Evil Spirits and how they Operate (2 of 5)

Mike Connell

Page 4 of 12
Also, you can see that implied in the story; the demon is now reacting very strongly, leave us alone, what have You to do with us, I know who You are, the Holy One of God. And Jesus shut him down, because He didn't want a demon announcing that He's the Son of God. Stop, and then out, and the guy's set free - so that's an example of a person being set free, and they said, notice this, what kind of word is this! With authority and power He commands the unclean spirits, and they go out of him. So you notice they ascribed to Jesus two things; He had authority, and He had power. Now let me just explain what the two are, so you understand the difference. The word authority, authority is a legal right to speak and act on behalf of someone else, so Jesus had a legal right to speak and act on behalf of His Father. That makes sense, because remember He says: whatever I see the Father doing, that's what I do; what I hear Him say, that's what I say. So you notice that He had authority. He had authority, a legal right. The demons had to yield.

Now you also have authority over demons. God has given you that authority. That's part of being joined to the conqueror of demons. It's part of being joined to Jesus Christ. Where is He? In heavenly places. Where are you? Joined, one spirit, with Him. You also have a right to represent Him, and of course the right to represent Him is also conditional on you listening to His instructions what to do, so if we're going to move in deliverance, you have to understand this; I am delegated the right to represent Jesus. So when you are doing deliverance, it's not about you. Sometimes in deliverance a demon might challenge you, and say: who are you? Who are you? You know... Don't tell him your name, you know? No, no, no, no. No, what the demon is doing is challenging your authority to actually confront him and push him out, and the response is always the same; I come against you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth. I represent Him, who defeated you at Calvary. You will yield. You understand, we're representing the government of God.

Okay, the second thing He had, was power. Power is the word dunamis, it's a different word. It has to do with the level of anointing, or activity of the Holy Spirit on your life. So authority means I'm delegated the right to represent Jesus. Power means, I actually am connected to the Holy Spirit, and am empowered by Him to do the job, so that comes out of your personal life, and your walking with God and so on. Let's have a look then what Jesus taught about that. I love that story, it's a great story, and I've seen that, and I've heard demons talk. It's quite interesting how they talk at times. I've had one of my daughters was in Indonesia, and she was praying for this woman, and a man's voice spoke out of the woman: I will kill you. She got a bit of a surprise when that happened, just kept praying and the demon came out. She asked the lady later, do you know any English, and she didn't understand her at all. She knew NO English, but the demon understood the words. It doesn't matter what culture I go to, if I address the demon in my own language, it understands it.

Okay, now let's have a look what Jesus spoke on deliverance. In Matthew Chapter 12, He's just done a deliverance - Verse 22 - and He's cast a demon out of a man who had problems with his vision and his speaking. Then of course there's a huge reaction. Now notice what He says in Verse 28, and here's the first thing about Jesus' teaching that's important to grasp. Deliverance is the kingdom of God manifesting. It is a manifestation of the kingdom of God. It said, Verse 28: if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. So let's go through that scripture and have a little look at it. The word cast out, means literally to violently displace something, so He said: if I violently displace evil spirits, by the Spirit of God, it is the kingdom of God manifesting. So whenever you do a deliverance, or command spirits and they leave, the kingdom of God has become established. You've represented Jesus, and now the devil is displaced.