By What Power?

We find in Matthew 12:38 Jesus being asked by some teachers of religious law and Pharisees to give them a miraculous sign that he was from God. His reply was that only an evil, faithless generation would ask for such a sign. To properly understand this one has to see it in the context we find it in Scripture. The stage for this was set after Jesus had set free and healed a demon-possessed man who could neither see nor talk (Matthew 12:22). The crowd who witnessed this was amazed and people began to ask whether Jesus was the Messiah that they had all been waiting for. Responding to this the Pharisees said that Jesus was able to cast out demons because he received his power from Beelzeboul, the prince of demons (by implication from Satan).

[John Todd, the ex-wizard I mentioned in my last post affirmed that in the present day occult structure the ruler is Satan/Lucifer; and he has a prince who he called ‘Beelzebaal’. He said that when he was a practicing wizard Satan had appeared to him in the guise of Lucifer (the angel of light). After being saved out of the occult he was opposed by Satan in his true guise. Jesus acknowledged that he is the ruler of the world. When Jesus was tempted by him after his baptism he was offered “the nations of the world and all their glory” if he knelt down to worship him (Matthew 4: 8-9).]

Jesus countered by pointing out that any kingdom, city or home divided against itself would fall. If Satan is casting out Satan, he is fighting against himself. His own kingdom would not survive. He also said that their own members cast out demons, so these members would judge them for what they were saying. He proceeded to say that if on the other hand he was casting out demons by the Spirit of God, then the Kingdom of God had arrived among them.

He illustrated this by saying that you can’t enter a strong man’s house and rob him without first tying him up. Only then could he be robbed. Likewise, Satan needed to be bound before anyone could be delivered from his power; to be set free and healed. In the story we began with in which the man was healed from being unable to see or talk we see a clear connection between demonic influence and being physically incapacitated. Being released from this influence resulted in healing.

After being involved in the healing ministry of our Church and wrestling with issues of healing and deliverance, seeing things in terms of a direct causal link is problematic. In a general sense all sickness is a result of the fall from grace of humanity. As such sickness and death has been released into the world. All people are prone to it. There are many different causes, which I am not going to enumerate here. For instance, some sickness has viral causality and is randomly spread from person to person.

 In certain cases however direct causal links can be found between a person’s belief and behaviour and the sickness or demonic oppression that besets them. Careful spiritual discernment needs to be undertaken in each case to establish the root cause. It entails prayerful listening to the Holy Spirit and waiting for specific guidance. Under the direction of the Holy Spirit, and in the power inherent in the name of Jesus, people can be both healed and set free from demonic influence. This power is available to the children of God and is indicative of the fact that the Kingdom of God is in their midst.

In the passage we have been looking at Jesus also declared that anyone who was not helping Jesus was opposing him; and anyone who wasn’t working with him was actually working against him. He added that anyone who blasphemed against the Holy Spirit would not be forgiven. This is heavy stuff that needs to be taken seriously.

People (myself included) often wonder why we do not see the kind of healing and deliverance ministry being exercised today as was evident in the time that Jesus exercised this ministry. Jesus gave the answer to this in what he said here. To put it in a nutshell, it comes down to two words- apathy and unbelief. I have to actively choose to both believe what I read in the Scriptures about healing and deliverance; and then act according to it. This is made very difficult today because our society is so rationalistic and everything I have been taught to accept as being true militates against this. To accept what the scripture is telling me I have to disregard and ‘unlearn’ a great deal of what I have been taught since my childhood. I have to see reality in a totally different way. It ultimately involves a massive paradigm shift. The question is: “Can I do this?”

The problem is that if I don’t do this I am also not “working with Jesus” and am effectively working against him, even though I don’t mean to. In some sense I am aligning myself with the Pharisees and ‘grieving the Holy Spirit’ by not believing that he can, and wants to, heal and set people free. I am therefore not making myself available for this to happen. The Lord has set the created order in place in such a way that he usually only works through human instruments. I have to ask myself whether I am willing to put my hand up and say: “Here I am, use me!” For this to happen I need to fully and wholeheartedly dispose myself to exercise the power of God; under the direction of the Holy Spirit; so that the Kingdom of God will be revealed. Before Jesus gave himself up to be crucified for us he told his disciples that he expected them to carry on doing what he did. I have to ask myself whether I am prepared to do what he did; by his power?

 

Questions for reflection:

·         Do you believe in the power of God at work today?

·         Do you believe that the Lord heals and sets people free from demonic influence today?

·         Do you want to believe this, but have inner resistance?