Steven Bancarz - In Studio | How Christians Open the Door to Demonic Oppression | Ep. 35

[Music] foreign welcome to calvary conversations my name is mariah and i'm here with pastor craig roders today we have a very special guest with us he is actually in studio with us right now and he is an ex-new ager not once so without further ado here is steven van cars thanks for having me and uh for saying that i am an ex-new ager that i used to be an x-ray yes that's yours correcting the first video yeah it's cool to be here i'm pretty uh jealous of your setup to be honest i like this room and it looks good yeah the reason we have to come down and make a video in this room later that'd be cool yeah okay dad do you want to pray for us yes pray let's pray father i just thank you so much for this time and we thank you that even though halloween can be kind of a dark season we thank you for first john 4 4 that greater is christ who is in us than he is in the world and so father we just pray that we would rest in that but i pray that we as it says in ephesians 5 10 that we would expose the darkness that we would uh just shine light on dark things and that we would really put the focus towards you jesus that people need to receive you they need to live for you lord and they need to get rid of evil deeds of darkness and so god i ask we just commit this time to you as your word says whatever we commit to you it shall be established we pray for your kingdom to come and your will to be done in this podcast and that you would be glorified and that people will be drawn to you we thank you for this time and we thank you for stephen coming and being a part of it in jesus mighty name amen amen ma'am all right steven what are we talking about today well i think it'd be cool to talk about um psychedelics and drug use and its relationship to the demonic and um craig you've been talking to me a lot about deliverance and there's different ways people understand that term but what we're essentially talking about is the fact that christians can experience demonic oppression in their life through an incomplete repentance through uh entertaining sin sin you have in your life or sin you're consenting to and or complacent with um which is which is pretty prevalent in the church at least in america i know what you say about canada but it's amazing how being like i told you juggling off camera that trying to be holy not self-righteous but really all right without holiness knowing she the lord that that's considered legalism now yeah it's freaky yeah and the bible says it's our the weapon of our warfare is our breastplate of righteousness you know weapons of our warfare not criminal but our mighty and god you're pulling down strongholds in ephesians 4 26 don't give you know anger right gives the devil mighty foot although i'm sure sexual morality other issues right not just anger but give the devil a foothold and i always say to the calorie guys that don't believe in oppression well these are talking to christians so how can you give a foothold of the devil if you can't give a foothold to the devil right and yeah paul tells uh corinth to flee from participation with idolatry um in first corinthians 10 verse 20 to 22. and um he says it causes them to participate with demons when they are partaking you know and fantastically complying with idolatry by eating the food the meat in the temple yeah that was offered to the idols you could eat the meat you get the marketplace that's cheap from the idols because meat is meat as meat but when you eat it in the temple because they had like little restaurants they would say right i don't know if you concur but they would then they say hey then you're kind of you're fellowshipping with demons you can't do that yeah exactly so it's not like the meat's possessed it's just no no yeah and then you see this theme throughout um like you said uh don't let the sun go down in your anger um talks about not being we forgive each other so we're not outwitted by right unforgiveness i mean when you do deliverance i don't know if you're done but usually it's a lot of times they have unforgiveness and you go well your dad was a jerk yeah i beat your mom and it was terrible but i love i think it was whitefield someone said forgiven people need to be forgiving people but they'll go no i can't forget like okay have you been forgiven by christ i mean you gotta choose to ask god for that help to forgive release your dad right and trust him to god right because god's the just judge right he'll you know judge his mind say the lord romans 12 but to rest but at so many people and when i've done deliverance you see people who will not forgive it's like it gives you know and a lot of deliverance guys say where the man memory strangles he asks the king for giving basically a million dollar debt and then he goes and strangles for a thousand and then it says now the king hears that he says hand them over the old king james to the tormentors right till he pays everything and so a lot of people kind of know if it's spooky but they say the tormentors is demonic oppression because you who've been forgiven much will not forgive your brother that sin a lot less to you than you have to god and that welcomes that willful disobedience to forgive others i have forgiven you that it welcomes that and yeah it's like back to the disobedience you know yeah so you have like unforgiveness and idolatry as being the most two clear entry points into demonic oppression and they need they need entry points um sin is most clearly identified as being the the primary entry point i don't think it's the only entry point um i think there can be other instances as well for example pulse pulse thorn in the flesh where um you know satan wanted to torment him and god was like i'm going to allow paul to experience a certain measure of torment to the job thing right to reflect right yeah to increase dependency on god so i've had him from exalting himself exactly yeah so i've had instances where i've made like really big decisions in the lord in terms of like repentance or in terms of like something that i know is going to be really really special for the lord um and then i'll experience like demonic attack after that and i was thankful like to be the most recent example i was going to be filming i did film a video on the gospel where i'm explaining the gospel the cross the holiness of god sin and it's called the salvation at the end and made that decision to film that and that next night i made a decision to film it and to fast into it until it got right until the script was right and i never spent that many hours either praying fasting or writing into a video script and the first night i went to sleep after making that decision i experienced demonic attack and it reminded me what like i think god allowed that to happen to remind me how real this is like the battle that we are actually experiencing is in ephesians 6 battle right it's not against flesh and blood and um so sin is a major way that we can give demons open doors into our lives and when we say open doors what we're meaning is that um if demons could have their way we would all be you would be dead we would all be dead right now the apostles would not have been able to do their ministry they would have been killed immediately the minute they found out jesus you know paul wanted to visit thessalonica they said he couldn't because satan hindered them right if satan had his way um he would have hindered everything he would have crushed him killed him hindered everything right so if satan wants to do anything like the powers of darkness are on god's leash of restraint because you see that in job right you can do only this but you can't touch his life at first and then right touch his life but you can't kill him exactly like they require pleasure yeah they require god's permission and god's release which is pretty crazy because it's like how does satan think one day he's going to break from the leash because he thinks that right he's going to take over like a second been unleashed for all these how many years has been you've been on the leash and then one day he thinks he's going to break it right so we'd have to ask okay if like and there's tons of verses where god's relationship um to the powers of darkness there's a bunch of different categories in scripture you see in terms of god's sovereignty over the powers of darkness you see where he um grants demons permissions to permission to do something like when he releases satan um to deceive the nations in revelation 27 and luke 8 he gives the demon permission to go to the pigs so he will allow them there's times where he will allow powers of darkness to do things but put limitations on on it like where um you know the thorn in the flesh for example he gave him some release but not full release right and job would be another example there's times where he says and the pigs are interesting because the pigs i mean not to get up but the pigs the jews weren't supposed to have pigs and so that's why you could okay they all ran off the cliff and the guys were bubbed but they didn't want to come to the city but it's like you know because so they kind of welcomed that devil's ham you know okay but they welcomed that that because of their disobedience of having pigs yeah and i think a uh a reason why they wanted to go into the pigs is because um it's tormenting for them to go into the abyss so they said don't send us into the abyss we can come back to what the abyss means to do a study on that um but you'll that's an example where you see god be like okay you can do this right i'm granting you right yeah and then uh the water water language is used to describe kind of like the underworld and darkness you see that in yeah jews are afraid of this they love like in caesarea by the sea you know in israel they have all these beautiful houses but i'm told by our guide that that they love the jews love the ocean but they don't love to be in the ocean they'll just wait out but they don't like to be on ships that's funny they kind of hire people to do navy because they really don't like they kind of are a little bit icky with well it represented chaos and i represented the underworld and um you know it says in revelation 21 i think in the creation of the earth that says the sea will be no more yeah it doesn't mean that there's going to be no water it means that there's going to be you know no leviathan yeah right leviathan was understood to be like this power over the the the water the water world and the water world was associated with the underworld in the demonic world around the dead and so you'll also see instances where god uses