CHAPTER 8: AUTHORITY OVER DEMON SPIRITS, NOT HUMAN WILLS

8. AUTHORITY OVER DEMON SPIRITS,

Not Human Wills Although we have authority over demon spirits, we do not have authority over our fellowmen or their wills. We miss it a lot of times in thinking that we do.

We have authority over demons, and we can control them as far as our lives or our family's lives are concerned, but we can't always control them when other people are concerned, because that person's will comes into play.

Many years ago I was holding a meeting here in Oklahoma, and as I was ministering to the sick in the healing line, I had an inward intuition—I knew by the inward witness—that somebody in the line had a demon in Him. That doesn't mean he was demon possessed—that's a different thing entirely. To be possessed is to be taken over entirely—spirit, soul, and body. You can have a demon in your body without being possessed by a demon.

I kept looking around. When a certain man stood within four persons of me, I knew the demon was in Him. I never said anything out loud.

You have to realize this: Although the devil does know some things, he is not all-knowing, or omniscient, like God is. Because of his psychic powers, you can see that the devil does know some things. Some fortunetellers do predict events that come to pass. The devil even knows some of your thoughts. How do we know this? Because mind readers often can read your mind and tell you what you're thinking. And they don't do that by the power of God.

Before the man stepped in front of me I thought to myself, I'm going to cast that thing out of Him. I didn't say anything out loud; I just thought it. When he stepped up in place, before I could say anything, he spoke up. The demon spoke through him, whining in a high-pitched, nasal voice, "You can't cast me out!

You can't cast me out! You can't cast me out!"

I said, "Yes I can, in the Name of Jesus."

He said, "No you can't. This man wants me to stay. And if he wants me to stay, I can."

I said, "You're right," and passed him by.

He believed in a mixture of some Bible along with eastern religions. He leaned more toward the eastern religions. I talked to him about this. I said, "Those beliefs are not scriptural.

They're not according to the New Testament."

He replied, "Bible or no Bible, I like it this way, and I'm going to stay with it."

I said, "Anytime you want to get rid of those devils, come to see me. But as long as you want it that way, that's the way it's going to be."

He said, "Well, that's the way I want it."

FREE WILL PREVAILS

You've got to walk off and leave people when they want it that way. If people want to live in sin, they can. If they want to be free, they can be free. But as long as they don't want to be free, neither Jesus nor anybody else can set them free.

You can't go around promiscuously exercising authority over the devil in somebody else. You've got authority over your own life and with your own family. But you can't cast the devil out of everyone you meet on the street, even if they do have the devil in them, because they have authority over their own lives.

When people want help, that's another matter.

It's strange that sometimes even Spirit-filled people don't want help. In 1954 I preached for the first time in the state of Oregon. I started off on Sunday night preaching an evangelistic type of sermon. On Monday night I preached on faith. I announced that there would be a healing service Tuesday night.

In those days, I'd put people in the same line, whether they came for salvation, the baptism in the Holy Spirit, or healing. I ministered to them one at a time.

I came to a woman. There was a man with her, and he did all the talking. She never said anything. I could tell by looking at her that she wasn't right mentally. The man said his wife was very nervous and had spent some time in a mental institution.

Let me point something out to you here. You don't just exercise spiritual authority on behalf of other people per se; you've got to have the manifestation of the Spirit of God. That's why many are failing. They are trying to deal with spirits without the word of knowledge, discerning of spirits, or any unction of the Holy Ghost. When Jesus once talked to me about the devil, demons, and demon possession,* He used as an example the girl possessed with a spirit of divination. She followed Paul and Silas around Philippi "for many days," according to Acts 16:18, saying, "...These men are the servants of the most high God...." (v. 17).

Jesus asked me this question: "Do you know why Paul didn't deal with that spirit the first day?"

I said, "No, I really don't. I've wondered about it. Why didn't Paul, an apostle, a man of God, a man of authority, just take

*

For an account of Rev. Kenneth E. Hagin's major visions of Jesus, see his book, I Believe in Visions. authority over that evil spirit the first day?"

Jesus said, "He had to wait for the manifestation of the Spirit; he had to wait until the Spirit of God gave him discerning of spirits."

You see, you can run the devil away from you or your house anytime. If a person is on your premises, you also have authority over him. But when you get away from where your domain is, the evil spirits have a right to be there, because satan is the god of this world!

That's the reason Paul had to wait many days to deliver the demon-possessed girl. He didn't command that spirit to leave her the first day she began following him. He waited, and when the right time came, he spoke to that spirit, and it came out of her.

