1. Three Levels of Faith: God Can, God Can Through You, God Is Willing

So, the three levels of faith required to reach the level of healing. Just this weekend a young lady came in with a cast on her wrist. Some bone was missing, the doctors had tried different things, and she was in pain. We began to pray, and the gift of faith was there; the power of God had pushed out the spirit of doubt. That is the supernatural effect where you simply know they are going to be healed — no doubt, no struggle, you just know. It was a sweet anointing; you could almost feel where the Lord was. We prayed a little, ministered on other things to give God time, and a few seconds later asked how she felt. Warmth and tingling in her hand, and all the pain had left. At our church that is commonplace. The board is filled with testimonies from the previous senior pastor and from the ministry now. I cannot remember a week going by without some supernatural healing. Not because of super-apostles — there are simply a few things in the Bible that, once you get them straight, you flow the way God commanded us to flow.

Level one: God can. That is the easy one. Is anything too hard for the Lord? Is His arm ever too short? He is almighty; He made your body. Surprisingly, many people are not even at this level, mostly non-believers. But once you come into the kingdom under the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the majority of Christians already believe God can. It is a requirement.

Level two: God can through us. Ephesians 3:20: He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us. Whatever you think He can do through you, He can do far more. You need to sit and meditate and pray over that Scripture until it is hidden in your heart. David hid the Word in his heart that he might not sin. Hidden in your heart does not mean you read it or memorized it. It means you meditate and pray over it, and God takes you through things in your life where He proves that Scripture to you, so that you know it — know in the biblical sense. Today "know" means you have the data. In the Bible, the word "know" is the same word the translators recorded when Mary said, "How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?" and when Jesus said, "I never knew you." He is God; He knows everybody. He meant, "I had no relationship with you." So you want to know that Scripture the way Mary meant it: relationship with it.

Pray over Ephesians 3:20 until you have a solid knowing that He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all you ask or imagine — according to the power that works in you. Not just the power that works in Benny Hinn or Prophet T.B. Joshua. In you. Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. Jesus said, "If you keep My commandments, I and the Father will come and live in you." I am speaking to those who have the Holy Spirit — Romans 8:9 says if you have not the Spirit of God you are none of His, and that is something to work on — but if you have the Holy Spirit, God lives inside you. The same Spirit that hovered over the world when it was formless and void, that said "Let there be light" and there was light, that made dry land appear. Tremendous things on a vast scale, done by the same exact Spirit that works inside you.

Write this down: there is a difference between theology that reads well and theology that works. You will notice a difference between the theology of people God uses in miracles and the theology of people who only talk about the Bible. Some things sound good, but when you are laying hands on the sick in hospitals, you find out quickly what is clever preaching and what is the Word of God, because the Word of God actually works. When lives and health are at stake there is no time for theological debate. The same Spirit that created the heavens and the earth lives in you if you have the Holy Spirit. Benny Hinn does not have one Holy Spirit, T.B. Joshua another, and you a little one that can't do much. First Corinthians 12, on the gifts, keeps repeating "by the same Spirit." It is the same Spirit.

Level three: God is willing. This is the big one; this is what changes things. Here is why so few Christians are used in miracle healing though the Lord Jesus Christ said the signs would follow those who believe: most believe God can; fewer believe God can through them personally; and fewer still believe God is willing each time.

Notice in prayer a slight difference between His will and His willingness. I will say, "God, if it be in Your will," and sometimes, "God, if You are willing." From experience, the percentage of miracles was lower when I said "will." Even so, I often leave it in His will, because I am not chasing percentages; it is not love of God to hunt for what He is willing to do instead of His perfect will, what He really wants done. Unless a situation is truly hurting me and I really need it — then I say, "God, if You are willing." That is a concession from His perfect will, and it is biblical. He gave one to Mary when He told her, "It is not yet My time," and she told the servants, "Whatever He tells you to do, do it," and He worked a miracle before His time. Not His perfect will, but He was willing. Perhaps there would have been fewer difficulties had the miracles started at His exact time. But it shows He listens to prayer. If there were no willingness and no concession, there would be zero reason to pray. He has everything laid out; if not a single person prayed, His Word would still not return void. Yet with Mary He showed He would work a miracle before His time just because she asked. God is in love. He wants your feedback. He wants you used to relating to Him and asking Him for things. My perfect desire for my children is what is healthy for them; but if my daughter tells me there is a dessert she loves, I listen, and in the right circumstances I let her have it, though the sugar is no good for her, because I love her and I want her to talk to me, not sit there like a robot. God gives fathers and families as a prophetic type of His relationship with us.

