OBEY GOD’S COMMANDS

The example I gave you last night. This is a sad state of affairs, but we as Christians were told by God to obey all of his commands. Unfortunately we don’t. We are a rebellious bunch of children, every one of us. One of the areas we find this in is just like I told you last night. Congress makes the laws. The courts interpret the laws. The executive branch enforces the law. And if you don’t believe we have to have an executive branch to enforce the laws, even for the Christians, you find out how many Christians get a speeding ticket. We break the law too until you really get revelation. Hey God is holding me accountable for everything. If God is holding me accountable and the speed limit says 40 then that is what I am going to drive. If it says 65 then I am not going to exceed 65. Why? Because I want God to hear my prayer. I want to be obedient. He says that if I keep all of his commandments, in fact he makes a statement that is so awesome. His statement is so awesome that I am having trouble grasping it.

John 8:51 says, “If you obey all of my commandments you will never see death.” Now that is written in God’s word. Is that an awesome statement? Is God a liar? And if he is not a liar then is it worth paying attention to everything he says?

So then, how are you going to get to heaven? You will be translated. That will be the rapture for you. When God fully is finished with you on the earth, well, I know of three men so far that got there that way. There are some living today that got there that way. In the word of God though we hear of these.

Who is the first one in the Old Testament who was translated and did not see death? It was Enoch. He just loved God and walked with God, and one day God said, “Okay son. It has been 350 years. I just can’t stand leaving you down here so I’m going to take you to heaven to be with me.” He translated him into the third heaven. Then there was Elijah.
 

DEATH AND TRANSLATION

A lady from the audience asked this question. “The scripture wasn’t talking about the second death?”

Oh no, in John 8:51 it was not. The second death will never touch the Christian. The second death will be at the judgment seat of Christ. The last night I am here I am going to touch on many of these scriptures in order to confirm what I am telling you. When I learned that Jesus was the healer I thought this was awesome. I don’t have to be sick anymore. Then I learned that I don’t even have to fear death. This was the last sentence to be overcome and it has already been overcome. All the answers are in God’s word.

People ask me all the time, “If you are not going to ever be sick then how are you going to die?”

I said, “Well, I’m not going to be sick, but I don’t know.” Then I learned one day that the Lord said when he is finished with me then he will just take away my breath and bring me home. That is when he is going to translate me. Thus if I am obedient to keep all of his commandments, not a few of them, then he guaranteed me in his word that I would never see physical death. That means I don’t even have to be concerned about it.
 

SMITH WIGGLESWORTH

I just walk in obedience to his word and I will be just like Smith Wigglesworth, 87 years old, the perfect picture of health, standing up on the podium preaching the word of God and the Lord says, “That is it son. It is time for you to be translated.” Then he was gone. He left his earth suit here. When the doctors examined him they could not find any reason for this man to have died. There was nothing wrong with his physical body. The spirit just left. He was translated. He was not afraid of death. He was the man who did such awesome things. It is amazing how you can be in church all your life and get to be an old man almost before you get to hear of Smith Wigglesworth. It was only 10 years ago when I heard of him. Many people, especially the Baptist people, we never heard of guys like Smith Wigglesworth. None of our preachers ever talked about Smith Wigglesworth because they don’t know who he is either. There are just like I was. Smith Wigglesworth was the man that whenever his wife Polly died, he knew who he was. He knew he didn’t have to sweat death. He knew that translation was the way it was going to go, but he really thought the enemy had slipped up on Polly, his beautiful wife, when she was about 65. He was out preaching and Polly was preaching too. Then all of a sudden she was gone. She was dead. The Lord translated her.

A police officer road in a buggy for two or three hours to another city where he was preaching in order to tell Smith that Polly died this morning. He just looked and said, “Where did you put her?”

And they said, “She is in your house.”

He said, “Well let’s go back.” They got in the buggy and they road back. When he got to the house he walked in and said, “Where is my wife?’

They said,” She is upstairs in the bed.”

So Smith walked up, not a tear in his eye. He walked up, sat down on the side of the bed, put his hand on his wife and said, “Death, I rebuke you in the name of Jesus. I command your spirit to fly back into you.” That woman who had been dead for 8 hours, stiff, sat up.

She said, “Smith, what do you mean calling me back from the Lord?”

He said, “Polly I can’t live without you.”

