John 3 Childlike Faith
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00:00Welcome, Brother Michael. Folks, we're excited to be here tonight with Michael W. Smith coming
00:06to you from his headquarters at HardcoreChristianity.com. And, my friend, would you like to open us
00:13up in prayer? Yes, and thanks for having me on again. Yes, sure. Lord Jesus, it's a privilege
00:22to be on Omega Man. I look forward to it every month because I know that you are going to
00:30help someone. And we are looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. We are
00:37not looking to Brother Mike or anything about me. So, I know you're going to help a lot
00:45of people tonight with your word, and I thank you for it. Amen. Amen. Brother Michael, welcome
00:51back. And how have you been since last time, my friend? Swamped. Hey, that's a good place
00:57to be. That's good. I know you're doing a great job out there. For those who may be
01:03tuning in for the first time, where are you located? And give out your contact information.
01:08Yes, you can contact me. If you happen to be here locally, we are in the downtown Phoenix
01:17area. We're on 15th Avenue south of Osborne Road. It's a red brick building. It's called
01:22the Arizona Deliverance Center. And we have a counseling center there. And if you happen
01:27to live here locally, or you're going to be visiting here from out of state, if you're
01:31a born again Christian, you're eligible for free counseling services. All you have to
01:36do is call me at 602-636-5800, 636-5800, and I'll get you on the counseling schedule. There's
01:43no charge if you're born again. In addition, we have two live services every week at the
01:50Deliverance Centers, Thursday and Friday nights at 7 o'clock. And it's broadcast on our YouTube
01:56teaching channel. And the altar call and all of the deliverances, there's usually somewhere
02:03between 15 and 25 a week in each service. It's all broadcast live. And you'll be able
02:10to see and hear how the deliverances are going. In addition to that, we have three Zoom healing
02:18and deliverance services every week. We have Monday night for the ladies only at 6.30 p.m.
02:22Pacific Time. And then we have everybody on Wednesday and Saturday nights at 6 p.m. Pacific
02:30Time. And in addition, on the website, if you send me an email, mike at hardcorechristianity.com,
02:38I will send you the miracle list. I have two of them. One for born again Christians who
02:44are mentally ill. And another one for troubled or stressed out Christians. And in fact, tonight
02:53after the radio show, if you send me an email tonight, mike at hardcorechristianity.com,
02:58I'll send it tonight. It's a step-by-step guide to healing and deliverance. It works
03:02100% of the time. So you can contact me by email or you can come visit the center or
03:09you can give me a call at our ministry line, 602-636-5800.
03:14Fantastic. Hey, that's a great offer. We'll give that out again at the end of the program.
03:20And Brother Michael, welcome back. The mic is yours.
03:24Thank you. I had some important things I wanted to share with your listeners tonight that
03:32will be very helpful. As I've mentioned to you several times in the past, I've been a
03:38counselor for over 40 years. But the first 25 of them, I was a secular counselor. I had
03:44my own counseling center in downtown Phoenix. And after my daughter led me to the Lord,
03:51I slowly transitioned out of my secular counseling practice. I closed it down and laid off all
03:57my employees. And then I started Christian Counseling, Inner Healing and Deliverance
04:03in 2005. And since that time, I've only done Christian Counseling. I never went back to
04:12secular psychology or psychiatry or anything like that.
04:16But what I've noticed over the years, a major problem in my Christian Counseling practice
04:23and I've had thousands of people come for help over the years. We've had thousands of
04:29people delivered from demons in the ministry. We also had several hundred people healed,
04:34physically healed right in front of our eyes. And I've noticed one psychiatric problem with
04:42born-again Christians. I want to fix it tonight. And I wanted to, with your permission, share
04:47this information because I've seen it over and over again over the years when I've been
04:54counseling and praying for born-again Christians. Absolutely, my friend. Thank you.
05:01Well, it's in, let's start in John Chapter 3. As you know, everybody's read this chapter.
05:06It's extremely famous. It's one of the most powerful chapters in all of the Bible. And
05:13it's the story of Nicodemus. And he comes to visit Jesus, as you know. And Jesus has
05:20an intimate conversation with him. Now, Nicodemus was a very interesting person. And I've had
05:26many of them, dozens and dozens come for counseling over the years. Nicodemus was highly educated,
05:34had numerous degrees. He was a highly respected intellect and theologian in Judaism, particularly
05:42in Jerusalem. And he also had an extremely high, if not a genius level, IQ. You know,
05:56Einstein's IQ was 160. And that's pretty darn high. I would guess Nicodemus would have been
06:04right around that area. He was an extremely intelligent man. And one of the most difficult
06:12types of Christians to see healed or delivered in all of Christianity are the Nicodemus types.