powers of darkness to accomplish his will where he'll send a lying spirit or put a lying spirit onto a nation or to someone to judge a nation um and so you see all these really interesting relationships god has to the power of darkness and scripture but he's sovereign over all of them which means he's in complete and total control and he ultimately rules over them right so if god is sovereign over them and rules over them if we have to ask a question under what circumstances under what circumstances does god choose to release his you know leash of restraint from the powers of darkness toward our direction and one of those conditions is sin right there's this principle and warfare called legal ground or open doors however you want to describe it where some people argue like we say like the bloodline they'll say once you're in christ the door the the open door is shut but yeah we know from ephesians since all the books we have about all the you know all the epistles were written to christian churches for example um so a lot of what we know about warfare and being outwitted by satan and giving a foothold to the devil which the word is topos and the greek and refers to like a place or a region or district he's writing this to christians he's telling christians don't make yourself into a region or a district of demons by lending yourself over to sin right and so the way that the reason that happens is because there's there's a um i guess a principle or a law we would call legal ground or open doors where there's like i was like i said there's different uh conditions in which god will allow demonic person to happen but when it comes to sin god will allow them to oppress us insofar as we are in um compliance and uh we'll taste the compliance with sin in our own lives and god will give them as much access as we're inviting by our own willful rebellion and so when i had my house filled with like idols and tools thea called and everything you know i didn't know the commandments um you know to flee from the unfruitful works of darkness to flee from idolatry you know little children keep yourselves from idols you know touch no unclean thing come you separate from the world that it will receive you um you know like you said what fellowship does light have with darkness um flee from every appearance of evil first thessalonians 5. and so i had you know said no evil thing before your eyes psalm 101. right and so i had my house filled with objects and tools of idolatry of your early christian you were ignorant of that right you had no idea because you would have gotten rid of you knew that was bad right away right right through scripture right yeah but this is like such a basic principle of warfare um like there are some things which god's ignorance will protect and there's some things which he'll he expects us to to know yeah because he's always said have you not heard have you not read right it's like he kind of it's like he says that to nicodemus who is one of the chief teachers he's going dude if you don't understand basic things of being born again how are you going to stand if i talk to you heavenly things i mean right so maybe for like the first few days or first five days it might be like a week it might be like a production of grace over someone who's come out of the occult who still has all their junk but after a while god's gonna that they're selling to the flesh and by the flesh they're going to reap the from the flesh destruction and that will allow them to discover this principle of warfare and really tighten up in their sanctification that you know righteousness protects me from you know spiritual oppression an analogy might be like if i'm going to another state like if i'm driving another state and there's different laws of the road that i'm unaware of when i get there and i get pulled over because i broke a law i didn't know existed in that state and i can't plead ignorance and say well you shouldn't give me a ticket because i didn't know about it i should have known about it right i should have looked up what the rules were and and learned about it um and so god expects us to know um especially talk about like basic core principles like the first principle i would say the most foundational of all all spiritual warfare would be that sin invites demonic activity into our lives um and you really see that too when when james says let there be few teachers sowing cursed stricter judgment that you know people are responsible to read the word on their own too but when pastors aren't talking about these things talk about sin we're really making people really vulnerable to the enemy that's right very vulnerable to the enemy and very oppressed by the enemy and people like people think that just because i'm not manifesting i'm not oppressed and they confuse demonic manifestation with demonic oppression and so people will so basically you have on one side of the side of the spectrum people who look for a demon under every rock and they're like you know oh my my foot hurts must be a demon that's causing my foot to hurt or something um you know or maybe you just stubbed it maybe there's just like laws of you know yeah exactly um but you'll also see people who will try to naturalize everything including things like for me when anything becomes chronic that's what i know there's something probably else at play there if it's like chronic depression chronic unmotivation chronic temptation um that's usually when you have something not natural like what i'll make sure i'm hearing you you're saying that i probably through either your ignorance or willful sin have given a place to maybe the enemy yeah yeah sure but but people will will suffer with with some of these things and think well you know i don't want to give the devil credit and by calling this demonic i'm giving the devil too much credit or too much glory even though i'm chronically unmotivated i'm chronically depressed i'm chronically struggling with this sin or that center with addiction and i'm in bondage and i can't sleep but you know i'm just i'm gonna like i'm gonna exhaust every natural explanation first before i infer what the bible tells me to infer first and foremost which is an ephesian ephesian six worldview um if you if you look at jesus in the gospels he's casting out demons yeah all the time left right inside demons have just disappeared now yep exactly right yeah oh yeah just like the gifts disappeared right we have cessationism of the gifts but also demon cessationism where i would like to know what scriptural basis is there so we see over 400 times in the bible in a variety of different terms you know um texts that describe the powers of darkness and you know they'll be called you have demons fallen angels are not the same thing um you'll have lying spirits deceitful spirits um you have satan called satan the devil the enemy the wicked one right angel of light you have these other weird verses a few talk about like principalities and powers which seems to be paul referring to territorial spirits you have about 400 verses in the bible and clearly they're there for a reason like why would god like why would he put that in scripture especially in the new testament like almost all of these come from the new testament almost almost all of them come from jesus almost everything we know about the devil from the bible comes from the gospels he's not he's not even found in the old testament um anything about jesus that part of the mandate of jesus i've come to set the captives free i mean if there's no cat what is he saying and i don't believe it's just from sin right i mean it's not just to be saved it's setting captives all the oppression all the addiction all whatever holds you right i don't want to qualify what i said to you but like like when you look in the old testament um you see the word satan um just meant accuser and you see satan used about 20 22 times accuser the word in hebrew accused are used 22 times it's used to refer to people it's used to refer to nations it's used to refer to agents of yahweh are called accusers um i forget which one it is i think david makes uh a reference to when he says you know satan came and told him to tempt his army or account his army but then it says later there's a two places yeah that yahweh came and did it right but those are the only instances where you have like a supernatural agent who could be given the title some people say with the yahweh that he allowed a deceiving spirit to do that god allowed that some people right i've heard coming here say he allowed a deceiving spirit right and there's debate too about whether or not job was even being tempted by satan where you have the defense a definite article in front of the word accuser and it's the satan right the satan came and did this the satan came and did that so is this you know mike heiser and craig keener and stuff would say this isn't the satan of the new testament and job this is an agent of yahweh doing what yahweh is telling him to do which is to try job right but the point is the point i'm making in this is that in the old testament there was not at all a rich understanding of spiritual warfare like like you have maybe five passages total that deal with demons and out of the 22 times that it talks about the accuser which uses the word uh satan i think in hebrew it's mostly referring to human beings human nations only two times could it refer to a supernatural agent of some kind and even then it has the definitive article in the beginning it's not satan as a noun or a proper name it's the satan or the accuser sometimes it's in the plural the satans right so how come why would if there was already sort of like this premature understanding almost like almost underdeveloped in the old testament uh second temple judaism you see a lot more in in like the testament of dan and uh with the book of jasher and enoch and so forth about spiritual warfare there's a lot more in there that has to do with uh afflicting spirits and so forth but then jesus comes on the scene and like right out the gate he's casting out demons left right and center he says more about spiritual warfare than anybody else in the bible combined and he's you know god's perfect and pure and final revelation to man and it's like he went above and beyond to make sure that we have a clear understanding that this stuff is real and this is pertinent to our lives today and like my question would be if if god wanted us to live from this position of like demon cessationism why wouldn't he just have continued on what he was doing in the old testament where it was like very very peripheral very very peripheral and now all of a sudden jesus comes