Refuge Young Families Thrive Night

Okay, well, I have the honor and the privilege of introducing Pastor Steph for tonight. I have my note sheet. Because I love her so much, I had to stay on track. She's gonna hate me for this. Okay.

I have known Pastor Steph for over 15 years. My earliest memories are from her and I working at the cafe together in the old building at the refuge. We would arrive early, make all the pots of coffee, set out all the pastries, and make sure that our basket was full of dollar bills and coins. Yes, it was a basket with dollar bills and coins. And one of us would decide who would do latte duty, and one of us would decide who would take the orders.

If you did latte duty, then you didn't have to count the change. When someone gave you a $20 bill was 275, and you were like, yeah, just give me one second. When there's, like, 50 people coming up ordering coffee, your brain's not sharp. And we had to request a calculator because it got to the point where we were, like, probably handing out wrong change. So we worked in the cafe together for many years in the old building.

I was just a young woman who was newly married, and I had no idea how much I would need this woman in my life. But the Lord did. Fast forward to having my first child. I struggled with intense anxiety, transitioning him out of our room and into his room. I battled thoughts I knew weren't real, but did not know how to overcome them.

The person who I called was Pastor Steph. We met in a literal shed in in the back of the refuge that we coined as the prayer shed. And she met with me there and prayed with me and helped me overcome the fear that kept me in bondage. Fast forward three years. My life came shattering down into a million pieces.

We received a diagnosis for our son that disrupted the perfect little life I was living. Who was the first person I called? Pastor Steph. She met with me and Andrew in our living room, and we sat together and we talked about the news that we had received. She fasted and prayed with us.

She walked every inch of the journey with us, so much so that she literally gave up her life for us and practically moved into the hospital for 17 days. When we landed there with Noah, she came night after night after night, organized many people who came to pray for Noah's healing. She stayed awake at night so I could sleep. I was afraid to sleep, because if I was sleeping, who was praying? She relieved that burden from me.

She covered us constantly with prayer so that we could enjoy the last few days that we had with our precious boy. And after Noah went to heaven, she walked with us through the most intense pain I've ever known. The woman coming tonight isn't just a really great friend. No. She's a fierce prayer warrior.

She holds authority in her that demons literally tremble at. She's strong and bold. She's the one who walks in the battle knowing she has every tool to fight it instead of so many who would run away. She is caring and compassionate. She is honest and true.

She leads us women on Monday into growing deeper with the Lord and causes us to know the true voice of God. She reads through the Bible many times a year and never sacrifices her time spent with the Lord. She is the one who I call when I am having a bad day and need to be talked off the ledge or the one I share the highlights of a good one. She's my friend and our prayer pastor here at the refuge. Would you please help me welcome Pastor Steph.

Love you so much. You're not supposed to make someone cry before they get up to speak. That's precious. Can I move this extra mic we got going on here? Hi, everybody.

Is there anyone here I don't know personally? Few of you? Don't be shy. We don't know each other. Okay.

Hi. I hope to know you if you know me at all. I love people, so I love meeting people and I try to make it my mission to know everybody at the refuge, but I'm not great at it. There's a lot of new people. So, so glad.

Thank you, Sam. That was sweet. I was scared when she said she had notes. I'm like, what? I did not remember the change thing, but yes, that was terrifying.

Remember that? That was before. Like real machines. I don't know. It was a long time.

So I came here to talk to you about spiritual warfare. It's going to be called spiritual warfare. And that's special. A call to the wall. If you could.

My friends over here have handouts and I don't know, you might want to give one to the one ends in the back. It might help them follow along. I'm not sure if you can do that to live back there, Joel. Good idea, huh? I thought so, too.

So the notes are basically most of the scriptures. Not all, but most of the scriptures I'm going to go through so you don't have to write them down. You can go home and fact check me later that these are actually in the Bible. And hopefully that note, that will help you Just kind of follow along and kind of give you the highlights, especially the scriptures. I don't know if you're like that.

I hear people rattle off these scriptures and then I get home and I'm like, I have no idea. My big joke is I come home to something and I tell my husband, I don't know, they talked about Jesus. I'm like, I'm old, you know. So hopefully this will help you when you get home if you want to go back through it. Some of what I'm going to talk about might challenge some of your theology in maybe not.

Half of the women in this room, I think, go to Monday morning prayer. So you. Most of you. Yep. Well, know what I'm going to share.

I did a spiritual warfare class last summer and it was three hours, and I'm going to try to cram that in an hour, but you guys started me early, so I'm counting that time, just saying. So anyway, can I pray? I'm going to get us started. Lord, we just come in your presence and thank you. Thank you, God, for the authority.

It's been spoken through so many people tonight. And I love that, that you are so faithful to show up God when we pray. And I believe that you have a word for us. And I'm asking that the Holy Spirit would touch every mind right now in this room. I come against every spirits of distraction, God, any spirits of religion.

And I felt to pray this today. Every religious devil that's in this room has to go now in Jesus name and thank you that you would give us ears to hear what you want to say, throw out what's not. You anoint this word, God, so that we can all grow and know more about you and live a victorious life in the Spirit, in Jesus name, amen. All right, just a poll who grew up. Let's say Baptist in the room.

Get some Baptists in the room. Okay. Methodists. Any Methodist? How about.

Got a Methodist? How about a Catholic? Any Catholics? Whoa. We got some Catholics showing up tonight.

