Spiritual Warfare | Dr. Conrad Vine

Take your seats. I think Pastor Vince, you want to get us underway? I was looking for Martha Jean to come in and play. We have at least one song to get the rest of them in here. Yeah.

I'm waiting for Martha Jean to come play the piano. We can sing a song. But I h I have a question. I have a question for all of you. I'm I'm really curious.

I know some of you traveled a long distance. I want to know who traveled the furthest besides our guest speaker. Anybody from outside of Ohio here today? We were supposed to be in the Idaho this week. So legally we are in here.

Okay. So Idaho. All right. That's bit of a stress, but we'll take it. Anybody else from outside of Ohio?

Yes. If you came from the Bahamas to Ohio in February, you're crazy. We got a hand over here. Where? 80.

80. Wow. Okay. In Ohio, who's the furthest in Ohio? Anybody from Toledo area?

That side of the state right now. Okay. Um, almost. Four and a half hours. Wow.

Yeah. Somebody I was told somebody was here from Cleveland. Well, we are glad that you all came and I know myself I've been really blessed and we've got more in store for us. We're just going to sing one song. You got a something open there.

Martha Jean about 3:27. I'd rather have Jesus number 327. [Music] And you can encourage the rest of the people in the hallway to come in. [Music] Mary Jesus Christ our for the hell of his Jesus. [Music] Let's do the third verse.

is blue. I am with me. All the [Music] rest of Jesus. Amen. Let's pray as we begin this afternoon.

Heavenly Father, we've come back into this sanctuary this afternoon for more words through Conrad. Words of yours that we need to hear, we want to hear, we long to hear. We've been fed with our physical food and now we want more spiritual food. We ask that you use Conrad to deliver to us what it is you want us to hear and know. and that each of us that we will remain attentive this afternoon after having had some food.

Just keep us alert for everything that is you want us to hear and know. Be with Conrad as he leads out. Give him the words, the inspiration, and the strength to continue through this afternoon for us. I pray all this now in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Amen. Dr. B. All right. Uh, good afternoon everybody.

That was a wonderful meal, wasn't it? Yes. Yeah. I uh I'd like to make a plea for those layout potlucks. Start with the carbs uh before and don't start with the salad because we fill up our plates with salad.

There's nothing left for carbs. So, uh, anyway, it was a wonderful meal and, uh, thank you to everybody who contributed to it. And so, this afternoon, we're going to talk about, um, spiritual warfare. I was spoken about this quite a bit in the past. Uh, I was driving down yesterday and, uh, I was on the phone with somebody, uh, who was having demonic attacks and, you know, these things kind of follow you.

Once you start talking about these things, then people come for help. And in that conversation um with that person by the end of the conversation it was very clear that God had revealed a lot of things to that person in that conversation that prayer and they knew what the way forward was and so spiritual warfare is real and um as westerners we we tend to be skeptical about these things. We we psychologize it we say take a few pills you'll be okay. Um but the reality is is that once we believe in the Holy Spirit filling somebody and transforming somebody from the inside, uh the same is true of of spirits. And when you study um what we're going to be like with the wheat and the tears at the end of time, um those who are the wheat will be filled with and manifest the character of the Holy Spirit.

And those who are the tears will be filled with and manifest the character of Satan. And so there'll be an upsurge of demonic and uh violence and hatred at the end of time uh because people are wholly sold out to good or evil at the end of time. So um I want to talk um first about the significance of the doctrine of the great controversy. Now is it controversy or controversy? Controversy.

All right. We won't have a controversy about it then. So um I I I struggle like is this British or is this American? I'm never quite sure. Um but anyway uh the uh this is a very important doctrine for Adventists and it reveals it's it's it's a meta narrative.

It's like everything else hangs within this. It's like the roof. Everything else in Adventism hangs under uh the understanding of the great controversy which is really a gift that God has given us. And as we see that the battle between good and evil played out in our world, many people instinctively sense that there is a controversy between good and evil. But God has given the Adventist meth church a message and that includes the understanding of the great controversy.

And when you explain to people the doctrine of the great controversy, suddenly a lot of things in life make a lot of sense. And so it's it's a blessing that the the doctrine the truth of the great controversy. And the doctrine reveals, you see it on the screen there. Uh can you see that? Yes.

There's a tremendous battle that affects everybody on planet Earth that nobody can escape from this struggle that's going on between good and evil. And so if you if you sit on a plane next to somebody and they're a secular or they're playing with the occult or they're into Buddhism or whatever they may be, I've never I've found that whoever you speak with, people understand that there is a struggle between good and evil. They may not understand it in the same way as Adventists do, but they understand and say see in their own lives the reality of this struggle. In Ephesians chapter 6, very very famous verse there. Um, we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

So, as we're going to go through this this afternoon, I'll talk for about 20 minutes, then we'll take a 5-minute break, and you'll be talking with the person next to you about what you've learned so far and how that applies to your life. Okay? So, there's going to be chance for discussion as we go through this. So, um, those are our 28 fundamental beliefs there. And um what what I'm what I'm I never cease to be surprised at is that many Adventists don't know our fundamental beliefs.

And and it really does concern me that we need to know what we believe. We need to give a reason for the faith that we hold. And um uh Satan's greatest weapon is deception. And if we do not know truth, we're open to deception. And so I want to encourage us if nothing else sticks with us from today is to start learning our 28 fundament fundamental beliefs.

Are they the end product? No. Because we believe in the concept of great of present truth. And so we were chatting last night with pastor Vince about this that um uh Lutheran theologians their job is to defend the Lutheran confession and Anglican theologians their job is to defend the Anglican confession. But the two groups of theologians who are the freest are Adventists and Catholics.

Because in the Catholic world, whatever the pope says is as dogma, that that can't be changed. So Catholic priests can say whatever they want about any other topic. It doesn't matter because what the pope said is dogma. And in the Adventist world, we um we have this understanding of present truth. That is we have the the 28 fundamental beliefs are not so much a creed.

They're an explanation of what we believe. But if you read the preamble to the 28 fundamental beliefs, it states that we are open to the ongoing leading of the Holy Spirit. And so Adventists are always where we should be always growing in our understanding. We're not just defending what God has given us. We are looking to grow and have a deeper understanding.

And that may may involve changing some of the wording in things, may involve adding new fundamental beliefs. But as Adventists, we want to be growing in understanding and deepening our understanding. And that's that's where present truth leads us. So we have um the the five doctrines on the doctrine of God. Then you have the doctrine of man and then you have the doctrine of salvation and then you've got um I haven't missed out three and four there that those numbers 52 and four.

Those are the individual doctrines with each one of those broad headings. You have the doctrine of the church, the doctrine of the Christian life and the doctrines of last things. So um the doctrine of God, there are five beliefs there. Uh the word of God, the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And that's kind of foundational.

And before you do anything else in theology, you have to understand who is God. And then you define the nature of man. And once you've defined the nature of man, then you come on to the doctrine of salvation because man has a problem. So you have your theology. And then you have your um anthropology.

Then you have your hammology. That's your doctrine of sin. Then you have your sotiology. That's your doctrine of salvation. And then you have your ecclesiology that's subsequent to all the rest of it.

That is the doctrine of the church. And you see there the various doctrines that are listed there in the doctrine of the church. And if you look at this list here, which is the most recent doctrine to be added to our church? Does anybody It's on it's on that screen. So there's some there, there's some, and there's a bunch more.

But the most recent fundamental belief, does anybody recognize which it was? It's number 11. growing in Christ and that was almost 20 years ago and that's a fascinating and fundamental belief because there were two committees working in the world church and one of them was working on the reality of spiritual warfare in Southeast Asia and the church didn't have a way of addressing it and the other was talking about how do you grow in Christlikkeness and so these met these committees met in in I think it was a annual council 2004 and they just decided having two new fundamental beliefs is too much for the church will just have one. So they merge these two statements together. And if you take a look at the growing the fundamental belief growing in Christ, most people can figure out where the committee stitched the two statements together.

It's very very clear. Take a look at it tonight and you can figure out how we stitch those things together. But those are our fundamental beliefs. But the doctrine growing in Christ, that's the one where we talk about spiritual warfare. And that's where we talk about um deliverance ministry.

But we don't go into any details on this. So, um, while this doctrine here, growing in Christ, um, is helpful, it's like four sentences, it doesn't go into any details on how you actually do this. And so, it's left kind of wide open, um, for how how people interpret it. So, there's the doctrine of the great controversy um, that all humanity is involved in a great controversy between Christ and Satan about the character of God, his law, and his sovereignty over the universe. Um this conflict originated in heaven when a created being endowed with a freedom of choice in self-exaltation became Satan, God's adversary and led into rebellion a portion of the angels.

So that's our fundamental belief there on the great uh controversy. But that uh fundamental belief doesn't really talk about the reality of what happens in our lives today. That came about much later with the doctrine uh growing in Christ. And so there you have, you know, the schematic laid out there. We start out with Lucifer in heaven and um they've got the the passages there.

Then you've got pride and rebellion and that that leads to war in heaven. And you see you see those those verses laid out there. I think as Adventists are probably very familiar with those texts that explain uh the n the origin of the controversy in which we find ourselves today. And so when we live in the great once we understand the doctrine of the great uh controversy sorry controversy Take a vote. Take a vote.

Uh is he say controversy? Is that okay with you all? Yeah. Okay. So, when it comes to the the living in the reality of the great controversy, um controversy um that there there are four things there.

There are implications for understanding the great controversy and that there is a struggle between good and evil. And this is before you get down to the the realities of people who are oppressed by spirits. But at a broader level um there are there are there are four implications about the doctrine of the great controversy and the first is that um when it gives us a more purposeful existence as Christians because we understand that there is a cosmic conflict and that the world doesn't revolve around me but there is a much broader canvas out there that God is painting a story on and we are just a small part in that wider canvas but he's concerned about me little itsybitsy me in the midst of all that chaos on that canvas. And so it helps um us find purpose when we realize there's a struggle between good and evil and God wants me to be saved and Satan wants me to be to be destroyed and that's the basic choice we all have to make in life for God or against God. It gives us moral clarity once we uh understand the doctrines of great controversy.

Um we now have a a more clear framework for discerning right or wrong in our world today. We understand there is good and there is evil. And when we know that there is good and evil, then we need to drill down a little deeper and say, well, what constitutes good and what constitutes evil? And why is something good and why is something evil? And in both cases, something is good because it reflects the character of God.

