Is there a connection between sin and demonic oppression? In this episode we explore willful sin, what it is, how to recognize it, and how this can become a red carpet invitation for malicious forces of darkness to come in. We then dive into how we can break free and close this door of demonic oppression.
Please go to our Website gilbertmwachia.com to connect with us. Help us by liking and subscribing to these teachings and sharing with your social networks. While at the website you can connect in many ways, among them:
We value and greatly appreciate your financial support. Your donations help us in growth, production, distribution of these vital truths to various social sites. Together we are touching hurting and oppressed people and bringing victory into their lives through Jesus Christ.
Is there a connection between sin and demonic oppression? In this episode we explore willful sin, what it is, how to recognize it, and how this can become a red carpet invitation for malicious forces of darkness to come in. We then dive into how we can break free and close this door of demonic oppression.
Please go to our Website gilbertmwachia.com to connect with us. Help us by liking and subscribing to these teachings and sharing with your social networks. While at the website you can connect in many ways, among them:
We value and greatly appreciate your financial support. Your donations help us in growth, production, distribution of these vital truths to various social sites. Together we are touching hurting and oppressed people and bringing victory into their lives through Jesus Christ.
Hi there and thank you for joining me for this time of healing and deliverance tour. It's a podcast series where I share with you divine truth that can bring healing and deliverance to those who are oppressed by demons. My name is Dr Gilbert Mwachir. I'm Bishop of Faith Celebration Ministries International in Kenya and pastor of Faith Life Victory Church in Houston, texas. Let's get started Today.
Speaker 1:I want us to go to the other, second part of how we get ourselves defiled, how we get ourselves polluted, either in the flesh or in the spirit, and this is through practicing willful sin, or practicing sin or habitually sinning. You can use either of those words. It will mean one and the same thing. So then we'll look at what is this practicing sin? What does it mean? How do we get to a level of becoming habitual sinners, and then how we can break from habitual sinning, in a way helping us to close these doors or deny or remove legal rights from demons to come in and bring oppression in our lives. So then let's try to define or understand this willful sin or practicing sin. What do we mean? I always want to go to the word of God. I always want to go to the word of God, so I will read with you 1 John 3 in verse 5 through 9. 1 John 3 from verse 5 through 9.
Speaker 1:You see what Apostle John is saying here. He says, and you know, that Jesus came to take away our sins and there is no sin in him. Anyone who continues to live in him will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand who he is. Verse 7 dear children, do not let anyone deceive you about this. When people do what is right, it shows that they are righteous, even as christ is righteous. But when people keep on sinning and notice those words, but when people was eight. But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning of time. But the son of god came to destroy the works of the devil. So that word is very clear. There apostle john is saying uh, that, uh, we. If we continue to sin, then we really haven't known him. And he's using he's using the word here. Anyone who, anyone who knows him, will not sin. But there it can be misleading Start thinking oh, is he talking about a sinless perfection? No, that's not what. The truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins. He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So you see, john says there is no man who can claim to be without sin unrighteousness. So you see, john says there is no man who can claim to be without sin. So this is not what he's talking about. But he is talking as we have read here in verse 7 dear children, do not let anyone deceive you about this.
Speaker 1:When people do what is right, it shows that they are righteous, even as christ is righteous. And then verse 8 says but when people keep on sinning that's very important when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. So you see there, anybody who keeps on sinning, he shows that he belongs to the devil and that's powerful. That's powerful. If it's something that you're doing and you keep doing, then you say you're putting yourself under the arms. You say you belong to the devil. Right, you belong to him, so you can do whatever you want. This is his, and the devil knows the word of God. So what do we mean by keeping on sinning? So you can do whatever you want. This is his, and the devil knows the word of God. So what do we mean by keeping on sinning?
Speaker 1:A person who keeps on sinning is somebody who knows what they're doing is not right before God, but he continues to do that or she continues to do that. All right, that's habitual sin. So, and how do we get? How does one become a habitual sinner?
Speaker 1:Become a habitual sinner is a process. It doesn't happen in a day. It's a process that begins with number one ignoring the voice of conscience. When we are born again, your conscience is awakened to the truth of God and the Holy Spirit, who comes to live in us, speaks to you, speaks to your conscience. When you are sinning, it will speak to you. It will say this is wrong, you need to stop that and you get the strength from the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1:But if you keep on ignoring that voice of conscience that leads you towards righteousness, towards godliness, then the second thing that happens is your conscience becomes seared, as with a hot iron. That's what paul tells timothy in first timothy, chapter four and verse two. He says uh, uh, uh. Speaking uh lies in hypocrisy and their conscience being seared with a hot iron. Paul is saying that there are some people who will follow deceiving spirits From verse 1. There I've just quoted verse 2, part of verse 2, how they say people will follow deceiving spirits and doctrines of devil and they start speaking lies in hypocrisy. Their conscience becomes seared with a hot iron.
