In this captivating episode, delve into the world of spirits that bind and intimidate, using Peter’s story as a powerful illustration of overcoming fear. Initially ensnared by a man-fearing spirit, Peter’s journey from denial to bold proclamation on the day of Pentecost signifies the transformation possible through faith and the Holy Spirit. Explore the biblical basis for breaking free from intimidation, unlocking a newfound courage to fulfill God’s purpose.
Spirit, Angels, and Demons If you’ve ever been troubled by a man fearing spirit, you know how powerful it can be to try to intimidate you and bring you into submission to a domineering person. When we are intimidated by a person or situation where a man fearing spirit is at work, we will back away from what we want to do and what we know God wants us to do. We can learn from Peter’s example how a man fearing spirit caused him to deny his beloved Lord three times. But when he was delivered from this spirit, he boldly stood against intimidation and threatenings and without fear. This and more coming up in Man Fearing and Intimidating Spirits. Glory to God. Bless the Lord, O my soul. And all that is within me, bless his holy name. Forget none of his benefits. David said, he daily loaded me with benefits. Amen. We’re continuing in our series. This is our fourth week on ministering on spirits. We ministered on hindering spirits versus ministering spirits. We ministered on familiar spirits. Last week, we ministered on seducing or imitating spirits. And today, we’re going to talk about… intimidating spirits or the spirit of the fear of man. So turn with me in Psalm 56. Psalm 56, verse 3. What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. Verse 4, in God I will praise his word. In God I have put my trust. I will not fear what flesh can do unto me. I will not fear what man can do unto me. Turn, flip over to 118, Psalm 118 and reading verse 6. The Lord is on my side. Amen. I will not fear. What can man do unto me? How many know today that the Lord is on your side? Amen. And if he’s on your side, he’s for you. He’s more than all that can come against you. One more verse. Let’s turn to Proverbs 29 and verse 25. The fear of man brings a snare. Amen. But whoso puts his trust in the Lord shall be safe. The fear of man, a man-fearing spirit, will snare a person. Amen? And when you’re snared by a man-fearing spirit, then the devil can manipulate that situation and steal your joy, your blessings, and things that God has for you. Amen? So today, that’s what we’re going to talk about. I have a lot of material, but it would be really not possible for me to cover it all in one week. I’m going to skip the Old Testament examples, and I’m going to just go right to the new. So if you have your Bible, turn now to Luke 22. and we’re going to primarily speak of one person. Now, if I were to ask you, I’m throwing this out there, and let’s just narrow it down to the New Testament. If I were to ask you one person that you think best illustrates or epitomizes what it would be to have a man-fearing spirit or a spirit of intimidation, who would you say? How many would say Peter? Okay, I think that that’s probably what we all think, and it’s probably true. So that’s who we’re going to talk about today. So Luke 22, and let’s look at verse 31. And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith shall not fail, and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. And he said, Lord, I’m ready to go with thee both to prison and to death. And he said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day before thou shalt thrice or three times deny that you know me. Now drop down to verse 54. Then took they him… This would be Jesus. They took Jesus and led him and brought him into the high priest’s house. And Peter followed afar off. And when they had kindled a fire in the midst of the hall and were sat down together, Peter sat down among them. But a certain maid beheld him as he sat by the fire and earnestly looked upon him. She kept staring at him. And she said, This man also was with him, or was with Jesus. And he denied him, saying, Woman, I know him not. And after a little while, another saw him and said, Thou art also of them. And Peter said, Man, I am not. And about the space of one hour after, another confidently affirmed, saying, Of a truth, this fellow also was with him, for he is a Galilean. And Peter said, Man, I know not what thou sayest. And immediately, while he yet spake, the cock crew. And the Lord turned and looked upon Peter, and Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him, Before the cock crowed, thou shalt deny me thrice. And Peter went out and wept bitterly. Now, this is one of my favorite stories, and I have a message where I deal with this in great detail called, Lovest Thou Me? And so, but today we’re going to look at it from a different point of view. We’re going to look at it as zooming in on Peter’s spirit of intimidation. Amen? So Jesus warned him and