Who Can Cast Out Demons
We'll praise Jesus today everyone. The topic that I want to
address this morning is who has the power or the authority to cast out demons. A
lot of times in our culture, we see the people as in authority to cast out
demons as the leaders of a church, a pastor an exorcist, maybe a catholic priest,
or men of God who have experience with that, maybe in the Pentecostal church or
something like that. But really anyone can cast out demons granted they have
faith and they are in right standing with Jesus. You don't have to be an
official leader in a church or ordained as a priest or something like that, you
just have to have faith in Jesus and be in right standing with him and that is
key. There are a lot of people that may have the faith to cast out a demon, or
so they believe they have the faith to do that, but they're not in right
standing with Jesus and that is very dangerous, because Satan also knows if you
are in sin. Not just you know you're in sin but the devil also knows it, and if
Satan knows you're on his side and trying to cast him out, that is when people
get into a lot of trouble. That is also why a lot of people cannot cast the
devil even out of their own self.
We have authority when we are in right standing with Jesus to
cast the devil out. We learn this from a young age rebuking Satan in Jesus's
name, casting out evil thoughts, taking every thought captive. If it's a
thought that we know is demonic, we rebuke the devil in our heart even silently
in the name of Jesus, and the devil will flee. But we also learn that we have
to do this all the time. You can't just do this at one time when you first
become a Christian and never again. Resisting the devil is an everyday sort of
thing. Sometimes every minute or every hour or whenever it happens you resist
lust, you resist temptation, you resist whatever is coming against you from the
evil realm. In that spirit realm you rebuke the devil. And if you are with
Jesus, he gives you the power to overcome because he has made us the children
of God who have the power in his name to overcome demons. Remember Jesus said
all power and all authority is given to him in heaven and in earth. He also
gives us power also to overcome if we are in right standing with him. And that
is the key. A lot of Christians are not in right standing with God. One example
of this of people who believe they had faith is this story in Acts chapter 19,
we hear that Paul is going around and doing all these miracles casting out demons
and God is working even bizarre miracles through him to where if people even
touch rags or napkins or his clothes, they are healed. And I believe there's
other people getting jealous about the apostle Paul. And eventually some other
Jews try casting out demons in Paul's name, this is what happens in Acts
chapter 19. I'm going to start in verse 11.
11And God wrought
special miracles by the hands of Paul:
12So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs
or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out
of them.
13Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them
to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We
adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth.
14And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of
the priests, which did so.
15And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and
Paul I know; but who are ye?
16And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and
overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house
naked and wounded.
The devil beat these guys
up. You can't cast out a demon in the name of Jesus or say I rebuke you in the
name of Jesus if you're not really on Jesus's side. And this is made clear. It's
been made clear throughout time and history. This is not an isolated incidence,
guys. There have been other reports within the Christian church that have
demonstrated this same problem that if you're not right with God. You can't
cast out demons, you can't say I rebuke you in the name of Jesus if you're
living a life of sin. The devil knows that you're a hypocrite. The devil can
read your thoughts when you're in sin. The devil knows that you're going down a
rabbit hole when you're going down a rabbit hole and deviating and the devil
will help distract you. So we have to make sure that our hearts are right with
God and we have to make sure that we're right with God and that we are able to
keep ourselves in check and with self-control, so that then we also can help
others.
There is another story
I read years ago that happened in the Christian church, where in the Appalachian
Mountains, there were a group of Christians who went up into the mountains to
pray for a certain girl who was demon possessed. And these guys were exorcists,
or they believed themselves to be. So they wanted to go to the temple and they go
cast that demon out. And almost the exact identical same thing happened to Acts
chapter 19 when those guys got up there from the church to try to pray for this
girl for the demon to leave. And the demon even spoke to these guys and said to
them, “You are on our side. You're on our team. What are you doing?” And these
guys were so shocked. They weren't able to cast out the demon or do any good
for that girl, because all of them were on Satan's side. Many Christians even
pastors, leaders of churches, they're all on Satan's side in one way or another.