Okay. Just kidding. Just kidding. I had two uncles, great uncles that were priests. I know a lot about Catholicism, grew up in that.

So just to show you, show us, you know, here we are in this non denom church, but so many of us grew up with so many different backgrounds, right? How many charismatics in the room? I know you Pentecostals. Brittany. I. I knew it.

Could see that Pentecostal on you. Holy Ghost, I love it. I did not experience the Holy Spirit. I grew up Baptist, had a. My great grandpa was a Baptist evangelist.

My grandparents were deacons in the Baptist church till. Till they died, I think in their 90s. Like my grandma taught the same class for 48 years till they were all blue haired, you know what I'm saying? Like till they all died and then they had to cancel the class, I guess. So I have a lot of Baptist roots and I have a lot of Catholicism roots.

And somehow that marriage created my dad who ran after the Lord and became a holy roller, got spirit filled, then drug all me and my family to a spirit filled church when I was in high school and rocked my world. So knew a lot about the Lord most of my life, always since I was. I can remember at 9 at church camp telling the Lord I would be a missionary. I mean I wanted to be sold out for God my whole life. So I've been around God, church, Jesus, all the things for a very long time.

So. But I'm going to tell you I had some experiences later in life and when I was actually 29, I'm going to tell that testimony in a second which opened my eyes to the spiritual realm, okay. And did not even know till I was reading back through some old journals back way before I got into deliverance ministry. Did you guys know we have a deliverance ministry? Okay, A lot of new people don't know that, but we actually have a deliverance ministry that I head up and Gracie heads up the Sozo ministry with inner healing.

We have waiting lists for our, our, especially for our Sozo ministry. Elizabeth, thank you. You're part of it. Sarah helps lead that. We have people from all over North Carolina that come to the refuge for freedom.

Okay? So I don't know if you knew that or not, but I used to have dreams of casting demons out of people, okay. Way before I knew anything about that. And I would wake up freaked out. Okay?

So let me just tell you, the Lord knows you even for, you know, yourself, okay? He has written things on us and for our life to do that we don't even know yet. And I'm speaking that over all the people in this room. You have not even begun to walk in every single thing that the Lord has for your life. So.

And you see on your paper, we're going to go through that. I'm going to try to stick to that. Andrea, I know you don't believe it, but I'm going to try to do it.

So A, I'm going to talk about the unseen world. Okay? First scripture. I'm actually going to get my glasses on. Hold on.

Couple Things I want to say before we talk about this. We are going to talk a lot about the D word tonight. Do you know what that is?

Dreams. Nope, we're not going to talk at all about dreams. Sorry. Any other devil, Both of those. Devil and demons.

Okay. That word is going to come up a lot. We're going to talk about it because you can't talk about spiritual warfare without talking about who we're fighting. Okay? There is not an army in the world that does not study their enemy.

Okay? Do you think that Russia invaded Ukraine without knowing all the armor that they have, what war that, you know, I mean, the warfare. Sports term. I'm not a sports fanatic, but I have to be because it's on in my house 24 7. But there's not a basketball team or a football team that does not study.

Right. The coach studies tapes. Right. Of their opponent or some would call the enemy. Okay?

So I just want you to know we're going to study our opponent a little bit tonight. But I hope as we circle back around and talk about the Lord, I think you're going to feel very encouraged and equipped and hopefully inspired to fight. So my first scripture is Colossians 1, 15, 16. And I think that these are going to be all up there, so you can read them with me. Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.

He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation. Can I get an amen? We believe this right, for through Him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we cannot see, say we cannot see, such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for Him.

Okay, let's stop for a second. Do you mean the devil was created through him and for Him? Okay. So these thrones, these kingdoms, these rulers, these authorities, was created by God and for God, okay? I think sometimes we can think that the enemy's got all this power, right?

And we're trying to claw our way to try to fight Him. But God actually set all this up, this spiritual realm, okay? He has set all this up. He has plans. He has plans for us to win and fight to win, okay?

When I was in my Baptist world, and this is not against my Baptist people, I love my Baptist people, but no one taught me about this, okay? I never heard about the spiritual realm. I never heard about devils deliverance. I know the scripture's there because we read the Bible, but I wasn't really privy to it or understand It. I just kind of knew it was there, but we're not going to really talk about that and just hope he doesn't show up at my house, okay.

Like, because I cover by the blood. So he's. He's not going to show up, right? And so when the Lord started revealing these things to me, if I can explain it like this, There is a spiritual realm, there's an earthly realm. Did.

Did anyone grow up, like, me, thinking the spiritual realm was somewhere, like, past Mars? I don't know where, you know what I'm saying? Like, where is this spiritual realm that. That we're talking about? Well, honestly, I didn't know.

But I'm gonna show you what I believe the Lord has shown me. We have veiled eyes, okay? Our eyes are veiled. Thank God, because I think if we could see into the spiritual realm, all of us, we would be terrified, right? So we have these veiled eyes, but if we could pull back this veil and, like, step into this spiritual realm, we are in it right now, okay?

There is activity going all around us. Demons, angels, it's all around us. It's. It's not somewhere else. It's here, okay?

It's just a realm that we can't see. I think that we could actually bump up into angels, right? Demonic realm. It's going on all around us. So if we don't understand what's happening, we won't fight.

