Leon Fontaine - Flesh Or Demons?
Hey, everyone! It's so good to have you with us today. I'm excited about the message that we're gonna be talking about because so many people are confused about this issue. As a Christian, why am I dealing with things in my life? Is it demons or is it my flesh? What's the difference? How do they work together? Because we have this, the Christian body of Christ seems to be polarized. It's either they're really into demons and everything is about binding the devil, commanding his power broken. No one has been able to tell me when you bind the devil, how long do they stay bound? If you command him to go, how long does he stay gone? Is it a 24-hour thing?
Some believe they can bind him up and throw him into the pit. Others are trying to take him to court and the court of the heavens. I have heard so much teaching on this thing. That we've got to stick to the Bible especially the new covenant. So when you go to Galatians 5:15 and on, we're talking here to Christians, to the churches of Galatia. And I'm gonna, we can talk on this whole chapter, but Paul is teaching on this topic. And it's worth us to read because I can show you quickly how to deal with anger, lust, bad habits in your life as a believer, addictions. So many of these things that the body of Christ seems to scream at demons, bind demons, take demons to court. Whatever your doctrine is, that never works.
So let us listen what Paul has to say about this. It says verses 15 of Galatians 5, "But if you bite and devour one another, take heed that you be not consumed one of another". He is saying here that if you don't get your act together, you're going to destroy your relationships. And it goes on to talk and we'll read some of it. That hatred and anger and jealousy and then just pursuing pleasure from partying. Actually, getting involved in things like witchcraft and sorcery. That this is the works of the flesh, it goes on to say. But I've met a lot of people who've given their lives to Jesus Christ who struggle. They're angriest people you ever saw. They are the most jealous people you've ever seen. Some people would teach this and say this is before you give your life to Jesus Christ. But I've got news for you. I, in the 40 years of ministering to people have ministered to Christians with every one of the works of the flesh that is talked about here because until you go to heaven, you have a flesh.
Now, the word flesh in the Bible, I think it's Sarx. S-A-R-X. It just means your physical body. That this physical body has desires. A desire for sex, a desire for food, a desire for pleasure, a desire for things. And then there's, and it tends to be selfish. In fact, the Bible says that the flesh wars against the spirit. And so even in your own life, if you begin to get focused on the flesh, it's desires. And if you'll follow the teachings we're about to go to, you could be a Christian who when you die, you're gonna go to heaven. But you'll never be able to live and function in the kingdom of God on the planet. Because Jesus said the kingdom of God is within you. Meaning, that the kingdom of God is not meet and drink but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
So until we get to heaven where everything is gonna be so much easier, while you're on this planet the kingdom of God is within you. And if you want to walk in the power, the incredible of the kingdom of God. You can have incredible peace, not anxiety, worry, anxiousness. This peace is so incredible, Jesus said the world can't have it. But you as a believer can have it and it's already there within you. You just don't know how to access it. The kingdom of God is not meet and drink. Let's start with righteousness, too. Righteousness, this incredible gift that you are in right standing with God because of Jesus' behavior. And yes, you should be working on your behavior and the power of God is there to win every time with your own behavior. Which we're talking about, your own behavior. But as we look at this righteousness.
You are righteous. You are in right standing with God. It's a gift from Jesus. This brings incredible peace to you. When others are freaking out, worrying, stress out, dreaming, looking ahead with horrible foresight just believing that the worse is gonna happen. You're at peace, just total peace. Then it says joy. Well, so many Christians today don't have joy. Many of them are going back to where they have a little bit of happiness. Which is getting drunk, doing drugs, you know, pursuing pleasure in areas that the Bible says don't do this because this is going to destroy your life. So if you want to literally walk in the kingdom of God, I mean, at His right hand are pleasures forever more. What an incredible promise and he's not talking about heaven. We know heaven is. He means down here. You can walk in a place of peace, a place of joy.
And what's unique about this peace and this joy is that the world has a peace and the joy only when you control the storms. You stop them. You can meditate for a while, use some of that form and find peace. But when you get right back up and walk into your life off with your meditation or off with your meditation mat. Then it all comes back on you. But a believer can learn to live in the kingdom, to learn to work the kingdom of God. The Bible says in Matthew 6, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Not this crazy, you gotta do it all yourself. You gotta be good enough for God to look after you kind of righteousness. And then you're gonna find a completely different area and way of living.
