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Click here to watch the most profound video on Google by Harry Bethel
SPIRITUAL WARFARE By Harry Bethel One of the greatest needs in conservative churches today is scriptural teaching about spiritual warfare. Many Christians are living in some measure of defeat because of the inability to recognize demonic influences in their lives. It is a shame and a disgrace that so many precious Christians are being sent to psychologists and psychiatrists who don't even recognize the reality of the spiritual realm. Beloved brothers and sisters are being tormented by an enemy that is just as real as God's holy angels. And the modern remedy includes everything from sedatives and tranquilizers to electric shock treatments and confinement to mental institutions. Also, church leaders who are inexperienced in spiritual warfare and deliverance ministry usually don't want to talk about the reality of demons. In fact, the fear of demons come from the demons themselves. "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind" (2 Tim. 1:7). Much of Jesus' earthly ministry included casting out demons that resulted in healing the victims of physical and mental afflictions. And before He commissioned the Eleven at the end of His ministry, when He sent out the Twelve, part of their charge was to cast out demons (Mat. 10:1-8). And when the Seventy came back from their mission they spoke of how the demons were subject to them through Jesus' name (Lk. 10:1-17). But this authority was not just for the Twelve and the Seventy. Jesus said in Mark 16:17 that "these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils [demons]...." Not all who have demons or who are oppressed by demons are maniacal like the Gadarene demoniac who wore no clothes and lived in tombs. Jesus delivered a "daughter of Abraham" whom Satan had bound for eighteen years. She had "a spirit of infirmity" that had her bent over and she could not straighten up (Lk. 13:11-16). Even children can have demons. The Syrophenician mother had a "young daughter who had an unclean spirit" and besought Jesus "that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter" (Mk. 7:25-26). And there is the account of the man whose son had a demon: "And Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, and healed the child, and delivered him again to his father" (Lk. 9:42b). Not only did the Twelve and the Seventy cast out demons during Jesus' ministry, but later as recorded in the Book of Acts the apostles' ministry included deliverance: "There came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed every one" (5:16). Also, Philip, who was once a deacon and later became an evangelist, ministered to the people in the city of Samaria: "For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them...." (Acts 8:7). Unclean spirits can even speak through God's people, many times unknown to the victim. "Then Peter took him [Jesus], and began to rebuke him....But he [Jesus] turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan" (Mat. 16:22-23a). Many times I have heard Christians quote James 4:7 saying, "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." But that is the last half of the verse. The first half says, "Submit yourselves therefore to God." Every area of our lives must be in subjection to God. If we do not totally submit to Him, then we give ground to the enemy to influence and defeat us in those areas. And often the work of demons is manifested as a result. In these perilous last days we must realize who the real enemy is. Paul said, "...We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world...." (Eph. 6:12).
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