Spiritual Warfare - Lesson 2

Spiritual Warfare

Dr. Gerry Breshears

th251-02

Views on Warfare

Lesson Transcript

We have talked about the basic idea of spiritual warfare is the battle between us and the forces of darkness. Last time we talked about the definition of spiritual warfare in the broad sense, and I defined that as bring the power and the perspective and the passion of the truth and life of the gospel against everything that's set against the knowledge of God. I like that definition while I wrote it. So I guess it's not too surprising that I would like it, but tried to capture what's in that key passages in Second Corinthians ten. Now what we want to do is kind of take that down a little bit. We talked about the battle against world, the flesh and the devil. The world is that system of values and ways of thinking and ways of doing things, perspectives that are opposed to the things of Christ. And we live in a world that is corrosive to our Christian convictions. The world tells us that you be happy if you have more things, more power, more privilege, more passion, the flashes of our internal desires that come from every part of who we are that are set against the godly desires that are part of our being by work, of the Holy Spirit in the new heart. And then the stuff is the personal attacks, the personal forces, the personalized beings that opposes intelligently. We have done that a bit now and will spend most of the rest of the course looking at the specifically demonic piece or how the demons use the world in the flesh to bring us down. When we think of non-Christians, we certainly see a lot of what we call demon possession in Scripture. We see demons coming up regularly. So when I think of the book of Mark, for example, in the very early chapters of Mark, Jesus has his baptism, the temptation he calls the first disciples.

 

And then in verse 21, he has an encounter as He goes into Capernaum in the synagogue, and this fellow comes in who is demon possessed? Verse 23 And the synagogue, who was possessed by an evil spirit, comes out, What do you want to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are. There is a holy want to. And Jesus says, Be quiet. Not of him. And He does this kind of possession of non-Christians. Actually, it's not controversial at all, whether that happens or not. No. Exactly how you deal demons in non-Christians. There's a lot more controversy at that point. But Jesus way of dealing with it is really very simple. He just commands them. Be quiet, come out or get out. The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek. And the people were amazed at what he was able to do. That's not a question that demons are real. They possess unsaved people in my possession here. What I'm meaning is controlling completely. If it also means possessing in the sense of ownership. Because anybody who is not a Christian is part of the Dominion and darkness. And again, we'll unpack this further as we work through the teachings together. And his way of dealing with that is by a simple command. Get out. In Mark chapter three, Jesus is speaking to the disciples and He picks 12 of the disciples. This is chapter three, verse 14 Mark Chapter three, verse 14. He appointed 12, designating them apostles. And this is all a much larger disciples that they might be three things. They might be with him. They might preach, proclaim the good news that Jesus has arrived Messiah, His Emmanuel is with us.

 

And then thirdly, He gave them authority to drive out demons. Very same thing that Jesus did. He gives his apostles the authority to do that. As we see, demons are real, they're personal, they speak, they think they own. They control humans, unsaved humans. We see that Jesus deals with them with a simple command. Be quiet. Get out. We see that same authority in chapter ten. He sends the 72 out. Not just the 12, but 72 disciples sends about two by two to go on a preaching trip. And then when they come back, this is chapter ten, verse 19, the 72 Return of Joy, and said, Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name. So they were able to command the demons to leave, to get out and. They did. And the 72 disciples. I assume that includes the 12 apostles and 60 more, but we're not quite sure have the authority from Jesus to command the demons and they respond. And he says specifically, even the demons submit to us in your name. This is not them by themselves, of course. This is because they have the authority of Jesus Christ, the same kind of authority that he gave them back in Chapter three is repeated here in Luke ten. Najib's response to that? He says, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Some say, Well, that's when Satan was cast out of heaven. I don't think that's the case. I think that's an idiomatic way of saying that Saint Kingdom is being defeated. And then he says, I've given you the authority to do these things. However, verse 20 Do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you. I mean, it's a fact. Spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.

