Spiritual Warfare - 2 'Resistance' — Jim Logan

Spiritual Warfare and the Promise of Deliverance

I was trying to think of which verse to give you, because I'd always like to give you something positive. I think it's so important, because talking about the enemy is not always a pleasant thing, but it's important that we are not ignorant of his devices, as the Scripture says.

Does that say that? We're not ignorant of his devices. And yet, if we are, then we're so much more vulnerable to defeat in our life. So I think the positive verse I'd like to share with you is in 1 Timothy 4, and it's verse 18.

I'll read it in the King James, and then if you have an NIV, basically, that's probably the closest to the Greek that you can have is the NIV of this particular verse. It says, The Lord shall deliver me from every evil work in the King James, and will preserve me into his heavenly kingdom, to him be glory forever and ever.

But actually, it's even more wonderful than that, it's more thrilling than that, and it's this. The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack. Isn't that tremendous? What a promise. The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack, and will bring me into his heavenly kingdom.

Rebecca’s Testimony of God’s Protection

What's been so thrilling about every one of the missionaries that we use as an illustration, someone's come up to me and said, Oh, I know them, and remember the girl I told you about that had the thoughts today, and she had gone to Moody, and taken a course in spiritual warfare from Fred Dickinson, and just wasn't prepared for that kind of a battle, that she'd have that, you know, just doubting God's word, that would that be attack of the enemy.

Well, someone came up here, who's in the Africa prayer group, and said, Oh, that's Rebecca Duberry in Gabon. I said, Yes, that was Rebecca Duberry in Gabon, Africa. Well, I'm going to tell you some more things about Rebecca, I think is so neat.

Rebecca, after getting the victory on that, she went back to Africa. Now, she's been in Africa, I don't know, eight to ten years. And as I mentioned, I was in Africa just after Easter, and Rebecca flew over to do the translation for all the West African French-speaking countries, for the leaders that were there at a spiritual warfare conference this last April.

Well, when Rebecca came, she shared something with me, I want to share it with you. It's a neat testimony, but I want to share a second testimony I shared with our brother here, and that was Rebecca wrote me a letter after we got back, because I thanked her for coming over and doing the translation, because we were counseling.

It's interesting to counsel in another language. I mean, I was counseling in English, she was translating it in French, and then these French Christian leaders would put it back, but Rebecca would weep, and I'm wondering, What's going on here?

Come on, tell me what's happening. As they were sharing their sad stories and all of this, the attacks they were under. But Rebecca found out that in the first church that she worked in there, in Gabon, for the first three years, she and her partner were on loan to Christian Missionary Alliance, and in this church, one of the deaconesses was a practicing sorceress, and she would cook meals and take them over to Rebecca and her partner, and was putting poison in the food, and for three years, off and on, they ate poison meals and never knew it, because the Lord rescued them from every evil attack.

Eight years later, she found out the Lord had protected her. Isn't that something? You know, when we get to heaven, the Lord's going to say, You're not as grateful as you ought to be. You don't know what trouble you caused me.

Sorcery, Conversion, and the Power of God

But I'd like to share this. This was another thrilling thing. This had just happened that Easter, and I was in Africa probably three days after this took place. This particular church is in a different place now in Gabon, Africa, but they only take in members at Christmas and Easter, which would be a baptism service followed by communion only twice a year.

Well, at Christmas time, this lady showed up from another area, an older woman, and no one knew who she was, and she gave a testimony that she was a Christian. The pastor said, I just cannot baptize her.

Although she gave testimony, he just had that feeling, you know, I call it gut level, that something wasn't right, and so he just wouldn't baptize her. Well, she showed up at Easter, gave the same testimony, still no one really knew her.

They knew the area she was from, but didn't know her. And one of the deacons said, How can you not take someone into the church just because you don't feel good about it? That's not right, pastor. So he took this lady, and he baptized her, and he gave her communion, and she became ill.

She went next door to the pastor's home and fell on the kitchen floor. The pastor stood over this lady and said, You're holding something from me. Tell me what it is. She didn't say anything and died on the floor.

They came from that area to get her body, and when they came, they said, Do you know who she is? And they said, No. They said, Well, she was the most powerful sorceress of our area. And she said, I will taste of the Christian's power before I die.

