Authority Over Demons and Disease
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Did Jesus say, “Oh, did y’all hear that? Oh, it’s a devil! Oh, intercessors pray. Everyone pray!
Pray! Oh, what are we going to do with this devil? Oh, oh, oh…”?
No! I said that because people are doing this, and they don’t realize they’re actually yielding to
the enemy, because the environment he thrives in is fear. You and I are to have no fear at all.
None. And when it comes to dealing with devils, we should do it exactly the way Jesus did it.
Exactly. Nobody has found a better way. It has not changed with the times. Very simply, you’ll
see Jesus again and again doing two basic things: He said, “Shut up” and “come out,” and they
did. That was it.
Maybe you think you know better. “Well, sometimes you just have to do warfare. It’s warfare.”
No, the warfare is between your ears—and that is more scriptural than you think, in 2
Corinthians 10.
No! If
you
had to overcome the devil, it isn’t going to work. You’re no match for him in your
flesh or your mind. But it’s not in
your
strength. It’s by the power of the Holy Spirit, and the
Holy Spirit doesn’t wrestle with the devil at all. They don’t go nine rounds. The devil wants you
to think that, but it never happens. Never. When you resist the devil, he flees. Why? Because
when you really do it right, he runs up against the power of the Holy Spirit, and there is nothing
he can do with that, nothing. So his only choice is to get out. That’s it—he has to go.
Jesus made a statement one time. They accused Him of casting out devils by Beelzebub, and in
one of the writings of the Gospel accounts, He said, “If I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, the
kingdom of God has come to you.” (Matthew 12:28) In another place, He said, “If I cast out
devils by the finger of God…” (Luke 11:20) He is casting out devils by the finger of God.
When you read the Scriptures, you see references to the hand of God. That’s more power than a
finger. It talks about the arm of God. God flexed His arm when He raised Jesus from the dead.
The Bible says He demonstrated the exceeding greatness of His power; He exercised it when He
raised Christ from the dead. (Ephesians 1:19-20)
Some say, “I thought He had raised Lazarus from the dead. Why is this different?”
It is a completely different thing. He didn’t just raise His body from the dead. When He raised
Jesus from the dead, He also raised all of us from the dead. Anyone who has ever lived, or will
ever live, who believes on Him, was made free from all of their sins and death—all believing
humanity. It’s no wonder the ground shook. I believe hell shook. God did this. He raised Jesus
up out of death. When God rolls up His sleeve, brother… and He did when He raised Jesus from
the dead because He also raised all of us.
But when Jesus was dealing with demons that were causing problems, the Bible says He did it by
the finger of God. (Luke 11:20) Jesus said, “Shut up and come out.”
We need to get a picture of how much greater our God is than any work of the devil. The devil
wants to try to get you to believe he’s some kind of an equal opposite to God. He is nowhere in
the vicinity of that. He’s a created being, and he’s fallen, stripped, and defeated. The only way he
