Chapter Nineteen
Where Did the Devil Come From?
Before we get into the discussion about how we are to confront these alien demonic forces, perhaps it is appropriate to understand where they came from and where they are going. With this knowledge, we get a bit better perspective of where we stand in the overall scheme of things when we enter into conflict with them. The Bible gives us two accounts of the origin of the devil.
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners? (Isaiah 14:12-17)
Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee. Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee. All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more. (Ezekiel 28:12-19)
From these passages, we see the depiction of a magnificently beautiful creature who was overtaken with pride and tried to exalt himself to be equal with God. (Isaiah 14:14) We learn that his original name was Lucifer, that he was originally a cherub – or angel – in heaven. His attempt to exalt himself resulted in not only his own personal downfall but also the destruction of cities and nations as he was cast down to the earth. Jesus adds that He personally witnessed Satan’s fall as if it were lightning out of heaven down to the earth (Luke 10:18) and that he and his demonic assistants are doomed to an eventual judgment in hell (Matthew 25:41). We also learn from the life of Jesus that the demonic spirits recognize that they have only a set period of time before they are to be brought into judgment. (Matthew 8:29) The book of Revelation rounds out the picture of this diabolical creature by depicting his original fall and his final demise.
And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born…And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. (verses 12:3-4, 7-12)
And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season…And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison…And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. (verses 20:3, 7, 10)
From these verses, we learn a number of significant points including that he dragged down one third of the angels with him when he fell. Revelation 1:20 plainly states that “stars” in this vision are to be understood as angels; therefore, by using scripture to interpret scripture, we can see that Lucifer not only doomed himself through his rebellion but also destroyed one third of the angels in heaven. As tragic as that may be, we must remember that this means that there are still twice as many good angles as there are evil ones. Just as these evil angels try to torment us, the good ones are constantly ready to minister to and bless us. (Matthew 4:11; Hebrews 1:7; Psalm 34:7, 91:11-12) Additionally, we see that there is coming a time when Satan will be bound for a thousand years and then loosed for a short season only to meet his ultimate judgment of eternal torment in the lake of fire.
Before we move on, let’s take a bit of a detour and make a short study of the cosmos of our universe. In II Corinthians 12:2, Paul wrote of a man who was caught up to the third heaven, which happens to be the heaven where God lives and rules from His throne room. If there is a third heaven, there must obviously be a first and second one as well. But what are they? Well, it is easy to see that the first heaven is the atmosphere around us – the heavens through which the birds, planes, and Superman fly. (Pardon me; I just couldn’t stop myself.) But the identity of the second heaven can be an enigma wrapped up in a puzzle unless we have a bit of spiritual insight. In order to begin to unwrap this mystery, let’s take a quick journey back to the days of Elisha the prophet. At one point in his ministry, the Syrian army surrounded him and intended to capture him. When the prophet’s servant peeked out the door, he discovered the massive troop encampment and reported the dire situation to his master. Elisha replied that there was nothing to fear since there were more on their side than in the enemy’s army. The servant replied that he wasn’t exactly the brightest student in his math class but that he could count well enough to see that there were only two of them and hundreds of the others. Finally, Elisha prayed and asked the Lord to open his servant’s eyes so that he could see that the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire. (II Kings 6:17) Apparently, what the servant saw was the angelic host that the Lord had sent to encamp around the prophet as his protection. But it is also obvious that these angelic hosts operated in the same time-space continuum as the physical world although they were usually not visible. What happened that day was that God supernaturally removed the dimension wall that separates the first heaven (the physical atmosphere in which we live) and the second heaven (the spiritual world were demons and angels dwell). When we remember that Satan is called the prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:2), we can readily surmise that he must have a spiritual system of power organized in the atmosphere of our planet even though we are not able to see him and his forces. Adding to this understanding that there are at least four references in scripture to the fact that spiritual dominion is exerted in heavenly places (Ephesians 1:3, 20; 2:6; 3:10), it becomes apparent that the second heaven occupies the same space as does the first heaven yet is distinguished from the first heaven in that it is of a spiritual nature rather than a physical one.
