I THE SPIRITUAL WORLD
2 King 6:16-17
Dan 10:12-13; 19-20
Hebr 12:22-24
In the spiritual world there are only two worlds, namely “the Kingdom of his dead Son” and “the kingdom of darkness” (Col 1:13).
II GOD’S ANGELS
Hebr 1:13-14
A. Everybody has an angel (Mt 18:10)
1. To protect and keep us
Ps 91:10-11; Dan 6:23; Gen 48:15-16; Ps 34:8
2. To strengthen us
Mt 4:11; Lk 22:42-43
3. To server us
Like the waiter in a restaurant, the angels are “ministering spirits” at our disposal!
We have to inform them what we need!
Ps 103:19-22; Hebr 1:14;
Dan 10:12: “I have come because of your words”.
4. Money for the harvest work. James 5:4. Haggai 2:7-9. Mark 3:10-12.
B Angels work to get people saved.
They cannot preach the Gospel. That is our mission. But they “arrange” situations for people to hear the message.
Acts 10:3-6; 8:26-40
Therefore there is joy among the angels when somebody gets saved. Then they have succeeded with their mission, and they rejoice for it!
Lk 15:7 and 10
C Angels are messengers delivering messages from heaven to earth
Lk 1:27-28; 2:8-9; Rev 1:1
D Angels come for dying people
Luke 16:22
E Angels work together with us in our service for God
Ex 3:2 –> 14:19; Acts 7:35; Num 20:16
Calling to ministry: Ex 3:2; Judge 6:11-16; 13:1-25
Angels are involved in the healing ministry John 5:4.
F Angels bring deliverance from enemy hands
Acts 5:19; 12,5ff; 27:23
G Angels worship around God’s throne
Is 6:1-4; Rev 4:1-11
H God’s angels fight against the angels of Satan
Dan 10:12-13 and 19-20. Rev 12:7-9; 20:1-3
We do not fight against the “princes”, the fallen angels, we exercise authority over demons. But we influence the “princes” when we pray to God! Daniel 10 shows this.
III FALLEN ANGELS
A The Devil is a fallen angel
Ezek 28:1-9; Is 14:12-15
B The angels of the Devil are fallen angels
Rev 12:9
1. Fallen angels rule over geographic areas
Dan 10:12-13 and 18-19
2. Some fallen angels are already in chain in the abyss
2 Pet 2:4; Jud v.6; Gen 6:1-4
IV DEMONS
A The Bible describes four classes of demons
(1) Principalities, (2) Powers, (3) the rulers of the darkness of this world and (4) this spiritual wickedness in high places.
1. The Church has got “power on earth”
Mt 28:18-20
Mt 9:1-8: especially verse 6 and 8
Mark 16:15-20
2. We have to deal with the first three classes of demons. They who are in high places we only indirectly deal with as Daniel 10 describes.
B It is always one of “the rules of the darkness of this world” that is possessing people
1. When one casts out evil spirits, this “boss” is cast out and the situation is solved.
Mark 5:1-20
Verse 7-10 shows that Jesus only spoke to one demon, and all the other demons disappeared.
V DELIVERANCE FROM DEMONS
A The ministry of Jesus is the pattern
Ex.: Luke 4:31-41
Luke 9:1-2
We see that casting out of demons had a central place in the ministry of Jesus, like it had in the ministry of the disciples. The ministry of the believer should be a copy of Jesus’ own ministry.
John 14:12; Mark 16:17-18:
Therefore, it is important that we take this question seriously.
B Examples what the demons do
1. Mark 5:1-17
If people are possessed by evil spirits, they can be completely controlled by the demons like this man was.
2. Math 17:14-20
Often are demons involved where there are torments and abnormalities. These are not possessed by the demons; they are tormented by them, like this boy was.
3. Luke 13:10-17
Here we have an example of a spirit of sickness. Some demons are involved in making people ill, but not all sicknesses are caused by a spirit of sickness. Most sicknesses have a medical reason.
4. Math 12:22
Here we also see examples that bodily deformations, blindness and muteness can be caused by demons.
It is important to understand that demons operate in many different ways in people’s lives. Very few of the people we meet are possessed by evil spirits. That is that de evil spirits have dome into the person’s spirit. A Christian cannot be possessed by evil spirits! But many are tormented by demons, and sicknesses in the body as we have seen in these scripture verses; or it can be that the soul is oppressed, for instance with depressions, anxiety, phobias and many other torments. OBS: Not all torments come from demons but from physical or psychological sources. Everything comes from the Devil in the meaning that it is caused by the fall. Jesus differentiates between demons causing sickness and ordinary sicknesses in the way that he sometimes threatens and throw out the sickness while he other times just declares: ”Be healed from your infirmity”.
This does not follow a pattern where some specific sickness is caused by demons while other sicknesses are not. We see that Jesus on some occasions threatens the blind spirit while he on other occasions repaired the sight abnormality by saying: ”Be seeing!”
C How to cast out demons
1. When they manifest themselves
Jesus never searched for demons or looked for them in people’s lives. The anointing that was over Jesus forced the demons to react and when they did that, he cast them out.
