 Could somebody please lead us with the word of prayer? Father, we come to the throne of grace, Lord. Thank you for this day, the weekend we have been starting, Lord. The day you have given us, Lord, thank you for everything. As we are going to learn from your Word, Lord, about the authority you have given us, Lord, about the position, Lord, in the earth. About the demon's, Lord, everything we are going to learn about, Lord. The tears should be added to our knowledge and should be used for the kingdom's passion and our glory be given to you, Lord. Thank you for the teacher, Lord. Thank you for all the students we have present here. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Thank you, Suthkenu, for leading us in that word of prayer. We will get into the same topic that we were studying in our last class. We were looking at the various tactics or schemes of the devil. So, we've touched on a couple of them, but we have to complete the others. So, in the last class, I think we have done opposition. I'll just go to that. We saw how Satan opposes the purposes of God. It could be in various ways. He could do so through the circumstances. He could do so through engaging in many of, like, continuing to put certain thoughts and suggestions in our minds, so on and so forth. So, we talked about the fact that we need strategies from God to overcome what the enemy is doing against us. The greatest strategy which we have already discussed and we saw the dream that Pastor has jotted down here in our notes, that the cross is the greatest strategy of God to overcome the enemy. So, we need God's strategy. We need to engage with the weapons of our warfare because we have a spiritual enemy. We don't have a human enemy, isn't it? So, we have to use the weapons of our warfare which are also spiritual in nature against the enemy. So, as we depend on the Lord, as we hear from Him, we will be in a better position to come against the opposition that He is bringing into our lives, bringing into our works. The next one here is deception. And I think we talked enough and we talked quite elaborately in the last class about the tactics of the devil. Deception is what Satan uses to trap people. So, he wants to get people to consider a lie as the truth. So, when that happens, people will stay away from the truth. They will not recognize the truth. They will ignore the truth. And, obviously, scripture says that you shall know the truth and the truth will set you free. So, what does a lie do? A lie keeps us in bondage and Satan uses this tactic of deception upon the lives of the people. He wants people to continue to believe that lie. The best example for us is back in the Garden of Eden itself when the scheme of Satan was using deception. And, unfortunately, the first man and the first woman, they believed it. So, deception means getting us to believe a lie as a truth and thereby face the consequences of that. And, we see several scriptures that talk about Satan corrupting our minds through these lies and also increasingly as the days pass by and we are closer to the return of Jesus. Not only do we have this kind of deception in an individual level, but scriptures also talk about deceiving teachers, you know, it talks about people who will deceive many. So, there can be communities deceived at the same time if they are not holding on to the truth of God's Word. So, what is the antidote or what should we do so that we don't get into deception? The best thing is to know the truth of God's Word, to have that rightly divided word of God working in our lives. So, it's going to take study of God's Word, a deep understanding of God's Word. So, whenever a deceiving thought comes to us or a lie comes to us, we are able to recognize. This is like the currency notes, whichever country we belong to. I'm sure in your country, you have the original currency notes and because they are precious what happens. People also print counterfeit notes, but there is whenever you are taught to recognize the counterfeit notes, you're not taught to go and study. Maybe there are let's say a hundred types of counterfeit notes out there. You're not taught to go and study all those hundred counterfeit notes. Instead, what every government teachers or every country would do is to equip the people in the right way to recognize the original. That is sufficient. If you know the original really well, then you'll be able to recognize any form of counterfeit currency that you come across. Even the same way, when it comes to the truth of God's Word, when we know the Word of God really well, no matter what kind of deception it is, you're able to recognize it easily. And that is the reason why we all need to be rooted and grounded in the Word of God. Sometimes what happens, we as believers, we just think that listening to sermons is good enough for us or listening to some online teachings is good enough for us. Listening to a particular Bible teacher who maybe they come home and they share the God's Word with us. Encourage us. That is enough. But scriptures tell us that every individual, you need to have the Word of God richly, a rich deposit of God's Word in your heart. And that is not possible unless we take time and meditate in God's Word. So to overcome the devil's deception, every believer