John Hagee - Healing and Deliverance
If divine healing is controversial, healing and deliverance is twice controversial. And if you're visiting today, I challenge you to come back on another Sunday, because this sermon is going to be like 40 acres of garlic and two rows of onions. When you talk about the supernatural and deliverance, it's alright for Hollywood to produce ""Rosemary's Baby"", or "The Exorcist," demonstrating the power of demons to control people. But if the church of Jesus Christ says that there is a real devil: that he is the commander of a highly organized, supernatural force of principalities and powers and angels and demons, whose objective is to destroy you: if the church is brazen enough to imply that Satan is alive and can be in the church: and for God's sake, might be in you, then that's really controversial.
And I'm telling you, all of those are a genuine possibility and probability. There are two things that Satan hates. He hates to be exposed and he hates to be expelled. And God's word commands that the church do both. Jesus did it and we're to do it. The fact that we haven't done it simply means that we're too cowardly to preach the gospel and too weak to practice the gospel. By God's grace, we try to do both here all the time. There was a contractor, who built a church, and the church failed to pay him. And knowing where the light switch was in the church, he went to that church after renting for himself a red phosphoric devil suit.
And he put on that red phosphoric devil suit and went to the church, went to the light switch panel on Sunday night, and turned off all the lights, and leaped out on the stage in his devil suit. Those spiritual giants began to stampede for the back door. One old man, who was overcome by the crowd and knocked to the floor, lifted his hands and said, "Mister devil, mister devil"! He said, "I want you to know I've taught the junior boys. I've been here for 50 years. I've served as a deacon for 35 years. I've even filled in the pulpit, but I was on your side all the time". That's describes a lot of Christians I know. I'm talking about health, healing, and deliverance today.
Here's a very penetrating, intimidating verse of scripture, Mark 16:17 and 18. Read it with me. "And these signs shall follow them that believe: in my name they shall cast out demons: they shall speak with new tongues: they shall take up serpents: and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them: they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover".
These are four things Jesus said believers would do, who practice the authority of his name. Luke's gospel 4:40, "Now when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with them, divers diseases brought them unto him: and he laid his hands on every one of them, and he healed them. And demons also came out, crying, saying, thou art the Christ the Son of God. And he rebuked them and suffered them that should not speak: for they (the evil spirits) knew that he was Christ". Today I want to share with you the message of "Healing and deliverance," because they go hand in glove. You cannot cover the topic of healing without talking about healing and deliverance.
Father, in Jesus' name, help us to see the living truth of God's word today. In Jesus' name, we pray and ask it. And all of God's children said, praise the Lord.
You may be seated. Begin with this fact: there is a very real devil, and his objective is to "Rob, to kill, and to destroy". Say that with me: "To rob, to kill, and to destroy". This devil is the supernatural commander and chief of a heavenly host of well-organized powers and principalities, as described in Ephesians 6. And Jesus, in his lifetime, had a real combat experience with this evil one, the deceiver, the Bible calls Satan.
I want you to understand it was a very real devil that entered the Garden of Eden and seduced Adam and Eve to rebel against God. It was a very real devil that tempted Jesus in the wilderness. John the Revelator wrote about a very real devil, in Revelation 12:9, saying, "That old serpent, the devil". Say that with me: "That old serpent, the devil". In medieval theatre, the devil was always presented as a mythological character, someone with horns and tail, and in a red suit. And so the myth of Satan has lived until the 20th century. But I want you to understand that the Word of God exposes him for who he is, his personality, his method, and his agenda.
First let me say, mister, that Satan is not a myth. He is very real. And he wants to destroy your health. He wants to destroy your peace of mind. He wants to destroy your relationships. He wants to control you in your emotions. He wants to destroy your finances. He wants to destroy your marriage. He wants to enslave you by addictions. He wants you to be filled with bitterness, and hatred, and jealousy. He wants your whole life to be devastated. Jesus says, the only protection that you have from this monster is the authority of my name, the Word of God, and the blood of the cross. And if you do not have Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, if you do not believe in the veracity of the Word of God, if you do not believe in the power of the blood of Jesus Christ, you will be mastered by evil spirits or demon spirits. It's a guarantee, according to the Word of God. Continue.
