You have the trump card
Category: Holy Spirit
Key Passage: 1 John 4:1-4
Speaker: Paul Chisgar
Date: August 6, 2023
Turn your Bible to 1 John chapter 4. Not St. John in the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, John—but 1st John, towards the back part of the Bible: 1st, 2nd, 3rd John. 1st John chapter 4. Once you find that, if you would just look this way, at this very strong, sturdy, good-looking pulpit, amen, you know? You thought I was going to say something else.
What about that? Let me just talk to you for a bit. We are starting a new series. I do not think it will be a long series. I am not sure how long it will be. I battled this when I was going to start last Sunday; I just did not get peace about it. It is about having a healthy spirit.
The Bible says so much about spirit. There are 458 verses that have the word “spirit” in them. Sometimes it is talking about the Spirit of God, talking about my spirit, a Christian spirit, the spirit of the world, familiar spirit, evil spirit, wicked spirit, wounded spirit—it goes on and on for days. We will not cover it all. There will be so much that we do not cover in this series, but I just feel like God wants us to go this way a little bit.
About our spirit: sometimes we just have a very vulnerable or volatile spirit. It is way up here, and then, boom, in a second, it can drop to the lowest. That is a weakness. It is a great strength—sometimes our greatest strengths are our greatest weaknesses. But sometimes some people just have a wounded spirit, and sometimes it is from way back.
We are going to try to cover this, perhaps one Sunday morning: Once your spirit gets out of whack, how to get your spirit back? There is a Bible verse that deals with it very well. Your spirit is so important in your marriage. If you want to have a good marriage, the spirit of your marriage is key; it is crucial. Spirit in your home, by the way, parents—it starts with your marriage. That is the hub, and then it goes out to your home, your children, and whatnot.
The Spirit in your home. I have thought about so many things as we prepare for next year. We are praying next year to start the building over there. You talk to our brother who has been in the ministry all these years—Brother Dumpur and others have been in the ministry for years and years. Any time a church goes through a building program, Satan does everything he can to attack it. I promise you, he will try to attack the spirit of our church, and he will use every angle he can. Your spirit is so very, very important.
We are going to read one verse, and then we will talk about the importance of spirit for a bit. The title of this sermon in the series is, “You Have the Trump Card.” You have the trump card. No punditry with Donald Trump, all right, but you have the trump card. How many have ever played cards, you know, at the kitchen table? Has anybody ever played Baloney? Some of you have.
It is one of these games where you deal all the cards out, and then you start with Ace, two, three, four, five. As you are going around the room, you play one deck, two decks. As you go around, if they just put down threes, you have to put down fours. Now, they put them down face down, so you say, “I have,” I am placing three fours down there. It may be three fours, but it may not be. You may not have any fours, but you have to put down fours. So you put it down, you try to bluff them, say that is one four, whatever it is. If somebody does not believe you, they say, “Baloney!” And then you have to flip those cards over. If it is not three fours, then you have to take everything that is on the deck; it is all yours. If it is three fours, the person who called baloney on you takes them. My mom, she likes that game. Sarah cannot play that game without calling baloney on everybody, and she ends up with half the deck typically.
It is a fun game. Here is the point: you have the trump card. When they call baloney on you, you really have the right card—you have the trump card. If you are a good Christian, we will talk about that here just a minute.
Let us read this one verse, 1 John 4. We will start in verse number one and go down through the verse. We are going to look at verse number four. Would you please stand, if you are able, just to show the Word of God respect? 1 John 4, verse number 1. The Bible there says, “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God.”
How do you know when that spirit covers well? It is the Spirit of God. “Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ”—Jesus, the Messiah, the Anointed One. Isaiah 9:6 talks about the Messiah. He is the Everlasting Father, a Mighty God, Prince of Peace, Wonderful Counselor, and all that. So, Jesus Christ—this spirit says every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God.
Now, there was a false doctrine running around in early Christianity that said Jesus came just as kind of like an illusion. You see him, but he is not really here physically in the flesh. He is not 100% man; he is 100% God, yes, deity, but he is 100% man. They deny that part of it. What do they have nowadays? Is it called CGI or something like that? There is illusion. You think someone is there, but it is not really them; it is an illusion of them. That was a philosophy: “Well, you know, it is not really him; he is not here in the flesh.”
