FEB 8 2026 | Healing Words S1E2 | Jesus Heals Two Men with Demons

Sea Change Church · FEB 8 2026 | Healing Words S1E2 - Jesus Heals Two Men with Demons
Matthew 8:28-34
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

So I'm more than willing to answer questions. I will be putting out a podcast on Wednesday that talks about the legal permission and authority structure in the scripture that we see throughout the epistles and out the gospels about how demons have authority, how the heavenly kingdom has authority. So that will be coming out on Wednesday only on Spotify because it's an audio.

So if you don't have Spotify, go to See Change Podcast, download Spotify. You'll find it on there. Verse 28. We're in 8, 28 through 34. And when he came to the other side, circle other side, to the country of Gennesaret, two demon-possessed men met him coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no one could pass that way. Verse 29. And behold, they cried out, what have you to do with us, O son of God?

They knew who he was. Have you come to torment us before our time? Verse 30. Especially what had happened to the demon-possessed men. And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus. And when they saw him, they begged him. That's the second begging we see. First was by the demons, then by these people. To leave their region. It's interesting. Jesus comes, a manifestation of power, a manifestation of authority, a manifestation of the kingdom.

And they wanted nothing to do with it. He had crossed over. Key word today is authority. Let's say authority if we can. One, two, three. Authority. You have authority in Jesus Christ, in the kingdom of God. And you need to understand your authority. When you understand your authority, you can walk in that authority. And so demons only understand authority.

That's all they understand. You're going to see that here in the text. Key points are this. Number one, we live in a two-kingdom world. If you're not aware of that, I want to make you aware of it. You live in a two-kingdom world. There are no nominal territories. There is either territory that is influenced by the kingdom of God heavily, lightly.

Or there is territory that is influenced by the kingdom of Satan, which Jesus talks about multiple times in the scripture, either heavily or lightly. And there will be no vacuum, there will be no space where there is a vacuum, just like high and low pressure systems. You see that, how God created that, that you either have high pressure coming in or low pressure coming in.

There is no space in the middle, only for a brief second, as one crosses over to the other. And so we have different kingdoms. We live in a two-kingdom world. We'll drop into that in a second. Number two, spiritual oppression. Frequently, circle frequently in your notes. I put that on purpose. Produces physical illness. Now, that where you might be going, whoa, whoa, what's happening there?

Physical, you know, I don't, you know, I believe in science. You know what I mean? You've been watching Nacho Libre and you need to be baptized. In the scripture, we're going to look at how many, I was blown away. I mean, literally. I had never seen the amount of this until I really looked into it this week, of how much sickness that Jesus dealt with that was just a demonic origin.

Really, I mean, it just, I was like, whoa. I mean, I knew it. I knew it existed. I would have thought like 3%. You know, maybe a very small percentage happens. It's a lot. And we'll look at that in just a second. Let's go to point one. We live in a two kingdom world. Verse 28. And when he came to the other side, I already had you circle that, to the country of Gadarennes.

There you go. I think that's how I pronounce it. Two, two demon possessed men. In other scriptures that are corollary to this, it'll just talk about the one man. Two demon possessed men met him. Circle met him. Coming out of the tombs so fierce that no one could pass that way. What's interesting is when they came out this time, they weren't exerting authority.

They were submitting to authority and they were begging because they understood that Jesus had authority. When we deal with the evil realms that do surround us. Scripture is very, very clear. Look, we're not starting a demon hunter YouTube channel. All right? You know what I mean? Like, not saying that. You just want to be aware of these things. Jesus never went looking for demons.

He just didn't. When they presented themselves, did he meet them? No. They came to meet him, right? They showed up when he crossed to the other side. We'll look at the other side in just a moment. We're not doing that, but we want to be very aware. And when we do notice activity that is just unique, odd, doesn't sit right, like just nothing's working, we want to be aware of that.

And as an option to say, hey, whether it be a sickness or something else, I can use a bunch of different means to approach this problem. Wisdom, counselors, medicine, whatever it could be. But you don't want to leave out the need to address things spiritually. And I love when I pray with Pastor Jim, if you've prayed with him before, he will almost always say, and we would ask that you would remove any strange spirits.

That's what he says. And so when Jim says that when he prays, he's actually, you know, using this message to pray against evil spirits and the things that are happening. So we live in a two-kingdom world. The first thing I want to see in verse 28, when he came to the other side. Now one of the things you see here is Jesus changing territories. Jesus had been over and doing healings, and he was in the Galilee, and he was on the one that you were, Capernaum is, and I've been there.

