HOW TO EXERCISE YOUR AUTHORITY OVER DEVILS

I will never forget when the Lord appeared to me in
a vision in 1952 in the state of Oklahoma. He said, "I'm
going to talk to you about the devil, demons, and demon
24 Demons and How To Deal With Them
possession.
This experience lasted about an hour and a half. Jesus
stood before me as I knelt. Suddenly an evil spirit that
looked like a monkey jumped up between us and caused
a black cloud to appear. I couldn't see Jesus, but I could
hear Him. He kept right on talking. Meanwhile, the spirit
threw his arms and legs out and hollered in a shrill voice,
"Yakety-yak, yakety-yak, yakety-yak."
He kept on acting that way and thoughts ran through
my mind faster than machine gun bullets could fire.
I thought, Dear Lord! I'm missing what Jesus is saying
(instruction He was giving me about dealing with the
devil). I heard the sound of His voice, but I couldn't
distinguish the words because of this "yakety-yak"
business. I couldn't see Jesus because the cloud was there.
Then I thought, Doesn't Jesus know? Doesn't He know
I'm not hearing Him? Why doesn't Jesus do something
about it? Why does He allow it?
Finally, in desperation, I spoke to the spirit. I said,
"I command you to shut up in the Name of Jesus!"
When I said that, he hit the floor like a sack of salt:
"kerplop." The dark cloud disappeared, and I could see
Jesus. Then Jesus said something that absolutely
astonished me — something that upended my theology.
(We get so concerned about theology that we miss the
Bible.)
Jesus pointed to that little fellow lying there (and not
only lying there — he was shaking all over, trembling from
head to foot and whining). Jesus said, "If you hadn't done
something about that, I couldn't have."
In my astonishment, I said, "Lord! I know I
misunderstood You. I'm sure I did. You didn't say you
couldn't" — and I pointed to that little fellow still lying
there whimpering and shaking all over — "You said You
wouldn't, didn't You?"
Jesus said, "I said," — and He pointed to him — "if
you hadn't done something about that, I couldn't."
Now understand "that" didn't include just the demon;
it included the dark cloud that shut off the vision of Jesus
and heaven. It included communication that didn't get
through — prayers, or whatever.
I said, "Lord, I know something happened to me. You
didn't say You couldn't; You said You wouldn't, didn't
You?"
And very emphatically He said, "No! I didn't say I
wouldn't; I said I couldn't."
"O dear Lord," I said. "I can't accept that. It's against
everything I've ever believed! It's against everything I've
ever preached!"
I said, "I won't accept any vision unless You can prove
it to me from the Bible — particularly the New Testament.
You said in Your Word, 'In the mouth of two or three
witnesses every word may be established' " (Matt. 18:16).
Do you think He got angry with me? No, He smiled
so sweetly and said, "I'll give you one better; I'll give you
four."
He said, "There's no place in the New Testament where
the Church or Christian believers are told to pray against
the devil. To pray against the devil is to waste your time."
When He said that to me I said, "Dear Lord! I've
wasted so much time!"
He said, "The New Testament tells believers
themselves to do something about the devil. And if they
don't, there won't be anything done. I've done all I'm ever
going to do about the devil."
That came as a real shock to me. "Now," He said, "I'll
give you the four references which prove that. First of all,
in Matthew 28, when I arose from the dead, I said, 'All
power is given unto me in heaven and in earth' (Matt.
28:18). The word 'power' means 'authority.' " (If you
stopped reading right there you'd say, "Why, dear Lord
Jesus, You do have authority here on the earth."
But He said, "I immediately delegated my authority
on earth to the Church." In Mark 16 we are told to go into
all the world; we're authorized to do that.
MARK 16:15-18
40 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and
preach the gospel to every creature.
41 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but
he that believeth not shall be damned.
42 And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my
name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new
tongues;
43 They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any
deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands
on the sick, and they shall recover.
Jesus said to me, "Not one time does any New Testament writer tell you to pray to God or to Me, the Lord
Jesus Christ, to do anything about the devil. Every single
time they tell you to do it. You're the one who has
authority. You're the one who's to rule."
The next reference He gave me was James 4:7: "Submit
yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will
flee from you. "
Now, as Jesus said, you couldn't do that if you didn't
have authority over the devil. James is writing to believers.
This is not something to be foolish about. One preacher
told me he had the devil on the run. He said the trouble
was, he was running and the devil was after him.
James says to resist the devil and he will flee. I looked
up the word "flee" to get a clearer knowledge of it. One
shade of meaning was "to run from as if in terror." The
devil will run from you in terror. Most people are running
from him in terror. They're talking about what he's doing
and how he's keeping them sick and unsuccessful. They
give the devil dominion over them. But let's talk about
what God's Word says. Let's talk about the authority we
have because of the Name of Jesus.
Sometimes people wonder why heaven seems unreal to
them. (The devil is trying to blot it out.) They wonder why
it seems they can't get through. (The devil is trying to cut
heaven off.) They pray and wonder why God permitted
a certain thing. (He has already said for you to do
something about it.)
The fourth Scripture is Ephesians 4:27: "Neither give
place to the devil. " Jesus quoted that to me, saying, "That
simply means, 'Don't let the devil have any place in you.' "
He said, "That means the devil can't take any place in you
unless you let him. That means you've got the authority."
Sometimes I'll put up with things when I know they
ought not to be. Finally I'll put my foot down and tell the
devil he's gone far enough. I tell him to stop.
God said in His Word for you to resist the devil. God
is trying to get us to exercise what really belongs to us.
And although we don't have authority over human
spirits, any Christian can take authority over the evil
spirits behind such harassment. In the privacy of your own
home, you can deal with the situation by saying, "You foul
spirit that is operating through So-and-so (call their name),
embarrassing, intimidating, hurting, deterring the
ministry of this church, I command you to stop in Jesus'
Name!" (Kenneth E Hagin)