She said, “It is my time. The Lord has shown me that it was my time to come home to be with him and I was with him. What do you mean calling me back from heaven?” His wife is giving him a hard time. If you were to ever see it you would never want to come back now would you?

He knew his authority on earth. He said, “I’m only going to release you back into the arms of the Lord if you can assure me that you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is your time to be at home with the Lord.”

She said, “Smith, it is my time. It is my time.

He said, “Okay! If you are sure.”

She said, “It is.” And so they hugged and kissed.

Then he said, “I release you back into the arms of the Lord.” And that body fell back, stiff as a board, in that bed. Her spirit left.
 

PUT GOD FIRST

God has given us, as his obedient servants, far more authority on earth than most of us ever dreamed is ours, but he gave it all to us in the word. Now Smith Wigglesworth was a man that was completely illiterate. He had never read a book in his life. His wife taught him to read the Bible. And the Bible is the only book he ever read in his life. He never, once he got born again, he was never without his Bible. You could never find him without at least the New Testament on him. Never! And he read it day and night. He never went more than a few minutes without reading and worshipping and praising God.

One of the stories I read was one day a guy had bought a new car. This was a new thing. Smith had not seen very many cars, so he said, “This guy wanted to take me for a ride. We were riding down the road. I am going along and. It was about 30 minutes. I am just so interested in this guy’s car. He was showing me all about it. Then all of a sudden I yelled Stop! I thought we were fixing to run over somebody. I stopped right quick. They car owner asked me what was wrong. I looked up and said Lord please forgive me. I haven’t praised you in 30 minutes. Lord forgive me for getting so involved in this car and forgetting about you.”

God says, “I am jealous. You are to put me first.” We don’t take that to heart. We don’t take that to heart. If you really want God to do everything he said he would do in his word then you must put him first. You must worship him and praise him and thank him.

From these scriptures we have learned why people who are not interested in God’s word, his magnificent gift, are not interested. We have learned what the problem is. It is Satan and his demonic spirits. They have blinded the minds of the people who are not interested in hearing the gospel. He has blinded the minds of Christians that are not interested in hearing the message of healing or deliverance or anything else. He has blinded the minds of men and woman to think about having another mate.
 

DIVORCE

How many divorces do we have in this church? In the church we should never have a divorce! But since we do not believe God’s word, since we are carnal, how many since I became a pastor, how many women have I ministered to who come to me and say, “My husband is not good to me. He won’t come to church with me.” This girl may be 30 years old. When I ask how long she has been married she says, “5 years.” When asked how long she had been a Christian she replied, “Since I was 12.”

I said, “You and your husband, where do you all go to church when you got married?”

She replied, “He didn’t go to church. I met him. He drinks a little and likes to go up to the bars.”

I said, “What did you marry the guy for?”

She said, “I loved him.”

I said, “But didn’t you realize that God says you are not to be unequally yoked?”

She said, “He was the star football player in college and I just thought he was the most handsome thing I ever saw.”

I said, “That is where you go wrong, young lady. You go by outward appearances instead of the inner man. Now you are living with the devil. Now you are living with a demon. And you wonder why you are having troubles?”

She then says, “Well what can I do about it?”

Okay! Many of you have made that same mistake. What can you do about it? Well praise God, there is something you can do about it. And it is wonderful to learn what you can do.

In First John 3:8 I want to give you one scripture of what the Lord did to the devil when he came to this earth. “He who sins is of the devil.” So how can you tell who is of the devil? You can tell by their sins. If people are sinning then they are of the devil. “For the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was made manifest, that he might destroy the works of the devil.” Now this verse clearly says that Jesus destroyed the works of the devil. If Jesus destroyed the works of the devil then why in the world is that beast still running around on the earth, running things? It is because the church has not learned her authority over the devil.

I have even heard preachers, Pentecostal preachers, that when I start talking about the devil say “Now Thurman, don’t talk about the devil.”

I said, “My not?”

They said, “I am afraid you might get him all upset and he will start moving in my church and start causing some problems.”

I said, “If he is already got you there then he has already blinded your mind. The devil is a peanut. He is a push over. Our king destroyed him 2000 years ago, totally defeated him. I use to pray Lord please do something with the devil. He appears to be running everything.” Have any of you all ever prayed a stupid prayer like that besides me?

Do you know what your answer to that is from God? “I did! It is done!”

