Sound of Faith

Sharon Hardy Knotts: Greetings friends and new listeners, welcome to the R. G. Hardy Ministry's 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 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: 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. 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. Then God stipulated how far he could go.

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. 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. When we fear, we're saying, "God, the 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.

We have nothing to be afraid of because we have been delivered from the power of the devil and translated to the power of Jesus. Not only that, Jesus has given us power over the devil. Hallelujah, give Him a good clap if you want 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. 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. Not even a man of God. Let me say that again. If you are an obedient child of God and if you are dwelling in obedience to the Lord, no one can put a curse on you, even if that someone would be a child of God. They cannot curse you.

Are you ready for the scriptures? How many ever read the story of Balaam and Balak in the Old Testament, in the book of Numbers? The 22nd, 23rd, and 24th chapters tell the story. Let me lay a little bit of background. God has now sent the plagues to Egypt. The Passover lamb has been slain, the Passover supper has been eaten, and Moses has led Israel out of Egypt.

He rolled back the Red Sea, brought God's people over on dry land, and destroyed Pharaoh. You see, Pharaoh is destroyed. We're not in his kingdom. They never had any more trouble with Pharaoh. Pharaoh was destroyed, and we should not have any more trouble with the devil. We're out of his kingdom. When they were ready to go into the Promised Land, they had to go through Moab.

King Balak saw them and didn't want to let them come through. Not only did he not want to let them come through, he wanted them cursed. He wanted Israel, the people of God, cursed. So he knew of this famous prophet, Balaam. He knew that whatever Balaam said under the anointing of God, it came to pass.

So he sent some of his young princes down to hire Balaam to curse Israel. God told Balaam, "Don't go." But Balaam had a weakness for money. You are not to give place to the devil. The devil found it, and he was going to go anyhow. He got on his mule and started to go, and all of a sudden, his mule ran him into a wall and slammed his leg and bruised him. He beat that mule.

He was so filled with unrighteous gain that the mule told him, "Hey man, don't beat me." That prophet was so blinded by unrighteous gain he couldn't recognize God's voice anymore because that mule never talked to him before. All that mule knew was mule talk. If a mule talked to me, I'd know it's more than a mule talking, and I would know it's God. Here was a man who is supposed to be a prophet.

Prophet means he that sees for God, hears for God, and speaks for God. But he was so blinded with unrighteous gain he couldn't tell God's voice anymore. He kept beating that mule until finally, God opened up his eyes, and he saw in the path the angel of the Lord with the sword was going to kill him.

The angel said, "Balaam, if that mule didn't run you into that wall, surely I would have killed you." That mule had more spirituality than Balaam did at that time. He could see God and speak for God. He said, "I told you not to go. But since you're on your way, go ahead and go, but don't you say anything unless I tell you." Finally, he arrives where Balak is, and Balak takes him and says, "I want you to come and curse my enemy, Israel. Here, I'm going to take you in a nice spot where you can see them."

Old Balaam said, "I can't say anything except what God puts in my mouth." Any true prophet can't say anything but what God puts in his mouth. Any false prophet, it doesn't make any difference what he says because God didn't put it in his mouth. How many say amen? Let me read a little bit in Numbers 23:5: And the Lord put a word in Balaam's mouth and said, return unto Balak, and thus shalt thou speak.

The seventh verse, and here is what he spoke: And he took up his parable and said, Balak the King of Moab hath brought me from Aram, out of the mountains of the East saying, come curse me Jacob, and come defy Israel. How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed? And how shall I defy whom the Lord hath not defied? If God has blessed you, nobody can curse you.

I said if God has blessed you, even a prophet of the Lord can't curse you. How many say amen? Eleventh verse, and Balak said unto Balaam, "What hast thou done unto me? I took thee to curse my enemies, and behold thou hast blessed them altogether." If anybody tries to curse you, even if he's a man of God, God will make it come out a blessing. I could see Balaam say, "I bless you, Israel." He couldn't get the curse out.