must be encouraged to personally, individually spend time in God's Word. And yes, in order to understand it better, you can listen to sermons, you can read some commentaries. You can do all of those things in order for you to understand. Each individual studying God's Word and keeping God's Word in their hearts is crucial also because we have an enemy who uses a tactic called as deception. One will slip into deception if they are not well aware of the truth of God's Word. So what should we do to counter deception? Very simple. Know the truth. The truth will set you free. Know the truth. It will keep you strong in God. The other important thing that you and I can do to escape deception is also to have to recognize the work of the Holy Spirit in us. In our notes here, the passages have been given for us. This is 26 and 27 is mentioned. The Bible says that the Holy Spirit or the anointing of God who dwells in us will teach us all things. That simply means he can give us the discernment of what is right and what is wrong. Sometimes we can listen to a teaching and we might sense in our spirit that something is not correct. Everything looks good in what is being taught on the outside but you sense deep within your spirit where the Holy Spirit could be bearing witness with our spirit to really examine what you are hearing to really go back. And study before you accept what is being taught. So we have to have a rich deposit of God's Word and also be sensitive to the impressions of the Holy Spirit. Stay away from deception. So any thoughts about deception, any questions about deception before we move on to the next topic here which is about oppression. So I just want to pause for a few moments. Okay, so if there are no questions, let me add another thought. I've heard this said, the devil never comes with horns and a tail and a pitchfork and he never comes like that to introduce himself. And say, hello, you know, my name is the evil devil. Nice to meet you. But if he comes like that, you would all know and be cautious and you know, be ready to counter. But how does he generally work in very subtle ways? Okay, so he is happy when we're not alert and which is why we read in one Peter chapter five. Be sober, be vigilant. The adversary or devil is like a roaring lion. You're seeking whom he may devour. So he's very subtle and only an alert believer can catch him. So when it comes to deception, you know, here's the other thing and it's applicable to all the other schemes of the enemy. Everything begins very simple, very subtle, you know, something very small, you know, yeah, you can do it. It's okay. Nothing will happen to you. And if you're not careful enough, you get into it. And then you slip a little more and a little more and a little more. And that's how Satan gets, you know, even well-informed believers. So the point is, be alert. Be strong in the word. Be filled with the spirit. Be fired up so that every time, even in the most subtle ways when Satan says, yeah, yeah, it's okay. You know, you can miss. What is their prayer? What is their worship? You know, it's okay. You can catch him at that point and say, no, no, no, I will not get into this deception because little by little, it leads us away from God. So always remember that, you know, the way in which Satan will work is very, very subtle. Okay. And so we have to catch him at that. Now let's move on to the next tactic here, which is oppression. I already mentioned to us that oppression means to subdue. Okay. In a wrestling match, if you have seen the stronger one, literally, you know, bouncing on the weaker person and sitting on them or something like that, that is oppression. Where one is too weak under the weight of the oppressor. So Satan works in this way. Wrongfully, he tries to overpower us, subdue us. What are the things that he uses? He'll use oppression. Again, it's very subtle ways. Could start with a few sad thoughts here and there. But if we are not careful and if we keep entertaining, right, it goes from normal to abnormal. Now, many of these emotions could be normal. Normally, it's, we need to have some fear when you're crossing the road. You have to look both ways and then cross that is normal level of fear because it's wisdom. However, when it goes beyond that, beyond the normal level of, let's say sadness or fear or any such, you know, normal emotions become uncontrolled. That can cause oppression in our soulish realm. Similarly, maybe some thoughts in our soul in the area of our mind uncontrollable. We talked about weaknesses, right? We said pride, lust, jealousy, bitterness, unforgiveness. You're just overwhelmed by thoughts that keep playing in your mind. So how are you feeling at that point? Do you feel oppressed as if there's a weight on me? How can I get this off of me? So that is the way in which Satan will try to oppress us. We also see in Acts chapter 10 and verse 38. Can somebody read that verse please? Acts 10 and verse 38. Acts chapter 10 verse 38. How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power. And how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil because God was with him. Yes. Thank you. Thank you, John. Another version also says all who were oppressed of the devil. So he went about doing good. He was also delivering those who were