Speaker 1:When your conscience is seared with a hot iron, it's dulled. It becomes dull or closed. You no longer have feelings You're doing something wrong, but you don't feel it, you don't care, you don't care. Your mind becomes corrupted, darkened. He says through the Ephesians, ephesians 4, verse 18 there their minds have been darkened. The unbelievers' minds are darkened. Their mind becomes darkened by the enemy. Your conscience is seared.
Speaker 1:And then, when your conscience is seared, then a stronghold is built in your mind and in your heart. You get a stronghold of sin. Listen to that. A stronghold is something that holds you strongly. You almost can't get out of it. All right. So there's a stronghold of sin that is built and then sin becomes a habit. A habit becomes your character.
Speaker 1:Let's have a progression of how somebody becomes a habitual sinner or continues to practice sin, and what happens in the process? You become very stubborn, you don't want to be corrected, you cannot be told anything now. Let's go now to this second session then to know. How, then, does habitual sin attract demons? How does it attract demonic oppression? We want to know that, and this is is very simple and straightforward Sin is one of the primary ways that opens the door for demons. And how does it do this? It does this by breaking or violating the spiritual armor. The spiritual armor Remember we are soldiers, we are soldiers, we are in a battle. I'll share a couple of those things in a moment. But when talking about spiritual armor, some people are like wow, what is that? We have to understand. These teachings are going even into some countries that don't know the Bible as we know it, even into some countries that don't know the Bible as we know it.
Speaker 1:But the Bible talks about spiritual armor in Ephesians 6, and verse 12 downwards, where Paul says we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places. And then it says therefore, it says stand firm. It says pick up the whole armor of God, and then you stand firm. He says pick up the whole armor of God, and then you stand firm, and after you have done everything, you remain standing. That's what Paul tells us in verse 14. Therefore, stand, having guarded. Then he starts mentioning verse 13. Guarded, then he start mentioning verse 13. He says therefore, take up the whole armor of god that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and, having done all, to stand right. So so you, you take up the whole armor.
Speaker 1:So the bible pictures us as soldiers and we are in a constant battle. We have an enemy who the Bible says he prowls or walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Now, he cannot devour everyone, we have shared that but he's looking for a particular kind of people whom he can pounce on and devour and get in and oppress and take possession of their lives. It's not everyone, but he looks for those. And how does it look? So we are told to stand and take up the whole armor. And it is the whole armor. All right, keep that in mind. Then he says, he mentions that the belt of truth, the brisk place of righteousness, your feet showed with the preparation of the gospel, the helmet of salvation, the shield of faith, all these that you can use to quench the arrows of the enemy, and then the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. And then prayer, with all kinds of prayer. So you see that. So now when you are sinning, look at that. It says take up the whole armor.
Speaker 1:Now sin breaks or violates when you are doing not falling down in sin. No, I'm talking about constant, deliberate sinning. Constant and deliberate, willful sin, where you know and you know and you've been told by God, by others, that what you're doing is wrong, but you still persist in it. That violates the spiritual armor. And one of the areas that is violated is is like the brispless of righteousness. Remember it protects your brispless, protects the vital organ right here in the chest. All your vital spiritual organs now are exposed to the enemy.
Speaker 1:Why do we say principles of righteousness is violated? It's because our righteousness comes in two ways. First of all, there is the imputed righteousness, where Jesus was made sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God. So God clothes us with his righteousness that is imputed, that comes freely, by grace, the grace of God that makes us righteous, we who are sinful people. But then where we have read in 1 John 3, you've seen there it says whoever. Verse 7, he says do not be deceived. That's what John said Don't be deceived. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, just as he is, as Jesus is righteous. So there is the righteousness that comes through practice. Through practice, that is what you do. Whoever does what is righteous is righteous. Whoever does what is right is righteous. That's what he says. Whoever does what is right is righteous. So there's the righteousness that comes out of me, leaving the righteousness that I have received through Christ doing what is right.
Speaker 1:Okay, now, when you practice sin, when you're doing what is wrong and you know it's wrong, that's not right sister, that's not right brother. You can't do that, you can't, and you still do it. You say I don't want anybody to tell me. Who do you think you are? Oh, this is my life. No, no, no, no. Our lives belong to God. You don't have your life. Your life belongs to God. And so you violate righteousness and you are exposed. Okay, remember we have read I told you take not Paul says, take up the whole armor of god.
