So we'll just read a verse in Revelations 12:10-11. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying: now salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives unto death. So notice here it says: the pressure against believers is unrelenting, day and night. Isn't that interesting? So notice that they are accusations, so one of the things the devil wishes to do is to accuse you continually of lacks, failures, faults, flaws, to heighten your awareness of what's wrong, rather than your awareness of what God has done for you, and where you stand.
Essentially he wants to erode your standing, so you don't feel near to God. You feel just not good enough, feel bad: I'm not good enough, nothing's good enough. So spiritual attacks come in the form of accusations or condemnation, where you feel pressured in your mind, that you're not good enough. Now the devil doesn't say you're not good enough, he'll fill your mind with: I'm not good enough, I'll never be good enough, nothing I do is good enough, there's something wrong with me. Now when there's a flow of thoughts like that, they will energise any strongholds you have in your heart, but they are a flow of spiritual energy that comes in. It can be just heaviness, it can be feelings of dread, particularly when you're facing situations where there's a lot of control in those relationships. You can come under tremendous spiritual pressure, and feel almost like fear and anxiety, and it's totally out of proportion to what you're facing.
Temptations, confusion, oppression, so some people just have a heaviness come. Now I've shown you how to lift the heaviness off quite easy, but we must actually conquer these things. So you are always responsible for the state of your life. Don't go blaming anyone else, don't be the victim. We're responsible, so if something's not right, we've let it not be right, or we're on the journey of sorting it out. So to overcome means to conquer, subdue and come out victoriously, so the first place you've got to conquer and subdue is around your own life. Notice it says: they overcame the accuser, they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb. That's what Jesus did on our behalf; the word of their testimony, confessing to what Jesus has done, and then persevering and holding on to it, and backing up the devil on it. So whatever comes against you, you've got authority to defeat it. You can defeat it, and it will back up. I've learned this with demons: they will always back up, once you've determined that you know what you're doing, and you're going to keep on resisting them. They back up, and then the atmosphere changes, and you're free again.
So how can you deal with it? In James 4:7, notice these wonderful scriptures: Submit to God. Resist the devil and he will? [Flee from you.] Flee from you, and that word means to seek safety, by running away from the danger that you present. Now that's a good word to know, that the devil will flee. Of course the devil's not interested in you personally. He's got really low level evil spirits interested in you. They just do his work, so you're dealing now with just low level spirits, and here's the deal. If you will align yourself with God, and make a stand to resist, he will flee away in panic and terror, because you've really got to him, so that's the promise. So the outcome of the demons fleeing away is a result of two things; one, of you're actually aligning yourself with God, and two, making a stand against the devil. The two words are quite interesting words. One is the word hupotasso, hupo to be beneath, and to stand or position yourself beneath, meaning literally position yourself right with God, and then the other one is anti-tasso, position yourself anti whatever the devil's doing.
So it's all about positioning yourself in your attitude, your thinking and in your words. So how would you go about dealing with a spiritual attack? It's helpful if you ask these kinds of questions: What am I feeling? If you can put a name on what you're feeling, you bring it out to the light. Many times we have lots of feelings swirl on, and then we think some new thoughts. Then there's more feelings, and then there's more thoughts, and before you know it, you're in a swirl of thoughts and feelings and turmoil, and all in emotion. If you get like that, get up and pray in tongues! [Prays in tongues] Shake the thing back, and then stop and evaluate what you're feeling; what is it I am feeling? Try to get a name on it. Is it fear? Is it anger, is it irritation of some kind? Anxiety? What am I feeling?
Then ask the question, well what triggered that? Was something said, something someone did, or didn't do? What triggered this? I wasn't feeling like that when I got up - why am I feeling like that now? When did that change? Now if you can just get your spirit free first of all, and just go through this little process of asking these questions, what am I feeling? What emotions or feelings or things are going on inside me? Then what happened that has triggered that off? Then evaluate, well what happened, what actually happened that caused that to take place? Have I made some assumption, had some expectation that wasn't met? Try to evaluate what's happened. You'll find the most common reason people get in a mess, is they made an assumption: oh, I thought you were going to do that. You didn't [mutter mutter], and now you're in a turmoil about it all, and it's all building up inside, and the devil's just having a hey day in your life.