Okay. Greetings, friends, and new listeners. Welcome to The Sound of Faith. I'm Sharon Knotts, thanking you for joining us today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. The message you will hear today.
Hindering Spirits vs. Ministering Spirits is the first of the five-part series, Spirits, Angels, and Demons. You are probably familiar with the term ministering spirits, describing God's angels sent forth to aid and protect His children. But there are also hindering spirits sent forth from our adversary, Satan, to impede our progress on our Christian race, and prevent doors of opportunity from opening. Where did they come from?
Find out in hindering spirits versus ministering spirits. And so, this is what I want you to see: that there are ministering spirits that God sends. And then there are hindering spirits that Satan dispatches.
So where did they come from? How do we get these hindering spirits or these hindering angels?
Well, we know that when Lucifer fell, in the ageless past, We know that when he fell, He took one-third. Of the angels with him. Amen. Turn into Ezekiel, the twenty-eighth chapter. You may know these verses well, but for the sake of those who may not, or people who may hear this message later.
We want to have the scriptures for them.
So let's look in Ezekiel 28, and let's start at verse 11. Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him. Thus saith the LORD God. Thou sealest up the sum full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden in the Garden of God.
This one little phrase here tells us this was not a human. Amen. Every precious stone was thy covering the sardias, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold. Again, This is not a human. This is a very exotic angel.
The workmanship of thy tablets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Again, not a human. I ministered on this not too long ago, that he had musical instruments built into him. And now we know for sure it's not a human. Verse 14 says, Thou art the anointed cherub.
That covers And I have set thee so. And thou wast upon the holy mountain of God, and hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. That means he walked up and down right in front of the throne of Almighty God. And thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created. Till Iniquity was found in thee.
And by the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned. Therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God, and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, and thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness. I will cast thee to the ground. I will lay thee before kings that they may behold thee.
Oh wow, that day's coming. Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities. I want you to receive this next phrase: by the iniquity of thy traffic. Therefore, will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth. In the sight of all them that behold thee.
So what Ezekiel is telling us here, and by the way, we won't turn there today, but the companion passage that identifies and names him as Lucifer would be Isaiah 14. But here we see that Lucifer was an anointed sherub. And he was the highest. Of the cherub. He had the stones, the jewels.
In his person, and he had musical instruments in his person. I mean, I just can't even imagine what he must have been like. He was so extraordinarily beautiful. And not only that, he had superlative wisdom. I mean he was God's highest At that time, the highest creation that we know of in the Bible.
Amen. But what happened? He began to focus. on his own beauty. He focused on his own beauty and self-focus is dangerous.
Now, I know today, if you go to the psychiatrist, you go to the psychologist and the therapist, they're going to have you focusing, focusing, focusing on yourself. And looking in there and all that sort of thing, that's not the Bible way to do it. Amen. And so we see here that this is what caused Satan to fall. That he was focused on his extraordinary beauty.
It was not imagined. It was not exaggerated. He wasn't thinking something that wasn't true. It was a fact. He was beautiful.
He was extraordinary. He was wise. But because he focused on it, It began to corrupt. corrupt his thinking and corrupt his wisdom. He looked around and he could not see anyone superior to him.
When he looked at all of God's creatures, no one was superior to him. But he then made the mistake of thinking that he was equal to his creator. And the thing created cannot be equal to the Creator. It's not possible. Amen.
And we know if you read in Isaiah where he said, I will ascend to the throne. I will be the most high. I'm going to sit on the throne in the mount of congregation.
So that's what happened to him. But what I want you to see is what we read here. It says, by reason of thy traffic. Isn't that kind of an unusual thing? By the iniquity of thy traffic.
And also, what we read in verse 16: by the multitude of thy merchandise.
Now, these are very.
Sort of strange words in this setting, merchandise and traffic. But if we go and we get the meaning of them, we basically find this out. He was going amongst all the angels of God. Slandering God. That's what it boils down to.
