Watching the movie the Exorcist and then Nightmare on Elm Street, throughly traumatized me as a young kid. You see, the church I grew up in believes that demons really do exist, and that part of spiritual warfare is to battle against them. So, I witnessed deliverance ministry at church and heard about demons, and then watched these super scary movies where vampires would laugh as they crushed a crucifix. If Satan had shown himself to me then, I would have needed a fresh change of undies no doubt!
The first time I can remember personally confronting demonic powers was on my first missionary trip to Costa Rica. There was a city that had a very dark spiritual atmosphere, and both drugs and violence were an issue. I remember getting off the bus and then waiting for our contact to pick us up. A demon possessed girl came and stood across the street and stared at us for one hour (because of course it took an hour for someone to show up — it was a YWAM outreach you know). Later that week, as we were interceding for the city late one night, the hair on the back of my neck stood up. Suddenly I had a vision of a large red dragon over me and the city, and I knew it was Satan. Needless to say, since that trip, I am a firm believer that PART of spiritual warfare is demonic oppression.
What is the main way we fight against demons? I believe the main weapon we have is to first know what our authority and identity in Christ truly is. All kinds of books have been written about step by step exorcisms or deliverance ministries. We will discuss that more later. More important is to know Scriptures like Colossians 2:13-15, “And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.” Note the past tense of the word “disarmed”, as in Jesus has ALREADY beaten all spiritual powers of darkness through the power of the cross.
Another favorite of mine is Ephesians 1:13-14, “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.” Being “sealed” carries two connotations from its use in Greco Roman culture. You would seal a letter or document back then to provide 1) protection- you would have to break the seal in order to read the contents; and 2)ownership- your family crest or symbol would be impressed into the seal so that as soon as you saw the letter, you would know who is was from (or who owned it). The meaning here is that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit “seals” us as believers, meaning we have both protection and we are spiritually owned by God.
When you put these two passages alone together, the one thing Christians should never have in spiritual warfare is fear! Neither Satan nor Freddie Krueger has power over us as Christians. Why? First of all, our identity is now in Christ, and Christ is clearly Lord over all spiritual forces. Second, we have 24 hours a day, 7 days a week protection through the Holy Spirit. In a later post, I will show how Scripture tells us that the only power Satan or demons have over us is what we give them through sin or fear. Before being concerned about how to do deliverance, you must know who you are and what you have in Christ.
So, the next time you are tempted to say, “The devil made me do it”, remember that the devil can’t make you as a Christian do anything. Better just to confess that you are lame and gave in to sin. Otherwise, you imply that Jesus and the Holy Spirit aren’t powerful enough to stop Satan or protect you. If that is true, well, that is the end of our blog series on spiritual warfare. Game over.
The Bible Nerd 