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- Demonic attacks can come from outside of a person. In such cases, we can stand on and speak the word of God against that oppression which often come in the form of involuntary feelings, thoughts, etc.
- Uncontrolled anger can give the devil a legal foothold (an attachment) to latch on to a person and launch demonic attacks.
- Another type of demonic influence is when demons possess a person. Only turning in faith to Christ can break such a hold in a person's life. God has given Christians the authority to bind and cast out those demons in the name of Jesus. Don't back away or back down from such manifestations.
- The Book of Acts is the best end time training manual on how to deal with unclean spirits and lead others to Christ.
- We are the midst of the largest wrapping up of manifest dark presence worldwide and biblical prophecy indicates that we must be fully sanctified to the Kingdom of God to wage war against it.
- All believers must realize that there will be warfare coming your way. A Spirit-filled believer will come against demonic oppression in prayer and by exercising the spiritual authority God has given us against these forces.
- To obtain and stay in freedom in Christ:
- Surrender everything to Jesus.
- Ask Jesus for deliverance.
- Renounce all sin.
- Command the demons to leave.
- Ask to be (re)filled with the Holy Spirit.
- Obedience is inseparable from real faith. So many Christians are leading a "spectator" Christian life by not putting into practice those things God says we should be doing. There is blessing and strength to be found in obeying the word of God.
- Don't leave a new believer to themselves. God says that we are to "disciple" them.
- Jesus came to destroy the devil's work. Is the power of the living Christ experienced - not just talked about - in your church? Power of God made manifest in worship, in winning souls, in having prayers answered, etc.
- Believers have not been called to just go and study the Bible for ever. Study leads to obedience, to action, to good works that God has commanded us to do.
Hi there :)
ReplyDeleteYou have some good articles on your site. Esp liked the article on womanhood. Had a read through the article here on spiritual warfare and have a comment or two. Having been in charismatic circles most of my life, I am no stranger to deliverance ministries. One of the teachings that is common in these ministries is that satan has legal rights in the life of the believer. I am coming to the conclusion that this is an unbiblical teaching that creates more bondage than it relieves.I will try to show why I think that.
First of all, what happened at the cross? Col 2 13 to 15 says : 13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it."
Here we see ALL trespasses forgiven, requirements wiped out and principalities and powers disarmed, with Christ triumphing over them. What was satan armed with? The law for one thing. Triumph? This victory in addition to being an established fact, borrows a word picture from a military triumphal procession in which a vanquished king or army captain was led in chains behind the horse of the commander who defeated him, put on public display as having been stripped of all power, status and authority. This is what Jesus did to satan at the cross. Does that sound like someone who has any legal rights?
Satan also had to ask God for permission to sift Peter like wheat. Who asks permission for something he already has a right to do? Esp. someone like satan who is lawless, a liar and a murderer, full of pride and not wanting to bow before God?
So I think that sin does not give satan a legal right. He has no legal rights but is still on the loose waging guerilla warfare against us while there is still time. Sin gives him an opportunity though, because scripture does teach that whom we offer ourselves to obey we make ourselves slaves of whether SIN or RIGHTEOUSNESS. Not because satan has any right to "take us" but because we have placed ourselves there. We are serving, worshipping beings whether we care to ackowledge that or not. Who are we choosing to serve when we choose to sin? Sin activates the flesh which is hostile to God. Satan will make the most of any opportunity we give him by sinning and will use the tendecy of the flesh to want to justify itself to shift from basing our righteousness on dependendence on what Jesus did for us to our own efforts at law keeping. He distracts us from simple faith in Christ by shifting our focus. He drives us into isolation and condemnation by virture of his accusing the brethren day and night. He plays dirty, being lawless. But he's been humiiated and defeated and has no rights. As someone has said, he is a toothless lion and his main power is in our believing the lies he tells. Sin, the flesh and the world afford satan all the opportunities he needs to defeat us and take us captive. Its interesting that one of the apostles says to "throw off the sin which so easily entangles". Notice it doesn't say to throw off satan or that satan so easily entangles. It says sin entangles. Something to think about.
Hi Anonymous, :-)
DeleteThanks for taking the time to share your thoughts here. We agree on what Jesus accomplished on the cross. And may I just say, "Thank you Jesus for the wonderful victory you have wrought for us!".
I guess the issue at hand is, "What are the affects of willful sin in a believer's life?" When Jesus told Peter that Satan had asked to sift him, there was no indication from the Scripture that this was due to any "sin" on Peter's part. This is likely why Satan had to request that of God. There is a hedge of protection around us that we have through faith in Christ.
If you don't mind, let me take two examples of foreshadowing from the Old Testament to illustrate my point. In Job, we are told that he was a righteous man. He was perfect, upright, feared God, and turned aside from evil (Job 1:1). Satan therefore had to request permission from God to afflict him because of this hedge (Job 1:10). Otherwise, Satan could in no ways touch Job.
However, consider the illustration of Israel at Moab in the issue of Peor. Israel's enemy wanted to curse them, however, every time he tried to get Balaam to curse them, he blessed them instead (Numbers Chapter 22-23). There was a reason for this.
"Behold, I have received commandment to bless: and he hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it. He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel: the LORD his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them." Numbers 23:20-21
Israel could only be blessed because God found no sin or perversion in Israel. The only way the enemy could succeed in cursing Israel was to entice Israel into sinning (Num. 25:1-3, 31:16; Rev. 2:14). Plagues came upon Israel because they opened the door to sin; otherwise, the enemy was powerless against them. This is what is meant when speaking of Satan having "legal rights" to a believer; such is only possible when the believer opens the door through sin. As you say, when we give place to iniquity in our lives, "Sin, the flesh and the world afford satan all the opportunities he needs to defeat us and take us captive."
Alot of times, people dismiss Old Testament examples as if they are no longer relevant at all in the New Testament. Yet, even the New Testament shares similar illustrations. I Cor. 11:27-30 speaks to believer and says that some are sick and some are dead due to participating in communion unworthily. Such is actually eating/drinking damnation to himself. Clearly this is an example of curses being brought upon a person through sin. So we see those principles in the Old Testament carry over into the New.
So I agree with you in that Satan has no claims to a child of God outside of that person giving Satan license to torment him via sin or God giving permission to Satan to accost the believer for testing.
God Bless!