In this powerful episode, we explore the story of Peter and his struggle with a man-fearing spirit. Once a disciple who denied Jesus out of fear, Peter became a bold preacher after receiving the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. But even years later, Peter found himself once again facing intimidation, prompting important reflections on the nature of fear and faith. We delve into how these spiritual battles can affect us all, and the amazing ways that the Holy Spirit empowers us to overcome them.
Spirit, Angels, and Demons Amen. Amen. Amen. 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. 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 and 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. Amen. 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. Now, instead of going forward in the book of Acts, we have to go to the book of Galatians. Galatians, the second chapter, because Luke does not record this in the book of Acts, but Paul tells it out of his mouth. For some reason, Luke did not include this, but Paul tells us. It’s many, many, many years later. And in the meantime, Luke has turned to really give a chronicle Paul’s ministry. It doesn’t mean that the rest of the apostles quit preaching. It doesn’t mean that they weren’t doing great works. You can look up in history and see the many things that they did and the places they went. I mean, Thomas went all the way to India. But because Luke was the companion of Paul, he chronicled Paul’s ministry. Amen? And so now it’s many years later, and Paul is going out in the field because the council and the mother church at Jerusalem, they put the hand of blessing upon Paul and Barnabas and sent them out to preach to the Gentiles. And as we said, Peter was the apostle to the Jews. Now, Peter decided he was in the neighborhood. He wanted to go visit Antioch. Antioch is a city in Syria. Syria is next door to Israel. Amen? So there was a church in Antioch in Syria, and it was a great church. In fact, it was the first place at this church that the name Christian came into being. That’s where they coined the phrase Christians. Before that time, they called them followers of Jesus. or that way. They used to say, they’re of that way. And they didn’t say it in a complimentary way either. That way, you don’t want to be in that way. Amen? But now at this church in Antioch, they begin to call them Christians. This church is flourishing. They have teachers. They have prophets. This is a powerful church in Syria. And so Peter is in the area and he decides to visit the church of Antioch and to visit Paul and the others that are there. And when he came there, he loved it. He loved the church. It was filled with Gentiles. Gentile believers. But he loved it. He loved the fellowship. They would have, you know, we have dinners in the back like we’re going to have in two weeks. They would have their dinners and Peter was right there in the middle of it all, fellowshipping with everybody. Amen. He ate with them. He fellowshiped with them. Everything was cool. Peter was cool. He was down with it all. Until one day… certain men, certain Jewish men, came from James in Jerusalem to visit the church too. James had sent certain men, amen, to go and visit that church. And when they got there, something happened. Let’s look at Galatians 2 and look at verse 11. But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face. Because he was to be blamed. For before that certain men came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles. But when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself. What’s the word? fearing them which were of the circumcision. And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him in so much that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimilation. Amen? Look at this. He is saying that, Paul is telling us what happened, how that when Peter got there, he was having a great time, fellowshipping with all the saints at the church of Antioch, eating with them, fellowshipping with them, until certain believers from the church at Jerusalem came. And when they came, they would be the legalists, They were the ones, you know, that were always, they were messianic, they believed in Jesus, but they still had that streak of legalism in them. And you’ll find people like that today. How many know there are people like that today? Amen? You’ve got these people that are legalists and they beat you over the head constantly with the Bible. And what happens is it boomerangs and it usually doesn’t help. Because usually they turn people off and then they don’t get to receive the truth. Amen? Of course, today you’re more apt to find the people in the other camp where everything goes and everything’s wonderful and grace covers it all. Do what you want. You can sin. It’s okay. Amen? So you’ve got all these camps. You’ve got to make sure that you’re walking in the line, the straight line of the word. And so when they came from Jerusalem, all of a sudden, Peter now was being tested after all these years. a man-fearing spirit came on Peter. He feared them. He was intimidated by them. I mean, he’s Peter. They don’t even tell you these guys’ names. That’s how important they are. Don’t even mention them. It’s not like we’re mentioning some