Spiritual Warfare often has a defeatist mentality to it. Deliverance ministers wrongfully make people think they are privates in God's Army, and that they can be manipulated by the devils with ease. Most deliverance ministries feel like horror movies, where the dark powers seem omnipotent, and God seems to be waiting tell last moment to intervene. A sense of terror, and tininess fills the person as they seek to triumph over the titans in the shadows. All of this in my opinion is a wrongful disposition in deliverance. We are not privates in God's Army, we are the General and the King of Kings lives within us (). We are not pawns and push overs! Nay we are more than conquerors! (Romans 8:37). There is nothing that can claim to overtake us, for it is written, "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,“For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:31-39).
The enemy wants to convince us that were in a position of weakness in this Spiritual War. That we must rebuke and beg the enemy to depart, but the Scriptures tell us not to recoil or act as if we are rolling on floor in terror, nay we are to "Submit to God, resist the devil and he shall flee." (James 4:7). The war is real and there is a battle to be fought, and weapons and armor to be used (2 Corinthians 4-6, Ephesians 6:10-18). The problem is that deliverance ministers have made the devil into demigod, and his legions into leviathans (dragons). In truth, we have the Triune God of Father, Son and Holy Spirit living inside us, He made everything, even the fallen before they fell (John 1:3, Colossians 1:10-18). We have two thirds (2 out of 3) of the angels still on our side, that is double the amount that fell (Revelation 12:7-17). Finally, God has prepared hell for Satan and the angels, "Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels," (Matthew 25:41), God shall defeats the antichrist with His breath, "And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming," (2 Thessalonians 2:8), and Satan shall be tormented forever at the judgement, "And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever." (Revelation 20:10).
We are mighty soldiers! It is written, "Greater is He who is in you, than he that is in the world." (1 John 4:1). God is omnipotent and all powerful, the devil and his demons are not! And yet many ministers make our enemies seem enormous, when they in fact are outnumbered and must obey He who lives inside you, "that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father," (Philippians 2:10-11), "The seventy-two returned with joy and said, "Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name." (Luke 10:17), and "I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. But don't rejoice because evil spirits obey you; rejoice because your names are registered in heaven." (Luke 10:19-20). Here we see that the demons, devils, fallen angels, and the devil himself must submit to the Name of Jesus, and remember Jesus lives in you, "that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me," (John 17:21), "When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you," (John 14:20), "And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you," (Romans 8:11), "Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?" (1 Corinthians 3:16), "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own," (1 Corinthians 6:19), "But Christ is faithful as the Son over God's house. And we are His house, if we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope of which we boast," (Hebrews 3:6), and, "My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20). Having established God lives in us who believe, and that the powers of darkness must obey His name, it reasons then that the evil spirits must obey us because the Creator and Savior lives within us! For Jesus Christ created everything, "Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made," (John 1:3), and "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross." (Colossians 1:15-20). These proofs then ensure that because Jesus Christ lives in us, then God lives in us and He has preeminence and dominion over all things, because all things were made by him, even the angels that fell (Genesi 6:3-6). He did not create the dark angels and the devil to be evil, they fell and chose to be evil after He created them, much in same way that He created Adam and Eve and they fell into sin.
Having established this understanding, we then see there is no reason to fear our unseen foes, but rather when we enter into a spiritual battle, we should stand tall and pray not only as Children of God(Galatians 4;7, Galatians 3:26), but Co Heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17), a Royal Priesthood (1 Peter 2:9), but also with knowledge that we have God living inside us and so whatever evil presents itself must submit to us, for they must submit to He who is in us (1 John 4:4). It is from strength, from a suite of armor with medals of our honors and how mighty we are in Christ that the demons look at us and tremble. They want to convince you that you are helpless beggar without weapons, ready to be their appetizer, but no! You have the Alpha and Omega living in you! Do not concede defeat, when the Conqueror of All dwells in yourself! Tell the demons, tell them with a loud voice, "Jesus Christ lives in me! At His name you must bow and confess He is Lord, obey Him who is in me, and who has given me authority over the power of the enemy, and through Himself to caste you out!" (Luke 10:19). Do not buy into lie that the devil is strong, this is the misguided teaching of deliverance ministers who in my opinion need deliverance from thienr ministry! For they think demons can rule a disciple of Christ, when there is no evidence of any Christians in New Testament having a demon, unbelievers yes, but no believers, save the Apostle Paul (2 Corinthians 12:7), and the fact God would not remove the messenger of Satan refutes the deliverance minister's claim that you need to do full exorcism, when Paul was told "my grace is sufficient, for my power is made perfect in weakness, Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me." (2 Corinthians 12:9).
I think many deliverance ministers can be messengers for the devil. That they bring glory to the evil one and his legions in an inverted way. They cause fear and make people think the darkness is stronger, when the Light, Jesus Christ is all powerful! It is time to stop wrestling in mud with wicked serpents and scorpions, and start trampling on them! This does not mean the war is yet over, or that we should become proud, remember Christ's warning (Luke 10:20). Rather it means that we are free from power of enemy, "Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death--that is, the devil--and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death." (Hebrews 2:14-15). Now Jesus has taken those keys of death from the devil, and holds them for eternity, " am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades." (Revelation 1:18). Now the devil and death are defanged, and the Divine One has given us the same power over them through Him if we but believe! Believe! This does not mean you will not face battles or spiritual attacks, remember the devil fires flaming arrows (Ephesians 6:16), but we have Shield of Faith that can quench every single one (Ephesians 6:16), and he did cause Paul grief, "We wanted very much to come to you, and I, Paul, tried again and again, but Satan prevented us," (1 Thessalonians 2:16). It could be that the devil hindered Paul because God wanted it so Paul would go somewhere else to preach the Gospel. The enemy even serves God's purposes, showing us how much power the Lord our God really has over him!
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