Weapons Satan Uses: Spiritual Warfare, Training Your Hand for Battle, Series 15

Weapons Satan Uses: Spiritual Warfare, Training Your Hand for Battle, series 15. Temptation is one of the areas where we are vulnerable — it's one of the weapons, one of the things Satan will try to use against many of us, and I would say not only will he try, he already […]

Temptation is one of the areas where we are vulnerable — it's one of the weapons, one of the things Satan will try to use against many of us, and I would say not only will he try, he already has used it many times and will try again before long. Another strategy of Satan, another weapon he uses against us, is to humiliate us. The more room there is in us for God, the greater the calling, the more humble we are, and the more our heart desires to please God, the more rage, the more anger, the more hatred our adversary has toward us.

So he takes anyone who's close to us and has weaknesses — it can be a spouse, a parent, a sibling, people close to us, and sometimes even people we don't know at all — and he manipulates them, influences them to try to humiliate us, to criticize us, to slander us, to say false and hurtful things, so that they look at us as though we were less, as though we were insignificant, as though we were nothing. But all of that is because he is in us — all of that is because there is light in us. Blessings, and welcome — welcome, all of you, to our online church, Jesus King of Kings, and to our in-person church as well, Jesus King of Kings in Cleveland, Texas.

Today we continue our teaching series, Spiritual Warfare: Training Your Hand for Battle. We're in part three, talking about the weapons Satan uses against the church, against believers, against disciples, against those of us who seek to do God's will. Today we'll be talking about five of his weapons, among them temptation, humiliation, and sleep.

Sleep itself isn't a weapon of his, but he makes use of it — Satan attacks heavily while we're resting, while we're asleep. Pride is another of Satan's weapons, along with love of the world and the things in it. So that the enemy does not take advantage of us, we need to understand how he works.

The better we understand his weapons and his strategies, the easier it becomes to stand firm when he uses them against us. Temptation is one of them. He uses temptation to try to drive people to despair — and not only to despair; he also uses temptation to lead a person into sin, into doing something that then gives him grounds to bind that soul.

That's what he did in the beginning, in Eden — he tempted the woman, and the woman fell into his temptation and sinned. Even the Lord himself, though he was God, was tempted by the devil when he went into the wilderness; Luke 4:13 says that when the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from him for a time. In short, the devil sought out temptations to try to trip up God himself, the Lord.

If he did it to the Lord, he will do it to us too. He looks for ways to tempt us, he looks for ways to twist the word a little, using a strategy where he presents us with something that doesn't look evil to us, that looks simple, harmless — but if we fall for it, we stumble. We have to stay alert.

When the disciples asked the Lord how they should pray, in Luke 11:4 the Lord answers, "and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." So even there, when the disciples asked him how they should pray — as part of that pattern for prayer, how we ought to ask the Father — the Lord shows us that we should pray, "Lord, deliver us from temptation," because in truth we are weak in this flesh, and if the enemy gets the opportunity — even if we stay humble, seeking God with a contrite heart — a temptation can be so strong, so strong, that the enemy can bring against us, that humanly speaking it becomes very hard to bear. So this is one of Satan's weapons, and it's one that we overcome through humility, understanding, and a heart submitted to the Lord.

Because once we understand that this is a powerful weapon of Satan, one with the potential to cause us a great deal of trouble, all we need to do is be humble and say, "Lord, deliver me, deliver me from temptation — we don't want temptations." We fear God, not the devil at all — but we do need to have understanding and recognize something: these are spirits. Some of them, like Satan and the other fallen ones we've talked about, have supernatural powers, powers that we in the flesh cannot actually fight on our own — only through the Lord. And that is one of the areas where we are vulnerable.

Because, just as Satan came and said to the Lord, "Let me take everything away from Job, and let's see whether he'll stay firm," and the Lord said, "I put it all in your hands, only do not touch his life" — the only thing the devil didn't do was kill him, and that was only because the Lord told him not to touch his life. So we too have to say, "Lord, deliver me from temptation."