Speaker 1:You can't say you just have the helmet of salvation and your feet and then you don't have the brisplets of righteousness or the sword of the spirit or the shield of faith. You have to take the whole armor. And so if the enemy prowls around looking for whom to devour and your breastplate has been. Your righteousness is. You're no longer living in righteousness, walking in righteousness, then you are exposed to demonic attack. Do you see that Not only habitual sin takes away your righteousness, but it violates all the other pieces? For example, you're not living in truth, you're living a lie, you're not living. The belt of truth is interfered. Okay, not only that.
Speaker 1:The sword of the spirit, the word of God, somebody who is living habitual sin. They don't take the word, they don't read the word, because the word will convict them. See, the Bible says that the word is sharper than any two-edged sword. That's what it says in the book of Hebrews, chapter 4. It's sharper than any two-edged sword. I think it's verse 12 there, right? So you don't want to read the word because it will cut you, it will convict you.
Speaker 1:And so if you don't have the word of God and it's the sword of the spirit with which you attack the enemy, that's what Jesus used to defeat the enemy when Satan tempted him. He said it is written, he used the word of God. You need the word, you need the word, I need the word. And so if I'm living in sin, my soul of the spirit is interfered with. Not only that, I'm also lacking in prayer. He says, with all prayer and supplication, somebody who is living in habitual sin has his prayer life interfered with. They do not pray effectively, in fact, your prayer life goes down, down, down. You don't spend time in prayer, you don't spend time in the Word. Your place is interfered with.
Speaker 1:How on earth are you going to defeat these malevolent forces? You are exposed to the enemy. You are exposed, and so the devil can come in and dump whatever he wants. Demons can come in to bring whatever they want, because now your, your wall of protection, your wall of protection, your armor, which is supposed to help you out, that has been violated, right. So you see, that's how habitual sin exposes us, and so demons can come on easily and and bring oppression. And then how do we?
Speaker 1:Now let's quickly say how we can break from habitual sin One of the problems of continuing sin, because it builds a stronghold. I say you get a stronghold in the mind and a stronghold in the heart. It feels like you can never break the rule. Maybe you're saying, oh, pastor, I have tried, I have tried, I have tried. No, no, the truth is, it is possible to break free. How do we do that? Well, you don't have to use your strength. You have to throw yourself and surrender to god.
Speaker 1:All right, let me read with you titus, chapter 1, verse 11. I love Titus 1, verse 11. It helped me when I was a young believer and growing up, is still helping me today. It will help me until my time is up or Jesus comes back.
Speaker 1:Titus 1, verse 11, it says for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in the present age. I love that. It's a beautiful verse. It says God's grace has been poured to every. It's available, in other words, available to all men, as appeared to all men. And he's teaching just one thing he's teaching us to deny or to say no to ungodliness and worldly lusts. You can do it, because it's not your strength, it's the strength of God. All you need is to submit. I want to live for you, I want to walk with you, I want to break free. You submit to God.
Speaker 1:It appears to say to ungodly, to deny. It teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. I'll tell you what this world, especially the one we are living in, deny, ungodliness and worldly lusts. I'll tell you what this world, especially the one we are living in, you might say oh, pastor, you don't know where I am working, you don't know my youth group, you don't know the university that I go, you don't know the institution that I work. People are so evil, I am surrounded with so much, I just find myself sat in no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1:It says denying and godliness and worldly lies, that we should live soberly, righteously and godly in the present age. How sweet is that. I can almost preach someone out of that. He says this present age, no matter where you are, right there, the grace of God is available and it can teach you, it can give you the power to say no to ungodliness and worldly lies, and then you can live soberly, righteously and godly in the present age, amongst your youth group, amongst the women, the gossiping women, amongst the men that are drinking and carousing and doing immoral things. Right, in this generation, this evil generation, you and I can live victorious lives against the enemy. So how do we then succeed? How do we come out victorious?
Speaker 1:Uh, number one we have to call sin sin. Learn to call sin sin. Don't baptize it another name. Don't call it a habit. Don't call it my weakness. Don't call it uh, this is my character or this is the way our family, our clan is. We are immoral people. No, no, no, no, no. Call sin sin If it is immorality, if you are living with somebody else's husband, somebody else's wife, or you are practicing adultery or fornication, whatever it is that is ungodly. Just call it by the name. This is sin. That's the first step.
Speaker 1:Number two you have to confess it. Tell God I am sorry, lord, I'm sorry for my sin. You have to ask God to forgive you. You are robbing the enemy the right to continue to oppress you. So you confess that sin as sin before God.