And if something is evil as if it rejects the character of God and so once we understand there is a great controversy, then we understand that there is a moral framework for life and there is good and there is evil. It also um helps us to have a compassionate witness, not just a living witness. Because when we have when we understand there's a controversy between good and evil and Satan has reached into everybody's life in a different way, we say, "Well, there but for the grace of God go I." And that person struggling with with alcohol addiction, that person who was molested as a child and has dysfunctional marriage, that person who had a road head-on road accidents and their brain has been damaged, that person who has a degenerative disorder that maybe they had from birth, a congenital disorder, we suddenly realize that a lot of the struggling, a lot of the struggles that people go through are because we live in this great controversy. And we didn't ask to be a part of it. And therefore, rather than looking at them with condemnation, we realize that Satan has attacked all of us in different ways.

And we all bear the h the the imprint of Satan's fist in our lives, which enables us to be more compassionate when we deal with other people. It's not that that you've made mistakes and now you're you're bearing the consequence of your actions. No. Um yes, you have made poor moral choices, but um uh God knows how you would have been had you not played in place in the position you were you found yourself in. And then um so you know this is this this is your life here that that's the decisions you've made as an individual.

That's where you are today. But God knows where you would have been had you followed other paths in life. And God knows that if you were abused by your uncle down here and that sent you off in that direction, God knows what you would have been had you not been abused. And so he he's more per he can be merciful because he knows that had that not happened maybe I wouldn't have taken that path in life and we only see this but God sees all the possibilities and so once we understand there's a great controversy it enables us to have a more compassionate witness to others but to be more redemptive in our dealing with other people and it also gives us a sense of joyful anticipation that lift up the trumpet loud it ring Jesus is coming again and uh once we once we have the assurance that one day all things will be made new again. That my broken body, you know, my broken mind, my broken marriage, uh my broken life, God is going to heal it all one day.

And that enables me to get through the struggles I'm going through today. And it's a recognition that I can't do it myself, that God's going to take care of it. And if if when I recognize that I can't fix everything myself, my own my own life, then I stop feeling bad about my inability to fix myself because I can't fix myself. The potter has to fix the clay. The clay can't fix itself.

And so once we uh we we we kind of think about the doctrine of the great controversy or controversy, then um it it has certain implications for how we live our lives. So as I said that doctrine growing in Christ that is the key doctrine that talks about spiritual warfare in in the Adventist church and this is the first paragraph of that fundamental belief. It says by his death on the cross Jesus triumphed over the forces of evil. He who subjugated the demonic spirits during his earthly ministry has broken their power and made certain their ultimate doom. Jesus victory gives us victory over the evil forces that still seeks that still seek to control us as we walk with him in peace, joy and assurance of love.

Now the next sentence goes on to talk about how we grow in Christlikeness which has nothing to do with this topic here. So when you read that fundamental belief you can see where that committee at the annual council took two draft statements and just kind of spliced them together. But it's not it's not so great a match. It doesn't go like this. It kind of goes like that.

But what what's interesting about this sentence here is that um I don't think they should use the word victory twice in a sentence like that. But what's interesting about this is that Jesus victory gives us victory, but it doesn't talk about the how. It just says he gives us victory, but many Adventists will experience demonization. I chatting with some of you at lunch and some of you know that reality that that the fundamental belief talks that Jesus gives us victory but many people don't experience that victory and so and the rest of the fundamental belief doesn't deal with this at all. It talks about prayer and Bible study and meditation on scripture uh is how we grow in Christlikeness but it doesn't talk about how we gain victory um uh on ourselves through the victory that Christ gained at Calvary itself.

And so a death to self really is the beginning of the Christian life and it's the beginning of victory in the area of spiritual warfare as well. Galatians 2:20 and 21. Uh this is probably one of my favorite verses in the scripture. Says, "I've been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me.

And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me." And that phrase, he gave himself for me. The ver the verb is paradidomi. Um we read in the gospels that the chief priests handed Jesus over to Pilate and Pilate handed Jesus over to the soldiers to be crucified. And but and that's always in the passive. Jesus was handed over.

But this in the Greek is the middle voice, which means that Jesus himself handed himself over. He wasn't just handed over by other people. Jesus chose to be handed over. He knew it was happening and he did it himself. So in the gospels, Jesus is handed over by the chief priests and handed over by Pilate.

But in Galatians, Jesus himself handed himself over for us. Uh he handed himself over for me and for you. And so that the start of victory in spiritual warfare is is dying to self. And that includes um dying to the dying to the um the temptations that Satan puts in our lives. So um in the discussion in the Adventist church on uh growing in Christ there are these seven hallmarks.

Uh there is a life of the spirit, a life of love and unity, a life of Bible study, a life of prayer, a life of fruitbearing, a life of spiritual warfare and a life of worship witness and hope. And that these are uh seven hallmarks that that in in our discussion um with fundamental beliefs uh these are the seven hallmarks that go with growing in Christ. And so if I may summarize, you know, what what our document state is that the life of the spirit that the Holy Spirit is essential for the Christian life to begin. That unless the Holy Spirit is working on your life, you're not going to be born again. Except a man be born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

And you don't know where the spirit comes from or you don't know where the spirit goes. All you know is the Holy Spirit's been at work. And so um the spirit of truth guides us into all truth. So we need to invite the Holy Spirit's presence into our lives. And he brings conviction of sin, of righteousness, and in judgment.

It is through the spirit of Christ that it's through the spirit that Christ abides in us. And the indwelling of the spirit brings a new life. And all of that is is derived from scripture and is is the first part of what it means growing in Christ. Um, Sister White puts it this way and I like this quote very much. She says, "When the spirit of God takes possession of the heart, it transforms the life.

Sinful thoughts are put away. Evil deeds are renounced. Love, humility, and peace take the place of anger, envy, and strife. Joy takes the place of sadness. And the countenance reflects the light of heaven.

And this is a description of the the born again experience. It's not just a cognitive experience. It's an experiential experience that God wants us to have that experience with him where you are literally a changed individual like um a lavi turns into a caterpillar. A caterpillar turns into a lavi that turns into a butterfly. Yes.

If you didn't know that butterflies came from caterpillars, you'd never guess just by looking at them. That's the kind of experience in Romans chapter 12. It's be therefore transformed by the renewing of your mind. The word is metamorphosis there. It's a complete change.

There's nothing left what went before. A life of love and unity. So we're discussing here this particular fundamental belief that a life of love and unity rec um inquire involves reconciliation and it involves a new community of faith. And there's a thing about reconciliation that it takes one person to forgive but it takes two people to reconcile you know and and just you may have forgiven somebody but if they're not willing to forgive and be reconciled you're not morally responsible if there's still a broken relationship. Okay, for there to be reconciliation, both sides need to recognize how they contributed to the situation and confess and and ask for forgiveness.

But sometimes that person doesn't think they've done anything wrong. They won't they won't talk to you or they simply don't care. Um our moral responsibility before God is to forgive and then let God take care of that other person in his time and his way. But ideally, there is reconciliation, but it takes two to reconcile. And if there is a conflict and that person doesn't want to be reconciled and I don't want to forgive, that creates space for Satan in my life.

A bitter spirit, a wounded spirit is something that Satan will play on. And it will destroy you from the inside. And those emotional wounds, Satan will keep those alive in your in your body, in your mind. And those emotional wounds will actually overwhelm your life. It's like a tsunami rising up inside you.

And Satan knows how to fan those flames. And he will fan those flames so it becomes a forest fire in you and it eats you out from the inside. So this is this talk about reconciliation and forgiveness. Um we can't choose we can't choose what other people do to us, but we can choose how we respond to them. And when we choose to forgive, we're not only healing our hearts and our mind, but we're saying to Satan, you have no right to play in this area of my life.

That your your demons have no right to enter this this aspect of who I am. A life of study. Well, two quotes there. Matthew 4:4 and Hebrews 4:12. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

What was the context when Jesus said this? Anybody remember? It was the temptations. Yes. And you notice that when Satan tempted Jesus, we call that demonic harassment.

Jesus didn't go toe-to-toe with Satan. Um, he basically quoted scripture back at Satan. And why would he do that? Because every temptation of Satan and every attack of Satan is based on a falsehood. Every temptation is a lie.

Satan says to you, if you do this, if you eat this, if you go there, if you sleep with so and so, if you wear that, whatever the case may be, it will somehow be good for you. Every temptation is based on a lie. And therefore, we respond to the lies of Satan not with power, but with truth. And so, when Satan speaks to Jesus in Matthew 4, Jesus responds every time by quoting scripture. And he's modeling for us how we respond to the attacks of Satan as well because uh Satan tells people's lies.

And people have lies in their heads all the time. Children, parents put lies into their kids' heads. They do. You'll never amount to anything in this life. You're unlovable.

Nobody could ever love you. You're worthless. Wretched kid. I wish you never had you. You know, those kind of words stick in kids' minds and those whether the parents realize it or not, Satan is planting a seed in that child's life and that seed will yield a bitter harvest for the rest of that person's life.

And so when Satan brings temptation into our lives, Jesus modeled for us the way to respond, which is by saying, "It is written." And we respond with a truth relating to that, whatever the lie is. So, I carry in my thing here, at least normally I do. Not sure I have one here. It's in my bag. Um, I carry in my bag, it's over there, um, little little cards.

And what we did in AFM was we we we we wrote down all the most common lies that we hear people telling us. And then we we identified the promises in scripture that refute those lies. They're lies about me and lies about God. And so then we we we print these little handouts. We give them to people.

We say, "What are the top three lies that Satan tells you in your life? These are the three lies." When you talk with somebody, it becomes pretty evident what those lies are. They they keep saying these things. And then we say, "Okay, so let's look look let's look down this list. Let's look at the Bible promise, the truth from God that refutes the life from Satan." Okay?

And there it is. there. And um you know, John 3:17, for God did not send his son into world to condemn the world, but that through him the world might be saved. Beautiful verse. And um so we say to people, you're going to memorize that verse.

And every time Satan puts that lie in your head, your neural pathway, you you have a neural pathway there. And when Satan puts that lie into your head, your brain immediately goes to a negative emotion like fear or despair or anger or depression. And that neural pathway has been created. And God wants you to remake the neural pathways of your brain so that every time that lie is put into your head, you're going to say aloud, "No, it is written, God did not send his son into world to condemn the world, but through whom the world might be saved." And you do that for a for a month. And within a month, your neural pathway has been reprogrammed.

So every time Satan puts a lie into your head, your brain has been fortified with the truth of God. And that truth from God stops the lie from re that the neuropathway from reaching the the negative emotions in the brain. And now it goes to something called hope or peace or joy. And so we are to be we're to be transformed by the literally by the renewing of our brains. And one way we do that, we refute the arguments of Satan is by putting the truth of God in its way.

And if you have, we say to people who are struggling with this, if you have name the top three lies and it's often it's very evident what they are um uh that you know I'll never amount to anything for for uh God will God will bring to completion the good work he's begun in you. Okay. And you hear these lies the lies are very similar. Um ladies tend to suffer more from fear than anything else. Men suffer from pride and arrogance.