Going back to the passages in Revelation, I would like to suggest that we can see a three-stage progression in the devil’s demise. First, he was kicked out of the third heaven in verses three and four. This is the same event discussed in Isaiah, Ezekiel, and in Jesus’ reference to his lightning-like fall. In this expulsion from the third heaven, he fell to the earth and took his place of authority in the second heaven. In verses seven through twelve, we see a second conflict in which he is cast out of the second heaven. Though many Bible teachers would claim this to be a continuation of the original conflict, careful observation of the details of the story would place this struggle at a much later date. First of all, he is described as the one who deceives the whole world, something he was not able to do before his original fall in that the humans had not yet populated the world and his first act of deception occurred in the Garden of Eden after his expulsion from the third heaven. He is also called the one who accuses the brethren – again, a charge that could only be levied against him after the Garden of Eden experience. Another significant fact is that a voice from heaven announced that salvation, the strength and the kingdom of God, and the power of Christ had come – a proclamation that was totally out of place at the time of the fall of Satan from the third heaven. Rather than being a time of salvation and celebration, it was actually the beginning of the period of conflict and torment for the human race. Additionally, we must note that the scriptures state that the devil recognized that his time is short – another contradiction of facts if this passage is speaking of the original fall of Lucifer. Instead, this passage seems to make reference to the end of his time as the devil rather than his initiation as Satan. Taking all these factors into consideration, it seems likely that the verses are referring to an event which has not yet come to pass – a time when Satan and his demonic associates will be cast out of the second heaven. When this happens, they will no longer have the advantage of invisibility and will be exposed for who they are – an astonishing confirmation of the words of both Isaiah and Ezekiel. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?”(Isaiah 14:16-17) I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee. All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more. (Ezekiel 28:18-19) His sojourn in the first heaven will apparently be very short as it gives way to his final expulsion out of all three heavens to the hell of the lake of fire.
One interesting question could be raised in regards to the coming judgment of Satan and his angels. According to II Peter 2:4 and Jude 6, at least part – if not all – of the fallen angels are already cast down to hell and are delivered in chains as they await their final judgment. If this is the case, then why are they still a threat to us? The answer to this question will become sufficiently clear as we continue our study into the nature of Satan’s authority in this present world. However, for now, let it suffice to answer that, even though these demonic forces are bound, there is no mention that they are also gagged. In other words, their opportunity for physical harassment may be abated but their ability to speak and inundate the world with their lies has not yet been squelched. (Revelation 12:15) To comprehend the power that words can have even when the speaker is physically restrained, just think of the effect of Paul’s epistles that he wrote while occupying a long series of jail cells across the Roman Empire or the impact of Pilgrim’s Progress that has been translated into more than two hundred languages and has never been out of print since John Bunyan penned the allegory in England’s Bedfordshire County Jail in 1678. The power of these chained spirits has little to do with how strong or numerous they are but what they are able to say and cause us to believe.
Now that we have a bit of the background of where the devil and his demonic hoard came from and a glimpse into the future as to where they are going, it is time for us to explore what it means to live in a world in which these invisible forces are able to exert very real influence. Though most of our encounters with these forces will not be as dramatic as some of the ones illustrated in the previous section of this book, they are just as real and must be dealt with just as authoritatively. Even though it is not very often that we encounter women speaking with men’s voices – on a daily basis, we do encounter people whose words are just as directly influenced by the enemy. Even though we may never have to deal with men leaping around the room acting like frogs – on a daily basis, we must deal with individuals who are degraded to the sub-human level of some animal instinct through the work of the destroyer. The horror of the story is that it is all too often that we find these individuals even within ourselves. In all these encounters, we need to know exactly where we fit into God’s overall scheme of putting the devil in his place.