under oppression, oppressed of the devil. Now, we know that the devil can oppress us in the soulish realm, but he can also oppress us in our physical realm. So that can be. Some ailments, some diseases, even some so-called incurable diseases, which manifest in our physical body that are actually the oppression of the devil. If you recall Luke 13, Jesus goes and he sets a woman free. She's all bent over, but when he says, you are free now and he casts out that spirit from her. What happens? The spirit of infirmity. She straightens up. So yeah, this is a case of possession, but I'm telling you, look at the effect of the demon power. It also affected her physical health. So demons can affect our health. There can be oppression. If not possession, there can be oppression in the area of our health as well. So there are times when we can recognize that this is demonic. This is not natural. There are natural reasons why we can be ill, but there can also be demonic reasons. So there can be health issues that one faces because of demonic oppression. When we recognize it, we have to deal with it through spiritual warfare. When we break those strongholds, when we break the influence of the powers of darkness, then the person can experience freedom. So another point which we can add here when we talk about oppression is that when one is oppressed, and in the case of deliverance, when we engage in delivering such people, even though they are not possessed, sometimes we can see manifestations. Remember I mentioned to us that a believer can never be possessed by a demon spirit. So what happens to a believer? A believer is oppressed. The demon spirit can influence the parts of the person without being in the person. And when we are engaging in deliverance, even of an oppressed person, sometimes there are physical manifestations. You would look at that individual and it would look like they are possessed. They will be acting like they are possessed. There will be physical evidence. But just because there are physical manifestations, it does not mean that a person is always possessed. It could also just be oppressed and yet having physical manifestations. So just something you can note it in your mind. So that is about oppression that the enemy brings. Now moving on to possession. What I will do is I will keep continuing. If you have a question or something, you just stop me. You can unmute yourself and ask. We will deal with that question. So here we are looking at the next method of the enemy which is possession. Again, please note that things like possession, really it requires an open door for the devil. So it is only when there is access that the enemy can do things like this. We have also seen in some cases, there is a constant progression. You move from influence to oppression to possession to nomination, empowerment. So an individual can allow or give ground to the enemy to go to this level. Of possession. So what happens in possession? In possession very clearly, the faculties of the individual are taken over by demon spirits. So again, we know that a human being is three parts. Tripartite being, you have spirit, you have soul, you have body. In case of an unbeliever, what does the demon do? The demon can come in. But in the case of a believer, who lives in the spirit of a believer, the Holy Spirit. So you cannot have a demon in the spirit. But coming to the areas of the soul, mind, will, emotions, all that, those faculties can be, you can use the term hijacked, completely hijacked. Even the body, what are the faculties? You know, you have your vocal ability to speak or your expressions, your bodily abilities, your strength and things like that. So hijacked. The faculties of the human being. So in the case of possession, you would see manifestations, you know, commonly. And I told us in the last time that these manifestations can either be ongoing, where you have completely, you know, completely the person is taken over by the demons. So the person with the demons, legion, right? The possessed man of gatherings. You know that he was excommunicated because of the constant state of violence, rebellion and, you know, just being antisocial. He was possessed by demons. So there were many, many behavioral changes in him, which he couldn't control. And the whole time he was like that. So one can have the manifestation, you know, in an ongoing way or you can have manifestations in a sporadic way. Meaning it comes and goes. So, you know, you read about this parent, right? Who comes to Jesus and says there is a spirit tormenting my child and, you know, he gets thrown into the fire. He gets thrown into the water. So on and off, something unusual is happening to the child. Not constantly, but here and there. These sporadic manifestations as well. So if one is possessed, it does not mean that the whole time they will look possessed. No, manifestation can be in either way. So that is about possession of demon spirits. Now, moving further into the control of these demonic spirits, one can come to the state of domination. What is domination? Domination is also, you could say, empowerment that these demon spirits, you know, provide to a human being. So you can have people who through the demon spirits dominate or influence over. Now it's not just them. Their