Eddie Smith
Good morning, my name is Eddie Smith. And I'm glad to have you with me here in my house in Houston, Texas on a beautiful fall afternoon. I want to share with you from a book that I wrote called, Making Sense of Spiritual Warfare. There are a lot of things going on today that are called spiritual warfare. Which in some cases are not warfare at all and other cases, they're not spiritual at all. In fact, weird might be a word to use. Weird is not a spiritual gift. Weird is not wonderful, it's just weird. Scripture does tell us how to engage in spiritual warfare. But many times we go way beyond scripture and have our own philosophies and our own styles of spiritual warfare, and we're doing things the Bible doesn't tell us to do. In some cases that it forbids us to do. So I wrote the book Making Sense of Spiritual Warfare is published by Bethany House and it's available in my online bookstore called prayerbookstore.com, if you would care to look at it. So I just want to share with some thoughts, in fact, this will be part one, it's a long lesson. So it'll take two broadcasts to get it all in, even if we do get it all in. But it's from the book, but the book has much, much more to offer than what I'll be sharing with you now. When I was a pastor here in Houston, which was some time ago, I was on my way to teach a spiritual warfare conference that morning at the church on Sunday morning. Excuse me Saturday morning, and I left the house. At that time, we live in another part of Northwest Houston, where we currently live. In that part of Northwest Houston, we had some beautiful trees in the neighborhood and so we loved living there. When I got in my car and headed down the street, suddenly I saw on the light wire above the road, I saw a squirrel about midstreet, crossing the street, walking on that light wire with his four feet. I don't know how a squirrel or anything can walk on four feet across a light wire, no bigger than the my little finger without falling off. He was using his tail like a parasol like a tightrope walker might use or a pole like a tightrope walker might use. He was doing pretty well, he had made it to the middle of the street, and it doesn't take much to entertain me. So I parked the car, got out, crawled up on the hood of the car and sat there to watch him. It was quite fascinating to me. I've always enjoyed circuses and acrobatics and such, so I wondered if he can actually make it. All of a sudden, about mid street as I said, a strange thing happened. A crazed mockingbird scion, now to some of you a mockingbird doesn't matter, but to us, it's our Texas state bird. So we love the mockingbird because he represents our state. But understand a mockingbird is a vicious bird, he'll attack an 18 wheel truck. They'll attack you if you get anywhere near their nest. They're only about that long, but they don't know that. So that mockingbird saw that squirrel in the middle of the street on that wire and he thought to himself, that's just too good to pass up. So he didn't pass it up. He circled around that squirrel. And like a World War ll bomber he came down and is zoomed down onto that squirrel and picked him on the head and the squirrel turned around and started walking the other way. When he saw that he circled again it, came down to pecked him on the head and the squirrel started walking that way. So it was quite a deal. It was like a World War ll movie. All of a sudden that little squirrel thought in his squirrel brain, if it's this hard to walk on this wire, perhaps I should run. Now I've not met an engineer yet that can explain this to me and I've taught this story all over the world. How can a squirrel that can barely walk on a quarter or 3/8 inch lightwire, break into a run and get to the other side of the street, make a 90 degree turn instantly down the pole, run down the pole faster than gravity can pull him to the ground and then when he gets to the ground, make another 90 degree turn and run off into a bush? The last thing I saw as I drove away was that mockingbird, diving down on a squirrel, pecking him on the head again. I was amazed, I got back in my car drove to the church, now I'm ready to do business. When I walked in, I thought, well, this is a good way to start this lesson on Spiritual Warfare. So I said, Good morning, everybody. I have a question for you give me an honest answer. Let's do it quickly. And I told them the story I just told you. And I said to them, how many of you can relate to that squirrel getting pecked on the head all the time? Their hands went up and I said, that's interesting. You see, I don't relate to the squirrel. I relate to the mockingbird. I don't think God put me here so I can live my life being pecked on the head off all the time by the enemy. He put me here to make sure the enemy doesn't have a normal day and that's why He put you here. You see, I'm not looking for a demon free zone to live in. Jesus didn't have one. Why should I expect one? Demons are not everywhere, of course, but there are plenty of them. What does scripture tell us? A third of the angels fell into the Earth, if that is indeed what demons are, there's conjecture. I have some ideas as well. But the common idea is that demons are fallen angels. I'm tempted to go into that topic, because that's an interesting topic. I'll just say this, an angel never tried to get inside somebody, because he didn't have that drive or necessity. So but anyway, moving on from that debatable topic. There are demons in this Earth, and they are not everywhere, but a third of the angels in Heaven followed Satan out of Heaven. So that should give us