Is the Devil Real? – Part 2 | Joyce Meyer | Enjoying Everyday Life Teaching

Satan is the author of confusion and he desires to destroy all believers. Today on Enjoying Everyday Life, Joyce Meyer shares heartfelt truths from the Word of God to help you fight the devil and win.

Joyce Meyer, one of the world’s leading practical Bible teachers and New York Times best-selling author, shares encouragement and advice to help us enjoy our daily lives.

With a heart to share Christ and love people, Joyce’s messages help people in all walks of life to grow in their faith, learn to study the Bible, find healing from the wounds of life, get answers to life’s questions and encounter the love of God in a powerful way.

I do what I do because I’ve seen god’s power transform my own life, and he will do it for you.
The key to everything is found in god’s word.
I’m Joyce Meyer, and I believe that god can heal you everywhere you hurt.
Names of the devil that you’ll see in the Bible, and this is just a small smattering.
Prince of darkness, bills, Bob, lord of the flies, the Antichrist, the evil one, prince of the power of the air, ruler of this world’s system.
He’s not the ruler of this world.
God god’s the god of this world, but Satan is the ruler of the system that’s going on in the world.
The deceiver, the father of lies.
He was kicked out of heaven, took 1 third of the angels with him, and they’re now called demons.
And he is not omnipresent.
He can only be in one place at one time, but his demons do a lot of his dirty work.
And I understand this is not like a happy subject, but How many of you believe you need to hear it so you can protect yourself at the right time?
For some of you, it’s probably been a long time since you’ve heard a good rousing sermon on the devil.
Amen? And we need sometimes preachers don’t like to preach things that aren’t pleasant, but I’m kind of addicted to preaching what I think people need and and what god tells me to preach, not what’s popular.
He was kicked out of heaven down to the ars, took a third of the angels with him.
Jesus said in Matthew 1028, and don’t be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul, but rather be afraid of him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
So Satan in the Garden of Eighty, he apparently can take on different farms because he appeared to Eve as a serpent.
Now, obviously, she wasn’t afraid of snakes.
Because if he appeared to me as a servant, I would run.
Amen? But they had no fear until they sinned.
And something interesting that I just read about Eve and I agree with this is, you know, we always kinda think she was kinda bad because she listened to him and did what god told her not to do.
But actually, he deceived her because she loved god so much.
That when he told her, if she would eat of that tree of the knowledge of good and evil that she would become like god.
And she loved him so much that she wanted to be more like him.
And sometimes the easiest people to deceive are those that love god so much They they just will do anything that they think is god without really checking it out.
Amen?
We know that as soon as Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit, that that same spirit drove him out into the wilderness to to be tempted by the devil.
For 40 days 40 nights. This account is in Luke 4, the first eleven verses.
And I’m not gonna take the time to read the whole thing because I’ve got something in particular I wanna get to, but It’s interesting that Jesus full of and controlled by the Holy Spirit returned from the Jordan and was led by the Holy Spirit don’t think that the Holy Spirit is always gonna lead you into nice, comfy, cushy places.
I can see you love that.
For during 40 days in the wilderness and the debit, in the desert where he was tempted, tested, tried exceedingly by the devil.
He ate nothing during those days. And when they were completed, he was hungry than the devil.
So what I saw really clearly in this is that Saitan waited until he was at his weakest point.
And that’s what he does with us.
He waits until you’re so tired, you can’t hardly stand it.
Or he waits until you’ve had your problem so long, you’re really positive.
You can’t put up with it one more day.
I’ll tell you something about the devil that you need to realize as he is extremely patient.
And he knows you better than you know yourself.
Because he’s watched you your whole life, and he knows what your weak points are.
And he waits until we are. Tired.
And in this case, Jesus was hungry.
And then he made 3 specific attacks if you are the son of god, turn these stones into bread.
Well, he was trying to do 2 things. He was attacking his identity.
Who do you think you are? You ever heard that one I have many times.
And he was trying to get him to move independently of god.
If you’re the son of god, then and you’re hungry, then just make yourself some bread.
Don’t wait on god. Just do it yourself. Come on.
That’s a big temptation the enemy throws at us.
