 God does not hide our freedom behind ancient or demonic mysteries. There are no secrets to liberty. There are no secrets to deliverance. Everything that we need to know about walking in freedom is found in Scripture. The Scripture says in 2 Corinthians 3 17, for the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. I want to bring you to the simplicity of the Scripture. I want to go through the Scripture and talk to you about this wonderful ministry of the Holy Spirit that is deliverance. What is deliverance? Well, deliverance is simply to be set free. When someone is said to be delivered, they are said to be freed. So we don't want to complicate this. We want to just go through the Scripture and bring clarification where there is a lot of confusion. And I believe that you will walk away with a deeper and more stable understanding of the topic of deliverance if you're willing to throw out the old mindset and pick up what the Scripture says. Often we're told things from the traditions of man. We're told things from religious establishments that don't necessarily align with Scripture. In fact, sometimes the things that were taught are nowhere to be found in the Bible. And so as I take you through the Scripture, I pray that there would be great clarity that comes. Confusion can only abound if we're not willing to let go of old mindsets. And so as we look at what the Bible says here, I believe that you'll experience freedom, not just deliverance from attack, not just deliverance from torment, not just deliverance from temptation, but also deliverance from confusion. Because as you begin to look at the truth of Scripture, light begins to shine brighter and darkness begins to dissipate. So I'll begin by saying that deliverance is a simple term. Again, to be delivered means to be set free. To be delivered is to be released from a bondage. Now often, and this is where a lot of the confusion arises, especially in discussions about deliverance, often Christians conflate deliverance for exorcism. Now there's a subtle difference between deliverance and exorcism. And this is not something that's talked about very often. In fact, we kind of just mesh these together and we use the terms interchangeably where deliverance always means exorcism and exorcism always means deliverance. To be clear, deliverance is the umbrella term. Deliverance is the general term. It's the generic statement. Again, to be delivered simply means to be set free. Now, depending upon what you're being set free from is what you will call that deliverance. So exorcism is a very specific kind of deliverance. If you're set free from temptation, that's deliverance from temptation. If you're set free from torment, that's freedom from torment. If you're set free specifically from demonic possession, you have a demon cast out of you, that is what is commonly referred to as exorcism. Now, the scripture refers to this as having demons cast out. You don't necessarily see that term exorcism in every translation of the Bible, but that is simply describing when someone is being set free from a demon inhabiting their being. And this is the first type of deliverance I'm going to cover right now. You can be delivered from demonic possession. And I'll go over several different types of deliverances, but let's take a look at this one first because, again, this is the one that's most often conflated for the general term deliverance. So not every time when someone says deliverance, do we mean possession? You can be delivered from a sickness, and that's what you would call a healing. You can be delivered from deception. That's what you would call revelation. So look at what the scripture says here. In Matthew 4-24, Matthew 8-16, Matthew 8-28, Matthew 8-33, you may have to pause this to write these down. In Matthew 9-32, Matthew 12-22, Matthew 15-22, Mark 1-32, Mark 5-15, Mark 5-16, Mark 5-18, Luke 8-36, and John 10-21. If someone can leave all of those in the comments, that would be much appreciated. We see that the scripture uses this term Daimonidzami. Now if you look this up in the original Greek, you will see, if you reference the references that we have here, you will see that this is describing a very specific, a very severe, a very intense form of demonic influence. Daimonidzami means to be possessed by a demon. Now again, in all 13 of those scriptures that I gave you, you will see that the Bible is describing someone having a demon inhabiting them and exercising control over them. Demonization is always controlled by way of habitation. So for someone to have a demon in their being, they're said to be demonized. The term demonized means possessed, and possessed is what we use to describe the term demonized. They're interchangeable. They mean the same thing, at least biblically speaking. Because again, in all 13 of these instances that I gave you, these are the only times we see that word, Daimonidzami, used, we see that the Bible is describing actual demonic possession. Now this is a form of ownership. We can't water this down. We can't use lukewarm definitions. We can't change definitions in scripture to make it more palatable to people or more acceptable to society. No, demon possession is a reality. And again, we have to stop with the lukewarm definitions. The scripture says what it says. When a demon has someone's being, it has that person in their possession. And we understand that God owns everything, but the Bible also describes localized spheres of influence. Just as humans can own things in that they have it in their possession and their control. So demons can own things. How do we know that? We know that through the scripture. You look up Daimonidzami, the various Greek references will give you the definition to be possessed by a demon, to be possessed by a demon over and over and over again. We see consensus around this. So for a demon to inhabit someone and control them, that is a form of ownership. And again, this is a very severe case. This is not the case with everyone, but this is something that the Bible describes. Now, what happens when someone is delivered from demonic possession is now they've gone through what's called an exorcism. A demon was cast out of them. We see that Mary Magdalene had several demons in her before she came to Christ. So Christ delivered her from demonic possession. That's casting demons out. That's exorcism. And then she followed him after her exorcism. The man with the legion of demons. He had a legion of demons cast out of him. And after the demons were cast out of him, he wanted to follow Jesus. We see something quite interesting here. I'm going to pull up the reference, Matthew chapter 12. I don't have it specifically here written out of my note, so give me just a second to pull it up. Matthew 12, 43 through 45 says this, and this is Jesus speaking. When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes through the desert, seeking rest, but finding none. Then it says, I will return to the person I came from. Watch this key wording here. So it returns and finds its former home empty, swept, and in order. Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter that person and live there. So here, of course, we understand that the scripture is describing an unbeliever. Now some might ask, why would we ever perform an exorcism on an unbeliever when demons can come in seven times worse? Well, for example, we see in Matthew 17 that when Jesus drove a spirit out of a young boy, he commanded it to never return. We have the authority to command these things to never return. Also, we don't know if that individual is promised tomorrow. We don't know if that person has another 24 hours in which they can accept Christ. And think about the fact that Jesus drove evil spirits out of nobody but unbelievers. I mean, who was a born-again, spirit-filled believer before the resurrection of the Lord Jesus? So we understand that this is something we ought to be doing, but of course using wisdom at the same time. We see that this deliverance, this exorcism, this form of deliverance, can result in salvation for the unbeliever. In fact, I know many people who were demonized, that is possessed, had demons cast out of them and then received Christ as Lord. I mean, who goes through something that traumatic? Who goes through something that transformative and then rejects the gospel? Very few people do that. So we understand that exorcism, as we perform that on the unbeliever, is actually a tool for evangelism. For once they've had demons cast out of them, they can now turn to Christ. They're more able to listen to the gospel message. So deliverance from demonic possession is what we call exorcism and this, of course, is something that we perform on the unbeliever. We understand that Christians can be attacked by demons. Some people use the term oppressed, which is fine as long as you're describing demonic attack. Christians can be oppressed, but we understand they cannot be possessed. They cannot be a possession of the demon where the demon is dwelling in them and they need an exorcism. In fact, the Bible says quite clearly in Colossians 1.13 and 14, who hath delivered us, and this is past tense talking to Christians, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear son in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sin. So it's Colossians 1.13 and 14, those powers of darkness being described there are demonic powers. And so we see blatantly the scripture describing the fact that the born again believer has already been delivered from that form of demonic influence. Furthermore, in 2 Corinthians chapter 6, we see a very telling portion of scripture. Now the question arises, how can a born again believer have a demon dwelling in them with the Holy Spirit dwelling in them? And there's been a couple of attempts that people use to answer this. And this is common usages of portions of scripture, common rebuttals, if you will. And many of our viewers ask me questions and they send these to me saying, David, what do you think of this question and that question? And they're wonderful questions that our viewers send in. And so in addressing these questions, we have a lot of time to process how we answer these questions. And so for example, someone will say, well, the Holy Spirit dwells everywhere, you know, Psalm 139-7. Of course, we understand the Holy Spirit dwells everywhere. And so people asked me this before, it's a great question. They say, if demons cannot dwell where the Holy Spirit dwells, then wouldn't that mean that demons can't be anywhere since the Holy Spirit is everywhere? And I thought that was a great question. But the answer to that is actually quite simple. We understand that according to scripture, see, for example, Romans 8-9, that the believer has a special manifestation of the Holy Spirit's presence, which is what we call the indwelling presence. The unbeliever doesn't have that. The rest of the world does not have that. Yes, there is an everywhereness quality of the Holy Spirit, his omnipresence. But his omnipresence has a different effect than his manifested presence. Think about the fact that wherever Jesus went, demons would manifest, calling him out as the Son of God. Well, this shows us that they didn't manifest in just the mere omnipresence. They manifested when Jesus walked on the scene. Why? Because he was a manifestation of the presence of God. So there's a difference between the omnipresence and the indwelling presence. And so the believer has the indwelling presence of God. Some might even ask, well, how can it be that a believer can have sin dwelling in them, but not a demon? Another great question. The fact of the matter is, though, that demons aren't being redeemed. The blood of Jesus redeems the believer. And because of the blood of Jesus, we are seen as the righteousness of God in Christ. And so that righteousness has been imputed on us. By contrast, demonic beings are not being redeemed. In fact, there's no redeemable quality about them. And so we understand that demons aren't covered under the atonement, and therefore they cannot dwell with the Holy Spirit's indwelling presence. The same would be true of sickness. We ask, well, how can a believer have a sickness but not a demon in them? Well, a demon is a sentient being from another dimension, the supernatural realm that's evil and has ill intent toward God's children, whereas sickness is simply a disorder of the body. Now, can demons use sickness? Yes. But sickness itself is not a sentient being. So sickness is something that's naturally occurring in the world. And we understand that God will ultimately give us glorified bodies wherein sickness cannot dwell. So again, those are two separate things. But here's the real question that many have asked, and I really, really think it's a good one. They say, okay, we understand that demons cannot share the temple with the Holy Spirit. We understand that as a biblical fact, that there's consensus on this. We understand that demons cannot dwell where the Holy Spirit dwells. But why is that? Is this just an argument from emotion where we just don't like the idea of a demon dwelling with the Holy Spirit by no means? We see a clue as to the nature of these two in 2 Corinthians chapter 6 verses 14 and 15. Don't team up with those who are unbelievers. Now, of course, this is talking about fellowship with unbelievers. But context considered, we see a spiritual principle being applied here that has what we call universal application. How can righteousness be a partner with wickedness? How can light live with darkness? What harmony can there be between Christ and the devil? How can a believer be a partner with an unbeliever? So here we see darkness and light describing the nature of Christ and the nature of demonic power. So we understand that by the necessity of their own natures, they cannot co-exist. Why? Because the Scripture gives us a clear picture of light and darkness. Light and darkness by their very own natures cancel one another out. The existence of one necessitates the absence of the other. So this isn't just saying, well, I don't like the idea of it. This is to show that the nature of the Holy Spirit is in fact at odds and incompatible with the nature of a demonic power. And so if you're talking about the omnipresence of the Holy Spirit, of course, demons can dwell in that omnipresence. But when we're talking about the believer, we're talking about the indwelling presence, which is a special manifestation that only believers have. Unbelievers do not have that. Animals do not have that. The places in the world do not have that. Only the believer carries the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit in their body, soul, and spirit. And so we understand that deliverance from demonic possession or exorcism takes place before salvation or in the moments leading right up to it. And in fact, in many cases, exorcism is what inspires an individual to receive salvation. So that's number one. That's deliverance from demonic