"In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them."

—2 Corinthians 4:4

"Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand.
Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God."

—Ephesians 6:10-17

Step One: Recognize the source of the opposition as being Satan—and stand your ground!

So many times people do not know whether God or the devil is doing certain things. "Well," they say, "maybe the Lord is trying to teach me something."

I remember hearing an evangelist years ago. He'd had a tent which seated 20,000 people. But when he put it up down in Texas, one of those Texas tornadoes came along and blew it away. At this meeting they were taking up a special offering to help him get another tent. I remember he said, and I almost fell off the bench when I heard him say it, "I don't know whether God or the devil blew away my tent."

God is not out blowing down gospel tents! God is out putting them up!

"Yes," somebody said, "but God allowed it."

God is not the god of this world. Second Corinthians 4:4 calls Satan the god of this world. And the laws governing the earth today very largely came into being with the fall of man and the curse upon the earth.

It is because people do not understand this that they accuse God of accidents, of sickness, of the death of loved ones, of storms, catastrophes, earthquakes, and floods. God is not responsible for, nor the author of, any one of those things.

Jesus set aside these natural laws, as we understand them, in order to bless humanity. Jesus stood on board that ship and rebuked that storm, saying, "Peace, be still." According to John 14:10 it was God in Him who did that work. If God caused the storm, God would be working against Himself in causing it to cease.

It was the same with the healings Jesus performed. Jesus said, "The Father in me, He doeth the works." All the healings, all the miracles, all the works that Jesus did, God did. If God were the author of sickness and disease, and God healed people through Jesus, then God worked against Himself.

That cannot be. For Jesus said, "...if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand" (Mark 3:24,25).

Determine the Source

It is very easy to find out where things come from. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself contrasted His works with the works of the devil in John 10:10.

JOHN 10:10
10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

In contrasting His works with the works of the devil, Jesus is contrasting God's works with the works of the devil. For on one occasion Jesus said, "I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day: the night cometh when no man can work" (John 9:4). On another occasion when one disciple said to Him, "Show us the Father," Jesus answered, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father ... that Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works" (John 14:9,10). If you want to see God at work, look at Jesus.

It would absolutely erase all confusion as to where a thing is coming from if we would listen to the Word of God.

Most of us, however, from the time we were children, and before we could really read and get into the Word of God for ourselves, were religiously brainwashed. We have heard unscriptural things said all our lives—and sometimes even preached in the church we attended. What we heard was just the human mind trying to solve spiritual problems. And the human mind cannot solve spiritual problems.

If you will get into the Word of God, it will straighten out your thinking. Think in line with what God's Word says—not necessarily with what you have been taught it says, nor what somebody told you it says. Ask yourself, "What does the Word of God say?"

Let's examine what Jesus said in contrasting His works with the works of the devil.

Jesus said, "The thief..." He's not calling God a thief. God is not a thief. Jesus is not a thief. The devil is. Jesus calls the devil a thief.

Jesus said, "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy...." That which steals, that which kills, that which destroys is a thief. All such is the devil's work—not God's.

You need to realize this: Many times, particularly in the Old Testament, when it talks about God's doing something, He did not actually perform it. In other words, He was not the agent who did it. He did not send evil on anyone. God already had warned them, "If you sin, these things will happen to you."

Suppose, for instance, a man climbs up on the house, then falls off and breaks his leg. God put into motion the law of gravity. But the man could not say, "God broke my leg," or, "God pushed me off the roof," or even, "God did it." No. God put into motion the law of gravity; the man violated it, and reaped the results.

It is true that God is the author of the law of gravity. But He did not intend for the man to break his leg. He did not intend for him to fall. The man fell off accidentally, or because he was careless.

Now then, when certain things happen in life—such as sickness and disease, catastrophe, etc.—and people say, "God did it," no, He did not. They happen because man sinned. Not the individual involved, necessarily, but Adam sinned—and all mankind fell heir to the terrible results. As John Alexander Dowie said, "Sickness is the foul offspring of its mother Sin and its father Satan."