 

I see an attitude here that's really important. We deal with demonic stuff when it comes up. But this isn't a point of rejoicing. I know a lot of people who do work in spiritual warfare, and they see themselves as kind of specialists in spiritual warfare. And when I listen to them talking, they're doing exactly what Jesus tells them not to do. They're just so excited and so feeling so powerful. Wow, We can deal with it. We know how to do this. We can make it happen. And what Jesus says is, don't do that. Don't rejoice over the fact that demons submit to you. They do do your work. But that's not our joy point. Our joy point is in the freedom that people have. Our joy point is in the truth of Jesus Christ. Our joy point is the fact that our names are written in heaven as disciples of Lord Jesus Christ. So far, this is not particularly controversial, and we'll deal with more of the specifics of it. The controversy comes is is that still true today? There are many who would say the demons around the time of Jesus and the disciples had the authority to do this. But that IC 40 expired or was unique to the apostles. Well, think just a minute here. Jesus takes in Mark chapter three. He takes the 12 and He gives them the authority to cast out demons. The 72 have the authority to cast out demons. The very last of Matthew. Matthew. Chapter 28 when he gives the Great Commission. He meets them on the Hill. They're in Galilee. Matthew 2416 The 11 Disciples Judas Force was dead at this point. The 11 disciples went to go in the and Lord Jesus told them to go.

 

When he saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said this closely. All authority in heaven on earth has been given to me. Why? He He's the Messiah. Then he says, therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, teaching to obey everything I've commanded you. Surely I am with you until the end of the age. That authority that he gives them. It sure seems like it'd be the same authority he gave the 12 in the 72. It doesn't say it specifically, but that would be the way I would expect it is today. We would have the authority to proclaim this kind of freedom from the dominion of darkness and from the forces of darkness that Jesus did. Well, let's look and see if that happens. If you go over to Acts now, the history of the church, we find a story that comes out in the early church. They're praying. The New Covenant comes in. Chapter two The gospel people meet together in very shortly after the church is constituted. We have the first martyr in Stephen. That's not chapter seven. The other, we call them deacons. Stephen and Philip are two of the deacons. The next chapter six, the first deacon gets martyred in chapter seven. The second deacon that's described there is Philip. Now who? This is the next Chapter eight. And as you look in chapter eight, remember who Philip is. He is not an apostle. He's not one of the 12. He didn't have some special office. He's just one of the the men that were chosen in chapter six, because they're full of the Holy Spirit, full of faith, full of grace. And Philip then goes to Samaria when the persecution happens.

 

And they have to. Get out of town. He goes to Samaria and he begins preaching and Acts eight, verse seven with shrieks. Evil spirits came out of many and many paramedics and cripples were healed, so there was great joy in the city and the story goes on. So here we see Philip, who's not an apostle, not one of the 12, not with Jesus post Pentecost, and he is the one who has the authority to cast out demons and does that. I think we have that same authority today, not in ourselves, but in the freeing work of Jesus Christ. Now we're going to take that further as we unpack further. But what I'd like to suggest to you is that that authority to deal with the demonic has not expired. In fact, what I would challenge for a number of people who say that authority has expired, I'm going to give them the same challenge I give myself. Whereas in the Bible, show me a Bible verse that says that that authority expires. It certainly passes Pentecost. It certainly goes down to the next generation of leader. Philip in particular. And any reason why you would think that expires would have to be proven, it seems to me, and I can't find it. People say, Well, it did. And no, it doesn't. It doesn't. The history of the church continues to show that people have the power to deal with the demonic. So I don't know what else to say here, except where is it in the Bible that power goes on. We do have the authority to bring release from demons. And in a lot of ways, people are not going to deny that simply because when you're saved, you're saved out of the diminutive darkness and brought into the Kingdom of Christ and at least at that level.

 

But I think what happens is people who have demonic issues up to and including possession prior to Christian experience, when they become Christians, that authority of the demon is broken. And I'll unpack that a lot. Are there demons? Yeah. Let's look at just a couple more verses, and then we'll start talking about how we deal with things. If you look in Colossians chapter one, just as an example, Colossians chapter one. It's talking about the wonderful freedom we have in Christ and the supremacy of Christ since one verse 15. Turner If you're not there, already, cautions 115. He is the image of the invisible God Messiah, the first born overall creation. And here's one to say for by him, that is, by the second person, the Trinity. All things were created. We find that same message in John chapter one. There's nothing unusual there, but what's created things in heaven and things on Earth, visible and invisible, while visible, would be rocks and animals and humans. Invisible, I suppose, would be things like what we call the laws of nature or something. But it goes beyond that. Whether thrones or powers, rulers or authorities, all things were created by him and for him. Now, those four words, this is and 116 thrones powers, rulers or authorities, you know, retranslated. Those are words to describe angelic forces, and that's all the angelic forces. So at this point, we're talking about a fact that Jesus has created them and there's a reality there, and he is above them. He is the head of those things, and he has authority over them. This is the same basic list that we see in other places like Ephesians chapter six, when it talks about our position in Christ Visions, Chapter six in verse 12, Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers.