possession. So it's really simple that the scripture gives us insight onto this. And one might wonder, well, how exactly do we deal with that? Well, the Bible is quite clear on that. Matthew chapter eight, verse 16 says, that evening, many demon possessed people were brought to Jesus. He cast out the evil spirits with the simple command and He healed all the sick. This is why I say that there are no rituals to perform. You don't need an ancestry.com membership to cast a demon out of somebody. Sometimes we imagine that we have to go back generations, find out what their grandparents did, then their great grandparents did. And I'm thinking, my goodness, if that's the case, we have to go all the way back to Adam and Eve and find out everybody's story in between now and then. But that's thankfully not how it works. It's not as though God is going, sorry, my hands are tied because you didn't get the name of the demon. Sorry, my hands are tied because you don't know what type it is. Sorry, my hands are tied because you don't know what your grandma did when she was a little girl. No, where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. The only name I have to know when driving out a demon is the name of Jesus. Why? Because that's the highest authority. And so for a born again believer to drive out a demonic being in the process of exorcism, it's as simple as exercising a simple command. And it's not the command. It's not what you say. It's not the technique. It's not the raising of your voice. It's not your knowledge of the spiritual realm. It's simply the authority of Christ in you. Either you have that authority or you don't. Either you're walking in that authority or you're not. And if you are truly walking in that authority, you're aligned with the authority of heaven. When you speak that command, that spirit has no choice but to go. It has to. And it can't resist. I've never seen a demon win a wrestling match with the Holy Spirit. Every time you see in Scripture, it's a simple command exercise. One might ask, well, what happens if I commanded to go when it doesn't? Well, reference Matthew chapter 17, where Jesus talked to his disciples who were unable to drive an evil spirit from a boy. He told them this kind comes only out through what? Prayer and fasting. Why? Because that prayer and fasting increases their faith and therefore aligns them back with that authority. It's not that the evil spirit is resisting the authority of Christ. Rather, it's that you're not using the authority of Christ because you're out of alignment. So simple prayer and fasting come back to it. If it doesn't come out after that, what's left over is flesh. And that's where many believers get tied up, where someone keeps coming back. Well, you got some of it out, but now I need more outer. You cast the demon out, but now I'm still dealing with this problem and that problem. Look, casting out demons is the simple part. Exercise a command using the authority of Christ. It has to go. If it doesn't go back and fast and pray, come back again. Whatever's left over is flesh or mental illness or sickness or naturally occurring as a result of the consequences of the individual's decisions that they're making in their everyday life. And so we can't complicate this and get stuck on this. Otherwise, you will get stuck in cycles and they never get free because they're addressing the flesh like it's a demon, not realizing the demons already been cast out. So again, this is deliverance from demonic possession. This is what we specifically refer to as exorcism, not to be confused with deliverance ministry in general. Because it's interesting when I say that Christians can't be possessed, what some people hear me say is, Oh, Christians don't need deliverance. No, because exorcism is only one kind of deliverance. Christians sometimes still need deliverance, but they don't need exorcism, which is a very specific kind of deliverance. So again, don't get those two terms mixed up and be very careful about doing that yourself. That's where a lot of confusion arises. Not every time when we say deliverance, are we talking about exorcism? And not every exorcism is necessarily something that we should describe as deliverance. I think it's helpful to use the term exorcism or casting demons out because it helps to delineate between the different types of deliverances that can take place. So again, exorcism is a type of deliverance that is used when you're casting a demon out of an unbeliever. Christians cannot be possessed. This is a well-established biblical fact. I have lots of material on that on this channel. It's clear in scripture. I gave you the 13 references. Diamond needs of my the Greek references can also be found in other lessons I've given where I show actually the slides that give you those references over and over again. You'll see that and this is describing control by way of habitation, which is a form of ownership. Let's not water down those definitions. So again, deliverance from demonic possession. That is exorcism. You deal with exorcism by exercising a command as a spirit filled born again believer. If that doesn't work, go back and fast and pray, come back again, try it again. If that still doesn't work, now you're likely dealing with the flesh or mental illness. Number two, we are delivered from the penalty of sin. As I said, there's more than one type of deliverance. Again, when we think of deliverance, we think, oh, casting a demon out. That's only one kind. There's also deliverance from the penalty of sin. Ephesians two, one through six says, once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins, you used to live in sin just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil, the commander of the powers in this unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature, we were subject to God's anger just like everyone else, but God is so rich in mercy and he loved us so much that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. It is only by God's grace that you have been saved, for he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. Now here I'm really going to turn some things on its head. Whenever you talk about deliverance and you see it in scripture for the believer, deliverance is most often referred to as something that is past tense. In other words, it's something that's already occurred. Deliverance is not like a liquid or a substance where you can get more of it or less of it. Deliverance is yours. The moment you were born again, you were set free. Now whether or not you choose to experience that deliverance, whether or not you choose to walk in that deliverance, all depends upon your submission to God. But we were already delivered from the penalty of sin. Everything about the new nature indicates that we've been completely rescued from the powers of darkness. There is no darkness in us. Romans chapter 6 verse 23, for the wages of sin is death. There's the punishment, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. Okay, so Romans 6 23 makes it clear that the penalty of sin has been removed from our lives, from our record. We are now delivered from the penalty of sin. Thank God for the blood of Jesus. The believer's responsibility is now to walk in that deliverance. How? By the renewing of the mind. For the believers, spiritual warfare and deliverance are simply about fighting to believe the truth over the enemy's lies. There's an illustration that I use about elephants. And there was a gentleman who was noticing