How Do You Fight The Devil?

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How do you fight the devil? How do you fight the devil? You know, we look at Ephesians chapter 6. We look at what Jesus... uh how he replied to the devil.

But how do you fight the devil yourself? And I'll start off with Ephesians 6 and verse 10. It says, Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness and high places.

Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto, with all perseverance and supplication, For all saints.

So we want your calls. How do you fight the devil? 866-34 TRUTH, 866-348-7884. One of the ways that I fight the devil is through praise. I can't tell you guys how many times.

I have been in a situation where I start to get depressed. or I start to get down, and when I start to praise the Lord, I'm going to tell you something. It changes the atmosphere. The praise of the saints changes the atmosphere. I'll give you an example.

Many years ago, when I was in a cross assembly, I walked into the church and I just had zero energy, and I felt like I could barely even walk in, but I felt like the Lord was telling me. To walk into the church, and I didn't know why. And I walked in, and I could barely get there, and I sat down. All of a sudden we started praising the Lord, we started singing. It was on a Wednesday night.

And I felt the Lord Tell me, sing to me as loud as you can sing. Praise as loud as you can praise. And I started to praise the Lord, and that whatever bug I had, whatever sickness I had, I was completely better. I had no symptoms at all. We when we when praises go up.

Blessings go down. But how do you praise the Lord? How do you Fight the devil. We want your calls 866-34 TRUTH. 866-348-7884.

And you know another way that I fight. is we fight through prayer. We fright through prayer. The Bible says to pray without ceasing. You know, my wife was telling me.

When I first met her, she said, Mike, she said, I got to tell you about my mother. She said, When my mother was young, there was a time where my brother was out. And when my brother was out, what happened was they did something where he was out driving for the night. I think he had a date. And his mother and my wife's mother said, we need to drop to our knees right now and pray for your brother.

I feel like something is about to happen. And so they prayed, they dropped to their knees and they prayed for their brother. And about five minutes later, the mother said, My wife's mother said, Everything is okay. And he came home later that night and he told them what happened that at that very moment, right before they, right after they started praying, that he actually got into, almost got into an accident. And he was on a, it was on sort of like a cliff.

And something happened and it stopped him from going off that cliff.

So I do believe in the power of prayer. But how do you praise the Lord? How do you worship the Lord? What do you do? Jeff Jeff, how do you fight the devil?

Well, I mean, I fight the devil in many different ways. You. You mentioned uh uh the ways that you know Uh two good ways. Uh But uh also uh you know I like to do things the way that Jesus did it. It says that when uh after he was baptized he went up into the wilderness to be tempted and when he when the devil came against him And he uh fault him with the word of God.

So, you know, that's another way to fight the devil is to, as the Bible said in Ephesians 6, says that we have the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. And that means uh I like to picture it As a sword, sticking the devil with the sword. Sticking the devil with the sword. And I believe we've got a Rick Pearson. He's on the phone from Canada.

Now, Rick, what part of Canada are you from? Andrew Monterio-like.

Okay, okay.

Well, I see you flying around on your plane, man, your personal plane. Rick Pearson is actually, he has a weekly television show. And the name of the show is called Prophecy USA. And Rick, you're going to talk about fighting the devil, but you've got a new book coming out. Is that right?

I've got a new book. It's called America's Josiah Moment. an end time reprieve of things to come. Richard Pearson. How do you fight the devil?

Well, you know, I I liked what Jeff said. When Satan came and tempted Jesus, Jesus said. It is written. He said it three times. The devil came and and said, Command these stones to be made bread.

And Jesus said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone. but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. And then the the s the second time The the the devil actually quoted scripture. And says uh For it's written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee. And their hand shall bear thee up, unless at any time thou shalt cast thy Foot against the stone.

So the devil actually used God's word to come against Jesus, but it was a perverted word. And Jesus responded. It is written, all these things will I give thee, I wilt fall down and worship me. Oh, I'm sorry, that's what the devil said. But Jesus said, But uh God will give His angels charge over me.

But the devil was using God's word to go against Jesus. Right now, what I'm doing in my ministry. is I'm delivering a word about America In the Bible, and people are responding and saying America is not in the Bible. And I'm saying, yes, it is. It's described 53 times in the Bible.

