Spiritual Warfare: Our Authority

By William R. Cunningham
January 20, 2008

Introduction

I was watching television yesterday and there was a show on about how a paranormal investigations.  I don’t recall the name of the show.  Anyway, the man and his group were going to go to a home that were evidently tormented by an entity and even physically attacked by one.  I didn’t see the show from the beginning so I don’t know the extent of those attacks.  In any case, head of this paranormal investigation group consulted a Catholic priest.  He didn’t work for the church or anything like that, but rather consulted the priest.

Something that the man said caught my attention.  He said, “If you are fighting the ultimate evil, you want to be ultimately good.”  That is a very profound statement that probably couldn’t be farther from the truth.  He went on to say that he would fast for nine days, purge himself through confession, and keep himself in constant prayer.  By confession, he meant confession to the priests, which is Catholic practice.  It amazes me how he was so confident in his system of works and that such would somehow empower him to fight Satan—assuming that we can fight Satan as in to chase him away.  I think we’ve been duped by movies such as the Exorcist.  Now don’t go bad mouthing the Catholics because Protestants are just as bad in their confidence in works for spiritual things.

I recall years ago while existing in the Word of Faith environment and teaching that it was said that we could bind Satan and loose various things.  People would pray with authority and bind Satan from the lives of people, which included sicknesses, diseases, and poverty to name a few that I remember.  It was even said that we could use the authority that we have in Christ to remove the power of Satan over a particular region, such as a city or neighborhood.  Are these claims true?  Do we really have power over Satan to bind him or to stop him in his tracks?

It is interesting if we just look at the fruits of such claims.  Remember that Jesus said that we will know false prophets by their fruits (See Matthew 7:15-20).  First consider the number of times in the past that you heard how people were going to bind Satan from someone’s life?  How many times have you heard people say that they will loose prosperity and bind poverty?  I’m sure you see that those declarations do not work.  Poverty was not removed just because someone or a group of people bound Satan.  So just from that we can see that the fruits of those claims do not exist and therefore those claims are not true.

Now consider some more examples as to the claims of our authority over Satan.  Christians could not stop the Gay Olympic Games.  The point here is not whether or not there should be such games, but rather that Christian opposition could not stop it.  All of the efforts of the Christian organizations also could not stop the showing of the film, “The Temptation of Christ.”  Abortion also could not be stopped even though there was much opposition to it from Christian groups.  So either Christians are really weak or stopping Satan is not a matter of confessions, prayers, and declarations.

I have also found that one of the greatest misconceptions that we have is that all good things come from God and all bad things come from Satan.  Therefore, if something good happens to you then it is from God and any bad thing that happens to you is from Satan.  Therefore, we should stand toe-to-toe with Satan with regards to the bad things and in agreement with God for the good things.  That thinking is not only non existent in reality, but it is very contrary to the revelation that the Bible gives us about life in general and God’s actions within our lives and the world.  The truth of the matter is that “bad” things happen to everyone and “good” things happen to everyone.

Of course the above is problematic because “good” and “bad” are relative statements.  We generally consider a good thing to be something that brings us pleasure and a bad thing as something that brings us pain or the like.  However, we know from basic human experience that bad things may result in good and good things may bring about catastrophes.  How else could you explain war, for example?  So the bottom line is that we are not capable of determining what is good or bad, at least from an ultimate perspective.

I believe that the key point that all Christians need to remember is summarized in the following scripture.

Matthew 28:18-20 (NKJV) -- {18} And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. {19} Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, {20} teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

All authority is in Jesus Christ—not us!

In this study we are going to investigate the claims of authority that we have over Satan and demons.  We are going to see what the Bible says about our ability or authority to bind Satan and demons and to loose things into the lives of Christians.  Can we indeed bind Satan from causing pain in someone’s life?  Can we loose prosperity, for example, onto someone?  These are the types of questions that this study will deal with within the perspective of spiritual warfare.

This study was inspired by the article, “Spiritual Warfare” of Let Us Reason Ministries (http://letusreason.org/Pent13.htm).

Scripture Lesson

Acts 17:16-21 (NKJV) -- {16} Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols. {17} Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there. {18} Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, “What does this babbler want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods,” because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection. {19} And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? {20} For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean.” {21} For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.

