#191 - STAND (Part 2) Recognizing How the Enemy Works - With Special Guest David Jett

I think it's a humbling reality to know that even as a believer, I am not impervious to attacks from the enemy.

Welcome to the One Cry Podcast, a nationwide call for spiritual awakening. The goal, accelerating the movement of God through sharing revival truth, stories, and reports. Well, welcome to the One Cry Podcast. I'm Kyle Reno, and I don't have Bill with me this time. I got his buddy, though. I got David Jett, and I introduced him last week. If you miss last week, here's my encouragement. Stop watching this one, listen to this one, and go back.

I mean, you could obviously listen to it, but it will help you a little bit. So, David Jett, when I came to know Christ, y'all have heard my story. Several different times in different ways. I came to know Christ at 19. The guy that discipled me was the guy he discipled and discipled me for two years. And I got to know Brother David then. And then it surrendered to ministry at 21 years old. The guy that hired me is right here, called me and gave me a chance on staff. So it's his fault.

Anything that comes out of my ministry.

So just to catch us up a little bit, Brother David, last week, You helped us understand a little bit more about the spiritual realm. Right. Yeah. And specifically that the demonic is still going on in our day. Right. Right. And then really helped us, though, to stop and say, hey, before we go on a journey, in light of a book you just wrote. Right. Called The Stand, soon to be coming out, and we'll let you know about it when it does.

Around just your story with the Lord. Right. And your ministry and how God's allowed you to be a part of helping people in that battle. But last week, just to give us that, because it's important to have that foundation, all these truths and ways we understand is based out of God's word, empowered by God's spirit, and comes first and foremost out of our passionate pursuit of Jesus Christ. But then, once all that is still real. Right.

You know, and so I think you helped us all recognize that we got some cultural biases, things that inform the way we think. So today, though, and I'm about to kick it to you today, maybe help people that are starting to say, OK, obviously, I read the scripture and I see the demonic. I live in a broken world and I see things that I wonder what's really going on here. Maybe, if we're honest, we know we sense those things even in our own lives.

I'm feeling some opposition. Where is this coming from? So maybe, and I know the grid, maybe share today with them just the grid to help them sort of discern, is this demonic? Yeah. Yeah.

So I would just say that in ministry, you know, we have to understand the reality that, you know, that there is a spirit world. Right. And that we have an enemy who still has come to kill, steal, and destroy. He's still in that business. But we live in an authority as believers to stand not only against, but to stand and overcome. And so as we are walking in this world, we need to know that and need to understand that.

Now, one of the things, and I'll just say this to you that I've learned, and I'll tell you some stories along the way that maybe try to help. But I've learned this about the demonic world is they love staying in the dark. But when you bring them into the light, they want to try to take center stage.

And so we have to keep our focus square on Jesus. But I would also say this, that I've learned about the demonic world is one of their, I don't want to say, one of their bluffs, I say, is they don't think you believe, really believe. You know, Jesus had many times where people said they were standing in faith, and then he said, oh, you of little faith, you know. And so in it, they're going to check your faith in this reality of the spirit

world. And so it has to move from this intellectual understanding in just the same way as salvation in some ways. I mean, there are so many people that would call themselves a Christian mentally because they agree with the information, but they've never experienced the transforming work of the Holy Spirit dwelling in them.

Well, in a similar way, when it comes to the spirit world, that what God is calling us to is to walk by a faith that not only agrees with the Word of God, which we should, but also embraces it in our heart. And so when it comes to the demonic world, they just want to see if you really believe that. But here's what I've learned. Once they know that I know. That they know I have authority over them and that I know they are there and they have no option but to leave.

They always leave. It's just an interesting thing from all different levels.

And so I would say that first. Another thing I would say along with it is many times what we do is we think when we think about the demonic. I found a lot of times we get probably more of our thoughts about the demonic from Hollywood and from scary movies than we do from the Bible and from what Scripture teaches. And so we come up with all these ideas about it. And I can tell you that, I'll just give you an example. There's a guy named Rick back years ago, came into my office.

And Rick was a young man. In fact, man, good looking young man, just sharp, 25 years old, dressed well, works out, just a sharp guy. Came to see me. His mom was active in our church, loved the Lord, and asked him to come because he had a serious anger problem. As a matter of fact, he was having to go to anger management kind of stuff. It was pretty bad. And it was against his dad. And so he came to see me, and we began to talk.