It is written. And I'm saying America is Babylon the Great, and people are coming to me and saying, no, no, Babylon is. is uh is a religion. It's the Catholic Church. And I say, no, it is written eight times in Scripture.

that this woman that you saw is that great city Babylon the Great. But so What I am finding, Mike, is a lot of people Do not study to show themselves approved unto God. That's in 2 Timothy 2.15. study to show thyself approved unto God, and He will put the whole armor on you. Because his thoughts are higher than our thoughts.

His ways are higher than our ways. We have to get the stinking thinking out of our head. That's right. Yeah. Twisted scripture out of our head and get our thoughts.

into God's thoughts. And that's how you fight the devil, because he always comes against you. through your thoughts. He does, and and if we're not careful We can let those negative thoughts overcome us. And there was a pastor in Alamance County.

Excuse me, where we live, and he said, There's a voice talking to you. He said, But a lot of times you've got two voices talking to you. And so I think people, some people just completely overestimate the power of the devil, Rick. And they think that the devil has all this power over Christians and that he's almost more powerful than us, which is completely ignorant, which is completely insane. That is not true at all.

We are more than conquerors through Christ. And so we have power in the Word of God. But I think there's another side of it. Who just says, Oh, the devil, he's just a stinking snake that we've stepped on 2,000 years ago. He's a toothless lion, he can't do anything.

Well, I think that's a little bad as well.

So, Rick, I want to come back and ask you a little bit more about how you fight the devil. We'll be right back after these messages. 866-34 TRUTH, 866-348-7884. We'll be right back on Truth Talk Live. I'm Michael's Wood.

Truth Talk Live You're listening to the Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com. All right, we are back here on Truth Talk Live. We want your calls 866-34 TRUTH. 866-348-7884. And Rick, it sounds like you're fighting the devil a whole lot.

You've had some people come against you, but Rick, you are more than a conqueror. And before you get off the phone, Rick, I wanted to tell the listeners: every Thursday, if you go to your YouTube channel and you can subscribe to the channel, which is Prophecy USA, right, Rick? That's correct. You can listen to the show live. And I think Rick and I will be doing a show together pretty soon as well.

this Thursday. This Thursday at 7 p.m., I'm going to interview you and we're going to talk about some some of your life experiences.

Well, brother, I'm looking forward to it. And make sure to get the new book that's coming out by Richard Pearson, Rick Pearson. And we'll talk to you soon, Rick. We've got a Joanne, I believe, out of Miami, Florida. Joanne, are you are you there?

I'm here. How do you fight the devil, Joanne? And when was a time when you fought the devil and won? Oh wow. Wow, the mind.

You know, this is so important when we're talking about the mind. God went ahead when we were born again. He renewed our mind. And then the enemy tries to come in and tries to talk to you.

So One day as I was walking And, you know, in the morning, Um the Enemy was trying to converse me like a light. saying you know, like he's the angel of light anyway. And he o he was trying to coax me into something. And right away I did the verse. which was Second Corinthians Ten Verse four and five.

And he left. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Well, Joanne, I know you're out there passing out tracts, sharing the gospel. You're seeing salvations in Miami, Florida, and we hear about them on TV all the time, whether it's in CBN or even Fox News and other places as well, are talking about how we're having a revival that's going across the country.

But Joanne, you're a part of it, and I'm sure one of the next few times when you come on, you're actually writing a book that's coming out pretty soon, right? Yeah. Well, we're looking forward to hearing it, Joanne. And I want to thank you for the call. I believe we've got a Deborah out of Burlington, North Carolina.

You're welcome. Are you are you there, Deborah? I am. Thank you. Good.

How do you fight the devil, Deborah? And when was a time when you had to fight the devil and you won?

Well Um It was with my children. especially because we know Satan You know, a target Our children Our marriages. Um And it's just like you said, prayer, Praying in the spirit. Pray believing the battle is won. And why do I do that?

because the Lord showed me one day. that he would fight my battles. Exodus 14, 14. The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace. Peace.

And that right there, when you know, I woke up that morning knowing that the Lord put that scripture on my heart, very first thing that morning. and we should pick and choose our battles carefully. Because Satan's out there tempting people every single day. you know, with all kinds of loss Also, there are people that have no self-control. You know, we as believers need to hold our peace.

We need to know. What battles are worth going into and what are not. But it's praise and worship, like you said, going into the battle and coming out. In Second Chronicles 20, you know, it talks about the battle. The bat, for the battle is not yours, but God's when he was talking with, you know, to Israel.

But ye sh shall not need to fight in this battle. Set yourselves. Stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you. And To me, you know. Yes.