So when you go on to Galatians, it goes on to talk about. I'm a reading from the Expanded and listen to what says. It says, "The wrong things that this flesh does are very clear and very evident, very obvious. I mean, sexually unfaithful, not pure, taking part in sexual sins, a depravity, a promiscuity, worshiping other gods, idolatry. Putting something before God. You know, whether it's your money. Whether it's your status. Something is there before God, doing witchcraft literally somehow. And this could be talking about Christians doing things that aren't in the Bible in their prayer life or in their talking. Literally are getting involved in witchcraft, sorcery. Then it talks about being hateful, hostile, antagonistic, making trouble for people.
So you're bringing discord and strife. You're being jealous. You're being angry. You're being selfish. You're making people angry with each other. You're causing trouble between other people, causing divisions amongst people. Feeling envy, being drunk, having wild parties, carousing, orgies, and doing things like these. I say I warn you now as I warned you before. Those who do these things will not inherit the kingdom of God". So it's talking here about this thing called flesh.
Now, other people teach, and they'll teach as though you have two natures. The nature of sin and the nature of righteousness. And that these two natures are here fighting each other. Which you can't have two natures because you would be, like it'd be, would drive you crazy. You have one nature now. It's the nature of Christ and your nature comes from your spirit. You just have a flesh that is untrained. There's a new nature within you. It's the nature of Christ. And yes, you do have to renew your mind and make your body a living sacrifice. So we've got to understand this, otherwise, so many Christians, you think it's the devil. And because of your belief, you give the devil power. The devil has no power. But if you believe he does, wow, then he just comes in and takes that opportunity. You can't give the devil authority, but you can give the devil opportunity.
So many Christians with the authority to change their lives, with the power to live their own lives in a better way. They're teaching in what they believe is so off that they are unwittingly giving the devil power. And they believe in his power more and more as this addiction spirals out of control, as anger spirals out of control. And begins to control their thought life, every emotion, their work, even their relationship with God, their church relationships. If you don't deal with these things by putting them to death, because the flesh is easily controlled. According to the Bible, by the power of God that is within you. And I will show you how simple that this is.
So first of all, let's just remember. It's very rare that we see the devil being dealt with in the New Testament. There are times where, you know, the demon possessed girl was trying to tell Paul's fortune, or she was just saying some things when the apostles were in that city and finally, one just totally quiet and come out. So led by the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit guide them. This woman wants freedom. She'll take freedom and commanded it to go and he has authority there. Other than that, we don't have crazy wild times of prayer that some intercessory prayer people go to. We literally have them believing in the cross. Paul said that he did not just preach crazy things. He preached the cross of Christ. And then there was an incredible man at the station of miracles and signs and wonders.
So many Christians don't want to go back to the incredible teaching of the scripture. They want to make up. There are so many Christian books today that aren't worth reading. I know because I buy them, and I throw them out. I buy them. I throw them out because they're not scriptural. And it's like beating the air. It's like we begin to think we're fighting the devil and he's just laughing because in your focus on the devil as your problem. You're giving him power. If you really believe that your anger is because the attack of the devil, then every time you feel angry, you will believe the devil is here today and he's making me do this.
So you're focused on the devil and you suddenly begin to believe on the inside. Man is he powerful. I'm getting angrier and angrier. The devil is really on my case. Oh, man. He must have a hoard of demons on my case because now I'm so angry. I'm punching the walls. Oh, the devil is really on my case because now. That's crazy doctrine. Okay, if you've given your life to Christ, then you are a new creation, new creation in your spirit. And here at Galatians is talking about that all these things that are going on. And then it says, "I warn you now as I warned you before. Those who do these things will not inherit God's kingdom". Okay.
So some people think here that you can't go to heaven if you have any of these problems. Well, everyone of us has had thoughts that were impure. And so you had to deal with them. Everyone's dealt with things like jealousy. Everyone's dealing with things like getting angry, being selfish. Everyone of us has probably caused division, you know, amongst us in our relationships. So when it says you'll not inherit God's kingdom, it's talking about living. So the kingdom of God while you're on this planet is not meet and drink but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. So it's saying here even if you've given your life to Christ and you make heaven, that you will not be able to live, like in the kingdom on this planet. You're not going to enjoy the righteousness. You're not going to enjoy these things that God has given you.