06:22They're extremely hard to work with and they're extremely hard to see healed or delivered
06:27from demons. Very difficult. And what I've noticed over the years is that people who
06:33are at the extremes of human intellectual functioning, for example, if you had the Wechsler
06:39Adult Intelligence Scale, the revised edition, and you gave out IQ tests or you had the Stanford
06:47Binet IQ test, according to the scale there, as you know, 100 is the median or the average
07:00level of intelligence of human beings in the United States. On the scales of the Wechsler
07:07or the Stanford Binet, 100 is the median or the average IQ. Statistically, half the
07:15population is at or higher than 100 and half the population is at or lower than 100. And
07:27as your IQ continues to elevate higher, there's a lower percent of human beings that falls
07:35into that category. As your IQ goes down, there's a lower percent of human beings in
07:45our society that fit into that category. The highest number of people in, let's just use
07:51America for example, there's 350 or 60 million people in America, maybe another 20 million
07:59of undocumented people, might be 370 thereabouts. These are only estimates of course. The vast
08:07majority of all those people in the United States, 350 million let's say, are in the
08:14center of the bell curve, so to speak, of those intelligence tests. And what I've noticed
08:22over the years, when dealing with people and trying to get them healed and delivered from
08:28demons, people who have exceptionally high IQs don't do well with spiritual things. They
08:39tend to over process them. They tend to think too much about them and over analyze them.
08:46People who have very low IQs or would be considered stupid or dumb, they are in the same boat
08:53as someone who is very intelligent or brilliant. They're in the same boat. They rarely get
09:02healed or delivered because they're just not able to grasp the basics of it because of
09:08their low IQ. People with high IQs can't grasp it because they over process it because they
09:17struggle with the basics. They have difficulty following instructions. They have difficulty
09:25processing simple things about the gospel. And here you have an illustration of the former
09:32here where you have Nicodemus who is at the way at the high end of, let's say, the Wexler
09:40Adult Intelligence Scale, the chart. He's way over on the right where Albert Einstein
09:46would be. They're a very small percent of people in society with that kind of an IQ.
09:51And you can tell that it goes bad for him during this conversation with the Lord Jesus
09:56because the Son of God is revealing to him some spectacular, absolutely spectacular,
10:03deep spiritual truths. And as you know from reading it several times, he talks about being
10:11born again. He talks about the Word of God and how powerfully he talks about the Holy
10:15Ghost, the one and only. And Nicodemus can't grasp it. It's not sinking in. In fact, he's
10:24so intelligent, he sounds dumb. He actually says, you want me to crawl up my mother's
10:33vagina and crawl into her womb and go back up there and then come back down the chute
10:41and be born again? What are you talking about? Well, Jesus was talking about the Greek phrase
10:46geneoanathon, which means to be generated or born from above. He was referring not to
10:53a natural birth but a spiritual one. And being born again or a geneoanathon is a spiritual
11:00experience that Christians can experience and they know they're born again. The problem
11:08with most Christians in the United States is that they're intellectually fans of Christ
11:17but they're not actually truly born again. They actually don't have the Holy Spirit living
11:22in their spirit man and their spirit man has not become a new creation in Christ. And as
11:28you know, when you become a born again spirit filled Christian, the only thing that is regenerated
11:36and renewed and rejuvenated about you is your spirit man. The rest of you gets cured over
11:45time. For example, your soul is not instantly healed like your spirit man. Your soul gets
11:51healed and your emotions get healed and your soul wounds get healed over the process of
11:57time. Your brain, for example, is not instantly born again. Your mind is renewed over a period
12:08of time as you study to show yourself a proof of the God and as you follow the word of God
12:14and you study and your mind then becomes like the mind of Christ. You're in the process
12:20of developing the mind of Christ. Now none of us ever reach that goal. Nobody ever has
12:28the mind of Christ exactly but our goal in life is to continue to press for the mark
12:35for the prize of the high calling of God. It's a process that the mind goes through
12:40and it doesn't stop until the person drops dead and they transition to glory. And then
12:47there's no more renewing of your mind when you're in glory. It's already instantly perfect
12:52and completely renewed. Your body is not born again either. Many people are born again.
13:00Many people get filled with the spirit and they're still physically ill, for example,
13:06or they still have demons. A born again Christian in their spirit man can't be possessed by
13:13demons because the Holy Spirit's in there and demons can't get in there but they can
13:17be infected with demons in their body or their brain, for example, and they can have a physical
13:24or mental illness and still be a born again spirit filled Christian in their spirit man.
