 About the thing that the enemy Satan He doesn't really mind People to believe in God. He really wants to keep people from believing in Jesus And if he doesn't succeed in helping you if he doesn't succeed in stopping you from believing in Jesus He will do his best to stop you from walking in the Holy Spirit Satan doesn't really mind you believing in God Interesting part if you look on the map of the world religions today You will be surprised that in the world map of religions today. There is not even one percent in the world of proclaim atheists Now in the United States there was one percent of atheists which jumped to five within the last few years But in the world in general Christianity is made up of some 30 something percent the Islam faith about 20 something percent and then a little bit less But there is not even one percent on the world map of people who do not believe in the existence of a creator Every person and every group believes in some kind of a God That therefore Satan's goal is not really to make you believe to make you not believe in God even demons believe and they tremble Most of the people in our nation and in our culture actually have another problem They believe in God of their own making They believe in God they themselves have fashioned and created The God the day worship It's the God who's death dumb And dead And actually many times it's not a God. It's actually a demon behind the God they created A God that they created is a God who permits sin and is completely fine with it A God that people create in their mind is a God that they create in their own image and likeness And keep creating updates for that God anytime something new happens in the culture And it's the God that they change instead of the God who's supposed to change them The God we serve as Christians is not the God we made it's the God that made us and he changes us And this God hears us Heals us leads us fills us changes us and transforms our life Any God you change you transform you create a new update and a new upgrade for him That God is actually not real, but it's a demon behind that kind of God Many times Israelites they worshiped God in the form of a cow and they said listen nation This is the God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, but in reality They were worshiping a demon Anytime you worship a God that you have created you're actually worshiping devil himself In disguise satan doesn't mind you worship a God that you create What he really is frightened is for people To know Jesus the two primary goals of every demon And satan and his kingdom They're basic and they're simple It's not really to immerse people into heresy and witchcraft It's not really to immerse people into woodu or freemasonry Or immorality or all kinds of murder and suicide. That's not really The main goal these are the methods he uses His main goal is to keep every person Away from jesus christ If he fails at this goal his second goal plan b is if he cannot keep you from jesus He will strive to keep you from walking in the holy spirit Sin Weakness immorality are cold is his method, but that is not his purpose Satan knows we will live forever Like lilias shared today. He knows our life does not end when we breathe our last He knows when they put you in the hole in the ground. That's not when you stop existing And therefore he will put all his forces to keep you only for one person who is able To bring you into the world of paradise and life and that person's name is jesus christ Jesus is not only the most controversial or most popular person in the world today But he is the most significant person whom satan does not want you to meet and not want you to serve He doesn't mind you worshiping god everybody does that He is afraid you're trusting in jesus because jesus is completely different game Disciples didn't go around the world preaching god Disciples apostles the followers of jesus did not go around other continents preaching god Apostles did not hold conferences proving the existence of the creator They went around preaching christ and him crucified They were not murdered. They were not dragged to colosseums and lions hungry lions released to eat their bodies because they preached god They were murdered because they preached christ And the bible says in this world there is no other name to whom it's been given to us except one name That name is not muhammad that name is not allah that name is not religion and that name is not buddha And that name is not moses and that name is not elijah that name is jesus christ We must understand as christians. There is no salvation in any other name except the name of jesus christ Jesus died for our sin on the cross. He didn't die because he couldn't defend himself He didn't die because he was caught off guard. He died because before he was born Over 300 predictions were specifically outlined his life. His birth was completely supernatural His life was amazingly supernatural. He lived only 33 years 30 years were completely silent, but the last third three and a half years He did miracles and he unlike any man who ever walked on this earth claimed to be god If someone walks on the streets of tri cities and claims to be god, they're usually cuckoo Normal person will not claim to be god muhammad never claimed to be god buddha never claimed to be god main religious leaders never claimed to be god They claim to be speakers of god messengers of god, but nobody ever who is sane claimed to be god people who claim to be god are in mental institutions C.S. Lewis said if jesus claimed to be god, he's either a liar a lunatic or he is who he says he is lord And we have an option to make today. We as humans are sinners And jesus is the only way for salvation not joining a church even though joining a church is important Not belonging to a home group even though belonging to a home group is important But knowing jesus christ as your savior That is what brings salvation to us satan will do everything he can He can put you in religion Into heresy into deception as long as you do not meet one person and this person is jesus christ Because your mama can go to church your daddy can go to church You can have a bible in your own home You can have a christian television But if you do not receive jesus in your heart my