And so this is crucial that we understand this area. You've got Jesus on the inside of you, a new nature on the inside of you. Let's now see the power that we have. Now, here he's talking about the fruit of the Spirit. These are things that grow and it doesn't grow from willpower of the mind. Your mind makes a choice. You learn to allow the power of God to flow through you and these are the fruit. And then it goes on talking about love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, longsuffering, depending upon which version you're reading. They use different words, but they all mean the same thing. These are this incredibly powerful strengths that a Christian has. When you walk in love, when you want to be angry and jealous and you're walking in love towards another brother. You're not jealous. You're excited for him.
When you began to have longsuffering, and someone that you love is going through a period of time going through something that you can't control because it's their freewill. But that affects you. This longsuffering is not, "Oh, I'm suffering through things". No, no. There is the stunning patience. This ability to believe God and a laugh and to love and to enjoy life even when someone you love like your spouse or a child or a parent or a best friend or your partner in business is going through a rough time and you can't control what they do. How do you get through that with joy and peace when they so impact your life? The only way is by this, this fruit of the Spirit. And if you do not read this, I'm gonna tell everyone. You need to be reading this and making sure that you are focused and that you believed this.
Now, this really ties in with the renewing of the mind because the renewing of the mind in Romans 12 where it says make your body a living sacrifice totally acceptable to God. Which is your reasonable service. And in verse 2 says don't be conformed to this world. Meaning, that you are going to still allow, even though you only have the nature of Jesus, your mind and body have to be retrained because they gave in to all these selfish issues. It says you need to be transformed. This transformation is amazing. It's powerful. And this transformation as you begin to renew your mind with God's Word.
As you begin to realize what Jesus did on the cross, His death, His burial, His resurrection. And then He seated at the righthand of the Father is something few preachers seemed to preach about. Or I'll preach on three keys to this and six keys to that and how to have courage. And it's all good teaching, I think. But if you've got to start at the foundation. If you as a believer, don't even know what the cross to the throne means in your life. Then you don't even understand the new covenant. And so this new covenant is crucial.
So it says in the Bible in Ephesians 4 that I need to put off the old ways and put on the new. So let's say that you struggle with depression. Oh, let's say you struggle with this bluesy, this down. You're never happy. And so you begin to look at the fruit of the Spirit and you begin to realize what Jesus did on the cross. As you find out that He died for your sins. He took your punishment. He took the wrath of God. That when Jesus arose, He brought resurrection power that you have as well. Now that He's seated at the righthand of the Father in authority. That this authority that Jesus has, you share in because you are in Christ. You begin to believe the stance of the New Testament. It changes the way you look at things.
Now, you look at feeling unhappy and down and bluesy and depress whatever verb, whatever word you want to put. And the Bible says you can put that off. What? You can put it off and you can bring on joy. Now, this joy isn't being brought on from heaven. It's actually being brought out from your spirit where Jesus is. Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. Whereas most Christians are trying to pray down joy. They're trying to pray down peace. They don't realize this joy and this peace is in their spirit because that's where Jesus is. And greater is the joy in your spirit. Okay? That the unhappiness and the bluesiness and the depression that is in the world that you feel is controlling you.
So once you believe and faith is such a crucial issue. And you can only believe by getting into the Word says in Romans 10:17, faith cometh by hearing and understanding the Word of God. And I'm going to continually say this, especially what does the cross mean when He dies? And what does the cross, what is, you know, His death, His burial, His resurrection, and then He seated at the righthand of the Father. These are all crucial meanings and are talked about through the entire New Testament. And people just seemed to not see what's there. They just literally take New Testament scriptures and they rebuild an old covenant that says your performance is what allows God to get involved in your life. And this is not true. So these fruits of the Spirit. This joy, this peace, this patience is not something you have to pray for.
In fact, when you pray for joy, when you pray for peace. Did you know that you are suddenly putting yourself into unbelief? If you are praying for patience. You don't pray for patience. You grow it. You don't pray for joy. You grow it. You don't pray for love. You grow it. Because it's already in your spirit deep within you. And as you go into God's Word and you begin to get knowledgeable. Oh, I have authority because I am a new creation. I have authority and power over depression. Now, over this anger, over this jealousy. What do I do because I still feel angry? The Bible says put it off and put on this joy. Put on this peace. When you know you can, then you just start speaking that way. You get up in the morning. I put off anger. I put off jealousy. I put it off and I put on joy. It's mine and in the name of Jesus I live in joy.