13:31And so how a Christian has demons is easy to understand if you understand how the soul
13:39works and the mind works and the spirit man works and how the conscience works. All four
13:48of those things make up your inner man that Paul described. He called it your inner man,
13:55your soul, your spirit, your mind, and your conscience. That's your inner man. Your body
13:59is like a suitcase holding clothes. Your body keeps all of it in the same spot. It's all
14:06housed inside your body. Well, poor Nicodemus didn't understand being
14:11Gineo, he didn't understand being born again. He just couldn't figure it all out because
14:19he was too smart, his IQ was too high, and he over-processes spiritual things. And I'm
14:26sure you've had numerous cases over the years, I sure have, where you're trying to help someone
14:32spiritually who is very intelligent and they're just not grasping it. They're asking you questions,
14:41their mind goes in two or three different directions, they're able to multitask intellectually,
14:49and they just don't get it. Now there are exceptions to that rule, for example. I mean
14:53John Lake would be a great example of that. There are exceptions to that, of course, and
14:59God does save people that are very smart. But again, it's a lower percent. The percent
15:04is lower. But Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus ends
15:11at verse 12. He says to him, quote, if you don't believe I've told you about earthly
15:19things, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? That's what he said
15:30in verse 12. Now he wasn't talking about heaven where God lives, and where the angels are,
15:36and so on, the throne room and all that. That's in heaven, heaven. That's a Greek word, or
15:42in us. What he was talking about was a Greek word, epiranios, it means the atmosphere,
15:48the heavenlies. The heavenlies is different from heaven. Heaven is a place where God lives,
15:55his throne's there, there are angels up there, your dead relatives who were born again, they're
16:03up there. They're in heaven, or in us. They're not in the heavenlies, which is the atmosphere
16:10around the earth where demons and angels transverse, and they're in heaven.
16:18Through the heavenlies, and that's where spiritual warfare occurs. The heavenlies. And Jesus
16:25said, listen, if you are not listening to me when I'm talking to you about earthly things,
16:31how will you possibly understand things in the heavenlies? And that's where his conversation
16:38ends. Then, here's what I wanted to share with you. John then goes back to the narrative
16:43of the Gospel of John. Now the Gospel of John, as you know, the four Gospels and Acts
16:50are the five greatest books ever written in the history of the world. John is the greatest
16:56book of the five. So when you read the Gospel of John, particularly when you're looking
17:00at the red ink, you're getting information directly from God with no intermediary. You're
17:08getting it directly from God, particularly the red ink in the Gospel of John. And John
17:15goes back to the narrative now. Nicodemus is gone, and he says, no man has ascended
17:20up to heaven. That's the Greek word, or in us, that's heaven heaven. When Jesus was ascended
17:27into heaven, he passed through the heavenlies and entered heaven. And that's what it's saying
17:35here. He came down from heaven. No man ascends up to heaven where God is, but he that came
17:43down from heaven, he's talking about himself, even the Son of Man, which is in heaven. Now
17:50at the time John wrote this Gospel, some estimate it was 40, 50, 60 years after Jesus was crucified
17:58and ascended back to heaven. And so he's saying here that Jesus is actually in heaven now
18:05in verse 13. Verse 14 then says, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even
18:11so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish
18:16but have everlasting life. For God did not, for God so loved the world that he gave his
18:22only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting
18:27life. Now those verses there are routinely quoted by people, and people use those to
18:37prove that they're saved because they heard the Gospel and they decided, yeah, Jesus sounds
18:42good to me. I'm a big fan. But they're not actually born again. And here's why. It says
18:50whosoever, verse 15, whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. The
18:59Greek word for believeth there is a Greek verb in the present active tense. It means,
19:07pistou, means to step out and act on your faith in Christ. The Greek word for faith
19:15is pistos, and that's a Greek noun. But to be born again, faith isn't good enough unless
19:26you activate it, which is the Greek word, the verb, pistou. And that's the word used
19:33in this verse. Whoever believes in him, not intellectually, with your intelligence, but
19:40which Nicodemus probably already believed him. After he spent that time talking to him, I'm
19:47sure he went away saying, yeah, this guy sounds like the Son of God. This is the guy. And
19:54of course we know in Acts later on, it looks like he actually believed that. And when he
20:01was being buried, it looked like Nicodemus had become a Christian. And he was buried
20:06and being buried, it looked like Nicodemus had become a believer. I can't prove that,
20:12but I kind of sense that or feel that. But here's the Greek word to believe. That's what
20:18triggers the new birth. That's how you become a born again Christian. It's a supernatural
20:23experience, not just an intellectual one. Being born again is a spiritual experience,
20:30not just an intellectual one. And so you see all these born again Christians probably
20:37over half the church who intellectually have a lot of knowledge about Christ, but they
20:44don't have any actual spiritual revelation of Christ. And so you see these people, they
20:52talk a good game when it comes to the Bible and saying they're Christians, but they don't
20:58have any holy ghost power. As you know, the kingdom of God is not in word only, but in
21:04power. And people that don't actually have this born again experience, they don't have
21:11that power. They just have an intellectual capacity of Christianity. To quote a preacher
21:19in California, a guy's name is Ray Comfort, he calls these people false converts. That's
21:25his term for them. And then it's John 3.16, everybody's got that verse memorized, but
21:32actually nobody really knows what it's saying. Pistou is the Greek word used in that verse,
21:38not pistos or faith. Notice it doesn't say faith, it says believe. Believing is a verb.