That is simple. By the way, that is why many times Jesus proved he was 100% man and 100% God, but he did many things to prove he was 100% man. He was doing that on purpose because false doctrines were running around. One of the utterances or sayings on the cross: he said, “I thirst.” Part of that was, “Hey, I am human, dying as a man.” So he is saying here in verse number two, “Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God.”
“And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God. And this is that spirit”—notice that spirit. You are not just naming the false doctrine, but the spirit. This is that spirit of Antichrist. Going against, denying, and accusing—Antichrist. “Whereas ye have heard that it should come, even now already is it in the world.”
Here is our text verse: “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them.” Who are “them”? Those spirits that are in the world. “Ye are of God, little children, have overcome them.” The bad, the false, the wrong spirits—you have overcome them because greater is He that is in you. Who is that? That is the Holy Spirit, as we were talking about in verse number two. He is in the same context. “Ye are of God, little children, have overcome the world because greater is He that is in you.” Who is that? If you are a child of God, He is in you—the Spirit of God. “Because greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.” That is the devil and the spirits that he promotes in this world. There is so much there. But we have the trump card, see? Because we have the Spirit of God. He is greater than all these false and bad spirits that attack God’s people.
Paul is the man that God used to pen many books of the New Testament—13, probably 14 books of the 27 books of the New Testament. God used Paul to pen them. It is amazing: three of the books that God used Paul to pen, I want you to notice how he ends those books of the Bible. Let me read them for you. Just listen. You can write down the reference if you like to. Galatians 6:18: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.” That is how he is ending a book of the Bible. Philemon chapter 1, only one chapter, verse number 25: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.” These are the last words he gives in these books; he talks about your spirit.
The last book that Paul ever penned is the book of 2nd Timothy. It always brings meaning to me when I read that book. I think of Paul’s last days, nearing the end of his life. He knew he was nearing the end of his life, and the last words he penned are in 2nd Timothy. Let me read from the last chapter, the last verse of the last book of the Bible that Paul penned: 2 Timothy chapter 4, verse number 22: “The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit. Grace be with you. Amen.”
Friend, there must be something to this saying about your spirit if God is leading Paul, his great Christian. The last words he gives are talking about your spirit. Friend, your spirit, my spirit, is so vital, so very, very important. Your spirit affects your health. Proverbs 17:22: “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.” A merry heart is good like medicine, but a broken spirit dries up your bones. It affects your health.
It affects your health. I thought about that verse, trying to grasp it. Years ago, I had the privilege—and I say that because I did not have that attitude at the time—of taking our teens to camp. It was after a transition time; I was busy and had a lot going on, but somebody had to take the kids to team camp, and I was exhausted. I felt, “Lord, I do not have it in me to take these kids to camp, physically or emotionally.” But the Lord calls, and He equips. So, I agreed to take the teens. At the beginning of camp, leaders asked me to speak, and I said, “I will be honest, I have nothing left.” Shame on me, young preachers are never supposed to say no. I kept saying no. I just had nothing left. I thought, camp—you do not sleep at night; you keep kids up all night long, and then you play games with them all day. You are worse off at the end of camp.
Here is the amazing thing: I came back that week from camp, busy, but God, through all the preaching, had done a work in my spirit. Though physically I was more worn out than before, I had energy. I thought, “Lord, I just got back from camp. I had everything left, if you will, after camp.” Not that I had a relaxing, restful time, but I had God’s Spirit pouring into my spirit all week long at camp, and it came back with so much energy. That is what it is talking about: your spirit affects you physically. A broken spirit dries the bones.
Your spirit is so vital, so very, very important. Let me say this: Proverbs 18:14 says, “The spirit of man will sustain his infirmities: but a wounded spirit who can bear it?” Infirmity has to do with sickness or weakness. He said your spirit, if it is right, can sustain infirmity. I have seen a lot of people with sickness, cancer, whatnot, in the hospital, and they are all right, even if they do die from it. Watch people die, and they are all right if their spirit stays on top. But if their spirit goes… I have been amazed sometimes. I called Steve Page; he has been sick. I called him yesterday, and he is still… Okay, wow, that is interesting. An evil spirit is trying to get in that way right there. But if it gets your spirit—a wounded spirit—you have physical problems, but a wounded spirit, who can bear it? The tough thing is, they are all connected: your body, soul, and spirit. It all affects each other. If somebody has been sick for years, if you are not careful, it gets your spirit. And if it gets your spirit, well, that is when you are in trouble.