that several elephants were tied by their legs to a rope that was placed on a stake in the ground. So you have to picture this now, big elephants, little rope around their ankle and pinned down by a stake in the ground. Well, the gentleman asked the man who was taking care of the elephants, why don't they just break that rope? I mean here, we have these giant creatures tied down by comparison, what looks like dental floss. They won't even move. And the man who was taking care of the elephants explained, well, ever since they were little babies, we would tie them to that rope and place the wooden stake in the ground. Now, when they were young, when they were baby elephants, that rope, that stake in the ground, that was enough to hold them in place. Now that they're older, they can break out of it if they want. They can move forward if they so choose, but they simply do not move forward because of the simple belief that they can't. And this is the case for many believers. We have this defeated victim's mentality, even this celebration of spiritual bondage, like this idea that, oh, I'm more spiritual because I'm bound. Oh, I'm more spiritual because I'm attacked by the enemy so often, or his attacks are working on me. And often we get confused between the attacks of the enemy and just the circumstances of life. But aside from that point, many believers don't realize what's available to them. And so they live in a certain way under a certain power simply because they don't realize that they can walk away from it. Now, I'm not talking about just positive thinking alone. Of course, renewing the mind is a bit of a task. But as believers, we have been delivered. You don't need more deliverance. How free can you get than free indeed? How much more free can you get than free indeed? Whom the sun sets free is free indeed. Either God is a liar or we're not doing something properly. Either God is a liar or we miss something. We miss something if we think that bondage is a part of the Christian life. It's not. Or we go through deliverance after deliverance after deliverance. Or what many think is exorcism after exorcism after exorcism. Why? Because they don't realize that what the Christian life is. They don't recognize what's available to them. Now, I'm not saying we're not going to struggle with the flesh. I'm not saying that we're not going to struggle with deception. I'm not even saying that the enemy can't attack us. Of course, the enemy can attack us. What I'm saying is that we can choose to continue to walk in victory recognizing that we already have been delivered from these things. We just have to walk them out. So we've been delivered from the penalty of sin. Many of you before you were born again were delivered from demonic possession. Number three, we are delivered from the flesh. This is where most Christians, including myself, need continual deliverance. Deliverance from the flesh, that's a process. We call that process sanctification. Galatians 2.20 says, I am crucified with Christ. Never the less I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God. By his faith, I live in this flesh, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 5.16 says this. So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves. Verse 17 in the sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. So here we see the struggle now between the flesh and the Spirit. Now I've already been delivered from the flesh in the sense that I've now been given the power to overcome it because of the grace of God, the grace of God being his empowering presence within me. But even though I now have the choice to say no to sin, sometimes I don't always exercise my will in that way. And therein we see this constant cry unto God, Lord, help me overcome self. Lord, help me get over this. See, here's the thing. You can cast devils out of you, but you can't cast you out of you. Exorcism, that's quick. Ah, but deliverance from the flesh, that's the journey of sanctification. And so do Christians need deliverance? Absolutely. We need deliverance from old mindsets. We need deliverance from deception. We need deliverance from demonic attack, which I'll get into in just a moment. And we need deliverance from the sin nature. But in order to be delivered, we have to walk this out. We have to continually obey God. What does the Scripture talk about? The Scripture tells us plainly, submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee. Well, does it say the devil will fight? No, it says he'll flee. So you need to be delivered from the flesh, those cravings, the sin nature. The Bible also talks about being delivered from deception. Look at Galatians chapter three, verses one through two. Old foolish Galatians, who has cast an evil spell on you? For the meaning of Jesus Christ's death was made as clear to you as if you had seen a picture of his death on the cross. Let me ask you this one question. Do you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not. You receive the Spirit because you believe the message you heard about Christ were also delivered from deception. Here in Galatians three one, where the Scripture says, Oh, foolish Galatians, who has cast an evil spell on you? The rhetorical question is also translated in other versions of Scripture, who hath bewitched you? What does that term bewitched means? It means to fascinate or to deceive. So in other words, this bewitching, this curse wasn't a demon living in them. It wasn't some magical force floating above their heads. This curse that's being described here is simply deception. In other words, they believed that circumcision would save them. They believed a works-based gospel. And it was that works-based gospel that they believed that was the proof of the deception for which they had fallen. So as believers, we must be delivered from deception. Now as you go on to read in Galatians, the solution given isn't undergoing exorcism. The solution given isn't go to ancestry.com and find a bunch of lineage problems and issues with your ancestors. No, the solution given was, believe the true gospel. Believe the gospel. In other words, come back to the truth. In Ephesians chapter 6 verses 11 through 17, we see the armor of God mentioned. And time and time again, we can see how the armor of God has to do with fighting deception, namely the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, the shield of faith, which is our belief in what God has said. So when the enemy sends a lie your way, you lift up that shield and say, I refuse to believe that lie. And then the sword destroys the liars themselves. So again, we see and we'll recap just for a second. Number one, delivered from demonic possession. That's exorcism. That's before salvation. Number two, delivered from the penalty of sin. Number three, delivered from the flesh. And actually, I'll go back to that for just a moment. I want to emphasize this point. I mentioned the verse just a moment ago. Submit yourselves to God, resist the devil and he will flee. Notice there that the scripture does not say that if you resist the devil, he'll put up a fight. Notice there that the scripture does not say that if you resist the devil, he'll come at you harder. No, what does it say? Resist the devil and he will what? Well, that's the Bible. That's scripture. Resist the devil and he will flee. Think about this. The enemy so fears the believer who knows who they are that the moment they submit themselves to God and resist him, he's out of there. He doesn't