Sometimes people are just wanting to get into some battle. that can hurt feelings, divide people. We need to know when it's worth it. and what's worth fighting a battle for. And then stay in God's Word daily.

Or You know, hey. Satan has limited power. We need to know What the Bible says. Regarding that we serve a God. Who is Sovereign.

who rules and reigns who limits what Satan can do. And that we belong. As believers and followers of Jesus Christ, we belong to him. He paid. My send debt.

for me to have eternal life. and Satan has no authority over me or my family. That it's God Almighty who does.

Well, Deborah, if I was in the church right now, I'd be jumping over the pews because I mean, I'm just, I just want to say, hallelujah, amen.

Well, Deborah, and guess what? You'll never guess what happened, Deborah. Not only do we have Jeff Hoover here in the studio, but the owner of the station just stepped in, Stu Epperson. Here he is. You can put yourself on there right there.

We're on Facebook Live as well. But the question is, Stu, how do you fight the devil? And when was there a time when you had to fight the devil and you won?

Okay, well scripturally, we got the mic going here. You don't fight the devil. Jude chapter 1 Says, even Michael the Archangel, who I think might be a little more powerful than us, the most powerful. Angel of all the hosts of Almighty God. He didn't fight the devil.

In fact, he said, The Lord rebuke you. James chapter four says to resist the devil. and he will flee from you.

So fighting the devil and saying, I'm going on. Last time I said it says, put on the full armor of God. The first part of that James 4 verse says, Submit yourself therefore to God. Resist the devil, he will flee from you.

So, absolutely, like we talked about in a recent podcast, you arm yourself with God's word. You the weapons of our warfare are not Carnal, they're spiritual to the tearing down of strongholds. But we don't go after the devil, we go after souls to win them to Jesus.

So, if you want to say, if you want an answer, like a direct answer to that question, how do you fight the devil? You walk with Jesus, you submit yourself to him. I'm not in a relationship with the devil. He hates my soul, and he wants me to take me to hell, and he wants me to think about him and to think about I have this super strata of spirituality, that I have a little higher level, that I can go toe-to-toe with all these different echelons. No, we wrestle not against flesh and blood.

We're to be strong in the Lord. 6.10, Ephesians, and in the power of his might.

Well, and I just got a text message from Frank Carpy over in Burlington.

So, thank you for the message. And that's good words. Thank you for the message. But this is what he said: He said, Sometimes we blame the devil when we could really blame ourselves. And it's James chapter 1, verse 13.

It says, This is what it says: It says, Let no man say when he is tempted, that I am tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lusts and enticed. Then, when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. And so, yeah, there are times, there are definitely times where we can be tempted. And I believe that the devil can tempt us.

I mean, the devil even went up to God when he was on the throne in the book of Job, and he had to ask permission before he could tempt or before he could mess with Job in whatever sense God would allow him to do it.

So, that does happen. But at the end of the day, I'm sure you've heard this, Stu. The devil made me do it. Flip Wilson, famous story. It was said as a parody, kind of as a little bit of comic relief.

And that's the other thing. The devil is not omnipresent. He's not omniscient. He's likely never tempted you, doesn't even know your name. But we know that there's wickedness, there are unseen evil forces.

You know, Ephesians 6:12 gives us four different levels of those. There's the minions of evil. But we are told to love the Lord our God with all our heart. We're told to stay close to Him. We're told to resist.

They were told to walk by faith. and put on the shield of faith.

So when the darts come, we're trusting God. And we're not so much focused on that enemy. God will defeat that enemy. Jesus is a serpent crusher, and he will crush the serpent's head under his foot. And we are victorious.

What Deborah said right there, who we are in Jesus, right? Victoria. Who we are in 866-34-TRUTH, 866-348-788-4252. You're listening to The Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com.

Well, hello. We are back on Truth Talk Live. We've got the owner of the Truth Network, Stu Epperson. We've got Jeff Hoover here, and we've got Deborah. Deborah.

It is amazing. I love to have you on whenever you can come on. And I want to thank you for the call. We've got a mic. out of Dayton, Ohio.

We've got a mic out of Dayton, Ohio. Mike, let me ask you the question. When was a time when you had to fight the devil. And when did you fight the devil? Or how do you fight the devil?

And when was there a time when you fought the devil in one? I got a story. I was sleeping in the middle of the night. I looked up out of my bed. and I seen a demon in in my in my bedroom.

