Good evening. Bless the Lord, oh my soul and all that is within me. Bless His holy name. I want to say up front. You see me here on a Sunday night with 30 minutes to deliver a message. I want to say up front, loudly and clearly, we have a pastor of great faith! (Laughter)
Turn with me to First John chapter four. I am going to read a couple of verses and then I’m going to jump into tonight’s message.
First John, chapter four, verse four says “Ye are of God … Ye are of God …” That means that God is now our Father. We are birthed of God. little children.
“Ye are of God little children and have overcome them …” How have we overcome them? “Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.”
When it talks about the world, it’s not talking about the literal world that we see. It’s talking about the world system that Satan is in charge of. So everything in this world’s system – the thoughts, the influences, the demon spirits involved – the Bible says we are of God and that we have already overcome them.
First John, chapter five, verse four: “For whatsoever is born of God, overcometh the world …” Do you see that? The world is the same word in 1 John 4:4. “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world, and this is the victory that overcometh the world ,,,”
Now I want you to notice what it’s saying. Whoever is born of God overcomes the world. But now the Bible tells us the victory that is going to allow us to overcome the world. “… and this is the victory that overcometh the world (And what is the next three words?), even our faith.”
Do you see that ladies and gentlemen? We can be born of God. We can have God’s life and nature but if we’re not walking in faith, we are not going to be overcomers even though that Is who we are born to be. Are you following me? Okay.
When I was in college, Doris and I led a home fellowship. And we part of a group that focused on home fellowships. We had about six to 10 people who would attend each week, and for all practical purposes, this was church for them. They weren’t going anywhere else.
We had this couple who attended – John and Alicia. Alicia was a nurse and John was probably a builder. And the reason I say John was a builder is because, after they had gotten married, he designed and built a log home for them. Beautiful place that included a man-made pond.
From time to time, Alicia would come to the fellowship without him. And every time she would come, she wouldn’t say a whole bunch. She would say that there were some issues that they were working through. And that was about all she would say.
One time she came to a fellowship meeting and she talked about how John had bursts of anger and at times, for no reason at all, he’d get up and just run out of the house. We would pray with her. Stand with her. Confess the word with her. All the things we would typically do.
One night after fellowship, Alicia had gone home and John had not attended with her. Now John was a big guy. About six one or six two and a solid two hundred twenty or two hundred and thirty pounds, broad shoulders. A big guy but the sweetest person you’d ever want to meet.
Well this particular night, maybe 30 minutes after Alicia had gone home, we heard this loud bam, bam, bam against our apartment door. And I looked at Doris and asked who in the world is banging on our door?
At that time we didn’t have peep holes. We were living in married student housing at the university. So I opened up the door and I looked.
Let me back up for a few minutes. About two or three weeks earlier, Doris and I had a sat through a class, a seminar, that was called “Dealing with the Adversary.” It dealt with Satan’s kingdom and spiritual warfare. Being a Baptist boy, I had never heard anything about demons at all. Nothing.
So imagine my surprise: bam, bam, bam and John is standing there in front of me. His eyes were wide open and you could tell something was not right. His hair was all over his head. John was eating a piece of wood, a 2 by 4.
When I open the door, he looks at me and steps back against the wall opposite our apartment. As I thought about that, the John that I saw was possessed by a devil. You cannot eat a 2 by 4 on your own. Trust me.
From now on I am going to say the demon was standing before me. So he stood back and I hadn’t thought about this in many years until the Lord brought it to my attention for this message. When the demon stepped back after I opened the door, it wasn’t because he saw Barry. It was because he saw what was in Barry – that born again spirit that had authority. That’s what that spirit saw that night when I opened the door.
When I opened the door and saw John, Doris immediately went into praying in tongues mode. And I looked around and said honey, it’s okay. I’m trying to focus on the spirit and the spirit is focused on me. I wish you could have seen what I saw. He was against the wall, arms spread out like he’s trying to hold on to it and his head was turning from side to side as if he was looking for somewhere to go.
He was taking a good hard look at Barry because he wanted to size me up. Barry had gone through this training on dealing with the adversary so he was going to size me up right then and there.
Remember how Jesus faced the devil Legion and he said we are many? When I was looking at John, that demon didn’t say a single word to me. All he did was make a low growling sound. He was trying to intimidate me.
As I looked at him, the spirit took a step forward. He was not expecting me to shout “In the name of Jesus come out!” He stumbled back. Then I heard apartment doors opening. There was a long hallway with apartments on both sides. I heard doors opening. I started looking at the people.
The demon looked at the people and then back at me. He took another step forward toward me. I decided to take a step forward towards him. And I looked at him and I said, I didn’t scream this time, I said “In the name of Jesus, you come out now.”
John immediately fell backwards against the wall and then collapsed on to the floor. Barry is still new at this.
What Barry did that particular night – he had been taught that he had the authority to cast out devils when they presented themselves. He believed what he heard. I acted on what I believed. Are you following me?
So John laid on the floor for a few minutes and I reached down and touched him. He looked as if he was asleep. I reached down and I touched him and immediately his eyes shot open. The demon was gone.