fight. He doesn't linger. He doesn't try to stick around when you live a life submitted to God. He doesn't even bother. He says, I'm out of here. You submit to God and you resist him and he flees is what the Bible says. That's how weak he is compared to a believer who is submitted to the authority of God. What does it mean to submit to God? To the basics. Live the Christian life. Live holy. Read your word. Be in prayer. Be a solid Christian and he cannot defeat you. Number four, I mentioned was deliverance from deception. Number five, deliverance from temptation. Watch this now. Matthew chapter six, verses eight through 13. Don't be like them for your father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him. This is the Lord's prayer here. Pray like this. Our father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today the food we need and forgive us our sins as we have forgiven those who sin against us. Watch this now. And don't let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one. That's one complete thought right there. How are we not led? How are we not submitted to? How are we to find ourselves distance from temptation? Well, we're rescued from the evil one. Why? Because the evil one tempts. So this portion of scripture is describing a prayer for deliverance from temptation. Do Christians need deliverance? Absolutely. It's right there. What do we need deliverance from? I just told you the flesh, which is the sin nature deception. And here we see also from temptation. Now, of course, we understand that demons contempt us, but demons don't do the sinning for you. This is why Christians love the lie that they can be demonized because now they have something to blame for their undisciplined flesh. Oh, I'm telling you itching ears. Don't want to hear this. I'm just going to give it to you straight like it is. People want to blame demons because they don't want to take up responsibility for the work of the flesh. The flesh that they fed, the flesh that they give into the flesh that they listened to on a daily basis. No, better to blame a demon. And then they say like, I can't stop. Why? Because it's a demon. No, my friend, you're a born again believer. You cannot be possessed. We've been through this a thousand times. I'll go through it a thousand times more. The day will never come when I stop teaching this because many people are experiencing freedom when they recognize the enemy does not have that kind of power over them. And they realize, my goodness, I have to actually live the Christian life. Why? Because the Christian life is not a life of defeat. If you're in spiritual bondage, you're not living the Christian life. Now some might say, brother David, that's a hard standard. I don't get why you're saying that. Well, the reason some people say that is because they confuse trials for demonic bondage. You're not under demonic bondage just because your car won't start. You're not under demonic bondage just because you're struggling financially. You're not under demonic bondage just because you have issues in your relationship. In fact, many of those things often result because of the choices that we make. And so we have to recognize that as believers, we're going to face persecution. We're going to face trials. We're going to face tragedy. We're going to face challenges. Not everything is going to go the way that we want it. This doesn't mean that we're cursed. This doesn't mean that we're under the power of the enemy. No, my friend, even in these things, I have victory. Even when I'm struggling, I have victory. Even when the circumstances aren't what I want them to be, I have victory. And in this circumstance of temptation, the Lord has made a way out. He will rescue us from the evil one who tempts us. Number six, you can be delivered from torment. Now believers, as I mentioned a few moments ago, can be attacked. And I told you, I'll talk a little bit about this. Christians can be attacked by demonic beings. Many refer to those attacks as oppression. That's fine if you want to use that word, as long as you don't mean a Christian version of demon possession. Christians don't need exorcism or anything resembling an exorcism. What we need is to renew our minds. What we need is to take authority over the enemy. Now, when you're getting prayed over, can that be an intense experience? Might you shake under the power of God and cry and emote? Yes, of course. I'm not saying Christians can't do that. But what I am saying is we mustn't confuse intense deliverances for exorcism where a demon's coming out of someone or speaking for them or taking control. That, again, does not happen to born-again believers. Now, number six, I said deliver from torment. Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 12. I'm going to read verses five through nine. That experience is worth boasting about, but I'm not going to do it. I will boast only about my weaknesses. If I wanted to boast, I would be no fool in doing so, because I would be telling the truth. But I won't do it because I don't want anyone to give me credit beyond what they can see in my life or hear in my message, even though I have received such wonderful revelations from God. So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh. Notice here, there's the analogy and here's the literal reality. I was given a thorn in my flesh. That's the analogy. Literal reality is a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud. Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, my grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness. So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses so that the power of Christ can work through me. Number one, if he was talking about demon possession here, the Lord would have taken the demon out through exorcism and not have told him grace is sufficient for you. Number two, the thorn in the flesh. This is where a lot of people get confused because they hear the word, oh, the flesh, he's talking about the body. See, it was in his body. Well, what the scripture is describing here is the messenger from Satan. That's the literal reality. The analogy is the thorn in the flesh. If you're going to say that the word flesh here is a literal reality, then you'd also have to commit to believing that the thorn is also a literal reality, which in the Greek means a wooden stake. So Paul the Apostle is not walking around with a wooden stake in his body and you would reject that idea. So let's not just take one and leave the other. Let's take it as is. Thorn in my flesh, thorn is an analogy. In my flesh is a part of that analogy. The thorn in my flesh is the analogy. A messenger of Satan is the literal reality. I could say something like, you know, my daughter had a lot of candy last night and she was bouncing off the walls. Well, we understand that she literally had candy, but that she was not literally bouncing off the walls as would a ball do. So here we see again, I want to emphasize that thorn in my flesh, the analogy, a messenger from Satan is the literal reality. So thorn in my flesh is the term used to describe that literal reality, but literally he's talking about a messenger of Satan. What is that messenger doing? It's tormenting him. Now, I don't know if this was perhaps being done through a human being, maybe one of the prison guards or this was done through maybe someone who was just antagonizing the apostle. We don't know. I tend to believe that this is describing an actual demonic power who's harassing the apostle