Joyce Meyer - Is the Devil Real? - Part 1

TOPICS: Devil

Father, we thank you for the word tonight. Believe it's gonna come out just exactly how you want it to, in Jesus' name.

Is the devil real? Well, yes, I'm glad you agree that he is. It's very hard for me to believe the statistic that I read, but somebody who knows more than me told me it was true. That 50% of Christians don't believe that the Holy Spirit or the devil is real. I don't get that. But I think sometimes people don't believe things because they don't wanna believe them. It's like a lot of Christians don't believe that there's a hell, because they don't believe that a good God, a loving God, would send someone to hell. Well, God doesn't send anybody to hell. People choose what they're gonna do by either obeying or disobeying God. You're gonna hear me say this a few times this weekend, every action creates a reaction. And so, everything that we do is a seed that we sow, and it brings a harvest in our life.

If we do what God tells us to do, our lives will be blessed. I'm living proof of that in many different ways, and many of you are too. The more you obey God, the more you'll enjoy the life that God wants to give you. And the more you disobey God, the more you're gonna open up the door for the enemy. The easiest way to resist the devil is to just obey God. There's a scripture in James 4:7 that says, "Resist the devil and he will flee". No, that's not what it says. That's the way everybody quotes it. But it says, "Submit yourself to God, resist the devil and he will flee". It's funny how sometimes we quote half of scriptures, because that's the half we'd like to have happen. "Yeah, resist the devil and he will flee". No, submit yourself to God, and by submitting to God, that gives you the power to resist the devil, and then he will flee. The devil is not the least bit afraid of you if you're a disobedient Christian who knowingly knows better than to do what you're doing and you do it anyway.

Now, I believe God gives extra grace where there's ignorance. Paul said that he received grace because he was ignorant. He really thought that what he was doing was a godly thing when he was chasing down Christians and having them put in prison. And it is an amazing thing. I mean, what God did in the apostle Paul's life is absolutely amazing, because he was like, not your best candidate for an apostle. And sovereignly, by God's grace, he appeared to him, saved him, filled him with the Holy Spirit. But the thing I'm always impressed about with Paul, too, is when Jesus spoke to him on the Damascus road, the first thing that Paul said is, "Lord, what do you want me to do"?

See, as soon as he knew that that was Jesus, he was ready to do whatever God wanted him to do. And that's, I feel such a burden lately to try to help all of us understand that we're not here to get God to do what we want him to do. We're here to say, "What do you want me to do? What's your will"? Find out where God's working and go work with him. Don't give him your seven-page prayer list on what you have to have to stay happy that day. If you seek God first, he'll add the things. Now, there's nothing wrong with asking God for things, but we don't need to camp on top of them. Every prayer that Paul prayed was something for the believer's spiritual life. And he never prayed, one time, for their problems to go away. You cannot find a place in the Bible where Paul prayed for people's problems to go away. He prayed that they would have the ability to endure whatever came with good temper. In other words, to just be strong enough in God to be the same no matter what their circumstances were. So, I think a lot of times we just pray wrong.

You know, 1 Peter 5:8 says, "The devil roams about", just get this. He's not in hell, he's here. He'll be in hell. There's a place reserved for him. And he'll be chained there for a thousand years during the millennial reign of Christ. And then after the Battle of Armageddon, he and the beast will be thrown into the lake of fire and live there forever. But right now, he's the prince of the power of the air. He resides in the space between here and heaven and on the earth, walking around. You can't see him, but he's walking around. And he can take on different forms and he can even possess people. Now, I don't believe a Christian can be possessed by the devil because you're full of the Holy Spirit, but you can be oppressed. And the enemy can use me, he can use you, he can use any one of us no matter how saved we are if we don't learn how to discern when the enemy is working in our lives.

The Bible says, "Test the spirits". You know, the devil can quote scripture, he knows it better than you do. He can give you a wrong scripture at a wrong time and make you think it's God. So, I pray every day for God to give me discernment and discerning of spirits. I wanna know when I'm around good people and when I'm around bad people. Amen? So, 1 Peter 5:8 says, "The devil roams about", just try to get this picture, "He roams about like a lion roaring in fierce hunger, seeking whom he may devour". Well, you need to make a decision, it's not gonna be you. So, I just was trying to think of an example of what I could use and so I had 'em make me this magnet. The devil is kind of like this magnet, he's just roaming around, seeking whom he may devour. Amen? You notice there was a few there he didn't get. We'll say that was us. Amen? Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words, so the enemy just roams around. Ah, missed that one. Wow. Must have spent time with God this morning. You can take this away now.

