Demon Possession (3)

We've been looking at the concept of demon possession in the last couple of weeks and Actually tonight we're gonna see that that may not be the best term for it But it's the term that's so frequently used that we'll go ahead and begin with that and then we'll Kind of delve into some other language in a little bit, but We've looked in the past couple of weeks at the reality of demon possession that it is a very real phenomenon the frequency of it we saw that it was there was a spike of demon activity and Control and influence and so forth through the Ministry of Christ, but it still continues today may have been a greater frequency of it then but still continues today We looked at the character of demon possession and we looked at a word in the New Testament It really is used to describe demon possession the Greek word diamond edsmas and we saw that it means one who is actively controlled or influenced by a demon and is Himself or herself more passive in the process which basically gives us the idea that the demon is controlling that person's mind or personality That's the the contribution of that word study We defined demon possession we talked about some of the characteristics of it We've looked at the symptoms of demon possession those suggested in scripture particularly by the man in the tombs of Guderra because he is such a a great example with an extended account of the various things that manifested themselves in regard to his behavior and Mindset and even speech and so forth So we looked at that and then we looked at some marks that are suggested by counselors those who Deal a lot with the concept of demon possession or demon influence and write a lot or who have counseled people in that area We looked at some of the marks that they noticed we've looked at the degrees of demon possession found that there may be different degrees depending on The degree of wickedness in the character of the demon remember the story where Jesus said a demon who had found the house swept out went and took seven demons more wicked than himself and so that Indicates there's some level of wickedness varying levels of wickedness in demons so the degree of wickedness may Determine the degree of demon possession and then the number of demons that are inhabiting a person remember the man at the tomb was inhabited by a legion of demons and At least that was what the demons called out their name was because many had gone into him Luke 8 says and other Gospels do as well and Allegion is 6,000 Roman soldiers so whether or not we're we're actually being told specifically there were 6,000 soldiers or if that term Legion is just use of a great number in that passage either way More than one demon can can Influence a person and then we also saw that the rank of demons There are higher and lower ranks of demons and depending on the rank of a demon that can Can vary the degree of Demon possession then we ended last week by talking about the continuation of demon possession although there was an unusual frequency of demon activity in the Ministry of Christ it does continue into the book of acts the early church writers Pastors and teachers in the early part of church history give evidence of recognizing demon possession in their time and current writers also give us the same testimony of The continuation of demon possession and so it does continue right on up to today That's where we left off last time any questions on any of those topics before we we move into a very controversial Topic and one that is of great interest to a lot of people Any any comments or questions? Yeah Sure Yeah, I think there may be something to that bill in the sense that The reason why God commanded that entire civilizations be exterminated was Because of the depth of their sin and the the depth of their pagan religion most of which would have included some kind of Occult or demonic activity which had gotten so bizarre they were sacrificing their children and so forth to these false gods So there's obviously a very deep level of demonic involvement in these people's moral behavior their lifestyle and their religion and So when God commands the extermination of a whole group of people is particularly Canaanites he says You know when he made the promise to Abraham that he would give him that land He said that your people will remain in Egypt until the iniquity of the Amorites is full Which indicates that they will reach a certain level or Depth maybe who is a better way to put it assess pool death to where The whole civilization needs to be wiped out or The young ones will just continue when they grow up what's been done before and it will just come right back and And a part of that obviously was demonic activity and occult activity So that no doubt played a big part Yeah, and and again it was it was so that Israel would not be tempted by those nations to commit idolatry and all of the accompanying sins that that involved and Then lose their distinctiveness as God's people so it would protect them There's a lot going on there as to why God would command extermination of whole Nations, but the demonic activity surely played a part Okay, you think else Okay, we're going to tread where angels dare to tread tonight with Talking about Christians and demon possession and the real question here is to what extent Can a