Spiritual Life #77 Deliverance from Passivity No. 1

Deliverance from Passivity No. 1

This is possibly the last night loved ones, we’ll try to talk about 'passivity of mind', and especially the whole experience of being delivered from 'passivity of mind'. And you remember that we saw that 'passivity of mind' is what often causes the flashing thoughts, and the dreams, and the forgetfulness, and the vacillation that many of us experience from one extreme to another in our minds. And it isn’t actually 'over activity' of the mind, it’s 'passivity of the mind'. And the appearance of 'over activity' when we’re trying to get to sleep at night, actually comes from the fact that we have let the mind begin to be used by evil spirits. And it’s them that are turning it like that. And that’s why we don’t seem able to control it. And so we talked you remember, last Sunday about the first step in taking action against that. And that was the step of 'renewing our minds'.

And it might be good, loved ones, to see that in order to make any progress at all in beginning to recapture your mind and possess it for yourself and for Jesus, it requires you to set your mind on one basic truth of God’s word. And you’ll find it various places, but one of the verses is Colossians 2:13. “And you, who were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, having canceled the bond which stood against us with its legal demands; this he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in him.”

Now as an English teacher and not a Greek teacher -- you could do better as a Greek teacher -- but just as an English teacher, I would point out in Verse 13, “And you, God made alive.” That’s past tense. And that’s what God says to each one of us. He has already made us alive -- not he will make you alive, but God has already made you alive in his son Jesus. And lest you think that maybe you’re so old that you could perhaps have been born at a time before he had made you alive in Jesus, and therefore don’t come under that umbrella, I’d point out to you the date when he made you alive in Revelation 13:8. And even the oldest person here, who is probably Carol Brown, couldn’t be that old. “And all who dwell on earth will worship it, every one whose name has not been written,” and you remember the Greek order is, “Whose name has not been written,” then skip a line, “In the book of life of the Lamb that was slain.” And then the adverbial clause of time, “Before the foundation of the world.” That’s the way the Greek runs. “Whose name has not been written in the book of the life of the lamb that was slain from before the foundation of the world.” The lamb was slain from before the foundation of the world. And you were slain with him. And when he was raised in God’s heart, you were raised with him. You were made alive.

And then, do you see in Colossians 2:15? “Jesus and God the Father disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in him.” Now loved ones, there are all kinds of verses that say the same thing. Look at Colossians 3:1, “If then you have been raised with Christ.” “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” Back in the previous chapter, Colossians 2:20, “If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the universe.” And then the great verse, you remember, in Romans 6:6, “We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin.”

Loved ones, you won’t make any progress in taking your mind back from the control of evil spirits unless you are prepared to set your mind on that good, solid word of God, that you were destroyed and remade in Jesus, that you have been recreated in him and you have the mind of Christ. That’s the very base of any progress in the warfare, really. So you do have to set your mind on that. You have to constantly answer Satan, “Yes, the old self, the old miserable being that used to be, had no control of his own mind. But I have been crucified with Christ, I’ve been made alive in Jesus, I am not my own, I have been bought with a price, and therefore, the mind that I have is under the control of my Savior and under my control.” But loved ones, you have to start there at that point.

So you have to settle that in your own dear mind, that you have been crucified with Christ; you’ve been made alive with him. And you, at this moment have been raised with him at the right hand of God! And it might be good to settle that in your mind. If you look in Ephesians, you’ll see that. You’ll see where God is. And oh, I was so desperate for these verses that I learned it. And I learned that dear chapter of Ephesians so that I would know it beyond all doubt. And where is Jesus at the right of hand of God? And you see there, in Ephesians 1:20, “Which he accomplished in Christ when he raised him from the dead and made him sit at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.” And again in 2:1, “And you he made alive, when you were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once walked.” And then in Ephesians 2:6, “And raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Why? That in the coming ages, he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.

But it’s only there. It is only by your faith that you have been raised with Jesus and sit at God’s right hand that God will be able to do anything for you. So that’s the basis of it. You start there. And any dealing with either the need for a renewed mind or the need for deliverance from the passive mind, you start there on that base. And every time Satan says, “No, your miserable mind is filled with forgetfulness. Your miserable mind is filled with pictures that you don’t want it to have. Your miserable mind cannot concentrate.” You answer, “Right, dead right. The mind that used to be, the mind of the old self -- you’re exactly right -- that was true. That fallen mind was impaired beyond anything that I could imagine. But that, you remember Satan, was crucified with Christ. And I have been made alive and raised, and now sit at God’s right hand.” Loved ones, it’s always right to say that. It’s always right to say that. That’s reality.