Now His perfect will. James 4 says you have not because you ask not. Most people grab that one line like a football and run with it. Read the next line: you ask and receive not, because you ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts. Then they get mad at God. The whole Gospel is about the fact that we fail to move in love. The other loves are selfish, about how someone makes you feel; agape is denial of yourself for what someone else needs. A prayer for your own lust is a prayer outside of love, a selfish prayer, and that is why James says it is not received.

I am not big on gimme-gimme theology, but some things people would call materialistic I asked for and received immediately, because I was not asking for wanting's sake. I prayed over a tablet: "God, I could preach from it, study from it, make free calls on it, use it for work overseas — it would help me provide for my family and serve You." I found one with three markdowns, ordered it, and they lost the order. To make up for it they gave me a free month, which after the discounts was worth more than the tablet; I was paid to get it. A year and a half later my wife dropped it, the repair shop lost it, and they sent me the next newest version. God upgraded it. Same with my pickup: "God, I could use this for contracting, for loading speakers and chairs for street outreach, and for carrying my family." The Holy Spirit directed me to the vehicle. A loved one received a sum of money that was exactly the old debt to the same creditor plus the down payment, with exactly ten percent left over for the tithe, and she was intent on giving it to me. After I went into full-time ministry, the banker called, furious that I had financed elsewhere, refinanced me, and forced me into a payment $250 cheaper. That is what comes of asking for things not to be spent on your own lust.

And do not be tricky with God. He sees clean through you. Do not take something you want and mold your prayer to say, "Well, I could use it this way." Have a genuine desire in your heart to serve God, and that will modify your prayer, so that you ask for things you can do God's will with.

Second Corinthians 1:20: the promises of God are yes and amen. God really wants His will accomplished. Remember how Jesus taught us to pray: "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven." There is no sickness in Heaven; there is fullness of joy. He taught us to pray that earth would be the way Heaven is. Of course God wants that — He centered Himself in Heaven. The way Heaven is decorated, not just the streets of gold but the way you set your own house up because it is the way you like it, is the way He likes it: no tears, no suffering, no sickness, filled with His glory, filled with worship and praise. That is how He wants it on earth. That is why He commanded us: if you want to know how to pray, disciples, pray that it be on earth as it is in Heaven.

2. God Is Good: Troubleshooting When Healing Doesn't Come

Heaven is the way He likes His home: no tears, no suffering, no sickness, filled with the glory of the Lord, filled with worship and praise. That is how He wants it on earth, and that is why He commanded His disciples to pray "on earth as it is in Heaven." If anyone has filled you with a theology that says otherwise, wash yourself of it in the Word.

False theology is often guilt by association. If you cannot stand certain people and they love a certain pizza, you may go off that pizza, though the pizza did nothing wrong. When I talk about miracles, people say, "You must be one of those greedy pastors." No. Not everyone focused on power is focused on the things of this world. The true God really does want to move in this all the time.

Some things make us wonder, openly or secretly, whether God always wants us healed. There was a priest in the early church who taught that the Father of the Old Testament and Jesus of the New were different gods, and even tried to separate the Bible so no one would read the Old Testament. People still quietly feel the God of the Old Testament was sterner and has loosened up. That cannot be, because God does not change. So what changed? Look at the fire. In the New Testament fire from Heaven is a wonderful thing; I love it when God sends fire down on the church, when you feel His power all over you, you touch people and they are healed, grief comes off them, things that would take years of counseling leave in a second. But in the Old Testament, every time the fire fell, something was destroyed. Did the fire change and become nice? No. We changed. Before, when the fire touched us in our sin, it destroyed us. Now God has imputed His righteousness to us and taken our sin, and the same fire is wonderful. And in Revelation the fire will destroy again — reserved for the day of judgment, for those who reject the Lord Jesus Christ. When the armies of Gog and Magog surround the kingdom the Lord Jesus Christ has set up, fire falls from Heaven and destroys everything around His inheritance without touching what is inside. The same fire; it just does different things. I have felt it: lay hands on one person and they say "Hallelujah"; lay hands on the next, who has an evil spirit, and they scream, "Don't touch me." One fire, blessing one and burning the other. The God of the Old Testament is not harsher than the God of the New. Jesus made a whip and drove men out of the temple, then turned and healed people. He does not get stuck like we do. The fruit of the Spirit is temperance: you can move in righteous indignation and then in compassion without getting so worked up that you cannot pray for the next person who asks.