friend when your heart beats its last Is the last time you are going to enjoy the beauty of this life and after that your life goes crazy But as a christian when you meet jesus When your heart beats its last The best is truly Is to come Your worst days were behind you If you are a non christian who doesn't believe in jesus your worst days Are ahead of you Your best is behind you Therefore jesus is who satan wants to keep us away from If he doesn't succeed in keeping you away from jesus he would try second tactic When he sees you make jesus your lord and you ask him to forgive your sins He goes into mode number two And that mode is to keep you away from walking in the holy spirit Because when jesus our savior died on the cross he went to heaven 50 days 40 days later for 40 days after his resurrection He taught about the kingdom of god and he ascended into heaven And he told his disciples don't go nowhere from jesus But await for the coming of the holy spirit Now disciples have heard about the holy spirit. They have read torah They've read that in the beginning holy spirit hovered over the earth when the earth was nothing They've read about holy spirit coming upon moses and coming upon elijah and coming upon kings like david So holy spirit was not a strange phenomenon to them But i doubt they knew holy spirit in the way they were about to encounter him I doubt they even imagined holy spirit in the way they were about to meet him And they gathered together and they begin to pray jesus they knew jesus they met but he's no longer with them And this jesus promises that someone else is coming named the holy spirit And the disciples gathered together for 10 days. They prayed not knowing How is he going to come is he going to come like he came on moses? Is he going to come like jesus knock on the door and says hello? My name is holy spirit. How is he going to come 10 days later? The bible says as they were in one accord on the day of pentecost 50 days after jesus's resurrection a mighty wind Broke through the room. It was physical wind Things started to move And the fires physical fires began to appear under heads and they started to speak in unknown languages The surprising part is the languages they spoke Were exactly the same languages that people all around who came to visit jesus on a day of a festival They understood these languages and these people actually had the gospel preached to them in the language known to them By the language not known to disciples Disciples now get up and they preach a message. There wasn't long It was a short message and 3 000 people said we want to follow jesus And since then the church was unstoppable When disciples would pass a shadow would heal the sick When apostle peter would come to a place where dead people were there he lays hands and they came back to life When they touched the lepers the lepers would get cleansed When they would preach they would have boldness and conviction about them And when they would get beaten they would still have an attitude of joy and love and forgiveness that they couldn't have before Who did that to them? It was the holy spirit Today you must understand satans two main goals in this world Keep you away from jesus And if he cannot succeed in that keep you away from knowing holy spirit Because without holy spirit you will spend your life living in flesh meaning living in your carnal Sinful inclinations means you will do what your body tells you to do If you feel like going doing something bad you will do it because you will not be in control of your own urges And your own lusts and desires With holy spirit you are unstoppable With holy spirit sky is the limit can somebody say amen And that brings me to the conclusion of my message entitled the spirit of python Book of acts chapter 16 Verse 16 says the following Now it happened as they went to prayer a certain girl a slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination Met us who brought her masters much profit by fortune telling In the greek It says there a girl was possessed with the spirit of a python What happened here is apostle paul walks to a prayer meeting and as he's walking to the prayer meeting the scripture says Behind him was a young slave girl Who was possessed with an evil spirit? And in this particular case the bible like in many other cases gives us a name of a demon And it says in your king james version It says spirit of divination and in some bibles it has a little letter on the top of that word and in the footnote it says python snake python And apostle paul he turns around and he commends that demon to leaves and the demon flees You must understand The satan who left heaven in rebellion against god He took with him one third of angels whom we call today demons or unclean spirits or wicked spirits These are spirits without bodies They seek to possess or enter a body if they cannot succeed in entering a body They will enter a body of an animal It's mentioned many times in the bible whether a pig or another animal that they will enter They love to enter a body. They do not want to be disembodied and that's what they are right now The scripture reveals to us that there are different names for demons for example There is a spirit called spirit of fear Means his characteristic this particular's characteristic of this demon is to terrorize Intimidate and torment a person with abnormal phobias Phobias are not just emotions They're not just things that you go to the doctor and get medicine for This is an expression of a particular demon whose assignment is to bring phobia There is a spirit in the bible is a spirit of heaviness heaviness is not just what you get because your work is hard and because you're overwhelmed and that's part of life But there is also a demon who has an assignment to bring abnormal heaviness and anxiety to people's lives There is a demon the spirit called spirit of infirmity It's when a person constantly goes from sickness to sickness things are very difficult And there's many many others which i will not mention right now In this case it says here that this girl had a demon And this demon's name was a python Why python? Now we understand most people who practice witchcraft even the most famous Fortune teller in in new york or washington dc Says that she received