And if you’re going to treat that Romans 6 as metaphorical stuff, you’re not interpreting scripture as it’s written. That stuff isn’t metaphorical. That is a fact repeated again and again through scripture, that God has already done it -- that you are at God’s right hand. You are whole, and well, and perfect. And you have a mind like the mind of Christ. And the moment you set your mind on that, then the Holy Spirit is able to begin to make that real. But the Holy Spirit only works on the basis of God’s word, you see. You have to stand first on God’s word. You can’t lie down and say, “Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, help me, help me, help me.” You can’t. You have to stand firmly in God’s word and say, “Lord, this is true and I know it! And I’m going to continue to believe this until I see you face-to-face.” Then the Holy Spirit can be able – can begin to give you light and begin to make that real and actual in your experience, But you start there loved ones, on that base.

Now then you remember, we did say that there is something you have to do in your own mind. And we touched upon it briefly the previous Sunday. And you find it in Ephesians 4:22, “Put off your old nature which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds.” How are you renewed? “Put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” How? “Put away falsehood.”

So you find yourself telling – about to tell a lie. Or you find yourself having given a wrong impression -- that stupid stuff. It’s a little boast that nobody knows, but we know. But it's giving a better impression of yourself than is really true. That moment -- the moment the Holy Spirit gives you light upon that, immediately take your position 'in Jesus' 'at God’s right hand' and say, “Lord, what do I need to impress anybody for? I’m in you at my Father’s right hand. The king of the universe has me closer than breath. Why do I need to tell a lie to make myself look better to this person? What does it matter if I don’t look well?”

Or the moment you tell a lie to make the thing easier. You’re getting yourself into a sticky spot, maybe just an embarrassing spot. I think a lot of us get into white lies that way. We get into just an embarrassing spot, and Satan deceives us and says, “Now listen. It’s not a big deal. It’s not a big sin. It’s just going to be embarrassing if you let this go on, so why not just give them the impression they want?” That moment, the moment the Holy Spirit gives you light about that, take your position in Jesus at the right hand of God and say, “Lord, what need do I have to avoid embarrassment or avoid discomfort? I’m letting hell into the very heart of God if I tell this lie?” And then apologize. Step back from it. Why? Because it’s dishonesty! It’s a lie. It’s part of Satan’s method of dealing with the problems in the world.

So loved ones, that’s what we talked about last day. Begin step-by-step, by miserable slow step, renew your whole way of thinking. Renew the way you deal with people. Clean up your mind. The guys -- we’ve shared it before -- don’t let one thought get in. Don’t let a thought get in. The moment the Holy Spirit gives you light hat that thought shouldn’t be there, reject it and drive it out.

And oh you remember, old Leslie Weatherhead [1893 – 1976, English Christian theologian] in England, used to train his mind. Actually, it was kind of mind control in his case. But he trained his mind so that whenever an evil thought was coming into his mind, he would immediately think of Jesus. Of course, you can guess, there are laws of the mind. So it got to the point that the thought of Jesus would come first. So he would know that behind it, there would be some temptation of Satan, and he would know to reject it. So you can use your mind that God has given you in the warfare. But you do need to exercise it.

Now loved ones, what I’d like to share a wee bit about tonight is the whole question of lies that we have accepted and that have given Satan a hold in our lives. And so I’ll try to take them one-by-one. And they are lies that just have to be denied. You have to see, “This isn’t true.” And you have to stop believing it. And meanwhile, I would ask you to do what I’m doing tonight. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you if there are other lies that you have accepted that are preventing you entering into the health that is at God’s right hand. That’s really it.

The first lie is that God actually bypasses the mind, that God bypasses the mind. You remember, some of us have had the idea -- and I think we shared it a little last day -- that God doesn’t use our minds. When he wants to tell us something, he bypasses the mind and comes straight to our spirits. And so, many of us get into this silly stuff. We think is holy, but it is silly. We pray and ask God to guide us, and to tell us what he’s thinking. And then after prayer or during prayer, we leave our minds blank, so that God can write on our minds what he wants us to do. Well loved ones, the only one that will write on your mind is Satan. He’s the only one that will take advantage of a mind that is blank. And so don’t do that.

