Authority

​My mom suddenly got sick a few years ago with a terrible stomach pain while teaching our children’s Sunday school class. Two of the kids came running to my office, where I was having a conversation with our Sunday school director about some stuff, yelling, “Pastor Jeff! Pastor Jeff! Miss Donna is sick! She needs you to pray for her now!” All three of us ran back over to the classroom together and when we entered the room, I quickly pulled them back out and told them to go to the older kid’s class for today. My mom wasn’t sick with a physical pain. She was being attacked by a spirit of infirmity. How did I know? Because the moment I walked into the room, my stomach began to hurt, too. As soon as the kids were out of the room, I began to pray- not for healing- taking authority over the room.
I announced my presence in the room, as a Son of God, as pastor of the church, and as someone washed in the Blood of Jesus, presented Holy, blameless, and above reproach (Colossians 1:22). After I established myself as the one with authority in the room that the spirit had to obey I began to speak directly to the spirit, “I bind you with the authority from the Blood of Jesus. You are no longer allowed to manifest in this room…” At that point, I shifted my prayer towards Heaven, “God, I call on 2 angels to enter this room right now and remove the spirit. Holy Spirit come in and turn this pain in our stomachs into peace. Angels, change the atmosphere.” As soon as I said this, both of our stomachs made groaning sounds! My mom’s head instantly popped off the table as she said, “That was weird. My stomach just flipped and actually made noise, as if in response to your prayer.”
“I know, mine did too,” I replied. I went back into prayer, “In the name of Jesus, I command our stomachs to no longer hurt. Peace, right now. Angels, touch our stomachs with the peace of Heaven. Holy Spirit, bring peace.” Suddenly, my stomach became very hot, as if it were boiling inside. My mom lifted her head again and said, “My stomach is really hot!” I asked her if it was comfortable (because I definitely did not enjoy the heat), to which she replied, “No, this is terrible.” So I returned to prayer, “Holy Spirit, I want to thank you for the change, but this heat seems to make everything worse. Would you please change this to a cool sensation?” Instantly, our stomachs both felt as if someone had put ice cubes inside them. It was an incredible sensation, and a wild experience.
You see, I had never prayed this way before that day. It was a first for me. I did not know it would result in the way it did. I did not know I could pray like that. But I had recently read Hebrews 1:14, which basically says Angels are sent to serve us. So I called on angels to see what would happen. And then I called on Holy Spirit to heal. Once He began to manifest healing, all I did was guide Him in a way I preferred. I didn’t tell Holy Spirit what to do. I wasn’t giving Him orders. I am well aware that He knew everything I was feeling and everything that I was about to say. I believe He was showing me how much He wants to partner with us, as well as how much He values our voice and input. He was encouraging me to use the authority we have all been given.
We know Jesus had all authority over the enemy, and still does (there are multiple places that tell us He gave His disciples authority and power over the enemy- Mark 6, Matthew 10, Luke 10- as well as the many examples where Jesus cast out demons and spirits (Matthew 8, Mark 1, Matthew 12 to name a few). In John 14:30, Jesus said Satan had no hold on him, “…the ruler of this world is coming and has no hold on me.” My friend Robby wrote, “We need to realize that if Christ is in us, then the enemy has nothing in us…” If Christ is in you, then you are filled with Him. If you are filled with Christ, if you are hidden in Christ with God, then Satan has no place or right to mess with you. Demons and spirits can only go where we give them permission to go. Now, I will say that they push the limits, and don’t ever ask permission. I have found that they simply attack us, and wait to see if we shut them down. If we do, they obey. If we allow them to stay, they continue to attack, piling on more and more. We have the ability to dictate to the spirits and demons that attack us daily, and when you forbid them from doing something, they must obey.
So friends, I want to encourage you today to use the authority God has given to you. God wants to partner with you, to help you, to reinforce you. He won’t let you down and He won’t hold back. I have found that when I step out, Holy Spirit moves because He wants to encourage me to do more. I hope this encourages you to do more. Bless you…