 Man, I was getting ready to talk to you to this morning and going over What I wanted to say and I had so much I mean I can really get going when I get started so I was trying to think of just a couple of things to share with you all and just thinking about my experiences in college and talking with my friends my family and fellow students about what I do and kind of the reactions that I've gotten But I started out, you know with my dad I'd go to seminars was not when I was young and I was always a part of the ministry, but I always thought yeah, this is cool But you know, I don't really see how it applies to me, you know spiritual warfare deliverance It's important, but you go dad. I'll hang out in the back. I'm good, but um then I'll change when I turn 16 I was at a birthday party and one of my best friends was there And she had been a strong Christian her whole life, but in the past year We lived in different states. I didn't see her that much in the past year She had turned her back on God walked away and gotten involved in some pretty dark stuff And so when I saw her and talked with her I knew something was up and she didn't tell me right away But that night we were talking and we prayed together and she Recommitted her life back to the Lord and she made a change in her life And of course the devil didn't like that and so the next day Tess and I test is one of the teenage exorcists We were with her and she was acting really strange And have you ever had that where you can just feel the spiritual warfare going on you can just sense that turmoil You can see that evil just it just it was so angry that she dedicated her life back to the Lord And so Tess and I sat down and prayed with her and we were just you know gonna pray a little prayer Lord, please come be with us now Take care of us and then all of a sudden this deep voice looked me dead in the eyes and said She belongs to me. You can't have her And Tess and I just sat there going oh my gosh, what do we do now? Because at least we we knew what demons were and we kind of knew Some of the things about how to deal with it But I had never before in my life had to face down the devil And I will never forget looking in her eyes and not seeing my friend But seeing a demon and I'm sure many of you can really look looking into that the face of evil There's nothing you can't even describe it. And so You know Tess and I we did our best to try and figure out what to do I had my dad on the phone. I was having him tell me what to say and I was trying to help her and She we did get we were able to cast out a demon actually And then she went back home and dad met up with her and helped out but That really that made me realize that spiritual warfare isn't just for exercise It's for all of us every christian should know how to do spiritual warfare They should know how to pray spiritual warfare prayers They should know how to stand up to the devil Because you never know when you're gonna have to face down evil like that and you don't want to be unprepared Thank god that my dad was there and was able to help That lit a fire under me because I realized that this is for everyone that we can all make a difference We can all stand up to the devil and that we don't have to just sit by and take whatever he dishes out And so we started training tests Savannah and I with my dad And we worked we worked every week. We were working with people and it's it's difficult it's there's so many different aspects of it that we had to learn about and um So we kept training and then finally, um, this newspaper heard about what we were doing They would is in london. I think it was fabulous magazine. I'm not sure but They said wow, this is really weird. This is really cool. You've got three young 16 year old girls learning how to cast out demons And so they came and talked to us and You know, I've had a lot of people say to me. Well, why do you why do you do this in front of the camera? Why do you talk to them magazines? Why do you? Shoot Documentaries isn't that sensationalizing it? Um, this should be done behind closed doors But that's not how jesus did it jesus did it right out in the open He did it so that other people could see and so that they could be helped And if I wouldn't take a stand for something that I believed in for something that I knew to be true Who would? Bright who would who would take a stand if I didn't and so You know, it has been hard. We've had a lot of amazing articles and we've met a lot of amazing people But we've also taken a lot of flak for what we do I'll never forget one of the big deciding moments was um, you've probably heard about it the anderson cooper show where they brought us on and We had just really gotten started and there was a live audience with Probably an entire auditorium twice as size just full of people and we come out on stage We were excited to talk about jesus and what he was doing in our lives and wow We got Roasted and um, for example, whenever they'd say something negative about us They would have prompters telling the people to clap and cheer whenever Whenever they said anything nasty and so it was just it was tough because not only was our faith ridiculed, but I mean our our mental faculties were questioned our motives We were called frauds. It was a big hit and then I had to go home and all my friends saw that on tv and that was hard but One thing that I really learned in this ministry And if you're ever Fighting against evil is that if you're doing something good If you're doing something that's making a difference The devil is kind of fight back and that's a good sign. It means you're making a difference It means you're making you're doing something So I just want to encourage you if you're fighting and it just seems you're you keep getting hit that he's keep he keeps Going after you it means you're doing something right It means that you're taking a stand for jesus and the devil doesn't like it But that's where you want to be you want to be in the middle of god's will Regardless of what the enemy is trying to do to take you off that course And so we went through all that we had a lot of great experiences We got to travel to a london and ukraine and russia And um, we had a bbc documentary that got filmed there But another thing that really struck me was a lot of people I mean, this is an exception you guys are an exception for but most people even christians Know nothing about the devil. They know nothing about spiritual warfare and they don't know what kind of doors they're opening to the devil And so I'll tell you some more stories about some of the travels But um and some of the amazing things I've seen but One thing that really struck out me struck me was um, I went to college for two years at a christian university and one of my friends Who's a strong christian? We were talking about on some of the books and movies and and things that we were doing and she mentioned watching this show That had really questionable material. I mean spiritual material sexual material. It was just you name it it was Crossing that line and I said, how can you watch that being a christian and knowing what you do? Why and she goes, oh, I just don't feel convicted about it And that that reminded me that in today's society Our conscience can get doled. We can get we get desensitized to the evil around us And we don't even realize we get so numb that we'll see great evil We'll go to a movie and watch terrible things with a terrible message We'll go and hang out with friends and do stupid stuff and we don't even realize what we're doing Because we're so numbed out our conscience is so numbed out that we don't even realize the doors that we're opening to the devil He uses that and so that's my passion With coming