Because if we think it's somewhere in outer space, somewhere happening, right, we feel like we're kind of untouched here, and it's not true. Okay? Ephesians 2:1:3. I'm going to read you some scriptures to hopefully confirm this word. Once you were dead, because of your disobedience and your many sins, you used to live in sin just like the rest of the world.

You were obeying the devil, the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way. We followed the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature.

We were subject to God's anger just like everyone else. So prior to salvation, prior to accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, hopefully everyone in this room has done so. We were in the devil's army. We did not know that, okay? But we were in his camp.

And then we got saved and we came into God's camp and there is this war going on. Okay? Most people that are unsaved have no idea that their commander is the Devil. And they're just following everything that he's telling them to do, okay? He is the power in.

So this unseen world that we can't see if we pull back and walked into, it's telling us that he is actually in authority. God has given him authority on the earth, okay? And until Jesus came and died on the cross that we just celebrated a week ago, and the blood of Jesus, that was shed for us, he took back that authority, okay? Prior to that, okay, people did not walk around with the power that we have accessible to us now. Is that not awesome?

Okay? We now have power, but I'm just telling you, he's still in authority, okay? And until he goes opposed, he's ruling, okay? So this scripture that talked about principalities, powers, dominions, there are camps set up over cities. That's why when you go into certain cities, man, when we were in Scotland, I couldn't sleep.

I told Steve, I'm like, it is so oppressive here. Like, the spiritual darkness in some cities is, like, so heavy. It's because principalities and powers have been given authority and no one is opposing them. I actually looked it up, and there were, like, hardly any churches in the city we were in, okay? So if it.

If we don't go after and oppose him, then he has ruling and reigning, See? But when Jesus followers rise up in spiritual warfare. I love what. I love this guy named David Hogan. He's my favorite missionary.

He'll talk about going backpacking up into villages in Mexico in the darkest place. I mean, where cannibals and all kinds of craziness is going on. And he said, until I got there and screamed, jesus is Lord, no one had ever opposed the enemy there. How cool is that, that we have that authority, y'? All?

We don't even. We don't even tap into what we have. We. Most of us walk around just kind of defeated. I'm so tough, you know what I'm saying?

And the Lord has given us authority. I hope that when you leave here tonight, you feel empowered, like I'm going to kick some devil butt, okay? And this is a side note, but I believe that Cabarrus county is waiting for people to wake up and say this. Not on my watch, my street, my we. I pray for my ladies on my street, my neighbors on my street all the time.

Because who else is going to do it? Who else is going to oppose the enemy that has all of them bound? You know what I'm saying? We are not powerless. We are supposed to be ambassadors for Christ, all right?

Next one. Ephesians 6, 10, 13. Be strong in the Lord and his mighty power. Put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all the strategies of the devil. For we're not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world.

Say unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, against evil spirits in the heavenly places. Therefore, put on every piece of God's armor so that you will be able to do what, guys? Resist the enemy in the time of evil. And then after the battle, you'll still be standing firm. Thank you, Jesus.

There's a scripture, I don't have this one down, but John 10 says the thief comes to kill. We all know this one, right? His whole plan. We are in spiritual warfare. I don't care if you're like, nah, I'm not into that.

I'm just gonna go to my little job and raise my cute little family and I'm really not into the spiritual warfare stuff. You are gonna get pounded, okay? You're gonna get pounded by the enemy. We have to know the authority, okay, that we carry. So let me insert this here too.

I'm gonna talk about demons a lot. I'm gonna talk about some deliverances. I'm gonna tell you guys some stories, but I don't on a regular basis. I'm not sitting down with Steve talking about man, you know, what the devil did and the devil and demons and devil, devil, devil. I do not talk about the devil.

Okay, I'm going to tell you all this, but I'm just telling you my life is about Jesus. Jesus, Jesus. Lifting up Jesus. I'm worshiping Jesus. I'm reading his word.

I'm quoting his word. I am not fixated on the devil, but to, to do the opposite and act like there is no devil is also not going to be end well for you. Okay? So it's not about that we're trying to give him any glory or exalt him in any way, but also to not know who he oppose him would be very scary and especially for families as you guys are leading them. And I'm going to talk about that in a minute.

Getting on the wall before we do that, I want to talk a little bit. So I read the Bible a couple, a couple of times ago. I read the Bible through, I read it through a lot, but I was reading it through and I just, I take different times. I'm like, okay, this time I'm going to read it through and I'm going to take a blue marker every time the word demon or devil is mentioned. And I'm going to take a pink marker every time Holy Spirit is mentioned.

Okay. So I did that a couple times ago. And so now every time I look at it, I can see that. So the demons and devils are not mentioned very much in the Old Testament. Only a handful of times, I think.

In Psalms, he talks the. He said the actual word demons in 106, sacrificing their sons and daughters to the deep to the devils and demons, but he doesn't really mention demons. Okay, we know whoever. Who watched the House of Saul. Anybody watch that yet?

You need to watch that. Not anyone. House of David is right. So who watched that one? Okay.

Okay. Thank you, guys. You could have helped me out back there. You're just looking at me like I'm crazy. All right.

House of David. Saul was in it, though. It was a really good. It was really good. Thank you.

All right. Anyway, you can see in that movie, Saul, right, he disobeyed God. And then it says, the Lord sent an evil spirit. The Lord did that to Saul. Like, I watched, and I'm like, gosh, that's kind of harsh, you know, because, you know, you think about how many times I've messed up, and I'm like, lord, please don't send an evil spirit to attack me.