Christian be influenced by a demon or controlled by a demon or possessed by a demon and What is even the right terminology to use in in all of that? I want to approach this very carefully because it's a hot topic. It's a very controversial topic And I think sometimes the terminology Leeds us astray the terminology that you use sometimes leads us astray or gives us a false sense of complacency but the place to begin is with some biblical considerations We have to you know anytime you come to a controversial topic It's best to kind of back off of that a little bit rather than just diving into the controversy The first thing to do is make sure that you settle what you know Biblically Okay, so Make sure that we have that foundation. We settled that and then we can move into the area where there's maybe not quite as much clarity In biblical teaching So two biblical considerations we want to deal with first the first one is the indwelling of the spirit The indwelling of the spirit it's important consideration when we think about how much or to what degree Believers may be influenced or even controlled by demons It's important to establish and remember this first. This is foundational Every Christian is indwelt by the Holy Spirit Every Christian is indwelt by the Holy Spirit a couple of verses on the screen for you Familiar ones in this regard on this particular topic Romans 8.9 You however Paul says to the Roman believers are not in the realm of the flesh But are in the realm of the spirit in other words you've you've moved from the control of one realm into the control of another in a positional sense That's very important to to understand if indeed the spirit of God lives in you So there's the indwelling of the spirit of God. Well, how do you know if the spirit of God lives in you? Well if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ they do not belong to Christ so He equates the Indwelling of the spirit with belonging to Christ with being his with being his possession And that means if you are a believer if you are in the family of God you are his child your his possession Then you have the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit lives in you now that That indwelling means that the Holy Spirit maintains an abiding presence with you at all times He never leaves. He is with you at all times Look at the other passage in 1 Corinthians 6 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit? Who is in you Whom you have received from God you are not your own you were bought at a price So because of redemption because of salvation We have the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit is in us and therefore we're to glorify God and in that context He's talking about Sexual sin. It's quite clear. He's talking about immorality. He's talking about joining your body to that of a prostitute or harlot and and he says that kind of sexual sin has bodily consequences and In that context he says come on don't you realize your body is supposed to be set apart to God from sexual sin Because you belong to him and the Holy Spirit is living in you He makes your body his temple so he is he is there all the time and so it's important to recognize that factor so Let's get that down that the Holy Spirit in dwells every believer However that may not necessarily exclude the influence the presence of a demon Again, I think The word that becomes confusing here is possession when we talk about demon possession That communicates the idea that we are the possession of Satan and so we automatically think no I'm not the possession of Satan. I'm the possession of Christ. I've been bought with the blood of Christ I'd be long to him Well, if you're going to focus on the word possession then that that Strong dichotomy can be made that no I can't and Satan can't have any say over me at all He can't influence me or control my mind or personality in any way because I don't belong to him I'm not his possession. I am the possession of God and So maybe the word possession which is not really the word used in the New Testament is not the best word I think that even though we are in dwelt by the spirit and we belong to Christ and we'll come back to that later That should not give us a false sense of complacency or smugness that we don't ever have to worry about demons We don't ever have to worry about their influence. They'll never influence our mind. They'll never influence our behavior or our personality. I think we better be a little bit more careful than that and Let me give you an analogy We still have the sinful nature in us don't we we still have the flesh in us The presence of the Holy Spirit does not exclude The power of the flesh from our lives the powerful the sin of the simple nature It is not the presence of the Holy Spirit that negates the simple nature. What is it? It's the control of the Holy Spirit the filling of the spirit not the presence of the spirit But the control of the spirit and I'll prove that okay look at Galatians 5 Look at Galatians 5 Paul says so I say then walk by the spirit Walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh Okay, the flesh is there and it's got desires and you will gratify them if you are not walking by the spirit now to walk by the spirit means to live in constant yieldedness and confession of sin and under his control It's the same