Man-Fearing Spirits: Do Not Be Intimidated!

SPEAKER 01 : 0:05

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. 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’ve 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 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. So let’s read on verse 33. When they heard that, they were cut to the heart and took counsel to slay them. I mean, they want to kill them. You cannot kill people because they insult you. You can’t kill people because they call you names. You may feel like it, but you can’t do that. You cannot do it in God’s government, and you can’t do it in man’s either. You can say, well, he called me such and such, or he used that certain word, amen, and it makes you so angry, but the law does not allow you to kill them because they called you that name. Amen? They have to physically attack you. They have to put their hands on you, then you can get them for assault. They have to do you harm, amen? And God forbid, kill you. But you cannot go to jail for calling people names. No matter how bad they are, no matter how really evil it is to talk that way, you can’t go to jail for it. And you certainly cannot get the death penalty. If you could get the death penalty for that, we’d cut our population in half. Amen? And so they were cut to the heart and they got together and they said, we’re going to kill these two guys. We’ve got to kill them. Amen? Then stood there up one in the council, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a doctor of the law, had in reputation among all the people and commanded to put the apostles forth a little space. In other words, we need to talk in private. Take them in the other room. And he said unto them, speaking unto the council, you men of Israel, take heed to yourselves. What you intend to do is touching these men. Remember, for before these days rose up Thaddeus, boasting himself to be somebody, to whom a number of men, about 400, joined themselves, who was slain, and all as many as obeyed him were scattered and brought to naught. In other words, it died out, it fizzed out, it went nowhere. And then after this man rose up Judas of Galilee. This is not the Judas, of course, that betrayed Jesus. Amen? In the days of the taxing and drew away much people after him. He also perished and all, even as many as obeyed him, were dispersed. There goes another one that fizzed out, went nowhere. And so now I say unto you, refrain from these men and let them alone. For if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to naught. And that’s a principle that covers a lot of things. If it’s of men and it’s not of God, sooner or later it’ll fizz out because it cannot sustain itself. Amen? So, but he goes on to say, But if it be of God, you cannot overthrow it, lest happily you be found even to fight against God. And so to him they agreed. And when they had called the apostles and beaten them, Now they made good on one of their threats. And beating them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. And they ran back. They said, we got beat this time. We’re not preaching anymore. Shut the doors, shut the shutters, lock it up. No? And they departed from the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. Amen. and they didn’t learn their lesson. And daily in the temple and in every house, they cease not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. Hallelujah! The Holy Ghost will give you a backbone. The Holy Ghost will give you a tongue that they cannot gainsay or resist. Amen? And so they were ready to kill them. They were so infuriated. They were so incensed. They wanted to kill them. But Gamaliel, who was of great reputation, He was an elder statesman. He was a Pharisee. He was a great teacher, and they all looked up to him. And wisely, whether he believed in Jesus or did not believe in Jesus, we’re not told. I have to think that he didn’t because I believe at some point Paul would have mentioned it because Paul was one of his students. Amen. But that is beside the point if we just look at a wise person. You know, sometimes we want to vote the way that our feelings are because we’re biased. And that’s what we want to do because that’s what we believe. But sometimes when you look at a situation, you’ve got to kind of say, you know what? Let’s look at the big picture here. If this is of man, like you say it is, and it’s just a bunch of these Galileans running around, amen, and they don’t know what they’re talking about, and it’s not for real, you know what? It’s going to all fall apart. It’s all going to collapse, and it’s going to go away, just like other times. But… Just in case, if it is God, do you want to put yourself in the position to be fighting against God? Because you cannot overthrow God. Amen? You can’t overthrow God. Do you want to take the chance that you might be fighting against God? Just let them go. If it’s just