So there's times through the Old Testament where we see evil spirits mentioned or coming on people. We'll see Holy Spirit mentioned coming on prophets, but as a whole, he's. He's not mentioned a lot. I mean, we know in Genesis 1, the Spirit hovered. So we know.

We know the Holy Spirit's been through the whole thing. But why, When Jesus came on the scene, demons are mentioned like every other verse. Have you noticed? Not every other verse, but a lot. Right?

Read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. I did a whole study one time and wrote every single deliverance, every way. Did a cross reference, seeing which way, how many times they repeated it, and all the things he. Jesus walked on the scene. It says John in John 3.

34, for he was sent by God. He's talking about Jesus. He speaks for God's word, for God gives him the spirit without limit. Okay. John said Jesus was given the Holy Spirit without limit.

Okay, James, how much do you have of the Holy Spirit? I'm just kidding. Okay? I always want to know. I wish we had a barometer and you could walk around and be like, oh, okay.

You know what I'm saying? What if we could see that? Like, what's your limit? How much are you? How much of the Holy Spirit do you have?

I've wondered that. Things I think about. Anyway, okay, Holy Spirit now is on the scene. He's full of the Holy Spirit. He's fully God.

He's also fully man. He now he's full of the Holy Spirit. I wish I could talk about that, but I don't have time. So he's walking down the road, fully, right? Full of spirit.

And all of a sudden demons start screaming out. Never before that had anyone walked on the earth with the Holy Spirit without limit. So now he's fully without limit, walking. And demons are like. Like they're screaming out, manifesting, okay?

And then he starts casting them out of everybody. And demons are just mentioned everywhere. Everywhere. Read it, look at it. It's really true.

So I have some very good news. God's given us that same power.

That same power according to acts, in John 14, 15 and 16, he's setting it up and he's telling them, hey, it's going to be good that I'm going to go away. The same Holy Spirit that's been resting on me, you've been seeing me doing all this stuff. He's coming for you, okay? And he's going to come on you and you're going to do even greater works than me. I believe it's greater works because of the multiplication.

I don't think anyone's doing better than Jesus. Okay, but maybe you, I don't know what your limit is, but do you know what I'm saying? Like, he's. He's now going, hey, you're going to do these things as well. So we now have just entered into this spiritual warfare where demons, okay, are manifesting because the Spirit has been poured out.

The spirit has been poured out on the earth. I love this. Because the Lord, he doesn't want us and leave us powerless. And honestly, side note, you can have as much of the Holy Spirit as you want. How much are you willing to die?

How much are you willing to lay down? How much are you willing to give to God because he will fill you? He's not going to do it more for these two over here because they have pastor in front of their name. It's whoever will come to him and he will fill you. Right?

Damon, Nikita, good to see you all my little spiritual warfare friends. So really quick, I'm going to tell my testimony of my personal deliverance. I don't ever sit in a deliverance room with someone and not say it. It's my Testimony, I'll say it forever. Hey, don't stop telling your testimony.

The enemy honestly will put these seeds in your thing. Like, quit, quit. You don't need to say that. You know, you don't need to keep saying that. I love Todd White because everywhere he goes for like 12 years, he tells his testimony every day.

I think we could learn from that. So my testimony, so my little spirit filled self, right? Loving Jesus on fire for God, working in doing women's ministry and doing all these things, all in my 20s, I had this secret little thing, not really a secret. My people close to me knew I was a scaredy cat. Okay?

I was afraid of the dark. I would have panic attacks if Steve was going to go out of town. Like, who was going to take care of me as a grown adult with children, right? I did not want to be home alone. I did not want to drive at night in the dark.

I would not. I would prefer. I love to drive too, but I would not like to drive. I would have thoughts of somebody's in your backseat. I would see things in my rearview mirror.

I'm sure Steve, I wasn't that so. But I'm seriously. It was for real. Okay? So I'm 29 years old.

I was actually in leadership on a women's group meeting. And I'm at an event and I hear a lady talk. Marigold Cheshire was her name from Africa. And she talked about spirits of fear. And for the first time in my life, I was like, could that be me?

Like, could this be something other than just, I'm a scared person? Could this be something that is attached to me that I can't control? Because when you have spirit of fear, you are out of control. You can't control it, right? But Christians can't have demons.

We can't have demonic things attached to us, right? That's what I was told. Okay? So I was confused. So I, I went to the altar.

No one laid hands on me, but I just went to the altar. I was confused. I'm like, God, is this a demon? Oh, my gosh. I'm like on this leadership team and I'm carrying demons around.

Like, what? You know, am I even saved? Anyone ever been there? Okay. So confused.

Very confused. I went to another women's conference. Maybe two months later, we had this prophetic lady come to our church. I had never been around that. I've heard about it.

You know, I was in charismatic circles. But this woman could read your mail, okay? And honestly, it was terrifying. Have you ever been in line and they're coming your way. And you're like, dear God, what are they gonna see over me?

You know? So she's going down, praying for all the people, and she gets to me and she's like, oh, honey, you have a spirit of fear. And I knew it. I mean. And she said, I see you at 12 years old and something has come in to make you its puppets.

But the Lord today said he's gonna set you free. And I don't even know if this is theologically correct, but I'll never forget this. She said, the Lord says you've been partially set free. And I knew when she said it, it was my two months before I knew. So I don't even know if you can put that in the Bible.