told him, you’re going to deny me three times. Amen? He said, the devil is desired to have you. And I go into a lot of detail in Lovest Thou Me. What gave the devil the idea that he could be so bold and audacious as to come to God and demand? Because that word says the devil is desired. It means he’s demanded. to test you. What gave the devil such boldness to do that? And so if you want to know more about that, you can get that CD. But today we’re looking at the fact that Peter was intimidated. Amen? He was intimidated by these people. He told Jesus, even after having been warned, he said, I will never ever deny you. In fact, I’ll go to jail with you. I’ll die with you. Amen? And I believe with all my heart that Peter meant what he said. I do not believe that Peter denied the Lord because he didn’t love him. Do you? No, I believe that he denied the Lord because he was intimidated. By a man-fearing spirit. Even after the Lord warned him, he still fell into that snare. We read it in Proverbs 29, 25. The fear of man brings a snare. And that’s what snared Peter. Amen? Now, after Jesus died and… You know, they crucified the Lord. All of his disciples came under a man-fearing spirit. We’re told in the book of John that they were all hiding. They were hiding because, and here’s what it says, for fear of the Jews. They were afraid. Amen? Even though Jesus had plainly told them, I’m sending you forth as my father sent me. Now I’m sending you. Go, therefore, and preach the gospel. I mean, they had to live. They had to be able to fulfill what Jesus said. Amen? But they came under that spirit of intimidation. But on the day of Pentecost… when they were all filled with, baptized with the Holy Spirit, with cloven tongues of fire. over each one of them, if you read that, it’s individually, amen, individually, cloven tongues of fire rested upon them. They were filled with the Holy Spirit. They were speaking in many languages. They spilled out into the streets of Jerusalem, speaking all these languages with great joy, amen, until people were beginning to say, what’s wrong with you people? Are you drunk? They must be drunk. Amen. But here’s the thing of it. I have never heard of any cases where people get drunk and then all of a sudden they can speak languages they didn’t know. You know, now I can speak French. Or now I can speak Chinese. When I’m drunk, I can speak Chinese. Have you ever heard of such a thing? And yet the Bible clearly says they began to speak in many languages so that all the people that were in Jerusalem who had come from all around because it was Pentecost and one of those feasts that they celebrated, they all heard different ones speaking the wonderful works of God in their language. And they said, are these men drunk? So let’s turn to Acts, the second chapter. We’ll spend our time in Acts. And you know this chapter well, so we’ll only read parts of it. But Peter was the first one to answer the question, are they drunk? Are you guys drunk? Acts 2 and verse 14. But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice and said unto them, You men of Judea and all you that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you and hearken unto my words, for these are not drunken, as you suppose, seeing that it is but the third hour of the day. It’s nine o’clock in the morning. Amen. We’re not drinking this time of day. We are not drunk. Amen? And now Peter goes on, and I want you to see, though, it says he lifted up his voice. You see that? That means that Peter was being bold. Bold. Amen? What a difference than the Peter we saw sitting around the fire saying, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t know this man. But now there is no man-fearing spirit on Peter. There is no spirit of intimidation on him. He lifted up his voice boldly and from there he began to preach a sermon. And he preached them a sermon, taking them in the scriptures, telling them what was said through David and giving them all the messianic prophecies. And now let’s look at verse 22. You men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did in him in the midst of you, as you know yourselves also, you know it, you saw it. him being delivered up by the determinate council, that would have been the Sanhedrin that voted to crucify him, and for knowledge of God, ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. Not only is he bold to tell them about Jesus, he says, and you, your wicked hands, by your wicked hands you have crucified him. There is no man-fearing spirit on Peter here. Amen? It took a lot of… Guts to be able to look at them and say, and you are the ones, you are the guys by your wicked hands, you crucified Jesus of Nazareth, whom God sent forth and you know good and well that he was approved of God because you saw the miracles, the signs and the wonders that he did. Amen? So he was laying the blame right on them. You have slain them with your wicked hands. He indicted them right there. Amen? Let’s look at verse 36. Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus, and I like how he throws it in again, whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and they said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent! And be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. My goodness. Peter stood up and he preached them a sermon. And it was so powerful. It was so anointed. And he didn’t mince his words. And he didn’t soft soap it. Amen. He didn’t try to make it palatable to them. He told them exactly what it was and he threw it in again. You crucified him. And because he spoke with such boldness and he allowed the Holy Spirit to use his vessel and use his tongue and he was not intimidated by the face of clay, when he finished preaching, they said, oh my God, what shall we do? What can we do now? You’re right, we crucified him. What can we do? And he preached the best sermon anybody could ever preach. Repent. Repent. Amen? And so they repented and they were baptized. And that day, if we read on, we see that 3,000 people got saved. 3,000 people. Isn’t that marvelous? Peter’s first sermon under the power and the anointing of the Holy Ghost and 3,000 people were saved. And as I have told you before in other messages, this is directly correlated to the time in the Old Testament when Moses took the people up to Mount Sinai to receive the words of the Lord. Amen. And you know that later on that they, when he came down, that they had built the golden calf. And we’re worshiping it, and God killed 3,000 people. But today, on the day of Pentecost, amen, 3,000 people got saved. Now, Peter was just getting started. His ministry is now ready to just take off. Amen? And he’s just getting started. And so if we would continue in the next chapter, we find out that Peter and John, because they were sidekicks at that time. There always was Peter, James, and John were Jesus’ inner circle. So Peter and John had gone up to the temple to pray. And there was many gates that went into the city. They went through the gate that’s called Beautiful. And every single day, there was a beggar man sat at that gate. He was lame, and the Bible says he was lame from his mother’s womb. He was born crippled. And so every day somebody carried him and sat him there so he could beg for money. Amen? And I’m sure they may have passed him by many times. In fact, I’ve often thought to myself, gee, I have to think that Jesus had to pass him too. Amen. At some point, certainly Jesus must have passed him by. Amen? But you see, this miracle was reserved for Peter and John. This was going to be the miracle that was going to put God’s stamp of approval on their ministry. Amen? And so Peter and John were ready to pass through the gate, and like the beggar always did, he asked them for money. And Peter looked at him angrily. And said, look on us. Look on us. Well, the man looked up. He’s thinking, wow, I’m going to get a good offering from these guys. You know, he’s not just coming by and going on in. He says, look on us. Man, he looked on with anticipation. He thought, I am really about to get blessed right here. But what did Peter say? He said, silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, give I unto thee. He grabbed him by the hand, he yanked him up, and he said, in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And Holy Ghost power passed through Peter into that man’s legs and ankles and feet. And he began to leap and he began to jump. Amen. And everybody knew it was a notable miracle because everybody knew this fella. And they knew that he had been crippled for many years from the time he was born. And they were well acquainted with his situation. Amen? And so, everybody’s rejoicing. I mean, you know, the gossips were all over the back fences everywhere. I mean, it got through Jerusalem so fast, the story of this man. Amen? And his healing. It also got back to the council. the ones who had crucified Jesus. Amen? And let’s take the story up there. Let’s look at verse 12. And when Peter saw it, he answered the people, You men of Israel, why marvel you at this? Or why you look so earnestly on us as though by our own power or holiness we made this man to walk? The God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his son Jesus. And here he goes again, whom you delivered up and denied him in the presence of Pilate when he was determined to let him go. Oh, but you denied the Holy One and the just, and you desired a murderer to be granted unto you. You let Barabbas, a thief, a murderer, and a seditionist get away. Amen? And you killed the Prince of Life. whom God hath raised from the dead, whereof we are witnesses. And his name, through faith in his name, hath made this man strong, whom you see now. Yea, the faith which is by him that hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. So when everybody saw this great miracle and they began to marvel about it, Peter… No man fearing spirit here. He jumped right on. He saw another opportunity to preach