J. Oswald Sanders
Exercising Spiritual Authority
I have given you authority (Luke 10:18)
At a conference of missionaries and Chinese pastors held shortly before the Communists gained control of China, one pastor gave a striking address. He said he and his colleagues were more than grateful to those who had brought them the Word of life and the Gospel of Christ. But there was one thing more that they should teach their spiritual children. This new thing was how to take their stand before the throne of God and rebuke the forces of evil, hold steady, and gain the victory.
The need of teaching on this aspect of prayer is no less pressing in Western lands than in the East. Too few Christians progress from mere presentation of petitions to God into the area of the spiritual warfare of which Paul speaks in Ephesians 6:10-18.
The Spirit-controlled Christian, Paul asserts, is involved in spiritual warfare with powerful but intangible forces. In this conflict only spiritual weapons are effective. But they are available and are “divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses” (2 Cor 10:4). Of these weapons, the most potent is that recommended by Paul: “pray[er] at all times in the Spirit” (Eph 6:18).
Within the ministry of intercession, there may be contrasting spiritual activity. On the one hand, our prayer may be the calm expression of restful faith: “Ask, and it shall be given to you” (Matt 7:7). On the other hand, it may take the form of intense spiritual conflict: “I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf” (Col 2:1). “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against … the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph 6:12). This latter aspect of prayer is known and practiced too little in the life of the Church today.
POWER OVER THE ENEMY’S POWER
Our Lord made a startling statement to His seventy eager disciples, who were elated from the success of their recent evangelistic thrust. Elsewhere Jesus made the claim that all authority, both celestial and terrestrial, had been committed to Him. Here He said to them, “I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. Behold, I have given you authority … over all the power of the enemy” (Luke 10:18-19, italics added).
The unmistakable inference in this tremendous delegation of spiritual authority to them was that as they exercised that divine authority, they too would see the overthrow of Satan in the area of their own ministry. Nor had they been disappointed. The radiant evangelists could report, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name” (Luke 10:17).
This promise of spiritual authority over the powers of darkness was never withdrawn, but a little later, when the apostles lost faith in Christ’s assurance, they found themselves impotent when confronted by a demon-possessed boy (Matt 17:19). It was a failure of their faith, not of the divine promise.
The apostles in this case were paralyzed by their own unbelief. But after His resurrection, the Master once again affirmed His delegation of authority to them: “By my name they shall expel demons” (Mark 16:17, Weymouth; cf., Luke 10:19).
By His death and resurrection Christ has destroyed (rendered powerless) the devil (Heb 2:14, KJV). As members of His body, we may participate in His victory, and not for ourselves alone, but on behalf of believers in the uttermost parts of the world. Distance is irrelevant in this warfare.
In the record of our Lord’s conflict with the carping Pharisees, we are provided with a pictorial representation of what is involved in praying with authority.
The Pharisees had charged Jesus with exorcising demons through the power of the prince of demons. Jesus quickly confronted them with the absurdity of their charge:
Any kingdom divided against itself is waste; … and if Satan also is divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? … But if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. When a strong man fully armed guards his own homestead, his possessions are undisturbed; but when someone stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away from him all his armor on which he had relied, and distributes his plunder” (Luke 11:17-18, 20-22).
The strong man is, of course, Satan, whose power over the minds and spirits of men is mighty though limited. The “stronger than he” (Luke 11:22) is none other than the Lamb, through whose blood we can overcome Satan and all his evil hosts (Rev 12:11).
In the passage quoted above, Christ stated spiritual priorities that are all too often ignored, to the loss of the Church. He affirmed that if we are ever to plunder Satan’s house and deliver his captives, we have a prior responsibility. We must “first bind the strong man” (Matt 12:29, KJV). Have we not often tried to plunder his house without first binding him through the prayer of faith, and then have wondered why we have been turned back in defeat? We have left him unfettered, and he has snatched back souls we have endeavored to rescue from his clutches. Too much of our praying is merely the repeated offering of sincere petitions — and this is of course right — but we fail to do what Jesus said, “First bind the strong man.”
In the spiritual warfare in which we should all be engaged, a fierce battle is to be waged. Demons are to be exorcised and the powers of darkness restrained, and sometimes the battle is prolonged. It is a striking fact that it was seven years before Carey baptized his first convert in India. It was seven years before Judson won his first disciple in Burma. Morrison toiled seven years before the first Chinese was brought to Christ; Moffatt waited seven years to see the first movement of the Spirit in Bechuanaland. Henry Richards worked seven years in the Congo before the first convert was gained.
The complete and final defeat of Satan was consummated on the cross, where Jesus triumphed over him in death. Paul interprets the cosmic significance of that decisive conquest for us: “When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him” (Col 2:15). The purpose of His incarnation was in order that “through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Heb 2:14).
Any power Satan now exercises over us is either because we fail to apprehend and appropriate the completeness of Christ’s triumph, or because we have conceded territory to him through tolerating sin in our lives. In either case, the remedy is clear.
Let us firmly grasp the revealed fact that Jesus has gained a complete and resounding victory over Satan and has robbed him of his power. We have to turn the potential into the actual through the exercise of faith. As members of His body, united to Him by a living faith, we can fully participate in this victory. For the time being and for some wise purpose, which we may not fully understand, he has been allowed limited liberty. But the execution of the sentence already passed on him will be by the hand of Him to whom all judgment has been committed.
In order to exercise this spiritual authority, we must make sure that we are on praying ground and that the indwelling Holy Spirit is ungrieved. We must accept our place of authority as “sealed … with Him in the Heavenly places” (Eph 2:6). It is from this position of authority and power that we can exercise our privilege.
Luke records in Acts 19:13-16 the abortive attempt of some Jewish exorcists, the son of Sceva, who made use of the name of Jesus in their exorcism of demons. But they were trying to exercise an authority that had never been delegated to them. The formula they adopted in addressing the spirits was, “I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.” But the demon in the possessed man, recognizing the fraud, replied, “I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?’ And the man, in whom was the evil spirit, leaped on them and subdued both of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.” It is a solemn thing to lay claim to an authority that has not been delegated to us.
It would be challenging to ask ourselves if our names are known in hell, or if Satan laughs at our puny attempts to plunder his house. Are our prayers effectual in binding the strong man?
Making use of Christ’s authority and participating in His victory, we can be influential in binding the strong man in any situation. Only then shall we be in a position to spoil his goods and deliver his captives.
Blest, when assaulted y the tempter’s power,
The Cross my armor, and the Lamb my Tower,
Kneeling I triumph — issuing from the fray
A bleeding conqueror — my life a prey. ADOLPHE MONOD
PRAYER
Great God, we bless Thee that the battle between Thyself and the powers of darkness has never been uncertain. We praise Thy name that now it is for ever sure to end in victory. Our hearts, amidst the struggles of the present day, would look back to the conflicts of Calvary, and see how our Lord for ever there broke the dragon’s head. On that Thy people might know that they are contending with a vanquished enemy; that they go forth to fight against one who, with all his subtlety and strength, has already been overthrown by Him who is our Covenant Head, our Leader, our all. CHARLES H. SPURGEON
QUESTIONS
- Does the delegation of spiritual authority to the disciples in our Lord’s day (Luke 10:18-19) carry over to our day?
- Is not the Church greatly handicapping its constituents by failing to teach the aspect of prayer as aggressive spiritual warfare?
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