 

Authorities powers this dark world against spiritual forces of evil realms. Similar list. The words are slightly different. Now, here, clearly this is being the evil group. So we have a group of demons. We see them in Jesus Day. We see them in Acts Day. We see them in epistles of Paul. They're real. They're they're they're personal beings. They're opposed to Jesus. They hate the gospel, and they set themselves to oppose it. And I believe that we as Christians have the authority to deal with those things. And I want to unpack that a bit further and how we do that with non-Christians. The authority goes up to and includes what we've called demon possession or being demonized to the controlled, where they're taken over completely and again will unpack these a bit further. What impact can demons have in believers? Now there's further the controversy really gets going. What authority the demons have over us as believers can be believed to be demon possessed. I don't know of any more controversial question in Christendom than that one. All I have to do is mention the question and people's skin gets red and they want to argue with me. It doesn't matter what I'm saying. A lot of emotion about this in a lot of people, some very strongly. Absolutely not. Others just as strongly. Absolutely. Yes. So what do you do with that? Look at the Bible. I mean, this is this is the answer to everything, I think is what does the Bible say? Because my conviction all the way through here is that everything that we need to know around the basic principles for dealing and spiritual warfare are here in God's book. I want us to to really look at that. Now, to do that, I just need to explain just a moment how I do these kinds of questions.

 

Some people say, well, let's just read the Bible and get all our answers right there. And that's good. The problem is, at least for me, I'm not smart enough to see all the possibilities. I'm just not that smart. And frankly, I don't think many people are. So what I suggest, instead of just putting everything away and only read the Bible is let's open our Bible and let's go to people who speak from different perspectives and let's ask them what is your view? And as we listen to their view, we want to listen for understanding. I want to listen with I know what's right. And you're an idiot for believing that. I want to put away my judgment for the moment. I want to talk to people firsthand. I want to ask them. I want to read their materials and I want them to do a couple of things. First of all, what do you believe is the authority or influence of demons in a believers life? And then I'm going ask them, why do you believe that? What Bible verses do you turn to? How do you interpret those passages? Then I'm going to see what passages they go to and see how they interpret those passages. Remember, I'm not looking for answers yet. I'm looking for. Or possibilities simply because I'm not smart enough to see all the possibilities. I need help. A lot of people kind of refused to do this because, see, that is so confusing. Why? Just don't go to somebody that you trust and ask them. Well, in this particular case, there's such a wide variety of views within evangelical Christianity, within Bible believing Christians that I think it's better actually to talk to a variety of people and find out whether the range of options is.

 

Again, not going to somebody for the definitive answer, but going to somebody and saying, help me understand what you believe and why you believe it. So that's what I want to do in this thing. I realize I'm one guy. I'm going to try to help you see what the views are. But what I'm going to do is I'm going to encourage you to do what I'm going to demonstrate here. That is go talk to people directly. No matter how hard I try to represent a view I don't agree with, I will not do it justice. I just can't. So in your experience, go talk to other people. But here's what you do. Ask them what they believe, where they go in the Bible to support that, how they interpret different passages, and then do that with your Bible open. Because the authority is always in scripture. It's not in how good somebody is as a speaker or what experience they've had or something like that. So let's look at three positions on spiritual warfare and specifically the question what influence, what authority can a demon have in a believer, a person who genuinely regenerate, generally accepted in Jesus Christ? And we'll look at those together. You have a handle, I hope. That's entitled Three Models of Deliverance. If you don't, I'm going to read a lot of it to you, but I'm not going to read all of it. I'm going to describe three approaches that represent a spectrum of approaches to this whole question. And again, the question is what influence or impact or control or authority can a demon have in a believer of Jesus Christ? And I break it down to three because there are some fairly sharp breaks between them. But this is a spectrum and there are varieties within each of them.