Understand that Satan, if God permits it — if he tempts us and we sin — has the power to kill us in practically thirty seconds, to destroy us in the blink of an eye, and we're already dead. Not just us — he actually has the power to kill our entire family in twenty minutes, or even in one minute. The Lord alone is the one who keeps us.

We don't want temptations. We need to pray as the Lord taught us, following the pattern he gave us: "Father, deliver us from temptation." So temptation is one of the enemy's strategies, and we need to stay alert, because he looks for different ways to tempt us. There are many people I feel for — women in the church, for example, whom I've watched stumble because they're without a husband, they're single, and Satan already knows how much they long to have a partner.

So Satan sends someone dressed like a pastor, or dressed like a brother or sister with a Bible in hand. And that sister — he speaks two or three pretty little words to her, and right away she accepts him. I've seen this happen many times — Satan sends one of his undercover agents, sometimes witches and warlocks operating undercover; the same thing happens to men, and they fall for it just as quickly.

Because he sets the temptation before them, and they don't take the time to seek God, to find out whether it's really his will, and they simply fall. So Satan uses temptation to try to bring a twisted word. If people are walking the right path, he looks for a way to get someone to give them a twisted word, bad advice, some way to try to turn them off that path.

Matthew 26:41 says, "Watch and pray, that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." Here the Lord was saying this to the disciples right at the moment when he was about to be crucified — he himself appeared anguished, and he told the disciples, "Watch and pray, that you may not enter into temptation."

In other words, prayer — staying firm and persevering in prayer — is something that strengthens us, keeps us in God's presence, and gives us protection ahead of some difficult moment we may be about to face. So we need to pray, we need to seek God's presence, we need to be humble, and pray for the Lord to deliver us from temptation, and it's with great humility, with great humility, that we overcome. We give glory to God, who in his mercy has given gifts to mankind and has given us authority over the powers of darkness.

The Lord has done something wonderful for us in his mercy — he has given us the weapons we need to fight our adversaries. But I also believe it's wise to recognize that we have a great adversary, and that this adversary has power to do things. Just look at how many people are dying out there, how many people have cancer, tumors, diabetes, arthritis, osteoarthritis, and so many other things the devil is behind. How many people are enslaved to medication because the devil torments them — and they still say they have faith, that they know God, and all the rest — but for lack of understanding, and for all these other reasons, the devil has them enslaved in many ways.

