So Jesus has done a tremendous work on the cross, but there's one thing to know what He's done, it's another thing to bring it into reality in our life, and that is where we have to grow and develop our faith. It's by faith these things come into being, so for example God has given every one of you legal right to deal with demons, but probably the majority of you either don't do it, or are not very successful at it. Now that doesn't mean the legal right to do it isn't there, it just means you have to grow into, and obtain possession of, what Jesus won for you. In the Old Testament Joshua had to - God said: I've given you the land, and I've given the people until you. Now arise and go in and battle, so you have to possess what Jesus has made available for you, and that's the work of faith. So Jesus done these things on our behalf, and He has now given us authority.
Notice what it says in Luke 10, Verse 19: Behold, I give you the authority - that's exousia - delegated right, to tread serpents and scorpions under foot, and to tread over all the power of the enemy. Now that's an amazing thing that Jesus said. Do you realise as a believer, that you can tread demons under foot, that you have no need to fear them? Now it's not that they don't have power. They do have real power, and they do exert that real power, and in some places it's quite terrifying. However, if you will stay in the realm God's called you to operate in, you have the right to deal with the things. You can tread them under foot, and you have authority over all their power. You don't need to be alarmed at the kind of power they have.
I was in a meeting in Indonesia and it was one of my first meetings there in Indonesia, had a very big meeting and three witch doctors came because they heard that the power of God would be there to deal with demons. So they came to the meeting to disrupt the meeting. In other words they wanted to work together to hurl curses against me, so that they could take away whatever power I had, and it would become their power. To tell the truth I didn't even actually see - I didn't even know what happened, because there was a big crowd there, two thousand and they stood up to do their stuff and they'd no sooner stood up than the power of God hit them. They fell on the ground just like that and they were thrown, they were literally hurled to the ground, and they could not get up. They crawled out. They literally had to crawl out on their faces out of the meeting. Now I wish I could claim something for it - I couldn't. Actually I never even saw it happen. I only heard about it afterwards.
Dave was with me, and they called to Dave; hey, something's happening. He went around the back and he dealt with one face to face, and got them totally delivered, and the guy came up and got saved afterwards. He recognised the power of God was greater than the power they operated. He understood spiritual power. He said this power is greater than that. We were in another meeting, Pastor Kong Hee's church in City Harvest, and some demons were starting to yell and to scream. Pastor Kong Hees mother and father were there, and she sort of got concerned with all this screaming and yelling going on, but the father was an interesting person, because they were involved in idolatry. He said I see that there is a greater power here than the power these spirits have, and they came up and got saved because of that. They recognised the greater power see - so I give you authority.
Now this is a personal verse for you; I give you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. So you could make it your declaration, today I have authority over serpents and scorpions and all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall in any way hurt me. It'd be good to build the truth of that into your heart, so Jesus was responding to the testimonies of believers that He'd sent out - this is the 70. He said they have authority, I give you authority to tread over demons. So our spiritual authority, you have authority, it's just whether you use it and develop it or not. It comes one, out of our standing with God. We've got to know where we stand. That's why when you come to minister, the first thing that you'll be aware of is where you stand with God, whether you're conscious that I am in right standing with God, I have access to Him, I can live and be in His presence right now. If you are conscious of that in your heart, then it's very easy to assert authority.