Derek Prince - The Only Power Strong Enough To Overcome Evil
This is excerpt from: The Power Of Proclamation
Now we're going to take some pattern proclamations. But first of all remember it must be the breath with the Word. In other words, it has to be the Holy Spirit. And secondly what we do - a very good thing to do - is we personalize it. So where the Bible says you, we say we. In other words, we're saying this applies to us here and now. Now, we're going to start with self-defense. What happens when we're attacked. I could go on on this all the rest of this period, but I am tired of moving in the area of needs. So many Christians never get beyond their own needs. So I'm going to go briefly through this area and go on to what I call the area of aggression, where you're not defending yourself, you're attacking.
So, suppose that you have a lot of dark negative foreboding. And you're continually thinking about what would happen if I were to die. I mean, there are lots of people with this attitude; some of them are here tonight. You've been told by the doctor: We can't guarantee that you'll come through this. We'll do our best. Here's a Scripture we must have used several thousand times. I mean, Ruth at certain times just lay in bed and said that, that's all she said. Psalm 118:17: I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord. I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord. Would you like to say that? That doesn't take much memorizing, does it? All right. I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord. Again. I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord. Now, one thing you can do to make sure you're really bold is to turn and face somebody, look them right in the face and say to them, I shall not die but live. It takes a certain amount of extra what the Jews call chutzpah or nerve. I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord. Amen.
You feel better now, don't you? Suppose it should happen to you. Preachers are particularly a target for this. They are criticizing you, speaking against you and some are praying against you. So what do you do? Our remedy is Isaiah 54:17. If you want to find it in your Bible we'll just say it. Now, we say it in our own particular way, but it's based on this. No weapon that is formed against us shall prosper and every tongue which rises against us in judgment we do condemn. This is our heritage as servants of the Lord and our righteousness is from you, O Lord of hosts. Have you found it? You see how we personalize it? I mean we actually, I'll tell you a secret which is no longer a secret: Everybody is going to know it all around the world sooner or later. We say this every night before we go to sleep. No weapon that is formed against us shall prosper and every tongue which rises against us in judgment we do condemn. This is our heritage as servants of the Lord and our righteousness is from you, O Lord of hosts.
That's why we can condemn the tongues that accuse us because they're accusing God's righteousness. And that's always losing. I'd like to say just to clear the record, after that we say: If there are those who have been speaking or praying against us or seeking harm or evil to us, we forgive them and, having forgiven them we bless them in the name of the Lord. We replace the negative with the positive because the Bible says if people curse you don't curse them back, bless them. Paul said don't be overcome by evil, overcome evil with good. The only power strong enough to overcome evil is good. So you have to learn to meet the negative and overcome it with the positive. But it has to be based on this Word. Now suppose, let's say, our ministry is assailed. Or it could be our home or our family. We have one that we're quite famous for in Deuteronomy 33:25-27. We do this in the NIV which makes it very powerful. Deuteronomy 33:25-27: The bolts of our gates will be iron and bronze and our strength will equal our days. There is no one like the God of Jeshurun, who rides on the heavens to help us and on the clouds in his majesty. The eternal God is our refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. He will drive out our enemies before us saying, Destroy him!
Amen! That really frightens Satan, I'll tell you that. We have learned you have to destroy him. God will drive him out, you have to destroy him. You have to put your foot on the enemy's neck. We won't go into the details of that, they're too bloodthirsty. Let's point out we're not talking about human beings but about spiritual forces when we're talking about our enemies. Our enemies are not flesh and blood. Your pastor is not your enemy; your husband is not your enemy. You might think so at times but that's not the way it is! You have to learn that we're not fighting human beings. These weapons are very powerful but they have to be used in the right context. Now suppose you should have any kind of need. None of you do, I'm sure but suppose it should happen. Financial, physical or healing. We've got one proclamation for each. First of all, financial.
2 Corinthians 9:8. And we just change the words a little but basically they're King James. God is able to make all grace abound toward us that we always, having all sufficiency in all things may abound to every good work. See, it starts with three simple words. God is able. Do you believe He's able? It's important. Then it says what He's able to do. And that is such a tremendous verse. The word 'all' occurs five times and the word 'abound' or 'abundance' occurs twice. It wouldn't be possible to get more abundance into one verse than Paul got into that, and it's grace. Notice that, how is grace received, by what? By faith. By grace you are saved through faith, that's right. It's not something we earn; it doesn't depend on our salary although that may be related. But we receive it by faith in God's grace. We'll do it once more. This is the financial basis of our ministry. Whenever we are praying for finance we start on this basis. See, then we have a positive attitude. So we'll do it again. God is able to make all grace abound toward us that we always, having all sufficiency in all things may abound to every good work.