her powers to read into future when a snake came to her at night and slept with her And then she started to see Which kind of lets you know it's probably not from jesus It definitely is not from jesus last time i remember snake came to eve and things didn't go well there And so snakes if if snake comes to you at night most likely 99.999 percent this is not holy spirit This is definitely other spirits, but it's not the good holy spirit In this case a python why python what characteristics did this demon have That a python has What characteristics and duties this demon was performing in people's lives That are resembling in the life of a snake Something very interesting some of you know this some of you don't For some of you this will be a renew for others. This will be something new. I want you to listen to this Pythons are one of the largest snakes in the world Unlike many other snakes pythons don't produce poison They are non venomous snakes. They live in tropical areas like africa and asia Pythons they kill their prey by squeezing them until the prey stops breathing After they kill an animal they swallow it in one piece This is something interesting everything except fur and feathers will be digested Undigested material will be found in a python's poop Size of the prey determines the time needed for digestion Bigger the prey can take the snake For weeks or months to digest most pythons eat from three from four to five times a year Wouldn't you want to have that kind of eating habit? Pythons attack their prey from an ambush They are well camouflaged and hidden usually in the trees Although they are mainly located on the ground or in the trees pythons are excellent swimmers Colors of a python's skin are usually similar to the color of its habitat Snakes blend easily with their environment Pythons have heat sensing organs which help them locate the prey Female usually lays 12 to 36 eggs She protects her eggs and keeps them warm by cooling her body around them when babies are hatched Mother leaves the nest and young snakes are to look after themselves from the first day The longest python that was ever they've seen was 30 feet in length And most snakes weigh from 260 to 300 pounds Pythons can move one mile per hour on the flat ground In captivity pythons can live up to 40 years So now you have a little view. This is just basic I had the opportunity to actually see a live python In Africa in Tanzania in a snake zoo and those things are humongous Those things are slow as it seems but don't let their speed deceive you They're cunning and they're tricky One particular case the one particular issue that you've noticed in this as I was reading from a python is this Is the way they hunt and the way they kill the prey Unlike other snakes who either bite and insert poison into their prey Pythons don't really have poison in their mouth Unlike other snakes who can surround you and break your bones when the python surrounds its victim Usually they say a python will never break one bone It's not there to kill you By breaking your bones. It's there to surround you and then squeeze and squeeze and squeeze Until you suffer from asthma Breathing problem and you can't breathe and you die and once you're dead then the python swallows you alive And we must understand something very unique in the tactic of a particular demon named python He operates just like this He wants to squeeze Holy spirits presence out of our lives The enemy if he cannot keep you away from jesus He will do something else He employs these other demons who I think sometimes even more powerful than the demons that cause people to sin And these are the demons who are simply will send everything they can into our life make sure We do not have the breath of god in our nostrils Make sure there is no spirit of god. We do not walk in the spirit and the spirit of god doesn't live in us Make sure holy spirit is a doctrine Holy spirit is a third person of the trinity, but he's not my friend Make sure holy spirit is there, but he's not here Make sure holy spirit is something pastor talks about it, but it's not someone I talk with That is the work of a python To make holy spirit a person that people are afraid of To make holy spirit a person associated with maybe Manifestations that you do not appreciate and cause you to withdraw and say I love jesus I love god the father, but holy spirit don't get too close to him because you will become weird That is the work of a python Deceive us lie to us and make us be afraid of the holy spirit if satan can keep you from holy spirit He doesn't have to work hard to keep you in sin Let me say that again If satan succeeds In keeping you from holy spirit He doesn't have to work hard to keep you in sin Because without holy spirit sin is difficult to resist The bible says walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the loss of the flesh That means if I do not walk in sync with holy spirit I will not be able to resist the urges on my own flesh We're not even talking about the voice of the devil We're not even talking about temptation of satan. We're talking about just your own Desire to be evil You won't be able to resist that without walking in the holy spirit The enemy is after keeping you away from jesus If he doesn't succeed there to keep you away from knowing and walking in the holy spirit How does he do that? In order for him to keep you away from the holy spirit. He has to keep you away from prayer Have you noticed that in this scripture it says paul was walking to prayer And the spirit manifested The enemy wants to keep us away from prayer because in keeping us away from prayer He has the opportunity to keep us away from the holy spirit This is what his desire is his tactic Is to squeeze prayer out of your schedule And to squeeze god's presence out of your prayer Squeeze prayer out of my schedule Surround and literally just everything is in my schedule so busy and so preoccupied I do not have time to spend time with god And that is not just business That is behind the scenes lurking fluffy warm Not threatening. He's not gonna kill you Just squeeze you python It's not Innocent when you say that you don't have time to pray when we say we're too busy What you see as excuse satan sees as a goal What we see as excuse the spiritual world