More Than Medicine
More Than Medicine
DWDP - Employing Spiritual Weapons Against the Forces of Darkness: Stories and Insights
What if the simple act of praise could change the course of your battles, both physical and spiritual? Join us on "More Than Medicine" as Dr. Robert Jackson unravels a miraculous story from his family's medical history, where his Uncle Carl was saved from a near-fatal allergic reaction by quick medical intervention. Drawing a powerful parallel, Dr. Jackson reveals how the transformative power of praise can render Satan powerless in spiritual warfare, much like epinephrine neutralizes an allergic reaction. You'll uncover the essential spiritual weapons needed to stand firm in your faith, including intercessory prayer and the confession of God's Word.
Experience the awe-inspiring impact of high praise as we recount a powerful worship session in a prison that led to divine intervention. With biblical examples like Daniel and Jehoshaphat as our guide, we underscore the importance of persistent, faith-filled prayer. Contrast the fervent devotion found in overseas churches with the distractions common in American congregations, and explore the potential for spiritual awakening through high praise. Finally, Dr. Jackson shares a heartfelt devotional, encourages listeners to reflect on their faith journey, and provides details on the Jackson Family Ministry's resources and ways to stay connected. Don't miss this episode filled with inspiring stories and practical spiritual insights that invite you to experience the power of praise.
https://www.jacksonfamilyministry.com
https://bobslone.com/home/podcast-production/
Welcome to More Than Medicine, where Jesus is more than enough for the ills that plague our culture and our country. Hosted by author and physician, Dr Robert Jackson.
Speaker 2:Papa, can you tell me a story? Do you really want me to tell you a story? Well, you go, get your brother and your sisters and I will tell you a story. Well, you go, get your brother and your sisters and I will tell you a story. Welcome to Devotions with Dr Papa. If you would grab your Bibles and gather around and let's look into the written Word, which reveals to us the living Word, who is our Lord, jesus Christ. Well, I told you that we would, for the next few weeks, take advantage of some of the insights that I've gained from my medical practice that teach me lessons from the Word of God.
Speaker 2:And I want to tell you a story that happened many years ago when my father was still in medical practice, and it's a lesson that I learned from his medical practice. And what happened is he had a brother, who was my Uncle Carl, who was highly allergic to insect bites, wasps and hornets, and he was so allergic that my father always told him that he needed to keep some epinephrine or adrenaline in a vial close by at all times. So my Uncle Carl was plowing a field near the Jackson home place in Sammy Swamp, which is right outside of Manning, south Carolina. And unfortunately, one day he plowed up a hornet's nest. The hornets attacked him. He was stung multiple times and he immediately began to swell, he began to be short of breath, he began wheezing and his blood pressure dropped. Now he didn't appreciate all the things that were happening physiologically. All he knew was that he was swelling and he couldn't breathe. So he drove the tractor as fast as it would go back to the Jackson home place, which was a big white frame two-story house where he kept his epinephrine in his truck. And he immediately got the epinephrine and this was back before EpiPens. This was back in the 70s.
Speaker 2:And so he had to draw the epinephrine out of the vial into a syringe. And while he was doing this he got on the phone and called my father, who practiced medicine in Manning, which was about five to seven miles away. He put the needle into his thigh and while talking to my father on the phone he passed out. My father yelled multiple times, carl, carl. And there was no answer. Well, back in the 70s my father always kept a high-powered automobile, and at that time it was a Grand Prix automobile with a big engine in it. So he ran out the back door of his office, he jumped in his Grand Prix and he drove out to the Jackson farm as fast as he could, which only took him about seven to eight minutes on those country roads.
Speaker 2:He pulls up to the Jackson house and runs in the back door and finds my Uncle Carl collapsed on the floor. He had turned blue, he was no longer breathing, and he immediately pushes in the plunger of that syringe, pushes the epinephrine into his system and begins to do CPR. Well, the epinephrine had its magical effect and within about a minute it counteracted the effect of the hornet sting. Now he was experiencing an anaphylactic reaction, which what we physicians call it was an allergic reaction, and his blood pressure dropped. He'd gone into shock. He had a rapid heartbeat, but by the time my father got there the heartbeat had even stopped. So he had to do CPR on him for several minutes before he came back around.
