Jesus cast lots of demons out of individuals but did He deal with the ruling evil Power over Jerusalem, or that which drove the religious leaders, or the evil spirits behind Rome - which together conspired to crucify Him?
One day He will, but not just yet. One day we will see all things under His feet and "The kingdoms of this world become the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ",(Revelation 11:15)
Heb 2:
[i][color=000066] 5 For He has not put the world to come, of which we speak, in subjection to angels. 6 But one testified in a certain place, saying:
What is man that You are mindful of him,
Or the son of man that You take care of him?
7 You have made him a little lower than the angels;
You have crowned him with glory and honor,
And set him over the works of Your hands.
8 lYou have put all things in subjection under his feet.
For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. [i][b]But now we do not yet see all things put under him[/b][/i]. 9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.[/color][/i]
[The New King James Version]
That doesn't mean we can't be used by the Lord in dealing with lesser evils, or with Enemy strongholds that He is giving temporary respite from. For example, I've heard that, in the Beatles era, when they began to go into drugs and Eastern religion etc, their pet Guru (forget his name) was going to visit them in Britain. When he arrived he had to turn around and go straight back, all his power was gone, I think, before he even stepped off the boat!
It seemed Christians were praying against his coming.
Yet, not many years later, he was able to come and the powers he brought with him had a huge, evil and lasting influence on our culture.
Was it because Christians had let their guard down, or did [i]God[/i] actually allow it? If He did, [i]why[/i] did He?
Kings and Chronicles both have the account of when David decided to number the people. One account says that Satan influenced David to do this wrong thing. The other says that [i]God[/i] caused it to heppen because He was angry with the people!
Which is true? Both of course!!!
So we need to know the mind of the Lord in each time of warfare. The OT battles give good illustrations of how to fight on the spiritual level. When people didn't obey the Lord or slipped into idolatry, they were defeated. When they obeyed they were victorious. When God said, "You don't need to fight this battle" they prayed instead, or praised because they believed Him, and the victory was given. God even said, occasionally "Don't fight. When they came to the Promised Land the first time, they rebelled and were afraid to go in, so God wouldn't allow them afterwards to go and try to fight, it was too late.
Jesus used different "methods" when healing and casting out demons. When there was a storm on Galilee, (as someone suggested, probably a demonic storm) Jesus didn't even bother to fight - He just went to sleep. He only took authority against the storm (apparently the words "be still!" literally mean "be muzzled!") in response to the terrified disciples' plea (and when fishermen panic at a storm at sea it has to be a bad one!)
Some examples off the top of my head, there must be many more.
Each time the ways of victory are different. But always from the basis of HIS Victory on the Cross. We fight FROM that Victory, not in order to gain it.
As it says in James 4:7, "Submit... to God. Resist the devil..."
....''Sigh'' I wish I knew more of the [i]practice[/i] of this, as well as the theory! :-(
Yours in Him
Jeannette
|
