Rabbi Schneider - Learn How to Exercise Spiritual Authority
You see, we find that the first thing that Jesus did after he came out of the Jordan River was he went into the wilderness to battle against the devil. And every time the devil sought to bring Jesus into bondage, Jesus countered and ascended Satan's strategy by, listen now, by speaking the Word of God. Every time Satan said something Jesus countered it, get this now, by speaking back. It's interesting that Jesus didn't just not respond because he knew what the Bible said. Of course in Jesus's day, he had it memorized all in his heart because they didn't carry around leather bound, you know, books like you and I do today that we call the Bible. They, they were in scrolls and they were in portions, and in different synagogues, etc.
Jesus had it in his heart. But it's interesting that when the devil came against Jesus, Jesus didn't just keep it in his heart and meditate on the truth, but he spoke it. And the Bible tells us not only did Jesus speak back to the devil in Matthew, chapter 4, to the place that Satan began to flee from him by the end of the experience because Satan couldn't gain victory over him. But we find that as Jesus continued on in his ministry, beloved one, that he used the same strategy. He cast the spirits out by speaking to them.
The Scripture says in Matthew, chapter 8, he cast them out with a word. And so today I want to begin by sharing with you how important it is to speak at the devil. I'm not talking about talking to the devil. I'm talking, beloved ones, about speaking at the devil. When Jesus delivered people, how did he do it? He spoke to the demons. He commanded the demon to go. He cast them out with the Word. And this strategy, beloved, of believing and speaking is fundamental to the Word of God. The Bible tells us in the Book of Romans, for example, that the way that we entered into a saving relationship with God, the way we entered into our supernatural salvation, is we believed in our heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, and then we spoke with our mouth that Jesus is our Lord.
So how did salvation happen? By believing in our heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, and then confessing, speaking with our mouth that Jesus is Lord. And it isn't until we speak it that something happens, that there's a divine transaction that takes place in the realm of the spirit that brought us into the salvation experience. And that same phenomenon continues all through the teaching of Jesus. Jesus said, if you believe in your heart and do not doubt, you'll not only say to the mountain be moved and cast into the sea, but nothing will be impossible. And so we need to believe and speak, and we need to speak, beloved, to spirits.
Now listen, some of you already when I'm saying that you're getting the, you know, he's talking about, you know, being crazy. It sounds insane, speaking to spirits. But Jesus spoke to the spirits. Look in Matthew, 4, look in Luke, 4. Look at how he dealt with demons throughout the Scripture. And the strategy is the same for us today. Speaking communicates thoughts and demons operate in the realm of thought. I want you to think about this. A word spoken is the materialization, get this now, of a thought. So behind every word is a thought. And demons operate in spiritual places primarily in the realm, get this now, of thought. And they operate, get it now, through thought transference.
And I shared with you earlier in the Book of Chronicles, 1 Chronicles, 21:1, how Satan put a thought in David's head and David didn't recognize the devil was the one that put the thought in his head. David thought it came from his own mind and so he acted on it and found himself overcome by darkness. And so we need to recognize, beloved, that demons operate through what I'm calling thought transference. They transfer their thoughts into the minds of human beings. That's what they're seeking to do. And demons are looking for somebody to have a place of occupancy in. In other words, we're not talking about possession again, but they're looking for a human host to express themselves through. That's why when Jesus was going to cast the demons out of the man, the demons asked Jesus, can we go into those pigs. Will you cast us out into the pigs? Because they were looking for flesh and blood to inhabit.
And so we need to understand that the same demons that we read about in the Bible in like kind they're here today. They operate in the same way. And they're looking to occupy human beings. And they do it, listen now, through thought transference. So this means that you and I need to become very active and activated in responding now to the thoughts that enter our mind. And every thought that enters our mind that we recognize as not a thought from God, we need to immediately, instantly, beloved, react to it. We can just say, I reject you, Satan, get out of me. And we need to react against the devil. And we need to speak at the devil because he obeys your voice because the Spirit of the Lord is in you, and because you belong to Jesus, you have the authority to use his name.
Now I want you to know, unless you have a vision for victory for your life, you will never get to the top of the mountain. Unless you believe that you can be free, you'll never get free. If you become comfortable with being lukewarm, you'll never get free. If you have settled for less than Jesus said you should settle for, you'll never achieve the victory. But Jesus said, he that overcomes as I have overcome, shall sit down with me on my throne, even as I sat down and sat down with the Father on his throne.