God uses your mind. He teaches you the way he thinks by reading his word, and by experiences through which it has passed, by talking with other people, by reading other books, by things that you’ve learned directly from him yourself. He teaches you how he thinks, so that you get the point where you just know. You understand the mind of God. And you remember, we quoted that verse that Jesus said, “I have not called you servants, because a servant doesn’t know what his master is doing. But I’ve called you friends.”

Many of us accept lies that really become self fulfilling prophesies. I don’t know what kind of a 'baby' you are. I know I have been a wretched 'baby' in this regard. I think it’s very safe to think a cold is coming on, or to think you’re not feeling as great as you used to feel three or four weeks ago, or to feel, “Oh boy, I’m coming down with something. Yeah, I suppose you’re right. That place at the right hand of God is probably all 'coming down' with things. I mean probably the 'bugs' are in and out the angels like mad there. So you’re probably right. You are probably coming down with something. Probably Jesus is coughing his own heart out!"

So do you see the lie about it? I mean, there’s only health in that place at God’s right hand. There’s only health, and wholeness. And the angels aren’t coughing themselves to death, and nobody is ill there. Wouldn’t it be great to be there? Accept that you are there. You’re there.

But when you begin to think, “Oh, I think I’m coming down with a cold,” or, “I think I’m not as well as I used to be.” Loved ones, Satan uses it. It is a self fulfilling prophecy. It has the same effect as if you believed that you were well and whole at God’s right hand. As if you believed, you remember, Isaiah 53. Maybe you’d look at it, because some of you maybe haven’t looked at the footnote and don’t know the Hebrew words. So you don’t realize what that chapter actually says.

It’s Isaiah 53:4. “Surely he,” Jesus, the suffering servant, you remember, “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.” But you see the letter 'X', the footnote behind the word 'griefs'. Now look down to the bottom of the column and look at the footnotes. You see the 'X'? "Or sicknesses." And the Hebrew word actually means sicknesses. “Surely he has borne our sicknesses.” And you see "Carried our sorrows"? See the "Y" after 'sorrows'. Go down to the footnote. You see it says, “Or pains.” And the Hebrew word actually refers to the physical pain. “Surely he has borne our sicknesses and carried our pains.” Well, what are you doing bearing it then, if Jesus has already borne it?

And the truth is loved ones, that many of us open the way for Satan to inflict upon us the diseases that God promised would not have come upon the Israelites. He said, “None of these diseases will come upon you.” And if you say to me, “How long have we to keep believing that? Right through? Right through the sickness?” Yes, right through the sickness. Because you know fine well it’s not the sickness keeps you from obeying God’s will. It’s not. It’s your lying under the sickness. It’s your reaction to the sickness.

You read the 'lives of the saints' and they got up at times in hideous situations with tremendous pain throughout their bodies. Old Wesley, in the wintertime the – just before the river froze there at Oxford, he would at times – he would bleed so profusely from the nose and the throat -- and of course in the 18th century they didn’t realize -- he hadn’t the sense to know he had TB -- but he would bleed so profusely from the nose and the throat that he would jump into the freezing water to stop the bleeding. Yeah, he must have died young. Yeah, 88! At 88 he died!

It’s not the sickness. It’s not the illness that stops you. It’s your attitude to it. That’s what God meant when he said, “My strength is made perfect in your weakness.” We’d love to think that we’ll be going along, then we’ll have terrible pain in the heart and then, “My strength is made perfect in your weakness,” and suddenly the pain goes. “Ah, that’s the strength made perfect in my weakness.” No, "My strength is made perfect in your weakness, in the midst of your weakness." “You have only weakness. You have pain in your body. You have symptoms of sickness and disease. And my strength is keeping you fulfilling my will despite that.” That’s what it means. So if you say, “When do you stop believing that you’re made whole because you’re in Jesus at the Father’s right hand?” When you interview Jesus in heaven and he says, “Okay, you can stop believing.” That’s when, but not until then. You believe right through symptoms, right through sickness, right through everything.

And the other self fulfilling prophecy -- I don’t know how many of us opened the way for Satan to destroy us physically because we believe lies. Actually any crybabies out there, "Self pity, maybe?" Isn’t it often self pity? Oh, we just get fed up, and worn out, and tired. And really what Jesus showed me was, when you do that loved ones, do you realize that Satan is such a dirty rat that he would keep on pressing you until all the life was pressed out of you? Do you realize that? If you think back to the times you’re sick, you know it only shrugged off when at last you say, “I am not putting up with this any longer.” And actually if you put up with it, Satan would press you right into a casket six feet under. Really he would. And so no, there’s only one attitude to this business of sickness, and that is, God’s will for us is that we shall be well. And certainly he means that, "As our years are, so will our strength be." We’ll have enough strength to fulfill God’s commands to us. And he’ll give us that.