into front row center right if god didn't want us thinking about these things in our daily life he could have just made a peripheral like it was in the old testament right but instead it's like in your face constantly you can hardly get through you know a couple chapters in the gospels um you know even a child gets a demon and he's thrashing on the ground and foaming at the mouth and yeah you know a person has a um uh deafness or can't speak or mute yeah it's a spirit he cast the spirit out and he completely like almost revolutionized how people understood spiritual warfare and and what's funny is i was at a liberal church being a missionary they said well that was just because the people of that day were ignorant so they just called the schizophrenia uh demon because they didn't know so right well we could we could say that but it was in mark 9 i think um it was only one it might have been luke 8 where the legion was cast out of the the man who used to cut himself with stones and stuff it was only after the legion was cast out that he was yeah he was clothed and in his right mind and that frightened people to seem in his right mind so soundness of mind and rightness of mine came from the exorcism of demons oh you know it's really cool on that i mean that would be off topic but uh you probably don't know the movies too old for you but jack nicholson did a movie called one flew of the cuckoo's nest and it was about insane asylum in salem oregon 40 miles from where i used to live and the u of o university of oregon did a thing the psychology department was saying about uh demonic and they wanted to kind of study it but not really believe in it but just say is it real so tom white this guy who delivered me who wrote guide to spiritual warfare and how to break strongholds and he was pretty big in the 80s but he said he goes if someone will repent i believe he said up to i think 80 of all the people in mental institutions are oppressed and could be delivered he said up to 80. that was his opinion and he so he they went with him and tracked him and two people got told that one had been institutionalized i think 15 years one was like eight years and totally they surrendered he he met with them and they totally walked out and it wasn't right away because they have to really track them so i think it was like 28 days after they were delivered but they totally walked out and in the u of a was just like you know didn't didn't give real credit to it but was like wow that's very interesting you know it's crazy right and that's not to say that there's not biological components and there's not real issues like this but it's to say that we need to be taking we under we need to take into account all the factors the bible tells us to take into account and i'm just i mean i'm so just as a pastor right i'm supposed to care about the flock right i'm sheppard i'm supposed to be a good shepherd i care about the flock love this right he told peter feed my sheep love my sheep right and that's that's the heart of god and so when you see someone who's a christian especially for 10 years that's still just as oppressed and still just as tormented as the day they got saved you know that that kind of i don't know how to say it but kind of undoes the power of christ that he can really redeem you know i mean like sometimes it's chemical but i believe a lot of it like you said willful sin and we just think i can't help but i can't help you know kind of like there's an old 80s song i'm only human flesh but it's like greater is christ walk by the spirit so you're not fulfilled lust or desires flesh it's like where is the power of god to not just forgive you right but to set you free and i think even like the solution for that like people are like well what do i do and that's where i think you're saying this when you're doing doing ministry afterwards when you spoke but the psalm 139 23 and 24 like search me oh god and know my heart tests me know my anxious thoughts see if there's any wicked way within me and lead me on the way of everlasting life because so many people they don't know they're like is it chemical is it this is it sin is god allowing it to like you know test me but we know that really what it is it's like we need to be an intimate relationship with god and ask him to expose the darkness because it could just be that like we're just like if you're sick or something because god's allowing it to for you to draw closer to him or it could because you're opening the door to something and so that's what just training and helping these people that it's like there's solutions like it's not like oh it's all depressing just take a bunch of drugs and then you'll feel fine and like if you have this problem or that like just go to the doctor like sometimes you can but that's the point is like having that intimate relationship with god where you can ask like god what do you want me to do what's the problem instead of what people do is what they do yoga meditation all this stuff to like they do everything and that's what satan loves everything but going to god intimately and seeking him so can you tell us like how you were able like that stuff was revealed because i know a lot of people are like like how did you find find this out like was it just reading the bible and then was it like from the holy spirit speaking to so it was both it was like a little bit of um some ministries i had found on youtube when i got saved and then um someone who had become an acquaintance with me and my ex at the time who was telling us about warfare and that we needed to repent of the new age in our house i didn't even know if that man was like what are you talking about you repent and um realize and the the presence of evil became so thick in my house that i had to start taking it seriously and seek the lord for like what am i supposed to do here and when i started throwing out the things in my house like the oppression left immediately and there was peace in my house i remember one time um this was crazy so i had experienced a lot of like oppression um waking up with with like nightmares and sleep paralysis and stuff and i'm really emotional talking about it i woke up in the middle of the night one night oh gosh yeah he um he woke me up um just just to reveal his peace to me i just i woke up to the most peace i've had even though peace was possible like that in my room and that was it i just woke up from the piece to enjoy and experience peace and went back to sleep it was like the sweetest presence in my bedroom and um you know it comes from living a life like well pleasing to god um like when people are struggling with like like i said earlier anything that's like chronic when it comes to like i don't know depression or deep like even demotivation like i think satan wants to get us get us off base touching like our time and our time management and affect every area of our life and i feel like the biggest thing for me has always always come like a big verse i think in spiritual warfare is um jesus says the light of the body is in the eye so if your eye is single your whole body will be full of light right so has have you put a hundred percent of your chips in with jesus holding nothing back does 100 of you want 100 of jesus and that's what i'm saying to you yeah the radical good because you know john 3 16 i'm probably saying the word wrong but it's a pastor where you know believe it means to put all your weight all your eggs there's no plan b and that's how many people say oh yeah jesus is just all right i mean like the old doobie brother suck jesus is just you know just all right with me but it's like do you say because like i don't know about you but i was so desperate that i was ready to kill myself so i said hey i don't know why you'd want my life it stinks but if you can do something it's yours you know i just threw myself at the feet of jesus and that's what i think it's not because god's any respecter of persons because i was so sick of my life that i was saying i'm done i mean i'm ready to kill myself i'm ready to take my life so if you can do something with this life that i think is worthless now yeah i used to really i said okay and that's why i believe it was so radical because you don't see as mariah would say that surrenderance very much anymore of where you just say i'm done i've died you i put everything on you if you aren't real i die yeah because but yeah we know right he is real but you need that and that's part of the you know taking sin seriously taking jesus seriously that he isn't just our bud or our dude or our friend but he's our lord and what he says is yes yes lord yeah and the commandments of god are meant to benefit us yeah you know he doesn't say it's wrong just because he wants to bum us out to say what can i do a message no it's because it's sin because it's wrong and it brings death right right so if the bible says like the fear of the lord is a fountain of life and the law of the lord enlivens the eyes and you know if your eye is single which means if your focus is 100 set upon god then your whole body will be full of light um you know i feel like we unnecessarily suffer and struggle a lot in the lord because we're not committed to loving our neighbor as herself we're not committed to we're not committed to being in a striving toward purity in relationship with god and relationship with our fellow man um there's compromise and we're compromising we're watching garbage on netflix you know we oh we always say what's the least crappiest thing i can watch at netflix instead of it's just really funny what can i get away with you know when we're always looking to get away and cut corners and take the easy road and you know we have our bedrooms yeah you know i'm going to have you know some harry potter posters in my bedroom and e.t you know you know masks that i bought when i was in roswell and all this stuff it's not real to me yeah and then wonder why i'm depressed and i can't feel god and that's a huge sense of guidance i had oppression so when i was seeing the demonic faces and before i deliverance the lord spoke to me craig because i would watch her i'd watch all the horror movies i loved horror movies and i watched even as christian for two years and god said that's the entry point like for you like get rid of all the all your new age stuff it was like stop watching horror movies and all my baptist friends i mean the night i was delivered the youth group was doing not sciences but was in a graveyard finding the oldest grave and just doing kind of weird stuff and i'm like so i just come there and i just got delivered so i'm just like dude what are you doing flirt with darkness i go