Sound of Faith

Sharon Hardy Knotts: Greetings friends and new listeners. Welcome to the R. G. Hardy Ministries program. I'm Sharon Knotts, thanking you for joining us today because we know that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Today's message by my father Brother Hardy is truly a dynamic, devil-chasing word of the Lord, Freedom From Demons.

The truth is many of God's people are intimidated and/or oppressed by Satan and his demons of darkness, and this absolutely should not be. We have been delivered out of the kingdom of darkness where Satan the God of this world rules, and we have been translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son where we have authority over the enemy and freedom from demons.

R. G. Hardy: Hallelujah. All right, this morning we want to preach on the subject: Freedom From Demons. Freedom From Demons. If you have your Bible, Colossians 1:12 and 13, I'll read. Colossians 1:12 and 13. Giving thanks unto the Father, which has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son. Freedom from demons.

Isaiah 54:17 says, "No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper; and every tongue that rises up against you in judgment thou shalt condemn. For this is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, whose righteousness is of me." You know, too many of God's children are living in fear of Satan and the devil.

And we should not be living in fear of Satan and the devil because as I read in Colossians 1:13, God has delivered us out of the power of Satan. He's not going to deliver us. He's not in the process of delivering us. He has already delivered the child of God out of the kingdom where Satan rules. In the Greek, this phrase "God has delivered" is an aorist tense. And the aorist tense means somewhere in the past.

And somewhere in the past of every child of God's life, God delivered them from the power of Satan. And that somewhere in the past was the moment that we repented of our sins and accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior. When God took the precious blood of the Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ, and washed our sins away. When he took the seed of the word of God and begat us into a new creature and imparted his sonship spirit into us, at that moment he reached down into the kingdom of Satan where we were, sold by Adam, as slaves to Satan and manipulated by demon power.

God reached down into that kingdom, picked us up, and translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son. And the kingdom of his dear Son, as Romans the 13th chapter says, is not in meat and drink, but in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. God reached down in the kingdom where it was chaos, confusion, fear, trouble, and all of the evils that we were suffering.

And he picked us up and translated us and transported us and put us now in the kingdom of his dear Son where the atmosphere and the condition is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. We should be enjoying and living in and being cognizant of that we're in the kingdom where there's only righteous ones.

And being in the kingdom where there's only righteous ones, we don't have to fear of anyone going to do any harm to us. So that brings the peace of God. Hallelujah. And thank God for the joy of the Holy Ghost. Even though Jesus said in this world we're going to have tribulations, thank God we got the joy in the Holy Ghost to override it.

So the child of God is no longer in the kingdom or the realm where Satan rules. He has been delivered from that authority and placed into the kingdom where Jesus rules and where Jesus is Lord. Hallelujah. We are living where Jesus is the ruler. So therefore we do not have to be afraid of the devil and the demons because we are where he is not. And he is not where we are. Hallelujah.

And I'm going to stay where he's not. And he can't come where I am. In order to get where I am where a child of God is, you have to be born again and be washed and come through the blood. And in order for the devil to come where a child of God is in the kingdom of the dear Son of God, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, then the devil has to come through the blood.

And if he comes through the blood, he won't be a devil anymore. Hallelujah. So we're not under the dominion, under the power, under the rulership, and in the realm where Satan rules. It doesn't make any difference what the devil says. If he decrees a decree and says "All my subjects do thus and so," that doesn't affect me. I'm not one of his subjects. I'm only the subject of the Lord Jesus Christ. How many say amen?

So we have no right to be afraid. That's why no wonder Jesus said, "Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." Just have faith in me. You see, if we fear, if we're fearing demons and the devil, we are saying that the devil is greater than God. If we live in fear, we're saying our situation is greater than the power of God.

God cannot move for us; this situation or this demon power is greater than God. And there's nothing greater than our Father. How many say amen? Our Father is omnipotent, all-powerful. Our Father is omnificent. And my Father is magnificent. Omnipotent, all power to defeat any of our foes. No weapon, nothing that the devil and demons can bring against us will prosper against us.

And we can go back to the Old Testament record and read incident after incident where the devil tried to destroy God's people and God superseded and delivered. We could take Shadrach and Meshach and Abednego, but the fire could not burn them. We could take Daniel in the lions' den, but the lions could not eat them. We could take Haman and Mordecai, but Mordecai could not hang Haman.

In fact, he hung on his own scaffold. I like that. God uses poetical justice on the enemy. He'll burn him in his own fire, eat him with his own lions, and hang him on his own scaffold, but he's going to deliver his children. Hallelujah. Give him a good clap offering if you're going to give him a clap offering. Thank you, Jesus.