It's my testimony, so leave me alone. It's what it is, okay? But she said this, and I was like, oh, my goodness. And so she literally laid her hands on me, prayed. I didn't roll around on the floor or spit up or anything you see on movies, okay?

I didn't do any of that. But I broke. I started crying, shaking. And the next day, I don't know why, I don't remember if Steve was gone or something, but I took a nap on my couch with the screen door unlocked, and I woke up and went, wait a minute. And then I started testing it.

I was like, driving at night, and I'm like. And I'm like, oh, my gosh. Gone.

It's really gone. I'm not afraid. So this started, this journey of how I ended up in this room and doing deliverance. I did not set out and wake up one day and be like, this is a cool ministry to get into. I'm going to be that demon buster woman or whatever.

No, that was not my intention. But I'm sitting in church and someone comes up to me after that and is like, hey, you were highlighted to me. Do you ever pray for people to be free of anxiety? And I'm like, what? Then somebody else.

Hey, do you pray for people to be this. I was not on staff, okay? I'm not at working at the church or anything. I'm just standing, minding my own business in my congregant chair, okay? And the Lord just started bringing people to me.

Actually, Sam was the very first person I ever prayed for heart.

So honestly, when I went in the room with her, I had no idea what I was doing. I just was like, in Jesus name, like, you know what's so cool? That's all you need is in Jesus name You guys, there is no formula. It's Jesus. It's just Jesus.

Like we don't have to print off, you know, a deliverance, prayers. It's Jesus. And the enemy has to bow. He has to bow. When I was 12, I never thought about this before until she said it to my little prophet lady.

I came home from my Baptist church on a Sunday night. The door was ajar, all the lights were out and I walked in on a burglar in my house. Hence my fear of the dark. Okay? From then on I started sleeping.

He didn't do anything to us. He ended up running out the back and ran away. And so nothing happened. But I saw him and I started sleeping on my parents floor as a 12 year old and then my brother's floor and whoever else who would let me in their room. Like, I do not want to be alone, okay?

And what happened is I opened up a doorway to a spirit. As a Christian, I was not possessed. I'm not going to hell. He did not own me, but he had a part of me and he was making me his puppet. And his plan was to destroy me, okay?

I wouldn't be doing half the things I'm doing now if I still was afraid. There is no way, okay? So I started searching and seeking God and ask him and asking him about this. And this is what he gave me. This is not in the Bible.

So just this is from me. The Lord spoke it to me, but I think it's actually accurate. He showed me my mind, okay? And it was like rooms, okay? It was like rooms.

And what happens is if you. If a trauma happens or sin happens or something happens, it's like a doorway or a window will pop open and the enemy will come in. Okay? So when I was 12, I believe that through this trauma a doorway to it was opened and a spirit came in, right in my house. If you could picture like rooms I was operating in, all these rooms had.

But there were times when it would come out and he would start speaking all these things to me and he was making me his puppet. So just like if I would go home right now to our house and knew there was a burglar in the back room, I would call a sheriff, right? Even though it's my house and I have all authority over this house. We own the house and so does the bank, but we own the house, okay? And we have authority of this house.

I would still call a sheriff because why? I know the authority that he carries. And I'm going to go behind him with his Gun and go get this guy out. So when I'm in the Deliverance room with people, what I tell them is, today I'm the sheriff. You have all authority.

You have all authority. You have all authority over this mind. The enemy has to bow, okay? He cannot stay where he's told to leave. The most of the problems is we carry this around because one, we don't think it's real or we don't believe it's there.

So anxiety, fear, depression, all these things. His plan to kill, steal and destroy. If he can't get you out of church, what's he going to do? He's going to try to come in a different way, right? To make you bow.

And we, we give him the keys. We hand him the keys. And we have the power and authority to close those doors. So I'm going to read some scriptures where Jesus gave us authority to prove that. I'm not lying.

I'm just kidding. We're in B first Peter 5, 6 and 9. Actually, can I take a drink really quick? Doing good on time.

Okay. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you. Cast all your anxieties on him because he cares for you. Be sober minded. I love what NLT says.

Stay alert. Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Resist him. Say that.

Stand firm in your faith, knowing that the same kind of suffering is being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. One of the things, and we're going to talk about that at the end, but one of the ways that we resist the enemy is by humbling ourselves. That's one of the main things. Submitting to God, resisting the enemy. We have to be sober.

He's wanting us to be awake. He wants us to be sober. He wants us to fight. John 14:12 says, I tell you the truth. Anyone who believes in me will do the same works I've done and even greater works, because I'm going to be with the Father.

You can ask anything. My name and I will do it so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. Mark 6:7. He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirit, spirits. So this is when it starts happening.

He's like, okay, I've been doing this now, guys, come on. I'm going to send you out, right? You saw the chosen, right? You saw it happen. Okay?

Luke 10:17. When the 72 disciples returned, they joyfully Reported to him. Lord, even the demons obey us. They're like freaking out, right, when we use your name. And.

And Jesus says, yes, I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning. I feel like that was smart Alec. Do you guys, Is that how you read it? Look, I've given you author authority over all the power of the enemy. And you can walk among snakes and scorpions and crush them.

Nothing will injure you. But don't rejoice because evil spirits obey you. Rejoice because your name is registered in heaven. And I will say this, we aren't walking around like all high and mighty because demons obey us, right? Honestly, this should be basic Christianity.

We just haven't seen it in the church much. But this is basic Christianity. God died. Jesus died. Our God, Jesus died so that we can be free.