So we have a great adversary — really, in some areas the Lord alone is the one who can keep us, so all the glory belongs to him, and we remain humble, submitted to God's mighty hand. In other words, if it were not for God's grace and God's faithfulness, we could be tempted to the point where we could not resist, because we have weakness in this flesh. There are things the devil can do by way of torment, punishment, and torture — think of someone like Hitler — he can torture a person to the point where it is nearly impossible for the flesh to resist it; only if we are completely surrendered to God can we endure certain things. But he is also, at the same time, the only one who can keep us from certain temptations. That's why, in this spiritual battle, there are many who want to fight in their own strength, because the world teaches us, one way or another, that we are strong and that we can do many things — but the truth is that we are vulnerable. We are vulnerable. We are like sheep among wolves and predators. Only through the Lord, only by his mercy, only by his mighty right hand, by his Holy Spirit who keeps us, only by his word, by his faithfulness — by him and through him alone can we do what we're able to do. By him and through him we can overcome, but in our own strength we can do nothing. In our own strength we have no escape — we are as if trapped, as prisoners with no way out. The Lord is our deliverer; only through him can we have the victory, only through him can we overcome the enemy. In our own strength we can do nothing. First Timothy 6:9 — "For those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, a snare, and many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition." I know this may not be one of the words people most want to hear, because it talks about money, but the word warns us again and again — even here, once more — that those who seek to grow rich fall into temptation. Scripture also warns that the love of money is the root of all evil; if we focus on money we stumble, and those who want to grow rich fall into temptation. In other words, the moment a person goes chasing after money — and since Satan is the god of this age — unless someone is truly submitted to the Lord, Satan has other abilities, and other doors open through which Satan can easily pull us off God's path. Let me share an example: I've known people for whom, for various reasons, certain blessings from God were coming into their lives, and at that very moment Satan offers them a raise — a raise far beyond anything they'd ever been paid before — and they end up preferring to turn down the opportunity God was giving them, because they were being offered a raise instead. If we chase money, if we love money, then suddenly — when the Lord has something on the way for us — Satan comes and hands us something that looks like a blessing from God, when really it's him giving it to us, because he knows we'll choose the money. And by choosing the money, we end up rejecting what God was actually giving us. So God first — the truth first. And there's another word that says we should be content if we have food and covering; in other words, we have to learn to depend on the Lord and to stay humble. Of course, if the Lord chooses to bless — glory to him once again — but our heart has to be fixed on him, not on finances, not on riches, not on comfort, not on material things. If our heart is set in that area, unfortunately we become easy prey, and the enemy won't let up; we won't be able to serve God freely, we won't be able to truly advance on God's path — because Satan is the god of this age. He controls commerce to a great extent, he has this world under his feet for now, people are controlled mentally, and so much more. Only if we are deeply submitted to God does he have less hold over us — and if, by God's grace, there aren't many generational curses tangled up in our finances, we may have a bit more freedom. But otherwise, Satan has many ways to obstruct our finances, to cause material problems. Just look at the apostle Paul, who said on one occasion, "I have learned to be content whether in abundance or in need" — and he was an apostle full of power, a man the Lord used to write fourteen books of the Bible, who helped many churches, who served in many places, and who nevertheless sometimes found himself in need, because Satan has the ability to block certain things. We have to depend on God, keep our heart on the Lord, and seek him — he is faithful. Just as he is faithful to keep us from temptation, he is faithful, if we seek him with our whole heart, to provide for our needs. To close this section on temptation, I want to read James 1:12: "Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love him." So after we pass that test of temptation, the Lord will give us the crown of life. This is one of the areas — well, really in every area — where we need to be humble and submitted to God, but temptation is clearly one of the areas where we are vulnerable. It's one of the weapons, one of the things Satan will try to use against many of us, and I would say not only will he try — he already has, many times — and he'll try again before long. Another strategy of Satan, another weapon he uses against us, is to humiliate us. The more room there is in us for God, the greater the calling, the more humble we are, the more our