Jimmy Evans - Living in the Power of God
John 16, Jesus said, however when he, the Spirit of Truth is come, he will guide you into all truth, he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak and he will tell you things to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to ya. Jesus said he'll lead you into all truth, there's nothing the Holy Spirit doesn't know. He knows everything. And so there are many times we're challenged, we're making a decisions, we're trying to figure something out. It doesn't matter what it is, it doesn't have to be something related to the Bible, it can be math, it can be science, it can be homemaking. It can be plumbing, it can be anything. The Holy Spirit will lead you into all, A double L, truth.
How does he lead us into truth? We go to him and say, I need you to help me Holy Spirit. I don't know this, I need you to help me understand this. Okay. The manifestation, this is 1 Corinthians 12, the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all. To one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith through the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings, by the same Spirit to another the working of miracles, that literally means deeds of power, to another prophecy, to another the discerning of spirits, listen to that one.
The discerning of spirits is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, to know if something is evil or not. To another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues, but one and the same Spirit works all these things distributing to each one as he wills. When God is distributing gifts, he distributes all of 'em. This is not for a few paid preachers, this is for every person in the body of Christ. And the gifts of the Holy Spirit, some of them are resident but some of them are circumstantial. Some of us have resident gifts within our lives, but what this means is the Holy Spirit manifests the gifts of the Spirit, spiritual power, spiritual knowledge, the spiritual ability to speak and act as we need it to live out lives to overcome the devil. The Holy Spirit changes our wanter. And it's one of the most beautiful things about the Holy Spirit. One of the fruits of the Holy Spirit, listed in Galatians 5 is goodness. Goodness.
Now I think about my Grandmother Wells, both my grandmothers really. My Grandmother Wells was just good. Like Karen. Karen's just good. She's just, she was just a good person. But God is good above any other person and here's what good moral power means. I'm wrestling with sin, and when I'm wrestling with sin, what the Holy Spirit doesn't want to do is just give me the ability to not sin. He wants to change my desires. I don't want to live my life trying not to do something, I really want to do. What a terrible life. I go to the Holy Spirit, and I say, Holy Spirit, I want to do that. I want you to change my desires where I don't want to do that anymore. I want to live my life desiring the things that God wants me to desire. And so the Holy Spirit has moral power to keep us not just from sinning, but to get us to want to do what God wants us to do. To want the things of God.
So when we're talking about power, that's it. Now the rest of this message is the specifics about walking in authority and power and we're gonna talk about the story of the 10 plagues of Egypt and Moses. Now this covers six chapters in the Bible, so I'm gonna tell ya a lot of this. But it's Exodus seven through 12, and so you can go home and either read Exodus seven through 12 or watch the movie The Ten Commandments. Okay, you can decide what you want to do. There were 10 plagues, number one. 10 plagues, they started yucky and turned out deadly.
Okay, the first plagues were just yucky. The first plague in Exodus seven, the Nile turned into blood. Moses walked over, touched his rod to the water according to the commandment of God and the Nile turned into blood.
The second one there was frogs everywhere. Which is yucky, yucky, frogs everywhere.
Third was lice, Moses touched his rod against the ground and the dust became like lice, all over Egypt.
The fourth was flies. Another super yucky plague.
The next one was all the cattle died, okay, and this is when it began to be very serious.
The sixth one were boils. Moses and Aaron threw ash up into the sky and all the Egyptians had boils on their body.
The seventh was hail. Hail came from the sky, huge hail and destroyed the crops.
The next was locusts. Locusts filled the land and whatever the hail didn't destroy they ate up.
The ninth plague was three days of total darkness.
And the tenth plague was the death of the first born. That was the first Passover.
And so those are the 10 plagues. All of the plagues that God brought to Egypt were judgements against their gods. The Egyptians had many, many gods, an example of this is they had the god of the Nile named Hopi and so when the Nile was judged, God was saying I'm more powerful than your god. And by the way, the Egyptian magicians could do the first two plagues, but they couldn't do the next eight. And in the third plague, the magicians of Egypt came to Pharaoh and said this is the hand of God. This is God judging us. They knew it. They also had a god who was the god of fertility and childbirth it was a frog named Hept. So when the frogs covered the land, this was another judgment of God on one of their gods. Ra was the sun god, so when the sky became black, he was judging Ra. They had a god in the form of a heifer, named Hat-Hot So when all the cows died it was a judgment against Hat-Hot. And of course Pharaoh was a god.
