Taking Authority, Part 01

Guest (Male): Dr. Michael Youssef beginning a new episode of Leading The Way audio.
Dr. Michael Youssef: If the devil can get you busy with life, busy with sports, busy with social activities, if he can get you busy not saturating your mind with the word of God, the next time he comes to harass you, he's not gonna show up alone. And that is why we need to learn how did Jesus take authority over Satan? Because in Luke 9:1 he said, "I give you that authority."
Guest (Male): When soldiers deploy into battle, even the slightest distraction could become deadly. Warriors have to be completely focused, anticipating and defending against all enemy attacks. Well, the same goes for Christians in spiritual battle. When Satan attacks, believers have to be poised to respond immediately and with authority. We thank you for listening to Leading The Way with Dr. Michael Youssef. "Taking Authority"—that's the title of his current series, looking at the example that Jesus gave as he responded to the attacks of Satan. So listen with me now as Dr. Michael Youssef begins today's Leading The Way.
Dr. Michael Youssef: I don't think that there is a doubt in anyone's mind that we are seeing the evil one beginning to unleash his most venomous attacks. We are seeing this globally. There's hardly a corner of the globe that is not being touched by threats and fears and devastations. Locally, where there are evils of drugs and pornography, unfaithfulness in marriage, and dishonesty in business to mention just a few of the rampant spread of his venomous attack, even among those who belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. Some young and some old have surrendered to his vicious attack. And my primary concern in this series of three messages entitled Taking Authority is to show Christians, both old and young, how not to surrender to the confusion of the age and be defeated, but take authority over the enemy. But I want to tell you right at the outset: 90% of the secret for victory is understanding that we are in a state of skirmishes in a war. And the reason I say skirmishes is because the absolute truth is that the battle has already been won on the cross. But we are in the skirmishes of war of which the Apostle Paul said, "We're not against, our war is not against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual forces in the heavenly places." And that is the most important thing I could tell you. Just remember that. That we are in a constant state of skirmishes and war, that we do not have a peace treaty with the enemy of our soul, that we cannot let our guard down, not for a moment. And once you get that, you've got 90% of the way. And if I learned anything in the last 40 years of ministry, I learned this: that for most people, when they come under the enemy's attack, either they or their loved ones, they immediately want people to pray for them. They'll say, "Michael, will you pray for me? I'm under attack of the devil, under attack of the enemy." And I understand that. They go to everybody, even those who don't have a prayer, and ask them to pray. So far, so good. Then God comes and intervenes through his abundance of grace and mercy. He responds to the prayer of the righteous and he intervenes and he delivers them from whatever it is they're going through. What should happen right at that moment of deliverance, once at that moment of victory, is that that person needs to take stock of their spiritual walk. They need to stop at that moment and ask very significant questions. Have I intentionally or unintentionally opened the door to the enemy to come in and harass me? What got me into this low spiritual state? What area in my life did I allow the evil one to come in and set up a stronghold in my life? And then after asking these questions, the person should begin to put guards on their life so that they will not be spiritually vulnerable again in the next attack, and the next attack will come, make no mistake about it. And when the next attack comes, the difference between those who are victims and those who are victors are the ones who have taken stock of their spiritual life and they began to close and shut those doors in their life. But what happens most often, what happens is a person says, "Oh, I dodged this bullet." And they go back into their spiritual slumber. They go back into the spiritual state of relaxation. They go back to life as usual. They go back to letting their guards down. They go back to opening windows and doors in their lives for the enemy to come in and harass. Please hear me right. This is important because the next time that happens, the difference between the victor and the victim is who has kept the door open and who hasn't. Every subsequent attack that comes in as a result of letting that window open or that door open and allowing the enemy to come in, it becomes doubly harder than the previous one. In fact, there's a principle the Lord Jesus Christ here teaches us after he delivered a demon-possessed man in Matthew 12:43, 44, and 45. And I'll give you the summary of it. The Lord Jesus is saying when that evil spirit leaves—whether as a result of deliverance, as a result of prayer, as a result of repentance, result of faith, whatever it is—and he's gone. He goes away, and then he keeps looking back at his old place. And if that place had not been filled by the Holy Spirit of God, being filled in moment by moment in life, if it's not filled by the word of God saturating a mind and a heart, if that space stays empty, he comes back but not alone. He brings seven more. Now, many Christians will come to Christ and they're saved. And they begin their Christian life their way, as if there are no spiritual warfare. And they try to live the Christian life by their strength. They try to overcome by their human effort. They say, "I can do that." And then when they want to spiritualize it a little bit, they will say, "Oh, through Christ who strengthens me," kind of like an afterthought. Meanwhile, the demon that has left that place of harassment is constantly roaming around. Peter said that he is like a lion just roaming around all the time looking for something. He's just forever going around, looking, coming back, looking at his old space. And he's like a virus. And they would hit, and they would hit hard. And they're looking for that window, they're looking for that opportunity, they're looking for you to just say, "Okay, come on in." And they move in with seven more. And you say to yourself, "Well, I've got to try doubly hard the next time. I've got to go to more counseling. I've got to join more