But let me just give you some things about building some confidence because a lot of times people

freak
out when it comes to this area.

So I'm going to spend this time just developing some confidence in ministering this area.

And the first thing you need to realize is that whatever God calls you to do, He will empower you to do
this.

Now God does have a way of throwing you into things like you think you're in the deep end to stretch
you, right?

I mean He's going to throw you into things that you will feel inadequate and unprepared for.

But God's grace is greater than any situation you find yourself in.

And it's usually in those times that you actually grow, right?

I don't like that stretching part.

Oh hell, I'm sorry, but that's just kind of the way that it works.

The kingdom of God is about declaring His rule and about demonstrating His rule.

When you look in the book of Matthew chapter 4 verse 23, it says, "Jesus traveled throughout Galilee
teaching in the synagogues, preaching everywhere the good news about the kingdom, and He healed peo-
ple who had every kind of sickness and disease.

" You'll see this particular thing mentioned several times that Jesus had a two-step method.

I'm going to teach on the kingdom and then I'm going to demonstrate the kingdom, or I'm going to
demonstrate the kingdom and then talk about the kingdom.

It's about bringing the rule of God, the reign of God, into this world.

When we look in the book of Luke chapter 9 verse 1 and 2, "He called the twelve together, gave them
power and authority over all the demons and to heal sicknesses or heal diseases, and then sent them out to
proclaim the kingdom of God and to perform healing.

" When you go into the next chapter, chapter 10 of Luke verse 1, you know, He anointed these 70 others,
He sent them out, and then it says in verse 9, you know, "Heal those who are sick and then say to them,
'The kingdom of God has come near you.

'" So it's about bringing the rule and the reign of heaven to this earth, and this commission is still our
commission today.

Most of us are very familiar with the gospel of reconciliation, but not with the gospel of the kingdom.

We preach a gospel that just gets people reconciled to God, which really reconciliation is the first step of
coming into the kingdom of God.

That's how you get into the kingdom.

Jesus said in John chapter 3 verse 5 that, you know, unless a person is born of water and the Spirit, you
cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

So really, your born-again experience gets you into the kingdom of God, but once you come into the
kingdom, it's all about bringing the rule of heaven.

And so we're familiar with reconciliation, but we have a powerless Christianity because that's the only
gospel we've preached, it's been reconciliation.

It's like you come into a house and you go through the front door and now you're into the foyer and you
stay in the foyer your whole life until you die, then you go out the back door through eternity and you
miss living in the house.

When Jesus preached the gospel of the kingdom, and by the way that word kingdom is used about a hun-
dred times in the gospels alone, when they preached the gospel of the kingdom, it was about bringing the
rule of heaven on into this earth.

And that's the commission that we still have.

In fact, you're supposed to be praying that.

Thy kingdom.

I mean, Matthew 6 33 says, "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

" I mean, yeah, I ask most people, most time when I teach on the kingdom, and I'm kind of getting off the
subject here, but you know when I teach on the kingdom, it's going to be.

I always ask people, "Give me a definition of the kingdom in one or two sentences," and most Christians
can't.

And Matthew 6 33 says, "We're supposed to be seeking first the kingdom and His righteousness.

" And I mean, shouldn't you.

I mean, if you're supposed to be seeking it first, shouldn't you know what you're seeking?

All right, got to get off that course.

Get back on course.

All right.

John 14 12, Jesus said, "The things that I do, you're going to do and greater things than this because I go
to the Father.

" And He prefaced that by not only you, He said, "Anyone who believes in Me, this is going to be.

you're going to walk in the works that Jesus walked in, to do what He did and to do greater things than
that.

" The 1st Corinthians chapter 2, Paul is preaching and Paul is writing here.

He says, "When I came to you guys, I didn't come trying to impress you in those first few verses.

" But verse 3 says, "I was with you in weakness and in fear, much trembling.

" Verse 4, "And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in the
demonstration of the Spirit and of power.

" So anytime we're preaching the Word of God, there should be a demonstration of that.