So every plague that came to Egypt, what God was saying is, you have many gods, I'm one God. And I'm the God of the sky, I'm the God of the water, I'm the God of the land, I'm the God of everything. I transcend all your gods and I'm bigger than all your gods. It was literally God putting his finger in the nose of Pharaoh and all the Egyptians as he was also proving to the children of Israel, his preeminence and his power. Pharaoh is a type of Satan. And his response to the plagues revealed his Satanic nature. Pharaoh was satanic, I mean literally his nature all through the plagues was satanic.
Four things he did through the plagues.
Number one is he lied. Over and over, when a plague would break out, he said to Moses constantly, if you'll pray that the plague would be stopped, I'll let you go. Every time that Moses stopped it, he went back on his word, hardened his heart and he lied. The devil's a liar he'll never tell you the truth. He overpromises and under delivers every single time, Pharaoh's a liar, the devil's a liar.
The number two thing that Pharaoh did was try to compromise with Moses. And as the plagues got more and more severe, they were saying let my people go, let my people go. And Pharaoh said no, no, no, then he begins to bargain with Moses, and he said, I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll let your men go out into the wilderness to worship but the women and children stay here. Moses says we all go, or none of us go, and the plagues continued. So Pharaoh then comes back to bargain with him again, and said okay, I'll let the men, women and children go but your livestock has to stay here. And of course they had to have their livestock to go do sacrifices. And Moses said it's all or none. I'm not gonna bargain with you Pharaoh, see, anything left in Egypt gave Pharaoh controlled.
So finally, after the death of the firstborn, Pharaoh comes and says, get all of ya, men, women and children, get out of here. Course he changes his mind and tries to kill them again. But the point being, the devil will always try to get you to compromise because compromise gives him a foothold in your life. He doesn't want you to totally give up on sin. He doesn't want you to totally trust God. He wants you to believe that you can keep a foot in Egypt and a foot in the promised land and everything's gonna be all right. Understand this, a foot in Egypt means, he has a level of control in our lives.
Number three thing that Pharaoh did was pride. The Bible says he constantly hardened his heart and became proud as the judgment continued. In fact this is Exodus 10:3, it says, Moses and Aaron came into Pharaoh and said to him, thus says the Lord God of the Hebrews, how long will you refuse to humble yourself before me. Let my people go that they may serve me. Okay, how long will you not humble yourself before me. Now this is Numbers 12:3, this is, Moses wrote this now, Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible. Moses wrote Numbers 12:3, now the man Moses was very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth.
Now Pharaoh is this hard hearted arrogant man, and it says that Moses was the most humble man on the earth. Now of course Moses wrote that so that's kind of a strike against him. You know when somebody comes up to you and says, I am the most humble person I've ever met. Probably somebody else should say that, okay. But you know, while you're writing the Bible you might as well put a good word in for yourself. That's kind of my theory about it. This is James 4:6. God resists the proud, and the word resists there means to set yourself in battle formation against. The word resist there is not just kind of, like this. When it says God resists the proud, it means he assembles his army against him. Doesn't mean that he doesn't love us, it means God will never honor pride and he will never let pride succeed. In his love, he resists our pride because pride is always of the devil. But he gives grace to the humble.
Let me say this to ya, every good thing in your life will always come when you're humble. And every bad thing in your life will always come when you're proud. It's the way it is. And the Bible says we clothe ourselves with humility. You know when the Bible says clothe yourselves with praise, clothe yourselves with truth, clothe yourselves with humility, you know what that means? We wake up without it. Our natural, our sin nature is to be proud. The only way you can be humble is to put it on. Every day you wake up and make a decision, I'm gonna walk in humility. But the devil's proud and he wants to infect us with pride so that we'll rebel against God.
Number four thing that Pharaoh did was intimidation. He said to the children of Israel, I'm taking away your straw, you better make as many bricks though or I'll do whatever I have to do to keep you from rebelling against me. And he came to Moses and said the next time you see my face, I'll kill ya. And Moses said, you right, I won't see your face again, you're gonna die. And so he tried to intimidate the children of Israel to keep them there. The devil tries to use fear to keep us in bondage and 2 Timothy 1:7 says God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power, of power, and of love and a sound mind. God hasn't given us this intimidated spirit. But of power and of love and a sound mind.