Your spirit is so vital. You know this is a very popular verse when it comes to your spirit. Proverbs 25:28: “He that hath no rule over his spirit is like a city that is broken down and without walls.” If I have no control over my spirit, I am like a city that has no protection, no walls. I always love that Israel, around Jerusalem specifically, has that Iron Dome. They try to shoot those missiles in there, but that Iron Dome protects them; they have a wall of protection. But if I have no control over my spirit, somebody can get your spirit just by saying one word to you, and then you have no protection. God is saying, look, Satan will attack by trying to get your spirit. If you have no control over your spirit, Satan can just march in any time and take you out. Are you with me this morning? I hope it is because you are listening.
Two last thoughts before we dive into this. We will just try to get one truth this morning on it. This is amazing: only twice does the Bible use this statement. It uses it for John the Baptist and Jesus Christ. Jesus said about John the Baptist, “That is the greatest man born among women.” That is a pretty good statement. How would you like Jesus to say that about you? Greatest man born among women? That covers them all, besides Adam. This great man, John the Baptist, and then Jesus Christ—well, He knows He is the greatest; He is God in flesh. The Bible makes this statement about just those two men: they “waxed strong in spirit.”
About Jesus Christ, sometimes we say the Bible does not say anything about Him before He was 12 years old. Yes, it does. It says that He “waxed strong in spirit.” That statement is not just thrown in; nothing is coincidence in the Bible. It says that he waxed strong in spirit. For John the Baptist, let me read it for you as you take a note: Luke 1:80 says, “And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his shewing unto Israel.” For Jesus Christ, Luke 2:40 says, “And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit.”
So Jesus—y’all out there, listen. If your neighbor is sleeping, poke him in the eye, please. If they have glasses, pull them off first. Do not kiss; poke him in the eye!
Think about it. Jesus, as He was growing up, waxed slowly, gradually; He got strong in spirit. Think about that. We go through His life toward the end. He said, “I came to die. I came to be crucified.” He knew that. He came to be the sacrifice for mankind. Think about that last 24 hours of His life. He goes from the garden, sweating great drops of blood—the intensity of His prayer life. They say that can happen when the capillaries of your skin burst; you get so intense, and that is what was going on with Jesus. Then He goes out of the garden, and the guards come to arrest Him. Judas, that traitor, kisses Jesus. What a lie that is! Jesus called him friend.
Then they took Him over to the high priest, and they had a mockery of a trial that night. That is where I believe they plucked His beard out, where they put a black bag over His face and beat Him to a pulp. That is where they mocked Him, spat upon Him, and slapped Him. That went on all night long. Then the next morning, they took Him to Pilate because legally they could not kill Him. Another mockery of a trial—Pilate said, “I find no fault in him,” but they demanded crucifixion. They took the cat o’ nine tails to Him—39 lashes. This whip had glass and sharp rocks woven into it. 39 times they would wrap it around that body, and then they would pull, flaying the victims. His inner organs were hanging out, usually in just a pool of blood. Then they said, “Hey, take that cross and carry it up to the hill.” Simon had to help Him go up there to the hill, the place of the skull. They took His clothes and gambled over them. All this was going on against Jesus, but the amazing thing is, He said seven things on the cross. The very last words of Jesus on the cross, let me read them for you. Luke 23:46: “And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.” The last words: “Hey, they are not going to get my spirit.” They can spit on me, lie about me, torture me, but they never got Jesus’ spirit. He kept His mental ability; He kept His spirit about it. They never got it. The last words Jesus said before He died were, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.”
I think about if Jesus had not been waxing strong in spirit, if He had sinned just one time—one little bit of sin—and your salvation would not be secure. I am trying to emphasize the importance of your spirit. Your spirit is so vital. In this series, I hope that you pray, “Lord, help me to grow stronger; help me to wax strong in spirit.” Let the Lord teach you. Let us look at this one truth this morning about your spirit. That is just kind of an introduction.
