Thoughts From my Notebook I Ponder ????

satan - demons - lucifer - Fiction - Myth - Reality???
(Part 2 of 2 - Binding & Loosing)

By Glen Miller

In the May/June issue of Voices From His Excellent Glory, in Thoughts From My Notebook That I Ponder, we were considering the literal reality of Lucifer and what the Bible has to say. Some people think satan is a myth, a figment of the imagination, a halloween character in a red suit. If you study scripture or deal with problems in people's lives, you soon find out he is alive and well on planet earth.

We find in Genesis, chapter 3, that satan disguised himself as the serpent, deceived Eve and stole planet earth, which had been given to Adam - and he is a liar and deceiver to this day.

As we concluded Part 1, we found Jesus beginning to deal with satan's kingdom. In Matthew, chapter eight and verse sixteen, we found Jesus upsetting and beginning to destroy satan's kingdom. "When the even was come, they brought unto him (Jesus) many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick:"

Again, in Matthew, chapter nine and verses thirty-two, three and four it says, "As they went out, behold, they brought to him a dumb man possessed with a devil. And when the devil was cast out, the dumb spake: and the multitudes marvelled, saying, It was never so seen in Israel. But the Pharisees said, He casteth out devils through the prince of the devils."

Nothing has changed since Jesus' time - just as the church back then rejected His ministry of deliverance, so do many churches do the same today. In fact, many ministers teach against the deliverance ministry. But Jesus is our example.

In Matthew, chapter ten, verse one, Jesus sends the twelve disciples out and gives them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and disease, and in verse seven and eight, Jesus instructs the disciples and says, "And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give." The LORD Jesus is a free gift to all men (and women). For God (WHAT?) SO LOVED the WORLD that HE gave HIS only SON - and WHO SO EVER WILL BELIEVE ON HIM (the LORD Jesus CHRIST) SHALL HAVE ETERNAL LIFE. I pray that you also are a, WHO SO EVER.

In Matthew, chapter twelve and verse twenty-two it says, "Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb: and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw." Do you understand why the man was blind and dumb? It was a devil, demon, disembodied demonic spirit, and when it was cast out, the man both spake and saw.

In Matthew, chapter seventeen and verse fifteen, a man came to Jesus and said, "Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatick, (crazy) and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water." Verse seventeen, "Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me. And Jesus (and Jesus did what?) rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour."

In Mark, chapter one and verse twenty-one, Jesus goes into the synagogue at Capernaum on the sabbath and taught. In verse twenty-three, it says, that there was a man there who had and unclean spirit and he cried out, verse 24, saying "let US (more than one demon) alone." In verse twenty-five, Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Hold thy peace and come out of him." Verse twenty-six, "and when the unclean spirit had torn him, and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him." Here is a man that is in the church. He has more than one unclean demon that evidently threw him to the ground and screamed with a loud voice as he came out.

Demons are not always polite when the have to leave the person or as they will say, "My house - this is my house." You do not leave the person that has been delivered of a spirit, as the example in Luke, chapter eleven, verse twenty-four says, "When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out." When a person has been delivered of a demonic spirit, never let them leave without laying hands on them and praying the Holy Spirit to take possession and fill every place that a demonic spirit has been driven from so that they have no place to come back to.

We learned long ago, the truth of binding and loosing. Jesus said in Matthew, chapter twelve and verses twenty-eight and nine, "But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you. Or else how can one enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he (you) will spoil his house." And again, Jesus said in Matthew, chapter eighteen and verse eighteen, nineteen and twenty, "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. Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."

The Scriptures say, we, you and I, have the authority in Jesus name to bind and cast out the demon spirits.

See other "Notebook" articles.

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