Matt Hagee - How To Hypnotize A Generation
The Bible says, in a number of places, that certain things are going to happen when we get to the end times. For example, Paul in his letter to Timothy. In the second letter, he says, "Know this: that in the end times, perilous times will come, because men will be lovers of themselves". And then he lists an entire, long diagnostic of the culture in which they would be greedy and lovers of pleasure: and that they would enjoy sin: and that they would hate authority. And I don't think you have to look at that list too long before you can identify those characters in the culture today. In another place, it said that there would come a generation that would ever be growing in knowledge. They would know more than any other, but they would be getting further and further away from the truth: that they would have a form of godliness but they would deny the power thereof.
And I don't think you have to look too far in the world today and know that for as much as we know, we've forgotten what we should remember. Paul says something that's quite unique about the end times. And I believe that it is something we need to hear and understand today. And it begins with this phrase, "Now the spirit expressly says". Paul was not generalizing here. Paul was saying, Timothy, the Holy Spirit told me to write these exact precise words down. This is not a moment of inspiration. This is not something that is researched and conceived and given theory to. This is something that the voice of God has said, "Expressly," that people would walk away from their faith. He didn't say that the wicked would continue to be wicked. He said that the faithful would walk away from their faith.
And the reason they would do it is for two causes, deceiving spirits and a doctrine of demons. And he said, the longer that they listened to the deceiving spirits, and the longer that they listened to the doctrine of demons, their conscience would be seared, meaning it would simply not feel anything at all. When you look at the world that we live in today, it's easy to see that here in the United States we have a seared conscience. We have a culture that has so accepted the narrative of the day: that we are receiving deception on so many levels. We've literally grown numb to the lies and we just choose to exist in spite of them. Every platform that there can be any kind of persuasion given, we find that there's a lie. Politically, we're being lied to. Often times what they identify as a problem is a made-up reason for them to take control of your life.
Have you ever noticed that if you're under oath and you lie to congress, that's a felony, but if congress lies to you, they're running for office? In entertainment, we're being lied to. Go pay attention to what your children are watching either on the television screen or on the little screen that you've put in their hand with that cell phone or that iPad. Everything that is being shoveled to them is telling them that your Christian values, and your faith in family, and the things that you hold dear, aren't worth having. How many shows show the married couple as frustrated and the father as a fool, and the teenager as a genius, and those who are living in sin as the happiest couple on the block? Why? Because it's a lie. Any place where the teenager is the smartest person in the room is a lie.
In education, we're being lied to. Education, for years, has discussed things as theory. But the reality is they indoctrinate them as if they were fact. They've told an entire generation that they have evolved: that they were not created. That's a lie. In business, in industry, in family, in churches, in pulpits, in our hearts, in our homes, all over our generation, we are receiving nothing but deceiving spirits and the doctrine of demons. And here in 1 Timothy 4:1 and 2, Paul is telling Timothy, pay attention, because this is how you hypnotize a generation.
Now I choose that phrase "Hypnotize" because it's exactly what's happening in our world today and it's happened before. All of us are aware of what a hypnotic trance looks like. Even if all you've done is seen it in the entertainment and movies that you've watched, you have some mystical character reach into his pocket and he pulls out a time piece on a chain or some medallion, and he swings it back in forth in front of his subject. And he says, "You are getting very sleepy". And through these even low, methodical, comforting words, he begins to lull them into a trance. And somehow in the midst of the trance, he shuts off their conscience and he turns on their subconscience. And then when they're in the hypnotic trance, they are easily able to do whatever their magician, whatever their master says. It's a lie.
"You are getting very sleepy". No, I'm not. Now regardless of how ridiculous this betrayal seems, even the most certified and qualified medical minds will tell you that there is a measure of truth to hypnotic therapy. Under a hypnotic state, you can either resurrect suppressed memories or even more dangerous, you can create alternative realities that don't really exist. You tell somebody who's hypnotized, they're cold, and they'll start to shiver. You tell them they're hot: they'll start to sweat. You tell them they're a chicken, they'll scratch and cluck all the way across the floor. Why? Because they're believing a lie. Their conscience, the part of them that shuts on and off real from fake, has been numbed and the subconscience reacts without any inhibition.