He wants us free. And I'm telling you, we're talking about spiritual warfare in our families. But if you aren't free husband, if you aren't free wife, okay, you have open doors for the enemy, for your kids, for your family. We have to be free parents, okay? We have to be free.

And I'm going to talk about that in a sec, okay? Acts 19:11. I'm not going to read all of that, but the sons of Sceva tried to use Jesus's name and got beat up, okay? So side note, I wouldn't suggest if you're not a Jesus follower or walking with Jesus, that you go around casting devils out of people, okay? Jesus's name is that powerful, but some.

But then the devils were like, wait a minute, we know Paul and Apollo. We know all these people. Who are you? Okay, they know us. They know us.

The enemy knows us. If you think he doesn't, he's watching you. He's watching for you to mess up so he can get into the door. And I'm not trying to scare you, but he's watching us. Us, this realm, this spiritual realm that if we could see, right?

I'm not saying that there's demons all, you know, even right here because we told them to leave, okay? But they're watching us. One time we were in a women's meeting just, I don't know, three years ago in here. Hundreds of women in here. Pastor Terry was going to speak.

We had worship going and a lady started screaming behind me and there's a sound and I knew it was the devil. I knew it was a spirit, okay? So I look behind me now. These are everyone's like, huh, Worshiping. Someone's screaming.

I look behind me. This lady it like literally right there where this new couple is. I don't know who you are, but right there, she's standing there. Then she is, boom, on the ground in a full on convulsion, biting her lip. And I see blood coming from her lip, okay?

So I'm like, okay, interesting. What do you do in this situation, Andrew? What would you do in the situation? Okay, so you walk back, I found out that our admin for Pastor Terry called 91 1, okay? I literally was like, this is a demon.

Okay? So I just leaned down in her ear and I said, stop it right now, in the name of Jesus. And she just.

And then I said, get up. She got up and I said, come with me. And she followed me to the prayer room. Then we just started praying over her. A couple other ladies came with me.

Then the ambulance showed up and we had to explain that, that they were in the prayer room and we really didn't need your help anymore. So that was awkward. But turns out this woman had just gotten saved literally like a week before, was a drug addict, hooked on all kinds of stuff. And she said when she lifted her hands to worship, the enemy knocked her to the ground and she started convulsing. That is what we call a manifestation of a demon.

You guys, demons don't manifest. Most demons do not. This is a whole demon talk, okay? Demons do not want to manifest because if they do, you know it. And then you cast them out.

Demons hide. Most of demons are not manifesting, so you don't have to worry about that. But what happens is when they're in the presence of God, same way as in when Jesus was walking the room, this place, what does it say when two or more gather? He's in our midst. Ooh, that gives me chills.

It's not just in me now. He's in our midst now. And there's a power. That's why if you walk in the prophecy or anything like that, man, it's amped up when you're in this space because it's like the presence of God. When I walk, walk in here, I can start hearing the Lord in such a greater way.

Why? Because he's in our midst, not just in me. So this poor woman had been just gotten free. She raises her hand to worship Jesus and the enemy knocks her to the ground. He doesn't want to be known and he does not want to be cast out.

But when the spirit of God is present, okay, the enemy can't stand. First note on spiritual warfare in your house. Have the Presence of God in your house.

Invite the presence of God in your house. Do not let the enemy have dominion. Okay, I'm going to talk about that in a second. Okay, Number C. We need to fortify ourselves and our homes. So my question would be, what are you allowing access to to you and your children?

Okay, might step on some toes here. I hope not, because most of you are like Jesus freaks in this room. But I'm just saying we have the power to let the enemy in our house.

Things we watch, things we look at. I literally prayed with a lady for fear in the back room. And she said she watches horror films on the regular. She goes to the refuge. I'm like, okay, let's.

Let's start the basics here. Okay, you guys. But honestly, she never. She was like, what? Like, she had never been taught that this, what I do affects this.

Like, it was so, like, mind blowing because she had never really realized what the spiritual realm was. So she didn't know that when she's watching Freddy or whatever, okay, she's allowing that thing to come in her house. I don't care if your kids are asleep, okay? I don't care what. Your children are in the back room.

You have now the bubble of the presence of God. Now you have just allowed something in. It matters. That's why we try to live very consecrated. I've always.

For years and years and years and years. And I'm not perfect. But we don't allow anything. Steve knows I have left so many movies. We don't even.

He won't even take me. He hasn't even taken me in years. One time I left in the previews, he's like, I mean, we haven't even got the movie started. Like, I can't do this. I'm going just because the preview is bad.

Like, I don't care. I don't. I don't care. I'm not going to listen to your mouth. I'm not going to listen to cussing.

I'm not going to see that with my eyes. You know what I'm saying? Like, we have to fortify this. We have to fortify this. Your kill, your children are going to be protected when dad is protecting his mind and mom is protecting her mind.

Does that make sense? Okay? We. We play a part in this. We don't become untouched by the spiritual realm just because we're believers.

We don't get a coat of many colors, okay? Because we're saved and we got the blood and we can just do whatever we want. No, we Don't. The enemy's looking. He's.

He's like a chain link fence. He's like, let me find a weakness here. How can I get into your home? How can I get into your home? Right.

It's different everywhere. Every. Every one of us have different stories. But 2 Corinthians 6, 14 through 18. Let me read this.

