Satan Is Not Omnipotent: A Philosophical Arguments (7)
The Nature of the Bondage:
The first type of bondage is “Ignorance.” “How are men to call upon Him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him whom they have not heard?” – Romans 10:14.
One essential way people are set free is to introduce them to Jesus – to deliver them from ignorance about God and introduce them into a personal relationship with God, wherein they know Him. Another type of bondage is “Weakness.”
Human beings are born with inherent weakness, which the church has called “Original Sin.” It merely means, “God has consigned all men to disobedience so that He might have mercy on all.” Rm 11:32. The need for that event is power. The addict, who lives in bondage to drugs, alcohol, sex, or control, must find a full power to set him free from the bondage to enter and walk in the freedom of the Kingdom. There are also unseen but not powerless spirits that live within and around people to oppress, harass, and at times possess them. There seems to be a variety of these spirits.
The first order is Satan himself or one of his lieutenants, and he may be cast out in the Name of Jesus from those willing to be set free. Some spirits seem to answer to the names of the deadly sins. There are spirits of Pride, Envy, Anger, Sloth, and others of that nature. They can be cast out in the Name of Jesus from those willing to be set free. Some forces manifest in people seem to be spirits, and some are merely the flesh’s weakness within the Person who suffers from habitual behavior marked by sin. Some spirits seem to respond to the names of people. They seem to be discarnate human spirits that are not yet loosed on earth and might be loosed in heaven. They need absolution of their sins to be loosed on earth and can then be loosed in heaven.
The gates of hell shall not prevail against the church. Mt 16:18. Some spirits respond as human spirits even if they are something else. They were looking for a body to continue living in the world or seek a ticket to the Kingdom. In either event, they contribute anything from ambivalence to a dual personality until they are dismissed. Another aspect of spiritual warfare seems to stem from those who have decided to follow Satan or one of the Old Creation cultic gods. They have made a study of the powers of the Old Creation, and they learned how to use spells and incantations to impact the lives of other people. A spell is a means of assault from a distance that uses the Old Creation’s spiritual power to make it felt.
Similar Phenomena:
There is another phenomenon called Multiple Personality Disorder MPD. It appears to be another spirit’s presence, but it is instead another part of the host person. MPD will generate personality splits called alters, often acting as alien entities within the personality. They cannot be cast out, and they are an integral part of the Person in whom they are found. They seem to issue from some trauma that causes the Person to dissociate.
An alter personality comes out to protect the host during the trauma. In some people, they remain “out.” The alter needs to reenter the host and become reintegrated to restore the personality to make it whole. (See tract on MPD). A related problem that receives little attention in most circles is the bondage established in sexual intercourse. When two people are joined together, they become one flesh. A portion of the male and a portion of the female are interchanged in the transaction. The Scripture puts it that the two are made one flesh. In God’s grace and love, the two become a husband, a wife, and the Person of the marriage.
The Symptoms
The symptoms of the need for deliverance or exorcism are varied, but there are two questions that we may ask. “Are we always able to do what we will do?” and “Is there something I am compelled to do against my will?” If there is a discrepancy between the will and the action, there is possibly some ministry need. With our minds, we might serve the Law of God, but the law of sin is at work in our members. Rm 7:19-20 In some instances, the stress can be removed or alleviated through some spirit’s exorcism.
There seem to be two sources of behavior that intrude on our wills. One will come from the spirit acting compulsively, which is dealt with through exorcism. The other seems to be a reaction to someone or some situation. That one may be dealt with by ministering Healing of Memories. In either event, the symptoms will be behavior that violates the Person exhibiting the behavior.
Way Out Of Warfare:
The ultimate way for warfare is for one to get out of the Old Creation and into the Kingdom of God, where none of the above powers has any presence. There is no ignorance in the presence of God. There is no sin in the Kingdom. The sinner has been put to death (crucified with Christ), and the new creature is raised sinless. The spirits remain with the corpse in the Old Creation, and the soul of the Christian is given a new resurrection body in the Kingdom where there is no darkness. The evil one has no access to us there. Rev 12:7ff.
In short, we are not merely delivered from spirits so we can live freely in the Old Creation. The affected part of us is delivered into the New Creation, where there is no access by the spirits. The spells are returned to the sender since they cannot be ground in a child of God without permission. When working with an MPD, we seek to heal the trauma from which the alter emerged, speak to the alter about returning as a part of the host, and encourage the reunion/integration to become whole. When we deal with sexual bondage, we seek to separate the union of the two that yields discord and let each of them find a measure of wholeness and integrity in their lives. We are not at war with flesh and blood but with principalities and powers. We cannot be set free from the bondage of the spirit without spiritual ministry in the will of God. Jesus came to undo the works of the devil. He has sent us to cast out spirits. Spiritual warfare includes our whole pilgrimage from birth through death into life, dealing with bondage as we find it in the Person who is seeking ministry to be set free. It includes exorcism but forgiveness, intercession, teaching, and growth in the Holy Spirit. When engaging in Spiritual Warfare, it is wise to have at least two ministers present.
The two must agree on what they are attempting to do. If there are some people, there is a greater chance of conflict in the ministering body. It is wise to ask God for direction and protection when seeking to exercise His authority and power in exorcism. It is important to seek His direction in dealing with MPD and to seek His direction in dealing with sexual bondage. Each ministry in Spiritual Warfare is somewhat different from the others; I have tried to describe the playing field of life in the Old Creation and some of the games. I recommend that anyone attempting to minister in this area read the specific tracts for the particular type of ministry they intend to practice. While there is often a need for more than one kind of ministry in Spiritual Warfare, the ministries are not the same, nor are what we are trying to affect in the Person for whom we are praying the same procedure. We cannot cast out alters. We do not absolve any spirit we seek to cast out, but we may use some form of absolution when dealing with spirits of departed people or with the fragments of persons trapped in sexual bondage. We send every spirit removed from a person to Jesus because He knows what is needed to take care of them in accord with the will of God. We send spells and curses back to the one who sent them because they must be ground in the Old Creation.
Jesus has authorized and empowered us, and He has commissioned us to go and cast out demons. They are not all the same. When we engage the enemy, it is okay for us to know the enemy’s nature. We do not seek to regain the Old Creation and reestablish Eden; but to set people free to die with Christ to the Old Creation and enter into the Kingdom of God as His children, set free to live with Him.
Some Considerations;
Spiritual Warfare is a matter of the unseen reality that surrounds us in the Old Creation. It is not a simple war between God and Satan over the humans that live on the earth. It is the context in which God has chosen to invite us to be His children. As it was with Adam, the choice is not whether we would disobey God. We cannot obey God until He comes to lead us out of the bondage into which we were born. We must choose whether or not we will seek to obey God at His invitation. He has sent His Son to open the Kingdom of God to all He has redeemed. He has opened a New Creation into which we enter through death into resurrection. It is not enough to learn how to be good. It is a matter of our being transformed and made the righteousness of God, which we see in Jesus Christ. If we are to enter the Kingdom of God completely, we must know God even as he knows us. We should be free from the bondage under the Law where Satan holds us. We are not able to defeat Satan in our strength. That is why we are given power and authority to cast out demons. We wield that authority and power as the Holy Spirit comes to incarnate Jesus to drive out Satan and incarnate Jesus through us to set others free from the same bondage.