Would You Like the Devil to Get Beaten Up?
The following four principles will help you discover how to thwart, defeat, or to overcome the demonic entities of the spiritual realm:
1. God loves you and created you to know Him personally. He has a wonderful plan for your life: loving, trusting, and knowing Him deeply.
John 10:10—The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
A deep friendship with Jesus ought to result in loving people in life-changing and powerful ways. He is inviting you to a life and eternity with Him beyond anything you could ask, think up, or imagine. Even in challenges and hardships, He is inviting you into a journey where guilt, shame, and fear is overcome by the power of His indescribable love for you.
Matthew 10:8, 24-25—Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay…A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household.”
What prevents us from knowing Jesus as our personal Master whose Holy Spirit teaches and empowers us to exercise God’s governmental authority over those inner accusing voices that train us to live in fear, worry, anxiety, depression, bitterness, arrogance, self-pity, rage, addictions, bad habits, stress, sickness, etc.?
2. People are sinful and separated from God, often resulting in vulnerability to dark spiritual forces.
Ephesians 2:1-3—And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
Because of our disloyalty to God, expressed through rebellious or apathetic disobedience to his commandments, sin gains dominion over us and satan’s minions may have a heyday in our personal lives.
1 John 3:4—Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.
1 John 3:8—Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.
The third principle explains the only way to overcome satanic oppression or unwelcome influence in our lives.
3. Jesus Christ is God’s only provision for our sin, a Warrior who came to destroy the works of the demonic realm. Through him alone can we receive the power to follow in His footsteps.
Matthew 12:28—But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
Luke 10:19-20—Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
Acts 10:38—how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.
Hebrews 2:14-15—Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.
But it’s not enough to know merely about these truths…
4. We must individually receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord; then we can receive His Holy Spirit and begin to properly exercise God’s authority in our personal lives.
Colossians 2:13-15—And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
Romans 10:9-10—because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
Acts 2:38—And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Luke 11:13—If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Matthew 6:12-13—and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from [the evil one].
Revelation 12:11—And they have conquered [satan] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.
Prayer is talking with God. God is not so concerned with your actual words as He is with the attitude of your heart. The following just is a suggested prayer for how you can receive Christ.
Does the following prayer express the desire of your heart? If so, you may pray it now in order to enter begin your relationship with God:
Heavenly Father,
I want to know You personally. I’m sorry I disobeyed Your commands, rejected You, and lived my own way. I realize that I have followed satan, thought his thoughts, and carried out his desires. I thank You for sending your Son, Jesus Christ, to destroy the devil’s work. Thank you, Jesus, for dying on the cross in order to forgive my sins, to rescue me from satan’s kingdom, and to bring me into Your kingdom.
I now submit my allegiance to You, Lord Jesus, believing that God raised you from the dead, has now forgiven all my sins, and will raise me as His child. Thank you, Father, that I am no longer a child of wrath, but Your child. Now I want to carry out Your desires.
Just as Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil because You were with him, teach me how to walk closely with You. Teach me how to walk as Jesus walked. Because You first loved me, I ask You to unleash Your power and presence in my life as I commit to love You with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen (“Let it be so”).
Growth steps to help you curb stomp demons like a…
P – Put on the whole armor of God. (See Ephesians 6:10-20)
U – Understand every blessing God has freely given you in Christ. (See 1 Corinthians 2 and Ephesians 1)
P – Praise God and exalt Jesus’ name above all else. (See Psalm 149 and Philippians 2)
P – Practice entering and staying in the presence of God. (See Psalm 91)
Y – Yield control to God in surrender. (See Romans 6 & 12)
Based on Would You Like to Know God Personally? A version of the Four Spiritual Laws, written by Bill Bright.
All Scriptures from the English Standard Version (ESV). [All brackets mine.]
The word “satan” in this document is not capitalized intentionally, even to the violation of grammatical rules.
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