I want you to go back to 1 John chapter four. I hope you see how important your spirit is. If God is going to use you in a great way, you are going to have to work at your spirit because Satan will attack your spirit. If you are going to have a good marriage, spirit is just vital. 1 John chapter 4, look at verse number one again. He says, “Beloved,” he is talking to Christians, beloved, “believe not every false doctrine.” Is that what it says? No. The ultimate thing he is talking about is false doctrine, but it does not say that. He says, “Believe not every spirit.” Because the spirit comes and brings the false doctrine. That is how false doctrine can sway people very quickly; there is a spirit about it.
So God said, “Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits.” By the way, “the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.” “They that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” We have churches that go both extremes nowadays. They are all about spirit—I love spirit—but they have no truth. The Bible says we must worship Him in spirit and in truth. But then we have some churches where all there is is truth, truth, truth, and their spirit stinks. No, you worship Him in spirit and in truth. Spirit is before truth in that phrase in John. You get your spirit right, and then God gives you truth. Both are important.
He is saying over here, “Try the spirits.” Why? Because many false prophets, teachers, preachers, whatever—propagators of that teaching—are gone out into the world. There is all kind of false junk going on in our day and time. Just go to YouTube or Instagram, Facebook. There is all kind of stuff out there, isn’t there? Yes, the truth, yes, yes, yes, and praise the Lord, we have the truth right there. But the spirit—He said, “Beloved, try every spirit.” Sometimes it is a little bit harder to discern the spirit coming across the airwaves, but even then, you can check it out. There are going to be spirits coming against you all over, trying to mess with your spirit, trying to mess you up. He says, try those spirits. Check out those spirits. First of all, see what they say about Jesus. That is in verses two and three. Then verse number four—that is where we are really this morning: “Ye are of God, little children, have overcome them”—these spirits—“because greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.” That is the key right there.
Satan is going to attack your spirit with these false spirits. Can I try to name a couple of what I would call familiar spirits that I see in Christianity today? If Satan can get the spirit of Christians, he would get the spirit of this church. I thought about it: Thursday night, somebody was saved; Friday night, two were saved in jail. Yesterday, our bused people—people got saved yesterday. Three days in a row somebody was saved. Satan would love to get the spirit of you and I in our church. He is going to attack our spirit, especially coming to the building program. If we do not have rule over our spirit, we have no protection.
Here is the trump card we have: it is the Spirit of God living inside of us. Here is a familiar spirit I call the spirit of defeatism. “Well, it is 2023. Have you seen what happened? All the bad that has happened? You understand what I am talking about? D.C., congressmen, president, Senate—you know how wicked and sinful it is.” And this spirit comes over, kind of like, “Well, the Lord is coming back. If I could just stay standing until He comes back.” No! The Bible says we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. He said, “Go forward. Preach the gospel to every creature.” But this spirit comes over. It is bad, bad, bad. Did you hear this other bad? “My bad is worse than your bad.” That is the way it gets.
I had the privilege of preaching at a conference Thursday. I did not do it; I just felt as the Lord led, but I talked a little bit about God still working in our day and time. A pastor came and said, “Man, I am so glad you hit that issue because the spirit of defeatism”—he did not use that term, but he said the spirit just feels like we cannot do anything because 2023 is overwhelming." I am so glad you addressed that issue. That spirit will take over if we are not careful. Here is the mistake: I say, “Well, I do not have that attitude; I have faith.” You know what you call that? Pride. When you get proud, what happens? Pride goeth before destruction, and the Holy Spirit before a fall. You think, “Well, I am not defeatist; I have faith.” And boom, now you really are defeated. So here is the thing: you say, “You know what, this spirit of defeatism? Holy Spirit, what do you think about that? I do not want to follow this spirit here; I want to walk in the Spirit.” And what the Holy Spirit says is, “Hey, do not worry about that. Go give a tract to them over there. Hey, do not get caught up on that. I still answer those prayers.” The Holy Spirit says, “Hey, do not get too focused on that. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.” We have a trump card inside of us.
