IS THE ENEMY CONTROLLING YOUR THOUGHTS

The speaker talks about the devil's control over our thoughts and the importance of spending time with God to discern his voice. They discuss how the enemy attacks during times of worship and the importance of pushing through. They share a prayer from a book called "Pigs in a Parlor" and emphasize the need to be aware of what we watch and listen to, as demonic spirits can be present in certain media. The speaker also emphasizes the need to understand and address demonic influences rather than using secular terms like mental illness. They reference Ephesians 6:12 and the importance of using the armor of God to withstand the enemy's attacks. Good morning. This is Norman Goodman, and I hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day. Today is May the 28th, 2024. And, man, I have a ton of stuff that's running through my mind last night. The Lord was just talking to me yesterday. We had a pretty stormy day here yesterday. I mean, there's trees coming down, rain coming down all over the place. And I just – the Lord just put on me to do a podcast on it's the devil controlling your thoughts, or the principalities in control of your thoughts. You know, it's easy for us to be upbeat when the sun is shining, but are we upbeat when it's cloudy and rainy outside and it seems like all hell is breaking loose, so to speak. And what I find is that most people, Christians and unbelievers, when it is raining, people, for whatever reason, become melancholy. They get down. They're in the dark. You know, the lights are out. You know, they have idle time, and they're not taking advantage of the time to spend time with God. You know, so the devil loves to work in the dark. That's his favorite thing. He loves to work in the dark. And if you're not spending time with God all the time, then you will not be able to discern the Lord's voice over the enemy's. The enemy is always whispering. He's always whispering in our ears all the time, constantly attacking us all the time. And he's always looking for a weak one, for the weak ones. And I noticed that a lot of people seem to not be on top of their game when it came to the Lord yesterday. You know, I want to open up with this prayer right here from my favorite book, pigs in a parlor, for me was a game changer. In this book, excuse me, it seems like every time I get ready to do a podcast or on Sundays when I'm on my way to church and I know I have to teach class that particular Sunday, the enemy always attacks my throat. All of a sudden, I get this phlegm in my throat. I don't have it any other time. It's only when I'm getting ready to talk about the Lord Jesus Christ, his Father God, the Holy Spirit, and where all of a sudden he wants to attack my throat. So forgive me if you hear me clearing my throat because that's the enemy. It only happens. My wife says when we're going to church, she gets headaches. All of a sudden, she gets pressure when we're on our way to church. She said, I don't even feel anything during the week. It's only when we get ready to go to church on Sundays, all of a sudden, I get this pressure. This is how you know the enemy is attacking you. This is how you know that he's upset with you because you're taking a stance for God's kingdom. All right? So whenever you're going through some type of struggle or just seem like everything just doesn't want to work out right, at the moment, you know you're getting ready to talk about God or Jesus or you're getting ready to go to church and to the sanctuary. Understand you're under demonic attack, and that's when you continue. You press on. Okay? That's when you get your best. You get the best word. You get the best experience when you have to push through and press through to get that word when you know the enemy is trying to hold you back. Anyway, let me go into this prayer because this is an awesome prayer that I got out of pigs in a parlor. This book was written in 1973, and the copy that I have says the last copy, the 45th copy last printed was 2008. That's what I have. So I'm telling you this book is fantastic. It's game-changing. But let me read this. Start this off right here. Okay? Lord Jesus Christ, I believe you died on the cross for my sins and rose again from the dead. You redeemed me. You redeemed me by your blood, and I belong to you, and I want to live for you. I confess all my sins, known and unknown. I'm sorry for them all. I renounce them. I renounce them all. I forgive all others as I want you to forgive me. Forgive me now and cleanse me with your blood. I thank you for the blood of Jesus Christ, which cleansed me now from all sins, and I come to you now. As my deliverer, you know my special needs. The things that binds, that torments, that defiles, that evil spirit, that unclean spirit, I claim the promise of your word. Whosoever that calleth on the name of the Lord shall be delivered. I call upon you now in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Deliver me and set me free. Satan, I renounce you and all your works. I loose myself from you in the name of Jesus Christ, and I command you to leave me right now in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. I like that prayer because that prayer is relevant for believers and also nonbelievers. All right? Because believers are under attack, and a lot of believers are struggling. They are struggling in their walk because the enemy has had you for so long that he doesn't want to let go. And you have to understand, when you have demons, they all come in clusters. They don't come