Who is Your Source? God or Satan?

Jesus is trying to release life into you. Satan is trying to steal, kill, and destroy anything good that you have. Both are willing and able to move and manifest those things in your life, but the determining factor is you. You need to recognize this battle that’s raging and the fact that everything you say and do is either empowering God or the devil. The Lord wants to release His life into you. Satan wants to steal that life and kill and destroy you. It’s not fate or luck. Your thoughts, choices, and actions make a huge difference in your life.

Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? Romans 6:16

The Battlefield is in the Mind
We’re truly in a spiritual battle! We need to understand the spiritual significance of our choices, words, and actions. And recognize that the battlefield is in our mind. Whom you yield to—God or Satan—is whom you empower to work in and through your life. (Rom. 6:16.) Therefore, submit to God, resist the devil—and he will flee from you! (James 4:7.)

The devil is a factor, but not because he’s superior in power and authority. He deceives people, and they yield to him through fear. This is what actually empowers him. Satan takes a person’s own fear and uses it against them to eat their lunch and pop the bag!

Satan’s Only Weapon is Deception
Satan, principalities, and all other demonic powers have been spoiled. Through the Cross and Resurrection, Jesus Christ stripped the devil of all power and authority. The first Adam may have surrendered it at the Fall, but the last Adam took it back at the Resurrection. Now Satan has no power or authority. His only weapon is deception. If you yield to the devil’s lies, he’ll use your power and authority against you!

Most of us—even Christians—don’t recognize the intense battle being waged all around us each and every day. We don’t know the spiritual significance of our choices, words, and actions. We’re functionally ignorant of how these things determine whether we’re yielded to God and releasing His power and blessing into our lives, or yielded to Satan and releasing sin and death into our lives.

Your spirit isn’t affected by sin, but your soul and body are. Sin gives the devil a legal right to work his death into your life because you yielded yourself to him.

If you want to experience God’s best, you must understand these truths. You have unlimited potential, but it’s all in the spirit. The victory God’s given you isn’t in your flesh, it’s in the part of you that’s been born again. As you mature in the Christian life, you don’t become less carnal; you just let less carnality dominate and manifest because you’re yielded to the spirit instead.

Satan doesn’t have the power to make me do anything. This old saying, “The devil made me do it” is absolutely wrong. Satan can’t make you do anything. All he can do is lie to you. Then, if you believe his lie, you empower him to accomplish his will. But he can’t do anything to you without your consent and cooperation. This is the reason the battle isn’t against demonic powers directly. Satan has been stripped. His only power is deception.

Whom He May Devour
When you yield yourself to sin, you’re serving Satan, who is the author of that sin. But when you yield yourself to obedience, you serve God, who is the author of that righteousness. 

In this spiritual battle, your actions are very important.

If you get angry and bitter, you’ve just yielded yourself to Satan.  Whether you recognize it or not, the devil is the one who influences us to respond in the wrong way.

Spiritual Dynamics
You need to set a watch before your mouth (Ps. 141:3) and take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. (2 Cor. 10:5.) You need to control your actions (Gal. 5:22-24) and recognize that the demonic realm is trying to take a shot at you every day of your life. If you allow a door to be opened to them, they’ll come in for no other purpose than to steal, kill, and destroy. (John 10:10.) Remember, Satan is looking for whom he may devour.

You need to learn to recognize the spiritual dynamics happening in your life. God
wants you to yield to Him so that His power and blessings can be released in you.
Satan wants you to yield to him so that destruction and death can be released in you.

In order to gain an inroad, the enemy is constantly trying to snare you with bitterness, unforgiveness, and ungodliness of all kinds. Therefore, no matter what you do, you’re either obeying God or obeying Satan. You’re either submitting to God and His influence or to Satan and his influence.

Every time you act, you are releasing spiritual power — either God’s or the devil’s—into your life. Since most people are ignorant of this truth, they allow all kinds of things in their life. Yet, if they were to recognize the results they’re going to reap, they would never allow these things. Every time we submit to doing things Satan’s way, we are having spiritual relations with him, which conceives evil. It isn’t just benign.

Seeds are Being Planted
Although many people would like to see God’s blessing, favor and miracles manifest the way I have (by God’s grace), they’re not willing to spend the time yielding to and fellowshipping with the Lord in His Word, prayer, and obedience. They’d rather be out in the world, indulging their flesh and thinking, it’s not hurting me to do all of this stuff.

It may not hurt them at that moment, but seeds are being planted.

Actions = Results
I’m amazed how many people don’t associate their actions with the results they’re experiencing. They totally miss the correlation and don’t have a clue how Satan is destroying them.  Right now you are living in a way that exempts you from God’s power. You have yielded yourself to Satan and have violated God’s Word. By doing so, you have released demonic power in your life. The devil is just having a heyday with you!”

A Demon Needs a Body
On his own, Satan is powerless. He depends completely on physical human beings yielding to and empowering him. Even under the Old Covenant, Satan didn’t have the power to control and dominate people. He has to use our own power and authority against us. It’s only as we submit to him that Satan is able to do anything.

The devil and his demons—as spirit beings—have no power or
authority on this earth apart from physical human beings yielding it to them.

Earth Suits
Since God gave the authority over this earth and everything going on in it, to physical human beings, Satan —who is without a physical body—is absolutely powerless unless we empower him by yielding to and indulging his lust, lies, anger, bitterness, unforgiveness, or some other sin. 