Speaker 2:But between the effect of the adrenaline, the epinephrine and the CPR, it rescued my Uncle Carl. Now, that's a very dramatic story and I want you to know that over the course of my medical career I have seen that scenario played out many times, either in my medical clinic or in an urgent care or in the emergency room where patients came in in anaphylaxis, as we call it, having an allergic reaction either to a medication or an insect bite, insect sting, and the patient was swelling, their lips were swelling, their tongue was swelling their throat was swelling, they were wheezing, their blood pressure was dropping and an immediate administration of epinephrine would counteract the effect of the allergic reaction to a medication or to an insect bite or perhaps some kind of environmental allergen.
Speaker 2:It's always very dramatic. Now I'm saying all of that because I want to teach you a spiritual lesson, and the lesson is this is that Satan and the praise of God, god's people, are mutually exclusive. Satan is highly allergic to God's praise and it renders him powerless. Satan goes into anaphylactic shock when he encounters the high praise of God's people. On the other hand, there is a mutual affinity between the presence of God and the praise of His people. God inhabits the praise of His people, and I want you to understand those two contrary concepts.
Speaker 2:You and I live in a spiritual world. More than that, we fight spiritual battles. Ephesians, chapter 6 and verse 12, tells us that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in heavenly places. So do not be deceived we live in a spiritual world and we fight spiritual battles. Therefore, we must employ spiritual weapons, such as intercessory prayer, the confession of God's Word and we must employ praise. 2 Corinthians, chapter 10 and verse 4, tells us that the weapons of our warfare are divinely powerful. They're not fleshly, they're divinely powerful for the tearing down of strongholds, spiritual strongholds. Now, what is the spiritual basis for warfare? Through praise, the Bible tells us that the Lord is a mighty warrior. If you remember, in Exodus, chapter 15, after God had delivered the children of Israel from Pharaoh and his army and drowned them in the Red Sea, that Moses and the children of Israel sang that song about God having drowned the horse and his rider in the sea. And then they proclaim that God is a mighty warrior. More than that, a couple of books later, joshua is confronted by a man with a sword, and that man declared himself to be the commander-in-chief of God's heavenly army. But there is a balance. You see, god is a mighty warrior, but he's also a merciful Savior. You see, lamentations tell us that God's loving kindnesses, indeed, never cease, and his compassions are new every morning, and great, great is his faithfulness.
Speaker 2:Now, I'm sure you're familiar with Jehoshaphat and the battle that he and the Israelites fought against Moab and Ammon and Mount Seir. And in that battle God told them that they did not even need to fight the battle, to just stand by and watch the deliverance of God. Deliverance of God. And they confessed their entire and complete dependence upon God in verse 12 of 2 Chronicles, chapter 20. And then they had a word from God, from one of the prophets, telling them do not be afraid, don't worry, god would fight the battle for them. And then they demonstrated their perfect faith in God by doing what. They put their choir out in front and they demonstrated perfect faith by thanking God in advance that he would deliver them. And the very next day, when the battle was joined, they put the prayer warriors out front. And when the battle was joined, god destroyed the enemies and they never had to lift their sword, they never had to lift a spear or a shield, but God caused the opposing armies to fight one another and it took them three days to pick up all the spoil from the battle. You see, god fought the battle for them and they praised the Lord in advance, demonstrating their perfect faith in God's ability to deliver them.
Speaker 2:Now, what about Paul and Silas? You remember them? God put them in prison and even in prison they worshiped and praised God. Now I have to tell you a personal story. I went to prison one time with 41 pastors and while we were in prison we worshiped and praised God all through the night for an entire weekend. We were there for three days and while we were there we worshiped and praised God so much that the prison officials came and begged us to quit singing and quit praising the Lord. It was keeping everyone awake and you see, we weren't rebuking the enemy, we weren't dictating strategy to God. We were simply trusting in his sovereignty. In praise, we no longer attack the problem or the enemy forces. We simply confess and rejoice in Christ's lordship. When we rejoice in his strength, he goes to battle on our behalf. We praise him and he fights for us and all of us pastors. Instead of being in prison for seven days, we were out in three days. You see, god fights the battle for us.