So what actually happened? Back to Matthew 13. God did not allow weeds to grow among us because He likes a garden with weeds. But many of us have reached the point of believing God wants us with the weeds because there are weeds in the garden. We look at what has happened to us and to our loved ones and think, "Maybe this is God's will, because it is happening." What did He say to the servant who had that thought? "Sir, didst not thou sow good seed? From whence then hath it tares?" He answered, "An enemy hath done this." And notice verse 25: "while men slept." Not while He slept. While men slept — the people who were supposed to tend the garden. From Genesis, where no man had tended the garden, God sent Adam and Eve to tend it: "Reproduce, and subdue it." We were supposed to keep the enemy and evil from growing up in this garden. We allowed weeds to grow, and from the evil in this world come sickness, depression, bondage, addiction, anxiety, and possession by spirits. Those are the weeds. God is saying, "This is not Me. I did not do this. I gave you the garden, commanded you to keep it, and gave you everything you need. So why are you looking at Me as if I enjoy this?" It is as if a commander handed you a sniper rifle, showed you where the enemy is holding people bound, and gave the order — and you sat there looking at the bound people saying, "Lord, why don't You do something?" while he is behind you yelling, "Shoot!" Anyone watching would ask what is wrong with you. But that is how it is: we have been given the orders. That is why judgment begins at the house of God.

"If you don't know love, you don't know God, because God is love." What is love? English throws every kind into one bucket. Eros: I love you because you make me feel good — me, me, me. Philia: I love you because you are friendly to me. Storge, the love of family, is still selfish: I love you because there is some of me in you; a DNA test comes back wrong and suddenly the love is gone, which means it was never love, only love of you-and-them. It is why some love one child more than another: they love that father in them more. The only real love is agape, and it has nothing to do with feelings or hormones. It is denial of self for someone else's needs; a category of activities. "God so loved the world" does not mean He was mushy about it — He also said, "Love not the world." So if you do not know love, you do not know God, who is always concerned with what you are going through and always wants you well and better. He is even going to destroy this earth and make a new one, and change our flesh into glorified bodies, because He is starting over.

How does the parable touch today? Many hearts will grow cold in the great falling away. "Let both grow together until the harvest" — the harvest is the end of the age, and it is here. He is uprooting the tares, and what He warned of in verse 29 is happening: "ye root up also the wheat with them." The great falling away is the damage to the roots as the tares come out. It is a separation, as in Genesis: water from land, waters above from waters below, light from darkness. Now good is being separated from evil, and it looks like the wicked becoming more and more wicked, so that what was once intertwined and hard to tell apart is becoming very clear. It does not take long anymore to see who is on which side.

Then the word "good." I was in the Greek, but the Holy Ghost said, "Go into the Aramaic," because the disciples were Hebrews; the Greek came later. In the Peshitta, the word Jesus used in "Why callest thou Me good? there is none good but God" is the word used for grace, favor, kindness, and graciousness — the same word as "Give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good." God is good means He is gracious, kind, full of favor. So when He looks at you in your suffering, He suffers more than you do. He is grieved. He wants your loved one healed more than you want them healed; He loves them more than you do. Put that into the equation, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil becomes the tree of the knowledge of what is God and what is not God. We question whether God is willing because we do not know God. He always wants us healed.

Then what about when someone is not healed? If you know God wants them healed, you can look at it mechanically. As an electrician troubleshooting, my father taught me: first check that you have power. Once you have power, you troubleshoot from there. Electricity wants to go through resistance and heat it up. If the light does not come on, you will never say, "I guess it isn't the electricity's will." You say, "Something is blocking it." So if healing does not take place, look for what is in the way.

Here it is: God wants your sins forgiven more than He wants you healed, so He will not heal you if it would keep you from repenting. Jesus said it is better to enter Heaven maimed than to be whole and go to hell — better even to injure yourself, He said, though that was parabolic; please do not. To the paralyzed man lowered through the roof He said, "Thy sins be forgiven thee," and then, to show He had authority to forgive sins, "Take up thy bed and walk." He connected sin and sickness. I notice that when you lay hands on unbelievers in the highways and byways, they are healed very quickly, because the gospel of salvation wipes away all previous sins and with them their effects. But when someone has received Jesus and gone back to sinning, the percentage drops. I go into churches and fewer are healed, because they have taken up new sins since they were saved. They say, "You're being legalistic; I'm saved, everything is fine." Then throw away "holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord," and "be ye holy, for I am holy," and "present yourselves a living sacrifice, holy." Why did the apostle say, "Confess your faults one to another, that ye may be healed"? Because he saw people in the church, not in the streets, who were not healed. And Scripture says that for those who go back to their sins after tasting salvation there remains no more sacrifice, seeing they crucify the Son of God afresh — a two-crucifixion Christianity: He died once for my sins and again so I can keep living in them. Brother Don, our church president, told me the previous pastor noticed the same: when he laid hands on someone and the power did not flow, that person had something to repent of or someone to forgive. Everyone who actually goes out and does healings holds this. None of them are unlimited-gracers. They all ask, "Are you saved?"