We all have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). But God did not intend that we would sin. God warned man these things would happen. But He did not intend they would happen. They happened because man listened to the devil.

Satan was not originally the god of this world; Adam was. Go back to the Book of Beginnings, the Book of Genesis. God made the world and the fullness thereof—and it was all good. There was not anything that was bad. Then He made His man Adam and He said, "Adam, I give you dominion over all the work of my hands." (That's over the earth and everything.) "You dominate." Or, in other words, "I am making you god of this world. You run it."

But Adam committed high treason and sold out to the devil. He did not have the moral right to do it, but he did have the legal right. Then the devil began to dominate upon the earth. He became the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4).

The Bible record of the temptation of Jesus sheds light we need to see about Satan's domination upon the earth.

LUKE 4:5-8
5 And the devil, taking him (Jesus) up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
6 And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: FOR THAT IS DELIVERED UNTO ME; And to whomsoever I will I give it.
7 If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.
8 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

I heard a radio preacher say, "That didn't belong to Satan. It all belonged to God. Satan just lied."

If that were the case, Jesus would have known it, and there would have been no temptation. The Bible says that Jesus was tempted.

That poor radio preacher unconsciously accused the Lord Jesus Christ of perpetrating a fraud, becoming partner to a lie, and being dishonest. For if this were not a real temptation, Jesus was dishonest.

Jesus did not dispute for a moment that this was delivered unto Satan (verse 6). Who delivered it to him? Adam did.

The Bible tells us that when Satan is finally eliminated from the earth, there will be nothing which hurts or destroys.

That will be a great day. But, thank God, we do not have to let Satan dominate us now. Even though he is the god of this world, he does not have the right to dominate the Church. He does not have the right to dominate us as believers.

Stand Your Ground

It is important to recognize that the source of the opposition is Satan—and to stand your ground.

Too many people are ready to give up on something instead of recognizing that it is Satan who is trying to keep it from happening. Many of the things we pray about—finances, healing, and so on—have to come to pass in this world realm. And Satan is at work here. He will put up every block he can to keep it from happening. Then if there is the least delay, some people say, "Maybe God doesn't want me to have that after all." They lose out and are defeated when they should have recognized the source of all opposition is Satan and not allowed him to defeat them.

I opened this book with Scripture from the 6th chapter of Ephesians which declares the fact that it is Satan with whom we have to deal. Paul, writing this letter to the Church, plainly said, "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord...." (v. 10).

Somebody said, "Oh, I'm trying to be strong."

It does not say a thing in the world about their being strong. That's where people miss it. They drop back into the natural and try to do it themselves. It does not say anything about the individual's being strong. It says, "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord...." It does not say, "Be strong in yourself." It says, "Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might."

We used to hear people say in testimony meetings, "Pray for me that I will hold out faithful to the end." Bless their hearts, they were just a-workin' and a-strugglin', trying to hold on and hold out. And they didn't know whether they could, or they couldn't.

I use this illustration quite often. On May 11, 1932, a crowd of 10,000 assembled to welcome the world's largest dirigible, the U.S. Navy's $8 million USS Akron, to Camp Kearney, San Diego, California. (At that time, the U.S. Government was experimenting with lighter-than-air craft.)

The mooring appeared to be successful. Then a ring that held one of the two mooring cables snapped and the 785-foot airship started to lift. Two groups of sailors holding landing ropes attached to the cables attempted to guide the Akron back to its mooring mast, but strong winds buffeted the giant dirigible, and it broke loose, lifting many of the 200 sailors ten to twenty feet off the ground. Some were injured as they fell. Then only three men dangled from the 300-foot cable as the Akron continued to ascend.

According to contemporary newspaper accounts, hysteria prevailed. Women fainted. Officers wept. Enlisted men ran around wildly, unable to help the three desperate men clnging to the cable. Soon, two of the men could hold on no longer, and they plummeted 150 feet and 200 feet to their deaths.