some idea, at least about how many there might be. There's no indication that they die or that they are reborn. So I'm not sure how to relate to that. But again, I'm not looking for a demon free zone to live in. We've had demons appear in our home, but they were here for a visitation, not a habitation. For that reason, we wrote a book called, Spiritual House Cleaning. Which tells us how to have a home where demons are not free to live and set up housekeeping but, they will visit from time to time. It's their problem, because it's harder on them than it is on us. Because we're not victims, we are victors and we are victorious. So that demon freezone people look for is just doesn't exist. Why should it; because Scripture tells us, He prepares the table before us in the presence of our enemy? So I'm not looking for the absence of my enemy, I'm looking for the presence of my enemy, because I'm looking for the table. And we'll just let them watch me eat. Our son, Brian, he's with the Lord now. But when he was 15, he came out of his bedroom one time. Now Brian was a seer. Seer, he saw things that other people don't typically see, like other people, like me don't typically see out in my case, has never seen, but that there was ample proof that he saw things spiritually. That's not unusual, it's all over the Bible. There are people today, literally people in mental institutions that are there because they actually saw real things, not because they imagined anything. They just didn't know what to do with what they were seeing. I've had the the opportunity to teach, excuse me, to teach on that topic to some psychologists that were working with people like that. What they see in many cases is real, but they don't know what to do with it. There was the case with Brian, except he did know what to do with it because he was trained. When we realized he had that gifting, then we trained him in that. But he came out of his room one morning and he said, Dad, the strangest thing happened to me last night. I said, Well, what was it? He said, You know, I was almost asleep and I looked up in the ceiling of my room was covered with demonic faces and they were sneering at me and snarling at me and smiling and it was awful. They were there to scare me. I said what did you do? He said, Well, I did what you told me to do. You see I have two brothers and they're wonderful man of God. I have two brothers, but we were taught not to tattle. If one of us tattled on the other we both got spanked. So tattling was a no no and the home we grew up in, but in my home, tattling was important. I taught my kids to do what I do and what I teach others to do, and that is to tattle. When you got a problem, tattle, tell your daddy about it. Not me, your heavenly Father. I said what did you do Brian? He said, Well, I did what you told me to do that. I said, Lord, would you make them go away? And I said, What did he say? He said, No. He said, No. Yeah. Then what did you do? You said that if you ever get a word from God, you don't understand asking for clarity. So I said, Why don't you make them go away God? God said, I want you to let them watch you sleep. I said, Go get your Bible. He went and got his high school Bible, one of those easy to read versions. I said, Sir, turn to Psalm three, and read that to me. He read Psalm three to me, you can read it on your own but basically, David said, lay down at night and I sleep, though, 10,000 gather on my right hand, and 10,000 gather on my left hand, I will fear no evil for thou, O Lord, art a shield about me. I said, God, just let you experience Psalm three last night, now go to school and he did. Here's the question. Now all of my questions are trick questions. So I just warn you as we go along. If you were hearing me live, I taught this live last week at a wonderful Lutheran Church here in in Houston. But if you were hearing me live, you would be tempted to answer the questions and I would tell you ahead of time, do not answer them, they are trick questions. I don't want to cause you any embarrassment. But if God gives you a spiritual warfare assignment, will he protect you while you carry it out? I can hear the deafening roar. Duh. Of course, yes. Well, what did Stephen do wrong? Stephen was given an assignment from the Lord, he followed through with his assignment and he died doing it. You see, we read things into Scripture that are not there. That's particularly true of we Western and Christians. Now, my wife Alice and I, we've taught in nations all over the world for the past 30 years and we know that in other cultures, this is not as big a problem. But in our western culture here in the United States, and probably the UK and, and other Western countries. We even have a slogan that we say sometimes if you got your health, you've got everything. Well, that's not true. And in fact, your health is not the most important thing you have. You say, Oh, you mean my life, I shouldn't lose my life. No, your life is not the most important thing you have. The most important thing you have is your kingdom potential. What you were put here for, and perhaps we can do a teaching on that, because most Christians don't know why they're here. Most Christians couldn't tell you what their spiritual gift is. They couldn't tell you what the manifestation gift is that God does when he comes upon them in fullness. They couldn't tell you what their ministry gift is. And yet one day they will give account to God for all of that, and the territory God is assigned to them. That way, we are ignorant in many cases of the very thing God has given us, and which for which he will hold