thing as the filling of the spirit which means for the spirit to control your behavior Okay, so he goes on to say for the flesh desires what is contrary to the spirit spirit what is contrary to the flesh They are in conflict with each other So that you are not to do whatever you want in the words our lives are not our own We we are to yield to the control of the Holy Spirit But the fact that the Holy Spirit is present does not necessarily mean okay No more problem with the flesh the flesh can't bother me the flesh can't have any control over me The flesh can't influence me in any way that is not true The flesh wages constant warfare against you and against the desires of the spirit in order to combat The control or power of the flesh you have to walk in the spirit you must be filled with the spirit which By definition means to to live under his control So really what we're talking about here is Is whether or not the flesh or the Holy Spirit are going to gain control To whom will you yield control? Well if that's true of the flesh Then I think it would also be true of Satan and a demon The presence of the Holy Spirit in your life does not automatically mean well, I don't have to worry about demons at all Man, they're not gonna bother me. No, they may If you are not yielding yourself to the control of the Holy Spirit you can be attacked by demons now Remember again the whole the whole concept of possession is the word we get tripped up on Because we don't belong to Satan We're not in his family anymore. We are in the family of God. We belong to God So that English word possession is the one that kind of trips us up And I think sometimes gives us a false sense of complacency that I can I really can't be bothered by demons That's just unsafe people No, if you can be if you can be drugged down by the flesh you can also be attacked by a demon and Your mind your personality your behavior can come under the influence of a demon I think I think that's a legitimate parallel and and please don't think of this in terms of The Holy Spirit takes up a certain space inside of me so there's not room for the for a demon to influence me I don't think of it that way because the Holy Spirit doesn't take up any space He's a spirit being and Remember the the Demaniac of God there how many demons did he have influencing him? 6,000 I mean, it's not a matter of they each take up you know a Cubic centimeter of space, so you only got room for so many that's not the issue So the issue is not okay the Holy Spirit is in me so there's no room for a demon That's not the issue at all The amount of space is not the issue at all The issue is totally about control That's what the issue is about that's what the issue is with the flesh Coordinulations five and that's what the issue is with with the influence of demons as well And we're gonna look at just a moment at a particular example of that in the New Testament, but It's important to understand that the Holy Spirit is with us to give us victory over the world the flesh and The devil and all his cohorts his demons doesn't doesn't mean we're not gonna be troubled by any of those three We will be And we can be if we're not yielding to the control of the Holy Spirit then we're just giving up control to whatever the world The flesh or the devil So don't get too complacent By thinking well, I can't be demon possessed because I'm a Christian Maybe we need to drop the word possessed and look at it more biblically it has to do with control Who's influencing you? Who's influencing your thinking? Who's influencing your behavior? Who are you yielding control to being obedient to? That's the real question Okay, I'm gonna pause I just did a lot of talking. I'm gonna pause and see you have any questions comments before we look at one other important consideration Biblically, Bill Right Again, it is an issue of control and it's not really an issue of space whether or not they're actually inside me or Right here with with a spirit being that's not the issue space where they are is not the issue because There's spirit beings. I mean they can go right through me if they want to the issue is control That's the real issue who am I yielding control to? So demons are always around I mean Satan walks around Throughout the earth seeking whom he made the vow and Peter's talking to believers there I mean Satan's after you to attack you so certainly I think we could say demons would be to Try to do it. So yes, I agree. I think you're right And we're gonna talk a little bit about our position in Christ and that is a very Important biblical concept too which helps us kind of keep centered here and keep a balance But before we jump into that any other questions about how the indwelling of the spirit influences whether or not a demon can influence us You know questions about that Okay, then let's talk a little bit about our position in Christ again These are biblical considerations very basic foundational truths the indwelling of the spirit we understand that but now our position in Christ Now remember that when you get saved You were to use the New Testament term particularly highlighted in Romans and Galatians you were justified That means you were given a standing before God a position of Perfect righteousness in God's sight Not because you are now perfectly righteous, but because he sees