She was not able to do her work. She went through the motions, but it just wasn't effective. Her missionary friends had all they could do, and so they were not able to really do much for her. And she didn't know what to do. She was desperate. And as she prayed about it, the Lord just laid this on her heart. that she would pray a little doctrinal prayer like this in her own behalf. Every half hour, on the half hour, she did it on her day off on the mission field, pulling down this depression that was just destroying her. At the end of three weeks, she was so wonderfully relieved that she decided that Maybe she would do this for her mother. One of the things that had triggered her own depression was getting word that her mother had had to go to the hospital for severe depression here in America. So halfway around the world, she started to pray this prayer in behalf of her mother. And at the end of a short period of time, her mother was He immediately received a letter from her that she was released from the hospital and over her severe depression. So I share it with you because it really helps to have some things like that in crisis situations. This next one is a little tool to help develop better relationships between you and other people to whom you're relating. Husbands and wives sometimes need to use this. Parents and children, when you're not communicating, or a Christian brother or Christian sister. It's simply a recognition that just as the Lord tries to build relationships between us and others that are of him, by his spirit, that there's another power that's wanting to build barriers, walls, or unwholesome relationships between you and other people. And this just has so many uses. When I was a pastor, I used to use this sometimes while I was shaking hands with people at the door. I'd use it in my heart. I would sense maybe some barrier between me and someone I was greeting. Just in my heart I would, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, pull down any barriers the enemy was building between me and this person. Many times I'd sense just some invisible barrier that was there just disappearing. So I would urge you to use this. If you have, you know, perhaps someone in your family lineage who's into occultism and you are suffering from that because they're constantly dabbling in the spirit realm and you're in the bloodline and perhaps you're suffering from that. This is something very helpful to you several times a day. just break relationships in that case, that the enemy is trying to build between you and that other person. Now, that fits right in to what I received as a question that I want to try to answer. Do you know of any scripture that says whether demons can or cannot read our thoughts? You think they can or cannot. Also, why do you think demons communicate my thoughts to each other? Well, I'm not sure that they always communicate my thoughts to each other, but I do believe there's evidence that demons, powers of darkness, when they have assignment against us, can not only receive thoughts from our minds against them, but that they can put thoughts in our minds that they want to use. And I don't know of any real strong passages that say this. Neil Anderson and I disagree on this point. He does not think that demons can receive thoughts back from your mind. because he doesn't believe they're omniscient like God is. God knows everything. And so he thinks we always ought to speak audibly against demonic power. I have no objection to that. I think it's wise to do it. But if you're seated in a church service and you're receiving some real evidence of spiritual battle against you, I believe you can just address yourself against it right in the service, just with your thoughts. I have a dear friend who, when he was in college, had some awareness of spiritual warfare. And he used this illustration of how he stopped a seance where they were using a table that pounding out answers yes and no under spirit control. And there was a group of about, I believe it was around 50 college students all taking part in this. They thought they were really on to something. He recognized right away it was just demonic. But they were very serious and he knew he didn't dare say anything audibly. So just in his mind he began to command in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that the spirit behind that table bouncing, bouncing out yes and no answers by the number of bounces, he commanded that spirit to leave. Permit him to deceive that group anymore in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. All of a sudden the table stopped bouncing. And the students were just really alarmed by it. And so he took that opportunity to tell them what had happened. And some of them were very angry at him, but at least it demonstrated that the power of Jesus' name is very powerful to interrupt the kingdom of darkness. Now to answer the question, just a couple of passages I refer you to. One is in the case of Ananias and Sapphira. And I'm not going to go into this very deeply because we have other things to emphasize tonight. But you remember that they had some land, they sold it, and they were trying to make out like they were giving it all to the Lord. But they really weren't. And so Peter, somehow by the Holy Spirit, knew that. And so he said to Ananias, how is it that Satan has filled your heart that you've lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn't it belong to you before it was sold and after it was sold? Wasn't the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You've not lied to men, but to God. And you know the story, how he fell down dead. Now I'm sure Ananias didn't