What is your enemy? The Bible says Satan is a liar and he is the father of lies. Say that with me. Satan is a liar and he is the father of lies. The Bible says, "Thou shall not bear false witness". When you lie, you are being controlled of an evil spirit. The Bible says, "All liars shall have their part in the like of fire". There is no such thing as a white lie, or I just told a little-bitty lie. A little-bitty lie will send you to a red hot, living, big hell.
Satan is an accuser of the brethren. When you accuse a brother or sister in Christ, you have become the devil's advocate. You are literally a Satanic evangelist, destroying the life of another person. When you say something negative or hateful about another person, you fundamentally have cursed that person. When you say something negative about your son or your daughter, "You're dumb. You can't learn. You'll never amount to anything," what you are doing is placing a spoken curse on the life of that child. It is spiritual. It is supernatural, and it can destroy them. Stop it! Speak life into your son. Speak hope into your daughter. Speak inspiration into them. Speak the love of God into them. Send them out of your house ready to wrestle hulk hogan, because Jesus lives in your heart.
Thirdly, the Bible says, Satan transforms himself into an angel of light. He is the master of deception. He controls preachers, who preach what Paul called "Another gospel". I want you to hear this. Any gospel, any gospel that tells you how to get to God the Father or heaven without Jesus Christ is another gospel. It's a counterfeit gospel. It's a living lie. Everybody all over America today is preaching in the name of God. A lot of it has nothing to do with God. When you start mentioning the name of Jesus, you separate people who believe in God. Everybody all over the world believes in God. God who? When you start talking about Jesus Christ, now you're talking about a penetrating personality that divides the world.
Before this service is over, I'm going to give you the opportunity to choose between life and death, between liberty and being in bondage. And some of you will choose bondage, because you don't want to admit there's an area of your life that's under control of a foreign spirit. Listen to me. Jesus, in 25% of his ministry, was dedicated to the control of evil spirits. And he was talking to normal Jewish people, who went to synagogue every Friday, once a week, who tithed up to 30% of their income, and who were very righteous and clean living. These were ordinary people. They lived in a much more wholesome, healthy society than ours.
Yet, Jesus recognized the power of Satan to control an area of their life. There was only one person in the Bible that Jesus ever met, totally mastered by an evil spirit, and that was the demoniac of Gadara. And he was in the asylum of his day, which was the cemetery, in chains. That was the Old Testament asylum for those who were insane or beside themselves. And Jesus controlled those evil spirits by a spoken word. I want you to understand God does not tell us to interview Satan or to interview demon spirits. We have the authority to cast them out with the word, and they're gone and broken by the power of Jesus' name!
Satan is not only a serpent, he's not only a liar, he's not only an accuser, he's not only a messenger that presents himself as an angel of light: he's a roaring lion. A lion controls by fear and intimidation. The Bible says, "God has not given us a spirit of fear". Say that with me. "God has not given us a spirit of fear". Jesus said, "Fear not: I am the first and the last". I was here before the devil got here and I'll be here after he's gone. I'll be in control when he and all of his imps are in the bowels of hell forever! Rejoice and b! Exceedingly glad. Mention my name and you have all power in heaven and in earth!
Mention that name, the name of Jesus Christ, the name of Jesus that has the scars in his hands, the Jesus of Nazareth, and demons tremble with fear. Mention that name and you have the power over death, hell, and the grave. Mention that name and you have power over principalities and powers. Mention that name, because there is no other name given among men, whereby we might be saved, other than the name of Jesus Christ. He is the lion of the tribe of Judah. He is the fairest of 10,000. He is the bread of life. He is the living water, the king of all kings and the Lord of all Lords. He's coming again with power and great glory to rule and reign on this earth! This earth does not belong to Satan. It does not belong to powers and principalities. It belongs to prince Jesus, and he's coming back soon to rule and reign! Thank God!
Let me give you just a bit of personal history. How was I introduced to the reality of evil spirits? Understand that I was raised in the home of a Bible scholar. My father was an assemblies of God pastor for 52 years. My mother was a Bible college instructor when she married my father. As a child, we sat around the table and discussed the Word of God, because that was uppermost in our thoughts. I thought, because I was taught the devil operated in foreign countries where illiteracy and superstition and ignorance were paramount, after I graduated from three different universities and was in this city in 1971, pastoring, I began to recognize the behavior of some of my members that could only be attributed to the devil.