through use of his words, which is perfectly in alignment with everything I've been telling you here, that they can't enter you, they can't control you, but they can speak to you, deceive you, tempt you and torment you from the exterior. Now he's speaking to him. So what does the Scripture say is the solution? Not an exorcism, grace. Let me say that again. Not an exorcism, grace. To where we walk in the power of God's Holy Spirit and by walking in the power of the Holy Spirit, those attacks against us begin to lose effect on us. There's a story about a preacher who was ministering a weeks long revival and after one of the meetings went home to get some rest before the following days meeting. And so he goes to his house, lies in his bed, he's tired, his body is physically exhausted. And then he senses in the middle of the night, this evil presence come into his room. He immediately recognized it as being a demonic presence. With his back turned toward the evil presence, he began to wonder to himself, what is that? And then he felt somebody sitting on the edge of his bed. He actually felt the bed dip in. And so he turned to see what was it? Who was it that sat on his bed? And he looked and he saw a demonic figure staring right at him, trying to intimidate him because the demon didn't obviously didn't like what was happening at the revival meetings. What did this preacher do? Did this preacher freak out? Get on the phone. Please come to my house. There's a devil attacking me, pastor. Did the preacher start to panic and say, God, what did I do wrong? Where's the open door? No, what did he do? He looked at this thing. He said, Oh, it's only you turned back over and went to sleep. Now, I'm not advocating for just allowing demonic influence near us. So don't hear what I'm not saying. What I do like about this story is the fact that he didn't panic about the mere fact that the enemy was trying to attack him, which many Christians do. Brother David, the enemy is attacking me. What do I do? Live the Christian life. What can he do to you? You walk in submission to God. What can the enemy do? You walk in submission to God. How effective can his attacks be? Now, I am not advocating for spiritual apathy. We should be aware of the attacks of the enemy. We should be knowledgeable about the spiritual realm and use whatever comes from scripture to help us navigate the spiritual realm. So I'm not advocating for spiritual apathy. What I am saying is there's a big difference between spiritual vigilance and paranoia. A bigger problem in the church today than demon oppression is demon obsession. To the point where we make the Holy Spirit jealous, acting like the Holy Spirit's power is this weak little thing in us. And this demonic power is something that we have to really focus on and say, okay, how do I defeat this complex, large problem that I just can't overcome? And my friend greater is he who's in you than he that is in the world. That's religious thinking. That's traditions of man. That's why we get stuck there. The traditions of man get us stuck in spiritual weakness. Whom the sun sets free is free indeed. Where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty. Greater is he who is in me than the spirit that is in the world. That power in you is the grace. Now, I'm not saying that we should just leave doors open and go on sinning and practice new age practices. That would be foolishness and you would be inviting demonic influence into your life. And again, that's demonic influence against you. But what I am saying is this idea that we panic, that we freak out, that we lose our minds over this. No, we are delivered from torment the moment we recognize that though he may try to attack me, though he may try to affect me as long as I walk with God filled with the Holy Spirit, as long as I am submitted to him, I have nothing to fear. And once you recognize, see this is the belief that Christians have to come to and this many struggle to get there. I'll be honest with you. It's not easy because they tell themselves, no, it can't possibly be that easy. No, I heard stories about this and that. What does the Bible say guys? Ground yourself on the word. So instead of panicking and freaking out and seeking out rituals and specific details and, you know, ancestry.com, what happened? My friend, it's not like in the movies, at least not for the Christian. We're not like Ghostbusters. It's not like fighting Pokemon. Which type? Is it a water type of fire type and electric? My friend, greater is he who is in you than he who's in the world. Be apathetic? No. Be paranoid? No. Spiritual vigilance. I'm aware of the attack. I'm aware of how the enemy works, but I'm not like constantly looking over my shoulder, freaked out, wondering that, oh my goodness, I was at the supermarket and I passed by an aisle where I accidentally touched a cereal box. Who knows where that cereal box came from and if it had a demon attached to it. My friend, if anything in the markets that you go to have demons attached to them, I promise you, those demonic powers leave the moment you touch them. Why? Because of the presence of the Holy Spirit that's on you. Demons cannot dwell in the glory. So just live in the glory. He's my refuge, my hiding place, the shadow of his wing. No fowler can go there. That's talking about demonic influence. Nothing can touch me there. So as long as I live in that, I just focus on the presence. I focus on Jesus. I focus on the Holy Spirit. I focus on the word. That power begins to lose its effectiveness in our lives. And that's how we're delivered from torment by realizing the truth. I have a few more we could cover, but I think we'll stop it there because I want to go over a few things that maybe will help you grasp a little better what I'm saying and maybe tie together some of the threads of this message. So number one, we talked about deliverance from demonic possession. This again is to cast the demon out of an unbeliever before salvation takes place. I went over a few reasons as to why we do cast demons out of unbelievers. I mean, think about how religious that is. An unbeliever comes to you. I'm tormented by demons. Sorry, can't cast it out of you for my doctrine tells me so. Are you kidding me? All we see in scripture are demons coming out of unbelievers. They're not promised tomorrow. Well, what if it comes back seven times worse? Well, think about the fact that the scripture tells us that those who've received the gospel are under a harsher and stricter punishment if they then reject that gospel. Do we then say, well, I don't want to share the gospel with them because if they reject the gospel, that's a harsher punishment. No. So why do we do that to the unbeliever who's bound by a demonic power? Don't we say things like set the captives free? Don't we say things like we need to practice the deliverance ministry of Jesus? Then why are we neglecting it? Exorcism is a major part of the deliverance ministry of Jesus and it's casting demons out of the unbeliever. Practice that. So that's deliverance. Number one from demonic possession. Number two, we're delivered from the penalty of sin. That's by the power, the blood of Jesus. Every believer is number three. We're being delivered from the flesh, the sin nature. Well, technically we are delivered in terms of legal standing and power and authority and dominion. But you have to learn to walk in that dominion through the renewing of the mind. So don't confuse the influence of the flesh for the influence