Speaker 1:Number three you pick up the cross and crucify the flesh. Wow, that's a whole sermon right there. Jesus said whoever will come after me, whoever wants to follow me, he has to deny himself. Pick up the cross daily and follow me, he has to deny himself. Pick up the cross daily and follow me. See the cross. Anybody who hung on the cross had to die. So don't come out of the cross. Pick up the cross and put your flesh there. Let it die. Let it feel the pain of crucifixion and die right there. Right, you have to die to the flesh, right. Number four, then humble yourself before God. Humble yourself After you. Crucify yourself, crucify the flesh. You humble yourself before God and others. Let me add that Not just before God, you have to humble yourself before others.
Speaker 1:A humble person can be corrected. Sin makes one arrogant. When you're living in sin, you don't want to be told anything and if you have that attitude, you're arrogant. God has no places for arrogance. He says I dwell with the humble in hurt. God loves humility. There's something that attacks God's humility. God loves humility. There's something that attacks God humility. God loves humbleness. You know people.
Speaker 1:When you start living in sin, you don't want to be told anything. You become arrogant. You become stubborn Stubborn to correction. You don't know who do you think you are? I don't care. Nobody's going to tell me how to live. This is my life. I'm going to do what I want to do. I will go where I want to go. This is my life. The grace of God, you know. These days we're telling you as if the grace of God is licensed to do anything that is unclean. No, that is refusing to humble yourself before God and before people who can correct you. Have people who can hold you accountable, who can correct you when you are wrong. Okay, after you, humble yourself, number five I think that will be number five.
Speaker 1:You have to resist the devil, right? That's important. This is your part. God is not going to resist the devil, it is you. The Bible says humble yourself before God's mighty hand. Then resist, submit yourself to God, then resist the devil and he will flee. His work is to flee when we resist him. But first of all we have to be humble. We have to humble ourselves before God. You can't do it in the reverse way. If you try to resist the devil and you yourself, you are not submissive to the voice of God, you cannot be told things by others. Then you are arrogant and the devil will resist you. You can't resist, the devil will resist you. Right, you can't resist the devil, right. And then number six you have to be willing to fight against sin, even if it means dying. You have to painfully undergo the power, deny the power of that sin until it loses its power over you.
Speaker 1:I love 1 Peter, chapter 4. I'm going to read 1 Peter, chapter 4, with you here, so that you can see what it says. It says, therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because whoever suffers in the body is done with sin. As a result, they do not live the rest of their earthly lives for evil human desire, but rather for the will of God. That is powerful. That is powerful, that is sweet.
Speaker 1:He says, therefore, because Christ suffered in his body, he suffered because of sin, he suffered. He says, arm yourself with the same attitude. You have an attitude that you allow this body to suffer. And he says whoever has suffered in the body is done with him. That means it doesn't mean sin will not be there. Sin is there, but you have overcome, you are victorious. You live above the dictates of sin, right? And he says verse 2, as a result, they do not live the rest of their earthly lives for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. Ain't that what you and I want? That we not live for evil human desires, but for the will of God. And the best place any man can live is to live in the will of God. And the best place any man can live is to live in the will of God. It's so sweet. People might think that you are enduring man. It's sweet to walk with Christ. It's sweet to submit to God. It's sweet, it's life. He says I came that they may have life and have it abundant.
Speaker 1:So be willing to suffer, to fight against sin, even if it means dying. This is what hebrews, chapter 12, verse 4, says that you have not resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin. Hear that the writer of hebrews says you have not resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin. You can win it. You are still alive, even if it means dying. When you have that attitude, if it means dying because I have refused to sin, let me die, let this body drop dead. If you do that, sin has no more power over you. Because you are willing to die, you can do anything. That's the way to free yourself. That's the way to free yourself. That's a way to freeze.
Speaker 1:And when you break from this habitual sin man you are, you are setting yourself up to a victorious life, victory against demonic oppression. So if you're there, maybe there's a besetting sin, as Hebrews 12, verse 1, verse 2, it says let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles us. Let us run with perseverance the rest that is marked for us. I'm now quoting Hebrews 12, 2, 3. I just read verse 4, that you have not resisted to bloodshed, but anyways. So, whatever you are doing, whatever the Holy Spirit is speaking to you, if there's something that you've been holding to remember, that is a route the enemy can use to bring oppression in your life. Get rid of it. Get rid of it. Get rid of it, stand against it, fight against sin, live righteous Because God is on our side. You win the battle. Win the battle against sin. And there's so much I can share, but our time will not allow. Hallelujah, hope you're learning something that you can live free and you want to close this door as we are sharing this truth. Hallelujah, hope you're learning something that you can live free and you want to close this door, as we are sharing this truth, so that we can close some of these doors and begin to speak to demonic powers and tell them to live our life to resist the devil. That's what we are sharing here.
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