Speaker 2:In Psalms, chapter 149, in verse 6, god talks about what is called high praise, the high praise of God, and the verse says this praise, the high praise of God. And the verse says this. It says let the high praises of God be in their mouth and a two edged sword in their hand. What's the two edged sword? It's the word of God. Of course it is, and there are different levels of praise. Trust me on that. I've been in churches where the praise was so mediocre it was embarrassing that I've been in churches where the praise was so mediocre, it was embarrassing. And then I've been in churches where the praise was majestic. The praises of God range from gosh, awful to glorious, and you've been in churches like that. It's our responsibility to give heavenly praise before the throne, just like the seraphim in Isaiah, chapter 6, who cried out Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. Praise that ascends into the heavenlies will war on our behalf.
Speaker 2:Do you remember Daniel in chapter 10? You remember how he was fasting and praying for 21 days trying to obtain an answer and an explanation for the vision that God had given to him and finally, on the 21st day, an angel came to give him an explanation. But he only came when Michael came to interfere with the prince of Persia. And why did Michael show up, the archangel Michael? He showed up because of Daniel's persistence in prayer for 21 days. What's the difference? Well, the difference was Daniel's willingness to persist in prayer.
Speaker 2:And the challenge, brothers and sisters, is for you and me, in our individual prayer life and in our church's corporate prayer life, that we should persist in prayer, just like Daniel did, and there also should be an intensity in our individual and corporate church prayer life. And then the difference also has to be the quality of our prayer. It has to be admixed with faith. Now, faith is simple. There can be simple faith that says God can, but there's also great faith that says God will. But there's also going to have to be perfect faith, like Jehoshaphat and the children of Israel who thanked God in advance, that says God already has answered our prayer. That's perfect faith and that's a critical posture of our heart. When we confess him as Lord over everything, every situation, then our faith rises to the level of our confession and God honors that kind of faith and he grants victory in every situation in our life.
Speaker 2:Now listen way back in the 1980s I was listening to Jack Taylor preaching in a Bible conference, and he was one of the great Bible preachers of the 1980s 1990s and he had this to say about the organization of prayer in a church. He says the church that does not have a massive, organized, ongoing program of prayer and praise is running nothing more than a religious treadmill. Now I want to say that again because I believe it's true, the church that does not have a massive, organized ongoing program of prayer and praise is running nothing more than a religious treadmill. Now I go on lots of mission trips and I connect with lots of churches overseas and I have been with churches overseas where it is their habit to meet three and four nights a week to praise and worship God late into the night, praying for revival and praying for their lost friends.
Speaker 2:Now do you think that would fly here in the States If your pastor called you and said look, we're going to pray three or four nights this week and we're going to pray way past midnight for spiritual awakening and for our lost friends and neighbors? Do you think people would show up at your church for that? I think not, and you know why it's because we in America worship too many idols. We worship our entertainment idols television and movies and we worship our sports idols Too much sports and we have to be there to watch our kids play sports and we have to watch our sports on television and that interferes with us praying for spiritual awakening and praying for our lost friends and neighbors. But not in many countries that I've been to overseas, where they meet three and four nights a week and they worship God. They praise God and they pray for their lost friends and neighbors. But you see, they're not distracted by sports, they're not distracted by television and entertainment. They're there to worship God, praise God and pray for lost people and they're experiencing spiritual awakening and their churches are growing, whereas your church and mine are just as cold and dead as 3 am. There's a big, big difference.
