Give No Place to the Devil, Part 3

Greetings, friends and new listeners.

Welcome to the R.G. Hardy Ministries program. I'm Sharon Notts 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 greater of she that is in you than he that is in the world. I'm preaching about Give No Place to the Devil. I'm preaching about that the only power the devil has over an obedient, believing child of God is what the child of God lets him have.

I'm talking about we are sons and not slaves. I'm talking about that we are guarded, garrisoned, and kept by the power of God, that we are invincible as long as we stay in obedience and in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ. The enemy can't defeat us. In fact, greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world. And we are of God and we have overcome them.

And that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens and energizes us. Samson was undefeatable on the battlefield as long as he stayed full of the Spirit and walked in obedience and in faith in God. But the enemy tricked him.

That's why we're commanded to be sober, be vigilant. For our adversary, the enemy, is the roaring lion, is seeking whom he may devour. But the Bible said, Then submit yourself to God and resist him and he will flee you. And the Philistines, the enemy of Samson that couldn't defeat him on the battlefield, that he whipped him with a tall bone of an ass by the power of God, that they couldn't shut him in the city but escape as the power of God allowed him to take the gates and put them on the hill as a memorial to God and his delivering power, devised a plan to get him to open up the door and the gate like the Trojans did and let the enemy bring in his horse of destruction. He got him to lay in Delilah's lap.

He was invincible on the battlefield and couldn't be defeated. He got defeated in Delilah's lap. And a whole lot of Christians in this last day are getting defeated in the lap of Delilah. Delilah is a type of the world and the desires of the flesh.

The enemy couldn't destroy him as long as he stayed filled of the Spirit and as long as he was obedient and walk in faith he was invincible. But Samson took the bait of the enemy and laid in Delilah's lap because you see the source of his strength that she wanted to find out was his separation and consecration to God. And the source of our strength is our separation from the world and consecration to God for they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles, run and not be weary and walk and not faint.

And the songwriter said, Lord, teach me, Lord, teach me, Lord, how to watch and wait. Come from amongst them, say of the Lord, and be ye separate. Touch not the unclean thing, then I will receive you and you shall be my sons and daughters and I shall be your Father and God.

Therefore, having these promises dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all the filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the sight of God. The devil wanted to know the source of his strength and the source of his strength was not his hair. That was the sign of his covenant with God and separation that he was totally, completely, and absolutely separated to God because the seven locks, seven is a divine perfect number and it means complete, absolute, and perfect. God wanted Samson absolutely, completely, and perfectly separated for his use. Why, he was the only one on the face of the earth that had the power of God and you would have thought that he would have had more sense and realized the blessing that he had than to fall for the trick of the enemy. But we can't condemn him too much because too many of God's people in this last day are falling into the same trap. Oh, he was the only one then but every child of God in this dispensation is promised the power of God. The power of God is for every Christian, not just the Samsons because we're all specially born again, born from above. We're all sons of God.

We are all to be separated and consecrated and dedicated for the use of the Lord. We don't have the Spirit to come upon us, we've got the Spirit running in us. Part of that criteria was that not only the razor was not, his sign was not to be broken, but he couldn't drink wine or small, strong drink because the Spirit of God would come upon him. And if you read in the Old Testament, anyone that would come in contact with the power of God would forbid wine and strong drink or any unclean thing to come in on them or come upon them. And we not only have the Spirit of God to come upon us and we not only have the privilege to come into his presence, but we have the privilege that he's in us.

Cleaner is he that is in you than he is in the world. And we're not to let wine or strong drink or anything that's unclean come into our vessel and desecrate it. For we are the temples of the Holy Ghost.

What know you not that you are a temple of the Holy Ghost, that the Spirit of God dwell in you? If any man had to file the temple, him shall God destroy. And he broke his sign because he fraternized with the enemy. He disobeyed the Lord. And the minute that he disobeyed and fraternized and laid in Delilah's lap, his sign was broke.

