When I hear a Christian approach a situation by taking authority over the devil, I sometimes think they’re just blowing wind up the devil’s skirt. Taking authority over Satan is like inviting him to go on a walk in the park; he will walk with you and argue with you all day long, but never cower to you. The longer you maintain your attitude of superiority over the devil, the better he likes it; for when you’re taking authority over him, you are not trusting in Jesus.
Consider Paul when the messenger of Satan was buffeting him; He asked the Lord to make that messenger depart from him; he asked Him three times. A great many Christians today would be taking authority over that messenger of Satan, demanding that it leave in the name of Jesus. What’s the difference between Paul and many Christians today? Many Christians today feel a need to prove themselves; Paul trusted in Jesus and not in himself. Many Christians today want immediate satisfaction; Paul just wanted the will of God. Many Christians today want to appear like they are spiritual giants; Paul just wanted to submit to Jesus. Many Christians today want to use Jesus; Paul just loved Jesus.
Consider also the interaction between Jesus and Satan in the wilderness: While being tempted, Jesus simply submitted to God, trusting in Him. Finding Himself in the form of a man, Jesus refused to use His inherent authority, for, being in the form of a man, He did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. Instead He humbled Himself and became obedient, trusting in God.
When Satan said, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread,” Jesus refused to prove Himself, just as He refused to save Himself when the Roman soldiers mocked Him as He hung on the cross, saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself,”. Jesus lived His entire life in submission to God the Father, and never once lifted Himself up to the level of God, not even when combatting Satan.
This is the Christ we should be serving, the One who did nothing on His own initiative, but worked as the Father worked; the One who refused to consider Himself as equal to God, for the simple fact that, although He was the Son of God, He was in the body of a human being. And we ourselves, being in the form of human flesh, should follow the example of Jesus and refuse to lift ourselves up to God’s level. Rather than claim to have His authority, we should submit to Him and walk humbly before Him.
Dear friends, God is my witness, this is true: I have healed the sick, raised the dead, and cast out demons, and I did it all without an ounce of authority given me by God; I did it all the same way Christians in the early church did it, through faith in the name of Jesus. Rather than lift myself up and claim to have the authority of Jesus, I simply believed in the name of Jesus. To this day I have never needed authority over anything; I have simply had faith in the name of Jesus.
Peter, Paul, James, and John never said a word about having authority over sicknesses, diseases, or any other thing. The only authority Paul spoke of was the authority he had been given for the building up of the church. Since the resurrection of Jesus and the birth of the church there has never been a need for authority over Satan. All that is needed now is faith in the Lamb of God, faith that He gave Himself up for our sins, in order that we might be freed from the constraints of our sinful nature by having being born again, and raised up with Jesus into newness of life in the Spirit.
The only people who ever needed authority were the twelve and the seventy Jesus sent out to help Him in His earthly ministry. This was before anyone had been born again, and before the True Lamb had been sacrificed. Now He has been both sacrificed and raised from the dead. Now we are more than conquerors through Him, and this, by faith in His name.
I believe that most of the Christians who take authority over Satan do so for one reason, they don’t have faith. I ask, ‘If people have faith, why would they even think to take authority over the devil; why wouldn’t they just trust the Lord, and rest in the faithfulness of God, and wait patiently for whatever they need, or whatever they ask?’ Jesus has already set us free from the powers of the devil; we need only believe in Him.
When Michael the archangel disputed with the devil about the body of Moses, he didn’t dare try and demonstrate authority over Satan; he simply said, “The Lord rebuke you,”. Perhaps we should take this to heart.
Jon David Banks, God’s most unworthy servant
P.S. I have known many Christians who start taking authority over the devil the second a problem arises. And, rather than submitting to God, and learning from their experience, they immediately rise up commanding him to leave (even though they have been told to resist him). Some even bind him in the name of Jesus. Well, I have some news for you binders of Satan — he keeps getting loose! Therefore, either Satan is more powerful than Jesus, in whose name you bound him, or you don’t have the authority you think you have!
My belief that God has not given us the authority of Jesus has been based on the premise that when we are tempted or harassed by Satan we need only resist him, as James exhorted us, “… resist him, firm in your faith,” (James 4:9). Why would we need authority over him if all we have to do is resist him? The devil is powerless over us; we simply need to trust in God and ignore and resist him. This is most definitely true.
Admittedly, Jesus gave the twelve apostles, and also the seventy, authority over diseases and demons, and they healed all who needed healing among those who received them. However, nowhere in the Bible does it say this authority extended to all Christians. And, if it did extend to all Christians, why did James instruct the sick to call for the elders of the church and have them pray for them? (James 5:14-15). Why didn’t he tell the sick to use their authority and heal themselves? Why bother the elders when they could heal themselves? If everyone has authority over diseases James 5:14-15 seems needless.
From Pentecost to this day the Holy Spirit has been distributing gifts as He wills. ‘All are not apostles, are they? All are not prophets, are they? All are not teachers, are they? All are not workers of miracles, are they? All do not have gifts of healings, do they? All do not speak with tongues, do they? All do not interpret, do they?’ (I Corinthians 12:29-30).
Having the authority of Jesus and faith in the name of Jesus are two different things. Peter healed the lame beggar through faith in the name of Jesus, (Acts 3: 6,16).
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org
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