know that Satan had put that plan to lie in his mind. But that's what the Spirit of God said. That it was so subtle, So clever that he thought it was really his idea and his wife's. But the spirit of God said no, that came from Satan. The other illustration I would remind you of is found in the book of Matthew chapter 16. This is rather striking because I think you have the contrast here. You see, the spirit of God works much the same way. That's why I don't think we should ever say, precious Holy Spirit, what do you want me to do? Now, I just expect you to put it in my mind right now. That's very dangerous. Because that's in the realm of spiritism. But I believe that if you're giving your mind to the Lord, And you're saying, precious Lord, I don't know what to do about this situation. But I believe that you will so use my faculties as I give them to you that you'll enable me to know what I ought to do. Now, you don't know how he's going to make that known to you, but you trust him. And he begins to put the plans into your mind that you need. and you decide upon important issues. Now look at this situation where Peter and the other disciples have been asked who Jesus Christ is. And in Matthew 16, 16, Peter answered, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. Jesus replied, Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. What's he saying? Peter, you've just uttered a divinely given truth that the Spirit of God has given you. I'm sure Peter had no idea that the Spirit of God was the one who had put this great, wonderful confession into his mind and into his lips. Come from God. Peter didn't have very long, though, to get puffed up, because drop down to verse 21. From that time on, Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go up to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests, and teachers of the law, that he must be killed. And on the third day, he raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. Never, never, Lord. He said, this shall never happen to you. Jesus turned and said to Peter, get behind me, Satan. You're a stumbling block to me. You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men. So here you have the same man. In a short period of time, receiving from the Holy Spirit one of the greatest truths that man ever utters. And a short time later, having in his mind what he thought, maybe he thought, God put it there. I don't know. He might have gotten a little puffed up and thought it was. But this time, the thought was not from God or even from Peter. It was a thought put into his mind by Satan. So those are some of the passages that I believe show us how very subtly Satan can put thoughts into our minds. When praying for a friend, you advise to once a week fast and pray. This is much like the help that I put up just a moment ago. And send the evil forces to where Jesus sends them. Why do we repeat this to the same demons? Do they come back or do different ones come back? Can the demons we renounce ever leave the place where Jesus sends them? No, I don't think they can. But they're going to do everything they possibly can to avoid obedience to you. And I just believe it's wise to be consistent. Remember, we're told to resist them steadfast in the faith. So you keep at it and you stand in your freedom. You'll not be ruled by the powers of darkness. And they have to obey you as you stand in your freedom and apply it. And I just believe it's wise to do it when you're in a crisis situation or you have a friend in a crisis situation in this way. Now, I know that in direct confrontation, you can send them to where Jesus Christ sent them, which I've always found is to the pit or to the fire or to prison, as they sometimes refer to it. But when they are sent there, they can never return. That's a place of confinement. That's where they don't want to go. I'm going to speak on that a little tomorrow night from Mark chapter 5. But I hope that those will be helpful things to you and that you'll put them to use in your own everyday life and just apply the victory the Lord wants you to have. Now tonight I want to talk about steps to freedom. I normally bring this the last evening, but somehow I felt constrained tonight to bring it tonight so that perhaps some of you who may have some questions after you've seen this could bring the questions tomorrow night so that we could answer them. Just very briefly before we get into that, I would like to direct you to the question Who are you? I often ask that when I'm counseling people. Who are you? You know, that's a deep question. How would you answer that? Who are you? You might say, well, I'm Mary. No, that's your name. Who are you? Well, I'm the son of Floyd and Agnes Fubek. No, that's who your parents were. Who are you? Well, I'm a farmer. Well, that's what you do. Who are you? Who are you? That's probably one of the most essential questions that man ever answers. And I just want to put this up quickly. I'd like to just teach you all night on it, but we don't have time. This is so important to understand. You are a person. You are a person made in the very likeness and image of God. That's one of the most profound insights that can ever come to a human being. And it really identifies you, who you are. You have God-granted authority and God-granted blessing. You're a person of value and dignity. Our value is equal. We're created by God as persons. And even though we don't have equals, intellect, equal talent. We are equal as persons. God loves you just as much as he does Billy Graham or anyone else. Because you're a person of great value to God. And personhood always communicates dignity. God treats you as a person. God