Chapter Twenty
Power, Might, and Dominion
In Ephesians chapter six, the Apostle Paul gives us what is possibly the most authoritative instruction concerning confronting these supernatural forces. To understand who and what these spiritual authorities are, let’s look at the Greek words that Paul uses. It is also important to understand the words he uses to describe what we have on our side as well. There are several different Greek words that appear in Ephesians showing us that Christian power is different from that of the enemy. When we come out to fight the enemy, both the Christian and the enemy have power – but not only do the two forces have power on different levels, their powers are actually in different categories.
It is amazing to me how many people have assumed that God and the devil are equals and that spiritual warfare is a toss-up. The truth is that, in our spiritual struggle, our team has a different kind of power from that of the other team. To understand this concept, we must look at the Greek words that are used to speak of the kinds of power and authority that God has given to us as believers and the kind of authority that the devil and his forces have in their possession.
Ephesians 1:19-20 speaks of the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe in accordance with the working of the strength of His might. On God’s side, there is power, strength, and might. He is seated in a position of authority far above all forces of the devil which are listed in Ephesians 1:21 as “principality, power, might, dominion, and every name that is named.” The word translated “greatness” is megethos, from the Greek word megas, meaning “big.” This term, meaning “the great power of God,” appears only this one time in all the New Testament and refers to power on a grand scale. I find it fascinating that Paul also amplifies this already super powerful term by preceding it with the word “exceeding” which also means “on a grand scale, more than enough.” Thus, he emphasized that God’s power is on a grand scale that is even grander than grand!
“Power” here is the Greek word dunamis, which is sometimes translated as “might.” It denotes “inherent ability, capability, ability to perform anything” – the power to carry something into effect, or power in action. Some other passages where we find the term dunamis include Matthew 6:13, Thine is the kingdom and the power and numerous verses referring to the mighty acts of Jesus’ ministry, such as healing the sick and casting out devils. (Luke 4:36, 5:17) In Philippians 3:10, it is used in reference to the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. This term also speaks to us about the enduements of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers. (Luke 9:1) Power, or dunamis, means “God’s ability to do powerful, mighty acts, the miracle working power of God, God’s strength.” The Discovery Bible defines dunamis as, “the inherent capability of someone or something to carry something out. It is the power by virtue of one’s own ability and resources.” One especially interesting reference is in Matthew 26:64 where it is used as a title or name for God Himself. There is one case where this term for power also refers to demonic forces: Matthew 24:29, the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. In the book of Revelation, the word “power” appears in relationship to the working of God; however, in the one verse of Revelation 13:2, it refers to Satanic power, the dragon gave him his power.
Basically, the word “power” is associated with the strength, might, and the demonstration of God. Dunamis is used when talking about casting out devils, healing the sick, the resurrection, and the moving of the Holy Spirit. In the entire New Testament, the word dunamis is used many, many times to denote the working ability of the Lord. There are only a very few verses where dunamis is referred to as the devil’s being able to exert power. The enemy does have some power and ability, but the overwhelming use of “power” in the New Testament is not on the devil’s side; it is referring to God’s power. When we are told to be strong in the Lord, the Greek word is endunamo, which means to have the dunamis (power, might) inside you.
The Greek word iscus, which speaks of actual strength, physical ability, and muscle movement, occurs only about a dozen times in the New Testament and is usually translated “strength,” although it can also be translated as “might” and “power.” The Discovery Bible defines this term as “the inherent strength, the strength as an endowment, strength residing in a person.” It is used in Mark 12:30, 33 and Luke 10:27 where we are commanded to love God with all our strength. It is also found in Ephesians 6:10 which directs us to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. In II Thessalonians 1:9, I Peter 4:11, II Peter 2:11, Revelation 5:12, 7:12, and 18:2, the term refers to the might of God. The New Testament never uses iscus in reference to the devil and his power; rather, it is always associated on the side of the Lord.
