here's this other woman coming up and I say, "Ma'am, again, what was going on with you"? She said, "Well, I'm blind in this eye". And I thought about Thelma 'cause I wanted to make sure that eye got finished. And I thought she said, "I'm blind in this right eye". And I said, "What do you mean"? She said, "Well, every time I look to the right," she said, "Aghh". I said, "What? What's going on"? She said, "I can see! I can see"! And I said, "What is it about them eyes that God's getting ready to do"? Let me tell you something, it's about rebelling against sickness and disease with your physical body. You don't sit there and just cooperate with the sickness. You don't cooperate with the chair and you don't cooperate with the pain. You rebel, that's resisting the devil and he will flee from you. Well, I mean, everything was so surreal to me it was like why is everybody getting excited? Did you not believe what the Word had to say? And so listen to this very carefully tonight. This'll really, really, really bless you.
So let's go to James chapter 2 and 20: "Resist the devil". Say out loud: "Resist the devil and he will flee". And I'm saying, "Fight against him with your physical actions". I'm saying, "Fight against him with your physical actions". I'm no longer talking about, well, you know, do you believe it? I'm saying, "Rebel with your body. Fight against him with your physical action. Do something you don't feel like doing, but do it anyway". Now, James chapter 2 and verse 20: He said, "But will thy know, O vain man, that faith without works," or corresponding action or cooperation, "is dead"? So you must learn how to use your physical body to resist the devil and cooperate with the Lord instead of cooperating with... I don't know if you've ever seen it like that, but for you to sit there in some kind of sickness and disease is you cooperating with it. You gotta rebel against it. You gotta cooperate with what God said is true. You must learn how to use your physical body to resist the devil and cooperate with the Lord.
I told you about a friend of mine, hurt his back, and his wife knew they needed that money to pay some bills, and he laying on the couch. She came in and she said, "What you doing"? He said, "I hurt my back. I ain't gonna be able to go to work". "No, you gotta go to work tomorrow, c'mon". She picked him up and they walked around the living room like what you doing? And they did for about ten minutes, and then he said after ten minutes, the pain completely left. It was gone. Why? He used his body to rebel and that was resisting the devil. Praise God. So, and we gotta learn how to use our body to cooperate with God, use our mouth to cooperate with God, even use our thinking to cooperate with God. I don't know if you've ever had days like this, but I certainly have.
Have you ever had days where you have to watch your mind because it's trying to tell your mouth what to do? If you're not careful, you'll walk around start feeling sorry for yourself and then open your mouth up and give an authorization for that thing to happen. You gotta watch your mind. I have to be careful. I was pretty exhausted on Monday and I told my wife at the end of the day, she said, "How was your day"? I said, "I won". She said, "Won what"? I said, "I was tempted all day long to say something that was negative, that was against something. You know, issues go on and, you know, I refuse to speak, I'm not gonna use my tongue to agree with that issue. I'm gonna use my tongue to rebel against that issue. Are you all following what I'm saying?
But just 'cause you decide to use your faculties to rebel against the enemy doesn't mean that the enemy's not gonna be there trying to pressure, cause pressure. That's what temptation is. Temptation is pressure applied to the flesh to try to get you to do something in cooperation with what he's trying to say, and you've got to go against it. All day this is what I wanted to say. You think I'm, you know, you think, "Well, what is it you wanted to say," you know? Yeah, well, I wanted to say I'm so tired I don't know, I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't do it. One time, I got so tired I was about to say it. I went and got my dog real quick and we just walked. C'mon, c'mon.
Well, what's wrong with saying you're tired? I'm not gonna empower, I didn't think nothing was wrong with it for a while. But I'm just not gonna empower him to do nothing. I mean, I hate this dude. I'm not giving him any authorization to do nothing. I am a rebel right now. So I think if I can't say nothing that's gonna benefit me, shut up or speak the Word or pray in tongues. Or say opposite of what he's saying. Or fill my mouth with words that will rebel against his thoughts. Oh, praise God, amen. So that's what we do. Now, if you don't step out in faith and act on the Word, you know what happens when you don't learn how to rebel against Satan and when you don't learn how to act on the Word of God?