heart desires to please God, the more rage, the more anger, the more hatred our adversary has toward us. So he takes anyone close to us who has weaknesses — a spouse, a parent, a sibling, people close to us, and sometimes even people we don't know — and he manipulates them, influences them, to try to humiliate us, to criticize us, to slander us, to say false and hurtful things about us, so that we're seen as less, as insignificant, as worthless. But all of that is because he is in us, all of that is because there is light in us — he does it to try to hurt us. He uses humiliation to wound us, to see whether we'll fix our attention on what people say about us, on their attitude, on those words — and in that way weaken us so he can do more damage. It's one of Satan's weapons, and Acts 8:33 says, "In his humiliation justice was denied him; who will declare his generation? For his life was taken from the earth." This word is about the Lord Jesus — he was humiliated, beaten, crucified, falsely accused; in front of the crowds, in front of people, they made him practically a spectacle. They made him carry the very weapon they would kill him with — the cross on which they would crucify him. That was a humiliation; that truly was a humiliation. But the word says it is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher: if they persecuted the master of the house and did all those things to him, then they will do the same to his servants, to his disciples. So the humiliation the devil inflicted on the Lord is one of the things he does to everyone who follows him, whenever he gets the chance. We need to understand that. That's why, to win this victory, in this fight, we must be humble and not love our lives even to the point of death. Humility is a great virtue; humility is the exact opposite of pride, which we'll also talk about today, because pride is one of the weapons Satan uses too — one of his strong fortresses for defeating people if he can. So humility is the opposite of pride, and we overcome through humility. Think of the Lord — they accused him, they said things to him, and he stayed calm. Let them say whatever they wanted, he did not grow indignant, he didn't want to strike back when they struck him — he stayed calm. We have to learn from the Lord; we have to learn to be gentle and humble of heart. In some of these situations it might seem, for a moment, as though we're suffering a defeat, because obviously, speaking in fleshly terms, we expect victory to look a certain way — as though we ourselves had to strike back at the other person or something like that. But no — the kingdom we've been called into, of which we're now citizens, is above, not below, and up there different rules apply. The Lord doesn't just tell us that if someone strikes one cheek we offer the other — we don't overcome the way many people criticize, and Satan looks for ways to drive people to despair, especially those who are new, who are on the Lord's path seeking him. He stirs up adverse situations and then uses people to tell them, "You were better off when you weren't in church" — sounding almost "Christian" about it — "look at your God, look how bad off you are now, you don't have money, this isn't right, that isn't right." He uses these things to try to wound a person, to make them feel bad, to humiliate them. "Look at me now," they say — those who are of the world — "look, I'm better off than you." But that's the devil, because they're on that side and we're on this side. Yet in all these things, we are more than conquerors. To the eyes of the flesh it might look like, "Oh, they're better off, they're winning" — no, no, no. Poor them. Poor them. As the word says, let the poor rejoice in his exaltation, and the rich be sorrowful in his humiliation, because it might look like they're better off than we are, but it isn't so. Think of Lazarus and the rich man — they're receiving what's theirs now, but what belongs to us is eternal and abundant. So sometimes Satan uses our circumstances, because many parts of the word require something of us — the Lord commands us to walk in that humility, to suffer for his sake, to not repay evil with evil, to bless those who curse us. Those who do us no wrong, we bless; those who don't want to steal, we bless; those who don't want to take from us — instead, we give to them. It might look like we're losing, it might look like, "wow, they're weak, those people are so weak" — well, in what way, in what way are they serving a great God? But the Lord is wise, and vengeance truly belongs to him — he will repay each one according to their deeds. What we want, though, is salvation; we don't want anyone to be condemned, we don't want anyone to be lost, and that's why we preach the gospel. But at the end of the day, blessed are we if we suffer for righteousness' sake — blessed are we, even if we don't understand why we have to suffer for a time in the season we're in, for the Lord's sake and according to his word. Blessed are we if we do not judge, do not retaliate, and do not gloat, exactly as the word instructs. The tribulation and the hard moments we may go through in this unpleasant world do not compare at all to the glory that will be revealed. What we go through here, in this time, is temporary — it ends at any moment — but what we will receive is eternal, and our labor will follow us forever.