You see, you've got to have a basis for your fear. And the child of God has no basis to be afraid because God has taken us out of the place where the devil rules and put us in another place, the kingdom of God. And nothing the devil does can affect our life unless we let him. You know, very early in my experience, God revealed this to me: the only power that the devil has over a child of God is what the child of God allows him to have by doubt, fear, or giving place to the devil.

You see, since we're born again, we're no longer slaves. Paul said in Romans the 8th chapter about the 15th verse, "For you have not received the spirit of bondage or a slave again to fear." We haven't received a slave spirit to fear again, but we have received the spirit of adoption or sonship like I preached recently. We are sons. We're not slaves anymore.

You know, we have to re-educate ourselves. God's children have to have their mind renewed. Didn't he say that? That he had to renew our mind, our thinking process. Too many of God's children are thinking like the old man and the old man's conditions. But we're not the old man. Second Corinthians 5:17 said if any man, if anyone be in Christ, he is a new creature.

Old things pass away. We're not in the old kingdom. The devil is not our Lord anymore. We're not dominated by demons. We're not subject to the old life. Old things pass away. Behold, all things—and I can't overemphasize that—all things are new. And where do they come from? And all things are of, or genitive of origin, from God.

Now, you think God's going to send any bad thing to us, his children? No. James 1:17, 18 said that of his own will he begat us. God decided by his own will. He decided that he wanted us to become his child. And he begat us with the word of his truth. And not only that, then he give us every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights.

And we are the children of light and like I read in that first or Colossians 1:12, that we are to have an inheritance with the saints in light. He is the Father of lights and we have an inheritance in the light with all the saints. And everything now is coming from God and it's good and perfect, perfectly good.

You know, sometimes I ride down the highway and I see motel signs. And it'll put up there "Vacancy" or "No Vacancy." Or it'll put "Deliveries in the back." Well, when the devil comes around to try to give me something or he tries to get in, I flash the sign up: "No vacancies." And if he's got something to deliver to me, I put on there: no delivery in the front, no delivery in the back, no delivery on the left side, no delivery on the right side, no delivery at all.

I got no place for it. Give no place to the devil. You see, we're not slaves, we're sons. And as sons, we have the prerogative to move. We can either give place or not. A slave has nothing to do about it. You know what a slave's function is? To obey the commands of his master. How many say amen?

But we are sons. And you know what the function of a son is? To enjoy the blessings of his Father. And I'm going to enjoy the blessings of my Father. And my Father told me through my brother, the Lord Jesus Christ, don't let your heart be troubled, don't let it be afraid, just continue to believe and have faith in me because I have all power.

I am omnipotent and I am omnificent and I have transferred it to my only begotten Son and the Son of my love, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he is ruling in the kingdom as an absolute king with all power in heaven and in earth. Another reason why God's children seem to be fearful of the devil and demons: they try to deify the devil.

And somebody says, "What do you mean by deifying the devil?" They try to make the devil deity or God. Now, the devil is not a god. The devil is a creature. You see, the terminology deity, deity means self-existing and self-maintaining. Anyone that is deity, nobody brought him into existence. There's a saying, and it's true, he's God all by himself.

And being deity, he does not have to depend on anyone for the maintenance of his existence. He's self-existing. Deity means to be self-existing, self-maintaining, adequate in his self for anything. Omnipotent, omnificent, omnipresent, and all the other omnis. The devil is not that. The devil is a creature. He owes his existence to somebody.

That somebody is my Father. Back in eternity past, somewhere back in time, God brought the devil into existence. God created him. And if you want to take time to study later, you can read Isaiah the 14th chapter and the 12th through the 14th verse and Ezekiel the 28th chapter starting at the 12th verse and you will see the record of when God brought the being whom we know as the devil into existence, who was Lucifer.

The son of the morning. And he fell by reason of pride in his beauty. And he became the devil. You see, the devil's really not his name; his name is Lucifer. That's one of his titles. And all the devil means is an adversary. And he became the adversary of God and the adversary of man. Now, if God wanted to, God could have squashed him right then as a fly.

But he didn't because you see, God works all things together for his good. And God knew that he had a creation of free moral agents, not robots. By free moral agents, I mean he had created beings with the right of choice. God doesn't want to force us to love him, to make us a robot programmed to love him.

God gave us a right of choice like God, you see, has the right of choice. And God made us Adam with the right of choice; he was made in the image of God and like God. And he wanted man to choose to love him because they wanted to love him. So therefore he allowed Satan to stay and gave him power to test all of God's other creatures.

Because he wanted to get out all of those that would rebel and follow Satan. And he started in the heavenlies and he purified the angelic beings. He let Satan go over all of God's spiritual kingdom, called in the Bible principalities, powers, thrones, rulers, and dominions and tempted them and tested them to rebel from God.

