Sons and Daughters of the Living God
Title: Angels and Demons 2
Subject Matter: Some general information on angels and demons, and some practical information on dealing with demons.
Speaker: Neal Leazer
Recorded December 10, 2014 at Spirit Filled Living – a local church in Apex, NC
You can download the audio by right-clicking on the following link: Angels and Demons
I am writing this post to explain something that is very plain and easy to see in the Bible, but seems to be absent from the understanding of many Christians I come in contact with.
According to the Bible, every Christian has absolute authority over every demon, and the devil himself. And as we will see, this authority is a gift. It is not the result of hard work, study, holy living, devotion, prayer, fasting, or any other religious activity.
We are going to look at some passages from Ephesians 1 and 2. Paul, the writer of Ephesians, explains this authority by first showing us the authority of Jesus, and then showing how that relates to us as believers.
Our first passage comes as part of a very long paragraph, and it is difficult to break into the middle of it, so I am going to quote the whole thing here. Our focus in this passage will be on the later verses.
Ephesians 1:15-21
15 Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints,
16 do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers:
17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,
18 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,
19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power
20 which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,
21 far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.
Notice that it says in verses 20 and 21 that Jesus has been seated at the right hand of the Father in the heavenly places. Notice also that this is a position that is far above all “principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.”
Paul uses the words “principalities and powers” (and so on) to describe demons and evil spirits. He uses this same terminology later in this same letter when he says this:
Ephesians 6:12 – For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
So, going back to Ephesians 1:20-21, Paul is showing us that Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father, and He is far above every evil spirit or demon or fallen angel or any other evil spiritual being that exists.
In a kingdom, being seated at the right hand of the king is the highest position that is available. There is no higher rank than this. And since the the Kingdom of God is the greatest Kingdom, and since there is no authority in existence that is higher than God the Father, then we know that being seated at His right is to be in a place of unmatched authority. Jesus is in this place of authority at the Father’s right hand. Jesus has absolute, unconditional authority over all demons.
Please keep the previous information in mind as we continue reading in Ephesians. And please pay very close attention here. What you are about to read is so amazing that it is almost hard to believe.
I am going to quote the next part of the passage here, and we will skip to the end and work our way back.
Ephesians 1:22-2:6
22 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church,
23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
2:1 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,
2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,
3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus
Take a very close look at the last verse above. Ephesians 2:6. I want to show it in several different translations, so that you can see what it is saying.
NET – and he raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,
NIV – And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,
NASB – and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
NLT – For he raised us from the dead along with Christ, and we are seated with him in the heavenly realms––all because we are one with Christ Jesus.
NRSV – and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
NKJV – and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
God the Father has seated us at His right hand, in the same seat of authority that Jesus occupies (we are WITH Christ and we are also IN Christ). This is a place that is far above every demon, every fallen angel, every evil spirit, and even the devil himself. It is the same seat of authority Jesus occupies, as mentioned in the passage that we looked at earlier. The Bible says that God decided to allow you to share the throne of Jesus. That is astounding!
God has chosen to give us, His beloved children, a level of authority in the spirit realm that is above every other created being.
Also, please notice the tense of the verbs. This is not something that will take place in the future. The verbs are in the past tense. It doesn’t say that we will be seated, it says we have already been seated. This is something that has already happened. We, as followers of Christ, have already been given authority that is far above the enemy.
Take a moment and let this sink in. If you have never seen this before, it make take a while. It is a staggering truth to comprehend. We have absolute, unconditional authority over all demons. We are in a position that is far above them. We are above even the most powerful and highest ranking forces of evil. This explicitly includes principalities, powers, and every name that is named.
To further emphasize this truth, read Ephesians 1:22-23 again. It says “And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”
All things are under the feet of Jesus. Jesus is the head of the church. The church is His body. The feet are part of the body. All things are under His feet, so all things are under His body…so all things are under the church. The picture that God wants us to see is that every demon is under our feet. We have authority over all demons.
If you believe the Bible, then you need to believe this, because it is in the Bible, and it is true.
It is true whether or not you realize it. It is true whether or not you believe it. Rather, it is true because God said it. When you decide to believe it, that doesn’t make it true. It was true already. But if you will choose to believe it, then you can and will begin enjoying the benefits of it.
Authority over the devil and demons is not something that we should be working towards. It is not a goal or a target. It is a fact that is true right now. It is already so. We don’t have to work for it, it was given to us as a gift. God gave it to us “because of His great love for us” (Eph 2:4), not because of our hard work and holy living.
