Derek Prince - You Need This Weapon To Fight The Powers Of Darkness
This excerpt is from: How to Approach Biblical Prophecy
Then you go a little further down here in 2 Timothy 3:13: But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse deceiving and being deceived. You see, that’s the progress of corruption. They’ll grow worse and worse deceiving and being deceived. No one is such a successful deceiver as the one who is deceived himself who really believes his own deception. Because he speaks with a real conviction. So, and again, where it says evil men and impostors Now I happened to have learned Greek since I was 10 years old. I was qualified to teach it at university level. That doesn’t mean I’m always right but it means I’m entitled to my opinion. And so, I want to say about this 13th verse, it says: Evil men and impostors. The Greek word is enchanters or wailers. It speaks about people who cast spells by enchanting and wailing. Again, we’re dealing with the occult. This is very real.
Some years ago I date things from before and after the death of my first wife and my marriage to my second so this is before. In other words, a long while ago. A man came to see me and he said he’d come to apologize to me because he had put a curse on me and my family. Then he told me, and I didn’t accept everything he said but I just listened. He said he was a practitioner of the occult and regarded as the most powerful wizard in America. And then he told me that he practiced various forms of occult power but he said, "I’ve come to the conclusion, much the most successful form of power is in chanting." That really registered with me. I thought, so when we are singing in the Spirit we’re releasing God’s power. Then I thought about the Middle East where I’ve lived for many years and I thought about the practice of the Muslims. Five times every day from every mosque and there are thousands of them The muezzin, the thing that comes out, the chant how many of you have heard it at least once?
All right. I think it’s the ugliest sound on earth. We worship in a church in Jerusalem inside the old city which is right next door to the mosque. Every now and then at crucial points in the service we have this awful wailing blaring out at us. But, it doesn’t quench the Spirit because the Spirit is more powerful. But anyhow, I thought to myself and I think this is important the area of the earth that has most persistently resisted the gospel is the Middle East. It’s because of the presence of Islam, the Mohammedan religion. What has given them that tremendous power is the regular proclamation of their satanic lie five times every day. If that is so, then what is one of the most powerful weapons that we have? Tell me. Proclamation, that’s right. That’s why Ruth and I always make a proclamation before I stand up to preach because it releases the power of God into the situation.
I’ve told people I don’t believe either Ruth or I would be alive today if we had not learned the power of proclaiming scripture. Because we both passed through a time of severe illness and in that time we learned to use proclamation. Let me give you one of the proclamations. Come on, sweetheart. It doesn’t take long. Psalm 118 somewhere in the middle of the psalm, about verses 13 and so on. This starts with a reference to the devil you’ve got to understand that. You pushed me violently that I might fall, but the Lord helped me. The Lord is my strength and song and He has become my salvation. The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tents of the righteous. The right hand of the Lord does valiantly. The right hand of the Lord is exalted. The right hand of the Lord does valiantly. Now listen I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord. The Lord has chastened me severely but He has not given me over to death.That’s our testimony. The Lord has chastened us severely.
We went through a time of chastening, both of us but He did not give us over to death. And if God doesn’t give you over to death, you won’t die. There’s no way we can count how many times we said "I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord." Some of you probably need to say the same for various reasons. You’ve been sitting a long while. Stand to your feet for a moment. Psalm 118:17, it’s all there in the Bible. We’ll say it once so you get it right then you’re going to say it with us the second time. but live and declare the works of the Lord. Now all of us together: I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord. What did we say? "I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord." Amen. Now you may sit down. Amen.