Throughout history, certain nations and generations have been hypnotized. Let's look at our past. In the past hundred years, one of the most hypnotic leaders on the face of the earth was Adolf Hitler. Consider the years that he was in power in Germany between 1933 and 1945. He hypnotized the entire nation. He placed an entire generation of young people into a trance. And through lies and manipulations, he took Nazism and caused them to murder 11.283.000 people. Six million of these murdered are Jews, which is what they call the holocaust. The other five million plus were other undesirables like christians, and gypsies, and those who did not fit into the master race.
This 11.283.000 people that were systematically slaughtered by Hitler and the Nazis, they do not include the 5.200.000 Germans, who died in World War II. Nor do they include the 28.736.000 Europeans, who died during the Nazi regime. This is just a group of people that were targeted and killed because they did not agree with the governmental plan that Hitler had. How did he do it? He hypnotized them. How do you hypnotize a generation? You lie to them. People say, "Well Hitler's not the only one who's ever killed people". No, that's very true. You can look all over history and find genocide. But genocide comes in many forms and fashions.
In the last hundred years, there's been genocide in Cambodia, in Russia, in China, in North Korea, in Turkey. And most of the time, it just involved rolling a tank through your neighborhood. Whoever had the most armaments was able to do what they wanted to. But in Hitler's situation, something was unique. It was not done by just brute force. Hitler got people to line up, load themselves in trains, and be shipped to their death. How? By putting human beings in a trance. How did he get German citizens to starve 11 million people to death, and then push them into gas chambers, and then burn them in furnaces, and pretend like this was part of a plan? They were hypnotized.
How do you hypnotize an entire generation? You lie to them. And right now, in this generation in America, everywhere you turn, we are being lied to. Social media is a lie. People take all day to post perfect pic. Wrong. It's not perfect: you're in it. You're an imperfect person. And the problem with this is that there are thousands and hundreds of thousands of young people, who are scrolling through a feed all day long, thinking that if my life were like that life, I'd have the perfect life. But since I can't take the perfect pic, my life isn't worth living. That's a lie! We're being lied to in the news media. And no matter how many times they're caught in a lie, you know what? We tune in at 10 o'clock. You want them to change their narrative? Shut them off! We're being lied to in our education. Educationally, we've taught for the last 40 years that our nation's history is a corrupt history: that we are a bad people. And it's intended to intimidate and create a false sense of guilt. That's not true. It's a lie!
Politicians stand on platforms, and they say, "We need sudden change. We need rapid change. We need everything to change". And guess what? It's a lie. What happens when you are constantly bombarded by these methodical lies? One, you're either put into a trance and you're hypnotized: two, you become apathetic just because you listen to it so much, you forget to stand up against it: or three, you are intimidated into submission. In considering the power that Hitler had in accomplishing his task in Nazi Germany, I researched the Nuremberg trials. The Nuremberg trials are where the Nazis, who survived World War II, were brought to trial, and they testified about what they did and how they did it. And the master of the final solution for the murder of 11.283.000 people is a man by the name of Adolf Eichmann.
And Eichmann was interviewed under oath at the Nuremberg trials. And interestingly enough, it was almost with pleasure that he told the truth. And what he said was, "We lied. Whenever we took razor wire and we surrounded Jewish neighborhoods, we told them that it was a temporary necessity that was being caused by the war that we were fighting with Russia. It was a lie. Whenever we made them register and wear yellow stars on their sleeve so that they could be identified as people underneath German protection, and that there would not be any further restrictions placed on their community, it was a lie. Whenever we took bribes from them and we told them that the money that we were taking from them was going to buy them better lands and better houses and safer environments for their children and their children's children, we took the money, but it was a lie".
And then Eichmann testified at the Nuremberg trials that once he had methodically told these lies over a period of time and broken down the will of the individuals to the point that they were just ready to survive, he and 30 of his SS troops, none of them heavily armed, would walk into the town square and call all of the city together. And then Eichmann, in his own words, would deliver this speech. He'd say, "At last, I can report to you that the Russians are advancing on our Eastern front. I apologize for the hasty way that we've had to bring you into our protection". Think about that. He took the imprisonment and he spun it so that it would look like a benefit. Ever seen that done before? Then his next statement, "Unfortunately, there was no time to explain". Ever heard that before? "But I assure you: there's nothing to be concerned about".
