TD Jakes — Spellbreaker
I don't know whether you can relate to this or not, but most of the time in my life, if I didn't obey God quickly, God would send persecution to shake me out of my tendency that I have. You see, I'm a loyalist. I'm very, very loyal. If I ever connect to you, I'm connected to you. If I'm your friend, I'm your friend. I mean, you're my brother through thick and thin, come hell and high water. No canoe, no row boat, and no swimming trunks. I'm still in the water with you, trying to get you out. I will hang in there, and people like that are very vulnerable to becoming stoic and stayed and committed to a dead thing that doesn't work, and sometimes God has to send persecution to shake you out of something so that you can go on to what God has for you.
Persecution arose in Jerusalem, and there was a great shaking, but you must understand that every shaking is not bad. Many shakings are good. Many times, we receive direction through persecution. Many times, the people who persecute us, without them even knowing it, are the agents of the Lord. God uses the persecution that they sent against us to direct us into his next move. Philip slipped into the city of Samaria. No military, a brigade. No blowing of trumpets. He has slipped into Samaria, a man driven by his own personal persecutions into the destiny of God.
This is how ministry works, see. Many of you sit in the pews, and you see us when we come, but you don't know why we came. You don't know that the force with which we preach is often eradicated by the opposition that drove us to you. You don't know that we went through hell to get to you. You think we're preaching with fire just 'cause we want you to live it, but really it was a blast of the furnace that pushed us out, that made us have to come out here.
So Philip went down to Samaria. Now let's talk a little bit about Samaria. You understand that there was paganism and ritualism going on in the city. Jesus alludes to it in the Gospel of Saint John, and he paints a picture of this Samaritan woman, who comes down at the well. She's had five husbands and a situation that's going on in her life. She has an infusion of religion, mixed with an infusion of perversion, and it's all stirred up and tangled up together. And God used this woman to say, "Come see a man". And they did come because of this woman for a while, but they slipped back into paganistic behavior, and Simon the Sorcerer had taken over the city.
Little did Simon know that deliverance was coming. Simon thought he owned Samaria. He thought he had it up under control. He had his demons and his imps controlling the city of Samaria. Little did Simon know that that were was a revolution that had started in somebody's basement, somebody's living room, had broken out of some inobvious, inept location. You know God will start a fire in a trash can and burn down the whole house. It don't matter where you start. You can start at a little storefront shanty. It don't matter where you start, baby. It matters where you finish.
God lit a fire in Philip's heart. And when he got down into Samaria, he started to preaching, and there was a change, because a real anointed man, just one, not 20, not 30, not 40, just one... if I had time, I'd show you that every mighty move of God that ever happened in the Bible, it never started with a committee. It always started with one man. One man would turn a city upside down. When God got ready to create all of humanity, he created one man.
When God got ready to create a woman, he created one man and pulled the woman out of the man and pulled the family out of the woman and pulled the civilization out of the family, because God always starts with one. When God gets ready to deliver the children of Israel, he uses one man named Moses, who says, "Go down there and tell Pharaoh to let my people go". When God gets ready to free the Israelite people, he uses one man named Joseph and says, "If I can get Joseph out, Joseph will deliver everybody else". When God gets ready to restore Jerusalem, he uses one man named Nehemiah to bring about deliverance in the city. When God gets ready to prophesy his return, he uses one man, an eagle-eyed prophet named Isaiah. When God gets ready to let Jerusalem know his heart is broken, he uses one man named Jeremiah, the weeping prophet. He follows and sent for the women of mourning and let them take up a wailing.
Slap somebody and tell 'em, "It only takes one good man". One can chase a thousand and two, ten thousand. If you get one, it will revolutionize your city. The devil is so afraid of one man, that when he knows one man is coming, he'll send out all of his abortionists, trying to kill every male child in the city. He's not after the masses. He's after one man, but he's willing to kill countless male children trying to find that one man, because the devil knows that if you ever get loose, everything connected to you is gonna get loose, too.
You're a jailhouse wrecker. You're a mountain mover. You're a giant killer. You're anointed to slay the enemy, and that's why the devil's been fighting you all of your life, because the devil knew that if you ever got loose... he killed your brothers. He killed your friends. He killed your family. He killed your neighborhood, but he was looking for you. Touch somebody and say, "But I'm still here". And Philip went down to Samaria, and he preached the gospel, and he started casting out devils, and the blind began to receive their sight, and the lame began to walk. Chains began to fall off, and there was great joy in the city. There is no joy like the kind of joy you have when you got a breakthrough in your life, and you see deliverance.
I know we are criticized for the way that we worship. I know it gives some trouble to some people, because they think we are clamorous and boisterous and uncouth and unnecessary, and they don't think that it is appropriate for intelligent people to act so flamboyant and so flagrant in their style of praising God. But I say to them, if you saw where God brought me from, you would praise him, too. If you knew how my house was on fire and the enemy was trying to destroy me, and I barely escaped. I mean, I burned my socks leaping out of the window, but I made it by the grace of God. Excuse me if I dance in my front yard and shout in my living room, because I can still smell the smoke of what almost happened in my living... Speak of the goodness of Jesus in awe.