you as being in Christ And so when he looks at you he sees Christ Christ's righteousness has been placed on your account It's it's a legal and financial Bookkeeping thing that God does where you are now given a perfect standing Righteous before God you're justified, okay, and that has to do with your position in Christ your position is Secure Your position in Christ forbids any separation from God It forbids any loss of your salvation Even if a demon were to try to take you out of Christ he cannot do it So can demons influence you? Yes, can they rob you of your salvation take you out of your position in Christ? No No, say John how do you know that well Paul said a little something about that in Romans 8 look at these verses on the screen He says for I'm convinced that neither death nor life now notice neither Angels nor demons Neither the present future powers height death anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God That is in Christ Jesus our Lord now remember that comes always remember the context that comes at the end Of a great chapter that has to do with our position in Christ especially from verses 29 on through verses verse 37 those Those passages talk about those verses talk about our position in Christ who can condemn us no one because Christ has Has taken our place and saved us and made us perfect in our standing before the Lord so all of that Is the is the lead up to this conclusion and the conclusion is that nothing can separate us from the love of God Now does that mean in the sense that God loves all people whether or not they're saved? No not in the context in the context He's talking about the love of God which has demonstrated itself in Christ giving himself for us so that we are saved We are in Christ. We are eternally secure No one can condemn us because Christ is now for us all those verses leading up to this That's what kind of love he's talking about the love that is expressed in our salvation So nothing can separate us from that not even a demon Okay, now a demon can influence your thinking a Demon can influence your behavior and to whatever extent you yield control of those to him He can control your thinking or behavior, but he cannot take you away from Christ He cannot take away your salvation Now there's an example of this in the New Testament and what have you turned to this one? I didn't put it on the screen because I want you to look at it in your Bible. It's in Matthew 16 Matthew 16 again familiar story Jesus is having a very intense discussion with the disciples It's a very critical turning point the nation of Israel has formally through their leaders turned their back on Jesus and basically said You're doing your miracles by the power of Satan and Jesus has basically said okay, that's it The nation is done. I'm now turning to the disciples and and working with them more and more and so on the heels of that He says in chapter 16 you know Who do people say the son of man is to his disciples? Let's get that nailed down Who are people saying the son of man is and they gave different answers? Some say you're alive. You're one of the prophets Jeremiah So forth Jesus looks at them and says what about you? Who do you say that I am and Peter gave that great answer? You are the Messiah the son of the living God and Jesus commends him for that says the father had revealed that to him and He was thinking the thoughts of God there and Then in verse 21 notice this verse 21 from that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and Suffer many things at the hands of the elders the chief priests and the teachers of the law that he must be killed and on the third day Be raised to life Peter took him aside Jesus is explaining to them clearly. I'm gonna go to Jerusalem. I'm gonna suffer many things. I will die They're gonna kill me I mean, this is the clearest he said that to his disciples up to this point verse 22 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him Never Lord he said this shall never happen to you And notice Jesus response Jesus turned and said to Peter get behind me Satan You are a stumbling block to me You do not have in mind the concerns of God but merely human concerns In other words, you're not thinking the thoughts of God. You're thinking the things of an unregenerate man Now why did he address Satan? Because what Peter was thinking and what he was expressing At this time were not the thoughts of God Now it was his mind was not under the control of God the Holy Spirit But Jesus makes it quite clear this these were Satan's thoughts these are mere human thoughts apart from any influence of the spirit of God and he addresses Satan who literally is His controlling Peter's mind and mouth to think and say things that really are not the thoughts of God So what happened there? For those few moments Satan was influencing Peter's thinking and Peter's words Can the devil or one of his demons influence our thinking? To some degree at least control what we're thinking and what we say yes And that's why Jesus rebukes him and kind of brings him back to this this yieldedness to the Lord You're not thinking the thoughts of God come on get back under the right umbrella here if you will so Remember these two things number one the sin nature may still Control the way you behave If you are not yielding to the Holy Spirit So likewise