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How
Jesus Dealt with Satanic Powers
A
Continual Confrontation with Unnatural Powers
by
Pastor John Hamel
“For this purpose the Son of God was
manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil." (1 John
3:8b)
If
we are going to enjoy true success in life we are going to first have to
understand that there is an enemy to this life. The Bible says his
name is Satan, the deceiver and accuser of the brethren. He has
cohorts who assist him in exercising his great displeasure with and
disapproval of God's creation. The Bible calls them demons.
Many
of Satan's demons are former angels who were thrown out of Heaven with him.
(Jude 6; Revelation 12:7-9) Some could be the disembodied spirits of
giants who once roamed the Earth, the perverse offspring of angelic fathers
and human mothers. (Genesis 6:1-4) Others apparently come from other places.
Either way they exist in this
Earth.
As a matter of fact, the same demons with which Jesus dealt while He
was on Earth are still here today, waiting for God's angel to lock them in
the pit eternally according to Revelation chapter twenty.
Jesus
Himself was not above or beyond relationship with Satan and demon powers. He
spent one-quarter of His ministry dealing with demons and teaching His
disciples how to effectively deal with them. Jesus' life on Earth, just like yours
and mine, was a constant confrontation with unnatural demonic
powers.
Jesus
had both indirect and direct confrontation with Satan and demons. You
will, as well. There is much to be learned about how to handle demonic
confrontations by observing the life and public ministry of Jesus Christ.
I.
Jesus Faced Indirect Confrontation with Satanic Powers
In
Matthew's Gospel, chapter two, King Herod tried to deceive the Wise Men into
telling him where Baby Jesus was so that he could kill Him. He was
unable to convince them to do so.
"Then
Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth
and set forth and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem and in all
the coast thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which
he had diligently inquired of the wise men." (Matthew 2:16)
God
had forewarned Jesus' stepfather, Joseph, to take the child down into Egypt
to protect him. I am confident that Jesus often thought upon the
murder of these children over the course of His life because He had a very
sensitive spirit. But He also knew that the spirits of those children
had gone back to God Who sent them and they were in Heaven. The
stupidity of the devil to think he could stop God's will so easily. That was
a very special kind of stupid!
This
was an indirect attack of Satan in that the town was attacked after Jesus had
gone. Satan did this simply because Jesus had been born there.
Thirty
years later Jesus was baptized with the Holy Spirit and appeared in His
local Synagogue. He picked up the Scriptures and read Isaiah's
prophecy of the coming Messiah. Putting the scroll down He then announced He was that Messiah.
This revelation presented by Jesus did not go over well at all.
"And
they in the synagogues when they heard these things were filled with wrath,
and rose up and thrust Him out of the city and led Him unto the brow of the
hill whereon their city was built that they might cast Him down
headlong. But He passing through the midst of them went His way."
(Luke 4:28-30)
Religious
people are dangerous. Here the Pharisees, instead of setting an
example to the people they led, trampled "Thou shalt not kill"
underfoot and attempted to drop Jesus on His head down into the Valley of
Megiddo. His Ministry had not even begun yet and a synagogue full of
religious people were used of Satan to indirectly attack Him.
Another
example is the
mad man of Gadara. He came running at Jesus, with rocks in his hands, hair
matted, naked and screaming. The Bible says he had anywhere from two
to six thousand demons in him. In eight simple words, "Come out
of the man, thou unclean spirit!" this insane man was instantly
delivered by Jesus, the friend of
all outcasts. (Mark 5:1-9)
Here we find Satan indirectly attacking Jesus through one
man. This is what Satan prefers. He is a subterfuge. He
prefers to sneak around and use others as opposed to having to face knowledgeable Christians
himself. He prefers to do business without you even knowing it is him
with whom you are doing business. This is why Paul said we should not
remain ignorant of Satan's
devices. (2 Corinthians 2:11)
Satan
also tried indirectly to drown Jesus while He was sleeping in a boat by causing an
earthquake under the water. Jesus simply rebuked the storm, crushing
Satan's indirect attack and went immediately back to sleep. (Matthew 8:25)
The
Chief priests and Scribes, under Satan's influence, were constantly looking for ways to
subtly kill Jesus. (Matthew 26:3-4) Satan seems to particularly enjoy using the
super-religious to attack Bible believing Christians indirectly.
