 Hello, David Diger Hernandez here, and you are watching Spirit Church here on the Encounter TV Network. I'm continuing now my series on religious spirits, and I really want to attack the religious spirits of guilt and fear. Guilt can leave believers bound to their past. Guilt can leave believers weighted down by the burdensome torment of their mistakes. And fear can torment believers too. Perhaps you constantly wonder about your salvation, or perhaps you're constantly wondering about whether or not God is angry with you. And you know some believers even still struggle with the fear of hell even though they've been saved. So I want to attack these issues head on. That's what I'm discussing here on this edition of Spirit Church. But first, Stephen Moctezuma is here with me. He's going to lead you in some very anointed worship. And then we're going to get right into this message here is Stephen Moctezuma. I want to begin by attacking the spirit of fear, and then I will address the spirit of guilt. But this religious spirit of fear causes you to constantly question your salvation. The spirit of fear causes the children of God to constantly wonder if God is angry with them. Now there is nothing wrong with wanting to please God. There is nothing wrong with wanting to live a holy lifestyle, and there is nothing wrong with reverencing God. But the spirit of fear causes you to live in paranoia, in suspicion, in torment. And whenever you lack peace, you can rest assured that whatever is taking your peace is not from God. Because when the Holy Spirit speaks, He speaks with a light of hope. In other words, when He confronts an issue in your life, when He calls you on a certain thing, He will also offer the hope of overcoming that thing. Whenever you have a shortcoming and you sense that conviction, along with that conviction, the Holy Spirit will always bring the power to repent of that sin and walk toward holiness. Now what I'm talking about here is the spirit of fear. The fear of hell, the fear of the wrath of God, the fear of making a mistake. Constantly wondering, am I in the perfect will of God? Constantly wondering, did I miss it? Did I miss the will of God? Did I upset Him? Did I step in the wrong direction? Did I say the wrong thing? This is not just self-examination. It goes far beyond that. This is self-hatred. This is self-torment. This is the lack of peace. Believers who struggle with this spirit can't even enjoy the Word of God. As they read the Word of God, instead of learning more about Christ, instead of fellowshiping with the Word, instead of fellowshiping with the Holy Spirit, they read the Word and are afraid that they've misinterpreted it. They read the Word and wonder if perhaps they're being influenced by a demonic spirit who's causing them to be deceived. There is a constant fear of deception. There is a constant fear of missing it. Now this is no way to live, especially because God has given to us peace. The Scripture affirms the work of salvation. The Spirit of Fear questions it. The Holy Spirit has given us the truth. But the Spirit of Fear constantly asks, but what if you got it wrong? Now again, I have to emphasize the balance here. There is nothing wrong with asking questions. There is nothing wrong with examining yourself. But if this troubles you to the point where you're losing sleep, if this troubles you to the point where you can't pray, you can't worship, you can't even approach the Word of God, then there's something wrong. I'm going to read a Scripture to you. First John or a portion of Scripture. First John chapter 4 verses 17 through 19 say, And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment. But we can face Him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. Such love has no fear because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment. And this shows that we have not fully experienced His perfect love. We love each other because He loved us first. Really, ultimately, the Spirit of Fear comes down to this. You're afraid of punishment. You're afraid of the wrath of God. Now, if you have not been redeemed, if you have not received Christ, then this fear is well founded. But if you are someone who, as the Scripture says, lives like Jesus here in this world, and this is not perfection that we're talking about. This is the walk of holiness. This is the process of sanctification. But if you live like that, you have nothing to fear. You can stand before God on the day of judgment with confidence, knowing that He loves you. And this perfect love casts out all fear. Do you realize God is not working against you? He's working for you. God, who is all-powerful, all-knowing, ever-present, is working in your favor. God is doing and has done everything in His power to save you. If God will continue to, by His Holy Spirit, pursue those who resist His love, then how much more will He hold on to you who seeks His face? You see, when it comes to fear, fear is ultimately a useless attempt at control. But when you let go and understand that God is in control and that the one who loves you is also all-powerful and has the ability to perform that which He wants to do on your behalf, then the spirit of fear begins to lose its hold. Why? Because you understand, I am perfectly known and I am perfectly loved. And He will not let me go. It's because of His love. I trust not in my ability to cling to