a bunch of stuff, then sooner or later you give them enough rope, they’ll hang themselves. But if it’s God, you better watch out. You better not put your hand on them. You better not touch them. Amen? So he was able to diffuse the situation because they were ready to kill him. They were probably taking him out and stoning him. But he was able to diffuse the situation, calm them down, reason with them. Amen? And they took heed and understood what he was saying was true. And so they let him go. Amen. They let them go, but they had to beat him first. They wanted to kill him, but they are calmed down a little bit. So now instead of stoning them, they’re going to beat them. But you do not see a spirit of fear come back on Peter. I mean, before he couldn’t even stand up to a girl. He couldn’t stand up to a young teenage girl and say, well, yeah, I know him. No. And now they beat him and he goes out rejoicing. Rejoicing because he was counted worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Oh, there is no sign of intimidation on Peter here. Amen. Amen. And so now we have chapters 6 and 7, 8 and 9 that come in, and these chapters are not about Peter. 6 and 7 is about Stephen, and 8 and 9 is about Saul, a.k.a. Paul. So in order to take up with Peter’s story, we’ve got to jump ahead to chapter 10 of Acts. Now, much time, much time has elapsed. And in the meanwhile, God has called Saul and raised him up and told him, you are the apostle to the Gentiles. And he goes forth first with Barnabas and later with Silas. He goes out into the empire, the Roman empire. He begins to preach Jesus Christ to the Gentiles. Meanwhile, Peter, he is the apostle first. to the Jewish people. Amen? And the church at Jerusalem was thriving. It was pastored. You know, you might think that Peter would have been the pastor, but he wasn’t. The pastor was James. And James was the brother, not the James the brother of John, as Peter, James, and John, but James the half-brother. of Jesus, one of Mary and Joseph’s sons. Amen? He was pastoring the church at Jerusalem. Many years have gone by. Amen? And now God wants to open the door of the gospel to go forth to the Gentiles. Amen? And so one day Peter… It’s at noon time. It’s time for lunch. And what he was doing is that he was sitting on the roof. Now, when you think of this, you are going to get the wrong picture in your mind because you’re probably thinking of your house with a roof like this and you’re trying to figure out how you would want to sit up there. But their roofs were flat. And they didn’t have air conditioning. So what they would do is they would go up on the top of the roof and it would be cool up there. And it’s kind of like a rooftop patio. You see them maybe down near the inner harbor in some of those old houses. A rooftop patio. And that’s what Peter was doing. He was up there meditating and praying and having his devotional time with the Lord. Amen. And he fell into a trance. Now, while he’s falling into a trance up on the rooftop at the house where he was staying in Joppa, we have a few miles away, we have a Roman centurion by the name of Cornelius. Now, Cornelius was a Roman, but somehow or somewhere along the line, he was proselytized by the Jews and he had come to faith in Jehovah. Amen. So even though he was a Gentile, he believed that Jehovah was God. He got rid of all those Roman and Greek gods. He was serving Jehovah. And he was very devoted. He was very devoted to Jehovah. Amen? So much so that God was going to use him to really open the door wide to the Gentiles. He had a very good salary as a Roman centurion. He made a lot of money. Amen. And he was faithful. He paid his tithes to God. He paid his tithes to the temple. And he prayed every day. So he’s in his prayer time. And Peter’s in his prayer time. And while the centurion Cornelius is in his prayer time, he sees a vision. And an angel comes to him. And the angel told him to get in touch with a man named Peter. Amen? And ask Peter to come and speak the words to you that I will give him. And so Cornelius immediately obeyed the vision and he got two of his house servants and his… one soldier that was like the one who took care of his needs, his own personal soldier, he sent these three men, and God even told him where to send them, where to go. He said he’s staying on a house by the seaside. He’s staying in the house of Simon the Tanner. Go there and tell him that God has said that he’s to tell you what words I will give him. Meanwhile, here’s Peter up there on the roof. Amen. And it’s lunchtime. Amen. And suddenly, he was so hungry. He was so hungry. He was like, man, I want my lunch right now. I hope they got it going. I hope they got my sandwich ready because I’m ready to eat. And about that time, he fell into a trance. And when he fell into the trance, amen, he saw a big sheet, like a bed sheet, come down. And in the bed sheet were all