Relative to the act of deliverance in the war against the forces of evil, Jesus set the tone and established the casting out of devils as the second highest priority in His and His apostles’ ministry.  He did this in His first ministerial conflict with Satan.  Having just finished a 40-day fast and being near death, Jesus was severely tempted when the enemy made Him an offer He would have trouble refusing.  After three attempts to make Him sin, Jesus had heard enough and ordered the devil to leave.  He had no choice but to do so.  Jesus had the “right stuff.”  What He said was the final word.  Notice His “one-two punch”: First came the Word as Jesus quoted from the Old Testament.  Then came the deliverance as He sent the devil packing.

What religious man does not know is that from the beginning man was given the same “stuff” as was later given to Jesus.  He informed His 12 disciples of this fact when He told them that “All power in heaven and earth has been given to Me.  THEREFORE YOU GO INTO ALL NATIONS …” and do what they had seen Him do (Mat. 28:18-20).  By using the word “therefore” Jesus was telling them that they would receive the same power He had received from the Father–THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.  They would receive this power into their hearts a few days later on the Day of Pentecost in the upper room of a building in Jerusalem.

The disciples had been surrounded by the Holy Spirit from the time they began following Jesus.  We are told this in Acts chapter one where we find Jesus, having returned from heaven, had met with His disciples for 40 days and had been speaking to them about the Kingdom of God.  He told them not to try to minister at that time, but to “…wait in Jerusalem for the promise of the Father,” that they would “… be baptized with the (promised)Holy Spirit not many days hence” (vss 3-5).  He then told them: “You will receive POWER after the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be My WITNESSES” throughout all the earth.  We are told in John 20:19 that prior to this Jesus had “breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.'” At this point they had the Holy Spirit WITH them.  Soon, Jesus promised, the Spirit would take up residence IN them (Jn. 14:17).  This happened on the Day of Pentecost 31 A.D. when they were baptized with the Holy Spirit as recorded in Acts 2:1-11.  They would later fulfill Christ’s prophecy that: “This Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world as a WITNESS to all nations, and then the end shall come” Mat. 24:14).  Nothing has changed.  The same Holy Spirit God gave to Jesus He gives to those who receive Him as LORD AND SAVIOR today.  Those whom He appoints as apostles (sent ones–witnesses) operate under the same power as did Jesus while He was on earth.  God gives to His modern messengers the same Spirit which they are to use to do what Jesus did–preach the Gospel of the kingdom and do what He did, and even greater things than He did (Jn. 14:12).  The church has rejected both His Gospel and His miracles due to a lack of faith.  Christ’s words to the disciples are acknowledged only in passing.  He told them (and us) that if the people did not believe their words, they (the apostles) were to perform miracles so that the people would believe (Jn. 10:37,38; 14:11), JUST AS HE DID.  Even Jesus had to prove the Father’s Words through miracles.

All things are done according to God’s chronological plan.  As Solomon said, “For all things there is a season.”  Note that Jesus’s ministry did not begin until He was 29 years old.  Only after the Holy Spirit came upon Him and entered Him at His baptism did He begin His ministry.  On the Day of Pentecost 31 A.D. the same thing happened to the disciples.  It was THEN-following the Holy Spirit baptism– that the church was formed, 12 of the disciples (followers) became apostles (sent ones) and their world-wide commission was begun.  The Holy Spirit was no longer WITH them, it was IN them.  Now they could go forth into all the world, preach the Gospel of the kingdom, heal the sick, raise the dead and cast out demons.

Which brings us to the end of the end of the age in which we now live.  As proved in earlier posts, the “last days” began on the Day of Pentecost 31 A.D.  We are living in the last of the last days of this world.  A new world is waiting in the wings.  It is time for God to move as He has never moved before.  John 14:12 tells us that what is about to happen will shock the world.  If I am hearing the Lord correctly, what is to come will make the Book of Acts pale by comparison.  And because of television and the internet, the entire world will watch the unbelievable take place in real time.  Man will no longer have an excuse for rejecting God’s Word.  But, incredibly, he will.  Do not be one of those unbelievers, for all hell will break loose in the form of the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord–a 3 1/2 year period of terror, death and destruction that Jesus said in Matthew 24:21 would be worse than all of history’s horrors COMBINED.  Now back to the present.

