Frankie Mazzapica - Devil at the Crossroads
The title of the message is «Devil at the Crossroads.» There is a devil at every single crossroad you encounter when you are deciding whether or not you want to serve God or just fulfill your own passions and desires. If you’re in this room or listening to me and you’re trying to figure out whether to accept Jesus as your Savior or to live your life ignoring Him and not believing at all, there is a devil at those crossroads trying to pull you away from believing in God; he is trying to pull you away from Him. If that’s you this morning, my challenge to you is to whisper one prayer: «God, if You’re real, help me. Help me know that You’re real.» I promise you, if you’re courageous enough to say that, the Holy Spirit will help you. You’ve got to pray that prayer because there’s a devil at the crossroads pulling you away from the God who created you.
Some of you in this room already have a relationship with God, but God is calling you to more. He wants to use you in a way that impacts others, and that’s true for each of you. He wants to use you to make lasting impressions on people. What is a lasting impression? A lasting impression is when someone looks into your countenance, looks into your eyes, and there’s something about you that causes them to want to love God. You haven’t even said anything; it’s your countenance, the way you live your life, and your words. You can say the simplest words, the simplest sentence, and it can cause a lasting impression so significant they never forget what you said. A lasting impression is when you pray for someone and your prayer actually happens. There comes a point where we realize that God is calling us to take someone’s hand and pray.
I met with someone a couple of weeks ago who had read my book, and he came back to say that nobody was getting healed when he prayed for them. I asked him how many people he had held by the hand and prayed for physical healing, and he said, «No one.» I replied, «Well, how do you know they’re not being healed?» He said, «Because I pray for them in my room.» Now, intercession is powerful, but the issue with only praying in your room is that you can’t ask them if they’ve been healed. You’re hoping for a phone call. It has been my experience that I can pray for people to get out of the rough spot they’re in; they may be stuck for weeks while I’m still praying for them.
There is a fundamental truth in Hebrews 6, where the Lord says that the elementary things of Christianity are to lay hands on people when you pray. This is why Jesus laid hands on people. There is a transference of the anointing that’s on your life into theirs, a transference of faith. You may think to yourself that you have no anointing and that you’re just trying to claw through life. I want to tell you, God has anointed you, and He has anointed you far beyond what you will ever know. Your short prayers are so powerful that the enemy is petrified, afraid that you will say one sentence to God. One sentence, one short prayer, causes demons to flee; it changes the atmosphere. The moment you say «Jesus,» everything around you begins to shift.
Some of you may wonder if I’m just trying to make you feel good. Well, I do want to encourage you, but I’m really just quoting Scripture. In Psalms 56:9, it says, «The very day you call for help, the tide of the battle turns.» Sometimes a wave in the ocean takes a while to reach the shore, but the wave has formed miles out; it’s just taking time to hit the shore. Your prayer causes a move of God, even if you haven’t seen it yet; it’s on the way. Do you believe that? Come on, put your hands together!
I’m going to try to share as much Scripture with you today as I possibly can because my opinion does not change anything in your life. Just trying to encourage you has limited effect without the Word of God. The Word of God in Hebrews 4:12 is living and active. When I share a Scripture, and you say, «I believe in that,» it starts working in your life. It starts pumping through your veins. In Philippians 2:13, it says that His Spirit is working inside of you like your heart—boom, boom, boom. It’s working in you to give you the power and the desire to do what pleases Him. It gives you the power if you have a desire to walk with Him, to be close to Him; that’s His Spirit in you drawing you to Him.
If you say, «I don’t think I can be very consistent,» His Spirit, His power, is drawing you and strengthening you. Now, for every person trying to figure out whether or not they want to follow God, there is a devil at the crossroads. There’s a devil trying to discourage you, a devil trying to distract you. There’s a devil at the crossroads of every important decision. Jesus says it like this: He wants us to make a «pre-decision.» It’s kind of like when you decide you’re going to eat well that day; you make that decision in the morning before you ever see a meal. It’s a pre-decision decision. Jesus is saying before you decide to follow Him and really want more of Him, He wants you to understand there’s a cost that must be counted before you make the decision. He doesn’t want you to start following Him and then leave Him.