One of my favorite portions of Scripture is in John, chapter 8. Jesus said there, if the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. That's one of my favorite portions of Scripture in the entire Word of God, one of my favorite sayings of Jesus. When I was younger, I was an athlete, and I envisioned myself winning, and the referee holding my hand up. And as I envisioned myself winning wrestling tournaments, and winning championships, and I envisioned myself with my hand raised, chills would go through my body. I would become so just living that experience. And that to me represented freedom.
So when I became a believer and people, you know, talked about what they were expecting Jesus to do for them, one of the things I was believing Jesus to do for me, was to bring me into victory and into freedom. Remember Jesus said, if the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. And Paul said in the Book of Romans, that we shall reign in life through Christ Jesus. The Bible says we shall reign in life, this life. We can reign in this life. We can live in mastery over our circumstances, even as Peter walked on water when he kept his eyes on Jesus.
See the Bible tells us in the Book of Ephesians that you and I that know the Lord, that are born again, you and I that belong to him, the Bible says, and I know some of you hear that word born again, I'm talking about we've received the Spirit of God. Jesus said that which is born of flesh is flesh, that which is born of Spirit is spirit, truly, truly I say to you, you must be born again. So we're talking about, not just some new way of life, but those of us that have received Jesus, and when we did we received his Spirit. Greater is he now that's in you than he that's in the world, and he that's born of God overcomes the world. This is what the Scripture says.
Now listen to this, the Bible says concerning those of us that know the Lord, that we have been raised up with Christ and are seated with him there in the heavenly places. So even as I would envision myself as an athlete with my hand raised as a champion, I envision myself in Jesus having been raised up and seated in the heavenly places with him. And I remember back when I was in Bible school, and I remember I was in a homiletics class, which is a word that they call training young preachers to preach.
And I remember the professor went around the room one day, you know, the 20 or so students that were in the room, and he began to ask each one, you know, what are you believing or what are you asking Jesus to do for you? What are you expecting Jesus to do for you? And they went around the room, and you know, there was a lot of answers that, you know, were the type of answers you would expect to hear. And then the teacher came to me and they said, what are you expecting Jesus to do for you? And I said, to give me mastery over the world. And everybody started laughing at it, but I was dead serious. That's what I'm believing.
And beloved, in order to ascend to this place of victory in this world, walking in peace, walking in authority, walking in freedom, walking in joy, the only way to get to the top of the mountain like this, beloved, is to learn how to do spiritual warfare and exercise authority over the realm of darkness, because you and I live in a spiritual world. And this is what we've been talking about in this series, that our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and forces of darkness.
And so during the course of the series, I've taught and I've trained on how demons gain access, how they're seeking to occupy space, how we can recognize their thoughts, and how, beloved, I'm emphasizing now, when we sense there's some type of demonic thing that we're dealing with in life because, again, demons don't just harass unbelievers, they harass Christians. This is what Paul said. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood. This is what Peter said, your adversaries, they were speaking to Christians. So as we recognize thoughts in our mind that are not coming from the Lord, we immediately come against them. I reject you, Satan, get out of my head.
You know, when Jesus delivered someone he said, sin no more that nothing else will befall you. The other thing that's so important that I want to stress as we come to the end of the series is, don't expect to live in victory over demons if you're willfully yielding to sin. Because if you willfully yield to sin, and if you willfully give yourself over to the spirit of the age, the spirit of darkness that is controlling the world, you're opening up a door and giving Satan a legal right to have access to you, and to hurt you. And so we have the victory but we need to cooperate with God on his terms. The Lord said if you walk in my ways and keep my statutes, he said, I will then be to you the Lord your Healer, in Exodus, 15:26.
So if we're serious about getting victory, we need to understand that we close the doors to the enemy. We don't walk in unforgiveness. We don't walk in willful sin. We spend time with the Lord renewing our minds by spending time with the Lord each morning in the Word, in our devotionals. I want to recommend a couple of great authors in terms of devotional reading. E.W. Kenyon is a highly recommended author. Don Gossett, I would also recommend. Immerse yourself in truth, beloved, and then learn to use truth as a sword, God's truth, because the Bible says that God's truth is like a sword and we need to arm our self with our faith and with the Word of God, with prayer, and all these things to live in victory over darkness.
Beloved, the question is, how bad do you and I want victory? I guess that's the key. Because if you're like me, it's like I would rather be dead than not be God's best. I mean, I just have a commitment if you're gonna be second, why run the race. I mean, this is what Paul told us. He said that you should fight the fight, Paul said, as if there's only gonna be one winner. Paul said, you should run the race, Paul said, as if only one man gets the prize. So when I talk about being the best, I don't talk about being better than somebody else. I just mean getting to the top of the mountain. And this is what God wants for every one of us.