And as we were talking along the way, I start sharing the gospel as I would. He had never given his life to Christ. Man, I'm excited about this. I'm getting ready. We're getting ready to pray. And so I just believe that you must confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised you from the dead. You'll be saved. I mean, we believe that. And so I believe it's important to confess repentance, to repent, and to confess Christ as Lord of your life.

And so I said, so, okay, Rick, now listen, God's looking at your heart. I can still remember him there. And he's, I mean, he's, yes, I'm going to do this. And so I say, Rick, I said, just tell the Lord. Just say, Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner. I just kind of went down that road to help him. I said, do you say it in your own heart? And he just sat there. He didn't say nothing. Yeah. Well, of course, everything runs through your head. I'm thinking, well. He didn't understand.

Yeah, he didn't understand the question. Rick, hey, because I think it's important to confess it. And so I said, Rick, I said, look, God's looking at your heart. But if you want to pray it a different way, just start saying, Lord Jesus, and then however you want to say it. And he sat there again, didn't say anything. Well, now I'm kind of thinking, okay. What's going on here? Yes, he's crawfishing on me here at this point.

And i'll never forget what he said now we had not had any conversation to this point about anything demonic and i say rick what's going on buddy and he says and he starts shaking now this is sharp good put together guy yeah and he starts shaking and says he won't let me hmm. I changed our conversation. I got my hand on him, and all of a sudden, I just said, well, who won't let you? And he just shook his head when he said, Satan, I guess.

And with that, I mean, I had to come against the spirit to break that, that literally the anger inside of him had built literally a demonic stronghold. And so when we come to the scriptures, I've just kind of, and this way I do it, I break it down as far as when it comes to the demonic. When I'm talking with somebody and they start sharing with me some issues that are going on, maybe some struggles in their life, I want to go and try to, and I've just, over the years, I've done this a long time.

And kind of divided them out into four, what I call stages of the demonic that I've seen in people's life, the structure of the struggles in their lives, even in our own personal lives. You can see it. And so the first, I just call the first stage is I call enticement. And if you want to call it something, it's basically temptation that enticement we find in, it comes out of James 1.14, says that the Bible talks about that when we are lured and enticed, by our own desire.

So what Satan wants to do is he wants to entice us into falling into some kind of sin, to giving over to some kind of sin. And the reality is everybody has that happen. We all have that. We live in a fallen world, and we all have those issues. It has no means whatsoever to mean that you've got a demon or anything. But what it does mean is that Satan's going somewhere with this. And even on in James 1.15, he continues that to where ultimately it leads to death is what he says.

So I call it stage one is enticement that we have to understand. We live in that. The second stage, if we continue what Satan wants, he, as I'll say, once he... Sets the hook and starts luring us in through whatever it is, he doesn't want to finish there, but he wants to take it on farther. And if he continues in this, he'll get it to a point in the second stage I call is entanglement. And it's just, think about it.

The verse I use out of it is Hebrews 12, 1 says, Since we're surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off every sin and every hindrance and the sin which so easily entangles. And so the picture I have in my mind and the way I teach it whenever I'm teaching in Africa or teaching in a church or whatever is think about if, let's say, me and let's say one of the Olympic 100-meter dash runners, we're going to get into a 100-meter dash. And let's all be honest.

I don't like any chances. I don't stand a chance, but let's just say that when we're standing at the starting line, before they, you know, shoot the gun and we take off. Somebody walks over to this Olympic champion and begins tying ropes around his legs all the way up to his hip. Got rope just tied all the way around him. And now he's standing here. And so then the gun goes off. Well, listen, I could walk. Yeah. And would beat him. He's going to hop for a little bit. Yeah.

And here's what I would say whenever in your churches or even in your own life to know if you've got, if there's an entanglement that the enemy may have on you. Is it's not that you're not in the race anymore as a believer, but you just slowed way down. Suddenly the word of God is not, you don't have the hunger you had. Suddenly you find yourself trying to find excuses to skip church or that what happens is, and it's usually some type of sin or opening. It can be anger like it was with Rick.