us accountable. So Stephen, lost his life. Because our kingdom potential is our most important value. Steven, I believe, met the kingdom potential God had for him. We'll talk more about that, losing life as we go along. Jesus said, I give you power over all the enemy. We have to learn to read things in context, and apply a little common sense sometimes to understand Scripture. I gave you power over all the enemy, you remember that? To whom did Jesus say that? He said that to 70 people he was sending out to confront demons without Him. You see, Jesus had confronted demons and powerful ways. In his confronting demons in powerful ways, the disciples were amazed. They could not imagine how Jesus could do that, because they grew up in that land. They had seen demons on people before demonize people and only Jesus had that kind of authority. But he said, I'm giving you power over all the enemy. Now I meet a lot of Christians here today. In fact, perhaps most likely some of you that are watching and you would say, He's given me power over all the enemy. And my question is, What does that mean? We'll talk more about that in a minute. But he told him I give you power over all the enemy and nothing will hurt you. Do you know any Christians that have power over all the enemy, and nothing can hurt them? Think about it. I mean, let's get down off our, our high horses, as we say, here in Texas. Let's get down off our high our horses and give some thought to these things we talk about, say and preach about. Let's analyze them and see what exactly do they mean and why do they mean it? I readily admit that I do not have power over all the enemy. If I did, I would go empty some hospitals. If I did, I would raise some dead people. If I did, I would cure cancer. If I did, I would stop child abuse. I recognize that something can harm me. There are things that harm Godly people. I was going to Pakistan to teach once and God gave me a promise. I had never been there before and I knew it was an Islamic country. I knew that it was dangerous for me to go there and I told my staff and my family at a last minute meeting I said, I want you to relax. God gave me peace and a word that I'm coming home safely. Well, that was a challenge. Because when I got to the Houston airport, I was in the President's Club, that's where you go if you fly a lot. You go there and sit down in a more private setting and drink coffee. I was doing that, now it's time for me to get on my plane. So I got up and went to the door and when I tried to walk out the door, the door wouldn't open. So I pushed it a little harder, you know, like you would. I pushed it a little harder, but it still didn't open. So I shoved it hard and when I did it opened and a policeman was standing there with his back to the door. He was actually keeping the door from opening. I was pushing against him and he didn't seem happy. I asked him, I said why can't I get out. He said look, and he opened the door further, across the aisle from where I was, was a trash receptacle. Next to the trash receptacle were two policemen in hazmat. So I guess that's what you call them bomb suits, disposal suits, and they were working on that trashcan, with the confident belief that there was a bomb in that trash can. I call my office and I said, you know, I know you're gonna pray for me when I get to Pakistan, but you might want to pray for me while I'm still in Houston. This is not the safest place apparently that I can be. But the truth is I got to Pakistan and I came home safely. But also remember years ago, we were at the Orange County Fair in California and my son wanted to ride one of the rides and it was one of those boomerang rides where you get on it and it shoots you up in the air and shoots you back down and I'm game for all that kind of stuff, as was he. But I got ready to buy the ticket and as I pull my wallet out, God said, Do not take any unnecessary chances, I have responsibilities and jobs for you. So I didn't take the ride because I was not to take unnecessary chances. So for that reason, there are many nations that I've been invited to that I have not gone to because I didn't feel God's direction. The truth is, in God's army Rambo's need not apply. There's no job for a one man operation. Soldiers get killed in bars just like they get killed in battle. So it's important for us to be always obedient to the the leadership of the Lord and his assignments. There was a TV reporter, actually, what do they call them the the talking head, the news person. She was a famous young by the way, young and beautiful TV reporter in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Alice and I were teaching there and we were teaching for one thing on Spiritual Warfare. And the church that we were in is a church that she started attending once she found Christ. She got so excited about finding Christ and so excited about spiritual warfare. When they had their Sunday morning prayer meetings before the sermon, my dog is gonna compete with me now. When they started the morning services on Sunday, they had a prayer meeting going on and this beautiful young lady was really fired up for spiritual warfare. She would walk back and forth in the front of the building, yelling and screaming at the devil and demons and telling them what they could do and where they could go and, and just carrying on with full, full emotion. And one day she just dropped dead, Sunday morning, at the altar, in prayer. The question is, do we have the authority we say we have? Well, we'll get there. So hang on. I was up in the Northeast, and seven or eight churches had come together for