it's about jesus and i got i shared my testimony and i was deliberate like 16 people got saved so i mean but you know is this kind of like oh it's not real i mean come on we're just having fun you know we're just flirting and that's way i just love the the rush adrenaline rush of fear you know like friday the 13th when you're just thinking oh it's over at ease of the boat and all of a sudden the guy comes off the water and he's just like we all freaked out i mean it's like i love that rush but i didn't believe even as a christian that that was real that that was glorifying the enemy indirectly by putting fear and just and then kind of making everything like there's supernatural beings that can just keep coming out of you can kill them and they'll come back you know i just and god it was so simple but yet so profound for me said stop watching harmony something oh okay nobody ever told me that no pastor said yeah you might want to think about no yeah and a lot of times i think we just blame the church right we blame the church and like people like leaders for making us feel bad or like oh they're condemning us instead of really not playing the victim and saying no that's the holy spirit convicting me and really asking god to because there's some things where it is like music or whatever or my brother and i were joking with youtube like where it's like you don't have to completely cut out everything like you don't you don't have to because those who compare themselves with others are fools like you can't just be like i have to completely take everything because i want to be like them but at the same time if the holy spirit is prompting you like and you're intimate with him like he will tell you hey i want this to go away and it's like james 4 17 is those who know what to do don't do it sin so that's i think that's really what our prayer is like there's things like like psychedelics i don't know if you want to talk about that like psychedelics meditation like all these things that we know christian so-called christians are doing that thinking it's okay marijuana but can you list a few other things that people do and then just explain like christianity as christians i mean the world is yeah exactly they're going to be judged by you know because there's people that still smoke weed as a christian i have people say i you know i wake up in the morning smoke and bake bro yeah i read my bible and it's totally cool and i'm like going so i'm like going so they're saying where does it say it says subdue you know all the herbs the field dude and so i'm like yeah i say but but i said pharmakia you know of the sorcery which is pharmakia right and then i say but paul said in ephesians 5 18 do not be drunk with wine which will ruin your life but be filled with the holy spirit why would you say don't you know don't escape i mean the way i've studied it it's like don't come home from a long day and just start drinking wine just to get rid of the stress of the day learn to do that through the holy spirit learn to to find your peace like you said that god gave you but find that in fellowship find that with loving god where he's the one who kind of helps you defragment i always say like the first peter 5 8 cast all your cares and worries upon the lord forget learn how to give those cares give that stress of the day to the lord let him bring that piece instead of some chemical right to give you know you know because we were talking about wine but i mean it's not saying you can't ever have a glass of wine but if you're doing it to take the edge off the medication constantly that might be a little funky yeah exactly so you talked about um galatians 5 19 i want to say 5 18 18 where it says yeah um sorcery is a work of the flesh and those i'm sorry yeah five i'm sorry i don't know what verse we're so sorcery about yeah i think it's 5 19. yeah and those who do these things will not inherit the kingdom of god the word there is pharmakia which means the use of drugs it's where we get the word pharmacy from and it literally means the use of drugs that's literally what it means it also can mean the use of drugs with magic or just magic but which is tied in a lot of eastern yeah drugs but the body yeah exactly but it's primarily referencing the the use of drugs so i looked up like a dozen or so lexicons and dictionaries i haven't and they're all saying the use of drugs is the primary definition um you talked about drunkenness the word drunkenness for example doesn't mean intoxication from alcohol it can mean intoxication from any substance first of all second of all the greek word methane also is not specific just to alcohol but to any kind of intoxication at all yeah yeah so when it says that drunkenness the drug was sin right yeah well i mean it's referring to physical intoxication so drunkenness you know is a work of the flesh and those who do these things will not inherit the kingdom of god it can refer to drunkenness from wine it can refer to drunkenness or methane intoxication with any kind of substance that is you know mind-altering or physiologically altering in any kind of like significant way um and then there's a debate well you know how much wine can i drink until or whatever um that's why that's why i told you when you're talking last night that's why i gave up drinking wine right because i tend to drink a lot and i mean meaning water tea anything and so for me i could pound before christ a case of beer just like like water it was just normal that was normal everyday life right before i got saved and so it's like for me i would always you know three four glasses of wine five beers and then i always hated that like where i'm like i love you stephen you're the best man and then i'm like i think i might have pushed it you know there's no me if it was a cool little meter i could say you're right there bro stop but you know it really is and i just i got tired of always because i tend to be an extremist so i just hated that i always flirt about one of those guys could have one glass of wine and be like i'm cool you know so nice with my my spaghetti i mean i always like you know more and i mean so it just got to be you know maybe you're different but it got to me where i just go i can't i don't like because i always seem to push it not even meaning to just my personality just i like to i like to drink anything and i just don't know if it's like smoking i just like to have something but i always pushed it and it just got too frustrating to me to always because i always feel like i put it to that buzz thing right right right right convicted yeah and if you cross the point of intoxication that's definitely when it will become you know a problem what are you trying to displace to the enemy that kind of stuff well like why does satan kind of seem to to vamp on that um i i would have to understand it i think i just answered my own question don't give like what he said to us don't give in yeah don't kings couldn't be given a strong drink unless they forget the law so it's sort of information yep that's right is it numbs our mind and our senses right to be sense of the holy spirit's conviction that opens yeah and in and of itself it goes against the law of god which tells us to be sober and sober minded there's five different commandments in the new testament that tell us to be both sober and sober minded and the word for in greek there so the enemy you think maybe can just be in that i'm talking a natural besides but but he can kind of slip in because we're not on guard right we're not under wherever schemes we kind of i would say that's a secondary way i would say the primary way is not because we're not because we've transgressed god's commands to be sober and so reminded he's right right where the devil can claim right hey yeah exactly yeah exactly i don't know if we have time but we're trying to be short of this but i also want to talk about because i tried to talk to heiser and we kind of went off imagine that with me going off but it was like the heavenly council like with job where he was kind of talking about the the the elohim but i was like wild how you know it says satan the sons of god came before god and then satan came and i always loved the satan yeah that's the the accuser it's weird okay yeah yeah yeah straight yeah that's right but it's like but he had he asked for permission and i always say i love how you know it says that jesus is our is our what's the word uh he's our advocate so he's praying for us now calvary people will teach you that he's just saying hey leave stephen lone leave steve alone he's a good boy leave him alone but i'm thinking how would satan do that for thousands of years if every time jesus says shut up you can't talk about craig right if i'm smoking weed or i'm doing something blatantly sinful i'm thinking satan probably has to be able to say hey guy because look at job who was blameless it says but yet he says does he fear you for no reason because you bless him so there was an accuser there was a literal it wasn't just jobs or poopoo head it was he he of course he he follows you because you bless him why wouldn't he take that blessing away and he'll curse you then he didn't he said the lord gives or takes away but then he says touch his body flesh for flesh then he'll curse you he didn't but my point is if i'm smoking weed let's just say you don't think satan's going to go before god and say look at this pastor he says he's all about the lord yeah holy days and he's smoking weed he's hiding he's for he's looking at porno he's doing this you don't think satan and then god's going hey just shut up doing it i mean you can't there is legal right yeah they're like you said ground and we think no because i'm in christ there's no i mean i'm untouchable and it's like yeah if you walk in righteously like you said put on the breastplate of rice's and i always like to say we're declared positionally righteous by the blood of jesus but we have to also clothe ourselves it says in romans 13 put on righteousness the problems when people think that the positional righteousness that we're granted by sin yeah it covers the penalty of our sins um punitively and acquits us of our of liability before god but it doesn't it doesn't the imputed righteousness and positional righteousness justification is what people call it that doesn't protect us against demonic oppression yeah right absolutely casino since you're a lot smarter and better looking than me but how does how does that how does that uh try because when god when satan gets going and you know in revelation he'll be kicked out finally once and for all but i have to believe right he isn't just going stephen's a poopoo