groups. I've got to get more support groups." Wonderful as these things may be, and I'm not putting them down, they really are, but they will not give you the ultimate victory. Meanwhile, that miserable demon is watching. He's watching. And if that space is not filled moment by moment, day by day by the power of the Holy Spirit and the word of God, and he keeps looking back at that space that he had left, if that space is not filled, it's still void, still empty, still trying to do it in the flesh, try to do it in your own strength. You say, "Michael, the guy's doing his best." Sure. That's the problem. That's the problem. Our best will never give us complete victory. And finally, that miserable rascal sends out engraved invitations to seven others. And he says, "This dirty, miserable rascal invites you to join him to come to this empty space because it's not been filled by the Holy Spirit of God on a daily basis." And I'm not talking about salvation now. I'm talking about harassment for the believers. And like hillbillies, they move in. Now I wish I could tell you that I have never seen this or I've never experienced people who have done this. I wish I could say that, but I have, too many times. Let me tell you the worst aspect of religious legalism: it always gets progressively worse from generation to generation. I thank God for all the programs that are designed to help people overcome the demons of addictions and I am here to tell you on the authority of the word of God that there is greater power, there is greater deliverer, there is a greater authority of all the harassing demons that there are. And his name is the Spirit of Jesus. If the devil can get you busy with life, busy with sports, busy with social activities, if he can get you busy not praying and not being continuously filled with the power of the Holy Spirit of God, if he can get you busy not saturating your mind with the word of God, the next time he comes to harass you, he's not gonna show up alone. And that is why we need to learn: how did Jesus take authority over Satan? Because in Luke 9:1 he said, "I give you that authority." He has given us that authority. Let's look at how Jesus exercised his authority over Satan: Matthew 4:1-11. And we'll be going through this in the next two messages. I want to tell you something about those three temptations that Satan came and tempted the Lord Jesus with. Those three temptations, they summarize and codify all temptations that you and I have ever experienced. All of them come under the three categories. If you examine whatever temptation that is nipping at your heel and you go down and you're going to discover it's going to be one of those three categories. It comes under one of those three headings: either pleasure, popularity, or power. Think of one, pick one, and you'll find it comes under one of those three categories. And that is why we need to learn how Jesus took authority over the enemy and defeated him so that we must do the same. The first temptation of pleasure comes right at the very end of his fast. We don't know, it could be minutes or it could be moments, could be hours. Forty days he's been fasting. What was Jesus fasting and praying about? Obviously, he was doing this fast in obedience to the Father. He did everything in obedience to the Father. But the question must have been: should I do it my way or my Father's way? You see him struggling with that same question three plus years later in the Garden of Gethsemane. My will, your will. Should I follow the Father's plan or should I find some shortcut? Should I glorify my Father alone or me? Should I continue to place the Father's business ahead of mine? Should I serve the Father's purpose or mine? Beloved, listen to me. You and I face this temptation every single day. Every single day we face that temptation. And there's one thing you've got to understand about the devil: he is never crass. He's never crass. He's a very subtle manipulator. He chooses his time very, very carefully, and he aims his arrows very thoughtfully because he doesn't want to miss. Sometimes he uses people, other times he attacks our mind. Above all, he plays on the victim's mentality. As soon as you start saying, "Poor me," watch out. He loves that. He's going to come in and play with it. To a spouse, he would come and say, "Oh, you are not loved by your spouse the way you should be loved. Your spouse is not fulfilling you as you should be fulfilled." Very sympathetic, you see. "Your spouse is not really meeting your needs as your spouse should be meeting your needs. Poor you." He got you. If you listen and you fall, the next step, he attacks your marriage. For kids, he would say, "Your parents don't understand you the way you need to be understood. All of your friends are having fun and you are missing out. What kind of parents or even God who does not understand that you really need some harmless fun in your life?" And then he gets you hooked on pornography, gets you hooked on substance abuse, and he gets you hooked because you become addicted. And he tells you, "It's all part of growing up." When you listen and you fall, wham! He's bringing seven with him to harass you. Or come to a person who wants to be a genuine steward. And he will come to you and say, "Yeah, you have so many needs. God doesn't really need your money. You have got better things to do with your money than give it to God." So you go along with that lie and that deception. And before you know it, your finances are attacked and you say, "Oh, I'm under attack." When he came to Jesus after almost—almost is a very significant word—almost 40 days are over fasting and praying to tempt him, he was tempting him to take shortcuts. Shortcuts. Why wait just those few more minutes or for however the time was? Do it now. Just go ahead and call upon these stones to turn into bread. You'll be able, you can do it, can't you? You're the son of God, aren't you? Manifest your power. Use your power to serve yourself. What's the devil doing? Listen to me very carefully, please. The devil is trying to put a wedge between God the Father and God the Son. That's what he's trying to do. He's trying to put a wedge. You say, "Why?" In order that he may create two Gods, not one. Remember this, tuck it in your brain, don't forget it: divisions and dissension and strife are always the devil's work. Always. Whether he uses envy and hatred or whatever, he uses whatever it is to create all that. And the sooner you wake up to that, the sooner you spare yourself a whole lot of grief. Why is the devil trying to put a wedge between God the Father and God the Son? He's