21:45Someone who steps out on their faith and activates their faith, they're a believer. And
21:50those people will not perish, but they will have everlasting life. Verse 17 says, for
21:56God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through
22:02him might be saved. Now the Greek word for world there is kosmos, and it means human
22:08world, humanity. And the Greek word for condemn there is kosmos, and it means condemnation.
22:13And the Greek word for world there is kosmos, and it means human world, humanity. And the
22:19Greek word for condemn there is krino, that means to judge. God did not send his son into
22:28the humanity to judge humanity, but that humanity through him might be saved, Greek word sozo,
22:33delivered from sin. Sozo means to be delivered. It's used in multiple contexts in the New
22:39Testament. It could be delivered from sin, it could be delivered from demons, it could
22:45be delivered from a sickness. It depends on the context of the text. So you see here in
22:51John 17, Jesus is saying God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world,
22:56so you see here in John 17, Jesus is saying God did not send his son into the world to
23:02judge the world. Now I want to make an important point about the word judge. That's a very
23:08controversial word, and Christians get in big fights over it all the time. They get in big
23:14arguments, and it always ends poorly. But if I could explain it to you, you'll never have a
23:19problem with the term again. When you translate Greek into English, and I'm reading out of the
23:25King James Version, so this is old English. When you translate it, it doesn't quite come
23:31through clear. And that's true with other languages. I mean if I picked up the Koran,
23:38and I looked at the Koran, and I looked at the Koran, and I looked at the Koran, and I
23:44looked at the Koran, and I looked at the Koran, and it's translated to Greek. It's translated
23:49to Greek, and it's also translated to other languages. I mean if I picked up the Koran, and the thing
23:54was originally written in Aramaic, so if you translate the Koran into English and I have
23:59If you translate the Quran into English, and I have I have both versions of the Quran in English
24:06There's two versions of it. I have both of them. I've read it two or three times
24:13It doesn't translate real well
24:17There's a there's some rough patches with English well, that's the same thing with Greek and Hebrew if you translate
24:26for example the subdued gent
24:29Was translated
24:32From Hebrew Hebrew into Hellenistic Greek. Well, then it was translated into
24:39English
24:40Old English
24:42So you lose something in the translation?
24:45I guess the point I'm trying to make is things don't quite transfer right and
24:49Judge the word judge in English is a perfect example of it
24:53The three words used for judge in Greek are creases creno and kata creno
25:00Creases is all translated as judge in the New Testament, and that's a Greek word that
25:07Jesus told us to do
25:10he told us and
25:12Paul told us we are to judge one another
25:15creases means to evaluate something and
25:19Like Paul said in Corinthians the prophets prophesied two by three and then the others judge
25:29Creases evaluate to evaluate you and I are to judge each other
25:35creases
25:36Through an evaluation to see whether or not we'd be in the faith or see whether or not our teaching is
25:42Matching up with the Word of God the other Greek word in this verse. I just read in John 3
25:48creno
25:49means to
25:51It's similar to being on trial you present all the evidence and you evaluate it and then you come to a conclusion
25:59creno
26:00That Jesus said we are not to do to our brothers and sisters
26:06in other words, so if you you find a
26:10Christian and a fault or a sin or with iniquity
26:14You you do you are to judge them creases and evaluate them, but you are not to creno
26:20Evaluate them and then declare them
26:24Unsaved a sinner a rotten person somebody who's no good
26:29somebody's a backslider you're not to
26:32try them and
26:35Convict them is what it's saying and that's what God said here
26:39God did not send his son into humanity to try and convict
26:46Humanity, but he sent his son into humanity the human world
26:51So they might be sozo delivered from sin
26:55Then in verse 18 he says he that believes on him is
27:01not judged
27:04creno
27:05you're not evaluated and
27:08Convicted if you
27:12Pistou
27:14actively
27:16Trigger your faith or your pistis and you are actively stepping out on your faith
27:24living and following Christ
27:29If you are a born-again Christian following Christ
27:32Even though you're sinning or failing or you're making mistakes or you're trying to overcome some things in your life
27:38You are still not being judged by God
27:43You're not being judged God is not judging you
27:48He's trying to help you. He wants to help you and he cares about you
27:54He's trying to help you
27:56now when
27:58Let's flip over to brother Mike then and look at my counseling practice
28:03I've had hundreds and hundreds of people come to me over the years and
28:06These are almost all been born-again Christians. You know like 98% of them and
28:12They're all struggling. They're troubled Christians. They have bondages in their life
28:17They're failing in some aspects of their life, and they've come for help, and they don't want to fail anymore
28:24They want God to help them and heal them so my job is see to it. They get healed and
28:29In most cases they do
28:32These people are coming for help
28:36But by the time they get in my office believe it or not the vast majority of them
28:42Have been told by demons and these are thoughts that demons put into
28:48Christians mind 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 verse 4
28:52demons can put thoughts in your mind and
28:55it's up to the Christian to take those thoughts captive and
29:00And not receive them or believe them
29:03every thought has to be taken captive to the obedience of Christ and
29:08The Lord Jesus is telling you when a demon puts a negative thought in your mind you are to execute it
29:14cold-blooded
29:17Die
29:19Death you take captive every thought