Don’t you you don’t you don’t Don’t wait on god. Here’s what you can do. Do this.
The Bible calls it works for the flesh. I call them works that don’t work.
I know because I tried enough of them.
I know I’m going kind of fast and covering a lot of ground, but hopefully I don’t lose you.
Then he tempted him with the world. And I love this one.
If you will if you will bow down to me just once, the just once lie, It was just a little bit.
Everybody does it just once. Now don’t be trapped by that. You’re not everybody else.
You’re not like everybody else. You’re called to be separate.
And if you’re the only person to hold earth that does it right, then stand strong and do it right.
Because all of us are going to stand before god and give an account of our lives.
Romans 14. Every one of us And if you happen to be watching and you’re one of the ones that doesn’t believe in god, you’re gonna get surprised.
Because he said that the time will come when every knee will bow in heaven on earth and under the earth.
Amen? I watch a lot of documentaries, and I see some of the silliest stuff I saw one the other day that said was talking about creation.
I love it when they try to explain creation.
Sometimes for me knowing what I know, it’s almost like watching a comedy.
And they said this giant asteroid fell out of the sky and hit the earth and caused an explosion that flew up in the air and created the moon.
Okay.
My question is who created the asteroid? And who created the earth that had hit.
So you can’t go far enough back to not eventually run into god.
And then the other big theory is if there’s these life farms in the sea.
And one of them crawled up on the beach.
And 1,000,000,000 years later, here we are. Okay. Who created the sea?
The big bang theory, I don’t know what that is.
But who created the bank?
I mean, How could we see how our bodies work and how the earth works and think that we’re some cosmic accident?
You know why Satan wants you to think you came from an ape?
Because he doesn’t want you to think that you have any value.
He doesn’t want you to know that god especially created you in your mother’s womb with his own hand carefully and that he has a plan for your life.
He wants you to thank you’re an animal, so you’ll act like 1.
Joyce today on candid conversations, We’re gonna just dig right in and talk about the enemy that comes against all of us as Christians.
And I grew up in a church that I’m so grateful for. I learned so much.
Got such a wonderful foundation in the lord, but they didn’t talk a lot about the fact that the devil is real and that we have weapons to fight back against what’s happening in our lives.
So I’ve learned so much about that and and for me at the time and for many people, that’s an entirely new concept.
Right.
It’s a double even real.
Well, I had the same experience.
I I I didn’t grow up in church, but the first church that I I went to for quite a few years hear a guy thank god for the things that they did teach me, but I didn’t hear much about the devil either.
And, uh, a book that I read 45 years ago, which I guess is still in print, was called the devil as alive and well on planet Earth.
And it really opened my eyes to realize that, you know, we we have a real enemy and he he hates us and he’s against any kind of progress that we have.
And the devil is real. And hell is a real place.
And today, especially, I think there’s a big push to get everybody to think that, you know, well, god is good and loving, and he would never send anybody to hell.
And people just like to think that’s not really a place in the devil.
The devil’s just a myth, and that’s not really real.
But I mean, there’s so much evil and wickedness in the world, and we have to ask ourselves where did it come from?
Mhmm. And, you know, when Satan was created. He was created as an angel, but he was given free will.
And he chose to try to lift his throne above the throne of god, and he was cast out of heaven.
Down to the earth and the atmosphere above the earth.
And he hates god and anything that god has anything to do with.
And so scripture is the best way to prove my point.
Yeah.
And in John 844, Jesus was talking to uh, unbelievers.
And he said, you belong to your father, the devil, and you and you want to carry out your father’s desires.
He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, but there is no truth in him.
When he lies, he speaks his native language for he is a liar and the father of lies.
So just think about that. My native language is English.
So when I speak, I always speak English, and he’s saying, the devil’s native language is lies.
That’s a really interesting thing to think about.
I mean, that’s all
he That’s all he can do.
That’s all he does is lie.
The mind is where he tries to launch his major attack because the devil can lie to us, but And this is very important.
If you believe his lies, then you’re deceived.
But even even if you believe something that’s not true, if you believe it, it becomes true for you.