Satan can’t do anything without somebody in an earth suit yielding to him. This is why he’s constantly vying for your heart, trying to get you to yield to him through anger, fear, hurt, pain, and depression. Every time you move away from what God’s Word says and act in union with what the devil is trying to do, you yield authority to him. Every time you quit believing and receiving God’s supernatural power and ability and sin instead, you empower the enemy.

It’s sad to say, but one of his greatest weapons of deception has been the church. The church has taught that Satan is a superior power. He isn’t. He’s actually using nothing but human power and human authority acquired through our cooperation.

My Own Human Ability
Does that mean Satan isn’t a factor? No, he is a factor. There are millions of people on the face of the earth who are yielded to the devil today. They are operating in sexual immorality, lies, deception, hurt, fear, hatred, idolatry, and more. Every time we yield to something negative, we empower the devil. So, yes, Satan is a factor and he has to be dealt with.

But as far as my individual life goes, Satan can’t do anything without my consent and cooperation. Understanding that the power and authority Satan uses is human power—the power God has given to me, a physical human being, to rule and reign over this earth—has put everything in a brand-new light.

Don’t Yield to the Lies
Satan is out to deceive you and he’s coming at you every which way through all of the help and support he gets from people. Our airwaves are full of lust and lies. Every time you yield to the lies, you are the one who empowers the devil to come in and destroy your life.

A Physical Body
Jesus entered into the devil’s kingdom and destroyed it. He took away all authority and power from Satan and reduced him to a zero with the rim knocked off. The enemy has zip, zilch, nada power and authority against us. All Satan can do is deceive and tempt us. If we yield to him, we’re doing the same thing Adam and Eve did—we are yielding our human power and authority.

This is completely opposite of so much of what the church has taught. Most people think that Satan is a major force to be reckoned with. He does exist, and you can’t just be ignorant of his devices. (2 Cor. 2:11.) You need to know what’s going on, but the devil is not someone to be feared. He’s someone you need to recognize and resist, but Satan can’t do anything to you without your consent and cooperation.

Understanding this truth has transformed my life and given me a tremendous advantage over the devil. Now I recognize that if I’m having a feeling, a desire, a drawing, or a lust in some direction, all I have to do is quit yielding to those things that are allowing Satan to draw me in that way. I just use my physical body to go in exactly the opposite direction. What I do with (my mind and) my physical body releases either the power of God or the power of the devil.

 Satan can’t do anything to you without your consent and cooperation.

Satan doesn’t have all this power the church has attributed to him. The only power Satan has came from man. Mankind made Satan. We are the ones who empowered him. God created Lucifer—a ministering spirit, an angelic being. Mankind yielded our God-given dominion, and it’s this human authority and power Satan uses. That’s why he has to have a body to possess. That’s why a pig has more power and authority on this earth than a disembodied demon.

Demons are looking for a physical body, a willing vessel. They need somebody who will submit to them. The power that the devil or any other demon uses against us is our own. Satan has zero angelic, spiritual power. All his authority comes from man. The only reason Satan exists and functions is because people cooperate with and empower him. That’s why he always seeks to inhabit a body.

Satan is a factor, but only because people yield to him.
If you know the truth, the truth will make you free. (John 8:32.)

We’re All Unworthy
You can’t yield to and serve the devil, giving him total access to you, and reap the benefits of a godly life. It’s not because God won’t flow, or that He’s looking at you as being unworthy. We’re all unworthy in that sense. God doesn’t move in our lives because we deserve it. However, in order to see His provision—His will—manifest, you do have to cooperate with Him.

Satan isn’t using a superhuman, angelic power and authority. He’s using mankind’s God-given power and authority that we yielded to him when we obeyed him and disobeyed God. So it’s actually nothing but a human power and authority that is being used against us.

If we don’t seek God, there will be plenty of problems. But that’s because we’re yielding ourselves
to Satan, and he’s going to steal, kill, and destroy whomever, whenever, and wherever he can.

Apologize to Whom?
Our country is perilously close to being destroyed—not because of God’s judgment, but because of Satan’s inroads. When you yield yourself to the devil through sin, you become his defenseless servant.

You don’t need to plead with God to turn His heart toward us. His heart is already toward us because He loves us. This country is in the process of being destroyed because of our own wickedness and yielding to Satan. However, God wants to redeem this country and see us wholeheartedly turn back to Him.

Remember, Satan comes for no other purpose but to steal, kill, and destroy. It’s foolish to yield to him. We need to submit ourselves to God.

Is God Judging Me?
You might be thinking, but I have all kinds of problems. Surely, God is judging me. No, you yielded yourself to Satan and he comes to steal, kill, and destroy. (John 10:10.) So yes, your life may be a mess—but it’s not because God’s wrath is upon you and He’s judging you.

God placed His wrath over your sins upon Jesus, and all you must do is humble yourself and receive the forgiveness He offers as a free gift. You don’t have to beg and plead with the Lord to save you. He’s already done it. He’s already dealt with your sin through the atoning sacrifice of His Son.

Who Brought Whom?
How do demonic entities over cities derive their power? They get it from the people who believe and act on their lies! Evil spirits aren’t able to dominate or control anyone against their will.  Human beings are the ones who empower demons by believing their lies and cooperating with their unholy desires.

Miscellaneous Nuggets
If you observe the body of Christ, you will quickly realize most are not walking in dominion or victory in life even though it is God’s will for them. God’s will for us as believers created in His image is to yield our souls to His likeness in our spirits and walk in dominion over sickness, disease, poverty and lack.

Yielding to Adam (your un-renewed mind and uncontrolled emotions) in your soul creates “a dam” and makes it difficult to receive from God. Healing and everything else you receive from God comes from the inside out.