29:24To the obedience of Christ well these Christians that come to see me as you will know people you've worked with in the past
29:32You know exactly what I'm talking about. They're not doing that there, and they have mental emotional bondages
29:39emotional pain in their soul
29:40they have negative demonic thinking patterns in their mind and
29:45They're struggling they may have demons in their body, and they're physically ill perfect example that is autoimmune diseases
29:53Those are all caused by negative soul
29:57negative emotional soul wound issues
30:01Usually around related to self-hate hatred or self-criticism or someone who's been hot harder than the cells for a long period of time
30:11They have these certain bondages in there one of the bondages they have
30:15Now listen to me very carefully. I see this all the time is
30:20that God
30:22Is unhappy with them. He's critical of them
30:28He's judging them. He's condemning them. They actually they actually feel that's true
30:37The demons have put in their mind those exact thoughts
30:42self-criticism self-disgust self-hatred low self-esteem
30:47They put these thoughts in it in the child of God's mind so often and for so long
30:55They believe them and they don't know they're believing a lie
31:01Because God is not judging you
31:05Krino
31:07He is he's judges you
31:10Creases
31:13He evaluates your situation, but he's not judging you trying you and
31:20Condemning you you're not receiving a verdict
31:24You've been evaluated, but God does not drop a verdict on you. He's not judging you
31:32He's trying to help you
31:35He wants to help you I
31:37Have had some of the rottenness filthiest
31:41nastiest
31:42Most backslidden Christians you've ever seen in your life
31:46Come right in my office and sit across from me on the desk
31:50We have had murderers rapists
31:54pedophiles
31:56come in for help and
31:58Many of them have been delivered from demons. It's common to see them delivered
32:03But the reason they're able to get delivered is because I understand and I want to get your listeners to understand
32:13That when they come in to see me I already know
32:18No matter how rotten their sin was
32:22God has not Krino
32:25Condemned them. He has not judged them. He judged them at Calvary
32:30God judged
32:33humanity's sin at Calvary
32:37Jesus
32:38Became sin for us
32:42Paul explained it in Romans, and he explained it again in
32:47Galatians chapter 3 Jesus became a curse for us
32:53We were cursed by others and we cursed ourselves
32:57But at Calvary the Lord Jesus became
33:03Our curse and no matter what sin you've committed or no matter how horrible it is
33:12Christ became our sin. That's what Paul said in Romans
33:18He was
33:20he was us and
33:22When he became our sins and all the sins of the world
33:27were loaded upon him, that's when he screamed out because
33:32You know he said father. Why have you forsaken me well?
33:35Father had to turn his head
33:38When his son became sin
33:40He carried our sins to Calvary, but he became sin on the cross of Calvary
33:47This this is the spectacular story
33:50The end the unstoppable story of redemption
33:54It's a great story ever told it's inconceivably spectacular
33:58he became our
34:01curses and he became our sin and
34:04Thank you, Holy Father Lord of Heaven for this incredible miracle that
34:11You and I can be saved and all your listeners can be saved why because they're not being judged by God
34:17God judged you at Calvary, so I know when that person comes in they have
34:24They have a shot to be delivered from demons and healed I
34:31Know
34:33If you'll if you'll excuse the phrase the decks been stacked in my favor
34:40Somebody put their finger on the scale
34:44it was
34:45Christ at Calvary I got the upper hand here
34:49So when a rapist comes in a murderer and a pedophile comes in and sits right across from me and my desk I
34:57have
34:58the upper hand I have the advantage I
35:03Am in the driver's seat why
35:06the
35:07Unconditional agape love of God is on my side. I know that God loves that person
35:15Unconditionally I also know John chapter 3 that Jesus is not judging them
35:25He wants to save them he wants to help them and that's how I see so many
35:32miraculous healings and deliverances
35:36in our ministry
35:38You can read about them I post them all if you go to my Facebook play page called blessings
35:44capital B blessings BLE s s I NGS
35:49I've got all those
35:51healings and everything posted you can read about their background and some of the details about their sin and
35:58Their details about how they were delivered and healed
36:01You can read about them. I post them and
36:05The only way that happens is because I know I
36:09know
36:10The love of God is unconditional and I know if this person will
36:16Repent of their sin and if this person of their own free will will surrender and come home. I
36:22Know that because they're not being judged
36:27Kreeno, but they are being judged
36:30creases I
36:32Know that they can be healed and delivered and so I have the upper hand the scale
36:39Has been tipped in my direction
36:43yeah, and for example, that's what the 2020 election somebody put their finger on the scale on that one and
36:50Tilted it in another direction the 2024 election here in America
36:56Same things gonna happen
36:58Somebody's gonna put their finger on the scale and they're going to tilt it a certain way
37:04Well, I got the scale in my office and the love of God
37:09tilts it my way and
37:12so I proceed with
37:14assurance that if
37:17this person will repent of their sins and if they will turn to God and if they'll come home and
37:23if they will repent of believing lies delusions and
37:27Fabrications and if they will receive truth for Jesus said you will know the truth and the truth
37:32Will make you free if they will do that. I already know they're going to get healed and delivered
37:39Because the deck stacked in my favor according to the Word of God
37:45Verse 19 says this is the
37:49Condemnation now he uses creases not Kreeno
37:54Creases to evaluate and this is the evaluation that light has come into the world cosmos
38:02humanity and men loved
38:04darkness rather than light
38:08Why because their works are gone Greek word for?