And the reason is in verse 5, he says, "So that your faith does not rest on the wisdom of men, but upon the
power of God.

" See, oftentimes, you know, people, they'll move from church to church and go to place to place because
they like the teaching.

And I'm all for good teaching.

Hopefully you're going to get some of that this week, like maybe this morning.

But what's really going to dive, put you deep, make you strong, are your encounters with God.

Where you have an encounter with Him, an encounter with His power, so you can look back on that.

I mean, they always told those guys in the Old Testament, "Go back and look at those stones that were
taken from the Jordan.

" Well, your faith gets weak.

Go look at what God did then.

We have to look back on those times to get us through for our faith to be strong, not by sticking another
CD or listening to another podcast.
I mean, those might be helpful, but really, what are your encounters with God?

So the thing is, we actually owe the world a God encounter.

And one of the ways that this, or the ways of expanding the kingdom, the most common ways of that, will
be in healing the sick, casting out demons.

It's a part of the kingdom there.

So if you're going to advance the kingdom of God, you will deal with a demonic.

In fact, I think confronting the demonic should be normal Christianity.

And the reason it's not normal is because we've actually created doctrines out of our experience, not out
of the Word.

I went to a conference one time in my early years, and this guy was teaching.

It was a Baptist conference.

It actually was like a retreat setting.

I don't know how I ended up in this workshop, so I wish I hadn't, but I did.

And this guy was talking about it.

He says, "You know, I think demons is just the New Testament's way of describing mental illness.

" And I said, "Okay.

Does this mean that only the mentally ill people could recognize Jesus as being the Son of God?

" And I mean, is that why those pigs ran off into the water?

Because, you know, He put the mental illness in those pigs?

I mean, you know, I mean, the Bible when it describes these demons, it describes them as having a voli-
tional will.

I mean, in Matthew chapter 12, verse 44 through 46, you know, whenever a spirit leaves a person that
goes into the dry places looking for rest and not having found any, then returns and makes the decision to
come back.

And then it makes the decision to take seven worse.

The Bible doesn't give us a whole lot of information about the demonic in the sense, like, their origin.

We have some of the things relating to angels and fallen angels, and that's pretty much my perspective of
what I believe really demons are.
But what the Bible does do, it does tell us how to get rid of them.

So don't worry about where they came from or how they organize themselves or something like that.

Listen, if it's in the Word of God, God gives you enough in His Word to address this area.

You don't need other information.

Now, sometimes God will give intercessors some strategies and things like that to pray into, and I'm talk-
ing about that, but I'm just talking about, you know, do not get intrigued with the darkness.

A little old lady comes to me one time at one of the conferences like this.

She comes up and she says, "Hey, I got a book I wrote I want to give you.

" And I go, "I mean, she's like somebody's grandma.

" And I look at it, I say, "Okay.

" So she hands me this book and I look at this and I go, "What is it?

" She said, "Well, it's all about the strategies of the demonic, how they organize themselves, what they do,
you know, all this stuff.

" I'm like, "Where did you get this information?

" And she started looking guilty.

I said, "You've been talking to demons, haven't you?

" I said, "No, I don't need that.

I don't even want to read that.

" So, you can get sucked into that side and they will take you out and disable you.

So don't worry about it.

Just understand, you know, that you got enough to get rid of them.

But you're going to have to have this attitude about yourself, an attitude where you are convinced, con-
vinced that you have absolute authority because Jesus has absolute authority.

You got to be convinced of the completed work of Jesus, that when Jesus died on the cross, it was an ab-
solute victory over the kingdom of darkness.

And so, and I think it's got to reflect that an attitude of faith, not an attitude of fear.

I mean, Paul said this in Romans chapter 8, just to typify the attitude, Romans 8, 38, and 39 says, "I am
convinced.
I am convinced that neither life, nor angels, nor death, nor angels, nor demons, nor the present or the fu-
ture, or any powers, any height or death, or anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from
the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.

" I mean, he's just, he's got an attitude here and I think we have to have this attitude.

you (gentle music)