God Empowers the Weak (6) - David Eells - UBBS 9.23.2026

God Empowers the Weak (6) (audio) David Eells, 9/23/26 Saints, we are weak as we walk by faith in God’s promises. Then His power is ours. We know that spiritual Jews in this New Covenant are the ones who walk in the faith of Abraham. You can’t recognize the Jew according to the flesh anymore; it’s whether they are a believer or not. It’s according to your faith or your unbelief as to whether you’re grafted in or broken off according to Romans 11. If you have faith, you’re a child and have a right to the children’s bread. The world has no right to the children’s bread because they are not in Covenant with God. Our part of the Covenant is faith. God’s part is supply. We enter into it by faith and God enters into it with supply. I’ll show you a few more verses so we can see if this is the Covenant people or the world who’s getting healed or delivered here. Now remember what Jesus believed. He showed you His doctrine: that He didn’t come to the lost people; He came to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matthew 15:24). Why did He call them the “lost sheep of the house of Israel”? He called them that because, like sheep, Israel had gone astray. He wasn’t talking about the world there. And just like sheep, Israel in this day has gone astray, too. The Lord told me one time, “I sent you to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” He wasn’t talking about physical Israel; He was talking about spiritual Israel, the lost sheep, because they are lambs who have lost their way. The Way is the Word. In fact, in the Book of Acts, they called it the Way (Acts 9:2; 19:9,23; 22:4; 24:14,22). It is a Way. We’re supposed to be walking on the Way of Jesus’ steps. 1Jn 2:6 he that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk even as he walked. (Mat.8:16) And when even was come, they brought unto him many possessed with demons: and he cast out the spirits with a word (Matthew is talking about the children here), and healed all that were sick: (Mat.8:17) that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our diseases. He didn’t say, “the world’s infirmities”; he said, “our infirmities, and bare our diseases.” Who has the right to deliverance from demons and who has a right to healing? The believers do. They do not. In fact, you don’t have a right to give it to them, except by the permission of God. Jesus granted the desire of the Syrophoenician woman because of her profession of faith. Once, I asked God and received permission in a vision to cast a demon out of a lost person. God does give permission, but He doesn’t have to. Here’s the difference: God has to give deliverance to somebody who’s in Covenant because the Bible says it, and He’d be a liar if He didn’t. He has to give all the promises of God. The Bible says all the promises of God are “Yes.” (2Co.1:20) For how many soever be the promises of God, in him is the yea: wherefore also through him is the Amen, unto the glory of God through us. Some say, “sometimes God says, No,” but if it’s concerning a promise to a believer, He says “Yes.” There is no promise in the Bible for deliverance for the world from a demon, even though we can ask God and He might give permission. But we who are in Covenant with God have a guaranteed right to deliverance. The Bible says by His stripes you were healed (1 Peter 2:24). It’s not even a matter of convincing God; it’s an accomplished fact on the cross. It’s not as though God is going to change His mind. It’s already an accomplished fact on the cross that we were delivered. So, who’s He casting these demons out of here, that He says is a fulfillment through the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 53:4)? If it’s a fulfillment of Him taking away our infirmities, then He’s talking about deliverance of Covenant people. Let me give you another verse. When Jesus sent out His disciples, He limited them specifically as to where they were to go. Evangelization is to the world, but we’re not talking about evangelization here; we’re talking about dealing with “the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Mat.10:5) These twelve Jesus sent forth, and charged them, saying, Go not into [any] way of the Gentiles, and enter not into any city of the Samaritans. That’s those who are not Jews by blood. Or a Samaritan also can be a pagan who’s acting like a Christian because of how Samaria was populated. It was populated when God took away the Samaritans by captivity as the northern 10 tribes. He took them away and repopulated their area with pagans (2 Kings 17:24). And when the pagans in Samaria started dying because of the curses of the land (2 Kings 17:25), the prophet said, “Well, it’s because they don’t know the God of the land.” So then they brought Israelites in there to train these pagans about the God of the land (2 Kings 17:27). That means, amongst the people of God, there are some pagans. They’ve been trained in Christianity; they know all the lingo, but they’re still pagans, not Covenant people. I’m not saying God can’t heal them; I’m just saying they’re not in Covenant. What would give them covenant rights? FAITH! We need to have discernment and pay attention to what Jesus said. I’ve had the Lord tell me, “Don’t lay hands on that person for healing.” I’ve had Him tell me, and I thought they were Christians, but God just said, “Don’t do it.” I don’t know whether it was because they were in willful disobedience and they couldn’t be healed because they were in rebellion against God, or whether they weren’t in Covenant with God. I don’t know; I don’t have all