If I pray for a believer and feel doubt that the Spirit and faith do not drive out, or the power does not flow though I have faith, they are not going to be healed, because God is more concerned that they deal with the thing. Sickness was originally meant as an indicator, like the nerves God put in your body. When you stub your toe it hurts, not because He does not love you, but because He wants you to handle that toe gently and know something is wrong. So when you pray for someone with faith and nothing moves, do not define your level by how they feel afterward. Stop that. You know the level you are at. If three people were healed before and this one is not, do not let your faith drop. Troubleshoot. "I know the power is flowing; I checked it. Where is the break?" Ask: is there anyone you need to forgive? Anything you need to repent of? If they say no, pray for God to reveal it. Often it is something they do not think is sin, like marijuana. I have tried many times: people boldly smoking marijuana do not get healed. The only ones I have seen healed were healed the moment they decided in their mind they would do it no more. We can wrestle over theology, but the Holy Ghost makes it clear. Carry a different mindset and you will wreck your own faith, praying for people who are not healed, feeling unworthy, in an endless cycle of doubt that only God can break through fasting and prayer. God always wants them healed, but He wants the sin gone. If they are not a believer, He will wipe out the sickness; they need to receive Jesus. If they are a believer and not healed, find where they are active in sin or unforgiveness, because God said He will not forgive your sins if you do not forgive others.

God used Pastor Bert to train me to think as an electrician. Why electricity? God created it; it runs by His rules, and the same God who made natural power is the supernatural power, and they move the same way. He would answer my questions in dreams as electrical problems: I would be troubleshooting in the dream, and wake up knowing exactly where the problem was. So when someone did not get their miracle, I learned to troubleshoot what was blocking it. It does not mean God does not want them healed; something is in the way, or a mindset needs to change. In Pakistan, my brother-in-law's mother had been vexed with a spirit and had gone from one mega-ministry to another without deliverance. I prayed over the phone and she was delivered and has had no trouble since. The difference was that I did not just lay hands. I said, "If all these ministries could not set her free, something is there, and I will not ruin my faith dancing around it." We went through a long list of everything she might be doing that displeased God, and came to one thing — not even a bad deed, just a mindset of bad theology. Immediately it manifested; she got angry; we prayed; the Spirit of God fell; she spoke in tongues for the first time and was delivered. Now I keep getting invitations to fly overseas for healing conferences, and it is not because I am special. I found the sin. I troubleshot it.

If you would like to move in this power, repeat after me: "Dear God, I thank You so much for the work You did on the cross. I openly confess to You right now everything I have done wrong" — do not generalize; go into detail — "and I forgive everybody, because I know You have more against me than I could ever have against anyone else. I believe You died for my sins and rose from the grave, and I receive You as my Lord, my Boss and Master, whom I will obey, and my Savior, who sets me free from the effects of sin in this world and its punishment in the next. Holy Ghost, fill me, in Jesus' name." Holy Ghost, touch them all, in Jesus' name. Touch the knee, touch the leg, be healed, be whole.

3. The Truth Shall Make You Free: Deliverance, Not Struggle

In Heaven, lying is not part of the conversation. Down here we smudge details and exaggerate — at tax time, on an unemployment form, when the officer asks how fast we were going — and it flows right off the lips. In Heaven it is shock: you actually said something untrue? Jesus said that when Satan speaks a lie he speaks his native tongue, and in Heaven they do not speak Satan's tongue. Go there thinking "I'm decent" and you will be the one in shock: "These people are nothing like me. I feel utterly ashamed around them." That is what the Bible means by being shamefully exposed.

Apply that to Ephesians 4: "having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But ye have not so learned Christ." Past feeling means you no longer even feel guilty.

Beloved, one of the safest things you can do for your soul is to get this revelation. There are many spirits, many voices, many preachers, many theologies. Check your fruit. If you are struggling with all kinds of sinfulness and greed, and when you look at the Lord Jesus Christ you feel a conviction — like the Jeremiah word, the prophetic word you locked up in your heart because you did not want to hear it — go find those Jeremiah words and confess them. Maybe others in your church were baptized in the Holy Ghost and you were not, or someone you love was not, and you have prayed the longest time asking why. Check what in you is sinful, not Christlike: lasciviousness, greed, wickedness, pride, a perversion, thoughts you cannot control, a loose eye you cannot stop. Know that God made you perfect. He did not make you sinful by nature or bound up in wickedness; everything God does is perfect. Somewhere something got inside you that causes these things, and God is letting you know it is not Him and did not come from Him.