Next issue in the 10 plagues is Israel was totally protected from all the plagues of Goshen. Not one of the plagues that hit Egypt hit Israel. Now this is an interesting truth. The word Goshen, that's where the children of Israel lived in Egypt, okay. We were at the Egyptian museum two years ago, I had a muslim guide, she told me, the children of Israel lived in Goshen. I asked her, I said, you all believe that Joseph and the children of Israel lived in Goshen. She said well of course, that's our history. They know they did. So, the children of Israel lived in Goshen, the word Goshen means, drawing near.
Isn't that an interesting thing. And here's what James 4 says, therefore submit to God resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near, that's what the word Goshen means, draw near. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Now I want you to listen to me, listen to what I'm sayin'. The children of Israel in Goshen, who were drawing near to God and his presence protected them, proved that the children of God can live in a land of judgment and be blessed. But the secret is to draw near to God and to live close to God. And the closeness of God in our lives also gives us the ability to pray for the redemption of our nation. But like never before, the people of God need to be close to God in the land of judgment.
Now there were 10 plagues but not all of them were caused by the rod. Remember, God empowered the rod that he gave Moses and he said, now you take that wherever you go and I'm gonna do the miracles through that. But, he always had the rod with him, but only six of the plagues were caused by the rod. And I want to talk about the four different ways that we exercise power and authority over the devil from the story here of Moses. Number one is our walk. Our walk, now a rod is a walking stick, you know if you're carrying a rod, you're using it to walk, it's an aid in walking. Six times the plague of the Nile, the frogs, the lice, the hail, the locust and the darkness, Moses used the cane or the rod to effect those plagues but only six times. The first way that we exercise authority over the devil is through our walk with God. Just our walk.
Now this is not a trick question, but the question is, how did the children of Israel get out of Egypt. They walked out. How do we get out from under the dominion of the devil, we walk out. Every time you take a step of obedience to God you're exercising authority over the devil in that area. This is Romans six, do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey you are that ones slave whom you obey. Whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness. But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin you became slaves of righteousness. You're God's slave or your the devil's slave and there's nothing in between. And when we sin, and I'm not talking about just every time we make a mistake, but I'm saying, when we give ourselves to sin and live in a life of sin, we give, even if we're on our way to heaven and God loves us, we still give the devil authority and power in that area of our lives.
You say well how do I get out from under that. Obedience. Every time, when I walk by an offering container and I give in that offering container, what I'm saying is, devil, you're not gonna rule me in the area of my finances. I'm not gonna live in greed, I'm not gonna live in selfishness, I'm not gonna live in fear the way you used to keep me under control, I'm living by faith in the generosity and provision of God. I'm taking a step of obedience.
Every time I get frustrated in my marriage and I'm tempted to do what I used to do, I decide I'm gonna love Karen regardless if she loves me or not, 'cause I'm not gonna walk in that selfishness and emotional bondage that he used to hold me in. And go to bed and think of all these dark thoughts that I used to think, I'm gonna trust God that love never fails. And I'm gonna take a step of love, I'm gonna pray for those who despitefully use me, I'm gonna bless those who curse me. I'm gonna submit to my boss whether he's nice or not. And every time I take a step, I'm taking a step out of Egypt. You walk out. How do you get out of Egypt, you walk out. One step at a time.
Number two way that Moses exercised authority was our words. Okay, two of the plagues were caused by words, twice the plague of the flies and the plague of the cattle God said to Moses, go tell Pharaoh, speak to Pharaoh. Don't use the rod, just go speak to Pharaoh and tell him this. Our words are incredibly powerful and important in exercising authority over the devil. In Matthew four the devil himself attacked Jesus in the wilderness when Jesus had been without food for 40 days. Think about it. Think about how weak you would be after 40 days without food, and the devil himself, picks a fight with you after 40 days without food in the wilderness. You're all by yourself, you're as weak as you've ever been in your life. And Jesus defeated the devil by saying this three times, it is written. And Jesus spoke the Word of God to Satan, I'm sure that he couldn't even hardly speak he was so tired. But the point there is, the Word of God doesn't need our help it is nuclear.