And he convinced one-third to follow him. And that one-third made up most of the ruling angels and they tried to unthrone God and unseat God. How many say amen? They tried to throw God out of heaven. But you see, not only is God greater than the devil and not only is the Lord Jesus Christ greater than the devil and not only is the Holy Ghost greater than the devil.

But God can make any other of his creatures greater than the devil because the devil's just a creature. And he made Michael, his archangel, and his name means "he that is like God." He made him like God, more powerful than the devil. And Revelation said there was war in heaven for Michael and his faithful angels fought against the dragon, that old serpent the devil.

And it said and Michael prevailed and threw him out. How many say amen? Michael threw him out of heaven and the third of the angels fell with him. And he is a fallen, defeated foe. God didn't have to defeat him, Jesus didn't have to defeat him, the Holy Ghost didn't have to defeat him; Michael defeated him. Hallelujah. Give the Lord a good clap offering. Thank you, Jesus.

So I'm talking about why a Christian shouldn't be afraid and fearful of the devil and demons. Number one, they have been taken out of the devil's territory, as it were. They are delivered out of the kingdom where Satan rules and have been placed in the kingdom where Jesus rules and where there's only righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.

So the child of God is where the devil isn't, and the devil isn't where the child of God is unless the child of God willfully leaves the kingdom of Jesus and goes back on the devil's territory. Second, the devil is a creature and not a God. He's not self-existing. He's not self-maintaining. He owes his existence to our heavenly Father.

He owes the maintenance of his existence to our Father. And he can go only as far as our Father allows him. You read the book of Job; it will show you that. God was the one to try Job to purify him. God allows us to be tried to get the dross out of our life so that all unrighteousness comes to the top and he can cleanse us from it.

You see, it's a two-stage: if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive our sins. He forgives us; we're saved. But then sanctification, he's in the act of cleansing us from all unrighteousness. And he allows the devil to come to test us to bring that unrighteousness up so that we can see it and abhor it and ask God to cleanse us from it, and he does.

We walk in the light as he is in the light; we have fellowship one with another, then the blood cleanses us from all this unrighteousness and filth that's in our spirits. So the devil is God's instrument to purify God's saints. And he cannot go any further than God allows him. You see, he's not God, he's a creature, and God is using him to purify us.

And if you read and study the book of Job, every time the devil wanted to attack Job, he had to first go to God and get permission. And then God stipulated how far he could go. And God said in First Corinthians 10:13, "God is faithful." God can be counted on; you can depend on God and count on him. He will not put more on you than you are able, but with your temptation shall make a way of escape that you shall be able to bear it.

So the devil is a defeated foe. He only has power over a child of God what the child of God lets him either by direct sin or fear. Fear is the opposite of faith. Faith is the opposite of fear. If you're fearing, you're not believing, and if you're believing, you're not fearing. That's why fear is really sin because it's not faith.

For whatsoever is not of faith is sin. And when we fear, we're saying, "God, this situation, the demon, or the devil is greater than you." And that's a lie. How many say amen? I said that's a lie. Now, we have nothing to be afraid of because we have been delivered from the power of the devil, translated to the power of Jesus.

And not only that, Jesus has given us power over the devil. Hallelujah. Oh, give him a good clap offering if you're going to clap. Before I get into that more, I want to talk a little bit more about witchcraft, wizards, and witches. So many of God's children are under the lie that somebody can work a spell on them. If you're a child of God, I'll say it in the front before I go any further, if you listen to me clearly and carefully, if you are an obedient child of God and if you're in a place of obedience, then no one can put a curse on you.

Sharon Hardy Knotts: Amen. What a devil-chasing message from God's servant Brother Hardy, Freedom From Demons. We have not received a spirit of fear, of intimidation, of oppression, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Nevertheless, many of God's children are oppressed of the enemy, harassed by demonic activity and tormented by spirits of fear.

Sometimes this occurs because they have opened doors in their homes, their bodies, and their minds or because they are too passive in resisting Satan's attacks. Satan has no legal right to oppress a child of God, but he is a trespasser. So we must be active and vigilant, watchful and bold in our resistance.

John tells us for this cause was the Son of God manifest to destroy the works of the devil. And he has given us authority over all the power of the enemy. And authority trumps power. You need to add this dynamic CD to your spiritual armory. And for your love gift of ten dollars or more for the radio ministry, request offer 184.

The mailing address is R. G. Hardy Ministries, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland 21203. Or order online at rghardy.org. That's r-g-h-a-r-d-y.org. Now, there are many spiritual resources in our e-store on scores of topics that are preparatory for victorious Christian living. So visit us today.

But to order by mail, request offer 184 and send ten dollars or more to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland 21203. Until next time, this is Sister Sharon saying, Maranatha.