trying to get Jesus to do what he himself did long time ago when he rebelled against God in the courts of heaven and God had to throw him and a third of the angelic being out of heaven. By appealing to Jesus's desire for food to fill his physical hunger, he wanted him to fall in the same trap that he himself committed. Beloved, listen to me. Whenever you are offered shortcuts, whether it be in the business, whether it be in your work, whether it be in your finances, or whether your marriage, whatever your family relationship, whatever schoolwork, you should know exactly where it's coming from. He always gives you shortcuts. Jesus said, "My food is doing the will of the Father who sent me to accomplish his work." And Satan didn't like that. He wanted to create that division. Had Satan succeeded in getting Jesus to place his physical needs above the Father's will, the whole plan of redemption would have been thwarted. Think about that. After all, Jesus could have done that, right? I mean, he could have done it. He actually could have clicked his finger and the stones would have become hot bread. Easy. But listen, because you can do something doesn't mean that you should do it. I remember back in the days when Bill Clinton was doing whatever he's doing and messing around, and I remember all these experts were coming on television and, you know, "Why is he doing this? And why is this? And why is that?" I remember a big-name psychiatrist, he said, "It's very simple. He did this because he could." It's because he could. Yeah, we could do a whole lot of things that we absolutely should not do because of the horrible consequences. Thank God Jesus taught us how to take authority when we are tempted and when Satan tried to set the traps for us. He has taught us how to take authority to do that which we can do but must never do. How did Jesus exercise authority over Satan? This is important, listen carefully. First by trusting the Father and obeying the Father no matter what. And in chapter four of Matthew, you see repeated three times: "It is written," "It is written," "It is written." And here he said, Deuteronomy 8:3, "It is written, man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God." From his boyhood, Jesus knew the word of God. He saturated his mind with the word of God. At the age of 12, he was found teaching men four times his age the word of God. And you can get a guaranteed victory every time you are tempted when you take the sword of the word of God and you wave it at the devil's face. Jesus memorized the word, he quoted the word, he reflected on the word, he upheld the authority of the word. Jesus defended the truth of the word of God. Why? Because he knew there is power in the word of God. No wonder most preachers today do not believe the truth of the word of God. Certainly, they do not live under its authority. They undermine its truth. Beloved, the average Christian home has so many Bibles and we have spent very little time studying it, reading it, let it correct us, rebuke us, strengthen us, empower us. So I want to tell you, beloved parents and grandparents, our children win or lose the spiritual battle by watching us with that sword, the word of God, and how we use that sword to win. Unless the word is deeply entrenched in us, sooner or later, we're gonna find ourselves as victims and not victors. Spurgeon said, "The Bible that is falling apart usually belongs to someone who's not." Jesus's authority was God's word, and so must be ours. What is Jesus saying to the devil in response to this first temptation? He was saying to him, "Satan, I believe my Father's word. Satan, I fully trust in my Father's promises. Satan, I am guided by my Father's words. Satan, I will obey my Father's word above my desire, even my desperate need." What did Jesus mean: that man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes out of his mouth? Here's what he meant, listen carefully. He is saying that the word of God will feed my soul when I'm hungry, that the word of God will sustain me when I'm faint, that the word of God will lift me up when I'm down, that the word of God will give me power to say no to temptation, that the word of God will give me strength to stand alone if I have to, that the word of God will carry me when no one else can, that the word of God will satisfy my deepest longing and desire. Four ministers who were discussing which one of the Bible translation that is really best, their favorite. And the first one said, "My favorite is King James version because of its poetic old English. I love that." The second person said, "I love the Living Bible for its relevance." And the third one said, "I really like the New American Standard translation because it's accurate." And the fourth one was silent for a moment. And then he said, "The best translation, the best paraphrased edition is my dad's. He lived it and fed upon it and experienced its power. He is the most powerful translation." Beloved, the way you and I and our children will be able to take authority over Satan is by unleashing the word of God in our life. It's the only way. It's Jesus's way.
Guest (Male): Dr. Michael Youssef with an invitation to experience the Bible's power in your life. Stream for free, learn about the app, the podcast, and other ways to connect with Leading The Way content at ltw.org. That's ltw.org. Did you know that you can not only hear Dr. Youssef each day on this radio station, but also on his weekly television broadcast and on other video content? Over the years, Leading The Way has established an expansive presence on key faith networks. And in recent years, Dr. Youssef, as part of his passion to reach the lost for Jesus, expanded beyond faith-based media, and he began touching viewers through local and national media that are not necessarily faith-based, hoping to reach those who may never seek content on Christian television. And it is through your prayers and through your financial support that this has been made possible. Friends, we hear stories of lives changed every day. Learn more about the impact of Leading The Way and the many channels of outreach at ltw.org. And won't you consider partnering with Dr. Youssef to reach the lost and dying world? Give us a call. We are at 866-626-4356 or ltw.org. Well, that's about it for this episode, but do make plans to listen to Leading The Way right here next time for more from Dr. Youssef's series, "Taking Authority." This program is brought to you by Leading The Way with Dr. Michael Youssef. Connect further with audio and video content at ltw.org or through your favorite social media platform.