faculties are already hijacked by the demon spirits. But now they are being used like, like an instrument to influence villages, towns, cities, nations and larger geographical regions. Again, somebody quickly read for us Revelation 2 verses 12 and 13. Revelation 2, 12 and 13. To the angel of the church in Pergamum, right? These are the words of him who has the sharp tablets for. I know where you live, where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me even in the day of Antipas. My faithful witness who was put to death in your city where Satan lives. Yeah, thank you John. So, you know, you see there a sense of control over an entire city. Satan lives there. How could Satan have lived there? He has gained domination over an entire region and it could be in this manner that you have, as his people who he is influencing through. So this can happen. There can be people who act as the representatives of the kingdom of darkness because they moved on from a place of possession into a place of domination that these regions can be controlled and, you know, in the Word of God there are individuals that have been mentioned through whom Satan was able to propagate his work and influence, you know, large groups of people. Jezebel is one good example of kings, first and second kings when you study about Elijah Elisha. He faced a very real spiritual opposition and we generally associate it with the spirit of Jezebel. So what is the spirit of Jezebel? Jezebel was the ruling woman at that time, you know, Ahab and his wife Jezebel. The thing about Jezebel is Jezebel had many sorcerers, magicians, people engaging in witchcraft black magic, you know, those kind of people under her and through them she created this whole power to dominate through those spirits. So she basically worked through those demon spirits and gained control over the region and we see a real spiritual opposition that came against Elijah as well. Remember there were prophets of Baal who challenged Elijah but, you know, ultimately God showed himself strong and at some point, you know, Elijah even got depressed because why is he getting depressed? He is not in any kind of physical battle, depressed and also tired because he had a spiritual battle and he knew that there is this opposition coming from the spirits of Jezebel. If you again, you know, study little more, you'll understand the spirit of Jezebel simply means there is a tip in the activities that they engage in. So a lot of control, manipulation, intimidation, causing fear, those kind of activities. So whenever we say spirit of Jezebel, we mean those kind of spirits, manipulating spirits. So, but who was the key person through whom all this was going on? It was thriving under Jezebel. Similarly, you have accounts of other individuals through whom such things happened as a mention of Amanase, ruler of Jerusalem, through whom again, such demonic influence was possible. In Samaria, in Acts chapter 8, you read about Simon the sorcerer. And you're talking about Simon, you it also says that people called him God. He's just a human being, but it's possible that he was performing signs, wonders, miracles among the people and there was supernatural power that was being demonstrated through the life of Simon. Now, how did that happen? It's not just possession. You see person is already subject to the demonic powers. There's more. The person has become a source or a channel of influence. So others are also sort of beginning to recognize, acknowledge and who knows maybe there were people who were worshipping this kind of power that they were seeing among them. So, Simon the sorcerer another person who demonstrated the domination over Samaria, but wonderful thing is he accepted Christ and another wonderful thing I'll add here is when he saw the miracles and the power of the Holy Spirit when John and Peter they were sent to Samaria to minister the baptism of the Holy Spirit to the people and he saw that the Holy Spirit was being given on the laying on of hands. He got excited. He said give me this. I want what you have. So it just tells us God's power was so pure, so wonderful and also powerful because somebody like Simon who was great in the demonstration of the demonic power was impressed by God's power the power of the Holy Spirit. So, obviously there's no match. The powers of darkness are no match to the powers of the Kingdom of God through the Holy Spirit. So that's a good thing that we see yet. The point I'm trying to make is there can be individuals whose influence goes larger upon other people as well. One more example is that woman in Philippi who had the spirit of python going about what do I say through the she became an instrument of the demonic powers. So, I think we've had enough explanation on domination so you understand so there can be domination over and you notice how there are communities and cities and regions that are being named even nation is it possible for somebody to have influence over an entire nation yes okay so through demonic powers they can exercise control over an entire nation and you know it can look a certain way because of the kind of demons that are engaged. So that's about domination. Now in the last class we also talked about varying levels of individuals being empowered by demonic