And God struck her dead. And talk about, How would you like to preach the gospel in Africa after that, in that area? We're having a communion service. Anybody like to clean up their life? Awesome, isn't it?

We have a powerful God. And you know that. You know that animistic people are very leery about turning to a God that has no power when they've seen the power of their gods. Isn't that right? And they've got to see reality, that He's able to protect.

And He has more power than the one they fear. I'd like, how many of you know Missionary Tech Team? Anybody here know of Missionary Tech Team? There's some real educated people here. Missionary Tech Team is a mission of technical people that design, they're architects that design buildings for missions that don't have architects, for a dollar an hour.

And they go all over the world and design these buildings, and how to build them and how to plan them, and even try to get you some of these hard hats for Christ and all that, to put your buildings up for free.

Well, this is the, I know live you can't see it, but this is the president of the mission, Bernie Wiley, his wife and his two children. And I just want to share this. We have a little bit of time because it won't take the whole time for the rest of the pride issue, but I'd just like to share this with you as just an insight.

I was asked to speak to all of the home mission, whatever they call it, you know, A &M, whatever that is, American Home Mission, whatever. And they're a part of this. And so there's a lot of missionaries there, and the subject was spiritual warfare.

And I shared. And the children were in the meeting. And so I shared what had happened at our mission. It was just before that, you know, you like to share something up to date. And I was filled with child evangelism.

And our daughter had brought our grandchildren to visit us from the east coast, and I hadn't hardly seen the baby. And I was so involved in missionary freshers, I'm not saying missionary fresher or missionary candidate school or something, but I was a missionary fresher.

And so I decided after teaching warfare, I'd get in the car, drive quick to our house, see the grandchild, drive back before I taught again, and then be ready to counsel our missionaries. Well, on the way back, I turned on the radio station in St. Louis, which is CBS, and I heard a demon talking.

I thought, I can't believe this. I mean, I've heard demons speak so much that when I heard it on the radio, I knew that was a demon speaking. And I'm going, I can't believe this. What's this demon doing talking on CBS?

And here what they had done, they had a fellow who had come to St. Louis who was teaching you how to channel spirits. And I didn't realize what was going on at the time, and he was on the program. He had called up his spirit, and they were interviewing his spirit that was from someone in England that was 100 years old.

But once you've heard demonic speaking, once you've heard it, you'll always recognize it. I mean, you just, you recognize it. You just know it. And so I listened to this, and at the end of the program, this is what frightened me.

The Temptation to Invite Evil

This is what this demon said over CBS. Are you lonely? Do you find yourself with no friends? There are a lot of us spirits out here that are just waiting. And if you will right now invite us to come in, we will never leave you.

We will never forsake you. We will be your friend. We will talk with you. It was the best invitation. Billy Graham doesn't do one that good. And I kept praying, Lord, don't let an old person hear this.

Don't let a lonely person hear this. I mean, it sounded so reasonable. You know, it just sounded like, oh, and it sounded so nice. It sounded like such a nice spirit giving this invitation. Well, anyway, I shared that.

And when I shared that, this little guy right here, a voice said to him in the meeting, if you ask me and I'll come in. Now, I didn't know what happened because he turned to his dad and said something and his dad took him off in the dark.

We always took our kids out in the dark, tuned them up and brought them back. So I figured he was getting tuned up out there somewhere. They never came back. So Bernie's into warfare. I mean, he was a missionary in Alaska with the Indians.

And you can't work with animistic people and understand there's a real battle going on. So he understood it. So he talked with his son and he asked me the next day, he said, would you talk to my son? And I'm going, what do I say to Caleb?

Good name, but I didn't know what to say to him. Do you ever not know what to say? You know, would you say something? And he goes, yeah, I'd love to. Now, what do I say? So I spoke in the morning and they had a motor home and they said, would you just talk to Caleb about this thing?

Because, you know, he heard these spirits saying, just open yourself up, Caleb. I'll come in. And, of course, he didn't want to do that. So we came to the motor home and as we were going up the steps, he turned around and he said, you know, Mr. Logan, I have big problems.

I said, yeah. He said, are you good at this? I said, well, I'm learning. So we went in and we sat down and I said, Lord, I don't know what to say. I mean, I don't know how to approach this. And I said, Caleb.