When you chose to put your faith in Jesus, several things happened. You were declared righteous and holy by God the Father (Romans 5:1). You were spiritually born again (John 3:5-8) into the family of God (John 1:12). You were given citizenship with full rights into the Kingdom of God (Eph 2:19). And you were placed into a seat/position of authority that is higher than every other created being (Eph 2:6).
All of this took place the instant you believed. It was all an act of unmerited goodwill (grace) from your heavenly Father. You did not work to earn any of it. It came as a result of faith in Jesus, “not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph 2:8).
It was given as a free gift, totally apart from your own goodness or merit. Like I said before, you did not earn your place with God by working hard, reading your bible, fasting, praying, giving to the poor, or any other good deed. It was all a free gift.
Since it was a free gift, and since you already possess all of these things, then you can be very confident that you do not have to achieve any level of performance in order to maintain any of these things…including your authority.
Your authority over the devil did not come as a reward for your holy lifestyle, and likewise it not be decreased or taken away because of any moral or ethical failures, large or small, that you may experience during your life. Don’t get me wrong…sin is bad, and sin can make things very difficult for you. But remember this: your level of authority over the devil is not related to your ability to avoid sin. You have authority over the enemy, even when you sin.
So never let the enemy lie to you and tell you that you have lost your authority because of something you did. That is just a lie to trick you into becoming an easy target.
If you have any experience working in a job for different managers, supervisors, or company owners, then you can probably identify with what I am about to say. There are some people in a position of authority that can speak and people will listen to them. Then there are other people in a position of authority that can speak and people will ignore them, or disrespect them, or any other variety of responses.
It is possible to have a position of authority…to have authority…but not know how to use it.
You have authority over the devil, but it is not doing you any good if you don’t know how to use it.
In my next post, I plan to spend some time giving some examples of how to use the authority that your Father has given you. But for now, I want to highlight something from the beginning of the first passage I quoted in this article.
Ephesians 1:15-19
15 Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints,
16 do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers:
17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,
18 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,
19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power
The writer is offering a prayer here. Notice that he is not praying for God to pour out His power, or to give the people more authority. He is praying that the people would open their eyes and realize what they already have. We do not need to be praying for more power or more authority. That is actually unbelief….you don’t believe that God gave you what the Bible says that He already gave you. If we want to pray about this subject, we should be praying that God would help us see what He gave us, and train us and help us learn how to use what He has already provided.
So, in closing, I encourage you to pray something like this: Father, I believe that you have given me power and authority to represent you, and to destroy the works of the enemy. Help me understand this. Teach me how to cooperate with you to do your will, and to use this power and authority to bring glory and honor to Jesus. Amen.
Title: Renewing Your Mind
Subject Matter: In this class we discuss various areas where we need to change the way we think, particularly in relation to our inheritance from our Father in heaven.
Speaker: Neal Leazer
Recorded November 12, 2014 at Spirit Filled Living – a local church in Apex, NC
You can download the audio by right-clicking on the following link: Renewing Your Mind
“The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other guy die for his.”
― George S. Patton Jr.
We are citizens of the kingdom of God (Phil 3:20), sons in His family with full rights and privileges (Gal 4:7), ambassadors with authority (2 Cor 5:20, Luke 10:19), and soldiers in His army with supernatural weaponry (2 Cor 10:4).
We are at war. We have an enemy, but our enemy is not a human enemy (Eph 6:12). It is a real enemy, but it is not a visible, physical enemy. It is a spiritual enemy. It is an opposing army that is loosely organized under the leadership of a fallen angel named Satan. He is called the ruler of this world, and he is a renegade criminal dictator (1 John 5:19). He has a kingdom (Luke 11:18) that is called the power of darkness (Col 1:13) that he is seeking to expand. That kingdom is our enemy. I will call that enemy “he” or “him” in this letter, but I am referring to members of that enemy kingdom.
Our enemy has infiltrated our society and culture, our government, and our churches.
The weapons that he uses against us are not missiles, bombs, and bullets (although sometimes those come as a result of his influence on humans). His weapons require our cooperation, our complacency, or our ignorance in order to have any lasting effect on us. They include (but are not limited to):
deception
intimidation
manipulation
enticement and temptation
condemnation
defilement
judgmental, finger-pointing, self-righteous Pharisee-ism
backbiting or gossip
factions
enslavement / bondage to addictions
unbiblical religious tradition
other forms of physical, mental, or emotional problems
Through these weapons, our enemy uses us against each other, and against ourselves….like we are his foolish little puppets. Does this make you angry? It should.
