Beloved: grace, mercy and peace be yours from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. I am delighted to welcome you to the first week of the month of November 2023. My prayer is that God will continually fill your heart with adequate wisdom and boldness to use the authority He has given to you in Christ Jesus to always destroy the works of the devil in your life and all around you. Amen.
Do you know that God has given all of us who are His children authority over the devil and all his works? Yes, He has done so through His Son, Jesus Christ. Look at what our Lord Jesus Himself says about this: “I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.” (Luke 10:19NIV) Did you see that? Satan actually has power. And that is why he is able to cause all kinds of troubles in our world and even in our lives.
However, the Lord tells us that He has already given us authority to overcome his power and to destroy his works. Think about that. He is not going to give us authority over the devil and his works – He has already given it to us. And it is now up to us to acknowledge what we have received from Him. Yes, it is up to us to daily function as those that have been entrusted by God with the authority to destroy the works of the devil.
Remember that it is said about our Lord Jesus that He came to destroy the works of the devil (1John 3:8). It is also said about Him that He went about doing good and healing all those oppressed of the devil (Acts 10:38). And though He is no longer physically present in the world, He has given those of us who believe in Him the authority to carry on the works He was doing when He was here. He has given us the authority to resist the devil in our lives and all around us and get him running.
But we must show that we have actually received this authority from the Lord. How? First, it is by thanking Him for it. It is written in the bible that people were always praising God for giving to humanity the authority to destroy the works of the devil, whenever Jesus set someone free (Matthew 9:8 & 15:31). And if you too know that you have received the same authority from Him to destroy the works of the devil and make your life and this world better, you should continually thank Him for it.
The second way to show that we have received from God the authority to overcome the power of the devil is to use this authority. Authority that is not used to serve the purpose for which it has been given is useless. So, until we begin to intelligently use the authority God has given us over the devil to frustrate him and his angels, that authority will be as good as useless in our hands.
See, it is our use of the authority God has given us over the devil that will cause peace, joy, prosperity and healing to reign in our lives and in our land. It is our use of this authority that will bring salvation to the lives of many. For example, Luke, speaking about the ministry of Paul in Philippi, tells us of their encounter with a lady that had the spirit of divination in her. According to him, this lady troubled them for many days with her spirit of divination. That was because she was following them up and down, telling people that they were servants of God and giving them the impression that they were being used by the same spirit. (Cf. Acts 16:16-18)
Surprisingly, God did not do anything to that young lady. God did not drive her away or stop her from disturbing the works of these apostles. Why? He had already given them the authority to deal with the spirit in her. If they, then, chose not to deal with it, the problem was theirs and not His. But when Paul rebuked the spirit in her in the name of Jesus, it left her and she was set free. So, she stopped disturbing them and also stopped deceiving people.
In like manner, there are times that if we do not use the authority given to us by God to deal with the devil, God may not do anything about his works in our lives and around us. Yes, we may be in pains and not be happy at all because of Satan’s wicked works. Yet, if we will not use the authority we have in the name of Jesus to deal with him, God may just be looking at us. And perhaps that is why you are experiencing pains and sorrow in certain areas of your life right now. While you are waiting for God to do something about those pains you are having, He also is waiting for you to use your authority to make yourself free. My prayer, then, is that your heart will be strengthened to rise up and begin to use that authority that is yours in Christ Jesus to end every evil work of the devil in your life and around you, so that you may experience perfect peace. Amen.
Have a splendid November 2023.
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