Yes, and there was great joy in the city. There was joy in the city. There was celebration. There ought to be joy in your city. Touch somebody and tell 'em, "I got joy in my city". I've been in a drought, I've been in a dry place, but I got joy in my city. I'm starting to get a feeling that everything is gonna be all right. It may not be all right now, but I'm starting to get a little optimistic that I will survive. Maybe it won't kill me. Maybe I'm coming out of this all right and there's great joy. I earned the right to have this joy. I ought to dance at least as long as I cried. I ought to celebrate as long as I suffered. How dare you sit there and roll your eyes and pass notes when you see me get a breakthrough? You weren't there when I was in hell's kitchen, coming out with smoke in my coat.
Here lies the contemporary problem that we face in our society, that is reflected by what occurs in Samaria. They have great joy like we have great joy. They have great services like we have great services. They have great praise like we have great praise. They have great exuberance like we have great exuberance, but the real enemy rages on. Isn't it amazing how you can dance and shout and still go home to hell? Yeah, yeah, if you think about it closely, most people stop at this point in their deliverance, see.
They have great joy, and what they really did was switch addictions. They went from being addicted to drugs, to being addicted to church. They go to church to get high. They go to church, and whoever can preach 'em the highest and get 'em the happiest, just numb me 'til I forget about the hell that I'm going through, and I just wanna get a good feeling. Titillate my senses and my emotions.
And sometimes we're satisfied to have great joy, but there's a new breed of Christian coming up. We don't wanna be entertained. We wanna be edified. We don't wanna be excited. We wanna be delivered. There's a new breed of Christian, who wakes up in the morning with the Bible in their hand and say, "Devil, this means war. Come hell or high water, I'm gonna huff and puff 'til I blow this thing down. If I don't get it on the first Sunday, I'm coming back on the second. If I don't get it in the first month, I'm coming back on the second month, but I refuse to live with my daddy's devil operating in my life". The devil is a liar. I'm coming out.
These are the people who drag their children to the house of God, single mamas with babies on each arm and one in her lap, pressing to the house of God, trying to raise up a child in the way that they should go, saying, "I want you to grow up so that you don't have to go through what I went through to get a breakthrough. I want you to know who Jesus is. I want you to know what he's able to do. I want you to know that there is an anointing that destroys the yoke". These are often women who are struggling themselves, going through hell themselves, but dragging their children, dragging their sons and daughters into the house of God. These are men who finally woke up and recognized that having more women don't make you more a man and now they're bringing their sons into the house of God because they're hungry for a deliverance.
Simon the Sorcerer controlled the region. Everything was up under his auspices, or control, that these are what the Bible calls principalities. They're magistrates. They're demonic magistrates who serve over entire regions of councils, and they say, "I've got the whole city tied up". They say, "You can't do that in Atlanta. Don't try that in Philadelphia. Don't try it in New York". These principalities set up dominions over regions.
And you'll notice when you go into certain regions, there are certain spirits that are more prevalent in certain cities. Yeah, certain cities are controlled by homosexual spirits, and other cities are controlled by gambling spirits. Certain cities are controlled by spirits of indifference. They have religious spirits, and they set up regional dominions and territories and control, and you can't really be free until you come against that demonic influence over the region. Look at somebody and say, "We got to get the whole thing out".
Let me remind you that when Jesus came to the tomb of Gadarenes and found a man possessed with the devil, and the Bible said that they got ready to cast the devils out. Listen to what the demons said. They said, "Suffer us not to leave the region. We don't mind leaving the man, but we don't wanna leave the territory, because we got something going on in this territory, and we wanna hold this territory down". And so, they said, "We don't care if you put us in pigs, as long as we don't leave the region".
Now let's go deeper. Can I preach this thing? What I want you to understand is that Satan has a highly organized operation against you. That demons are not disorganized, and they are not chaotic. When they come against you, they come in order. The Bible said when Jesus got ready to cast the demons out, he said, "What is your name"? The demon said, "We are Legions". "Legions" means, "We are regimented. We are organized. We march together". You must understand this. That when Satan marches, he marches in a spirit of unity.
I would remind you that when they accused Jesus of casting out demons by the power of Beelzebul, he said, "Oh, no, Satan has a kingdom, and Satan's kingdom is not divided, for a house divided against itself shall not stand". I would also remind you that from Genesis to Revelations, you will never see a demon fighting with another demon. You will never see a principality fighting with another principality. From Genesis to Revelations, you will never see a witch fighting against another witch. It's only when you look at church folk that you see preachers fighting against preachers, and churches fighting against churches, and Baptists fighting against Methodists, and Methodists fighting against Pentecosts. It's because we don't understand order. Order.
We got to get some order in the house of God. We gotta get rid of every chaotic, wild spirit that's out of control, because disorder is a work of the enemy. God is not the author of confusion. Let everything be done decently and in order. Touch three people and say, "Order in the house. Order". Get your rebellious hipster out. We got to have order in this house. Whether the house is a church, or whether the house is the house you live in, there has to come a point that you tell little junior, "If you're gonna stay in this house, you got to get yourself together". "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord".