The Greek word translated in Ephesians 1:19 as “strength” is kratos, which occurs twelve times in the New Testament and has a connotation of rulership. It consistently refers to the might and rule of God. In only one instance does it have a negative connotation – Hebrews 2:14, where it talks about the strength of death. Kratos means force, strength, might, more especially pertaining to manifested power. Derived from the root kra, meaning “to correct or to complete,” it also signifies dominion. The Discovery Bible defines it as “the manifested power, dominion, might, power that is exercised or applied and thence that which prevails, mastery or force.”
According to Ephesians 1:19, we have ability in Christ that is in accordance with God’s mighty dominion. This means that since God is in total dominion, the power that is within us is in direct proportion to that – total and absolute. If we can get a grasp of the kind of dominion that God has and we understand that the exceeding greatness of the mighty ability that works through us is in direct proportion to God’s unlimited power, we will come to a totally new revelation of the spiritual power we have. However, until we begin to believe how strong God is, we will never begin to recognize where we stand when we go into our spiritual warfare.
Ephesians 1:21 declares that Jesus is seated far above all principalities. This term referring to Satan’s power is the Greek word arkee that means “principal one or beginning.” It also means “the first rule.” In most of the places where this word occurs in the New Testament, it is translated “beginning.” The imagery conveyed through this term portrays a dynasty in the devil’s kingdom with the prince or principality as the ruler or first one over a particular domain. According to Colossians 1:16, these principalities were first given their power and position by God; however, they fell from their positions because they aspired to something that was prohibited. The logical question to ask at this point would be, “If God created Lucifer and these now-fallen angels, and if their rulership and power were given to them by God – did He give them equal authority with Himself?” The obvious answer is, “No.” In fact, the scriptures directly answer this question for us by telling us that Lucifer sinned when he aspired to be equal with God. (Isaiah 14:13-14) Obviously, he and his fellow rebels were lower than God, or they would not have had a feeling that they needed to elevate themselves to become His equal. What this means for us today is that any satanic struggle that we may encounter is not going to be at our same level. The power that is working in our opponent is derived from the demonic forces that, even from creation, were inferior to the exceeding great power of God that is working in and through us!
In Romans 8:35, Paul asks, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? He then goes on to answer his own question, “Nothing, not even principalities.” (verse 38) These primary satanic forces cannot separate us from God’s love. First Corinthians 15:24 assures us that we have put down all rule and all power over us. Ephesians 3:10 affirms that we believers have a point to prove to these demonic forces, to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God. Colossians 1:16 proclaims that Christ is the head over all principalities, and Colossians 2:15 adds that He has “spoiled” all these principalities – literally meaning, as we have already learned, that He has stripped these demonic forces naked.
Ephesians 1:21 goes on to say that Christ is seated far above powers. The word for power” that is used here is the Greek word exousia that means “the right to exercise power or authority.” This term is the key word used for the devil’s power, and it appears in most of the scriptures that refer to the power of the enemy. The Discovery Bible defines it as, “delegated power, authority, the power to act by virtue of the position that one holds. The right to act or use power.”
Before we can delve into what is meant by the devil’s power, we must first recognize that Christ, too, has this type of power. The term exousia appears in Matthew 7:29 that says that the people marveled at Jesus’ teaching because he spoke as one having authority. The rabbis of Jesus’ day had intellectual ability; they could argue and reason back and forth, but they had never cast out a devil. Not only did Jesus teach, but he also exercised authority over sickness and demons. In Matthew chapter eight, we find the story of a centurion who asked Jesus to simply speak the word so that his servant would be healed. Using the term exousia when he explained that he was a man under authority, the centurion indicated that he, therefore, understood the authority of Jesus’ spoken words. The next chapter of Matthew contains the story of a palsy victim whom Jesus healed with the words, But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house. In other words, Jesus was saying, “I have spoken a word of forgiveness. I could have spoken a word of healing. But I want you to know that I have authority in the earth to forgive sin.” The authority He was demonstrating was His ability to speak supernaturally. It wasn’t a matter of Jesus’ doing a physical thing, such as a working of a miracle. Rather, it was a matter of speaking a word. There was a power (exousia) in His word to forgive sin and to heal the sick. Matthew 9:8 records the response to such a demonstration of exousia, But when the multitudes saw it, they marvelled, and glorified God, which had given such power unto men.