And he was serious. He had a Bible and a notebook and a pencil. And he was seven and a half years of age. He was taking notes. And a verse came to me, which is 1 John 5 .18b. I said, you know, Caleb, this verse just comes to me.

1 John 5 .18b, it says, I am in Christ and the wicked one touches me not. He said, you know, that's a good one. I said, yeah, it really is. You ought to write it down. So he wrote that verse down. And then from then on, the Lord just gave me something.

And maybe it will help you with, I don't know why I'm led to say it tonight. I just feel led to tell you this story. And possibly you work with a child and can help them because the one thing you don't want is children to fear the enemy.

They don't need to fear the enemy. He's defeated. And I said, Caleb, let me tell you a story. I said, let's say that, oh no, I did this before I told him the story. I said, Caleb, have you ever been to the zoo?

He said, yes. I said, have you ever been to the snake house? He said, yes. I said, you went in a snake house? He said, yeah. I said, you really went into a snake house? You know, I'm really pulling him out.

Yeah. He says, why? I said, Caleb, there's poisonous snakes in there. He said, yeah, Mr. Logan, but there's glass. And then what he said? Jesus is the glass, isn't he? I said, yes, Caleb. Jesus is the glass.

He's between me and the snakes. I said, Caleb, let's say that we stayed in that zoo until it was dark. And we're walking out of the zoo, you and I, in the dark. And the lion roars. Would you be afraid?

He said, yeah, I think I would. And I said, what if I reminded you he was behind bars? He said, then I wouldn't be afraid. And then he said this to me. And he said, have you ever seen a demon? And I said, only peripheral one time, but many of the people we deal with see them.

They appear in the rooms and things like this, but I have never really seen one. I just saw something at our headquarters. Our headquarters was a Catholic training center. And I saw, I thought, one of our missionaries walking across the hallway in a bathrobe.

Then it dawned on me there was nobody down that hallway. And so I thought, well, maybe I... But look, it was in a brown bathrobe down to the floor. So it was one of the monks that they probably buried under the building, wondering at that end.

I don't know. But there was nobody there. And I... And he said, well, last night in the mortar home they had a couch and then a table and then the floor where you'd go out the door. And he said, my brother and I take turns.

One of us sleeps on the couch, one of us sleeps on the floor. And then they had these drop-in glass, square glass, you know, those glass things with the light bulbs behind them in a mortar home. Just three or four of them that you'd have light.

And I said, well, why did you want to know? He said, well, last night, Mr. Logan, when I was laying on the floor, I looked up and that square light started glowing. And everybody was asleep. And he said, I saw a face.

And he described the face to me. It had a hood and it had a beard. But he described the eyes. Now, they don't have a television. And these are homeschool kids. And there's no way that boy could describe the eyes unless he had seen one.

And I knew what he was talking about because, as I tell you, as we counsel people, we always look at their eyes, always are watching the eyes. And he described these eyes as they looked down at him. And I said, what did you do?

He said, well, I didn't want to wake up my dad and bother him. And I said, well, what did you do? And he said, well, I did what my dad said. I said, in the name and the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, get out of here.

I said, what happened? He said, well, it went. You know, he's one of my best prayer partners. This old guy's been praying for me for three years. And I hear from his dad every now and then again. And the other day his dad called and I said, hey, can I talk to Caleb?

He said, love to. I said, Caleb? Oh, and then I said this. This is a neat thing. I almost forgot the best part. I said, Caleb, God must have something very wonderful for you to do. He said, why? I said, well, boy, Satan's attacking you.

He said, what do you suppose it is? And I said, well, I'm not sure. He said, well, I know when I'm 15. I said, well, at 15 you can be a CEF summer missionary and that may help. So we walked up and here we talk about demons and all this stuff.

This kid runs up to his dad with all these missions around and he said, Dad, guess what? God's got something wonderful for me to do. So I talked to him. This is three years later and he said, I think I know what it is.

I said, you know what it is? He said, what God wants me to do. Now he's 12. No, he's not quite 12. 11, I guess. And I said, what is that? He said, well, I got a pretty good voice. I think he wants to be a singer.

But, you know, even children under attack don't have to be afraid. In fact, you find children are often much more believing and trusting and standing than adults will in this whole thing. Well, let's turn.