And then the other side, which is now modern-day Jordan, and there's other sides there, and there's other parts that are also in the Galilee. He got in a boat, and it shows the distinct changing of geography. Now you will see the geography in the Scripture is mentioned over and over again, and Jesus mentions it again. He mentions it many times, and he'll say, hey, in this territory, there's little faith.

If I had done the miracles, you know, here in this place in Sodom, Sodom would have totally changed and repented. Like, we're talking Sodom and Gomorrah, right? And over and over again, he realizes that when he goes different places, he understands the spiritual culture and the spiritual climate of when he crosses over. Remember, people have said many times, even people when they walk by our church, have walked in and said, hey, I just felt drawn here.

It felt like a home to me. It felt safe. I felt God's presence when I walked in, and that probably comes, and maybe you've experienced that here as well, or different spiritual places where you go. Churches are different. It could be countries. It could be cities. It could be homes. Jesus says when you go, you know, into a home, it says if there's no peace there, let your peace rest upon the home.

So there are different places, and the enemy is always trying to claim territory. He's always trying to claim territory. And so we see that Jesus crosses over. I will tell you that the majority of believers that I know are not aware when they cross over. And when you cross over, I would say not all the time, but expect to be met. I believe that you can cross over on your phone.

I believe that you can go to different places on the Internet, dark web, whatever you want to call it, different sites, where you have crossed over. And you've crossed over for one reason or another. Sometimes God has told people to cross over to be a light in the darkness. But sometimes we cross into the darkness because we want to associate with the darkness.

And when you do that, we create a permission structure, which I'll be talking about on Wednesday. You create a permission structure to allow the enemy to either have territory in your life or to attack you. Because they only work on authority and they only work on permission structures. You see that completely in this passage where they're asking permission of God.

In the book of Job, Job does, Satan, when he comes before God, does the same thing. He's asking permission. He can do nothing on his own. You can only be attacked through a permission structure. Either God, in his benevolence, excuse me, not in his benevolence, in his sovereignty, says, I'm going to allow you some margin to create some trial in this person's life for my reasons.

He gives permission. He does that with Job. Or you give permission. Satan cannot attack you unless there is a permission structure that is given. He also uses other people that will attack you as well. And sometimes they've given permission to that as well. And so we see this and we see Jesus crossing over. And so the first thing I wanted to say that I felt really impressed to say is, be aware when you're crossing over.

There are different places and there's different levels of spiritual activity. And spiritual activity is happening all over the world. Now, there is a spiritual gift called discerning of spirits. If you have that spiritual gift, and all believers will have some form of it if you have the Holy Spirit, but you will walk into a place and you will immediately know and you will immediately feel it.

No, you're good. I wasn't calling you out. I was just waiting. It's like when the babies cry, you know. If the baby ain't crying, the church is dying, you know what I mean? You're good. If the phone rings, it means someone's here. So I appreciate it. We got a quiet church. Ain't no one here. Jesus cross is over. I'm going to say this Satan's kingdom.

I told you we're not demon hunters, right? There's a big, about every 15, 20 years, the church gets all excited about demons, right? So like, you know, in the 80s, they had these books. And it's really good. People learn a lot. But then you get these deliverance ministries and they're just constantly demon hunting, you know. And I believe in prayer ministries, in freedom and deliverance ministries.

But I think we got to be real careful. And you can see that by the lion's share of how much Jesus talks about the enemy. So Satan's kingdom in the scripture, I found, was mentioned 14 to 15 times. I'm going to give you one example here in Matthew 12, 26. If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? Now his kingdom, the underpinnings of it were destroyed.

He had more authority after the cross. He lost authority. But he's still roaming the land. Until the, you know, the great judgment happens and Jesus comes back, you are going to have his kingdom. You see it in the book of Revelation. So it's mentioned 14 to 15 times, which is important. That's enough. It's not just like one scripture where you're calling it, they call proof texting.

You take one scripture and you make an entire theology out of it about marriage or whatever. It's mentioned 14 to 15 times. That's about 15 to 15% of the mentions about kingdoms in the scripture. The kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven by Jesus is mentioned 90 to 100 times. Luke 11, 20, just one. And I put a bunch of references in the notes, I believe.