It is in Matthew 10:1 that we find one of the most exciting verses on the topic of exousia. And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power (exousia) against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease. Jesus not only demonstrated to the people that He had exousia (power, authority), but He also gave that same authority to His disciples. When the disciples went out into the villages proclaiming the message that He had given to them, they were also able to heal the sick and cast out devils by exousia – the words of their mouths. They did not have to grab the people and shake the demons or sicknesses out of them; they were empowered to bring about supernatural change by the power of their voices and the authority of their words. All too often, believers fail to understand what exousia is and how it works. On one of my early missions to Nepal when a Nepali lady started manifesting a demonic demonstration, all the other Christian women around her jumped on her and started pounding on her to beat the devil out. They didn’t know about exousia until we taught them to speak to the demon with authority and make it come out.
After His death and resurrection, Jesus said to the disciples in Matthew 28:18-19, All authority (exousia) is given to me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore…teach and cause the people to observe what I command. When He told them to teach the people to observe all the things that He had commanded them, Jesus was again associating exousia with the spoken word. John 1:12 proclaims, But as many as received him, to them gave he power (exousia) to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. How does one become a son of God? According to Romans 10:10, it is with the heart that a man believes unto righteousness and with the mouth that confession is made unto salvation. With the heart we believe, but it is only when we confess it with the mouth that we receive salvation; the authority to become sons of God is released through the spoken word.
We read in Acts 26:12, Whereupon as I went to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests. Saul was on his way to Damascus with words that had been given to him from the high priests in Jerusalem that he was in charge of arresting and persecuting the Christians. Saul did not carry weapons to execute his authority; he went to Damascus with a piece of paper giving him the exousia to arrest the Christians.
There is power in God’s Word. The whole of heaven and earth was created by the spoken Word of God. (Genesis 1:3-25) Originally, the earth was without form and void; it was one big whirling pool of nothing. Then God looked into that chaos and said, “Light be!” and it was – God created by the power of His word! He didn’t mold and shape the moon with His hands; He just spoke, and it was created. He didn’t use His might or force, all He had to do was use His authority. Jesus is the Word of God (John 1:1); He is not the thought of God but the physical manifestation of all the authority (exousia) of God. All that exists in God’s vocal authority existed physically in Jesus. When we understand the power of the creative Word of God, we will realize that we don’t have to put a lot of energy or muscle into bringing about supernatural changes; we just need to exercise the authority of the spoken word. This is exactly what the wise man Solomon meant when he wrote in Proverbs 18:21 that the very power of life and death is in the tongue.
Revelation chapter twenty tells us that when God decides to bind the devil up for a thousand years, He will not have to call myriads and myriads of angels to come fight the devil and pin him down long enough to throw him into prison. Verse one says, And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. It only takes one angel. The devil doesn’t have an overwhelming amount of strength, muscle, or energy. But his overwhelming ability is in being able to deceive men and bring them captive through his words. In fact, the devil only has power in those people who will listen to him. He will plant the seed in a very small way in the minds of his victims. He will keep drilling, drilling, and drilling until that thought gets inside of them. If they will listen to his thought, before long, they won’t have the physical energy to stop doing what the devil is suggesting. His strength to work on his victims is really in the realm of his voice. Those who allow themselves to hear what he says will sooner or later come under his dominion.