First Peter 2:19-21: "For this is commendable, if because of conscience toward God one endures grief, suffering wrongfully. For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer for it, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God. For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow his steps." So we overcome when we don't cling to our own lives, when we don't judge situations and circumstances according to the flesh but according to God's word, spiritually. This matters, because Satan finds it easy to use this against us too — if we're not focused on God's word, if we don't meditate on it and stay devoted to it, Satan finds it easy to wear us down. Most of us have people close to us — people with whom there was once some connection, where things happened — who can suddenly turn against us, attacking us verbally, humiliating us, trying to make us feel bad. According to the flesh, the "natural" thing is to react to whatever they say, and if it's unjust, most likely we get angry or respond some other way. But we can't respond that way, and we can't walk according to the flesh. We need to understand God's word and understand that these are things Satan is going to use — he will use anyone willing to be his puppet, and I don't say that to offend anyone, but that's exactly what it is: people with an obvious spiritual weakness, sometimes even people from within the church itself, whenever they aren't standing firm. Whatever door he can find, he manipulates, and if he has the chance to use someone against us to humiliate us, he will. But what do we do? We bless those who curse us. They curse, they criticize — we bless them. We pray for them. And if we do what God commands, he will reward us. The word says that when we do this, we heap burning coals on the head of those who wrong us, for the day of judgment. Philippians 1:28-30: "And not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that from God. For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake, having the same conflict which you saw in me and now hear is in me." Here Paul is basically telling them that he was suffering, that there was conflict — more than anything, there were hardships, things that are not pleasant to the flesh. If the church were carnal about it, people might say, "Well, what kind of apostle of God is this — look, he's in prison, he has no money, he was beaten yesterday, and in the last year alone they've beaten him three times, nearly leaving him for dead." They would criticize him as if it were nothing, as if God weren't with that man — when in fact God was with that man named Paul, that apostle, through the prison, through the beatings, through the criticism, through hardship wherever he went. So if we judged by the flesh, we might conclude that Paul wasn't of God, that he was a false apostle, that God wasn't with him, because he never came out of one hardship or another. And yet, with understanding, we know he was a great man, a great man of God, used by God. So we cannot judge by appearances — we must judge according to the Spirit.