Listen to this, you limit God. Now, the last thing I wanna do is limit God. And the question is, can you limit God? Yes, you can limit God. You see, we've seen that God is a spirit. How many of you know that God is a spirit? Hello? Okay, I'm like, it's like, it's time to quit, what? You don't know that? We've seen that God is a spirit, amen? And that God in Genesis chapter 1 gave dominion over this earth to physical human beings. Genesis chapter 1 says he's given dominion over all the earth. Go there. It's just good to see it. It's good to see it.
Somebody say, "Yeah, God is a spirit, but some of them people that's possessed, what about them"? Remember, Satan has no power and authority over you, and if he does find a body, you can cast him out. You have authority to drive out spirits. I guess one day you're all gonna believe this, boy. You have authority to drive out spirits. "Well, I ain't never seen none". You about to. You will, you will. Praise God. You gotta start walking in this authority and quit looking at yourself as a mere human. You are a born-again man, you are a born-again woman. Anytime the devil comes to you and say, "You're just a human," you say, "No, I'm not. I'm a born-again man". If you're a woman, "I'm a born-again woman". But you don't sit there like a mere person. You are clothed with immense power. You are authorized to use God's power. It's his power, but you're authorized to use it, amen.
I don't know what's getting ready to happen in this world, but World Changers, you're gonna be ready. The World Changers nation will be prepared. Bring it on. We're not participating in crisis, we're not gonna be intimidated by demons. None of that. In fact, some of you gonna have the greatest moments of your life walking in this authority. Sometimes in the midst of rough times, there are people that do good in the midst of rough times. We don't live in Egypt. We live in Goshen. Someone say, "Uh-uh, I live in College Park". God has given dominion and authority but, remember, he gave it when he was a spirit, and in doing so, he limited his own dominion and authority. What? When God gave us dominion and authority, he gave it to physical human beings.
Now, how did that limit his dominion and authority? By his own words and the integrity of his own mouth, he limited his own authority because as a spirit he would no longer have the right by his own words to have authority in a world with physical human men. So when Adam and Eve messed up, God could not come down as a spirit and deal with that mess, why? Because he authorized men with physical human bodies to deal with their own mess. And he couldn't really deal with it until he got his physical body in Jesus, and then he came and dealt with a mess that couldn't be dealt with. It's all over the Scriptures, ladies and gentlemen. In fact, if we don't cooperate with God, again, we limit him. But I thought it was amazing to find out God is not going to violate his Word. For God to come down after Adam and Eve turned their authority over to an enemy spirit, turned it over to Satan, made him Satan, made Lucifer Satan, for God to sit back and say, "I am not gonna get involved. If I do, my word's no good and everything will be destroyed".
This thing happened because of a man and his authority and it's gonna require another man with authority to get him out of this mess, and Jesus was that other man. It was the first Adam that caused the mess. It was the last Adam that fixed it. But he couldn't do it until he got his body, and then he had the right to operate and to operate legally. Look at Psalm 78, verses 41. Psalm 78, verse 41. Praise God. I see you walking in an enormous amount of victory. Say this out loud: "No more sad days, no more down days, and no more broke days". Psalm 78, verse 41. He said, verse 41: "Yea, they turned back and tempted God," wow, "and limited the Holy One of Israel".
You see, I've decided I don't wanna limit God. Yes, we can limit God. You know, Jesus dealt with the same thing in his own home town. He was limited in his own home town. Look at Mark chapter 6, book of Mark chapter 6, verse 5 and 6. He was limited in his own home town. It is possible to limit God and Jesus was limited. Luke chapter 6, verse 5 and 6. Mark, yeah. Yeah, yeah, praise God. Verse 5, is that right? "And he," is that right? "And he could there do no mighty works, save," or except, "that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief. And he went round about the villages, teaching". So even Jesus had to have cooperation and they were not cooperating. They didn't believe. They didn't believe.