They're not fully committed to Jesus Christ. If we want to be able to take control
and overcome in the name of Jesus and cast out the strong man as Jesus said, we
first have to bind him. If you have not bound the devil because you're still
sinning and letting the devil loose in your soul and in your life, you have no
business trying to tell the devil what to do. If the devil has rein on your
mouth and your tongue, then how can you possibly then turn and say, “I rebuke
you Satan or I cast you out in the name of Jesus”? You have no authority to say
anything because the devil knows that you are his child.
First you must bind the
strong man then you can plunder his house just as Jesus said. So work on binding
the strong man by overcoming the strong man and by overcoming the strong man by
overcoming sin by being able to overcome temptation before it destroys your
soul. You can pray and say “Jesus please give me the power to stop sinning, to
stop lusting, to stop doing things that are hateful against my fellow brothers
and sisters. Give me the power to do what is right and to overcome my sin. Let me
get addictions out of my life”. And then when you pray, be serious to overcome
sin and temptation first and then the Holy Spirit will come to you, he will make
his abode in you. And when the Holy Spirit sets up shop, he will push out the
devil and the devil will have no more power, no more dominion, no more area to
live inside of you. You don't want your soul to be a house for Satan where the
devil is leaving trash everywhere and polluting you, you want to push all that
out, make yourself clean for the Holy Spirit to reside in you, that he can
clean up your life from inside out. This is what every Christian needs to do. And
unless we do this we have no business pretending to be people who can cast out
demons or save other people.
There are a lot of
Christians that think that somehow just magically they can preach and make
other people good Christians or bring them to a level and a standard higher
than they are at. It's impossible to get other Christians to a spiritual level
beyond where they are, and it's impossible to get them to a spiritual level beyond
where you are. So if you have demons, how are you going to cast out demons from
someone else? If you are in sin and lust, how are you going to help anyone else
stop lusting? If you have no faith, how are you going to encourage other people
to have faith? It's an impossibility. The only way people are going to grow
spiritually is if Jesus develops in them, his home, his presence, the presence
of the Holy Spirit of God. You have to repent. You have to get on your knees
and say, “Lord, I'm a sinner. I've been a hypocrite. I've said things that are
blasphemous. I've done things that are horrible, and I confess in your name,
Jesus. And I pray that you purge me and purify me of sin and of wickedness. Give
me a new heart and let me be useful to the kingdom of God. Let me be a child of
God and please help me to overcome, that I can also be an encouragement to the body
of Christ.”
And if you want to be
an encouragement, first get yourself in order. Don't be like the Christians who
think that they have power and authority from God, but who Satan knows is
actually on their side. Are you on the side of the demons? Are you on the side
of the devil? Or have you truly been purged purified and made new? Are you
wearing your white garments? Are you wearing those wedding robes prepared for
the wedding supper of the lamb? Or is the day of God gonna reach you like a
thief in the night because you've never really prepared? You're not able to
cast out evil, you're not able to overcome thoughts that come against you, you're
not able to take every thought captive because you're pushed around by the
devil. You allow music into your mind that's ungodly, videos into your mind
that are ungodly, all sorts of things that don't come from God and now you’re
just distracted by the world. Are you allowing those things to pollute you? Or have
you made yourself separate? Have you cut yourself off from the world so that
Jesus Christ can lead you and guide you in righteousness?
We want to be able to fight this spiritual battle, we want to
be able to worship God in spirit and in truth, and we want our spirit man to be
able to resist the devil, because we are with the spirit of God. We want to win
this spiritual battle, because we are with the spirit of God. We want to win
the spiritual fight. And we are in spiritual combat every single day every hour
and every minute. You have a choice today if you will overcome in the name of
Jesus and be able to cast out demons, taking every thought captive, or if you
will be on the loser side that are on their way to hell. I encourage you to put
your faith in Jesus for real. Repent of your sins and allow the Holy Spirit to
make his abode in you so that the devil
will be pushed out.
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