When they call baloney on you, say, “Hey, we played it with Zach Kerry.” How many remember Zach Kerry? One of the bus teenagers; he is a grown adult now, and we used to play it with him. If you called baloney on him and he had the right cards, he would always say, “Take it.” He just had that spirit about it. He would just not smile or anything; just, “Take it.” The devil comes along and tries to get your spirit, and if you use the Holy Spirit, you turn to the Holy Spirit, you follow, you walk in the Spirit. It is kind of like you say, “Take it.” We have a trump card inside us. It is so vital that we use the Holy Spirit because greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.
There is a spirit of fear in our day and time. It goes a little bit with defeatism, but I get it—has anyone ever just wanted to go to an island away from everybody and everything? To just be out there alone? I understand; I get those feelings too. But if I am not careful, this spirit of just fear—that I am going to go away from everybody—must be countered. God, the Holy Spirit, the author of the Bible, wrote this: “God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” When a spirit of despondency or depression or hurt comes over me—I am grieving a loved one that has passed away—the Spirit comes for me. Hey, who is the great Comforter? The Spirit of God. I am saying you have a trump card inside of you that can overcome. You do not have to live in fear. “Well, I cannot control my spirit.” You can, because greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. He is your trump card. When the devil calls baloney on you, say, “I have the real deal, buddy. It is God living inside of me.” He is the one that can give you the right spirit.
That is so vital because spirits spread so quickly. Revelation is talking about during the tribulation period, but Revelation 16 has this verse talking about evil spirits—it is talking about the false trinity, actually. Let me just read it for you. Revelation 16:13: “And I saw three unclean spirits like”—does anybody know the word—“like frogs.” Yes, and these unclean spirits spread around the world. Why does the Bible use the word frogs? I believe he is using the word frogs because have you ever tried to catch a frog? You put your hand down, and it just spreads so quickly. That is the way a spirit is. A spirit can just come across the room, boom. I do not fully understand how that happens, but it is so important that I realize, wait, the spirit can be spreading across everybody, but I have a trump card: the Spirit of God living inside of me. That spirit, if it is a wrong spirit from the world, from the devil, that spirit cannot win over me because I have the trump card, the Holy Spirit, living inside. That is what verse four is about; it is all about the Spirit of God.
I rejoice that last Sunday a visitor came and sat back over here. One of the ladies, a grown adult, said that when they walked into the church, they could feel that the Spirit was working here. Praise the Lord for that; it is a blessing. There is a spirit about it. The Holy Spirit flows through our spirit. The key is relying on the Holy Spirit for victory with our spirits because greater is He that is in you.
Here is what happens sometimes: when I take it as a personal mission to overcome Satan’s spirits, it so often leads to defeat. “I am going to overcome that spirit,” and sometimes that spirit just keeps coming and overwhelms my spirit. But when I say, “No, it is not going to be me; it is going to be the Holy Spirit,” and I yield to Him, He will worry about all that. I am going to worry about me yielding to Him. As I do, His spirit can flow out and influence others. There is a power there. “And ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” It does not say, “I am going to take care of that problem.” No, no, no. You will probably fall flat on your face if you do not let the Spirit of God—you yield to Him, you rely on Him, you turn to Him, you seek His leadership. That is so important.
Some Christians do this: they do not like the worldliness that is in Christianity in our day and time. Amen for that; I do not like it either. The big thing is God does not like that. That is the spirit of Christianity a little bit in America right now. “Well, I love the Lord, but I have all this over here.” The Bible speaks about touching the unclean thing; they are still touching the unclean thing. They are trying to bring the cross over here to the world and go in the same direction. No, no, no, that is not biblical. The Bible says, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.” And the spirit of the world—here is the mistake: when I take it as a personal vendetta, “I am going to solve all those worldly Christians; I am going to go out there and get them right.”
You know what happens sometimes? I am so busy fighting the worldly Christians. First of all, if they are truly saved, God can handle His children better than you can handle His children. Second of all, I am not winning anybody to the Lord; I am not making any influence in the world. I am just caught up with this personal vendetta: “I have to get the worldly Christians right.” And so often, I forget about winning souls, reaching the lost, loving those people who need Jesus Christ. Friend, can I be honest for just a second? Christianity has dropped the ball in so many ways in America regarding getting the gospel out to our neighbors.