See, that's the part when you deal with people, for them to begin to cooperate with you and to believe. But because they did not believe and cooperate, then he couldn't release power. So Jesus had to have their cooperation from people in order to release his power into their lives. In order to release his power, they had to be cooperating. In order to cooperate, you have to rebel against whatever Satan's doing. Now, I know God is sovereign. I have no problems with people saying that God is a sovereign God. God is sovereign. He is the sovereign God in the sense that he is King of kings, he's absolutely the sovereign God. He is sovereign in the sense that he is King of kings, but he doesn't control everything that happens on the earth.
Boy, that shocks a religious person. You say that to a religious person. He is sovereign in that he is King of kings, but he does not control everything on the earth. He is sovereign in that he is King of kings, but he does not control everything on the earth. You have to understand that when God gave you dominion and authority and he put the controls into your hands, you can keep going to God and asking him to do something, but he's never gonna respond because you keep asking him to do something that he's already told you to do. I told you there are two prayers that God will never answer. He will never answer the prayer concerning something he's already done and he's never gonna answer the prayer concerning something that he's already told you to do.
Now, if he's given you dominion and authority over all the earth and then after Jesus was raised from the dead he gave you all power, both in heaven and earth and under the earth, you have to understand that you can no longer blame God and say that he was in control of a situation that he put you in control of. He deliberately, knowing what he doing, put you in control over all the earth. Now, a man that doesn't understand the believer's authority and doesn't understand the integrity of God's Word, I mean, this would shock him for somebody to say from the pulpit that God is not in control of everything on the earth because what does religion have us thinking all of our lives? That God is in control of everything that's in the earth.
Well now, what has that caused you to do? It's caused you not to step and to walk in the authority that he's put in your hands. And so as a result of it, you'll start praying to God about your problem instead of talking to your problem about what God's already done and how he has authorized you to begin to deal with it. Boy, that's the greatest deception I think in the church right now. And we bought it hook, fishline, and everything. We bought the whole thing. "Oh, but Brother Dollar, I've been praying to God about this thing and he ain't did nothin' about it yet. And I gotta make sure you understand". And if it's something he authorized you to do, he ain't gonna do nothin' about it 'cause it would be a violation of his Word. It would be a violation of his promise. It would be a violation of his authorization given to you, and then you refuse to use it.
It's quite often that I hear people over and over again say, "Well, you know, Brother, God is in control". It's not it. That's not correct. What happens is, is when you release the authority that he's given to you, when you release that authority then you enable him, you authorize him, to intervene into your life. But if you don't release the authority, you will not authorize him. You're the guy that he gave the authority to. "Well, what about the devil"? Same thing, you authorize him. In fact, you may find yourself authorizing the devil more than you authorize God. So, then Satan comes, and he intervenes in matters that he should not be involved in, and if the devil is involved in a matter in your life, guess who gave him the authorization to get involved?
You, this is something we've got to get a hold of, something we gotta meditate on until it's automatically on the inside of us. God is not limited in the sense that he doesn't have the power. That's not what I'm talking about. He's not limited in the sense that he doesn't have the power, cause he has the power, and the power you and I make use of is his power. He has the power, but he gave dominion over this earth to physical human beings. And because of his own integrity, he will not overstep that authority and violate his own Word. For him to overstep that authority, which means for him to come and do something that he authorized you to do would be an illegal, unjust act. And he will not violate his Word. He's exulted his Word above his very name, and he will not violate it.