Speaker 2:Well, high praise is an evangelistic tool. You mix the two-edged sword of the Word of God and the high praise of God and you will see people being saved and brought into the kingdom of God. God releases His conviction and repentance when we begin to praise Him, because what happens? Praise attracts God. Remember what I told you in the beginning the praise of God's people and the presence of God have a mutual affinity and Satan and the praise of God's people are mutually exclusive. Satan is allergic to God's praise. It renders him powerless. Who is the enemy of God's people? It renders him powerless. Who is the enemy of answered prayer? He mocks at our toiling, but he is rendered powerless at the sight of the weakest saint on his knees worshiping and praising God.
Speaker 2:And let me tell you one last story and I want to land where we took off. Many, many years ago, when I was in college, I was sharing the gospel down at Daytona Beach at spring break and I was with a friend of mine who was a big, tall, blonde-headed girl very, very attractive blonde-headed girl named Susan, and we were in a motel there at the beach and I looked at her and said, susan, it's nearly the end of the day and let's go share the gospel with some of the people, the college students that are in the motel here. And she said let's go. So we started knocking on doors where the doors were open and we could see college students in the rooms of the motel. So we go to one room and there were four college students in the room. We could see them watching TV and they were all drinking beer. I introduced us and said we're here talking to people about their relationship with Jesus. Would you be interested in talking? Well, they all stared at each other and stared at us like we were aliens and finally one of them said yes, and I could tell the other three were quite miffed that he would say yes. So we walked in and we handed all of them a gospel tract and Susan sat between the two girls, I sat between the two guys and we started going through a gospel tract.
Speaker 2:Well, when we got almost done and we got down to the part about the blood of Jesus, guess who walks in the door? It was the devil. Well, it wasn't really the devil, but it was two guys representing the devil and they both had a big solo cup full of beer and they were both very profane and crass. And one of them spied that blonde-headed girl, beautiful blue eyes, beautiful smile, named Susan, and he scooped her up, put his arm around her waist and started saying the most profane things. Now watch this.
Speaker 2:Susan turned on that radiant smile of hers and she began to praise the Lord for all she was worth. And when that guy heard her praising the Lord, he dropped his cup of beer on the floor and he jumped back like she'd stuck him with an electrical cattle prod and he yelped like a little dog and then he turned and ran out of the room. The other guy that was with him, his eyes bugged out of his head and then he turned and he ran out of the room too. And then Susan looked at everybody and said now, isn't God good? All four of the people in the room with whom we were sharing the gospel started laughing out loud. Well, I thought for a moment there that I was going to have to defend Susan's honor and I said now, what's this going to look like Me fist fighting these two guys after I've been trying to share the gospel? Well, susan took care of that by praising the Lord, and those guys took off running. You see what I'm saying the praises of God's people and the presence of Satan are mutually exclusive. And the praise of God drove those two guys right out of the room. Well, we sat back down, we took up where we left off, and all four of those young people prayed to receive the Lord.
Speaker 2:Jesus Christ, now, isn't God good? Well, there comes a time to stop interceding and start praising in faith. You have to praise the Lord, and you got to share the gospel, and that's what we were doing. So the sound of praise is the sound of spiritual warfare.
Speaker 2:My brothers and my sisters, what do you do when you are tempted? Well, you praise the Lord. What do you do to avoid temptation? You praise the Lord. What do you do to get in tune with God? You praise the Lord. What do you do to tear down spiritual strongholds? You praise the Lord. And what do you do to create that umbrella of spiritual protection in your life? You praise the Lord. And what do you do to create that umbrella of spiritual protection in your life? You praise the Lord. Remember the presence of praise, and God's people praising the Lord have a mutual affinity with the presence of God. God inhabits the praise of his people. God inhabits the praise of his people. Satan and the praise of God's people are mutually exclusive, because Satan is allergic to the praising of God. Well, you're listening to Devotions with Dr Papa and I hope you enjoyed that. We'll be back again next week and in the meanwhile, I pray that the Lord will bless you really good.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to this edition of More Than Medicine. For more information about the Jackson Family Ministry, dr Jackson's books, or to schedule a speaking engagement, go to their Facebook page, instagram or their webpage at jacksonfamilyministrycom. This podcast is produced by Bob Sloan Audio Production at bobsloancom.