When a child quotes the Scripture it will hemorrhage hell. The Word of God is more powerful than anything we can understand. And by the way, when Moses was delivering Israel, not one thing he did was hard. Nothing he did was hard, God said walk over and touch the Nile. And Moses walked over and, touch the ground. You know, Moses just, speak to Pharaoh, it's not hard. It just requires obedience. Here's what Hebrews four says about the Word of God. The Word of God is living and powerful. And sharper than any two edged sword. When the Bible talks about swords it's talking about warfare. Sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even through division of soul and spirit and joint of marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are naked, and open to him who we must give an account.
And the point there is, when you are in trouble. When you're battling depression, when you're battling sickness, when you're battling rebellion in your children, when you're battling financial problems, whatever you're battling, quote the Word of God over your circumstances. Don't stand around whining, don't stand around complaining, don't stand around as a parent for what the devil wants you to say. Well I just always been broke and I guess I'll just never have any money. Well I've just always had my lumbago, I tell you what, and my mother had it and I've got it and I bet my children gonna have it, I just, well get over all that. Just put it. Say what God says over your circumstances. Take authority and power through God's Word, that's what Moses did. And it judged Pharaoh and they were set free.
Number three thing that Moses did was our warfare. God says, this was an interesting thing, God said to Moses and Aaron, I want you to go over to an oven, a furnace, and I want you to take ash out of that furnace and I want you to throw it in the air. Now when they did all the Egyptians had boils. Remember Pharaoh is Satan, the Egyptians are demons. And the plague of the boils was caused as they went over and they reached into the oven, took out the ash and threw it in the air. Well remember, Satan's the Prince of the power of the air. What is ash. Well in this case, out of furnace, it's the residue of fire. The only tangible evidence of a fire is ash. And it's completely pure. It represents the Holy Spirit. The evidence of the Holy Spirit. This is spiritual warfare. And the Lord says, Moses and Aaron, you go take your hands, and you take this ash and you throw it up in the air. And when I do, the demon spirits will be judged.
Here's what I want you to understand, God has given us the ability to bind and loose in the realm of the spirit. Jesus said in Matthew 18, whatever you bind on earth is bound in heaven. He also said it in Matthew 16. Whatever you bind on earth is bound heaven, whatever you loose on earth is loosed in heaven. We have the ability through our spiritual warfare, through binding and loosing to stop the enemy's activity in our lives and to loose the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. This is spiritual warfare, you through ash up in the air and you declare that the environment of our home, the environment of our life will not be under the dominion of the devil, the environment around my life, the air around me is filled with the Spirit of God and I will not tolerate demonic agencies coming in and attacking my family, my health, my marriage, my children, anything in my lie. I take authority over you devil. And every demon in hell. And the last one, is our weakness.
Now this is the 10th plague, how do you exercise authority over the devil, your walk, your words, your warfare, your weakness. What does that mean. The children of Israel, the 10th plague, God came to the children of Israel and said to them, I want you to take a lamb, a one year old lamb, I want you to kill it. This is Jesus. This is the first Passover, Jesus died on Passover. I want you to take that lamb's blood and I want you to put it over the doorpost of the house. 'Cause I'm gonna kill all the firstborn tonight of Egypt. When I don't see that blood, I'm gonna kill the firstborn of that house.
So, the children of Israel took a lamb and they took that blood and they wiped it over the doorpost of their house and they went inside and did nothing. They sat there. They were completely and totally disabled. Trusting that blood. And here's what Revelation 12 says, then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, now salvation and strength and the kingdom of God and the power of our Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, the accuser of our brethren who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down and they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb.
And the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to death. What does this mean? The devil is an accuser and he's constantly accusing all of us. He's constantly telling us we're no good, he's constantly telling us God doesn't love us, he's constantly reminding us of our sins, he's constantly reminding us of all the things we've done wrong and the only way to beat him at that game is to get under the blood and don't do one other thing.
They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb. What does that mean? I know all the bad things I've done devil and I can't do one thing about it. Except the blood of Jesus has made me righteous before God. And I'm not gonna argue with ya, I'm not gonna fight against ya, I'm just stayin' right under the blood and you can't touch me there devil. In my weakness, the blood of Jesus has made me the righteousness of God in Christ. Let me just tell you a little secret, 'cause I learned this many years ago. Every time the devil condemns ya, begin to praise Jesus for his blood and the devil will leave ya alone 'cause he hates, he hates to hear about the blood of Jesus, it was the worst day he's ever had.