Here is some insight into some of the ways our enemy operates.
He will pound on you with temptation over and over until you give in, and then he will point the finger at you and rub your nose in it. If you don’t give in, he will leave you for while, in search of an easier target. He will likely return to again at a more opportune time. He will tempt you to use your own voice to injure your own wife, family, and friends. He will lay traps to entice you into doing something you will regret. It is still your choice, but the traps can be very deceptive. Then he will lie and tell you that you are the only one, and that God is mad at you, and you are a failure, and all kinds of other crap. He will tempt you to judge other people, or get offended, or criticize someone behind their back, or who knows what else.
But if you don’t cooperate, then power of the enemy is very limited. Our enemies do not have physical bodies, so they can’t come and put you in a headlock and make you do things. You have a choice. You can do something about it. But they have cleverly convinced most people to either blame the “issues” on their past, their parents, God’s will, or God’s mysterious plan or timing. The goal is for us to think that we just have to live with it, or to just try harder with more willpower. This allows the enemy to go around defiling and afflicting people without much retaliation from anyone.
Every now and then, some folks start learning about the weapons of OUR warfare, and start learning to cooperate with God to enforce His will and set people free.
When this kind of thinking begins to break out among the citizens of our Father’s Kingdom, the enemy does not just sit back and watch. One of his counter attacks is to stir up controversy in the body of Christ and have people to stand up and label these soldiers as heretics, or greedy, or crazy, or ignorant, etc. Or they use fear of failure or fear of rejection to keep people sitting on the bench.
Another tactic is to present a false choice. For example, people will say something like “developing your character is more important than miracles.” Or “God is more interested in your heart than in physical healing.” Those are false choices. We don’t have to choose one or the other. We are supposed to “pursue love AND desire spiritual gifts (1 Cor 14:1).” God forgives all our sins AND heals all our diseases (psalm 103:3)
When forced to choose between ethics/morals and the power of the Kingdom of God, I imagine that our enemy would much prefer us to focus our studies on self-improvement rather than power and authority. This puts us in a defensive mindset, and it will limit the scope of our ability to inflict damage on their kingdom. But we don’t have to choose one or the other. We can do both. You can learn to live wisely, AND learn to use the authority and power God has entrusted us with.
The body of Christ is being tricked, robbed, and abused. We should be putting our foot on the devil’s neck. We should be evicting every trespasser. But instead, many Christians look at you like you have two heads when you start to talk about this stuff. There are actually preachers that attack other Christians who are trying to figure out how to use our weapons.
All of this should make you angry. Not angry at yourself, and not angry at any other person. It should make you angry at the father of lies, who is sowing unbelief, legalism, and ignorance in the body of Christ.
We are at war. But it seems to me that most Christians do not understand this. Or if they do, they think that they way to fight this war is to huddle in a corner and pray for our “General” to come and do something.
But our “General” gave us authority and equipment, and then told us to take the fight to the enemy. Yes, the battle is the Lord’s, but He has chosen to fight the battle through you. He has given every believer the right, privilege, authority, and power to destroy the works of the devil in every place that we find him working. And if we aren’t following orders, then we don’t need to blame it on the General when things don’t go the right way. We need to go back and reexamine the orders and the strategy, train, and get back out there and fight again.
The works of the devil are sickness and disease, oppression (spiritual, emotional, mental, physical), and condemnation.
Acts 10:38 “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, who went about DOING GOOD and HEALING ALL WHO WERE OPPRESSED OF THE DEVIL for GOD WAS WITH HIM.”
Our weapons are healing the sick, casting out demons, and preaching the gospel. Set people free from sickness, oppression, and guilt and condemnation. That is how you attack the enemy. That is how you damage their kingdom and take ground. That is how we fight offensively.
That is what our General has equipped us for.
That is His strategy.
That is His will.
Healing is war.
Deliverance is war.
The gospel is the POWER OF GOD.
And as we (every believer) learn to preach the full gospel, with signs following, then we are getting closer to what we are built for.
James 4:7 says “resist the devil and he will FLEE from YOU.” It is your job to MAKE HIM RUN AWAY FROM YOU. You are to make him sorry that he ever messed with you and your family. If you don’t know how, then start learning.
Wars are not won by only playing defense. We are not seeking to merely hold our ground and protect our fort. We are seeking to destroy our enemy and make sure it is known that we are not a group of men that are just going to lie down and take another beating. We do not need to be afraid of the enemy. The enemy needs to be afraid of us.