How long have you followed a certain teaching? "Fifteen years I've been studying this, and fifteen years I've been wrestling with this same stubborn sin." The Bible is letting you know you did not get your teaching from the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said, "Whom the Son sets free is free indeed," and, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Chew on that. "I love Jesus, I know Jesus, but I'm wrestling with this." No. Let God be true and every man a liar. If you know the truth, the evidence is that you become free; if you are still bound, you have a relationship with a lie — something you think is true that is not. Ephesians 4:20: you have not so learned Christ. Free from what? "Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin." Free from sin. Yes, I believe it is possible to live a holy life.

Instead, like Lot's daughters, we have recalibrated. We see sin all around us and decide it is normal to be a Christian and still wrestle with plenty of sin — "God still loves us." He does, but that is a shortcut around behaving like Lot's daughters. We grade ourselves on a curve against a class of failing students: "They have F-minuses; I only have an F." Put Jesus in the equation and you will see you have not passed. Then you have no choice but to ask, "God, I have this conviction now; I cannot pass over this sin anymore. What do I do?"

I know for certain that if I preach with the Holy Ghost on me and you sit under it for a year, you will start pulling away from that sin, because the Holy Ghost does surgery — not in condemnation, which is what the enemy does, but in conviction. The enemy condemns; the Holy Spirit convicts. Right teaching will not leave you condemned, but you will feel bad. If you go to church and never feel bad about your sin, get up and walk out; you are supposed to feel conviction. Jesus said the Holy Ghost would convict the world of sin and reprove it of righteousness. Godly sorrow works repentance. We forget the holiness part: "holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord"; "present yourselves a living sacrifice, holy"; "be ye holy, for I am holy." How? First be free from the slavery of sin — by knowing the truth. And if you thought you were hearing the truth but you are not free, then what you have been hearing has not been Jesus.

This walk is not a social club. Your very soul is at stake; work out your salvation with fear and trembling. You fasten your seat belt, you note the exits on the plane, you look both ways and hold your children tighter at the crossing — yet most of your existence will occur after you die. Seventy or a hundred and twenty years is not even a brief intro to eternity. Why would you not be completely sure? Paul wanted the fellowship of the Lord Jesus Christ's sufferings and the power of His resurrection, "if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection." He was saying: I will go through whatever suffering He gives me, beaten, whipped, martyred, and still I want all His power, His signs, His wonders, full of God enough to command the dead to rise — if by chance I may be worthy of His resurrecting power. We are saved by faith, and the evidence of faith is works; the evidence of believing the Word is the fruit of the Word. "By their fruit ye shall know them." If you have received the real Jesus and His real Spirit, it will make you bear fruit unto righteousness, know the truth, and find yourself free.

I know this personally. Deliverance is not struggling miserably not to do something anymore. Deliverance is supernatural. The day after I first received the Lord Jesus Christ I stopped drinking, cursing, and fornicating, and even stopped eating for four days. It was not a struggle; I simply lost interest. I had prayed the night before about my sin, woke up, and had no interest in any of it. As a young man I went celibate, free, and I have not cursed since. It is the same for others and the same for you. Struggling is like putting a four-year-old in a three-piece suit with a glass of apple juice and a newspaper. He will cross his legs and read like a grown man — until a toy truck rolls across the floor, and the juice, the newspaper, and the suit are forgotten and he is on all fours playing, because he was only playing mature. That is what people mistake for deliverance: "I'll act free, play the mature saint," while burning inside with lust, until the right temptation passes and they are back in the sin wondering how they backslid. You never were free. Jesus deals with the heart: look with lust and you have already committed adultery in your heart; anger at your brother is already murder in your heart. You can pretend you are washed, but when you are truly washed you get the answer Jesus gave Peter: he that is washed needs only to wash his feet. You will pick up dust from the floor, but you do not need to be washed all over again. If you keep going to the altar to be rewashed of the same sin, maybe you were never washed clean, and maybe what you received was not the true Jesus, because the true Jesus sets you free.