by themselves. So you always have to take the opportunity. When you have idle time, the opportunity to spend time with God. Because the enemy is whispering in your ear saying, you know, you're bored today. And I think you deserve to watch a program like that's not biblical. All right? You got to be careful. Because if you're watching programs that have alcohol in them, profane language, fornication, adultery, violence, okay? Strife. Those are demons. And each one of those demons come with a cluster of demons. And when you're watching that program, you're being attacked by each cluster of demons in that show. See, the eyes, we've heard this before, right? The eyes are the window to the soul. Once you see it, you can't unsee it. Once you hear it, you can't unhear it. So you have to ask yourself, who's controlling my decision making? Is the enemy controlling it? Right? Am I allowing the enemy to control what I watch on television? Am I looking to be entertained and not spend time with God? Because God's never going to force anything on you. All right? He's going to sit there and wait for you to come to him. But the enemy is always constantly busy trying to get your attention, trying to distract you to do his bidding to serve him. A double-minded man is unbalanced in all his ways. Okay? You can't serve two masters. I've said it before. Okay? If you are a Christian man or woman, you have to be conscious of every single thing that you're listening to and you're watching. This is what I talked about in the last podcast. Are you seeking God's voice? Are you seeking him out? Or are you sitting back here just kicking the can down the road? Okay? You know you got Ephesians 1.9. Make known unto me the mysteries of your will. The enemy does not want you to know God's will. He does not want it. Right? You have to be aware of the roaring lion seeking to destroy. He's after you all day long. You can never put your guard down. You know? It's raining outside. It's gloomy. I'm turning the lights on because I want to be in the light. Why? Because the darkness can't comprehend the light. The enemy operates in the darkness. That way he gets his best work. So, if you have an opportunity to spend time with God, you need to spend time with him. You need to seek him out. And this is how you keep the enemy and his minions away from you. But if you're not and you're looking at these programs, guess what happens? All of a sudden, you get agitated by every little thing. Agitated. You know what I found is that the more I spend time with God, the more I can discern demonic spirits around in my house, around my property, when I'm around. I can discern it. I see them. Right? I see them clearer now than I ever seen in my life because I understand that we're dealing with what? We're dealing with principalities. Right? Isn't that what Ephesians 6-12 tells us? Now, I'm going to read it to you this time because I'm sorry, guys. My memory, I cannot remember every single thing. But Ephesians 6-12, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil days, and having done all to stand. Stand therefore, having your lawns girded, girded with the truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your foot and your feet shard with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, take in the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked, and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. I cannot overemphasize this. I know you guys are saying to yourselves, man, he pounds that thing. He pounds it. He pounds it. He pounds it. You know what? I feel like the problem is, we don't pound it enough. You know, out of sight, out of mind. We don't talk about it enough. We don't talk about demonic influences and demonic possessions. We use words like mental illness, which is a secular world created by secular men. By men who didn't believe in God. Men who didn't believe in Jesus. Men who didn't believe in demonic influences. That believed that mental illness was a disease of the mind. That was the enemy working right there. Because the enemy is telling you, there's no such thing as devils and demons. We don't exist. It's a disease of the mind. So we use those secular words to try to convince ourselves that demons don't work. Christians are using words. People that profess to be Christians are using words like mental illness. It astonishes me that Christians, knowing Ephesians 6.12, knowing that Jesus sent his disciples out two by two to cast out demons, use words like mental illness. And never address it as demonic influence and possession. And conduct and use the weapon of the Bible and the word of God to defeat those demons. You can't medicate that. You can't go to a psychiatrist and get medicated. That's another form of demonic influence. Medicating a person to try to fix something that's in the mind when we know that that person is being controlled and influenced by the enemy. Right? We have to know that. Let's go to 1 Peter 5. And when the chief shepherds shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elders. Yea, all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility for God. For God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. Casting all your cares upon him, for he cares for you. Be sober. Be vigilant. Because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. He's looking for the weak ones. That's what he's looking for. He's looking for those weak Christians. He's looking for those weak unbelievers. Whom resisteth steadfast in faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. But the God of all grace, who has called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while. Make you perfect. Establish. Strengthen. Settle you. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. You got to listen. The enemy is constantly busy, folks. And this is why I ask the question. Who's controlling your thoughts? Who's in control of your thoughts? Are you in control of your thoughts? Or is the enemy in control of your thoughts? Okay. We have to constantly be seeking out God's voice. I know I sound like a broken record. I know I'm repeating myself. But when I see people in Facebook, using Facebook, going to Facebook first thing in the morning, during the middle of the day, not having time for God in the morning because they got to hurry up and get to work. The enemy is operating in your mind. It's the enemy that's operating. And then when someone brings it to your attention and you get agitated, that's the enemy. Those are the demons. The demons are operating. The principalities are operating. And you have to understand that. You know, when you get into an argument, let's look at strife for a second. Okay. There's three pigs in the parlor. And the author puts together a list of demons. Right? And under each demon, he puts together his buddies. So you look at bitterness, rebellion, and then right under that, number three, he puts strife. Strife, right? Contention, bickering, arguments, quarreling, fighting. Those are demons. And that one demon of strife has one, two, three, four, five other demons that he's bringing to the party with him. All right? We have to not be so sensitive when someone is bringing something to our attention as Christians. Because we have to understand we're under demonic influence. Okay? And I know in today's society, even in the churches, that comes, saying stuff like that comes with a stigma. Right? Like, oh, my goodness, that person is, you know, yeah, we have psychiatry now. You know, it's a mental illness. It's a disease of the mind. You know, we don't like to talk about demonic possessions because, you know, we just don't really believe in that. So it's a stigma. So most people, they will not even remotely say the words demonic influence or possession because they don't want to be ridiculed by the rest of the world that believes that mental illness is a disease of the mind. So, again, you have to ask yourself the question, who's in control? Are you in control or is the enemy in control? Because, see, in order for you to be in control, you have to be next to God. You have to be with him all the time, every day. You have to make time for him. Right? He's not going to hunt you down, but he will convict you. The Holy Spirit will start moving in you and saying, you didn't spend time with me today. You know, you get excited, you run out in the world, and you go to work and everything else, and you haven't spent any time with the Lord. And the enemy, he always looks for the weak. He's a roaring lion seeking to destroy. Folks, we got to get this through our heads. We cannot reject God. We have to get up and we have to spend time with him. All right? The enemy is trying to control us and have us make decisions that aren't wise. Right? We have habits. We have demons that have plagued us all of our lives. All of us do. Right? Some of us have pride. Some of us have demons that we were, when we were outside in the world, we were looking at pornographic. We were watching too much football. We were fornicating, committing adultery. We were using profane language, which was blasphemy. We were doing all of those things. We were watching movies that we had no business watching, that fostered a lot of demonic dreams. You know, we were doing all those things. But then once we became new creatures under Christ, once we got baptized and put Christ on, we became light. We became like him. And that's the way we have to conduct ourselves. We have to conduct ourselves accordingly. We cannot backslide, because if we backslide, then we start over, then we lose all. Everything that we gain, we lose it all in one shot. And that's the enemy. That's his whole goal. Okay? So I want to encourage everybody out there to turn the lights on. Don't sit in the dark looking at, you know, unbiblical stuff on Facebook or on the television. If you need to want to be entertained, read your Bible or find a family-friendly program, you know, where families are doing things together, where the father and the mother and the children are doing things together. You know, I know me and my wife have been looking at this family on YouTube, and they call a sleepy dude. And he does a lot of auto mechanic stuff. And it's a church family. And he works on cars. And you go through the whole thing watching the whole journey. The children are involved, everything else, the animals, the goats, they have a farm and everything. And I tell you, they're from I think it was Tennessee, I think. I mean, just country, but very smart people. And we laugh and we just laugh all the time. This family is just heartwarming. You see them and you just want to support them because they're out here doing things, no profane language, no sex, no nothing. I mean, just family, good whole family stuff. Because, see, I don't trust Disney. I don't trust Netflix. I don't trust any of those movies anymore. Because I know they're going to have violence. I know it's going to be fornication. I know it's going to be homosexual in it. I know it's going to be adultery. I know it's going to be all kinds of stuff. And I know those are demons coming