You Must Control The Devil The devil will take over -- if you let him. Jesus delegated authority to use His Name to those who believe in Him. You must exercise that authority, or the devil will wreak havoc in your life, and everywhere he is allowed to.
God loves you. That is reason enough for the devil to hate you. The devil would like to destroy you because he hates God. If you let him, he will.
JESUS GAVE YOU AUTHORITY You should not be afraid of the devil or demons. Jesus defeated them. Jesus gave you authority over them all.
MATTHEW 28:18-19 NKJ
18 Then Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,PHILIPPIANS 2:10 NKJ
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth,Notice that it is at the Name of Jesus, not just to the person of Jesus, that every knee will bow. As true believers in Jesus Christ, we are members of His body, and joint-heirs in His authority.
LUKE 10:19 NKJ
19 "Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.We have authority, which if used, will insure that nothing shall by any means hurt us. The choice and responsibility is ours.
AUTHORITY OVER THE DEVIL No human being, in themselves, is any match for the devil. So we must not resist him in our own ability or name. Remember, we are talking about authority over the devil, not power over him. We are not more powerful than the devil, but we do have more authority as believers in Jesus Christ.
Just as a policeman in uniform has the backing of the entire government and all its forces, so do believers have the backing of God and all His forces, when we stand against the devil in Jesus' Name.
God gave you authority and expects you to use it. If you disobey God by not using it, things will not go very well in your life.
JESUS WON! COLOSSIANS 2:15 NKJ
15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.1 JOHN 3:8 NKJ
8 He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.HEBREWS 2:14 NKJ
14 Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,Jesus won the victory. It legally belongs to you. But the devil is a criminal, who does not obey the law unless forced to. You must enforce Jesus' victory and Lordship in the situations of life, or the devil will take control by default.
EPHESIANS 1:21-23 NKJ
21 far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.
22 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church,
23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
WILL GOD DO IT? After Jesus' resurrection, and before His physical return to Earth, Scripture clearly puts responsibility on the believer to exercise the delegated authority of Jesus to resist the devil, and all his works.
Praying to God to stop the devil's operations is no different than my son asking me to take out the trash, after I have told him to do it.
God told us to resist the devil and he would flee. We must believe and act on God's Word.
Jesus defeated the devil as your substitute. According to Matthew 28:18, all authority on Earth belongs to Jesus. As His earthly representatives, we have the responsibility to use His authority here.
ROMANS 16:20 NKJ
20 And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.Verse 20 seems to say God will stop the devil -- which would contradict all these other verses. There is no contradiction when you realize it is God, working within the believer, to control the devil. In other words, the believer must control the devil, but the power to do it is of God.
YOU CAN CAST OUT DEMONS Any Christian can cast out demons. All Christians have authority over them through Christ Jesus.
MARK 16:17-18 NKJ
17 "And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues;
18 "they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover."All believers have authority in Jesus' Name to cast out demons. This clearly means every believer has authority over all the devil's forces.
SHUT OUT THE DEVIL EPHESIANS 4:27 NKJ
27 nor give place to the devil.Would God tell us not to let the devil have any place, if we had no say about it? If the devil does have a place in our affairs, it's because we allowed it.
JAMES 4:7 NKJ
7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.We must first submit to God, because we are not greater in power than the devil. But submitted to God in Christ Jesus, the devil must back off when we resist him.
1 PETER 5:8-9 NKJ
8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
9 Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.Notice that the devil has to seek someone to devour. He cannot devour anyone he likes, only those who will not resist him.
EPHESIANS 6:11-13 NKJ
11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.With the whole armor of God we will be able to stand against whatever the devil tries! Without using what God provided for our protection, we will fail.
REIGN AS A KING ROMANS 5:17 NKJ
17 For if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.)How can believers reign (literally as kings) in life, if the devil can do whatever he likes to them?
1 JOHN 4:4 NKJ
4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.Never forget -- no matter what it seems like -- the Greater One is in you!
YOU CAN OVERCOME REVELATION 12:11 NKJ
11 "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.In this spiritual conflict we must be committed to Jesus, no matter what the cost. If the devil can get us to operate in fear or doubt, he gains the advantage over us. We must enforce the victory won by Jesus -- at the cost of His own blood -- by the words of our mouth. Authority is exercised by spoken words.
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