I think there's some references. Yeah, I did. But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. And you see him just removing spiritual authority and doing that. And he did that in regions. And I can't do an entire structure of the demonic because that's not what today is about. But you will have strongholds of demonic activity.

You'll see it in cities. So there'll be certain cities where there's just chaos. You'll just notice that in that city there's a strong demonic presence. And then you'll see other cities that are just, feels like God's light. And you can go if you travel. Because I do have a spiritual gift of spiritual discerning. When I go to these different places, I immediately feel it.

And so you will see that. And many Christians just aren't aware of it. I'm not telling you to go into that, out you demons of whatever city. I won't name the cities, right? But I'm saying just be aware of it. And there's certain stores, there's certain places that I don't go into unless I pray spiritual covering over me and my family. Or when I leave, I say, God, if there's just anything that wants to like stick on me, you know, I pray that you get rid of it.

But once again, I'm not like tripping out. I just understand that according to Jesus, if I believe the scriptures, this is a spiritual reality. In verse 29, you're going to see that demons only respond to authority. You know, they only respond to authority. In verse 29, it says, and behold, they cried out, what do you have to do with us? So they knew whose hand they were in.

Oh, son of God, they knew who he was. I'm going to stop right there real quick. But you'll see something similar to this acknowledgement in the book of Acts when there was a group of fake exorcists called the sons of Sceva. You can look it up. I don't know the exact scripture. They were called the sons of Sceva. And they were trying to cast out demons.

And one day they get to a demon. And they say to this dude, they try to cast out the demon. And by the sons of Sceva and by Jesus' name, I cast you out. And the demon was a little bigger than them. They got into a, you know, they got into a gunfight and they didn't even have a knife, you know. And so they show up and the demon's like, hey, this isn't scripture.

This is the book of Acts. I know Jesus and I've heard of Paul, which is interesting. Like he knows Jesus, but he's heard of Paul, like low key heard of Paul, right. But I have no idea who you are. And then the man they're trying to cast the demon out of jumps on them and beats all seven of them to a pulp. Like beats them and it says they flee naked, right.

So that's crazy. That's a crazy scene. But we see that there's this authority level. And that is why anytime we're praying over anything in the spiritual realm, it's just by the name of Jesus. Even the archangel Michael, when arguing over the body of Moses with Satan, as it says in the scriptures in the Old Testament, said, you know, in God's authority, not by my own authority, do I say anything.

So we're just, you're just walking in his covering. So I don't want any fear, right. You're not going to walk, oh, I'm so afraid. That's not what the point of this is. It's just to give you knowledge. The knowledge of God should bring confidence. And it's also just to make you aware. And then also, I really don't want to give the devil a stage. The devil loves a stage.

He loves a church to get focused on the devil. He loves it. All we're going to do is deliverance and just we're going to fight the devil. And the devil's like, you know, he just becomes like a star in the show. 15% of the time, his kingdom's mentioned. 100 to 115 times, Jesus talked about the kingdom. So we talk about Jesus here. We make Jesus known.

But we need to be aware of these things. So it says, they cried out, what do you have to do with us, O sons of God? Verse 29. Have you come here to torment us before our time? They know where they're going. Now a herd of many pigs was feeding at some distance from them. And the demons begged them, saying, if you cast us out, send us away into the herd of pigs.

Anyways, interesting, and I can't break all this down today, but demons can, they have to have authority. And they have to have a place to hold to. They have to be attached to something. They can attach to animals. They can attach to physical objects. See that in the scripture. And they can attach to people. They can also indwell people. They can also indwell animals, according to this scripture.

Cast us into the pigs, not upon the pigs, into the pigs. And so when you remember Cujo, that, you know, that demon dog back in the day, or the hounds of the Baskerville, maybe it would be something like this. But they cannot, they can't just roam. Because if they're roaming, it says in the scriptures that they will go to like a dark, like a waterless place and a tormenting place.

Now it's not hell, but they have to go to this tormenting place. And so you see that in the scripture where Jesus is talking and the demons, it says if I cast out a demon, it says it'll go and they'll have to wander in these dark and waterless places where they don't want to be. They want to be somewhere. And they can only be there with authority.

That authority is if you give them authority or someone else gives them authority. So when I was living in Australia, there was a coven of witches that were living next to us where we were. And they would regularly like do little incantations out in front of the church. And we'd find, you know, like dead black cats and stuff in front of church before Sunday.