I'm not saying they were full of the devil, but they were acting like the devil. They had problems in their health. They had problems in their emotions. They had problems in their minds and with their family relationships that no amount of counseling would help. And after spending all these years in the university and being trained in my youth up from the scripture, my secular education and theology were locked in a mortal combat. And I prayed a dangerous prayer. I said, "Lord, your word says, 'if a man lacks wisdom, let him ask'. I'm asking you, if these people are ensnared in a spiritual dimension I'm not aware of", that's a nice phrase for evil spirits, "I want you to show it to me. Hello and good-bye".
That's how I pray. Did the Lord ever enroll me quickly. The next morning I went to work, the phone rang. A lady called and said, "Pastor Hagee, would you come to my home and pray for me? I have a demon spirit". I said, "Why did you use that word"? I mean I went...Pfew. She said, "Well, maybe it was the wrong word, but I think that's what I've got". So I went to her home. It was a beautiful home. She was a college graduate, obviously not illiterate, not superstitious. She'd been into tarot cards and Ouija boards for 15 years. And she said, "Last night, I was sitting in my home alone. My husband was in New York on business. I heard the front door open, and I heard something walk down the hall and walk in this room with me". And I said, "Something or someone"? She said, "No, something". I said, "You heard it but you didn't see it"? She said, "Right".
The lady had my attention. I tell you, she had my attention. I said, "And then what happened"? She said, "It walked into this room and it entered me". I said, "How do you know it entered you"? In my mind, I'm ticking off all of the hours of abnormal psychology I had in graduate school, trying to find a file to put this lady in. She said, "It entered me, because my mind became filled with the most vicious, vulgar thoughts that I have ever heard of. I have always been a peaceable person. But suddenly, I began to curse for no reason, and my mind was filled with the most filthy sexual things that could come to a human mind. And I want to be free from this".
And I began to talk with her, and she began to tell me about her involvement with the occult through the Ouija board and through tarot cards and so forth. And I said, "Well, let's do this just like we would do a laboratory experiment. Jesus met a similar person in Luke 8, who had the similar problem. I'm just going to read the Bible story and we'll see what happens". She said, "Fine". I began to read Luke 8 where Jesus cast the evil spirit out of the demoniac of Gadara. And as I read the story, I looked at the lady, and my eyes could have popped out of my head. She was a slender lady, sitting on her couch. She reached down and grabbed her ankles and put her knees above her head and her head about this far from the floor. And she started hissing like a snake.
I said, "Lady, where would you like for the new door to be in your house, because I'm getting ready to leave". I said, "I'm going to stay with the program here, back to Luke 8". And I saw where Jesus spoke directly to the evil spirit in the demoniac of Gadara, so I said to that lady: I said, "In the name of Jesus Christ, I'm speaking to the evil power in this woman, and I command you to come out". I didn't say it any more emotional than I'm talking right now. And in the deepest masculine voice, which was not hers, she said, "I hate you, John Hagee". I said, "Hey! I mean it takes most people a while to hate me, and you hate me all of a sudden".
I stayed with it. Obviously, I couldn't leave. I mean I've got a contortionist here twisted like a mongoose around a pole. I could feel that there was a sense of contest going on here. And then I got into the contest. I like fights. I mean I like contests. Let's get at it. Then I leaped at it, and I said, "In the name of Jesus, the son of the living God, I command you to come out of this woman"! And I mean the battle raged for about 45 minutes, and then she popped up and said, "I am free! It has left. I am totally free from that power and I have been set free by the power of Jesus Christ". Her husband walked in just as she was being freed. He obviously didn't believe in any of this. I wasn't real sure I did. He took her to a psychiatric hospital, had her examined for a week. They said, "This lady is in better mental health than we are. Take her home".