And pretty soon it was going to be totally removed. And the enemy was probing for the source, but he didn't have to probe because Samson, like the citizens of Troy, let the horse in. Opened the gate and let the enemy in. Until finally he laid in Delilah's lap so long that when he told her the source of his power, it was already gone for she clipped the hair. It was gone.

Said, you broke your consecration, you might as well remove the sign. And she cut the sign off. And then she hollered out, Samson!

The Philistines is upon you. Why, you'd have thought the first time that she'd done it, he'd have woke up. I mean, she did it three times. God gave him three times to repent and get back, but he was so blind. That's the sad thing about leaking out of the Spirit.

Though the outward man perished, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. Samson only had three days of anointing, and the third day he was flat empty. It only took him three days out of the fellowship of God to be vulnerable to the enemy. He should have woke up when she got him the first day and did what she said his source of power was and called the enemy on him.

He should have had enough sense to throw that woman aside and say, man, I've been deceived. I've got my eyes opened. I'm going to get back to God and renew my consecration, eradication, and separation so the Spirit can keep moving on me. And the saddest thing about leaking out is you don't know you're empty. And when he leaked out that third day and it was no more Holy Ghost anointing there, and she clipped off the sign because he had already broke the source, his consecration, said the Philistines upon me. And he said to himself, I'll shake myself like other times.

And a whole lot of people are going around doing a whole lot of shaking, but the shaker's going. And he got up and he shook himself, but the Bible said he wished not, W-I-S-T, old English, for he knew not that the Spirit had left him. A whole lot of people say that the Spirit can't leave you. It left him. It left Saul. It left him, and he was empty. And when he realized he was empty and he knew that not only the sign was going, but his consecration was going, he told the Philistines, don't fight.

I'm just like you are. Without the Spirit of God, I'm just like you. And you and I, brother, without the Spirit of God, we're just like any other human being and under the power of the devil. But oh, if greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world, but he's got to be in there.

He's got to be in there. You just can't quote that scripture of greater is he that is in me, and you're empty and dry as last year's bird's nest, and you're as dry as a Texas wind in the middle of July. Brother, you've got to give no place to the devil. Christian, you can't be defeated unless you give the place to the devil.

You're already delivered out of his power and dominion. You've already overcome them, the world, because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. And this is the victory, our faith. Stay in front of the Spirit. Be not filled with wine where it's excess, but be filled with the Spirit.

You've got to do something. You've got to keep your prayer life up. Don't you let nothing get you to come out of your prayer closet. I'm not coming out of my prayer closet.

I don't care what's important. The most important thing is I pray and have strength from God and leading from God to do it. I don't believe that you should get out of your bed without praying.

No, that's my practice. I don't get out of my bed until I first had my prayer with God. I want him to be with me that day. I want him to give me strength for that day. I want him to give me wisdom and guidance and direction for that day.

I want him to walk with me that day. And if Christ is walking with me and he's for me, then greater is he that is in me than any situation and any problem that will confront me that day. And I will be able to do all things through my Christ that energizes me. And I will be an overcomer of those that are in the world and the devil because greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world. And I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me. I'm not going to let anything rob me out of my time with the word of God every day.

They shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. The Bible says keep yourself in the love of God. You've got to have a method to stay victorious. You've got to keep yourself filled. Keep yourself strong in the word. Keep yourself edified and refreshed by his presence.

You've got to have a method. And the method of it is prayer should be the dominating thing of your life every day. Like I said, I don't get out of bed until I pray. And then I pray on and off all day.

Sometimes thanking him for already doing this, asking for special grace as the special need arises. I'm in constant contact. I never have the phone line broke. It's never hung up. It's always on call waiting. I've always got the line open.

And when I need, I just blink it. And the Lord answers, says, what do you want now, Hardy? And I make sure man shall live not by bread alone but by every word. I have a time of meditation in the word. Some people said I read and I don't understand it. Pray first and then began to read the word. And when you get done reading the word, it's not how much you read the word. Some people said I read the whole book and then said I don't know nothing.