He was going from one angel to the other angel, and he was telling them: you know, I can take the throne. I can take the throne. And he was able to convince them. I mean, he had to be convincing because it's a very high risk to try to dethrone God. But somehow he managed to convince a third of them.
Now, whether he demonstrated some sort of supernatural things, or it was just with his gift of speech, whatever he did, he went from one to the other. You know what? I got, this is speculation, but you know, I know how the enemy works. He probably said, come with me. And I'll give you a position.
I'll give you a better job than you've got now. Just come with me, and I will exalt you higher. Amen. And somehow or another, he was able to convince one Yeah. Of the angels to go with him.
And you say, Well, I don't see that here.
Well, I'm telling you that what he did was go around slandering God. Amen. You don't have to turn there, but I'll tell you where you can find it in Revelation, the 12th chapter. Verse 4 says, Now using the metaphor that Satan is a dragon and his tail. Drew a third part of the stars, and that refers to angels, the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth.
Verse 9, and the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the devil, and his angels were cast out with him.
So when we put Isaiah 14. Ezekiel 28. and Revelation 12 all together we get the picture of what happened. Satan Was cast out. Remember, Jesus said to his disciples when they came back all happy, we were able to cast out the devils in your name.
He was like What, that's not a big deal. I saw Satan fall as lightning from heaven. Amen? Amen? Of course you can cast him out.
In my name. Amen? And so. We know that when Satan was cast out, One-third of the angels that he convinced to go up against God in that rebellion, those who rebelled with him were cast out with him. Yeah.
We know that God created them to be ministering spirits. They were trained. To minister on behalf of God, to follow out His commandments, to go and minister to God's people. How many Old Testament stories? Think of them.
Just let your mind come up with a couple of them. How many times did angels come? and deliver. Israel. You know, almost every battle they were always outnumbered, outmanned, outarmed.
Amen? And always God intervened supernaturally. One time that they were able to, David and his men were able to go up against the enemy, and they just went with a frontal attack, and they had victory. And then the enemy came back against them. And so David, being wise, inquired of the Lord.
He did not assume, well, let's do it the same way we did it before, because it worked that time, it'll work this time. Never assume anything. Always go back to God. And say, Lord, I know you work this way. But do you want to work that way again, or do you want to do something else?
And God told David: don't do it what you did before. This time, I want you to sneak behind and ambush them. And do not make a move or a sound. Until you hear rustling. in the tops of the mulberry trees.
And so David obeyed. What is up with this rustling in the mulberry trees? Amen? Now, it's not in your scriptures, but the rabbis of that Jewish wisdom teach that it was the sound of the feet of the angels that God dispatched. Amen.
And so when they heard the rustling of the mulberry trees, amen. The enemy, they were frightened, amen. And then David and his men, they came up from behind them. And like I tell you, God said, He, actually, the King James says, go and make ambushments. That's the words used in the King James.
Make ambushments. You say, What is an ambushment? I believe it's angels in the bushes. Amen. God sends angels in the bushes, and He said, when you hear them rustling, it's time to move.
Because I will give you the victory.
So these angels that fell with Satan were trained to be ministering spirits. But in their corrupted state, They're now using their training. to be hindering spirits. Amen. And now their goal and their purpose is to hinder, to obstruct.
To discourage, amen, the saints from running the race. And to impede and stop the ministry from preaching the gospel. Amen. They're allied with Satan. And now They are sent to hinder the kingdom of God.
So they're going to try to harass you. To vex you, discourage you, whatever they can do to stop you from fulfilling your call in Christ and finishing your race and your course with joy. And they will relentlessly, relentlessly try to come against you to elbow you. and cause you to stumble. And at some point we've got to get smart.