I think this might be up there. Yeah. Okay. Don't team up with those who are unbelievers. How can righteousness be a partner with wickedness?

How can light live with dark? What harmony can there be between Christ and the devil? How can a believer be a partner with an unbeliever? And what union can there be between God's temple and idols? This is good.

Okay. For we are the temple of the living God, as God said, I will live in them and walk among them. I will be their God and they will be my people. Therefore, come out from unbelievers. Separate yourself, okay, from them, says the Lord.

Don't touch their filthy things. And I will welcome you who wants to be welcomed by Jesus. Okay. That would be me. And I will be your father, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.

And then the next verse, which is the next chapter 7:1. And I think they did a disservice because I think. I don't know who made these chapters up, but that wasn't how they wrote them in the old days anyway, because. So this is just continuing, continuating, because we have these promises. Dear friends, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that can defile our body.

And. Okay. And let us work toward complete holiness because we fear God. Okay. I'm not perfect.

You're not perfect. Pastor Andrew's not perfect. Candace is probably perfect. I'm not sure. But the rest of us.

No. All right. We're not perfect. But we have a holy God that we can come to every day. Right.

And repent and get the blood covering us. Are we going to mess up? Yes. But we are constantly walking towards holiness. Narrow is the path.

So we start when we're, you know, newly saved. Right? We're on this broad path. We're not. And I don't know where you guys are in your journey.

We're all in different places. What sin is for me may not be sin for you. Okay. But as we get consecrated and more consecrated, he starts peeling off the layers of the onion and we start walking closer to God and closer to God. I think there is grace for new believers, but he tells us, disciple them.

So we have to tell them to come. I, I, years ago, I had a Bible study in my neighborhood. I thought it was going to be a awesome idea to invite all my neighbors and have a Bible study, okay? And I had like one was literally a straight up non believer. I had a Methodist, a Catholic, a non denom.

I can't remember. I was the only, I was the only spirit filled one. And that week didn't go well when I was explaining all that. But anyway, we had a lady that, she called herself a Christian, but she didn't act like a Christian, you know what I'm saying? She cussed like a sailor all through my Beth Moore Bible study, okay?

And I'm a Baptist, ex Baptist. And we don't cuss, okay? We don't dance, we don't do anything, okay? We're Baptist. And so that was still on me.

And I'm just like, every time she cussed, like, I would get flinched. And I'm like, I don't know what to do. She in my house and, and we're trying to talk about Jesus and Beth more. And I'm like, what? And the Lord said, you don't say a word.

Don't say a word. And she kept coming and she kept coming and she was doing her little Beth more study. And one week she comes in, she's like, ladies, I think the Lord might have told me to stop cussing. And we're like, yes, isn't that awesome? We don't disciple people by giving them a list of rules.

We point them to Jesus. We have them read this book and let God do that, okay? You know how churches get legalism because you go to this church and they just gave you this list of rules and then you can't do them. And then you feel like a failure and you feel like the Lord doesn't love you, okay? And you're not doing it for him, you're doing it for the pastor or your parents.

The Lord loves us and he takes the worst of the worst. He's not going to leave us there. But we can't judge these people because of where they're at, okay? So you can't label somebody because they're in this sin. We're going to have homosexuals come into the refuge.

We're going to have adulterers. You guys, I pray with so many people in the back room. You have no idea what's sitting next to you. I'm just saying I can't tell you, but I'm telling you, a lot is going on, okay? People living Together.

Having sex together all the time in our church, coming every Sunday. You know, what do we do with that? We have to keep speaking the truth, and then the truth will set them free. Okay? We.

We don't. We don't, like, accept it. That's not what I'm saying. But we have to just keep speaking the truth, and Jesus will do the rest. Okay, so legal, right?

If I'm in Hampton Inn and I'm just in the foyer handing out keys to room 222, like, here's my room, you know? And then I'm in my bedroom that night and wondering why people are wondering, walking in my room, oh, I gave him the keys. That sounds so silly. But that is what we're doing with the enemy. We're handing out keys.

Watch a little this, watch a little porn, watch a little this. And then we're like, I don't know why I'm in such spiritual attack in my home. I don't know why. You know what I'm saying? Like, we're handing out keys, and the enemy's like, I'm not going to mess with you right now.

But you just wait, you know? So he's finding the right time, and he comes in your home. So we have some very good news. We can be free. We can be free.

And honestly, it's just one moment of saying, God, I'm so sorry. I repent. Like, that's how simple this is. The enemy will tell you, you'll never be free. You'll never be free.

He used to tell me that about fear. You will never be free of me. I would hear that in my head. You'll never be free of depression. This will be your life.

Okay? That is a lie from the enemy. And let me tell you, how do you know if it's the enemy or your own voice? Okay. Or God's voice?

If it's accusing, it's probably not God. If it's accusing you. If it's other than. And let me just throw this out there, too, for anyone who's like, oh, I need a demon check. Like, do I have anything?

Check me. Like, the airport. We're gonna all walk through this thing and it's gonna go off. No, I'm just kidding. But seriously, I don't think that every person has demons, okay?

I also think that when you live a consecrated life, the old demons that used to have you start falling off. I don't think everyone has to go in the back room and have prayer. Prayer over. Okay? You start living a consecrated life.

Holy and walked walking with the Lord. And the demons are like, oh, I can't even live here anymore. Okay, So I don't think. I think that they leave us alone. But there are times when maybe you had a trauma, maybe you were touched inappropriately when you were a child.