Farther up the twisted lines, the third sailor, a 19-year-old enlisted man from Oklahoma, braced his feet in some wooden handgrips and quickly lashed other lines attached to the cable around his body. He just kept holding on as the Akron rose to 2,000 feet. The horrified onlookers thought that his strength would fail at any moment and he, too, would fall to his death. Half an hour passed. Then the tiny figure moved—the man was alive!

Attempts to lower the giant aircraft were unsuccessful because of the winds. The sailor's two-hour ordeal finally ended when the crew cautiously hauled him inside the airship by hand while the Akron circled San Diego.

When people asked him, "How did you hold on so long?" he replied, "I didn't hold on. When I saw I was too far from the ground to let go, I wrapped the ropes around me. I wasn't holding onto them; they were holding me."

While people ont he ground was screaming, he was up there enjoying the scenery. He wasn't trusting himself to hold on. He was trusting the rope to hold him. He was swinging free!

That's what God's Word is talking about. "Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might." Just wrap yourself in the promises of God and swing free. Just enjoy yourself. If you try to hold on, you will tire out after a while.

Yes, there is a wily foe against us—but, thank God, we can stand against him.

Somebody said, "I've done all I know to do. What am I to do now?"

"...having done all, to stand. Stand therefore...." (Eph. 6:13,14). Just keep on standing! That's what you do!

My father left home when I was six. My mother, because of all the problems she'd had with him, had a complete nervous and physical breakdown. So we went to live with our grandparents on her side of the family.

When Granny had to be doing something, such as hanging out the clothes to dry, she would have me watch Momma. Momma had "spells" when she would want to kill herself. I had to watch to see that she didn't get hold of a knife or something dangerous. That made quite an impression on me as a young child.

I'm going to explore a side issue here. My mother was a Christian--but just a baby Christian. She knew Christ as her Savior, but she did not know how to stand, and so on. What if she had killed herself? Would she have been saved? Well, it is possible to be sick in your head just as much as it is possible to be sick in your stomach. Would someone go to hell just because he was sick in his stomach? No. Nor would he go to hell just because he was sick in his head. Being sick in his head would not keep him from going to heaven.

People can be sick in their heads and not even know what they are doing. Momma lived to be 80. Years after she recovered and I was in the ministry, I suddenly began to talk to her one day about having had to watch her and some of those things. "Why, Son, don't you ever say a think like that," she said. "You know I'm a Christian. I wouldn't have done anything like that. I wouldn't have taken my own life." She had no knowledge of it whatever. I never mentioned it to her again.

Now back to the time when she was having a multitude of problems. Finally she was sent to a Baptist hospital in Dallas and the leading nerve specialist in the southwestern part of the country. After examination, the doctor said that the chances of an operation correcting her blindness was not good. (Because of her mental and physical breakdown, Momma had become blind. Her eyes looked as perfect as anyone's, but due to shock to the nerve of her eye, it was not strong enough for the light.)

"When it comes to nerves," that wise doctor advised her, "you can do more than anybody or any medication you could take. The main thing to do is this--talk to yourself. The Bible says in Ephesians 6:13,14, 'Having done all to stand. Stand therefore.' When you feel these attacks coming on, say to yourself, 'No, I am not going to have an attack.'"

Even we could tell when one of those terrible attacks was coming. She would go into a preliminary attack of depression. She would get to thinking about everything that ever had happened to her in life. You see, her parents had not wanted her to marry my father. Not that he didn't come from a good family--his father was a millionaire. But he was an only son who always had been given everything he wanted. My grandfather spent $50,000--and that was big money then--setting him up in business five different times. But he never made a success of anything. He just ran through the money. When Momma married him against her parents' wishes, she said, "If I make my bed hard, I'll lie on it." She made her bed hard, and she tried to lie on it. But she just could not make it.