sees as a snake It's not Innocent this is not just business Because in Matthew 13 it Jesus says that when the seed is sown the thorns rise up and they choke the word The enemy will try to choke prayer out of my schedule And if you get to prayer he will fight with all kinds of distractions All kinds of guilt all kinds of difficulties make sure in prayer you don't ever touch the holy spirit So that you pray But you don't encounter god and after a while he knows prayers that don't encounter god They don't last Because people get so discouraged and depressed about those prayers that they say I better not pray so I feel better That is the enemy's plan, but his plan is not going to work with us Amen We make a goal today against his work In our schedule to push our schedule and to make time for prayer And in our prayer we make time for holy spirit Your schedule is important. You need to eat You need to sleep You need to spend time with your children. You need to spend time with your dog You need to spend time with your school. You need to spend time with your friends All of these things are important, but you need to make a priority in that schedule There is a time where you spend time with god You need to protect that time as much as you protect brushing your teeth every day You will not dare to go out of your house. Even if you are too busy not to brush your teeth You will still brush your teeth. That's how important your prayer life and my prayer life has to be It's it's very important. We don't Break this commitment When you walk into a prayer time There are times when we worship god we confess our sins in prayer We pray for our family. We pray for ourselves. We ask for guidance We come against the devil But in all of that Remember the most important part is when we relax And we talk and we fellowship and we allow him to fill us When you go and you pray for everything you come against the devil and all of these things But you don't take time to spend with holy spirit You're walking out of prayer You prayed the prayer But you didn't get filled You must walk out being filled and being touched By the holy spirit. That will promise you You will have another prayer tomorrow And that will encourage you during the day and change the course of your life Not just when you pray but when in prayer you touch holy spirit Even if it's just five drops and you felt you become revived you become new you become fresh something changes about your life I want to encourage you this evening Let's stop the work of the enemy in our lives As a christian He works like a snake He creeps in and his goal is to surround you and his goal Is to begin to slowly to choke the life and the spirit out of your life And I believe that today we are going to stop that I believe that today we are going to be people who are committed to prayer and in prayer committed to the holy spirit Many people have made decisions this year Many people have made commitments this year Some made commitments to work out every other day Some made a commitment to lose 50 pounds this year Some people made a commitment. I want to get out of my debt Some I want to finally find a spouse Others made a commitment. I want to get a new car. All these commitments are good The most important commitment that you have to honor this year is your commitment to pray And in your commitment to pray your commitment to be with holy spirit samson Was not a perfect man Samson with a long hair He broke a lot of commitments Some commitments actually were sinful that he committed But there is one thing samson held on for the longest time his commitment to his hair Which was the contact point for the spirit of god And when the enemy came in and he started to temper and tempt him and to remove And they noticed that samson wasn't perfect samson was extremely weak and actually very carnal and very fleshly person Yet the spirit of god still somehow moved in his life And delilah came close to samson and noticed even though there is many areas samson's life He wasn't very committed in many areas But there is one area samson was very committed to He never put scissors to his hair He had one commitment. He honored all his life Until he broke that commitment It's important to honor your health It's important to honor your school But please understand Carve time Make room Every day To spend time With the holy spirit You may say i am busy You may say i have two jobs I go full time to school and i go to full time to college You may say i have a family I don't have time Martin Luther one day said I am so busy today I have so many things to do I must spend first three hours with holy spirit When you don't spend time with god You might be doing things faster Things slower Make more mistakes and cause yourself more trouble Remember one thing like lilias shared today Very soon everything you work for Everything you strive for is going to be left on earth All the money you're gonna make your relatives will sue each other to try to divide it When they put you in a casket Your diploma will not go with you Your car is not gonna fit there All of your shoes that you're so obsessed about They will not fit there either Your tv will not go there Your church will not fit there The only thing that is going to be there Is your relationship with the holy spirit Everything you work so hard for You're working for it until the casket And the interesting part 95% of us will never know when that day will come Only few people are privileged to actually have a doctor tell you You have six weeks to live We see that as bad It's actually a privilege Because that means you have six weeks to get ready For most of us you will not have that opportunity For most of us it's gonna be like last week Aksana's cousin Where he planned his life Young man just like many of us Nothing he didn't plan that his day will come And he did in a car on the road Just like that Therefore I do not need to fret or be afraid of that day If this day I push through my schedule And I tell the python you go back to the forest In my life prayer is a priority And in my prayer presence is a priority Then this spirit gets defeated And the name of Christ gets glorified And then we like disciples can spread this gospel To all the four corners of this world Because somebody say amen