head stephen's a poo i want to mess with steve he is trying to look at your life and see where maybe you are walking in willful sin right even as a christian where you're not ignorant of it and then he goes god i desire to sift him i desire to think my opinion you know i don't want to get off on this you might cause the whole thing sorry craig that's all right but i think like like even peter where it says think about this jesus said satan desires to sift you like we now if someone said i want to sit for mariah my daughter i'd say no but jesus goes kind of like yeah it's going to happen i'm going to allow it but once you've gone through this now strengthen your brethren so god allowed it again allowed it now i go here's my opinion the reason why because peter was very prideful peter had a lot of pride so satan is kind of saying dude this guy looks a lot like me i had pride i mean peter is the man he said you're the christ somebody and so god allowed that like you said to work his righteousness in him to help him because after peter did that and fell and denied christ then what happened he was really a different man after he denied the lord three times and so i think even like you said god uses the enemy in the heavenly council to work his righteousness but i believe peter and many people disagree with me on this but peter through his pride right you can't go to the cross jesus then satan said hey i really think i have a right to be to mess with this guy yeah and god allowed it but what say you on that since i know you probably i'm not sure about that verse yeah i mean jesus says that i but i prayed for you and like he wanted to do this but there's an advocate i think he is sort of setting the boundaries right you can't rock his take him out but you can that's right freak him out exactly right make him doubt and stuff right and then the same thing with oppression i think of peter too peter's a really good example where he says what do men say you're the son you're the christ the son living god and he's like oh flesh and blood didn't realize so you're going yay and peter's like i'm the man i'm gonna roll then what did he say and he goes i gotta go to the cross and then peter says no you can't he says what and even calvary guys who don't believe impression will say he's saying get behind me satan he's like almost talking to satan like it's really a directive to i hear you speaking through peter right and what do you say you're and why is the flesh you're not concerned with the things of god but the things of men which is what selfish ambition because he's probably some scholars say because he's thinking if you die jesus then i'm just a fisherman again i have no i'm just a dude you know and so you can't die you're gonna mess up my whole gig you know and it's like you see where you know and i'm talking about just so you know i think you know but is uh james 3 14 don't give in to selfish ambition or envy or jealousy which gives the devil which it says it's it's earthly and spiritual demonic right it gives satan place and think how many pastors how many ministers i'm sure you even struggle with it right from pastor's success but that know i want to be ambitious for the lord's will but i don't want my selfish ambition right which can give the devil much place i believe yeah absolutely and another verse that would be good would be um i think james 4 7. yep um to god resist the devil and he will flee so i don't think that you know powers of darkness have to go petition the lord every single time before they oppress us i think it's an implicit law built into the function of the spirit world that if there's a person who has given themselves over to sin and transgress god's commandments past a certain point i don't believe like every single sin warrants the same kind of oppression or any oppression for that matter like jesting is a sin for example um you know of course just yeah or like let no unwholesome talk come out of your mouth if i stub my toe and something slips out of my mouth that's unwholesome you know am i now fighting off satan the rest of the day because i said the s word or something are you gonna go to hell i told you extreme for videos where you fall through right now yeah but but like so but there's varying degrees of sin that invoke varying degrees of danger and you see uh unforgiveness morality yeah sexual immorality and idolatry as being the most serious in particular like false spirituality idolatry would have anything to do with false spirituality um would you say that kind of in your opinion with that kind of like where where satan said to joe you've put of course i've tried have you considered my servant job he says no yeah but you put a hedge around him you think that kind of breaks the hedge how would you explain when you walk in because you're saying you don't think satan has to always go before the council right there's just dem i mean because we don't deal with satan right very much but robert demon might be following us but you don't think it always has to be but i think like peter it probably was a higher council because this is a guy who's kind of sure one of the pillars of the church i'm sure right and you got jesus in the flesh there yeah yeah right and so i'm pretty sure there's a lot of demons hanging around monitoring that yeah and so you don't have satan operating through everyone i probably nobody who listens to this has probably ever encountered satan or anything that he himself has a single limitation michael the archangel coming to what's his name and his it is tights yeah i know i don't think mark uh isn't he busy guarding israel he doesn't have time to show up in someone's bedroom yeah just like a ws he probably he probably has better things to do than that ugly but be cranky you know yeah exactly but when it comes to like more serious uh sins or sins that are mild but become serious because our disobedience is so delayed or so blatant like it could be something very very small that god might tell us to do like apologize to this person what a man knows to do and doesn't do it right and if you bury that long enough over and over again i think that will yes you're your conscience and that will result in i think oppression yeah right and so i like what i don't know if you've heard of henry blackburn i think he was from from canada but he said he says the people say i don't hear the voice of god anymore he says now go back to where was the last time i spoke to you and now i love her or pastor chuck you say if if you haven't obeyed step a god's not going to show you step b yeah and we always go i want this and god's like but i told you to do this right i told you to reconcile with that person or to repent of that sin or close that door and you're praying it's kind of like you hear me she's god like you should obey him right yeah and you're praying for like leadership in this life decision or something god where's your guidance why can't i ascertain your will here because you've silenced the voice of god in your life perpetually through obedience or disobedience and delay really singing with saying you're really still the lord of your life yeah because it's like when peter when he said kill and eat and he says no lord you know it's like that's an oxymoron you can't say he's lord and say no to him right i struggle with this lord help me god right but you can't say no lord yeah it's always yes right or help me right it's a struggle to forgive this person but with your help i'll do it i surrender to your lordship right so when it comes to um like more serious sins that are exemptuous ones like um first the ones in first corinthians six or galatians five for example those are listed as like very serious ones yeah right and i think the much to church i mean i don't interrupt but the church we have a lot of people and we're pretty we're called legalistic because we truly try but we have a ton of people who are fornicating you know and that we know of and we speak to it and you know i told you one guy said he came he's living his girlfriend and we talked we talked to him about first corinthians 6. fornicators should not inherit the king of god and he stepped he broke he moved out but then he all of a sudden a couple weeks later he told god spoke to him and said it's time to move move back in and i'm like because it's not like a slip with these people because like we get if you're tempted and you slip and you fall but it's like you know moving is in a whoops yeah they've completely like justified and like said all these things and that's where and they said god said it yeah god told me right which is which is the second sin of blasphemy using the name of god in vain yeah there's a second sin you're doing there so since we're kind of yeah but can you stephen just for like talk to someone the young stephen you know steven what how would you say to someone who's oppressed you know because we can argue all this stuff but what would you say to take sin serious can you just kind of give a wrap up of what would you say to someone who's saying that's me man i see faces i hear voices i'm touched or whatever weirdness that they're just saying some people are saying it's not real but you know it's real i know it's real right we may not understand it perfectly but we know that right can you just talk about just kind of recap of being taking the bible seriously being holy and how to kind of be in a sense bulletproof from oppression as a believer yeah um i think that the most certain way to live a life bulletproof from oppression is to live a life that is holy and pleasing unto god where moment by moment where you know it says in ephesians 5 to discern at all times what the will of the lord is um i want to say galatians 4 4 i could be wrong galatians 5 tells us to keep in step with the spirit um so moment by moment you know lord what is your will for me today galatians 5 16 walk by the spirit so you're not fulfilled the lesser desires right exactly and when we do fulfill the lusts and desires of the flesh that that is when the bible says we're inviting demonic oppression into our life even as a believer giving the devil place giving the devil a place a foothold if we allow sun goat to go down on our anger and you have like unholy old anger like and god gets angry but there's a difference between like today's anger where you feel anger and the moment you respond the moment you deal with it and yesterday's anger yeah where you're marinating on it and name his dad from 20 years ago because he treated your mom badly right and so if paul tells us in ephesians 6 that um the breastplate of righteousness is meant to protect us he says the helmet of salvation too