I reached down and he grabbed my arm and I helped him slowly get to his feet. He was wobbly and we slowly walked into our apartment. I sat John down in a chair and he said “I am so tired. Why am I tired? ”
I asked him if he knew where he was and he said “I am in your apartment. But how did I get here?” John and Alicia lived 30 minutes away. John drove 30 minutes not having a clue that he was even on the road.
I told him that a demon had gotten into him and drove him to our apartment. He said the last thing he remembered – and I want you to hear this ladies and gentlemen – was listening to some hard rock music and drinking. So I repeated what he had said. Barry is still new to this and so I was asking a lot of questions.
So I asked him if he did anything else and he said I got really drunk. And he said I heard this knock at the door. Now he and Alicia lived in a fairly secluded place so a knock at their door at night was not common. When he opened it, no one was there. That demon spirit was there. When John opened the door, the spirit walked right in.
I know this looking back but not at the time. And I said “John, have you done this before?” He said “I’ve done that several times. I’d listen to hard rock and drink.”
Now I started putting pieces together. I kind of had an idea of what Alicia was experiencing when she was at home by herself with him. As the Lord was bringing back bits and pieces of that incident, something that happened 40 years ago, to a newbie, a Baptist boy wet behind the ears who didn’t know anything.
The Lord reminded me that the only thing that I did was I believed what I had been taught and I acted on what I had been taught. And He said Barry, again filling in some gaps for me years later, had you not cast that devil out Alicia would have been next in line for possession.
Doris and I lived in that apartment another two years until I graduated from college. John and Alicia continued to attend the fellowship and I remember any other situation with John regarding demonic influences. When we left, Johns and Alicia were doing very well.
After this happened, I knew beyond all doubt that God’s Word was true and that I could stand on it!
The Lord pointed something out to me that I hadn’t thought about. And again, I’m looking at this 40 years later. He said “Barry had you not cast out that demon, he would have overpowered you.” I have no doubts about that whatsoever. This man was chewing wood. (Laughter)
I wanted to bring all of this to your attention ladies and gentlemen because sometimes we don’t believe what we hear. Now, we have been taught, we have been told that we have authority in this world because of who we are and who we belong to. Have we not?
But sometimes because we have authority and we declare things, we confess things, we pray about things but we don’t see things happening the way we want them to happen unlike the situation with John. The authority was clear. That devil knew he had no choice but to leave. The authority was clear.
But so many times because of the things we’re trying to accomplish now, we don’t see our authority in motion. Are you following me?
We meet on Sunday nights. Half hour of teaching. Half hour of praying. When we pray with our understanding and when we pray in tongues, we are speaking our authority the same way I spoke my authority over the demon. There is no difference ladies and gentlemen.
We have our lists and I have no doubts that in our minds, as we are praying and we continue to see the same things happening now that we saw happening before we started praying, we wonder if our prayers are working.
Yes they are! Yes they are! Just because we don’t see the manifestation of them right now, just because we don’t see the manifestation when we want to see them, does not mean our prayers are not working.
Ladies and gentlemen, the results are not your job. Praying is your job. The results are not your job. Speaking the word is your job. The results are not your job. When you get to the place of understanding YOUR job, your life will be a lot easier and a lot less stressful.
We can look around and see that things are still crazy but we know that God asked us to pray. God asked us to confess His Word. He didn’t ask us to FIX IT! All of us, all of us, we are fixers. We want to fix our children. We want to fix our parents. We want to fix the person who mows his yard at 7:30 in the morning and we’re still in bed.
God says fixing is not your job. The only thing I am asking you to do is pray. But for those with the fix it mindset, when all you are doing is praying you will feel that you are not doing anything. But you are doing exactly what needs to be done!
You have so many Christians trying to get things done outside of the spiritual realm. They are doing things that satisfies their emotions. Satisfied emotions does not threaten Satan at all. He wants you out doing something so you can feel good.
When we pray for 30 minutes, we are doing more damage in the realm of the spirit than any marcher could ever do. There are so many Christians who want to march. But the most needful thing a Christian can do is pray. You won’t get attaboys. You won’t get any likes on facebook. Why? They will think you are being passive.
The only way we’re going to have any shot of changing what’s going on in our country is through prayer. And the sooner the body of Christ understands that the sooner we will get on the same page and really do some serious damage to Satan’s kingdom.
I want to encourage you tonight. When you sit down for the next 30 minutes to pray, you are doing so much damage to Satan’s kingdom in way nothing else in this world could ever do. We are lending God our authority when we pray.
I want to end with this. In talking about sometimes we don’t really believe our authority is working. Do you remember when the centurion came to Jesus and asked him to heal his servant? Jesus offered to go with him but the centurion said all Jesus had to do was speak the word. So he did and the servant was healed.
Jesus released His authority ladies and gentlemen. He never saw the manifestation. Do you hear me? He never saw the servant healed but He knew the servant was healed. When we release our authority, we don’t have to see it happen because we know by faith that it happened. Be encouraged and pray.