Satan and his demons may control the way you think influence to a point of control the way you think and behave just like the simple nature may And that's what seems to be happening to Peter In fact, did you know that the Bible teaches that the sin nature? Can exercise such control Dominate you to the point that God may chase and you if you do not respond to him He may chase and you to the point that he takes your life Okay Look at these verses first Corinthians three Paul says don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple that God's spirit dwells in your midst This is not the same as first Corinthians six of the the use why oh use in this verse are plural in the Greek So it's plural he's talking about the church the church Corporately is God's temple that God's spirit dwells in your midst if anyone destroys God's temple God will destroy that person for God's temple to sacred and you together You plural are that temple There is something sacred about God's church and people who attack and tear down God's church bring themselves under the judgment of God To the point that if that continues God may destroy that person And and you're familiar with what was happening in the communion at Corinth and how they were abusing the significance of communion with the Divisions in their church and so Paul says to them in chapter 11 Versus 30 to 32 he says that is why because of your Pertaking of the Lord suffering an unworthy manner that is why many among you are weak and sick and a number of you have fallen asleep That's Paul's word for the physical death of a believer But if we were more Desiring with regard to ourselves that comes right on the heel of heels of saying in verse 27 Let him examine himself so that we protect of the communion in appropriate manner If if we were more desiring with regard to ourselves were dealing with sin We would not come under such judgment Nevertheless when we are judged in this way by the Lord we are being disciplined So that we will not be finally condemned with the world there's a difference between the chasing of a believer Which if we don't respond to may result in physical death? There's a difference in that and being ultimately fully finally condemned like the world unbelievers The result of that condemnation for unbelievers is an eternity in the lake of fire for believer it is a death that Humanely speaking was premature if they had been obedient to the Lord they would not have suffered that chasing and Would have gone on to live a productive life for Christ so big difference, but still the sin nature May control one to the point that God disciplines God judges God chastens and If there's not a response that can eventually lead to death so I think the same thing can be said of The control of the world and the control of Satan and his demons Okay, it's not an issue of who am I possessed by that has to do with your position in Christ You're possessed by you you are the the belonging of the possession of Christ Because you're redeemed you're his you're his child, but control Who will you yield control to? That's a different issue and and the Bible seems to make it clear that if we're not walking by the spirit the flesh is going to be in there battling away seeking control the same thing is true of Peter in relation to his his thoughts in Matthew 16, okay, so The issue of can a Christian be possessed by a demon is not quite as simple as Well, I'm saved so I have the Holy Spirit in me. There's not room for a demon. It's not quite that simple folks The issue is a little more Complex than that biblically and basically it has to do with yes The Holy Spirit does and dwell you maintains a constant biting presence the reason he is there is to give you the power to overcome the pull of your simple nature the allure of the world and the attack of Satan and his demons Doesn't mean they're not going to be present doesn't mean they're not going to try to exercise control and influence But the Holy Spirit is there to help you fin them off If you yield control to the spirit then you'll be able to have victory over Satan's day. They will not control you But if you don't yield to the spirit they may very well just like the simple nature may and just like the world may so you know the issue is not quite as Simple as I'm a believer so demons can't mess with me that they can they sure can I Think those are the the main biblical considerations to think through when we're talking about demon possession and Believers questions comments Yes Isn't it a rational thought Yes He exactly and that's the crux of it John No Right and and sometimes like in this case the things that are not of God sound very rational and what any friend or Concerned person would do, but that's why that's why Jesus says to him you're thinking the thoughts of men That's the way the average person would respond a Peter could have responded differently if he had Remembered the Old Testament prophecies in other words if his mind had been under the control of the word of God Then he would have understood the Old Testament prophecies declare that the Messiah must suffer that he must die I understand that as much as I don't like it. I submit myself to the word of God I understand that but he wasn't thinking the thoughts of God He was thinking the thoughts of man and whenever we don't think the