Twelfth verse, and he answered and said, "Must I not take heed to speak that which the Lord has put in my mouth?" If you're under the blessings of the Lord, you can't be cursed. Balak, the 13th verse, said, "Come, I pray thee, with me to another place from whence thou mayest see them, thou shalt see but the uttermost part of them, and thou shalt not see them all and curse me them from thence."

He said, "Well, come on, let me take you to the back parts, and then curse them." Honey, when God's blessed you, you're blessed in the front, you're blessed in the back, you're blessed on the left, and you're blessed on the right. You're blessed in the valley, you're blessed in the mountain. Blessed shalt thou be in the city, blessed shalt thou be in the country.

Blessed shalt thou be in the store, blessed shalt be thy coming in, blessed shalt be thy going out, blessed shalt be thy sitting down, blessed shalt be thy rising up, blessed shalt be the fruit of thy kind, thy cattle, and thy body. Thine enemy shall come out against thee one way and flee seven ways. Thou art blessed. It didn't make any difference where he looked at Israel. They were blessed in the front, in the back, on the north, on the south, in the east, and the west.

Until Balaam didn't even bother this time to go and ask God if he could get a chant in against Israel, or if he could put a spell on them, because he saw that it pleased the Lord to bless them. And the 20th verse said, Balaam said, behold, I have received commandment to bless, and He hath blessed, and I cannot reverse it. Honey, when you are blessed, nobody can reverse it. Nobody can undo it.

They can sift all of their pots with bat wings and liver, lizard lips, and owl eyes and all their potions, and they can stir it and say, "Hocus pocus, fishbones choking," but it won't hurt you, brother, because if God's blessed you, it can't be reversed. Listen to the 23rd verse, Numbers 23:23: Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel.

This is God's handiwork. Paul brought it over into the New Testament, and he said in Hebrews, whatever God did for Israel, He's going to do it better. Then he said in Ephesians, we are the workmanship of God created in Christ Jesus unto good works. They can take their novenas, they can chant all their chants, they can stir all their pots, and they can pronounce all their incantations, but I'm blessed because I'm Abraham's seed.

If you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. God promised Abraham, because there was no greater, He said, in blessing I will bless thee and in multiplying I will multiply thee. I will bless them that bless you and curse them that curse you. So if anybody tries to put a spell on you, demonize you, or use witchcraft, then all they're going to do is do it to themselves.

Whatever curse they try to pronounce on you, an obedient child of God, is going to come back on their own head. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Just believe. Now in the King James Version and most English versions, they translate both words in the English "power" of what God gave to the Christian and what the devil had. But it's not so in the Greek.

The Greek says: Behold, you and I Christians, I give unto you—and the Greek word is 'exousia'. Exousia means power to rule or ruling power. It should have been better translated "I give you authority." The first word and what it means to the Christians is: Behold Christian, I give you authority to rule over all of the power of the enemy. The devil has power. I can see the effects of his power on those that he has out there in the world.

He's got them bound in sin, evil habits and appetites, fear, shook up, discouraged, and despondent. But Jesus said, listen to this beautiful thing, "I give you authority. I give you authority." That's what He had said to the church in Matthew the 18th chapter. I give you authority. Behold whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever bound on earth if you loose it in earth it shall be loosed in heaven.

I give you the authority. I give you the power. I give you the ability to rule over all of the power of the devil. You see, instead of being afraid of the devil, we actually have authority over him. But from children up, the devil has brainwashed humanity to keep them from coming to the knowledge that they could have power. All the cartoons you'll see show the devil with a pitchfork chasing poor mankind.

He's spun out that lie to bring fear in the hearts of mankind. When a child of God gets saved, that still vestiges of that old life remains there, and we've got to rethink. We've got to remove that. We've got to let all things become new. We've got to have our mind renewed, and we've got to have the mind of Christ and know that it isn't so.

But the truth is that God has now reversed the picture, and we've got the sword of the Spirit, and the devil is running for his life. Honey, when a child of God unsheathes the sword of the Spirit and he uses it like he knows what he's got, the devils believe and tremble. As soon as a child of God begins to act in his sonship and upon the authority that God gave him over all the power of the devil, the devil is a believer of the Word.

