Wednesday, July 31, 2024

Who Can Cast Out Demons

Who Can Cast Out Demons

We'll praise Jesus today everyone. The topic that I want to address this morning is who has the power or the authority to cast out demons. A lot of times in our culture, we see the people as in authority to cast out demons as the leaders of a church, a pastor an exorcist, maybe a catholic priest, or men of God who have experience with that, maybe in the Pentecostal church or something like that. But really anyone can cast out demons granted they have faith and they are in right standing with Jesus. You don't have to be an official leader in a church or ordained as a priest or something like that, you just have to have faith in Jesus and be in right standing with him and that is key. There are a lot of people that may have the faith to cast out a demon, or so they believe they have the faith to do that, but they're not in right standing with Jesus and that is very dangerous, because Satan also knows if you are in sin. Not just you know you're in sin but the devil also knows it, and if Satan knows you're on his side and trying to cast him out, that is when people get into a lot of trouble. That is also why a lot of people cannot cast the devil even out of their own self.

We have authority when we are in right standing with Jesus to cast the devil out. We learn this from a young age rebuking Satan in Jesus's name, casting out evil thoughts, taking every thought captive. If it's a thought that we know is demonic, we rebuke the devil in our heart even silently in the name of Jesus, and the devil will flee. But we also learn that we have to do this all the time. You can't just do this at one time when you first become a Christian and never again. Resisting the devil is an everyday sort of thing. Sometimes every minute or every hour or whenever it happens you resist lust, you resist temptation, you resist whatever is coming against you from the evil realm. In that spirit realm you rebuke the devil. And if you are with Jesus, he gives you the power to overcome because he has made us the children of God who have the power in his name to overcome demons. Remember Jesus said all power and all authority is given to him in heaven and in earth. He also gives us power also to overcome if we are in right standing with him. And that is the key. A lot of Christians are not in right standing with God. One example of this of people who believe they had faith is this story in Acts chapter 19, we hear that Paul is going around and doing all these miracles casting out demons and God is working even bizarre miracles through him to where if people even touch rags or napkins or his clothes, they are healed. And I believe there's other people getting jealous about the apostle Paul. And eventually some other Jews try casting out demons in Paul's name, this is what happens in Acts chapter 19. I'm going to start in verse 11.

 11And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul:

12So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them.

13Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth.

14And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so.

15And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?

16And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

 The devil beat these guys up. You can't cast out a demon in the name of Jesus or say I rebuke you in the name of Jesus if you're not really on Jesus's side. And this is made clear. It's been made clear throughout time and history. This is not an isolated incidence, guys. There have been other reports within the Christian church that have demonstrated this same problem that if you're not right with God. You can't cast out demons, you can't say I rebuke you in the name of Jesus if you're living a life of sin. The devil knows that you're a hypocrite. The devil can read your thoughts when you're in sin. The devil knows that you're going down a rabbit hole when you're going down a rabbit hole and deviating and the devil will help distract you. So we have to make sure that our hearts are right with God and we have to make sure that we're right with God and that we are able to keep ourselves in check and with self-control, so that then we also can help others.

 There is another story I read years ago that happened in the Christian church, where in the Appalachian Mountains, there were a group of Christians who went up into the mountains to pray for a certain girl who was demon possessed. And these guys were exorcists, or they believed themselves to be. So they wanted to go to the temple and they go cast that demon out. And almost the exact identical same thing happened to Acts chapter 19 when those guys got up there from the church to try to pray for this girl for the demon to leave. And the demon even spoke to these guys and said to them, “You are on our side. You're on our team. What are you doing?” And these guys were so shocked. They weren't able to cast out the demon or do any good for that girl, because all of them were on Satan's side. Many Christians even pastors, leaders of churches, they're all on Satan's side in one way or another. They're not fully committed to Jesus Christ. If we want to be able to take control and overcome in the name of Jesus and cast out the strong man as Jesus said, we first have to bind him. If you have not bound the devil because you're still sinning and letting the devil loose in your soul and in your life, you have no business trying to tell the devil what to do. If the devil has rein on your mouth and your tongue, then how can you possibly then turn and say, “I rebuke you Satan or I cast you out in the name of Jesus”? You have no authority to say anything because the devil knows that you are his child.

 First you must bind the strong man then you can plunder his house just as Jesus said. So work on binding the strong man by overcoming the strong man and by overcoming the strong man by overcoming sin by being able to overcome temptation before it destroys your soul. You can pray and say “Jesus please give me the power to stop sinning, to stop lusting, to stop doing things that are hateful against my fellow brothers and sisters. Give me the power to do what is right and to overcome my sin. Let me get addictions out of my life”. And then when you pray, be serious to overcome sin and temptation first and then the Holy Spirit will come to you, he will make his abode in you. And when the Holy Spirit sets up shop, he will push out the devil and the devil will have no more power, no more dominion, no more area to live inside of you. You don't want your soul to be a house for Satan where the devil is leaving trash everywhere and polluting you, you want to push all that out, make yourself clean for the Holy Spirit to reside in you, that he can clean up your life from inside out. This is what every Christian needs to do. And unless we do this we have no business pretending to be people who can cast out demons or save other people.

 There are a lot of Christians that think that somehow just magically they can preach and make other people good Christians or bring them to a level and a standard higher than they are at. It's impossible to get other Christians to a spiritual level beyond where they are, and it's impossible to get them to a spiritual level beyond where you are. So if you have demons, how are you going to cast out demons from someone else? If you are in sin and lust, how are you going to help anyone else stop lusting? If you have no faith, how are you going to encourage other people to have faith? It's an impossibility. The only way people are going to grow spiritually is if Jesus develops in them, his home, his presence, the presence of the Holy Spirit of God. You have to repent. You have to get on your knees and say, “Lord, I'm a sinner. I've been a hypocrite. I've said things that are blasphemous. I've done things that are horrible, and I confess in your name, Jesus. And I pray that you purge me and purify me of sin and of wickedness. Give me a new heart and let me be useful to the kingdom of God. Let me be a child of God and please help me to overcome, that I can also be an encouragement to the body of Christ.”

 And if you want to be an encouragement, first get yourself in order. Don't be like the Christians who think that they have power and authority from God, but who Satan knows is actually on their side. Are you on the side of the demons? Are you on the side of the devil? Or have you truly been purged purified and made new? Are you wearing your white garments? Are you wearing those wedding robes prepared for the wedding supper of the lamb? Or is the day of God gonna reach you like a thief in the night because you've never really prepared? You're not able to cast out evil, you're not able to overcome thoughts that come against you, you're not able to take every thought captive because you're pushed around by the devil. You allow music into your mind that's ungodly, videos into your mind that are ungodly, all sorts of things that don't come from God and now you’re just distracted by the world. Are you allowing those things to pollute you? Or have you made yourself separate? Have you cut yourself off from the world so that Jesus Christ can lead you and guide you in righteousness?

We want to be able to fight this spiritual battle, we want to be able to worship God in spirit and in truth, and we want our spirit man to be able to resist the devil, because we are with the spirit of God. We want to win this spiritual battle, because we are with the spirit of God. We want to win the spiritual fight. And we are in spiritual combat every single day every hour and every minute. You have a choice today if you will overcome in the name of Jesus and be able to cast out demons, taking every thought captive, or if you will be on the loser side that are on their way to hell. I encourage you to put your faith in Jesus for real. Repent of your sins and allow the Holy Spirit to make his abode in you so that the devil will be pushed out.