 

So these are not final statements for simplicity's sake. In English, I call them gospel and counter and power and counter and truth and counter. Just because I'm a preacher and I like parallelism. So gospel encounter, the basic thrust of the position is that either person has a demon and isn't a Christian, or somebody who says there's a demon in my life. They either have a demon or not a Christian, or they are a Christian and don't have a demon. And the basic point of this view, which I'm calling gospel and counter, is that a demonic spirit and the Holy Spirit cannot be in the same person or in the same place. So if I'm a believer in Jesus Christ, is the Holy Spirit inside me? What do you think? If I'm a believer in Jesus Christ, is the Holy Spirit inside me? Your answer is yeah, absolutely. That's one of the key teachings of evangelicalism. Biblical Bible Christianity, is that if I'm a believer in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit comes into me and dwells me, empowers me. Clear teaching and Scripture Jesus promise that in the upper room discourse that's described in past the First Corinthians three and First Corinthians six, So the Holy Spirit is inside me as a believer. And from this perspective, if the Holy Spirit is in me, a demon spirit cannot also be in me because the Holy Spirit and demonic spirit cannot inhabit the same place at the same time. Now, remember, I've got on my gospel encounter hat here, and I'm speaking from this perspective, as I'll do with each of the perspectives. There are controversy around all those. I'm not going there yet at this point. I'm just trying to explain my gospel and counter view.

 

If I'm a believer in Jesus Christ, I have the Holy Spirit. Therefore, a demonic spirit can't be inside me. And your question at that point is what? What's your question? Where does that the Bible exactly The right. So I turn to passage, Second Corinthians, Chapter six. Second Corinthians Chapter six is a passage where Paul is speaking to the quadrant and he says here in Second Corinthians 614 four What do righteousness and wickedness have in common? What fellowship can light with darkness for 15? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? And Belial is one of the names for Satan. What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement can there be between the Temple of God and idols? And then he says, We are the temple of the living God, which is the Holy Spirit dwells in us. So if there can be no fellowship between light and darkness, if there can be no harmony between Christ and Belial, that's a good indication that a demon can't be incited or any just makes sense, doesn't it? I mean, if the Holy Spirit is empowering me and dwelling me, how could a demonic spirit be there as well? I mean, they killed each other. They can't live in the same place. So what does this mean If it means that a holy Spirit and a demonic spirit cannot be in the same place, then somebody who says, Oh, you have a demon, you're demonized, you're demon possessed, they can't be right because a demon can't be inside me. The demon is out there. So if somebody starts talking in a demon, talking through voice, they're either not a Christian, and it really is a demon talking. They are a Christian and something else is going on.

 

They believed a lie or something like that. That's the first few gospel encounter and people to hold. That would be people like John MacArthur or Hank Hannah Graff or David Poulson and many, many, many others. These are just some some well-known people. So that would be the what I'm calling the gospel encounter. You know, I want to if you've got the other handout here, another handout. Can a Christian be demonized, which is an article from the Christian Research Journal. By Grimsley and Miller. I'd like you to take a look at that. I'm not going to read through the whole thing, but I want you to have a look at that and read it carefully. What they're saying here in terms of the demon possession is the picture that demon possession means to be understood, this possession to control. This is on page 17, the right hand column toward the top. The vine translates the verb in this way to be possessed of a demon, to act under the control of a demon. And so what he's arguing here is that a demon can't possess a believer. And that is just absolutely fundamental. That's the key view from this perspective. Demonized or demon possession. Can a demon invade and inhabit Lever's body? He begins the argument here by talking about a couple of cases saw in the Old Testament and the woman bent double in Luke 13 where there was demonic influence. And what they're arguing is are they believers? And Grimsley Miller argue that no. Saul is not a believer, as it turns out. And there is no evidence whatsoever that the woman in Luke 13 is a believer. So even somebody like DICKERSON this is page 18, middle line, even DICKERSON admits we can't conclusively say the Bible clearly presents evidence that believers may be demonized.