My Lord, demons are in trouble. We tried to keep them from the knowledge of their truth, but they now know the truth and the truth made them free of our lie. They know now that greater is the Holy Ghost in them than we are in the world. They know that I'm just a creature and I'm not deity. They know that God's greater than we are.

They know that not only that, Michael is greater than we are, and they now even know that they're greater than we are, and we're in trouble. We can't cop a plea and we can't make a deal, so we better saturate the air with our absence. Because if we don't, they've got that sword and they know how to use it, and we're going to be mincemeat. That's the truth.

The only power now, listen to me carefully, if you're an obedient child of God walking in the light and walking in God's favor, the only power the devil has over you is what you let him. Give no place to the devil. That's a command from God. As sons, I can either give place or not. How many say amen? But I'm not going to give place to the devil.

Wherever I find him, I'm going to overrule his power. I give you authority to rule over the devil. Got our loved ones, got our city, got our nation, got our generation—we've got power. We can get into the prayer closet. We've got the whole armor of God. The first five weapons were defensive weapons. The other two to make seven are offensive weapons.

What is the offensive weapon? The spoken word of God and praying with all prayer always in the spirit with all supplication. Honey, we can not only beat back the attack of the devil, we can put him to flight in our own life. Then get in the prayer closet and overrule the devil's power that has our loved ones.

You know when they hung Saul's seven sons, that mother stayed up all night and day and she beat back the fowl of the air from those bodies. I believe you can take it over to the New Testament; our prayers can beat back the devils from our dead-in-sin loved ones. We can overrule it. How many say amen? He gave us power over all the power of the devil.

The way I like to really illustrate that is, I want you to imagine some of you have been in West Virginia or any mountain state. Here up on the top of the mountain they've got one famous peak going to West Virginia. You're West Virginian, aren't you? Here is a tractor-trailer, all that diesel power, and it's loaded to the limit with a cargo of steel. It starts down that mountain.

Here we've got diesel power pulling it, we've got the weight of the steel pushing it, and we've got gravity pulling it. Here comes a little fellow about 110 pounds soaking wet with rocks in his pocket. He steps out on that highway and sticks that little bony hand up.

That guy in that semi-tractor-trailer with all that diesel power, all the weight pushing of that metal, and all of the forces of gravity hurling him down that hill, throws on the air brakes. That old truck begins to shudder and stops and comes right up to that little fellow's hand. Now why? This man had all of the diesel power he needed, he had all of the thrust of that load, and he had gravity's power working on him.

But why did he stop? Because that little fellow down there was dressed in a blue suit with a hat on with brass buttons and had a badge up there that said "law". You see, one had power, the other had authority. I have to admit the devil's got power. I see his power out in the world and I see his power in the church over people that don't know the truth and those that are fearful.

But God's given us authority to rule over the devil. Not only should we be free in our own lives, but because we're free, we use that authority that God has given us, the authority of the spoken word. He sent His word and healed them. He cast out the devils with His word. Then the other offensive weapon is spiritual prayer.

You see, we're not warring in the prayer closet with the devil to bring salvation to ourself and heal us; we've already got it. We're warring to set our loved ones free, or I hope we are. God is already on record. Jesus said whatsoever you ask the Father in My name, He'll give it to you.

Jesus is on record saying whatsoever you ask Me, that will I do that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I'll do it. Honey, we can take this power. Be afraid of demons? Be afraid of the devil? Be afraid of somebody putting a curse on us? We're blessed; we can't be cursed.

Not only do we not have to be afraid of the devil, we've got power over him. We've got ruling authority over him. It's time the church stood up and lived in what God has made of us. Become what God has declared us to be. The church needs to say, "I'm going to be what God has declared me to be, I'm going to have what God says is mine, and I'm going to do what God says I can do. And I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me." Give Him a clap.

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, or 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 manifested, to destroy the works of the devil. 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 $10 or more for the radio ministry, request offer 184.

The mailing address is R. G. Hardy Ministries, PO Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Or order online at rghardy.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. To order by mail, request offer 184 and send $10 or more to PO Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Until next time, this is Sister Sharon saying, Maranatha.