The foundation of this message is found in Luke 14:28, where He says, «Which of you decides to build a tower without sitting down first to count the cost as to whether you have enough to finish it?» Which of you would decide to follow Him without determining if you’re going to finish your life following Him? He’s saying, «I don’t want you to run into a decision where there’s a devil at the crossroads between good and evil, between righteous and unrighteous, between holy and unholy.» I don’t want you to arrive at that crossroads and turn your back on Me.
In John 6:66, Jesus began to teach things that were confusing. All of us will have moments in our lives that are confusing—God, why didn’t You do this? Why did You allow that to happen? All of these moments. In John 6:66, the Bible says that when His disciples heard these things, they abandoned Jesus. They left Him and turned their backs on Him. Now, we’re not just talking about the twelve Apostles; he had a discipleship program where he was discipling people. This wasn’t the multitudes that were following Him; this was His disciples, and they said, «This is too much for me.»
I have three major points regarding how the devil is at the crossroads: the decision process in the moment, the cost that you have to be willing to pay in that moment, and the life that God offers you if you’re willing to make the decision and accept the cost. Let me dive right into it: the decision moment. I have a friend who made the decision to change his entire life, and it was actually quite comical. If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you’ve likely seen the selfie video. So, take a look at this: I met this guy at an event recently, and when I shook his hand, he said, «Look, man, I have to be honest: I really did not want to like you.» I asked, «Why not?» He replied, «My wife dragged me to your church; I did not want to come.» He said, «I showed up with a Yeti full of vodka and juice. I was sitting there on the fourth row hammered. I stood up and almost fell down.» He added, «Months later, I can’t even explain what happened to me. I am a new person; I love God. I thank God my wife rescued me; she kept praying for me.»
I want to encourage you to pray relentlessly for the things you’re passionate about and for the people you love. It’s the most powerful thing you can do. There were two people in that clip who made a decision at the crossroads: the first was his wife. She looked at her husband, and no doubt she thought his heart was made of stone, that there was no way he would turn his back on his own desires. Everyone claims to be a Christian, but every Christian’s faith gets tested when it’s time to make a sacrifice. It’s easy to call yourself a Christian until it’s inconvenient, and that’s when we find out who is a Christian and who is not.
In 1 John 3:10, it says, «We can tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil. For those who live righteously and love other believers are children of God.» In other words, those who do not live righteously and are not pursuing God, it doesn’t say those who are perfect; it says those who, when they say or do something wrong, stand up, brush themselves off, and keep pursuing God. But this wife was at a crossroads; she could have easily thought, «My husband’s conscience is seared; he’s too far gone; his heart is made of stone.» She was faced with the decision to keep believing and keep praying.
Praying is not just thinking in your mind about what you hope will happen; it is opening your mouth and having a conversation with God. She could have very easily stopped interceding for her husband, but she chose to be courageous enough to keep praying, to keep believing. Her husband found himself at a crossroads, with something inside of him pulling him toward God. It was the Holy Spirit pulling him toward God, and he was at a crossroads where a devil was saying, «If you choose to follow God, you will have to turn your back and sacrifice all the things that, though God hates them, you love too much to turn away from.»
He was at the crossroads. I’ve met too many people who just believe in Jesus. The devil believes in Jesus! They just believe but are not willing to sacrifice the things their flesh longs to do in order to be a follower. These are people I call fans; they’re fans of Jesus. They believe He’s great but aren’t followers. This is the moment of decision: am I going to say the right thing, or the thing I mean?