never says, hey you, insult your dignity. He will address you as a person and welcome you as a person. As persons, we inherited a sinful condition. from the fall of man, from Adam and Eve. All of us are sinners, not just because we sin. We sin because we're sinners. We have a nature that is depraved. So to be sinful means you accept and believe error. To be sinful means you practice error, and it means you inherited a nature that is deceived. Now, moving on to a follow-up to that, redeemed persons are lifted above fallen condemnation. And we're of great, great value. That's one of the most important things you can ever learn about yourself, is that God esteems you very, very special, very important to Him. You're a spiritual person, involved by the Holy Spirit. You're a holy person. We already looked at that on that passage in Colossians. You're a gifted person. The moment you were saved, God the Holy Spirit gave you a spiritual gift. My spiritual gift is mercy, my motivational gift. Everything I do, even when I preach and exhort, flows out of my compassion and mercy for hurting people. One of the reasons I have to be so careful. I could just run myself into the ground physically just by helping people all the time instead of getting rest and relaxation. You're a valuable person. You're loved and graced by God. And you're chosen for important service. Now the reason I wanted to bring this tonight is that it has so much to do with what we're going to share with you this evening about steps to freedom and the importance of that. So I hope that somehow the Holy Spirit will just rejoice your heart in a new way because of the emphasis upon your personhood. your importance, your dignity, your value, your gifts, and God's plan to use you in service. And I think you'll see how that fits in to what I want to share with you about the steps to freedom. I haven't developed overheads as yet, mainly because I'm in process of sort of re-wording some of this. So this overhead tonight will not be quite as plain as those you have been looking at, but I think that it will be readable and something profitable for you. I'm going to put them all up there so you can be writing them down. I personally believe Dr. Neil Anderson, in his steps to freedom, has done one of the greatest services to the cause of Christ that has been done in a long, long time. I told Dr. Anderson that I personally believe that these steps to freedom will have their greatest benefit when revival comes. Because just experiencing spiritual renewal doesn't mean that necessarily you're going to be able to walk in your freedom immediately, especially if you've been into what so many people are into today. And we've already mentioned that when people get into some of the deeper sins of life, such as occult sin, such as sexual sins, such as bitter hatred, such as violence and killing and murder, that you open your life in a very tragic way to demonic and satanic influences. And even after you come to Christ, if that has been a part of your life, it is very, very important to renounce that, to take back ground. Now maybe some of you here tonight really don't have any idea that you might be troubled with demonic powers. I know a number of you are, because you've already shared that with me. And I can only say to you that there isn't anything that I could do for you more helpful than what I'm going to share with you tonight. And if you will take these and go through them very, very carefully, very prayerfully, be a wonderful step toward bringing you to freedom, total freedom. And keep in mind, it's the will of God that you be free. It is for freedom that Christ has set you free. So I cannot urge you too strongly to look at these very, very carefully and listen carefully. and use them as a spiritual opportunity. I would suggest you block out a period of time, maybe three or four hours, when you get alone with the Lord with your Bible and a little notepad. And one by one you go through these things. And you'll begin to ask the Holy Spirit in each one of these areas if there are things that are there that he knows about, that he wants to bring to your mind. You know, as I go through this with people, and I always do, and I always do, this is my special remedy from Brother Don here, and I hope it will help. That's good. Thank you. My voice is one of the weakest parts of my person and it always seems to be the place where I get in trouble. But I was sharing with you how that I take them through it. Usually I'll give them the outline ahead of time and have them working on it. Sometimes I'm just amazed at what they come up with. Insights that God has given them, I know I would never have come up with. But I counseled them for two or three weeks on some of these issues. They have insights that God has given them. And it's just wonderful to see how the Lord uses that to begin to eliminate the strongholds that Satan has in their lives. You see, he's never able to work in any of our lives unless he has some ground, he has some claim. Now we always knew this, ever since I've been working in this field, way back in the 60s. But we usually would find out what the ground was by just counseling the person. But this is a sort of a comprehensive seven steps that are so helpful. The first one has to do with, oh, by the way, why do we want you to know this? Well, first of all, for your own freedom. Because God wants you to be free. But also, this is very transferable. You can sit down with somebody else who's under deep trouble and you can take that person through these steps to freedom. And then they will begin to understand and they will be learning something they can share with