Now I'm not going to ask you if you've ever heard that before. "We want only the best for you. You'll leave here shortly. You'll be sent to very fine places. Indeed you'll work there. Your wives will stay home. Your children will go to good schools, and you all will live wonderful lives. Now in just a few moments, we're going to be terribly crowded on these trains, but the journey is going to be short. So fathers, please keep your family together and board the rail cars in a very orderly manner. Understand we do not have much time, so please hurry". Then under a trance of hypnotic lies, 11.283.000 people walked in single-file lines onto rail cars that did not stop till they went through death camp doors in Auschwitz, or Treblinka, or Belzec, or one of the other 1100 camps that Nazis used to kill people. When you've got 1100 destinations of death, you didn't come up with this plan over night.
Hitler wrote in his book "Mein Kampf," "How fortunate that men don't think". He said, "Make the lie big, make it simple, and keep saying it. And eventually, they will believe it". How did Hitler come to power? When he stood in front of young people, he told them what they wanted to hear. He promised them change. He promised them new. He promised them better. He promised them different. He lied. When he spoke to farmers, he promised what they wanted to hear. He said, you'll get tax cuts, you'll have better prices for your food and your products. Guess what? He lied. When he talked to the common workers in the middle-class neighborhoods, he talked about redistributing wealth and how the high-profile business elites needed to give up some of their wealth that they had taken erroneously. He lied. When he spoke to the rich, he said he would crush communism, and he would end unions, and he would make a great economy. Guess what, folks? He lied. And it was under the influence of this hypnotic trance that he created the lies that marched Germany into an abyss of death.
How do you hypnotize a generation? Lie to them. This is why Jesus Christ said in John 8:32, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free". Paul said to Timothy, son, preach the word. Preach the word, because there will come a time when they will not endure sound doctrine, but they will heap up teachers for themselves, having itching ears. He was saying there would come a generation of people who would not want to be told what they need to hear, but they would long to hear what they want to hear. And if you're telling them the truth and they don't like it, they're going to throw you out.
Right now in America, we're witnessing a hypnotized generation. We have believed a lie. It has been repeated on so many platforms: we've not been able to know the difference between truth and a lie. And we're being led toward our destruction. You can list the lies, and we could talk about them for hours. But let's just consider three big ones very quickly. We've been told, for at least 40 years, an economic lie. The economic lie that we're being told is we've got such a complicated budget as a nation, and we've got complicated tax codes, and we've got complicated financial structures that are so complicated: a simple person like you couldn't understand it. That's why there's so many taxes. Guess what? It's a lie.
We've been told a historical lie. We've been told that our constitution is not adequate to defend freedom and liberty in the complicated world that we're living in. It was good enough for the founding fathers, but the founding fathers just didn't know what we would be facing whenever we invented internet and wifi. We've been told a political lie. We're being told that we need to radically change and implement drastic things in order to survive, and things like socialism need to come into the forefront if we're going to be able to sustain ourselves as a nation. It's a lie!
Now I want to very quickly connect some dots for you. If Satan is the father of lies, according to the Word of God: and demons are the ambassadors of Satan, if he is the father of lies, what do you think demons tell? You said it: I didn't. Demons tell lies. And they use lies and deceptive spirits to put people in a trance that sears their conscience. Here's the truth: the truth about our complicated financial situation and our complicated tax code is that if it was simple, there's no way 500 people in the senate and the congress could take billions of dollars from 300 million people in the streets. It's complicated so that they can find a way to get money from you without your endorsement of it, so they can fund programs that you would not want and you do not need. That's the truth.
"The Constitution" has been a great constitution. It has defended freedom and liberty for more than 240 years. And it will continue to do so. But in the years past where there was freedom and liberty, individual citizens had the courage to take responsibility for their own lives. They didn't expect the government to take care of them. They looked to God and their families to take care of them. And when they took responsibility, "The constitution" kept them free! We're hearing a lie about the change that we need to make. And church, I'm here to tell you that the most significant and the most vital change that needs to take place in this nation is not for a government system to shift, and not for a political party to lose power and another one to come in control.