These are very broad generalizations here. And that so you're identifying we we give these lists. These are promises about God and promises about you. And once we identified the lies, you put it on a post-it on your refrigerator. You put it by your laptop screen.

You put it on on your on your screen on your phone. Wherever you look, you see those truths about from God to you. And so Jesus modeled this for us when he was tempted by Satan. And so that's why a life of study is important because that's when you find the truths of God that refute the lies of Satan. That's when you stop Satan's attacks in their tracks.

Um, we're not talking about spells here, but and you know, being possessed, but Satan generally attacks Christians through um, temptation and discouragement. And so then you have the importance of prayer, the life of prayer. El White says there, prayer is one of the most essential duties. Without it, you cannot maintain a Christian walk. It elevates, strengthens, and enobbles.

It is the soul talking with God. What strikes me there is you say, without it, you cannot maintain a Christian walk. And so, um, prayer is our connection to heaven and it's our connection to the source of all power in the in the spiritual warfare we're engaged in. Then, uh, the fifth of these seven signs of growing in the spirit is a life of fruit bearing. Um, it's a sign of true faith.

Jesus says, "By their fruits, you will know them." And faith and works go together. James says, "Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead." And so, Jesus is looking in his disciples. He's looking in me for two kinds of fruit. One is he's looking for the fruit of the spirit in a transformed character and number two he's looking for me to win souls for his kingdom and oftentimes a transformed life is what leads to transformed other lives as well and if I don't have the transformation and character myself then my proclamation of the gospel is hollow to those who watch me from the outside so there is life of fruit bearing and then there is life of spiritual warfare and this is growing in Christ um once Once we accept and understand the doctrine of the great controversy, we realize that we're in a we're in a battle. And we can't avoid that battle.

Um, but we can choose how we're going to act in that battle. And we're not to be afraid in that battle because if God before us, who can be against us? And so many people today live in fear of spirits. I was chatting with somebody today who was telling me about this in their own home context that when somebody has the spirit the um the pastors don't want to deal with them. Why?

Because the spirits will call you out on your private sins. So you're talking with somebody, they have a spirit and the spirit will say, "I know you. This is what you do in private." Like you're having an affair, you're embezzling the church funds, whatever the case may be. And because people know they have these cherished sins, they don't want to engage with the spirits. And so there is fear.

And that's why pe people kind of will do anything except minister to people with the spirit. Go and speak to somebody else. Go to a Pentecostal church. Go to a charismatic church. Just don't ask me to deal with it because I may be exposed.

So uh once we understand the great controversy, we understand we're in a spiritual battle whether we like it or not. then there is a life of witness, worship and hope both within our community and to our community. So um before we go on to the next stage, may you just want to chat just say to the talk for a couple of minutes to the person next to you and just say what have you learned in the last 10 minutes, 15 minutes. Is that the time already? It's almost 4:00.

I've been talking for 40 minutes. All right. Ju uh just one question to the person. Okay. Two questions.

One is what have you learned in the last half an hour? And two, how's it going to change your Christian experience? What have you learned in the last half an hour? And how's it going to change your Christian experience? So, we'll just have five minutes for this exercise.

All right, three minutes is up. Let's have two people sharing what what uh what have you learned from this last half hour? Somebody somebody want to share anything? A couple of volunteers here. What what uh what did you learn in the last half hour and how it affects you and your Christian experience?

You're first. Okay. Yes. All right. Okay.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, a life of fruit bearing. Um, fruit bearing is both in my character and in the community.

And if I'm not bearing fruits in my character, I won't bear fruit in the community. Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay.

Okay. Okay. Anybody else? Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Mhm. I've been at baptisms in Haiti where you have to have strong men dragging the person into the water. They want to give their life to Jesus and you have to drag them, four strong men into the water and hold them down because the spirits don't want them to be set free.

Yeah. Yeah. It works. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. It's it's a terrifying experience. Yes. Yes. Satan as the arch deceiver pulls the wool over our eyes if we're not asking God to open our eyes to the spiritual world.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's a great segue because what I want to talk to now a few minutes about the BBC in 2018. And what's interesting about this is that the BBC, which is about as this is the British Broadcasting Corporation, it's like NPR and Voice of America rolled into one.

Um, recently it's become more like CNN and MSNBC. Um, but they they are recognizing in their news that the um the the rise of the occult and the rise of demand for exorcisms as the Catholics call it. And it's interesting when you look at the secular media, they are recognizing the need or the reality of demon demon demonic attacks and they understand that it's only Christians can actually solve this problem. So um in 20 2018 the BBC held an article on how the Vatican has an exorcism course um for uh for priests to be trained in how to respond to demons. And actually um I've got it on my computer.

It's called um the Roman ritual um that the the Vatican um has a a college in in Rome and they train priests just to specialize in this area and normally every cardinal or every archbishop has on hand a one or two resident exorcists those are priests and this is all they do and the Vatican recognized that there is a massive demand and a growing demand in the west for um they call it exorcism and we don't call it exorcism as Protestants And so um they had 250 priests attending from 50 countries around the world and uh they were learning how to identify when something is demonization or possession and uh also how to deal with it. And so the the BBC ran these reports back in 2018 and uh these were some of the course objectives in the Catholic college. there was to identify demonic possession. That is to learn to recognize the signs of possession. And there are certain signs, there are physiological signs.

Uh there's often like a change in the voice, change in the eyes, change in the strength. Um I was chatting with somebody today and I mentioned a sim a symptom and they said, "Yeah, we've seen that. It's where somebody will slither on the ground like a snake." Now, physiologically that's impossible to do to get forward momentum because if you wiggle your head and your legs, you stay where you are. But somebody who is possessed can wrigle like a snake across the ground. They can roar like a lion or like a dog.

Um they have various signs. Um they the course objectives are also for the Catholic priests uh for for experienced priests to pass on their experience to younger priests. Deliverance ministry is something that's not so much taught as court. Um you mentor people into this and the Catholics understand this and they had to study the exorcism rituals. Now the the ritual of Rome or the Roman ritual um it's about 40 pages long and it's kind of interesting.

They've got some the the the prayers they got prayers like oh father of light come and dispel the prince of darkness. It's kind of poetic language like that. But they have prayers to St. Michael. They have prayers to the a archangel Michael.

They have prayers to the Virgin Mary and St. Steven and um some um archangels they've identified and uh they so it's very much it's very much a Catholic document. Um but the bottom line is that many of these exorcisms are actually successful because at the core of the exorcism is the command to leave in the name of Jesus. That's the core of the exorcism ritual. And when Mark, if you turn in your Bibles to Mark 9, John, James and John were very upset that there was this other guy casting out demons in the name of Jesus.

And they were very upset because they were going to lose influence. And so in Mark chapter 9, and it's in verse 38, follow me in your Bibles. It says there, John said to him, that is to Jesus, teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name and we tried to stop him because he was not following us. Like as if the disciples have anything to do with this. Okay?

And Jesus says, "Do not stop him for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon after to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us." And so you also have the Jewish exorcists at the time of Jesus and they were recognized as having authority over demons. And the wisdom of Solomon in Jewish tradition is not the proverbs and it's not um Song of Solomon. It's the ability to cast out spirits. That was the wisdom of Solomon.

And so if you read Josephus in his antiquities, he tells the story of a Jewish exorcist who was going to be executed in about AD68 in in Galilee. in the Jewish rebellion against the Roman Empire and uh the emp the the general Vespasian who then became the emperor he said okay prove that you can cast out spirits so they brought out a demon-possessed man from the Roman prisons and the Jewish exorcist cast out the spirits in front of the Roman general and he was allowed to live then you have the seven sons of in the book of Acts they were exorcists and they were experimenting with the name of Jesus and they didn't succeed not because the name of Jesus is powerless but they did not have faith in the name of Jesus. They were using it in a magical sense. I adjourned you by Jesus whom Paul preaches. They clearly didn't have faith in Jesus themselves.

So anyway, the the BBC is recognizing that that exorcism and deliverance ministry are a growing need in Western secular societies. And so they touched in this article on the fact that exorcism remains contra controversial in the west and uh there have been a number of cases of abuse linked to um those who claim to exorcism in some religious sects. And so the British government in 2012 actually published a white paper that's like a proposal for law um in order to um prevent the abuse of children in religious rituals. And what was driving this was they were finding headless corpses torsos in the river tempames and they they were children who had the heads arms and legs chopped off and they had been gutted and this was part of satanic rituals in the immigrant community from Africa in London and it was small African children their corpses were being found in the tempames in London. So the government wanted to stamp stamp clamp down on this and so they published this white paper back in 2012.

This was before the BBC started reporting on this. And the intention was to prevent the rule um the abuse of children in in in not just um sexual um um spiritual sense but um literally like beating demons out of kids with wooden sticks, beating them until they die, that kind of thing. And so um in the Catholic rules on exorcism, um you can only do a major exorcism if the bishop approves. And actually in in the ritual of Rome um what what it makes clear is that before you assume um demonization the Catholic Church has to go through a complicated process of ruling out all the other options. Is this psychological?

Is it do they have a brain injury, traumatic brain injury? Is that's what's giving them their hallucinations or something like that? And they have to work the way through all those things. And it's only when they're satisfied that there is no physiological cause or chemical cause, they're going to think that it's a case of demonization. Now, you may say it's strange.

If the beast gives its power to to if Satan gives his p the dragon gives his power to the first beast, um that is true, but Catholic priests um their exorcists, they do cast out demons, and that's just the reality of it. Whether those demons come back is another matter, but they do have some success in this. Um there are very specific prayers in the ritual of Rome and the demon is commanded to leave the person in the name of Jesus Christ. And that's the core issue here is that the demons fear the name of Jesus. They don't fear you or I.

And they will come out when commanded to come out in the name of Jesus. And um that person who commands them to come out does so with faith that Jesus can actually do this or the men should be like the seven sons ofKeva. So there are certain medical conditions that are mistaken for possession. Um epilepsy, so seizures can be interpreted or misinterpreted as a sign of possession. Schizophrenia, Tourett syndrome, and disassociative identity disorder and multiple multiple personality disorder.

Um, you find that if if if somebody's gone through satanic ritual abuse as a child and they've been molested every night and their name is Johnny, then their personality will fragment and by day by day they'll be Jimmy, by night they'll be Johnny and Jimmy doesn't really remember what happened to Johnny and vice versa because the trauma is so deep-seated and so the personality can kind of fragment and people have these various dissociative and multiple personality disorders and some of these conditions are caused by um that they they are a result result of living in a world of sin. Not everything is caused by demonization. Some things happen because you've had an accident. Some things happen because um you've made some bad choices in life. Some things happen because of birth trauma and other factors.

And other times people have symptoms like this, but you realize when you talk with them that there's actually a demon there. But until you talk with them and you listen to them and you watch their face, it's very very hard to make that that evaluation because the the the eyes will change on you. You're looking at a reptile sometimes. And when you shake the hand, there's a superhuman strength there. There was a case in Gary, Indiana a couple of years ago where there was this truant, a boy, he wasn't going to school.