Something that is hindering your walk. And what I say in that, the Bible actually, I believe, calls that a foothold. And a foothold is, you know, Ephesians 4 talks about it, 26, 27, talks about that. And it's in the word there is, for some of you to know this, it's the Greek word topos, which means opportunity. It means place. It means he has an area in our life that there's a hold on. Now, I don't believe at that point you have a demon.

That's been my experience is that I've not seen that. But I believe that Satan is carrying you. Yeah, he's working a plan. And because, again, he's come to steal, kill, and destroy. And so in that, if it continues and we continue giving into this and giving over to this or continue to walk in this, this continues to have us, what will happen is he begins to build what the Bible calls a stronghold. And a stronghold, you just think about, I mean, I picture in my mind a castle.

And in a castle you get these big walls up and you've got these tall towers in the corners and and inside it's full of soldiers and all kind of things and the bible talks about that in that area that's his goal is to build a stronghold or you know a fortress and so if we continue giving over. To a sin over a period of time, what happens is it moves to what I call stage three, and I call it entrapment. And an entrapment is exactly what I've seen. It's a trap.

It's what you can think of. You imagine it in your mind. And I use a verse I use with it is Proverbs 5.22, but it's about how a person who is sinning is ensnared in that sin. And so what happens is this is when a person wants to be free, but they can't get free. So think about an animal caught in a trap. It's pulling and tugging and trying to get away and doing everything it can, crying out, screaming out, but it can't get away.

That's whenever it's developed into a stronghold. And in that, that's where an enemy can come and go, can have access, and it can be any levels there of that. And so that's that level. And I have met many Christians in that level. Some, and here's what I would say to some of us out there, it could be from their past that they allowed themselves to be given over to some things. Or it could be something that happened traumatic to them that literally the enemy built a stronghold.

And obviously they can be delivered from it. That's the great thing. And so I would say that of all the demonic things I've worked in, and I've been in hundreds of them over the years, I would say 95% are in that top, those three.

But there's a fourth level. And this is a level whenever we think about, you know, demonization, this is the level we think about. And I call it enslavement. And that is when a person has become a slave to that thing. It has control. It's where a demon has control of them and is guiding them. Now, I don't believe a Christian can be there because of an ownership issue. I believe you can have a demon back here and be a believer. Yeah.

And I've seen it many times. But here, I would say only an unbeliever, and I've seen many in this, yet just gloriously delivered, set free, saved, and begin to walk with God. But as you're thinking about these things, maybe in your family, maybe in your church, maybe you're talking with somebody and they begin talking about some things that they want to try to get away from and they're trying.

I had a guy years ago, he came, had been, he and I had been talking for years about just a stronghold he had in his life. And he wanted to be free from it. He didn't know what to do. And it kept getting bad. And it was of a sexual nature. It was just, he couldn't get away from the stronghold. And he called me one morning. It was about seven in the morning. And he's a good enough friend that I answered the phone. Right. But I'll never forget, he said, David, I've lost everything.

And I mean, he was a positive, upbeat guy. I mean, if you met him, you'd say, oh, man, he's just fun. And man's man. But he was broken. And I said, what do you mean? He said, I've fallen again. He said, and I've lost my family. I've lost my kids. I've lost everything. And he was broken. And in that moment, of course, I'm worried about him right at that moment. Okay, what's going on?

Really what's happening and he he was saying i'm good i just you know i i just need you to pray for me right now i need prayer because he didn't know what was going to happen and so i began to pray for him and this is exactly what happened as i'm praying on the phone and i'm praying you know and what doing and then i began to pray against this stronghold yeah well as i began doing that he starts and this may sound make a little nervous but it happens yeah right is he started

it was like he was dry heaving right well i'm listening and i've had that happen before right and i said to him i said hey man are you okay and he goes yeah keep going keep going something's leaving wow well then i start of course now i'm going i move from just praying to warring against a spirit. And I keep praying and he, this happens, you know, for probably three or four minutes. Right.

And I'll never forget the reason why. In fact, it's one of the stories I tell in my book is, is he, he finally gets to this point. And I hear this kind of this exhausted, ah, yeah. And in it, I could tell that he had rolled over. He was face down, and he was outside, and he was next to his swimming pool. Yeah. He was outside. It was in the summer, and he's rolled over on his back, and he's laying there.