I immediately got fear over me and jumped out of bed, and I said. Jesus' name, leave. Leave my house immediately. Leave. And my wife remembers this.

My wife is Uh yeah I can have a testimony to that with my wife. And I said, What in the world was that, God? Why was that in my house? What is going on? And I kept praying to God.

I said, God, what is. Please reveal to me why did I see this? This is crazy. And God said there's Yeah. Yes.

There's this stuff in in your daughter's room. And I said, What is that God? And he goes, There's the Pokemon carts. In the in in my daughter's room. And I said, no, I told her to throw them away.

And she. And so I went in my daughter's room. I said, I woke her up, and it was like three in the morning, and I said, Ashley, where where are those Pokemon cards? She says, I don't have any. And God revealed to me that they were in her closet in in the box.

way back in the corner. And I looked in her closet and I and I didn't know about this Closet, and I'm walking in there, and I knew exactly where they were. I'm seeing where they are, and I find this. box and here are this Pokemon clients. And I looked at my daughter, I said, Ashley.

You don't understand. This is not good. We need to get rid of these cars. They just they they are really bad. And she says I'm telling you, Ashley, these are not good to be with and and and and be around.

And then and I went immediately and I threw them in the trash. And I pretty much didn't sleep the rest of the night. And I prayed over my kids, I prayed over my family. Um God revealed this demon in my house. that was that was hindering my kids playing with Pokeman cards.

And people, I'm telling you, the devil comes after your children. And you need to be Praying for them and taking care of them. And I know my mom over the years has prayed for me. And uh thank God, you know, and uh Many times she's uh I know the prayers of my mom and my family. is is uh deliver me from things.

And uh That's what we need to do every day is pray over our kids and our family. and uh making sure that uh the the devil doesn't have any strongholds in on us.

So Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. That is an amazing story. And I was looking at 1 John 2:15 through 17. It says, Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.

It says, If any man love the world, The love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God. Abideth forever.

And I think sometimes as Christians, we want to have one foot in the world and we want to have one foot in the Bible. You know, of course, we want our salvation. We want a little bit of Jesus because we want to go to heaven. But we also want to go out there and party and we want to sleep around and we want to even, like you said with Pokemon cards, if something doesn't feel right or if there's something not right in a situation, immediately we need to throw it out. And I'm going to tell a quick story, Mike, of a time when I was in my early 30s and I fell into sin.

And This one day. I was at a restaurant and I went back to the house. And when I went back to the house, I. went with a lady and we committed a sin. And so what happened was, was all of a sudden...

The fire and the fireplace was locked, but the fireplace was opening. And closing, opening and closing, and there were these noises all around that house. And all of a sudden you talk about fear, Mike. I've never experienced fear like that, like in my whole life. And I remember afterwards, I said, that is the closest to hell that I ever get.

But when I was with this lady, I guess she was a Christian, but she said, God, forgive us. And as soon as she said God forgive us, all of the noises stopped. The fireplace stopped opening and closing on its own. And so I wanted to remind the listeners, I don't care how far you've gone, I don't care what you've done, I don't care what you've done, who you've done it with, there is always room at the foot of the cross. Jesus loves the sinners and he wants you to repent.

He goes after the ninety-nine. And he goes after that one because Jesus loves you. See, I don't want to share that story on the air. But I'm sharing it because you cannot have one foot in the world and you cannot have one foot in the church. You know, there's a lot of people who say, Well, you said that little prayer when you were nine years old, and then you're living like the devil for the rest of your life.

I just shared a post on TikTok, and I said, You can be carnal. And I said, you could be a Christian or you could be a Christian. I said, but you can't be both. And, Mike, I want to thank you for the call. I believe we've got a pastor, Dean Odell, out of Opalaika, Alabama.

How are you doing today, Pastor Dean? I'm doing good. How you doing, brother? Man, if I was any better, I'd be you. Hey, brother, the question is this.

How do you fight the devil? And when was a time when you fought the devil and won? Oh boy. I tell you what, one of the things that I think I have to share with people the most being a pastor is that thing that Jesus talked about in Matthew twelve when he said About he talked about first binding the strong man, and then you can spoil his house. And we deal with that.

A lot of people teach the binding and loosing, and they say, has nothing to do with spiritual warfare, but I I beg to differ. I mean, yes, it talks about it in Matthew 18 in the context of forgiveness. But it also talks about it in Matthew 16 in the context of spiritual warfare when Jesus said, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And then he started talking about the keys of the kingdom binding and loosing.