Satan actually
went so far as to use
one of Jesus' own disciples, Judas, in order to attack Him indirectly. (Matthew
26:14-16)
As
if all the above were not bad enough, Satan
also used Jesus' friends and family in an attempt to torment Him, ridicule
and harass Him. They called Him "insane" and
"bewitched." (Matthew 3:21)
Even Jesus' own mother
was not off-limits to Satan. He used her in an attempt to pull Him back from supernatural
ministry. (Matthew 12:46)
Still today Satan indirectly
attacks committed Christians using other unenlightened Christians, the
unsaved, friends and even family to taunt and ridicule them.
We,
too, have faced indirect confrontation with Satanic powers in many similar
ways.
Because the servant is not above his Master, you
will face indirect confrontation with Satanic powers as well.
II.
Jesus Faced Direct Confrontation with Satanic Powers
"Then
was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the
devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights He was afterward
an hungered." (Matthew 4:1-2)
Satan
does not understand that the weaker the Christian's body becomes through fasting, the
stronger their spirit becomes. He wrongly assumed Jesus would be easier to take
down while weak from fasting when in fact, the reverse was true. As we
continue to read through this passage in Matthew's Gospel, we will see three direct
confrontations of Satan with Jesus.
"And
when the tempter came to Him, he said, If thou be the Son of God command
that these stones be made bread." (Verse 3)
This
direct attack of Satan was to get Jesus to compromise through
self-preservation. The strongest instinct in man is the God-given
desire to stay alive. The desire to eat in order to preserve one's
self is tremendously strong. Satan had previously temporarily won one
major victory over humanity by tempting Adam and Eve with food, so he was
apparently quite confident Jesus would fall for the same bait.
Therefore, he came to Jesus directly,
suggesting that He turn stones into food.
"But
He (Jesus) answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but
by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." (Verse 4)
What
a rebuke Jesus handed Satan! This is what Eve should have done when the serpent came to
her directly, tempting her to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and
Evil. We must all learn to resist Satan as Jesus did, with God's Word
and not with
religion.
Many nations of the world can barely govern and feed
themselves because such a small percentage of human beings learn to stand
and to stay on God's Word. There is plenty of food in the world to feed
everyone. It is a lack of knowledge of God's Word, a lack of knowledge of
the Believer's authority over Satan and demon powers and poor management on
man's part that causes nations to starve. (2 Corinthians 4:4)
This
is why it is vitally important to pray for Gospel laborers to go into the
suffering nations of the world in order to make Disciples and teach them how
to bind Satan and demon powers from indirectly and directly attacking their
nations. (Matthew 9:35-38; Romans 10:13-15)
"Then
the devil taketh Him up into the Holy City and setteth Him on a pinnacle of
the Temple and sayeth unto Him, If thou be the Son of God cast Thyself down:
for it is written, He shall give His angels charge concerning Thee and in
their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest at any time Thou dash Thy foot
against a stone." (Verses 5-6)
Having
unsuccessfully attempted to bait Jesus with self-preservation, Satan now directly challenges Jesus to jump to His death. As he usually
does, Satan took the Scriptures out of context to do so. Satan is known for
quoting Scripture out of context in order to encourage human beings to
disobey God. Here again, in verse seven, Jesus rebuked him with God's Word,
forbidding him to continue to tempt Him.
Satan
backed off momentarily, realizing that Jesus could not be directly tempted by
either the
lust for food or by Satan's pressure for Him to take His own life.
Therefore,
he came
against Jesus directly with a third temptation. Power.
"Again
the devil taketh Him up into an exceedingly high mountain, and showeth Him
all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; and sayeth unto Him,
All these things will I give Thee if Thou will fall down and worship
me." (Verses 8-9)
Satan
arrogantly attempted to tempt Jesus with the rule of the world by telling
Him, in essence, "It's all mine, Jesus. Ole hen-pecked Adam gave it to
me. Kiss my feet and I'll give it to You." Imagine directly
confronting the Creator of the Universe and addressing Him in this manner!