Resisting the Enemy Through Submission

I want to get into our study this evening and that was a little boy resisted demonic forces and they left. And we're talking tonight about resisting. We want to get into this whole thing of resisting.

Now, some of you maybe were not here this morning and what we did today is we looked at what the sin that Satan committed that caused him to be thrown out of heaven, which was in essence the sin of pride.

Then we looked through all of Proverbs and saw all the consequences of pride. That pride comes before a fall. Pride is always first and then destruction. And all these really terrible promises of the tragedies that will come into the life of a man or a woman that allows pride to come into their life.

Just, it's awesome. If you weren't here, just get a concordance and look at every verse that pride is mentioned in Proverbs and you'll see this. But the one thing that we weren't able to finish this morning is the dynamics of how does this work?

I mean, we know it's true because God's word said so but how are the dynamics? Why is it that if I allow pride to come into my life I will be destroyed. I will fall. I want you to turn to the book of James.

Chapter 4. You know, it's interesting James was probably the half-brother of Lord Jesus Christ, wasn't he? In all probability in our study, I'll let the theologians do all the theologing stuff but they seem to be pretty much agreed that James was the half-brother of Christ.

Now, when you and I have somebody we like to drop names. I had lunch with Billy yesterday, Graham that is, and George was there, Bush. And that gives me credibility, right? I had lunch in Washington and Bush was there eating lunch somewhere I think.

In the book of James it shows you the humility of this man. Because if you want to have a little punch in credibility you send a five-page note to this guy telling him how wonderful you are that he can read to all your missionaries in case you missed it.

I was telling him we were just at a meeting where Bill Godfrey was doing the same thing over this really godly old man and he got up to speak and he said I feel much like a stack of pancakes well syruped.

He doesn't start out James the half-brother of Jesus, you better listen to what I'm reading. Isn't that interesting? He just says James, what does he call himself? A servant. Isn't that neat? So we know that this book when he talks about humility that obviously the author of this book had some.

Now let's look at James 4 and you know what's interesting is that probably as far as we know James is the first book written in the New Testament and it's on warfare. Isn't that amazing? The very first written book if you go chronologically I was told that, maybe if I'm wrong and some of you know that, tell me but I heard it was possibly the first book written that they had that was circulated was the book of James and it says in verse 6 but he giveth more grace and that's in chapter 4 my wife says be sure and get them both together and I either give you the verse or a chapter but I think what are you guys paying?

What do you want for nothing? It's amazing how picky these freeloaders are. It's in the Bible but he giveth more grace wherefore he sayeth God resist the proud but he gives grace to the humble. I want to ask you a question what does God give?

What does he give? Boy, you guys all flunked. Read your Bible. What does he give? More grace. That's the only kind of grace God gives. He gives more grace. That's sufficient, that's significant. More grace.

Underline that. You can't put enough underlines under that. More grace. That's the only kind he has. Now the key is What is it? What is this thing called grace? I won't trap you on this one. I love to do it to our missionary candidates.

They all went to Bible school. They all got the answer. The unmerited favor of God. That's really interesting. What about his mercy? That's kind of his unmerited favor of God. What about his love? That's unmerited too.

That doesn't help me much. Does it? What is it? I need it to get saved. I can't get saved without it. I need it for warfare. I will not have victory without it. What in the world is it? And I need more of it.

And there's always more of it. No matter how much I draw from it. But there's always what? More! But what is it? And I'd like to give you a working definition. I think it would be so helpful. It puts shoes on it.

Grace as Desire and Power for Godly Living

What is grace? And I think you can find a working definition of grace In the book of Philippians. Just about my favorite verse. And it's in Philippians chapter 2. Let's look at chapter 1. Chapter 1 verse 6.

Being confident of this very thing. He which hath begun a good work On you In you Will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. So what do we know? God is working in all of us That know him as personal savior.

But what is he doing in me? Philippians chapter 2 says What he's doing. He's doing two things in me. And he's doing two things in you. Philippians 2 verse 13. For it is God that worketh In you. In the King James it says Both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

That's a tremendous verse. The first thing there Is to will. You could put the desire. God is working in me. And God puts within me a desire. And then he gives me the to do. Which is the empowering To do that which will please him.