Well, Um I have discovered over the years that we have to bind the devil and bind the demons first. And a lot of times what that is is a temporary suspension of whatever they're doing at the moment. Because sometimes we're not supposed to cast them out of people, especially if they're unsaved. We're not supposed to cast them out, but we can bind them. And we can kind of it's kind of like paralyzing them and stopping their activities for a bit.

And especially if they're attacking us and they don't have right to, we can buy them and resist them.

Well, give you a story, though, one time. Um I was pastoring this family, and they had three children. And the oldest boy, he was probably about eight or nine at the time. started having these. fits.

I'm talking about rage fits in his house. And his daddy was an ex-Marine and was still in good shape and pretty strong. And could not contain this child. Like he had supernatural strength and He would just go into these anger fits, and they couldn't do anything with him. And I mean, it was just.

disrupting their entire Home life and family, and this kid was a good kid, otherwise. I mean, he was just sweet, loved the Lord, and came to church.

So, you know, his parents were. new at my church. And so I asked him one day, I said, Okay, Have you, you know, what different happened in his life? Like, when did this start happening? And You know, they told me what happened.

I said, well, he. He had asthma. And we were so concerned about him having asthma, we took him to get acupuncture. And his asthma went away. But shortly thereafter, he started having these fits.

And I said, Well, there's the open door. I said you went and had participated in a you know, Asian art. demonic art of healing. And I said, you've got to cast this out to get him free. And so I went over to their house.

We sat down and they brought him in and sat down next to me on the couch. And I said, Hey, bud. You know, he knew me. I said, Is it okay if I pray for you? He said, Yeah.

And I said, In the name of Jesus, I bind the demons. that came into this boy through acupuncture. I bind them, I break their power, I tear down their strongholds out of them, and I command them to go from him in Jesus' name. Very calmly. And laid my hands on him and you know and very calmly prayed that prayer and a few other things to bless him.

and ask the Lord to close that door. And there was no big manifestation. There was no big hoopla or anything. I left. Um and they told me that when they came to church Sunday, they said, He didn't Do it ever again.

He never had another one of those demonic fits of rage. And they continued in our church for many years after that, and he never had that happen again. Um Just one story of many, I could tell, but it's important to first. bind the demons. and then command them to go or resist them and command them to go from you.

And I know it's controversial. I know there's some people out there Oh, they think they they've got a theological argument, but Uh I've experienced it now for 38 years of ministry, I've seen the power of binding demons and then resisting them. or casting them out if there's a if it's the right time to do so. Absolutely. And you know, I wanted to ask you about something else as well, because I mentioned before there's this idea of once saved, always saved.

And I don't know if you told I don't know if you heard the story that I told Pastor Dean right before you came on. Did you hear that? Yeah, I did.

Okay. Because there is a belief out there that, hey, you know, if you say a prayer when you're 15 years old, you're saved. And no matter how you live, you're saved for the rest of your life and you're fine. You can do whatever you want to do.

Now, they may say, hey, you may not receive the rewards in heaven, but you're still going to heaven. I was looking at this. It's 1 Corinthians 9, verse 24. It says, Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize.

So run that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things.

Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly, so fight I, not as one that beateth the air. But I keep under my body and bring it unto subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. And so I think about that with, you know, once saved, always saved. What the Apostle Paul is saying there, Pastor Dean, is he saying, If I don't keep my body under subjection, if I go out there and live in sin, even while I'm preaching, that I may not make it to heaven.

And so to me, that is a very dangerous doctrine because I believe it could be sending many people to hell. What do you think? Oh yeah, I totally agree. I mean that That word where he says, I might be a castaway, is the Greek word odokimos, and it is the same Greek word used in. Romans chapter one to talk about those who have been given over to a reprobate mind.

So, Paul was even saying that he could become a reprobate if he didn't keep his flesh from just letting him indulge in sin.

Now, there's a difference between Pastor Dean. If you'll hold the line one second, we've got a commercial coming up. But when you come back, we're going to let you finish your thought. We will be right back on Truth Talk Live, 866-34-TRUTH. We will be right back.

Truth Talk Live You're listening to the Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com. All right, we are back with Truth Talk Live, 866-34 TRUTH. We've got Pastor Dean Odell, and I will give you a shameless plug, Pastor Dean. It is deanodle.org. Deanodle.org.

