A power encounter that occurs as the Kingdom of God is being preached and with the power and authority of Christ.
Now, what's so important for all of us here is to realize that this power and authority is not from us, it's from God in us.
In this episode, I want to talk about the power and authority that God has given all of us as Jesus' followers.
Now, this is for those who are Jesus' disciples. If you're a Jesus' disciple, you have the Holy Spirit living within you.
In Acts 1.8, Jesus, in instructing His disciples about what was going to happen soon to them at Pentecost, He says,
You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and even to the remotest parts of the earth.
And then He commanded them before He left the earth, He said,
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching them everything that I've commanded you,
and lo, I'm with you always, even until the end of the age.
So we've been given power and authority, but the model of how to do ministry in the power and authority of Christ that affects the satanic and the demonic starts in Luke 9.
So in Luke 9, Jesus has 12 disciples, and He gives us a model by virtue of the way in which He delegates, and this is important, He's delegating His power and authority to us.
So Luke 9.1, when Jesus had called the 12 together, He gave them power and authority to drive out demons and to cure diseases,
and He sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.
Jesus has already been doing this, well now He's delegating it to the church, He's delegating it to these 12 men, and they now have power and authority over the demonic.
And if you've listened to Satan, Demons, and the Fourth Dimension, I explain in that series a little bit more about the power and authority that we have.
But when you've received Christ, you've received the Holy Spirit, you have that same power and authority that's given to you.
And so He gives that to the 12 disciples, and He tells them to go out.
So they go out, they cast out demons, they heal the sick, and it's amazing, the results are amazing.
Take nothing on the journey, no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra tunic, whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town.
If people do not welcome you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that town as a testimony against them.
So they went out from village to village, preaching the gospel and healing people everywhere.
So it brings such a disruption that in the next verse it says,
Now Herod the Tetrarch heard about all that was going on, and he was perplexed because some men were saying that John had been raised from the dead.
In other words, what happens next is that actually the political and religious authorities are upended by this,
they're confused by this because of the effectiveness of the 12 disciples going out, healing the sick, and casting out demons.
Well then we go to Luke chapter 10.
So in Luke 10, Jesus expands His ministry now to 72.
So it's gone from 12 to 72.
After this, the Lord appointed 72 others and sent them out two by two ahead of Him to every town and place where He was about to go.
He told them the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.
Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest.
Go, I'm sending you out as lambs among wolves.
So He sends them out to preach the kingdom of God.
And then in verse 17, it says,
The 72 returned with joy and said, Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.
So there is this power encounter, a power encounter that occurs as the kingdom of God is being preached and with the power and authority of Christ.
Now, what's so important for all of us here is to realize that this power and authority is not from us.
It's from God in us.
So when we get saved, we receive the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit fills us with His power, and we can go forth in that power.
And I remember the first time that I experienced this, where I had a young man who was struggling with suicide, despair, and violence in his life.
And when I used the name of Jesus, the demons in this young man manifested themselves, and I had to cast them out.
And it was quite an experience.
And then over the years.
As I've encountered demonized people, people who have allowed themselves to be taken over
by a demon in an area of their life and then had authority and power in me to cast that
demon out, it's been amazing the name of Jesus and the power to set that person free
that happens.
We have a young man on staff with us right now, and I didn't even realize this until
a few months ago.
He's only been on staff for a few months, and we were driving somewhere, and he said,
do you remember at that worship conference that we had two years ago that you cast out
demons out of a guy there on the front row?
And I said, yeah, I remember that.
And he says, well, that was me.
And I went, what?
That was you?
And now he's on staff with us.
That was like crazy.
I didn't even remember who it was.
But we have authority and power, men and women, to cast out the demons.
And the reality is nobody else has that power but Jesus followers.
Hindus don't cast out demons.
Muslims don't cast out demons.
Atheists don't cast out demons.
Agnostics don't cast out demons.
It's only spirit-filled Jesus followers that can drive back darkness.
So even in our county, we live in a county, El Paso County, we live in the city of Colorado
Springs in the state of Colorado.