of demonic beings. Otherwise, you'll be blaming demons for your whole life and never taking responsibility for your decisions. Number four, delivered from deception. That's by way of truth. Number five, delivered from temptation. That's the Holy Spirit keeping us from things and keeping us from places that we know we shouldn't go. Number six, deliverance from torment. That's the grace of God. Yes, rebuke the enemy. Yes, speak the scripture. Yes, pray. Yes, receive prayer. But ultimately, if you live your life terrified of demons, that's only going to make room for that torment. That's only going to make room for their power. There's this game my daughter and I play along with my wife. Just before bed, when we're tucking her to bed, sometimes we read her a story. Sometimes she tells us a story and sometimes we play what's called the shadow game. Now the shadow game is where I get a flashlight and I put it on the bed just behind our heads so that it casts the light over our heads and onto the ceiling. And Aria will put her little hands up in the air in front of the light and her hands are now project projected, the silhouettes of her hands are now projected onto the ceiling. So she does like puppet, she does a little story and it's pretty funny. We just listen to her and she plays and sometimes Jess and I will join in and we'll make hand puppets too. And it's interesting because Aria does this thing where she goes, look dad, my hand's getting bigger and bigger and bigger and she starts to bring it closer to the light that's behind us. And her little tiny hand covers the entire ceiling and it's funny. She thinks it's funny. I think it's adorable. Jess thinks it's adorable. But it's a great illustration for how the devil works because we see the enemy's power sometimes. It's this big force in our life that, oh, I'm just never going to be able to overcome this. I have to get to the root of this. I have to find out where this is coming from. And we're fretting, we're freaking out and what's the ritual? What's the secret? What's the mystery? Are you kidding me? Do you forget who's in you? The enemy's power is like that shadowy projection. It's an exaggeration, especially over the believer. It's an exaggeration of his power. So here are some things I wanted to go over real briefly. Then I want to pray with you. Here are some phrases that if you say them, it shows you have a misunderstanding of what deliverance actually is. Now I'm going to offend some people, but I would rather give you the truth that offends you and then sets you free than a lie that validates you and leaves you in bondage. Here's the first phrase. I'm waiting on God to deliver me. I can't tell you how many times I've seen it and I'm not talking about anyone here, so don't be offended. I'm not singling anyone out, but I promise you there will be some comments. I'm waiting on God to deliver me. Oh, I've been trying for years. And here's the thing. They go to all the deliverance meetings. You named the evangelist, you named the pastor. They've already had hands laid on them by them. I went to so and so and so and so and so and so and so and so. Oh, and I'm just waiting. And we act like it's this long journey. Number one, the reason people think like this is because they think that negative circumstances are always in attack of the enemy rather than a result of their poor decision making. So what happens? My car won't start. My finances are disarray. I can't get married. I can't find a spouse. There's turmoil in my relationships. Everything I try to start a business and it fails. And we think, oh, that has to be the devil. Okay, sometimes maybe the enemy can sow discord. Yes, maybe the enemy can deceive you in a way that causes these things to maybe be affected by the decisions that you make. But ultimately trials come. Problems happen. Paul the apostle, he was shipwrecked. He was tortured. He was ridiculed and stoned and imprisoned. Did he say, oh, I'm under a curse? No, he said, I'm blessed. He talked about the fact that nothing could separate him from the love of God. He considered himself victorious more than a conqueror, even though he went through all of that. Why? Because negative circumstances aren't proof that the enemy has power over you, even though he'll lie to you and try to tell you that they aren't. Negative circumstances are the test of our faith. Negative circumstances are the natural result of living in a fallen world. Negative circumstances sometimes are a result of your poor decision making. That's a fact. Very rarely is a negative circumstance a direct attack of the enemy. And even so, if it were, you rebuke the enemy and it's done. So we work ourselves up when we confuse the natural negative occurrences in life for spiritual bondage. Secondly, we also have this perception where we neglect to see or we refuse to see, I should say, we refuse to see all of the blessings and we focus, we hyper focus on every negative thing. And so we build a case in our own mind, everything's going wrong, nothing's going good, and then we convince ourselves that we're under some kind of curse when in fact, every day of your life, there will be some positive things and every day of your life, there will be some negative things. I saw a meme on Facebook. I thought it was really interesting. It's a bus with two people and one person is staring out the window and he's just staring at a bunch of rocks and he just looks all sad and there's nothing to look at. He just sees a wall. The other person decided to sit on the other side of the bus and he looks out, he sees the sunset and the cliff and the valley and the plant life and he's in a great mood. He's looking, I said, wow, look at that view. Both of them have an issue with their perspective. Now, I'm not saying that you can be free by positive thinking alone. I'm saying that we compound our issues, we add to our issues and we convince ourselves that we're victims because we see negative circumstances as validation of the enemy's power or we see negative circumstances as validation that someone who placed a curse on us succeeded. Think about that. Somebody says, oh, I'm going to place a curse on you and it's funny that they have to tell you that. Why didn't they just do it? They have to tell you that because it's your belief in that curse that gives it its power. So they tell you they're placing a curse on you. You believe that. Now, everything negative that happens in your life, you go, oh, that's the curse. Oh, that's the curse. Oh, that's the curse. And now you believe it and you think you're bound by it. How can you curse whom God has blessed? You can't. It's not possible. And so I'm waiting on God to deliver me. Well, what do you mean by that? You mean you're waiting for your life to get better? You're waiting for your thoughts to become positive? You're waiting for your emotions to be regulated? You're waiting for a perfect circumstance before you start being grateful for what God has given you? Could just be a mindset or they say, I need to go for more deliverance. I never understood this to where, you know, again, we treat deliverance like a substance or like people say, like, I have 100 demons in me. Well, they got six of them out, but I think they're still 94. My friend, if the Holy Spirit could get six out, he can get 94. If the Holy Spirit could get one out, he'd get 1,000 out. If the Holy Spirit could get 1,000 out, he'd get 10,000 out. What is this idea that the Holy Spirit goes, I'm just going to take