Sleep — it's interesting that Scripture doesn't say a great deal about sleep, about sleeping, but it does give us several indications, especially for what we understand about spiritual warfare. We know the devil uses the nighttime, while we're resting, in what I'd call an outsized way in many cases. It's another area where we're vulnerable while we rest — when we're resting we're not spiritually connected. For the most part, especially through sexual sin, various nighttime sins, parties, drinking, getting drunk at night, and things like that, doors get opened — pagan doors get opened. Take Halloween, for instance, which people celebrate at night. When someone goes into these different things and commits nighttime sins, in most cases it also opens doors to nocturnal demons, and those demons are extremely stubborn. So it's not that sleeping itself is a weapon of Satan's, but he uses that time when we're resting to attack us, and he has a vast army — a vast army that also uses witches and warlocks to visit us at night constantly, to curse us while we sleep; they cast spells on us, they work sorceries on us, and much more. In the word, for example, we see in Psalm 91:5 that says, "You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day." This gives us a small indication that there is a terror of the night — that nighttime terror is demons. Often, when someone being ministered to manifests, a demon called "nocturnal terror" shows itself — a demon that tries to terrorize whomever it can at night, because there are open doors toward it. There's another passage that gives us this too — it's a parable, but interestingly this parable actually represents in large measure what Satan and his nighttime army do at night: Matthew 13:25-26. It says, "But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared." Notice — while they slept, the word says, his adversary came and sowed tares. Those who are familiar with spiritual warfare and understand nocturnal demons know that this is exactly what the devil does: while we're asleep, he comes and plants tares. I have no doubt at all that he does this in a number of ways. One is when someone dreams of eating at night — when you dream you're eating at night, he's feeding you cursed food, prepared by witches and warlocks, or in the marine realm, or in other spiritual places, and through the spirit they come and feed it to you. The Lord has shown me, at times, some of what they put in that food, and it's horrifying — they put fecal matter in it, unclean things, human flesh — they put terrible things in it to contaminate a person through their dreams. And it's not only that — in one way or another, they'll plant, say, a seed of pride if they want to put pride in a person; that's a tare of pride. If they want to give someone a headache, or some other illness, or unsettle their emotions, they plant that too. Many times you might dream of having an argument with your husband or wife, and the next day, or a couple of days later, a real problem breaks out — or worse. People also dream of having sex in their dreams, and especially for married people, when that happens it often ends in a fight that nearly leads to divorce, because through that — sex in dreams, food in dreams, making a pact in dreams, visits from dead people in dreams — that's how he plants tares. Especially through sex and through food, there are demons that essentially enter a person, enter their soul, and afterward they get sick. People dream they're about to have an accident, and if they don't know how to pray properly, many of them actually end up in an accident, because he's planting tares — he's installing a demonic program, or implanting demons of sickness, of conflict, of anguish, of sadness, of confusion, and many other things. So dreams are an area Satan uses enormously against us. In this part of the series we're exposing what Satan does, because if we understand what he does, then when it happens we'll already know how to respond. At the beginning of the series I talked about the weapons we have to destroy the works of the devil — so now, if we understand that Satan does things at night, that if you dream you're having sex, it's the devil putting ugly things on you, giving you sicknesses through it, putting things there to put out the fire of God in you, robbing you of physical and spiritual strength — through that a spiritual marriage takes place. When there's sex in a dream, generally a spiritual marriage with a demon has already taken place, or is being consummated. Through sex in dreams they gain a legal right — it's as if there's a marriage, and in a marriage what belongs to one belongs to both, right? So what you have becomes theirs, and what they have becomes yours. They have sickness, they have bad things — you receive that. And they take the good things that are yours: your health, your peace, your finances, your family, everything you have. So with dreams we have to stay alert — this is one of the number-one weapons used against us, and it's also one of the areas where we're extremely vulnerable. We should make it a habit to pray every day before sleeping, praying properly — rebuking, refusing, and binding the works and schemes of Satan and his armies against us while we rest. But also, when we wake up, we should pray again and refuse, rebuke, and cancel everything the devil managed to send against us in any way while we slept. First Thessalonians 5:5 says, "For you are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness." So there are children of the light and children of darkness, children of the day and children of the night — meaning those who belong to darkness are children of the night. And for some reason, even though many negative things happen during the day, it's at night that they get programmed in the spirit. Everything that happens in the physical realm happens first in the spirit, not the other way around. First they carry out their demonic programming at night — sometimes they use witches and warlocks in the physical realm to gain more legal ground, but their work happens at night, in the darkness — and then whatever they programmed against us at night, if we don't rebuke it, if we don't cancel it, plays out during the day, or sometimes a couple of days later, and then it happens in the physical.