At some point, we gotta wise up and we gotta realize that when we keep getting pushed back, push back, push back, it's hindering spirits. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
And if you know that you see a pattern in your life, that you go so far and do so good for so long, and then you hit this point where you always seem to start, uh. and losing ground. You need to know, you need to understand that these are hindering spirits that have figured out a way. that have figured out some sort of open door. Amen.
that try to come against you. And probably, whatever it was that really had you bound before you came to Christ and got set free and delivered, amen, the enemy knows that thing that really held you in sin. He knows that thing, amen. And he will try to send hindering spirits to come against you in that same manner, amen, to try to just elbow you and get you distracted and get you to fall. And if you keep having problems with the same old sort of test and trial over and over again, we're all going to have tests, folks.
We're all going to have trials. God's going to purify our faith until we leave this earth. It's going to need to be purified, and he's going to keep doing it. Amen. But if we keep falling in the same thing, we need to think: well, maybe these are hindering spirits because, like Paul said, I tried to come not one time, not two times, again and again, but Satan hindered me.
Amen. Now here's the good news. There are more for us. Yeah, these landscape then are against us. That's the good news.
Amen, does more for you. Then are against you. We know that's true. Amen. I love the story of Elisha and Gehazi when.
You know, God was speaking in Elisha's ear and telling him all of the war plans of the king of Syria.
So every time they went to carry out their plans, Israel knew ahead of time, and they never were able to catch him because God kept speaking to Elisha in his prayer closet, and Elisha would go and tell the king, and the king would tell the generals. And so this kept happening and happening. And you know, finally, the king of Syria says, We must have a traitor, we have to have a mole. In our cabinet, we got to find out who is the mole. Because Somebody is going back to Israel and telling the king of Israel and his generals everything we're planning to do.
And some very bright person said, King, we don't have a mole. We don't have any traitors. There is a prophet in Israel who prays and God tells him in his prayer closet and whispers in his ear all our plans. And the king said. Oh, really?
One, just one man? One prophet, one man who prays and God hears and answers, well, then I know what we need to do. We just need to go get rid of that one man. And if we get rid of that one prophet, we'll be good.
So we know that they sent the whole army. Imagine that. And Elisha was staying in a town called Dauphin, and here One morning, Gehazi, his servant, got up and went outdoors. Maybe he went to get the chicken coop to get some eggs and fix breakfast. But when he went out, he looked and terror seized him.
He saw, he could see in the horizon, everywhere he could see. And look, there was the Assyrian army arrayed all around. He went running in. He was terrified. He said to Elisha, oh, my father, my father, we are in big, big trouble.
The whole city is surrounded by the Syrian army. And Elijah says, Don't worry about it, just scramble them eggs the way I like them. And then he said, Lord, Open up his eyes. And let him see That there be more for us. That be against us.
And when his eyes were opened, he saw the angels of God, and they are mighty in power, and they excel in strength. Amen. So, you can read that story later because it's a good story. In 2 Kings 6. Amen.
And we know that we are asking Romans: if God be for us, who can be against us? And so we know that's the good news.
So, what we have to understand is. We've got to understand what Satan is doing and be ahead of him. There's a verse in 2 Corinthians 2:11 that says. We are not ignorant of Satan's devices. And the Greek word for device.
Is Noema. No EMA, and it has to do with the mind. It has to do with thoughts.
So, in other words, we are not ignorant of the way our adversary thinks. Or the mind games he plays. Amen. We're not ignorant of that. And so we know How he operates.
And if you've been saved any length of time, you know how he comes against you. You know, if he tries to use a spirit of fear, put it on you. A spirit of intimidation and put it on you. Amen. You know, if he just comes and outrights lies.
lies to you and and almost makes you think that the lie is reality. You know if he comes and tries to put a spirit of weakness on you or infirmity on you, amen, or whatever it might be, but you know the way that he plays his game. You know, if he tries to come against you, triggering a bad temper. that you used to have problems with in the world. When you were in the world, you couldn't control your temper.
If someone pushed the wrong button, you were ready to fight. Scream, yell, curse. Whatever. Beat somebody up. That was the way that you worked it.
That was your default setting. Until you got saved. And God reprogrammed your mind. Amen. Give you some new software up there.