a few out, but I'll leave a couple in? No way. When someone receives an exorcism, it's the full work of the Holy Spirit, often what happens is people continue in their negative thought patterns, continue in their poor decision-making process, continue in their sin, and even suffer from mental illness. And so because everything doesn't become perfect afterwards, they think, oh, I must still have the demon in me, even though they're born again and filled with the Holy Spirit now. And so that's what causes confusion too. Or people say, I've been in this bondage for decades. I'm hoping someone has the answer. My friend, the Scripture gave you the answer. You've been delivered. It's a matter of walking in it through the renewing of your mind. You say it can't be that simple. Okay, are you calling God a liar? Because that's what the Scripture says. We can't go based upon what we hope is true or what we think is validating. We have to go based upon what the Scripture says. And some might say, well, David, you're being insensitive to people. No, it's because I love you that I'm telling you the truth. I know because I suffered with this. For years, I suffered with anxiety and panic attacks. For years, I suffered with these horrendous mental and emotional strongholds that I just could not get free from. Again, Christians do need deliverance. Was I possessed? No. But was I being attacked? Yes. And that attack was working because I believed the lies of the enemy. And I said everything that people say now, oh, I already tried that. Oh, it doesn't work for me. Nothing's ever going to change. I've tried everything. How long is this going to be? I just want to be free already, not realizing that I needed to renew my mind. Another phrase, I've been trying to break this attack, but nothing seems to be working. Well, either the power of the Holy Spirit works or it doesn't. Look, demons respond immediately to the power of the Holy Ghost, if the person actually has authority. If the demon doesn't respond, it's probably the flesh. It's probably mental illness. It's probably other issues that they need to work through. I'm trying to figure out how this, how I'm trying to figure out how to get rid of this attack or, or everything in my life is going wrong. How do I break this attack? Again, these are mindsets where people just don't understand what deliverance is. Look, you are set free from demonic possession before salvation. That's one. You've already been set free, delivered from the penalty of sin. You are being delivered from the sin nature through sanctification. You're delivered from deception, temptation, and torment through spiritual warfare. That's prayer. That's the shield of faith. That's the word of God. Are we still fighting a spiritual battle? Yes. Do demons still attack us? Yes. But the mindsets that we carry while these attacks are coming are contributing to our defeat. You cannot defeat the attacks of the enemy with a fleshly mind. You can't do it. Demons flee once you recognize who you are. So I want to pray with you now. I want to pray that God would give you a greater understanding. And if you want greater detail on this, check out a teaching I did. It's absolutely free. It's on strongholds. Just type in my name and strongholds. Type that in on YouTube. It has 1.8 million views as of today. 1.8 million people have seen this. Take a look at the testimonies in the comments section from people who are, they, some, many are saying it's like a light bulb going off and they finally see the path forward to freedom. So if you want more on that, check that out. And I want to pray with you. I want to pray that God would help you to walk in the deliverance that he's given to you. Father, I pray in the name of Jesus that you would cause that one watching now to be free in mind. Help them to realize the truth that the truth might set them free. Holy spirit, I pray that when they start to think according to the flesh, according to the lives of the enemy, that you would call them back to truthful thinking. In the mighty name of Jesus, we pray. I want you to say it because you believe it. Say amen. If you enjoyed this teaching, please do leave a like. It helps a lot, spreads the message even further. Don't forget to subscribe to my channel so you can learn more about the Holy Spirit prayer and spiritual warfare. I also do live streams from around the world where the power of the Holy Spirit moves and people are saved, healed, delivered and empowered. And I want to encourage you, if you appreciate what's happening in this ministry, you appreciate the teachings that you're receiving or the sermons that you're receiving, or maybe you watch the events live and you can feel the beautiful presence of the Holy Spirit. And you're being blessed by this ministry. I want to ask you to do your part to help us continue with our mission, to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ all around the world in the power of the Holy Spirit through events and media. It's because of your support that we're able to continue to bless people all around the world. This is the Holy Spirit's work. There's great favor on this ministry. We are growing rapidly but steadily. We are expanding the reach. More people are being affected by the gospel. Help us win souls. Help us minister deliverance. Help us minister healing. Help us go and minister the power of the Holy Spirit to believers that they might be strengthened in their callings. Let's push back this darkness. 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Before I close, I do want to mention I have many more teachings on spiritual warfare on this channel, but if you'd like to receive these teachings in book form, you can get Holy Spirit, the bondage breaker by going to bondagebreaker.com. Holy Spirit, the bondage breaker at bondagebreaker.com. Now I will ask this favor of you to those of you who are watching now. I'm asking also that you would go to your local Barnes and Noble. Here's what we're going to do. We're going to have a little bit of a, I don't want to call it a contest, you're not competing with one another, but we're doing a special giveaway to help promote the release of this new book. This weekend on Friday or Saturday, I want you to go to Barnes and Noble. Actually, you should probably go to the Barnes and Noble website first, look up to see if they have the book. I want you to go to Barnes and Noble, take a picture of yourself with the book in Barnes and Noble and tag me on social media. And we're going to select a winner and that winner will win some merchandise that we have here at the studio. We have, I think they said, don't quote me on this, but there's like sweaters and hats and all sorts of cool things that we want to give away. So we're going to select a winner, but go to Barnes and Noble this weekend, take a picture of yourself holding the book in Barnes and Noble. You don't have to necessarily buy it though. I'd appreciate if you did, but go to Barnes and Noble, take a picture of yourself holding that book and then tag me on social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, wherever, tag me on social media. And then our team is going to select a winner and we'll send you a merchandise package, whatever you want to call it, but it's just something kind of fun that we're doing. But again, bondagebreaker.com, if you'd like to receive that book, Holy Spirit, the bondage breaker. And that is it for the message. Until next time, remember, nothing is impossible with God.