Now you'd say: how could it be possible? Yesterday you were casting out demons and oh, there's this mighty thing happening! Today you're about to cut your throat, what's going on? [Laughter] Well there's Biblical precedent, have a think of Elijah. One day he's up there, calling fire from heaven and he's killed all the prophets, next day he's under a tree depressed and wanting to take his life. This is demonic attack, and so demonic attack after ministry can affect you, because you become more vulnerable. You become vulnerable then, you're emotionally depleted, and so what happens is, you may feel overwhelmed with feelings of rejection. That's very simply - it's actually quite simple, and the remedy is very simple. The problem is you're just emotionally depleted. Just go do something that refreshes your soul, and have a good sleep, and you'll feel much better. That's all it takes, it's nothing really deep, just something simple like that.
When you are emotionally depleted, old issues come up much more easily. You feel of no value, and you've just got to restore your value again, so shout yourself out, do something nice, do something that makes your soul restored, and step back up again, and you'll come right, so that's one way. Another way is you can become vulnerable to temptation, because you've just come on a high of having good experiences, the next thing the devil's on you, and before you know it you've fallen into some old temptation. Then you think oh oh! Then he condemns and oh! You think what's the use of me trying to... but this is the war that goes with ministry, so once you've been in it a little while you just learn; okay, going to do some ministry. Before you go there you're going to have a bit of pressure, during it you may have some stuff; afterwards you may have some stuff. Wake up, it's a war, this is what it means to be in ministry, and this is what Paul wrote to Timothy: endure hardness as a good soldier of the Lord.
So those are some of the things that come upon you in ministry. Now you think you're the only one who has this? We have them all the time, it never stops. I can get sick, I can have things happen, I have things go wrong, I have stuff happens just on my way into ministry. You'd be surprised how many times just before I get to minister, I've just prayed up in the right place, and suddenly some terrible thing will happen, and I'm just torn apart with this conflict between wanting to do something for God and this personal thing I've got to face, now that's very difficult. This is ministry. In ministry you can be having God moving wonderfully in one part of your life and the other part is a total disaster and you don't know what to do. You think how can it be like that? Listen - and the temptation is to be preoccupied with yourself, and stop doing what God called you to do. This is why so many Christians get defeated by that. The devil just puts a bit of pressure on them, they have a bit of misery at home, something goes wrong, there's a conflict, upheaval, and then they quit. They don't understand, you didn't quit, you just got knocked out and KO'd by a devil, and you didn't get back up. Why don't you get back up? Oh, I didn't feel I was good enough. Who told you that? The devil. And you believed him? [Laughter] Get up! Just get up again.
The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, though he fall, though he fall, he'll not be utterly cast down, the Lord will lift him back up again. Righteous falls seven times, and the Lord lifts him back up again. God just wants you to get back up again. Don't worry if you have some mistake, failure, whatever, they're all dealt with at the cross. Just get quickly in before God, put it right, and get back up again. What honours God is you getting back up, and getting in the fight again. You've got to remember this. He left the demons for us to clean up, he left them for us to clean up. He said I'm authorising the church, go clean them up, sort them out, so if we don't do that, then we're missing out the privilege. This honour have all the saints, it says in Psalm 149. This is an honour. This is an honour, that Jesus won the victory, and we would now go out and enforce the victory, and make demons yield to us. No wonder they come back saying WHOA! Demons are subject to us in Jesus' name. He said well don't get excited about that, get excited your name is written in heaven, you're part of a great and a coming kingdom that's going to fill the whole world. Amen. Great stuff. Why don't we give the Lord a clap? Don't you - I feel excited already. [Applause] Halleluiah! We love You Lord. Glory! Yes, Lord, oh my.