The Terminator

Now how many of you have not heard of the movie called The Terminator? None. Am I my right? Well, we are going to put together an analogy about this movie and about the god of this world. I believe it’s going to fit just right. Of course, let’s first go to the Word of God.

The thief cometh not, but to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: -- John 10: 10a

Whether you have given this much thought or not, this is the ministry of the god of this world who is the devil himself. Even though he does have free will, for the sake of this teaching, we are going to overlook that because of his evil nature. He appears to be only able to steal from people, and to kill people, and to destroy people. If you remember the movie, the Terminator was programmed to do such things. The Terminator could not help what he did because that’s all that he could do because he was programmed to do so. It’s that simple. I mentioned free will with the god of this world, however, he is in such a position that he practically cannot use that free will. Why? Because Jesus Christ is coming back and the devil will be destroyed. So in the meantime, the devil will steal and kill and destroy – trying to take as many people as he can with him. The more and more people that he gets who are not born again of God’s spirit, he will take them to hell with him. Do we understand this? So in an analogous way, and with a little bit of your imagination, you can relate the devil to the Terminator that was in that movie. I am sure that you will remember the end of that movie where it appeared that the Terminator was crushed in a machine and that he died. But we know that he did not die. This is a very similar situation to the devil who runs this world. I have actually asked God if I could use every bit of power that I have so that I could kill the devil. You see, it is just not available until Jesus Christ comes back. Because the Scripture must be fulfilled and that is what is written.

Let’s go over a Scripture now that we all should be very familiar with.

I can do all things through Christ which [who] strengtheneth me. -- Philippians 4: 13

Let me now give you once again the literal translation of this verse according to usage.

I am ready for everything and equal to anything through him who infuses inner strength into me. -- Literal translation of Philippians 4: 13

This verse is saying something with great impact. However, there are conditions for us to be able to operate this verse in our lives. We must believe that it is true and we must know that to have this inner strength within us that we must study God’s Word and act accordingly.

Now here is what happens to many believers, if not all of us. There is something called tribulation or mental pressure and we all need to deal with a certain amount of this pressure. God says this in His Word. God also says that we can overcome this tribulation if we just don’t quit or faint in our minds.

And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. -- Galatians 6: 9

Here God says it as clear as day that we are not to faint in our minds. That simply means we are not to give up because at the right moment in time we will be victorious.

Many people are aware of Philippians 4: 13, but yet they quit when times appear to get tough. This is a trick of the devil. This is how he destroys people just like the Terminator did in the movie. The Terminator never gives up. He just never gives up in that movie, does he? Well let me tell you something, the old devil, he is just like that Terminator – he never gives up so sometimes you must fight him and you must never give up and do what it says in Galatians? It says that in due season we will reap and be more than conquerors if we do not give up.

It is a strange thing that I am teaching this to you this morning because lately I have had more mental tribulation that I believe I have ever had in my life. And with all the Word that I know and that I teach you, there were times when I felt like giving up. But if you don’t give up, and God sees this, little by little things will get better and you will eventually crush the devil. It’s truly an amazing thing. I really do think that that movie was made so that I could teach you this teaching so that you could gain strength from knowing that I too am susceptible to such great mental pressure.

I must tell you in detail what some of this pressure has been for me. My dog passed away and it hurt me something terrible. I found another dog and my wife and I were filling out an application for this dog. These new procedures to adopt a dog are straight from hell. But I went ahead and I filled out an application and as soon as I was able to mail it in through the computer, someone else adopted that dog. So do not think that you are the only one that goes through mental tribulation. That’s just the beginning. My wife was taking off work and I had everything ready to go so that we can go and see a different dog that we were to adopt. A woman called me about one hour before we were to leave and she said that she had adopted the dog. I almost couldn’t believe my ears. I wrote her a real sweet email that night. This is what goes on today. How do you think I felt? I wanted to give up. A few days later I found another dog that I was watching for a long time. I wrote to the woman and I told her everything about us and especially the fact that we did not have a fence. She wrote back to me immediately and said that this dog was absolutely ready for adoption. Since then we had to fill out an eight-page application and send 23 pictures to her about how our home looked. So far, everything is going right. Why? Because I never gave up. I became like the Terminator only for the sake of righteousness and not evil. God knew that I wasn’t giving up and there was no way in the world I was going to quit. God, for some reason was able then to open that door. We are waiting to hear from this person as to when the dog is going to be transported right to our area. We plan to give this woman at least double what she is asking for this dog because of her kind heart. But it’s not over yet. We are waiting to hear from her. [Update: The pup is here].

