Greetings, friends, and new listeners. Welcome to the R.G. Hardy Ministries program. I'm Sharon Knotts, thanking you for joining us today, because we know that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Today's message by my father, Brother Hardy, is another devil-chasing message.
It's entitled "Give No Place to the Devil." The Bible tells us that Satan walks about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. But we are to resist him steadfast in the faith, because if you don't, you open the door to demonic harassment.
So let's lend an ear to hear: Give no place to the devil. I'm preaching about neither give place to the devil. Once the Lord delivers you, when you call on Him in repentance, the Spirit of God takes the blood, cleanses you from past sin, takes the seed of Word of God, and begets you into a new creation, and imparts to you the Sonship, Spirit, the divine nature. The only power that the devil has over you is what you let him have, because you are dashing about by the mighty power of God. Like Peter said, we are kept, we are guarded by the power of God.
As we keep our experience up day by day, renewing that anointing, then greater is He that is in us. And we are of God, and we have overcome them. You see, we've overcome the devil. We don't have to overcoming. We've overcome the world.
We don't have to overcoming. All we have to do is resist the enemy when he tries to get back in. All we have to do is resist the world when he tries to get back in. All we got to do is resist the flesh and keep him crucified. Paul said, "I am crucified with Christ." Nevertheless, I live; yet not I, but Christ that liveth in me.
And the life that I now live in my flesh, my human being, I live according by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I've got the control. You have got the control. God has given the control back to you, and we are to now yield that control to the Holy Spirit. And if He's in us, and we yield that control, then He will lead and guide us in the all truth.
And it is the truth that gives us the victory. For you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Greater, greater is the Holy Ghost power. In the power of God, than any power of the world, than any power of the devil, we have already been delivered. We have already defeated the devil, and all we got to do is now walk in the light and in the truth, and resist the devil and give him no place.
And we will stay victorious and be more than a conqueror through Him that has loved us and gave Himself for us. Let me get the greatest illustration of this message in the Bible to me. That's the story of Samson.
Now, Samson was a type of the Holy Ghost-filled Christian. He was the only one in Israel that the Spirit of God followed and quickened him. And made him invincible against his enemy. His enemy could not defeat him. He was invincible, undefeatable, because he was full of the Holy Spirit of God.
Why? One time, the enemy, after trying to get him on an open field, To defeat him, they couldn't do it. He would defeat him, battle after battle. Why they heard that Samson was in the city, and they said, "Our God has answered our prayer and put our enemy in a vulnerable place, in a closed-in city." And while Samson slept, they locked the gates and they surrounded the city with the whole Philistine army. The Philistines are a type of the devil and demon power, and they were the enemy of Israel in this period.
They were always coming to try to bring them into servitude. In fact, God's children were in servitude at the time. The only one was free was the one that was full of the Holy Ghost. Sam, he was the only one free, and could not be brought into bondage. They slept confidently, believing that they had their enemy enclosed in the city, their armies all around it.
But in the middle of the night, God woke up Samson, and when he went to the gate, of the city, they were locked. Oh, but all things are possible to him that believes. Hallelujah! The Spirit of God came upon him and began to energize and activate him, and he picked up those gates.
Now, most of the walls of those cities were a hundred feet or two hundred feet high. Just think how high those gates were, but the Holy Ghost's power came upon him. And he tore those gates off the hinges and grabbed one of his left hand and one of his right hand, just like two tablets, and picked them up and carried them on top of the mountain outside of that city as a monument to the delivering power of the Son of God. I'm gonna say, "Amen." And if you're a child of God that's obeying God and obedient, even if it looks like you're. That the mighty power of God will be energized in your life, and you'll carry away the gates of the opposition and set them on top of the hill as a monument of God's delivering power.
When the Philistines woke up the next day, the soldiers come running to the generals and said, "The gates are gone." Samson's gone, and the gates are on top of that mountain. If you'd have been a soldier on that day and just coming to the city, you'd have seen the whole Philistine army scurrying around like ants, trying to get wagons and equipment to get them gates down from the city. I mean, from the mountain to the city, because those generals knew that if they didn't get those gates up that night, the enemy would come in and destroy them, and they were feverishly trying to get those gates on some kind of carts to get them down to that city and wall, and they reerect them. And you could be there as a visitor or a news reporter. You are there.