Let me illustrate this: I’m half Italian and half Brazilian, so I have a cocktail mix of too much passion—too much passion! Someone needs to dump water on me and filter it all out! Throughout my life, when someone talks crazy to me, I think to myself, «I invented crazy! I will meet your crazy and raise you by 15 crazies!» You can’t out-crazy me! If you want to talk loud, I can talk louder. If you want to talk fast, I’m going to talk just as fast. If you want to go nuts, I’m going to go nuts; you’re not ready for me to go crazy!
This is the crossroads where the devil says if they want to treat you like that, then you treat them like that. This brings us to the cost at the crossroads: it will always cost you something. Living for Jesus means you will find one sacrifice after another, necessary not just for living for Him but for that moment when you say, «I have been at the same level of intimacy with God for too long. I want to be closer to Him. I want my prayers to make a greater impact. I want to feel His presence more than I ever have.»
It is a frustrating moment, one I have found myself in, where I’m looking back and saying, «I have felt His presence to the same degree for too long.» I want to know His ways better; I want to have dreams and visions; I want to make lasting impressions and to be used by Him in greater ways. Some of you may say, «Look, you’re being used right now.» This is just 25 minutes of my week! I want to be able to go into my room, shut the door behind me, pray, and have angels come behind my prayers to free my loved ones, my friends, and to change the atmosphere in my house. Are you with me on that?
But there’s a devil at the crossroads, and there’s a cost to that type of relationship. It requires time and the resolve to say, «I’m not going to be crazy.» It requires saying no to temptations—things we want to do that we know God doesn’t want us to do. There’s a cost.
There’s a soccer player I always mess up his first name, Lionel Messi—I said it correctly! He is arguably the greatest soccer player on the planet right now, and a soccer team in Saudi Arabia offered him $1.6 billion to come and play there for three years. He said no! I have wrestled with that decision for about a week. I’ve told many people, «If you were to pay me $6 billion to dress like a clown for three years, I would be looking for my red nose!»
I can’t think of anything I wouldn’t do for $1.6 billion. But then someone said to me something that knocked me on my heels. They asked, «Would you really take it?» I replied, «Give me the opportunity to make that decision.» They reminded me that Saudi Arabia is a Muslim society, and practicing Christianity in public is not allowed. There is no division between church and state, so if the state says something is illegal, it is illegal. Police can arrest you for worshiping or for openly being a Christian; you can’t share your faith, wear a cross, or celebrate Christmas publicly. You can go into your closet and shut the door to celebrate, but you can’t celebrate Easter.
At that point, I thought, «Okay, $1.6 billion is off the table. It’s a non-negotiable.» See, if you take a Christian and a non-Christian and allow them to live together in the same moment, I don’t want to say it like this, but if you can’t tell which one is the Christian, then neither of them is a Christian. There must be a difference in the lifestyle.
The Bible says in Matthew 7:22 that on Judgment Day, many will stand before Him saying, «Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in Your name? Didn’t we cast out demons in Your name? Didn’t we pray for people, and there were miracles in Your name?» And the Lord will say back, «Depart from Me; I never knew you, you workers of lawlessness.» These individuals were at a crossroads, walking one way one moment and then turning back and walking the other way. They had two lives going back and forth; they were loyal to one while participating in the other. If you participate in both lifestyles, you’re not loyal to either. The Bible says if you want to bounce back and forth, He will look at you and say, «Depart from Me.»
This is the choice; this is the cost. Let me remind you, the Lord looks at you and says, «I want to make lasting impressions on people’s lives through you. I want your words to bless them when you’re around them. I want to allow you to give them more courage.» This is the life I want to have with you, but there is a crossroads; there is a cost; there is a decision. Yet, the life that comes with that outweighs any cost you may face.
When I was 18 years old, I was offered a sales position with a base salary of $100,000. At that age, the minimum wage was $3.75. I could make $100,000 or $3.75, which was all the money I had ever known. When that offer was laid before me, I hesitated for just a split second and pushed back, thinking perhaps I could make more. I looked at him and said, «Wait a minute! You want me to drop out of college for $100,000? That’s not going to happen.» Little did he know I was only taking one class in college and failing.