 

The strongest passages support The View are unconvincing. So he's saying that the the arguments for it are not there. Then he argues the other side, and this is what I want to look at. What does it say about believers? This is page 18 on the right hand column you see bolded there Temples. The living God, the indwelling Holy Spirit makes the believer a temple of living God. Paul exhorts Corinthians Christians not to be bound to go with unbelievers and grounds that they are the temple of God. That's second Corinthians six that we just read. He says that it is impossible for this to happen. How then, would other who is greater than sin allow a demon to reside with him in his temple? There's the argument How can a God whole sovereign God allow a demon to dwell with him in his temple? In a temple temples us down at the bottom of the page again, bald and a conspicuous absence in the light of clear scriptural fact that Satan is limited in what he can do. Believers, it's significant. Not only do we find no possessed Christians in the New Testament, there is no case where a believer in Jesus Christ is described as possessed by a demon or demonized. But on the other hand, there is no practical instruction on exorcism within the church. And he's arguing that there's lots and lots and lots of teachings on spiritual warfare. And we'll look at those we're frequently warned of. Dangerous satanic attack believers are told to resist the devil, but never. This was a top of page 19 left hand column. Never are believers tend to respond to Satan or demons by casting them out, which is always there in the New Testament for a demon possessed person.

 

Instead for the believer, the command is always the standard resist, which is the counter to an external temptation by the demonic. In the article goes on. So you see here this is the first hand article by Grimsley Mueller that they're making the strong case that a demon cannot be inside a believer. Absolutely foundational argument or calling gospel and counter. And if a demon can't be inside me, it can't control me. So I don't deal with demons by casting them out. We don't do all the other kinds of things that are sometimes done getting names and all that kind of stuff, or talking to the demons or how some demons manifest. None of that kind of stuff. Demons are outside of believer. What we do practically is we build ourselves up in Christ. We focus on the Scripture. We focus on resisting sin. We focus on maturity in Christ, through worship, through Bible, through service. The ordinary means of grace and. Virtual warfare fundamentally is about me. Dealing with the world's oceans and with the flesh is what is the inside piece of me and demons on the outside may tempt, but they don't ever control. And I don't deal with demonic by casting it out. Never. It's just not a biblical thing. Now let's look at a second view, another very, very popular approach to the whole issue of demon and believer. And this is what is widely called power and counter power. And counter basic idea is if you see there on your handout three models of deliverance, Christians can be demonized and controlled but not possessed or completely control. So demons do have an influence. And here's the key sin. If I commit sin, it gives a demon a right to invade or in dwell a believer.

 

Key principle for power and counter view, as I see it, is this basic fundamental point. If person in my life, if I have an unconscious sin, if I have unforgiveness in my life, that sin gives a demon legal right to invade in and dwell to inhabit my body, attach itself to my body or my soul. The point is, the demon can't be removed as long as it has right to be there. So the way to deal then with the demon would be to find that sin, confess it, cover it with a body of Jesus. Do whatever you need to do to do that. Then that legal right is broken. And then you cast the demon out. Key principle here. If I have seen in my life on confessing unforgiveness and sin, I'm brought to the be covered by the blood of Jesus that gives a demon legal right to invade and inhabit and dwell. And I can't get rid of the demon until I get rid of that sin. Get rid of the the ground of occupation. What's your question? Your question is, where is that in the Bible? Because what you always ask people and we go to Ephesians chapter four as an example, is in chapter four, Paul talking about the role of maturing in Christ. We're no longer all man, we are a new man. Ephesians is in my Bible, I'm sure of it. Ephesians chapter four, he's talking about the living as children of Light and he picks up and tells us how to do this as he goes on in chapter four and he talks about how we were in the old days, dark and understanding. Now we are new and in Christ, and he begins to talk about what that means in life.

