Taking Dominion

Lesson 3

In the last lesson, we looked at Jesus, the man, who had a perfect record against the enemy, not because he is God, since, when he left heaven, “he stripped himself of all privileges and rightful dignity” (Philippians 2:7). No, demons feared him because they knew his soul was perfect and had no weakness. Jesus conquered devils and sickness, in every town and village, in every case. He was one-hundred percent effective and, glory to God, he gave us the same tools so that we can be one-hundred percent effective too.
Okay, if you’re still skeptical, let’s examine Luke, chapter 4 and get testimony from one of the demons Jesus dominated.

Starting with verse 33, it says, “Now in the synagogue, there was a man who was possessed by a foul spirit of a demon and he cried out with a loud terrible cry, ‘Let us alone. What have you to do with us? What have we in common, Jesus of Nazareth? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.’ Jesus rebuked him and said, ‘Be silent, be muzzled, be gagged, and come out of him.’ And the demon threw the man down in their midst and he came out of him without injuring him in any possible way.”

So here’s the man named Jesus. A demon recognizes him immediately, and probably knowing what is about to happen, tells Jesus to “leave us alone”. Instead, Jesus rebukes him and the demon instantly flees.

Now, you know you want to walk in that authority! When you encounter a demon, you would live for it to be just that easy. Bam! “Be muzzled! Now get out!” Booyah! The foul spirit was gone.

You know how you do it? The demon told us. He said, “What have we in common, Jesus?” That spirit recognized the truth found in John 14. “The prince of this world is coming but he has nothing in common with me so he has no power over me.” So, there it is. This is how we get a new level of dominion. We get healed in our souls. We get healed of the wounds inside of us that provide a landing strip for demons and gives them dominion over us.

This is how we get victory when we pray for other peeps. Have you ever tried to perform deliverance on someone who was afflicted with pain and sickness, only to fail?

Don’t you feel horrible when you realize they’re still under bondage after you have prayed your “best prayer” for them? Why does that happen? Well, maybe there was something the two of you had in common. The spirit that is on them did not leave because you have something in common. So, that spirit might be saying, “I don’t have to leave. I’m on you both! I have a right to be here.”

Let’s look at another example, this one in Mark, chapter 5. In this story we have one of the biggest, powerful, meanest, ugliest, nastiest demons on the planet, the spirit of Legion. It is six thousand strong. But Legion bends a knee to this man named Jesus because this man had nothing in his soul that was in common with Legion.
Starting at verse 1, we read “So they came to the other side of the sea, to the region of the Gerasenes and, as soon as he got out of the boat, there met him a man out of the tombs under the power of an unclean spirit. This man continually lived among the tombs and no one could subdue him anymore, even with a chain, for he had been bound often with the shackles for the feet and handcuffs but the handcuffs of light chains he wrenched apart and the shackles he rubbed and ground together and they broke in pieces and no one had the strength enough to restrain or tame him. Night and day he was among the tombs, beating and bruising and cutting himself with stones and when, from a distance, he saw Jesus, he ran and fell on his knees before him in homage. Crying out with a loud voice, he said, ‘What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the most-high God? What is there in common between us? I implore you, do not torment me.'”

Legion, a big, nasty spirit, 6,000 strong, begs the man named Jesus, not to torment him. Why? Why is this spirit so afraid of Jesus? He tells us. There was nothing in common between them. He, too, like the spirit in the man that Jesus healed in the synagogue, testifies to the truth of John 14. “The prince of this world is coming but he has nothing in common with me so he has no power over me.”

Legion immediately recognized and feared Jesus. Psalm 143 says these spirits pursue and persecute our souls, so they have a way of knowing what’s in our souls. They were watching when your soul was wounded by sin or trauma, so they know what’s going on inside your inner man.

When they encountered Jesus, they saw he was different from every other man. He had no wound in his soul. He had nothing in common with them. That’s why the first demon wanted Jesus to leave and the second feared being tormented.

Don’t you want to walk in that amount of dominion over evil spirits? Am I the only one who wants to make them flee when they recognize me? It’s going to happen when you get your souls healed, but not yet. This is a process. Don’t get ahead of the process, because these guys don’t play.

In the next lesson, I will show you how we make ourselves vulnerable to the attacks of the enemy.  Big love, K.S.