[Music] you’re watching kcmi TV well I want to talk to you about something that boy it is so important and it’s absolutely paramont to you having long-term victory in the Lord um I want to talk to you about being smarter than the devil your enemy and I want to take a verse out of second Corinthians uh chapter 2 and verse 11 and we’re just picking up where Paul is admonishing the CH the Corinthian Church but he said lest Satan should get an advantage of us for we are not ignorant of his devices and so uh I want to I want to just

really delve into this that uh the word ignorant simply means uh in the original that not to understand or to Heir or to sin through mistake and so um the word advantage just means he becomes Superior to us he becomes stronger than us and uh the word devices for we are not ignorant or uh we’re going to understand he saiding you need to understand uh the devices of Satan and the word devices means the thoughts or the purpose and so um sometimes I think we as Believers we get lulled into this realm to where uh we stop really paying

attention to the fact that we have an enemy and uh if you think about this the the Devils had about 6,000 years to deal with human beings and we may you know look different eyes are different hair is different um our lineage is different we’re different sizes we’re male we’re female but the reality of it is human beings are basically the same we all have the same basic appetites um and the same desires they just manifest a little bit different depending on what culture you’re from or what country you were raised in or what

environment that you were shaped in but uh the devil’s had 6,000 years of practice and when we start thinking that we’re Superior uh and that you know we can’t fall the devil is very very smart and um there this verse here um says be sober this is First Peter 5 and8 it says be sober which means to watch he said you need to watch and you need to be a Vigilant and the vigilant it means he said you need to pay strict attention to and I wanted to stop there for a moment because um after all of these years I’ve had the holy ghost in

my life been baptized with the Holy Spirit for 61 years and I’ve learned this that there is not a day that goes by that the devil does not Circle the perimeter of your life and he is looking for an opening in the heds that God has around you and this is why Peter’s saying this he said you need to watch boy I feel this in the spirit of the Lord he said you need to watch and you need to be vigil you need to pay strict attention to he said because your adversary and then he identifies him he said he is the devil and he’s like a

roar ing lion just walking about seeking whom he may devour and so uh you know I’m not sure the devil sleeps um Isaiah I think it is calls him a man might be in Ezekiel it’ll say we’ll see him one day we’ll say is this the man that made the the the enemy or the Nations to tremble but um I I can tell you this that there are always demons that are awake they may be in shifts but I’m telling you that you have an enemy the devil and he commands a horde of demons and their only job is to try to destroy you and devour you and so you

you you’ve got to get to a place and and this takes time we learn by experience most most of you today can say um I’m smarter now than when I got saved because I’ve engaged in some battles with the Enemy and I’ve learned through the battles I’ve gotten wisdom and I’ve gotten understanding um you know when you fight the same opponent many many times you start learning his weaknesses and one of the weaknesses that the devil has in our life is he can’t handle praise when you start praising God and

we preached on this last Sunday the devil boy runs him off and so um one of the ways that in fact Let me let me touch on this this is in judges and uh this is dealing with Samson and Samson had a call of God on him from the womb I mean the angel of the Lord appears to manoah and his wife and begins to instruct them on how to deal with this boy that was coming and that he would be a Nazarite and that God said that he would be instrumental in in bringing Liberty to the people of the Lord and so from a very young age Samson is being

schooled uh he’s different from the other boys and he can’t cut his hair and uh he can’t eat grape and he can’t eat raisins and because the Bible says that the angel said tell him to abstain from everything of the vine couldn’t drink wine um and so when he got older the Bible said he grew and at times the spirit of the Lord began to move on him and so of course we know that through you know sinful desire he got himself in a lot of situations and God would come and extricate him from those and I think