 

Ephesians four, verse 25. Therefore, he says, each of you must put off falsehood, speak truthfully to his neighbors or all members of one body. Okay. Don't lie. Tell the truth. Then verse 26. And here's the key one in your anger. You know, he says in your anger, Do not sin. Don't let the sun go down while you're still angry. And do not give the devil a foothold. Ephesians four 2627. So he's saying apparently there are times when anger's is okay, though of course you find other passage. A lot of times that anger is not okay. But here he's talking about in your anger don't sin. And he goes on and talks about speaking your sin. There, I suppose, would be to hold on to the anger. He says, don't let the sun go down while you're angry, which is his way of saying, Deal with the anger. Don't hold on to it. Don't let it fester. Don't erupt your anger at people. But then that little phrase and give the devil a foothold. Hmm? What is foothold? I remember I got power encounter had on foothold. Well, I mean, it's pretty obvious what a foothold is. It's like if you're climbing a mountain and there's a foothold on the side of the mountain, you put your foot on it. It's a place to stand. And footholds could be really tiny, or they could be quite large. What Paul is saying here is that if you hold an anger as an example of sin, then that gives the demon a place to stand. It gives them a foothold. It gives a point of occupation. And he can stand securely on that. And as long as that sin, as they're seen, has a place to stand. What do you do to deal with it? Well, the way you deal with it then, is you've got to get rid of the foothold.

 

So Satan no longer has a place to stand in. The way you do that is to bring the sin before God. Confess it first, John. One line for his faith. One just to forgive us, our stand and cleanse for all unrighteousness. So we confessed it to God. That cancels the foothold. Satan no longer has a place to stand. Then we can follow the Christian pattern and say, I commend you. Jesus Christ, Get out, and we can cast the demon out of the person. So practically what this looks like somebody has a problem with a demon that may be from a cultic background, or just may be that they've allowed Satan to come in, in the way they've done it is by sinning and not confessing it. Effusions for 27. That gives the devil a place to stand in. They've got to deal with the sin before they can deal with the demon. Just the way this comes out is I mean, ask the person what they're saying is if they don't know what the sin is, then I can call it the demon. I can bind the demon in the name of Jesus. I can command, to tell the truth, told to say only what will stand before the throne of God or something like that. Find out what the point of sin is and then cast the demon out when that sin has been confessed. That's a basic summary of power encounter model. Basic point is, if I sin, if I'm confessed unforgiveness and that gives Satan a foothold, it gives him a place to stand. As long as that footholds there, he's got a place to stand in the counsel, the ground, then I can cast him out. If you have the hand out that says How to Cast Out Demons by Reverend Peterson.

 

I never met him. I met some of his family members, including his wife. Godly guy. Missionary in Indonesia for a long time, came back and taught here at Multnomah Bible College. Very, very godly guy. He had learned a lot about how to deal with demons when he was in Indonesia, and he brought back this very practical teaching. From a power encounter perspective. You know the handout. You have his notes from his teaching and he's with the Lord. Now you see here on the first page the basic outlines, submit to God darn near to God and then deal with sin. And it talks about here three B sin gives place or ground to the devil, which was what we just talked about. And then you deal with the sin. You list the problems, you deal with a sin, whatever it is, bring everything to light, name every sin as come with forgiveness, claim right at the bottom of the page. I claim for you myself full victory in Jesus Christ in the top of the second page. At least I have it printed out. Number seven. Cancel. Declare in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. I cancel all agreement Ironmen ancestors or head with Satan. And here's the phrase I withdraw all ground you ever held on me. I belong spirit, soul and body to the Lord and then command in the name of Jesus Christ. I command you to come out of me and go to the pit. Now, that's kind of ordinary, demonic. The second line, as he says this for severe demonic bondage. And in my experience, most of the time when you do spiritual warfare, it's the more severe approach. And again, I'm not going to read you the whole thing.

 

But he's got it. Listen down here. And in number five. It says In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, give the following commands. And you see him no reinforcement. One way traffic. If Satan is around, they need to go away. They may seek the truth. And so on. Binded demon from dividing command. Each demon and all that you see it is. Number seven deal with the demon directly. I'm not talking to Mike, but to demon invaders. I make the positive statement, bind the demon so he can't slip away. And then verse eight is kind of a key point. Command the demon to tell only what can be used against him. So name who sent him from where His work is? Leader. His associates. And you always work up the line of authority to the top level demons you don't set in here. But that's the way it's done. Because you don't deal some demon that's a private or corporal. You want to deal with the general because there's usually a bunch of demons that are in there. You get the demon up, you talk to him, you command at the name of Jesus to tell the truth. And then paragraph nine always have the afflicted one deal with the ground. Remember, ground is the foothold by confessing every sin that gives place to the devil, asking for cleansing the blood of Christ. So you confess the sin, and then you take on the demon directly. Because now the confessed sin and longer has a ground to stand on. Paragraph ten Condemn the demon. If you won't respond, you go into battle, you command him. And the point of view is you're kind of bring the demon to trial. You're demanding he admit defeat. And when he does that, when he admits that Jesus is the victor under the authority and power of Jesus, then you let the group command the believers.