To my brother pastors: preach the gospel fearlessly. It is more important than filling seats. People are more than numbers to brag about, more than offerings, more than a clap or a whoop. Souls are on the line. Ezekiel's rebuke stands: your prophets prophesy for profit, your teachers teach for hire, and no one has gone to find My sheep and bind up the broken. The most dangerous place a man can stand is behind a pulpit, because much more is expected. If anything, be a little afraid of the speed of your growth, because the more people you have, the more you must make sure they can never say before the Lord, "He never told me." Give what the Holy Ghost tells you to give, and don't fear it if they leave; God can bring more. Grab the mic, let it rip, and deal with the fallout in prayer afterward. Every time I said what the Holy Ghost gave me knowing they did not want to hear it, God rewarded me afterward: the power flowing, people baptized in the Holy Spirit, visions, prophecy, healings — because I obeyed the one Person in the church who matters. Do not feed God's children candy and chips to keep them happy. Be a loving caretaker of His inheritance: make it taste good, but give them the vegetables and the protein, everything God wants them to have.

This is not condemnation; it is conviction. Condemnation leaves you bound: "Look at you, flat tire, no gas, no spare — what are you going to do now?" Conviction is bringing help to someone who does not think they need it: "Sir, I don't mean to upset you, but your tire is flat," so they will receive the spare you are holding. So I speak to two groups: those who know they are sinners and not ready to stand before God, and those who think they are pretty decent. "The wicked are righteous in their own eyes" — we always apply that to other people. But the Bible says all have sinned and fallen short; there is none righteous, no, not one. Have you ever told a lie? Then you are a liar. Ever taken anything not yours, any amount — smudged an application for assistance or a job? That is theft; you are a thief. Angry at your brother? Jesus says murder. Looked with lust — married looking at anyone else, single looking at someone married? Adultery in the heart. Romans 1 says the only reason you have not committed physical adultery is that God's hand is on your heart; remove it and you will be surprised at what you do. Ever used God's name in vain? Blasphemy. Four commandments, and most of us are liars, thieves, murderers and adulterers at heart, and blasphemers. If God judged you on those alone, would you make it? Obviously not. That is not condemnation, because there is a solution.

Jesus Christ took all your sins upon His own soul. He loved you so much He would rather die than be without you, and He offers you the solution now if you believe what He did. The parable again: a spouse dies while the other is away on business. If they never heard and marry again, they are guilty of adultery. If they heard but did not believe it, guilty. If they heard and believed, and married, not guilty. Jeremiah 31 and Romans 7 show Jesus as the husband who died, so that those under the law are free from the law and those who were a law unto themselves are free from that. If you believe He truly died for your sins, He took them. You must also believe in His resurrection, because unlike every other religion on earth, Jesus is the only one who came back, which proves what He said is true: if He said He would die for your sins and rise the third day, and He rose, then you can believe He died for your sins and is the living God — a dead god cannot help you. But Paul also said that going back to your sinful ways crucifies the Son of God afresh and puts Him to open shame, and there remains no more sacrifice. That is why, at communion, some were sick and some dead for not discerning the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, and why Paul told the church — not unbelievers — "confess your faults one to another, that ye may be healed." Some of you in this church are sick and not healed because you have a sin to confess, thinking you can keep sinning.

Some argue against Christianity like this: imagine a plea so great — the plea of the blood of Jesus — that any criminal can get out of jail. But when someone is freed, they work with a parole or probation officer whose job is to keep them on the straight and narrow. Jesus does the same: He sends the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, who convicts of sin and reproves the world of righteousness. Take the plea and your sins are off the hook when you believe He died and rose. And since He died for you, you should live for Him. If my life's work were feeding the homeless and I died running into a burning house to save a rich woman, she would be wrong not to feed the homeless afterward, knowing that if I had not run in, it would still be getting done. So accept Him as Lord. Lord does not mean God — Sarah called Abraham lord. Lord means master, ruler, boss; "why call ye Me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" And you would not even be alive without Him: had He not died on the cross, the world would have been destroyed as in Noah's day. He is the same God who flooded the earth and drowned everyone who thought they were decent, and He has reserved fire for the day of judgment. Since He died for us, we live for Him, and then we receive the Counselor, the Comforter, who keeps us and deals with us when we do wrong.

Godly sorrow works repentance, and repentance is not saying sorry. The Greek is metanoia: meta, change, as in metamorphosis; noia, mind, as in paranoia. A change of mind: I have determined to turn from this. Some are not ready to come forward because they think they will do it again. But right now, listening, you are not sinning. Maybe you lied yesterday, maybe you will do something tomorrow, but right now you are not. So purpose right now in your heart: I am not going to sin anymore. Why does it start with sin? Because the message is "repent and believe the gospel." John preached "repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand"; Jesus preached it; Peter's first word was "repent and be baptized… and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." Repentance is the first state. You do not put a child in the tub still holding the mud he is playing with; first he puts it away, then the bath. It starts in the mind: decide, right now — whoever you are, praise leader, minister, whatever the lust, even secret homosexuality — "I am letting this go. I am not doing this anymore. God, I don't know what I'll do tomorrow, but right now I'm not doing it, by the power of Your Holy Spirit." Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless with exceeding joy. Do not worry about tomorrow; the cares of the day are enough for the day.