Can I go deeper? Not only is the enemy after regions. He's after houses. When I say the enemy is after houses, I don't mean that he's just after your address. He's after everything born out of your loins. When the enemy sends a curse, he either sends it to a city, or he sends it to a house: the house of David, the house of Issachar, the house of the Johnsons, the house of the Jakes, the house of the Longs, the house of the Wilsons. That's why you see certain spirits that run through certain houses.
If you will look at your family tree closely, you will find that you are still fighting your grandmama's devil, your mama's devil. Grandma got a divorce. Your mama got a divorce. All your sisters got a divorce, and now your marriage is coming unglued. It's a spirit. Slap somebody and tell 'em, "It's a spirit". It's not about him having an affair. It's about a spirit that's come against your house. It's not about you making more money than him. It's a spirit that has come against your house.
That's why you ought to be careful whose house you marry into, 'cause some of you married into some spirits. You was happy 'til you got in that family. Now all hell is breaking loose 'cause you married into a curse that was on that house. Your children come up with something that you ain't never thought of doing before, but somebody in your husband's family knows what's going on, 'cause you tied your children into a system that you don't even understand. Now you got to deal with the Johnson demon, a Jackson demon, a Richardson demon. You don't even know how to minister to the child, 'cause ain't nobody in your house ever come up with no mess like that, but some kinda way, you're tied up into us. Lord have mercy. Who am I preaching to in here today?
I wanna cite some examples so you can understand clearly. Rebekah was a trickster and a con artist. She was a racketeer. She was a deceitful woman. She lied and connived with her own husband, manipulating her own children. Her uncle, Laban, was a trickster, a con artist, a liar, and a whoremonger. Her son, Jacob, was a trickster and a supplanter, and a con man, and a rouseabout. Because when the demons get in the family, it says, "Suffer us not to leave the region".
I wanna remind you of David, dysfunctional from Jesse on down, ostracized by his father. David comes up. Yes, he was anointed, but he was dysfunctional. He was a whoremonger. He had a lust spirit. He had a demon that he couldn't get rid of. It came in through the rejection of his father, and the enemy saw a door open. It planted a seed in his life. David had such a lust problem, that when he was an old man, they threw a young woman in the bed. And when he didn't touch her, they said, "The king is dead". No wonder, then, that his son, Absalom, was deceitful and treacherous. And Amnon raped his daughter, Tamar, and Solomon had so many strange women that he lost control of the kingdom because there was a spirit in the house.
Well, I can't just spend time talking about Jacob and talking about David. What is this mess going on in your house? Your daughter acting crazy, coming up with stuff at 13 that you didn't run into until you were 25. But the spirit is getting desperate 'cause you're getting in the house of God, and the devil is saying, "If I don't get her quickly, I'm afraid that the Holy Ghost is gonna run me out of town". I don't know who I'm preaching to this morning, but the Lord sent me into this city, and I'm after a demon. I'm not gonna stop 'til I get it. I'm gonna preach 'til everything in here begins to shake. Slap somebody and tell 'em, "I gotta get rid of it".
And the Bible says that when Philip got down into Samaria, he began to preach with such power and such deliverance that God got the stronghold and began to bring it down. Touch somebody and tell 'em, "It can be broken. It will be broken. It must be broken". Almost like the sound of a canon exploding, the sound of a pistol going on, the Holy Ghost said, "Enough is enough. I'm gonna break every curse and everything every spell that's ever come against your house".
Who am I preaching to this morning? I came all the way from Dallas to tell somebody you've been shouting about something. And while you've been shouting about it, you've been going through hell. Trouble on the right side. Trouble on the left side. Before you can get two steps forward, something knocks you four steps back. And you had great joy, but you haven't had a breakthrough. But the Lord sent me to Atlanta to tell you that before this service is over, God is going to break the spell out of your life. I feel the anointing of God in this place.
Slap three people and tell 'em, "It will be broken". This will not pass to my daughter. This will not pass to my son. This will not pass to my children. The devil is a liar. I declare right now in the name of Jesus the spell is going to be broken. This spirit of poverty that has cursed my generation, I come against it now in the name of Jesus. I was broke, my parents were broke, their parents were broke. It's a ghetto spirit, but I'm gonna cast it out.
Somebody shake yourself loose. I'm about to break it loose: spirits of debt, spirits of hopelessness, spirits of despair, spirits of confusion. It will shake loose. Enough is enough. It's time for deliverance. Spirits of perversion, doing stuff in the middle of the night. Don't even like what you're doing, but you can't stop it, and you can't break it, and the devil's been laughing, saying, "I got her where I want her. I got him where I want him. He'll never get loose". But I came to serve notice on the enemy. I came with an eviction notice out of the Word of God. Satan, I cast you out. I cast you out of very house, every circumstance, every situation. Somebody holler, "Get out".