And I just go quiet. Yeah. And everything gets quiet for about, it seemed like 10 minutes, but it was about 30 seconds. And then he says, look at how blue the sky is. Wow. And I realized that it had always been blue and been beautiful. But when you have been under the haze of a stronghold, man, it just, it grips everything in you to where you can't see like you could. And, you know, he was delivered, got set free, was able to get him into some serious help. Right.

So this is what I would say to us as well, is obviously for counseling and for all those kind of helps and getting people in these help places, removing the demon, I've always said, is the easy part. Dealing with the shift and the will of man to begin living according to the things of God, that's a work of God. And it's also a help people. Yeah, they need help. Yeah, they need that discipling journey. That's exactly right. They need deliverance and they need discipling. Yes.

And so, but with it, that's just what I found. You're walking along here and you see these things and—.

You know yeah watch man i'm telling you just something about our listeners of course i've been discipled by brother davis so i i know a lot of these things but the grid, to understand this is for the first time i'm looking at those four stages here's the reality that we got embraced biblically the enemy is working in all four stages right so we and he is impacting people yes that even today right he's going to entice right that's what he does he's a liar. He's scheming. He's luring.

He's got devices. He's got all these things that he's placing out there for us. Now, if our flesh gives way to that enticement, it moves to a different level. Now I'm having a hard time finding my way around. And I'm telling you, the hindrance part makes me think. I think every believer, if you will be honest, has walked in those moments where you know that you took a bite. Right. Well, and I would say to anybody watching, let me tell you, with me personally.

So I have learned this about me. I'm not saying this is for everybody. But I say it this way every morning, not just ever so often. Every morning, I get up in the morning. I sit down with God. I sit down and read the Bible to hear from God. Right. But I do that for a cleansing part because I've said this to our church. I've said, because when I miss a day with God, I feel it in here. And I'm not being legalistic about it. I'm just being aware of the war.

And the fact that, you know, I mean, we all know this, you know, how many pastors have we seen fall or seen trip up and it become public? And it's so embarrassing to the church and to them and their family. And I'm just like, you know what? I'm not even going to miss a day because I'm going to walk with God, keep short accounts, trust that he's going to say this.

One of my prayers is search me today and just show me because in that for all of us, we need to understand that enticement to sin is in this fallen world in which we live. Now, what's helped me is that Satan enticed Jesus to sin. He never gave into it, but the Bible says he was tempted in every way as us. So we need to understand that being enticed to sin is not sin.

We know that. But the reality is when we, you know, if you think about fishing and the lure that's brought, you know, that what may lure you may not lure me, and what may lure me may not lure you. But you know what? Satan's a good fisherman. And he knows what lures to use until he finds one we bite on. Yeah. Now, when we do it, it doesn't mean we can't shake off. Right. Because that's what the power of the Spirit does. Yeah.

But we got to embrace it. Right. We have to know. So I think it's a humbling reality to know that even as a believer, I am not impervious to attacks from the enemy. Yeah.

You know what you said earlier, and maybe you can add a little to this. In all this, faith matters. Like really believing. Like you said, it's one thing. I mean, even in our salvation, it's one thing to be aware of Christ. You know intellectually right um being stimulated by the thoughts of christ you know i've been around many people but that doesn't mean that you have believed on right the lord jesus christ.

You know i think about that in light of our personal freedom but also in line and i know we got a lot of spiritual leaders in light of helping others find freedom right that we need to rightly believe around this right we need to we need right for people's sake yeah you know so So maybe you encourage us, like, how do you walk into that in ministry context, the belief for people? Yeah. So I would just say this, and of course, this just came back to my mind. You're sitting here talking about it.

He is Del Faisenfeld, whenever he came to our church all those years ago, I will never forget something he said. I knew that God had a call on my life in ministry, but I wasn't yet in ministry. And he made a statement at our church in Oklahoma. He said this. He said, I made a promise to God. To never preach any farther down the road than I was living. And I will never forget that. Because here's what I found a lot of pastors say, well, we're to preach a standard.

Now, we may not be able to live it. And I completely disagree with that idea because it's, as he said, but he said the message prepared in the life changes lives. And that was what Dale said. And so the statement I kind of make to our people here and I've made to our staff And I've said many times is this idea is that we may not always live what we profess, but we always live what we believe. So look at how you're living.