a seminar, which I do quite often, or I did quite often in those days, on making sense of spiritual warfare. At that time, I called it bringing balance to spiritual warfare. So I got up before the group, and I said, How many of you can tell me 10 things that the devil is doing in the city? And boy, they you know, how you spiritual warfare, people are really jumped to their feet yelling, yeah, I can I can, I can, I can. Me, me, me, I said, Sit down, sit down, sit down, sit down. And they did sit down. And I said, Would one of you tell me 10 things God's doing in the city? And they looked at me like I was speaking Mandarin. And they said, I don't know. And I said, now you are all spiritual warfare intercessors. You all can tell me 10 things the devil is doing in the city. None of you can tell me 10 things God's doing in the city. How can you pray the first prayer? Jesus said of myself, I can do nothing. I can only do what I see the Father doing. So if you can only do what you see the Father doing, and you have no idea what the father's doing, how do you pray the first prayer? The truth is, we pay so little attention to what the father's doing. And we focus so much on what the devil is doing, that the devil's activity tends to drive and dictate our spiritual warfare prayer. Hang on to that I believe there's more. John 5:19, I can only do what I see the Father doing. And he says the Father sent me so send us so you can only do what you see the Father doing. Because you see your bride, which makes you his helpmeet. There's a problem here that I see. And that is, us determining what our enemy is, where our target is, what the plan is, and going for it without any direction at all, and without any understanding of what God is doing. And Jesus said, I do nothing but what I see the Father doing, myself, I can do nothing. We are his helpmeet. If there was a place called Tiny Texas, and there isn't there's nothing tiny in Texas. You know, everything's big in Texas. And you can always tell his accent, he just can't tell him much. But tiny Texas would be a wonderful little town with 10 churches, and it just imagine with me 10 churches, that if we had such a town and it had a revival, I mean a real revival. Similar to the Pensacola revival some of you may have heard about. A revival where God showed up and where people were just focused so intently on God's presence and where God's doing things and healing people and saving people and, and moving and power and, and all of the intercessors in town, would start attending those services, of course. They would start praying, can I tell you what their prayer would be? Oh, god, thank you for what you're doing here. This church God, send this to church number two, and church number three, and church number six, and seven and eight, nine and 10. God, we want our churches in our city to have this revival. Why are they asking God to do what he's not doing? Jesus wouldn't he said, I only do what I see the Father doing. I don't pay attention to what he's not doing. I'm convinced that if they did meet and if they did pray, and their prayer sounded like this, Father, you are so amazing. We just are just shocked by seeing you in such power in this church. We thank you so much for this revival Father, we love you for it, we celebrate you for it, move more in power expand this Father, be fulfilled in this place and in our lives. I'm convinced the Father would say to His angels, watch this and revival would begin to spread to the other churches. You see, we celebrate it to see it not celebrated after we see it. By faith, we celebrate to see it and we do see it. I was up in Oregon, and it was a similar congregation of people. And about seven or eight churches had come together, a spiritual warfare conference and was introduced. And I came out on the platform, putting my Bible on the pulpit, and I said, How many now in the power of it and Satan tonight, the name of Jesus, let me see your hand. Well, no hands, everybody was on their feet screaming, I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't. I say well sit down, sit down, sit down, sit down. I know all of you can. But my request is this Would one of you please bind him. and let's put an end to starvation. Let's put an end to child abuse. Let's put an end to war. Let's put an end to sin and sickness and disease and cancer and pneumonia and all these other things. Anybody I own, you can bind Satan. You've told me that Would one of you bind him and let's put an end to all that? Well, they sat there and looked at me and we say in Texas, like a calf looking at a new gate. You see, and none of us can bind him. But that's what I hear. When I go to prayer meetings, saying we bind you in the name of Jesus devil, we bind you in the name of Jesus and we bind you. We can't bind and that's not our assignment. One angel in Revelation 20 binds him. He has a chain. He's got a key to the abyss and he's got a command from God. He's got three things you don't have and I don't have, a chain, a key, a command. If a toddler right now, today, here in my house, if a toddler had a chain, a key and a command, he could bind Satan for 1000 years. That angel will do. It didn't even say it's an archangel. So that's not a big deal. It's going to happen in Revelation 20 verse one. Well, let me close and we'll go into part two in our next broadcast. What many of us call faith is actually just presumption? Let's be faith filled and let's be biblical. In our next lesson, I'll take you further into looking at spiritual workers praying bouts to spiritual warfare. Clock is telling me thank you for being with me.