When I laid hands on the woman in the healing line, I didn't see any spirits, but I had a word of knowledge. I didn't have discerning of spirits operating in my ministry then but I had the word of knowledge operating. When I laid hands on her, her life ran off in front of me as if I were seeing it on a television screen, and I knew the whole story.

I said to her husband, "I'm not going to minister to her. Take her to the pastor's study. When the meeting's over, I'll bring the pastor with me and I'll talk to both of you." So he took her away.

The pastor and I went to his study. I found out that the woman's husband was a deacon in this church. I told him, "I wanted the pastor here as a witness. He'll tell you he hasn't said one word to me about your wife. I don't know anybody in this state but this pastor. I never saw you or your wife before. "I'll tell you why I did not minister to your wife in public.

When I laid my hands on her, I knew on the inside of me—I could see it all in an instant—that your wife once heard an evangelist say the Lord had spoken to him in an audible voice.

She began to seek that God would speak to her in an audible voice, too. "What she failed to realize was that the evangelist didn't say he was seeking for God to speak to him that way—he didn't ask God to do it—he was just waiting on God. (When you begin seeking an audible voice, the devil will accommodate you. It's wrong to do this.) "Demons began to speak to her," I continued. "She began to hear these voices, and they drove her crazy. You told me she had been in an institution once. Actually she has been there twice, hasn't she?"

The husband replied, "Who told you?" "The Lord," I said. "He also showed me that you took your wife to a healing meeting, and the evangelist couldn't get her delivered, so you're mad at him. Then I saw in the Spirit that you took her to a prophet's meeting, and he couldn't get her delivered, and now you're mad at him. I wouldn't be able to get her delivered any more than the two of them, and you'd be mad at me. And that's the reason I wouldn't minister to her. "Now I'm going to tell you why they didn't deliver her and why I can't deliver her: She doesn't want to be delivered. As long as she wants to hear these voices, she's going to hear them. She's not crazy. She's hearing everything I'm saying."

I turned to her and said, "Now, Sister, when you get to the place where you don't want to hear these voices, you come and I'll help you." "Well," she said, "I want to hear these voices."

I said, "I know you do."

Someone may say, "Well, maybe she didn't know what she was talking about." If she hadn't known, the Lord would have told me. I'd have known that, too.

The Bible says, concerning the ministry of Jesus, that He cast spirits out with His Word. It also says that He cast them out by the Spirit of God. It wasn't just His Word speaking apart from the Spirit of God. Read the twelfth chapter of Matthew. The Pharisees were accusing Jesus of casting out demons by Beelzebub, the prince of the devils (v. 24).

Jesus replied, ".. .if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you" (v. 28).

We know from the Word that we have spiritual authority, but we must depend upon the Holy Spirit to help us in ministering authority. We can't do it by ourselves.

As I mentioned earlier, if the devil attacks me, I have authority over him, because I have authority over my own life. I can tell him to leave my house immediately. I also can control situations as long as people are in my presence.

For example, a pastor friend of mine from Fort Worth, Texas, once accompanied me to a campmeeting I was to preach in California. He had suffered from sugar diabetes for many years and had to test his urine every morning to determine how much insulin he needed for his daily injection.

Trying to teach him a lesson of faith, I turned to him as we pulled out of the driveway of his parsonage and I said, "You'll never register any sugar as long as you're with me."

You see, I could control that disease as long as he was with me—as long as he was on my premises. But I couldn't control it when he was away from me. I would have to train him to exercise spiritual authority for himself.

He looked at me as if he didn't believe me, but he was with me almost two weeks and he never registered any sugar, even though he ate pie and cake. "Now I know I'll register sugar today," he would say. After testing himself, he'd say, "That beats anything I've ever seen in my life!" He later told me he was home three days before he started registering sugar again.

You see, I had claimed authority over that disease. Although I had control over the unseen force, I didn't have control over the pastor's will. I could control the unseen force as long as the pastor was in my presence, and I tried to convince him that he could exercise the same authority, but he didn't catch on. He expected the diabetes to return, and it did. It took him five years before he finally understood spiritual authority. (Some of us preachers are slow!) If I could have been with other people constantly, I could have helped them, too, but I can't live with people; I don't have time.

BREAKING THE DEVIL'S POWER

Years ago when my older brother was bound by the devil, I said, "satan, in the Name of Jesus Christ, I break your power over my brother's life, and I claim his deliverance and salvation!" In approximately two weeks he was saved. I had been trying to get him saved for 15 years, but nothing had ever worked. When I took this stand and exercised my spiritual authority as a believer, it worked.

Someone heard me say this and said they would try it and see if it worked. I knew it wouldn't work for them, because I hadn't tried it—I had done it.