And in our state, in our city, in our county, the only way demons are going to get pushed
out is through workers, evangelists, preachers, Christians, Jesus followers, coming with the
power and authority that they possess already and then taking that to the streets, taking
that into their neighborhoods, taking that into their schools and believing that when
they share their faith with someone, when they pray for someone, God's given them authority
and power over the demonic.
So wherever you are, whatever you're doing, God has given you that kind of power.
God can use you in your school, God can use you in your job, God can use you in your family
in a mighty way to set people free from the demonic.
Well, in Luke chapter 10, Jesus listens as all of the 72 disciples come back, been amazing
what they've seen.
And then in verse 18, Jesus makes a very interesting statement.
He says, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.
I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power
of the enemy.
Nothing will harm you.
Amazing.
So even in this case, what we're seeing is the kingdom of God is coming.
The kingdom of God has never come with this kind of authority and power until Jesus came
to the earth.
This kind of power, this kind of authority has never come until Jesus delegates it first
to 12, and then to 60 others.
So 72 now are going out, and this is a precursor, a prophetic work of God that's now been also
given to the church.
And I'll talk about that more in my next episode, what God has given the church in power and
authority.
But he says, Satan fell like lightning from heaven.
Now there's all kinds of different commentaries on that.
Some have said that's a picture of when Satan was kicked out of heaven.
Some have said that.
And I believe that is true.
I believe that Satan was ejected out of heaven in his rebellion against God.
Again, that's in the Satan, Demons in the Fourth Dimension series that I did.
But I believe this is actually literally what Jesus said he saw.
I think he literally saw this happen, that in the fourth dimension, where Satan inhabits
that world with the minions of his demonic powers, that through the preaching of the
kingdom, through healing disease, through believers walking in their power and authority
in Christ, that Satan was actually driven back in his power and authority that affects
the three-dimensional world.
So even as the demons were cast out, Satan actually falls from heaven, loses his power
and authority through the greater power and authority of Jesus' followers, preaching
the kingdom, healing diseases, and casting out demons.
And then he says to us that we've been given that authority to trample on snakes and scorpions
and to overcome all the power of the enemy.
So wherever you are in your journey with Christ,
Christ, this may be news to you, but you have power and authority over the demonic.
You have power and authority over Satan.
And that power and authority drives back any kind of darkness anywhere you are.
But you have to say it.
You have to speak it out.
You have to go forth with a confidence and faith that God can use you.
And it's really exciting to know that wherever we go, God has given us authority over that
territory, over that area.
And we can walk in that power and authority in our lives.
So he goes on to say, Jesus says, At that time, Jesus, full of joy through the Holy
Spirit, said, I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you've hidden these
things from the wise and the learned and revealed them to little children.
Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.
So God uses humble people.
It's not always the most educated.
It's not always the most sophisticated.
It's people who have a confidence and faith in Christ that God uses.
And that's why so many times when we begin to walk in this kind of power and authority,
you might as well get used to persecution.
There is going to be pushback coming your way as you walk it out.
And the reason is, is because the learned, many times the most advanced degree people,
the people with the most power and authority on earth, are not the kind of people that
Jesus uses.
Jesus uses humble people.
He uses sometimes people who, first of all, know that they don't have what it takes.
And they know that God has everything that it takes.
And they're trusting God.
So God uses the most uncommon people.
I'll tell you, man, when I look over the years on the mission field, as well as in the pastorate
and all the things in different churches and pastors and leaders that I've been around,
it's oftentimes the most unsophisticated individuals who just have faith to trust God that are
used in masterful and powerful ways because they're open to letting the Spirit work through
them.
Are you?
Are you today open to letting the Spirit use you to cast out demons?
Are you willing to let God use you to push back satanic power?
Because you have what it takes.
If you have Jesus Christ living in you, you have exactly what it takes.
Satan can fall like lightning in your family, in your community, by you trusting God and
walking in his power.
And in the next message, I'm going to explain and finish up this series by looking at the
power of the cross.
We have the power of the cross.
We have the power of the resurrection Christ working within us.
And God wants us to build churches that the gates of hell cannot prevail against.
So God bless you.
And I hope this has been helpful to you.