God speaks to your spirit through an inner witness. Do you know what I mean by an inner witness? Well, let me give you a prime example of something that happened to me years ago.
I got up one morning, and everything was going well in my life. My personal life was fine. My business life, social life and public life were all fine. The ministry was great, and everything else was wonderful. To tell you the truth, I thought it was going to be a great day.
But soon after I got up a heaviness came on me, that blah kind of feeling you sometimes get. I don’t know how else to say it. I wasn’t sick in my body, and I wasn’t depressed. I just felt this heaviness on the inside of me. So I began to rebuke the devil.
“Get out of here, devil,” I commanded. “I come against you in Jesus’ name. I bind you. I bind you, devil from hell. Get out of here!” But, instead of going away, the feeling got worse and worse. I just got heavier, even though there was nothing wrong with me.
I must have bound the devil for about 35 minutes, and nothing happened. Finally, the Lord said, Jesse! I knew that voice.
“What?” I said.
What are you doing? He asked me.
“I’m over here binding the devil, Lord,” I said.
No, you’re not. You’re binding Me, He told me.
“I’m binding You?” I asked.
Yes, that feeling in your spirit is Me. I want to use your spirit right now to make utterances and groanings that cannot be mentioned. That’s the Spirit of God inside of you, not the devil.
What happened was that the Holy Spirit wanted to make intercession through my spirit with utterings and groanings that could not be mentioned—and I was binding it. I was binding God, thinking it was the devil.
How many of you have ever experienced such a thing? It’s in the Bible: “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered” (Rom. 8:26 NKJV).
Don’t always assume that the weight you sometimes feel inside is the devil. Oftentimes the Holy Ghost will move upon you like He did me. He may give you deep, deep urging to pray for someone who may be in trouble.
It might be somebody in China or a brother in Siberia who is going through a wasteland. It could be for yourself that you’re praying. The important thing is that you realize you’re hearing from God, and those groanings on the inside are from Him, not the devil.
If the Holy Spirit moves on you to pray like that, be sure to pray long enough for the heaviness to lift off you. You will get to the point where you’re released from that burden to pray, and when that happens, it means you’ve done your work. Whatever it was you were praying for has been resolved, and God will get all the glory.
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers
Jesse Duplantis, minister of the Gospel, motivational speaker, television personality, and best-selling author, has been in full-time ministry since 1976 and is the founder of Jesse Duplantis Ministries, located in the Greater New Orleans area of south Louisiana in the United States of America. With over four decades of sharing his unique blend of humor and faith around the world, generations of believers have been inspired by his messages and countless numbers have come to know Jesus Christ as Savior through his ministry.
Known for his unflinching, status-quo-breaking messages and humorous take on experiences in the life of the believer, Jesse continues to draw large audiences of believers through social media, television, and meetings held around the world. With speaking engagements booked years in advance, Jesse Duplantis continues to keep an intense traveling schedule, flying throughout the United States and the world preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. With no booking agents pursuing meetings for him and no set fees imposed upon churches for speaking engagements, Jesse chooses his outreach meetings based on the same two criteria he always has: invitations that come in and prayer over each one. This uncommon way of scheduling in today’s world means Jesse’s many followers may find him speaking in some of the largest churches and venues in America and the world, as well as a great many small and growing congregations, too. No church is too big or small for the Holy Spirit, as he says.
Side by side with his wife Cathy Duplantis, the co-founder and chief of staff of Jesse Duplantis Ministries and the senior pastor of Covenant Church in Destrehan, Louisiana, Jesse continues to fulfill his life’s calling by daily taking up the Great Commission of Jesus Christ: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). Through social media, television broadcasts, books, and other ministry products, as well as through many evangelistic meetings, the JDM website, the JDM app, and Voice of the Covenant magazine, Jesse Duplantis continues to see growth in his ministry and expand each year while maintaining his roots. Jesus is the center of his life. The salvation of lost people and the growth of believers is the purpose of his ministry. And for both he and his wife, every day is another day to “Reach People and Change Lives, One Soul at a Time.”