someone else. So it's a very transferable, useful ministry. By the way, be sure that the person has personally received the Lord. Don't assume for a moment that just because they're a member of the church or you take for granted they're Christians that they really are. I like the two diagnostic questions that come out of the Coral Ridge ministry down in Florida of evangelism explosion. Have you come to the place in your spiritual life where you know for sure, if you were to die, you'd go to heaven. Sometimes they'll say yes, or sometimes they'll say no. And you don't really know whether they know or not, until you ask the second question. That if you were to die and stand for the Lord, and he were to say, why should I let you into my heaven? What would you tell him? I had this experience in a Christian Missionary Alliance church up in Minnesota. I was conducting a conference just like this, and I noticed this lady just about in the third row for the first two or three services, and she had the look of death on her. I never saw anyone more under oppression And the pastor was setting up appointments like we've been doing through Brother Roman. And one day he gave this lady's name and I said, I hope she's that lady that always sits in the second row. And he said, yeah, that's who it is. So she came to the pastor's study and I was going to take her through the steps to freedom. But when I asked her those two questions, even though I waited and did everything I could to make sure she understood, all she had was a works answer. She was depending that she's going to church every Sunday, she'd been baptized, and she read her Bible. But when I took her through the plan of salvation, for the first time, The Holy Spirit turned on the lights and she understood that she had to receive Christ as her Savior. And God just did one of the most beautiful transformations I'd ever seen in a short time. I mean, I know some of you have praised the Lord hallelujah times when you were saved. God took off the load of that guilt Well, that's what happened to her. That's all I did. We never did get to the steps to freedom. I just led her in a prayer of renouncing all demonic claims upon her life, and we ordered them out of her life. By the way, that's one of the first things every one of us ought to do when you lead somebody to Christ. It's what the early church used to do, recorded in the writings of some of the early church fathers. that before they would baptize anyone, they would renounce all satanic, all demonic claim that was upon them, order them out of their life, and affirm that the whole person belonged to Christ. Well, we did that. When we came out of the office, the pastor and his wife were there, and the pastor's wife said, It's obvious something happened to you. And she immediately gave them her testimony. That night when she got to church, all of her church friends said, what happened to you? The awful cloud was gone. Christ had saved her. She was free from the burden of her sin for the first time in her life. Just because Somebody was there who entered into her burden with her and finally was able to decide that she really didn't know what it was to be saved. And she received Christ. So don't assume that everyone that you deal with is really saved. So before you lead them through the steps to freedom, work with them on that. Now, thoroughly renounce any and all involvement with false religions, satanically deceiving occult practices, divination, magic, sorcery, spiritistic healings, and everything of that nature. Now, we could just go on. Let me just name some others. that might be kind of close to some of you. Imaginary friends. Visualization. Iridology. Certain aspects of reflexology, at least the way in which it's practiced. Hypnotism. Powwows. magical removal of warts or ringworms. In some of the herbal treatments, there's mystical things connected with it. Most of that, by the way, came out of spiritistic healing practice. Out of the spiritism, much of it came out of the spiritism of China. just as acupuncture did. Mystical healings, mystical surgeries. Joanna Michelson has written quite a book about the beautiful side of evil, dealing with mystical healings that she was a part of before the Lord drew her out of that. Praying to saints, statues of saints, magic potions, magic cures. Now I know some of you here might say, well that works. Well nobody ever said that Satan didn't have ways of making things happen. But what usually happens in these so-called magical cures, you've only moved the problem from one level of human trouble to another. And it's not unusual for someone who's had some sort of mystical, magical healing, or magical potion. Sure, the work goes away, but all of a sudden he finds himself having some terrible fear, or terrible nightmares at night, and he doesn't make any connection at all. between what he did and now what he's experiencing. And yet there's a direct connection. The word of the Lord is so clear upon this. And if there's anything we ought to honor, it's the warnings of the word of God. In the book of Deuteronomy 18, you have a very strong reminders from God. Notice in verse 9, when you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium, or a spiritist, or consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord. What a statement. Because these are detestable practices, the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you. You must be blameless before the Lord your God. Gone. In fact, God pronounced the death sentence for people in Israel who dabbled in these things. Why? Because that was so much more wicked than telling a lie? No. I think it's because when you dabble