thoughts of God and bring ourself Under under the the control of the word of God then we give room for Satan to come in and say Come on Peter. You're a good friend. You don't want this to happen to Jesus come on and Interject that thought that would be normal to the average person. No, this will never happen to you But it's just an evidence of the fact that his mind was not under the control of the word It was under the control of what natural human thought would be That's a good point John. Yes, Bob Yes Being double-minded. Yes Being uncertain in our thoughts wavering back and forth between two opinions James says and the way that we keep from that is to Center our thoughts Ground them on the word of God because then they won't be shaken and we won't be wavering Now Let me let me back up from that just a second and say sometimes indecision is is more a factor of Personality certain personality types are more indecisive than others to use the old Tim Lehigh categories If you are Flegmatic or particularly melancholic if you have a melancholic personality you're going to tend to be indecisive so we have to be careful not to put all endecisiveness in that same category but Even for a melancholic person if you You have to be more diligent at it and work at it harder But if you focus and center your thoughts on scripture it will help ground your thinking so the same principles true even Given personalities just the melancholic person is going to have a little more Struggle with that and more difficulty with that going to have to come back to the word more and more and more and center your thoughts Yeah Did I see another hand or foot or something going oh been Exactly Good good point we need each other don't we it's the battles too big for any of us on our own That we individually put on the armor and so forth, but the the The family of God the body of Christ is certainly important you who are Spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of meekness considering yourself less You also be tempted so there's this coming to the aid of a believer who's being overtaken in a fault by other believers Okay, I'm not going to take the time to read the experiential considerations I quoted last a red last week from Fred Dickerson's Excellent book on angels Fred Dickerson was for 35 years the Professor at Moody Bible Institute was chairman of the theology apartment for many of those years good training Doctorate from Dallas seminary good solid training. He's not Way out there in left field, but he does deal with some some specific Examples particularly on the mission field where strong believers came under satanic attack so much that there was there was a large degree of Demon control even the kind where another voice comes out and so forth He gives several documented instances of that I'm not gonna take time to read all that because I want to make sure for one thing We don't have time, but I also want to make sure we do not base our doctrine on experience Okay, I wanted to spend our time on the word of God make sure we get that down But we can gain insight from experience and sometimes Particularly in areas where the scriptures are not real decisive and there's a little bit of a wiggle room or a gray area there sometimes what we what we experience can help us Be aware that maybe we've misinterpreted the the evidence But we don't base what we believe on experience if there's clear biblical teaching that's where we start and end and experience either Confirmed that or the Bible corrects experience But there are certainly documented cases of people who appeared in every sense of the word to be committed faithful long-term believers Who have come under severe satanic and demonic attack? Okay, have we about worn that one out now demons and Christian or Christians and demon Possession or control really the better word Okay, then I'm gonna yes bill Fred Dickerson D.I.C.K.A.S.O.N. Dickerson It's a book that I have used a lot in our study on demons among others, but it's It's the more theological one It you know you get a lot of people that write on demons and angels right great books, but they're more Sermonic they're more Practical this one is just good straight solid theology So it's very very good very deep Okay, I want to take the last five minutes to summarize because we'll get into a whole new topic next time On the occult and demonic influence in the occult, but I want to just summarize the conquest of demon possession There is help and deliverance victory power To defeat demonic Control or influence and the first the first we need to recognize is the conquest in Christ It is clear in the New Testament that Christ cast out demons that he had power and authority over them We've already seen a number of examples of that, but it's also important to remember that Jesus judged Satan and all of his demons at the cross he defeated them at the cross Now they may they may fly around do a lot of bad stuff, but they are defeated. They are already a defeated fo Okay, just look at or and remind yourself of these verses John 1231 now Jesus speaking The evening before or shortly before his death But now is the time for judgment on this world now the prince of this world will be driven out Jesus is looking ahead to the cross which he's in the last week of his life there The next chapter he'll be in the