Who wants Leviathan to be their king? Raise your hand. Who wants Leviathan as their king? Honestly, that's not a word I want in my vocabulary at all, except to rebuke Leviathan. I give thanks to God when something good happens; I feel joyful when the Lord allows some blessing in my life or in someone else's — but I don't want pride. I'm not proud of anything anymore. That word — "national pride," "independence pride," "pride" in this, "pride" in that — pride, pride, pride, pride, pride, pride, pride, LGBT "pride" now, pride, pride, pride, pride — but it's evil. We don't want pride. When we open the door to pride, we open the door to a great deal of evil.

Job 41:34: "He beholds every high thing; he is king over all the children of pride." If you haven't read Job 41, read it — it's very interesting; it speaks clearly about one of our adversaries, the king of pride. Job 41 talks about Leviathan, describes him as a great monster and many other things — he is the king of the proud. So now you know: for those of you who understand that Leviathan is the king of the proud — if you were proud, as I once was, and I think almost all of us have been — we need to repent. I repented. "Lord, forgive me — I didn't know that pride, that Leviathan is the father, the king of the proud. I don't want Leviathan as king; I don't want him in my life; I want nothing to do with Leviathan." When I understood that, I repented, and I'd say that for those of you who understand it the way I came to understand it — that the word is true and says Leviathan is king over all the proud — we need to repent. Pride is lethal against us. It's something that inflates the ego, that makes you feel, for the moment, that you're bigger, or higher, or better than someone else in some way, but in the end it comes down to poison for the soul. Many souls are lost through pride, because Satan uses this weapon, and if people are already in church, they no longer want to receive any correction, because Satan convinces them of a kind of religious pride — "you know more, you don't need any correction." But what they really don't understand is that pride works enormously within churches. That's why, for example, you'll find it among Catholics, among people of any religion or any church, and even among disciples — because even in the church, even among the disciples, there were people who, though they were there, weren't truly of it, and pride, along with other reasons, was part of why. As it's said, "many were with us and now are not with us," showing that not everyone is truly ours, because if they were truly ours, they would have stayed with us. So there were disciples — false disciples — who later fell away, and for some of them the reason was pride, because once that door is open they can't understand certain things. Many times they're completely deceived, like the Pharisees were in some areas, and there are things they simply don't understand — and because they can't understand it, pride causes them to reject it: "I don't understand it, that doesn't make sense to me," and they simply shut down. That's the attitude of religious pride. There are different kinds of pride, though. There's material pride — even within the same family, especially in third-world countries, someone who has money looks down on a family member who doesn't have money, even though they're relatives, thinking in that carnal, worldly way: whoever has more money, or a fancier car, or a bigger house, thinks they're better than the one with the smaller house and no car. But all of that is vanity. None of that is a real measure of who is worth more or less, not at all — naked we came, and naked we will leave. The only thing that truly matters is our relationship with God. Everything else, beyond that, is either doing God's will or doing the will of the flesh. Money doesn't matter; it all ends soon, and we won't take a single thing from this world with us. Even this entire world will be burned up — not even the whole earth as it is will remain; there will be a new earth and a new heaven. Even the sea — many people want a house right on the coast, but the sea will cease to exist; the sea will be done away with. So we shouldn't love anything of this world. Proverbs 21:4: "A haughty look, a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked are sin." A haughty look, a proud heart — these are sin. Here it plainly says that pride is a sin. Who wants to carry a sin in their life, a constant sin of being prideful? Not me — we have to reject that. Where there is pride, Satan has a strong entry point, and through it he causes division — in marriages, in the church, everywhere — because all it takes is one proud person for Satan to engineer a situation that turns into a division. But where there is humility, something different happens: it isn't pleasant when we're offended, but we forgive, and it's over — nothing happens. If we need to say, "you know, it's fine, forgive me," we say it, because there's no pride there. We want humility, not pride. The word we want to keep constantly in our vocabulary is humility — humility, humility, humility, and humility — because God loves humility, and we should love what God loves. Pride, he rejects and condemns; we don't want pride. What God hates, we should learn to hate. Proverbs 8:13: "The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate." Here the Lord himself is saying that he hates pride and arrogance — thinking yourself better than others, thinking yourself superior — the Lord hates that. Who wants to be hated by the Lord? Who is strong enough to fight against him? Let them love pride, let them love arrogance if they want. These things were present in the lives of many of us — if we're humble and have understanding, we should admit that. They were present in most of our lives. I say this with humility: arrogance and pride were present in my past. I don't want that. I know the Lord hates it now — before, because I didn't know the word, I accepted it, I thought it was fine, I thought it was normal. But now, what the word says the Lord hates cannot be normal for me. What the Lord hates is not normal for me — that's something I no longer want in my life at all. Proverbs 11:2: "When pride comes, then comes shame; but with the humble is wisdom." You see it — those who are proud don't accept correction because they already think themselves wise, but those who are humble listen, and wisdom comes to them. Pride leads to ruin; humility brings blessing. Satan uses pride subtly to steal souls, to steal blessings, to block blessings. I've seen how Satan uses pride to block blessings that were meant for someone. For example, a blessing may be on its way to some of you, and for that blessing to be completed, there has to be unity — whether within the family or with other people — and if pride is present, Satan only needs to create a small confusion, a misunderstanding, and because of the pride everything gets blocked, everything stops, and the blessing is lost. That's pride. Through pride the devil robs us, the devil kills, the devil destroys families, the devil destroys health — there are sicknesses that come in through pride. So much harm comes through pride: our finances, our family, our children, our marriage, our work — everything is affected, and of course the Lord hates it, and if we don't repent in time, it costs the soul. To conclude, one more thing Satan uses is love of the world and the things in it. We must not love the world or the things in the world. In all of this, honestly, it's hard — it's hard even for people in the church, because it's often taught, one way or another, that if you're with God you'll have abundance, you'll have riches, you'll practically have