I think, every once in a while, we need to hear a good sermon on the devil. It amazed me when I read those books. The first one I read was just a little book by E.M. Bounds who normally writes on prayer. But I saw this book advertised, it was just called, "Satan". And I bought that one, and I bought one on heaven which I haven't read yet. But I was amazed in reading that, just how much I knew, that I had forgotten that I knew. And so, it's good to be refreshed in all the things that we know and never get to the point where we think, "Well, I know that, so I never need to hear anything else about it again". Paul said, "I never get tired of telling you the same things over and over and over". Because we need them, don't we? And we don't need to think about the devil all the time: we don't need to talk about the devil all the time. We certainly don't need to be afraid of the devil. But we need to be educated well enough to recognize immediately when the enemy is working. Amen?

And so, that's my purpose here this weekend, not just to talk about something that is kind of "Eh". But the devil is certainly not this ugly, red creature with horns and fiery eyes with a long tail carrying a pitchfork. Actually, Lucifer was very beautiful. I'll read you some scriptures here in just a minute. The devil is very active, he's very aggressive, and he is against everything that Jesus is for. The anti-Christ, "Anti" means "Opposed". So, when you hear the word "Anti-Christ," it's someone that's going to be opposed to everything that Jesus is. Our world today is so full of evil that it's absolutely unbelievable. Right here, in this country, in America, there's over 3,000 serial killers. And interestingly enough, there's thousands more here than there are in other countries.

Interesting. He attacks the most where God is the most. And we have to hang on to our Christian heritage and remember who we are, and not let the devil have our nation, and not become like the world. You know the world is telling us a lot of things these days that are not true. Did you hear me? Just because the news says something doesn't mean that's the way that it is. I was watching a documentary this week called "If you wanna be a tyrant, do these things". And it was about Hitler and Stalin and different people throughout the ages that have become tyrants. And one of the first things was revise your history. It's very hard to buy a history book now that's actually our true American history. Just because somebody writes something doesn't mean that it's true.

You know the Bible even says don't believe everything you read. We've got to get smarter and start checking things out. And not just believe everything we hear. And certainly, don't believe everything that you read online. Amen? I don't know why we think, "Well, it said online", well, anybody can put anything on there. And our world is so full of angry people. My gosh, I mean I've lived a while. And I've never seen a time when there's so many angry people. I mean, it just doesn't take anything to just, somebody just to fly off in a rage. And I think part of the reason why people are so angry is because they're so confused. They don't understand what's going on and people know that things aren't right. But they don't even know what's causing it. And so, they blame it on each other. When really the devil is just laughing because he's behind all of it.

And you say, "Well, how do I fight the devil"? And I think that's a very good question and I have a very good answer. There's one scripture that answers that whole question and it's Romans 12:21: "We overcome evil with good". And when I found that out I just thought, "It is so simple". Goodness is stronger than evil. Because God is stronger than the devil. God is good and the devil's bad, if you just remember that alone. That's simple. And so, we need to, yes, do as many good works as we possibly can. We need to be good to people. We need to help people. We need to talk good about people, and think good thoughts, and say good things and do good things. That's the only way to fight the devil.

If you listen to my teaching, you know that I was sexually abused by my father for many years, and, I had a rough childhood. Dysfunction doesn't even describe it. I don't ever remember a time growing up when I wasn't afraid. It was just, the atmosphere, the strife, the fear, the anger, the rage in our home was an awful, awful atmosphere to grow up in. And my father told me when he was in his 80s, and I want you to listen to this, he said, "There is no way that I could have kept myself from doing what I did to you". You know why? Because he was possessed by a devil. A spirit of lust. And I thought that was a very interesting statement. There was no way that I could have kept myself from doing what I did to you.

Now, he wasn't a Christian, wasn't a believer. And I believe that the home he grew up in had incest in it. And so, he had a problem all of his life with anything concerning sex. So, we have to understand that the devil is real, he is a liar. The thief comes only to kill, steal, and destroy, but Jesus said, "I came that they might have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance to the full until it overflows". We don't have to worry about all the evil people because the Bible says in Psalm 37, "Fret not yourself because of evildoers, neither be envious against those who work unrighteousness, for they shall soon be cut down like the grass". So, you can count on God, he's got a day picked out. Jesus is coming back. Amen? And he even tells us not to be deceived about that, because he said, "The same way that I'm going, that's the way I'm coming back". He's coming right back.