Hallelujah. You know, you just because you had a bad temper in the world doesn't mean you can go through the rest of your life punching people, slapping them, and hollering at them and saying, Well, I can't help it. That's the way I was made. You might have been born with that bad thing, but you've been born again. You'll hear a lot of white people say, it's just the Irish in me.
It's the Italian in me. It's the devil in you. I don't have either one of those that I know of. Yeah. Amen.
Of course, who knows? We're all like Heinz 57. If the truth be told. And so the good news is, we're not ignorant of Satan's thoughts. And we know another time that Paul said in Ephesians 4:27.
He said Be angry? And sin not, let not the sun go down on your wrath.
Next verse. Give no place to the devil. Everybody gets angry. Even God gets angry. And we're made in his image and likeness.
We will get angry. Amen. But we cannot in our anger Get out of control and sin. That's the thing. We can't sin in our anger.
And if you're a Christian and you have a problem, when you get really upset, you start cussing. You need deliverance. You need deliverance. A spirit is coming against you to cause you to keep falling in that. Amen?
That is not the Holy Spirit. You know what his nine fruit are, and that's not one of them. That is not one of them. There's temperance, but there's not temper. Temperance is self-control.
And when the Holy Spirit is in control, you will get angry. You may feel your face get hot. You may feel your neck start swelling, and you may even have to speak. firmly, boldly, harshly. But it should not be cursing.
It should not be nasty, hateful, mean-spirited things. That have nothing really to do with the situation. You get off the point, and see what people start doing is they start arguing beside the point. And then they get way out here, and a lot of hurtful, mean things are said that don't even have anything to do with the issue that needs to be addressed, and they argue beside the point.
So when you're with people like that, you gotta just try to keep bringing them back to the point. bring them back to the point. You cannot let them trigger. Because they said something off the point, and it really angered you that you're going to jump over there in that place. And then the real issue here is never even fixed.
Or addressed or talked about. Amen. So you got to see that you're not ignorant of his devices and you're not going to give him place. And you know, I've taught this before, so I just cannot skip over it. In the Greek, the tense for neither give place to the devil is a present negative, a present negative.
You say, why do I care? Because what it means is the action is already in progress. A negative action is already in progress. Amen? So let me just make it easy.
Stop. giving place to the devil. The inferences you're already giving them place, cut it out. Stop it! And this is a work for all of us if we know certain things that we fall into.
Amen. We know it that we need to try to avoid those places if we can avoid them. And if we can't, because they blindsided us. Amen. Then we need to say, I'm not ignorant of Satan's devices.
I'm not going to give place to the devil and let this thing go the way he wants it to go. I just see a big elbow hit me in my gut. Tryin' to knock me off my pace. And I'm not going to let him do it. Amen.
These are all basic fundamental Christian scriptures. Uh Amen. What an insightful teaching on hindering spirits versus ministering spirits. Scripture tells us that God sends forth his ministering spirits, angels, to each of us for protection and assistance that we may complete our assignments on the earth. But we also come against hindering spirits whose objective is to oppose, harass, and block our progress.
Because they were God's angels before joining Lucifer in his rebellion against God, they have excellent training and they did not lose their training when they fell, but now, in their corrupted state, they used their training in alliance with Satan against us. Hindering spirits vs. Ministering Spirits is the first teaching in my five-part series, Spirits, Angels, and Demons, which include familiar spirits, seducing and aligned spirits, man-fearing spirits, and bailbusters and troublemakers. This album of five CDs can be ordered for a love gift of $25 or more for the radio ministry. Request SK 185.
Mail to Sound of Faith PO Box 1744 Baltimore, Maryland, 21203, or go online to soundoffaith.org, where you may also order on MP3s. I strongly urge you to get this powerful series the Holy Spirit has given me. It is thorough but simple and scripturally sound. You will learn much.
So order today. Send $25 to PO Box 1744 Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Request SK185 for spirits, angels. Angels and demons. Till next time, this is Sharonat Sain Maranatha.