The most significant change that needs to happen in this nation is for the apathetic, complacent, sleeping Christians in this nation to wake up from their deadly slumber and recognize that if we do not begin to use our freedom to defend our freedom, we are going to lose our freedom! So what do we do, church? Throw our hands up and say we're doomed? Walk around and believe the lie? Yes, master. Yes, master. Whatever you say, master. And as ridiculous as it seems, how pertinent to the life we're living. There's no time to explain. This is your new normal. Get used to this.
You know in every show that I ever watched where someone was hypnotized, do you know what ended it? When they woke up. Somehow, some way, somebody said something, and they woke up. When they woke up, all of the power of the person, who had them in their control, was broken. When they woke up, every plan that the enemy had in their life was suddenly destroyed. When they woke up, they were now able to understand the truth from a lie and able to make a decision for themselves that gave them the ability to live a better life. So what I'm saying to you, church, is it is time for us to wake up! Wake up, church, and recognize that we are not here to whine: we're here to win! Wake up, church, and recognize that we are the salt of the earth and the light of the world! Wake up, church, and declare that our God is greater than those who oppose us! Let God arise and let his enemies be scattered! Wake up, church! Give the Lord a shout of praise!
Remain standing. So how I want to end this service is by taking action. I want you to join me in praying, praying not only for this nation, but praying for your homes, praying for your families, praying for your children, praying for your city, praying for your nation: that we would wake up from the deceived and the deception that we're under: and that we would build our lives upon the truth of his word and walk forward into the freedom that he has already bought on our behalf. Would you raise your hands and join me in praying?
Holy Spirit, you would remind us that greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world. Heavenly Father, I pray that you have helped us to understand that your truth breaks the chain of every lie. It lifts the yoke of oppression. It destroys the barrier to our blessings. And today, based on your truth, I am declaring that in this sanctuary there are families, who are receiving answers to the prayers that they've been praying. There are businessmen, who are receiving provision in the areas of their need. There are physical bodies that are receiving health and strength into the sick and broken places of their life. There are relationships where a fence is dying and people are forgiving, Heavenly Father, and you're sending a wave of healing.
I'm asking you, Lord, to open up the heavens and pour out blessings that we cannot contain. I'm asking you, Lord, to rebuke the devourer for our sake. I'm asking you, Lord, to send a Holy Spirit wind and fire into this nation, into this church, into this city, into this state: that we would see your hand move and do great and mighty things once again.
Your word says, "Call upon me and I'll answer you, and I'll show you great and mighty things that you know not". Lord, we do not know what tomorrow holds, but we know you hold tomorrow. Lord, we do not know how we're going to thrive, but you have promised that you would not withhold any good thing from us. Lord, we do not know about the storm clouds on the horizon, but we declare that our God is riding on the wings of that storm, and he is going to deliver and make a way where there seems to be no way. Now, in Jesus' name, let God arise and let his enemies be scattered. In Jesus' name, let every weapon that has been formed against us not prosper. In Jesus' name, let the mouth of every liar be silenced. Let the tongue of every deceiver quit. Let the teeth of the enemy be knocked out, in Jesus' name. We ask these things and we receive them, in faith believing. And all of God's children said, praise the Lord!
I'm asking you, Lord, to open up the heavens and pour out blessings that we cannot contain. I'm asking you, Lord, to rebuke the devourer for our sake. I'm asking you, Lord, to send a Holy Spirit wind and fire into this nation, into this church, into this city, into this state: that we would see your hand move and do great and mighty things once again.
Your word says, "Call upon me and I'll answer you, and I'll show you great and mighty things that you know not". Lord, we do not know what tomorrow holds, but we know you hold tomorrow. Lord, we do not know how we're going to thrive, but you have promised that you would not withhold any good thing from us. Lord, we do not know about the storm clouds on the horizon, but we declare that our God is riding on the wings of that storm, and he is going to deliver and make a way where there seems to be no way. Now, in Jesus' name, let God arise and let his enemies be scattered. In Jesus' name, let every weapon that has been formed against us not prosper. In Jesus' name, let the mouth of every liar be silenced. Let the tongue of every deceiver quit. Let the teeth of the enemy be knocked out, in Jesus' name. We ask these things and we receive them, in faith believing. And all of God's children said, praise the Lord!