Now, that day as you begin to go about, and you sense anger rising up. Just stop. No, I put off anger in Jesus name and I put on joy in the name of Jesus. And as you continue to live your life this way, this joy begins to grow in a powerful way. And as the joy grows, you'll sense it. You'll know it. Now, as it grows, it never has to go back down. You just stay in God's Word joy grows. The peace is growing. I mean, over here patience is growing, kindness, and goodness. All this powerful. There are nine powerful attributes, nine powerful strengths of a believer that begin to grow in your life. And now all of your relationships change. In your own mind you live in this incredible thing called you are now experiencing the kingdom of God because you're not living out of the flesh and all of its, the way it was trained to be angry, to be jealous. You know, this selfish side. This selfishness that you've learned in your old life and that old you is dead and gone. You are a new creation.
Now, stop believing you've got a demon problem. Okay? It's so, it's rare, rare, rare. And by the way, even if you did. Let's say that you are a born-again believer. But the enemy saw you dealing with anger. Your whole life made you do hurtful things to people because of your anger. You might have hurt people. You might have gone to jail because of anger issues, of assault, battery. Anger is so controlling you. And you give your life to Jesus Christ and He comes in and you are a brand-new creation. Now you still have to deal with this old training of giving into anger. Instantly if anger rises up, you just give in to it. Oh, no. Now I put it off. I don't give into it. I put it off. How do you do that? It's just by knowing in your head and by often saying it. I put off anger. I put on joy. I choose joy. I choose peace. I choose the beautiful characteristics of living in the Spirit. And they're yours. They're already there. It's this believing that.
And so I want to challenge you. Our time is up. We'll pick up here on this next session talking about the same thing. But I want to make sure that you understand. And today take this and just believe. I am a new creation. I'm going to challenge you to go to our messages and find messages about what happened at the cross. What happened when Jesus took sin, became sin? What happened when He took the curse of the law? Galatians 3:13 says that curse is gone. It's no longer allowed in your life. And then when He rose again, in this resurrection power. That may Jesus rise up, helps you to rise up because I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life that I now live, I live not in the flesh. I live by the faith in the Son of God, who gave Himself for me. This new life is so different, so unique. And I'm telling you, it's gonna transform your life. We love you. Watch us again same time. God bless you.
Part 2
Hey, everybody! It's so good to have you with us again. It's exciting to get into God's Word. I find that if you're bored with the Bible, then you haven't really begun to understand the concepts that are being taught in the Bible. It's just become a book about how to deal with your behavior and dealing with behavior is important but nowhere near as important to being completely transformed and living in such freedom and joy. Now, this is a second and final message in a series called Flesh or Demons. So we did one. This is a second one and we quickly review. We talked about so much of the body of Christ believes its demons that are messing with them. And so we have incredible doctrines.
Now, by incredible, I don't mean good, just incredibly long and detailed about how to deal with the devil. As though once you command him to go, he's not going to reattack. As though, and so what we've done is we have given him power over our lives. Now, not authority but opportunity. And so many believers have the devil issues in their own power against them. You know, if I walk out of my house and leave the door wide open and thieves are walking by the streets. I haven't given them authority to come into my house. I've simply given them opportunity. Satan has no authority. You can't give him authority because Jesus has all authority. But you can give him opportunity and he will come in and steal from your peace. He'll steal from your joy. He'll help wreck your relationships, etcetera. But you don't have to be screaming or binding the devil. You just simply got to learn like we talked last time about renewing your mind in the Word, knowing who you are, putting off, putting on. And so I'm gonna continue. We're just going to dive in again today.
Now, we've teaching from Galatians 5 where it talks about the flesh. Now, I believe the NIV it was, in one of its former translations took the word "flesh" and called it nature. As though a Christian had two natures. The nature of Christ and the nature of death, the nature of sin. And that because you can still commit sin. You must have the nature of sin. But its, you know, and that's not our topic. But there is no way you have two natures. You have one nature which is in your spirit and your nature flows out of your spirit. And so Jesus is in there. But you do have a body, you've got to retrain. And you do have a mind, you have to renew because the old you allowed every desire, every fleshly thing. It's very self-centered selfish. And so that's why it says in Romans 12:1 and 2, we have to make our body a living sacrifice.