We need to get serious, beloved. Jesus said, straight and narrow is the way that leads to life, and few there be that find it. Jesus said, Shalom. That means blessing us, spirit, soul, mind and body. Jesus wants us to walk in that state of Shalom, in that state of being blessed, beloved, in our spirit, soul, mind and body. John said in one of his letters, I pray that above all else you'd prosper and be in good health. God wants us to walk in the fullness of his blessing, but listen, his blessings don't just come upon us without our cooperating with him. Jesus said, seek first the kingdom of God, and then everything else shall be added unto you.
And one of the applications of this, beloved, is to get enlightened regarding this phenomenon of spiritual warfare, and then gaining from God, through revelation, which is what I've been trying to give you during this series; revelation as to the reality of the enemy, how he operates and then training yourself by the Word of God through confessing God's Word, through building yourself up in faith, training yourself, putting on the weapons of warfare so that you can come against the devil and drive him out of your life and off of the lives of your loved ones. But this is serious business. This is not playground stuff. This is for those, beloved, that are able to eat meat. For those that are just kind of thinking that they're Christians because they go to church once a week, and they like to listen to Christian music on their headset or their DVD or iPhone, this will not find a place in your heart. It will be like a seed that never bears fruit.
Jesus said the sower went out to sow the seed, and immediately in one of the types of ground the devil just came and took it away. The person couldn't even hear it. He said in the second type of ground, the ground immediately received it with joy, but the Bible says what happened was the desires for other things came and took the Word away. Some of you today, you love God, but you know what, you also love so many other things, and you're involved in the things of the world. And because you love the world, the seed of God, it's not producing fruit in your life. And there's others, Jesus said, the ground went and, and people immediately received it with joy. But he said as soon as a hard time came, they immediately fell away because of hard times, and persecution, and busyness.
And some of you are like that. You truly have a desire for God, but you've got so many things going on in your life, you're so busy with your iPhone, and your texting, and all the things that you're doing that you're not giving the seed of God's Word in your life the water, the nutrition, the sunlight that it needs to really prosper you. And there's others here today, beloved ones, the seed of God's Word in you is not producing the victory that we've been describing on this broadcast, because as soon as you meet a challenge in your life, you immediately fall away. You say it didn't work. But you know what? The Bible says about Abraham that God made him a promise that he was gonna have a son and that he was gonna be the father of many nations, and even when he was a hundred years old, he still didn't have that son.
Yet the Bible says that Abraham's faith did not wax cold. In other words, he didn't give up just because the fullness of the manifestation of the promise didn't happen in an instant or in a day. But he kept on believing. He kept on working. He kept on fighting the fight of faith. And I want to say to you today, beloved ones, the things that I've been teaching in this series, they're true. They're true for you. They're true for me. And they're gonna be the same yesterday, today, and forever. We're in a fight. I want to ask you, how serious will you become about Jesus, and will you wake up and put on the armor of God, and fight this fight? Our fight is not against flesh and blood. It's against powers of darkness.
The first thing that Jesus did, once again beloved one, after hearing God's voice say to him, you are my beloved Son, and in you I'm well pleased. The first thing he did after that was he went into the wilderness and he fought a fight against the devil. And the Bible says after he fought that fight in the wilderness in Matthew, 4, the Bible says he came out of the wilderness, get this now, in the power of the Spirit. God is gonna make you stronger as you warfare through faith and through the Word of God against the devil. God wants to use you to bring deliverance to other people. But he can't use you or me to bring deliverance to other people until we have learned, beloved, by his Word and by the Spirit of Christ to deliver ourselves.
I want to encourage you, beloved, don't let this series pass you by. Take ahold of this. Listen to it. Read the Book. Work it, work it, work it, work it and your faith will grow strong and you're gonna enter in to more, and more, and more light. You see, a lot of people today, they're always looking for the quick fix. But God's way is little by little he drives out the enemy. I speak a blessing over your life right now.
Father God, I just speak a spirit of wisdom and revelation to everyone, Father, that's watching right now. Father, for those that have tuned in for this entire series, Father, I want to thank you for giving them a love for your Word. And Father, I declare and decree right now that the seed that's been sown in the hearts, and the lives, and the minds of your people, Father, that it will bear fruit for you a hundred fold. I wanna thank you, Father God, that Jesus conquered the devil for us. And I want to thank you, Father God, that greater is he that lives now in us, Jesus himself, than he that's in the world. So I speak the banner of victory, Father God, over your people today. Father, I thank you for your love for your people today, and I wanna thank you, King Jesus, that because you live and have overcome, we shall also overcome.