God is all for healing, God is all for healing. I said God is all for healing, alright, but he, if you don't authorize it, if you don't command it and minister it, even though he's for it, he is not authorized to overstep your authority. He won't do it, and you'll die and get to heaven, and you'll say, "God, how come you didn't heal me when I asked you"? And he will tell you, "Because, it would have been illegal for me to do so, because I would have had to overstep your authority. I overstep your authority to do something I authorized you to do, and I would have been illegal, and heaven and earth would have crashed, everything would have fell apart because of that". My God, if people can get that, if Christians can realize what God has done, there's so much that you won't ever have to tolerate anymore if you can realize what he has already done. Therefore, God has limited his own sovereignty, his own ability to intervene in the affairs of man here on the earth. That when he gave dominion and authority, he limited his own sovereignty.
In other words, somebody says, "Well, God is a sovereign God, he can do what he wanna do, when he wanna do, how he wanna do it". He can, except for what he has released in his words and bound himself to. He is bound by his words. He has put up boundaries by an act of his own will and said, "I am the sovereign God, and I have sovereignly given authority to men and will not violate that". So, you can't say because he's sovereign that means he's gonna violate something that he's put into place. He will not, will not do that. Until he became a physical being himself, he didn't have authority to come down to this earth and straighten out any mess that man caused. But now, when Jesus was born, the Bible says it is given unto the Son of Man to execute judgement in the earth. Son of Man because he now has a body. Son of God because of his divinity.
Jesus was both Son of God because of his divinity of who was in him, and he was Son of Man because he had a physical body and the right equipment to execute authority against demon spirits, that's powerful. So, God himself operates within the laws of authority and he will not violate his own word. Everybody understand that? You're talking about grace, God's unmerited favor. I don't think you realize, you know, sometimes we think Christianese. Every man that's born on the planet has this God-given authority. When he receives Jesus, he gets authority in three realms, but a man that's born on the planet, a man that's born, let me tell you, a pig has more authority than the devil, why? Because he has a body, a physical body.
A serpent had more authority than the devil, that's why the devil slipped in there to try to use it, 'cause he has a physical body. You gotta realize how powerful you are. Stuff that used to scare you ought not scare you no more. It's dark in the house, I'm scared something gonna get me". Ain't nothin' gonna get you but somebody else with a body, and if the doors all locked, ain't nobody in there to get you, what you scared of? You're a born-again man, boy, that's powerful. Say out loud, "I'm a born-again man". Say out loud, "I'm not just a human, I'm a born-again man, clothed with God's power, authorized to use his power". Just ought not be nothin' you put up with. There should be such freedom in that, knowing that you could wake up every day and have what you say. And when you say it, you don't get worried 'cause you don't see it right away. Wait on it, wait on it, amen.
In fact, you've gotta be careful to understand that Satan does not have superior power. I wanna read something to you. Go to Isaiah 14. Satan does not have superior power over man. Look at Isaiah 14 and let's start at verse 12. Alright, now look at this. I want you to let this minister to you the whole time. This is of course what Lucifer was thinking once he thought he could get his hands on this authority. He says, "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cut down to the ground which did weaken the nations? For thou has said in thy heart," so he didn't say it out loud, this is what he was thinking in his heart, "I will ascend into heaven. I will exult my throne above the stars of God," if he can get this authority.
"I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High God, yet thou shall be brought down to hell to the sides of the pit. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, 'Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms, that made the world as a wilderness and destroyed the cities thereof, that opened not the house of the prisoners"? That gave me that cancer? That broke my marriage up? This little thing? He said the day's gonna come when you have a realization of saying him? I'll teach on it one day, but I'm almost convinced that's why God had to show up and wipe away tears, 'cause you realized I let him, that little cockroach, him? Are you all listening to what I'm saying?