Same with those, "Things get down. The office is miserable. The job’s bad. The family is in chaos. The home is unhappy. The place where we live is not an enjoyable place to be. The finances are all upset. All our environment seems to be breaking up." Loved ones, it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy if we allow our mind to begin to accept that. God has made promises again, and again, that he will prosper the work of your hands. He will prosper the work of your hands. He’ll prosper you. And he’ll make things go well for you. And that is what you believe at the right hand of God far above all rule, and authority, and dominion, and power.

And you would be amazed how many things go wrong in your office, or at your work, or at school because of default. You simply don’t believe anything else. You let it go. One thing goes wrong. Another thing goes wrong. And so you just say, “Oh yeah, this is a time of persecution.” Loved ones, we’re not here to be persecuted. We’re here to overcome the world. Let the world say, “Those people are persecuted.” We should never have time to notice whether we’re persecuted or not. We should be so busy overcoming the world.

So in your environmental difficulties, in the situations where the environment seems to be coming apart, no! Take action against it! Take your position at God’s right hand, saying, “Lord, you have overcome the world, so you have overcome this mess here. So Lord, I thank you that this is being worked according to the counsel of your will, and you are in this changing it and moving it. Thank you, Lord.” Loved ones, that’s the whole point of that dear Phillip Carruthers you remember, where he says, “Praise! Praise God that already he has brought things under his own control in Jesus. And he has put all things under his feet.”

It’s a lie that often becomes a base for Satan to control of us, that we’re worthless, “I’m worthless. Oh yeah, there’s no good thing in me, no good thing at all. And so what’s the point of even trying?” Loved ones, the truth is there is no good thing in us, except that God has put Jesus in us! And you remember Paul makes that clear, “There’s no good thing in my flesh, in me, myself, but Jesus is in me, and I am the most valuable person in the whole universe. And I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.” And so there’s no place for one who is in Jesus -- and that’s everybody actually in this universe -- there’s no place for anyone who is in Jesus saying, “Oh, I’m worthless. I can’t do anything.” Sure, in yourself you’re worthless, and you can’t do anything on your own. But through Jesus, and with him in you, you can do anything. And you’re the most valuable and precious person to God, because he gave his own son for you. But again, you have to be willing to be worth something.

I don’t know how many of you got into this, “I was willing to be a failure for Jesus, but then he one time asked, ‘Would you be willing to be a success?’” And so I – have you settled that in your mind? Are you willing to be a success? Because actually being a success is far more strenuous than being a failure. Being a failure is not bad, actually it’s kind of restful, but being a success is much more strenuous. And so do check yourself, “Lord Jesus, have I really accepted that I’m not my own person? I’m yours to do what you want with; I’m yours to live that strenuous live that you lived, to walk the roads and the byways, not to have even a stone to put my head upon as a pillow. I’m willing to walk that way.” But loved ones, that’s what God wants us to say and to believe in our own minds.

We’ve touched on this before, the lie that you have to feel God’s presence, and that your prayer time is not a prayer time unless you feel his presence. And so it leads you into all kinds of -- you remember old C.S. Lewis talked about maistry, the old Druid practice of trying to conjure up the presence of the deity. And so we get into all that kind of silly stuff. We sit silent and sit quiet instead of praising God actively. Loved ones, no, you don’t need to feel God’s presence. You believe God is there because he said he was there. And you worship him because you know he’s there. And in the midst of that faith and obedience, God begins to mold you.

I don’t know if you felt you have to know how God is changing you, have you? Because it connects up with that. It’s another lie. Many of us feel, “Oh well, I have to know God is changing me. Yes, he ought to give me some great light tonight that I -- if I see it, "Oh, I have to change that. Oh, good. Thank you, Lord.” No! God can often change you without you knowing anything about it! He can be changing an attitude in you simply because you’re worshipping him and praising him.