and like you know the belt of truth and the sort of the spirit and everything but you can have a helmet of salvation on and know the bible inside it out and have your feet trodden with the gospel of peace and have the belt of truth know what the truth is perfectly but if you aren't implementing it and it's not being carried out in holiness and righteousness it's vanity yeah it means nothing it's powerless because it doesn't change your life right change it's an incomplete uh um armory you need the breastplate of righteousness and sin is like the most major in our armor that you can have in all of scripture so i would encourage people um if you're struggling i would even say like like mental health um we didn't get into counseling much but you know i would say there is definitely a place for like christian counseling and so forth because of satan right too i mean but satan has placed so like i see when people are delivered that's pretty quick really when they really surrender but the renewing of the mind to the washing the word you really need your because satan's lied right as a new ager you had a lot of misconceptions about god and about what was true and god through his word and through the spirit of truth he renewed the right things so satan didn't have a foothold in your thinking yeah and i would say oppression can be um eliminated pretty much entirely through um repentance and a holy life lived out before god and then a lot of people struggle with like depression and anxiety and so forth i think there's some things that are rooted in like past traumas and we need to like re-understand how god sees us and not how we were trained to see ourselves by the world and so forth but even in dealing with oppression emotionally and psychologically that's not demonic person kind of vamp like i see with me like my grandma told me she said as a young young kid trying to help me she said she goes just know this nobody cares nobody cares i mean i'm two years old three years old that's what trump said to biden but it's rallies he said i've seen you you come out here we have these big crowds on like 24 hour notice 23 000 people i see joe he has these meetings and sometimes three people show but my grandma told me no one cares well whenever things would go hard in ministry i would hear the devil just saying nobody cares man nobody cares and that kind of made me a sociopath because if nobody cares about me why should i care about anyone else i have no problem taking someone's money beating someone up but then i love it so it's kind of cool so i'm sitting there and i mean i've talked i carried this into christianity a long time as a pastor and i'm sitting there and i got hurt by other pastors and i said and that was screaming nobody cares and i go yeah i'm like i'm sick of this god i'm sick and then god says i'm finishing this once and for all nobody cares like me that's like and it's so simple but so provides like yeah yeah wow because a lot of people don't care right i mean a lot of people are right you've been hurting christ right sometimes as a drug dealer i knew hey these people want to steal my money they want to hurt me but as a christian when you have christians so-called christians hurting you're like i didn't think people did this in christ you couldn't you can't you can't be trying to hurt someone or slander someone or lie and it just really hurts but i have to know really god's the only one who's faithful and true completely that we can totally put our trust in you know but we need that renewing so satan doesn't hold on to those like that thing for me nobody cares so why do you care you shouldn't care you know yeah and that's real and that takes time but we can fast track that process through a an abandoned surrendered commitment to purity and obedience to god and that's a big difference right between holiness what you're talking about or the bible stomach and self-righteousness right because the pharisees looked good but it was a show it was a hypocrite an actor and we really want sincerity you know now we don't want to put you know the words there like the wax we don't want to put a fake thing out of a veneer of godliness we're really not living it and remember he says you say don't you say don't commit adultery yeah you you say to others don't commit adultery's pulse but yet you commit adultery we want to make sure we're doing our best that like paul says once i preach others i myself a disqualification that we really buff with that we really are saying i'm preaching as hard to me right as i am to the people of god right to the people i really say hey because sometimes pastors get like i'm above this no you're not you know i mean you know we need to be an example right of the believer and as someone said to you right you know say pastor craig isn't that smart he's not like stephen but he does his best to live the gospel and that really speaks a lot to me and i think we need that right because you know the temptation with someone like you could be i'm so smart i don't have to leave it i just teach it to others but you realize right you really do need to walk out the truth to really have authority in the future realm and to live a life that's dependent so if i were to speak or to be speaking to my old my old self which i don't know my unsaved oppressed self um you know i would say that the commandments of god are meant to be life-giving and the devil's primary tactic is to convince us that we can receive that well really that there's a greater reward for disobedience than there is for obedience that was essentially the genesis 3 lie right that there's there's more joy and more of your welfare on the other side of disobedience than obedience and like understanding you'll be like god you know the full gig you're just seeing a little part of it and understanding like when it says like envy rods the bones and whoever commits adultery destroys his own soul and that you know god put these laws in place so that i can be um in right relationship with a holy god first and foremost secondly to see my inability to keep all them perfectly and for to train me to to see my need for a savior like paul says the law was given to increase sin and to be a school master leader right but then thirdly for like my own welfare they're to protect me against the destructive influences of sin in my life and you know depression unhappiness anxiety stress um like a vision because you're not hearing the voice exactly a seared conscience and so forth um that they're meant to be life-giving and you know and serve as protective mechanisms against demonic oppression in our lives and so you know i would encourage my past self and people listening like am i really is 100 of me turn toward 100 of jesus yeah right we can have 100 of us turn toward an idol who is only 90 of the jesus of the bible or we can have 90 of ourselves turn to 100 of the jesus of the bible but to have 100 100 all of me wants all of you and all of me is like i'm putting myself all in and that's where you see the power of god i mean yeah wow because that's what because people say how did you change erratically like people say i've been trying to quit dope for like 10 years it's like i think you know because god's no respecter of persons right he doesn't love you more than me or me more than you but it's because like you hopefully that's why i'm so touched by you is because you're a crybaby okay i'm touched by you but no i'm touched because i see the brokenness i that to me is just really attractive because i don't see it that much you know i mean but i just you know that's the key when you say i'm done i i surrender i'm done i've tried and you had a pretty good life right technically without christ i mean monetarily outwardly right but inside you were kind of like what this is weird you know i mean i'm empty even though i have every everyone's telling me how great i am right yeah i think you said your dad was like wow stephen you're making money but you know what i mean but you came to the end of yourself and i believe that's got induced right but we need that more and that's back to i think that when you have that brokenness then you want to be holy then you go okay god if you're real then why shouldn't it follow you completely yeah and i don't think we should be shocked like as christians if we do struggle with depression or insecurity or rejection because i think when i think that i'm like what is wrong with me i just get mad and then if i don't go to god i end up like going on social media and comparing myself well at least i look better than this person or man i feel worse about myself because this person's awesome but we go to all these other things to escape people go to meditation yoga like those things i was listing off or you know drinking but that's why the verse that you said you said james 4 7 but james 4 8 through 9 says draw near to god and he will draw near to you cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double-minded be wretched and mourn and weep let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom so people hear that and they're yeah we think weeping's bad yeah but like you always say you said to this one girl sucking carpet she's like what you meant like just crying like on the floor to god just crying out like god i need you i'm i feel so rejected right now i feel so depressed like no one loves me and just being like god you need to show me how much you love me right now like how deep your love is for me and and there's nothing more like humiliating than having to do that and like to admit that yeah like there's there's been times where i haven't even had functionality where it's like god unless you make me functional today i can't function yeah and like it's one thing to ask god for blessing god bless my marriage today you know god would you bless my help me get a raise but it's like god would you help me get up get something done would you help me you know be functional and you know that's always safe being honest before your feet hit the carpet you should say lord fill me with your holy spirit empower me to live the life because there's times as a pastor i mean it's gonna be shocking but there's times where i go god i don't want to face this day i don't want to get up and it's on sunday morning sometimes and i'm just like going god please i have to sit there kind of in a sense meditate on saying god fill with your spirit empower me give me that unction to do your will because i right now i just kind of want to lay down i feel like braveheart where you laid down i just want to give up because it's so overwhelming but that's the power of the holy spirit not just blessing and learjets right