When you really stop and think about the last thing the Lord says when he got ready to leave earth to go back to heaven, after his death and burial and resurrection, you must realize that the minute Jesus was driven all the way to the cross, and died on the cross, when he died on the cross the scripture says this. “If Satan had known what he was doing, he would not have crucified the Son of Glory.” The minute Satan destroyed the body of Jesus on the cross, in the judicial system in heaven, it says in Gen. 6:9 that when any man takes an honest man’s life then his blood is required of him. That is how our Savior defeated the devil, by dying, allowing the devil to kill him. He freely let the devil take him to the cross and kill him, thus the devil killed an innocent man and destroyed himself.

I want you to see this in Hebrews 2:14. “Since we, God’s children, are human beings made of flesh and blood, he Jesus became flesh and blood too by being born in human form. For only as a human being could he Jesus die, and in dying break the power of the devil, who had the power of death.” Does your Bible read something like that? So by becoming flesh and blood, our Savior, when he died on the cross, he destroyed him who had the power of death, that is the devil. He destroyed him who had the power of what? Death! If he destroyed him who had the power of death, that is the devil, then you and I don’t have to sweat the devil anymore.

Then Jesus, by doing this, when he got ready to return to heaven, he is standing on the Mount of Olives holding up his hands to bless his men, and he says, “All power in heaven and earth is given to me. Now you go and you preach this gospel to every creature and everyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. And everyone who will not believe you will be condemned to hell. And these signs shall follow them that believe.” And it is a shame that there are so many unbelieving believers in the church. “And these signs shall follow them that believe.” In Mark 16:17 it says, “In my name they shall cast out demons.” Do you know how many Christians believe they can cast out a demon that I run into? Virtually none believe this. There are very few. This makes them an unbelieving believer. Who has this power? We do! The body of Christ, we do. Every one of you can do exactly what brother John and I do. Every one of you has the power in you to go and lay hands on the sick person, your own children. If the devil comes up on one of your children, don’t take them to the doctor. Make sure your sins are confessed and then walk over and lay your hands on that child and say, “Devil, I am a daughter of the King and you are not going to make my children sick because it is written right here in God’s word. I command you devil to come out of my child and you go to the pit of hell. Don’t you ever come back in Jesus name.”
 

BLIND BOY RAYMOND

Two years ago a woman asked me to come over to Lewis Ville. Her 15-year-old boy was totally blind. He had two big tumors on his optic nerves. They had pushed down and blinded him. She heard about me and the ministry. I went over and met with this woman and one other woman and this 15-year-old boy in the office. This was her office in Lewis Ville. I started teaching her and her son God’s word. Two hours into the teaching, the woman broke down and started crying. She said, “I have been in church all of my life and I didn’t know these promises. Why in the world don’t they teach these things in church?”

The other woman who was there had been to three or four of my teachings. She said, “Every time I have ever been in one of Thurman’s teachings that is what everybody says. He teaches the word of God.”

Two hours later I finally thought, “You have heard enough faith, now I am going to start praying for Raymond.” So I walked up behind him and I laid my hands on him. I said, “You foul spirit of hell. I command this tumor to dissipate. You demon of hell, I take authority over you and I command you to leave him. I curse this cancer and I curse these tumors in the might name of Jesus. I demand that they leave him in Jesus name. Lord thank you for your power.” I commanded and continued to stay with it. After about 10 or 15 minutes I said, “Now Raymond, son, open your eyes and tell me you can see.”

He said, “Mr. Scrivner I can’t see a thing.”

I went at it another 15 minutes. Finally an hour went by. I said, “Five hours I have been talking continuously and the last hour has been intensive. I am tired. I said Nancy,” that is his mother; “You take a turn.” I have been an example for five hours. You would think this woman could get a hold of this.

She gets up and lays her hands on her son. She said, “Mr. devil, would you please leave my son?”

I said, “That’s alright Nancy. Sit down.” That is not the way you get the devil out. That would be like when I went to Vietnam if I walked up, they had machine guns, and I said, “Guys I’ve got a knife so you guys lay down your guns.” They would make fun of me and pow you are dead. That is exactly what it would have been like.

You have to have bigger guns than the devil. You quote the word and you don’t quote it gently. You get violent with the devil, letting him know that you are not going to let the devil make your children sick. As a son or a daughter of the king of the universe, until you yield to sickness and disease with your tongue the devil has no legal claim to you. You are a son of God. You are washed in the blood. Every sin you’ve ever committed is under the blood and Jesus healed every one of us 2000 years ago on the cross. Thus there should not be one single sick Christian, no not one. That is what the Lord came to do, to give us all this magnificent power and authority. We are lazy. We just read a little once in a while.
 