You look at your life right now and all the stuff that's going on in it, and the demonic influence that's behind all of that stuff, and I'm telling you, you have authority over all that stuff. Don't let it happen. The only power Satan has comes from man. Listen to that, did you hear that? See, I showed you in 2 Peter chapter 2 and 4 that when angels sin, they are stripped of all authority and they are held in hell with chains. Hell was created as a prison for angels that made a decision to violate the laws of God, 2 Peter chapter 2 and 4. It was never created for man, it was created for angels that fell and didn't do what they needed to do, so when they rebelled, or when they violated what they weren't supposed to violate, they lost their authority. Their authority was limited, it was restricted, it was based on them doing what they were supposed to do. And when they didn't do what they were supposed to do, they were locked up and they didn't have any authority.
Somebody says, "Well, how come Satan wasn't locked up"? Because he took man hostage and he says I'm gonna get them to submit to me, and in order for him to get to me, he got to destroy his man and then, you know, he could do that 'cause he's the Creator and the boss over everything. He can destroy everything and start all over again, but his Word wouldn't be any good. And so, what happens here, ladies and gentlemen, is for you to begin to realize that the only power he has, since he doesn't have anything, and everything he had God took from him, was the power he got by getting man to submit his authority to him. So, he's not working against us with some type of superior power, he's using man's power. You gotta wrap your fingers around that. The only power Satan has comes from men. The only power he got comes from men. I tell you what, man, that's awesome. That's an awesome revelation to be able to realize he does not have superior power.
Now, you may have gone to a church where the church tells you you gotta be careful of the devil, you know, he a archangel, he powerful, too. He does not have superior power. He has no authorization to operate on this earth, and the only thing he does on the earth is, with the power supplied to him by man, God made Lucifer, men made Satan. And every time you submit more authority into his hands, you continue your creation of Satan. God created Lucifer a ministering spirit, an angelic being. Mankind yielded our God-given dominion and this human authority and power that was given to us, and that's what Satan uses. And that's why he has to have a body to possess. If he don't have a body to possess, a mind to play with and get all, you know, that's the only way he can use that kind of authority.
And this is why pigs have more power and authority on the earth than a disembodied demon. Think of that, a pig has more power and authority on the earth than a disembodied demon, wow. My dog howling at night has more authority than a disembodied demon. Man, I'm trying to get you gotta stop putting up with stuff. Well, are you saying Satan is not a factor in their life? Yeah, Satan is a factor, but only because people yield to him. The only reason you have to factor Satan in right now with this life is 'cause people yield to him. People yield to him, and that's why you don't fight against flesh and blood, but principalities and powers. You can go behind the scenes of everything that's going on.
I don't know if I told you this Sunday, but did I mention to you that you don't see God talking about Satan a whole lot in the Old Covenant? Because Old Covenant people didn't have authority over the devil. But when they were given authority over the devil in the New Covenant, praise God, God started letting everybody know that most of the situations had a deeper answer to it. It was a background behind all that stuff that was going on. The origin of a lot of stuff that happens in this life, God went ahead and let us know, was demonic in its influence. And by letting you know that, he intended on you taking authority over the background situation, the real influence behind that, to stop it.
That's why Ephesians stats off don't fight flesh and blood, that's not the origin of this demonic activity you're experiencing. It's demons, so use your authority and drive them out. I sometimes wish y'all could see yourself as I say stuff like this, especially just a good old Christian and the only thing you was taught was love, love, love, and I love everybody, and love and everything, and I tell you what, you ought to just love everybody, but you better learn how to cast some demons out of some folks. And I don't know how you've seen it cast out, but all that stuff ain't necessary. You can go at home and some demonic force is operating against your boss, and you can just get on your knees and say, "Father, I speak to that demon that's operating against my boss, and I command that devil to cease in its maneuvers against me," and you go to work the next day and he a totally different person.
See, you don't use this authority, man, you limit God. You keep thinking, "Well, you know, I don't know about all that". You just limit God. And not only do you limit God, you limit your progress. You limit the progress you can make in life because you say, "Well, I just don't believe all that". Well, John chapter 8:32, you remember that? "If you continue in my Word, you will be my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free". See, if you know the truth, the truth will make you free, and that's what I'm trying to show you.