In order to walk in victory over the devil, one of the first things you have to do is close the door to him. How? Get rid of anything to do with the devil. Do away with any practices that are not of God. Anything that is not of God will hinder you. Ephesians 4:27 says, “Neither give place to the devil.”
You have to get rid of anything and everything that has to do with the powers of darkness. That is ‘not giving place to the devil.’ I get emails from people periodically asking questions because it’s public what our stand is on things and what we believe. I got an email from a medical technician one time that wanted to go into what they call alternative medicines. And part of this alternative medicine had to do with crystals and their powers and things like that and she wanted to know what I thought.
Now I’m not a doctor. And I didn’t know that any rock or crystal had any medicinal value. Supposedly you’re supposed to rub them here and there and everything is supposed to be alright. I told her that if I was her, I’d stay away from anything like that and not have anything to do with it. Things like that can get you on the slippery slope to being influenced, deceived, and even overcome by evil spirits.
Another example of this is the Catholic Church. Now I’m not against anyone. I’m for people. But the Catholic Church has statues, crosses and other things where blood and tears run out of them. This is proven. This is something called the stigmata. What actually happens is a demon operates through that statue to deceive people and make them pay homage to it and worship it and revere it. As long as people will do this, that demon will hang around there.
This is all true. These things happen and they are supernatural. However, it is supernaturally demonic. It is not of God. So you have to get rid of these things and stay away from them. The reason the devil shows up around these things – these crosses, statues, and things people kiss and worship, holy places and saint so and so – is because people worship them. As long as people worship these things, demons will continue to show up. They even have trees that people say the face of Jesus will show up in and then people will drive 1,000 miles to worship it. As long as people will worship and give a place to them, demons will continue to show up.
If you keep the door open to demonic forces, they will lead you to ruin. My brother’s ex-wife, my ex-sister-in-law, her life can testify to this. I’m not knocking her or my brother, just stating facts. Unfortunately, my brother didn’t know how to walk in the light of his authority. He and his wife started getting at odds with each other. She actually started to lose her mind and nobody knew how to help her. They went to doctor after doctor and nobody could help her. They were well off, had a lot of money, so they could take her to the best people around. Medical care was not a problem. Psychiatric care was no problem. Any lotion or potion known to man – they tried. Counseling – she had it. Any kind of shot – she had it. Any kind of treatment center – she’d been there. Nothing could help her. They finally sent her home from the last treatment center after nothing worked.
It was so bad that my brother could not leave her at home alone with the kids. She would open the door and the kids would run out or she’d walk out and be gone for four or five days until the police found her. So my younger brother, my daddy, and I went to visit her. We were going to help my brother do some things around the house, some construction projects. One night I was sleeping on the pull-out sofa bed in the living room and I had a spiritual experience. Not all spiritual experiences are good and not all are from God.
After this happened, the Lord instructed me to go over to the bookshelf and look on the top shelf. I went to the bookcase there in my brother’s home. I hadn’t even paid attention to this bookcase being there and we had already been there for two days. I looked at the top and saw books like ‘Witchcraft and the Occult,’ ‘How to Conjure Up Your Spirit Guide,’ ‘How to Get Anything You Want from the Devil.’ That whole shelf had eight or ten books like that.
The Lord said, “The reason your sister-in-law is having these problems is because she has this stuff about the devil, she’s yielding to the devil, and these evil spirits are the ones causing all these problems. That’s the reason right there.”
She was inviting the devil into her life because she was doing things that she should not do. If you do things that you should not do, then you’re going to open the devil to your life too. Then he’s going to come in and destroy you.
You might ask, what happened to her? The truth is she opened the door to the devil and turned into a babbling idiot. That’s right, I said a babbling idiot, with her hair falling out and walking on canes and crutches. I have to tell you that this journey is out there for anyone that wants it, that will not close the door on the devil. As for me, I choose to serve Jesus Christ.
You have to close the door to the devil and tell him he’s not going to come into your life. How do you close the door to him? Don’t do anything that the Bible says is sin or wrong because if you do, you’re opening the door to the devil. He will come in gradually and begin to take over your life, and eventually it will be your ruin. God is with you!