Samson got lull to sleep spiritually and he began to think that that the enemy can’t touch me he did not understand that just because he had some victories over the enemy over the Philistines didn’t mean that there wasn’t a time in the future that his enemy could beat him and sometimes we get cocky we get arrogant and thinking I can’t fall I’m I’m spiritual and there’s nothing that can knock me down and um boy I tell you got to be careful because the road to hell is littered with powerful Ministries that

did not understand the ways of the devil and when you finally read here in judges it says that you know um when he met Delah all of these women that he had been with he didn’t love them and so he could kind of control his situation but it says when he met Delilah he loved her that changed the Dynamics of everything because the devil now has a foothold because Delilah is in his heart and the Bible says she begin to Vex him and begin to pressure him where do your strength lie where does your strength lie he did not understand that he was

not infallible and finally the Bible says that that she got him to lay down in her lap and she got him to go to sleep and when he went to sleep he didn’t understand he was ignorant of the devil’s devices she shaved his head and it says this he did not know that the spirit of God had departed from him she deceived him and I want to I want I want to give you boy and there’s so much in the New Testament on this word where uh where writers begin to write and um in second is first John talks about it 3 and 7 2 Thessalonians 2

and 3 says uh let no man deceive you by any means and the word deceived here means to seduce and sometimes uh the the devil is so smart he he seduces people he understands listen you are not the first person I am not the first Minister that’s had this kind of personality or this this kind of character there have been other people who have lived and B lived and died over 6,000 years that were very similar to you had the same likes the same weaknesses the same strong points and the devil was able to get them and so he’s going to go back to

what is tried and true for him and he’s going to say it worked on them and they’re very similar to this person and he will seduce you he will low you to sleep and there are seasons where the spirit of God can leave a person because they they were not smarter than the devil they were seduced they don’t know that they’ve been seduced they don’t know the spirit of God has left them until the enemy comes in like a flood and then they find out I’m helping helpess and um in fact I think I I think we just go

back and read this because this is in Luke and and I had never really seen this before um it’s funny how you can read the same verse over and over and then all of a sudden the light will turn on and uh this is in uh Luke chap 21 um and this is verse verse 8 eight and um this is Jesus speaking he said take heed remember where writer Peter said be vigilant pay strict attention to and Jesus is using that that phrase that connotation take heed that you be not deceived in other words people who just haphazardly serve God and they’re not

Vigilant he said they’re going to get to see and then he begins to really narrow it down he said listen he said there’s going to be many people who are going to come in my name saying I am Christ and you know over the years when I read this verse I was thinking well he’s saying there’s going to be a whole bunch of people in the last days that are going to come and they’re going to save their Christ I don’t think that’s how this verse reads he said there are going to be many many people who are going to come in my name

in other words he said they’re going to come and they’re going to look like Christians they’re going to look like preachers and they’re going to say Jesus is the Christ he said but the time draweth near go ye not therefore after them why would the Lord begin to talk like this he says because he said there’s going to be a whole lot of people in the last days and we’re seeing this in the church they’re going to say uh we’re working in the name of the Lord we believe that Jesus is Christ

but he says you got to be careful because the gospel that they’re going to preach the message they going to preach isn’t my message there’ll be just a little bit of Truth sprinkled in it so that they can deceive people and and you say well you know God’s people can’t be deceived yes they can’t um Revelations chap 19 and verse 20 he talking about when the Lord begins to wind things up he said he he’s going to take the false prophet and he said this false prophet in the last days same word he said he’s

going to deceive a whole lot of people and he’s going to trick them into receiving the mark of the beast and we know the scriptures very plain on this he said anybody who receives the mark of the beast in the last days is forever separated from the presence of God they’re eternally damned there there is no repentance for this one according to the scripture that if you take that Mark you’re forever relegated that you’re going to go to hell and it’s a horrible thing so the Lord Jesus is saying this he said

take heed he said because there’s going to be a whole lot of people that are going to be deceived by the by the false prophet no is what the Lord calls him prophet he said he’s going to be betrayed as a prophet he said but he’s going to be false and this is where these people are going to get tricked by him he said he’s going to deceive them because he’s going to have the ability to perform Miracles and and I’ve seen this over the last few years anybody that comes along and and you probably you can think of

that there been a lot of people who have been able to operate in word of knowledge and tell you what your address is on your driver’s license and who your neighbor is and work in word of knowledge and yet their personal lives are very unclean and people get sucked into that Vortex because they’re thinking oh well they must be of God because they’re doing Miracles so the Lord said no he said false prophets are going to do that and he said you have to be smarter than the devil so at the start of this podcast I

