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All the Power You Need!
Our Children's Deliverance
Victoria Boyson
www.boyson.org
"It happened that as we were going to the place of prayer, a slave-girl having a spirit of divination met us, who was bringing her masters much profit by
fortune-telling. Following after Paul and us, she kept crying out, saying, 'These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.' She continued doing this for many days. But Paul
was greatly annoyed, and turned and said to the spirit, 'I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!' And it came out at that very moment" (Acts 16:16-18).
Did you notice that Paul did not even ask
the girl's permission before he cast the demon out of her? Nor did he ask the permission of her owners. He did not ask her parents or aunts or uncles. He did not even speak with the girl, but he spoke to the demon inside of
her, over which he had full authority! And it came out of her right away and she no longer had any power to tell the future (see Acts 16:19).
Paul did not spend hours counseling the girl on the dangers of divination. He
didn't take any time to convince her that she could and should be delivered, he just spoke to the demon and drove it out of her in the name of Jesus Christ.
Too Caught Up
Sometimes, I think we can get too caught up in what our limitations are as followers of Christ instead of just following Christ; He took authority over demons. He didn't counsel them out, beat them out or preach
them out, He simply cast them out, and then told the people to sin no more.
I believe it is a deception of the enemy to try and get our focus to be on our limitations as Christians. If he can get us caught up in
questioning or doubting whether or not we have authority, he will keep us from taking authority over him. Then he will be able to continue his evil schemes in our lives and in the lives of those we love.
The message in
Acts 16:16-18 is so powerful, because if we examine it we see it says that Paul's motive for delivering her was that "Paul was greatly annoyed." The demon was simply bothering him and so he cast it out of her,
rendering it powerless to affect him and the girl.
He didn't know the girl. He wasn't her pastor or parent or master; he had no earthly authority over her. All he had was the authority given to him in the name of Jesus
Christ. The demon that was harassing him didn't have a chance.
Many times I have been approached by other believers who came with their list of rules that I must follow in order to be successful in taking authority over
the enemy. By the time I am done listening to them, I am more confused than ever. I end up feeling like there is no way I could possibly measure up to all their rules and restrictions. They make me feel hopeless and powerless.
But, I finally made up my mind that I'm going to continue to "walk on water" until they can prove to me that I can't.
All Paul had was annoyance and Jesus and he changed a young girl's life. The demon
"power" that manifested through her was gone and she was set free.
The Children of This Age
In this day and age, with the enemy parading his power before the young people of this generation and
enticing them to do evil, we need to know the authority we have in Christ.
The children of this age feel powerless and helpless to help themselves, and they are greatly influenced by the ungodly power they see in movies,
books and games. But we can, like Paul, take authority over the power in them and command the demons to come out.
One day several years ago, my husband and I were led to go into a store that sold video games. We were
appalled at the high level of blatant demonic activity in the games we saw. Even the covers of the games were filled with glorified demons and lust-filled pictures of scantily dressed women. We were further offended by the fact
that the clientele of this store were primarily children.
It did not take us any time to decide that this store should no longer be in business! So, together we commanded it to go out of business in Jesus' name. We also
commanded that every demon in every game that had been sold by that store would leave the game and not return. Within a few months it closed!
For my husband and I, our annoyance came by the blatant parading of evil
before the eyes of innocent children. We became righteously annoyed! Our mother and father instincts took over and we wanted to obliterate the devil for hurting these kids.
Those children were not ours, but they were
God's; He made each one of them. So, because they were His children, they became ours. We could not stand to see them tormented by demonic spirits merely because they didn't know any better.
The children didn't know the
demonic power that was in those games, but we did. And the demons knew that we knew, and they became afraid, because they were exposed to people who would take authority over them and render them powerless for the sake of God's
Kids.
Church, it's time we stop debating our authority and just simply take authority over the demonic realm. This generation desperately needs us. There are so many young people that have gotten entangled in darkness,
and the demonic powers are tormenting them. They are depressed and suicidal; they need deliverance. Yes, they need to be told the truth about witchcraft, etc.. But, until we can get close enough to them to effectively train
them, we must get rid of the tormenting spirits.
We need to show our young people where the real power lies, so they will no longer want the imitation. The real power is in Jesus Christ. He is the real super-natural power. He has conquered the evil power of our enemy and given us the authority to render them powerless (see Luke 9:1). Jesus won at Calvary, and that victory is ours today.
Do not let the enemy convince you that you are powerless. You have all the power you need, because you know the ALMIGHTY, ALL-POWERFUL GOD of the universe. And HE is ALL THE POWER YOU NEED!
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