If you are not careful, you can get to thinking about the past--mistakes you made, where you missed it--and get depressed. Then you can get into a spirit of depression. And that opens the door to the devil. You can get so perplexed and depressed and oppressed until you do not know what you are doing, which direction you are going, and hardly what your name is.

We knew nothing about divine healing, praying, and all that, but Momma did heed this doctor's advice. She simply stood her ground. She refused to have any more attacks. A few times she would start to go into one of these periods of depression, but she would do what the doctor said, and never again did she go into one of the violent attacks where her mind was completely gone.

Our preacher did not know how to help her. The doctor knew enough to at least give her Scripture to stand against that thing. The doctor recognized it as an enemy, not a friend. (The thief is come to steal, to kill, to destroy--I am come that you might have life.) The doctor instructed her, "Stand against it. Talk to yourself. Say, 'I am not going to have another attack. I am not going to do it.'" She stood her ground. Every symptom left. For more than 50 years thereafter, she never had any nervous problems whatsoever.

That doctor helped Momma see where the opposition was. He helped her understand that she could stand against it. You do not have to yield to things that are wrong. You can stand against them.

Too often though, we limit our idea of what is wrong, or evil, to things like lying, stealing, adultery, murder, etc. All that is evil. All that is wrong. But--there are many other things that are wrong.

The Bible tells us that doubt is evil. It calls the report those 10 spies brought back after spying out Canaan's Land an "evil report" (Num. 13:32).

I am glad I got hold of these truths when I was just a young man. Since even before I was filled with the Holy Spirit or knew anything about it, this is the practice I always follow if doubt comes. I stop wherever I am--in the middle of a room, the middle of the street, or wherever. If I am alone, I say it aloud. If I am around people, I say it quietly. (You don't want to startle people.) If doubt persists in coming against my mind I say, "Doubt, I resist you." I speak to it. You see, I am recognizing the source of my opposition as the enemy. I am not going to yield to it. It is Satan. "Doubt, I resist you," I say. "In the Name of Jesus I refuse to doubt."

If fear comes--I am tempted to be afraid just as much as anyone else--I speak to it. "Fear," I say, "I resist you."

I recognize fear and doubt as being evil.

If the thought to steal came to me, I would not yield to it. Would you? If you were visiting my house and saw a hundred dollar bill lying on the table, you wouldn't say, "I believe I'll get that. Nobody will see. Brother Hagin left the room." No, you wouldn't yield to it. You would resist it.

You would not get up in church and testify, "I want you to pray for me. The devil is trying to get me to steal a hundred dollars from Brother Hagin." No, you would be ashamed of it.

You would be ashamed to get up and say, "The devil has tempted me to rob a gas station down on the corner. I almost did it. I even pulled in there and stopped. Then I got cold feet. You all pray for me that I won't rob that gas station." No! The very minute such a thought came, you would stand against it. You would recognize its source.

If a thought of doubt comes, if a thought of fear comes, resist it the same way. Speak to it and say, "No, I will not entertain that."

Recognize--if you want to walk in victory--that the source of all opposition is Satan, and stand against it.

Satan is the god of this world. He has a right to be here.

"Brother Hagin," a man said, with a look of real seriousness on his face, "I want you to pray for me."

"What for, Brother?"

Tears came to his eyes. "I want you to pray for me that I won't ever have any more trouble with the devil."

I said, "Do you want me to pray that you will die?"

"No," he said. "I don't want to die."

I said, "The only way in the world you won't have any more trouble with the devil is to die and go on to heaven. As long as you are in this life, you are going to have trouble with him. He is the god of this world."

There is no use in praying that you won't have any more trouble with the devil. He will show up on every corner. He has a right to be here until Adam's lease runs out.

Demons which possessed people would recognize Jesus and cry out to Him, "What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?" (Matt. 8:29).

The time has not yet come. When Adam's lease runs out, then the devil will be a goner. Until then, he has a right to be here.

Blessed be God, we need to realize that we have authority over the devil in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We can stand against him. We can be victorious through the Lord Jesus Christ.