38:14works
38:15their behavior their sinful behavior is
38:20evil
38:23Now this verse is extremely interesting because the Greek word for darkness there is scottis and it means shady
38:31Shady is a combination of light and dark. It's mixed
38:35When something's shady you can kind of see in it, but you can't see clearly
38:41And that's exactly the way
38:44Born-again Christians are when they come in to see me for counseling and deliverance and inner healing. They're shady Christians
38:51You've
38:53Been in business you've been in academics. You've met a lot of people that are shady
39:00Well shadiness doesn't mean somebody's pure evil no in fact
39:04It means there's good things about them, and there's bad things about them if you add them up. It's not
39:11Pure light it's not pitch black. It's shady, and that's what Jesus was saying here
39:18It says that these men humanity they will not come to the light
39:25why because they
39:27embrace shadiness
39:30they they want what's good, and they take some of the good, but then they take the bad and
39:37They mix it
39:39it's mixed and
39:42They won't come to the light which has no darkness at all in it
39:46Because their behaviors are
39:50Evil Greek word ponderous
39:54means perverted
39:55Their behavior is perverted
39:59But in my counseling practice when somebody comes in to see me
40:03They've contacted me, and they want to come in
40:06you know in about 75% of the time they they came in for good reasons and
40:11And they're sincere and they want help and since I know God is not judging him and since I know that God's love is
40:19Unconditional Greek work I got me. I know that that's what those words mean I
40:25know that person can be delivered and
40:29I can post their testimony on my blessings page on Facebook, and that would your listeners can read those anytime
40:36They want to
40:38now
40:39Brother Mike this doesn't make any sense to me. Okay. I hear everybody
40:44Screaming that God's going to judge everybody people are going to be judged. They're right
40:50People are going to be judged. Let me read it to you. It only take a second first Timothy chapter 3
40:58if you go to first Timothy chapter 3 check this out a
41:02Divine revelation here, that's huge
41:05Paul just spills it right in our lap. It's fantastic
41:09He's talking about in this chapter as you know chapter 3
41:14about the qualifications for a bishop
41:18okay, an
41:19Episcopate the Greek word episcopate is for a bishop and that means someone who is
41:26in charge
41:28At a church
41:30Somebody who's in who has authority and who's in charge an episcopate?
41:35It's called a bishop in the King James Bible, but anyway, he goes through these qualifications of them
41:40And he drops this one on us in verse 6
41:45He says he's talking about a bishop now the person who wants to be a bishop cannot be a novice a
41:53Neophytos is someone who is a neophyte. That's where we get our English word neophyte. It means a rookie
41:59An elder a bishop in a church cannot be a rookie or a neophyte
42:05because he says they will be lifted up with pride and
42:10they may fall
42:13Into the
42:16Condemnation of the devil
42:19Verse 7 in addition
42:21He must have a good report of people who are outside of the church. It says lest he fall
42:27into the reproach and
42:30the snare of
42:32The devil the Greek word for approach reproach. There is on a dismiss and it means to be
42:39castigated or verbally abused or verbally degraded by the devil and
42:44You've seen this a thousand times over the years on my local radio program here in Phoenix
42:50I've been on for 21 years now every time a TV preacher falls or
42:57Gets caught you know as a pedophile or stealing the money or whatever it is
43:01I always do a radio show on that person illustrating the power of demons and
43:07Why deliverance is so important to the churches none of these scandals would be happening if the church were to be
43:12Scandals would be happening if the churches hadn't thrown up deliverance, so I kind of go through that little spiel on my radio program
43:19Whenever I find another preacher who's collapsed, and I've done literally dozens of them dozens of those shows over the years
43:26Literally dozens of them
43:28Preachers collapsing is a routine thing. There's it's just like another thing
43:33But what happened there they fell into the snare of the devil the Greek word for big pig is Peggy's
43:40The Greek word for snare there is Peggy's. It's a trap you did not see and
43:47What it was referring to was
43:50traps that they used to
43:52catch animals
43:54In order to do that you had to dig a big hole in the ground then you had to cover up the hole