your own airplane. Many churches teach that if you seek God, all your problems are basically solved, and certainly the Lord, according to his will, does bless one person or another at times — and once again, glory to him when he does — but we must not love the world or the things in it. I've heard stories of many pastors who, because the devil was blocking them in various ways from having money, ended up making a pact with the devil, selling their soul to Satan so that Satan would allow them to have money — because they realized Satan was the one who had everything blocked. Then Satan, using different strategies, would send them a witch or something similar to say, "Look, if you do this and this, you'll have abundance; your church will grow; within a year you'll have a church of a thousand, or five thousand, or ten thousand people." And for love of money, for love of material things, they accept — what foolishness. What is a person's soul worth? Let me share something from my own journey: in the nearly seven years I've been serving God in spiritual warfare, Satan has tempted me with money more than ten times. He's told me, "I'll give you everything you want" — and to describe those people I'm ministering to, he once told me, "Just stop serving those people — I don't understand why you focus on them; every man has his price; what's your price? I'll give you a blank check, you write the amount, and in thirty days you'll have it" — just so I would stop caring for those people. So if a person is captured by money, and the devil is still able to block the finances of God's own servants, then what's the solution he offers? A blank check — write down a million, whatever number — and that's how he tempts a person. If we love material things, many fall — many fall — but what a terrible mistake, because what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul? What good does any of that do for him? Even the Lord himself, Satan tried to tempt with material things and love of the world. Matthew 4:8-9 says, "Again, the devil took him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, and said to him, 'All these things I will give you if you will fall down and worship me.'" Look at what he did to the Lord — he showed him all the kingdoms of the world, all the beautiful things, and said, "All of this I'll give you if you'll fall down and worship me." He tempted the very one who created all things — he tempted him with the things of this world. How much more, then, will he try it with you and me? We must not love material things. Love of material things, love for material things' own sake — unfortunately, because of it, many who are called are not chosen, because there is suffering to be endured, real suffering in most cases, for love of the Lord. In my own case, I would say the ministry is still, in a sense, in its beginning stages, but thank God so much has happened along this journey — it would be impossible for the Lord to have brought me to where I am today, to have the blessing of having already helped thousands of people, if it weren't for the fact that I've sacrificed material things and many other things, and kept my focus on the Lord. And if we don't focus that way, it's hard — it's very hard, it's very hard — because even with material things, if our heart isn't 100% focused on God, the devil uses them in so many ways to steal our time, to steal our focus. And where our heart is, there our treasure is also. So it's hard — we cannot serve two masters. It's difficult, because there are real needs too, but we have to be willing to suffer for the Lord's sake. This, in many cases, is the difference between those who reach the goal and those who never can. There is a price to pay for serving the Lord. First John 2:15-17: "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world — the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life — is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever." We must not love anything of this world. And when we let go of the things of the world, in a way it also becomes easier to serve, because if all we're seeking is a simple, ordinary life in order to serve God, we have fewer expenses, fewer obligations, fewer entanglements. If everything we do, we do with the purpose of serving Christ, if everything we do is meant to advance his kingdom, then generally we won't be spending money the way we used to. The more spiritual we become, the less we spend on things we don't truly need, things that don't build us up — otherwise we end up spending to satisfy the flesh, to keep up appearances with everyone else, and that shouldn't matter to us. And once we reach that point, everything becomes easier too, because at that point we have fewer expenses — we're no longer buying what we don't need, we have fewer obligations — we simply do the things that please God, the things that are truly necessary. Of course, real needs still have to be met, but what's for luxury, for vanity, or for trying to appear better than others — that no longer interests us. And by doing this, we gain more freedom. But when we want to be like the world, remember: the world is a diabolical system that the devil uses to entangle a person — and once you're in that system, you essentially become a slave to the world. At least here in the U.S., people are caught in a kind of slavery — there are so many bills to pay; people earn money, but there are so many bills that a person can never stop working, because if they do, the bills fall behind. It becomes a routine that never ends — month after month working to pay, to pay, to pay, to pay, and then suddenly you buy something new, something else, and it never ends — it's a form of slavery. In a system like that it's hard to live for God, because now you have an excuse: "If I stop working, how am I going to pay everything I owe?" So what we have to do is learn not to buy what we don't need — the less we spend, the fewer obligations we take on, the less debt we carry, the more time we have for God and the fewer distractions we have. To close, I want to read a strong word — James 4:4: "Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." If we make ourselves enemies of the world, we are in defeat already. There are many other ways Satan uses the world — from parties to traditions, to almost everything the world does: television, sports, all of it — there are hidden things in them, and when we join in and take part, we end up with the serpent coiling itself into our spirit and doing damage, even though many times we don't even realize it. So I invite you to seek God with all your heart, to pray over these things we've been sharing that the devil uses against you, against us. If we want victory, we need to have understanding, we need to be humble — with humility comes wisdom. If we insist on already knowing everything, because we don't understand, we end up like the Pharisees — defeated, lost, not even knowing where they're headed. But humility, faith, and a genuine desire to please God rather than the world — that is what leads us to victory. Thank you for listening to us. May the Lord bless you. If you feel you've been built up by this teaching, share it with your loved ones — it's a way of supporting us, of helping us reach more people and win more souls through it as well. And if it moves your heart, you can support this ministry with your offering. May the Lord bless you until next time.

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Pastor Francisco Gomez

Thank you for reading our posts. It is our greatest desire that you be built up and blessed. Greetings in the name of our whole congregation, Jesus King of Kings.

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