That's trippy, right? You know what I mean? Like that hasn't happened here, right? But we don't have a coven of witches, I don't think, living on Jenter. But I remember I was praying over this one area. It was a surf area at one of the surf spots that I surfed at a regular place. And there was a place where the whole local crew would hang out. And they were super hardcore locals and they'd beat people up if you surf the surf break or whatever.

But I just wanted to pray over it because I was working with the surf ministry at that time. And so I would go pray over the place they would hang out. It was a little lean-to covering. It was a metal one. And I remember one day I was up there and I was looking around and I noticed these little like crystals that were put all over the top of it.

And I'm like, I got a feeling, and this is what I think happens, is those have been prayed over. We saw this a lot. Like somebody who's into Wicca or, you know, witchcraft or whatever, they'd pray over it. They'd give authority over that physical object and then they'd go put it places or leave them places. So I've even seen this in Moonlight Beach.

I saw a woman walk around. I said, oh, it's this darkness. And she had these little toys and she was leaving them all over the playground for her children to pick up. And so I would clear them out. I didn't like touching them, so I would just put them in a cup and clear them out. And there'd be like seven of them, like these different colored crystals that were hidden in the top of the rafters.

And I'd clear them out and I'd dump them. A week later they'd be back. I probably five to seven times, they just kept coming back, you know. And I'm like, okay, well, let's go. So we're going to have a little battle right now, you know what I mean? I don't know if they know who I am or we know who they are. But I would just pray over it. And they'd had somebody in their club that died and fallen out of a tree and a drunk, you know, at that exact location.

And there was all this stuff going on. But all that to say, demons need to be somewhere. And they get there because they're given permission. And so you can see this happening here. They're asking to go somewhere so that they're not going to be cast into that dry and waterless place. Because I want to say this is, I believe that you can give permission on your phone by the things you do with your phone to allow demons to say, I have authority to be there.

They've given me a permission structure. They've crossed over with their phone, the things that they look at, and I can just hang out here and afflict them. Now, this is where if you're brand new to church right now, you're like, what? What are you talking about, right? It's pretty clear, and I can make a theological, you know, you can do more research on it on your own, a theological argument for why that is.

But I believe we have to be very careful about what we allow into our homes. We have to be very careful about the thing, you know, and I'm not saying, not being a demon hunter, right? But just be aware, like, there were certain things. Like, my kids, they still today, they're like, Dad, you never let us read, you know, Harry Potter. I'm like, yeah, yeah.

But it was just makeup. I said, great, I don't like witches, right? Witches get stitches, you know, so I don't want, I'm not having witchcraft in my house. I'm very aware. I'm just super aware because when you live in really spiritual areas, you'll notice that it makes a huge difference. So I will say that La Jolla has a different vibe than Encinitas, right?

Encinitas has a different vibe than downtown. Ramona has a way different vibe than, you know, a bunch of other different places. And you can see, and you see this happening. So let me just continue on. I will say this, that the spiritual, oh, that Acts with the sons of Sceva, that's Acts 19, so you can look at that later. The spiritual realm is real and powerful, and darkness will dominate wherever Christ's authority is not present.

Was not present. Just, there are no nominal spaces. There's light spiritual activity. There's heavy spiritual activity. But there's nowhere that's just nominal. And the enemy wants to be on your life. He wants to be in your home. He wants to be in your kid's school. He wants to, you know, and I'm not saying that every time you give yourself a permission structure, that all of a sudden you're going to be possessed.

If you are a believer in Christ and the Holy Spirit dwells within you, you cannot be possessed by a demon, right? Because you have the Holy Spirit within you. But I have seen deep oppression by Christians for one reason or another, be it familial, generational, something they've gotten into in the past, or they're involved in witchcraft, where I have seen them deeply demonized, where it almost looks the same.

It almost looks the same. And so we need to be very careful about that. We're going to go to the second, I want to read that last point again, because I think this is important. Because authority was the key word today. You do not need to be afraid. If this is new to you, you know, and then I would just say we use it to grow. But the spiritual realm is real and powerful.

The Bible's very clear about that. And darkness will dominate wherever Christ's authority is not present. Second point as we come in for a landing is spiritual oppression frequently produces physical illness. Of all of the times where Jesus healed someone, there are, I believe, 28, I believe, individual healings, and they're mentioned multiple times in the scriptures, where it mentioned an individual healing.

