Mankind has been hurting from one problem or another for the past 6000 years.  Today’s news programs and talk shows are filled with people suffering from COVID-19, myriads of other medical problems, natural disasters, poverty, etc.  Thousands of religious sufferers have voiced what billions of fellow believers know is true about their conditions and circumstances: “God has everything under control.”  Does He?

In the first few chapters of Genesis we find God in control of everything on the earth as well as the earth itself.  At that time there was a garden paradise in Eden where the world’s two citizens living what could only be called the perfect life.  There was no disease, no natural disasters, no war, no rioting, no poverty, no death.  All was well.  There was peace on earth.  At that time God was in total control of the earth and the civilization He had created in Eden.  Everything in existence reflected that fact.  God had given Adam charge of the garden and everything in it, including the Serpent (Satan), who was in total subjection to the man.  Satan could only do to Adam and Eve what they allowed him to do.  In order to maintain that control, Adam merely had to reject Satan’s temptations to rebel against God.  This fact is extremely important.  Therefore, at this time I will affect a Biblical detour in order to teach a valuable lesson about the power of God’s true saints over Satan and his fallen angels, called “devils” (demons).

Some 4000 years later we find Jesus of Nazareth speaking to His 82 disciples, telling them to go forth and minister in the power they would exercise through His name (Lk. 10:19,20).  Scripturally, the word “name” means “power.”  To minister for Him meant that they were to use His Holy Spirit power to wage war against Satan and his fallen angels.  In this passage He tells the disciples that they have the same power over Satan that He had given Adam: “Behold, I give YOU (disciples) power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and (power) over all the power of the enemy, and NOTHING CAN BY ANY MEANS HARM YOU ….  The spirits are subject to you (under your command) ….”

As Isaiah 28:9-13 tells us, we must study the Scriptures with an open mind.  We must also take into consideration the context surrounding what is written.  For example, in verse 9 Jesus sends the disciples out to “heal, the sick ….”  Notice that He sent them out to minister; they did not go on their own.  Also, He provided them with His power, without which they were easy pickings for Satan and his devils.  In verse 17 the disciples returned from their ministry session proclaiming: “Lord, even the devils are subject to us through your name (power).”  Notice that in verse 20 Jesus explains verse 19 where He told the disciples that they could walk on “serpents and scorpions,” and that they had power over “the enemy,” He was referring to Satan (“the enemy”–the “serpent” of Gen. 3:1 and Rev. 20:2) and his fallen angels (“serpents and scorpions”), otherwise known as “devils” (demons).  In verse 18 Jesus told the disciples that Satan had earlier been cast down from heaven into the earth’s atmosphere.  From that vantage point he would rule over men as the “prince of the power of the air–the spirit that works IN the children of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2).  Note that anyone who disobeys God is operating under the power of Satan and his angels who operate from “withIN” them.  I have cast devils/demons out of a number of people.  Without exception, each one of them was a “Christian,” believed the Bible, went to church, prayed, etc.

Satan is called “the prince of the power of the air” that is immediately above the earth.  To be a “prince” one must have subjects over whom he rules.  Satan’s subjects are his fallen angels–devils.  Through them he controls the earth’s people.  He tempts them to sin against God and we have all done so.  God says that those who continue to sin are Satan’s sons and daughters whom He (God) calls “children of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2).  Children obey those in authority over them.  Church people obey what their hirelings whom they believe represent God.  Through his angels, Satan directs the church’s false prophets who lead unsuspecting salvation seekers into his religious system.  He and his devils also rule the unchurched world.  In summary, Satan and his devils rule those who disobey the Lord.  Every living soul has a god.  A minutely few people have as their God the God of the Holy Scriptures.  For everyone else (the “worldly”) their god is “the god of this world” (Satan) who “has blinded the minds of them who do not believe” (the Holy Bible).

All church people claim to believe the Bible, believe in God and Christ, etc.  Belief (faith) must be proven through “works.”  Faith that is not “worked” (put into practice) is dead faith (Jam. 2:10,14,17,18, 20,24,26) which, God tells us, is worse than having no faith.  God has a term to describe one who claims to believe the Bible but does not obey it–hypocrite (Mat. 23:28).  Having born that label for many years I can attest that there are billions who bear it today while claiming to be God’s people.  In Matthew 23:28 Jesus equates hypocrisy with “iniquity” (Lawlessness).  Hypocrisy is proclaiming to believe God’s Word (Law) while breaking it.  He labels this act as “sin” in 1 Jn. 3:4: “To transgress (break) the Law is sin; for sin is the transgression of the Law.”  According to the Holy Scriptures, “sinners saved by grace” are hypocrites–Law-breakers/workers of iniquity.  In Matthew 7:23 Jesus tells us that He will cast “workers of iniquity” far away from Him on Judgment Day.  Note that He will have NEVER KNOWN THEM.  They will have spent their lives in church but will have never known Him.  They will have known the church’s messiah, but not the Biblical Messiah.  Having spent much of my life in that condition I can say without hesitation that those in that condition are absolutely certain that they are saved, born again and have a mansion awaiting them in heaven–not one word of which is Biblically true.  And who convinces them of these “facts?”  The spirit called the “prince of the powers of he air” and his spiritual “serpents and scorpions” work from inside their victims through persuasion, temptation, etc.  Though extremely powerful, these evil spirit beings CANNOT FORCE US TO DO WHAT WE DO NOT WANT TO DO.  Read what God told Cain about this truth in Genesis 4:7.  Read Sin is a Choice.  Key word–Choice.  L.J.