He offered me $150,000 for dropping out of college, after which I requested 24 hours to think about it. I got into my car, which had no gas—just enough to get to the gas station—and I’m telling him I needed time to think. What was I thinking? The next week, someone offered me an internship in Houston to move to Chicago for three years, for a ministerial internship while attending Bible College. When I went up there, my first question was, «How much are you going to pay me?» They said, «You will live in someone else’s home for three years, and we’re giving you $41 a week to cover gas and maybe get a frosty at Wendy’s!»
This was a no-brainer for me! I said, «I’ll take the money!» They looked at me and said, «Are you not willing to pay the cost?» It rattled me over and over again. Some of us are struggling with a dollar amount as the cost; for others, it’s a relationship you need to let go of. For some, it’s saying, «These words aren’t coming out of my mouth anymore.» Others face an addiction and say, «Dear God, I don’t want this anymore, but I’m going to need Your strength.»
It’s a crossroads—there is a devil at the crossroads in every critical decision you will ever make. I chose the ministry route and was bitter about it for about six months. A devil is at the crossroads. Some of the strongest prayer warriors I’ve ever seen are not the preachers on the stage, but the saints in the sanctuary. When I need someone to pray for me, I always call my grandma because grandmas are done trying to make money; they’re done trying to impress people, and they know how to pray.
I pray for a «grandma spirit» to rest upon every single person in this room, so we can get over all of these tantalizing things in life. The devil is like a fisherman; he shows the glitter and the ribbons while hiding the hook. There are things in life where we think, «I am not willing to give this up; I’m not willing to forgive them. I’m not willing to worship.» The cost is high, but the reward is far greater! It’s your victory!
The burdens you carry, the weight, the temptation—all of these things hang in the balance as we make the decision to say, «If I don’t do anything well in life, I will be a great worshiper.» Even if it means repeating, «I love You, I love You,» over and over again. If there’s one thing I’ll excel at, it will be worship and praise. Did you know you cannot drift into the presence of God? You cannot accidentally wake up one day and have more authority in your life. You have to pursue His presence intentionally.
As you pursue His presence, you discover His plan for your life becomes clearer, and doors will open for you. I was praying for something the other day; I don’t even remember what it was, and I really hoped God would accomplish whatever I was asking. I felt the Holy Spirit speak to me—not out loud, but deep within me—I felt Him say, «I am capable of doing so much more.»
Can I tell you that God is capable of doing so much more than what you’re hoping for? And it’s not that you have to be John the Baptist, Abraham, Mary, or Esther. The only thing you must do at that crossroads, knowing there’s a devil there, is say, «Dear God, I need Your help. I need Your strength. I love You; there’s nothing else I want more than You.» So, Lord, help me in this moment. I promise you, your burden may not get lighter, but you will get stronger, and you will see how God partners with you to make lasting impressions on the people you engage with.
Do you receive this? Come on, put your hands together if you receive that! Every single Sunday, at this moment, I always ask the media team to prepare a testimony of someone being physically healed. Every time we pray for healing, people get healed.
I was out in the lobby signing books, and a guy told me, «Hey, my wife was healed of cancer right in the middle of the service.» I just thought, «Dear God, You’re doing things far greater than I could have ever imagined.» But it’s in this moment where I think, «God, what do You want us to do now?» If you’re a guest in this room wondering if we are about to get weird, no, we’re about to get spiritual!
I’ve been preaching for 27 years; I started when I was seven. Long ago, I crossed the line where a full sanctuary like we have this morning isn’t enough for me. I know everyone who walks through that door is needing a miracle. You need a miracle! The reason you’re here is that you recognize that if God doesn’t move in your life, that miracle will not happen.