So loved ones, it’s a lie to believe that you have to feel God’s presence or you have to know you’re being changed. That’s why it’s so wrong for you to get up from a prayer time and say, “Oh that was a miserable prayer time.” It’s like me going out – I used to, I’m not so dumb now, I think. No, I’m not, I’m not so dumb. I used to go out after preaching and say, “What a wretched sermon.” Now I know every sermon is a wretched sermon compared with the angels and archangels. But at least I know that it doesn’t depend on whether it’s wretched or good, whether God will work, because God is working through our faith. And it’s the same with us in prayer. It’s madness to get up and say to ourselves, “Boy, that was a – just a bummer of a prayer time. I may as well not have prayed.” No, that’s when it becomes a bummer, when you say that. That’s when you show that you believe Satan’s lie, that you have to feel God’s presence or you have to feel him working in you. No, loved ones. Believe he’s there. Praise him and adore him, and get up and say, “Lord, thank you. Thank you that you heard me, and that you know I’m here, and thank you that you’re going out with me.” That’s why I was glad we sang that hymn, "Faith is the Victory", because it’s the key.

"Ministering Jesus’ life is conscious experience." It’s a lie that gets into our minds. We talk with someone at work, and we feel we should know that we’ve ministered Jesus’ life to them. We feel we should know that. Feel, “Ah, yes something,” – we like to be - think we should be like Jesus, "Something went forth from me." And we like to think, “Oh, yeah I really imparted something deep there.” Probably if you think that, you imparted absolutely nothing but your own proud self. And really, it’s true that ministry is primarily an unconscious gift. And that’s why it’s dangerous to get preoccupied with gifts. Do you see that?

I mean, I’ll just remind you again of what a gift is. A gift is that Carmen, for instance, sits down and plays the piano. Just a feel for it, and plays by ear. And I can manage Clementine and a simple version of Handel’s Largo with great effort. And so I sit down and labor through. She plays it with ease. It’s a gift. She’s doesn’t say to me, “Now I’m going to demonstrate to you my gift, okay?” And if say to her, “Boy, that’s a gift,” she is polite and says, “Oh, yeah, yeah.” But she doesn’t think it’s a gift, because she’s just put up through the same effort, in fact less effort than I have, and yet it’s come out entirely differently. Now it’s the same with you, same with Roger, or Lyman, or others on computer. Or John, you’ve a gift for computers. And the rest of us could labor at the thing and not turn the thing out at all. But you have a gift for it. You don’t put in as much labor, or at times you would, but the result is much better than ours. But the gift is an unconscious gift. Same with Pavarotti. Pavarotti, he knows the crowds come to him and hear him, but really, he just sings the way his dad sings. And he just sings the way we sing in the shower except it comes entirely differently from the way it comes out in our shower. Now that’s what a gift is, you see?

And so a gift of the Holy Spirit is a real gift when it’s ministered unconsciously. In other words, I don’t get up here and say, “I’m going to give you a prophecy, okay? Everybody ready for a prophecy? Okay.” You don’t. A prophecy is a word of God that comes home to somebody’s heart as God’s speaking to them. The man speaks away as best he can, but God takes the word to a different heart and speaks that word so that that person has no doubt that it’s God speaking and that’s prophecy.

And it’s the same with the gift of healing. You don’t make a whole fuss, “I have the gift of healing, so come up and I’ll minister this gift.” No, you pray for a person like everybody else prays for them, and lo and behold, they’re healed. And other people prayed for them and they weren’t healed. And so the ministry of Jesus’ life is not usually actually a conscious ministry at all. It’s usually an unconscious one. But that is what often disturbs many of you. You try to minister Jesus’ life, and you don’t feel you’ve done it. That’s when you cease to exercise faith. Actually, probably as you’re witnessing to them you’re in faith, but immediately afterwards, that’s when you cease to exercise faith. You said to yourself, “Oh, I didn’t do any good there.” And so at that moment any work that was done in their hearts no longer has the backing of your faith and your prayer.

So loved ones, it is by faith. That’s part of what Jesus meant when he said, “Let not your right hand know what your left hand is doing.” You’re not always looking to see, “Oh, what did I do? What did I achieve?” You do! You live fully! You believe God for everything. And maybe, maybe, maybe when you’re 95 you’ll see something of what God did for your life. But until then, our eyes are to be on Jesus and on our position in his right hand.

