The Lord gave me this sermon a couple of days ago after going through a series of demonic attacks in my life.
You see the LOrd had me in intercessory prayer for my church, which had been under spiritual attack. Because I had been standing in the gap for the church by interceding, the devil decided to attack me. Along with his attack came my insecurities about the ministry that God had placed in me. It got to the point where I couldn’t pray, I couldn’t sing, I couldn’t read the bible or lead the Praise and worship that Sunday. It was as if my mind became blocked from anything concerning God. It was in that situation that all my fears came to surface about everything that I was doing for God. I became sick in my body, My head began to hurt. to make a long story short, I felt terrible. The devil was attacking me and I really felt like giving up but It was in the bowels of my insecurities that the lord told me to get up and lift up my head. I am glad to know that I have power on today over the devil.
Today I want to talk about vampires, Yes vampires. When the word vampire is mentioned the first image that comes to mind is that of a palefaced, pointed teeth, bloodsucking creature from the army of the undead, who takes up his residence in a graveyard, live in a vault and sleeps in a coffin. These characters are usually portrayed in hollywood horror movies but were at one time believed to be real.
The vampires would always rise at night, seeking out its unfortunate victim who would either die after being bitten or join the army of the undead. The vampires would feed upon the living and suck the very essence out of them, which was the blood. The blood would 1) satisfy thier hunger and 2) cause them to live. So they would feed on the living in order to live.
I can remember watching these movies as a young girl and being unable to sleep at night. I would run around and close all my windows for fear that a vampire would sneak in unaware. I would look under my bed, just to make sure none was under there and let’s not forget the closet. My sole purpose of doing all of this was to make sure that I would not be a victim of a vampires blood thirst. I can also remember that in a couple of the movies I had, The vampire would have a goon that would do his bidding. This goon would be at the vampires beck and call.
Don’t think in anyway that the vampire was invincible because he wasn’t, he also had his weaknesss. In the presence of a cross he had to flee and holy water was not his friend. Sunlight could kill him and if you found his coffin and drove a stake through his heart he would surely die. So there was a way to get rid of the vampire.
The vampires that I am speaking of on today are not vampires created in the clutches of hollywood, but the vampires that I am talking about are ones that dwell in the spiritual realm. These vampires are somewhat like the the fictinal vampires but they are not after your blood, they are after your spirit. They want to draw the very essence out of you that causes you to worship God. The essence that cause you to give God praise. They want to steal your visions and kill your dreams. They want to bind up your mind and cause you to doubt the very existence of God. These vampires like to attack the body and lead you straight to hell. They have a plan devised and a trap set in motion to destroy you and what they do is they use goons , people who allow themselves to be used for the devices of satan and his boys. The spiritual vampires hide behind a deadly disguise and a mask,causing discord and anguish. They hide behind goons making it seems as though it is they and not themselves that are causing your distress and misery. These spirtual vampires hide so that the demise of your soul can be easy. Make no mistake about it thesr vampires are employed by the head ghoul himself, the head master in charge, the head Vampire himself Satan.
Anybody can be used as a goon: a friend or companion, a mother or a father, a sister or a brother, a husband or a wife, your children, The department store sales person, the elderly. A goon can also come in the form of a Pastor, an Evangelist, a minister, people in power, an employer at work. Anybody can be used as a goon, nobody is exempt, nobody.
This is a two-part series ,so today we are going to concentrate on the Goons.
Let’s take a look at Jeremiah 11:19
But I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter; and I knew not that they had devised devices against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.
In this text, the writer is Jeremiah. He was a prophet that was called to preach the word of God as a young boy. He was what you could call a reluctant witness because he gave The Lord every excuse in the book why he couldn’t preach but eventually , he gave up on his will and became a mouth piece for God.
In this Chapter of Jeremiah God has sent him to tell the people to remember the covenant that he had made with thier fathers and how he insisted that the people obey his word. Jeremiah tells the people that God is going to eventually punish them if they continue to be in disobedience. You see the people were worshiping idols and God wanted them to know that thier idols could not save them and niether would the priest prayers be able to help them. To justify things further Jeremiah lets them know that everything that has happeneded to them is due to thier own doing. Now because they didn’t want to accept the truth the men of Anathoth , his fellow-citizens began to devise plans against him to shut him up once and for all, but God let’s him know about it.
AS you look at the text Jeremiah says that he was like a lamb or oxen that was brought to the slaughter.