 

In the name of Jesus Christ, we command you and all your associates come out and go to the pit. And then you do that and there's a lot of other stuff in here on how to do it. Now, what's the point here? The basic point is that if you have a say person who has unconfirmed sin, the demon has a right to be there. And this is some of the procedures on how to deal with that. To get rid of the ground, you've got to discover the sin and cancel it before you cast that demon out. But once you cancel the ground, then you can do it. Although it may be a real tussle to get the demon to admit it's defeat and leave in their variations within that. But whoever in Peterson's materials is a good brief example of that. There's a wide variety of people who hold this view, ranging from Mark Lubeck and Fred DICKERSON and Murphy, the Welsh revival leader, Jesse PIN Lewis, contemporary people like Chuck Craft, Pete Wagner, many, many, many others. Okay, what's the point? The point is from Ephesians four 2627, key passage If you have unquestioned ground to stand on, you've got to counsel the ground. Then you can command the demon to get out and you have to do it by explicit command. I command you in the name of Jesus Christ. Get out. There is a complication to this view I want to explore before you finish up. And the complication is what happens when a person I'll just calling Bill because that's my general main person. I asked Bill to say, Bill, do you have any unconscious in your life? And he says, You know, I don't have any. I am so careful.

 

And we've explored it. And sure enough, he doesn't. But the demon is still there. Remember, power and power head on. I don't know what to do about this demon in. The thing that you have to understand from the power and counter view is that the unconfirmed sin may not be my personal sin. The unconfirmed sin may be some other kind of sin. And there's basically three kinds of sin from the encounter. One is personal sin, and there are different levels, different kinds of sin. There can be sin of commission or commission and all that. And there may be sin that I'm not aware of that I've done. But I asked Jesus to reveal it to me. So personal sin. But the second kind of sin is what's often called generational in to the idea that it's not my sin, but it's the sin of an ancestor father, mother, grandfather, but someone in the bloodline and their sin has a lot of demons to enter that person. They didn't deal with it. And that actually comes down the bloodline. And so the ground may be from somebody else. It may be from a grandfather who was involved in some cultic stuff or something. And that demon that's in me can't be dealt with until I cancel that sin. I tell it, bring it before Jesus Christ and cover it with the blood of Jesus first on one line. The other possibility is it may be in another authority line. It may be my pastor sin or some spiritual authority over me. From many proponents of this view. If I'm in a church, I'm under the spiritual covering of the pastor of that church and the elders of that church. If they commit sin and they'll confess it.

 

That gives a demon right to invade and inhabit them. But not only them, but for the people under their spiritual authority. So I may end up with a demon because of my pastor, and I've done nothing wrong. Okay, well, what do you do about that? It's not my sin. How can I possibly know what my sin is? And the answer, of course, is I have to ask the demon. And you saw it in the idea that when I command the demon, I bind the demon to command only the truth. So I ask for a name as for its point of occupation. And when I ask for its ground, what ground? What sin gives you right to be there. And command in the name of Jesus to tell me the truth. Then it will tell me your pastor did so-and-so or your grandfather did so and so. And then what I have to do is I have to bring that sin before Jesus Christ and have that counseled know what question you ask when you hear that kind of a thing, what questions you ask, you always ask, Where's that in the Bible? And they will tell you. Okay, let's look at a passage like Exodus chapter 20. Chapter 20 is, of course, the Ten Commandments, the first commandment. You have no other gods before me. But the second commandment, you shall make yourself an idol. You shall not bow down to them or worship them on the law degree. Does God. And what does the Joel Scott do? He punishes the children for the lives of their fathers to the third to the fourth generation. The throwing loved orange of generations. Here it is. Idol worship, fury, door opening sin. I mean, it really opens doors.