It's the day after Samson has carried the gates away and set them on a hill as a memorial to God's power, and you are there. And finally, you get one of the generals and saying, "What's all of us to do? What's all of us bustle? What's all of us activity?" And the general says, "Where have you been?" I mean, you've been here. Don't you know that we had our enemy, the Holy Ghost filled Samson, that one Holy Ghost filled man said we conquered everybody else.
We conquered all that the children of God said, but we couldn't conquer that one Holy Ghost filled man. Said he's defeated us on every time, and said we thought we had him last night. We found out by our reliable spies he was in the city, and we thought we had him—that what Holy Ghost filled man—and we brought all of our army. You know, it's going to take us all to get him. And said we stopped every campaign and every battle, and we surrounded the city, and we thought in the morning.
We'll go open the gates and we'll get Samson and be rid of that one enemy. The Holy Ghost filled Christian said, "But do you know what happened?" And he said, "No, what happened?" Said, "Wow, we were resting.
Somehow Samson woke up, and we don't know how he did it because we don't even know if we got enough soldiers to get him back down." Said, "But somehow." He carried dudes and gates. See him on the hill there. Said he carried them gates up there and escaped. Said, "Man, we got a job. I got all my soldiers.
I got all my slaves. I got everybody. In fact, you can get in and help us. We got to get these gates back down. We got to get these gates and close them.
Or tonight the enemy will kill us. And that one Holy Ghost man, he did it. He's escaped. You see." Samson was invincible. He was a type of the Holy Ghost baptized, Last Day Christian.
Here, he had a special birth, just like you and I. He was a type of Jesus. He was a deliverer. He was born to be a deliverer. God gave his parent Samson so that he would deliver Israel, just like Jesus was given by God to deliver the world.
He was the only one, full of the Holy Ghost. He had a special regimen from God. They were never to put a razor to his head. He was never to cut his hair. There was no power in his hair, but the seven locks that he wove his hair in was a sign of his dedication and consecration to God, separation to deliver mankind.
As long as he kept his consecration, as long as he kept his separation, as long as he kept his sign, the Holy Ghost would come upon him, and he was invincible. Why, one time on the battlefield, the Philistine said, "Well, we can't get him in the city. We haven't been able to get him in the battlefield. Here's how we're going to get him. We're going to go to the elders of his city." And tell them that except they deliver Samson in our hands, then you shall suffer the consequence.
Samson heard what the elder said and said, "All right, I'll let you bind me up." Because the Philistines stipulated, bind him in a new rope. Make sure it's new, because the old ones he breaks. You're going to find out he breaks the new ones too, because Jesus breaks every fetter and sets the captive free. Samson said, "All right, I'll give myself, myself to you. You can bind me." Said, "But don't none of you fall on me, because if you do, I'm going to have to kill you." So he gave himself like Jesus did, as a lamb before his slaughterer was done.
Jesus gave himself to be crucified to save the world. Samson gave himself into the hands of the enemy. The enemy didn't take him. He gave himself into the hands of the enemy. To save his people, just like the devil didn't defeat Jesus, Jesus gave himself to the enemy.
They didn't crucify him; the Lord crucified himself. When they put him on the cross, the Lord put himself on the cross, and they thought they had got rid of their. Antagonist and enemy, the Lord. But they found out that the Lord had power to lay His life down, and the Lord had power to take it up. And like Samson, when Samson said to the Philistines, "Are my people safe?
They have done what you asked them, and you won't do anything to them because they delivered me." And when Samson knew the people were safe, because the Philistine said. The people have kept their word, and we won't do anything to them. Then Samson, you know what he said. Here's I can almost hear what he said. Said, "Devil, you're in trouble." And when he knew that God's people were safe, Samson took a jawbone of an ass because the whole time they were leading him out of that city, that old court jester usually was a dwarf, had a jawbone of an ass.
Samson all bound up looked like he was bound up, looked like he was defeated, and an old jester would jab him in the knee because he was probably that short and wasn't any higher, couldn't hit him any higher. With the jawbone saying, "Come on, Samson, get me!" But one Samson found out that the children of God were safe, just like Jesus when they took him off the cross. And put him in the tomb. And when he found out we were safe, when we were delivered, when we were set free, he burst out of that tomb. Hallelujah!