(Colossians 1:16)
"Then
sayeth Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt
worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil
leaveth Him and behold, angels came and ministered to Him." (Verses
10-11)
With
all three direct confrontations of Satan, Jesus backed him off by using the
Word of God.
The Word of God is filled with the anointing of God and
it is the Anointing of God that breaks every yoke of bondage. (Isaiah
10:27)
III.
You Will Face Direct and Indirect Confrontations with Satanic Powers
"Be
sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion,
walketh about seeking whom he may devour: whom resist steadfast in the
faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren
that are in the world." (1 Peter 5:8-9)
When
Peter said to "be vigilant" he was telling us to be on guard and
watchful of indirect and direct attacks of Satan and demon powers. It
will happen to you. When it does, do as Jesus did. Whether it
was one demon in a man, or multiple thousands of demons in a man, He dealt
with them all the same way. He dealt with them by the Spirit of God,
by the Power of God, utilizing the Word of God. This is what all Believers
must do. It is as simple as saying, "Satan, I rebuke you in Jesus'
Strong Name." (James 4:7)
You
will be indirectly attacked of Satan and demon powers through
demon-oppressed or possessed human beings, whether it be unlearned
Christians, family, friends or
even strangers.
You will be directly confronted by Satan with the
lust for food, money, sex, power and many other things. When this occurs you
must use the Name of Jesus, commanding and demanding Satan and demon powers
to cease and desist immediately in Jesus' Strong Name.
Do
not make the mistake of wrongly believing that Jesus was able to put down
demon powers because of some intrinsic ability simply because He was the Son
of God. The Bible reveals one of the reasons Jesus came to Earth as a man,
ultimately a Spirit-filled man, was to show us
how men are to deal with demon powers.
Everything Jesus did, He did as
a Spirit-filled human being, not solely as the Son of God. He did this to
show us how to use our authority as sons and daughters of God.
Jesus
stripped Himself of His
Divinity while on the Earth.
(Philippians 2:8)
At 30 years of age He received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and Power
while being water baptized in the Jordan River. (Matthew 3:16)
The Bible
reveals that Jesus never performed one miracle before being baptized with
the Holy Spirit and Power. (John 2:11)
Was
Jesus the Son of God when He was 5 years old? Yes!
Was Jesus the Son
of God when He was 15 years old? Yes!
Was He the Son of God when He
was 25 years old? Yes!
So why did He not perform any miracles until He
was 30 years old?
The
answer is because it was not being the Son of God that enabled
Jesus to perform miracles. It was the Baptism with the Holy Spirit and Power
that came upon Him at 30 years of age that enabled Him to begin performing
miracles from that time.
The
Bible says it was the Anointing of the Holy Spirit that enabled Jesus to
cast out spirits and perform miracles. (Acts 10:38)
Jesus said all Born-Again,
Spirit-filled Believers are now able to do the works He did by the power of
the same Holy Spirit. (John
14:12)
James,
the brother of Jesus, revealed that Satan and demons are afraid of Jesus and
His followers. (James 2:19) Satan and demon powers suffer great
torment and weakness when confronted by either Jesus or one of His disciples. (Matthew
8:29)
If
you will live right and resist them by using the Name of Jesus and the Word
of God, demons will bow their knee, regretting having confronted you
indirectly or directly.
Jesus
said He has given His disciples all power over Satan and demon powers. (Luke
10:19-20)
Jesus
now commands all of His disciples to use that power to cast out evil spirits
in His Name. (Mark 16:15)
As
Believers in Christ Jesus we have the very same authority as Jesus when it
comes to dealing with evil spirits.
This
is the hour for Christians to be setting millions of people free from demon
powers.
Jesus has called you and anointed you to crush, drive back and
destroy direct and indirect confrontations with Satan and unnatural demon
powers.
Together,
Jesus
and you are masters of demon powers.
Be
blessed ... John and Barbara Hamel
How
to Be Born Again (Receive Christ as Your Savior)
How
to Receive The Holy Spirit & Power
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