and talking to you all today is to tell you the devil's clever You know our god is mighty and he is powerful But he also has a powerful enemy and he will he's he's clever He's not if you're walking down a road and you see this path. That's all it's it's got scary signs It's uneven. It's creepy. Are you gonna go down that path? Of course not and the devil knows that so he's gonna he's gonna use different Ways to get that door open into your life so that he can take more and more ground And so that's why as christians we need to be aware and so that's why um When a publisher Approached me about two years ago. I actually stopped and thought about it for a minute because honestly you know my dad's a writer and I am a big reader love reading total book nerd and science nerd But um, I always said because I'd see him writing I'd see mom helping him and I always go Oh my gosh never I would never do that in a million years And um, yeah, there was just one thing. I was always like I don't like writing. I'd never do it. No, thanks There wouldn't wouldn't even be on my radar And have you ever done that where you've gone? Okay. God. I'll do anything but this and then what do you have to do? That one thing, right So yeah, so this this publisher came to me and said I want your perspective because you've been able to travel you've been able to Talk to your peers you've been able to learn a lot about the enemy and the supernatural And I want you to write about the draw of the supernatural because yes, god created us as supernatural beings But you know god has that aspect and it's good You know praying to him the holy spirit worship angels. This is this all good that he created He created us as supernatural a part of us as supernatural, but at the same time What is the devil gonna do? He's gonna see that good and he's gonna try and twist it And so then he brings in the dark side of the supernatural And the publisher wanted me to write about that Because with all the experiences I've had and been able being able to minister to so many people I've seen what the devil can do with seemingly innocuous Things and so I sat down to write this book I was really praying because it was really difficult. I'm just not a writer, but I really put my heart and my soul into this because I want People my age to be able to see what the devil's doing now in their lives Instead of waiting 20 30 years and getting their lives all messed up and then being desperate for help I don't want to to get to that point I don't want to have to get to the point where dad's sitting across from you Trying to pick up the pieces of your life. I want to stop it before it gets that far And so that's why I wrote this book um It's called the dark side of the supernatural And you know, I talk about how there is that hold of the supernatural and how there's a good side to it And there's a a bad side to it and how to distinguish between the two How to discern use your god-given discernment and strengthen it so that you're not caught unawares by the enemy so that you can stand out for your faith and um You know, I talk about some of the experiences some of the struggles and um I also talk about you know How to evaluate the media in your life because I think that's a big area where the devil Can just sneak in there and you don't even see it How to evaluate what you're reading what you're thinking about the music you're listening to really take a step back and go This is coming into my mind What is what what's being fed into my mind is as good as this of god You know one of the hardest things for me to see is Some of my friends wasting their lives going out and partying and getting drunk. I've never seen that happen instead of Trying to maybe help somebody else or learn about Get closer to the lord or do anything besides going out and getting drunk at a party It's it's frustrating because We all see the pain Out in today's world. We see the evil. I bet every one of you has seen real evil in your lives And so I wrote this book to encourage you to take a stand against it because if if you don't do it who is and um So yeah, so that's that's my big passion and just one more thing A lot of my christian friends thought and they've told me this to my face I don't believe in what you do. I think when you become a christian and you turn your life over to god Everything's okay. You can't have a demon They've said that to me multiple times And they'll look me dead in your eye and say that and it's Okay, um, I have experience. I can say otherwise but What okay, and we all know that's not true though, right? We know that you can't just say a little prayer and make everything go away You know, I um, I want to be a doctor and so right now I'm working in an ER I'm still an undergrad and I love science. And so, you know, if someone has If they've smoked for 30 years Your lungs are going to be real gunked up, right? And I've seen a lot of people who come in and they have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease And that their lungs are just I've seen x-rays just full of crap But if they've been smoking for 30 years and then they stopped a couple years ago And then they come into the doctor and they're like, oh my gosh, I can't breathe. I'm coughing all the time You got to help me. Why isn't this working? I quit smoking But you spent 30 years smoking you spent 30 years accumulating all that gunk in your life And it's not going to magically Be stopped just because you quit smoking and that's the same way With deliverance you have to get free from the things that you've done in your life I wish it was a simple prayer that you could pray And then everything would be okay, but it's not like that If you've been involved in witchcraft, if you've If you've been in adultery, if you've done anything that the devil could have taken To use in your life, you need to renounce that because if you don't get rid of that, it's going to be there No matter how good of a christian you are, no matter how many prayers you pray You're still going to have that evil in your life because you allowed it in And until you renounce that and get help for it, it's going to be there And it's going to get you it can get you when you're down it can get you when you're doing great You know, I've seen a lot of people they've been doing great for like 50 years and then all of a sudden Boom the devil destroys them because he just let them get complacent and let it go along and let that gunk build up till all of a sudden Wham he can get you and so You know, I'd encourage you start now even if you haven't done anything in your life just just You know start learning more about spiritual warfare make sure that the devil doesn't get into your life If you have done things in your life If you have opened up the door to the devil you need to start pushing back and gaining that lost ground Start getting rid of the gunk in your life. And don't just think that a simple prayer is going to fix it You might need counseling. You might need deliverance. You might need to go and make amends with the people that you've hurt But you need to do something about it because as Christians We can't have that gunk in our lives because we've got a target on our back and the devil wants us We can't give any ground to the devil to the enemy. And so I just want to encourage you all To um to really think about this and think about where the devil could have an opening in your life Forget that you forget that you're a christian forget that you're you're good and you go to church and you pray Think about where he could have that stronghold that could take you down and start fighting against it and praying against it You've got an amazing church here that can help you with that and that is an amazing gift