2. By revelation
When the charismatic gift discerning of spirits is in operation, demons can be disclosed and cast out.
3. It is by the name of Jesus we cast out the demons (Luke 10:17)
Don’t start a discussion or conversation with the demons. Jesus just commanded them not to talk but to leave. Keep quiet and get out, was his standard command. On one occasion he wanted to know the name of the demons and how many they were. But except form this it is wrong to “interview” demons. They shall keep quiet!
VI CAN A CHRISTIAN HAVE DEMONS?
A Our spirit is protected by the blood of Jesus
1 Pet 1:18-19. Col 1:13
It is important to see how complete this protection is. If we are under demonic influence, they first will try to get into our thoughts by coming with lies. But they cannot come into our soul because this it protected by the blood of Jesus.
Some would perhaps have cast a demon out of Peter when he both cursed and swear, but Jesus did not do that. He just forgave Peter, and by this his new life was restored. It is important to understand that the flesh of a Christian is a grate problem. Sometimes we blame the demons for acts that the Bible calls deeds of the flesh. In the list called deeds of the flesh we find murder, adultery and witchcraft. That tells us that the flesh is worse than we often imagine.
Automatically one has blamed demons when such things happen, but the Bible calls them deed of the flesh. Gal 5:19-20. If we don’t crucify the flesh by walking in the spirit, we can experience a demonic reinforcement in that specific area.
B Believers can be attacked in soul and body
Spirits of sickness can subdue a Christian’s body. Because it is soul and bode we have to work with through the renewing of our mind and by crucifying the flesh (Rom 12:1-2), we can understand that this is the battleground where the devil also can attack us. Demons can therefore torment and subdue people in the soul and body even when they are Christians. But remember that we have power over him and can drive them away!
Depressions, mental disturbances, some diseases and also addiction to alcohol, nicotine etc. can be caused by demons. But we have authority in the name of Jesus and can defeat them in his name.
C Derailment
There is a teaching in this area that is a complete derailment. Too much attention is then given to demons. Our main task is to preach the Gospel and proclaim the name of Jesus!
VII SPIRITUAL WARFARE
A We are not to war against the Devil in prayer
There are no examples in the Bible that we should war against the devil in prayer.
1. The first Christians prayed to God and that solved the problem!
Acts 4:23-31; 8:5-17; 12:5-17; 16:24-26.
2. But Daniel 10 shows that prayer influences the spirit world!
B Bind and loose
What the Bible says about binding and loosing refers to the authority that the Church has to forgive or to hold fast sin in such a way than one can include or exclude from the fellowship.
If one reads the whole context in Math 18:15-20, this is evident. When one sees John 20:21-23 and 1.Cor 5:4-5, you will discover the same.
When one forbids (“binds”) sin to operate in the congregation, one also excludes the person who will not turn away from sin.
When Jesus in Mark 3:27 talks about binding the strong one, this expression is used about binding the devil. In Rev 20:2 the same expression is used with the same meaning. But this is about what Jesus did and what the angel is going to do when the millennium starts! Jesus bound the devil for us, now we can plunder his house!
C Our warfare (Eph 6:12ff)
The battle we are going to fight is called “the good warfare”. When Eph 6:12 is talking about the battle we have, the “full armor of God” is described”.
It talks about defending ourselves against attack and remain standing in the victory Jesus already has won.
Eph 6:13; James 4:7; 1 Pet 5:8-9.
1. Remain standing after having overcome everything
Eph 6:13-18
This is not to win new territory; we are going to keep the victory we already have. Jesus has already won the victory. We are starting in a standing position, and we shall remain standing! Therefore the whole armor is for defense, not attack. Only one of the weapons is a weapon for attack: the sword (The Word).
2. Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might!
Be aware of the difference between flesh and spirit!
3. The wiles of the devil
a) The book of Job shows that accidents, disease, economical ruin etc. come from the devil.
b) Imaginations – religious delusions fooling us to receive the arrows instead of resisting them. Everything that come from God, you shall receive, everything coming from the devil, you shall resist.
4. The loins girt about with truth
a) Lies and deception is the strategy of the devil. Job believed that his problems came from God, and he did not resist.
b) The truth sets free (John 8:31-36).
5. The breastplate of righteousness
“Awareness about your righteousness” is a body armor (Rom 8:31-34).
6. Shoes on your feet (v.15)
The devil is under our feet! You can look down on the problem.
The authority in the name of Jesus!
Eph 1:22; Luke 10:19; Ps 91:13
7. The shield of faith (v.16)
Faith conquers the world (1 John 5:4).
The faith extinguishes all arrows!!
8. The sword of the Spirit – The Word of God
This is the only weapon of attack. We defeat the devil in the same way Jesus did, namely with the Word of God: “It is written!”
The devil can come no do anything against the Word of God (1 John 2:14; Math 4:1-11).
D We bring thoughts into captivity
2 Cor 10:3-6
This is the most important form for spiritual warfare in a Christian’s life.
Written & taken by permission of Dr. Leif S. Jacobsen , http://www.theword.no/engelsk/indexE.htm