As the sun shines from the east to the west, he's coming back in the sky. So, don't look over here and don't look over here and somebody over here says, "I'm the Messiah," and somebody over here says, "I'm the Messiah". He told us how he's coming back. So, these are things that we need to remember, otherwise we will be deceived, because there's gonna be somebody in the last days that's gonna set himself up as God and do all kinds of lying signs and wonders. I'm not gonna get too deep into that, but I do know that Jesus is coming back, and I do know that I wanna be ready. Amen?

And I want you to be ready, and not just the people in this room, but the millions that are watching by television all over the world, Jesus is coming back, and it could be very soon. And so, if you've got anything you need to get straightened out, now's the time to do it. Amen? And I just wonder if we knew that at midnight tomorrow night for sure that he was coming back, I wonder what we might change. I'll just leave you with that. I might watch something different on TV tonight, I don't know, you know? I might watch hallmark with Dave. He is a hallmark fanatic. Lord have mercy, I've gotta have a little mystery. I mean, a hallmark starts, and you know five minutes after it starts... Has anybody ever noticed that there's never a kiss until the very last scene? You think you're just about to get one and the phone rings.

Somebody gave me a little joke today, they said, "Breaking news, hallmark is on the verge of having a second plot". Okay. Judas betrayed Jesus, but Jesus said, "Satan has filled your heart to do what you've done". So, Judas did it, but Satan tempted him to do it. And he was tempted by the love of money. That's something we've gotta be careful about, the love of money. The love of money is the root of all evil. Money isn't evil, but it is amazing how money can change people. Amen? You really almost need to be afraid of having... You don't wanna have any more money than you have spirituality. You understand that? It's like, as God gives you more, you need to go deeper in him, you know. Because it'll pull you away from him if you don't. People get money and then they buy all these things, and they're busy taking care of all these things, they don't have time for God anymore.

In Isaiah chapter 14, it tells us that, well, I'll just read it, four verses, 12-16. "How have you fallen from heaven, o light-bringer and daystar, son of the morning! How have you been cut down to the ground, you who weakened and laid low the nations [o blasphemous, Satanic king of Babylon!] And you said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven: I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit upon the mount of assembly in the uttermost north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds: I will make myself like the Most High". Well, so now God tells him what will happen. "You shall be brought down to sheol, (to hades), to the innermost recesses of the pit (the region of the dead). And those who see you will gaze at you and consider you, saying, 'is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms'"?

In other words, he just makes everybody think he's something that he's not. But do you know that whatever you believe becomes your reality? I don't want you to forget that. That's what deception is. He deceives people by getting them to believe a lie, but if you believe it, it's your truth. See, if you believe that you've committed a sin that you can never be forgiven for, then that'll become your reality, but it's not true. It's not the truth. I believed for a long time because I'd been abused that I would always have a second-rate life, but that was a lie. But I didn't know it was a lie until I started reading the truth. And you know, today, there's a myth going around that "truth is relative to", I mean, there can only be one truth, or it's not truth. You can't have your truth, and your truth, and your truth, and my truth, and your truth. Jesus said, "I am the truth. I am the way, the truth, and the life". The devil's great sin was pride. "I will, I will, I will, I will, I will".

The antidote for pride is humility, and humility of all the virtues is the hardest one to gain and maintain. It requires special prayer and special seeking and studying to stay out of pride. The more successful you are, the more you're tempted to be proud. It's amazing how humble we can be when we've got a big problem, and how full of ourselves we can get when we're doing really good. And then, in Ezekiel 28:13, the King James version's talking about the devil again. It says, "Thou hast been in eden the garden of God: every precious stone was your covering, the Sardis, the topaz, the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, the carbuncle, and gold: and the workmanship of your tabrets and of your pipes", which, speaking of musical instruments, "Were prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created".

So, apparently, he was covered with Jewels, and his body was made up of musical instruments. And he was an Archangel of the highest order, but stupid. He got full of himself and said, "I will lift myself above the Most High God". I don't get it. Names of the devil that you'll see in the Bible, and this is just a small sMathering. Prince of darkness, Beelzebub, Lord of the flies, the antichrist, the evil one, prince of the power of the air, ruler of this world's system. He's not the ruler of this world. God's the God of this world, but Satan is the ruler of the system that's going on in the world. The deceiver, the father of lies.