The devil has been put under our feet. (Romans 16:20) We are seated far above him. (Ephesians 1:20-22, 2:6) We have been given the exceeding greatness of God’s mighty power (kratos and dunamis). (Ephesians 1:19) Yet Satan still is characterized as having exousia. He can still speak those boastful and exalted words. We must guard our ears and guard our hearts so that his words don’t get inside us. (Luke 8:18) We must understand that he is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44) and that what he says are boastful words and vain imaginations (I Corinthians 10:5). If we understand that, we can then put his authority back down in the place it belongs, and we can exert the physical energy that we have over him. Two stories from the life of Jesus illustrate the fact that Satan’s exousia is limited by God’s permission for him to exert it.
In Luke 22:53, when the soldiers came to get Jesus in the garden before the crucifixion, He said to them, This is your hour and the power (exousia) of darkness. There was not an opportunity for the devil to do his work outside of God’s timing. There was an appointed time when Satan was allowed to exercise his authority (exousia). Satan did not have full reign to do all he wanted to do. It was only in an appointed time that he was able to exert his authority. Too often, we give the devil too much credit. He doesn’t have all power, might, or dominion. He is regulated and held back because God is in control. Throughout the gospel of John, Jesus spoke about His hour. (John 2:4, 7:30, 8:20, 12:23, 13:1, 16:21, 16:32) The citizens of Nazareth tried to push Him off a cliff and, at several points, angry men took up stones to try to kill Him; however, He continually pronounced, My hour is not yet come. It was not until the Last Supper with His disciples that Jesus raised up His hands and said, The hour is come. (John 17:1) At that point, there was a releasing of the authority of the devil to do what he had to do by putting evil thoughts into the hearts of men so that they could act on hell’s desire to destroy Jesus.
John 19:10 relates another reference to exousia. Pilate said to Jesus, Do you not know that I have the authority (exousia) to crucify you and the power to release you? Jesus answered him and said, You could have no power at all against me unless it has been given to you from above. Jesus’ confrontation with Pontius Pilate was over this item for power. Pilate said that he had the authority (exousia) that, by the words of his mouth, he could either crucify or free Jesus. The thing that Pilate didn’t understand was that it was God who gives men authority on earth. Pilate was given the authority.
The unfortunate – even tragic – truth is that we so-called believers often counter God’s authority and allow Satan to exercise exousia in our lives. Yes, we are believers; unfortunately, we sometimes believe the lies of the enemy. When the children of Israel came out of Egypt, Moses sent out twelve spies to look over the Promised Land. Two of the spies brought back a good report, but the other ten brought back a negative report. They reported, We were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. (Numbers 13:33) They listened to the lie of the devil. His exousia sapped the physical might and power from inside of them. They had the physical ability to take the land – Caleb demonstrated it even forty-five years later when, as an eighty-five-year-old man, he took a mountain. When the children of Israel came under the power of Satan’s exousia, it wiped out the dunamis and the kratos that they had. The flipside of the coin is revealed when Rahab told how the entire city of Jericho responded at the report that the Israelites were approaching, And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you: for the LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath. (Joshua 2:11) When they had heard the reports of how the God of Israel parted the Red Sea and drowned the Egyptian army, the exousia of the report overpowered them – even though the events were some forty years prior. There was no more energy left in them to fight because they were bound up in fear of the Israelites. Here we have a paradoxical instance: the exousia of God had crippled the inhabitants of Canaan, whereas the Israelites never knew what certain victory awaited them because they had allowed themselves to be overtaken by the exousia of the enemy.
We can live either under the exousia of God – the strength that comes from hearing God’s Word – or under the exousia that comes from hearing the devil’s words. The devil’s voice saps all the energy and power of God out of us. If we listen to God’s voice, He can sap all the enemy’s energy and make the demonic hoards weak before us.
Finally we can get back to our biblical passage – I bet you thought I had forgotten! Ephesians chapter six goes on to say that we are seated far above “mights.” The Greek word used here is dunamis. As we have already discovered – even though the devil does have dunamis – in the majority of cases when this word is found in the scripture, it refers to the might of the Lord. Satan’s might is never emphasized as is his authority.
