Mat
12:28 But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of
God is come unto you.
Luk
11:20 But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the
kingdom of God is come upon you.
The
Kingdom of God… Jesus.
The
Kingdom of Heaven… Jesus.
If there
is only one door, only one way into a place and absolutely no other way then to
enter that place you have to go in through that door.
The
kingdom of God was promised to mankind before expulsion from the Garden of
Eden, their first home. An enmity would be placed between the evil and man…
Gen
3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy
seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his
heel.
Jesus
stands between Satan and man.
A way was
promised for man to be redeemed, otherwise we would have been left without
anything between us and the evil one.
Jesus is
the way to the Kingdom of Heaven, without Jesus there is no way to enter into
God's kingdom- it doesn't exist.
Joh
14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man
cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Devils
were cast out by Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit because the
spiritual battle is between evil and God. Prior to Jesus' ministry no one had
ever been able to heal man from the evil possession of the devil. It was
unheard of for someone to go about casting out the evil spirits dwelling inside
a man. Yet, Jesus did this and it was witnessed over and over again.
The
reality of evil spirits possessing man is something we don't like to think
about too much. We make light of it, we make it into fictional stories,
television shows, movies but we do not truly take it too seriously and if we do
then we are thought to be a little bit crazy. It's an area of life that teeters
on belief and unbelief for a lot of people, and it tips over into unbelief more
often than not.
If you
believe in angels, if you believe in God, if you believe in Jesus you cannot
teeter on the edge of unbelief, you must stand firmly on the ground of
believing or else you must give up your belief in God, in Jesus, and in angels.
You can't believe in the Holy Spirit
unless you believe in the evil the Holy Spirit is warring against.
Jesus cast
out evil spirits and announced the Kingdom of God had come to the people.
Mat
12:28 But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of
God is come unto you.
He is the
WAY to the kingdom of God! There is NO kingdom of God without Him. The Spirit
of God casts out the devils as Jesus called upon the Spirit of God to do so.
The evil
spirits, the devils inhabiting people did not simply disappear after Jesus'
ministry upon earth. The Apostles also went about casting them out after the
death of Jesus. The Holy Spirit was given to the believers of Jesus Christ and
that power of the Holy Spirit cast out devils as the believers called upon it
to do so. The warriors for Christ fight against Satan's evil minions using the
power of the Holy Spirit. They were not given special powers of their own, but
rather they were able to ask for the Holy Spirit to work His power upon others
in need. They could do this because they belonged to Jesus and Jesus recognized
them as being His. And when Jesus recognizes us as belonging to Him, the Holy
Spirit recognizes this as well.
We can't
forget this--
Act
19:11 And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul:
Act
19:12 So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or
aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of
them.
Act
19:13 Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to
call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We
adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth.
Act
19:14 And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the
priests, which did so.
Act
19:15 And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I
know; but who are ye?
Act
19:16 And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and
overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house
naked and wounded.
Act
19:17 And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at
Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was
magnified.
Act
19:18 And many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their
deeds.
Act
19:19 Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books
together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them,
and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.
Act
19:20 So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.
Jesus was
known to the evil spirits as an adversary that had power over them. Paul was
known as well to have this power through Jesus. Simply using the name of Jesus
doesn't mean a thing without the power of faith, of belief in Jesus. The evil
spirit did not recognize these supposed exorcists as any kind of threat, they
had no power, no Holy Spirit working through them. They sought of their OWN
power and the mention of Jesus and Paul's names to expel the evil spirit- it
did not work. The Holy Spirit will cast out the evil, we cannot.
The way to
the kingdom of God is only through Jesus, not by our power at all whatsoever.
May we
believe! This is the work of God that we believe!
Joh
6:28 Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the
works of God?
Joh
6:29 Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye
believe on him whom he hath sent.
Believe in
the Savior!
Believe.
Lord, I
believe- help Thou, my unbelief!