So Matthew 9, you have the seizure of a boy who was healed. A legion was cast out. Matthew 8, these are here. The one that is probably the most pertinent for today is Luke 13. But by doing my research, this is what I found. Of all the individual healings where Jesus said this specific person had this specific disease, meaning he's not saying he healed a whole crowd.

Like there's a lot of times he healed a crowd, healed all their diseases. There's a lot of that, right? But of all the individual times where it says he healed this person because of this, he healed this person, 28% of them, the disease was caused from demons. 28% of the individual healings where Jesus heals a person, it is because they had a demon.

Now, in America, that does not fly, right? We don't think that that happens. We don't think people are sick because of demons. We don't think people have seizures or tics or any of these emotional illnesses or anything. And I'm not saying that every sickness, please hear me. I don't want you going home, oh, I have a demon. You know, I have this problem with my fingernail and it is a demon.

I'm not telling you to do that. I'm just giving you the raw data. The data in Jesus' time, and I don't think it's gotten better, 28% of the time there was an individual healing. It had to do with a demonic influence because sin leads to disease and demons are all about sin. And they will do anything they can. They will be as petty as they can to get an authority structure.

You'll hear about this on Wednesday when I release it. To create an authority structure to tell the Lord why they have permission to be there in the courts of heaven. There are courts of heaven. That will be on Wednesday. We'll talk through that. I'm going to be talking all the way through Job. Do not miss it. But let me just give you the most pertinent example in Luke 13, 11 through 16.

And a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for 18 years. Crippled by a spirit for 18 years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said, Woman, you are set free from your infirmity. Then he put his hands on her. We talked about that last week, the hand of God. And immediately she straightened up and praised God.

Now, the reason I tell you this is because with all physical illness, whenever I'm praying for physical illness, I'll always do a gym. I'm always going to add a footnote. I'm not going to go in right away. Like if you have a sickness, I'm not going to start with, This is probably a demon. Let's go. This is a demon. I sensed it on you. I've been in movements before where that's the tip of the spear.

Like they start with the demon. You know what I mean? I'm not going to start with the demon. I'm just going to recognize that the scripture, I'm just, this is biblical. This is straight biblical. And I don't think the world has changed to where demons aren't active anymore. I actually believe there's been a huge release in the last five years. I believe you saw a huge release in the 1960s.

And then right now in the last five years, six years, we've seen this massive release. And I do believe that when you see certain things, especially with young people, whether it be emotional, physical, like I mentioned Tourette's last week, when you have like 1,000% increases, like 100% increases, when you see these massive increases, and sometimes you're like, that doesn't make sense medically.

That doesn't make sense. Like why would it be, you know? I'm wondering if there's not something spiritual that is happening. But in your notes, you're going to see that, you know, there was a boy who was mute. That is in Matthew 9. There were seizures where it was because of a demon. This boy was having these seizures. He was having this physical reaction in Matthew 17.

The daughter who was delivered remotely, there was a daughter who was sick. That was in Matthew 15. These are all in the notes. Obviously here in Luke, the woman's straightening up. And then you see seven demons removed from Mary Magdalene. And then just in this story as well, this was an emotional, this was an emotional spirit. These guys are out of their mind.

And I don't know if you've noticed the amount of what looks like incredibly deep emotional instability in like on the streets in San Diego. You go to Seattle. You go to these different places. You walk around. You're like, there used to be a lot of crazy. But like it's worse. It's like I've never, the amount of times where I've just had people walk up to me and accost me.

I'll give you two stories also. My daughter was with me both times when this happened. Once I was walking down in Balboa Park and I walked by this person. They're homeless. They're kind of manifesting. And they're kind of just doing this thing, you know, making noises or whatever. I try to just kind of avoid. But I just pray as I walk to them. And I stop.

And this woman, she stops. And she goes, teacher, preacher, evangelist. And then she just walks by. I'm like, yeah, nailed it. Nailed it. That exact same thing happened before I was in Newport Beach. And the guy, I was a man, said the exact same thing. Teacher, preacher, evangelist said the same thing. So he recognizes that. And you want to get to a place in your spiritual life where it's like, hey, Jesus I know.

Paul I've heard of. But I've heard of Bird too. Like Bird's up the front here in the front row. It's a cool name too. I wish I had a name like Bird. It's so cool. Yeah. I mean, where they're just like, yeah, I've kind of heard of Raul. Yeah, I know who that guy is. You know, he walks in the authority of Jesus. The book of Job shows this. You can read through the book of Job.