talked to you about that the devil is very Adept he’s very skilled at this point uh he’s grown exponentially um we know this that Calvary defeated the devil for the believer but he didn’t bind him this is why the Lord said these signs shall fall me but believe that um that whatever you bind I’ll bind so the Lord says you have to bind the enemy and I will come into agreement with you so the devil is still Loos in the Earth this is why Peter is talking about one of the last books in the Bible he said that you have an

adversary and that he’s going about and so we know this the devil is is very gifted at deceiving people and there’s so I I’m amazed at how many Christians don’t have the spiritual Savvy to recognize the tricks of the devil let me see if if I got it here uh all right Ephesians 610 then we’ll go back to the thought we’re talking on finally my brethren be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might you need the might of God you need to be strong in God verse 11 says put on the whole armor

of God that you may be able to stand against the Ws of the devil this is what the word WS in the Greek means the tricks the trickery the devil wants to trick you and boy he this is why he portrays himself as a an angel of Light that he wants to trick you so he said well Pastor Kent you know how you know I I’m praying and I’m seeking the Lord and um you know it sounds like that you know you’re saying that boy it’s just so easy for us to get to see um it is unless we do something specific and that’s being filled with

the Holy Ghost because because the devil you know and I don’t know how old the devil is we know that God created Lucifer as a Morning Star and he led Worship in heaven so I don’t know how old he is but we know from um from the time of Adam to our time it’s 6,000 years but I mean he could be millions of years old but we also know this about the godhead the Father the Son of the Holy Spirit they’re out without beginning and Without End and so you you cannot put an age to them so the holy spirit is

agess and before the devil ever existed the Holy Spirit did and so the Holy Spirit has had thousands of years to monitor your enemy and the Holy Ghost knows everything every trick that the devil has he’s seen them all and when you get filled with the Holy Ghost and you stay strong in the Lord and you on a daily basis this is why you got to stay prayed up every single day you you cannot let Seasons go by you you don’t want to go on vacation for nine days and you never read your Bible and you never pray and you think

well you know I love the Lord and I’m just relaxing take time out for there’s just 20 minutes but commune with the Holy Spirit and this is why because the devil Works in deception he just doesn’t blatantly come out and tell you this is sin and and uh this is evil but I want you to do it no he uses seduction he he coming to seduce and this is where when we have the Holy Spirit in US the Holy Spirit can recognize things about the enemy that you and I don’t recognize at first and I’ve experienced

this that you you started to embrace something you started to make a decision and you think well you know this must be God it seems right and what happens the Holy Ghost in you will check you and it will say watch it that is a trick of the enemy don’t do that and this is where the Holy Spirit protect protects us hallelujah protects us from being deceived by the enemy the Holy Ghost makes you smarter than the devil that you know when depression wants to come in or discouragement or fear wants to come in and then begin to

create these castles of Devastation in your in your mind holy ghost is say don’t do that sat down that’s a trick the enemy me he’s after you and so I I want to encourage you today with this lesson allow the Holy Spirit you know Jesus said this about the Holy Ghost he said I’m going away but he said the father is going to send the comforter in my name and he will teach you or bring back to you remembrance the things that I have taught and so the holy ghost will protect you he will keep you from being deceived he’ll keep you from

there’s going to be so many people that in the last days are going to go oh my how did I get here and it’s because the enemy seduced them always remember this the enemy is going to offer to you what your natural man likes what he what he wants he’s going to hold it at his bait and you got to realize that any bait that the devil hands out to you hangs in front of you has got a hook inside and the bait May taste good but the hook will get in your jaw and then he’s got you so I love this verse but

thanks unto God who consistently makes us always Triumph in Jesus Christ you are more than conquerers in the Lord you allow the Holy Spirit to Quicken to you and ask the Lord make smarter than my adversary well God bless you this week starts our Elijah Co conference and uh man we’re going to have a great time uh I know the Lord’s going to really speak to us I’ll see you next Sunday and then our next week for podcast God bless you be strong in the Lord for more information about Kent Christmas Ministries International or regeneration

Nashville go to Kent christmas.org or regeneration nashville.org and for the latest updates or videos follow us on Facebook and subscribe to us on YouTube God bless you