God. I trust in God's ability to cling to me. The perfect love of God casts out all fear. The second thing I want to address here is guilt. Now, guilt tells you you have to work for love. Guilt tells you that the accomplishment of your salvation is on you and not on God. Guilt tells you that you have to work for your salvation instead of just receive it. Guilt emphasizes your past. Guilt emphasizes your shortcomings. Guilt emphasizes your character flaws. Guilt emphasizes your mistakes. Guilt emphasizes the thoughts that you don't want to think and it brings attention on you. It brings attention on your darkness rather than on the light of God. People who live with guilt live in this constant tension. A constant frustration with themselves that becomes self-hatred. And therefore you can't receive the love of God because you don't even love yourself. Remember Jesus told us that we're to love others as we love ourselves. So if I hate myself, how am I supposed to love my brother or my sister? You see, when you live in guilt, it's hard for you to give love and it's hard for you to accept love. Now, the people who are most susceptible to guilt are those who struggle with anxiety. And people who struggle with anxiety torment themselves because they lack a perfect record. They constantly replay their mistakes again and again and again in their head and just when you think you've received freedom from your past, just when you're ready to look forward, just when you're ready to let go of what's behind you, suddenly guilt enters again and grabs hold of your attention. And guilt says, remember your past. Guilt says, remember what you did. So what you must do with guilt is oblige. Look to the past. Yes, I will look to my past. But when I look to my past, I make sure to look far enough to see the Lamb of God slain before the foundation of the earth. When I look to my past, I don't just look 10 years ago. I don't just look to 15 years ago. I look to over 2000 years ago when Jesus gave his life on the cross for me. The wrath of God poured out upon him. All wrath God poured out upon him. You see, guilt is a way of punishing self. Guilt is our way of inflicting pain upon ourselves. We repeatedly torment ourselves because of our mistakes. We repeatedly beat ourselves up. Look, I'm about to tell you something about yourself you probably never even realized. Do you realize that when you allow guilt to work in you, that you are beating yourself up mentally. You're beating yourself up emotionally. You are abusing yourself when you allow yourself to wallow in and entertain guilt. And so the guilt that we allow to come against us, the guilt that we embrace, we're basically embracing a cross that Christ did not call us to embrace. And by embracing guilt, here is basically how it works. We tell ourselves this. If I can beat myself up enough, I can earn my salvation. And so just as ancient religious people used to do, by the way they used to, some would whip themselves over and over and over again as a way of paying for their sins, not realizing that Christ already paid that price. We say that's silly, that's ridiculous, but we do it every day when we repeat our mistakes to ourselves. What are we doing? Emotionally speaking, spiritually speaking, we are whipping ourselves, hoping to pay off our debt, not realizing that the debt has already been paid. You can stop giving yourself those lashings. You can stop tormenting yourself. You can stop looking at your past because of what Jesus has done. 1 John chapter 1 verses 8 and 9 say, If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. So I'm sure those who struggle with guilt have no issue here. Anyone who struggles with guilt doesn't just acknowledge that they have sin, but they dwell on, meditate on the fact that they have sin and they don't let it go. Verse 9 gives us hope. This is so powerful. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. Now, I love what it says here. You notice it says he's faithful and he's just to forgive us our sins. What does that mean? Well, he's faithful, which means he consistently forgives us. And he's just, which means he has the right to forgive us. Once and for all time, he paid that price. I want to read a powerful portion of scripture to you. Found in Hebrews chapter 9, So Christ has now become the high priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that greater, more perfect tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world. With his own blood, not the blood of goats and calves, he entered the most holy place once for all time and secured our redemption forever. I want you to picture a hallway. On one side of the hallway, there's a door. And then all the way on the other side of this long hallway, there's another door. The first door we'll call justification. The hallway, we will call sanctification. The door way at the other end of the hallway, we will call glorification. So when I enter that first door justification, I can open that door and shut it behind me. Justification is a legal standing, meaning I'm no longer guilty. I've been cleared. Now that's the first door. The hallway is sanctification. It's not a door. It's not a one time thing. It's a walk. It's a process. It takes me time to get there. Now that door on the other end is glorification. That of course we know is when we stand before Christ when we become like him. We're glorified