in these things, you open your life to demons. The Old Testament, there was no way to get free of that. The blood of Christ had not yet been shed. And as far as we know, even though there were some efforts, it was pretty much a total failure to get rid of demonic powers out of people's lives in the Old Testament times. The New Testament gives equal strength to that. Let me just take you to Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 5. Notice the warning. By the way, this passage begins by sexual, warning against sexual sin. That's another sin. That like sorcery was to be punished with death. Why? I believe it's the same reason. You see, when you become one with another person in sexual union, there's a spiritual oneness and a spiritual bonding that takes place that God recognizes and certainly demons recognize. So many people have come under demonic rule by adultery with somebody who's demonized. That's why he begins his passage in verse 3. But among you there must not even be a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity or greed, because these are improper for God's holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk, coarse joking, and so forth. Now down to verse 8. For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. live as children of light, for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth. You find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them, for it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. What's he talking about? He's talking about Spiritism. See, it was right there in Ephesus, the temple of the goddess Diana, where they had all kinds of Spiritism going on. And most of these Christians had been influenced by it, at least before they were saved. Now he's warning, they must not have anything to do with that. I have listed in my notes here a warning in this field about the laying on of hands. Now there's a place for laying on of hands. That's a biblical thing to do. But you'll notice wherever it's used in scripture that there's an orderliness to it. And it's the elders, the chosen spiritual leaders. were to do it. Now there's great harm going on in the body of Christ today by this indiscriminate laying on of hands that's a part of so many of the Pentecostal practices where they'll say, here's John, he has a problem. He's not feeling well or something else. Let's all gather around and put our hands on him. because somebody, and they might not even know it, they have a spiritistic gift of healing that transferred to them. And in the laying on of hands, that spiritistic gift can transfer to the one in that religious setting that you're praying for. Now please don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying that by shaking hands with somebody that's demonized that you could receive his demons. I don't believe that. But I do believe that if you were to ask that person, you know, I've got a terrible headache today and I'd just like you to put your hands on me and pray for me, your headache might go away. But if that person's a spiritist, you'd have a much more serious problem that would begin to manifest itself in your life. Now, this comes very personal to me. Let me tell you my own testimony. When I was a young pastor in Colorado, I had a man in my first church that doused for wells. He was an older man. He was a member of my congregation. Fine man. And he thought he had this special gift, you know. He just used a willow stick and people in the neighborhood would call him and he'd go to their place there in the mountains and douse for water. And apparently, much of the time he was successful. But they're not always successful, which in itself is quite a statement related to that same Deuteronomy 18 passage about prophets who prophesy and their prophecy doesn't come true. They're false prophets. But anyway, he said, Pastor, I came home one day just as he came back from doing that. He said, let me show you how this works. So he took the willow stick in his hands and had the point going up and the fork in his hands, and he walked toward our well there in the mountains, which was a spring. When he got near the well, I saw that stick go down, and I could tell he didn't make it go down. So I, in curiosity, said, let me try that. So I took his stick. I held it just like he did, and I walked toward the water. Nothing happened. But then he said to me, Pastor, let me put my hands on yours, and we'll walk toward the water and see what happens. So I said, sure. So I was holding the stick. And he put his hand on mine, and we got near that water. I held on to that thing with all my might, almost twisted the bark off of it, but it went down. But the thing that is so astonishing about it, after that thing took place, I could do it without his hands on mine. Just like that. A spiritistic gift, in quotes, that he had transferred to me when the Lord first led me into spiritual warfare. And I said, Lord, what's been in my life that needs to be corrected? You know, that was one of the first things he brought to my mind. At that time, I had no idea it was a cult. I just assumed it was probably a gift. And the Lord soon taught me. So be careful about that thing. You've had people lay indiscriminate hands on you and pray for you. Renounce that. Make your list. Thank you. As thorough as you can. Any good luck pieces. Astrology readings. Occult games like Ouija boards, Dungeons and Dragons, anything of that nature. Sometimes even speaking in tongues can be a spiritistic gift. I'm not going to go into that except that if you've had that experience, I would urge you to test the spirit behind it. Very dangerous not to know where it's from. Now after you have your list, I would suggest, and I hope you all have this copy down now. After you have done that, then I would suggest that you have a renunciation prayer. Something like this. Lord Jesus Christ, I confess that I've been involved in the false belief of well-witching. I ask your cleansing and forgiveness, and I renounce well-witching as a counterfeit of true Christianity, and I take back all grounds Satan is claiming against me because of such involvement. Now I would suggest you go through that little part, of the prayer for everything on your list that God brings to your mind. Renounce it. Ask his forgiveness. Then after you've done that, I think it's good to add this. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the power of his blood, I command every wicked spirit who has assignment against me because of my involvement in occult practices of any kind to leave my presence and you must go where the Lord Jesus Christ sends you. Just order them out of your life and away right at that moment. Number two has to do with renouncing all deception with which you are or have been involved. Deception or lying is a sin of the flesh. But when we deliberately set out to deceive somebody for an ulterior motive, we are very close to aligning ourselves with the deceiver. And also, if you're believing a deception, if you believe something like mystical medicine or something of that nature that's spiritistic, that has no biblical foundation, or is just coming from the spirit realm, then it's wise to renounce it. Especially on this point, if you have believed a lie about yourself, If you believe the lies of Satan, when he's told you, you're no good. You're just a big fat zero. And you don't deserve anything. God is not pleased with you. And you've displeased him. And you just want to give up and kill yourself. If you believe that, then you need to renounce that. And accept the fact that God sees you as a person of wonderful value, somebody that he loves dearly. It's very dangerous to believe the lies of darkness. So affirm constantly your alignment with truth. Number three, rid yourself of all bitterness and clear your conscience by gaining forgiveness. I just looked at my watch and I couldn't believe it. I'm just getting started here but perhaps we'll have to finish it up tomorrow night. But this point is such an important one because there isn't any way that you give an advantage to Satan more quickly than through a lack of forgiveness. 2 Corinthians 2 verses 10 and 11 warn about that. The Lord's prayer teaches you to forgive others even as God forgave you. And when we refuse to do that, it's a great offense against God. And if I understand the scriptures correctly, God even uses demons to discipline us about such a thing. If you doubt what I'm saying, turn quickly to Matthew chapter 18. Jesus gave the parable of the unversable servant. Peter came to Jesus in verse 21 and asked, How many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me, up to seven times? Jesus answered, I tell you, not seven times, but 70 times seven times, or limitless number. Then he says, gives us a marvelous parable, the kingdom of heaven. That's simply another way of saying when God's will is being done in your life. as it is in heaven. The kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. The king would be our Lord, of course. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him 10,000 talents was brought to him. Now you'll notice that's millions of dollars in today's money, an impossible debt, an enormous debt, which pictures, our guilt before a holy God. You'll notice he says, since he was not able to pay, his master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. The servant fell on his knees before him. Be patient with me, he begged, and I will pay back everything. Now here's conversion. servant's master took pity on him or had mercy on him, canceled the debt, and let him go. That's what happens when you receive Christ. God has mercy on you, he cancels your enormous debt, and you're free. But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. just a few dollars. He grabbed him and again choked him. Pay back what you owe me, he demanded. His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him. Be patient with me and I'll pay you back. But he refused. Instead he went off and had the man thrown into prison. Now this is what lack of forgiveness is. It's always your attempt to punish the person who's hurt you. And that's what he's trying to do. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed. Went and told their master everything that had happened. Then the master called the servant in. You wicked servant. He still honors him as a servant, but he tells him you're wicked. I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you? And the answer of course is, he surely should have. Now this is the only time that I know of in scripture where God is spoken of as dealing with his own in anger. Even when he chastens us in Hebrews 12, whom the Lord loves he chastens. But there's something about a refusal to forgive others that is the ultimate offense against God. So in anger, his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured or to be tormented until he should pay back all he owed. Let me ask you, what did he owe? What did he owe? You say, well, he owed all that tremendous debt. No, he didn't. That was canceled. All he owed was forgiveness. All that God was trying to get out of him, a willingness to forgive. The last verse is astonishing. Every Christian ought to read it and read it again. This is how my Heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your class. We've had to send home a