the answers. I just know that God has told me not to do that before. But God has healed nonbelievers, and He does it for evangelistic reasons. What I’m saying is there’s a difference; the difference is you have no promise, and there’s no guarantee. For that, you have to be led of the Spirit. But as a Christian walking by faith in God, repented of your sins and so on and so forth, you’re guaranteed to be healed if you will stay in Covenant by faith. Every one of us has to stay in Covenant by our faith. That’s what keeps us in Covenant with God. If you don’t have faith, you can’t have that part of the Covenant. It doesn’t matter that you’re saved in another part. If you have sozo over here, it doesn’t mean you have sozo over there. The Covenant is very big, and the sozo is very big, but you might be able to enter into only parts of it because of your faith. We enter into as much as we can receive through our faith. (Mat.10:5) These twelve Jesus sent forth, and charged them, saying, Go not into [any] way of the Gentiles, and enter not into any city of the Samaritans: (6) but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. (7) And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. (8) Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons: freely ye received, freely give. He was saying, cast the demons out, but only cast the demons out of Israel. We don’t have to think too much about casting demons out. We have another good example from the apostle Paul. (1Co.5:1) It is actually reported that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not even among the Gentiles, that one [of you] hath his father’s wife. (3) For I verily, being absent in body but present in spirit, have already as though I were present judged him that hath so wrought this thing, (4) in the name of our Lord Jesus, ye being gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, (5) to deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Paul turned this man over to the devil for the destruction of his flesh. He used the devil to chasten this guy to bring him to repentance. You would probably waste a lot of breath trying to deliver that guy. However, let me say that I’ve also seen that you can cast that demon out and he’ll go right back in there. God might honor your faith; the demon may come right out, but he goes around the corner and he’s right back in there. (Heb.10:26) For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more a sacrifice for sins, (27) but a certain fearful expectation of judgment…. A person who’s under a judgment, you can’t deliver them. Or, if you do, it won’t last. Sometimes God wants to teach you something, so He will permit it to happen, but it won’t last. The judgment will be right back. For example, you can pray for somebody and God may heal them. But what they have sown, they are reaping (Galatians 6:7). They have walked in sin and brought a curse upon themselves and you may pray for them, and they may be healed, but it doesn’t last. Why? Well, two possible reasons are willful rebellion against God (Hebrews 10:26) or unbelief (Hebrews 3:12). They’ve never learned to walk by faith for themselves. There are a lot of reasons why people don’t keep what God gives them. Let me share an experience I had. In a Pentecostal church, I was filled with the Holy Spirit. My doctrine was wrong, but I was filled with the Holy Spirit; I spoke in tongues, and the gifts were being manifested, but I was caught up in a doctrine of demons, and I converted some people to my doctrine. And one day I ran into a man, Brother Bolivar. We were arguing doctrine back and forth and I was sitting across from him and trying to attack what he was saying. I was involved in “Jesus only,” and that was the Oneness doctrine. We were throwing these verses back and forth, and the Lord just really tricked me. Up to that point, I had been converting people to my doctrine very easily, but this guy was better than I was, and he knew more verses than I did. Every time I threw one argument out there, he had an answer for it. Not only that, but he had an answer for my verse because he had already been in that error. This was the secret. He had an answer for my verse. People are used to fighting like, “I take this group of verses and you take this group,” but brother Bolivar not only had his verses; he was explaining mine. So the Lord tricked me. The thought came to me, “Well, I’m going to have to set down my doctrine just for a minute. I’m going to have to get around there and look through his eyes and try to see what he sees. If I can do that, I can attack this thing.” This is the thought that came into my mind so clearly. And when I decided, that I was going to do that, a demon went right out of the top of my head. I felt the presence go right out through the top of my head, and I had an instantaneous revelation. And the instantaneous revelation was that Jesus is the Son of God. Not only that, I lost something else when that demon left. I don’t know its name; all I know was it was a demon. I felt its presence go up out of me. Then I also lost a sectarian spirit because we were the most sectarian bunch you’d ever want to run across. It was like, “We’re saved, and none of the rest of you are saved. You are all lost. Anyway, that was my experience. My experience since then has been casting some demons out of the flesh of Spirit-filled people. Let me tell you about Tubby. He was a Spirit-filled brother, and I cast four or five demons out of him. They had even spoken to him before they were cast out. They spoke to him, physically spoke, and physically threw him on the bed; they