Guidance by sight: Blake, the poet you remember, said, “We are led into a lie when we believe that we see with and not through the eye.” We are led into a lie, into believing a lie, when we think we see with and not through the eye. And many of us caught in that in guidance. And our minds are preoccupied with looking for signs, signs, signs. We’ve a little joke about it because corny little things happen, things that are awkward or difficult, and we joke – my wife and I joke and say, “Oh, I don’t think the Lord wants you me to do that.” Because so many of us are caught up in that silly stuff. And loved ones, the truth is most of what you achieve for God will be opposed by the powers of this world and the rulers of this present darkness. And the rulers of this present darkness control a lot of the circumstances and events of this world, so most of what you go out after for with God will be opposed by circumstances.

But if you make the mistake of believing that your guidance comes by seeing with the eye instead of seeing through the eye to what God is doing because of his promises, then you will fall into that guidance by sight and not by faith. And so what God asks us to do is to stop that. Stop trying to get guidance by sight, looking at this circumstance, this event, this person speaking to us, that person nodding to us, this job opening up. Let’s not ignore circumstances, but let’s see first of all that God will change our hearts, will mold them, and then those dear solid hearts will get a sense of which way our lives are to go. And we’ll start going out in that direction. And as we move, God will begin to fine tune the 'steering system', and he’ll begin to move us into exactly what he wants. But it comes that way, not by sight.

Spirituality is imitating others: It’s a lie that many of us fall into. “I want to be a spiritual man, so I’ll be like so and so.” So we imitate other supposedly spiritual men and women. What happens is we come under burdens, legal burdens, burdens of law, burdens of trying to do something that God isn’t asking us to do at all. Do you know there’s a great verse that you might like to look at in – I think it’s 1 Corinthians 2:15. “The spiritual man judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one.” It means that a person who is in Jesus is receiving from him personal commandments to obedience that Jesus is not giving to anybody else. And so nobody actually can judge you on it.

I mean, if you kill your mother, they can obviously point to scripture that God couldn’t have told you that, so there are obvious things that can be checked against scripture. But guidance and the finer movements of your life are to depend on what Jesus’ Spirit is guiding you to. And they certainly can’t be determined by following some other so called spiritual man or woman, because they have received directions from Jesus for them themselves. If you say, “Oh, is it good to look at Reese Halls or look at Andrew Murray and see some examples?” Yeah, it’s good to read them, good to be inspired by their lives, good to ask Jesus, “Lord, would you like me to do that kind of thing or to pray that way?” It’s good to do that. But loved ones, to come under the burden of imitating men takes you out of your liberty in Jesus. And that’s a lie that Satan gets us into.

"My leisure time is mine." So many of wonder where we lost Jesus, the way his parents did on the way back from Jerusalem. And we go back along the way trying to find out where we lost him. We lost him right there, where Satan whispered to our minds, “Well, it’s good to give some time to your job, and some time to Jesus, but your leisure time is your own.” And then you take yourself out of that faith position where you once said, “I am no longer my own but thine. I am not my own, I have been bought with a price.” And loved ones, the truth is your leisure time is no more your own than your work time or your ministry time. It belongs to the one who owns you, the one who has saved you. It belongs to your Savior.

Now what I would wonder, should you not ask Jesus if there are any lies that you have accepted into your mind that do actually rule your lives in some way? Because that’s really the important thing of this evening! It’s not worth understanding this. You could explain a whole lot of other things. But the important thing is, are there lies that you have accepted into your mind that you need now to deny, formally, before the Savior, and you need to take back that part of your life into your control? You could do it just sitting there. I think what might be good is if Carmen would exercise her gift in an inconspicuous way -- if she would play -- then maybe if you see – have seen something tonight, or if God shows you during the quiet time some lie that you’ve begun to accept into your mind and that you know you ought to deny tonight, it might be good to – I’m going to, I have one that I want to deal with -- and it might be good just to come up and just kneel here and just deny it before Jesus, and then return to your seat.

And why I’m doing it here is, I think it’s good to put a solid 'stake into the ground' on this kind of thing. Otherwise it’s very easy to slip back into it and say, “Oh, well, it’s no big deal anyway.” So it might be good if God has shown you any lie tonight, or if during the quiet time you see some lie, then it might be good to just deny it tonight and to rebuke Satan. That’s all you have to do. The Bible says, “Resist Satan and he’ll flee from you.” Just resist him and then take your position at God’s right hand again and say, “Lord, I have everything in you.” So that’s what I would suggest, loved ones. So maybe if we just bow our heads -- and I’m going to do it -- and then we’ll close after 10 minutes or so.