What was Paul’s response to a whole city that was under the idolatry influence of Satan?  Did he form a group of Christians and bind Satan and cast him to hell?  Did he pray and used his authority over Satan cause Satan to flee from Athens?  No he did none of those things.  Instead, he observed, reasoned with them, and preached the gospel.  This caused the people of Athens to want to hear more because of their disposition to always want to hear new things.  Paul did spiritual warfare by normal methods.  His weapon was simply the word of God—the truth about Jesus’ resurrection.

Proper Perspective

I have always had a problem with ministries that focused on spiritual warfare.  There are ministries that devote themselves to training Christians in spiritual warfare.  They teach various philosophies about spiritual warfare (such as territorial warfare).  I think that too many ministers and people in general spend too much time on topics that don’t need such attention.  Instead of stressing the importance of spiritual warfare and how to fight; I believe it is far more effective to stress Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God. 

Consider something that Jesus said to his disciples, which helps us put all of this into perspective.

Luke 10:19-20 (NKJV) -- {19} Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. {20} Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.”

They were not to rejoice in the authority over the enemy, but rather that they were saved—reconciled to God.  The most important thing is our relationship with God and not such things as binding Satan, speaking in tongues, and many of the other things that we are bombarded with in the religious environment.

Also, consider the next very important scripture.

Mark 9:28-29 (NKJV) -- {28} And when He had come into the house, His disciples asked Him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” {29} So He said to them, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.”

The disciples could not cast out a demon in a man’s son.  They later asked Jesus why they could not cast it out and Jesus plainly told them that that kind of demon (or demons in general) required more.  It required prayer (note some translations say prayer and fasting.  However, older manuscripts of that passage of scripture do not include “and fasting”).  It is believed that the disciples merely depended on their previous successes to cast out the demon instead of depending on God.  That is, they depended on their own ability instead of God.

This last scripture is important because it is through prayer that demons are cast out.  This means that we do not have the power or authority to cast demons out of anyone.  The only thing that we can do is to pray to God that a demon would be removed—noting that sometimes what we may think is demon possession really is not.  We must depend on God at all times and not think for one moment that we can do anything by out own ability or faith.

Biblical Revelation of Spiritual Warfare

Of course the bible is full of spiritual warfare and from that we can learn a lot about our spiritual warfare and spiritual warfare in general.  Let’s look at some instances of spiritual warfare to see what they reveal to us.

James 4:7 (NKJV) -- {7} Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Submit to God, resist the devil and he will flee.  The first part is the most important.  We have to submit ourselves to God and then resist the devil.  Once we have done that then the devil will flee.  We can bind all we want.  We can confess all we want.  However, if we don’t submit ourselves to God then we have done nothing.  If we don’t resist the devil then why should he leave us alone?  We have to submit to God and then resist the devil.

I think that the religious community in the realm of Christianity relies too much on magic formulas such as confessions and declarations.  We think that if we make some “faith-filled” statement that we can effect change in our lives.  Sure faith-filled statements can effect change, but only if we do something.  I can confess all year long that Satan is released from my life or the like.  Unless I submit my life to God and resist the devil, then he will remain and I will still remain bound by my own lusts.

We should consider that Satan is not the cause of our sinful act.  He tempts us, but the truth is that we all sin because we choose to sin.  Breaking the bonds of ungodliness in our lives has much more to do with dealing with our own lusts and entrapments than it does with Satan.

2 Peter 2:9-12 (NKJV) -- {9} then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment, {10} and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority. They are presumptuous, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries, {11} whereas angels, who are greater in power and might, do not bring a reviling accusation against them before the Lord. {12} But these, like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own corruption,

This is a very interesting passage of scripture.  Peter had just given examples of how God delivered various people from the plight of the sinful people surrounding them.  He says that God knows how to deliver us from the temptations that surround us and how to deal with the ungodly.  He then points out a particular type of ungodly people.  These are those who despise authority and speak evil of things they don’t understand.

The word “dignitaries” comes from a Greek word that means glorious ones, or literally glories.  Some hold that those glorious ones are referring to the fallen angels.  We have to remember that though Satan is the enemy that he was and is a high ranking angel (though fallen).  In any case, there are those who accuse Satan before God and call him all kinds of names.  However, Peter points out that even angels, who are greater in power and might then us, don’t do that.

Jude 8-10 (NKJV) -- {8} Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries. {9} Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” {10} But these speak evil of whatever they do not know; and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves.