The things you desire, your hopes, your dreams—they’re beyond your strength. You can’t change their heart; you can’t change that person. You can’t kick open a door to get a better job or raise on your own, which is why we’re in this sanctuary now. We love God; we want to be closer to Him; we need Him to fight for us. I refuse to allow people to walk into this sanctuary and leave the same way.
It’s in this moment that I lean on the Holy Spirit because I don’t know what your need is, but I do know that there are evil spirits, devils chasing every one of us. It’s true that they do their best to torment and distract us, and if the Apostle Peter, who walked step by step with Jesus, was invaded and manipulated in his thoughts to the point where Jesus had to rebuke him, then every single one of us is fighting devils just like him.
Whenever we rebuke the devil and call on him, people are often physically healed; they feel the torment lift off of them, and addictions vanish. But before that freedom takes place, let me say this: I’ve seen many people delivered by these spirits, but just so you know, before this service started, I was in my office praying the same prayer we’re about to pray together. I’m anointed to preach this, but I need to live it and fight it just like everyone else.
I’ve seen so many people get delivered by these spirits, and I want you to know that shortly afterward, whether it’s days or weeks, the same tormenting spirit can come back. This occurs because we forget Galatians 5:16, which says those who pursue the Spirit of God will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. When we stop pursuing, those spirits behave like boomerangs and come right back.
That is why it’s so important to be in the house of God, to make your car a sanctuary, and to play worship music in your home. When you worship Him and pursue Him, the devil can’t get close to you! Here’s something interesting, and I know I’m talking a long time. One of the things I fight most in my life is depression. I’ve noticed that when I get depressed, my chin drops. The Holy Spirit revealed this to me just a few days ago. But when I lift my chin to the Lord, the depression fades. When I drop it, it returns. I wish I had figured this out 25 years ago!
But the Lord knew I would share this today. You know how important it is just to lift your chin? I want you to stand to your feet. We’re going to pray a prayer together. I feel terrible that the service has gone on for so long, but what the enemy would like me to do is rush through this and dismiss you all without giving the Spirit an opportunity.
I want you to pray this prayer with me and mean it. Lift your chin, and say it like you mean it. «Lord Jesus, I believe You died for me on the cross. Lord Jesus, You rose again on the third day. You redeemed me with Your blood. I belong to You, and I want to live for You. Forgive me as I forgive others.» Just take ten seconds now, and anyone who comes to your mind that you need to forgive, just whisper their name. Not loud enough for the people next to you to hear—just say their name.
«I confess all of my sins, the known and the unknown. I’m sorry for them all; I renounce them all. Lord Jesus, cleanse me with Your blood. I come to You now as my Deliverer. You know all of my special needs. You know all the things that defile and torment me. Every evil spirit, the unclean spirits, I claim the promises of Your Word that whosoever shall call on You shall be freed. I’m calling on You right now to deliver me and set me free. Satan, I renounce you and all of your wicked schemes. I free myself now in the name of Jesus. Satan, leave me in Jesus' name. Amen!»
With your hands still raised, if the enemy is tormenting you or your thoughts like he did with Peter, or if he’s tormenting your body, I just want you to blow out by faith as though it’s leaving you. Do this five times gradually—nice and slow. I’ve seen people cough, cry, or react in various ways. But just go ahead and exhale by faith: 1, 2, 3, go—slowly, five times. Don’t pray with me; let me pray for you.
Every evil spirit tormenting anyone in this room, I command you to leave in the name of Jesus Christ. I speak freedom over every single man, every single woman, every household, and every family in this room. I speak freedom over sickness. Satan, if you are tormenting anyone’s body, I speak healing and command you to leave in Jesus' name. If there are any children in the back you’re tormenting, we rebuke you now and command you to leave in the name of Jesus. Every child struggling physically or emotionally, every child having mental challenges—I command freedom and health in the name of Jesus Christ. If you receive that, would you raise both hands and say, «Thank You, Jesus!» about 175 times? Thank You, Jesus! Thank You, Jesus!