With the keys to death and the hell of the grave. When Samson found out that the children of God were safe, he said to the Philistine general, "They have kept your word." They're safe now from your judgment," he said. "Yeah," he said. "You're in trouble." He snatched the jawbone of that ass, and he began to be a spiritual whirlwind because the spirit of God came on him. And he killed one thousand Philistines with the jawbone of an ass until they were heaps upon heaps as memorials to God's delivering power.
Until they called that place Heaps. What a mighty miracle! A jawbone of an ass. But the helmets of the Philistines in those days were an inch and a half thick of the—I'll call it steel or the iron of their day—and who would ever believe in the natural that a jawbone of an ass could penetrate an inch and a half steel? Why, you'd have thought if he'd hit it, you'd shatter that bone, and the more you hit it, the more you shatter it.
But the Holy Ghost made Samson a tornado, a hurricane, and he went through one thousand of the elite troops of the Philistines. And with that jawbone of an ass—a joke God uses to foolish things—a jawbone of an ass. And he penetrated that inch and a half. He penetrated their skin, their bone, and crushed their brain, and heaped them up one thousand in heaps all over the place.
Someone said, "Ah, it's hard to believe." Well, you know what? They got a place in Florida called Ripley. Believe it or not, Ripley, Florida, and it used to be a feature in the Sunday paper. Believe it or not, by Ripley. And he'd have something unbelievable.
It seemed like that was a fact. But down there, believe it or not, Florida, and they've got a tree about so big around, and in that tree is a straw. In it, through it, half in it, outside on this side, half out on this side, and the rest of the body in it. Why? That's unbelievable.
Because you can take a straw and put it between your fingers and go like that and crush it, but how could that happen? Because during a hurricane, a tornado got that piece of straw and made it so rigid that it drove it right through that tree, and that's what happened with the jawbone of an ass, Samson. Picked that jawbone up, and the spirit of God spun him like a whirlwind, and made that thing rigid until he heaped up his enemies, one thousand of them, in heaps and heaps and heaps and heaps. Samson was invincible. He could not.
He was not defeated on the battlefield. Child of God, you won't be defeated on the battlefield. As long as you keep obedient in your faith in the Lord, you'll never be defeated. Another one, David was never defeated on the battlefield. They were invincible because David said one time, "By my God, I broke through the troops.
He was surrounding to break through it." The next time he said, "By my God, I leaped over a wall." He had his back against the wall. They were invincible on the battlefield. But where they were defeated is they gave place to the devil. The enemy could not defeat Samson as long as he was. Obedient and had faith in God, the power of God was there to guard him.
The power of God was there to energize him, and with a jawbone of an ash, he could defeat the elite of the enemy. And as long as we're obedient and walk in faith, the power of God will be energized in our life. And with the foolishness of speaking a word, we can defeat our enemy. Amen. What a powerful word by God's servant, Brother Hardy.
Give no place to the devil. Do you know that this verse of Scripture, Ephesians 4:27, in the Greek text actually says, "Stop giving place to the devil. Stop an activity already in action. Because as Christians, we often open up the door to the enemy when we make provision for our flesh to fulfill the lust thereof." Or we allow Satan to intimidate us with a spirit of fear, which has torment. Or we disregard the laws of health and jeopardize our bodies to weakness and disease.
It's time to stop giving the devil place. Stop giving him an opening and an advantage over us, because we are not ignorant of his devices, his schemes, or his motives. This is another devil-chasing, head-bruising message you need in your spiritual arsenal. It is available on CD for a love gift of ten dollars or more to the Radio Ministry. Ask for offer one eighty-nine.
Our mailing address is Brother Hardy, P.O. Box one seven four four, Baltimore, Maryland two one two zero three, or shop online at rghardy.org. That's rghardy.org. There you will find other faith boosting and spiritual arming messages by my father, brother Hardy, and myself. Again, the mailing address is P.O.
Box One Seven Four Four, Baltimore, Maryland Two One Two O Three, and the offer number for the message "Give No Place to the Devil" is One Eighty Nine. Until next time, this is Sister Sharon saying, "Maranatha."