What is my point here? Well you can imitate the Terminator in a Godly manner and you can go after the devil and you can never quit and you will win every time. Just don’t quit. Don’t faint in your mind. Self-defense is a biblical concept. When you sense trouble, the first thing you should do is to pray. Talk to God and He will talk to you – it’s a two-way street. You must learn to do the following by habit:

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. – Proverbs 3: 5

And also the next verse is one that you should also know and learn by heart:

In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. – Proverbs 3: 6

We may as well continue with verses seven and eight of chapter 3 in Proverbs:

Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones. – Proverbs 3: 7, 8

Now let’s review these four Scriptures so that you don’t misunderstand or misinterpret God’s Word. Remember, when we guess at what the Scriptures mean, it is private interpretation and it is no longer the rightly divided Word of God.

When we are suffering tribulation that comes from the god of this world, God wants us to trust in Him with all of our heart. That means with the innermost part of our being. We are not to turn to our own understanding and try to resolve the situation with our five senses alone. How often we have trouble and we don’t turn to God. We think that we can handle it on our own. You should begin to see that so much of this teaching is so very simple that we can miss it for years.

In verse six, God again says that in all your ways you should look to Him and not within yourself. Then God makes a promise. He says that if we do this He shall [absolutely] direct our paths. These are amazing Scriptures teaching us wisdom and how often do we pay attention to them. How often during your day when you are having a tough time do you go to God Almighty and ask Him what you should do. Now let’s look at and study verses seven and eight.

Notice how when God wants something stressed He will say it two times. When it is said twice, that establishes the fact. In verse seven God says to be not wise in your own eyes. Don’t just turn to your five senses and think you’re going to overcome your problem this way. This is a warning that God gives to His children. Then God gives us another promise. He says to fear [respect] the Lord and then He gives us some major wisdom by telling us to depart from evil. Do you know that it takes a believer a long time to realize that all he has to do is to get away from evil? Do not frequent places that are spiritually dark and be careful with who you associate with. You’re going to have a much more pleasant life and the devil himself just cannot get to you. The devil has a number of fronts and one of his strongest and most used front is other people. Then in verse eight God says that if we do this it shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones. If we do what God commands us to do, it will also have a very positive effect on our overall health. It is really amazing that in just four verses, God can give us so much important and positive advice. That’s how powerful the Word of God is when it is rightly divided.

The Terminator is going to keep coming, but if you remember, in the movie, he could not destroy his target if he could not get to them. Many times when the enemy is coming at you, just keep moving. Change your routine and keep variety in your life. This Terminator will try his best to predict your moves. Be careful what you say and it does say somewhere in Proverbs that you should watch your confessions. The enemy only knows what you’re thinking if you tell him. You should never forget that. He cannot read your mind, but he can guess fairly well what you are going to do by your actions. If you do the same thing every day, it is easy for him to predict what you are going to do. So don’t tell him what you are going to do and change your routine. The easiest way to accomplish this in part is to do the following: don’t think out loud.

Another Scripture that pertains to this teaching is in the book of James. It would be profitable for you to notice how the verse is worded. As a hint, I will say that it does not say once in a while.

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. – James 4: 7

In the first place, we must learn to submit ourselves therefore to God which simply means to keep Him first and foremost in our lives and of course in our thoughts and actions. For many Christians that do not have any leadership, this seems to be a very difficult thing. I had to learn to stand on my own with God since most of the believers I knew went off into all directions. This happened when the founder of the ministry had passed away.

Next in the verse God says to resist the devil. And here is where I point out that he doesn’t say just once in a while. You need to resist him most of the time and if you keep God first and resist the devil, then the devil will flee from you. He will run away from you and he will try to attack someone else who is very weak. The point here is that he may see you becoming weak in some areas, and he will come back just like we refer to the Terminator in that movie. Everyone thought that the Terminator was dead at the end of the movie, but we find out that a new version of this Terminator was created. This new Terminator was much improved as far as his abilities to destroy were concerned. And strangely enough that is just what the devil does. He adjusts his methods according to the times and conditions of the present day. This is why he is so tricky and most people don’t see him, but I do. You take a look at this revolution with cell phones and other type of electronics. Who do you think is behind this movement? Most people do not need to have a cell phone unless it is important that they have one. You may find it unusual, but I hardly answer my landline phone. I don’t have anything to say except to speak the Word. Why is this the case? It is because I have submitted myself to God and I am constantly resisting the devil and he flees from me. He doesn’t like me and he hates this website. This website teaches you what I learned from the 70’s about the first century church. I was with a most dynamic ministry that actually brought back the first century church in the 20^th century. Let’s take a look at the book of I Peter.

Casting all your care upon him: for he careth for you. – I Peter 5: 7

Why would God say this to us if we didn’t need someone to care for and protect us? Because the god of this world is constantly out to steal, kill, or destroy. He cannot stop doing this because like I said, it appears that he is programed to do so, again like the Terminator. In the next verse, God tells us why we need to do all of this.

