Let’s look at the last part of Joy.ce’s message on authority and power:
“Well, what about temptation? It would be just so nice if we didn’t have temptation, wouldn’t it? It would be just so great, but the Bible says, “Temptation must come.” It must come, that’s why we have faith. There would be no need for faith if you’re never tempted. We need to learn how to respond quickly to temptation. We need to recognize that it’s just the devil trying to work through that person or situation, and instead of getting mad at the person, or getting all frustrated about the situation you need to just take authority over the devil, and say, “you’re not getting me rattled. You are not going to win. Just go ahead and wear yourself out, but when you’re done I’ll still be here. And I’ll still be here trusting God.”
You know it’s interesting when I take these missions trips because, I mean I go to places where witchcraft is prevalent and maybe people just stopped eating each other a few years ago. Voodoo and just a lot of weird stuff, and you’re going in there taking the light into these dark places, and you’ve got to understand how much the devil despises that. Well, one country that I remember coming out of, actually it was Rwanda where they had a genocide many years ago, and we were taking the truth in there and preaching the message of forgiveness and letting go of the past and had some real victories. When I came out of there and got on the plane, a mosquito bit me on the eye, which I didn’t think too much about at the time, but the next morning when I woke up, my eye was swollen up. I was on my way to another country to preach and my throat was so sore, it felt like a piece of raw meat, and something was wrong with my tongue, it was burning like fire… Well, when I came out of Papua New Guinea, I got on the plane and went to sleep, I woke up sick to my stomach, throwing up – I had a horrible 18 hours. I told Da.ve, “How long do you think it is going to take the devil to understand that I’m not going to quit?”
That is the first thing that you need to say when the devil comes against you, “Devil, you just don’t get it! Throw your best shot but I’m not going to quit!” I can tell you one thing, if you just make a decision today, “I don’t care what happens, I don’t care how long what I’m going through goes on, I am not going to quit!” Because you know, the devil just sits on your shoulder and whispers things like, “I just can’t take this much more, I just can’t take this much more…” “well, God if I don’t get a breakthrough this weekend…” Some of you came here, “Now God I’m going to go to that, but if I don’t get a breakthrough this weekend, then I just think that I’m just going to have to quit!” O, give me a break, you’re not going to quit! Threatening God does not do you one bit of good.
Well, I tell you Jesus didn’t put up with it!
Matthew 16:21 (Amp): “21From that time forth Jesus began [clearly] to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders and the high priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised from death.”
Mmmm, what good news… “Hey guys, let me tell you something. We are going here in this town and they are going to beat me and crucify me, and I’m going to die.” You know, right away they are thinking, “Yeah, and we are with you.” So Peter, and I just love Peter because I’m really a lot like Peter, then Peter took Jesus aside, “hey, Jesus, you are a little confused about this? Come on, You’re the King and we’ve got the victory. There are going to be no beatings and hanging on crosses – we are going to rule!” Amen?
Matthew 16:22-23 (Amp): “22Then Peter took Him aside to speak to Him privately and began to reprove and charge Him sharply, saying, God forbid, Lord! This must never happen to You! 23But Jesus turned away from Peter and said to him, Get behind Me, Satan! You are in My way [an offense and a hindrance and a snare to Me]; for you are minding what partakes not of the nature and quality of God, but of men.”
I have to tell you that Peter was more interested in himself and what was going to happen to him than he was Jesus. But Jesus turned away from Peter, first of all He knew, He knew immediately, that it really wasn’t Peter, but that it was Satan speaking through a weakness that Peter had.
Has anybody ever noticed that if you finally get to the point where the devil can’t get to you, that he will come through the weakest link around you? Most of our problems are people problems. They are the things that people say, the things they do, the things they don’t do, the way they behave…
And so here Peter is one of Jesus’ closest disciples and yet the devil is going to use Peter’s fear to try to keep Jesus from the will of God. “23But Jesus turned away from Peter and said to him, Get behind Me, Satan! You are in My way [an offense and a hindrance and a snare to Me]; for you are minding what partakes not of the nature and quality of God, but of men.”
This is what I mean about resisting temptation. First of all the Bible says that you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood, and when you’re going through things that are difficult and you’re trying to get out of some bondage or break some addiction or even go on a diet, you know we just think we’re going to die if we get hungry. Amen? We’ve got to learn that it’s not all that bad to be a little uncomfortable for a little while, so we can have the right kind of comfort later on.
A girl with many problems told Joy.ce that she realized that her thinking was keeping her in bondage after reading her “Bat.tlefie.ld of the mi.nd” book. “As a man thinks” – that’s why it’s so important for you to understand that the promises of God are already yours… You’re not fighting for victory, you’re fighting from victory. Do you understand that? You’ve already got the victory. Paul prayed for the Christians in Ephesus that they would know the unlimited, immeasurable, unsurpassing greatness of God’s power to and for them who were believers. Paul was praying the same thing I’m praying for you today. You’ve got it! I want you to know that you’ve got it! Authority is not automatic. You have to take that authority; you have to walk in that authority and you won’t walk in that authority if you don’t know you have it. You won’t resist temptation if you don’t know that you can resist temptation. Come on, if we can’t even be hungry for a day…
Another girl told me (Joy.ce) that just to show the devil that she meant business, she would bow down in front of the toilet that had been taking her life where she’d been throwing up, and she would put that Bible on that toilet and read it out loud to the devil…
Come on are you going to fight or not! Or are you just going to keep sitting around and saying, “Well I can’t, it’s too hard! It’s the devil; the devil won’t leave me alone! I didn’t have a good start in life…” Or are you going to say, “Listen, I am a child of God. I have been redeemed, I have been bought back from the devil, and I am none of his business, none of his affair. I am going over! I’m not going under! I’m the head and not the tail! Above and not beneath!” Today you need to draw a line in the sand and say, “I’m making an announcement! It’s over! I’ve got the victory and I’ve got it right now!” Not tomorrow not someday, “I’ve got it right now! And I’m going to start applying it in my life!” Greater is He that is in me than is he that is in the world.
God, I pray that you would fill us with your power afresh every day. It’s in us but let it come out into our souls and our minds and out into our lives. Let us be ever filled with your Spirit, o God. Let us know who we are, Who we belong to, that You have all authority and all power and you’ve given it to us. The devil is under Your feet and therefore he is under our feet. He may come against us one way, but he has to flee before us many ways. Thank you for the gifts of the Spirit, thank you for the supernatural, wonderful gifts of the Spirit that cause us to be able to live a supernatural life. I thank you God that we can endure whatever comes with good temper and we may get angry, but we don’t have to let the sun go down on our anger. We can get over it. We can come to your side and say, “I’ve got the power to bind this thing here on earth. I’m going to have in my life what heaven says I can have. I’m not going to quit, I’m not going to give up. I know that there is going to be a battle, I know that I’m in a war, but I am more than a conqueror. You see I have already won the battle before it ever begins. All I’ve got to do is walk it out.” Amen