Sometimes believers say they will try something because it has worked for someone else. If they study God's Word and clothe themselves in its teaching on authority, it will work for them. But if they try to act on God's Word without really having that Word built up in their spirit, the devil will defeat them soundly.

You'll only defeat the devil when you've got a foundation of God's Word and you act upon it. The Bible says (speaking of satan), "Whom resist stedfast in the faith..." (1 Peter 5:9). Your level of faith is directly related to the degree of God's Word dwelling in your heart, that is, that Word which is reality to you and in which you are daily walking.

WHY PEOPLE LOSE THEIR HEALING

When people are in a place where faith is high—where there's a mass faith—or where the gifts of the Spirit are in operation, it's comparatively easy for them to receive healing.

This is what happens in big meetings—I saw it happen in the well-known evangelists' meetings during the days of the Healing Revival, which was from 1947-58.

However, when these people get back on their own, the devil comes along with lying symptoms. The people don't have a foundation of faith in them, and the devil puts the same thing back on them. That's the reason you see people get delivered from evil spirits, sickness—a lot of things—and the next time you see them, they're right back where they were.

Somebody will say, "Well, they never got healed to begin with."

How could a crippled man walk who had never walked before if he hadn't been healed? If that wasn't healing, what was it? How could a blind man see—I've seen them do it—who had never seen before? How could a deaf person hear who had never heard before?

They were all right until they got home, and after two or three weeks, their healing was gone. Why did they lose it?

Because they didn't know their authority. They didn't know how to hold onto what they had, so they didn't try to exercise authority themselves; or, if they said anything, they said the wrong thing.

I've seen polio victims completely healed—their feet and legs straightened out—and in 10 days' time they lost their healing.

I remember one woman who had been completely bedfast with arthritis for three years. She was stretched out stiff as a board in her bed. She was healed instantly, got up, and walked.

Her doctor couldn't find a trace of arthritis in her body. But six weeks later she was as stiff as a board again. Why did she lose her healing?

Some people say, "They hypnotize them." Is that it? No, people get into the presence of God where the gifts of the Holy Spirit are in operation and it's easy to receive healing. Then, when they get back on their own, they're really on their own.

That's why people need to be taught the Word of God and their rights and privileges as believers. Then they can exercise authority for themselves over the devil, diseases, and circumstances.

CASTING OUT DEMONS

The Bible differentiates between casting out devils and healing the sick. Often people's physical conditions don't respond to prayer and the laying on of hands because there is an evil spirit involved.

This happened in the case of a Baptist woman in New Orleans. She was mentally deranged and confined to an institution. One day a friend of mine, a Baptist minister who had received the baptism in the Holy Spirit, went to pray for her. He cast seven devils out of her, and immediately she was well.

A university professor who was acquainted with her case used it as an illustration in his lectures. It made such an impression on him that he invited the Baptist minister to discuss it with him. As a result, the professor's wife received the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

The professor not only sought to be filled, but he incorporated into his teachings the fact that demons have more effect on people than was thought.

OPPRESSION VS. POSSESSION

Back in the 1950s a church member came in my healing line, and I realized the man had a demon in his body. This man had been in nearly every well-known evangelist's healing line, but he hadn't gotten healed, because that spirit that was oppressing him had to be dealt with. This wasn't a case for healing.

In praying for him, I explained to the people, "This man's body is oppressed by a demon. He is not possessed by a demon.

I'll use this illustration: Suppose you live in a house built nearly one hundred years ago, and somebody tells you, 'That house has got termites in it.' That doesn't mean you've got termites in you! "Your body is the house you live in. If you know how, you can keep the termites out of your natural house—and the demons out of your physical house. They won't be there if you use the right precautions."

I once heard a Spirit-filled psychiatrist who donated time to charity hospitals in his area. In one mental institution he decided to experiment with a man who hadn't spoken in three years. The man stared straight ahead with no expression, like a statue.

The doctor said, "I laid hands on him every day and said, 'If there are evil spirits here, I rebuke them and command every one of them to leave in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.'" If the other doctors weren't around, this doctor would lay hands on the patient and pray out loud over him five minutes a day in tongues. If the other doctors were around, he used wisdom, knowing they wouldn't be able to understand what he was doing, and he'd pray silently.

In 10 days' time the patient was talking, and in 30 days he was sent home as cured. The doctor helped other patients as well. God honors faith, and the Spirit of God knows how to pray.

He's the Author of prayer.