told him they were going to kill him, and then they turned the stereo on and opened his windows and his doors; physical manifestations were happening in his house from those demons that were in him. Well, Brother Tubby had just gotten saved and filled with the Holy Spirit. He came to my house and told me the story of what was happening. It was awful. And so anyway, to make a long story short, I cast the demons out of him and he was set free. I’ll give you another example about this guy named Jim. He’d come to a mission near us. He had gotten saved; in fact, he was so saved that he came in there stoned drunk and became sober immediately when he got saved and was filled with the Holy Spirit. Now one of the deacons of that church was telling me about Jim getting filled with demons, but the deacon himself wasn’t filled with the Holy Spirit. So I told him, “If I were you, I’d mind my business until I got filled with the Holy Spirit because you don’t want to mess with demons until you get filled with the Holy Spirit.” He didn’t pay any attention to me. He went on over there, and he ended up in the hospital because the demons manifested in the guy. They ran that deacon right through one of those thick plate-glass doors. He went through it. He was lying out in the street all cut up, screaming for somebody to get the demons off of him. And a baby Christian walked by and said, “Loose him in the name of Jesus!” And that’s how he got free. He cried out to that Christian, “Get these demons off of me!” I personally knew Jim. He was miraculously saved and filled with the Holy Spirit, and this is what happened to the deacon after I told him not to go over there, but he did. Then the preacher went over there, and with what I found out was his girlfriend- but she was supposed to be his secretary. She went over there with him, and these demons were manifesting in Jim. Did you know demons can actually change your physical appearance? Some of those demons have the ability to make you like a werewolf. Werewolves are not fantasy. And not only that, there are many other manifestations. Some levels of demons have the ability to physically change their appearance. First, let me tell you what happened to this preacher. This preacher and his girlfriend went in there planning to command the demons to come out, but the demons in Jim ran them out of the building. People shouldn’t be in sin if they cast out demons. If the door had still been there, he probably would have run them through the door, but the door was in pieces. He ran them out into the street. So they called me and asked me to come there. I think I was probably the only one there who had any experience in casting out demons. So when I went over there and I walked into the room. The preacher and his secretary were standing at the door, peeking around the corner; they wouldn’t even come into the room. When I walked into the room, this guy jumped up, and it was just like he was a big old bear. His eyes were wild, and his features were all contorted. And he came at me. But I just felt the calmness of Jesus was in my heart, and I said, “Sit, in the name of Jesus!” He obeyed me immediately; he sat down just like a whipped little puppy; he just sat there. He was growling at me, making all kinds of noises. As the Lord was giving me word of knowledge concerning the demons, I started calling them out, and then they started giving me their names. They spoke out of him. They asked permission to enter into the secretary, and I told them, “No, you can’t,” but then I became suspicious. When they wanted to enter the secretary and wanted my permission, I figured there was something wrong with her. They were also glorifying the preacher, and I knew something was wrong with him because demons don’t like to do that. They just thought he was so great and so wonderful. I later came to find out those two were in fornication. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was suspicious that something was wrong. Anyway, I commanded the demons to come out. I think 10 of them came out. One of them asked if he could go into a dog, but I couldn’t see a dog in the room. I didn’t find out until I left the room that there was a dog on the other side of the wall in the next room. Some lady was visiting her husband in the mission, and she had a little dog there. They all asked to enter into the dog. I said, “No, you enter into the nearest cockroach you can find.” That’s what I told them. I don’t know whether that’s Scriptural or not; I just felt like saying it. There may be a crazy cockroach somewhere. But anyway, they came out giving their names. So because God spoke and told me, “They came in through the TV set,” I asked, “Jim, what were you watching on this TV set?” And he showed me. It was a skin flick he was watching on the TV, and those demons came into this Spirit-filled baby Christian. They came into him because he opened himself up by watching pornographic movies, and I’ll tell you, it’s a dangerous thing to do. Anyway, I can’t explain everything that happened there, but the Lord told me there were two demons left and to leave them. So I left them. The next day we had a church service in that mission, and Jim was there, and he came down for prayer. And the Lord taught me something there because the preacher was one of those who thought if he couldn’t knock you out on the floor, there was something wrong with you. So he laid hands on Jim to “slay him in the spirit. I don’t know what good that would have done him because he really needed deliverance. I didn’t know why God told me to leave the last two demons in there until the