but empowering you to fulfill the call god has for you because god wants us to be able to like see this captive set free and like to share the good news and do all that stuff but so many times it's like we're trying to study and do this and that instead of actually just going to the source like going to god the holy spirit like he's our counselor and the holy spirit will tell us like hey i need you to actually like confess this to someone so you can be healed i actually need you to like go to a counselor and so that's why i also love the verse isaiah 61 1-3 it says the spirit of the lord god is upon me because the lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of prisons to those who are bound to proclaim the year of the lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our god to comfort all who mourn to grant those who mourn in zion to give the beautiful hand headdress instead of ashes the oil of gladness instead of mourning the garment of praise instead of the faint spirit that they might be called oaks of righteousness planting the planting of the lord that he may be glorified so that oil like just explaining like we need to put on that garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness like sometimes we just need to put on a worship song and start praising god like even if we don't feel like we need to choose joy because it's so easy to be like i'm just depressed everyone hates me and like i'm so ugly like that's so easy for me to like just get sulk in that instead of just like you know what no i'm gonna just cry out to god and start worshiping and praising him and choosing joy yeah so yeah i don't like i like what chuckles said kind of like that first comes the motion then comes the emotion right it says remember your former works what were you doing when you used to be on fire for god yep i read my bible every day i prayed i dealt with sin do those things even if you don't feel it's like oh i'm a hypocrite i'm living but do it and then do the motion obesity right and then we'll come to emotion a lot of times and he's saying how example like uh angelina jolie and and brad pitt how they pretended to be married couple in mr mrs smith but then they actually got married through the motion and i mean it's a little simple illustration but we sometimes like i'll sometimes be really depressed and i'll come down the stairs like god is good with the cheesy smile god is good all said i start laughing because i don't feel it but then i realized no god is good you know put your hope in god there's a choice put your hope in god forever praise thee so it's saying even though i'm downcast why am i downcast but then put your hope that realizing they always say it's kind of cheesy but they say don't only let two things in christ don't let the little things get you down and two there are really no big things in christ so we need to just rest in that to say hey you allowed this in my life right hopefully it's not blatant sin but you allow this you're going to give me the power and grace to get through it and don't be fake like if there's a problem deal with it like if there's something really going on you need to like talk to someone and go to counseling or whatever but and find a good count right because that's a good question you said you're a really great counselor but we we don't have a lot it might be a lot of great i know i don't mean that if you're listening sorry but uh we don't have really balanced spirit-filled counselors where they they do the natural but they also really incorporate the spiritual and it seems to be one extreme the other right but uh we really you know we need to pray for that but cool you want to wrap us up in prayer and yeah have you shared any lesson yeah i like the verse that you read in james where it tells us to purify our hearts and then tells us that the reason we're double-minded is because our hearts aren't pure yeah and we again too right yeah i think i don't know if you agree with this but the next revival you know you know i'll be careful survival because it could be an exciting pedagogy of revival some churches every weekend but in the awakening i guess would be better is awakening to him not for show but out of real that we want to see god and without holiness that's the wake that's for me as an older man 58 i want to see like the jesus move the heart for people like yourself and i mean not that you're perfect but really say i'm done even though it cost me right because you're not making the money you made then but you're worth it what does it mean again the whole world like you had before and lose your soul in the strife but now because jesus is real i surrender all and now i might have all the accolades of the past i might have all but i'm in christ which means more and i surrender and i want to be holy and that's what i'm praying for younger people that that's the sec that's the awakening is back to the importance of taking god at his word and really really in loving obedience and it's a process like you you were telling me that before because i'm like i just want to be holy and it's like sanctification is a process like to the day we die that's why you even stress like it's so important to be in church to get that accountability especially for young adults like to get that accountability brothers and sisters in christ if you're struggling something go to someone and ask them to hold you accountable whether it's on your phone or just whatever and that's what is so important why we need each other like as a body to like lift each other's hands up to encourage each other so like paul needed philemon he told fleming to come refresh his spirit yeah like why would he need he prayed i think mark he was able to see some other churches face to face like why did he need that um if you know the lord intended us to live his islands unto ourselves you know it says in proverbs 18 1 whoever isolates himself seeks his own destruction yeah um i like the verse two in romans eight if you're which one it is in romans eight but paul's talking about how he's been uh i think it's a reference to his former life in romans seven um people try and say oh look at paul he can't stop sinning either so if he can't stop sinning i can't but he says at the end of eight seven who could free me for this body of saying praise video or if he said jesus did so it's not if he's sort of saying some people say that was his life as a pharisee the things i want to do that's right but so we always think oh that's just normal christian you're just always that's right but he said pray who can free me from this body praise be earlier yeah exactly and then all of romans they there's the holy spirit as mentioned 13 times in the first 11 verses of romans 8. and that's his solution that if your mind is set on the flesh and you're walking after the story aft on the spirit you're walking up to the spirit you will not give in to the desires of the flesh and i love it when he says that um the mind set on the flesh is death but the mindset on the spirit is life and peace so if the mind set on the spirit and the things of the spirit is life and peace and jesus says your whole body will be full of light if your eye is single and you know the law of god enlivens the eyes i want to ask myself and if i'm struggling with either demonic oppression or either you know anxiety depression in my life um there's a bunch of things i would want to cover after this first box is checked off but the first box is am i am i is my heart um in a posture of 100 percent repentance and surrender to god and am i trying to cooperate with god to the best of my ability to the best of my knowledge am i 100 set on cooperating with god yeah all day every day yeah is that my heart to his voice no matter what your opinion is sometimes every second of the day i forget what you're saying last night with something really simple but sometimes god actually give up like a relate like that girl to me that was a hard thing but it was like wait a sec this is god i need to do it right i could have said drag that out for months or i don't want to hurt her but i was like no god you saved my soul you're worthy i mean i'll trust you to deal with her to comfort her but you know and we've got to get that radical i think we need to get that back rather than what you said for 10 minutes and then taking a spiritual vacation yeah well i thought about it so it's good but we need to take action right right you know what a man knows to do and does not do it it's sin we when god speaks it's not a suggestion hey think about this stephen it's this is for sure if unless it goes against the word do it you know so when god says it's a matter of am i going to obey or not obey it's not well that's faith yeah and on the other side of that obedience there's joy yeah peace and life and and he'll affirm that with his spirit right that's right when you're not doing you'll have you'll just be like all anxious you're like but i'm a christian how am i all anxious and freaked out and why am i getting night terrors well because you disobeyed god yeah there's a cut like you said when you walk in the flesh it brings the new living says you know death and corruption i mean you can't you can't disobey god and have speculated right a blessed life and there's this understanding too and we can pray and there's an understanding in which like we are in one sense and as free as we want to be any given moment if we're willing to to cooperate with god abstain from every form of evil um expose have nothing to do with the unfruitful works of darkness like i want to be free i want to be free well do you want to abstain from every form of evil do you want to love your neighbor as yourself and put away lying and speak truth with your neighbor because we're all of one body are you committed to being honest righteous holy if so expect freedom yeah right if you want to qua if you want to compromise in any of those fears and live a half half-baked i want to say i don't be mean to people but like a half-hearted half-committed christian life expect to not be walking in the fullness of life and the rivers of living water and the life more abundantly that jesus promises to those like if everything's available on him he's not withholding anything from us he's put all his chips in the problem is we don't want to put ours in too yeah and you know my counselor he was 80 years old he's been saved since he was 14 a minute or saved his whole life in ministry since he was 14 preaching 80 years old um in christian television in you know christian radio and everything his whole life family counseling and everything and he would always tell me that god has a plan for