I'll be breaking that down on Wednesday. These men's bodies, their minds, behavior, and quality of life was destroyed. If you go to Mark 5, the parallel story, it says, night and day among the tombs and on the mountains, this man, this person, I think it's just one person in the story. It's the same story, but it's in the book of Mark. It says he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones.

Now, self-harm is huge right now. And I'm not saying every kid that is self-harming has, you know, is possessed by some demon. I'm not saying that. So I did not say that, right? I think if that kid is into witchcraft and Wicca, I think you're going to open yourself up to it at some point. I think there's a certain point where you've opened the permission structures so far where they're like, hey, not only can I just kind of just attach and hang out and mess with this person on the outside, they're inviting me in on a deeper level.

And so you can see that. But I will say with the, I mean, I would say cataclysmic rise of self-harm amongst kids. I mean, go do the research. It's demonic. I will just straight up say that this is demonic. And Satan came to rob, kill, and destroy. Satan cannot kill anybody. He has, he can't. God shows in Job, you know, you can't touch his life. He has no power over life and death.

That is completely God. But he can totally influence somebody to want to create self-harm to that extent by just badgering them over and over again. And so there is this idea in the scripture where you see this darkness that can come over people. And we saw this here with these two men. And I want to finish with the reason why God came. And getting back to the lion's share of when Jesus talks about the kingdom.

It says the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. Now, when you get into the New Testament, especially Ephesians, Corinthians, you're going to see, and once again, Wednesday, you have to hear this on Wednesday, this teaching, you're going to see that you have this incredible authority. Like when Jesus would heal people, he would just go, go.

Go. Like Jesus didn't do a bunch of like, I'm going to have a battle with the devil, knife fight with the devil, you know. He just understood authority. And when you walk in the authority of Christ, you have power to just say go. You have no place there. Now, some of these only come out through prayer and fasting, Jesus said. So there has to be, you have to be on your spiritual game to move up for that.

But he came to destroy the works of the devil. And if the devil is working in your life, one, just ask God for understanding. Say, show me where he's working, and then give me the tools and some of the books we have. We put a bunch of books in our bookstore right now, Power Healing, a bunch of others that talk about this. There's five different books I got on healing, but also talk about authority.

And then I would also say Neil Anderson's Bondage Breaker. Write that down. Did I get an amen on the Bondage Breaker? Was that 1990s? Let's go. Great book. Neil Anderson's Bondage Breaker. Just make yourself aware. Here's your two practical takeaways. Don't only treat the symptom. Seek God for the root, right? So don't just treat the symptom of your issues like, even if it's just a physical issue, it has nothing to do with demons.

I'm constantly asking God for understanding. I don't just want wisdom. I don't just want knowledge. I want to understand why. And Jesus says that he will give us understanding to the cosmos in Ephesians, I believe it's chapter 2. So ask God for understanding. God, where are their open doors? Where have I created permission structures of unforgiveness?

Where have I created permission structures of lust? Where have I created permission structures of addiction? I want to close every single door that if Satan's going to attack me, he's going to have to ask Jesus for permission because I ain't giving it to him in my life. And you can give permission for God. Now, God doesn't need any permission. But you can welcome in the Holy Spirit or you can reject the Holy Spirit.

And that's called blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. The second thing is stay submitted to Christ's authority on a daily basis. Just stay submitted. Submit everything to him. I'm going to give you one story. I've had a lot of activity. I've seen, I didn't tell a bunch of demon stories because I just, they're just, they're hard to comprehend sometimes.

And I don't really want to give highlights to the devil. But when I was 19, I was in Indonesia, a very spiritual place. And I thought it would be a really good idea, right, to do a bunch of mushrooms, right, and cross over. So I went to this place, it was called Midnight Oil, and I got a mushroom milkshake and drank a bunch of mushrooms. Next thing I know, dude, I am just in another world.

And I believe the reason we don't do psychotics is because there is another world and God has put us in this world and he doesn't want us to be in there. And so when I was there, I go into the jungle. And you're going to say, well, you were just tripping. Okay, fair enough. Fine. Fine. I go into the jungle and this demon jumps out and he's about this tall and he's red and he's green.

He's got this hair. I know, you're tripping. If you're new to church, I totally apologize. I'm super sorry. I'm totally sorry. This is totally true though. And maybe I was on LSD. I was on LSD. I was on mushrooms. So maybe it was just mushrooms. So he starts chasing me, right? And I had the most horrific three and a half hours in the jungle. This was when Bali was still more jungle than it was less jungle.

