IF YOU ONLY KNOW HOW WEAK YOUR ADVERSARY THE DEVIL IS

I tell the story of my son-in-law, Buddy Harrison, quite often as an illustration of seeing in the realm of spirits. Reverend Harrison is at this writing founding pastor of Faith Christian Fellowship in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He is also president of Harrison House Publishers. But in 1963, he had problems.

He was unable to stay with anything. He would not keep a job; he'd just quit and walk off. He wouldn't stay in church. One time we'd see him in church leading the choir, and everything would be fine. The next time we'd see him, he would be out of church, and he would walk up to me and blow cigar smoke in my face. I never said anything. I just loved him. I knew the devil had hold of him. He was a roller-coaster, or a yo-yo Christian. Up and down. In and out.

In October 1963, the Spirit of God spoke to me about Buddy. I had come to Tulsa to speak on a Saturday night at a Full Gospel Business Men's banquet, and then to teach a Holy Spirit seminar the following Monday through Friday for the FGBMFI. We held the seminar in a local church. God began to move — and instead of five nights, the meeting lasted eight weeks.

I ministered in two services a day — morning and night — for those eight weeks. One afternoon, between services,
I was in one of the Sunday School rooms praying about
the night service. I had grown tired praying on my knees
and was lying flat on my back on the carpet, praying in
other tongues.
Suddenly, the Spirit of God spoke to me about Buddy.
He said, "There are three demons that follow Buddy
around."
I had a quick spiritual vision. I saw Buddy walking
down the sidewalk. I saw three spirits following him like
little dogs would follow a person, except they didn't look
like little dogs. They were monkeylike — about that size,
and wiry. One was on the right edge of the sidewalk, one
on the left edge, and one in the middle.
The Spirit of God said, "He will turn to the right and
yield to the demon on the right. Then he will turn and yield
to the demon on the left. Then he will yield to the demon
in the center. It seems at times that he is almost a different person."
Whatever the demon was that he yielded to, Buddy
would act that way. Relatives had even remarked, "I don't
understand Buddy. Is he schizophrenic?"
Buddy was a born-again, Spirit-filled Christian. But
just because you are filled with the Holy Spirit does not
mean you are incapable of yielding to the devil. You still
have a will of your own.
You can yield to the devil and let the devil dominate
you anytime you want. You can yield to the flesh and let
the flesh dominate you. You can yield to the world and
let the world dominate you.
The Bible teaches that you have to deal with the world,
the flesh, and the devil. But you do not have to yield to
any of these, thank God.
The Lord said to me, "You speak to those spirits. Command them in my Name — the Name of Jesus — to desist
in their maneuvers. Command them to stop."
I said, "I'm in Oklahoma. Buddy is in Texas." He
said, "In the spirit realm there is no distance." I said,
"Tell me again just how I do that." He said, "You
say, 'In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I command
all three of you foul spirits following Buddy around to
desist in your maneuvers and stop in your operations.'
"
I rose to a seated position and said that. Then the
Word of the Lord came unto me saying, "Within ten
days he will have a job. He will stay with that job until he
does something else I have for him."
I wrote it down on a piece of paper, dated it, and put
it in my billfold. The next time I saw Buddy, he said, "Dad,
I got a job." I said, "I know it." I pulled that piece of paper
out and handed it to him. He said, "That's the very day
I got the job" as he counted ten days from the day it was
dated.
He stayed with that job and made a success of it. They
made him an assistant manager — and wanted to make
him manager of another business. But God called him to
Minneapolis to be a choir director in a church.
His boss told someone, "I don't understand that young
man. He went off to Minnesota to be a song leader for
$100 a week. I offered him $20,000 a year to manage
this business. I guaranteed him $30,000 within 18
months. There is no doubt that in five years he could be
making $50,000 or $60,000."
But Buddy wanted to obey God — and he's been going
with God ever since. And it was through the gift of discerning of spirits that his deliverance came. (Kenneth E. Hagin)