Jesus told His called out, commissioned, anointed apostles to preach the Gospel, heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, multiply food, kill trees, move mountains, control the weather, dominate the earth and everything on it, under it and above it–BY SPEAKING HIS WORDS TO THEM.  In Psalm 33:9 we are told that Jesus “spoke, and it was created; He commanded and it (His creation) stood fast.”  He meant for His human creation to have the same dominion that He gave to the first Adam, who sinned away that awesome gift.  The Second Adam died so that true believers could have that same power and dominion and to have “power over all the power of the enemy” (Satan)–Luke 10:10.  Adam’s descendants followed in his spiritual footsteps.  Admittedly, in every case of a promise having not been fulfilled in my life, and there have been many, I can trace the problem back to sin–my failure to do what I knew I should do.  And if I did not know what I should do, I should have, for I had His instruction Book.  THE PROBLEM IS NEVER WITH GOD, BUT RATHER WITH US.  SATAN IS NOT THE PROBLEM; HE CAN DO TO AND THROUGH US ONLY WHAT WE ALLOW HIM TO DO.  WE ARE OUR OWN WORST ENEMY.  LET US ADMIT THIS BIBLICAL TRUTH, MAKE THE RIGHT DECISION AND FOLLOW THROUGH ON IT.  LET US LEARN GOD’S WORD, BELIEVE IT AND OBEY IT.  GOD IS THEN OBLIGATED TO FULFILL HIS PROMISES TO US.  HE HAS NO OTHER OPTION IN THAT HE DID NOT AND WILL NOT LIE.  OBEYING HIM UNTO HOLINESS PLACES HIM IN OUR DEBT FOR HE MUST FULFILL HIS PROMISES IF WE OBEY HIS WORDS.  

As the Holy Scriptures reveal and as I have proclaimed through this website, God’s power is given for a purpose–to be used for positive purposes.  As Jesus said, “Freely you (chose apostles) have received, freely give” (healing, deliverance and other types of miracles).  I have no more sense than to believe that He meant what He said.  And the time for the full manifestation of His commission is upon us.

Whether one’s problem is physical or mental, the primary source is spiritual.  Read All Problems are Spiritual.  Key word–Problems.  The Lord’s assignment for His chosen apostles is to deal with man’s problems beginning with the root cause–sin.  As has been brought out, sin is the result of a failed firewall in which God’s armor is not present in one’s heart.  The “whole armor of God” is built and maintained through faith in and obedience to His Word–THE ONLY SOURCE OF DIVINE INFORMATION ABOUT HIM. AND THE SOURCE OF THE FAITH NEEDED TO OBEY HIM.  Obedience to His Word creates righteousness and holiness, the end result of which is eternal life (Rom. 5:21 and 6:22).  THERE IS NO OTHER WAY TO RECEIVE ETERNAL LIFE.  God raised up His ministers to help mankind with his problems.  But first Satan’s power over the individual must be cast out through deliverance.  Only then can one be filled with God’s Spirit and walk in the power which enables us to fend off all of Satan’s “fiery darts” of temptation.  Unless the Spirit fills the void, Satan will send one of his demons back into the delivered one.  He will take with him seven other demons worse than himself.  The helped one will end up being worse off than before his deliverance (Mat. 12:43-45).  The recipient must decide who will fill the void left by the deliverance.

As the Scriptures tell us, we need not wait for Christ’s return to walk in the Lord’s overcoming power.  Let us learn God’s will through diligent study of His Word (Isa. 28:9-13), believe what we learn and walk in it until the end (Mat. 10:22).  Only those who do so will have power over ALL the power of the enemy and be able to walk in the victory God has promised us. and for which Christ died.  As Jesus told the prostitute and the man at the pool in Bethesda, “Go and sin no more.”  Let us obey that command so that we can walk in the power of the Holy Spirit.  L.J.