It was like 89, you know? And I got chased by three hours. And then he turned into like 10,000 of them and he just started chasing me everywhere. And I was like, ah. So I get back. I accept Christ. You know, I get and not accept Christ. I repent and get back on track. And I've only been asking the Lord for like 10 years. I'm like, was that real? Was that just whatever?

And one day I'm at Starbucks and I'm doing my Bible study and I'm reading the paper. We used to have these newspaper things. We'd read them and open them up. And it said things around the world. And it had pictures and it would say, this happened in Russia. This happened here. And then I see this picture and there's these dudes with a statue on like a thing they're carrying and it was the demon that chased me.

And I'm like, bro, I know that demon. Trust me, three hours, dude, we spent some time together, right? I know he's short. He was red. He was green. He had this hair. He had these huge teeth. I just know exactly what he looks like. And then I read the caption and it said, Denpensar Bali, the temple of the ritual of whatever for this particular God. And I'm like, dude, that's where I was.

That's the guy that chased me all over the place. Now, why am I telling you that? I'm telling you that, that every experience I had with demons, and I continued to do this psychedelic thing, every time God confirmed it later on in my Christian life and explained and showed me exactly that that was real. You weren't supposed to be there, but he showed me and confirmed it to me.

I tell you all that, not for wow stories or whatever. I want us to be a spiritually mature and equipped church, okay? Okay, so this is your assignment, all right? I just want you to understand your authority in Christ. Close permission structures. If there is permission structures in your life where you just, it's resentment against your wife, it is whatever it is, just repent and say, I'm closing these permission structures.

You're going to walk in authority. We are not demon hunting, right? But we are going to pray. And if you have a prolonged illness or something like that or some kind of spiritual thing or emotional thing, just ask the Lord. Just simply ask the Lord. And if God reveals it to you, just say in the authority of Jesus, go. And if that doesn't work, say in the authority of Jesus, go and fast.

Very simple. We're not getting crazy. We're not getting weird. We're just going to walk in the authority of Jesus. Amen? Let's stand if you would. I went long, so I'm going to just bless you. I'm going to have the prayer team come forward. If you need prayer today, we want to pray for you. If you have any questions, you can email me. I probably won't be able to answer everybody today.

But also, a lot of your questions will be answered on Wednesday on the Spotify. Have I mentioned the Spotify podcast? And by the way, Pastor Joshua is preaching next week on the final message on this healing. And I'm super excited what he has. So he'll be here next week. So dial into that. Extend your hands. And then I want to bless you. And we want to close permission structures.

Just if there's any permission structures in the name of Jesus, just take a moment and ask the Lord to reveal them to you. If somebody has resentment, just sense the Lord saying someone has resentment against their spouse. It's a permission structure. You'll eat the results of that. Unforgiveness. Dishonesty. If you've been dishonest with money, don't be surprised when your finances are attacked.

You've created a permission structure for it. Sexuality. Addiction. Lack of faith. Anger. So Lord, we just, whatever that is, just gently give it to the Lord and ask him to close that door. In the name of Jesus, we close doors. We say that Jesus can close doors that no one can open. And you open doors that no one can close. And some of the doors that were waiting to be opened won't open until we close other doors.

Jesus wants you to close that emergency exit we use for our comfort zone. That he might open the door for you. And so Jesus, we ask God over the, with the authority of Jesus, with everything we understand, we only can understand what we understand, understand, that you would close any attack of the enemy over, especially over our church staff.

There's been massive attack on our church staff. Over the children of this church. Over any, any emotional depression, cutting. Any of these things that we see throughout the world. Tourettes. Seizures. God, all these things that we see that are happening. In the name of Jesus, we just ask in your authority. That's all we can do. We recognize it. So God, bless this congregation.

Bless this church. Let it hit different in the kingdom of heaven. I pray that the demons will have at least heard of us. And that the angels will be with us. And that God, we cultivate the presence of God. That we bring restoration to our homes. Bring restoration to the boundary lines around your home. I would say men, women, especially fathers, walk your properties.

Take authority over your home. Allow nothing in your home that creates a permission structure. TV shows. The things we watch. We just, we don't want it. We want to be cleansed. So I bless you now and I send you out to be a change agent in the world. In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. We love you guys. Please get prayer if you need it.

We want to pray for you. We're you. We are. We are. We are. We are. We are. We are.