You know, you may say that, oh, man, I believe that there's a demonic world. But am I living in such a way that I understand the reality of I'm not obsessed about it? I just am aware of it. That's good. And when it comes to your church or when it comes to your life group or in any group you're leading, it's not that you're coming into this with, okay, who's got a demon today? You know, I don't do that. Right. But you're coming in with a certain awareness that they are there.

I had a guy come see me a long time ago that he's in my office, his marriage counseling I was doing, and he was a used car salesman. And I had an old beat up car that was bad, needed a paint job. I'll just say that, but I'm cheap. And so as we're talking, he says, man, you ought to go downtown. There's a place downtown. They got a deal going, 150 bucks. You can get a paint job. Well, I'm sitting there thinking, what are they using, a roller and a paintbrush?

And he said, no. And he's a used car. He said, I'm telling you. I said, I take cars down there all the time. He says, as a matter of fact, if you get it repainted, get it painted white. And I'm like, well, the car is a brown color. He said, no, I'll get it painted white. He said, that's the most popular color. And I thought, there's no way that's the most popular color. I didn't believe that. Yeah. But they had a deal going. Yeah, sure. So I call down there. I make an appointment.

And as I'm driving down, as I've always just, as I'm driving on interstate, it was like, I don't know, somebody sent out an APB to everybody that owned a white car. Every white car, every white truck. Yeah. It seemed like they were all on the road with me. Now, here's what I had to walk away from that to realize. There wasn't any more white cars. There always had been.

But I was aware there were white cars. Yeah. And I think when it comes to the demonic, it's not that all of a sudden we see them everywhere, but it's coming to the awareness that, hey, they're here. And as we're aware of that, we see the white cars. Wow.

Wow. I tell you what, this is a perfect place for us to stop today because I think the Spirit of God is probably speaking. So I would encourage, one, you'll pick up the word and be made aware again. And then let's go into our cities, our churches, our communities, those who are ministering, and ask the Lord to just help make us aware.

As we passionately pursue Jesus through his word, by the power of the Spirit, now knowing, I think, these stages that help us see how the enemy does work.

And then i want to encourage you to come back next week and and let brother david through the word show us again so now knowing that hey what do we do when we get to a point when we're ministering somebody one what do we do if we sense that hey you know there's places that god wants, there's a place of freedom right in my life personally because we don't want all of us i tell i remember when the spirit of god helped me see everybody needs

freedom yes everybody needs freedom for maybe personally, but then also as we minister to people, how do we help people find freedom? But to sort of close us up, won't you lead our listeners, Brother Dave, just to pray and ask the Lord to speak to them. Yeah. Come on. Father, we come again thanking you for how good you are to us.

And again, Lord, I pray that every one of us here in this moment would come to a greater awareness of the victory of the cross, the victory of the empty tomb, the victory of the coming Holy Spirit dwelling in every believer. I pray that would become a greater awareness than we've ever had before. I pray, Father, that we would each see that we really spiritually and literally are seated in the heavenlies, in the authority that Jesus has already won.

That no weapon the enemy forges against us can prosper. Father, that we truly have that anointing of your presence and power on us. And then, Father, I'm just going to ask, because I know I need this. Would you just make us aware, as I would say, this way, lead us to see the white cars. God, there's hurting people around us. And Lord, some of them, they've. They've tried to get better. Some of them, they have gone to counseling. They've tried to get free from whatever it is.

And Lord, maybe the problem is not just getting free from a stronghold, but it's getting free from a spirit that is controlling that stronghold. And so, Father, I pray that in that awareness, God, you would then guide us through just the power of the victory that's been won to bring that victory in the lives of hurting people. We ask you to do this, Father, for your glory, for the advancement of your kingdom. And we pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

Well, listen, your time is precious. So thank you for giving us a few moments here.

Tune back in next week and we're going to bring sort of bring it to close this conversation there's so much more we'll let you know when the book's released so you can find that and be able to read it and also if it's touched you today and God's speaking to you and you want to even maybe have this conversation with somebody else I want you to share it take some time and just send the link to the podcast and we look forward to continuing this conversation next week. Music.