next day at this meeting when the Lord showed me something. When the preacher laid hands on Jim and Jim’s eyes rolled back in his head, and he started to fall out on the floor, well, the Holy Spirit just took control over me. I reached out my hand, stuck it behind his back, stood him back up and started commanding the demons to come out. I didn’t even think about what I was doing, and there was no reasoning in me whatsoever; I just did it. After it was all over, I thought about it, and I said to God, “You don’t want everybody so-called ‘slain in the spirit,’ do You?” Sometimes it’s a hindrance, isn’t it? You know, sometimes the devil would rather have you slain in the spirit than the demons be cast out. Don’t believe “slain in the spirit” is always God, because it’s not. I don’t care what they say; it’s not always God. He showed me right there because it was not my thinking or my ingenuity that did that. God stood him back up and I commanded the demons to come out of him and they did. We have examples in the Scriptures of unbelievers being slain in the spirit, don’t we? Preachers want to call it “slain in the spirit”; I don’t know about the terminology. But they came up to Jesus, and they all fell backwards in the garden (John 18:6). This showed that Jesus didn’t have to go with them. We have quite a few examples of that happening to pagans, but it’s not always God. What’s Scriptural about knocking christians on the floor? Find it in the Bible. If you can’t find it in the Bible, suspect it. Something’s wrong because, while it might be a good tingly experience, what is the good in it? We need to see if we can find it one time in the Bible. If so, that’s fine; that means God will do it, but first look at the emphasis in Scripture. If a preacher is having whole services where they’re knocking people on the floor, suspect something’s wrong. That was not the emphasis of the early church. Our emphasis ought to be like theirs; when they came together, the most important thing was for people to receive the Word of God, not all the manifestations to show how powerful the preacher is. And if the manifestations don’t look like the manifestations in the Scripture, then suspect something’s wrong. The devil is a deceiver, and he’s out to delude people into just tingly experiences. These are just flesh-tingling experiences. Most of the time in the Scriptures, it wasn’t somebody who went out and said, “Come out in the name of Jesus,” that caused a person to get deliverance. You know what causes you to get deliverance most often? Repentance. In every situation you get into, you’re faced with the truth and your flesh. If you follow your flesh, you permit the devil to live in you. If you follow the Spirit, you put him to death. Some demons are doctrinal demons, like the one I had. You know how that doctrinal demon came out? The truth drove it out. Some demons are physical; their manifestation is in sickness or something like that, and they come out through the laying on of hands or through commanding them to come out. However, some of them are spirits of the lusts of the flesh, and when we look at the Scriptures, we see that most often these were not the kind that came out by a “Come out in the name of Jesus.” You know how they are overcome? It’s when you get into a situation, and you’re offered the chance, for example, to become angry or bitter, but you say, “No, I don’t choose that; I don’t accept that.” You refuse to feed your flesh. The Lord says there’s a spiritual fast, and that’s when your flesh is stopped from doing what it wants. The Bible talks about that in Isaiah 58. If you don’t feed the flesh, God has promised you deliverance (Isaiah 58:8-12,14). He puts obstacles in our way to give us opportunities to overcome our flesh. If we don’t feed that flesh, it’s going to die. You know what the power of the devil is in Christians? It’s their flesh. He has a right to stay there as long as they want to live and to serve that flesh. I’m not talking about the body. I’m talking about the nature of the flesh. So, Christians give demons a right. But with true repentance, the devil loses the right to be there. Now you may really want to save someone and deliver them, but God wants you to rest and cease from your works. You see, once we pray and we believe that God hears our prayers concerning our family or others, we have to cease from our works. If we believe He’s heard our prayer, we have to stop. That’s where the weakness is. It’s just as much a part of a miracle as the power; the weakness is. But our weakness is that we need to stop. If we believe God heard, we have to stop trying; we continue to confess the promises; we have to accept that it’s accomplished. (Luk.13:11) And behold, a woman that had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years; and she was bowed together, and could in no wise lift herself up. (16) And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan had bound, lo, [these] eighteen years, to have been loosed from this bond on the day of the sabbath? Oh, by the way, it’s on the day of the Sabbath, the day of ceasing from our works. So here was a daughter of Abraham who had demons and, according to the Covenant, deliverance was her birthright. It’s still a birthright, by the way, but it’s not according to nationality. You have to be born again. You have to be born into this right. I want to give you one more verse. (2Co.7:1) Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit … “Of all defilement of flesh and spirit.” We can be defiled by flesh and spirit. Yes, and we have the promises to use to take care of that. If