He was about 10 or 11 and when the police came to get him, he just walked upside down on the roof, the ceiling of the building. and the police freaked out because they knew this was demon possession and so they backed off and called social services. They didn't know what to do about it. It ended up in the courts. Um uh but anyway, that was just a case up in Gary, Indiana where the police said, "Okay, this isn't human what we're watching right now." So sometimes some people have um psychiatric or psychological problems because of there are many possible causes for that in life and some of them have some of them have the symptoms of that and it's caused by demonization.

is not always it's not always clear-cut one way or the other. And so if somebody has let's say epilepsy um in Mark nine the boy with epileptic symptoms is treated by Jesus as a case of demonization. We know that in that particular story in the gospels when he comes down from the mount of transfiguration. But some some um mental health problems, mental health disorders, psychiatric issues, they may be caused by brain trauma, road traffic accidents. There all manner of reasons why people have these.

And it's not safe to assume it is caused or it is not caused by demonization until you spend time with the individual and you listen to them, you learn their life history. and you're trying to exclude all possible causes before you conclude it as demonization. But that's with with white westerners. And if you have somebody from Haiti comes to visit you, they'll know exactly what their problems caused by. They they'll just say, "Pastor, I have a demon." And well, have you been to a psychologist, psychiatrist?

No, I got a demon. How do you know? Well, this is what happened. I'm come from a culture steeped in the occult and voodoo. this is how it's manifest and I've got these manifestations and the solution is not chemical or pills the solution is spiritual and so um when when you engage in deliverance ministry um you kind of got to be aware of these things and you're you're trying to avoid the last thing you want to do is to say to somebody yes you are you are being you are possessed by a spirit you're oppressed by a spirit or you are harassed by a spirit when they're not because if if they are not many people will just give up the battle.

They say, "I can't fight the spirits. Therefore, I'm just going to give up." And you don't want them to give up hope because hope is a powerful healing agent when you're working with people who are demonized. So, uh these are some of the legal issues that came up in the UK around exorcism. It's interesting this one here that um the US the UK legal system recognizes consent and people need to consent to being ministered to. Um, if you notice in the Bible, the gospels, every time somebody asked Jesus to heal a child, Jesus healed the child.

There was the Syrophen Phoenician woman in Luke's gospel. There was the uh the father with the little boy, Lord, I believe, helped out my own belief, which is from the mount of transfiguration. Um, and sorry, Jus. Yes. Yeah.

Gyrus and his daughter. Yes. So parents have the legal right to ask God to heal their children because you are the spiritual guardian for that child. Um the one person that we know of in the Bible who had a spirit who was not healed by Jesus was Judas and there's no record that he ever asked for healing. In fact, he was stealing from the common purse all the way up to the Lord's supper.

And so uh consent is important. So the British legal system recognizes that there's a question about consent. And in in in a biblical sense, that's also true. People need to ask for help. Jesus doesn't force his help on people unless they ask him for help.

But parents have the right to ask for their children. And so um child protection is an issue in the British legal system and it is over here as well as is medical neglect and uh that has various ramifications like Jehovah's Witnesses not allowing blood transfusions for their children. So there is a growing demand for exorcisms. This is again from the BBC around the world. Um in Italy, in the UK, um they report on the rise of this kind of demand for this kind of service and um in the US there are many dascese, Catholic dascese have increased their own courses and capacity to deal with this growing demand.

And um I I would say this, this growing demand, this thing here is really important. Pentecostal churches. I've met people who were slain in the spirit and had signs of demonization for years afterwards. And they they become Adventists and at the name of Jesus, they just start cursing. And I was with um minister to a lady in Scandinavia a few years ago and uh she went she wanted a deeper experience with God.

She was Adventist. She went to um a charismatic church. I think it was in Holland or Belgium. as she was slain in the spirit. And from that moment on, she was like out unconscious on the floor.

From that moment on, anytime she said the word Jesus, it was like she was being strangled around her throat. She couldn't get the name of Jesus out. And uh she was terrified by this. And and so she called all her pastors together, like six Norwegian pastors, and none of them believed any of this was possible. And so then they she called me, and they had a Zoom call with all these pastors, and they flatly didn't believe in demons or deliverance ministry at all.

And so he said, "So we're going to go through this process on Zoom." And by the end of that process, they were all firm believers because they'd seen evil themselves in in the process. So um there is this this rise in in demand. And people are looking help for wherever they can get it. I think it's really important for us as Adventists to understand this. If somebody has a demon and they come to your church or your pastor or you're a church elder, they talk about this problem, don't turn them away because they're going to stay wherever they get help.

And often times people avoid or they go to a an Adventist church and then we don't deal in this go to the charismatics down the road or the Pentecostals. They find some kind of freedom there and they stay there. And if we are God's if we are to be God's last message of mercy to a dying world, surely God is going to work through his remnant people. Amen. And we know in the book Great Controversy, there's a chapter called the ministry of evil angels.

We know there is a struggle going on around us. We have more understanding than almost anybody else. But we just don't like to minister in this area because it's it's terrifying for too many people. So if we don't minister to people when they come to us for help, they're going to go somewhere else to find help because the trauma is so overwhelming. They just want to find peace.

They don't care how they find it. They just want to find peace. And so um if we don't respond to people as Adventists and have this kind of ministry in our churches, people are going to go to other congregations and they'll never come back. So it's something we need to take um seriously. There are various reasons for the increase in demand in the west.

One is the the decline of Christianity in the west. I mentioned this morning briefly the book I'm reading on, you know, the um the supernatural worldview of the Nazis and how uh the people in Germany were turning from Christ to the occult and all of the all the Nazi philosophies and ideas come out of those that occultic like that occultic like melting pot you might say. But as the people turned away from Christ, they actually turned into the arms of Satan wittingly or unwittingly. And so the decline of Christianity in America inevitably will lead to an increase in the occult in America and an increase in demand for deliverance services. Um there's reliance on social sciences that is we tend to okay you have a problem um call 911.

Um social services will look after you, psychologists will look after you but we can't help you. Thank you very much. And that's just passing the problem off to somebody else. and the use of tarot cards and sorcery. That's an increase in the west here as well.

So, I'm going to talk for a few minutes about the influence of occultic themes in children's media. And this is how Satan is getting our children very young. And um the bottom line here is parents guard the avenues to your children's hearts and minds that don't assume that anything is safe unless you've personally verified it is safe because the the occult is everywhere in our in our world today particularly for young children. So we have magical characters in children's cartoons. If you sit on a plane these days, a long haul flight, uh you look look you look look at the video selection um everybody's watching um like like these superhero movies, Transformers and stuff like that.

I forget the names of these things, but these are all these superhum superhero movies and these are morally ambiguous characters who are both good and evil who live forever and Batman and stuff like that. Batman and Robin and these other things. This is for adults and children are watching these things as well. And these are morally ambiguous. They're almost like manifestations of demons in these movies because they're morally they're neither good nor evil.

They're kind of gray characters. And uh the Captain America series, those things like that. Um so the much of the fantasy world that adults are drinking in in America and our children are watching this. Um these are characters with with supernatural abilities who are morally ambiguous. Um we have mystical worlds and particularly online gaming.

Online gaming is an entry to the occult. People are playing in these this online world. They have their online avatars and they're used to spells and magic. It's just second nature and all of these online games. And then you have symbolic um elements.

You sometimes have occultic symbols and imagery as uh design features in the cartoons. And um this has an impact on kids in various ways. Um the occult themes in the cartoons that our kids watch um they can uh they can help the kids lead the kids to adopt ideas and beliefs about the occult that the parents would not want their children to have. They also desensitize the children to violence or the occult and they they they come to view this as normal. It's just part of life.

They lose a sense of how serious it really is. And uh in terms of parental concerns, many pe many parents rightfully worry about the long-term impact of the occult um in the media their kids are consuming upon the kids' characters. So um this leads to um cultural and spiritual concerns or part one. I'm really creative, aren't I, in how I do these things. Okay, part one, parental worries.

Um, parents are rightfully concerned that what their children are watching on YouTube and in the movies and in cartoons is in direct conflict with the truth of scripture. And we should be absolutely concerned about this. Um, it also leads to religious conflict um within our families because the children start expressing occultic ideas as if they're true. And it's not just occultic ideas. You know, we got missionaries in AFM in in the Middle East and they're concerned that their growing daughters in the Middle East are exposed to trans ideology.

How do they get access to trans ideology? I have no idea. But even out in the Middle East, this stuff just floats over the internet. And uh particularly say with with trans ideology for teenage girls. There are many many hundreds if not thousands of trans influencers on YouTube influencing young girls to become boys and saying how great and sexy this is and this is how you're going to find happiness and fulfillment.

And your average parent has no idea this is happening. Cell. Cell phones. Yep. Cell phones.

And um cultural impact, the impact of this tide of the occults on our western society is that um people are now much more accepting of the occult. And you know that because Hollywood pumps out theme shows all the time that are directly connected with the occult and nobody protests about this. And you find you find legal battles in America where you might have a Satanist club wants to have a children's after school club at a school and then we have debates about do they have the religious liberty to do this or not and it goes to the courts and so forth. But you don't get brought you don't get massive push back from parents when there's Satanist club opens at local school. And so um part two on the cultural and spiritual concerns we have the rise of witchcraft in our western society with particular interest in wiccan practices.

Um many ladies go into this because um um I'm not making any comment about women's ordination here but um uh women find they have leadership roles in wicker practice that they don't get in Christianity. That if if you're in a denomination that does not want women's ordination. I'm not saying it's good or bad. Okay, I'm just right. It's just a social phenomenon that that ladies tend to be the leading practitioners in many of the occultic arts mediums and channelers and intuitits and those who call up spirits and in wicker practice women find leadership roles much more regally than they do in regular Christianity.

So um alternative belief systems are growing here in the west and uh this leads to potential confusion with our children. They're not sure well what is really good. So there's an impact on psychological development for kids of this rise in the occult. The first is that kids end up with a fascination with the supernatural. They're fascinated by it.

Kids like to dress up like Spider-Man and Batman and they want their rooms decorated with all their superhero stuff. They're fascinated by this stuff. Um, it also leads to a desensitization to, you might say, dark side material. And children are desensitized at an early and earlier age now because of the stuff they're watching, not just to violence or to pornography, but to occultic imagery and occultic themes. And so they're desensitized.

They lose their sense that this is wrong. And they lose their sense that I need to avoid this. And uh, this also has an impact on mental health. um people with delusional thinking, people thinking they are superheroes, um uh and people living in terror of the supernatural. And so uh they live with with it's it exacerbates fear and anxiety.