 

That means idol worship. Not only has the impact on the birds, but it has impacted the third and fourth generation. Wow. So there it is. Since the fathers can be run down online and sort of find that we have to talk to the demon and ask it what's the ground? And if we bind it and they would Jesus, tell me the truth, then it has to tell us what that ground is. And it may say your grandfather or your pastor have committed a sin. And that's the ground I stand on. When you first on online confess and ask for forgiveness. Every sin is forgiven, every defilement is cleansed. Then I can cast the demon out. So that power encounter, there's a third type of view which is often called truth and counter truth and counter is the idea that there are two kingdoms. There's the Dominion darkness, the Kingdom of Christ, and that people are either in the dominion of darkness or the Kingdom of Christ. They're in both. And everybody who's in the dominion of darkness is under the authority of Satan. They can be possessed, Satan can inhabit and well, all those kind of things. But people are in the kingdom of Christ, are not under the authority of sin. Kingdom is an authority sphere. The meaning of darkness is the authority of Satan. The Kingdom of Christ, as the King is the authority of Christ. The point here is that when you're transferred out of the Dominion Darkness into the Kingdom of Christ, you're no longer the authority of Satan or His demons at all. So the perspective here is that for believers in Jesus Christ, we are in the Kingdom of Christ and therefore Satan has no authority over us. He may have influence, but he doesn't have authority.

 

So what's your question? Yeah, right. Where is it in the Bible? Colossians chapter one When you look in portions, chapter one. Starting here in first 12 cautions 112, giving thanks to the father who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in the Kingdom of Light. There's one name for this kingdom. Four. He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness. There's the other kingdom and transferred us and a king to the son of his love. And who we have redemption. The forgiveness of sins. There you see, in brief term, the description of the two kingdoms, dominion and darkness. On one side, Kingdom of Christ on the other. And what he's saying is that when we became Christians, that the father transferred us from darkness to Christ, from the Kingdom of Satan to the Kingdom of the Son of his love, and we're either one or the other. If you keep reading in Colossians over in chapter two, you find in chapter two, verse 13, God made your life with Christ. He forgave us all our sins. Something is said in 114. And here's what he did. He counsel the written code. He took it away, kneeling to the cross and look particularly at verse 15 and having disarmed the powers and authorities. That's for everybody who's alive in Christ. He has disarmed the powers and authorities. He made a public spectacle of them triumphing over them by the cross. What is he saying here? He's saying that if you're taken out of the dominion of darkness into the Kingdom of Christ, that all sin is forgiven. The powers and authorities are disarmed and that they have been triumphed over in Christ by the cross. So the point there is Satan has no authority over us, period.

 

What then is Satan do? Well, he accuse, he tempts, he deceives. He entices us to fall into his lies. And Satan can certainly have a lot of influence on us, but he has no authority over us. So we simply have the power to resist or push away the things that Satan is trying to do. Basic perspective of truth and counter. Okay, quick review. Don't look at your notes. Try to remember with me when I say gospel encounter. What's the key principle for gospel encounter? No, don't look at your notes. Try to remember. Gospel Encounter. Basic principle is gospel encounter. A demon cannot be in the same place as the Holy Spirit. So since we're the Holy Spirit, we cannot have a demon. Why would the most Holy sovereign God allow a demon to reside in the same place with him? What's the basic principle of power encounter? That's the perspective that truck craft and Pete Wagner and many other of basic principle is Ephesians 427. If we haven't confessed, then that gives the demon a place to stand a foothold ground of occupation. And we have to find that sin, confess it, cover it, the blood of Jesus that takes away the foothold, then we can commit even to leave. Third View Truth Encounter. Basic point of truth encounter is that we're either in the den of darkness or Kingdom of Christ. If we're in the darkness, then Satan does have authority over us. If we're in the kingdom of Christ, He does not have legitimate authority, though he can have influence in our lives. So firsthand, as best I can, presentation in the three views and what I would like to do as we work this out is try to see which one of these views accounts for the most data with the fewest difficulties and truth and advertising, so to speak.

 

I stand strongly in the truth and counter view so you know where I'm coming from as we explore this. So we take some time and go back and review that handout, read the articles, ask some people if you know who they are, and get some perspective on this for yourself before we go ahead.