And believe: "Jesus, You died on the cross for my sins, and when You died my sins died. What happened to You was what should have happened to me. When You took my sins, Your life fell apart — from the town favorite to public enemy number one, a warrant, false charges, jail, beatings, capital punishment. That is what sin does, and You had done nothing wrong. In Gethsemane You sweat as it were great drops of blood, receiving all our sins — 'Father, if there be another way, take this cup' — the cup of our sins. Then You died and went into the heart of the earth three days and came out. I believe You did that; I believe You rose in confirmation; I believe You intercede for us in the kingdom of Heaven; I believe You sent Your Holy Ghost. I receive You." Then you have received salvation, and make sure you receive the full baptism of the Holy Spirit to keep you, because those who endure to the end shall be saved.

I did not plan this broadcast this way, but I feel God's unction that someone needs to be set free from something you have wrestled with too long. You look at your death like Russian roulette — like you jumped from a plane without a parachute, the ground rushing up, and you look at the birds and the clouds and the weather to distract yourself, steering toward the water and not getting there fast enough. Death is coming, and when it comes you will stand before a holy God and your heart will speak for you: "Yes, God, he thought he was decent, that he could get away with it because he preached here and gave money there, but deep inside he knew he was wrong, and he knew he could have stopped, and he refused." Your heart will not defend you; its secrets will open. Receive this salvation now, and be baptized by the Holy Ghost.

Father God, in the mighty name of Jesus Christ the Lord, I thank You, Holy Ghost, for taking over. Touch everyone in the sound of my voice. Loose them from all the effects of sin, from the attacks of the adversary; loose their lives, their careers, their ministries, their jobs, their families, in Jesus' name. Touch their bodies right now. We command all pain: go now, come off of them now in Jesus' name. I bind cancer; I bind diabetes; come off of them now in Jesus' name. Holy Ghost, confirm their total healing and deliverance. I release peace, the peace of the Holy Ghost, all over them, over their lives and their ministries. We rebuke Jezebel and loose the dogs of Jezreel to take Jezebel out of your ministry right now. We take off Goliath, in Jesus' name, that everything God has given you to do you will be free to do. This is a brand new start. Touch everywhere on your body that needs healing. Don't ask, don't beg: "Pain, go now, in Jesus' name. Thank You, Jesus; You love me so much that You are taking this pain from me now." Now check it: move your hands, your arms, your legs, and see if that pain is still there.

4. The Authority of the Believer and Setting the Captive Free

Now we come to the part many believers never take hold of, though it was theirs the day they were born again. The Lord Jesus Christ said, Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy. Notice the tense. He gives it. And in Mark 16 He tells us what it looks like: In my name shall they cast out devils. Not the apostles only. Them that believe. So when you stand in front of a tormented person, you are not there to beg Heaven to act. You are carrying orders signed in blood.

All of that rests on the finished work of the cross. Colossians 2 says of the Lord Jesus Christ, And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Spoiled means stripped, the way an army strips a defeated enemy. Hebrews 2 says He took part of flesh and blood that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil. Settle that and your ministry changes: you are not fighting toward a victory, you are enforcing one already won. The only ground the devil holds is ground somebody gave him. So we minister in faith, not fear.

How does he get a foothold at all? The first door, and the one I find open more than any other, is unforgiveness. The lord of that servant was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, and the Lord Jesus Christ then says, So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses. Tormentors. That is not poetry. I have prayed for people who stayed bound for years, and the whole matter turned on a father they would not release. The second door is persistent, chosen sin: you do a thing long enough and it is doing you. The third is the occult in all its packaging, and a door opened in ignorance still opens.

Learn also to tell a devil from the flesh, or you will waste a great deal of your faith. The works of the flesh in Galatians 5 are not cast out; they are crucified and brought under by the Spirit. A devil is not disciplined; it is commanded to leave. A compulsion the person hates and cannot break, or a reaction to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, is a spirit. An appetite the person is quietly protecting is flesh, and it must be repented of before any command is given.

There is an order to this ministry, and skipping it is why so many sessions end in noise. First, preach the Lord Jesus Christ. Deliverance is not a technique, it is the gospel applied; if the person is not saved, get them saved, because the blood does more in thirty seconds than an hour of shouting. Second, lead them to repentance and to forgiveness of others, out loud and by name. When the ground is gone the spirit has nothing to stand on.