we believe the promises, we can have that. We have a right to God’s deliverance that the world does not have. You can do a very dangerous thing by giving God’s deliverance to the world. While my mother was in my house, she stayed delivered in my house. When she decided to leave, though, the demons came back. Why did they come back? Because she, according to the Covenant, had no right to have the deliverance. The curse has a purpose. The purpose of the curse is to make you so stinking miserable that you’ll turn to God. There’s a good purpose in having a bad curse. You can say, “Well, hitting somebody with a stick is wrong,” unless you consider it a chastening. And the curse is the stick. It’s wrong if you look at it from a carnal viewpoint and say, “Oh, it’s so wrong! God can’t be doing that!” They should read Deuteronomy 28. God sent the curse. (Exo.4:11) And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man’s mouth? or who maketh [a man] dumb, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? is it not I, the Lord? You say, “Well, the devil does it.” Yes, I agree. He’s a bad devil and he hates you very much, but the curse has a purpose, and the purpose is to drive you to God. How many of you came to God because of a curse? Stop and think about it. You got so miserable that you decided you needed a Savior and He was waiting. Let me share about this sister who was asking for deliverance. First, we prayed and asked God to give us a discerning spirit. Sometimes it’s very useful. It was revealed that she had a lot of anger and self-will outbursts. Then the Lord gave me a dream about going into her backyard. I don’t remember all the details, but there were some beasts in her backyard. One of those beasts came up to me with a three-fingered pitchfork in his hand. He was striped, kind of like a zebra, black and white, but he was a lion. I looked up, and he had a head that looked like one of the Roman gods, so I researched it. And the one with the three-fingered pitchfork was Neptune, the god of the sea. So I thought about it and asked, “Lord, what are You trying to tell me with this god of the sea?” Well, this was the leader, the ruler hidden behind her house or body. And there was something else. Spiritually, in the Scriptures, not only does the sea represent the wicked people, like in Revelation, but the sea represents the curse. (Deu.30:1) And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind…. The Word was called the water in (Ephesians 5:26). The Word saved Noah, but it cursed all of the wicked. So this was the god over the sea, over those who are under the curse. Well, that’s what I thought about when I was thinking about this dream; Neptune represents the god of the flesh. He’s the god of that which is under the curse. He’s the god over the curse. Well, let me tell you what happened in the dream; I snatched this pitchfork out of his hand and stuck him in his leg and he died. The leg represents the walk. You know, we have to make decisions every day. If you decide the easy way, which is the flesh way, then you say, “Okay, devil, you can rule over this flesh.” That’s what you’re really saying. We can see this across the country, too – people who are so-called Christians rising up against the government and actually being used by the enemy who is going to invade this country. But God said, My power is made perfect in weakness in (2Co.12:9) And he hath said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for [my] power is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. (10) Wherefore I take pleasure in weaknesses, in injuries, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong. The power of God comes to those who will enter into weakness. The promises, or let’s say the commands, and many of the principles, but also the commands of Christ, are to put us into a position of weakness. If you obey the commands of Christ, you will be weak, and you’ll cease from your works. You will not be able to handle the situation yourself. You will have to trust in God to do it, if you obey His commands. (2Co.13:4) For he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth through the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him through the power of God toward you. Weakness brings the power of God. Weakness brings crucifixion in the flesh, but it also brings the power of God to bring resurrection. Resurrection life is what we’ve all wanted from God, but many times we won’t pay the price for it. We ask God for the fruit of Jesus to live in us, but before you can have the fruit, you have to give up the lust. The two wage war against one another; they seek to occupy the same territory in your life, but they can’t exist together. The lust must be crucified for the new man to live in you and for the fruit to be borne. Anger and forgiveness can’t be in the same place. You can do one, or the other, but you won’t be able to do both. Christ was crucified through weakness. He obeyed God’s word to Him. And it appears to be a command to Him, and He passed on that command to us. To me, it’s the most important command in all of the Scriptures for those who want to bring forth fruit. (Isa.50:5) The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away backward. (6) I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; I hid not my face from shame and spitting. (7) For the Lord God will help me; therefore have I not been confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame. You’ll recognize this as a prophecy about Jesus. But His ears were open to the Lord’s command, and His command to Jesus was for Him to give His back