spirits. Now these spirits can be spirits of various kinds there can be various kinds. There are some references in scripture so spirits of witchcraft and familiar spirits we discussed just now we've seen at 16 the spirit of witchcraft would somebody like to read it act 16 and verse 16 please. This is again the spirit of python through a woman. Okay I hope you all have your bibles with you or if you're able to access an online bibles okay can you please read it superstitious possible. Once when we were going to the place of prayer we are made by a female slave who had a spirit by witch she predicted the future she earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune telling. Yeah great so there we have it. This lady who was able to tell the future okay also known as spirit of divination and I think you all asked me the question already isn't it that how can women spirits tell the future and thankfully the same question came up in the and clarified it beautifully he said that they are plotting spirits they are spying spirits and thereby though they don't know the future they can gauge you know to play with our mind based on the information that they already have okay so it might seem like they know the future and I think on the e-learning portal somebody had posted a question for us where they said they met an individual who predicted certain disasters events in their country so the same and told them that you see in this particular year this is going to happen and then followed by another year this is going to happen and these were all like you know some war is going to happen and some uprising is going to and it all happened so the question was how come you know an unbeliever could predict the future so accurately you see plotting is something that these demon spirits can do okay so and for all you know they might be setting it up also they might be setting up the the violence or you know some activity like that so they are telling you that we are actually going to do it so they can't predict the future but this fortune telling or future telling is through a spirit of divination so they can be people you know who are empowered by such spirits these are spirits of witchcraft and yeah false religion there are line spirits that do line signs and wonders we read about that in 2 Thessalonians 2 and 9 so they can be different manifestations you know as human beings are empowered by these spirits but then again we have to always remember no matter what kind of manifestations come through these spirits the power of God is always greater and there are many examples think about Moses and the magicians in Egypt what happened Moses is the rod turned into a snake and you know you saw and it was nothing but the magicians they also created some kind of snakes over there through their magic but ultimately ultimately the snake that came through Moses rod was able to gobble up the snakes that the sorcerers created so basically we understand that past the demonstrations of the magicians you know Moses could demonstrate greater power and authority of the kingdom of God to overpower what the enemy was actually doing so God's power is greater Elijah is your next example the prophets of being whatever they were able to do in fact he said not only calling down fire but you please wet the wood with lots and lots of water so how easy is it for as it is calling fire from heaven and having your wood burned is a nickel it's a science it's amazing wood catching fire impossible but God's power was demonstrated in a greater way now again now Philip and the sorcerer the sorcerer in Samaria could do some things but he was impressed with God's power as I told you so God's power is greater also Paul there was a sorcerer when Paul was doing his ministry there was a certain person that he wanted to share the gospel with but that person was being hindered by a sorcerer however you see finally Paul rebukes him he goes blind and all that but after that that individual that Paul wanted to minister to so God's power again it's demonstrated as greater and this moment in Acts chapter 16 the fortune telling woman we see that that spirit was actually cast out by Paul so God's power is always greater so when we look at the demonstrations of witchcraft and all people get very impressed they say wow they are able to do all that then where is God where is God's power but please remember even if there are some demonstrations Satan can do only little bit to show some signs some wonder something but God's power goes beyond that and it is greater so we must when it comes to countering this kind of human empowerment we must you know pray for these people to be saved okay so first of all we can pray against the spirits that are working through them cast out those spirits in the case of that that lady in Philippi Paul simply cast out that spirit so once you do that and you engage in prayer and intercession for these people those strongholds can be broken right and then these individuals must renounce their association with the demon spirits that's the way in which you can break the power and when the power is broken the person can now once again become realigned to the purposes of God for their lives alright so that's a little bit about human empowerment any questions that you may