number of people from our center who came to get help. because they knew that they were having demonic problems. And one of the things, when we lead them through, I always say, has somebody hurt you? Really hurt you? Many times they'll just burst into tears. Sometimes they'll almost tremble with rage and hurt. Usually that's a good sign. But sometimes he'll say, oh yeah. And right away you can determine a spirit of set teeth and don't ever ask me to forgive him for that. You don't know what he did to me. The only way that we can ever forgive, by the way in your handout, there's some good suggestions. about dealing with this issue. And this is one you should really pray over. It's amazing how many people will say, I don't really think there's anyone. But then they begin to ask the Holy Spirit. And sometimes they'll end up with a list of ten or a dozen people that have hurt them. Now, how can you forgive? Well, by faith, by a deliberate recognition of the cross and what the Lord did for you when he canceled all of your debt and let you go. I remember Dr. Haddon Robinson, and I believe I'll close with this because you've all been so patient. Night after night, and I don't want to keep you too late. He had a young couple that were a part of the seminary in Denver where I graduated. And they were having marriage troubles. So the husband came to him first and talked about this. And Dr. Robinson was kind of helping him. He said, Not really thinking it probably ever happened. But he said, have you ever been unfaithful to your wife? Sexually? Morally? Then hung his head. He said, I had been in a very immoral lifestyle before I was saved. And I'd lived with this woman for some time. And then I walked off and left her. And then I was saved, and then I met my wife, and we got married. But he said the first quarrel we had, I went back to her. And on at least two occasions, he'd had immoral relations with that woman. Of course, it was a very breaking moment for him to admit it. Dr. Robinson said to him, well, you know, you have to tell your wife. You have to ask her forgiveness. Oh, he said, she'll never forgive me. But that'll just destroy our marriage for sure. Dr. Robinson told him, well, you have to leave that in the Lord's hands. But you have to do it. So finally, he agreed he would do it if he could do it in the presence of Dr. Robinson. So they had an appointment with him and he confessed it to her. And she was just as hurt as he thought she would be. She said, oh, I don't think I can ever forgive that. That just ends it for sure. No matter how much The husband wept and pled. No matter how much Dr. Robinson tried to help her, there wasn't anything that could be done. And so they went home that night with a great barrier between them. Next day he saw her on the campus. She was going, taking some classes as well as her husband. He asked her if she'd stop at his office and she came in. He said, well, how's it going? She started to cry. She said, well, I just can't tell you. I've never been so crushed, never been so insulted, never been so hurt. I just can't forgive that. I think I have grounds for divorce. Dr. Robinson very wisely said to her, Called her by name. And he said, supposing we could make a video of your life. Every wicked thought you've ever had. Every sinful thing you've ever done. And we could just make it like it really was. And then we announced that we're going to show this in the chapel tonight. And everybody could come and see it if they wanted to. He said, would you show up? She hung her head, and she said, no, I don't think I'd be there. He says, now tell me, how much of that sin that you know has been a part of your life, how much of that was canceled at the cross? She said, all of it. just quietly said, now would you tell me again why you can't forgive your husband and honor God and save your marriage? And that was the turning point. And they've gone on to have a wonderful ministry for the Lord. No matter how deeply we've been hurt, God's forgiveness of us is deeper than what we've been hurt. And when you begin to understand that, I'm not saying that emotionally it all happened, but God will enable it to take place as you share it with him. And so I urge you, deal with this very carefully. We've had to send at least Two or three people home from our center because they got hung up on this one. And we just had to say there's nothing we can do until you deal with that. And I'm happy to say that in at least three of those cases that they were able to come to it eventually and get free. But the hurt had been so deep. And sometimes I'm so grieved over the hurt that protectors sometimes do to their own children. And the wounds of that are indescribable. But forgiveness heals. Let's pray. Dearest Heavenly Father, Tonight again we have sought to look at some of these things that are so important to our freedom. Thank you for the steps to freedom. I pray for those that are struggling with some of these things we've shared tonight. There may be some who know of many occult things that have been a part of their lives. Others may realize how deceived they've been. Some may be struggling with deep hurts and wounds and bitterness, but they think they can never just forgive and be restored to the person that harmed them and restored to God and free of the demon powers that want them to hold on to their bitterness. So help us as we continue to deal with these. And we pray that you will bring this special time of study to a very profitable close in the life of each person who's been so faithful to come. Make it not only profitable for our own freedom, but help us to help others get free. In Jesus' name, amen.