Now, it's not, "Oh, it's such a struggle. I've really". No, no, no. You have the power to do it. Because greater is He who is in you than anything you've got to deal with. I just can't control my temper. I can't control my drinking. I can't control my food. See, that belief empowers it. And as you get into God's Word, you will discover the incredible power that you do have. Now, in addition to what we talked about last time. I want to go in the 2 Corinthians 10:3-6, it says here, "For though we walk, we live in this flesh body, we are not carrying on our warfare". Okay, one of the things that we're fighting. We're not carrying it on according to the flesh and using mere human weapons.
Here is where many Christians struggle. You know, they look at their fear, their jealousy. You know, their strong sexual desires are out of control and they're trying to just have more willpower. But willpower is of the mind. It's of the soul. And last time we talked about the fruit of the Spirit. It's not the fruit of the soul or your mind where you have to have... Now, you should initiate willpower absolutely. But be very aware that within you is the power of the Spirit. And so the way for you to become powerful in life, have a mind that is so at peace is to develop these nine fruits. These nine fruits of the Spirit will give you such peace that in business if you're running. I run multiple organizations, all have a need millions of dollars with staff and issues going on.
And people say, "I have never seen you freaked out. I've never, well, that's not me. I've just learned to develop these fruits". And the word fruit is a heart. But these strengths, these attributes, that are attributes and strengths of God but they're mine and they will grow up in me. And a fruit means it starts small and it gets bigger and bigger and bigger. So for the rest of your life joy can become stronger and stronger and grow into such a crop. Like if you plant one apple seed, you're not gonna just get one apple seed back. You're gonna get a tree of apples and seven to ten seeds in every apple. Tens of thousands of apple seeds comeback to you.
When you begin to plant God's Word into your heart according to teachings of Mark 4. Feeding on God's Word, studying, listening to teachers who know what they're talking about because there are some that don't. You can tell. But as you begin to get into God's Word, you will be stunned to recognize that this strength just begins to grow. And you don't have this instantaneous power. You have this fruit begins to grow. You begin to find yourself being able to put off anger. You begin to put on peace. You begin to put on joy. You begin to put on longsuffering. And it just gets better and better and better until literally you can walk through situations where everybody's freaking, everybody's in fear. And you're solving it and you never give into it because the peace that you've been growing and it's like a fruit of the Spirit. It's from your spirit. It's not from your mind.
Now, it engages your mind but it's not from your mind. Now, this is crucial. So it says, "For though we walk, live in the flesh, we are not carrying on our warfare according to the flesh and using mere human weapons. For the weapons of our warfare are not physical, but they are mighty before God for the overthrow and destruction of strongholds". Okay, stop right there. These strongholds are not strongholds over cities, not strongholds over countries, not strongholds over companies. That's not what it's talking about, okay? And people take it way out of context. This is speaking to the individual. And here's what it says, that we are mighty. Whatever strongholds it's talking about, we are incredibly powerful to pull them down. Here they are. "Inasmuch as we refute arguments, theories, reasonings". And then it says, "And every proud lofty thing that sets itself up against the knowledge of God".
All right. So here it is saying that if you want to know the power to get up and walk through your life out in power and victory, then you develop the fruit of the Spirit. These incredible weapons, it doesn't say it's screaming at the devil. It doesn't say I bind the devil. In fact, even the verses in Matthew in chapter 16 and chapter 18 where it talks about that whatever we bind is bound, whatever we loose is loosed. It's talking about us in everyday life. It's what we believe. That what's being loosed into our lives is either happening by default because we haven't known this. We're the ignorant of it. And we aren't needed to lose good things into our lives, and we need to say no to all the negative things. Okay?
So this is not a prayer of binding and loosing. There's a lot of you thought it was a prayer. Have you say, "Oh, I bind the spirit of lust in the name of Jesus". How long does it stay bound? Do you actually tie him up? Do you throw him into hell? There's a lot of crazy list. None of the above. In fact, all you need to do to push off a lust for other things that are wrong and is to get God's Word, grow God's Word in your heart, and then you begin to develop love. The true love of God. You begin to grow patience. You begin to grow longsuffering. These nine strengths all begin to rise up. So then it says, the warfare that really pulls down, just rips down. What is it ripping down? Theories. Everybody listening to me has got a theory on something. You've got a theory as to why some people don't get healed. You've got a theory about why you struggle with lust. You've got a theory as to why you deal, and you've read something somewhere that it's a generational sin and you can't control it for one guy.