And anxiety and um panic attacks are some of the most commonly dis diagnosed mental health disorders in America today. Panic attacks and anxiety are right up there along with depression as being very very commonly diagnosed um mental health disorders. And some of that comes because people have been exposed to the occult as kids. So um in a sense this talk this slide talks about the the mirror is both a reflector and a reinforcer of the occult. That in a sense mirror uh the media is a mirror of culture.

So the popular media serves as a mirror and a map. It reflects cultural beliefs and it simultaneously influences them and and propagates them. And so um uh the media reflects our fascinations with the occult and the media produces this. There's almost an insat insatiable demand for the occult on TV and cable TV and on the internet and social media. And so people are fascinated.

The media produces what we want because they know there's an appetite and a market for it. And then that leads to a feedback loop in society where we start to normalize this and view this as this is acceptable in wider society. And so um in a sense if your home is not a mirror of culture then this may not if your home is not a mirror of society around it you're better able to prevent this happening to your children. Amen. So the question is what culture is your home a mirror of?

What home? What is your home reflecting to your children? And these days that requires uh intentional um intentionality on the part of parents. So this kind of slide here talks about there's a cultural fascination in society and then media represents those themes because there's a market the audience young views young viewers are exposed to these themes that leads to cultural reinforcements of the acceptance of the occult in society and the cycle just goes on and on and it gets getting worse and worse and so uh that the just like with pornography it gets darker and darker. So the the occultic imagery gets darker and darker in the movies which our young people are watching today.

So um I'm not going to cover this stuff here. All right. So let's take a five minute break. Talk to the person next to you. What have you learned in the last 20 minutes and how is it going to affect your life?

So just take this for five minutes, okay? With the person next to you. All right, our time is up. It went very fast. And thank you very much, sister.

Thank you. Much appreciated. So, does anybody want to share what uh your takeaway from the last half hour is? Destroy your TV. Destroy your TV.

Yeah. Monday is the first day of the week. Yes. Sunday. Yes.

Sixth. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. We have two other ladies. Sorry. Guy and lady here.

Take the lady first. Sorry, pastor. Um I think I think we're way beyond Harry Potter in our society now. Bunny and Santa Claus and all that and Harry Potter foundation. Yeah.

Yeah. I I I would avoid anything like that like the plague. When I was pastoring in Minnesota, all the all the kids in our church get invited to Halloween parties. So, we did something different. We announced through the town we were going to be collecting food for the food shelf.

And the whole church went out. We we gave out the bags, the brown paper bags from uh I don't know, Costco or somewhere. And we went from house to house collecting food and we leave some literature there. And then we take it to the food shelf, these trucks of food, and the kids saw that they were a blessing to the community. So, part of the challenge we have as Christians is we don't just say no, no, no.

We've got to put have something positive and uplifting in its place or they will go to whatever society is offering. Yes. Yes. Okay. Brother here.

Yes. I was uh I was just thinking talking with my brother here. How many Adventist churches in a month are going to celebrate Easter versus celebrating a risen savior? Easter is completely a pagan holiday. Yes.

Yeah. Well, that's a great question. You know, um, how many, you know, as Adventists in general, we don't celebrate like I go to the office on Easter Friday or Good Friday or whatever they call it, doesn't mean anything to me. It's just another work day. And yet, shouldn't I be honoring and celebrating the greatest day in salvation history?

And because I'm not sure how to celebrate without falling into Easter or Passover, those two kind of like options there, it's hard to know how to celebrate it. Um but yes, we we fall into the pagan festivals all too easily. Yes. And yes, we had a lady here and then brother at the back in the white church. Sounds like our church needs to be more involved in exorcism.

Yes. Yeah. And how would we go about doing that? Well, hang on for the next section here, sister. Then you'll learn about that.

Okay. Yes. Okay. Gentleman at the back in the white shirt. And then we got the lady on the back row.

On our conversation here, just while the microphone is going back there, we we're talking about the fact that when you have children, um the you should not make electronics the babysitter for your children. That if you choose to have children, you are morally responsible for raising those kids and engaging with them while they're awake in a spiritually healthy way. You don't have kids, they're like a a status symbol of like a a third car in the garage. Okay? When you have kids, it's your responsibility to raise them in the fear of the Lord.

And that means being with them when they're awake and having spiritually healthy activities with them. And that's a challenge for for busy parents. I mean, this may touch some people on a nerve here, but it it is it is really important. If you if God gives you children, you are spiritually responsible for raising them in the fear of the Lord. And you can't just subcontract that to YouTube or Netflix or Nickelodeon.

Yes, brother. Another tool to add in you're speaking of exorcism is holy music. And the evidence for that, you have a number of stories in the Bible. In Numbers 21, Israel sings to a well and water comes forth to provide for them. Mhm.

And from the symbolism of water also speaking of the Holy Spirit, you have the story of Saul where it says the Holy Spirit withdrew from him and a distressing spirit from the Lord came upon him. So the absence of the Holy Spirit um in that context that void was filled with demonic possession. He is relieved of that evil spirit when David is doing what? Water music. Music.

Mhm. There's a story where Elisha, he's um he's sought out in the wilderness because the kings of Edom and Israel were attacking Moab and he says, "Bring him, bring a physician, a musician, sorry." And the musician plays and it says, "The hand of the Lord came upon him." And then he prophesies and water comes by way of Edom and it leads to their victory over Edom. And you have Paul and Silas in the prison. They're not only praying, they are also singing hymns. And then the place is shaken.

Who shook that prison? It's earlier in Acts it says that uh there was a time where that you had members of the church together, the place was shaken and the Holy Spirit came on them. So holy music is is another tool in addition to praying in the name of Jesus. Amen. And um yeah, music reaches parts that words cannot and it kind of bypasses our critical faculties.

So when you listen to let's say Handles Messiah, the hair stands up on the back of your neck, but you didn't tell it to stand up. There's a physiological response to holy music um that um that bypasses your critical faculties. And there's a very famous study out of Japan, I think. I don't remember the name of the guy who did it. It was a Japanese scientist and he experimented by freezing water to different kinds of music.

Are you familiar with the study? Do you know who the study was by? No. Okay. But he froze water from Tokyo Bay and as he was freezing it he was playing different kinds of music and then he looked at the water crystals when they were frozen.

What he found was when they froze music to let's say shopan or Beethoven that the water was these perfect hexagonal crystals perfect hexagons like um um a bee beehive. And then when they froze water to bluegrass music it was the same hexagonal shapes but they were rounded at the edges. Then they started playing Pink Floyd and stuff like that. And the the the the crystal it was just like utter chaos when the water froze. And the the the conclusion was that water affects the the physical structure of the the molecules in the body um in ways that we can't begin to imagine.

And I my take away from that was I need to start listening to Kensaki bluegrass. But I'm not sure that was what the point of the study was. But it was interesting when I watched they had the slides of all the different kinds of music they were playing freezing the water to and by far the most attractive was kind of like like um country not country not not western country music um bluegrass no like like traditional folk songs were were was the nicest shape and classical music was the was the most classical like hex hexagonal shape but rock music was just all over the place. Yeah. It was just like there was no shape to it.

What did Southern Gospel do to it? I don't know, brother. We're not going to go that direction. Yes. Yeah.

All right. Yes, sister at the back. Okay. I wanted to say I think Satan has found a way to take over the church through, you know, social media. Yes.

Uh Psalms one, blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor siteth in the seat of the scornful. I mean, it's hard to take children away from social media. But then how can they keep themselves clean as long as you're grouped together with unbelievers. [Music] You can't the morality, you know, just going to go down because of all that. And I wanted to ask um you said something about avatars.

Avatars. Yeah. And I does that we talking about u in games or something like that? Yes. Oh, because I know in social media that's supposed to be innocent friends social media, you still find them and you said you create them.

Yeah. Are they the same category? Do they have demons in them? Um, so I have an avatar and they recorded my face at AFM for soft artificial intelligence software. I spoke for 10 minutes facing forward and facing at 90 degrees and then they created an avatar and the intent was to drag my sermons into the software and then it uses my avatar to preach those sermons like 160 languages and that's what you know people are now doing.

It is written uses that stuff. voice of prophecy uses it and those are avatars and that's a representation of myself but it's a digital version so it's easier for the software to get the um lips right when you're speaking but when you look at it it's hard to know that it's digital it looks so realistic so those are cases where that that's an avatar but it's not necessarily a demonp possessed instance that's a use of of a digital representation of a person um to share the gospel so Doug Bachelor did a big event late last year in New York and they they broadcast it in about 13 I think 16 to 30 languages within a half an hour and they were using his avatar to do that and so it is written does that voice of prophecy does that it's becoming very common in media ministry but that's different to an online avatar so if you join like a multi multiplayer game online you choose your avatar and you create it and your avatar develops over many many cycles of the game and those avatars develop supernatural capabilities in the course of the gaming process. And uh some some of those avatars are very dark. They they they represent a very very dark picture of humanity. And um they are amoral beings.

They have no sense of morality, right or wrong, good or bad. And uh those avatars, I believe, are leading children down towards um demonization. Yes. Um I know video games these days coming from combat experience that Marine Corps that a lot of uh a lot of uh kids are getting into Call of Duties. Well, they've been into it now.

Uh and those things are so realistic. I've seen them and it's it's very realistic and it's numbing their brains to the point where now you see we see a lot of school shootings uh going on all the time. And these are things that uh that we've we don't have anything to do with in our house but uh that a lot of kids are doing these things like you said online gaming they're playing these things and it's turning into an occult. I mean they are it it's so huge these kids playing on it and they play for hours and hours and hours and hours and they're getting so involved in it that it's just it becomes life and their their brains are just lost to it. So you may know this better than I do.

Um I met at a guy at a conference uh a lieutenant colonel in the um the uh Rangers. He wrote a book called on killing or on death. Does that ring a Okay. So he was um his name is Colonel Grossman. Lloyd Grossman I think.

And he became a psychiatrist and he started treating soldiers for PTSD. And he's written a number of books. One is called assassination generation and uh the most famous is on killing and on death and he talks there about how in the military they train soldiers to kill. Mhm. And how before World War II they used to fire at these like bullseye targets and then the number of soldiers in World War I who actually hit the target was very low because they were firing above.

They didn't want to hit a man. And in World War II they switched to like cardboard cutouts and then the number of soldiers hitting the target went up in percentage terms. Then for Vietnam, they were having these really realistic pop-ups that look just like Vietkong fighter. And the more realistic the training became, the more the soldiers were willing to pull the trigger in real combat. So he he charts how the the realism of the training leads to more destructive violence in in in combat.

And then he talks about the the the kill switch in the in the brains of the soldiers to kill or not to kill and how young boys, as you say, Call of Duty. and he charts how the rise of school shootings corresponds with Call of Duty in 2005. Believe it. And how um when there are shootings, he gets called to uh debrief these kids. And he says, "When you meet with the kids," he says, "they look at you in the room and say, "Can I press replay now or reset?" They actually think they're still in a game.

