In 1984 I reached a point that I became very disturbed about what was going on in my life. I had been in charismatic churches for about three and a half years and had been taught by the leaders. that when you received Jesus you became a new creature and that old things had passed away and all things had become new.
The problem was I had received Jesus and had been baptized in the Holy Spirit and spoke in other tongues and had been baptized in water and yet I knew my heart was not right towards God, in fact the wickedness in me seemed to have increased, after the rain(his Spirit) was poured out on my heart. Read Hebrews Chapter 6 verses 7-9 the Lord give you understanding.
So I got away from almost everybody I knew and moved to Dallas and quit going to those charismatic churches I was going to and I began seeking God day and night, praying and reading and studying his word and asking God what is wrong with me? God begin to open my eyes to see in the realm of the spirit. Now don’t think because God did this that I was spiritual, because I wasn’t, I didn’t even have the faith to operate in the gifts of the Spirit, God just did it according to his own will.
So for a period of about two years God would operate the gift of discerning of spirits through me regularly and at times I could see demons in every person I looked at, I could see them in their eyes. I have seen them in born again people also, including my wife. I believe also I was seeing the sin nature in people, the people looked totally evil, like a body of sin and I came to the place that I knew I was just like the demonized people that I saw by the Spirit.
The word of God says the whole world lieth in wickedness I John 5:19 and this present world is evil Galatians 1:4 and that we all walked according the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air (the devil) the spirit (evil spirits in us) that worketh in the children of disobedience Ephesians 2:2 ; that is exactly what I saw by the Spirit. Do you get the picture? we were all wicked and had evil spirits working in us and these spirits were leading us around according to the course of this evil world. Read Ephesians 2:3 and see if you still walk that way.
The human race is blind and for the most part doesn’t have a clue how wicked they are. Now don’t let the devil take the truth and condemn you with it, be courageous and believe God because we have been made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.
I told this one lady that I was spending a lot of time with, who believed Christians needed to have the demons cast out of them, what it said in Romans chapter seven about sin that dwelleth in us and I said see we still have the sin nature in us after we are born again and she said no, that doesn’t say that, well it does, if you can read you know it says that, she was deceived by the lies A charistmatic preacher taught. Charismatic preachers took the scriptures out of context and twisted them just like the devil did when he took Psalm 91 verse 11 & 12 out of context and twisted it and tried to get Jesus to jump off the temple and it was the devil that led these men to teach lies.
False prophets say peace, peace when there is no peace. They don’t teach you how to be made the righteousness of God, they just tell you that you are and leave you in your sin. They need to repent and believe the gospel.
I heard one Charismatic preacher teach that after you received Jesus there is nothing left in you but the memory of your old self, that is a big fat lie. Just read Romans 7:20 It says sin still dwells in us, that is why we do things we don’t want to. The book of Romans was written to people who already received Jesus.
You could not have become a new creature when you first received Jesus that is just the start of being changed into a new creature, your sin nature doesn’t pass away until you believe the gospel and are baptized in water. The old man was crucified with Jesus on the cross, and it is put to death when you are baptized in water, but you have to mix faith with the gospel to put the old man to death. Jesus went to the cross for everyone, but only the ones who believe are changed.
Now let me ask you this question, how can you be a new creature as these men have taught out of II Corinthians 5:17 and still have your sin nature? Think about it, (that’s the body of sin - Romans 6:6) because II Cor. 5:17 says old things have passed away and all things have become new. A new creature doesn’t live unto themselves, but unto him which died and rose again II Cor.5:15 they are able to live this way because their sin nature has passed away and the new man who is formed in them is alive unto God.
I Peter 2:24 it says: Who is own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness; by whose stripes we are healed. When your sin nature is put to death through the Spirit of God (Romans 8:13, 14) then you will be able to be led by the Spirit and live unto righteousness. The Spirit of God takes what Jesus did on the cross and ministers that to us who believe.
So the answer to my question was. I still had the sin nature in me and demons in me after I received the Lord Jesus Christ. But you said you were baptized in water, I was, but I didn’t have a revelation of the purpose of water baptism, and my faith was shut up because of the law in my heart, so I couldn’t access that grace and besides it takes time to put to death the old man, the body of sin.
So when I came to Water of Life in 1986 I already had two revelations in my heart or at least one that we were still demonized after receiving Jesus and I could read in the word of God that the sin nature was still in us. When I listened to Doyle speak he taught the same thing about us still having the sin nature and demons in us, he was the only minister I ever heard speak the truth. That’s why he walks in the Spirit and the power of God because he has been delivered from demons and enough of the sin nature so it doesn’t rule his soul and has been having the new man formed in him for years.
To become a new creature you have to have both things taking place in your life, old things passing away, the sinful characteristics and traits that make up the old man and all things becoming new, this is becoming a partaker of the divine nature. This process is going on in my life and this is what must take place in every person’s life to be saved from your sins. This salvation was worked out for us through the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and you receive it through faith.
God resists the prideful, but grants grace to the humble, so humble yourself, by admitting that you are wicked, like the publican who said have mercy on me a sinner, Jesus said that man humbled himself. Luke 18:9-14 Now don’t walk around saying I am just an old sinner, if you will believe God he will put a robe of righteousness on you and he will receive you and you don’t have to be condemned while he is turning you from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God, Acts 26:18.
If you are guilty that is the law in your heart producing that guilt and that is another bondage the gospel will take out of you, so believe the gospel and let God change you into a Christian.
I recommend you read Doyle Davidson’s book “God’s plan of Reconciliation” it will instruct on what God has to do in your heart to become a new creature in Christ. Just click on the link below and it will take to a page with all his books