43:59With vegetation branches and trees and so on in the and the animal that walks over it doesn't see it
44:05So they plant some food or something near there
44:08The animal walks in boom they go down into the pit they're caught. That's a that's a Peggy's a trap
44:15and
44:16So you see here now in these two verses the devil is going to judge you
44:22Based on Paul's Revelation in Galatians where he says and it applies to everybody
44:29sinner or saint
44:33Whatever a man sows
44:35that
44:36shall he also reap
44:40And it applies to Christians
44:42And it applies to sinners
44:45Well these Christians that come to me for counseling
44:48It's my duty and my obligation to give them the cold
44:53blooded
44:55Facts I have to do that, and I can't sugarcoat anything even if I run the risk of someone
45:02Hating me or not liking me or leaving and bad-mouthing me. I can't worry about that
45:07I have to tell them the truth, and I explained to him look
45:10You're a born-again spirit-filled Christian, but you're living a sinful Christian life, and if you keep doing that
45:16Judgment is going to fall on you, and it's going to fall hard
45:20and I
45:22mentioned this a few months ago that
45:26In my desk in the right-hand drawer. I have a list of names
45:32Born-again Christians, and it's the whole page by the way of people who are dead
45:40Dead Christians
45:44They they
45:46Took the warning I gave him the warning
45:50They didn't listen and guess who judged him
45:56Satan judged him it's right here in verse 6
46:02They will fall
46:04They will fall into
46:06the judgment of
46:08the devil
46:13Now here's how it works, I'm gonna explain this part. It's really important
46:17The grace of God covers a born-again Christian grace is the most amazing thing there is
46:23None of us would be around here without it. I certainly wouldn't be I'd be long gone
46:29God's grace is
46:31So spectacular it's and I ain't got the words to describe it
46:36But listen to me carefully
46:41Grace runs out
46:47Grace is
46:49Man it is fantastic
46:51when it works
46:53until it doesn't
46:56And what God's doing
46:58To all of us is he's extending grace to us giving an opportunity for the person to change
47:08To repent to get delivered to do what's right
47:13to
47:15Change their lives
47:18To do what Paul said in Hebrews chapter 12 verse 1 and 2 what he said to do in Romans chapter 12 verse 1 and 2
47:26God is giving everybody a leash so to speak he's got him out on a long leash in a way
47:36Giving them every single opportunity to change
47:42But I have to explain to these people as I'm explaining to your listeners right now
47:49grace works fantastic until it doesn't and
47:53then
47:55Preachers call these things open doors if you leave these open doors of sin in your life
48:01open
48:02for a protracted period of time
48:05The day is coming when it doesn't work anymore, and it stops I
48:11Have a whole sheet in sitting in my desk today of dead Christians
48:19They're dead I have had numerous others
48:23Over the years who did not listen who would not change they would not repent who got in
48:31Trauma family member died a child was killed they got in a car wreck they came down with an illness
48:38something similar that happened
48:43But it usually happens after a long period of God's mercy and grace trying to get through the person
48:50Trying to give them an opportunity to change and
48:54My job as a counselor. I have to tell them look God is not going to judge you. He's not going to
49:01Send you of your body full of boils. Okay. That was an exceptional thing that was done
49:08In the book of Job to give us an idea what happens in the spirit world God never gave him them boils the devil did
49:17The devil gave it to him
49:20And that's exactly the same now God does not send you
49:26Cancer he does not send you
49:30Poverty he doesn't send people over to your house to shoot your kids
49:33He doesn't do any of that all that stuff is done by Satan
49:39and it's
49:42Christians who won't change and won't repent they fall under the judgment of Satan and
49:50They fall into the reproach and the snare of the devil first Timothy chapter 3
50:00So the bad news is if you keep sinning
50:03Something's going to happen to you later, and it's going to be bad the good news is
50:09When they come into my office, and they're ready to change and ready to repent I
50:15Know
50:16The Word of God is on my side
50:19And if I give them the truth, and I'm truthful with them
50:22And I don't mince words, or I don't hold anything back because obviously I have to give an account of myself
50:28To God for these counseling sessions. He's going to ask me someday
50:32Hey, did you tell this person the truth? Did you level with him did you?
50:39Share my word
50:40Did you do it?