And you've got a YouTube channel. What is it? On Denodal Europe, is that right? I praise church. And Dean Odell Europe.

But also all our videos are at denodle. org as well. All of your videos are at dnodle.org. And I was going to let you finish what you were going to say, but I didn't want to just give one scripture, you know. But I've got 1 John chapter 3.

And in verse 4, it says, Whosoever committeth sin. transgresseth also the law for sin is the transgression of law. And ye know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him is no sin. And here it is Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not, Whosoever sinneth hath Hath not seen him, neither known him. Little children, let no man deceive you.

He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. And here's the tough part. He that committeth sin is of the devil. The devil. For the devil sinneth from the beginning.

For this purpose, the Son of Man was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. Go ahead, Pastor Dean. Yeah, now that's Scriptures to go into what I was about to say because I said there's a big difference between a Christian. Committing ASIN. stumbling, falling, getting back up and saying, Lord, forgive me, and turning away from that.

Versus somebody that says, I'm going to do whatever I want, I'm going to live in a habitual lifestyle of sin.

So that's another thing that's important for people to understand: is the Greek verb tenses and the three basic Greek verb tenses there. When it says he that commits. Sin or committed sin is of the devil. It doesn't mean one sin, and it doesn't mean if you fall as a Christian because all Christians fall and can repent. But it's those who choose to live in a constant state of rebellion.

So that's a present tense Greek verb there that means ongoing. Continuous action taking place in the present.

So he's saying he that commits sin in an ongoing, continuous manner, and it's still going on, there's been no Confession, true repentance, true turning away from it, no remorse. Then that person is of the devil.

So you cannot practice a habitual. Lifestyle of sin. There's no such thing as. I'm going to be a Christian, and I'm going to live in adultery, or fornication, or witchcraft, or homosexuality, or whatever it is. Listed as sins unto death in like Galatians five and Ephesians five.

If you live in those things, In a habitual lifestyle, ongoing manner, and you presently are. The grace and mercy of God does not cover you. You have to confess the sin. and turn from it. And that's when the grace comes to help you.

And you have to determine as a believer, Sin shall not have dominion over me. I will not live in a lifestyle of drugs, or alcohol, of drunkenness, partying. Sexual immorality, I'm not going to live a lifestyle that I'm going to follow Jesus. I'm not going to just be a believer. I'm going to be a disciple.

And that's what's vitally important. That's why Jesus said. In John 8, he said to the Jews that believed on him, he said, If you continue in my word, Then you are my disciples, and then you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. You have to continue. That goes along with Matthew 24, when he said, Those who endure to the end.

will be saved. It's a matter of endurance. Do you love Jesus More than you loved. the sins of the flesh and the works of the flesh. Absolutely.

And you wrote a book that I, you gave it to me when I saw you in Myrtle Beach, but it was Grace Abuse: One of the Greatest Hindrances to Genuine Revival. And you talk about this in the book where this. grace Uber grace movement where, hey, you know, we're just going to give TED talks from the from the pulpit every Sunday and we're going to encourage you all the time and we're not going to talk about sin and we're not going to talk about repentance. You said it can actually hinder revivals. Is that right?

Oh yeah. Every true revival in history. has been preceded by first Uh A prayer movement, and secondly, I mean, just look at the way John the Baptist introduced the ministry of Jesus, and Jesus' ministry was truly a revival. I mean, he came in with signs and wonders and healing and miracles and casting out demons and people getting. You know, giving their lives to him just all over the place.

Thousands were gathered in places to hear him. That's a revival.

Well, John the Baptist came preaching. Repentance Turn from your sin. Do what's right. And Jesus also, when he started his ministry, he said, Repent, and believe the gospel.

So, it's not just belief, and this is the problem. It's they're along the line somewhere, they just. Stuck in there. Oh, just believe.

Well, the Bible says the devils also believe and tremble in James, too. And that's why James said if we have faith without works that that that are Faith is dead. We have dead faith. We have to show corresponding actions. And I'm not talking about.

running around trying to do good deeds to earn your way to heaven. But if you know Jesus. and you've truly been born again. then you have truly repented of sin and you understand that you can't live in it. And therefore, you walk with him in newness of life.