That they don't actually realize they've killed people. They they've been playing for 48 48 hours straight. Maybe they're in a state of psychosis. They're detached from reality. they've just gone through the game in more realistic sense.

And we had I had a meal with him that night at that conference and um he was interested in demon possession because he was saying in my clinical practice with the VA I'm seeing guys who are demonp possessed from the violence but we have no clinical tools to deal with this. And he's actually a Christian. He's an evangelical Christian but he recognized the problem of demonization as a uh some people uh we call post-traumatic stress disorder. But he was talking about some of the sometimes that's actually demonization and how the book is called Assassination Generation. I think it's called.

It's worth every parent reading it if you've got a boy who's going to play their single video single shooter video games and how they're basically training children to be mass killers. Well, to be I mean even crazier, we use very similar type of uh I was a weapons instructor as well in the Marines and we use uh virtual reality um as training uh when we're for when we're training for combat. Uh that's exactly what we're using and we actually using live fire and it's virtuality. They they put in the smells of what it is Middle Eastern. Um they'll they'll put in everything and it just puts you in that mindset.

But then when you see the games, it's it's everything without the smells. And of course, it it's everything the same. So they're basically just giving them the training, but right from their right from their bedroom. Mhm. All right.

So, um, good comments everybody. Let's move on to the next section here. I think this may be our last section because it's 10 to 5 here. So, um, as Christians, you know, how do we respond to this stuff that's going on around us? Well, um the first thing I put there is uh we need to be aware that we have spiritual authority to deal with these problems.

Like Jesus says, "Lo, I'm with you always even to the end of the age." And when you ask for the infilling of the spirit of Christ, you have authority over demons. We're not to be afraid of demons. We don't go looking for demons like some evangelicals do, but we're not to run from demons when they come knocking on our door. And in Ephesians 6 uh from verses 13-15, three time the Apostle Paul uses the verb to stand or to withstand. So if you're in the infantry and you're told to stand, that means you're not in an offensive posture.

You're not in a retreating posture. You're standing and if the battle comes to you, you can fight it, but you're not going to go looking for the battle. So as Christians, uh we need to realize that we have authority in the name of Jesus Christ to fight demons, to rebuke demons when they attack our families. And uh secondly, recognition there kind of the same point is that um Christians are walking around with atom bombs in their pockets spiritually and they have no idea that we have the authority to rebuke spirits in the name of Jesus Christ, but we just don't even think of it in those terms. We're afraid of the spirits.

And Satan's biggest weapon is fear in this area because people don't want to deal with it. And then there's action. Um, we can take action against spirits and rebuke them when they're in people's lives and we can stand we can stand tall against evil. But this is a really hard thing to do on your own. It's really really hard because when you come face to face with someone with a demon and they look at you, you realize you're looking into the face of evil, you like it's like terrifying.

It really is. You need a team of people with you, three or four mature Christians, because it's you like tag teaming on the on the demon because it's so hard. It's just overwhelming. And that the only thing the demons recognize and are afraid of and respect is the name of Jesus Christ. They don't care who you are.

They don't care what your background, your education, they don't care whether you're a deacon, an elder, or a pastor. They simply don't care. But what they do care about is the name of Jesus Christ. That's the that that name has authority over the spirits. And so when it comes to authority in in in spiritual warfare, um we have protection.

We ask our heavenly father every day for deliver us from the evil one. And uh deliver us from evil. And the Lord's prayer is more accurately deliver us from the evil one in Matthew 6:13. And so we we ask our heavenly father every day that he protects us from the attacks of the evil one which is Satan. And if we pray the Lord's if if we're to pray the Lord's prayer every day because it says give us this day our daily bread.

That means every day we need to ask our heavenly father for for protection from the attacks of Satan. Why would I need to ask God every day for protection from the attacks of Satan unless I were under attack every day? And so once we realize this, it's in the Lord's prayer for good reason. Then we take this much more seriously. Um going on the offense, um believers can use their authority to combat evil forces.

Um this is when somebody comes up to in church and says, "I've got a problem. I don't know how to deal with it." We don't run from it. We're not going to pass them off to, you know, somebody else. We can deal with it ourselves as Christians. Um dominion, um the authority that Christ gives us establishes the believer's position of spiritual dominion.

That is um you're coming under the lordship of Jesus Christ. That's the spiritual dominion. In Romans um 6 5-6 um sin is portrayed as this power. It's this despotic power that has authority over us. And the wages of sin is death.

Um, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. You're either a slave to sin or you're a slave to righteousness. So when you're a slave to sin, it means you're a slave to Satan and his demons. They have authority over you. And when when we ask Jesus to set somebody free, they're moving from the kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of God to a different rulership in their life.

So some people when they ask for help, they want Jesus to be their savior, but they don't want him to be lord of their life. They want him they want him to save them from the attacks of Satan today, but they want to live their own secular occultic life. Um, and they don't want to accept the lordship of Jesus Christ. And so people accept Jesus as sla savior and lord or lord and savior. And the lordship of Christ is moving into his kingdom and living our lives according to his principles and knowing what the principles of the kingdom of God are.

If you're not sure what they are, read the biatitudes. Then you living the under the principles of the kingdom of God and under the lordship of Christ. You're a slave to righteousness and the the wage you get the gift you get is eternal life. Or you choose to live under the slavery to Satan and the wage you get is death. And then the the that process, you know, in the Bible, we talk about redemption.

And redemption is like the idea of redemption is somebody's bought back from slavery in the slave market. Like if my daughter is sold into slavery because I have debts, I raise the money and I go and pay I buy her back from slavery. And so redemption is the idea that a price has been paid to set me free from slavery. And when we talk about justification, justification is kind of like a legal has a legal concept to it. you're declared innocent in the eyes of God.

But redemption means that Christ paid the blood price necessary to buy me back from slavery to Satan so I might be under the lordship of Jesus Christ. And so the demons will sometimes say, "I need a sacrifice." That's why in animism, they're always offering sacrifices. They're appeasing the gods or the spirits. And when a spirit says that to you, like, "I'll set this child free, but I need a blood sacrifice." The response is that Christ was the blood sacrifice. And so we understand redemption in a whole new light in deliverance ministry.

The blood sacrifice was paid to buy this sinner back from slavery to Satan to to a slave to righteousness. So redemption is is a powerful concept in deliverance ministry much more than we do we think of it in western concept. We tend to think about righteousness by faith and justification but we almost never talk about redemption in the western Christian world. So uh then you have access access to heavenly authority. Um we have 24/7 access to our heavenly father.

And sometimes somebody says, "I need help. I'll see you on Sabbath." And you have three days to pray and fast. And sometimes you're driving somewhere and somebody calls in with a panicked phone call and my child's in trouble. Help me right now. And you have no idea who they are, where they are.

And uh a couple of years ago, we had a case of uh a young lady and she went to uh GYC and on the way home um they stopped at a gas station about 11:00 at night and uh she was attacked by demons. And it was a terrifying cancer for everybody. And so um I got a call about 2:00 in the morning from a parent who's and you hear this screaming in the background said, "My child's got a demon. Help her." I'm wake up. What?

What? What? What was this? And so um we prayed for that girl on the speaker phone and she calmed down when she went back to an Adventist college and the next week um had another demonic manifestation and the demons were throwing her from her room across the balcony to the other side of the corridor in a three-story building. So from AFM we sent in I was overseas so we sent in two of our more experienced people in this area and they had four young men hold her down and the demons were trying to throw her off the balcony and down to the ground three stories below.

Well by the end of about 12 hours she was completely free of demons and I spoke with the family the other night and um the demons the the two girls had it. Now they're free and now um now another child has got the same manifestations. So it's working its way through the family and say so now we need to work with the boy there. So um what you realize when talk about access is that whether it's 2:00 in the morning or you've had a week to prepare for it, we all have access to the same heavenly authority. Okay?

And that that heavenly authority is open 24/7. So the GC asked us NFM to put this institute together. It's called setf free in christrist.org. And um this is the manual. You can download it for free on our website.

And um you know Jesus says freely you've received, freely you shall give. So you can download it for free and we're doing a we're doing an updated article on this. We're doing another version and we're including a chapter on deliverance ministry among animists, Hindus, Buddhists, and Muslims. So, we're adding those chapters and um that's become like the standard textbook in many parts of the Adventist world now. But we're adding these chapters and um I was working with pastor Mishe Bardday who leads this for us and we were looking through the Muslim chapter this earlier this this last week uh because the Muslims have a whole different understanding and experience of demonization to say animists and so they talk about the hand of Fatima among other things and they they're very kind of superstitious about these things.

So um that new manual will be coming out probably about January next year. A ministry magazine um in 2020 they actually uh that's from the GC they decided to do a whole article on deliverance ministry because they recognize that this is a growing problem in the church and you can you can download that for free at ministry magazine. It's on the website it's in the archives. I encourage you to look at it. Um we wrote three of these articles in AFM.

Pablo wrote one. This guy I think is from Kenya. This guy's from Kenya. And um these are very interesting articles discussing the practicalities of deliverance ministry. So the GC is recognizing this is a growing problem in the Adventist church and they're trying to equip pastors to deal with it.

And um uh the in in North America, deliverance ministry is kind of like the um the the uh like the awkward uncle at Thanksgiving that nobody wants to talk to. Okay. And um when you go to the seminary, they have three hours on it in their four years of preparation. I know that because I or one of my colleagues teach that class up there for them. and it's normally a filled class and you barely get started and everybody's talking about their experiences of the occult and their experiences ministering to people.

But this is an area that is really it really isn't covered at all in our ministerial preparation. And so [Music] um did you want to go through all this? There's a lot of stuff in there. All right, I'll get to this bit here. the elders handbook.

Does any of you have the elders handbook? Yes. Okay. So, if you look in the elders handbook, um on chapter 8, it talks about I think it's seven special services and you've got baptism, communion, weddings, child dedication, prayers for the sick, deliverance ministry, funerals, house blessing, and pastoral installation. And so, the elders handbook actually talks about elders having a spiritual responsibility to take part in deliverance ministry.

And I I when I point this out to elders like they've never heard of this before, but it's in the elders handbook. And actually the the the ministers manual or handbook and the elders man handbook are really valuable resources. And I encourage every church leaders to be reading those things. But the the elders handbook does talk about deliverance ministry. There's the the portion there.

It does talk about deliverance ministry um in in general. It talks about the examples of Jesus, but it doesn't go into any specifics about what you would do if there were a problem in your church. But at least the elders manual recognize that elders have a spiritual role in the church in helping guard the church and rid the church of demonic influences. So if if people say uh that's not an Adventist thing to just point to the elders manual which is published by the GC and say no elders in the church have a spiritual responsibility to feed and to guard the flock and it's it's in the elders manual. So um around the world and this is in the Adventist world as well um there are there are a wide variety of practices when it comes to deliverance ministry and demonization.