Isn't that beautiful? And that is Grace. Grace is the desire And the power To live a godly life. The empowering of God To live a godly life. And so tomorrow I don't have to be afraid Of tomorrow. Unless I was going up in one of your little airplanes I'm glad no one's offered me a ride.

I don't like them. I was flying one the guy opened the door. And I go what are you doing jump out? We'll let an air go through. You know. No thank you. But even if I had to go in one of your planes What do I know is As I'm sitting there turning white Knuckles.

There's more grace. But I'd rather have it on the ground. Someone said something years ago That just helped me so much In my early Christian life. And that was the statement God will not allow anything To come into your life Which will ruin.

Pardon me. God will not allow anything to come into your life. And this is important Which is beyond your control Which will ruin or hinder God's purpose for your life. That's why he says In everything what?

Give thanks. And I started reading the life of great Christians. And I was amazed At the men who said those same statements. You ever read John Payton's Thirty Years for the Cannibal. I read it to my son When he was four years old.

You know what he said Every night as you read a chapter of that to him He would say John Payton would be running. The cannibals would be after him Screaming and hollering. And he'd come to. They took a tomahawk And they're throwing it.

And his foot would catch in a log. And he'd fall flat. And the tomahawk would go thud over his head. And then Richard would go to bed. And he'd look up and be three and a half years old And say oh dad isn't God wonderful.

You know John Payton one day was out Weeding the corn or carrots. And a cannibal had a musket on him. And he kept going down the row Weeding. And the cannibal kept following him. And someone said how could you do that.

And he said You know if my life is over It's over. And if it's not I better weed the garden. See God would not allow This guy to shoot him till it was all over with. And if it wasn't all over he had things to do.

That's all this grace thing. That's what we're talking about here That there is more grace. I don't know what I'm going to face next week. In fact you can pray for me. Next week we have a fellow that's been in almost every mental hospital in America That's coming for help.

And those are hard cases. They're usually so drugged up And so difficult to deal with. I'd rather stay here And work with these terrible missionaries Than work with Go back and work with this guy from the mental hospital.

But I know what That God has next week. More grace. See I know that Sometimes we wonder Don't we ever been there where you wondered. You say God. I thought you said that. And I feel I'm all out of it.

But it's there. But look at this God gives more grace. When I usually preach this in a church This is my message. Why are there so many losers on the winning team. Right. I mean here God has got more power.

And why are we living such defeated lives. We need to ask that question. Don't we. Why are there so many defeated Christians. When we've got all the power That we could possibly draw from To live victorious At every single choice that we make.

Now I'm not saying that we live Victoriously all the time. I could tell you I do because my wife's not here. But There's a key here in the verse. But God gives more grace. Wherefore he saith. What is it God what.

Resists who. The proud. There's a wonderful verse. If God before you What's the rest of it. Think of this. If God is resisting you Does it make any Difference who's for you. And when I see that word resisting I just see this big arm coming out of heaven Shoving Just shoving away.

When Satan allowed pride in his life God shoved him out of heaven. When I allow pride in my life Don't worry about me God I can do it. You run heaven I'll run you. He says fine I'll take my power off your life.

And what will happen. I will fall. That's why we fall. That's why. If we allow pride in our life It's all over spiritually for us. It's just a matter of time till we fall. Pride precedes A fall. But he gives grace to who.

The humble what's a humble man. It's one that says Lord without Your empowering I can't do it. If you would get Into our kind of ministry You'll become A very humble person Very quickly. There are times I walk up and down the hall Saying God.

I don't know what to do. There's a person in my office That's being tormented. And I don't know What to do. I've tried What I know. We're always looking for better methods. And God's looking for what Better men.

And I just walk up and down God I don't know what to do. Show me what to do. You said if any lack wisdom He's not my son he's your son. That's your daughter in there. And I don't know what to do. It is so bad.

I don't know what to do. Nothing seems to be working. I can't seem to get through to them. That's humbling isn't it. It just doesn't work. And I thank God for that. And I can't tell you how often We get and pray and say Lord we don't know what to do.

But we want to help them. But we don't know how to do it. Show us what to do. So a humble man is basically one who says God without your empowering. I can't do it Lord if you don't Give me your strength for today.

I'm not going to make it through the day. Lord I need you And the Lord meets you. And he will empower And give you the power that you need. For those situations that you have to face. Verse 7 he says Submit yourself therefore to God And resist the devil.