our lives and if we cooperate with him we will get to see that plan and he always emphasized the importance of cooperating with god to get from point a to point b from oppression to freedom and that starts with like you know psalm 139 see if there'd be any wicked way in my heart but also you know understanding that the laws of god are put in place to protect me and so i have to trust if i'm following them that's my safeguard against depression anxiety stress uh and you know demonic affliction um so i think you know the commandments of god they receive a lot of you people talk about like oh we don't like the law you know we only thought well you don't like the law to save you but you like the law to a point you to christ but also to keep you your soul intact right david used to delight in the law yeah just meditate on the law and like pray and praise god for how much he enjoyed his law and loved his law why because it led him in the ways of life yeah the way the way i described it and we want the lace of we want the ways of life without without obedience without the law as a hippie being able to do anything i want to stay out all night seventh grade smoke weed in the house have girls over anything and all my friends thought dude you're the you got the best and you're so cool and then you know what i mean but but the way i saw it when i became a christian because my life was just out of control when we came christian it was like i said i'm going on a cafe racer going 100 miles an hour down a windy road on a hill and now the word of god is like guard rails it protected me from just going off into nothing so i didn't see it as restrictive i saw it as i i have absolute truth of protection to keep me from just all he had said having to be the toughest guy in the room having to fight people having to steal having to just always be johnny bad boy and always put on this image of being so perfect you know that it wasn't true but trying to and it just freed me i saw the law as freeing not binding and for those people who are like religious like i struggle with in the past like and still today like we always think that oh it's i'm good i don't know what's wrong with me because i don't do any blatant sins but it's like the little ones like for me a big one is honor your father mother that life might go well with you or whether it be um just like your attitude or not like those things where it's like i'm like i'm fine god i'm not doing anything wrong but it's like there's things where it's like he wants to tell you but it's like i love the song lord i need you because like every hour i'm like for me it's every second because i just my flesh is so like it's so easy to walk in the flesh but it's like that's why we need to walk by the spirit so we won't fulfill the lust of the flesh so right yeah one one more verse and then we'll uh yeah i like a uh another verse that has been kind of pertinent to i guess and i've learned this through experience you know through um learning from struggling with mental stuff and emotional stuff and spiritual stuff since i've come to christ right like what is god looking on my end in order for me to be a recipient of freedom right like you said draw close to god and god will true close to you drawing close to god looks like something yeah yep it actually it's like you said motion motion action and god drawing near to you looks like something too yeah right like i like a verse i believe it's in john 14. um jesus says if you keep my commandments you will abide in my love even as i keep my father's commandments and abide in his love well i don't feel the love of god and i just don't feel like the presence of god or the spirit of god like some people are differently like not everyone is as spiritually sensitive as the next person but there is this understanding that obedience and the manifest presence the manifest love of god they go hand in hand and jesus tells us that if you want to abide in my love abide in my commandments and keep them right and so they are going to ask whatever you want if you do that and it will be given to you right you'll ask with the right motive right yeah they're bridges to intimacy the commandments of god are what are bridges to intimacy apart from me okay you can do nothing right right the same right perfectly can do nothing you can bear no fruit right so apart from me a lot of christians are doing nothing but yet they're saved right they say they know christ yeah or they're or they're not abiding in christ and expecting all the fruit that is supposed to come through abiding yeah you know health in your soul and freedom from oppression and that can't come unless we're willing to abide in christ which means what like 100 of me and 100 of jesus repentance surrender and you know lord search my heart see if there'd be any wake away with me if you tell me no i said no if you tell me yes i say yes and anything other than that we're just playing games with ourselves we're just and god like we're talking he doesn't mind a lie to say to say but he doesn't mind us wrestling yeah i'm communicating as long as we you know as long as we're sincere because right we could we i mean he's a big god right you hear david say you know i feel good but but arise oh lord let my enemies scatter well it says he never sleeps so you see david's first saying he feels like lord you're kind of asleep with the wheel but we can wrestle with god like lord jesus tell them you feel like that that's so hard that you asked me to forgive this guy who molested me right that's a really hard thing but god gave me the grace i don't know if you heard the story of corey timbu who was part of the in the holocaust survivor and her sister died in this guy with a guy who who basically was largely instrumental in her death he came and said i'm about christian now and she saw him and she said i just like i was so freaked out you can imagine and she says it wasn't until she goes i'm not i'm going lord i can't do this i can't do this but she put he put his hand out and when she went to grab his hand immediately the forgiveness came you know it was like as soon as she was willing like you said to do her part right okay god and says as soon as she touches hand god and that's another sin that seems like for people who are religious like they don't think that that's a problem but that's something i struggle with is like there's someone i can think of and i'm like oh it just bothers me but then it's like have i really forgiven that person and it's like and i wonder why like stuff happens in my life and it's like i haven't truly forgiven and sometimes forgiveness we think it's just like instant you're just like one time i forgive you but no you have to like each day but especially they do something again that bugs you right you're seeing them not knocking hey what'd you play stupid lord we come before you and um we thank you jesus that um you're in control of our lives that you rule over everything and that you're all powerful all good all loving and that you're sovereign and jesus that you've afforded freedom to us by your blood freedom from the power of the enemy freedom from the power of sin lord and we also believe power from the stains of sin and the effects of sin lord and we want to be whole and complete and new we want to be free from oppression from affliction from the enemy lord and we just pray that um for all of us who are are listening and and for me and craig and mariah lord that there's any area of our life or our heart that is that needs uh some fine-tuning um that needs some more sanctification that can cause us to draw closer to you um to live a life more pleasing to you and more intimate with you and more aligned with your plan and purpose for our life lord that you would bring that up to us god if there's anything we need to repent of lord any of the listeners if there's anything that is in their life that might be inviting maybe depression or chronic anxiety or chronic stress or demonic affliction or if there's any any sin or any flirtation that they have in their life that is leading to these things we ask that you would reveal that to them lord and that you'd move on their heart and their conscience right now to confess before you and to repent before you lord that they might be free we ask that you just free them right now from any of these things as they're listening lord that they would just have a touch of your spirit yes jesus that they would experience deliverance right now lord they would experience your love and your peace lord and your grace we just ask that the holy spirit would pour out upon them right now and we thank you that you love them lord and we thank you that on the cross you spoiled the principalities and powers lord you conquered the one who brought death into the world you conquered the power of death and your resurrection lord and uh you rose from the dead too secure for us newness of life and jesus we just commit ourselves to you full dependency and full surrender full vulnerability and we confess that we can't walk in the newness of life unless you take our hand and unless you show us what that looks like lord and so we just confess dependency on the holy spirit and we ask that you would show us how to live a life pleasing to you live a life in your will and in your presence and in your power lord and uh we just thank you for the freedom that's on the other side of that obedience and lord i pray that the people who are listening would feel encouraged and inspired to search their lives to live more dependent more obedient and therefore more victorious over anything of the flesh anything of the power of the enemy any anything of the world lord we just want to cooperate with you and uh see your power see your freedom reign in our lives in jesus name amen thanks so much for joining us on calvary conversations if you haven't already please make sure to like subscribe and share this video if you would like to listen to us wherever you get your podcast just type in calvary conversations you can also follow us on instagram at calvary conversations thanks so much and god bless

Channel: Calvary Oro Valley

Views: 61,246

Keywords: Demonic, Oppression, Deliverance, Repentance, New Age, Demons, Sin, Pride, Rebellion, Jesus, Christ, God, Trinity, Faith, Church, Freedom, Open, Door, Christians, Love, Joy, Peace, Kindness, Forgiveness, Justify, Cross, Spiritual, Realm, Evil, Darkness, Light, Holy Spirit, Calvary, Forgive, Truth, Bible, Biblical, Family, Friends, Dreams, Unbelief, Confess, Heal, Healing, Healed, Forgiven, Salvation, Believer

Id: rgEBpMV-koE

Length: 80min 8sec (4808 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 23 2020