That verse was just quoted: “Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.” It starts there. Many think missions means men overseas. I am for missions. We have mission conferences every year; praise the Lord, we support 47 missionaries. I am all for that; I give to all that. But, friend, it starts when I am reaching my Jerusalem. I am giving the gospel out to my neighbor; it is where it starts. But if I am caught up trying to defeat what all the spirits are doing out there, I am not yielding to the Holy Spirit of God. Then I am caught up in the wrong battle. The Lord can handle them a whole lot better than I can handle them. But I have to yield to the Holy Spirit. As I yield to the Holy Spirit, He says, “Hey, go tell somebody about Jesus. Get the gospel of Jesus Christ out. Jesus changes lives.”
I thought about Stephen, that first deacon in Acts 6 and 7. Remember he was preaching about Jesus, and they were not happy about that? The passage says he was full of the Holy Ghost, full of the Holy Spirit. They came after him; they were attacking his spirit. In fact, they attacked his body; eventually, they murdered him. But what happened? They did not get his spirit. He was full of the Spirit. Remember, that is where he saw, “I see Jesus standing on the right hand of the Father.” By the way, some people say, “I thought Jesus was sitting on the right hand of the Father.” I think He stood up when Stephen was getting murdered. He said, “I am going to welcome this one in; he is a martyr for me.” His face was glowing. Why? Because the Holy Spirit was flowing through Stephen. Even when they were killing him, they were stoning him. “Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.” You say, “Why did the Lord not do something about him dying?” I think the Lord used that to get Paul saved, because Paul was watching all that, and Paul got saved, and Paul spread the gospel around the Western Hemisphere pretty much. Stephen has a part in all that because of the Spirit of God.
There is so much there, and we are skipping some things. We have to close it out here in just a second. That is one reason why you ought to stay right with the Holy Spirit. It is so vital. Stay in His Word. The last day or two, I have not done it like I should, but I have been on YouTube, pulling up encouraging verses being read while hymns are going on in the background. That is strength in my spirit, but it is the Holy Spirit. You must not quench the Spirit, grieve the Spirit, be filled with the Spirit, ask for the Spirit. That is so very important.
That is part of church. You can come to church, even before the preaching starts, and gather with other Christians who have the Spirit living inside of them. When they are really right with the Spirit, the Spirit can flow through them and fill your spirit. That is why church is very important; that is God’s plan. If you take one coal out of the fire, it dies, but put that coal back in the fire—that is part of church. You are getting all the Spirit-filled, anointed Christians together, and it strengthens your spirit. The preaching of the Word of God is very vital, and that is breathing life into you. The Word of God—the Spirit of God wrote that—and He brings life through His Word.
By the way, that is why you ought to come to church. If your spirit is strong, you have been listening to preaching all week long. You ought to come Sunday morning and Sunday night to get a full dose of it. I challenge you there. Let me say a word, and I have got to hurry along here, but for those who can assemble, come. Why? That way you experience the other Christians, and the Spirit is giving you what you need. It is all a part of it.
Let me just finish it out with this: If you are not saved—are y’all still awake? If someone is not saved, they still have a spirit, I believe, but it is dead. Remember Adam and Eve: the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. They did not fall over dead that day, but spiritually, they died.
They are born from Adam with a dead spirit. They still have a spirit, but they are kind of like dragging a dead body around everywhere. That is why when they try to overcome some things, it is so hard; it takes so much more effort for them because they have a dead spirit. They are dragging. That is why when you get saved, the Spirit of God moves in, and He rebirths you spiritually; you are born again. John 3 said that which is born of the flesh is flesh, but that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. He brings life to your spirit. That is why people like my dad could not overcome smoking, drinking, cursing, and all the rest of that. They got saved. They had a new strength and new power to ride down the road, throw the bottle out, and leave it out the window. Because the Spirit brought life to their spirit.
If you are not saved, the sad thing is you do not have the trump card. If you are a born-again Christian, greater is He that is in you; He moves in when you get saved. If somebody is not saved, they do not have that trump card. Somebody calls baloney on them, and they are like, “Oh no, I have to take the old deck.” The wrath of God abideth on them. But when the Spirit of God moves inside, it brings life to your spirit, and you can win against these spirits because greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.
Original File: You have the Trump Card - Pastor Paul Chisgar - Having a Healthy Spirit Sunday AM 08062023