like him. We receive our glorified bodies, our glorified state. We're not there yet. So that first door is justification. The hallway is sanctification. That final door is glorification. As long as I am in the hallway, I'm justified. Now some of you battle with guilt over where you stand in the hallway. And you're afraid because of the spirit of fear that maybe you might be cast out of the door of justification. But remember this, God is not looking for perfection. He is looking for progress. So when we open that first door and shut it behind us justification, we're sealed. We're in. It's done. And now as we progress through that hallway, sometimes we take a couple steps forward. Sometimes we take a couple steps back. But so long as we are on that journey, so long as we are in the hallway, we're on our way to glorification and we have already been justified. So I'm going to tell you a story and then I will finish this message. I took my car to the mechanic because the check engine light had gone on. Now, I'm not much of a car person. So if someone is overcharging me, I'll have no idea. So I take my car to the mechanic. I drive in there. I say, hey, my friend, listen, I have no idea what's going on with my car, but I need you to fix this. The check engine light is on. It's been on for a couple of days now. It's bugging me. Please take care of it. So he takes the car. He does whatever he does to it. And then he charges me a price. I pay that price and I leave his shop. But as I'm driving away from the mechanics shop, I recognize something that bothers me. The check engine light is still on. I was so bothered by the check engine light that I couldn't even focus on the road. I was looking at the check engine light. So frustrated. I turned back around and went back to the mechanic shop. I take my car and I say, hey, look, man, my check engine light is back on. What on earth is happening here? He said, oh, bring it in here. I'll run diagnostics. He runs diagnostics. And then he tells me this. He says, listen, everything with your car is fine. We just needed to reset the check engine light. I said, what do you mean? He says, well, the check engine light goes on to let us know there is a problem. And then after we fix the problem, we're supposed to reset that light so that it finds any new problems, but also so that it goes away so that you know the problem has been fixed. And I realized that that is really what the conviction of the Holy Spirit is to us. That's the role that guilt should play in our lives. It's the check engine light. Now, some of you, the check engine light or your guilt has gone on and you recognize there's a problem. You've taken it into the mechanic, God. But then some of you have left that throne room and gone back into your everyday lives and you've noticed that the check engine light still comes on and you go back to God and say, God, fix this problem. Forgive me. And God says, I've already forgiven you. I've already fixed that. That's already behind us. You, my friend, just need to reset your check engine light. Otherwise, you'll be like me and you won't be able to focus on the road ahead. Well, that is it for the message. I want to pray with you now. I want to pray that God would break the spirit of fear from off of your life and that God would give you the peace of mind that comes when your guilt is taken away. Let's pray now. Let's come against these religious mindsets, these religious paradigms, and let's believe that God is going to set you free. It's time to walk in peace. It's time to let go of the past. I don't care what you've done. I don't care how afraid you are of the fact that you think it may catch up to you one day. God is so merciful and he's so gracious. Let's pray. Father, in the name of Jesus, I pray for that one receiving this prayer now. And I ask you, Lord, to break from them the spirit of guilt and the spirit of fear. For your word declares, Lord, that you've not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. In the name of Jesus, there's a minister watching me. And you're watching this. You're lying down and you're watching this as you're getting ready for sleep right now. And you've been struggling with guilt so heavily that you feel like quitting the ministry. I'm here to tell you, let go of the past. God still wants to use you. Thank you, Lord, for revealing that. And I pray, Lord, that you touch and heal your people, touch their sick bodies, let your healing power flow through them in the name of Jesus we pray. I want you to say it because you agree, say amen. Well, I want to welcome now the new members of Spirit Church. There you are up on the screen. We love you and we are praying for you. I always say that because I always mean it if you like information on how you can join the spirit family. Then go to davidhernandezministries.com. Remember, when you join, it's absolutely free. And you'll get a free teaching from me every single week as well as a new worship video from Steve and Mark the Zuma. Plus, you can reply to that email for prayer support from our ministry staff. So join the spirit family today and do that by going again to davidhernandezministries.com. Now to your comments. And these comments are from the first part of this series, which is religious spirits legalism. This is where I dealt with legalism and I even gave you some signs that your church may be a cult. I