And part of the biggest challenge we face as the adventist church is synratism. So you find a pastor who's ordained in Benin on Sabbath morning and on the way home he goes to a witch doctor sacrifices a cockal. Now he has the ability to put people spells on people that could lead to their death. So Benin is the home of voodoo. When somebody says you're going to be dead in 24 hours, even if you sit in an intensive care unit, the chances are you're going to be dead in 24 hours.

These these curses are incredibly powerful. And so um even within the church you have synratism and there's no sure way to split a congregation and when they've seen this like in this lady here from Zimbabwe anybody here from Zimbabwe. Yes. Okay. Rhdesia when you were there.

Yes. So um if you I've heard of cases in Rhdesia or Zimbabwe where whole conferences have been split down the middle over allegations of witchcraft in the church where somebody makes an allegation that you became the president in the conference nominating committee because you put everybody under a spell on the nominating committee or I wanted to marry your daughter and she said no and therefore she's had a wasting sickness ever since and the family says the man who couldn't marry her he put her under a spell and so these allegations of witchcraft. They're one of the quickest way to split churches in different parts of Africa. Now, thankfully, we don't have that just yet here in America, but we also have synratism between materialism and Christianity. We're actually no better.

Uh we all have some area of synretism in our lives. So, in in say West Africa, the synretatism is between Islam and Adventism or animism and Adventism. And in America, the synretatism is Adventism and materialism. And the mighty dollar has a is like a mighty god for many people and they're willing to serve the Lord as long as it doesn't compromise their financial goals or their financial stability. So um around the world we see religious diversity and people are dealing with with deliverance ministry many different ways but um in our experience with AFM many Muslims and Mullers know that only Christ can cast out demons.

They know this. And so when they have a problem in their in their uh their family or in their local mosque, um they may privately say to somebody, "Go to the missionaries and they can help you out. Jesus can set you free." Um for many um Buddhists when they become Adventists, for them entry into the kingdom of God is not so much about repentance and faith. It's an act of repudiation of Satan because he's bad. They're entering into the kingdom of God and God is good.

And so for them, baptism is not as much about repentance and washing away the guilt of their past. It's a public sign that they're rejecting Satan and entering into God's kingdom. So baptism is understood in different ways in different parts of the world. And so we find these things out as missionaries. And so you're always trying to work, you're always trying to walk um a fine line um as we lead people into the kingdom of God.

And the understanding of the kingdom of god is different in different parts of the world because people are bringing different cultural baggage with them. So um we have here I just mentioned there synratism is is a is a problem I put there with traditional practices. But here in America we have a blending of Christian beliefs with materialism and secularism and addictive behaviors which really control many people's lives. Um porn is the most common one in in America right now. It's destroying people's lives.

And people are bringing spiritual baggage into the church. And in the second, third, and fourth centuries, it was a standard practice. When somebody wanted to become a Christian, they entered what was called the um they they were catacumanized and they entered the catacuminate and they were instructed in the gospel and then they were baptized normally around Easter time. And so what happened was some people would join the catacuminate and they would put off the baptism until they were about to die because then they could live a pagan life while they were also worshiping in the church and then they would put it off their baptism until they were about to die and so it became kind of abused. Um but in the second, third, and fourth centuries, there's a lot of historical evidence.

There's books on this to the effect that when people came into the church in the apostolic era onwards, the apostles recognized they were coming from pagan backgrounds. 1 Corinthians 10, do you not know that when pagans offer food to idols, they're sacrificing to demons? Okay. So when people came into the church, there was a standard process of exorcism was take they went through an exorcism before they went through the baptism. And the church recognized that people were bringing demons into the church with them.

And today is not much different. People are coming from a pagan society. And we assume they're coming in spiritually clean. And many of them are not. And many of them are coming into the church bringing those demons with them.

And then they experience dysfunction in the body in the body of Christ, not because they're bad, it's because they're bringing demons in with them. Now, this may sound like I'm talking like really strange stuff up here today, but but this is real. This is real. And so, um, cultural identity is an important part of of cross-cultural disciplem and deliverance ministry because some people's cultural identity is bound up with their religious identity. So, if you're Greek Orthodox, to be Greek means you're Orthodox.

To be Orthodox means you're Greek. If a Greek Orthodox man decides to become an Adventist, he loses not just his Orthodox identity, he he loses his Greek identity. And so this is a very powerful bind that Satan has on people to stop them entering the body of Christ. And so I mentioned this morning, we've got this underground house church movement in the Republic of Georgia with over 30,000 men participating in this in this this house church movement. They're lawyers and there's Orthodox priests and there's politicians and business people.

is most almost entirely men. And what we're struggling with is yes, they've started doing baptisms now and they're all baptizing each other. And so, you know, we have a hands-off approach this. We don't want to be blamed for this. Um, you know, you're you're practicing believers baptism.

You know, heaven forbid. But, uh, anyway, uh, the the problem these guys have is as they leave orthodoxy and they become Adventists, they're losing their national identity and they don't know what they're entering into. And so we're having to work with them to create symbols and identities and practices that are biblical um that that reflect their new Christian identity. In the same way that when you baptize in in in the West, we focus on new beginnings in our celebrations, marriages, birthdays or the graduations, there always new beginnings. And in Buddhist cultures like Thailand, they always celebrate death because death is the pathway to reincarnation.

And we don't we really don't celebrate death an awful lot. Um uh unless it's your mother-in-law, but the um I thought I'd say that some people would be happy with me saying that, so apologies. All right. Um but so so when you're in a Buddhist society and you and you're and you're working as a missionary, your focus is on how to have um alternative um Christian um Christian rituals that that that that um people can participate in that uphold biblical truth so they don't lapse back into their old Buddhist ways. And so that's the real challenge that we faced.

And so uh we face the already and not yet concept in in myology when it comes to deliverance ministry. The already is that Christ gained victory over the forces of evil on Calvary. The not yet component is that those forces are still an evil power in this world until Jesus comes. And so the tension we all face is between balancing a faith, a triumphant faith with realistic spiritual warfare. That's the tension we all have to live with between the already and the not yet.

And so theologically we say we live in the kingdom of grace. We look forward to the kingdom of glory when Jesus comes again. But in the kingdom of grace there are battles. So um training for deliverance ministry. All right.

So I thought I'd put this in there. We have a training up at our offices in September 23rd through 26. We're going to be talking. It's four days. We're talking about uh a biblical understanding of spiritual warfare, learning to pray with authority, biblical revelations in the occult, uh handling demonic manifestations, learning how to deal with it.

There's probably going to be people there who have demons. They'll be turning up and they'll be we'll be working with them in the evenings. Uh the hallmarks of growing in Christ, we cover some of that today. Misunderstood verses in the Bible. uh uh learning what the church says in our official publications like the elders manual and the church manual and the fundamental beliefs and extended prayer experience and uh for for western Christians the most challenging part of this is prayer because spiritual warfare involves extended prayer and we feel uncomfortable going beyond two minutes but prayer is the prime weapon against this you have as as our brother the doctor back there said you you come armed with hymns hymns that exalt Christ.

Christ the Lord is risen today. All hail the power of Jesus name. Um would you be free from the burden of sin etc etc. Um so you come armed with hymns and those hymns you like waging like um war on the demons. They don't like those hymns but the person who has a demon they may not hear what you say but they hear the music and the music causes faith and faith and hope to grow in their hearts.

That's some that I can be free from this. So, we're doing this this training up there and we've got various conferences sending like ministerial secretaries to it. Anybody can come. It costs $100, which isn't a lot of money for the four days. And so, if you and your church are interested, uh maybe send a couple of elders up there or a head deaconess and a head deacon.

Um it'll be worth going going to see that. And then set free.org. That's the that's the ministry. Um so uh as you know I'm leaving AFM at the end of March and um I got a call from um a church leader. I won't say who it was be bemoning the fact that I was leaving and and saying there are two things AFM is doing right now that's at the very forefront of the battle against Satan.

The first is the deliverance ministry program because it's the only one of its kind in the church. And the second is the dream project where we respond to Muslims who are having dreams of Jesus. And this is in like 18 languages now. And we're reaching Muslims reach out to us from all around the world on this thing here. And they're both kind of hidden because people are skeptical about both of them.

Like the guy who runs our dream project, nobody knows in public who he is. We don't have any official connection with him because the the dream project gets a lot of threats phoned in from Muslims uh threatening us for doing this kind of stuff. And the reason the GC asked us to do it was they said if we run ad if we run websites appealing to Muslims who had dreams of Jesus um then next Sabbath in Bangladesh Adventist churches will be burnt to the ground. So we want you to do it because then the church has plausible deniabilities. That's what we do.

And so the dream project you're following where Jesus is already at work. Jesus appears to Muslims and dreams and visions and then we just find who where those Muslims are and they're open to the gospel. where they're set free in Christ ministry, the deliverance ministry, you're also relying on the presence and the power of Jesus to gain victory in every case. And so these two projects in AFM um which are kind of they're growing um uh around the world and influence and effectiveness uh these are two projects that just remind me that the gospel is not a matter of logic or intellect. It's the power of God to set people free.

is the living power of the living God to set living souls free from the living powers of Satan. And so um uh what we do is a spiritual battle. And whether it's responding to Muslims who've had dreams of Jesus or whether it's um or whether it's responding to people who have demons in both cases it is the person and the name and the presence of Jesus that makes all the difference. And so what we what we've come to the conclusion is this is how the latter reign is going to be. is going to be the outpouring of God's spirit in a way that we've never seen before.

And Sister White says in one of her writings that when the latter rain is poured out, many parts of our machinery, that is the church structure, will be swept away by it. It'll just be swept away because you can't put new wine into old wine skins. and the the um the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, what we see now with Set Free in Christ, with Liver Ministry, and with um the Dream Project is is just stuff beyond our wildest imagination. And it's it's Jesus at work, and he's working to save the lost. And so when we engage in this kind of ministry, uh we are we are not going where Jesus has not gone before.

He's already there and he's fighting the battles. We're just partnering with Jesus in this process. and the people we work with, they need a physical human being to work with, but it's really the power and the presence of Jesus that gains the victory in both of these kinds of ministry. And so that's what makes it kind of so exciting actually. You get to see Jesus at work.

But um so that's just kind of an introduction to to this kind of stuff. Um if you want to come to the training, there it is there. And uh you can write to us at this website here and uh you can um make make a booking if you want. We're going to limit it to about 100 people. Um, but if you're in a church that wants to know more about this or to have this kind of ministry in your church, it's worth coming along to this.