Jude most likely refers to an extra-biblical book (The Assumption of Moses) here.  This does not invalidate his letter or means that that particular apocryphal book was inspired.  Instead, we simply see Jude using an example to stress his point.  Even Michael the archangel would not accuse Satan even though Satan was the enemy.  This is consistent with what we have already discovered about accusing Satan before God.  If the angles won’t do it and Michael was an angel—the archangel, then who are we to think that we somehow have the authority to accuse Satan before God to say nothing about binding him?

The Apostles’ Actions

It is interesting that we do not see the confession-based spiritual warfare in the scriptures.  We don’t see Paul coming against Satan in various declarations.  I’ve heard ministers call Satan all kinds of names.  You don’t see that in the bible.  You can’t find scripture (in context) where the Apostles form a prayer alliance to come against Satan to bind him.  Consider another example from the life of Paul.

2 Corinthians 12:7-8 (NKJV) -- {7} And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. {8} Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me.

Paul said that a “thorn in the flesh” was given to him to buffet him.  This “thorn in the flesh” was a messenger of Satan.  The word “buffet” means to beat (strike with the hand).  Why didn’t Paul bind Satan to keep his messenger from beating him?  Of course the buffeting was not necessarily as if someone was beating him up, such as punching him, but rather that this messenger of Satan was somehow afflicting him.  We don’t know specifically the buffeting referred to.  Instead of binding Satan, he simply did what we said earlier—he prayed to God to remove the messenger of Satan.

Another important point that we can glean from the above scripture and similar situations, is that it appears that Satan cannot control us.  If Satan could control us then surely he would have stopped Paul by controlling his actions.  However, it appears that Satan can only influence us.  We are taken away to sin by our own lusts and temptation.  The story of Job is another good example of this point.

Peter’s Confession and Binding Satan

Furthermore, Jesus never taught us to bind Satan.  Many misunderstand what he told Peter after Peter declared that Jesus was the son of God.  Let’s take a look at that.

Matthew 16:13-20 (NKJV) -- {13} When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” {14} So they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” {15} He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” {16} Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” {17} Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. {18} And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. {19} And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” {20} Then He commanded His disciples that they should tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ.

Peter declared that Jesus was the Messiah, the son of the living God.  Jesus pointed out that that revelation did not come from Peter exclusively.  It was given to him by the Father.  Jesus said that Peter would have the keys of the Kingdom of heaven.  Keys probably referred to the fact that Peter would be able to open the kingdom of heaven to others because he had the chief revelation of that Kingdom, namely that Jesus is the Christ.  Peter did exactly that at Pentecost.  He unlocked the kingdom of heaven to many people and even more later.  The other disciples did the same thing.

Now the binding and loosing should not be taken as Peter could bind or loose Satan and we somehow have that same authority.  In Rabbinic teaching, binding and loosing was used to indicate what was permitted and what was not permitted.  Therefore, Peter would determine what would be permitted with regard to the church and what would not be permitted.  This is especially seen in the fact that Jesus said that he will build his church—in the future.  We also note from Paul’s ministry that the church surely needed much guidance as to what would be permitted and what would not be permitted.

The bottom line here is that Peter could not bind or loose Satan any more than we could.  Peter’s binding and loosing referred to something completely different.  This is especially seen in the fact that the context of the scripture is not in stopping or binding Satan, but rather the revelation of Peter.

Conclusion

The conclusion of this matter is that we do not have power over Satan with regards to spiritual warfare.  Yes we are at war, but we cannot fight Satan by declarations.  We cannot bind Satan or loose anything in anyone’s life.  We simply do not have that authority.  We do have the authority to resist Satan after we have submitted ourselves to God.

The power that we have comes from God and we must always put our faith in him.  We cannot chase Satan away with faith-filled words because we simply do not have the ability or the authority to do it.  We can, however put our trust in God and allow God to work through us or however he wants.  We can resist the devil and stop his influence on our lives.

What we should do instead of binding Satan and the like is to keep ourselves from being influenced by the world.  That in itself is a fulltime job.  We can’t do that with our own strength or willpower.  We can only do that if we submit to God and resist those temptations.  We have to be obedient to Christ and live a righteous life.

We have no authority over Satan so we should stop acting like we do.  Jesus has all authority.  We can stop Satan from operating in our lives, but only by the power of God.  So let’s spend our time submitting to God so that we can effectively resist the devil so that he would flee (knowing full well he will return to badger us in the future).  Amen.