the gospel. Amen. And he told them, he says, let me tell you something. The reason why you see this man walking like he is and sound, it’s because of the name of Jesus. It’s nothing that I have or John has. It’s by the name of Jesus. By the way, I’m talking about the same Jesus that you delivered up with your wicked hands. When Pilate would have let him go, you said, no, give us Barabbas, but crucify him. Amen? And he reminded them again. And guess what happened now? 5,000 people got saved. His second sermon. And let me tell you something. These were not sermons that he had written down anywhere. They were direct from heaven by the Holy Ghost. But they could have never been delivered. He would have never opened his mouth to say them if he was not free of that spirit of intimidation. Amen? But he didn’t dance around the words. He took this opportunity to remind them, you crucified Jesus. But he’s not dead. He’s alive. And this miracle that we have performed in his name proves. that God has raised him up. Amen? Now, this truly began to move the council and the elders and the scribes and the Pharisees and even the high priest. They were moved. They thought, we’ve got to do something to stop this. This is as bad as it was before we killed Jesus. Amen? Now, the word went out that they were going to… Call them in to question. Amen? But you know what? Peter and John did not run home or run back to the upper room and lock the doors. They were not afraid. Amen? No, they were boldly filled with the Holy Ghost. And they were not afraid to stand up and declare what they knew to be the truth. And they did not fear the face of men. or what this council could do to them. Amen? And so if we would have read on, we would have saw that they were amazed by their boldness. The council was amazed by the boldness of Peter and John. Amen? And let’s look now at verse 17, 417, Acts 417. But that it spread no further among the people, let us straightly threaten them. See that word? Threaten them, that they speak henceforth to no man in this name. And they called them and commanded them not to speak at all, nor teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye, or you judge. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding nothing how they might punish them because of the people. For all men glorified God for that which was done. Amen. So they called Peter and John in. Now, why would they want to threaten them when this man that everyone knew had been a cripple from birth was now healed and made whole? But they realized that now this Jesus of Nazareth, whom they thought they had finally gotten rid of and been done with, now they’re doing these miracles in his name, amen? And they said, we don’t want it to go any further. We’re going to stop it right here. We’re going to shut them up and shut them down now. And they threatened them. Now, we are not told what, but we have to only assume they were threatened to be beaten and they were threatened to be thrown in jail. Amen? Now, if Peter had a problem with the same spirit of fear that he had back before, this is now when it would have manifest. When he was threatened. But he said, well, you tell me. You judge. Should we obey God or should we obey man? Amen. What do you think we ought to do? In other words, if you were in our shoes, what would you do? Would you obey God or would you obey man? Amen. He was so bold. Amen. He gave it right back to them. He said, well, we can only tell of the things that we have heard and seen. Amen. And so what did they do? They didn’t know what to do. They didn’t have anything that they, well, we’re going to jail you because you healed a man. We’re going to beat you because you just performed a great miracle. A crippled man, you made him whole. They had no way to hold them, but yet they threatened them. Amen? And finally let them go. Amen? And when they let them go, whatever the threats were that they were given, Peter and John did not go running back and say, oh, we’re in big trouble now. Now we are really in trouble. No, they went back to their company. They went back to the other disciples, apostles. They went back to all of those and they went back rejoicing. Amen. Rejoicing that what great things God had done. And they continued to preach Jesus. And guess what happened? They got arrested. And they were thrown in jail. So now, surely, if ever there’s going to be a time when Peter’s going to come back under that spirit of fear, it would be now. Because now they’ve been thrown in jail because they disobeyed the counsel that said, you may not anymore speak of or preach in the name of Jesus. But while they were sitting up in jail, the angel of the Lord came. Amen? And the angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and let them out. And guess what he told them to do? Go out there and preach at the temple. At the temple? You want us to be so bold as to go to the temple and preach? Jesus Christ, you’re asking for us. to get thrown back in jail and worse. Amen? But once again, Peter boldly went out exactly like he was told and he went to the temple and he began to preach. Let’s look in chapter 5 and let’s look at verse 27. And when they had brought them, they set them before the council and the high priest asked him, saying, Did not we straightly command you that you should not teach in this name? And behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and you intend to bring this man’s blood upon us. I think it’s a little late for that. I think they’re too late for that. Amen? Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. Amen. And he goes on, the God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be prince and savior for to give repentance to Israel for the forgiveness of sins. And we are his witnesses of these things and so also is the Holy Ghost. whom God hath given to them that obey him. Wow, Peter’s just getting bolder all the time. He doesn’t know where to stop. He always pushes the envelope a little further. Amen? And so they said to him, we commanded you, we made it clear to you that you were not to preach in the name of Jesus. And what have you done? You have filled the whole city, the whole city with the name of Jesus. The whole city, that’s all anybody is talking about. You know that man, Jesus of Nazareth, that they crucified, you remember it? Well, now his apostles and disciples are going out and they’re doing miracles in his name. And they claim that he’s not dead anymore. They claim that he’s the Son of God. They claim that God raised him up on the third day. They claim that God sent the Holy Spirit. And that’s why they’re able to do these miracles by the Spirit of God in the name of Jesus God’s Son. And the council was saying you made it worse than it was before. And you’re going to bring this man’s blood down on our heads. But it was too late for that. Amen. And he said you slew him. And that’s a strong word. That is a strong word that refers to a terrible death, a vicious death, a violent death. He said you violently killed him. You hung him on a tree. And they all understood what that meant because cursed is he that hangs on the tree. Amen? But we’re his witnesses. And he has given us his Holy Spirit, whom God gives, and here he goes. There’s just another little dig there right now. Here it comes. Whom God gives to them that obey him. So you know what the inference is. The reason why he hasn’t come to you. I mean, I understand you’re the high priest. I get it that you’re the priest and the Levites. I get it that you are the Sanhedrin. I get it that you are the religious leaders. I get that. But God gives his Holy Spirit to them that obey him. Now you know that had to really stir up their anger. They probably thought, how dare you? Who do you think you are, you low-class fishermen? You Galilean. Because when you called someone a Galilean, that was an insult. You were putting them down. You were saying, you know, you’re not of the elite and you’re not educated and you even talk like a Galilean. And who do you think you are? Amen. But Peter had not one shred of a fear upon him. The fear of man or the fear of intimidation. Amen. Not an ounce. Amen. What a revelatory teaching, man fearing and intimidating spirits. Scripture declares the Lord is on my side. What can man do to me? I will not fear. Yet many Christians are troubled, even bound by a man fearing spirit of intimidation. They are easily brought into subjection by those who abuse their spiritual authority or those who are false teachers and prophets. Peter was beset by the fear of man and as much as he loved his Lord and was even warned by Jesus, he still denied him three times in one night because he feared for himself. After Jesus’ crucifixion, all the disciples were hiding behind closed doors for fear of the Jews. But on Pentecost, when he was baptized with fire, Peter was delivered from the spirit of intimidation. As thousands came to hear, he preached the great Pentecostal sermon. Nothing, not even being thrown in jail, beaten, and threatened with worse, fazed him again. His boldness shocked the leaders and inspired the saints. But years later, he faced that same man fearing spirit again. Find out what happened. This message is the fourth in my five part series, spirits, angels and demons, which includes hindering spirits versus ministering spirits, familiar spirits, seducing spirits. imitating and lying spirits, and bail busters and troublemakers. This album can be ordered for a love gift of $25. Request SK185. Mail to Sound of Faith, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Or go online to soundoffaith.org, where you can also order on MP3s. I strongly urge you to get this powerful series the Holy Spirit has given me. It is thorough but simple and scripturally sound. You will learn so much, so order today. Send $25 to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Request SK185 for spirits, angels, and demons. Till next time, this is Sharon Knott saying, Maranatha.