It’s a reality for you. So, like, for example, I was abused growing up, and I I the devil had me convinced I didn’t know it was the devil, but he put thoughts in my head all the time, but I would always have a second right life because I’d been abused.
That nobody would ever love me.
And if I if I ever had a man showing the interest in me, I needed to grab the first thing that came along and I didn’t.
That was another huge mistake. And so the only truth that we have is the word of god.
I know people today wonder what truth is.
And, you know, the world has strayed so far away from real truth.
That our society is in such a horrendous mess, and it’s just getting worse and worse all the time.
And the only hope is if people will return back to what the word of god says.
And you know, there’s such a push to get rid of god, which you’re not gonna do because he’s not going away, but all you have to do is is look at and anybody’s life who really serves god, and you can see that even though they have trouble in their life, their lives are a lot different.
Their attitudes are different than people who who don’t serve god. Mhmm.
And, um, uh, Satan is very much alive and well on planet Earth.
So what is the danger in not understanding what you’re saying?
What does that do in our life if we don’t realize that this force is coming strongly against us.
Okay. Well, I mean, I can take my life. I believed all the lies that the enemy had told me.
In John 1010, there’s a scripture that I love.
It says the thief to let the devil comes only to kill, to steal, and destroy, but Jesus said, I came that they might have and enjoy their life and have it in the full until it overflows.
Well, I didn’t have any joy. I didn’t have any peace. I believed I was no good.
I believed what had happened to me was my fault.
Something was wrong with me because my father wanted to sexually abuse me.
I believed all these lies at the enemy had told me all these years.
So as a result of the the danger of believing all those lies is they become your reality.
Oh, yeah.
That becomes your your world. I told Dave the other day is that I think our real life is in our mind.
You know, I mean, that that may sound like a strange statement, but I think you know, your real life is really Yeah.
In your head. And the Bible says in Proverbs 23 7 as a man thinks in his heart, so is he?
So naturally, Satan wants us to believe every lie that he can possibly tell us because then we’re deceived, and we spend our lives in bondage thinking things that are not true.
And he lies to us about ourselves. He lies to us about our future. He lies about our past.
He lies about god. He lies about how other people feel about us, anything to make people miserable.
So if we don’t know that all these things are coming from him and that their lies, he’s really just winning the entire time.
We And there’s no way that you can know if you don’t know the word of god. Right. Yeah.
And that’s, you know, I just plead with people and beg them and try so hard to get people to study the word.
And it’s not just, oh, read your bible every day because if you don’t, god’s gonna get mad at there’s truth in there that will renew your mind.
Romans 12 2 tells us that that the only way we can prove for ourselves the goodwill of god is to have our minds renewed according to the word of god.
Right. So god has a good plan for our lives, but if we’re ever gonna actually see it and live it out, we have to learn to think like god thinks.
So when you’re doing that, then what are some of those things that you use, those tools that you find in the Bible to to fight back against this devil that we now know is out there in real.
Well, for example, James Forest 7 says submit yourselves to god resist the devil and he will flee from you.
So 1st and foremost, if you set yourself to study the Bible, but then not only to study it, but to do what it says.
Mhmm. Every time you do what the word says, you’re fighting the enemy.
The Bible teaches us in ephesians 6 that we have armor that will protect us from the enemy.
And it’s it’s things like righteousness and peace and truth and prayer and you know, it’s such a a great study, but it says, like, put on your shoes a piece.
Well, when we walk in peace, we defeat the enemy.
Every time that he gets us upset, then we start doing things emotionally,
Right.
And he ends up winning, like, um, Ephesians 4 26 to 27.
Be angry and sin not Don’t let the sun go down on your anger.
Do not give the devil a foothold.
So this is telling us Uh, you know, how many people go to bed mad at night?
He’s saying
the devil can use against us.
And he’s not even saying don’t get angry.
Anger is an emotion, but he says, when you’re angry, don’t sin, you know, so If you if you don’t resolve the anger, you will sin.
Yeah. You’ll try to take revenge or you’re you’re gonna do something you shouldn’t be doing. So you you forgive.
One of the most powerful tools that we have is to forgive people who hurt us and trust god to be our vindicator.