out. Right? And I'm not that desperate to be entertained. I can assure you of that. I'm not. So if I have to find something, I'm going to find something that's family friendly that I can put my granddaughters in front of, knowing that it's wholesome. If I can't put my granddaughters in front of it, if I'm afraid that there's going to be some language that's going to pop out, then I'm not going to do it. Once you become a new creature in Jesus Christ, certain things just don't sound right anymore. Certain behaviors, certain things you listen to, you can't listen to them anymore. Right? That means you're getting closer to God and God is convicting you. But when it's okay for you to still listen to profane language and look at shows that have fornication in it and adultery and murder and crime, then you have not submitted yourself to God as of yet. You're serving two masters right now. You're serving two masters. When you're okay to watch programs with that type of debauchery in it, you have not submitted yourself to God. And you need to definitely check yourself. And I know I'm being a little bit harsh right now. Okay? And for that, I'm not apologizing because, guys, we have to get serious about our walk with God. The enemy is a roaring lion seeking to destroy. He's after our families, our wives, our husbands, our grandparents, our children. You know, we just can't play around anymore. We just can't. You know, I want to be entertained. Just let me watch this program. Well, we know that program is not biblical. It's not of God. It has everything in it that's secular and anti-God. And we cannot watch programs that's anti-God. We just can't do it. So, we can't listen to music that's anti-God, anti-kingdom. We just can't do it. We have to control the situation. We cannot let the principalities and the demons control it. And we have to use the blood of Jesus Christ. Right? That's our weapon. God gave that to us. Right? He gave it to us. We have to use it. We have to stop asking God, God, please help us. He's telling you, I've given you everything you needed. The enemy is defeated. Use the weapon. Use what I gave you, please. Right? Because when you do that, you're not looking to be entertained. You're not sitting in the dark. You're not looking at Facebook and looking at ungodly things. You're not looking at TV programs that's ungodly. You're not listening to music that's ungodly. And you're not listening, you're not using language that's ungodly. You're not easily agitated. You're not easily agitated. And when you're easily agitated, that means you're not walking with God. You're not flowing with the Holy Spirit consistently. It's like going to the gym. You can't go to the gym once a month and think you're going to lose that belly. You have to go at least three days a week. And you have to do it consistently. Over and over and over again. Change your diet. Right? You have to do those things. And it's the same thing with anything else. You want to get stronger in the scriptures, you've got to read it. You can't read your Bible once a month and think you're going to understand it. You have to read it. And when you're reading it, it's the word of God, it's your sword, it's God himself, and he's talking to you and you're talking to him. And now you are better off and now you can fight the enemy and you can defeat the enemy. You're not going to be under control by the enemy because you have the word of God inside of you because you're constantly studying it. Okay? So I just wanted to talk about that a little bit, you know, and ask the question, who's controlling who? Is the enemy controlling you? Right? And if he is, only you know that answer. Right? And you've got to ask God to convict you of that and dig deep and dig that out of you. Okay? And get closer to God. You know, that's the only way you're going to get better. You can't, like I said before, you can't shotgun die. You can't be halfway in and halfway out. I know some people are struggling. I know a lot of people are struggling. You know, I know members of my family are struggling. But we can get through this. It's our job for those of us who are actually studying the scripture to intercede for our family members that are struggling. Whether it's our wives, our husbands, our uncles, our aunts, our children, we have to intercede. Okay? That's what we're called to do. All right? Evangelizing. Anyway, let me end it with a prayer. Lord, in the name of Jesus, I want to thank you for today. I want to thank you for the message. I want to thank you for everyone who's listening. Lord, I ask you to put your hand on them that they will come to understand your word. They will understand to use the weapons that you've given them to defeat the enemy. That they will lean to you in those idle times. They will not look to be entertained by the secular world but to spend time with you and let you be their entertainment and let you guide them. And, Lord, I thank you. I thank you for what you're working for each and every one of us on the other side. I thank you for the trials and tribulations that you're allowing us to go through to strengthen us, to pull us closer to you. And I thank you again for your son, Jesus Christ, and his sacrifice that he did for the rest of this world. And, Lord, I thank you for the wisdom that you're bestowing on all of us. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Everybody, have a blessed day. Stay strong in faith and prayer and read your scripture. All right? I'll talk to you all the next time. Norman Goodman signing out.