And another guy saying, "Well, you know, this is just the way I am. So people will just have to love me the way I am". Others might use the grace teaching and say, "You know, God still loves me, anyway". And of course, He does. But they don't see that God's grace isn't just His unmerited favor. That's how you get God's grace. God's grace is His ability given to you to pull down all these arguments, all these theories. You've reason through why your marriage doesn't get any better and you always blame your spouse. You always blame somebody else. Whereas God's Word teaches us to simply look at ourselves, get God's Word in us. So where is this power? Is as we refute arguments, theories, reasonings. There are things in you that caused you to believe. And you believe this is just who you are, an angry, lustful, or a bluesy down person that rarely laughs.
Well, that's a lie from the enemy. Because joy is something that a believer can grow. It's not just an instantaneous. Pray for me so I can have your joy. I've been growing joy my entire life. And there are times I don't do well at that and I've got to get back into God's Word. So I just can't give you the level of joy that I have by just praying for you, okay? I've developed, and some of the fruits are developed good and some aren't like everybody else here. I've developed a longsuffering so that people around me, situations around me that I'm not in control of but they affect me. That I can just walk through it. And you say, "Pray for me that I can have longsuffering". You can't transfer the fruit of the Spirit. You can only grow it in your life. And so if you want joy, peace, love, patience. If you want this goodness, this kindness, this self-control. There's a good one.
Did you know that self-control is a thing of the soul, because you've got soulless self-control. People in the world use it all the time and some powerfully. But there's a self-control that is a fruit of the Spirit. It grows out of your spirit. So when we talk about the flesh and about demons, I want you to see and minimize how much you think the devil's got power. It's not the devil's power. It's simply you not doing the work of renewing your mind putting off old thoughts, old emotions. Put that emotion off. It shouldn't be there. What emotion? That emotion that you feel left out. That emotion everyone is talking about you. You believed. You've got these theories about how people treat you. You've got these arguments that every time you try to go do something positive.
This argument starts going in your mind. Did you know, that thinking is asking yourself questions and answering. That's what thinking is. And so if you ask yourself the wrong questions, an argument begins to go on in your head. I don't think they want me. Well, maybe. I don't think so. And you begin to have this argument. These arguments need to be pulled down. They need to be destroyed. These reasonings. These proud thoughts. What is a proud thought? Anything that is not in agreement with the Word of God is a proud thought. And if you're gonna be ready. You know, in verse 6 it talks about a readiness to punish these disobedient thoughts. What it means is this, as you begin to and I'm giving you stuff I've taught for hours. I'm giving you in one 22-minute message.
So get this message and listen to it over and over, and get your Bible and begin to study it for yourself. You can have the nine strengths, attitudes of the Spirit growing from your spirit and they continue to grow in strength. So that as you begin to go out into this world, as you have people that stab you in the back, lie about you, hurt you, people you love going through bad seasons of life. That you know how to handle it, deal with it, and it does not encroach into your joy. You know, even you married people. You're not supposed to be so intertwined with your spouse that when they have a bad day, you can't have a good day.
I heard this crazy thought. If mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy. You know, that's a demonic thought. I don't care. I know you say it. Men look after your wives. Absolutely. Wives look after your husbands. But to say that I cannot be happy until my wife is happy is to give somebody else complete control of your moods, of your emotions, and get so enmeshed with the word one. No. It says you're one flesh. It's talking about sexuality. It's talking about this beautiful romance and coming together of a man and a wife and there's so much that you share and join together on. But you are not so enmeshed that when one person goes off the rails, you're off the rails. When one person is angry, you're angry. When one person is not happy, you have to be unhappy. That's becoming too enmeshed. You are to be one with Christ.
Okay. That's where you're to be one with and you're to be an incredible blessing. And as you grow the fruit of the Spirit, the strengths of the Spirit in Galatians 5, you are one of the most loveable persons that the world can ever find because you're so full of love. You're so full of joy. You're so full of peace. You're so full patience. You're so full of these incredible strengths and attributes. That as you keep growing them in your life by just spending time in the Word and having a relationship with Jesus. That this relationship with Him literally makes you incredibly powerful, incredibly strong. Now, as you go into the Word of God in Ephesians 6:10-20, it talks about this, from another direction. Let's go here.