Yeah. And to take care of us. And, uh
So it could be easy as a Christian to let freak us out a little bit, right, that there is this force always trying to deceive us who hates us So where do you find the peace that you need not to let this overwhelm who who god is in lives.
All the Bible tells us that we have been given authority over the enemy.
So obeying god is probably our number one authority.
I think it’s luke 1019 that says behold, I have given you power and authority over all the power the enemy possesses, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
Gotta pay attention. I’ve given you power and authority over all the power the enemy possesses.
Satan has power, but we have authority.
Yeah.
You know, he’s
Yeah. You have to know that.
Jesus is the highest authority. And and our biggest authority is in recognizing his lies and simply saying no.
Yeah. And knowing that god is greater. Right.
No. Jesus himself is 12 verses, but worth reading.
Jesus full of the Holy Spirit left the Jordan and was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness where for 40 days, he was tempted by the devil.
He fasted during those 40 days. He ate nothing.
And the devil said to him, and this is what we gotta understand.
The devil talks to us by putting thoughts in our mind.
Now I don’t know in this instance if he actually spoke out loud to Jesus or if they were just thoughts that came to his mind, but He says, if you are the son of god, then tell this stone to become bread.
1 of the lies that Satan comes against us with his lies about ourself.
He was saying prove prove yourself. Mhmm. Proprove you’re the son of god.
And Jesus answered it is written Man shall not live on bread alone.
The devil then took him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world.
And he said, and, boy, this is where people get in trouble.
I will give you all their authority and all their splendor I’ll give you all this stuff because it has been given to me and I can give it to whoever I want to.
And he’s really not wrong because Adam through his sin turned everything over to the enemy, but Jesus took it back for us for this purpose was the son of god manifest to destroy the works of the evil one.
Jesus came to forgive our sins, but to win back our authority and to defeat the devil.
And so He has all authority.
Everything is under his feet, but we’re in him so that same authority belongs to us but we have to resist and say no and know the word and recognize the lives of the enemy.
And like I said, I’ve been walking with god for 45 years, and I know you’ve been the same way long, long time, most of your life, but I still know that there are lies that Satan tells me that I don’t catch him.
Mhmm. You know, we Yeah. I think it’s something else.
Like, There’s a good example in Matthew 16 where Peter Jesus was talking to the disciples about how it was time for him to go to Jerusalem and and suffer and prepare for his crucifixion, which he’d been telling them about.
And Peter took him aside and rebuked him and said, oh, no, lord. This must never happened to you.
And Jesus looked straight at Peter, but he said, get there behind me, Satan.
He knew that the devil was speaking through Peter trying to keep him from going to the cross.
And you think ouch, you know, what what would that feel like? But Jesus did that out of kindness Yeah.
To help in this situation.
But for people to realize that sometimes Satan works through people who lack knowledge and sometimes even really good people.
Do you know when god called me in the ministry? How many people tried to get me?
Not to do it because they were looking at it naturally.
Like you don’t have the education. You’re a woman. You’re not this. You’re not that. You’re not something else.
And they they were well meaning people, Christian people, but they were still letting the enemy use them.
And so Studying the word of god. It it’s our only safety net gender.
We don’t I mean, I I still I know that there’s many, many times when the enemy lies to me, and and I Yeah.
Me too.
I don’t recognize And to me, that’s one of the biggest things as a Christian that we need to learn.
And so I have a lot of teaching available on these subjects and know, anybody who’s interested can call the office and they can help them.
Yeah. You know, pick out the things that are gonna help them the most, but we don’t you know, all the bad things in the world, it’s not god doing them.
It’s the enemy to him. And god’s got our answers. Mhmm.
And we need to go to him to find those answers.
And let me just say, you better believe the devil is real and he is alive and well on planet earth, and he will do anything that he can to keep you from any kind of relationship with god are if you have a relationship with god to keep you from growing in that relationship and going forward.
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The mind actually is the battlefield.
That’s where we win or lose the with Satan. He said all he gets to Satan. Thank you.
He gives us a little bit. Today’s mind.
You start asking god to heal you, and he will restore is the god of all comfort, and I am so grateful that I know how to call on god.