HOW TO DEAL WITH DEMONS

We've got to depend on the Spirit of God to know when demons are present and to know how to deal with them. We're helpless without both the Spirit and the Word. Don't just be a Word person without the Spirit, and don't just be a Spirit person without the Word. Many try to act on the Word of God without the Spirit of God. You've got to have both of them. The Spirit and the Word agree.

You don't need to deal with a spirit in every case of healing.

But if you have to, the Lord will show you. The way I see it, God's an intelligent Being, and I'm an intelligent being, and He can tell me if an evil spirit is present. I go as much by what He doesn't say as I do by what He does say. If He doesn't say anything, I don't try to deal with an evil spirit. I go on and minister healing to the person.

What is strange is that I'll be led to minister healing in one instance and then in seemingly an identical case I'll have to deal with a spirit. I don't understand it, but I know from experience it works that way. You can't judge one case by another.

Helpless people need to be helped. Sometimes you can carry them on your own faith. But people who know—people who are enlightened—have to walk in the light of what they know. Some people are more enlightened than others. The more you know, the more is required of you.

You can be released from oppression to your body and your mind. You can exercise spiritual authority over others as long as they are in your presence. You can take authority over all unseen forces.

If you learn how to exercise spiritual authority like this, it will work in your home as well. I've heard of women who exercised their spiritual authority when their unsaved husbands came home arguing and fighting. The women had learned how to quietly and calmly rebuke the evil spirits behind the situation and claim authority over them—and the situation changed.

I learned how to do this years ago when some of my relatives would get extremely angry. I simply took authority over the situation. They knew when I did it, because they looked at me with a startled expression—and they straightened out immediately. I wasn't exercising authority over their will, however, but over the spirit that made them act the way they did.

Jesus once told His disciples that He was going to Jerusalem to suffer many things and to die. Peter objected. Jesus immediately rebuked him, saying, "Get thee behind me, satan...." (Matt. 16:23).

Jesus wasn't saying that Peter was satan. He was showing that Peter had sided in with doubt, unbelief, and the devil.

Sometimes Christians unconsciously yield to the enemy, but we can take authority over that spirit.

The Bible says that we also can take authority over fear— even fear in our own lives. We need to know that. However, we can't always take authority over fear in somebody else's life. I've been able to control fear as long as a person was in my presence and didn't know how to stand against it.

Second Timothy 1:7 says, "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."

Notice that the Bible calls fear a spirit. God has given us a spirit of power, love, and a sound mind.

Even when I was a young Baptist pastor, I always took authority over fear and doubt. If I was tempted to doubt, I would say, "Doubt, I resist you in the Name of Jesus." If I was tempted to fear, I would say, "Fear, I resist you in the Name of Jesus."

Doubt and fear will leave you when you do this.

We even have authority over those who oppose the truth.

In Texas there was a Full Gospel minister who lived next door to a policeman. The policeman belonged to a denomination that is vehemently opposed to speaking in tongues.

The minister got the policeman to visit his church. Then the policeman somewhat jokingly asked the minister to go with him to his church. The minister decided to go because the policeman told him his minister was going to speak on the subject of tongues.

During his sermon, this minister didn't base any of his remarks on the Bible, but told about different things he'd heard had happened among these "tongue talkers." Then he began imitating speaking in tongues. Hearing this, the Full Gospel minister took authority over the situation. The speaker stopped abruptly, turned pale, and sat down without finishing his sermon.

The policeman realized what had happened. Afterwards he went to the Full Gospel pastor, shook his hand, and hugged him.

He said, "Bless God, I'm glad God arrested him. He ought to have had more sense than that."

The next night the preacher apologized for talking about something he didn't know much about. He said he felt as if God had arrested him, and he added that it is better to leave things alone when we don't know much about them.

RESIST THE DEVIL

Often we realize that certain trials in our lives are the work of the enemy, and we cry out to God to rebuke him and alter circumstances for us. However, God's Word tells us to rebuke the enemy ourselves. In James 4:7 we are told, "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you," The authority over the devil is ours.

The responsibility is ours.

If we'll resist the devil, he will flee from us. The Bible doesn't say, "Get somebody else to resist the devil for you"; it says we are to resist the devil. Too many of us sit idly by, waiting for Jesus to do something when we are the ones who are supposed to resist the devil. Why? Because we have the authority to! (We always want somebody else to do what we're supposed to do.)

Of course we're always going to have spiritual babies, and we ought to carry them on our faith, but some of us ought to grow up enough to be able to help look after the babies and not leave it up to the pastor to do everything.

Conditions exist because we permit them to. Matthew 18:18 says, "Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."

That was the King James Version. I like another translation I once read which renders it, "Whatsoever things ye refuse to be permitted on earth will be refused to be permitted in heaven."

Exercise your authority!

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