I'd rather read one word and understand it. David said, but his delights in the law, the word of God and in that wall, he meditates day and night. You meditate and you'll be like a tree painted by the rivers of water whose fruit bring forth fruit and his seeds and his leaf also shall not wither.

You're not going to get sick and diseased and die ahead of time. And whatsoever you do shall prosper. You want to be able to prosper? You want prosperity? Then meditate in the word day and night because faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. And you know what the word meditate means? To moderate, quote it to yourself and hear it. If a need comes up and it don't look like you can pay it, then quote the scripture, the Lord is my shepherd.

I shall not want. Hallelujah. Then go to the New Testament and say, but in spite of this impossibility looking thing, my God shall supply all of my needs according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. And then the third thing, regular church attendance. Prayer, feasting and meditating on the word, and regular church attendance. God has built something in the church attendance that you can't get anywhere else. How does he cause the weary to be refreshed? Somebody said, Brother Harney, I was too tired to go to church.

I'm too tired not to go. When I'm the tardest, that's the one I want to get there. You know when I want to get in the pulpit?

When I'm the tardest. When I'm weary. That's when I preach the longest. How many know God's formula to refresh the weary? He said in the prophet, Herein is where the weary is refreshed from the times of the seasons of the presence of the Lord.

When you get into the church service and God comes down, you know how mostly on our Sunday morning services and we get the worshiping and then the spirit of God gets it and it starts to go up higher and higher and forms a funnel and then the anointing comes down and the power is here and the presence of the Lord is here and you're refreshed. You're not tired anymore. You're not weary anymore. You know prepared for this message last night, yesterday I was just weary. I was physically exhausted and I told Sister Harney all day, I shouldn't have been saying it, I guess I'm weirder.

Boy, I'm really tired. How am I going to preach that message under those hot lights that zaps you and dissipates your strength? I said, I'm so tired I don't even believe I'll be able to walk in the pulpit.

And we went out and ate our dinner and we came back, did some little bit of shopping and it was about seven o'clock, seven thirty, and I still didn't have one thing to preach this morning. Not that I didn't have messages, I wanted the Lord's message. I had so many messages I was confused what to preach. So the devil said, don't preach any of them. And I knew that was the devil. And I knew what was going to defeat him was preaching. So I'd already told Tom to give me the message, three of them. And one of them was this message, give no place to the devil.

And I put that tape on the recorder and when I began to preach it on the tape, the anointing that God originally anointed it, that tape come off of that tape and got on me. You know what happened? My ankles didn't hurt no more. My back didn't hurt no more.

Nothing didn't hurt anymore. I was so tired before I went up there, I didn't think I was going to keep my eyes open. After I listened to a tape for an hour, I couldn't sleep.

I went to bed and I couldn't sleep because I was refreshed from the times of the presence of the Lord, from the anointing him and he say, amen. Somebody said, I can't read or stumble. Well, get an anointed tape and play it. You ought to be able to pray.

There's no excuse for that. Even if you're dumb and can't talk, you can pray like Hannah in your heart. You don't have to come out of your mouth.

It's got to come out of your heart. I'm not going to let the devil get me out of my prayer closet. I'm not going to let him get me away from my daily eating of the word and I'm not going to let him keep me out of the church for there the power of God comes down in the seasons of refreshing and renews me and greater will be he that is in me than he that is in the world and I will continually resist the devil and he will flee man.

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 $10 or more to the radio ministry. Ask for offer 189. Our mailing address is brother Hardy, P. O. Box 1744 Baltimore, Maryland 2 1 2 0 3 or shop online at RG hardy.org. That's RG hardy.org. There you will find other faith boosting and spiritual army messages by my father, brother Hardy and myself. Again, the mailing address is P. O. Box 1744 Baltimore, Maryland 2 1 2 0 3 and the offer number for the message, give no place to the devil is 189. Until next time, this is sister Sharon saying Maranatha.