have with regard to what we have been talking about domination possession on our human empowerment Siddhi Kanu has posted a question here in the chat he says wanted to know as that according to the Indian tradition most of the Indians okay I don't want to say in the recording but yeah a particular you know belief system and they do practice their religion and they go they do their worship they are faithful in their traditions what their ancestors have taught them there is a past friend of my father in a city who lives near temple and he starts his day by cursing okay people of another belief and cursing their place of worship is it for a pastor to do so please explain okay so my answer Siddhi Kanu wait let's post this verse in the chat for us this is vision 6 12 this is my answer this verse says for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against what principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this age against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places so cursing a group of people why should we do that we don't wrestle against flesh and blood no in fact we are working for the people we want gods light to shine on everyone we want people to hear the gospel so we are here to fight demonic powers that is point number one now again cursing their place of worship I don't think you know you are required to do that you are not so when we talk about spiritual warfare you will understand let by the spirit of god binding casting out rebuking spirits demon spirits that has a place now simply cursing the place of worship I don't know if that does any good sitkenu I hope you got your answer to your question yes ma'am thank you for the bible verse ok sure thank you any other thoughts, questions go ahead sitkenu ma'am I was having one another question like in ubu testament we see that jisabel it was already prophesied that you will die your own people will kill you dogs will eat your flesh like that they will lick your blood they will lick your blood then how that jisabel can we still influential that today also we are saying that people are having jisabel spirit jisabel spirit will do like that so I was just thinking how can it be like that yeah good question sitkenu so you see it's not the spirit of the lady jisabel the lady again this question came up in our mentoring hour so human spirits and once a person dies you know they either go to their spirit goes to heaven or hell it's very clear cut in scripture so you cannot have a human jisabel carrying on then our conclusion is jisabel spirit is a demon spirit okay and by the name the tag jisabel you are basically understanding the activity of that class of demons so the demons that manipulate the demons that intimidate the demons that are spying spirits those are called as jisabel spirit okay but it has nothing to do with the lady who died many years ago I hope that explains this to you yes mom yeah sure so that's how we would understand that jisabel spirit so one clarification I was thinking I will give all of us you all had this question can Christians also move from just the state of being oppressed to influencing through the demonic powers if you open up if you give access yes you can become an influencer so I was saying that that whole aspect of remember I said I have also heard that some believers they try to gain spiritual power from witchcraft and things like that but one more thing that I want to add here is you see when somebody is being disobedient to God now we already know it's in the 10 commandments we are asked to worship you shall worship no other gods so when we are sinning against God in this way that influence will not last very long we also read about the convicting work of the Holy Spirit in our lives okay now if someone is consistently trying to move in that direction of sin God is gracious you will keep telling them no it's not right you can't do this it's not right for you hopefully people when they have a better understanding of the word and hear from the spirit stop those activities and come back otherwise moving away from God in this manner is very very dangerous okay and Hebrew 6 talks about it so it's dangerous because then you know people have this question Holy Spirit is dwelling inside that person can they become influencers of demonic powers and all you know one could even go to the danger of giving up their salvation that point you are rejecting the Holy Spirit also who is dwelling on the inside of you but also please understand such instances are few and far between because we are living in the period of grace we are living in the period of the cross where a believer who recognizes that you know he or she has sinned oh God's grace we can confess our sins we can repent and produce the fruit of repentance and thereby come back to God so that opportunity also we have after the cross of Jesus so the people go so far away from God and reject their salvation you know that situation arising itself is a rarity but it could happen that is a danger and which is why one should not move in that direction ok so I just wanted to add that thought here we are past time let's go for a break now we will come back and pick up from where we stopped so let's come back together at 11 or 2 ok 11 2 is when our class starts again thank you