Jesus, in Matthew 12:22-30, 43-45, and Luke 11:14-26, faced “one who was demon-possessed, blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, so the blind and mute man both spoke and saw” amazing the people, but some blasphemy accused Jesus of casting out demons by “Beelzebub”, the “dung-god, Satan”; therefore, Jesus explained if He were using Satan to cast out a satanic spirit, then He would be dividing or destroying Satan’s kingdom; thus, He having authority and power Satan did not have, was casting out demons by “the finger of God (Exodus 8:19)” or by “the authority and power of God”, which is the same authority and power Christians, members of Christ’s body, the church, use to cast out satanic spirits.
Then Jesus explained when a demonic, satanic spirit is cast out of a person by the authority and power of God, through Christ Jesus, by the Holy Spirit, the spirit then “walks through dry places, seeking rest, but find none, so he returns to the person of whom he was cast out, but finds it “empty, swept, and in order”; thus, “he finds seven spirits more wicked than him, who with him, enter the person and live there, making the person seven times more wicked than before”.
The “dry places” are “lifeless places”, in the same way during the day people living in a home are moving around, so the house moves and shifts or “comes to life”, but when the people go to bed, the house begins settling, popping, squeaking, as it settles because of no movement; thus, if the house sets empty for a long period of time, the house keeps settling and finally collapses.
When we, as Christians, stop reading and studying the Bible, stop praying and seeking God, we become “stagnant or luke-warm” as Jesus called “the church of the Laodiceans” in Revelation 3:14-22; thus, we become “lifeless, stagnant” without any spiritual growth”, so we “settle the way a lifeless house does”, and we soon “collapse spiritually and die”, just as a house does.
Almost every church “is blessed” with “controlling bullies” and “personality conflicts” that cause us to pray more, and must be brought under authority and submission, but in most cases a demon-possessed person is not revealed as such, until the Holy Spirit becomes supernaturally active in the people present in praise, thanks, and worship, and then, the demon, satanic spirit, will begin revealing himself; thus, that spirit must, in the name of the Lord Jesus (Colossians 3:17; Mark 16:17-18; Luke 10:17-20), be cast out and the person checked on regularly to make sure the demon spirit does not try to return, for if he is allowed to return, he will have seven satanic spirits more wicked than him, and the person will be worse off than before.
The days of “playing church”, “lifelessly going through the motions”, and “our comfort zone being the world’s ways of getting rich”, is over, for Satan knows his time is almost over (Revelation 12:7-12); thus, he is full of wrath against the Godhead, the church, and Israel, and is revealing his wickedness—still, kill, and destroy (John 10:10)—universally, as we hear the world “pleading” for “a one world currency”, “a one world government”, and “a one world leader”, so stay close to God, through Christ Jesus, by the Holy Spirit, and do not give the devil any place in us (Ephesians 4:25-32), by submitting our entire self to Christ Jesus, resist the world’s lust for the pleasures it offers, and be free of any hidden idols in any area of life (1 John 5:18-21).
Jim Nabors