READ THE OWNER’S MANUAL

We never read the owner’s manual and thus the devil has no problem with most of us. If I ask somebody if they know any scriptures, do you know how many people I come in contact with in the church, even a charismatic or Pentecostal church, when I say quote me your favorite 25 verses they say, “What! Twenty-five verses!” Then if I ask them to quote me your favorite five then they tell me, “Well I have one favorite one.” I ask what it is. “By his stripes I am healed.” Then I ask where is that found? “Well I don’t know, but my preacher preaches on it pretty often.” I ask you don’t know where it is found? “No!! You want to know why we don’t get anything from God? Our sword is dull. No it isn’t dull. We left it at home. Thus when the enemy comes against us we have nothing to defeat him with.

Now then, in Col. 2:13-15 I want you to see more of what the Lord has done. It Hebrews 2:14 and 15 what did he do to the devil? He defeated him who had the power of death. Hebrews 2:14 “By becoming flesh and blood he defeated…” According to 1 John 3:8 he destroyed him. He is trying to tell us something here. Col. 2:13 “You were dead in sin and your sinful desires were not cut away. Then he gave you a share of the very life of Christ, for he Jesus forgave all your sins.” Is that good news? That is good news. “And blotted out the charges proved against you, the list of his commandments which you have not obeyed,” and I am telling you that we have not obeyed his commandments. We are every one guilty. He, Jesus, took the list of sins and destroyed it by nailing it to Christ’s cross. Is that good news? That is good news.

Verse 15, “And in this way God took away Satan’s power to accuse you of sin.” Just think. In the court room of heaven, where Satan stands accusing you and me day and night according to Revelations 12, if you have confessed your sins, if you have come to Christ and confessed then every sin you have committed is under the blood. All of them are under the blood. Then if you sin, which you should not, what do you have to do to be clean before God? Confess it. When you confess it to the Lord then you are clean. Somebody said, “Well I am just an old unworthy sinner.” Forget it. If you see yourself as an old unworthy sinner then don’t ever catch yourself up into the throne room and ask God for anything because he will call you a liar. “You are not an old unworthy sinner. I sent my Son to clean you up on the cross 2000 years ago and you dare walk into my throne room confessing that you are an old unworthy sinner? You do that after what I did for you on the cross?” But that is what we do.

If you had just told somebody you had done something for them and they walked up to you and started denying what you did and calling you a liar, how would you feel about them? You wouldn’t feel too good would you? That is what God feels about us. We break his heart when we call him a liar. When you do what he says then wow! He shows up! He is awesome!
 

SATAN HAS NO POWER OVER US

If in this way God took away Satan’s power to accuse you of sin and God openly displayed to the world Christ’s triumph at the cross where your sins were all forgiven, if he completely disarmed and triumphed over the devil on the cross, if he disarmed the devil, spoiled him, took all of his power away and triumphed over the beast completely in the cross then how much power does Satan have left over you and me? None! All power of Satan over you has been taken away by the blood of the Lamb.

Jesus, after he kicked Satan out of heaven, in Luke 10:19-20. I have heard Brother John quote this two or three times since I have been here. This is an awesome scripture. I don’t know how the enemy could have blinded my mind to these words so many years, but he did. Think of this. “Behold I give unto you authority to trample on the serpent and his scorpions. All power is given to you over them. They shall in no wise hurt you. Be not thankful that the evil spirits have to be subject unto you, but rather be thankful that your name is written in heaven.” What in the world do you do with a promise like that? Glory to God in the highest. Whenever that devil use to blind my mind I would look at that and I would say, “Behold I give unto you power to trample on a serpent.”

Guess what the devil would immediately bring to my mind when I look at this? My mind would see a snake crawling on the ground. “Why have I got authority over a serpent? I’m not going to mess with a rattle snake. I’m not going to be one of these snake handlers. You know there are churches that do that. There are some crazy ones out there. And a scorpion? When I see a scorpion I want to mash him. What is the big deal? The devil just blinded my mind.