And he will flee from you. That's a tremendous Progression of truth here God gives grace To the humble. And then what do I need to do. The first thing in warfare. If I'm going to be successful In warfare what must I do.

Submit. And what's the word submit mean Remember sub is rank under Submit to God. Am I willing To submit to God In every Area of my life. Am I willing to get under God's authority. You know it's amazing that authority And power are together in scripture.

Getting under authority.

Are you under God's authority. Or are you resisting.

If you're resisting God In an area of your life You will not be able to resist the enemy. Right. You've got to know that You can't be resisting God And resisting the enemy at the same time. You submit to God.

And from the place of submission You resist. Do you see that It is so vital It can turn the battle for you. And sometimes It is not easy to submit to God. Is it. It is not. Because God says Logan my ways Are not your ways.

And I say I know it. I wish they were. I know it and it's hard sometimes For me to get under God's authority. And sometimes God wants me to do things That it doesn't look like I want to do. I never wanted to go to India.

I mean Sometimes you hear all these horror stories. I heard so many horror stories in India That I thought I can't handle India. So I went to Africa instead. Now I realize Now I can go to India. But just the thoughts of going to India I thought I couldn't handle it.

All these beggars rolling in the dirt And all the stuff I heard No place to go to the bathroom. And you can't drink water. And on and on and on. And I get to Africa. And there's beggars rolling in the dirt.

No place to go to the bathroom And you can't drink the water. And on and on and on. Dumb, you know, dumb me. But you know There's times It can really be a struggle. And we've had those struggles. I've wrestled with the Lord.

Have you wrestled with the Lord. To get my will underneath it To bring my will under what God wanted me to do. And I tell you I'm glad that God is one. Even at times It didn't look appealing. Or it didn't look like the right thing I knew is what the Lord wanted And to bring my will under.

But I had to. Because if I don't I'll be defeated And resist the devil. And he will flee from you. Now we asked the question this morning. And we need to ask the question tonight. Do you know there are Christians Who have lived and died And have never once resisted the devil.

And I'm not asking You to raise your hand. But have you ever resisted the devil. You know there's missionaries that never have Never have resisted The enemy. And yet we're told to do it. And here's the question.

How can I resist the enemy If I don't Know he's around. And how can I recognize When he's there. Isn't that right. I can't resist someone I don't know is there And I don't run around. Resisting demons all the time.

If my book falls on the floor I don't stand against it. In the name of Jesus. I like what Fred Dickinson said. Someone came to him. He's the head theologian at Moody. And says Fred I think you see demons behind every bush.

He said brother Can you see the bushes. That's what I'm concerned about. But I do need to know When he's there I'm told to resist him. And you start reading. You read the Colossians And Ephesians. And you read about warfare.

And obviously we're to be involved. And how can I fight an enemy. I can't see if I don't know he's there. And he usually doesn't knock and say Hey Logan this is the devil. I want to wipe you out today.

He doesn't operate like that. Let me Share something I'll use Our director In a good way. He paid me to use him positively. He's heard this before. Let's say he walks down the hall And his wallet Falls out on the floor.

And some of you kind of tear. And you're late. And you happen to walk down that hall. One of you is walking down. We'll use a fellow. One of the younger missionaries Is walking down the hall. And there is this wallet.

With all this money sticking out It must be the director's. And nobody's around. As he reached down to pick up the wallet He gets this urge. There's nobody here. Keep the money. Now obviously he's a wicked missionary.

So the next night He walks down the same hall And he drops his wallet again. He's even got more money in it. Another young missionary. That's here for What do you do these people for 8 days. It's awful what you do these people for 8 days.

That's one of those 8 daysers. And he's walking down And he sees the wallet And he picks it up. And he says someone lost this wallet. I better return it to him. So he's a good guy right. This guy is very Righteous.

The other guy is unrighteous. We're going to do the same two guys. This righteous fellow Is jogging Down the road. He's jogging along And he sees A sack Of magazines Along the side of the road. If you know anything Why people throw sacks of magazines Along the side of the road.

Those are usually pornography. And the guy Stops and he looks. And he realizes it's pornography. And all of a sudden he realizes There's nobody around. There's nobody around. Maybe I'll look. Now the unrighteous guy Is jogging the next night.