great apostles, some great prophets that were well-known. They’re just certain men came. And these men caused Peter to come back under that spirit of intimidation that he had been set free from all those many years ago. And all these years he had been walking in freedom and liberty from that spirit. And now he’s faced with it again and he gets intimidated. Peter, he should have rebuked those men and said, what’s wrong with you, brethren? Don’t you remember when I told you about that vision I had years ago? Don’t you remember that God told me? You people need to get right. You people need to repent. You people got prejudice in your hearts. You people got a spirit in your heart that’s not right. You need to repent of your prejudice. You need to get the victory over that. But he didn’t. He came under that man-fearing spirit. Amen? So much so that he withdrew himself. He didn’t sit down and eat with them anymore. He went over and sat at a table over here. Amen? He withdrew himself and he separated himself. And that spirit then, once it had an open door through Peter, that spirit then just went forth and many others began to be pulled into their dissimilation. And that word dissimilation in the Greek, at the root of it is the word hypocrite. It has the word hypocrite and it’s like Suna Hippocrates. And it’s the word hypocrite. That’s what dissimulated. In other words, at that point in time, all of those who joined up with Peter and separated themselves and went and sat at a table by themselves and ignored these brethren were being hypocrites. They didn’t believe it. They didn’t, I don’t think they believed it or wanted to do it, but they came under a spirit of intimidation. A spirit of intimidation is powerful. It is strong. If I would have had time to take you in the Old Testament, I would have shown you how that spirit caused Gideon, who God wanted him to tear down the altars of Baal. He had to wait in the middle of the night and do it because he was scared. I would show you how that Elijah, that great man of God who calls fire to come down from heaven and then boldly killed 450 false prophets. Later when he got a message that Jezebel’s mad and she’s coming after you, he ran 110 miles and hid. A spirit of intimidation. Jezebel had it. She had it in spades because she had her husband Ahab wrapped around her finger. Amen. A spirit of intimidation. And now this spirit has come in this church and caused Peter to go and separate himself to the point that Paul said, I can’t believe it, even Barnabas. Now you heard me preach about Barnabas. He’s the son of encouragement. Amen. He’s Mr. Encouragement. He goes around encouraging everybody. He goes around blessing everybody. He goes around when nobody wanted to have fellowship with Saul because they were afraid of him. Barnabas said, oh, he’s a good guy. I’ll vouch for him. He’s changed. He’s saved. He’s full of the power. He’s full of the anointing. He stands up in the synagogues and he fearlessly and boldly preaches Christ. And now Barnabas even came under the spirit of intimidation to the point that Paul had to stand up and rebuke sharply. Rebuke it. He couldn’t let it go on. And he said, I’ve rebuked Peter to his face. We don’t like that in the church. People think that shouldn’t be in the church. Amen? But the Bible says open rebuke is good for the soul. Amen? And so he had to rebuke Peter. I’m sure he did it in a right way, respecting Peter’s position. Amen? I’m sure he wouldn’t have denigrated him or his position, but he had to make them see, you let the devil trick you. And I’m sure if he rebuked Peter, I’m almost positive he rebuked those men. that came from Jerusalem. Amen? And so he had to rebuke them because the scripture says he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them that were of the circumcision. He fell into that same snare. The fear of man brings a snare. Amen? And saints of God, you and I are going to have to get this message. And we’ve got to understand it because we are living in a time when persecution against Christians is daily, it’s getting worse. And so you’re going to be threatened. They’re threatening now famous football players that you normally would think would be able, if anybody could get by with it, they would. But no, they’re threatening everybody. You can’t bow your knee. Just bow your knee at the end of the game. And you tell me, who is that hurting? Is he standing there preaching a sermon? No, he bowed his knee because everybody knew. Or when they look up like this and say to God, oh, everybody’s offended. Amen? We are living in a time where we’re going to be threatened. We’re being threatened on the left and on the right. And I’m going to finish with Matthew 10 very quickly. Matthew 10, these verses. Let’s look at it. chapter 10, 16. This is where Jesus called his 12 disciples, and if we read in verse 1, it says, he gave them power, or he gave them authority against unclean spirits to cast them out, to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease. I want to show you, as we get to verse 16, that the disciples did not have a battle with the devil. They didn’t have a battle with, oh, God, can we cast out that devil? I’m afraid of that demon. Are you afraid of that demon? Oh, my God, that person’s got leprosy. Oh, I don’t think I’m going to pray for him. What if he don’t get healed? No. They didn’t have a battle with that. He gave them power and authority and said, go out there and preach the gospel and heal the sick and cleanse the leper and raise the dead. And they went out there and did it. But here’s what he warned them in verse 16. Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves. But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to the councils and they will scourge you in their synagogues and you shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake. They’re going to bring you before the courts and the judges. And the magistrates for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what you shall speak. For it shall be given you in that same hour what you shall speak. For it is not you that speaks, but the Spirit of your Father which speaks in you. I feel the spirit of my father. I feel the spirit of my father. I feel the spirit of the Holy Ghost. I feel the anointing. Amen. I’m partaking of his divine nature. And when I’m under his anointing, I’m fearless. I can tell you in the flesh, I can be intimidated and have been. In the early times when I first hurt my back and all of the medical stuff I had to go through, doctors would intimidate me. And I would be afraid to speak up. And I would be afraid to, you know, say anything. And I would come under that until I got enough. Until I realized that they didn’t know me like I know me. They don’t know my body like I know my body. And I don’t care how many other people they’ve treated. This is me and my body. And if you tell me to do something and I do it and it’s not right, are you going to be sitting up in pain? No, I’m going to be the one in pain. And so I had to learn not to be, I used to make Benny go with me when we would go, not only to take me because I didn’t drive, but go with me in the room. I would never go in the room without him because I would come under a spirit of intimidation and he would speak up. Amen? Or I would forget what they told me because I would be under so much fear and I’d have to have him, you know, remember some of the things. Amen? But when I’m under the Holy Ghost anointing, I’m not intimidated. And sometimes later I’ll even think, oh, maybe I shouldn’t have said that. I will think, oh, I don’t know, I might have got in trouble on that one. But it’s too late. It’s out there. And I realized I didn’t premeditate it. It was the Holy Ghost. I didn’t think ahead of time, I’m going to make sure I tell them this. Now I have lots of notes and I follow them. But when the Holy Ghost gets on me and I’ll say something that’s not in my notes, I’m going to open my mouth. If it’s the Holy Spirit, I’ll do it. Now I have learned to discern the Holy Spirit and share in Spirit. Amen. Amen? Because Sharon can get stirred up, but then maybe I’m biased. Amen? Because maybe of my own experiences. And I may presume to think your experience is identical to my experience, and so I’m going to tell you what was right for me, but it may not be right for you. So I have to learn the Holy Spirit. Amen? But you see, Jesus said you will not have to worry about it. Let’s look at verse 21. Chapter 10, 21. And brothers shall deliver up their brother to death and father the child. And it goes on. I’m going to skip this for sake of time. And it goes on to say they’re going to persecute you. When they persecute you in one city, flee to another city. Amen. And let’s look at verse 25. It is not enough for the disciple that he be as his master and the servant as his Lord. If they called you the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household? So in other words, they said that Jesus had a devil and that he cast out demons by demons. And Jesus basically said, you guys are stupid. Why would Satan cast out Satan? That’s basically what he said. Will Satan cast out Satan? Of course not. So obviously I can’t be casting out demons by Satan. Amen? Because he said a house divided against itself will not stand and a kingdom divided shall fall. Amen? He said, but if they called me a devil, what do you think they’re going to call you? But this is what he said in verse 26, and we’re going to read this together. You ready on the count of three? Two, three. Fear them not, therefore. For there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, and it that shall not And what I tell you in darkness, that’s speaking in light. And what you hear in the air, everybody say it, that you preach from the rooftops. And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him which is able to destroy both body and soul in hell. Amen? So the Holy Spirit is telling us today that the devil is going to dispatch a lot of man-fearing spirits and spirits of intimidation. Amen? He knows he can’t get you with an imitating spirit. He knows he can’t get you with a seducing spirit. He’s not going to get you with a lying spirit when you really know the truth and you know your doctrine and you’re walking in righteousness. He’s not going to get you with that. If you don’t have a spirit of pride, he’s not going to be able to get you with false doctrine and all of that because that’s how he appeals to people, through their pride and their ego. Amen? But he’ll come after you with a spirit of intimidation. And this is one verse, as I close, I’ll tell you this, that all of us know well. We probably, it’s one of our favorites. 