One day I was beginning to learn how to take authority over the devil just a little. I was learning how to speak directly to him and demand him to get out in Jesus name. I was just barely touching this, but by barely touching it, when I command Satan to leave in the name of Jesus guess who has to leave? Satan!

And then one day I had done that and I read this scripture that said, “Behold I have given you power to trample on the devil and his demons.” I thought the devil and his demons! All power is given to me over the enemy. He shall in no wise hurt me. Be not thankful that evil spirits have to be subject to me. I said, “Lord, Satan is the serpent and his demons, you are talking about the devil and his demons. Praise God that they have to be subject to me, obedient to me when I speak in your name. That means when I lay my hands on somebody who is sick and command the demon to leave, and I do it and guarantee he has got to come out, then he has to come out.”

“If I lay my hands on him and say come out in Jesus name if it be God’s will.” If it be God’s will? The devil will look at you as if to say you fool you don’t even know who you are. And that is what we do.

A man walked down an isle one day and he had some kind of crippling arthritis in his back. This guy could just barely walk little bitty steps. He got down there and that preacher laid his hands on him and said, “You demon of hell come out of him. Now be healed in Jesus name. Now mister see if you can bend over and touch your toes.” The guy was stiff as a board.

The guy said, “I can’t move.” The preacher did it again. He did it a third time. After three times the guy said, “I can’t bend over.”

Preacher says, “Okay, next person.” When he turns to the next person, right there is standing Jesus. He, the preacher says, “He’s looking at me with his finger right in my face and Jesus said to him “I said in my name. he will go.” This preacher had a microphone on, but it looks like a one-sided conversation. The preacher says, “But Lord, I did what you told me and he didn’t go.” And everybody was wondering who in the world he was talking to. See when Brother John said he is here then he is here right now.

The Lord was visible to this preacher. The Lord looked at him the second time and said, “But I said in my name he will go.”

He said, “But Lord, I did everything you told me to do and he didn’t leave.”

The Lord repeated himself the third time and fire came from his eyes. The preacher said, “I could only imagine what the disciples must have felt like on that day when they couldn’t cast the demon out, when they said, “Lord we couldn’t cast him out.”

And the Lord said, “Oh you wicked and perverse bunch. How long am I going to have to put up with you guys? Bring the boy to me.” Can you only imagine our king and what he would say to us today in our little faith?
 

GUARANTEE

“I don’t want to hear it Lord. I want to be bold and strong with your word and I want to believe your word and I want to be able to guarantee your word. If you said it then that is good enough for me I will guarantee it if you said it because I will know I am not trying to persuade you to do what you are reluctant to do. I know in my bold faith I am driving out the forces of darkness.” That man got a hold of it and said, “Bring that man back down here.” They brought that man back down here.

He laid his hands on that man and said, “Now you demon of hell you have got to go in the name of Jesus. You have no recourse whatsoever. Now get out in Jesus name. Now mister bends over and touches your toes. Jesus Christ has delivered you.”

The man was free as a breeze. Only one thing the preacher did different. The first three times, when he commanded the demon to leave he said, “Now mister see if you can bend over and touch your toes.” The demon knew that there was just enough doubt in his heart that he wasn’t sure. Now if he had said, “I command you to leave. Now mister I guarantee you are healed. Bend over and touch your toes.” That demon would have gotten out of here. This is why I started guaranteeing that if Jesus said it then I can take it to the bank. I have come to realize that if Jesus said it and I don’t agree with him then I am calling him a liar and he is not at all happy with me. And if there is anybody I want to be happy with me it is my king. I don’t care about the rest of you all too much. I would like for you all to be happy with me, but I certainly want the king to be happy. Don’t you brother? I want the king to be happy. I don’t want him to be upset.

When we look at Luke 10:19-20 how much power do we have over the enemy? We have all power. And what is it that we don’t understand about that little three letter word all? “All power is given to you and he shall in no wise hurt you.” When you learn that all sickness and disease comes from the enemy you will never let yourself be sick again. Never! You won’t take it. You won’t take pain. You won’t take sickness. You will grave that devil and you will demand him to leave in the name of Jesus, quoting God’s word back to him. And when you do, I guarantee that devil or demon is going to leave.

What if he doesn’t leave that first day? Are you going to give up? No! Most Christians do. Most Christians pray one prayer or command one time. Then if nothing happens they say, “Well I guess it wasn’t God’s will for me.” Then the devil laughs at you. You don’t give up even if it takes you a week or a month.