to the smiters and His cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. That command has been passed on to us. It wasn’t a request; it was a command. (Mat.5:38) Ye have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: (39) but I say unto you, Resist not him that is evil: but whosoever smiteth thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. (40) And if any man would go to law with thee, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. (41) And whosoever shall compel thee to go one mile, go with him two. (42) Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away. This is an important command of Jesus because it crucifies our human nature. The overwhelming majority of the lusts of the flesh rise up against a person who wants to obey these Scriptures. You can imagine in your mind turning the other cheek, either in word or in deed or in some kind of action. You know what kind of lusts rise up inside of you when you try to obey the Word. There’s a war that goes on inside you when you do this. Jesus fought that war. (Gal.5:19) Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are [these:] fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, (20) idolatry, sorcery (from here on you can identify these as having to do with this command), enmities, strife, jealousies, wraths, factions, divisions, parties, (21) envyings (maybe some of these don’t apply so much), drunkenness, revelings, and such like; of which I forewarn you, even as I did forewarn you, that they who practise such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. These things must be put to death. The Lord has given us a method to put these works of the flesh to death. He spoke to me one time, and He said, “You don’t get resurrection life before you get death.” That was at a time I was trying to bring some people into resurrection life, and they weren’t entering into the death part. If you want fruit, these lusts have to die. They have to die on this side of Heaven. That’s the purpose of God. God’s grace delivers from sin; it doesn’t just cover sin. Yes, it’s wonderful that it covers sin, but that’s just for the meantime so that you can have fellowship with God until it manifests its full deliverance. And that is deliverance. Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil and that’s what we’re talking about here. Most of these lusts are affected by just one command of Jesus and they’re put to death by obedience to just one command of Jesus, and that is, “Resist not him that is evil.” It’s one of the most important and most neglected doctrines in all of the Scriptures. Let’s read on. (Gal.5:22) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, (23) meekness, self-control; against such there is no law. (24) And they that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts thereof. The Lord said that we had to take up our cross and follow Him (Matthew 16:24). We just read that “he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth through the power of God” (2Co.13:4). If we’re going to enter into the resurrection life of Jesus in the earth, we have to enter into this death. We have to take up our cross. I don’t think many people realize that Jesus always bore a cross; it wasn’t just at the end of His life. He bore a cross His whole life by denial of self. He “hath been in all points tempted like as [we are, yet] without sin” (Heb.4:15). And “each man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed” (Jas.1:14). Jesus was “of the seed of David according to the flesh” (Rom.1:3). I know a lot of people don’t believe that, but I’m just quoting what the Bible says. According to the Spirit, He was the Son of God (Romans 1:4), but according to the flesh, He was of the seed of David, “the Son of man”. You know what? He was tempted. That flesh Jesus had was real flesh. He was a great God because He came down in the likeness of sinful flesh and overcame sin in the flesh (Romans 8:3). But He bore a cross all of His life and that cross was to deny self, to deny the old man to live through Him. He wouldn’t permit the lusts of the flesh to speak or to live through Him. And we have to take up our cross and follow Him or we cannot be His disciple. Taking up our cross is to walk as He walked. We probably won’t be called upon to bear the physical cross of Jesus, but we’re definitely called upon to bear this spiritual cross that He always bore as to the denying of self. The commands of Jesus put you in a position of weakness. If you obey them, your flesh is going to squirm and it’s going to writhe and try to rise up on the inside of you. It’s going to tell you, “No, don’t believe that doctrine,” but it’s just too prevalent, too com­mon in the Scriptures to deny it. Jesus said, “resist not him that is evil” (Mat.5:39). I tell you, your flesh rises up on the inside of you, and it says, “No, no, no! Hit back, talk back, do something, get even!” That flesh just doesn’t want to die. It’s a crucifixion. You can always tell when the flesh is in trouble because it squeals like a stuck pig. If you don’t ever go against it, you don’t ever hear it squeal, but I can tell you that the commands of Jesus are going to put you at variance with the flesh. They’ll cause the flesh to be seen by you very plainly. Before you read the Scriptures, it’s easy to think you’re doing pretty well, that everything’s alright. When you read the Scriptures and you see commands like this, and if you start to obey them, you’ll find out what’s way down inside of you when it shows its ugly head. When you go against it, that’s where the power of God takes over. Do you still love me?