50:42That's that's what I'm going to get asked and
50:45So I'm not going to get caught with you know oh my gosh, I want
50:52Excuse me. I watered it down
50:56And I let him walk out of the office under a delusion I can't do that that cannot happen
51:08The Word of God is on my side
51:11if the person
51:14Will come home and repent
51:17They can be healed
51:20And God will heal them
51:25But God's not judging them and sending them a living hell
51:29They're doing it to themselves
51:31They open the door they let the devil in and the demons are
51:35wrecking them and
51:38That's what Jesus meant in John chapter 3 and what Paul meant in first Timothy
51:45chapter 3
51:55What a great teaching tonight, we're live with Michael W. Smith
52:02You know that I'll tell you that's sobering
52:06The devil can judge people
52:09You
52:10Know word of God is very clear for example if we do not forgive Jesus says neither will my father in heaven
52:16Forgive you and we get turned over to the tormentors
52:21Right
52:23folks he's
52:25kill steal and destroy
52:29Yes
52:30And you know what we don't have to be in their hands
52:34If we obey the Word of God and do what he says to do forgive one another repent of our sins
52:40but when we don't we get turned over the enemy and
52:44Again, it's a mercy of God that we're not dead tonight
52:48Yes, but if we keep
52:53Rebelling against God in his word those demons are prepared to take you and I out in a body bag
53:00There are people have been killed by demons
53:06That's what they do they're experts at it
53:12Some cases all person had to do would just forgive
53:16they could have been released from the tormentors and
53:19Those tormentors will keep working on you, and I
53:23Until either we obey the word or we're dead. That's the bottom line and it's said people
53:29Have become casualties of war every day
53:33Yes
53:35through sin
53:39It's not worth it brother Michael I
53:42Tell you I've been tormented. I don't want to be tormented
53:49And I'm here to tell you I'm here by the grace of God as well his mercy and people who prayed for me like my
53:56grandmother
53:58Because that devil had this way he would have killed me a long time ago killed you and killed many of us out there
54:02I'm sure
54:04right and
54:05This is a great teaching. I know there's more where this comes from
54:09We're almost out of time tonight, but I want you at this point tell me what shall we title tonight's episode first of all
54:17Yeah
54:19Well, it's mostly about the judgment of the devil not the judgment of God
54:25So some title is similar to that okay, and also you said at the beginning of the program there are some
54:34There's a book or an audio teaching something along that line that's available if people want to write to you
54:40What do you got available tonight?
54:42Yes, I got all kinds of things available, but the one I can send them tonight, which is free
54:48If they just send me an email Mike at hardcore Christianity calm this miracle list. I'm going to send you
54:55will
54:56fix
54:59Everything we talked about tonight. It's a step-by-step guide
55:03to healing and deliverance and the renewing of the mind and
55:10I'll send it to him this evening if they send me an email should I send it right out?
55:14I'll send it out tomorrow folks. I'm gonna email Mike tonight do it Mike at hardcore Christianity calm
55:21What should we ask for?
55:23Yes, and you asked for the miracle list if the person is a mentally ill Christian
55:29Well that that's a second list a different list for that
55:32So there's two lists the miracle and one of one of them for troubled Christians the other was for mentally ill Christians
55:38But I'll mail it out tonight
55:40That is awesome
55:43What other information can you give us out tonight where do they find you on the web and how can we support your ministry?
55:49yes, if you go to
55:51Hardcore Christianity on Facebook or my or my Facebook name is Michael W Smith
55:59I can contact you using FaceTime or I can
56:05Connect you with our website which have all kinds of items on there for example. I have a flash drive
56:10that's a deliverance training course and
56:13Some of the kind of things I've taught tonight are on that flash drive
56:17There's it's 18 classes of teaching and if you go through that
56:22training course you'll save
56:24years of
56:25failure and mistakes
56:28which I personally got involved in because when I got into the
56:32healing and deliverance field in
56:352004 I
56:37Didn't have anybody to help me
56:39So I had to kind of learn as I went and so I made a lot of mistakes
56:44So I put together this training training program
56:48I definitely recommend you get it. That'll save you. You know a lifetime of mistakes and
56:54screw-ups and
56:57In addition I also wrote a book on
57:02The root cause and cure of mental illness for Christians
57:06That's also on the website just click hit the store button
57:09I also wrote a book on divine healing and I went through the New Testament and illustrated every single healing
57:17That was medical
57:20Oriented and every single healing that was
57:24demonically oriented not every illness is caused by demons and
57:29there's a difference between
57:32illnesses that are trauma based or medically based and
57:35those that are caused by demons so I
57:38Sort of bifurcated
57:41All of the healings in the New Testament
57:45And wrote on a book call. It's called atonement healing and the third one
57:49I wrote on was an expose of the devil
57:52Where I went through the Bible and exposed everything about him
57:56So that everybody would understand what he does and they would be better equipped to defeat him. Oh
58:03Man, these are fabulous
58:05Folks get to hardcore christianity.com order them and
58:10Send an email to brother Michael if you'd like a
58:14Copy of the miracle list my friend. I'm gonna be promoting this in an upcoming email blast
58:21This is something everybody needs to order and get a hold of thank you put in their deliverance arsenal
58:26We appreciate kind of you very much Michael and look at your schedule for October
58:32Get me a date and we're looking forward to seeing you out again real soon
58:36I'll be there and thank you. Have a great night Michael. God bless you
58:39Bye Shannon