Another quality attributed to Satan is dominion. This word (kuriotas) appears only four times in the New Testament (Ephesians 1:21, Colossians 1:16, II Peter 2:10, Jude 8). W. E. Vine writes of this term, “It denotes lordship, power or dominion, whether angelic or human. It indicates a degree in the angelic order in which it stands second.” Generally, this term is used in relationship to Christians who are referred to as actually having the physical strength or might. The devil does have some physical might, but the word that generally describes what the devil has is exousia or authority.
Let’s think back to what we have learned about how David took the city of Jerusalem. We learned that a stronghold’s power is in its natural position; there doesn’t have to be a strong warrior inside a stronghold to be able to protect it because the stronghold itself is its own protection. The devil doesn’t have to be strong. If he is able to fill our minds and hearts with lame ideas and blind assumptions, he can easily defend the strongholds of our lives. Once he gets inside the stronghold, he can exercise exousia. He doesn’t have to exercise dunamis or kratos. When the devil gets inside our thinking and begins to feed us with lies and deception, he saps whatever dunamis is inside us. On the other hand, the truth can get inside our strongholds and make them just as strong a fortification for the truth as they were for the devil’s lies. The power of our mind is incredible. For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he. (Proverbs 23:7) If we listen to the evil thoughts of defeat and receive those thoughts, we are defeated. When the thoughts of God get into our minds and our spirits and fill us with thoughts of success, we are successful. One interesting side note is that when David took the city of Jerusalem, he armed it with his mighty men – not the lame and blind men as did the Jebusites. In like fashion – when Christ takes over our minds and hearts, He fortifies our strongholds with the powerful truths of the Word of God! (Philippians 4:7) We have already learned that we have weapons in our warfare that are not carnal but are mighty in God and pull down the strongholds where the enemy has set up camp. When we let the devil’s exousia get a stronghold inside our lives, that exousia will destroy the dunamis and the kratos that God wants us to be able to exert. It will sap the physical ability out of us. We will faint before our enemy if we give his exousia a place in us.
If we submit ourselves to God and resist the devil as James 4:7 teaches us, the enemy has to flee. The Greek term used in this verse literally means to run away in terror just like a whipped dog will tuck its tail between its legs and escape danger. The devil doesn’t tumble around on the floor trying to wrestle or fight with us, hoping that maybe he will win one or two rounds or at least get in a couple good blows or a lucky punch here and there. According to this biblical truth, he gets up and runs away. He may try to growl, but he cannot stand against us because we are walking in authority over him. But where does that authority come from? It comes from the weapons of our warfare that are more powerful than his lies – the truths of the Word of God. Let’s think back one more time to how David out-tricked the Jebusites when he took the city of Jerusalem from the lame and blind guards. According to II Samuel 5:8, the attack approach was through the water canal. In Ephesians 5:26, Paul uses water as a symbol of the Word of God. If this symbol can also be applied to the story of David’s conquest of Jerusalem, we can see that the lesson exactly parallels biblical truth – the only way we are to take control of the strongholds in our lives is to infiltrate them with the truth of the Word of God – the weapon that is more powerful than the enemy’s lies. One interesting footnote to this story is that the King James translation of this verse says that he sent his men into the city through the gutter. What a powerful thought – what had been a gutter, filled with the garbage thoughts of this world, became the avenue through which the renewing and life-giving truths of God could invade!
Paul said that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, powers, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in high places. The terms that are used are terms that have to do with magistrates or authorities. Just as our nation is divided into states, then counties, then cities, then precincts, the spiritual kingdom is set up in the same way. The first and foremost areas are principalities. As we have already learned, the word “principality” means “the first, the original.” These spirits are the ruling spirits that control all the subsidiary spirits under them. In some cases, we may deal with a subsidiary spirit who rules over one specific thing; in other cases, we may deal with a principality spirit who has authority over many spirits in a large area. There are several examples of having confronted spirits that were principalities that rule over large areas.