2 Timothy 1, 7. But God has not given you a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. The word fear there in the Greek is not used anywhere else in the New Testament. Let me clarify that. You’ll see fear in English in many verses. Right. But there’ll be various Greek words, the main one being phobos, which we brought right into the English and say he’s got a phobia. He’s afraid of something. Amen? That’s the most common one. But there’s another one, delia, and it’s only used one time in the New Testament. And guess where it is? Right here, 2 Timothy 1.7. God has not given you a spirit delia, and you know what that means? Intimidation. God has not given you a spirit of intimidation. So apparently Timothy had a problem with intimidation. And if you read both epistles to Timothy, you’ll pick it up. You’ll see where he’s constantly encouraging him. Don’t be afraid. You’ve known the scriptures from a little boy. Don’t let them despise your youth. Amen? Don’t be intimidated by them that say, oh, you can’t, you’re not called, you can’t preach, or you can’t do it. Don’t be intimidated. Again and again he tells them, get out there and preach the word. If you’ve got to reprove, reprove, rebuke. Rebuke them sharply if you have to. Amen? Do not come under a spirit of intimidation. Because God has not given it to you. He’s given you a spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind. Amen. That’s what God’s given to you today. Come on, stand on your feet. Amen. God wants to set you free from intimidation. This is not the spirit of fear where you’re afraid of darkness, you’re afraid of the devil, you’re afraid of demons, you’re afraid you’re going to die, you’re afraid you’re going to get sick, you’re afraid your kids are going to get hurt. That’s another fear. That’s phobia. We’re talking about the fear of intimidation where you may be afraid to… God’s putting somebody on your heart. Maybe it’s in your family. Maybe it’s on your job, your neighborhood. And you feel a tug that you’re supposed to witness to them, but you’re afraid. you’re afraid to do it. Amen? God wants to deliver you from intimidation. God wants to deliver you from those spirits that would prevent you from being the anointed witness that he’s called you to be. So if you are here today and you struggle with a spirit of intimidation, amen, I want you to come up front. We’re going to pray for you. Amen? We’re going to pray for you. If you’re afraid to go on street meeting or you go but you’re petrified to take that microphone, preach. You want to. You want to sing if you can sing. Don’t do it if you can’t sing. If you can’t sing, we want you to be afraid of singing, okay? But if you can sing and you have a testimony, but something won’t let you go or something won’t let you take that microphone, come on up here. We’re going to pray for you. And God is going to set you free. Amen. He’s going to deliver you. He’s going to break that spirit off of you. Just like he did, he delivered Peter, and Peter went years and years and years and never had a problem until that time. Amen. And I’m sure that after Paul had to give him a good talking to and he saw what was going on, amen, he was delivered then. He was set free. Let me tell you something. It’s not in the Bible, but it’s in history. When they came to get Peter… In Rome. And they finally got him what they considered to be the ringleader. And they said they were going to crucify him. He didn’t run. He didn’t say, hide me. Some of them wanted to hide him because they thought, we don’t want to lose you, Peter. You’re too important. We want to protect you. Amen. But he remembered the words of Jesus. When you’re old, someone will lead you where you don’t want to go. Amen. And he told them, he said, I’m not worthy to be crucified like my Lord crucified me upside down. Amen. He won that victory once and for all. And God wants to set you free from a spirit of intimidation. Amen. I feel that perhaps there may be somebody that on your job, they’re pushing you around. They’re taking advantage of you. And you’re afraid to speak up for yourself. The Lord wants to give you freedom from that spirit and he wants to give you wisdom. It doesn’t do you any good to be set free from intimidation if you don’t have wisdom. You can still mess it up. Amen? So that you know how to handle that. So that they have to back off and God… will cause you to be promoted or whatever it needs to be done. All right, I’m going to ask for the elders to come and help me. I want everybody that’s not up here to point your hands to these. Father, in the name of Jesus, we take authority over every spirit of intimidation. We command the powers of darkness that loose that spirit over and over and over again against these people and hinder them from being the witness, the testifier, the preacher, the singer, That they desire to be. Lord in the name of Jesus. I break that off of them. I command that thing to leave them. I command them to be loose this day. I command you to be set free. Lord open them up. 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. 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.
