DEVIL GOT PUT DOWN WHEN CHRIST WENT UP

I heard a story where a brother and his sister were riding in the back seat of the family car when all of a sudden the little girl blurted out, “Shut up devil!” Mom turned around and asked, “Why did you say that?” The little girl answered, “Because the devil told me I should break John's leg.”

We all need to do more of what that little girl did and tell the devil to shut up and go back down where he belongs.

When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, Matthew tells us Jesus responded with: “Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve” (Matt 4:10). Notice that Jesus didn't pray about it. He didn't ask God to get Satan away from him. He spoke directly to the spirit and “then the devil leaveth him” (vs.11). Throughout Jesus' walk on the earth we see that He speaks directly to that which is destructive and tells it to stop or depart. We can do the same.

I looked up the Greek translation for “get thee hence” from Matthew 4:10. It is hupago which comes from ago, which is to go, and hupo which is under, beneath, below, to an inferior position. So hupago is to go below. Jesus commanded Satan to back down.

Before I came to this revelation of sending evil deeply under and beneath, I would cast out devil spirits, but I only cast them away, not under. Demanding that evil take itself below is a much stronger image and agrees with many other passages we find in the Bible. For example there is the record of when Jesus cast the devil spirits out of the man of the Gadarenes. The evil spirits went into the pigs. And then what did they do? They jumped from a higher position on the cliffs to the water below and drowned:

And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them. 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. (Mark 5:12-13 AMP)

When Jesus allowed himself to be crucified, He allowed for every evil that possibly could be inflicted on a man or woman to be inflicted upon himself. That would include any sickness, disease, oppression, worry, guilt, lack, and anything you or I can possibly think of that is destructive to the body, soul, or spirit. Jesus took it all upon Himself. He also was buried with it. And all of that evil and sickness was taken to Hell with Him.

It took tremendous power for God to raise Jesus up out of that filth, every bit of slimy, clawing, insidious evil wanting to pull him back down, or hitch a ride up. The Devil thought he'd destroyed Jesus; he certainly would fight to keep him down there, but he couldn't. When God raised Jesus, all evil was left behind, dropped away, and Jesus was raised as the victorious Christ.

Without oppression, there could be freedom. Without sickness and disease, there could be health. Without the wretchedness of poverty, there could be abundance and generous overflow. Without the claw of addiction there could be the joy of liberty. Without the strain of jealousy, there could be the comfort of love. Jesus took all evil to Hell, left it there and was raised all the way up to Heaven to enjoy the full, unimpaired blessing of God.

The rightful position of believers is above with Christ, and without any of things Jesus took with Him to the grave and to Hell.

Because of “his great love wherewith he loved us,” God “hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:4 and 6), “far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named” (Eph 1: 21).

Romans 6:4 tells us “that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” Truthfully, any of the things that Jesus took to the grave and left deep in Hell, should not be in our lives. If they have deceitfully become a part of our lives, we have the perfect right to send them right back down to where they came from. We can walk in the new freedom we have.

God's given us victory and authority in Christ. If devil spirits try to talk us into things that are not the best for us, we can say, like the little girl in the back seat, “Shut up devil!” Or we can say, like Jesus, “Go back below, where you belong! You don't have any right to be here with me!”

Love, Carolyn

Look for the next free download on Thursday: Sample book E – Bible Studies – more exciting than you might think, it includes chapters such as “The Missing Manual,” “Why the Devil Has No Authority,” and “History told in the Heavenlies.” Also a good one on what we can gain from knowing about the O.T. festivals in the chapter on Father’s Day. Available from Amazon.

WHAT DOES A BOAT HAVE TO DO WITH THE CRUCIFIXION?

He sat on the edge of the boat’s railing, gripping the side as he brought his legs over, one at a time. “Is it really Jesus out there?” He questioned himself. “The man did say to come, right?”  Peter took a deep breath…. “Okay I’m going to do this.” Both feet ready and eyes focused only on the figure out there on the water, he lowered himself down and stepped into it. But he didn’t need to flap his arms and try to swim because somehow his toes were the only part of him experiencing the splash of cool water. The first step of faith was to touch something he really didn’t understand, but it worked and he was walking on water to Jesus.