Third, command, and command in His name. Paul did not negotiate with the spirit at Philippi; he turned and said, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour. Short, clear, by faith and not by volume. Do not converse with spirits; they are liars by nature and will gladly give you a long dramatic interview to waste your time. And expect the manifestation to stop. The Lord Jesus Christ left people clothed and in their right mind. Bring it to peace, then have them praise God and see whether the thing still has a voice.

Fourth, and this step is most often left out, fill the house. He warned that the unclean spirit returns and finds the house empty, swept, and garnished, and brings seven others worse than himself. Swept and garnished is not enough; occupied is what is needed. Put the Word into them, get them baptized in the Holy Ghost and into a church where the power of God is real. An empty room is an invitation.

You can also minister to yourself. No verse says a believer must wait for a specialist. Repent, forgive and renounce specifically, then say aloud in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that every spirit attached to that thing leaves you now, and worship until the peace settles. For the stubborn cases He told His own disciples what to do: Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting. Fasting puts your flesh where it belongs so your spirit can hear Him.

One last word, and it is the one He put last. When the seventy came back thrilled that the devils were subject to them, He said, Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven. Casting out devils will make a man feel powerful, and a man who feels powerful is in danger. Stay small. Stay holy. Ministers such as T. B. Joshua have taught the same: prayer and fasting before the platform, and the glory given back to the One who won it at the cross. Rejoice in what the devil can never take: your name written in Heaven.

5. Keeping Your Deliverance

Getting free is one work; staying free is another, and the Holy Ghost gave us as much Scripture for the second as for the first. Paul writes to a church already sliding back: Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Stand fast is a command given to somebody already standing. Liberty is not a mood that descends on you; it is a position you hold. And notice the word entangled. Nobody plans to go back into bondage; they get tangled, and by the time they notice, the rope is around them again.

The Lord Jesus Christ told us plainly how the enemy comes back. The unclean spirit goes out, wanders through dry places seeking rest, and says, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then he brings seven others more wicked than himself. Read what the house was: clean, tidy, decorated, and empty. That is the danger of a deliverance with no discipleship behind it. If you gave an hour a day to feeding the old thing, give that hour now to God. Emptiness is not neutral.

Then comes holiness, and I will not apologize for the word. Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. Holiness is not a costume for church people; in the matter of keeping your deliverance it is armour plating. Sin is the legal ground the enemy stands on, so every place where you have said a clean and final no is a place where he has nothing to grip. You are refusing to hand back the keys of a house He paid for with His own blood.

Now the mind, because that is where this settles. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. A person can be genuinely delivered and still carry the thought patterns the bondage built: the self-hatred, the suspicion, the old script that says you always fail. Those are not devils, they are ruts, worn down by the Word of God poured over them daily until you think the way Heaven thinks. When the old thought comes, answer it with what is written and go on with your day.

Ephesians 6 gives us the armour, and every piece is something you put on and keep on. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Wiles means schemes; he rarely charges head on. Truth around your waist so you are not living a double story. Righteousness over your chest so your heart is covered. Your feet shod with the gospel of peace. The shield of faith, which quenches those sudden fiery thoughts that are not yours. The helmet of salvation over your mind, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. And over all of it, praying always in the Spirit. Armour on a man who never prays is a statue in a uniform.

Do not try to keep your freedom by yourself. God set the solitary in families, and Hebrews warns us about forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is. Find a church where the power of God is real and the Word is preached without apology, and let somebody actually know you. Tell one mature believer the truth about where you are weak, and give them permission to ask you. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The moment a thing is spoken out loud to a brother who prays, half its power is gone. Every person I have watched lose their deliverance lost it in isolation first.

And when he tests the door, you already have the order of operations. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Both halves, in that order. Submission first, because resistance without surrender is only willpower, and willpower is the three-piece suit on the four-year-old. Submit, then resist: refuse the thought, refuse the invitation, say aloud in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that you belong to God. He will flee. That is a promise, not a possibility. Be sober and vigilant, for your adversary walks about as a roaring lion; but a roar is a noise, and an enemy who can only make noise is asking you to be afraid because he cannot make you obey.

Finally, go and get somebody else out. The safest delivered person I know is the one busy carrying others to the Lord Jesus Christ. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. Tell what He did for you, pray for the person nobody else has time for, and you will find the ground you took stays taken. He did not set you free so you could sit down and guard yourself. He set you free because if the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed, and free men are the ones He sends to open doors for the still-bound.