Sermon by Jentezen Franklin: Spirit of Python: How to recognize you are under spiritual attack

You can't win a battle if you can't discern your enemy

You know you are under a spiritual attack if you 

1)  Lack spiritual desire. You will lack desire to be intimate with God.. When normally you can't even go by without speaking to God.

"1 As the deer pants for streams of water,

    so my soul pants for you, my God.

2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

    When can I go and meet with God?" Psalms 42:1-2

2)  Feel physical and emotional tiredness (not always). The attack is expected when you are about to get a promotion (not necessarily work related promotion) or after a big victory. The body is a vehicle the spirit uses to do its work so the devil will try to destroy it hence physical and emotional exhaustion.

"He will speak against the Most High and oppress his holy people and try to change the set times and the laws. The holy people will be delivered into his hands for a time, times and half a time." Daniel 7:25

"Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep.

All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” 1 Kings 19:5"

3) Have a lack attack. If all of your resources dry up all at once (this doesn't mean you are under spiritual attack if you finish your money by shopping recklessly) 

4) Have a prayer attack. Prayer helps you to not get into temptation. When you pray you battle in the spirit but when you don't pray you battle in the flesh.

“Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Matthew 26:41

5) Start feeling overwhelmed. The situation will make you feel paralyzed. Instead of focusing on God it makes you focus on the circumstances. 

6) Have old inequities re-surfacing. If things you had victory over in the past start coming back to your life. Know that discouragement is a soul sin grows in. 

"43 When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. 44 Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. 45 Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.” Matthew 12:43-45

7) Pull away from Godly relationships. If you feel more comfortable being around people in the world than  fellow Christians.

So what should you do?

1) Remember that you have been made to outlast the storm. 

24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” Matthew 7:24-27

2) Don't forsake the power of partnership.

"Two are better than one,
    because they have a good return for their labor" Ecclesiastes 4:9

Stay Blessed<3