upper room the night before his death So he's saying now the times come it's here. It's honest now where the prince of this world will be driven out A term of victory and defeat Okay, chapter 16 verse 11 Jesus says again. This is in the upper room the night before he died The Holy Spirit comes to convict of sin righteousness and judgment and the way he can fix about judgment He says about judgment because the prince of this world now stands condemned He is condemned by the work that Christ is ready to do the next day on the cross And then Galatians 2 15 makes it very clear Talking about in the context across and abolishing the law through the work on the cross verse 15 says and having disarmed The powers and authorities remember the different ranks of angels in this case evil angels He made a public spectacle of them try umthing over them by the cross and the the word picture here Is the picture of a victorious Roman army that would lead a victory procession The general would lead a victory procession through the streets of Rome and and behind him would be Some of his soldiers behind that would be some of the goods that they had taken from that conquered nation And then the very last thing to be walking down the street in that procession would be a sample of of conquered Warriors in chains Parading them before the Roman people is a sign of the great victory and that that word picture Paul uses of Jesus after the cross he disarmed Uh the powers and authorities the demons and made a public spectacle of them like walking them through the streets of heaven That he has defeated them Um, and that conquest is brought by his cross So Christ has all the power and authority over demons So don't don't ever forget that You know, it's easy when we start investigating the The attacks of demons the schemes of Satan and all of that that we kind of get paranoid thinking man, you know Demons under every rock and Satan around every corner and I'm under attack all the time and how can I ever win this battle? over remember Greater is either that is in you than he that is in the world Christ is greater. He's already won the victory So don't ever forget that there's where you have the conquest and then just briefly conquest by Christians It is clear that the apostles cast out demons in the New Testament Jesus gave them that authority in the gospels Matthew chapter 10 verse 1 Jesus called his twelve disciples to him gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and heal every disease and sickness So they had the power to do that the apostles did um They they demonstrated that and exercised that on numerous occasions Several occasions. Maybe it's a better way to put it in the book of acts Uh, the question is are we supposed to do the same today Well, um, a couple of things here real quick one is we're not apostles Um, we are not gifted with supernatural miraculous powers um, and we're not we're not under any pressure to Show the credentials of being apostles establishing the early church So we can't expect to do the same thing the apostles did randomly However having said that there still is great spiritual warfare in this world and demonic influence and particularly as we've seen before in places where um, Satan's strongholds are very strong And the light of the gospel is not penetrated to culture you'll find a lot of demonic activity and missionaries will sometimes tell some really amazing stories of coming Into those kind of strongholds and being put in a position where they had to They had to cast demons out of people they had to to claim the blood of Christ through specific prayer claiming the victory and authority of Christ One at the cross over those demonic strongholds, but be very careful about that Um, no Christian should go looking for combat Remember Ephesians 6 Says that we have the armor to do what go out and turn over the rocks and hunt for Satan and dig him out and Wack him over the head no to stand That's the reason we're given the armor to stand You don't have to go looking for the attack. He'll find you he'll attack you You stand and so I don't believe it's appropriate for us to go looking for people to cast demons out of um But there are times Uh, this particularly as I said on the mission field where there are great strongholds of darkness where those kind of direct confrontations do take place And if that happens certainly we shouldn't shy away from them, but we shouldn't be going around looking for demons Under everything and in everybody and seeking to cast them out All right, our time's up. So let's pray and we'll go Father, thank you for the reminder that our position in Christ cannot be threatened by any demon That we are secure in you nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ so we are um secure in that position But we are not complacent in that position We understand the strategies of the evil one at least to some extent lord. We certain to understand them all And so help us not to be presumptuous thinking we've got him figured out So lord help us to depend totally upon you and the control of your spirit who is in us with us at all times To give us the ability to stand It is only in your strength by your power submission to your word control of your spirit that we can ever hope to overcome that enemy So may we depend fully upon you in Jesus name. Amen