When you look up the definition for lamb you will see that a lamb is a mild-tempered animal. And if you look up the definition for an oxen you will find that and oxen was a bovine mammal ,sluggish, dull and impassive but a hard worker.
The lamb and oxen are also used to symbolize the characteristics of a person who is easily, decieved or cheated, a person who is unaware of things around them or impassive. Jeremiah used these animals to discribe himself because he had been guillible and unaware of the deciet that was around him. He had no idea that he was surrounded by people who hated him. The reason that he was not aware of thier plans was because The only thing that he was concerned about was getting out the word of God. Nothing more than that. These men had formed a plot against him to take his very life. Jeremiah had no friends to warn him of what was going on niether did an enemy warn him, but his warning came from the Good Sheperd, God himself. It could have been through a vision or dream or impression in his spirit but God warned him. If you think about it there was only one step between Jeremiah and death.
There are alot of us that can relate to Jeremiah: We have also been like lambs. Or we have been so busy working and not paying attention to our surroundings that the enemy slips in and blinds us. We are Unaware Of people and situations that have been placed in our lives to detroy us. We have got to be so careful about the people that we attach ourselves to because everybody who claims to be on your side is not. Everybody who calims to be your friend is not, That is why we have to allow God to lead us in relationships and we need to ask him constantly for discernment. Actually the bible tells us that we should try the spirits by the spirits to see if they are of God. The bible also tells us to believe not every spirit. But we fall because we want to go running after everybody who comes with a prophecy. We need to learn how to keep our minds covered under the blood. We have all at one time or another been a lamb or oxen ,people. We have allowed ourselves to be led off the path of God and then we wonder why our visions and dreams fail. We wonder why we have so many troubles.
Jeremiah 11:19
.................and I knew not that they had devised devices against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.
So we see that Jeremiah was not aware of thier devices. These men had a deadly trap set. They not only wanted to shut him up but they wanted to cut him off all together. They wanted to destroy not only him but his whole family. They wanted to cut off his lineage starting with his father. This also happened to Naboth when he was put to death for treason , his sons were killed with him. Their whole plan was to label him as being a false prophet and to disgrace him. THey wanted to ruin his reputation and to discredit his predictions. These men thought to put an end to Jeremiah ,but guess what he survived most of his enemies: They thought to kill the memory of him but it lives to this day and will be blessed while times last.
The whole thought of these men was to destroy the prophecy by destroying the prophet.To them to kill one was to defeat the other. That’s how the devil works. He will put people or goons in your life to destroy you. The devil wants to detroy your vision. He wants to destroy the very thing in you, that makes you a child of God. These goons have thier orders from the devil and that is not only to destroy your vision but to destroy you in the process. These plans are handed down by Satan. He will cause you husband to just pick up and leave you one day with out any reason to cause you to have a nervous breakdown. He wants to steal your mind. He will cause your family to be in constant discord to kill the unity. He will cause your child to be a drug addict so that you can die of depression and worry. He will constantly put sin in your face as being a good thing to blind you, so that you will eventually make your home in hell. He will cause you to be mad at your brethern, which can lead to hate and bitterness in your heart. Knowing that bitterness and hate will lead you straight to hell. He has a trap set for you.
Who can cause you to fall faster than a friend or family member? What can ruin your day faster than an unkind word from another person? Who is most of the time the cause of low self-esteem in our youth? Who most of the times is your worst enemy? That’s right yourself. You can be a goon to your ownself.
What I want you to realize is that the spiritual vampires hide behind these Goons in order to carry out there deadly plans for your life, but I am glad on today that no weapon formed against me shall prosper. God has got your back on today. And just like he made Jeremiah aware of the tricks of his enemies, he will make you aware of the tricks and plots of the enemy in your life. One thing we have got to learn to do is to recognize that it is not the person who is attacking you but we need to realize that it is the spirit within them. These goons will pray against you ,what you are doing your church. They don’t want to see you prosper so knowing this the Spiritual vampires will attach themselves to thier spirit and cause the formation of a deadly combination set out to cause your fall and destruction. Watch out for the goons.
I had to learn the hard way that you cannot fight a demonic spirit with your fist, niether with angry word because they don’t fight fair, but you have to fight that thing with the word of God. You have to take Jesus into battle. So I ask you on today are you allowing yourself to be used by Satan as a goon. Do you find yourself constantly at odds with your family? Do you find that you have hate and malice in you heart? Do you find that you are one that likes confusion? If you answered yes to any of these questions than you are being used as a goon. Instead of hating your brethern pray for him and ask God to remove the spirit that keeps them in bondage.