That’s how it is with all spiritual things. We step out in faith first, then the understanding comes later. Especially when it comes to difficult concepts, we just have to forget about trying to wrap our brains around them. Instead, we need to let go and say, “Okay, I believe. And I know the Lord will give me understanding later.” It’s refreshing and takes the burden off.

So, with that said, I want to introduce some truths about Easter that you may not understand yet. Let yourself believe and the Lord will give you the understanding.

It’s important to realize that when Jesus was born, his blood was extraordinary. It was not from his mother. A baby’s blood doesn’t come from the mother and never mixes in the womb. Jesus’ blood came from his father, God, making it spiritual and perfect.

The Bible tells us life is in the blood. So by bleeding out his perfect blood Jesus made his blood, touched by God Almighty, available to anyone who would believe. And this is where we, like Peter, need to step out of the boat and onto the water. Take it by faith. Believe and receive (Mark 11:24).

Jesus bled seven times. Seven is the number for perfection. The seven places cover every aspect of our lives. The first blood was in the garden of Gethsemane. “And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:41). This is where Jesus said, “Not my will but thine be done.” Jesus was willing to do God’s will no matter what. His blood gives us the willpower to choose God’s way. Like it says in Philippians 2:13, “to will and to do of His good pleasure.”

The next time Jesus bled was when he was beaten and whipped by the Roman soldiers. The Bible says he was “scourged.” That means he was given 39 lashes with a whip made of leather thongs, each tied with jagged pieces of metal or bone that tore and ripped open strips of flesh on his back. We know that in the end this terrible beating had no effect on him. Having faith in this aspect of the blood makes it so that our bodies can be impenetrable to any sickness or disease. This has been documented with John G. Lake in Africa. They put diseased matter on his hand and it just died.

Also, because God made it so that every cell in the body has the same original DNA, through the blood, the body has the capacity to restore any missing or broken parts. Spirit in the blood can go anywhere in our bodies and change anything physical. This can happen instantaneously (a miracle) or can be a process. The pure qualities of his blood are able to clean out foreign matter, cause growths to wither and die, kill off cancers and arthritis and restore and refresh anything that has been effected by disease or malfunctions. I know this is a lot to take in, but if you read and study the gospels, in faith, God will show you these things.

The third place Jesus shed blood was from internal bruises. Isaiah tells us: “He was bruised for our iniquities.” Jesus was mocked and beaten. There was distress and swelling caused by broken capillaries and dislodged blood beneath the surface of the skin. The other day I got blood drawn. It hurt a little bit and two days later I looked down on my arm and saw a huge bruise. I didn’t even know it was there. That’s how it is with emotional, mental and spiritual bruises, even more than physical ones. Some of those bruises are so deep within us, we don’t even know they’re there, but the blood of Jesus can even remove those. We believe and receive freedom from the deepest wounds.

The fourth place Jesus bled was when they jammed a crown of thorns into his head. This was for our minds. We can think right thoughts and make wise decisions. First Corinthians says “We have the mind of Christ.”

Next they nailed Jesus’ hands and feet to the cross. The blood from his hands is the fifth place Jesus bled. The blood for our hands gives us unique power. Think about what we do with our hands—we touch, write, make things, give things, stop things, clap, lift, and much more. Believing to let the blood from Jesus’ hands pulse in our own can change everything we touch.

Number six is the blood from Jesus’ feet. Matthew 7:14 tells us “strait is the gate and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life.” Though narrow, it is the path of dominion like God says in Deuteronomy 11:24 “Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours.” And like it says in Psalm 23: “He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me.”

And lastly, number seven, perfection. When the soldier came to see if Jesus was really dead he took his spear and pierced Jesus through the side—through his belly, his lungs and his heart—making sure his entire life force bled out. That blood was so that we could receive Jesus’ life force when we believe in him. How perfect is that? We receive his holy spirit into our innermost belly, new life in each breath and best of all, not only the ability to receive the Almighty’s love, but to also give it.

I’m so thankful that Jesus made the decision to go through the crucifixion for us. I pray God’s will be done in our lives as well.

Love, Carolyn