Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you. – Luke 10:19
Before Jesus returned to Heaven, He gave every believer in Him authority over the powers of darkness. Just like every other blessing though, if you don’t do something with what He provided, it’s just as if you never had it in the first place. It is up to the believer to take authority over the devil. If they don’t do it, it won’t be done.
There are many today, Christians included – Christians, that don’t believe in the devil. They think that he is some force of evil or something that was made up like a fairytale. Some think that he existed long ago, but doesn’t exist now. None of that agrees with the Word of God or the Lord Jesus Christ. Demons are real and taking authority over them in the name of Jesus is a part of the Christian life.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. – Ephesians 6:12
We are told here specifically, that as a Christian, we are in a fight. We wrestle against the devil, even though he is a defeated foe. There is a real devil. There is a real fight. And we really have authority over him.
And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore…. – Matthew 28:18-19
And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils…. – Mark 16:15-17
The authority that Jesus had was turned over to us when He rose from the grave. The authority that the head has is the same authority that the body has. We are the body of Christ and we have that authority, but we have to use it.
But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. – Acts 1:8
The word “power” in this scripture denotes the inherent ability or authority required to carry out the divine commission given by the Lord Jesus Christ. When you receive the Holy Spirit, you are endued with the divine authority and power to deal with the devil. You are not alone. The supernatural influence and authority of God Himself is in you and works through you to deal with evil spirits.
There are times that you need to use your authority, but you may not have a clue what to do. That’s when we rely on the Holy Spirit’s help. In John 14:26, Jesus said, “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” Among other areas, the Holy Spirit serves as the teacher and guide for believers in understanding and applying their spiritual authority.
Troy Got The Victory
While I was in prison, our convict church started praying for the salvation of our fellow inmates. That’s what we called ourselves back them – convicts and inmates. Today they have sweeter terms for them, but back then we were convicts. So one of the guys I was claiming salvation for was Troy. In fact, I saw him one day and told him that I had claimed his salvation and that he was coming to know Jesus. He told me I was crazy and went about his business.
One day I was out on the yard and I heard a voice behind me call my name. I didn’t recognize them voice though. I turned around and saw that it was Troy. I was standing there with Dixon, my weightlifting usher, and a few other guys from the church, and I told them to pray. Something was wrong. I didn’t know what it was, but in my Spirit, I just knew something was wrong.
As I approached Troy, all of a sudden his behavior changed. He started growling in a voice that was not his own, and started saying that he was going to kill me. He told me that he had been trying to kill me for two days. It was clear that he was possessed by a spirit of murder. You may ask, did I take off running?
No. I was anointed by the Holy Ghost. I said to him, “I command you to come out of him in the name of Jesus Christ.”When I did, Troy took off running into a large dormitory.
I gathered up our group and we started praying in the Spirit. After some time, I got Dixon and another guy to come with me and we followed Troy into the dormitory. I knew if we were going to deal with the devil, I was going to need some help because this devil was most likely going to put up a fuss.
So we went in after Troy with our church staying outside praying in the Holy Ghost. I told Dixon and the other guy to wait right there as I walked up to Troy. And as soon as I got there, it was the Troy I knew. He said to me, “Randy, I don’t know why I did that.” And in the midst of trying to apologize he started growling.
I told Troy that I could help him. I knew what was wrong with him. I explained to him that we couldn’t cast out the demons in the dormitory and suggested he step outside. To my astonishment, he agreed, and we went out to the yard, with Dixon right by my side.
Out on the yard we started talking and Troy suddenly pulled out a razor blade, attempting to slash his own throat. Demons of murder want to murder. Dixon and I wrestled with him to get the razor blade away, and at one point, those demons were forcing him to attempt to gouge his own eyes out.
Dixon is over there trying to hold him from hurting himself and I’m commanding those demons to come out in the name of Jesus. And I had already learned that sometimes you need to know the demon’s names and how many are in there. So I commanded that thing to tell me it’s name and tell me how man of them were in there. Only one demon possesses a person, but there can be other demons in there. This demon said it’s name and told how many were in there and after some time, we cast some of them out. Now in the midst of doing all this, it must have slipped our minds that there was a guard tower above the yard. The guards are seeing this commotion going on and so they send some guards over, not knowing what is happening. These guards come over and long story short, they stop us from getting Troy free. They make us all get up and Troy runs off.
We tried explaining ourselves, but it just didn’t looked right. It looked like these born again convicts were trying to harm this other guy. No, we were trying to get him free. After a little while, I was able to get back to Troy and we didn’t get all of the spirits out of him. And then we found out that the ones that we had cast out had come back. We were able to get Chaplain Browder to let us use his office and after about 45 minutes of fighting the devil, Troy got set free. The devil will put up a fuss, but you have authority over him.
It is imperative that you are persistent in your prayers. What would have happened if we just left Troy after five minutes? Sometimes it takes more than a two minute prayer to deal with the devil. You have to stay with it.
Even though we have authority over the devil, we need to understand where that authority comes from. It’s not from us. It’s from God. We can do nothing on our own. That is why we need to be continually submitted to God. James 4:7 says, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” It’s only after we have submitted to God that we have the ability to resist the devil. All of our ability and authority comes from God and His strength. It’s not in your own strength. In your own strength you can’t do it.
In the end, Troy got the victory. He was set free, saved, and began to speak fluently in other tongues. Victory is ours. Victory belongs to me. Victory belongs to you. The devil is already defeated. You just enforce that defeat. God is with us!