know that sounds shocking, but it is possible for churches to turn into cults. So if you're in a place in your life or in your church or ministry where you feel like something's just not quite right, I'm not talking about people who are overly sensitive and whatnot. I'm talking about those who really are discerning something's out of place. I really encourage you go back and watch that teaching on legalism. Not only will it set you free from many, many mindsets that are not of God, but it will also arm you with the truth so that you can make sure you're never again ensnared in those. So these are the comments from that video. If you'd like me to read your comments on next week's edition of Spirit Church, then go ahead and leave a comment in the comment section right now. And also while you're at it, if you're watching this on YouTube, don't forget to subscribe, like, comment, share. And when you do subscribe, be sure to click that notification bell so that you can receive notifications when we put out the new content. So now to your comments again from Religious Spirits, Legalism. New Creations in Christ writes, As a new follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, I really needed to hear this teaching. It answered many questions that I had. May God continue to bless you, your family, and your ministry. Caleb Tekliab writes, Thank you for this spirit-filled sermon. All your sermons have blessed me greatly ever since I started watching you. May God bless you and your ministry greatly in Jesus' name. Well Caleb, thank you so much for watching, and I'm glad you've been blessed by the Lord's ministry. Isaac Aguilar writes, What an incredible message, Evangelist David. May the Holy Spirit continue to move through you and the ministry. I praise God for your heart to spread the gospel. God bless you, Stephen, the ministry, and all of your families in Jesus' name. And the final commenter, Savannah Bianca writes, Congratulations David and Jess on your little miracle. By the way, Savannah is talking about my little Aria. I am now a father, best phase of life so far. Savannah continues, I found your channel about a month ago, and your teachings have been truly life-changing. I have grown a deeper understanding of God, and I love being able to re-teach these spiritual truths in my fellowship group. This channel has been truly a blessing. Thank you. May God continue to bless your family and your ministry. Well, thank you Savannah for writing into us, and I want to talk to you now. Don't turn the video off. This is very, very, very important. We get messages all the time from people like these who tell us that while watching the content, they got saved. While watching the content, they got healed, or they began to pray in tongues for the first time ever. Not only do we get testimonies from the video content itself, we also get testimonies from around the world at our ministry events, which by the way are growing larger and larger and larger every single month. You have to come down to one. But my point is, this ministry is impacting lives. People write to us all the time. People are getting saved. People are getting healed. People are getting touched. And I want you to be a part of that. Look, the scripture makes it very clear. Give and it shall be given. When we give to the gospel, it opens up the floodgates of heaven. 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In fact, we're even praying about acquiring the building next door so that we can build another TV studio that other ministries can use and really God is just blessing it. God is growing it. God is expanding it. But it can't go any further until you decide to step out and say, I'm going to join with them. Look, even Jesus had people support his ministry. The Gospel of Luke tells us that there were certain women who supported the ministry of Jesus and Jesus didn't stop them and say, no, I don't require finances. No, Jesus received it. Paul the Apostle took offerings in the scripture. So now I'm coming to you as a brother in Christ and I want to challenge you to demonstrate where your heart is, to step out in faith with a love for Jesus and his Gospel. And I want you to partner with me. Give today a one-time gift of any amount or become my monthly supporter. Now, we have people who give $5 and we have people who give $100,000. We have small donors. We have large donors, but all donors are important donors. So no matter where you fall in that category, I want you to step out and do something that's sacrificial. Do something that's going to require you to stretch yourself a little bit and do it for the Gospel. This is so important because souls require this. We need to win souls. This is the most important cause in the world, the Gospel. But if you will become my partner at $30 or more a month, I will send you either Carriers of the Glory, Encountering the Holy Spirit in every book of the Bible, or 25 truths about demons and spiritual warfare. I'll sign it and send it to you as my initiation gift to you for you becoming my partner in ministry. But whatever you do, whether it be one time or monthly, can I ask you this? Would you sign up today? Would you do this for Jesus? Would you do this for a fellow brother in Christ? Would you join me in reaching the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit? 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