It says, "In conclusion", in Ephesian 6:10, "be strong in the Lord, be empowered through your union with Him, draw your strength from Him". But now when I point up, I should actually be pointing here because greater is He who is in you. There's a strength in you. There is a joy in you. There's a peace. So it says draw your strength from Him. That strength which His boundless might provides. Then it says put on God's whole armor. Now, as you go into the teaching on the armor, there's just a bunch of crazy stuff that's been taught about that. Each piece of the armor is actually a belief. You need to understand what is righteousness, what is truth, what is salvation, what is the sword of the Spirit.
When you read this, Paul is just trying to show us that when you understand righteousness, oh, man are you protected. When you understand salvation, oh, man. And so as you learn and grow in these things in God's Word, then the enemy has no ability because he's got no power and you're not giving him any opportunity. You can't give him authority, okay. But you can give him opportunities where he uses. Literally, you're believing against you because you begin to believe in him. But as it goes on in Romans, we've got a few minutes left. And then it says after these different pieces of the armor, it talks about the sword that the Spirit wields which is the Word of God.
Now, a lot of people think this sword. Now, listen close. You don't miss this. This is concluding thought. This gonna help many of you mature believers. This sword of the Spirit doesn't mean that you're screaming at demons and waving the sword and speaking the Word at demons all the time. If you go to Hebrews 4:12, there it says the word of God is quick and powerful sharper than any double-edged sword. And it doesn't talk about fighting demons with the sword. If you go to the last part of that verse, it talks about able to divide between soul and spirit. And the very thoughts and intentions of the heart. Did you know that I would look at this Word for sword?
And yes, of course, God's Word pushes back the enemy. Absolutely! But I don't even think about it. I just grow in God's Word, grow in the strengths, and without even thinking about this guy. There are the odd times that I'm in a middle of doing something for the kingdom of God and I can see the enemy. It's just a weird thing when you just know he's bringing people against us to stop it and I'll command the assignment to stop in Jesus name. But that's, you know, but other than that, me myself what's going on in my life. I simply grow these nine strengths, all right. Then, and so this sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God prayed.
When you pray with God's Word, there is something that goes on deep in you that is like a cutting off almost like a scalpel we could say. Where it's cutting off that growth that is no good and putting it off and bringing God's Word on the inside. And so this powerful Word of God needs to be prayed. It says the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God pray at all times on every occasion, in every season in the Spirit, with all manner of prayer and entreaty. And keep alert watch with strong purpose and perseverance, interceding in behalf of all the saints God's consecrated people. And then Paul says, pray for me, that freedom of utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth to proclaim boldly the mystery of the good news the Gospel. For which I am an ambassador in a coupling chain in prison. Pray that I can declare it boldly and courageously, as I ought to.
Paul does not ask for prayer to keep the devil back. He does not ask for prayer for protection. He does not ask for prayer to be free. He's simply saying I want to be able to speak boldly more clearly. I want it to cut through when I speak to soldiers, I want to get them saved. When I speak to kings, I want to understand their language and get them saved. He says pray for me. Begin to pray God's Word. And as you pray God's Word, recognize who you are. The authority that you have. Recognize the devil as a defeated foe.
And as you begin to declare God's Word, maybe you should stick to Galatians 5:22 and on for weeks and just pray it and declare that I am growing in joy. I am growing in love. I am growing in longsuffering, in goodness, in self-control. I'm growing. This is a fruit of my recreated spirit and these strengths are mine and I am like Christ. And as you begin to see that, when something comes on that is against those nine strengths, anger, jealousy. You just stop and put it off. You don't even believe a minute that that is you. You don't even believe for a minute that it's got power over you.
That was my old training and that old man is dead. I'm putting that off and I'm putting on this new man. These beautiful strengths. This Jesus that I have a relationship. I'm gonna live as He is, so are we in this world. Well, I've packed a lot of teaching into that 22 minutes. I hope you get a hold of this message and just play it over and over. You're gonna find a level of freedom. You've never been able to find in your entire life of reading the Word and not understanding the teaching from the cross to the throne. Your authority who you are in Christ. Put off all that stuff. Put on these incredible strengths, attributes in Galatians 5:22. We love you. We'll see you same time.