I'm saying that to say this: Jesus Christ heals completely through the supernatural. And when you begin to believe that, you can be free. You can be free, now. So, I went home that night, and a member of my church called me and said, "Pastor, a man has just called me and said he's going to shoot me tomorrow," going to murder me. Did you ever have one of those days that was just too exciting? I said, you know, enough is enough. So I agreed to meet the man. And the next night, we met in my offices, and we sat down. The man sat down and said, "I worship the devil, and I have power with the devil. And I have the ability to control people and money and circumstances with voodoo dolls, and I have for years. And I get my instructions every morning from a witch in California". I said, "Would you like to know the real power of the Lord Jesus Christ and the authority of God's word to be free"? He said, "No". He said, "I hate God, I hate God's word, and I hate you".
And he stood up and cursed me, and said some other unflattering things, and left. I mean, I'm offending people right and left here these days. And he said, "You haven't seen the last of me"! And he was right. The next Wednesday night, he came into the church carrying a six-gun, walked up the aisle, and said to myself and the man that was standing on the platform with me, "Beg for your life, because I'm going to shoot both of you". I said, "We're in authority here. And the Word of God says, 'no weapon that is formed against me shall prosper'. I'm God's man in God's house. I'm not begging you or anybody else". He said, "On the count of three, I'm going to shoot you".
He lied. On the count of two, he started shooting. He emptied the gun, ran out of the building, was obviously arrested, sent to the hospital for the criminally insane, diagnosed, is cured ninety days later by a psychiatrist. He climbed a tree and hung himself the first day he was out, because Satan is a murderer from the beginning, and his desire is to murder, destroy, to rob, and to kill, and to devour everything that's precious to you. And if you go around with this hallucinogenic mentality that he doesn't exist, he's a mythological character, Satan will not bother me, I won't bother him: you are simply beyond the reach of knowledge. I am sharing with you today something that will give you power and the ability to walk in this infested world with an anointing, and with a peace, and with a divine healing like nothing you have ever known. It is the living power of the Word of God. It is the Kingdom of God coming near to you today.
Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace. Satan, the Bible says, drives his people. Isaiah said, "The wicked are like the troubled sea which cannot rest". Get a hold of that phrase, "Which cannot rest". Say that with me. "Which cannot rest". When you can't rest, and your behavior is compulsive, and it's obsessive, and it controls you, you're not talking about being controlled of the Holy Spirit. Let's talk about emotions. All of us have emotions. All of us feel bad. All of us feel various kinds of emotions at various times. But emotions that are constantly out of control, you need to look for a spiritual reason, unnatural fear that destroys your peace.
If you have depression that seems unbreakable, unnatural, especially if either of your parents had it, and it hangs over you like a cloud, and there are thoughts of suicide in your mind, it's nothing more than an evil spirit trying to destroy you, because Satan is a murderer. Jesus said that he has given us the spirit of joy for the garment of heaviness. And some of you in this room have been afflicted with depression, and I want, today, Jesus Christ, the great physician, to walk down the aisle and break that yoke, and send you out of here rejoicing with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
I'm talking about emotions, emotional scenes that you constantly replay, bitterness that is deep seeded against your mother, your father. A dear friend that has offended you, you cannot forget it and it bitters you, it embitters your spirit on all occasions. That does not come from God. You need to be freed from that by the power of the Lord. Compulsive worry, a sense of rejection, a lack of confidence, massive insecurity. I want you to hear me. You are a child of God. You are created a little lower than the angels. You are special. You are loved. The royal blood of heaven flows in your veins. God did not manufacture a piece of junk when he manufactured you. You are somebody! God loves you! Jesus loves you! This church loves you! Lift up your head and rejoice, and live your life with joy, because God lives in you through Jesus Christ!
Anything that controls you, drugs, alcoholism, you live your life around a creative way to drink, that's an evil spirit. Tranquilizers, tobacco of every kind. I'm talking now about demonic activity in your speech: lying, gossip, slander, tale bearing. The Bible says, life and death is in the tongue. You watch what you say. David said, "Lord, set a guard over my mouth: set a watch there". Don't let me say anything that'll bring hurt or harm to another person. And if you have a vindictive, critical spirit, you have the living devil in you! But I want you to know that any area of your life that's out of control, that's compulsive, not under the control of Jesus, you are being driven by a force that is supernatural, and you need, today, to be free, in Jesus' name!