A very prominent story comes from the life of Dr. Lester Sumrall, one of the great authorities on dealing with demonic power. When the Lord spoke to him to go to the Philippines to raise up a ministry there, He promised, “I will do more for you there than I have done for you anywhere else in your ministry.” Knowing that there had never been any major Protestant revival in the Philippines in the history of the country and that there were very few Christians in the city, Bro. Sumrall went to Manila with great anticipation of what God was going to do. For the first several months, there was only a handful of people in his church. About the time that the congregation had grown to around fifty people, the Lord began impressing him that he was to build a barn to hold the coming harvest. So Bro. Sumrall started building a church that would seat twenty-five hundred people. He reasoned that he needed a building of at least that size since he had left a church in the US with over a thousand adults and a thousand children in the Sunday school each week, and the Lord had promised something bigger in the Philippines. Everybody begged him not to build such a large facility. His denomination thought that he would make them the laughingstock of the entire world – building a church to seat over two thousand when he only had fifty members. Protestant missionaries and prominent church leaders came to Manila to stop him because they were afraid he would take their members to fill his church. But he refused to be swayed by their arguments because he knew that God would bring a revival such as the Philippines had never seen.
One night as he was getting ready for bed, he and his wife listened to the evening news. Suddenly bloodcurdling screaming and horrifying howls came across the airwaves. The news feature was the story of a young girl incarcerated in the Bilibid Prison in Manila who had been mysteriously bitten by unseen teeth. Medical doctors and prison wardens observed as tooth marks and blood mysteriously appeared on her body. From his missionary experience, Bro. Sumrall recognized that this was demonic power tormenting her, so he got out of bed and lay on the floor praying and travailing, asking God to send somebody to deliver her from the demon power. But the Lord answered him, “If you don’t do it, it won’t happen. You are the only one in this city who knows how to cast the devil out of her.” At that point, Bro. Sumrall had no way of knowing that what would happen with this girl was the key that would open up his ministry in the Philippines.
He spent that night in prayer and fasting. The next morning, he called the contractor building the church. Since he was a personal friend of the mayor, the contractor got Bro. Sumrall into the mayor’s office where Bro. Sumrall asked for permission to go into the prison to pray for the girl. The story of the girl had already hit the international news, and the city had sent out appeals for church leaders, psychiatrists, or somebody to come and help her – but no one was able to deliver her. Bro. Sumrall went to pray for her, but he did not get a total victory the first day; so he went back again the second and third days. After three days of fasting and prayer, he spoke to the spirit, and it left. Not only was the girl set free, but a remarkable thing happened in the city. Unbeknownst to Bro. Sumrall, the demon spirit in that young girl was the principality spirit that ruled the entire Philippines. And as soon as its power was broken, the entire spirit realm of the Philippines became defenseless against the attack of the gospel.
When Bro. Sumrall was ushered back into the mayor’s office with the good news that the girl had been freed, the mayor was so pleased that he asked what Bro. Sumrall wanted in return. His request was for permission to have large open-air revival meetings every night on the main plaza of the city. Within a six-week period, one hundred fifty thousand people were converted to Christ. When construction of the church was complete and the dedication service was held, the church was so jam packed that most of the crowd could not get inside. This is the kind of results that come when a principality that is ruling over a geographic area is broken.
There are different evil spirits that rule different areas of the country or the world. For instance, in Las Vegas there is a spirit of gambling and greed that rules over that city. I have watched people get off of an airplane and run to play the slot machines that were located between the arrival gate and the baggage claim before they even went to pick up their luggage. When a deadly fire struck the Las Vegas MGM Hotel, helicopters had to be brought in to help rescue the hundreds of guests who were trapped on the upper floors. In addition to the tragic loss of life, a more horrifying tragedy was that, while the hotel was engulfed in a deadly inferno, the other casinos on the same block didn’t lose a customer. The spirits of greed and gambling had gripped their victims so tightly that even though people were dying next door, the gamblers couldn’t stop long enough to be concerned about them. They were possessed by the principality of the city.