kinds of unclean animals, the ones the Jewish people were not allowed to eat under the law of Moses. So, you know, he would have saw pigs, amen, and other unclean animals, unclean birds. They were not allowed to eat and creeping things. And the sheep came down with all these unclean animals on it, amen. And he heard a voice say, rise up, Peter, slay and eat. And he said, oh, no. I have never eaten anything unclean. I have never broken the kosher laws. I have never eaten an unclean animal, and I’m not about to do it now. And the voice said, what? God has cleansed. Call thou not unclean. There’s a message there begging to be preached. Amen? And then it happened a second time. The sheet came down and he heard again. Peter, rise up, slay it, kill it, eat. He said, no way. I have never eaten anything unclean. What God has cleansed, call thou not unclean. Third time, same thing happened. Because God, when he’s going to do something this momentous, this important, he’s going to give it to you in the mouths of two or three witnesses. God is never going to send you on some great mission, calls you to do something that is going to totally… Turn you from a way that you’ve been going. For him to be told, eat these unclean animals. I mean, he would, I don’t think Peter would have done it if you would have threatened him on his life. And if God is going to cause you to do something that momentous, he is going to confirm it. Amen. He’s not going to tell you quit your job, sell your house, and get the next boat to Africa. And preach the gospel without him confirming it and making it clear this is what I want you to do. Amen? But people have done it already on one one-time thing. People have done that. I have tried to counsel people before that we’re going to do something crazy. And, oh, I heard God, but they didn’t get any confirmation. Amen? And, you know, there comes a time you’ve got to take a leap of faith. I understand taking a leap of faith. I get that. But God is not going to have you do something like that that is irrevocable. Amen? without him giving you a witness. And so he told Peter three times, amen? And so while Peter’s going back and forth with this voice and saying, no, I have never heard anything unclean, and it happened three times. And so Peter is sitting there puzzled. He had no idea what this meant. He couldn’t get it. Maybe he was thinking about it in a literal sense. Am I, is okay, I’m supposed to start eating pig now? You know, I don’t want to do that. He was trying to figure it out, and about that time, here comes a knock on the door. About that time, these three men showed up from Cornelius’ house. Amen? And you know what? God spoke to him one more time. He said, Behold, three men seek thee. Arise and go with them, nothing doubting. Nothing doubting, for I have sent them. if God had not given him the vision of the sheet of the unclean animals, if God had not repeated it three times, if that had not occurred and these men came and knocked on the door and said, God sent us and you’re supposed to come to our master’s house, Peter would not have gone. No way. He would not have gone. Amen? It would not have been enough for him to go. But by God giving him this vision and repeating it three times, and then God said, go with them, nothing doubting. Because God could see the wheels of Peter’s mind going a mile a minute. I don’t know what this means. I don’t get it. What are you trying to tell me, Lord? Oh, now there’s a, we’ve got word from a Gentile centurion. He wants me to come to his house? Yes. We don’t go to Gentiles’ houses. We won’t walk in there and get unclean. And then he heard that booming voice. What God has cleansed, call thou not unclean. So Peter went. Amen? Not knowing exactly what was going to happen when he got there. Amen? And so I’m paraphrasing to save time. You can read all this chapter if you want to on your own later. Amen? Because it’s a very good chapter. And so he went there. Amen? And while he began to preach and teach to them the word of God… and began to tell them the gospel story, and they were sitting at the edge of their seat. They were hearing his words. He started from the baptism of John, and then he went all the way up to Jesus’ resurrection. And let’s take it up in Acts 10, verse 44. While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished. Now let me interpret that for you. They were the Jews who were messianic Jews who believed Jesus that Peter had brought with him. Peter brought six men with him. Amen? They were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. Then Peter answered, Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we have? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord, and prayed they him to tarry certain days. So while he’s still preaching, in the middle of his preaching, he didn’t even get the altar call. Because they already believed God. Amen. They believed in Jehovah. And now he preached to them the gospel and they are hearing the word and receiving the word and believing the word. Because faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. And while they’re just pouring it, he’s pouring it out and they’re pulling it in and the Holy Spirit fell on them and Peter didn’t get to finish all his points. They began to speak in other tongues. They were filled with the Holy Ghost. Amen. And the six guys that came with Peter, who were probably thinking to themselves, Peter has lost his mind. Come into this Gentile house and he brought us here with him. We trust Peter. We know he’s God’s man of faith and power. But we don’t know why we’re here. But when they saw the Holy Ghost fall on them, they were astonished. And Peter turned around and he read their minds and he said to them, Can we forbid them? Can we forbid them baptism in water when they’ve already been baptized in the fire of the Holy Spirit? Amen? He shut them down before they had a chance to say anything. And so let’s look at verse 47. Can any man forbid that which these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? Now again, you see there’s no man-fearing spirit here. Now let’s see how the story goes on in chapter 11. And the apostles and brethren that were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God. And when Peter was come up to Jerusalem, now he’s going back to Jerusalem, that they that were of the circumcision… contended, contended with him. That’s a strong word in the Greek. It means they were combative. They were argumentative. Amen? They were not happy, to say the least. They were indignant. They were upset that Peter had gone to the Gentiles’ house and preached the gospel. Amen? They were angry, but their anger was misplaced. Amen? Because if they were going to get angry at anybody, they needed to get angry at the Holy Ghost. They needed to get angry with God. Because God is the one who poured out His Spirit upon them. Amen? And verse 3, saying, Thou wentest into men uncircumcised and did eat with them. They were upset because he went and had dinner with them. But Peter rehearsed the matter from the beginning and expounded it by order unto them. So we won’t read everything that Peter said. But he took them back all the way to him sitting on that rooftop and how he saw that vision. And he told that how God repeated that vision three times. And God said, what I have cleansed, call thou not unclean. Amen? So he took them through the whole scenario. Let’s look at verse 15. And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them as on us at the beginning. And then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost. Now listen to the boldness of Peter. For as much then as God gave them the like gift as he did unto us who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, what was I or who was I that I could withstand God? Amen. The inference is you are withstanding God. I’m not brave enough to withstand God. I wasn’t about to withstand God. When he is the one who poured out the Holy Spirit, they got it just like we did. Same way. Because it’s the same Holy Spirit. And it’s the same gift. And it’s the same anointing. And they received it just like we did. And I was not about to say, God, you shouldn’t have done that. You were wrong. They’re Gentiles. They’re dogs. He said, but I remembered. I remembered what the word of the Lord was. Amen. And so he withstood them. Amen. And when they heard these things, they held their peace. He shut them up. And they glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life. Amen? Oh, let me tell you something. You’ve got to be bold. Amen? When you know that the Holy Spirit is in the middle of what you’re doing and you have been anointed, appointed, and approved of God in the anointing, the Spirit of God is falling without your… control or beyond your control. Amen. You can be fearless. And so Peter has no man fearing spirit here. He dared them to question his actions. They were questioning his actions. They were saying, who do you think you are that you would go and eat with the Gentiles? And then he just put it right back at them. Amen. He said, who are you to withstand the Holy Spirit? So we see that Peter is revolutionized. We see that he is delivered totally from the spirit of intimidation. We see that there’s no man-fearing spirit now coming against Peter, trying to control him. He’s got the victory over it. But saints, let me tell you something. Whatever was your weakness, whatever it was that God had to deliver you from and give you the victory over… By and by, you will be tested on it again. It may be years. It may be a very long time, so long that you forgot you ever had that problem. Amen? But by and by, we all will be retested. Amen? We will be retested. And so this is what’s going to happen to Peter. 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.