Title: Grace vs Law
Subject Matter: Exploring some of the differences between law and grace, and how those differences affect us
Speaker: Neal Leazer
Recorded November 11, 2014 at Spirit Filled Living – a local church in Apex, NC
You can download the audio by right-clicking on the following link: Grace versus Law
This question has been coming up again in the last few weeks, and I wonder if there are more people out there thinking about this. If so, then here’s my answer.
Let’s begin with the passage:
Gal 4:13-14
You know that because of physical infirmity I preached the gospel to you at the first. And my trial which was in my flesh you did not despise or reject, but you received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. What then was the blessing you enjoyed? For I bear you witness that, if possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me.
Some people use this verse to imply that Paul had some kind of eye disease or other sickness, and that God would not heal him. Personally, I believe that is a little far fetched. It requires you to make a lot of assumptions, and eventually you have to come to a conclusion that contradicts the life of Jesus on earth. If you have to make assumptions, then I think you should make assumptions that agree with the life of Jesus.
For the record, Jesus always healed everyone that came to Him. There is not a single exception to this in Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. And He was doing God’s will all the time, so it was always God’s will to heal. If it was God’s will for Paul to have an eye disease, then the Father’s will is very different than what Jesus was demonstrating on the earth. But the Father and the Son and the Spirit all agree, all the time. God is not divided against Himself. And when Jesus ushered in the New Covenant, it included both forgiveness of sin, and healing.
So, with all of that in mind, let’s move on to something that will help us understand what is going on. Read this passage from the book of Acts, where we are given some insight into the events that preceded Paul’s initial visit to the people he was writing to.
Acts 14:19-22 (NET Bible)
But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and after winning the crowds over, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, presuming him to be dead. But after the disciples had surrounded him, he got up and went back into the city. On the next day he left with Barnabas for Derbe.
After they had proclaimed the good news in that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, to Iconium, and to Antioch. They strengthened the souls of the disciples and encouraged them to continue in the faith, saying, “We must enter the kingdom of God through many persecutions.”
As far as I have been able to figure out the timeline, it looks like Paul was stoned in Lystra just before he went to other churches in the region of Galatia. Galatia is a region, not a city, so the letter to the Galatians would have been sent to churches in cities like Derbe, Iconium, Antioch, etc.
Paul was visiting these places right after he was stoned. Crowds of people had just thrown rocks at his head, face, and body until it looked like he was dead. He may have even died and been raised from the dead when the other believers gathered around him to pray. We aren’t told if he actually was dead, or if he just looked dead. Either way, he was in bad shape.
I assume that he looked pretty beat up at the time that he went to Derbe, since he had just gone through this. And since his body was all beat up at the time, it would fit the statement in Acts 14:22 “We must enter the kingdom of God through many persecutions.” This also fits the statement Galatians 4 that we are studying now, except that most translations use the phrase “illness” instead of infirmity or weakness. This is a form of the same word “infirmity” that I covered in my post on Paul’s Thorn.
So, Paul was recovering from a traumatic beating. And although it was a miraculous recovery, apparently he still had some scars and bruising, and so he probably looked pretty rough. Personally, I believe this is what he is talking about when he is talking about his infirmity or his weakness or his appearance. In other words, he was beat up the first time he went there, so he is referencing that in the letter to the Galatians.
You would have to make many assumptions to go from the text in Galatians 4 to a conclusion that Paul had an incurable eye disease. Even so, there are respectable Bible teachers and commentators that make this assumption and promote it to others. I have even seen some people go as far as to give the name of the disease. I would suggest that we use greater caution before making assumptions that contradict the life of Jesus, especially when it concerns something so clear as His willingness to heal sick people.
Acts 10:38 – God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.
Title: Taking Every Thought Captive
Subject Matter: Using your God-given authority to overcome temptations
Speaker: Neal Leazer
Recorded October 29, 2014 at Spirit Filled Living – a local church in Apex, NC
You can download the audio by right-clicking on the following link: Taking Every Thought Captive
Title: Our Position of Authority
Subject Matter: A look at the position of authority that God has given to His children in the area of spiritual warfare
Speaker: Neal Leazer
Recorded October 22, 2014 at Spirit Filled Living – a local church in Apex, NC
You can download the audio by right-clicking on the following link: Our Position of Authority
Title: Baptism with the Holy Spirit
Subject Matter: An overview of the Baptism with the Holy Spirit, along with my own personal testimony.
Speaker: Neal Leazer
Recorded October 15, 2014 at Spirit Filled Living – a local church in Apex, NC
You can download the audio by right-clicking on the following link: Baptism with the Holy Spirit