You know, Just like Romans 6 says, when we're baptized into him, we're supposed to be saying, publicly I am no longer, sin no longer rules my life because I have Jesus in me and I'm going to walk in a whole new life. And that's That's the message that revival. If that's not preached in a so-called movement or what people claim to be a move of God, If there's not repentance preaching and sin exposed, and and judgment of God preached and the fear of God is there. It's not a true revive. Yeah, and in Ephesians chapter 2, which is, we love this.

It's Ephesians 2:8. It says, For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. But here it is, this is what a lot of people leave off. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

And so, like you said, Pastor Dean, we're not saved by our works, but if we're saved, there's going to be a change. Is that right? Right. And but there's a difference now. I will say this.

There's a difference between Works, see, here's the difference between a dead work or a work of the flesh versus walking with the Lord is that For instance, Cain chose to offer the fruits of the ground when he knew He was supposed to offer the blood of a slain lamb.

Now That means he chose what he was going to offer and God rejected it. But Abel was doing what the Lord had revealed to Adam and Eve and the rest of them that they were supposed to do. And that's why he was righteous. It all comes down to this. If we have a relationship with Jesus, And we are truly born again, we will hear his voice and follow him.

That's what we're supposed to do. And not everybody's going to be called to do the same thing, but we are to hear his voice. And follow him. We don't get to pick and choose what good deeds or acts or whatever we want to do. We lay all that down.

And see, a lot of people, though, that's what the church world does. It's like, I believe in Jesus, so. you know, I'm going to help out in Sunday school.

Well, God may never called you to do that. There's a lot of people, well, they got saved and think, well, I got to be a preacher, so I got to go to seminary.

Well, did God tell you to go to seminary? You see, if God didn't tell you to go to seminary and you do, you're just doing a work out of your own. Self-righteousness out of your own choices. The Lord has to be the one to tell you, lead you by His Spirit. to do things.

And when you do it, led by the Holy Spirit, what he says, that is not. a work of dead faith or a work of the flesh. It is It is actually being obedient. And so many people They get those two things mixed up. I mean, we got people walking around.

Even President Trump doesn't understand it. He says, like, I hope these good deeds get me into heaven. He talked about that the other day, and we're like, No, you had to come to Jesus first and acknowledge that he is. God in the flesh. Who never sinned, born of the Virgin Mary, rose from the dead on the third day after he died on the cross for our sins.

You have to acknowledge that, believe that he is Lord and the Creator. And then You turn away from sin and start following him. He promised anyone that if they would truly turn away from sin and become his disciple, he would fill them with the Holy Spirit. And that's why Romans 8 says: the sons and daughters of God are led by the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit will lead us.

We will hear his voice And do what he He calls each of us the different things that he's got for each of us to do. That's what we're supposed to do. Yeah, and it's funny, you have a personal story. I think you said for a while you wanted to be a traveling evangelist, and you felt the Lord was telling you, no, he wanted you to be a pastor of a church. And so it's not necessarily always what we want, but sometimes we have to listen to God even when he tells us to do something that we don't want to do.

Absolutely. I mean right now He's told me while I'm pastoring a church and running a school of ministry To also run for lieutenant governor of Alabama. I don't want to do it, I didn't want to do it. And I wrestled with him for about two years about it, and he just kept saying, This is what I want you to do. And I surrendered to his will.

So sometimes his will. Is not what we want. Even Jesus, when He was going to the cross, he prayed, could this cup pass from him? And when the flesh was struggling a little bit there, and then When the no came, you got to do this, you got to follow through with going to the cross. Your will be done, not mine.

And that's that's the Christian life in a nutshell. Your will be done. Not mine. Absolutely, man. And the website is deanodle.org, Fire and Grace Church out of Opalika, Alabama.

Pastor Dean, I want to thank you for coming on the show today. I feel like it was ordained. You got a lot longer than everybody else did because everybody called at the beginning. And I think God ordained it that you would call at 3.30.

So I want to thank you for the call. My show will be on tomorrow, if not for God with Mike Zwick at 12 o'clock noon. And guys, I want you to think about what Pastor Dean said today. But more importantly, I want you to think about the Bible verses that we quoted, you know, because Pastor Dean, Mike, anybody else can say anything. But if it's not backed up by the Word of God and by the Bible, Yes, you've got to listen to the word of God.

And the word of God says that we do, we fight principalities. There are times where we have to fight him off. We fight him off with the word of God. We fight him off with the truth. Jesus Christ is the only way to get to heaven.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish. And Pastor Dean, I want to thank you again for coming on.