Scripture: Mark 16 v 16 - 17: "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.
17 And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;"Mark 5 v 12 - 15: "And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them.
13 And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were choked in the sea.
14 And they that fed the swine fled, and told it in the city, and in the country. And they went out to see what it was that was done.
15 And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid."
Seventy percent of the ministry of Jesus on Earth was to heal the sick, and deliver people from bondage to demons. If we are following Him we should be ready to do exactly what He did, and the same volume.
The worldly arguments are that we have doctors, hospitals, psychiatrists and asylums to fix every conceivable malady, and we are very grateful for the people and institutions doing incredible work.
However, in the Church, there is a void. When Christians are baptized in the Holy Spirit, they receive gifts like speaking in tongues. The problem is when they receive the gift of tongues they get so excited that they never open the other gifts available for the work of the ministry.
Evangelists are blessed with gifts that attract crowds. Healing, miracles and discerning of spirits. When the blind see, the lame leap, the chains of oppressed break and they are in their right mind, people are drawn to hear and believe the gospel. Many get saved.
We do not only get saved to get healed, but its wonderful to receive a touch from the Lord and know that He knows you, loves you and has healed you! You have something to share. Something that will draw others to lay down their fleshly lives at the Cross.
Jesus is still performing miracles today, through His Body on Earth, us Christians. If we believe that He works through us in amazing ways, He will. When He visited Nazareth He said He could do no great works there because of their unbelief. They just saw Him as the ordinary carpenter's son, nothing special, and missed the miracles He wanted to do.
We may see Him as our Saviour but not believe He can heal today. Unless we have faith to believe He can do anything, we are stuck in our problems. We are too scared to take a leap of faith in case of ridicule. What if?
We are hard to convince unless we see it for ourselves. In the world seeing is believing, but in the Kingdom of God, believing is seeing. We need faith to believe that God exists and that He can save us from sin and shame.
Many people are bound by demons even after salvation. We need to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. When we pray for people to be loosed from bondage as guided by Jesus, many feel scared, many tremble. It took a while for us to realise that it was the demons within them that were afraid and shaking! Why? Because they were going back to Hell, beaten, failures and going to be terribly punished.
Demons manifest in our bodies and minds in various ways like schizophrenia, or bipolar disorder, for example. This affliction is when at least ten demons are in control of this person. Rejection, rebellion, depression, fantasy, voices giving evil instructions, violence, murder, bitterness, pride, and various variants of the above. These are all demonic manifestations. They torment the human by doing random appearances in rapid succession. It makes him appear insane. Drugs are given to suppress the manifestations, but it renders the person unable to function normally. Deliverance of these demons takes a long time and much experience as the person has to be in full cooperation. But it can be done through the grace and mercy of God.
Many chronic diseases are demonic in origin. Diabetes is one of them. I only found this out when praying with a woman I didn't know. I kept smelling this overpowering, unpleasant odour of sugary sweetness. It turned out to be the demon's smell, plus she then told me she suffered from diabetes. I prayed against that demon, cast it out of her, the smell left, and she was completely set free and healed.
Hebrews 5 v 14: "But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil."
The Holy Spirit gift of discerning of spirits means also using our physical senses to discern demons. We can smell, hear, feel, taste and see them when we use the gifts correctly. It's the only way to get complete victory over the shadowy world we live in. Jesus conquered all demons so that we could expel them when the time came. In this modern age this kind of knowledge is laughed at.
When Jesus encountered demons on Earth they knew who He was but He forbade them to tell anyone. They asked Him if He was come to send them to Hell before the time? What time would that be? After His death and resurrection when it became our job to do!
Because not enough Christians are doing this work, the church in many places is dying. Demons have moved in undetected and falseness abounds. False teachers, false prophets, false apostles turning the church into a den of thieves. The first twelve apostles turned the world upside down without cars, planes, phones, social media apps, programs and entertainment.
How did they do it? By faith and by mastering all the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Paul could judge situations in churches far off through visions and words of knowledge, words of wisdom and prophecy.
1 Corinthians 5 v 3: "For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed,".
Colossians 2 v 5: "For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ."
I know people whom God uses in just these ways today. They are full of faith and the power of the Holy Spirit. They are committed to the will of God and obedient to Him. They use the gifts wisely and under the oversight of Jesus. I just wish there were more of them.
When Jesus sent those thousands of demons into the herd of pigs, the possessed, naked, suicidal maniac, was very soon clothed and in his right mind, ready to work for Jesus. The reaction of the crowd on how suddenly a dangerous threat became a man of peace, was fear. Fear of the unknown. Fear of Jesus. They immediately asked Him to depart from their coasts.
It's similar today. The mainline churches generally don't preach salvation and how to be born again and be baptized in water and the Holy Spirit. So many who sit in the pews for a lifetime may be shocked when Jesus says I never knew you, your name is not written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Which means they don't spend eternity in Heaven.
These blogs are written as a wake up call to overturn spiritual blindness which gives many people false assurance of salvation. They believe that baby baptism means salvation and then they go to confirmation classes and the lie is cemented in. I was one of these. Until the night that the conviction of the Holy Spirit destroyed all illusions. That was in 1974 and nearly 50 years on from the original command, Tell them the truth about Jesus, I am still doing my very best to reach the unsaved. I am working for God, are you?
Our salvation is one hundred percent on our relationship with Jesus. Give and take. Hearing His voice, knowing His will and doing it. John 3v3: "Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Whenever Jesus says verily, verily it means please take this very seriously. Your life depends on it.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, Please give them ears to hear, and eyes to see, that which is grave importance in the determination of the life You have for us. Let us heal the sick, raise the dead, deliver from demons and in every way do the works of Jesus. In Jesus' name. Amen.