Yeah. So, um, any comments or thoughts on what we've covered so far? It's getting tired. It's quarter 5 and my brain's going to run into the dark ground soon. So, yes, brother.

So, it's really easy to say those people over there have a problem. Yes. What about What about us? Yes. So, I heard Disney mention, how many of us in this room have a Disney movie sitting in our house?

Yes. Or a movie or something on our computer that has Satan's fingerprints all over it. Mhm. So, can you give us some practical steps so that we do not allow Satan to have footholds in our homes and things we need to do to be better equipped and prepared? So let's start with the biblical principles.

When Josiah became king in 2 Chronicles and when Hezekiah became king, the first thing they did was to they cleansed the land of all elements of Baal worship. They got rid of the statues, they got rid of the altars, they got rid of the groves, the high places, the tombs, everything was just eliminated and that was kind of like a national cleansing so the worship of Yahweh could be supreme. in Acts chapter 19 when the gospel came to Ephesus um they they they they had all their books of magic and those were worth a lot of money 50,000 dinari I think it was and if you ever been to ancient Ephesus you know that the biggest building in town was the library and it's still the facade is it's like four stories high it's huge they had a place to make a gift of those books they could have gifted those precious manuscripts to the the Ephesus of li the library in Ephesus but what they did was they put them in the streets and they burnt them in public. So you get the idea in both old and new testament that when when somebody wants to devote their life to God, there is there's like a cleansing of the house. And so uh when I visit with somebody, I visit with a head elder or I go with a deaconess.

Um we go through every room and we're just looking for anything that has any connection with the occult. Have you been to Thailand? You have a statue of the Buddha. Have you have you been to Haiti on a mission trip and brought back a wooden mask, face mask? Have you um did you have a grandma involved in the occult?

Was she a witch? Was she reading tarot cards? Was she doing fortune telling? Yes. Did your grandmother give you anything before she died?

Yes. She gave me this little amulet. You're looking for anything like that. And uh then you look at the the the stack of DVDs, the music the music selection and the the holiest of holy for people these days is the internet viewing history. Internet viewing history.

You tell them to open up the internet browser and click on view history and you'll see at a glance what that person really feeds their soul with. That's the most private part of a modern man's life is the internet viewing history. particularly at 2 am. That's what tells you what they're really like. And so you collect everything and you can point it out to people, but they have to physically pick it up and take it out and they they don't just give it to the neighbor or to, you know, a thrift store.

They have to destroy it. That may mean taking a hammer and setting on fire. And I've got a a video on my computer here of us doing this in Cambodia with animists. They collect all the spirit worship paraphernalia. They put it in the front of the house, put gasoline on it and set it on fire in front of the whole community.

Everybody knows this is now a Christ worshshiping house, not a spirit worshipping house. So in our own lives, we need to ask ourselves, do I have a Netflix account? What am I watching? Maybe it's best just to disconnect Netflix. How much time am I spending on media and how much time am I spending in the word of God?

Do I actually know what I believe or do I kind of think that my pastor's okay and he'll get me through to heaven? Um, do I do I have these trinkets from overseas? Um, do I have a history in the occult? Have I been through satanic ritual abuse? Do I have any family members involved in the occult?

Have they given me any gifts in the past? All those things need to be cleared out of my my life. And as a general rule, what we use for entertainment in America is the very thing that Jesus died to save us from. I need to be looking primarily at my entertainment choices. What am I feeding my brain with?

That's going to that's the obvious place to start looking whether I have opened doors to Satan in my life. And if I'm honest with myself, I need to ask the Lord to help me to close those doors and repent of that sin and get rid of get get rid of it. And then it's not just to get rid of stuff. We want to put in its place something that is spiritually positive and wholesome and pure. So as I talk about porn, most men go to porn when there's an acronym halt.

When you're hungry, angry, lonely, tired. If you go into porn when you're when you're tired, then go to bed when you get tired. Simple. Um, I get as Satan attacks me. When I get tired, I get discouraged.

And I lead a faith-based ministry. Therefore, when I get back from Southeast Asia, I've got jet lag for about 48 72 hours in the office. I don't make a decision in those 48 hours because it's not a decision based on faith. is coming out of a discouraged spirit because I'm just exhausted. So when I get tired, I go to bed.

I know because if I stay up too late and the older I get, the quicker that bedtime becomes, the the old the more tired I get, the more discouraged I get, the more likely I am to lose faith and to make bad decisions in leadership role. So when I recognize my boundaries, I'm not going to go I'm going to stay away from that edge. And so I can walk by Buffalo Wild Wings because I've never tasted alcohol in my life. I have no attraction to go in. But a guy who's been an alcoholic, who's recovered alcoholic, it's torture to walk past that and the door swings open and the smells come out just as too many memories associated with that.

So this calls for a measure of grace that some people in the church have stricter boundaries in some areas than others just because of the background they've come from. So I think brother, you know, looking at our entertainment choices, looking at the books we read, you know, ladies, are you reading 50 Shades of Gray? That's the top selling book to women in the last 10 years. Over 50 million copies sold to women. If you don't know what it is, praise the Lord.

If you do know what it is, you need to repent. Okay? Then there were 50 darker shades of gray and stuff like that. Well, don't read it. So you keep wearing your black.

You'll be okay. But don't wear don't read that book. Yes. Um and and so it's it's recognizing that I have these sins. It may be asking those nearest and dearest to you for an honest feedback on where am I open to Satan?

And they're going to tell you, "Dad, you're great, but you know, when your team loses the ball game, you're a monster for 48 hours. So why don't you stop watching the ball games?" Cuz we all suffer from that. And and so it's it's um it's doing an honest self- evvaluation and maybe asking somebody you trust to take another look at your life with you and to say brother or sister this is good and this is not so good and why don't we replace that which is not of God's kingdom with something that affirms God's presence in your life. So that's a each one of us has a different answer to the specifics of that. Um, but we are to examine ourselves and to be honest with ourselves about the true state of our spiritual walk.

And if you want a quick and dirty test for your spiritual walk, ask yourself when I'm sitting in traffic on a Friday afternoon in rush hour, where does my mind go? Because our minds wander. Where does your mind go? Does it fantasize? Does it daydream?

Is it paralyzed by fear? Is it looking forward to the Sabbath? Where does your mind go when it's not focused on work and and you're just sitting in the car and you're just stuck there? Where does your mind go? It's a good indicator of where you are spiritually as well.

So, we've we've spoken for a long time today. We just had two and a bit hours on this and um we haven't talked about an awful lot, but it's just kind of like an introduction to this stuff. Um it's been a pleasure being with you today and thank you for your warm hospitality every one of you and um as you know I'm transitioning from AFM to A&P and um that's a big change in my life. I I'm going from a salary in healthcare to no salary and no healthcare. That that's like a big change in life and I've got a wife and a kids and mortgage and so forth.

So this is like um a step of faith and God has always come through in life but you know I'm praying about this kind of hard right now but uh sometimes that sometimes transitions in life are necessary and I'm basically doing this because um the powers that be destroyed village church and pastor Kelly to get to me and they'll they'll destroy AFM to get to me as well. So, I'm stepping aside so my missionaries don't get hurt. And so, I understand that's the price to be paid uh for the preaching and just trusting that God is going to lead in the coming months ahead. It's called as a needle to the pole. I thought of the book education would be a good good place to start and it's it's anp.org an number22p.org or online and um I submitted my resignation last Sabbath sun last Sabbath night about midnight and the board accepted it Sunday morning and by 5:00 that afternoon it was up online.

It was remarkably quick and but this has been in the works for at least two two and a half years with a 501c3 behind it and stuff like that. But I I've come to the conclusion that time is so short that I want my gifts to be used in the best way possible for God's kingdom. And I can do administration or I can do preaching. They can hire another administrator, but there's not many preachers willing to preach such just unadulterated truth. So, I'm going to focus on that.

And that's my contribution to end times. And that means a big loss, you know, loss of sacrifices and so forth. But I think uh given the seriousness of where we are in salvation history, we should all be asking ourselves, am I using the my life, my energy, my gifts in the best way possible for God's cause? And that involves some of us making some hard decisions as my wife and I have made recently. So, thank you very much everybody and God bless.

[Applause] I think now's the time we can schedule for your next time to come here. I think that's what 2028. It's 27. I think 27. Anybody want him to come back?

Thank you. I can tell by your applause and feedback that we've all been blessed here today and Dr. Vine's definitely starting out on a new venture in his life and we all commit to praying for him. Would you pray for us? Dear heavenly father, Lord, I thank you that you've raised up this group of disciples.

Father, we're drawn from every corner of the world, from Asia and Europe and Africa and the Americas. But I thank you, Father, that we're all marching to our heavenly home. Lord, I pray that your Holy Spirit will fall upon this congregation. That you give them a spirit of unity, of purpose. There'll be an overflowing of brotherly and sisly love across and among them all.

I pray Lord that you'll rebuke the attacks of Satan as he seeks to take one one lamb at a time and drive them out of your kingdom. I pray Lord you'll rebuke the attacks of those demons that the members here will experience victory in Christ and that the demons will be afraid of them rather than be wanting to attack them. Father, I pray for the leaders of this church, for the elders, the Sabbath school teachers, the deacons and deacons, all the treasure and the clerk. They all have important part parts to play in your kingdom. Father, may they lead with compassion.

May they remember that a flock can only go as fast as the slowest lamb. Father, may they never cease to go looking for the wandering sheep and to bring them back into your kingdom. Father, I pray that this this house of this church as a building will be a house of prayer for people of all nations. That people will be drawn here because they sense and experience the presence of our living heavenly father. So Lord, grow this congregation.

May they grow in strength, in grace, in truth, and in numbers. And I pray, Father, that this church will be a light on a hill that can never be hidden till Jesus comes again. Father, I pray your blessing upon um our pastor here, Lord. He's a volunteer pastor. I was learning the history last night and I just see your hand in this church, Lord.

10 years of incredible transformation. And I'm asking, Lord, that you'll give them many, many more years of incredible growth and um coming together and that this church will be a living uh living um living uh breathing manifestation of the body of Christ when Jesus comes in the clouds of glory. So, Father, I commit this uh congregation into your hands. Fill them with your spirit. Watch over them with your angels.

May they walk in grace and truth. May people know that whoever comes here will spend time with Jesus of Nazareth. In his holy name, we thank you for these mercies. Amen. And Lord, I want to add to this prayer for Conrad Vine as he's taking a huge step here as he's leaving AFM and he's starting his own ministry.

We just pray that you put your hands on him and around him and his family. What a big decision. But Lord, he has faith in you. We have we have witnessed that in his testimonies to us. So Lord, use him to glorify your name and just be the the ministry, the light in the world that you want him to be.

Thank you, Lord, for each and every person here and that has committed to pray for him and be with us all now as we go our separate ways to our different homes and just keep our eyes focused on you. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you all.

Thank you.