TWO SIDES OF THE COIN

God told you to resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Many Christians know that it's the devil trying to destroy their life today. He's trying to kill you with sickness and disease, or he's stealing your prosperity from you. You know what's

happening isn't God's will, but you're praying, "Oh Lord, please solve this. Please do something." You aren't taking your

authority. If you are dealing with demonic opposition against you, then you have to step up to the plate, take the authority God has given you, and command the devil to flee.

There are two sides to this coin—submitting to God and resisting the devil. You can't just go around binding and rebuking anything you want. Some people take James 4:7 the wrong way and think things like, It's the devil who gave me this spouse and I want a new one. So I'm taking authority and commanding my new spouse to come along and to get this one out of the way. That's not going to happen because God didn't give you that kind of power and authority. Taking your current spouse out of the way (through divorce) so you can marry another isn't His will. You must submit yourself to God and resist the devil, and then he'll flee from you.

These truths concerning authority will only work for you when you're submitted to God. When you are seeking Him with your whole heart and you perceive the devil hindering you, then you can lake your authority and command those things to change.

If you're just upset because someone cut in front of you in traffic and you say, "I hope they have a wreck down the road,"

that isn't going to come to pass. God didn't give you authority to curse people like that; you aren't submitted to Him if you do it. But when you are submitted to God, then you can resist the devil—actively fight against him—and he will flee from you.

When I was still in a denominational church, my friends and I stumbled into casting out demons. We saw a woman who normally would have been put into a mental hospital for the rest of her life set free. We knew her problem wasn't physical or natural, but demonic. We also knew that the authorities wouldn't understand, so we locked her in a room for seven days and took shifts ministering to her. We'd praise God, sing songs about the blood of Jesus, and read Scripture. We didn't know what we were doing, but we literally just beat the devil out of this woman—not with our hands, but by singing about the blood and speaking against the devil. We just stayed in there until we saw this woman delivered of demons. Once word got out how she had been restored to her right mind, people started coming to us from all over.

"WHAT'S YOUR NAME?"

Another time a homosexual fellow came to us to be delivered.

We didn't really know what we were doing, and to make matters worse, we read a book that taught us all kinds of fallacies like, you can't cast out a demon by yourself, you must have two people, you had to get their name, and you must have the person throw up in a bucket. We did some stupid things by following that book's instructions.

We spent three weeks preparing this homosexual for

deliverance, which you don't have to do. There's a group in the city where I live who think it's godly to require people seeking deliverance to fill out a forty-page questionnaire and then endure a forty-five day waiting period before they'll cast the demons out. That's not the method Jesus used!

Back when we thought we had to always get the demon's name, a friend of mine who was casting out a demon from someone asked the demon, "What's your name, in Jesus' name?"

The demon answered, "Liar."

Immediately, my friend asked, "Are you telling me the truth?"

"I'M NOT LEAVING WITH THESE DEMONS"

This homosexual fellow we had been prepping came during a Wednesday night service at our church. I was leading the meeting by myself because the associate pastor, who was my partner in casting out demons, was out of town that night. An usher came and got me out of the service, saying, "This guy wants to see you." When I went back and saw him, he had come with another homosexual who wanted to be delivered too.

The fellow we'd been prepping said, "I'm ready to be delivered tonight."

I answered, "Well, we can't do it tonight. I'm by myself." He responded, "I'm not leaving with these demons." "Well, I'm not casting them out."

"You'd better do something because I'm not leaving with these demons."

So I took this man and his friend into a back room in this denominational church. Jamie, who is now my wife but wasn't at the time, came with us to give some prayer support. Jamie wasn't even baptized in the Holy Spirit yet. We had no idea what we were doing.

Once we got to the back room, this man said, "You better plead the blood over this place or do something because these demons are coming out."

When I began praying, "Father, in the name of Jesus," this guy fell to the floor and started barking, slithering like a snake, and throwing chairs up against the glass wall. It was quite a

commotion! When the usher heard this, he went in and stopped the service, saying, "We need to pray for Andrew.

He's back there witnessing to somebody." They didn't have a clue what was going on.

"SHUT UP AND COME OUT!"

In that back room, there was a stack of chairs about ten high.

The other demonized guy was on top of the stack, plastered against the wall, scared to death. Jamie was praying and doing everything she knew to do.

I didn't know how to proceed, but since we were already in it, I started asking, "What's your name? In the name of Jesus, tell me your name." As I went through this, one demon would name itself and then another, and then another. I felt like I was being made a fool because I didn't know if the first demon had come out or not before the second one had named itself. It was ridiculous! Finally, this scripture came to mind.

Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him.

MARK 1:25 I thought, That would be good. So I said, "In the name of Jesus, I command you all to shut up and come out of him!"

Instantly, power was released and this guy lay on the floor just like he was dead. Gently, I shook him to see if he was okay.

He just rolled over and whispered, "I'm free. I'm delivered. I'm

free." I thought, If it's as simple as commanding the demons to come out in Jesus' name, why did I go through all this other stuff?

Although we didn't know what we were doing, we stumbled onto this truth. We used to beg and plead, asking "Oh, God, please get rid of this." I learned through doing that God has given me authority and I don't have to go through all these things. I don't have to ask the demon's their name, make people fill out a forty-page questionnaire, or require them to wait several weeks to get ready. I have authority over the devil and if the person is willing to cooperate, I can go in and

command those demons to leave and they will obey me.

I can't ask God to cast the devil out because that's what He has told me to do. I have to stand up, take my authority, and be confident that when I speak it's going to work. I have to have faith in God's Word—that I do have authority over all devils and to cure diseases. (Luke 9:1.)

SIMPLE ADJUSTMENTS, BIG DIFFERENCE