And there's this hidden thing, and this enemy just had this door, and he's. He's in there, right? And he's just. He's always harassing you. Sometimes you need some help getting free.

And that's what we're there for. But I'm just telling you, the enemy knows that if all of us would know the power that we have, he does not want us to know this because he would be shaking. We have power. The name of Jesus said, through a person who believes it is powerful. Right?

Okay, so we need to close doors. What do we do? Turn off music, Turn off things. Things that maybe you did before. Horoscopes, witchcraft.

I'm telling you, all of this is doorways. You're like, oh, this is just cute, you know? No, it's not cute. And the more you know about Jesus and walk through, like, trying to get closer to him, the more this is going to be exposed in you. Okay, I'm going to tell you a story about one of my deliverances that I did.

And this is when I was literally kind of just new at this, and I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't read books on this. I didn't know what I was doing. Well, actually, the first time I was at a women's conference with someone, and I guess because they thought I was with these people, that I knew what I was doing, and they called me to the back room to deliver someone. I was like, don't know, you know?

So the Lord just kept putting me in positions where I had to do this. Brazil, I had my first real deliverance where the enemy literally was talking through a lady's voice. Okay. Her eye colors changed, literally. I was freaking out.

I'll just tell you the story real quick. You know, I got time, right? Okay. So this girl comes up to me in Brazil, and she's said she was actually on the leadership of their church. And she whispers in my ear, and she's like, can you pray for me?

Because I have voices in my head that tell me to do bad things. And I was like, okay. So I grabbed a couple of my friends. This was like my first. I would say, full on, we're going to have.

We're going to talk to the devil situation. Okay? So I take her to the nursery room. We're in chairs that are like this short, you know? And she was the cutest little thing.

She was like 20 something years old, little blonde, little cutie piece. She comes following me with the nurse into the nursery with my two friends. And I turn back to her and she was like. I was like, what just happened? And I'm like, oh, God.

And my two friends, eyeballs were like this big. They had never seen anything like this. I could tell you their names because they go to church here, but I won't. And so we set them down, and I was like. It was like the Holy Spirit just possessed me.

And I just knew what to do. I was like, sit down. Like, I was like, commando. I like. I don't know what happened to me.

And then my friends were behind her, and she's like, got her head down, and I was like, look at me. And now I realize I'm talking to an enemy here. I'm not talking to sweetie pie girl, okay? I'm talking to the enemy. And she looks up at me, and her eyes were yellow.

And I went like. I literally. Have you heard the phrase take your breath away? Well, it happens, okay? And I literally lost my breath.

And then in this next second, I felt the Holy Spirit. And I was like, oh, no, no, no. And so for the next two hours, we, me and her just go back and forth. She was. I mean, I told her at one point that she needed to forgive.

The Lord would just tell me things. And literally she was like, I will not forgive. And I'm like. Like, I was like, you know, I'm telling you, like, something happens to you when you're in the presence of evil and you are possessed by God, okay? You don't have to be some superpower.

This makes me cry, you guys. He's waiting for us to engage the enemy. The enemy is wreaking havoc on the church. He's wreaking havoc on our teenagers. And you guys will have teenagers one day.

He's wreaking havoc. And we are like, huh, you know, living American lives and watching our little American Idol shows, which I do like, by the way. But you know what I'm saying? Is it okay that I watch American Idol? I don't watch a lot of stuff, but they did have Carrie Underwood.

It's Christian now, okay? So seriously, though, the Lord is waiting for us to take Cabarrus county, to not be afraid. And what I'm sharing with you about closing doors and fortifying your home. And I'm going to go into that in a second. I'm not saying go lock your doors and hide from the big bad devil and stay there and protect your little babies.

Right? And don't let them ever leave their house, which I know. Candace, you want to do that? I'm just kidding. We always talk about that.

I get it, though. I get it. Right? We want to protect them as long as we can. And I do believe in covering them and all of that.

But I'm just saying, if you're going to hide, if you're going to hide away until they're grown and then start taking ground from the enemy. No. You teach your Holy Spirit kids how to fight, right? How to combat fear, how to wake up in the middle of the night and say, no, I will not be afraid because I have Jesus inside me at four. Okay?

My. I. My spirit. My sister slept with me. I was a teenager.

Spirit filled. She was 5 and spoke in tongues with me every night. I was on fire and she was, too. Okay, you guys, there is no junior Holy Spirit. I know we say this, but we.

We're. We're raising little firebrands for Jesus. They need to know to not be afraid. We don't have to tell them everything, but they don't have to be afraid. Okay, I have a few minutes left.

All right. How to fortify your home and be a watchman on the wall. This seems so simple, but it really is that simple. James 4. 7.

I don't know if I have that written down. You guys all know the scripture. Submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double minded. Be wretched and mourn, weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourself before the Lord and he will exalt you.

When he's talking about that, it doesn't mean we always have to be in a bad mood and crying and mourning. Okay, but he's saying, you're sober. You. You're. You're sober.

You. You're watchful. You. You're always knowing what he's doing. Okay?

You're submitting to God and he promises us that the enemy will flee. And as we draw near to God, he's going to draw near to us. And we're going to have these Holy Spirit filled houses with Holy Spirit filled kids. And we're not going to be bound to pornography and addictions and drugs and alcohol because the enemy's going to bow, and we're going to take back authority over these minds, right? And we're going to watch.

Have watch over our house.