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour; -- I Peter 5: 8

God wants us to be sober or sharp spiritually and to be vigilant. We are not to close our eyes to what is going on around us. We are to be alert and ready to act according to the Word. Then God answers why. Because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour.

There is an interesting analogy in this Scripture that I learned many, many years ago. First of all I should give you some background on how the adversary operates. In the first place he cannot be everywhere at all times like our God and Father can be. What he does is he walks back and forth across the earth and he looks for someone who is giving place to sin and he devours them. In other words he steals from them, he kills them if he can, or he destroys some part of their life. But the analogy I want to bring up here is rather very important. Many times there are believers who are afraid of the devil. I can understand why. It is because they do not have enough of the Word of God in their minds. But to those people and even to those who are not afraid of this enemy, take a closer look at that verse. It makes reference to the devil as a roaring lion. Now this may sound quite simple to you but I’m going to bring it up anyway. A roaring lion cannot bite you when he’s roaring. When you see the adversary roaring, you are to take action quickly and probably get away from that situation. Let’s say you walk into a bar for a drink. I don’t care for bars very much – they seem to be very spiritually dark. But let’s use this as an example. There appears to be a conflict about to take place in this establishment. You should leave the building as soon as possible. Just try to remember that when the devil is roaring, he cannot bite you. It sounds silly a bit but it makes a lot of sense.

In our analogy of the movie called the Terminator and the god of this world which is presently the devil, there is a slight change that I would like to bring up to you. When the devil initially went up against God, one third of the angels went with him. These angels make up the devil’s devil spirit kingdom. There are all different types of devil spirits for each of man’s emotions. So, all in all, we deal with all of these devil spirits. If you would like to use your imagination for a bit, you can think of all of these devil spirits as one of many parts that make up the machine that we called the Terminator. In the movie, this Terminator worked by himself. In our analogy we are referring to the devil as all-inclusive which means he works together with these devil spirits. Of course, our example cannot be exactly like the movie we have been referring to. Now for those of you who think that we deal with flesh and blood, you’re in for quite a surprise. According to the Word of God, we do not deal with flesh and blood. Let’s let God explain it in His Word. Also, so as not to get repetitious, we may conclude this teaching with these final Scriptures which will prove to you, if you believe it, that we deal against something much more treacherous than flesh and blood.

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places [from on high]. -- Ephesians 6: 12

This Scripture is very dynamic, informative and powerful. God wants us to know what we are dealing against and we do not deal with people alone, but with people who are influenced by devil spirits. We are not to look at that person as a devil spirit, but we should be aware at all times that we are dealing with people who are influenced by devil spirits. The last part of this verse should read “from on high”. The words “the rulers of the darkness of this world” can be quoted as the “world rulers of the darkness of this age”. Now remember our analogy. When the Terminator came after Sarah Connor, it was not a normal human being that was after her. It was a robot that was programmed only to kill her. This is just what devil spirits are like. They are programmed to steal, kill, and destroy. If you are not walking with God and His Word, you are in a dangerous position in this world to be attacked by those devil spirits. Let’s take a look at the next two verses where God tells us what we need to do to stand against the rulers of the darkness of this age.

Wherefore take unto you the whole armor [all the resources] of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day [the evil one], and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, [the truth of the Word] and having on the breastplate [or heart] of righteousness. – Ephesians 6: 13 - 14

This chapter goes on and talks about the shield of believing and how you could stop all those darts of the wicked with the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God. It also stresses the importance of prayer.

Just like the Terminator movie where the woman was constantly running away from the Terminator because the Terminator was not like anything else she had ever witnessed before. You can say it was a monster and its form was different. It was not like a regular person. This is how the devil’s devil spirits would appear to you if you could see them. But that’s another difference in this analogy. You cannot see a devil spirit, but via one of the manifestations of the spirit, which is called discerning of spirits, God can tell you what type of devil spirit that you are dealing with. You see that God has everything covered for us. We are never left out in the middle of nowhere with nowhere to turn.

I hope that you can only remember that this Terminator which is the devil himself will never stop coming at you. He can’t – it’s in his nature. But you can defeat him on every hand with an accurate knowledge and application of God’s Word. This teaching is not meant to scare anybody, but to give you a good analogy pertaining to a Hollywood movie that very much reminded me of how Satan operates. Just remember the following Scripture.

Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them [all devil spirits]: because greater is he that is in you, then he that is in the world. – I John 4: 4

The Christ that is in you once you are born again of God’s spirit, is greater than all the devil spirits in the world today. That’s how much power that we have and it is my intention to make this knowledge available to you so that you go out into this world and you are more than a conqueror in every single situation. And when that enemy comes at you you’ve got the sword of the spirit which is the Word of God. We should never be defeated and we should never give up when it appears like we are. When you are at the end of your rope, and God sees that you cannot handle a situation, He will step in and crush the enemy’s face. God bless. You’re the best.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~